Critique of an Editorial

I found an editorial in the Saginaw News that was titled, "Obama best for U.S." The editorial can be found by visiting http://www.mlive.com/saginawnews/opinion/index.ssf/2008/10/letters_is_barack_obama_really%20.html. I looked at the argument presented in this editorial, breaking down the ethos, pathos, and logos the author used to demonstrate her claims and the warrants she gave to justify her argument.
First, I will look at the argument put forth by the author before going into further detail about how she presented her argument. The author states, "[Obama] is the best hope we have for the next four, and hopefully, eight years." Clearly, the author believes Obama should be elected the next President of the United States, as she makes the argument that Obama is our "best hope." She then uses warrants to justify her argument by stating that Obama is "a man with a unique viewpoint," and "with the God-given gifts of insight and wisdom." The author further provides warrant by stating, "he can speak with authority to all of us and to listen to us because he understands who we are--as individuals and as a nation." It is evident that the author justifies her argument by stating a few reasons of why Obama would be the best candidate for presidency.
Further, the author provides evidence as to why her argument is correct and why her warrants are true. She does so mostly by using logos. Logos, as I mentioned in a previous blog entry, are rational proofs, or logic used in rhetoric (Crowley, 158). In this editorial, logic is used the rhetoric so the audience is forced to infer something: It is stated that biracial people can understand other people, and because Obama is biracial, we can infer that he can understand people. This technique is used again when the author mentions that someone who is part of both the black and white worlds has unique authority because he/she can talk about both views. Obama is part of both of these worlds, and therefore, we can infer that he has unique authority and views.
Ethos, putting a person's character to persuasive use (Crowley, 196), is also used in this editorial when the author mentions Obama's speech he gave on race in Philadelphia. She mentions this in the very beginning of her editorial, demonstrating to the audience her character that has been following the elections and the speeches the candidates have been making. By doing this, the audience is given the sense that she knows about politics and is not making arguments up without proof.
Lastly, pathos, an appeal to human emotions (Crowley, 246), is used in this editorial to persuade the audience by eliciting their emotions. People feel strongly about the election, so the author appeals to the emotion of the audience just by mentioning politics. She doesn't even need to invent emotional appeals to spark the audience's interest, because their interest is grabbed from the first few sentences.