Hi, I’m Ford McCracken
My name is Ford McCracken. I’m 22, currently residing in the Washington, DC area, and I follow politics quite closely. I also cover politics, working on the production team for ABC News’ This Week with George Stephanopoulos, the #1 Sunday political show. I’m a graduate of the University of Virginia, where I studied media and politics.
On this Substack page, you’ll see my summary and thoughts about the political news of the week. This is not affiliated with ABC News in any way, just my personal writing. These thoughts are merely observations — I’m not writing opinion pieces or trying to change your mind. My goal is simply to make political news more accessible.
If you subscribe, you’ll receive my What’s McCracken? Politics newsletter, a weekly newsletter made for you, no matter how closely you follow politics. More on that below.
What’s McCracken? Politics.
So what’s the deal with this newsletter?
The goal of What’s McCracken? Politics is not only to make a joke about my name. It’s to make politics more accessible to those looking to learn more about the (very important) process that directly impacts their lives.
Once you subscribe, you will receive each newsletter to your email. Each post will have three sections:
Novice: This section is if you are brand new to politics and want to read up on what happened this week. There won’t be any jargon, and I’ll try to explain everything in as simple of terms as possible. If you are just now getting into politics, this section is for you.
Intermediate: This section is for you if you already have a general sense of what’s happening in Washington. You know who controls Congress, but you may not be able to name every cabinet official. You know there are competitive midterm elections this year, but you aren’t following each race (who has time for that, anyway?) (I do). In this section, I’ll breeze over the simple stuff, but try to limit it to common knowledge.
Politico: If you are wondering if the Senate will successfully pass the reconciliation bill this week despite opposition from moderates in the party … or specifically which seats Democrats need to flip to take back the House … this section is for you. I’m not wasting time explaining here, I’m going straight to news and objective analysis.
You may find yourself in one section one week, and another the next. That’s why there are three! My goal is that every novice can eventually find themselves moving up.
I welcome your feedback. My goal is to keep things simple for novices, but in case I’m not, please tell me.
Why trust me?
I don’t have decades of experience covering national politics or living in DC, but I do have years of following politics very, very closely. I don’t claim to be the expert on all matters, and that is a strength of this publication. I want to be transparent about what I know and how I know it, be clear and simple in my language and get better as I go
I’m learning as I go, but I promise if you subscribe, you will learn something new. My greatest strength is that I not only work in news, but consume a lot of news each day. Not everyone should have to! And that’s why I’m here. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.
AI Statement
I am a writer first and foremost. I have zero desire to use generative artificial intelligence to write, summarize, reword or anything of the sort. If you see something written on this blog, it is my promise to you that it was my work. I’m mainly including this because I know AI loves to use an em dash, but I’ve been using em dashes since before AI came around — and I refuse to give them up!
The one area in which I’m experimenting with AI is by using Claude Design to create graphics for posts. I’m not a graphic designer, but I did make the logo myself and some starting graphics to give Claude a place to start. I will always make clear when something was the work of AI.
