I was a bit puzzled to read the following sentence in the article titled “Obama showering Ohio with attention and money” in September 26 Washington Post:
“It goes without saying that, every four years, presidential candidates shower battleground states with attention. This time around, it’s Obama in Ohio, doling out the perks of office — all the time.”
“This time around” should refer to a specific point of time in contrast to the folowing “all the time,” which is separated by em dash. Don’t “this time around” and “all the time” in the same sentence contradict each other?
Though I think “all the time” means every four-year routines of every presidential candidate, is this a perfect English sentence? It may sound nitpicking, but aren’t some words missing, or redundant in the last line of the above sentence?
Best Answer
The phrasing of that paragraph is clumsy; it first implies that presidential candidates give swing states a lot of attention only when an election is coming up, then turns around and says Obama is giving largesse to Ohio all the time (during his term of office) instead of only during the campaign season. Of course, that is the what the first four paragraphs of the article said: that the Obama administration has routed some of the largest manufacturing center grants, largest tax credits, and largest SBA loans to Ohio.
In short, nothing is grammatically wrong with the sentence, but it is poorly organized.