POLITICO.COM

By Josh Swanson

Politico is a political news organization that distributes news through a series of different mediums. They publish five newspaper issues a week while congress is in session. They also distribute their content through television, radio, and the internet. Politco.com is their official website, and is updated daily. Politco.com carries political content ranging from news in congress to lobbying, to media and the president. Politico launched in 2007, and has become a well-respected source for political news throughout the nation.

The website has specific sections dedicated solely to Obama’s Presidency titled “Politico 44,” which shows day-to-day, hour-to-hour activity of President Obama. That has been dubbed as “a living diary of the Obama Presidency.” Politico also has sections devoted to congress, lobbying, a debate arena, forums, and a section dedicated to policy. Politico has a full staff of advertisers, editors, executives, and they also employ over 25 staff writers.

This week on Politico.com, the headlines have been dominated by President Obama’s second address to the nation, which happened on Tuesday night. President Obama spoke about the impending departure of American troops from the war in Iraq. There has been plenty of news coverage of this event, and well deserving, it is a major moment in his Presidency as he is acting on his promise that he would end the war in Iraq. Not only is there summary articles about Obama’s speech, but there is analysis pieces, as well as a piece on how viewership was down from Obama’s speech about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Viewership was also down from his first Presidential address.

Glenn Thrush wrote a column on politico.com Wednesday morning entitled, “President Barack Obama: ‘Turn the Page.’” Thrush summarized the speech and gave some of his thoughts about it one of them being, he thought it was strange the way Obama made a quick shift from talking about ending the war in Iraq, and turning attention to the war in Afghanistan, to quickly speaking about the economy on the home front. Thrush said, “Obama then pivoted from guns to butter, a somewhat awkward shift to address growing public anxiety about the economy compared with the war’s diminishing importance on the national agenda.” Thrush also said about Republicans’ reaction to Obama’s speech, “Republicans spent much of Tuesday portraying the president as a hypocrite, arguing that he was assuming credit despite opposing the war and voting against the Bush troop surge.” The end of his article focused on the Obama opposition of the troop surge with quotes from Gen. David Petraeus, a pivotal figure in the troop surge.

Wednesday had a lot of focus on President Obama meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, which he had done throughout the day, as well as having dinner with them, and addressing the press with each of the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, Respectively. He also met with King Abdullah II of Jordan and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Speaking of Palestinian and Israeli relations, he said that the two sides should focus on getting a peace agreement done soon, because the chance may not arise again soon, “don’t let peace slip away,” he said.