This opinion piece is thoughtful, articulate, and convincing. It brings a valuable viewpoint to the role of news and how news is assessed.

A number of headlines lately have trumpeted hope swinging up on the unemployment issue. This opinion presents a close reading of the numbers. My only objection is that Zuckerman does not (even briefly, which is all that it would take) address the reasons others are optimistic, given his view.

This is a fairly high quality opinion - the author opens with an evaluation of the situation, which he then supports reasonably well. However, if it weren't for the brief inclusion of WaPo's ethical standards, the author would not have have clearly stated in what what this incident represents a failure.

No, because it's just a blurb about the fact that Barack Obama didn't talk about the war. It's slanted in the direction of approval, by contrasting the current Pres' approach with the former, and doesn't discuss whether or not it's a lapse on Barack Obama's part NOT to discuss it - or cover the viewpoint of those who would think so.