Article Analysis: Obama is Elected President as Racial Barrier Falls

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/us/politics/06elect.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

This article starts off with a well-written summary lede that gives the reader the who, what, and when, also letting the reader know why Obama's nomination is so significant. Writing out Obama's full name and using active verbs in this lede makes the information seem important and exciting : "Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, sweeping away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease as the country chose him as its first black chief executive."

The second paragraph provides back-up to the lede, with the third paragraph as the nut graph, emphasizing to the reader even further the racial barrier that was crossed yesterday evening: "But it was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation’s fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago."

Information about McCain's final campaign moments and a few quotes from Obama's speech from yesterday follow, including Obama's powerful statement that "change has come to America." The article continues with opinions from officials who know that there is a long road ahead for Obama between the economic crisis and the war in Iraq, but believe in him.

The article then moves to McCain's concession speech, including a quote from him about the significance of the evening for African Americans, then continues discussing what lies ahead for our new President. Although the entire article mostly focuses on Obama's day as the first black president, and the challenges he needs to face, it often goes back and forth between McCain and Obama's experiences with campaigning, what they did on the evening of November 4, and how voters and officials feel about each candidate.

For me, I thought the killer quote was from Senator Bob Casey, who said: “I always thought there was a potential prejudice factor in the state,” Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat of Pennsylvania who was an early Obama supporter, told reporters in Chicago. “I hope this means we washed that away.” I though this quote resonated well with the main point of this article.

The article ends with a summary of Obama's visit to Indiana that day, and his return home to Chicago to play basketball, which is an election-day tradition. It is somewhat of a run-out-of-gas ending, but still manages to give readers a glimpse into the new president's personal life.