Huckabee not running in 2012

           Republican favorite Mike Huckabee has announced that he will not be running for president in 2012. Huckabee who had been leading in recent opinion polls announced on his Fox television show, that although all the factors were leaning towards another possible run, his heart said no. Huckabee made a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008 and was a favorite for 2012. The two articles that this entry will focus on come from non-American publications, the first is from the Daily Mail in the UK and the second is the New Zealand Herald from New Zealand.

The article on the Daily Mail website included screenshots of Huckabee’s show, from the episode where he announced that he will not be running. It also included the actual video of Huckabee’s announcement, pictures of Donald Trump and Ron Paul and a table that included the official candidates and small bios on them. Although reading online articles with multimedia accompaniments is enjoyable, this page was simply an overload. A lot of the accompaniments were in between the text of the article and it made it very difficult to read and focus. The majority of the text was also quotes and attributions from Huckabee’s announcement, it also included quotes from Ed Rollins, Huckabee’s 2008 national campaign chairman, explaining how he knew Huckabee’s decision beforehand. All in the entire article was objective and accurate but that was about it.

The article from the New Zealand Herald was obtained though the Associated Press. The article did notify the readers of the fact that Huckabee would not be running and included a quote from his announcement. However it would have been better if the article would have focused more on Huckabee rather than other candidates and Obama. After about the second paragraph the article drifts to President Obama and other candidates, it talks about poll numbers and other issues but talks very little about Huckabee. If one were to only read this article, they would have no idea of why Huckabee made the decision that he did, which is the actual story.

Huckabee not running is not breaking news but it does deserve a good amount of coverage. It was surprising seeing a story on this in newspapers around the world. Both articles were objective and accurate but the Daily Mail was more informative on the issue on hand.  It would have been better if the pictures and video would have been arranged differently and if there would have been a cut on Huckabee quotes from the announcement but it got the job done. The article in the Herald was lacking and did not go into detail on Huckabee’s decision. The Daily Mail did a better job on covering the announcement.

NEWS ARTICLES USED:

The Daily Mail: Deal me out: Mike Huckabee announces he will not run in 2012 presidential campaign

New Zealand Herald: Huckabee out of White House race