RA #4

The article that I chose to analyze is titled, “Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths.” It was published in the New York Times on October 3 2008. The audience for this article is probably those that follow politics to some degree, but I feel that it is written to those that may have a negative view of Obama because of his past associations. The author is trying to convince his audience that Obama has had a very casual relationship with the man named Bill Ayers, the man who helped found an organization in the 60’s that tried to bomb US government buildings, and that he is no way should be criticized for associating with this man. I believe that I am in the target audience in this case because I do think that Obama has some associations that should be questioned and not forgotten about during the election. I think that the author is trying to make his point mainly through logos, because he cites many different instances where they are only just acquaintances and therefore people should not judge Obama based on this association. This also plays a little bit into the ethos side of things because it is coming from the New York Times, people often tend to think that they have the authority and report true facts. I think to a degree that this article was effective. It definitely points out things that I have never heard or thought of before and makes good arguments for Obama. However, if in fact the article was geared towards people who have a negative view of Obama for this reason I don’t think it will change their mind very much. First of all, people who are conservative and disagree with Obama don’t often read the New York Times because it is a liberal paper. Also, it quotes people from Obama’s campaign, that are obviously going to say only good things about him. Overall, the article was informative and maybe to someone who is on the fence about whether or not to vote for Obama this could have helped to convince them.

Link to article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin