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The Big Sort what's up, doc? House Members Aren't Supposed To Just "Vote Their Districts" Burnout U

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 2/105 talking solemnly about the pill's pros. The commercial ditches xx factor xxtra the usual side-effects voice-over, instead enlisting a lovely The Un-Hillary brunette to deliver lines like, "DRSP is a different kind of hormone that may increase potassium, so you shouldn't take Yaz if you have liver, kidney, or adrenal disease. …" It doesn't quite click—why would this woman warn her twentysomething friends that women over 35 shouldn't smoke on the pill? And ad report card why are her friends nodding intently instead of downing their The Pill Killer drinks while their eyes glaze over? Can a new ad make a contraceptive vaginal insert seem cool? By Torie Bosch The NuvaRing commercial, by contrast, uses lighthearted details Monday, September 29, 2008, at 6:50 AM ET to suggest that birth control can be a no-sweat part of your life. It shrewdly portrays the pill as an old-fashioned fuddy-duddy, The Spot: "Tired of your old birth-control routine?" a voice- something out of your mother's or even grandmother's youth, over asks. Synchronized swimmers ring the edge of a round like a one-piece bathing costume, a swim cap, even pool, moving in unison and chanting the days of the week in synchronized swimming, an activity that prizes conformity over turn. They let out sighs of frustration after each repetition, individualism. In an animated version of the ad, the pool deck exhausted by the tedium. "Maybe it's time to break free from the even appears to be made of checkered linoleum, like a '50s-era pack with NuvaRing," the announcer suggests. One swimmer kitchen. The NuvaRing, on the other hand, is the choice of the jumps out of the pool, shakes her hair out of her bathing cap, freedom-loving, loose-haired, midriff-bearing, sunglasses- and tears off part of her suit, turning her modest one-piece into a wearing girl who flirts with the waiter proffering drinks and has sexy bikini. She lounges beneath an umbrella while the other her own style and idea of fun. swimmers keep at it, then heads to the hot tub with some girlfriends as the voice-over chatters about blood clots. "Say Of course, the commercial has a point that it's important—and good-bye to the old song-and-dance and hello to NuvaRing," the sometimes difficult—to take traditional birth control pills with announcer concludes. (Click here to watch the ad.) clockwork regularity. Women risk getting pregnant if they fail to follow the pill's rather stringent instructions. It's not hard to skip a day or two, fail to take it at the same time every day, forget to The genius of this ad is that it makes something as simple as start a new pack, or neglect to use backup contraception when swallowing a pill once a day seem arduous, old-fashioned, and taking antibiotics or other medications that can reduce the pill's quaint. The spot plugs NuvaRing, a contraceptive vaginal insert. efficacy. Planned Parenthood's Web site notes that taken as Instead of taking a pill daily, you wear the NuvaRing—which directed, fewer "than 1 out of 100 women will get pregnant each uses hormones similar to those in the pill—for three weeks, take year," while "[a]bout 8 out of 100 women will get pregnant each a week off, and then insert a fresh ring. No longer will you have year if they don't always take the pill each day as directed." to take time out of your busy schedule—or your afternoons hanging poolside—to pop a pill, the ad suggests. What the NuvaRing ad fails to acknowledge is that using the ring properly may not be easy, either. When you take the pill NuvaRing's ad isn't the first to present the traditional pill as a daily, you get into a rhythm and associate it with, say, brushing tiny, pastel-colored ball and chain. One birth-control patch, your teeth or going to bed. Remembering to remove the Ortho Evra, used the slogan "On your body, off your mind." But NuvaRing every third week and replace it every fourth seems the synchronized swimming spot, which uses playful imagery more difficult. Are users supposed to associate these changes and a catchy days-of-the-week chant in place of a heavy-handed with the appearance of the full moon? The arrival of the new slogan, is insidiously persuasive. Although taking the pill is not Real Simple? Writing a check for the cell phone bill? Setting an at all hard, this ad had me briefly pondering making the switch alarm in Outlook might work, but it's not always convenient to myself. change your vaginal ring when you happen to be checking your e-mail. NuvaRing's manufacturer does nod to this problem on its Part of the spot's appeal lies in its light tone. The makers of Web site, offering small timers for users to carry around with condoms and Viagra have long used tongue-in-cheek humor to them. But how are you supposed to remember to check the make the hard sell. But women's birth-control spots have gone timer? the earnest route, showing women constantly preoccupied with—and burdened by—the pill. An ad for a pill called Yaz Grade: B+ The ad's smartest move is glossing over the ick blasts a peppy cover of the '80s Scandal hit "Goodbye to You" factor of the contraceptive device itself. It doesn't mention how and promises that Yaz will relieve menstruating women of you insert it, how it affects your period, whether it can fall out, fatigue, cramps, irritability, and acne. Another Sex and the City- and what to do if that happens. Those details are left to the Web inspired Yaz spot shows sophisticated, cocktail-sipping women site and your doctor. One fairly alarming warning: "NuvaRing®

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 3/105 can slip out while you're removing a tampon, straining during a vice president as a quick study, exhibiting a command of policy bowel movement, or during intercourse." Maybe there's minutiae, an iron will, and a finely honed strategic sense. In an something to be said for sticking with the old-fashioned. administration that has become infamous for its incompetence, Cheney is the man who knows what he's doing.

But so does Gellman. His praise for Cheney's strengths as an infighter and policymaker, though no doubt sincere, are also a Advanced Search backhanded form of damnation, since they complete his portrait Friday, October 19, 2001, at 6:39 PM ET of a stealthily ruthless, hypercompetent majordomo. There can be no doubt after reading this fair but quietly withering book that Cheney's role in shaping Bush's presidency—governing from the right, not the center; skirting procedures to achieve his goals on books taxes and the environment; and above all setting an extremist course in the war against al-Qaida—has been overwhelmingly Cheney's Handiwork malign. Unveiling his methods, and some of his motives. By David Greenberg The basic facts of Gellman's story are not new. Like many Friday, October 3, 2008, at 10:42 AM ET regular newspaper readers, I had known for a long time that Cheney had supported the administration's most legally For most of American history, no one would have dreamed of th questionable policies, from the warrantless domestic wiretapping writing a vice-presidential biography. From 1804, when the 12 to the treatment of military prisoners. But I don't think I'd Amendment established our current method of choosing VPs, realized until reading Angler that so many of these policies until 1901, when William McKinley's assassination placed originated with Cheney and his right-hand man David Theodore Roosevelt in the Oval Office, the No. 2 position was a Addington (who, it should be noted, is as central a character to steppingstone to oblivion. T.R., elected in his own right in 1904, this book as the vice president himself). And while Gellman is broke the pattern. Calvin Coolidge followed suit. By the mid- hardly the first to make much of Cheney's remark after Sept. 11 1970s, VPs were routinely going on to become their parties' that "We also have to work … the dark side," I don't think that standard-bearers. Walter Mondale and Al Gore epitomized the any other journalist, with the exception of The New Yorker's Jane vice president in the era of big government—forces to be Mayer, has assembled so concisely and carefully the portrait of a reckoned with, armed with experience to match the president's man determined after 9/11 to use any means necessary—and and portfolios and constituencies all their own. some unnecessary—to go after Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaida or anyone who might have anything to do with them. Dick Cheney is something else altogether. As Barton Gellman astutely appreciates in Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency, that Moreover, Gellman also exposes at least one case in which the is due not to the warlock-like powers some have ascribed to him vice president seems to have put his personal agenda ahead of but to the situation in which he has served. Both Mondale and his patron's. In the effort to pass the 2003 tax bill—Bush's Gore worked for detail men, presidents who would never let second big round of cuts for the wealthy—the president had underlings set their most important policies. Cheney has served a previously decided against deeper, politically unpopular man who very much likes to delegate—and to delegate to reductions in the capital-gains tax. But according to Gellman, Cheney in particular. Gellman also leaves no doubt that what Cheney furtively worked behind Bush's back to help House influence Cheney has had—which has been plenty—he has Republicans replace the administration bill with an alternative enjoyed thanks to Bush's indulgence. "The president made it that included the controversial cuts—a fact that "hardly anyone, clear from the outset that the vice president is welcome at every in or out of the White House, knew," Gellman reports. Cheney table and at every meeting," White House Chief of Staff Josh himself ultimately cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to get Bolten tells Gellman. And when, after the 2006 election, it passed. Cheney's control of the foreign policy agenda weakened, it was, Gellman explains, "because the president wanted to try a new direction." Little stories like this one, piled one after the next, form a picture of a man determined to use to the fullest all the power that Bush would allow him and then some. In keeping with other accounts, Perhaps a bit mischievously, Gellman goes out of his way to Cheney emerges here as a canny survivor of the Nixon and Ford shower praise on the vice president. In contrast to the White Houses, who has for decades longed to restore to the unreflective, superficial Bush, Cheney is routinely described presidency the sorts of unchecked powers, at home and abroad, with awe and reverence by many of Gellman's sources— that Congress, the courts, and the public had worked to curtail judgments that Gellman mostly lets stand without challenge. Old after Watergate. And his decision at the start to rule out colleagues and new visitors to Cheney's office alike paint the succeeding his boss ironically served the cause: It was a choice

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 4/105 that buffered him from the political consequences of the policies Gellman points out their many differences—in their appetite for he has worked to implement. studying detail, in their personal styles, in their political judgments. Yet they share a supreme confidence that their goals As much as anyone, Cheney is responsible for the Nixonian are correct, a willingness to bend or break rules to reach them, miasma that enveloped the Bush White House from early on. and an inflexibility about changing course. Despite the claim of White House flacks that Bush likes to hear clashing opinions, Gellman notes, he actually prefers consensus and finality. Yet journalism being only the first draft of history, key questions about Cheney's White House operations remain. Some concern According to a Cheney aide, the president liked to be told "your the outcomes of his handiwork: For example, after a stranger- senior advisers believe X"—and then to stick with that decision. It was a message, when the crises of the Bush years came, that than-fiction showdown with Cheney's allies at the hospital Dick Cheney rarely failed to deliver. bedside of Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI chief Robert Mueller persuaded Bush to revise his illegal wiretapping program. But Gellman doesn't reveal who really won the battle, resorting to vague language. "Over the next weeks and months, the program changed. It stopped doing some things, and it did other things differently." books Is Humanitarian Intervention Dead? We also crave to know more about Cheney's motives. Gellman History offers some sobering lessons. suggests that Cheney favored war with Iraq not because he By Samantha Power feared Saddam Hussein's intentions, but because he wanted to Monday, September 29, 2008, at 6:52 AM ET knock off an easy target and send a message around the Middle East. I don't find the argument persuasive—I'm inclined to think Ron Suskind had it right in emphasizing Cheney's "1 percent Remember "humanitarian intervention"? The phrase described doctrine," the idea that after 9/11 the government had to take military intervention in sovereign states to prevent civilians from even minute probabilities of danger much more seriously—but being murdered en masse. Before reading Gary Bass' vivid new without documents or more inside reporting from Cheney's inner exploration of the historical roots of modern-day humanitarian circle, we can't know for sure. Indeed, Gellman elsewhere writes intervention, Freedom's Battle, I had thought that the practice of that Cheney considered the "nexus" of terrorism, rogue states, humanitarian intervention might be marked with a tombstone and deadly weapons to be his paramount concern—suggesting a "Born 1991, northern Iraq—Died 2003, Iraq." But Bass, with genuine fear of a nuclear-armed rogue dictator, not the reckless whom I often discussed this issue in the 1990s, shows that gamble of using a war to test a theory. debates over rescuing imperiled civilians date back to the 19th century. It was then that the British dispatched a fleet to Greece Most important, with so much attention given to the infighting to prevent Turkish atrocities against Greek rebels and civilians, among second-tier administration officials like Addington, Jack the French occupied Syria to rescue imperiled Christian Goldsmith, and James Comey, the president is offstage too much minorities (a British fleet stood at the ready offshore), and the of the time, and Cheney himself often lurks only in the shadows. British nearly invaded the Ottoman Empire to halt the So we remain curious about Cheney's relationship to Bush. How "Bulgarian Horrors" in 1876. much did the president know about Cheney's active role in fashioning and refashioning policies? Did he approve? Was he "Humanitarian intervention" is a problematic phrase for the aware of the bureaucratic maneuvers that, for example, gave obvious reason that "intervention," which in Bosnia (1995) and Addington influence over the nominally more senior White Kosovo (1999) meant bombing, is a fundamentally un- House Counsel Alberto Gonzales? Why did the president—as humanitarian act. The word intervention is also unhelpful Gellman reports—draw from the short list that Cheney had made because it means a range of different things to different people. of acceptable Supreme Court justices in picking John Roberts, Some use the word to signal the deployment of military forces. only then to depart from it in nominating Harriet Miers, and then Many others (including me) see intervention as lying on a return to it for the choice of Sam Alito? And how did Cheney continuum—with mediation, diplomatic denunciation, travel view Bush in all of this—with respect, affection, or disdain? bans, asset freezes, arms embargoes, and the deployment of consensual peacekeepers (as in East Timor in 1999) understood None of this is to denigrate Gellman's reporting, since it would as often being the wisest responses to atrocities. Given their take a combination of Lincoln Steffens, Joe Alsop, and Bob risks, war and occupation seem advisable only in rare Woodward to crack the secretive bond between the nation's two circumstances where the risks of using other tools are even most powerful men, neither of whom has much fondness for the greater. (In my view this consequentialist test was passed in news media. But we can speculate. Gellman's portrait suggests Bosnia and flunked in the run-up to the 2003 war in Iraq.) But that Bush was all too happy to defer to Cheney on the defining one thing is certain: A decadelong mainstream debate over issues of his presidency, for the two men usually saw eye to eye. humanitarian intervention ground to an abrupt halt in the wake

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 5/105 of the Bush administration's disastrous invasion of Iraq. In 2008 subjects into Siberia? Because they know very well what answer the governments of Burma, Sudan, and Zimbabwe can sleep they would receive! Thus there is one law of humanity for easy knowing that, while they might be criticized for their Turkey and another for Russia!" The hypocrisy of interveners brutality, they will not be stopped. takes two forms: lateral and historical. Lateral hypocrites denounce human rights abuses in one region but ignore them in Bass, a humanitarian hawk, rebuts the notion that civilian another. Historical hypocrites have themselves carried out the suffering only recently assumed an influential role in world very human rights abuses that they suddenly decide warrant affairs. He tells colorful tales of popular human rights and intervention elsewhere. humanitarian campaigns in the 19th century, unearthing a cast of familiar personalities who played unheralded roles as social Yet those who support intervention on moral grounds are often activists. Lord Byron met his death in Greece in 1824 attempting quick to hail their own virtue. John Stuart Mill thought so highly to bring financial relief to the Greek rebels. He was joined in the of the British nobility of purpose that he said such unselfishness "philhellene" cause by philosopher Jeremy Bentham, economist was "a novelty in the world; so much so … that many are unable David Ricardo, and French novelist Victor Hugo. The to believe it when they see it." In sending French forces to Syria, philhellene movement convened public meetings, mobilized Napoleon III issued an open letter denouncing the "pitiful press coverage, and lobbied, while also buying weapons and jealousies and unfounded distrust of those who suggested that outfitting troops. And it eventually succeeded in pressuring the any interests except those of humanity had induced him to send British government to send a squadron to the region, which troops to Syria." In fact, countries that intervene militarily rarely attacked and sunk most of the Ottoman fleet. In delving into this do so out of pure altruism. The French deployed forces to Syria and other cases, Bass shows how "freedom at home can help partly because of disgust over the massacres of Maronites, but promote freedom abroad." The demise of censorship and the also because doing so might solidify Napoleon III's influence in explosion in news circulation helped fuel popular movements the region and win over Catholic voters at home. The Russians aimed at combating massacres abroad. Indeed, Bass' study intervened in the Ottoman Empire in the hopes of gaining foreshadows Canadian Gen. Romeo Dallaire's observation that, control of water ports. Bass quotes from All the King's Men during the Rwanda genocide in 1994, "a reporter with a line to when Willie Stark lectures pure Adam Stanton on doing good: the West was worth a battalion on the ground." "You got to make it, Doc. If you want it. And you got to make it out of badness. Badness. … And you know why? Because there As he did in his last book, Stay the Hand of Vengeance, a isn't anything else to make it out of." riveting history of war crimes trials, Bass moves convincingly from the present to the past, drawing parallels where they exist But how sustainable is this in the 21st century? The Bush but rarely stretching analogies too far. I found it surprising to see administration is hardly convincing when it endorses water- how little the practice and critique of humanitarian intervention boarding one day and calls for peacekeepers to be sent to halt have changed in more than a century. One can draw a few genocide the next. This century's debates over humanitarian general lessons from then and now. First, states that intervene intervention occur in a globalized world where a country's militarily to stop massacres almost always do so in response to policies in one place are visible elsewhere, and in a polarized popular outrage. Governments are guided primarily by national world where a country's lack of credibility or legitimacy security and economic concerns, and large-scale suffering tends undermines its ability to draw allies to its side. Understanding to register only when powerful domestic political constituencies the 19th-century cases, Bass writes, "should contribute to a more force it onto the agenda. For instance, William Gladstone got humble, sober version of the practice in the future." under the skin of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli only when his pamphlet, Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the Historically informed caution certainly seems the right antidote East, took Great Britain by storm. Unfortunately, policies that to Bush-era recklessness. An ethnic, national, or religious group are reactive to popular sentiment are often ill-conceived and must be in immediate danger of being massacred on a large inattentive to complexities. (The philhellenes overlooked scale; a credible multilateral body must support the intervention. atrocities carried out by Greek rebels, focusing only on those The countries intervening must forswear up front the pursuit of committed by Turks; the French were biased toward the commercial or strategic interests in the region. They must Maronites, seeing them as blameless in the violence against commit to remaining for a finite period and in numbers befitting Syrian Druzes.) Often the outsiders' response is aimed less at their limited mandates (though, as Bass notes, it's important to solving the problem at hand than at appeasing domestic unrest. be careful not to allow the killers to wait out the intervention and to deploy a force sizable enough to protect civilians). Finally, the Second, countries that act militarily on humanitarian grounds countries entering a foreign land must have done so on the basis never do so consistently. When Britain stood poised to intervene of the good-faith calculation that the benefits of such action over Turkish atrocities against Greeks in 1822, one Ottoman would outweigh the costs—to the victims, the region, and the minister snapped: "Why do not the Christian Sovereigns intervening parties. interfere to prevent the Emperor of Russia from sending his

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 6/105 While instituting such requirements should reduce the risks of they merge into one rude but necessary query: What does Palin cynical or counterproductive interventions, the conditions are in know (besides, that is, how to play basketball and the flute)? fact so stringent that it is not obvious how or when, in today's world, such conditions might be met. Countries are hardly Tangible evidence of whatever data populate Palin's cranium is rushing to contribute troops to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in hard to find. In Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Darfur. And since China and Russia frown on external Political Establishment Upside Down, Kaylene Johnson reports interferences that aren't of their own making, multilateral that Palin started devouring newspapers while still in elementary consensus is likely to be elusive. On this score, Henry Kissinger school. "She read the paper from the very top left hand corner to seems increasingly correct that "a doctrine of common the bottom right corner to the very last page," Palin's sister intervention can furnish a more useful tool to frustrate action Molly tells Johnson. "She didn't just read it—she knew every than the doctrine of non-interference." word she had read and analyzed it." What stories in particular? Johnson doesn't offer any examples. We learn, too, that a junior- History is laden with belligerent leaders using humanitarian high schoolmate who was a year ahead often sought Palin's rhetoric to mask geopolitical aims. History also shows how often assistance in writing book reports. "She was such a bookworm," ill-informed moralism has led to foreign entanglements that do this Palin friend tells Johnson. "Whenever I was assigned to read more harm than good. But history shows the costs, too—in a book, she'd already read it." Such as? Again, Johnson doesn't Rwanda and today in Darfur—of failing to prevent mass murder. say. The fate of future atrocity victims may turn on whether it is possible to find a path between blinding zeal and paralyzing As the daughter of a schoolteacher and coach, Palin never perfectionism. doubted she would go to college. But here the evidence of Palin's thirst for knowledge grows even more elusive. Palin's college career is so checkered that her own press spokesperson initially had trouble getting straight whether, during a period of five years, Palin attended four colleges (wrong) or five (correct). chatterbox Palin made the circuit of three of these colleges with her high- Sarah Palin's College Daze school basketball teammate Kim "Tillie" Ketchum. In describing the two girls' joint pursuit of higher education, Johnson makes it Why did she attend five different colleges? By Timothy Noah sound like a trip to the ladies' room. Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 6:51 PM ET First, Palin and Ketchum (and two other high-school friends) lighted on the University of Hawaii-Hilo. Drawn by the promise Sarah Palin's performance in her CBS News interviews has been of warmth and sunshine, the four girls quickly learned that Hilo so poor that one can't avoid speculating about the depth of her was, in fact, quite rainy and immediately either transferred out or ignorance. As I noted earlier, the Republican vice-presidential declined to register. (The school has no record Palin ever nominee can't be faulted for fumbling Charlie Gibson's pompous enrolled.) question about the Bush Doctrine in her ABC News interview, because there's no consensus about what the "Bush Doctrine" Next stop: Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu, where it was even is. (Click here and here to read essays by Charles sunnier and where an aunt of Palin's lived nearby. Palin enrolled Krauthammer that provide two contradictory definitions— in the business administration program. Two of the four girls got neither of them Gibson's.) But Palin's befuddled nonanswers to homesick and returned to Alaska, but Palin and Ketchum stayed, Katie Couric's questions (click here, here, here, here, and here) renting an apartment one block from the ocean in Waikiki. By raise too many questions. Was she really unsure about the the end of freshman year, Palin and Ketchum decided they'd meaning or proper pronunciation of the word caricature? Had grown tired of this hard-won sunshine and arranged to transfer she truly failed to notice that John McCain jumped down Barack out. Obama's throat when Obama publicly proposed attacking al- Qaida in Pakistan's ungoverned tribal regions? Why couldn't she Next stop: North Idaho College in Coeur d'Alene. (Palin was name a single newspaper or magazine that she read on a regular born in Idaho.) Here, Johnson writes, they "immersed basis before being tapped for the national ticket? Why couldn't themselves in a more traditional college life" and lived in a coed she name a single Supreme Court decision she disagreed with dorm. According to Ketchum, Palin, who enrolled as a general apart from Roe v. Wade?* In an earlier (2007) interview with studies major, remained interested primarily in sports, but Palin Charlie Rose on PBS, why did Palin, after mentioning C.S. spent a semester working in a TV production studio. This past Lewis ("very, very deep") as a favorite author, go on to cite June, North Idaho College's Alumni Association named Alaska George Sheehan, a onetime columnist for Runner's World? You Gov. Sarah Palin a distinguished alumna and invited her to give can shrug off any one of these questions as unfair, but together the commencement address in 2009. But Palin attended the school for only one year—a spokeswoman for the college told

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 7/105 the Associated Press, "We were not able to track down club Correction, Oct. 2, 2008: An earlier version of this column affiliations or anything"—before departing. This time, Ketchum written before the clip was made public stated, incorrectly, that stayed put. Palin could name no Supreme Court decision of any kind apart from Roe v. Wade. This assertion was based on a report in Next stop: the University of Idaho in Moscow, where today a Politico, which in turn attributed the (inaccurate) leadership award is named for Palin. According to Johnson, characterization to an unnamed Palin aide. (Return to the Palin transferred here "to continue her studies in journalism and corrected sentence.) political science." (Among Palin's journalism classes, Couric might be surprised to learn, was "Interviewing.") But it seems likelier that Palin transferred to be nearer to her brother Chuck, who played running back for the school's football team. Palin didn't write for the school newspaper—a friend recalls she was chatterbox more interested in broadcast journalism—and her academic GOP, RIP? adviser, Roy Atwood, does not appear to remember her. After Nearly three decades of Republican dominance may be coming to an end. one year, Palin decided to take some time off. By Timothy Noah Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at 6:45 PM ET Next stop: Matanuska-Susitna Community College in Palmer, Alaska, not far from Palin's hometown of Wasilla. This was apparently to be near her high-school boyfriend (and future The Republican-led defeat of President Bush's Wall Street husband) Todd Palin. Johnson doesn't bother to mention this bailout plan caused an immediate financial catastrophe: The academic sojourn in her book. Palin took classes here for one stock market fell an unprecedented 777.68 points, wiping out, by semester. one estimate, $1.2 trillion in wealth. But the greater and more lasting damage may be to the Republican Party itself. Next stop: Back to the University of Idaho for three more semesters. Palin graduated in spring 1987 with a journalism Percentagewise, the Sept. 29 crash was one-third the size of degree. Black Monday, the stock-market crash of Oct. 19, 1987. As I write, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen more than There's no evidence that Palin encountered any academic halfway back up (though stock prices remain volatile). It's still difficulties in any of these places—indeed, Ketchum told possible to believe that the economy will return to normal in a Johnson that she and Palin got "straight A's" at Hawaii Pacific year or two. For Republicans, though, the events of Sept. 29 University—but one can't help wondering, in the absence of could well be remembered as the start of a decades-long exile contrary evidence, whether this rolling stone ever found the time from power—much as Democrats remember Nov. 4, 1980. to accumulate much moss. That same question has been raised about Palin's lightning-quick rise in politics. In the Oct. 1 That's not to say that John McCain is certain to lose this year's Christian Science Monitor, Andrew Halcro, a Republican election to Barack Obama. As I've noted before, this race has member of the House of Represenatives, recalls a conversation experienced so many abrupt reversals that we're all starting to with Palin when he ran against her for governor in 2006. suffer from "game-changer" fatigue. At the moment, though, "Andrew," Palin said, "I watch you at these debates with no things seem to be going the Democrats' way, with Obama up notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off five or six points in national polls and swing states like facts, figures, and policies, and I'm amazed. But then I look out Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Missouri trending toward him. into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really Meanwhile, the GOP has virtually no hope of retaking Congress; matter?' " indeed, it's projected to lose seats in both the House and the Senate. Even if McCain wins, his past record of unpredictability According to Halcro, it didn't. Palin creamed him because "she's combined with the likely imperative of working with a a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy Democratic Congress suggest he'll spend much of his time recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the fighting with members of his own party. That would seem glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator especially likely given the current banking crisis, which has Biden, or anyone, can do." The evidence of Palin's CBS News forced the Bush administration, the House and Senate leadership interviews suggests otherwise, but we'll just have to see. of both parties, and McCain himself to practice lemon socialism. Meanwhile, Joe Biden should find the time to study this video of one of Palin's 2006 gubernatorial debates. This is no moment for The central con of the political coalition assembled by Ronald overconfidence—especially in a guy who's been known to brag Reagan and maintained by his successors was that government fatuously about his IQ and to embellish his own academic was a common enemy. Middle-class social conservatives loathed record. the government for legalizing abortion, forbidding prayer in

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 8/105 schools, and coddling minorities through welfare and affirmative preferred to level stern rhetoric against the Soviets ("Evil action. Upper-class libertarian conservatives loathed the Empire") while subsidizing proxy wars abroad, not always in government for soaking the rich through the income tax and accordance with the law. That the Soviet Union started to weakening businesses through burdensome regulation. The only disintegrate on Reagan's watch is mistaken by many for proof useful function of the federal government was to provide for the that it's possible to defeat a powerful enemy by calling it names common defense. This was a con for two reasons. First, the and spending a lot of money on (but never actually using) middle and upper classes were both dependent on the federal military weapons. President Bush, alas, took Reagan at his government for a variety of benefits, including Social Security, saber-rattling word, waging a war against Saddam Hussein so trade protection, scientific research, and assorted localized unilateral that, except for a few Kurds, there was no indigenous spending (termed "pork barrel" by those who don't receive it and fighting force to prop up the way we propped up the ARVN in "economic development" by those who do). Second, the South Vietnam. The result was and remains, even after violence distribution of this government largesse greatly favored the rich. in Iraq has been greatly reduced, a lingering feeling even among In the April 1992 Atlantic, Neil Howe and Philip Longman, Republicans that the Iraq war was at best a distraction from the citing unpublished data from the Congressional Budget Office, more necessary fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban. reported that U.S. households with incomes above $100,000 received, on average, slightly more in federal cash and in-kind This is not, I'll confess, the first time I've believed that the benefits ($5,690) than households with incomes below $10,000 Republican ascendancy has ended. In 1994, I felt sure that the ($5,560). This was four years before the Clinton administration warmed-over Reaganite nostrums of Newt Gingrich's "Contract eliminated Aid to Families With Dependent Children, the With America" spelled defeat in the midterm elections. Instead, principal income-support program for the poor. When tax breaks the Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress for were added to the tally, households with incomes above the first time in four decades. I also thought the GOP was $100,000 received considerably more ($9,280) than households cracking up in 2000, when, desperate to find fault with every last with incomes below $10,000 ($5,690). Clinton subsequently aspect of the Clinton administration, it started bad-mouthing expanded tax subsidies to the poor through the Earned Income prosperity. I got that wrong, too. So maybe the GOP isn't really Tax Credit, but not enough to undo this disparity. "[I]f the dead. federal government wanted to flatten the nation's income distribution," Howe and Longman concluded, "it would do better It sure looks dead, though. to mail all its checks to random addresses."

The Reagan coalition survived because nobody wanted to believe this and because both upper and middle classes were bought off with President George W. Bush's tax cuts. (That the tax cuts favored the wealthy didn't seem to matter.) But the corrections proposed $700 billion bank bailout made it hard for Republicans Corrections to cling to their cherished illusion that government exists only to Friday, October 3, 2008, at 6:58 AM ET indulge spendthrift widows and orphans. Moreover, the $700 billion was needed to save the very beau idéal of conservatism, In the Oct. 1 "Chatterbox," Timothy Noah wrote, incorrectly, the free market. It was needed so badly that (after a few that in an interview with Katie Couric of CBS News, Sarah Palin alterations to protect the taxpayers' investment) liberal House could name no Supreme Court decision apart from Roe v. Wade. Democrats like Barney Frank made common cause with Palin could name no Supreme Court decision that she disagreed conservative House Republicans like John Boehner to urge its with apart from Roe v. Wade. The incorrect sentence was written passage. To a Republican Party that had come to believe its own before CBS News released the clip and was based on a propaganda, this simply didn't compute. So, House Republicans characterization by an unnamed Palin aide as quoted in Politico. voted against their standard-bearer's own bailout by a margin of 2 to 1, a dose of free-market principles that sent the Dow into the In the Sept. 30 "Explainer," Noreen Malone originally crapper. understated the independence of the Office of Special Counsel and included a reference to Patrick Fitzgerald that was unclear It should be remembered that a fundamentalist belief in about the actual scope of his authority. She also incorrectly untrammeled capitalism is not the first but, rather, the second stated that the Supreme Court upheld the law governing special pillar of Reagan-style Republicanism to fall. The first was the prosectors in 1998. The court upheld the law a decade earlier, in belief that the United States should extend military power 1988. wherever enemies lurk, regardless of what our allies do. Reagan didn't actually practice this doctrine, except to overthrow a In the Sept. 30 "Shopping," Laura Moser mistakenly referred to teensy regime in Grenada and to deploy (and, after a deadly the Federal Bureau of Investigations, plural. It is the Federal terrorist bombing, withdraw) U.S. Marines in Lebanon; he Bureau of Investigation.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 9/105 In the Sept. 29 "Science," Daniel Engber described a scene in just a few non-Nobelists, would spare us the categorical Californication in which David Duchovny's character performs lectures." cunnilingus on an underage girl whom he'd taken to be his wife. The girl's exact age was never stated, and he mistook her for his All of these criticisms are, of course, true. But the real scandal of girlfriend. Engdahl's comments is not that they revealed a secret bias on the part of the Swedish Academy. It is that Engdahl made official In the Sept. 26 "Jurisprudence," Charles Homans stated that Ted what has long been obvious to anyone paying attention: The Stevens' wife, Catherine, was seated in the second row of the Nobel committee has no clue about American literature. courtroom during his trial. She was not. America should respond not by imploring the committee for a fairer hearing but by seceding, once and for all, from the sham In a Sept. 26 "Movies," Josh Levin misquoted a line from Eagle that the Nobel Prize for literature has become. Eye. The correct quote is "she could probably turn a train into a walking duck." When Engdahl accuses American writers of being raw and backward, of not being up-to-date on the latest developments in If you believe you have found an inaccuracy in a Paris or Berlin, he is repeating a stereotype that goes back Slate story, please send an e-mail to practically to the Revolutionary War. It was nearly 200 years [email protected], and we will investigate. ago that Sydney Smith, the English wit, famously wrote in the Edinburgh Review: "In the four quarters of the globe, who reads General comments should be posted in "The Fray," an American book?" Ironically, though, while Engdahl decries our reader discussion forum. American provincialism today, for most of the Nobel's history, it was exactly its "backwardness" that the Nobel committee most valued in American literature.

Just look at the kind of American writer the committee has culturebox chosen to honor. Pearl Buck, who won the prize in 1938, and Nobel Gas John Steinbeck, who won in 1962, are almost folk writers, using The Swedes have no clue about American literature. a naively realist style to dramatize the struggles of the common By Adam Kirsch man. Their most famous books, The Good Earth and The Grapes Friday, October 3, 2008, at 12:10 PM ET of Wrath, fit all too comfortably on junior-high-school reading lists. Sinclair Lewis, the first American to win the Prize, in 1930, When Saul Bellow learned that he had won the Nobel Prize for wrote broad satires on American provincialism with nothing literature in 1976, he reacted to the news in the only way a great formally adventurous about them. writer can or should: He tried hard not to care. "I'm glad to get it," Bellow admitted, but "I could live without it." This month, as Such writers reflected back to Europe just the image of America the Swedish Academy prepares for its annual announcement, they wanted to see: earnest, crude, anti-intellectual. There was a Bellow's heirs in the top ranks of American literature—Roth, brief moment, after World War II, when the Nobel Committee Updike, Pynchon, DeLillo—already know they're going live allowed that America might produce more sophisticated writers. without the Nobel Prize. Horace Engdahl, the academy's No one on either side of the Atlantic would quarrel with the permanent secretary, made that clear this week when he told the awards to William Faulkner in 1949 or Ernest Hemingway in Associated Press that American writers are simply not up to 1954. But in the 32 years since Bellow won the Nobel, there has Nobel standards. "The U.S. is too isolated, too insular," Engdahl been exactly one American laureate, Toni Morrison, whose decreed. "They don't translate enough and don't really participate critical reputation in America is by no means secure. To judge in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining." by the Nobel roster, you would think that the last three decades have been a time of American cultural drought rather than the It did not take long for American writers to rise to the bait. The era when American culture and language conquered the globe. Washington Post's Michael Dirda pointed out that it was Engdahl who displayed "an insular attitude towards a very But that, of course, is exactly the problem for the Swedes. As diverse country": It is a bit rich for a citizen of Sweden, whose long as America could still be regarded as Europe's backwater— population of 9 million is about the same as New York City's, to as long as a poet like T.S. Eliot had to leave America for call the United States "isolated." David Remnick noted that the England in order to become famous enough to win the Nobel—it Swedish Academy itself has been guilty of conspicuous was easy to give American literature the occasional pat on the ignorance over a very long period: "You would think that the head. But now that the situation is reversed, and it is Europe that permanent secretary of an academy that pretends to wisdom but looks culturally, economically, and politically dependent on the has historically overlooked Proust, Joyce and Nabokov, to name United States, European pride can be assuaged only by pretending that American literature doesn't exist. When Engdahl

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 10/105 declares, "You can't get away from the fact that Europe still is the center of the literary world," there is a poignant echo of The first thing you think upon hearing the news is "But Paul Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard insisting that she is still Newman isn't someone who can die." Whatever species he big, it's the pictures that got smaller. belonged to, he of the aquamarine gaze-blazers and the Roman- coin profile, it couldn't have been a mortal one. The space he Nothing gives the lie to Engdahl's claim of European superiority invited viewers into was a kind of hyperlife, a state of sharpened more effectively than a glance at the Nobel Prize winners of the attention and heightened vibrancy; if Paul Newman was in it, it last decade or so. Even Austrians and Italians didn't think was a Paul Newman movie, regardless of the size of his role. Elfriede Jelinek and Dario Fo deserved their prizes; Harold Pinter won the prize about 40 years after his significant work His best roles were the ones that acknowledged that quality of was done. To suggest that these writers are more talented or being not superhuman, but somehow extra human. When he accomplished than the best Americans of the last 30 years is played a sour, bitter, reduced man, like the crippled and closeted preposterous. Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the fit wasn't right. He could be a bastard, like the unrepentant prodigal son in Hud, but it had to What does distinguish the Nobel Committee's favorites, be a bastard who inhabited his body fully and joyously. (Has however, is a pronounced anti-Americanism. Pinter used the anyone on-screen ever reveled in the brute pleasure of being occasion of his Nobel lecture in 2005 to say that "the crimes of young as completely as Hud Bannon?) And when he combined the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, that potent physicality with out-and-out sweetness—when he remorseless" and to call for "Bush and Blair [to] be arraigned goofed around on a bicycle for Katharine Ross in Butch Cassidy before the International Criminal Court of Justice." Doris and the Sundance Kid, for example—well, forget it. You'd do Lessing, who won the prize last year, gave an interview anything for the guy. dismissing the Sept. 11 attacks as "neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as [Americans] think," adding: "They're a very There are so many different ways of framing Newman's 50-plus naive people, or they pretend to be." year career: You could trace the passage from his early, Actors Studio-trained muscularity to the almost Buddhist subtlety of his It would be nice to think that the Swedish Academy was not late style, or the way he used his aging body as an instrument to endorsing such views when they selected Pinter and Lessing or explore a whole new type of role, like the frail alcoholic lawyer the similarly inclined José Saramago and Günter Grass. But to in The Verdict (1982). prove the bad faith of Engdahl's recent criticisms of American literature, all you have to do is mention a single name: Philip But the theme that kept recurring as I revisited Newman's Roth. Engdahl accuses Americans of not "participating in the big films—an inappropriate theme, perhaps, given the dialogue of literature," but no American writer has been more circumstances—was his sexuality. Not so much Newman as an cosmopolitan than Roth. As editor of Penguin's "Writers From object of sexual desire, though God knows he made a worthy the Other Europe" series, he was responsible for introducing one, but as its subject. From his earliest leading-man roles to his many of Eastern Europe's great writers to America, from Danilo late character studies (and even in parts that, unlike Hud, weren't Kiš to Witold Gombrowicz; his 2001 nonfiction book Shop Talk explicitly priapic), Newman played characters whose desire includes interviews with Milan Kundera, Ivan Klima, and Primo lived close to the surface. He related to other actors by coveting Levi. In his own fiction, too, Roth has been as adventurously them, teasing them, or seducing them, which is another reason, Postmodern as Calvino while also making room for the kind of perhaps, that his Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof feels airless. In detailed realism that has long been a strength of American secret mourning for his dead male friend (and hampered by the literature. Unless and until Roth gets the Nobel Prize, there's no Hays production code that muffled the explicit gayness of the reason for Americans to pay attention to any insults from the character), Brick had no one on-screen to desire. Swedes. In this clip from The Left-Handed Gun (1958), an odd little existential Western scripted by Gore Vidal and directed by then- newcomer Arthur Penn, Newman plays a tormented, half-bright Billy the Kid in the Stanislavski-influenced vein that led some to culturebox dismiss him as a Brando copycat. Here, Billy burns his own The Bluest Eyes death notice (mistakenly published in a sensational broadsheet), declares his resurrection to a smoldering Mexican senorita (Lita The pleasures of watching Paul Newman. Milan), and has his way with her in a barn. It's true that Newman By Dana Stevens was still feeling his way toward a mature style, but what's Monday, September 29, 2008, at 6:54 AM ET remarkable about this scene is the way he makes Billy's rage inseparable from his lust.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 11/105 Four years later, in Hud, Newman had relaxed into his own itself into his smallest expressions and gestures. As his own physical power. He didn't need to project overt brutishness in beautiful body aged, Paul Newman's acting grew ever more order to hint at the menace behind his charm. In this scene, the deeply embodied, and ever more beautiful. irresistible-yet-loathsome Hud tries to seduce the housekeeper who works on his father's farm (a never-better Patricia Neal, who won an Oscar for the role). In a brutal scene later in the film, he will attempt to rape her—a threat that already seems imminent in the way Newman nibbles at that daisy. (Can you day to day imagine Marlon Brando nibbling a daisy?) To Choke or Not To Choke? The Long, Hot Summer (1958) marks the first time Newman Monday, September 29, 2008, at 5:55 PM ET played opposite the woman who would become his wife of 50 years, Joanne Woodward. Widely acclaimed on its release, the Monday, Sept. 29, 2008 movie feels dated and florid now, largely because of the unfortunate casting of a supremely uncomfortable-looking Orson Summary Judgment: Now Out: Choke, St. Anna, Eagle Eye Welles as the paterfamilias of a decaying Southern family. (The What are critics saying about three new films? The lineup movie was loosely based on Faulkner's Snopes family stories.) includes Choke, based on a Chuck Palahniuk novel; Miracle at Still, its mood of erotic languor remains captivating, and St. Anna, the latest Spike Lee effort; and Eagle Eye, a thriller watching Woodward and Newman fall in love before your eyes starring Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan. Listen to the is positively electric. segment.

The two had met years earlier during a Broadway production of . Picnic, but because Newman was married at the time, they kept away from each other until the filming of The Long, Hot Summer. (Since Newman's first wife had not yet officially granted a divorce, they had to be discreet about their affair. In an interview in the DVD extras for the film, a much-older dear prudence Woodward fondly recalls that "there were a lot of hotel rooms," as Newman, sitting by her side, demurs, "Maybe they don't need To Abort or Not To Abort? to know about that.") Here, Newman, as drifter Ben Quick, and My husband wants me to terminate the pregnancy, but I don't. Woodward, as prim schoolteacher Clara, finally acknowledge Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 6:57 AM ET their slow-burning attraction to one another. The two actors seem almost amused by the way the dialogue resonates with Get "Dear Prudence" delivered to your inbox each week; click their real-life involvement. It's as if you can hear them thinking, here to sign up. Please send your questions for publication to I can't wait to get you off this set. [email protected]. (Questions may be edited.)

This last clip is also from a movie Newman made with Dear Prudence, Woodward, the 1990 Merchant-Ivory drama Mr. and Mrs. My husband insists that I get an abortion. We have a 5-year-old Bridge. But Woodward barely features in this scene, in which daughter we had planned to raise as an only child, so this Newman's character, a rigidly conservative Midwestern pregnancy was unexpected. My husband told me that he is not businessman, glances out the window as his daughter (Kyra happy enough in our marriage to go through another pregnancy Sedgwick), an aspiring actress in the full bloom of youth, and childbirth with me. Our daughter has Down syndrome, and sunbathes on the lawn. Without speaking a word, and in just a when we found out, my husband went through a phase of few seconds, Newman registers at least four distinct emotions: depression but kept strong for my sake. I, on the other hand, paternal disapproval at his daughter's scanty attire, a troubled made things very difficult for him. I had unrealistic expectations stirring of arousal, the immediate stern repression of that arousal, and wanted him to be in tune with me all the time. I have and finally a moment of solitary sadness. It's not that you come admitted and apologized for my terrible behavior, and I had away thinking that Mr. Bridge wants to do his own daughter— thought we had come to a point of stability and happiness. He this is a Merchant-Ivory film, not some Italian melodrama about now tells me that he feels like nothing but a moneymaking incest—but you see at what cost he's kept the world of the flesh machine, and he does not want to support my daughter and me at arm's length his whole life. any longer. I want to help him, but he wants me to stay home with our daughter and his elderly mother, who lives with us. I The delicacy of that moment is what I mean by the Buddhism of told him that we should go through marriage counseling, but he Newman's late style. It was as if the raw sexual energy of those doesn't want to. I do not want to get an abortion; it is a moral early roles had passed through a refiner's fire, concentrating issue for me. But I also do not want an unwanted child. I want to

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 12/105 save what is left of my marriage, not only for myself but for my —Person to Person, Please! daughter. I thought that I was in the happiest time in my relationship. Please, tell me what to do. Dear Person to Person, As this New York Times article points out, Barack Obama —Hurting announced his vice-presidential pick via text. The article also reported that a survey of wireless users found the average Dear Hurting, consumer sent or received 357 text messages a month (compared You have to accept that your marriage may be over no matter with 204 phone calls), while teen users sent or received 1,742 what you do. Your husband threatens to leave you if you have text messages. In other words, give it up, Mom. Sure, you could the baby. But if you abort a child you want in order to save your use the "If all your friends were walking into traffic, would you marriage, there won't be much of a marriage to save. You cannot do it, too?" argument—and actually, in this case, you'd have a allow your husband to bully you into an abortion (and, for the point, since people are walking into traffic while texting. But record, I am ardently pro-choice). It is truly unfortunate your every new communication technology creates its own disruption husband won't agree to counseling, because you two have a of social norms, especially for the older generation. You wish mountain of issues to sort out. You have a special-needs your children would behave decently and at least use the daughter, and no matter how much you adore her, a handicapped telephone. But in When Old Technologies Were New, author child puts strains on even the strongest marriage and requires a Carolyn Marvin writes that after the telephone arrived in the late th painful reassessment of your dreams for the future. You and 19 century, there were fears it would cause mass exposure of your husband are so out of sync that you believed you two family secrets and allow young people to conduct their social worked through a period of estrangement while he's been lives without the supervision of their elders—and it did. Back in thinking he just wants out. He feels as if he's nothing more than 1877, the very same New York Times characterized the telephone a paycheck, but it doesn't sound as if he has much sympathy for as having an "atrocious nature." So, relax, and be assured that your day-to-day existence taking care of your daughter and his someday your children will say to their children, "Where are elderly mother. Tell him you still love him and believe that your manners? Can't you just text your friends?" together you can repair your marriage and find joy in your new child. Say that if he won't go to a counselor with you, you will —Prudence go by yourself—because you are going to need a lot of support in the coming months. And keep in mind that at some point, you Dear Prudence, may need a lawyer to let him know that no matter what his My boyfriend and I are in our late 20s and have been dating for fantasies about being free of his financial obligations, with the six years. We have been living together almost as long and are birth of his second child, they just got bigger. practically inseparable. Our relationship didn't start out as good as it is now. I cheated on him with his then-closest friend, "Joe," —Prudence about four months into our relationship. It was a very short affair that I was (and still am) sincerely ashamed of. I feel that Joe, Dear Prudence Video: Who's Your Daddy? who is quite a bit older, took advantage of my inexperience and started the affair, which is part of the reason I have such a strong resentment. After many tears and candid discussions, my Dear Prudence, boyfriend and I recovered, and Joe was essentially removed I'm a mom of three teenagers who each have cell phones with from our lives. But a couple of years ago, my boyfriend and Joe texting capability and computers with instant messaging. What I find amazing is how little actual real-voice conversation goes on started running into each other through work. Eventually, they between boys and girls. My kids tell me that often it's easier to started talking, and now he and my boyfriend are hanging out together more and more frequently. I have hardly spoken two instant message and/or text than talk to someone "live," words to this man—and I don't want to. Just recently, my especially if the other person is someone whom they normally boyfriend asked him to house-sit while we were on vacation. I would feel nervous talking to face-to-face, and in fact may not was upset to find out about it, but my boyfriend was offended talk to at all if it weren't for the texting/instant messaging. My son even asked a girl to homecoming via instant message, which when I expressed my displeasure. He doesn't understand my resentment and I don't want to reopen that long-buried trial. I I found shocking and totally improper! By the time I found out, don't want to forgive and forget—I don't want to see this guy it had already been done. A boy has also asked my daughter out ever again! by texting. She is not allowed to date yet, so I told her to call the boy personally and turn him down. I've talked to my kids and insisted that they limit their texting as they will never know how —Wishing for "Just the Two of Us" to talk to actual humans if they don't try it every now and then. Am I the only one who is worried by this trend among kids, or Dear Wishing, am I overreacting and should just get used to it? This reminds me of that old Henny Youngman joke: "My best friend ran away with my wife, and let me tell you, I miss him."

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 13/105 Maybe your boyfriend is a particularly forgiving sort, or maybe he really, really enjoys Joe. But given how painful the episode was and how strong your feelings are, it's rather odd he would invite this guy to stay at your house, leaving you with the image do the math of him sleeping in your bed and nosing through your We're Down $700 Billion. Let's Go unmentionables. Since you are able to keep your distance from Joe, you shouldn't try to make him completely verboten to your Double or Nothing! boyfriend; be confident enough to let your boyfriend see him How the financial markets fell for a 400-year-old sucker bet. separately from you. But if your relationship is as good as you By Jordan Ellenberg say, he should be able to understand when you explain that you Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 1:20 PM ET won't try to change his friendship with Joe as long he won't try to make you have one. Tell him that you don't think you'll ever get rid of your residual guilt about and anger at Joe, and you Here's how to make money flipping a coin. Bet 100 bucks on certainly don't want him hanging around your house. heads. If you win, you walk away $100 richer. If you lose, no problem; on the next flip, bet $200 on heads, and if you win this —Prudence time, take your $100 profit and quit. If you lose, you're down $300 on the day; so you double down again and bet $400. The coin can't come up tails forever! Eventually, you've got to win Dear Prudie, your $100 back. My parents divorced when I was about 6, and my father was never one for visits. When I was 11, he moved cross-country, and I never saw him again. I'm 30 now, and last week I received This doubling game, sometimes called "the martingale," offers a certified letter with his death certificate and his will. I am something for nothing—certain profits, with no risk. You can feeling very confused about how to mourn someone I didn't see why it's so appealing to gamblers. But five more minutes of really know but feel I should have known and loved. Mostly, I thought reveals that the martingale can lead to disaster. The coin feel an overwhelming and refreshed rejection due to the very will come up heads eventually—but "eventually" might be too blunt statement in the will that my siblings and I were late. Most of the time, one of the first few flips will land heads intentionally excluded. It is confusing to have one parent who and you'll come out on top. But suppose you get 10 tails in a loves you and is extremely proud of you while the other one row. Just like that, you're out $204,700. The next step is to bet intentionally removed you from his life. His will listed names $204,800—if you've got it. If you're out of cash, the game is and contact information of other people in his life. I am over, and you're going home 200 grand lighter. considering calling one of them to ask if he or she would be willing to tell me what my dad was like. I am hesitant because I But wait a minute, maybe somebody will loan you the $200,000 don't know if I deserve to intrude on their lives when he so you need to stay in the game. After all, you've got a great track clearly did not consider me a part of his. Is this a terrible and record; up until this moment, you've always ended up ahead! If selfish idea? people keep staking you money, you can just keep betting until, eventually, you win big time. —Rejected Daughter See where I'm going with this? Dear Rejected, It is perfectly normal that this new information would be so The carefully synthesized financial instruments now seeping freshly wounding. For years you were used to not having a toxically from the hulls of Lehman Bros. and Washington father in your life. Then you find out it's too late to ever have Mutual are vastly more complicated than the martingale. But one, and you're back to feeling abandoned all over again. There they suffer the same fundamental flaw: They claim to create is nothing selfish about wanting to know more about this man. returns out of nothing, with no attendant risk. That's not just Just be prepared that whatever you find out will probably hurt. If suspicious. In many cases, it's mathematically impossible. it turns out he always left behind everyone he was close to, you will wonder what made him so destructive. If you find out he To explain why, I need to introduce the mathematical notion that made a new family and was devoted to them, you will wonder underlies every price computation in finance, from options to how he could have been so cruel to all of you. Understand that insurance to credit default swaps: expected value. Suppose there will always be a mystery at the heart (and about the heart) somebody approaches you and says, "I propose a game of of a parent who leaves his children behind, and be grateful for chance. I flip this coin, and if it comes up heads you get $100. If the loving mother you have. it comes up tails, you get nothing. How much will you pay me for the right to play this game?" In other words: What is the —Prudie value of a 50 percent chance of winning $100?

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 14/105 If you played this game all day, you'd probably win about half of playing the martingale, it can bring the whole system down with the time. Most people, then, would value the coin flip game at it. $50, which is just the probability of success (50 percent, or 0.5) times the value of a successful outcome ($100). In general, to The complex derivatives behind the current financial havoc compute the expected value of a game you need to add up the aren't literally martingales, but what's wrong with the martingale values of all possible outcomes multiplied by their respective is one of the things that's wrong with the derivatives. There's no probabilities. Consider, for instance, the riskier game where you question that you can reduce risk drastically by combining win $100 if the coin lands heads but lose $100 otherwise. Each different investments in a single portfolio; that's what plain-Jane of those outcomes happens 50 percent of the time; so the value instruments like index funds do. What sounds an alarm is the of this game is claim that you can get low risk and high returns in the same happy package. "Once the limits of diversification have been (0.5) x ($100) + (0.5) x (-$100) = $0 reached," John Quiggin, an economist at the University of Queensland, told me, "rearranging the set of claims involved The equation just records the obvious fact that this game favors isn't going to reduce risk any further, so if all parties appear to be neither you nor your opponent. It's a wash. making risk-free profits, the risk must have been shifted to some low-probability, high-consequence event." In other words, if it sounds too good to be true, it's probably heading toward some What's the expected value of the martingale? Like the game outcome too bad to be borne. Or, as financial skeptic Nassim above, it's no more than a bunch of coin flips, each one of which has a value of 0. So the whole game has a value of 0. Nicholas Taleb wrote last week, "It appears that financial institutions earn money on transactions (say fees on your mother-in-law's checking account) and lose everything taking On the other hand, if you start with a big bankroll (or generous risks they don't understand." lenders), it's pretty unlikely you'll encounter a run of luck bad enough to knock you out of the game. It's a little messy to compute exactly how unlikely, but we don't need exact figures to The martingale's bad reputation is just about as old as the martingale itself; the word, which dates back almost five make the main point. (If exact figures are your bag, though, I've centuries, is said to come from the hinterland town of Martigues worked them out in .) To simplify matters, let's say there's a 99 in southern France, whose residents weren't known for their percent chance you wind up $100 ahead. Then the expected gambling savvy. The quantitative superstars who inhabit the value of the martingale is back offices of the financial industry, and the people who regulate them, are no star-struck hicks. So why did they fling (0.99) x ($100) + (0.01) x (catastrophic outcome) = 0 themselves so boldly into martingale-style investments?

But we already know the expected value is 0! Simple algebra One way the banks got fooled was by convincing themselves suffices to solve the resulting equation—for the bet to have a that the coin wasn't really fair. The only way to make money in value of 0, "catastrophic outcome" must be -$9,900. the long term by betting on coin flips is to have some reliable way of predicting the outcome—for example, if you know that a In other words, the martingale strategy doesn't eliminate risk—it flipped coin will land on the side it was flipped from about 51 just takes your risk and squeezes it all into one improbable but percent of the time. Not long ago, the credit market was hideous scenario. The expected value computation is convinced that the upward trajectory of house prices had reached unforgiving. No matter what ultrasophisticated betting strategy some kind of escape velocity and that the usual laws of finance you adopt, you can't expect to make money in the long run by were powerless to bring prices back down. It was supposed to be flipping a fair coin. There's always a risk of loss—and the like betting on a coin that was heads on both sides. smaller the chance of losing, the uglier the potential loss becomes. The result is a kind of "upside-down lottery." If you A better way to account for the financial markets' irrational play the Powerball, you'll probably lose the cost of a ticket, but behavior is to concede that it's not as irrational as it looks. you might win big. In the martingale, you'll probably win a little, There's one kind of game in which a martingale strategy makes but if all six numbered balls match your ticket, then the bank sense: a game in which it matters whether you win or lose, but comes around and takes away everything you've got. not by how much. If you're a hockey team down by a goal with a minute left, you pull your goalie; that strategy has a negative You probably wouldn't sign up for that game. But the news of expected value, but losing by two or three goals is no worse than the last few weeks confirms that we've been playing it for years. losing by one. If you're a presidential candidate behind in the And it looks like the balls just lined up. Oh, and there's one more polls with time running short, you choose an unknown small- difference between the thickly interwoven financial markets and state governor for your running mate, or you suspend and then the lottery: If one person wins the Powerball, just one person reanimate your campaign in a 48-hour period. What's the gets rich. If one massively leveraged financial firm loses while downside? If the magnitude of the loss doesn't matter, trading a

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 15/105 big probability of a narrow loss for a smaller probability of a many people simply aren't willing to let a tanking economy truly spectacular flameout is just smart play. come between them and their favorite cabernets.

And this is what makes some people queasy about the federal Judging by the auction scene, you'd certainly never guess that bailout of the banks. It just might be that the prospect of a Wall Street was imploding. The weekend before last, Chicago's bailout—which could make a total collapse no worse for the Hart Davis Hart recorded the fourth-largest sale ever, unloading banks than a garden-variety bear market—could have helped 1,746 lots of trophy wines and pulling in more than $11 million, cause the martingale boom. There seems to be little question that significantly more than the pre-auction estimate. The two largest the country needs the bailout now. But unless some real pain for U.S. auction houses, Acker Merrall & Condit and Zachys, have the martingalers is built in, we'd better be ready for a return to also had successful sales in recent weeks. The Liv-ex 100, an maverick finance down the road. index comprised of blue-chip wines, is up 9 percent this year, and prices for a number of top Bordeaux and Burgundies remain at or near record levels. Clearly, there are enough players impervious to the economic downturn to keep prices steady for the moment. And according to an article in yesterday's Financial drink Times, it is possible prices may even rise; amid all the carnage elsewhere, some investors are touting the fine-wine market as a Drinking Away Your Sorrows safe and rewarding place to park one's money. Evidently, wine How has the financial crisis affected the wine world? cellars are now fulfilling the same function that mattresses once By Mike Steinberger did. Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 4:19 PM ET Indeed, despite the housing bust and the gyrations on Wall Last week, New York magazine published an article about an Street, demand for custom-built wine cellars is holding up rather unnamed Lehman Bros. trader coping with the firm's sudden well. Jim Deckebach, the CEO of Cincinnati-based Wine Cellar demise and his lost riches. One thing caught my eye: On the day Innovations, says business has slowed a bit since the onset of the it became clear that Lehman was kaput, the trader pulled a 1997 credit crisis last summer; the total dollar value of the company's Barbaresco Santo Stefano out from under his desk, and he and sales has dropped 6 percent to 7 percent in the last year, and some colleagues proceeded to drink it from paper cups. The some customers have scaled projects back or put them on hold. producer went unnamed (Santo Stefano is a vineyard), but the According to Deckebach, this is the first slowdown that Wine story said the wine cost $700. I e-mailed the writer, Gabriel Cellar Innovations has experienced since he founded it in 1984. Sherman, who told me the bottle was a double magnum. Piecing Even so, the firm is still doing its usual 20-45 cellars per week, together these details, I'm reasonably certain that the Lehmanites each with a price tag of between $5,000 and $350,000, and he were numbing themselves with the 1997 Bruno Giacosa says it just had one of its best weeks ever for new orders. Barbaresco Santo Stefano. Giacosa is a winemaking god, and reading about the shabby treatment accorded his wine—stored under a desk! drunk from paper cups!—prompted the first real But enough about millionaire wine drinkers; what about the rest schadenfreude I've felt since Wall Street went on life support. of us? Chistopher Ruhm, an economist at the University of But the sacrilege of a few desperate vulgarians aside, what does North Carolina-Greensboro, has studied the relationship between the turmoil in the financial sector and the souring economy mean alcohol consumption and recessions and says that people tend to for the wine market? ease up on booze during lean times, either because they have less money to spend or because they fear that their jobs or incomes may be vulnerable. "There is pretty clear evidence that It is a question very much on the minds of auctioneers, when the economy weakens, alcohol sales fall," he says. Ruhm importers, retailers, and restaurant owners. Wine writers have thinks one reason for the reduced intake might be that people are already rendered their judgment: For months now, we have been less inclined to go out to bars and restaurants; they'll continue to peddling advice about drinking well on the cheap, a trend imbibe at home but will cut back elsewhere (if true, this may obviously grounded in the belief that oenophiles are becoming explain why drunken-driving fatalities also decline during increasingly budget-minded. At the same time, many observers recessions). Interestingly, though, wine seems less sensitive to have been expecting prices for the most sought-after wines to economic downdrafts than either beer or spirits, which suggests sink in tandem with the economy. So far, though, that hasn't to Ruhm that there is a socioeconomic dimension to happened, nor has there been much if any softening of demand oenophilia—that the people drawn to wine tend to be older and for the everyday stuff. Why the buoyancy? more affluent.

It could be that the pain just hasn't filtered down to the wine And so far, at least, things seem to be playing out almost exactly market yet. But the firm prices may also indicate how deeply as Ruhm's research indicates they would. According to Nielsen, rooted America's wine culture has become—it is possible that bars, restaurants, and nightclubs have seen a sharp falloff in

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 16/105 business, and many proprietors report that the customers who are Simply put, the new four-disc set amounts to one of the most showing up are purchasing fewer alcoholic beverages and less spectacular achievements in the brief history of home theater. expensive ones (i.e., draft beers and house wines). At the retail end, however, wine sales appear to be galloping along. In a The original DVD box set, released by Paramount in 2001, was a Nielsen survey released in June, 86 percent of respondents said huge disappointment. Dark scenes were murky, bright scenes the slowing economy has had little or no effect on their wine were washed out, and several shots were marred by the video buying (similar numbers were reported for beer and spirits equivalent of pops, ticks, and static. For instance, in Part II's sales). The most recent sales data published by Nielsen confirm opening close-up of Al Pacino standing in his darkened office, it this: Total wine sales in dollars were up 4.7 percent for the 52- looked as though mosquitoes were swarming down his face. week period ending Aug. 23, and turnover in some price categories showed even better growth—10 percent in the $9- Paramount's executives were loath to admit it at the time, but the $11.99 range, 8 percent for wines $15 and above. problem was that the original negatives for both films were in terrible condition, the result of studio neglect and technical In addition to its auction business, Zachys has a huge retail mishaps in an era before film preservation became a concern, operation in Scarsdale, N.Y., which is home to many financiers. then a cause. Jeff Zacharia, the company's president, says that he has seen no decline in floor traffic to date. Certain wines are having trouble In 1972, when The Godfather came out, big box-office hits were attracting buyers; some high-end California cabernets ($100 and shown first in the big cities, then in the smaller towns, then in up) are struggling, but their problem seems to be sticker shock the second-run theaters. By the time the run was over, the prints more than anything else. "The prices were pushed too quickly were frazzled. When The Godfather Part II came out in 1974, when the quality wasn't there," says Zacharia, "so there's a the original film was revived as well, as it was all through the shakeout taking place." But he says other categories, such as 1980s. The prints were worn out, so Paramount churned out new 2005 Bordeaux, continue to sell well and that while customers ones—and they churned them straight off the negative. Film is may be opting for less expensive choices, they are not inclined delicate, and the printmaking machinery can be harsh, with its to reduce their wine consumption in the face of all the grim sprockets, rough-edged reels, and (back then) less-than-sanitary tidings on Wall Street. "Wine is a staple for people now; it's part conditions. With each churning, the negative became more and of the lifestyle," he says. "Instead of buying a $40 bottle, maybe more damaged—dirtier, scratched, and torn. (These days, prints they'll go for a $25 bottle now, but they want wine on the table." are usually made from a duplicate negative derived from a master print, called an "inter-positive.") That will no doubt change if the more dire predictions about the country's economic outlook come to pass. But if the bottom Over the years, the Godfather negative was also shuttled to really does fall out of the barrel, at least there's a Depression-era several different film labs, some of which were careless beyond song that can be easily updated for our straitened circumstances: belief. Whole sections of the film were ripped apart and crudely Brother, can you spare some wine? spliced back together with Mylar tape. One reel was lost; the lab substituted a dupe—a duplicate negative—in its place. Robert Harris of the Film Preserve, who oversaw the new restoration, found the missing reel just last year in the Paramount vaults, inside a can mislabeled "Reel 1B, Dupe 2." dvd extras Your DVD Player Sleeps With the Fishes The negative for The Godfather Part II wasn't in such bad shape; The restored Godfather trilogy: the best reason yet to go Blu-ray. anticipating a hit, the studio executives made more prints from By Fred Kaplan the outset so they didn't have to go back to the negative for Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at 11:11 AM ET more. Still, it too was filthy, scratched, and full of rips and tears.

When the first DVD was mastered seven years ago, Paramount's Just as Bruce Springsteen's Live: 1975-85 box set drove lots of archivists tracked down the best IP they could find—it was a rock fans to buy a compact-disc player back in the mid-'80s, so I copy of a copy of a copy—and cranked it through a telecine, a suspect the "Coppola Restoration" of the Godfather trilogy will machine that transfers film images into digital video. There was compel lots of film lovers to buy a Blu-ray disc player today. no restoration beyond that. Meanwhile, the negative—the original work of art, so to speak—continued to deteriorate. It should. Francis Coppola's masterpieces, The Godfather and The Godfather Part II (really, who cares about Part III?), haven't In 2006, Paramount bought Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks looked so good since they first came out three decades ago. Studios. Coppola called Spielberg, an old friend, and asked whether he could use his influence to rescue The Godfather.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 17/105 Spielberg lobbied the higher-ups, who agreed to finance a close-up of Pacino. The mosquitoes are gone; Pacino's flesh restoration. Robert Harris—who has conducted some of the most tones are burnished. His facial expressions are complex, meticulous restorations of the past couple decades (Lawrence of ambivalent; on the old DVD, his face looked stiff, Arabia, Vertigo, Rear Window, and My Fair Lady, among expressionless. And now you can see dark wooden shelves others)—got involved in discussions that September. He and a behind him; in the old DVD, there was just an amorphous large team began work in November. It took them a year and a blackness. half to finish. Or take the scene in the original film in which Pacino shoots the First, they repaired the original negative to the point where it Mafia rival and the crooked cop in the restaurant in the Bronx. could be put through a digital scanner without breaking. Then The restoration lets you see the anguish that Pacino is going the machine digitally scanned the negative at a "4K" sampling through just before he pulls the trigger; you couldn't see this in rate—that is, at a rate of 4,096 pixels per line, much more than the old DVD. (Harris spent four months finding the film even a high-def image. elements that make this scene look right.) I could make similar comparisons throughout both films. The significance of this is that 4K scanning (which is still rarely employed in restoration work, in part because it's so expensive) The restoration is available on Blu-ray and regular DVD discs. is a high enough sampling rate to capture everything that's on a Do you need the Blu-ray? The restored DVD is extremely good, frame of 35 mm film. In other words, Harris and his team started too, and if you don't have a high-def TV with the highest with a digital replica of the film—not some compressed resolution, there's no point in owning a Blu-ray player at all. (For approximation, as is the case with most digital transfers. specifics on this and other technical points, click here.) But if you have the right TV and have been thinking about investing in They then set about restoring the image to what it looked like a Blu-ray player, you now have the perfect excuse. Think of more than 30 years ago. Frame by frame, they erased every digital images as a dot-to-dot drawing, with pixels as dots. The scratch, speck, pop, and bit of dust. Often, the damage was more dots there are—the closer the dots are to one another—the beyond fixing, so they had to search for other film elements— more detailed the picture will be. Blu-ray has five times as many dupes, IPs, prints, whatever—to find an image in good enough pixels—five times as many dots—as DVD. condition to work with. As a result, facial expressions have that much more detail; fast- Then they had to do the color correction. This was a harder job moving objects are smoother, less jagged; colors are more than usual. The colors on the negative hadn't faded much, but in saturated. In short, assuming the digital mastering is done well this case, that wasn't the issue. The colors on the negative bore (and it's done superbly here), a movie on Blu-ray looks more the little resemblance to those on the theatrical print. Gordon Willis, way a 35 mm film looks when it's projected in a really good the cinematographer, had manipulated the colors in the film lab, theater. That's what home theater is about—to make you feel, as aiming for a lush effect—a "brassy yellow," as he called it— much as possible, like you're in a theater while you're sitting at reminiscent of old photographs. Willis created this effect home. through photochemical "color timing." Harris and his team had to replicate digitally what he had done. If upgrading your TV isn't in the cards just now, there is another option. After Robert Harris and his team finished the restoration, Luckily, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had a they produced several new 35 mm negatives and masters from print of The Godfather that was in perfect condition. (This was the 4K digital files. Then Paramount made a small number of the approved master print that Technicolor stored with the prints from these new negatives. Theoretically, they should look academy when the film was complete. It had never been shown very similar to the prints shown back in the 1970s. Over the next in a theater.) So, when Harris & Co. did the digital color few weeks, the new prints of The Godfather and The Godfather correction, they could use this print as a reference. They also Part II are showing at theaters in New York, Hollywood, worked side by side with Allen Daviau, a brilliant Cambridge, Palm Desert, Chicago, Baton Rouge, Seattle, cinematographer who, in turn, consulted by phone with Willis Baltimore, and Toronto. Go see them. himself. (Harris is a stickler for this sort of thing. When he restored Hitchcock's Vertigo, he asked Jaguar to send him a color chip from the 1957 model of one of its cars—the same car that Kim Novak drove in the film—so that he could match the shade of green exactly.) sidebar This sort of fastidiousness—and the seven-figure budget that Paramount allotted to the project—paid off. These discs are Return to article gorgeous. Take that opening scene of The Godfather Part II, the

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 18/105 You can watch regular DVDs on a Blu-ray player, but you cannot watch Blu-ray discs on a regular DVD player. For Blu- ray to be worthwhile, your HDTV should have a resolution of 1080i or 1080p—that is, it should display (not just receive but also display) 1,080 lines of data. (1080i means TV's scanner reads every other line, the odd-numbered lines as it passes one explainer way, the even-numbered lines as it passes the other; 1080p means it reads all the lines both ways. There are also HDTVs Who Moderates the Moderators? with 720p resolution, but they won't show Blu-ray to its best Does Gwen Ifill get to pick the questions for the Biden-Palin debate? By Jacob Leibenluft advantage.) Your HDTV should also have high-definition multimedia interface or digital visual interface video inputs; if Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 3:19 PM ET your set is more than a few years old, it probably doesn't. When hooked up with special HDMI/DVI cable, these inputs allow digital video signals to pass between a DVD/Blu-ray player or On the eve of Thursday's vice-presidential debate between Joe cable box and your TV directly,and with no compression. Earlier Biden and Sarah Palin, conservative commentators questioned HDTV connections, made through the three (Y, Pb, Pr) the impartiality of moderator Gwen Ifill, whose forthcoming component inputs, shunted the signal from digital to analogue book is subtitled Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. Does a and back to digital again, losing a little bit of purity in each moderator like Ifill get to decide which questions to ask during passing. the debate?

Blu-Ray players have a resolution of 1080p—that's 1,080 by Yes. The moderators have near-absolute control over the script. 1,920 lines, or about 2 million pixels per frame. DVD players The official rules for the debate are set out by the Commission have a resolution of just 480p—480 by 768 lines, or about on Presidential Debates in the form of a memorandum of 400,000 pixels. Blu-ray discs can hold so much more data in part understanding between the two campaigns. That memo isn't because the Blu-ray player's laser—literally a blue-ray laser—is released to the public, but a leaked copy of the rules from 2004 much thinner than the red-ray laser on regular DVD players. can be found here (PDF). While the document touched on how Hence it can focus more precisely on the digital bits. Hence tall the podium would be ("fifty … inches from the stage floor to many more bits can be squeezed onto a Blu-ray disc. the outside top of the podium facing the audience"); where the thermostat should be set ("an appropriate temperature according DVDs look better on a high-definition TV, even though they to industry standards"); and whether the candidates could use don't have high-def resolution, because electronic processing their own makeup people (yes, they could), it didn't say all that gear inside an HDTV "up-converts" all non-HD to images to much about the questions. The document simply stipulated that HD. However, some TVs have better processing gear than the moderator should "use his or her best efforts to ensure that others. And "native 1080"—that is, an image that is naturally the questions are reasonably well balanced in all debates ... in 1080i or 1080p—will always look better than an image that's terms of addressing a wide range of issues of major public processed to get there. interest facing the United States and the world."

A clarification on 4K sampling: There are no televisions or disc Moderators typically go about this process by identifying the top players that can display 4K images (about 12 million pixels). headlines in the news and examining polling to determine the When Robert Harris and his team were finished with their 4K most pressing issues of the day. According to an interview she restoration, they had to compress the data down to 2 million gave to historian Alan Schroeder for his book The Presidential pixels per frame to make the Blu-ray discs—down to 400,000 Debates: 50 Years of High Risk TV, Ifill came up with her pixels per frame to make the DVD. Compression is its own art questions in isolation prior to moderating the veep debate in and science; many of the very early DVDs looked bad, mainly 2004, receiving only some assistance with research from a because the technicians hadn't yet figured out how to do the NewsHour staffer. (A few weeks ago, she added that colleagues, compression. passers-by on the street, and people at her gym have all offered their unsolicited advice as to what she should ask.) Bob Schieffer, who will host the final debate this year, claims to be a bit more solicitous in his process, seeking out the advice of his CBS colleagues, outside journalists, and "people who follow things in Washington" before coming up with his own list of election scorecard questions three days before the event. Turning Blue New polls show swing states moving toward Obama. There are exceptions to the moderators' freedom. Some of the Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 11:23 AM ET debates may have specific areas of focus, like foreign or

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 19/105 domestic policy. But even those constraints end up subject to the discretion of the moderator: At last Friday's debate, Jim Lehrer After the House rejected a $700 billion bailout of the financial asked the candidates several questions about the financial bailout sector on Monday, Lyle Gramley, a former Federal Reserve despite the fact that a spokesman for the debates commission governor, warned that "we're in a recession now, and the told The Hill that the focus would remain on foreign policy. numbers show the recession deepening." According to a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted over the weekend, one-third of The process of coming up with debate questions has changed adults believe the economy is in a depression. What's the with the advent of the single moderator. Up until 1996, difference between a recession and a depression? candidates were typically questioned by a panel of journalists. The panelists would often compare notes ahead of time to ensure Severity. One widespread definition of a recession—the one they weren't covering the same ground; in the 1976 vice- used by newspapers—is a decline in the gross domestic product presidential debate, they went so far as to establish a set order for two or more consecutive quarters. The term depression, by for their queries. Perhaps the most famous moment in a vice- contrast, commonly refers to a grave, prolonged recession during presidential debate was partially the product of planning: The which the GDP declines by more than 10 percentage points. panelists in 1988 agreed beforehand to ensure that one another's questions were answered completely. As a result, they pressed Most economists, however, quibble with these lay Dan Quayle about his preparation for the vice presidency— characterizations since they don't take into account the prompting him to compare himself to John F. Kennedy and unemployment rate or consumer confidence. The National inspiring Lloyd Bentsen's famous retort. Bureau of Economic Research, for example, defines the term recession as a "significant decline" distributed across the For the town-hall debate, which will be moderated next Tuesday economy lasting more than a few months, usually visible in the by Tom Brokaw, members of the audience will be supplying the numbers for GDP, employment, industrial production, and questions. In all likelihood, these questions will be screened wholesale-retail sales. Understood as a natural part of the ahead of time: At the town-hall debate in 2004, about 150 voters business cycle, a recession is the period between when activity were selected by the Gallup organization—with equal numbers has reached its peak and when it reaches its low point or of "soft" Bush supporters and Kerry supporters—and asked to "trough." There is no corresponding NBER definition of a write down questions once they arrived at the venue. After depression, nor can economists agree on an official dividing line screening to ensure that all questions were "appropriate," then- between a depression and a bad recession. moderator Charlie Gibson was supposed to select questions at random while ensuring they touched on a wide range of issues. The last time the U.S. economy experienced a depression as Questioners didn't know ahead of time if they would be selected measured by the 10-point standard was in the 1930s. Although to read their questions; if they strayed from what they had the Great Depression is often studied as one long event, it submitted beforehand, their microphones were supposed to be actually comprised two separate downturns: The GDP declined cut off. This year, however, the process of screening questions by more than 30 percent from 1929-33, then by about 18 percent may be a little more complicated since Brokaw will also use from 1937-38. At one point, a quarter of the U.S. population was questions submitted through MySpace. unemployed. The Finnish economy tumbled into depression more recently. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Finland Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer. lost a significant portion of its export markets. Its GDP slumped by about 11 points in the early 1990s, and unemployment Explainer thanks Anne Bell of the NewsHour on PBS, Diana reached the 20 percent mark. Carlin of the University of Kansas, Alan Schroeder of Northeastern University, and Scott Warner of the Commission Recessions are actually rather common. According to the NBER, on Presidential Debates. the U.S. economy experienced an eight-month recession from March 2001 to November 2001 and another one from July 1990 until March 1991. During the early 1980s, the economy slumped twice—in the first half of 1980 and from July 1981 until November 1982. explainer You Say Depression, I Say Recession During the 1980 presidential election season, Ronald Reagan described the economic downturn as a "depression," and Jimmy Are we talking about the same thing? By Juliet Lapidos Carter attacked him for using the term inaccurately. Reagan Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 2:41 PM ET countered with this quip: "Let it show on the record that when the American people cried out for economic help, Jimmy Carter took refuge behind a dictionary. Well, if it's a definition he wants, I'll give him one. A recession is when your neighbor loses

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 20/105 his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is The Supreme Court upheld the law governing special when Jimmy Carter loses his." prosecutors in 1988, but Congress let it expire in 1999 in the wake of Kenneth Starr and the Clinton investigation.* In its Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer. place, the Department of Justice created regulations (PDF) allowing for the selection of an outside "special counsel" on those occasions when there's a conflict of interest within the department. Unlike the independent counsels that came before, a special counsel is appointed by the attorney general, so he doesn't enjoy the same strict separation from the executive explainer branch. He does have more freedom than a "special attorney" What Makes a Lawyer "Special"? like Danahey, though: He has "independent authority" to The difference between special counsels, special attorneys, and special exercise all investigative and prosecutorial functions and is not prosecutors. subject to day-to-day oversight by DOJ officials. Moreover, the By Noreen Malone AG has only very limited authority to reverse a Special Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at 6:39 PM ET Counsel's decisions, or to remove the Special Counsel. By contrast, Danahey was not only appointed by the attorney general, but she is also directly accountable to him: Mukasey can Connecticut federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy was tapped direct, superintend, and reverse her decisions.* Monday to look into the 2006 firing of nine U.S. attorneys, allegedly without cause. Some news reports describe her as a Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer. "special prosecutor," others just call her a "prosecutor. So what's the difference? Explainer thanks Peter Carr of the U.S. Department of Justice, Katy Harriger of Wake Forest University, Sean Malone of Jones Independence. A "special prosecutor" is an outside lawyer Day, and Paul Rothstein of Georgetown University. brought in to investigate a government official accused of wrongdoing. He or she isn't directly accountable to the people or agency under investigation, avoiding the potential conflict of Corrections, Oct. 1, 2008: This article originally misstated the interest that a regular prosecutor would have. But Dannehy year the Supreme Court upheld the law governing special comes from within the Department of Justice and will report prosecutors. It was upheld in 1988, not 1998. (Return to the directly to the attorney general and his deputy: Technically, she's corrected sentence.) a "special attorney," rather than a special prosecutor. That means she was appointed under a section of the U.S. code that allows The original version of this paragraph understated the the government to assign department lawyers to cases outside independence of the Office of Special Counsel and included a their home district. Dannehy lives in Connecticut but will be reference to Patrick Fitzgerald that was unclear about the actual acting under the power of the U.S. attorney for the District of scope of his authority. (Return to the corrected passage.) Columbia. (A DoJ spokesman told the Explainer that the department will neither correct nor encourage the description of her as a "special prosecutor" in news reports.)

The term "special prosecutor" first came into use in the United explainer States during the Teapot Dome scandals of 1920s, when Calvin Does Congress Always Take Off for Coolidge appointed outside lawyers to look into the corrupt land-leasing practices of federal officials. Special prosecutors Rosh Hashanah? were given more official status in the aftermath of Watergate, Yes, but members do have to work on Sukkot. By Abby Callard when Richard Nixon finagled the firing of the one assigned to investigate him. The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 called Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at 6:17 PM ET for the position of "special prosecutor" to be separate from the executive and legislative branches and to be appointed by a The House of Representatives is taking two days off this week three-member panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals. for Rosh Hashanah in the midst of an unresolved financial crisis. The act also gave special prosecutors the power to issue Meanwhile, the Senate is still in session. Do members of the subpoenas, start grand jury proceedings, hire a staff, use the House take off for every religious holiday? resources of the Department of Justice and FBI, and get a security clearance if needed. (Later, the name "special No. Representatives get a break for Easter, Passover, Rosh prosecutor" would be officially changed to "independent Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Christmas Day. The Senate counsel.") operates according to a very similar schedule, except it remains

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 21/105 in session for Yom Kippur and, at least in 2008, for Rosh Not necessarily. Each party has its own protocol for this Hashanah. scenario, but in neither case does the running mate automatically take over the ticket. If John McCain were to die before the The holiday schedule can vary from year to year. Leaders from election, the rules of the Republican Party authorize the both parties set up a tentative list of days off every January, Republican National Committee to fill the vacancy, either by before Congress convenes. Lawmakers can adjust the schedule reconvening a national convention or by having RNC state as needed and suspend holidays in case of an emergency. The representatives vote. The new nominee must receive a majority tentative 2008 schedule for the Senate, for example, listed two vote to officially become the party candidate. If Barack Obama days off for Rosh Hashanah. The chamber remained in session were to die before the election, the Democratic Party's charter anyway, although no votes were scheduled to take place between and bylaws state that responsibility for filling that vacancy Monday morning and Wednesday afternoon. would fall to the Democratic National Committee, but the rules do not specify how exactly the DNC would go about doing that. (Congress could also pass a special statute and push back In the early days of Congress, when it was more difficult to travel long distances home, sessions lasted only from December Election Day, giving the dead candidate's party time to regroup.) to early spring—so the Jewish High Holidays were de facto days off. Members often met on religious holidays that fell within the What happens if the party doesn't have time to select and session, including Christmas Day. (Religious services for endorse a new candidate? In 2000, Akhil Reed Amar outlined members and their staffs were sometimes held inside the Capitol for Slate some of the head-scratching scenarios that might occur building.) Congress typically recessed for Easter, but on some if a candidate died just before the election, without enough time occasions, such as during World War II, the holiday break was to prep new ballots or to decide how votes should be counted. delayed or canceled. The outcome would be a little more straightforward—though not It wasn't until 1958 that members began traveling home on the necessarily more politically satisfying—if the candidate dies weekends and a yearlong session evolved. Since then, the party between the general election on Nov. 4 but before the Electoral leaders have regularly scheduled days off for Christian and College votes on Dec. 15. There's no federal law that mandates Jewish holidays, although there is no official law that requires how electors must cast their votes; theoretically, if the candidate them. to whom they were pledged dies and their party has not made a preferred successor clear, electors can vote for their party's VP Bonus Explainer: How many members of Congress are Jewish? candidate, a third-party candidate, or a leading preconvention Twenty-nine in the House and 13 in the Senate. There are also contender within their own party. Under this scenario, however, individual state laws have the potential to make things murky, two Muslim and two Buddhist lawmakers, all serving in the given that each state has the power to determine exactly how its House, and 16 Mormons. electoral votes are to be cast and distributed. Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer. Bonus Explainer: What if the candidate dies after the election but before the inauguration on Jan. 20? The 20th Amendment Explainer thanks Sen. Dick Durbin's office and Don Ritchie of states that if the president-elect dies before beginning his term, the Senate Historical Office. then the vice president-elect assumes his or her spot. However, the point at which a candidate officially becomes "president- elect" is debatable. He or she definitely assumes the title after Jan. 6, when a joint session of Congress officially counts the Electoral College votes and declares a winner. But the shift explainer could be said to occur immediately after the Electoral College Dead by Election Day vote. (See Pages 2 and 3 of this PDF article from the Arkansas What happens if a presidential candidate passes away at the last second? Law Review.) By Nina Shen Rastogi Monday, September 29, 2008, at 6:54 PM ET If a candidate dies after Dec. 15 but before Jan. 6, Congress, when it convenes, has to decide whether to count the votes cast for him. (In 1872, three electoral votes cast for the late Horace Vice-presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden will face Greeley were discounted by Congress, but it's unclear whether off in their first and only debate this Thursday in St. Louis, Mo. votes cast for a living candidate who subsequently dies would be Quite a few Explainer readers have asked what would happen if treated the same way.) one of the presidential candidates were to die or become otherwise incapacitated before Election Day: Would Palin or If Congress decides the votes are valid, then the laws of Biden assume the nomination? presidential succession kick in, and that candidate's running mate

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 22/105 moves up the ladder. If Congress decides to throw out the votes, There is a simple and practical solution to the soccer ball then the question becomes whether the living candidate can be disappearing act, I know. I should designate a spot—a box, said to have a majority of the overall electoral votes—if not, whatever—where the balls go. Then I can reward the kids for then, according to the 12th Amendment, the House of bringing them home and safely depositing them in that spot. And Representatives must elect the president from among the three when practice comes around the next week, we will all know candidates with the most votes. where to look for the needed ball. I will find and designate such a box as soon as I'm done ranting, but that won't solve the Got a question about today's news? Ask the Explainer. existential dilemma that's really plaguing me. Objects mean so little to my kids and most of the kids we know. They are cheap, they are expendable, they can be replaced easily. "Can't you Explainer thanks Bruce Ackerman of Yale Law School, John order more online?" my sons have taken to saying when I worry Fortier of the American Enterprise Institute, Heather Gerken of over a lost object. Yale Law School, Nathaniel Persily of Columbia Law School, and Michael Szin of the Democratic National Committee. This tempts me to let loose the Laura Ingalls Wilder lecture. No, I won't spare you. In The Little House in the Big Woods, when Laura is about 5, she gets one rag doll named Charlotte. One. The family also has one picture book. When Laura and her sisters each get her own tin cup, it is a noteworthy event. Much family is made over each of these possessions precisely because there Lost Cause are so few of them. There's little abundance and little largesse— Why do my children lose everything? in fact, less and less as the books go on and the family leaves the By Emily Bazelon relatively hospitable big woods of Wisconsin for the far harsher Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 7:14 AM ET prairies of Kansas and South Dakota.

Forgive me for romanticizing the parsimony of necessity. I don't Where do all the soccer balls go? There must be a hidden mean to suggest that I long for the moments of deprivation that graveyard for them or a coach who picks them up after practice the Ingalls girls and their mother endured. (No matter how well and cuts them up to make leather jackets. Two Fridays ago, we Pa played the fiddle, I'm eternally grateful not to be related to had four soccer balls: two for 8-year-old Eli to practice with; a him.) But I do think that our toss-and-go culture has its own slightly smaller one for his younger brother, Simon; and a stifling qualities. Especially when combined with our overly special, pristine ball that Eli's teammates in Washington, D.C., solicitous approach to childrearing. The day after my fruitless signed for him when he left the team last summer because we search for the missing soccer balls, I drove Eli and a couple of were moving to a new city. Last Friday, five minutes before his friends to their weekend soccer game. We got out of the car Simon's soccer practice, we had only one ball. The unblemished and onto the field, and one of the kids asked, "Did you bring my one with the signatures. Understandably, Eli didn't want Simon water bottle?" I said, "No, that's your job." And then I felt guilty, to take it to practice. But where had all the other ones gone? because I could hear the bite in my voice, and also because I Neither of my boys knew. I tore around the house and the wasn't entirely confident that I was right. Is it an 8-year-old's job garage. Well, actually, Eli allowed, one or maybe two of the to remember his own water bottle? How is he supposed to know balls had somehow failed to make it home from practice the that if an adult has always done that for him? And in any case, previous week. What to do now? Fume. maybe I should just lighten up.

"Lose something every day. Accept the fluster/ of lost door keys, This is what my husband thinks. Paul is of the shrug-it-off the hour badly spent./ The art of losing isn't hard to master," poet persuasion about losing things. He is unmoved by the Laura Elizabeth Bishop wrote. Yet I can't accept the fluster. My Ingalls Wilder lecture. He takes the sunny view that misplaced children's penchant for leaving their belongings strewn behind objects will turn up around the house (though he did go back to them—a long tail of balls and toys and lunchboxes and socks the field to find one of Eli's soccer balls the day it went missing, and shoes and sweatshirts—makes me fear that they are heedless he notes). Mostly, Paul doesn't see the loss of a few soccer balls prima donnas who will never be ready for the responsibilities of as a character flaw or evidence that the kids will become adulthood. And then, of course, I'm forced to concede that I helpless teenagers and then adults. He figures that this is all part seem to have raised them to be this way. The ritual of losing of growing up: They'll get the hang of keeping track of their own things makes me wonder about the line between taking good things eventually. care of your kids and impossibly coddling them. Have middle- class American parents like us forever blurred the distinction? How sanguine. I do concede that children should not be made to feel that they have only a few precious belongings when in fact more can be had for $5.99 and a few mouse clicks or a stop at

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 23/105 the sporting goods store. In the end, we did order more soccer talks with such regimes "without preconditions." This cannot balls online. I'll even admit that it's handy to have a few spares. have been hard to do, since only last week at a forum at George But I can't stop feeling like the constant churning of possessions Washington University, consisting of himself and four other is exhausting and somehow immoral. One of my co-workers said former secretaries of state, Kissinger had told his audience: he has a friend who tells her kids, when they ask the inevitable "Well, I am in favor of negotiations with Iran. And one utility of "where is" and "can you help me find" questions: "If I find it, I'm negotiation is to put before Iran our vision of a Middle East, of a throwing it away." I'd never be that bold, and besides, I'd never stable Middle East, and our notion on nuclear proliferation at a be able to countenance the wasteful result of carrying out such a high enough level so that they have to study it." He then added threat. But I understand the impulse. Somehow, these children of something that can hardly have startled anyone who ever ours need to learn that there's a reason to come back carrying the watched him usurping presidential prerogatives during the Nixon things they left with. It's my job to impart that, and for a while, and Ford administrations: "I actually have preferred doing it at even to remind them. But it's their job to trot back onto the field the secretary of state level" before, as the New York Times put it at the end of practice, find the ball they brought, and bring it with uncharacteristic brusqueness, "he trailed off." Nonetheless, home. Maybe this won't, in fact, make them better people. But it asked if such talks should be "at a very high level right out of the will make me feel better. box," his response was to say, "Initially, yes," which is as much as to say "yes." He then said: "I do not believe we can make conditions for the opening of negotiations," which would appear to justify the use of the term unconditional in conjunction with "very high level." fighting words "Trailed off" is too kind a phrase even so for the drivel spouted Disregarding Henry above. Apparently Kissinger believes that the Islamic Republic Both candidates kowtowed to the disgraceful Kissinger. Only Obama cited him correctly. of Iran is unaware of what we think about its nuclear program, By Christopher Hitchens has not studied our position, has not learned anything from its Sunday, September 28, 2008, at 10:32 AM ET protracted and dishonest negotiations with the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Authority, but might be induced to do so if favored by a sit-down with Condoleezza How extraordinary to find that, for two straight days, the Rice. Apparently, he does not know that the envoys of the American media would preoccupy themselves with the question Iranian foreign ministry are only ciphers, easily overridden by of who had the greater right—in a debate over foreign-policy the mullah-dominated "Guardian Council" that holds all real "experience," of all things—to quote Henry Kissinger. And how power in Tehran. Evidently, he also thinks that Iran is deeply even more extraordinary that it should be the allegedly anti-war concerned about the maintenance of stability in the region. But Democratic candidate who cited Kissinger with the most then, Kissinger's last memorable intervention in this area was to deference and, it even seems, the greater accuracy. tell the readers of the Washington Post op-ed page that neighboring Iraq should be handled with care because it was a Sunni majority country. He has been to some trouble since to It began with that increasingly embarrassing process that might erase and rewrite this laughable ignorance on his part from the be describable (but probably isn't) as the on-the-job education of written record: For a trace of his evasiveness, please check here. Gov. Sarah Palin. On last Thursday's CBS Evening News, facing the mild-as-milk questioning of Katie Couric, the thriller from Wasilla should have been relieved when the topics stopped being Finally, of course, there is Kissinger's habitual fondness for any about the Bush doctrine or the thorny matter of Russian-Alaskan form of dictatorship. To have been the friend of Pinochet, propinquity and could be refocused instead on Sen. Barack Videla, and Suharto, while almost simultaneously fawning on Obama's weakness. But, having duly attacked him for being Brezhnev and especially on Mao, is to have been a secretary of ready to meet with the dictators of Iran and Syria without state who was soft on fascism—and soft on communism, too! "preconditions," she was reminded that her new friend and Unconditional talks with Ahmadinejad and Assad? Why not? adviser Henry Kissinger, furnished to her only that very week by They are the sort of people with whom he (and Kissinger the McCain machine, endorses direct diplomacy with both Associates, the firm that introduces despots to corporations) countries. "Are you saying," Ms. Couric inquired with complete prefers to do business. gravity, "that Henry Kissinger is naive?" The governor's lame response was to say that: "I've never heard Henry Kissinger say, Thus for McCain, a full day and night after the exposure of his 'Yeah, I'll meet with these leaders without preconditions being shaky running mate to such ridicule, to make the same mistake met.' " himself in Oxford, Miss., was really something to see. It was even worse if you heard it on radio, as I initially did, than if you This enabled CBS to tack on a post-interview fact-check saw it on television. (You can hear that geezerish whistle in his moment, confirming that Henry Kissinger did indeed favor such pipes much more ominously than when you are looking at his

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 24/105 elderly face.) Anyway, on the same question of "without Still, you can't escape the Internet. This blog post copied and preconditions," he walked into Obama's tersely phrased riposte, pasted the original. As did this Danish news site. As did which was to quote Kissinger in precisely the same way as Highbeam (password required). Couric had already done. McCain looked and perhaps felt a fool at this point, and may have been only slightly cheered up when Kissinger told the Weekly Standard after the debate that he after all doesn't, at least not for this precise moment, "recommend presidential high-level talks with Iran." Which, when compared foreigners with his earlier remarks, makes it seem that he has no idea what he currently thinks and should either be apologized to by, or A Temporary Thaw should apologize to, either Sarah Palin or Katie Couric, or Belarus' president reaches out to the West, but can we trust him? By Ilan Greenberg conceivably both. Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 7:11 AM ET But the true farce and disgrace is that this increasingly glassy- eyed old blunderer and war criminal, who has been wrong on everything since he first authorized illicit wiretapping for the On the ground in Belarus, Russia's politically tempestuous belle Nixon gang, should be cited as an authority by either nominee, poitrine, it is hard to overlook the graveyards. There are the let alone by both of them. Meanwhile, I repeat my question from actual cemeteries—almost a third of the country's population two weeks ago: Does Sen. Obama appreciate, or do his peacenik died during World War II, including 90 percent of its Jews. And fans and fundraisers realize, just how much war he is promising there is the metaphorical death mask wrapped around the face of them if he is elected? Once again on Sept. 26 in Mississippi—at Belarus society—with easily the most repressive government in the end of a week when American and Pakistani forces had Europe, Belarus' tattered pedestrians, empty stores, and engaged in their first actual direct firefight—he repeated his crumbling apartment blocks look like they are in the intention of ignoring the Pakistani frontier when it came to hot authoritarian, unreconstructed Soviet dictatorship that the pursuit of al-Qaida. Out-hawked on this point, as he was nearly country has remained since independence nearly two decades out-doved on the Kissinger one, McCain was moderate by ago. comparison. Obama went on to accuse Iran of having built more centrifuges than most people think it has. This allegation has a But during a trip to Belarus, I saw the way people in Belarus confrontational logic of its own, above and beyond the minor defy their history and their leader—the intransigent and at times issues of preconditions and the "level" of diplomacy. I think buffoonish president, Alexsandr Lukashenko—to dig out an Obama is to be praised for doing this—always assuming that he oasis of normality during their day-to-day lives. Master of a does in fact know what he is doing. But as we all press bravely nation of 10 million highly educated citizens in the heart of on, the debate would look more intelligent, and be conducted on Eastern Europe, Lukashenko may rule the public square but not a higher plane, if it excluded a discredited pseudo-expert who the public conversation nor the public mood. In Minsk, picnic has trampled on human rights, vandalized the U.S. Constitution, spots are carved out of every square foot of green space while deceived Congress, left a trail of disaster and dictatorship behind rich social evenings are excavated out of loud, inclusive, beery him, and deserves to be called not a hawk or a dove but a conversations in bustling, well-managed restaurants. Through vulture. the sheer force of national will, Belorussians seem to push their government to an on-high abstraction.

It's an understandable impulse to push government away when national politics is ruled by capricious whim. Lukashenko has recently been giving off neck-jerking mixed messages. He has warned that Belarus will cut off all communication with Western sidebar countries if they fail to recognize the legitimacy of the Belarus parliamentary elections that were held Monday. (The United Return to article States has expressed concern about discrepancies in the voting process, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Here's the link to the original Kissinger op-ed that appeared in Europe said the "election fell short of democratic standards.") It the Jan. 13, 2002, Washington Post, describing Iraq as a country is a draconian threat set against Lukashenko's unexpected with a "Sunni majority." Only the headline and byline remain, promise, in response to overtures from the West, to substantially which either means there's a technical snafu or that Kissinger or improve ties with the European Union and the United States if the Post removed the text. But at Kissinger's own site, he's they only credential his election as democratic. reprinted the piece with the relevant correction, without noting that the article has been altered.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 25/105 The West has also taken the election seriously. A high-ranking Most Belarus-watchers say no. Lukashenko's feelers to the West official at the EU Embassy in Washington, D.C., told an are probably a means to seek leverage in his relationship with audience last week at Radio Free Europe: "The freer the election, Russia, which has doubled the price it charges Belarus for the more likely Belarus will enjoy better relations with the natural gas and with which his relationship is generally more West." troubled than is frequently understood.

Lukashenko has been whipsawing Belarus observers all summer. Ties with Russia have been more difficult this year than in the Angered by American sanctions against his government, past, surmises Alex Brideau, an Eastern Europe analyst in the Lukashenko in May summarily expelled 10 U.S. diplomats. Tokyo office of Eurasia Group. Brideau points out that even After their expulsion, the top American diplomat in the country, though Belarus—and Lukashenko in particular—are highly Jonathan Moore, held a press conference where, visibly angry, dependent on the Russian government for support, there have he taunted, "For the United States, the political prisoners in been tensions for years, particularly in Lukashenko's Belarus are much more important than the number of American relationships with senior Russian leaders. "The leadership in diplomats in Belarus." Minsk likely still sees Moscow as its main supporter over the long term, but the problems in the relationship this year may Then in late August, Lukashenko released the country's last two have led Lukashenko to try to send a message to President political prisoners. The State Department cheered the move, Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin that they need to pay declaring it had "a real potential for an improvement in relations attention to him," said Brideau. with the United States." Yet the 54-year-old president promptly arrested 20 journalists for mocking him in a cartoon, and days "Lukashenko's move to free opposition politicians from prison later he declared his support for and "solidarity" with Russia's suggests he is willing to ease tensions with Washington and decision to invade its southern neighbor Georgia. Brussels, and the U.S. government's lifting of some sanctions suggest it is willing to acknowledge the steps he has taken," said Beginning a long driving tour around Minsk one bright Brideau. "The thaw may not go much farther than it already has, afternoon, my friends Olya, a waitress, and her husband, Sasha, however, as the two sides are very far apart. I think it likely that a bullish-looking 35-year-old, swung by my hotel in a spanking- the U.S. and Europe will be very cautious about overtures from new BMW to pick me up for dinner. Sasha explained his Lukashenko, out of concern that he could at some point change business: importing cars from Germany. From Olya's back-seat course again." squirm, I gathered Sasha's method of acquiring expensive cars was not a topic of further conversation. Both the car and Sasha In any case, it will take more than a mild warming of relations purred from neighborhood to neighborhood. Sasha drove well, with the West to alter the enduring Soviet hangover that but Olya voiced increasingly angry corrections when Sasha pervades daily life in Belarus. After a week in Minsk, I went to made, at an accelerating pace, conversational wrong turns. Vitsebsk, a hilly, forested, largely preserved city in the far (Olya: "Minsk is not one of the most beautiful cities in Europe"; northwest near Latvia remembered (when it is remembered) for "there is not a lot to do in Minsk"; "Jews do not control this sheltering Marc Chagall until early adulthood. Chagall opened country.") But when I asked about the Belarus government, there an art school in Vitsebsk in 1919, and the town continues to was no disagreement: Both scowled at me and promptly changed claim the arts as a civic birthright. the subject. In Vitsebsk, at last, Belarus steps away from its Soviet Forever A sizable number of Belorussians support Lukashenko, a skilled fantasy and yields to its long Eastern European history. Cafes fill populist admired for standing up to the West and, when it suits with art students. Couples stroll through well-tended parks, past him, to Putin. Yet he is often as much a source of embarrassment men on benches concentrating on games of chess. The ballet and as an architect of national repression. Like some of the three theaters are booked solid for the night. president's colleagues elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, Lukashenko has the post-Soviet taste for verbal goose-stepping. But to the eastern shore of the deep canyon sculpted by the He once called Hitler "not all bad." And before the 2006 Vitsba River, a carapace of crooked streets wind through presidential elections, he warned that anyone attending neighborhoods of ancient, faltering little homes with sad metal opposition protests would have their necks twisted "as one might roofs. Warmed by coal stoves responsible for the blackened a duck." Even more serious, Belarus is one of the world's most trees, the houses huddle against tiny stores and small gardens; dangerous illegal arms exporters. Lukashenko has sold only a museum occupying Chagall's childhood house gives armaments to Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah. notice that this honeycomb of Eastern European outlier life was once a Jewish shtetl and is now home to Belorussians who So is this week's election an opportunity for the West to entice appear no more moneyed, forced by a warped politics to inhabit Belarus from some of its roguish behavior, perhaps loosening a world just as small as a century before—and perhaps smaller. Russia's grip on one of its most steadfast allies?

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 26/105 In the 2228 of the novel, the white women's party, the Sabinas (a reference to the Roman legend of the rape of the Sabine women), has apparently reached feminism's pinnacle: Women foreigners are no longer considered equal to men—they are simply The Black President different and entirely independent. Homo, the ruling white men's party, and the Sabinas each command 51 million voters. A 1926 Brazilian sci-fi novel predicts a U.S. election determined by race and gender. By Manuela Zoninsein In previous elections, voters sided with their gender, with no Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at 1:54 PM ET regard to race. But with the creation of the Black Association, black men and women unite to create the largest political party, giving Roy 54 million supporters. Kerlog is forced to broker an Monteiro Lobato is a household name in his native Brazil, best- alliance with Roy: black votes in exchange for easing the known for "Sítio do Picapau Amarelo" ("Yellow Woodpecker's "Código da Raça" ("Race Code"), which set limits on the growth Ranch"), a series of children's books that has been adapted for of the black population through selective breeding and genetic television on several occasions. He was an active businessman manipulation. To Kerlog's frustration, when the time comes to and libertarian and is considered the founder of Brazil's cast ballots, citizens loyally vote with their identity group, and publishing industry, but his 1926 science-fiction novel, O the black man wins the presidency. Presidente Negro (The Black President)—which foresaw technological, geopolitical, and environmental In response, Kerlog threatens race war. He persuades Astor to transformations—is attracting the most interest this year, since it protect the interests of the white race and encourages an alliance. anticipated a political landscape in which gender and race would Lobato, at his most sexist, writes that Astor accepts this proposal determine the outcome of a U.S. presidential election. on the grounds that man "is woman's husband for thousands of reasons ... long live man!" With hardly a second thought, she O Presidente Negro envisions the 2228 U.S. presidential shepherds the 51 million female voters to the cause of the Homo election. In that race, the white male incumbent, President Party. Kerlog demonstrates to a despairing Roy that his race will Kerlog, finds himself running against Evelyn Astor, a white never assume control, and on the morning Roy is set to assume feminist, and James Roy Wilde, the cultivated and brilliant the presidency, he is found dead in his office. (Lobato hints at leader of the Black Association, "a man who is more than just a murder.) Kerlog calls for a re-election and emerges victorious. single man ... what we call a leader of the masses." White leaders then mastermind the end of the black race in America, using a senseless and tragic sterilization technique, and You may notice some similarities to the John McCain-Hillary Roy's dream of serving as the first black man in the nation's most Clinton-Barack Obama face-off; and so did Editora Globo, the powerful post is left by the wayside. publisher of O Presidente Negro, which reissued the novel during the Democratic primaries in a stroke of marketing genius. Long considered a historical relic, O Presidente Negro's Prior to Obama's rise, O Presidente Negro was best-known as an popularity had dwindled so much that Editora Globo let it fall odd sci-fi work, predicting the U.S. government's use of out of print, but 6,000 copies have been sold since a March 2008 eugenics, a racist ideology that had attracted a following in rerelease. Brazil's intellectuals, bookworms, and bloggers are Brazil at the time Lobato was writing (and, later, in Germany). now madly debating Lobato's racist proposition and gasping at As a result of this association, more often than not, bookstores the prescience of one of their country's most quixotic hid the novel at the bottom of a stack of titles in the Brazilian- personalities. literature section. (Today's Brazil is increasingly concerned with civil rights, as indicated by recent experiments with affirmative Now that McCain has selected Gov. Sarah Palin as his running action in education and government.) mate—hoping, some critics say, that women will vote as a gender bloc, transferring loyalties to whichever party has a Of course, there are several differences between Lobato's story woman on the ticket—perhaps the publishing house can expect and the circumstances surrounding the 2008 election. In Lobato's yet another sales bump. Only if Obama makes it to the White fictional world, the United States prohibited the mixing of House would Lobato's prescience fall short. If that happens, races—believing it would lead to "disintegration" or maybe Editora Globo's sales streak will come to an end. "denaturalization"—and thereby conserved white and black races in "a state of relative purity." Lobato also failed to predict the civil rights movement, which undid his predictions of an extreme version of "separate but equal." Unlike Roy, born in a supposed age of "pure races," Obama, born of a white mother human nature and black father, witnessed America's social revolution. Undead Babies

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 27/105 The retreating boundaries of organ harvesting. death. In the interim, doctors injected drugs to keep the organs By William Saletan viable for transplant. Friday, October 3, 2008, at 8:23 AM ET The problem with some organ-sustaining measures is that they If you think the next president will have a hard job, try being a might technically reverse death. Oxygenation, for example, transplant surgeon. You can't tell parents of a dying kid when to supplies the circulation whose absence was supposed to be the pull the plug, but you have to be there, ready, the minute he cause of death. To fix this problem, doctors have learned to expires. You have to wait till he's dead but not so long that his block blood flow so that only the organs slated for transplant get organs become useless. You can give him drugs to keep his oxygen. The rest of the patient remains safely dead. organs healthy, but you mustn't technically revive him. And you can't remove and restart his heart till it's been declared kaput. The heart is a trickier problem. It's the one organ that technically has to die when, as in Denver, the donor is cleared for harvesting Pick up the New England Journal of Medicine, and you'll see the based on "cardiocirculatory death." How can a heart be certified far edge of this tortured world. In the journal, doctors at the as irreversibly stopped when the plan is to restart it in a new Denver Children's Hospital describe how they removed hearts body? from infants 75 seconds after their hearts stopped. The infants were declared dead of heart failure even as their hearts, in new Boucek offers two answers. One is that even if the heart resumes bodies, resume ticking. The federal government funded the pumping in a new body, it couldn't have done so in the old one. procedure; other hospitals are looking to adopt it. That used to be true. But today, hearts can be restarted by external stimulation well after two or even five minutes. Second, Is it wrong? If only the question were that simple. We like to he says the heart is dead because the baby's parents have decided think moral lines are fixed and clear: My heart is mine, not not to permit resuscitation. In other words, each family decides yours, and you can't have it till I'm dead. But in medicine, lines when its loved one is dead. In a commentary attached to the move. Dead means irreversibly stopped, and stoppages are Denver report, another ethicist proposes to extend this idea, increasingly reversible. Meanwhile, thanks to transplantation, letting each family decide not just whether to resuscitate but also entitlement to organs is becoming socialized. When life support at what point organs can be harvested. Brain death? Cardiac ends, says one bioethicist, "not using viable organs wastes death? Persistent vegetative state? Death is whatever you say it precious life-saving resources" and "costs the lives of other is. babies." Failure to take and reuse body parts looks like lethal negligence. Enough, says Truog. Stop redefining death. Let's accept that we're taking organs from living people and causing death in the How can we get more organs? By redefining death. First we process. This is ethical, he argues, as long as the patient has coined "brain death," which let us take organs from people on "devastating neurologic injury" and has provided, through ventilators. Then we proposed to allow organ retrieval even if advance directive or a surrogate, informed consent to be nonconscious brain functions persisted. That goal has now been terminated this way. We already let surrogates authorize removal realized through "donation after cardiac death," the rule applied of life support, he notes. Why not treat donations similarly? in Denver, which permits harvesting based on heart, rather than Traditional safeguards, such as the separation of the transplant brain, stoppage. team from the patient's medical team, will prevent abuse. And the public will accept the new policy, since surveys suggest Stoppage is complicated. There's no "moment" of death. Some we're not hung up on whether the donor is dead. transplant surgeons wait five minutes after the last heartbeat. Others wait two. The Denver team waited 75 seconds, reasoning But down that road lies even greater uncertainty. How that no heart is known to have self-restarted after 60 seconds. devastating does the injury have to be? If death is vulnerable to That's pretty dicey. Why push the envelope? Because every redefinition, isn't "devastating" even more so? The same can be second counts. Mark Boucek, the doctor who led the Denver asked of "futility," the standard used by the Denver team to team, says waiting even 75 seconds makes organs less useful. select donors. Is it safe to base lethal decisions on the ebb and flow of public opinion, particularly when, as Hastings Center Actually, doctors don't wait for the donor's death. They arrange President Thomas Murray points out, the same surveys show it. Not the illness or injury, of course, but the timing of demise. confusion about death standards? And can termination decisions The Denver team calls this "anticipated" death, with donation as really be insulated from pressure to donate? Even if each family part of an "end-of-life care plan." Robert Truog, an ethicist who makes its own choice, aren't we loosening standards for supports the Denver protocol, calls it "orchestrated withdrawal termination precisely to get more organs? of life support," with the patient "monitored" for cardiac arrest and harvesting. The countdown in Denver began at around 20 Modern medicine has brought us tremendous power. With that minutes. Only the last 75 seconds took place after technical power comes responsibility. Boundaries such as death, heart

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 28/105 stoppage, and ownership of organs have guided our moral determine whether the evidence demonstrates that any criminal thinking because they seemed fixed in nature. Now we've offense was committed with regard to the removal of Iglesias." unmoored them. I'm a registered donor because I believe in the gift of life, and the job of providing organs falls to each of us. So The report indicates that investigators "found evidence that does the job of deciding when and how we can rightly take them. complaints to Rove and others at the White House and the Department by New Mexico Republican political officials and party activists about how Iglesias was handling voter fraud cases and a public corruption case led to Iglesias's removal." human nature The report finds that Gonzales approved the removals of a group Debate Bait of U.S. attorneys "without inquiring about the process Sampson Hot-button questions for Biden and Palin. used to select them for removal, or why each name was on By William Saletan Sampson's removal list. Gonzales also did not know who Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 7:38 AM ET Sampson had consulted with or what these individuals had said about each of the U.S. Attorneys identified for removal." Investigators also found that "Sampson's repeated assertion that 'underperformance' was the decisive factor in the removal jurisprudence process was misleading." Investigators learned that some of the fired U.S. attorneys (like Nevada's Dan Bogden) were placed on Where the Trail Leads Next Sampson's list based on Monica Goodling's unsupported What does the inspector general's report on U.S. attorney firings really mean for the Justice Department? suggestion. John McKay, from Washington, similarly appears to By Dahlia Lithwick have been put on the list by some specter. Monday, September 29, 2008, at 6:16 PM ET The evidence indicates that in at least three of the firings, "the White House was more involved than merely approving the For those of us who had been waiting over a year to learn the removal of presidential appointees as Department officials connection between the abrupt firing of nine U.S. attorneys and initially stated." the assorted muck-a-mucks who run the Bush administration, the release this morning of the inspector general's report (PDF) was The report faults Gonzales et al. for failing "to provide accurate anticlimactic. In light of massive obstruction by the White and truthful statements about the removals and their role in the House (which brazenly refused to turn over internal documents) process" (i.e., they lied). Among other things, the IG found that and other "key witnesses," (including Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, Gonzales "claimed to us and to Congress an extraordinary lack Monica Goodling, Pete Domenici, and Domenici's chief of staff, of recollection about the entire removal process. In his most Steven Bell), the gist of the IG's investigation—done in remarkable claim, he testified that he did not remember the conjunction with the Office of Professional Responsibility—was meeting in his conference room on November 27, 2006, when that somebody with the authority to compel testimony and the the plan was finalized and he approved the removals of the U.S. release of documents seriously needs to do an investigation. Attorneys, even though this important meeting occurred only a few months prior to his testimony." Still, 392 pages on, the document itself makes for some great reading. It concludes that there is "significant evidence that The report also concludes that Kyle Sampson's system for political partisan considerations were an important factor in the determining who was fired was "casual, ad hoc, and anecdotal, removal of several US Attorneys." It paints former U.S. and he did not develop any consensus from Department officials Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his former deputy Paul about which U.S. Attorneys should be removed." McNulty as having been totally checked out, having "abdicated their responsibility to adequately oversee the process" while In light of the report, Attorney General Michael Mukasey was underlings like Kyle Sampson merrily consulted a "dog-eared" quick to appoint a prosecutor (but apparently not a "special" one) chart he was constantly revising, destroying, and re-creating. to look into this mess. This is a dramatic departure for Mukasey, While the report does not unearth any criminal wrongdoing, it who has largely spent his time in office pretending that whatever finds that "the most serious allegation that we were not able to happened at the Justice Department prior to his arrival was either fully investigate related to the removal of David Iglesias, the someone else's problem or not, in fact, a problem at all. Having U.S. Attorney for New Mexico, and the allegation that he was somehow set the reset button on the entire department, he has removed to influence voter fraud and public corruption frequently chastised critics of the Bush administration for their prosecutions. We recommend that a counsel specially appointed vengeful ways. He recently asserted that (in response to an by the Attorney General assess the facts we have uncovered, equally damning IG report) that "not every wrong, or even every work with us to conduct further investigation, and ultimately violation of the law, is a crime." And he's taken the position (in

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 29/105 the same speech) that those responsible for misconduct have way out. … It is irrebuttable and it is proved to be true. In perhaps been punished enough (having already suffered everything now that someone like me does, there's a backwash "substantial negative publicity"). into your whole life ... because of race."

One thing the appointment of a prosecutor virtually guarantees is One can dispute whether Thomas' impression of a "backwash" is that we will still be talking about the U.S. attorney firings long fair or reasonable, but nobody can argue that his most passionate after President Bush has packed up his David Addington legal writing vibrates with his anger about it. In a sharp dissent bobblehead doll and vacated the White House. And that means, in a 2003 case allowing race to be used as an admissions factor in at least one context, that the Michael Mukasey argument that at the University of Michigan's law school, Thomas described lawlessness ends on the day when wrongdoers leave office might affirmative action as "a cruel farce" under which "all blacks are finally be put to rest. It would make for a much cleaner story if tarred as undeserving." In an earlier case he wrote that such everything that went wrong at Justice could be pinned on poor, programs "stamp minorities with a badge of inferiority." hapless Kyle Sampson and forgotten. But that's not the story the IG report tells. What's really gone wrong here lies largely in the Critics have scoffed at Thomas' tendency to view affirmative behavior of Sampson's bosses who were either asleep at the action exclusively through the narrow lens of his own life, but switch or happy to leave him hanging out to dry on the theory it's clear the "badge of inferiority" has tainted a lifetime of that only the stupid testify. It's a theory that's catching on rather enormous achievement. He will never forgive America for the quickly. chances he was given, or for how small it has made him feel. I can't help but wonder what Thomas would say to vice- The importance of today's report isn't so much in the details of presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who is now suffering the same who did what to whom. It's in the "gaps" at the top and the stigma of affirmative action, and who shows signs of the same promise that after November, somebody might still care. blend of defensiveness and outrage that have so shaped Thomas' career.

Like Thomas, Palin has been blasted for inexperience, and she has fought back with claims that she is not being judged on her jurisprudence merits, but on her gender, just as he felt he was inevitably judged The Downsides of Diversity on his race. While it's possible to assert that Sarah Palin is the most qualified person in America for the vice presidency, only What Clarence Thomas might have to say about Sarah Palin. By Dahlia Lithwick approximately nine people have done so with a straight face. Saturday, September 27, 2008, at 1:02 AM ET That's because Palin was not chosen because she was the second-best person to run America but to promote diversity on the ticket, even the political playing field, and to shatter (in her words) some glass ceilings. When she was selected, the Weekly When it comes to the perils of affirmative action, there's nobody Standard's editor, Fred Barnes, enthused: "As a 44-year-old as eloquent as Justice Clarence Thomas. In a speech given woman Mrs. Palin brings desperately needed diversity to the earlier this month to leaders of historically black colleges, Republican ticket." That's certainly a noble goal, but it's one Thomas went so far as to suggest the Constitution likely most conservatives have disparaged for decades. The most prohibits it: "I think we're going to run into problems if we say savage bits of Thomas' Michigan law school dissent warn the Constitution says we can consider race sometimes." In both against fetishizing "diversity" as an "aesthetic" concern of his legal writing and his autobiography, Thomas has railed "elites." Thomas hates the notion of flinging the first minority against affirmative action, not simply because it constitutes you can lay hold of at a glass ceiling. The McCain campaign just "reverse discrimination" against white males, but because of the elevated it to priority No. 1. crushing lifelong stigma it affixes to the "beneficiaries" (a word Thomas puts in quotation marks). The dangers of this kind of rough quest for aesthetic diversity pervades Thomas' memoir. It's not just his perception that the Thomas' writings on affirmative action frequently mine this vein world mistrusts the abilities of the recipient of affirmative action of shame and stigma. In his autobiography, My Grandfather's but the fact that he sometimes learns to mistrust the world. Son, he concedes he was admitted to Yale's law school in part Thomas' experience at Yale taught him to doubt anyone who because of his race but then goes on to describe the humiliation sought to help him, especially those "who offered you a helping of post-graduation interviews with "one high-priced lawyer after hand so long as you were careful to agree with them but slapped another" in which he was "asked pointed questions, unsubtly you down if you started acting as if you didn't know your place." suggesting that they doubted I was as smart as my grades indicated." He told ABC News that "once it is assumed that everything you do achieve is because of your race, there is no Palin has also become a recipient of the know-your-place treatment, as she enters—at this writing—her 29th day of an

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 30/105 almost-total media blackout. Palin has been allowed to speak to 2. Announces that Track Palin has captured Osama Bin just three television reporters. No press conferences and no Laden—in Iraq. (Peter Van Buren) informal interviews. A nation is permitted to know her almost 3. Adopts "don't ask, don't tell" policy on the exclusively through photo ops in fabulous shoes that smack of environment. (Linse Henley) empty tokenism. 4. Rears head and flies into Russian airspace. (Ryan Greenlaw) Clarence Thomas would say that in its most toxic formulation, 5. Has President Bush use his executive privilege to affirmative action demands that its beneficiaries be seen and not declare McCain the winner. (Matt Logan) heard, and that is precisely what Palin is experiencing. Where 6. Proposes a game of Risk with Obama—winner takes Clarence Thomas has always excoriated liberals for promoting all. (Anonymous) token blacks so that America might someday look just like a 7. Bolsters Sarah Palin's foreign-policy credentials by Benetton commercial, John McCain has mastered the fine art of giving her a German shepherd, a Siamese cat, and a turning women into campaign accessories, a flag pin with nice Dutch long-eared rabbit. (Cheryl Lynn Helm) calves. 8. Announces his Cabinet: the Harlem Globetrotters. (David Churchman) 9. Upon reflection, admits that "ABBA sucks." (Larry Liberals inclined to blindly support affirmative action would do Miller) well to contemplate the lessons of Sarah Palin and Clarence 10. Announces that if elected he will appoint Gen. Petraeus Thomas. Although the former exudes unflagging self-confidence secretary of the Treasury. (Roger Tompkins) and the latter may always be crippled by self-doubt, both have become nearly frozen in a defensive crouch, casualties of an 11. Heads to Switzerland and brazenly toggles the on/off effort to create an America in which diversity is measured solely switch of the Large Hadron Collider. (John Flowers) 12. Tints his hair a warm chestnut brown. (Kathryn Schorr) in terms of appearance.

… and here are some of the proposals that were sent in by Perhaps as a result of this simplistic sorting process, Clarence Thomas has learned to neatly divide the entire world into angels multiple readers: and demons. (In his book he reduces everyone to either a "rattlesnake" or a "water moccasin.") Palin similarly casts 1. Funds bailout by selling Cindy McCain's clothing, everyone as either a supporter or a "hater." Thomas has come to jewelry, or homes. believe that anyone who opposes him is a racist. Palin genuinely 2. Switches spots on the ticket with Palin. sees anyone who doubts her qualifications as sexist. There is 3. Drops Palin, announces Joe Lieberman, Mitt Romney, much that is laudable about affirmative action, but its tendency Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, or to divide people in often crude ways is not. It can lead to a class Michael Phelps as new running mate. of "beneficiaries" who also see the world in crude ways, and to 4. Divorces Cindy, marries Palin. even-cruder ways of talking about the very complicated and real 5. Doesn't divorce Cindy, moves to Utah, marries Palin. gender and race disparities that continue to plague America. 6. Divorces Cindy, moves to Massachusetts, marries Joe Lieberman. 7. Announces Palin is pregnant. A version of this appears in this week's Newsweek. 8. Announces Cindy is pregnant. 9. Announces he is pregnant. 10. On eve of the election, changes his name to Barack Obama. 11. On eve of the election, changes his name to McLovin. low concept 12. Takes time away from the campaign to reflect on the McCain's Next Stunt death of his best friend, Goose. Slate readers predict the candidate's next Hail Mary. Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 11:04 AM ET

After John McCain suspended his presidential campaign last low concept week, Slate invited readers to suggest other Hail Mary stunts the The Poetry of Sarah Palin Republican candidate might pull before Election Day. You sent Recent works by the Republican vice presidential candidate. us nearly 1,000 ideas. Here are some of our favorites: By Hart Seely Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 1:25 PM ET 1. Pledges to send former Wall Street CEOs to Guantanamo. (John Kirkbride)

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 31/105 It's been barely six weeks since the arctic-fresh voice of Alaskan These corporations. poet Sarah Heath Palin burst upon the lower 48. In campaign Today it was AIG, interviews, the governor, mother, and maverick GOP vice Important call, there. presidential candidate has chosen to bypass the media filter and speak directly to fans through her intensely personal verses, (To S. Hannity, Fox News, Sept. 18, 2008) spoken poems that drill into the vagaries of modern life as if they were oil deposits beneath a government-protected tundra. "Befoulers of the Verbiage" Thursday's nationally televised debate with Democrat Joe Biden could give Palin the chance to cement her reputation as one of It was an unfair attack on the verbiage the country's most innovative practitioners of what she calls That Senator McCain chose to use, "verbiage." Because the fundamentals, As he was having to explain afterwards, The poems collected here were compiled verbatim from only He means our workforce. three brief interviews. So just imagine the work Sarah Palin He means the ingenuity of the American. could produce over the next four (or eight) years. And of course that is strong, And that is the foundation of our economy. So that was an unfair attack there, "On Good and Evil" Again based on verbiage.

It is obvious to me (To S. Hannity, Fox News, Sept. 18, 2008) Who the good guys are in this one And who the bad guys are. The bad guys are the ones "Secret Conversation" Who say Israel is a stinking corpse, And should be wiped off I asked President Karzai: The face of the earth. "Is that what you are seeking, also? That's not a good guy. "That strategy that has worked in Iraq? "That John McCain had pushed for? (To K. Couric, CBS News, Sept. 25, 2008) "More troops? "A counterinsurgency strategy?"

And he said, "Yes."

"You Can't Blink" (To K. Couric, CBS News, Sept. 25, 2008)

You can't blink. You have to be wired "Outside" In a way of being So committed to the mission, I am a Washington outsider. I mean, The mission that we're on, Look at where you are. Reform of this country, I'm a Washington outsider. And victory in the war, You can't blink. I do not have those allegiances To the power brokers, So I didn't blink. To the lobbyists. We need someone like that. (To C. Gibson, ABC News, Sept. 11, 2008) (To C. Gibson, ABC News, Sept. 11, 2008)

"Haiku"

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 32/105 "On the Bailout" It's funny that A comment like that Ultimately, Was kinda made to, What the bailout does I don't know, Is help those who are concerned You know ... About the health care reform That is needed Reporters. To help shore up our economy, Helping the— (To K. Couric, CBS News, Sept. 25, 2008) It's got to be all about job creation, too.

Shoring up our economy And putting it back on the right track. So health care reform "Small Mayors" And reducing taxes And reining in spending You know, Has got to accompany tax reductions Small mayors, And tax relief for Americans. Mayors of small towns— And trade. Quote, unquote— They're on the front lines. We've got to see trade As opportunity (To S. Hannity, Fox News, Sept. 19, 2008) Not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs Being created in the trade sector today, We've got to look at that As more opportunity. All those things. map the candidates Recovering (To K. Couric, CBS News, Sept. 25, 2008) Both V.P. candidates have the day off. Obama is in Pennsylvania, and McCain is in Colorado. By E.J. Kalafarski and Chadwick Matlin Friday, October 3, 2008, at 11:22 AM ET

"Challenge to a Cynic" medical examiner You are a cynic. Because show me where Still in the Lyme Light I have ever said Politicians and Hollywood enter the debate over "chronic Lyme disease." By Kent Sepkowitz That there's absolute proof That nothing that man Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at 6:35 AM ET Has ever conducted Or engaged in, Has had any effect, In the 30 years since its discovery, Lyme disease has been in the Or no effect, headlines every time you turn around. First came its On climate change. identification in the 1970s, a cautionary tale of alarmed moms forcing doctors to examine a problem happening right under their self-satisfied noses. Then, in those prudish pre-AIDS days (To C. Gibson, ABC News, Sept. 11, 2008) of public health, it provided a scary-enough new disease for journalists to crow about—though unlike herpes, the rival hot disease at the time, Lyme was completely above the belt.

This year, Lyme has outdone itself, coming in with not one but "On Reporters" two big skirmishes. Both relate to the puzzling and demoralizing condition often referred to as "chronic Lyme," a syndrome that

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 33/105 includes fatigue, headaches, forgetfulness, and other symptoms. maintain their lofty positions by squashing pretenders and In May, Richard Blumenthal, attorney general of Connecticut, rewarding only the most groveling toadies.) the disease's ground zero, announced an antitrust investigation of the Infectious Disease Society of America—specifically It may appear suspicious to outsiders for IDSA members to cite addressing the treatment of Lyme, including chronic Lyme. their own expertise. But these are the articles that established Blumenthal targeted the professional society because of the their bona fides to sit on the panel. Unless we should exclude all perceived potential for collusion resulting from the 2006 IDSA experts from any expert panel because they are experts, it's a guidelines on the diagnosis and management of Lyme disease. In problem we are stuck with. Though I must agree with one aspect his investigation, he found "serious flaws" propagated by those of the outsiders' view: Most experts, bless their hearts, are a numskull doctors and pressed his point effectively enough to mess. They are spilling over with professional rivalries and force a re-review of the guidelines by yet another panel of hostilities, limping from turf wars, and liable to tantrums and experts. intellectual narrowness, and they sport egos growing like new blisters and every bit as fragile. But be kind—they have spent And then Hollywood piled on as the movie Under Our Skin ("An their careers working on a certain disease. They have run the infectious new film about microbes, money, and science") began trials, given the talks, staged the symposia, and written the to make the rounds at film festivals. This movie, too, digs deep standard-setting articles. It is impossible to get in a room people at the IDSA and sees the entire Lyme-treatment world in who both know everything about a subject and are free of conspiratorial terms, suggesting doctors dabble in human disease conflict. (I find the conflict-of-interest charge ironic, given the for fun and profit. large number of nonspecialists making big bucks in the treatment of chronic Lyme.) (Disclosure: I am a card-carrying member of the IDSA. I pay dues. I attend meetings. I read society writings. Like most Even if one discounts the self-aggrandizement of medical professional societies, IDSA is a somewhat clumsy collective, a publishing, the experts do have one thing patients, moviemakers, bunch of people not really comfortable with Robert's Rules but, and even AG Richard Blumenthal lack: experience in treating like diabetic children cheerfully going off to summer camp infectious diseases. Dealing with infections all day, every day, is together, still in need of the assurance given by meeting with informative. Stated another way: Why do the Car Talk guys other people with the same problems.) know what that rattle is when your car turns left but not right? They know what is and what is not possible in their field of The smoking tractate in all this is "The Clinical Assessment, expertise, and they narrow things from there. The carburetor, for Treatment, and Prevention of Lyme Disease, Human example, is not likely to rattle, because troubled carburetors Granulocytic Anaplasmosis, and Babesiosis: Clinical Practice wheeze and kick. Click and Clack know this. Guidelines by the Infectious Diseases Society of America." As a guideline promulgated by a professional society, it continues a So, too, for doctoring, despite Lyme's peculiar pedigree: It is fashion that became the rage about 15 years ago when HMOs related closely to syphilis, that most wily of all infections. We insisted that treatments be standardized. Rather than have the still cannot grow either bacterium (the one that causes syphilis HMOs set the rules, professional societies, for reasons of pride, can be cultivated after inoculating the testicle of a rabbit; for cash, and selfishness, began to churn out tome after tome— Lyme, no comparable animal-assistance program has been IDSA has about 50, and we occupy only a small corner of the developed), and we still do not have accurate blood tests to medical world. The guidelines are often used by insurance diagnosis these two infections. This substantial shortcoming companies to determine what constitutes an allowable medical would appear to make the existence of something unexpected, treatment; with chronic Lyme, many patients have found months like chronic Lyme, more plausible. Yet the similarities between of intravenous antibiotics to be helpful, yet insurance carriers Lyme and syphilis actually support the IDSA doctors here. Yes, had been hesitant to pay, given the high cost of the treatment. there is much about syphilis we don't know—but like Click and Clack and their carburetor, we do understand what it doesn't do. In the Lyme guidelines, the IDSA expert panel declared it could Syphilis doesn't resist treatment. Plus, when you have it—really find no evidence to support the existence of chronic Lyme have it, especially in your brain—it is not at all difficult to find. disease, which led HMOs to deny payment for long-term Its pathologic footprints are everywhere. And once treated, it intravenous antibiotic therapy for many patients. To support its does not enter a prolonged stage that requires years more of rejection of chronic Lyme disease, IDSA cited among the 405 antibiotics to beat back. referenced articles from the medical literature, many written by panel members—for some, a medical version of insider trading However, Connecticut and Hollywood both smell a rat. They see and something Blumenthal and the Under Our Skin crowd scoff a gaggle of uncaring doctors in it for the dough and ego and at. (Admittedly, medical publication is a self-fulfilling, self- intrinsic joys of sadism. And for them, this dismissal of chronic promoting circle in which insurgents crawl to the top, then Lyme is nothing but another example of patients insisting a disease is making them sick while doctors scratch their heads

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 34/105 and can't find a trace—shades of chronic fatigue and Morgellons make all American citizens investors in the world's biggest and fibromyalgia. Myself, I don't believe in chronic Lyme, but fund—and a democratic one at that. Taxpayers won't just be the the people afflicted with the syndrome likely have some disease investors. We'll own the management company, too. Best of all? or another, medical, psychiatric, or something in between—and For at least a few months, we'll have the former CEO of the third-class-citizen status afforded them is an embarrassment Goldman Sachs run our investment for a very small fee. Call it to doctors everywhere. Perhaps the biggest loser in the debate is the "Universal Hedge Fund." Sigmund Freud. One hundred years after his revolutionary work, the worst thing a doctor can do in 2008 is to suggest that a Hedge funds use leverage: That is, they borrow money to patient's problems are emotional, that physical pain arises from amplify their returns. The Universal Hedge Fund will use emotional turmoil. I've made the suggestion to a few patients massive leverage, borrowing up to $750 billion, which it will use along the way, and it is roughly akin to telling someone you to buy up distressed assets. The Universal Fund might best be think he is a pederast. People want physical problems—hard- described as a multi-multistrategy fund. Its stated goals are to core ailments like broken legs and lobar pneumonia. Try treating maximize returns to its investors while promoting general those with Zoloft. market stability and bolstering the crippled housing market.

Given the impasse between doctors and patients over a condition The fund's bylaws give the manager (the treasury secretary) that affects thousands, may I make a modest proposal? Let's significant discretion. He can buy troubled mortgage-related study the problem. Not another McCain Commission of blue- instruments from finance companies (Section 3[9][a], Page 5). ribbon windbags to meet and congratulate one another—rather, But he can also invest in "any other financial instrument that the let's do a clinical trial to determine the effectiveness of Secretary, after consultation with the Chairman of the Board of antibiotics: double-blind, placebo-controlled, the whole works. Governors of the Federal Reserve System, determines the Doctors and patients together could design the study, as is done purchase of which is necessary to promote financial market with AIDS and many cancer trials. And if antibiotics work, stability" (Section 3[9]B, Page 6). The manager then has the great—the doctors are wrong yet again. If they don't, then it is authority to manage the assets as he sees fit (Section 106[B], on to the next therapeutic approach till we find something that Page 22), collecting revenue streams, holding bonds to maturity, does the trick. Just one ground rule: Neither side can assume the or flipping them for a quick profit (Section 106[c], Page 22). other is a sleazeball (hear that, patients?) or a nut (you, doctors). Like many of today's sharpest hedge funds, the Universal Fund After all, this is a real public-health problem before us, will also have the ability to drive a harder bargain by demanding regardless of the cause—and it is surely in the interest of one equity stakes, or new debt securities, from the institutions it is and all to place the debate on sound footing. helping (Section 113[d], Page 35). It can also do what many of the big hedge funds, and so-called "funds of funds," do: bring in outside managers to run the investment (101[C][3], Page 8).

There are some important differences between the Universal moneybox Fund and its private sector peers. Hedge funds thrive on secrecy. How the Bailout Is Like a Hedge Fund. The Universal Fund will operate with maximum transparency, It's massively leveraged. It's buying distressed assets. It's taking equity stakes disclosing all new sales and purchases on the Web within two … days (Section 114[A], Page 39). Rather than send in all our By Daniel Gross money upfront, we hedge-fund investors will give the manager Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 3:35 PM ET $250 billion to start with (Section 115[A][1], Page 40). And the proceeds won't be distributed via dividends or end-of-year The Wall Street bailout is alive again. In an effort to make the partnership distributions. Rather, revenues and profits "shall be $700 billion bailout palatable, the architects of the law have paid into the general fund of the Treasury for reduction of the larded it up with all sorts of goodies, such as increasing the public debt" (Section 106[d], Page 22). levels of deposit insurance, sparing some taxpayers the ravages of the Alternative Minimum Tax, and extending tax breaks for The Bush administration's desire to turn all Americans into alternative energy. Henry Paulson's three-page sprig has participants in the capital markets through the privatization of sprouted into a 451-page Christmas tree. (The current version of Social Security never got off the ground. But in the last months the bill, in all its lengthy glory, can be seen here.) of its second term, it has managed to pull off something of a coup. Soon enough, we'll all collectively own various securities What's most interesting about the Emergency Economic issued by lots of big companies. Too bad the Ownership Society Stabilization Act of 2008 is just how much it reads like a is happening only because we became a Bad Debt Society. prospectus for a hedge fund. In the past, hedge funds—secretive pools of capital—were open only to qualified (read: rich) investors. But with the stroke of a pen, President Bush will soon

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 35/105 reason to think that GOP politicians will be rewarded for their moneybox intransigence? Washington to New York: Drop Dead The Republicans' intransigence kills the bailout bill—and possibly McCain's For in the meantime, the chaos they've created by coming to the electoral chances. table and then throwing a fit works to their disadvantage. Each By Daniel Gross time a deal is close to done and then gets scuppered, the market Monday, September 29, 2008, at 5:52 PM ET (and its many participants) freaks out. Huge quantities of wealth are destroyed. The markets fell about 8 percent after today's Well, maybe we don't need much of a private-sector financial stunt, likely wiping out close to $1 trillion in wealth. In so doing, system after all. That's the conclusion that most House they're turning off whatever base the party had left on Wall Republicans, and a minority of House Democrats, seem to have Street and likely closing off a huge source of campaign cash. reached in voting down the $700 billion bailout bill on Monday. Asked for his evaluation of what took place today, Lawrence Maybe it's best that, in a few weeks, there will be essentially two Fink, the CEO of asset management giant Blackrock, said, large banks left in the country, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup. "Major disappointment came from the Republican side." A After all it has done, perhaps that's what the financial sector Republican congressman who shows up for a fundraiser in deserves. Manhattan this week is likely to get tarred and feathered. In some congressional races, I suppose financial dislocation and Was the bailout bill killed by malice or by incompetence? It's bank failures could plausibly be good news for Republican hard to argue against incompetence since it has been so rampant, challengers—but only if the challengers can pin them on the especially on the Republican side of things in Washington. The incumbent Democrats. congressional leadership and the White House clearly lacked the heft—or the energy—to whip recalcitrant members into line. "I Finally, it's clear that the chaos is poison for the top of the ticket. don't understand why President Bush didn't go to members of his McCain's poll numbers have eroded throughout September as party and say vote on this," Maria Bartiromo wondered on the financial crisis picked up pace. The volatility in the markets CNBC Monday afternoon. (Maria, if you have to ask, you don't doesn't seem to be doing much for the more volatile candidate in want to know.) Sen. John McCain, who interrupted his campaign the race. Every time the market falls a few hundred points, to deal with the crisis, claimed—via his surrogates—that he Obama seems to pick up support. On Intrade, where the price of wielded great influence in improving the deal and making it McCain's presidential contracts have slipped to their lowest palatable. Then he left town as it collapsed. levels in months, traders now give Obama a 60 percent chance of winning. Sure, the bill could have passed if more Democrats had voted for it. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi and co. were able to bring along 60 In general, I've found a lot of the analogies between the present percent of their caucus. Why did so many House Republicans situation and the Great Depression to be way off. But there's one bail? Some say it's because Pelosi hurt their feelings by pointing area in which the analogy might hold true. Just as happened in out that Republicans were in charge when things went to hell. It 1932, it's possible that the Republicans' incompetence and also could be that a lot of them got religion on fiscal matters. (Of bullheadedness in managing a financial crisis could lead to course, having approved an expansion of Medicare, massive Democrats controlling both the White House and Congress. increases in all sorts of spending, and huge tax cuts that led to the addition of trillions of dollars in public debt, this is a strange moment to stand on principle.)

Obviously, Republicans were motivated in no small part by moneybox political calculations—short- and long-term. But it's really hard The Happy Talk Express to figure out what those calculations might be. Yes, incumbents The economy is a mess. The financial markets are in a panic. But these idiots of both parties—especially those incumbents facing tough re- think we mustn't say anything negative. election campaigns—don't want to be on the hook for this vote. By Daniel Gross But consider the big picture: Despite all the hemming and Saturday, September 27, 2008, at 1:02 AM ET hawing, investors and analysts seem to think there will eventually be a deal—because there has to be. So, let's say that Having difficulty coping with financial stress? Forget Bernanke the House Republicans manage to draw out the process for a few and Paulson. Think Rogers & Hammerstein. In the excellent more weeks. Maybe the final deal will be less costly to production of South Pacific at the Lincoln Center in New York taxpayers—say, $300 billion instead of $700 billion. And maybe (something tells me tickets there will be easier to get soon), one they will succeed in stripping some of the measures that of the highlights is the song "Happy Talk." "Happy talk, keep corporate America and Wall Street find abhorrent (like limits on talking happy talk," sings Bloody Mary. "Talk about things you executive pay). Even in that best-case scenario, is there any like to do." Elsewhere in New York, there's a sense afoot that the

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 36/105 real problems we face aren't the crippled financial system or the What's wrong with this? Economists tell us that a stock price is slowing economy, but rather all the bad stuff people are saying nothing more than the sum total of information about a company about them. and its prospects. The trading day is thus a debate in which people express favorable opinions (by buying the stock) or In other words, not enough Happy Talk. negative ones (by selling the stock). Banning short-selling is like holding a debate but telling people they can argue only one side. It's like wholly disregarding half of the extant opinions. It's like To ward off panics, financial media organizations are keeping Unhappy Talk to a minimum. "We're very careful not to throw Fox News. words around like 'meltdown' and 'free fall,' " CNN correspondent Ali Velshi, who is getting mucho face time thanks The third set of Happy Talkers are incumbent politicians. The to the meltdown and free fall, told the New York Times. The past year has shown plenty of evidence of unsound Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal is engaging in un- fundamentals—eight straight months of job losses, the failure of Murdochian restraint, banishing words like crash and financial institutions, etc. And yet the word from Washington (at pandemonium. Maybe I have a limited vocabulary, but I'm not least the Fox News-watching half of Washington) for much of sure how else to characterize a month in which the country's 2008 has been that things are just fine. "The fundamentals of our largest financial institutions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, had economy are strong," President Bush said in August. to be nationalized; Lehman Bros., the fourth-largest investment bank, filed for Chapter 11; AIG, a component of the Dow Jones There's nothing wrong with trying to bolster confidence. But if Indsutrial Average, had to turn over most of its stock to the you ban pessimism as a matter of course, it creates a false government in exchange for an $85 billion loan; the government impression, which makes the fall all that more shocking and had to guarantee money-market funds to stop people from disorienting. Putting on a happy face too frequently can also hoarding cash under their mattresses; the nation's largest savings make it harder to rally the troops in a time of crisis, as and loan, Washington Mutual, failed; and the nation's greatest management guru John Kotter writes in his new book, A Sense financial minds declare that a bailout the size of the Netherlands' of Urgency. It's tough to convince people of the need to make a GDP is needed to stop the bleeding. Yes, we have to be careful significant change, pronto, if they've been conditioned to think about crying fire in a crowded theater. But calling Wall Street's that everything is hunky-dory. Which is why Washington meltdown a meltdown is more like crying fire in a crowded policymakers have had to dial up the fear factor, big time, to inferno. light a fire under Congress. A few weeks ago the fundamentals were sound. This week, if you tuned into C-SPAN, it looked we It's one thing for media organizations to censor themselves. It's could be staring at a replay of the Great Depression. quite another for the government to ban certain types of speech. Short-selling is the practice through which investors borrow The source of our current angst and distress isn't a surfeit of shares from one another; sell them, hoping or expecting they will recent negative talk. To the contrary, several years of excessive fall; and then buy them back at a lower price and return to the Happy Talk and an acoustical system that dims the voices of original owner. Shorting stocks is an essential component of those expressing contrary opinions have been important hedge funds' strategy: It's how they manage risk. But just as the contributing factors to the crisis. An environment in which last refuge of scoundrels is patriotism, the last refuge of discouraging words are seldom heard may be fine for a place incompetent CEOs is short-bashing. "I will hurt the shorts, and where the deer and the antelope play, but not for the frenzied that is my goal," Richard Fuld, chief executive of Lehman Bros., range where the bulls and the bears roam. said last April. Instead, he delighted the shorts by running the company into the ground. A version of this article also appears in Newsweek.

Short-sellers don't kill companies. Managers do. But in late September, the Securities and Exchange Commission banned short-selling of financial and finance-related stocks. Call it the bucket list—a list of companies that might kick the bucket if movies short sellers were able to operate. The list, which started with 799 lucky duckies, is now approaching 1,000 and includes IBM All Aboard the Crazy Train and drug-store chain CVS. (Hey, at some level we're all finance Anne Hathaway in Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married. By Dana Stevens companies). The list also includes two publicly traded hedge funds. In other words, you can't bet against the guys who are Friday, October 3, 2008, at 11:44 AM ET now forbidden to bet against stocks. Joseph Heller, call your agent. Jonathan Demme has reached a point in his career where he can make whatever movie he damn well pleases. A documentary

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 37/105 about a Haitian radio host (The Agronomist)! A portrait of their wedding performances—a jazz band on the back porch, a Jimmy Carter on book tour (Man From Plains)! A Neil Young lutist on the stairs. At one point a character has to ask the concert film (Neil Young: Heart of Gold)! And while Demme's musicians to pipe down so the family can continue with their recent remakes of old spy thrillers (The Truth About Charlie, recriminations in peace. All this music and movement lends the The Manchurian Candidate) have been muddled flops, that movie a shaggy, Altman-esque texture, a sense that its scope is doesn't seem to trouble the director one bit—he just trains his wider than any one character's story. The feuding sisters may ever-curious camera on what's next. provide the film's center, but anyone is free to pick up the talking stick and say his or her piece, and during a long rehearsal-dinner Demme is so hip at this point he can comfortably return to being sequence, many of the wedding guests do. square. Not that the man who made Stop Making Sense was ever all that square, but Demme did make his name with small, I've never been much of an Anne Hathaway fan. She always intimate dramas about friendship and loneliness and the seemed, to borrow a phrase some brilliant blogger once used inexorable pull of family ties (Melvin & Howard, Something about Gwyneth Paltrow, to be "sprinkling herself with fairy Wild). With Rachel Getting Married (Sony Pictures Classics), dust." But Hathaway transcends her usual complacency in this the story of an addict who's released from rehab to attend her role and resists the temptation of using Kym's (and her own) sister's wedding, he returns to that rich subject matter. But wounded-bird appeal to let the character off the hook. Bill Irwin, Demme's gaze has changed in the intervening years. Something the great stage clown who's a Demme regular, is marvelously Wild was a paean to forward motion, the road-trip romance par expressive as the girls' overanxious father. And when the excellence. Rachel Getting Married is about a different kind of luminous Debra Winger first appears onscreen as their journey—the backward time-travel that happens, willy-nilly, withholding mother, you want to grab her and say (on your own whenever you visit home. behalf as well as her daughters'): Where have you been all these years? The title is a kind of joke, given that its maddening antiheroine, Kym (Anne Hathaway), spends the movie frantically diverting her family's attention from the fact that Rachel (Rosemarie Dewitt) is, in fact, getting married. Kym, a charismatic black- clad waif in the Edie Sedgwick mold, is a master at shifting the movies focus back to her own long-running personal drama of drug use Shyness Is Nice and self-destruction. Years before, she was responsible for a Michael Cera in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. terrible accident while high; in the decade or so since, she's By Dana Stevens cycled in and out of various high-end rehabs and seen her Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 4:35 PM ET nurturing noodge of a father (Bill Irwin) divorce her loving but distant mother (Debra Winger). While Kym's life has been stuck, Rachel's has taken off: She's earning a psychology degree and is Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (Sony) is so slight it's almost about to marry an adoring African-American musician named diaphanous—an hour after seeing it, what the movie leaves Sidney (Tunde Adebimpe). When Kym arrives at their parents' behind is not so much a memory as a mood. Still, it's a fine sprawling Connecticut compound, her first move is to usurp the mood, lit with the sparkle of the Manhattan skyline and scored to maid-of-honor title from Rachel's best friend (Anisa George); a wistful indie-pop soundtrack. Teen viewers accustomed to the her second is to attend a local 12-step meeting and sleep with the rapid-fire vulgarities of Superbad and Pineapple Express may cutest guy there, who also happens to be Sidney's best man. snort at this movie's emo guilelessness. But like its source, a young-adult novel of the same name by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, Playlist is unabashedly romantic. Some people really So you think you know what kind of movie you're in for: an were made for each other, the movie asserts, and New York does intelligent middlebrow psychodrama about sororal competition. look beautiful by night. You got a problem with that? (You may even think you just saw it last year; Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding had a remarkably similar setup.) But from Rachel's first vertiginous moment, the script by Jenny Besides its heroes' iconic names, Playlist makes no reference to Lumet (Sidney's daughter, a first-time screenwriter) begins the Nick and Nora of the Thin Man comedies of the '30s and swooping and diving into unexpected places, as does the D.V. '40s. And unlike their martini-swilling screwball counterparts, camera hand-held by Declan Quinn. Quinn's freewheeling this Nick and Norah are straight-edge New Jersey teens who can cinematography at times recalls Dogme films like The party all night without downing so much as a beer. Nick Celebration. If this film had been made in conventional three- (Michael Cera), the only straight member of a queercore band quarter-shot fashion with an overlaid music score, it might read called the Jerk Offs, is still mooning over his ex-girlfriend, Tris like a groovier Ordinary People. Instead, Demme lets the (Alexis Dziena). He burns her homemade CD mixes with titles camera roam at will and finds a narrative excuse to embed music like "Road to Closure, Volume XII," which Tris promptly tosses into every scene: He fills the house with musicians practicing for in the garbage. Norah (Kat Dennings), Tris' classmate and the daughter of a famous record executive, secretly retrieves these

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 38/105 CDs from the trash—like Nick, she's a music geek with omnivorous tastes.

Over the course of one night, the two will fall for each other obit while roaming New York City in search of two things: a show to Paul Newman be played at an unnamed venue by the underground band He used his fame to give away his fortune. Where's Fluffy? and Norah's hard-partying best friend, Caroline By Dahlia Lithwick (Ari Graynor), who wanders off into the night after one tequila Saturday, September 27, 2008, at 10:20 AM ET shot too many. The where's-Caroline subplot soon devolves into a string of standard-issue gross-out gags (though Gaynor, an Angie Dickinson look-alike, is funny and admirably game). But The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp opened in Connecticut in 1988 as Nick and Norah bounce from hipster bar to all-night diner to to provide a summer camping experience—fishing, tie-dye, drag cabaret (in a lower Manhattan whose most fantastical ghost stories, s'mores—for seriously ill children. By 1989, when feature is its abundance of good parking spaces), you can't help I started working there as a counselor, virtually everyone on staff but root for them to hook up—not that that outcome is ever in would tell some version of the same story: Paul Newman, who any real jeopardy. The competitive Tris makes a few halfhearted had founded the camp when it became clear his little salad- attempts to win back Nick while Norah endures some pawing dressing lark was accidentally going to earn him millions, stops from her ex, Tal (Jay Baruchel, nailing a small role as a sleazy by for one of his not-infrequent visits. He plops down at a table arriviste). But essentially, this is a one-crazy-night movie in in the dining hall next to some kid with leukemia, or HIV, or which all that matters is the mysterious momentum that propels sickle cell anemia, and starts to eat lunch. One version of the our protagonists from one shimmering backdrop to the next. story has the kid look from the picture of Newman on the Like Before Sunrise or the lovely karaoke-bar sequence at the Newman's Own lemonade carton to Newman himself, then back center of Lost in Translation, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist to the carton and back to Newman again before asking, "Are you captures the excitement of exploring a city with someone you lost?" Another version: The kid looks steadily at him and barely know and really, really like. demands, "Are you really Paul Human?"

Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas), directing from a script by Newman loved those stories. He loved to talk about the little Lorene Scafaria, seems unsure of whether he wants to be John kids who had no clue who he was, this friendly old guy who kept Hughes or Paul Weitz (the director of American Pie, who also showing up at camp to take them fishing. While their counselors co-produced this movie). I wish Sollett had forgone the broader stammered, star-struck, the campers indulged Newman the way stuff and gone with his sharp instinct for romantic comedy, they'd have indulged a particularly friendly hospital blood which, at its best, calls for more than just snappy banter. I technician. It took me years to understand why Newman loved particularly dug a love scene in a recording studio in which the being at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. It was for precisely central couple's off-screen passion is registered on an audio the same reason these kids did. When the campers showed up, soundboard and a moment when Nick uses his windshield they became regular kids, despite the catheters and wheelchairs wipers to wash away the memory of an old love. and prosthetic legs. And when Newman showed up, he was a regular guy with blue eyes, despite the Oscar and the racecars I've already lobbed so many valentines at Michael Cera that the and the burgeoning marinara empire. The most striking thing poor kid is probably hiding from me behind his locker door. At about Paul Newman was that a man who could have blasted the age of 15, he fully grasped the unorthodox comic strategy of through his life demanding "Have you any idea who I am?" the Fox series Arrested Development and entered into its world. invariably wanted to hang out with folks—often little ones— At 19, he quietly stole both Superbad and Juno from his far who neither knew nor cared. more effusive co-stars. Critics are starting to get on Cera, now 20, for always playing the same stammering, diffident nice-guy For his part, Newman put it all down to luck. In his 1992 role, but when was that ever a problem for the comic he's most introduction to our book about the camp, he tried to explain what often compared to, Bob Newhart? impelled him to create the Hole in the Wall: "I wanted, I think, to acknowledge Luck: the chance of it, the benevolence of it in After reading this recent profile of the press-shy young actor, I my life, and the brutality of it in the lives of others; made half-hope that Cera does drop out of the acting game, not for our especially savage for children because they may not be allowed sake (I could watch him stammer on a weekly basis, and if the good fortune of a lifetime to correct it." Married to Joanne Arrested Development were still on, I would), but for his. The Woodward, his second wife, for 50 years this winter, Newman idea of him "stretching" to play some Oscar-bait tormented hero, always looked at her like something he'd pulled out of a and being critically savaged for his trouble, is just too painful to Christmas stocking. He looked at his daughters that way, too. It contemplate. As we used to scrawl in high-school yearbooks: was like, all these years later, he couldn't quite believe he got to Don't ever change, Michael. Stay sweet. keep them.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 39/105 Of course, it wasn't all luck. He lost his son, Scott, to a drug overdose in 1978, so in 1980, he founded the Scott Newman Center, which works to prevent substance abuse. When he first began to donate 100 percent of the proceeds from his food other magazines company, Newman's Own, to charity, critics accused him of Virginia Slim grandiosity. Grandiose? Tell that to the recipients of the quarter- The New Yorker on Barack Obama's push for Old Dominion. billion dollars he's given away since the company's creation in By Daniel Riley 1982. First Paul Newman made fresh, healthy food cool, then he Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at 5:25 PM ET and his daughter Nell made organic food cool.Then he went and made corporate giving cool by establishing the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy. And all this was back in The New Yorker, Oct. 6 the '90s, before Lance Armstrong bracelets and organic juice A story handicaps Barack Obama's chances in an increasingly boxes. blue Virginia, focusing on the state's rural southwest. A team of Virginia Dems—including Gov. Tim Kaine, Sen. Jim Webb, and Democratic guru David "Mudcat" Saunders—weigh in on But Newman never stopped believing he was a regular guy Obama's "Appalachia problem." First, organization: Obama has who'd simply been blessed, and well beyond what was fair. So opened eight campaign offices in the region to McCain's one. he just kept on paying it forward. He appreciated great ideas for Second, message: "Obama would be well served emphasizing a doing good in the world—he collected them the way other populist theme for the rest of the campaign," says Webb. … A people collect their own press clippings—and he didn't care feature reports on the covert operations of the Environmental where they came from. Whether you were a college kid, a Investigation Agency, a nonprofit group working to combat pediatric oncologist, or a Hollywood tycoon, if you had a nutty illegal logging. Timber gets smuggled from Russia into China plan to make life better for someone, he'd write the check and ends up being sold at Wal-Mart—a black-market business himself or hook you up with somebody who would. that often boasts profits "better than drug smuggling." Along the way, the EIA "spies" risk getting entangled with the local mafia. Today there are 11 camps modeled on the Hole in the Wall all around the world, and seven more in the works, including a New York, Oct. 6 camp in Hungary and one opening next year in the Middle East. The magazine's 40th-anniversary issue features an essay by Kurt Each summer of the four I spent at Newman's flagship Andersen that traces the most significant New York City Connecticut camp was a living lesson in how one man can movements and moments of the last four decades. "The change everything. Terrified parents would deliver their wan, nationally branded version of 'the late sixties' may have been weary kid at the start of the session with warnings and cautions mainly about flowers and sunshine, but the New York edition and lists of things not to be attempted. They'd return 10 days was edgy, even grisly, always embedded with the imagination of later to find the same kid, tanned and bruisey, halfway up a tree disaster—that is, New Yorkier." … In another piece, Jay or cannon-balling into the deep end of the pool. Their wigs or McInerney reflects on the ascendancy of the "yuppie" during the prosthetic arms—props of years spent trying to fit in—were 1980s: "Once we had a name for them, we suddenly realized that forgotten in the duffel under the bed. Shame, stigma, fear, worry, they were everywhere, like the pod people of Invasion of the all vaporized by a few days of being ordinary. In an era in which Body Snatchers—especially here in New York, the urbanest nearly everyone feels entitled to celebrity and fortune, Newman place of all. We might have even recognized them as us." was always suspicious of both. He used his fame to give away McInerney argues that gym-joining, brand-worshipping yuppie his fortune, and he did that from some unspoken Zen-like culture "has become the culture, if not in reality, than conviction that neither had ever really belonged to him in the aspirationally." first place. Newsweek, Oct. 6 Hollywood legend holds that Paul Newman is and will always The cover story takes a close look at the leadership styles of be larger-than-life, and it's true. Nominated for 10 Oscars, he John McCain and Barack Obama. McCain is "Mr. Hot, a won one. He was Fast Eddie, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy. candidate who makes no apologies for his often merry mischief- And then there were Those Eyes. But anyone who ever met Paul making"; Obama is "Mr. Cool, at once impressively intellectual Newman will probably tell you that he was, in life, a pretty and yet aloof." The authors suggest that the "drama of the regular-sized guy: A guy with five beautiful daughters and a autumn"—the vice-presidential nominations, the conflict in wonder of a wife, and a rambling country house in Connecticut Georgia, and the financial crisis—"has served perhaps the where he screened movies out in the barn. He was a guy who noblest end we could hope for, shedding light on how each man went out of his way to ensure that everyone else—the thousands would govern." … A tribute bids farewell to Paul Newman, "one of campers, counselors, and volunteers at his camps, the friends of the biggest stars in Hollywood history," who hadn't "a shred he involved in his charities, and the millions of Americans who of the diva in him." Despite his class and good looks, Newman's bought his popcorn—could feel like they were the real star. roles rarely pivoted on romance: "It's hard to think of another

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 40/105 star so beloved by both men and women who had such a dismal …………………...... …….I'd call my baby back." on-screen amatory track record. His most successful long-term Or, I am hearing again that old man relationship was with us." facing a silent field of land mines, circled by barbed wire, calling Weekly Standard, Oct. 6 his daughter's name over a loudspeaker The cover story traces the history of car-seat laws. The car seat on his crying hill near the Golan Heights. appeared 30 years ago as "a novelty device." But after the The sunlight glints off his eyeglasses. introduction of car-safety legislation, some began to worry about She arrives like an apparition unbound "the specter of government intrusion into the everyday lives of from a stone. Whenever he comes here, citizens." Advocates soon discovered that many people were he goes away with pocketsful of dirt. simply incapable of installing their car seats properly, inducing He's lamenting her mother's ashes an entirely new set of concerns. … A piece surveys a recent given months ago to the Sea of Galilee inventory of "Islamic books and videos in Muslim chapel one sunset. What is she saying to him, libraries in 105 federal correctional institutions." The findings— her head thrown back, her black hair "a marked predominance of Wahhabi and other fundamentalist flowing around her? She has a bouquet Sunni literature" in addition to "plentiful materials from the of red roses. But for a second, an eye Nation of Islam"—are significant, says the author, because of blink, he thought she'd been wounded. "Muslim extremists' openly stated intent to spread their ideology Do the flowers mean a birth or death? through prisons." A whisper floats out of the loudspeaker. He remembers when he was wild-hearted, climbing these hills with his two friends, Los Angeles, October 2008 Seth & Horus, both dead now for years. In the magazine's "Sex Issue," a feature showcases the attempts They were kings, three laughing boys, of a former high-school classmate of David Spade's to unpack daring the small animals to speak. Spade's uncannily successful ways with women. Convinced that Spade possesses a singular clef d'amour, the author—still single at 42—recounts nights out with Spade in L.A. and Las Vegas, conversations with the women in his life, a trip to the set of Spade's sitcom, and a high-school reunion. Still, he fails to discover the secret of "the greatest ladies' man of all time." … A politics piece examines the strange dynamics of the celebrity sex tape— Track the Presidential Polls on Your equal parts exhibitionism, voyeurism, narcissism, career move, fantasy, and occasional grand bore. "Like stripper chic of the iPhone Introducing Slate's Poll Tracker '08: all the data you crave about the '80s and the porn-star chic of the '90s, the sex tape became hip." presidential race. Friday, October 3, 2008, at 7:00 AM ET poem "The Crying Hill" By Yusef Komunyakaa If you're a political junkie like we're political junkies, you have a Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at 6:31 AM ET problem. You can track the McCain-Obama polls only at your computer. If you go to a ballgame, or a meeting, or your Click the arrow on the audio player to hear Yusef Komunyakaa daughter's wedding, you enter a politics vacuum, cut off from read this poem. the data you crave.

No longer. Today Slate introduces Poll Tracker '08, an Lately, I've stood between one self application that delivers comprehensive up-to-the-minute data & another self, trying to call across about the presidential election to your iPhone, iPhone 3G, or the gone years, & my voice floats iPod touch. Using data from Pollster.com, the Poll Tracker '08 from a tower of Babel, saying, delivers the latest McCain and Obama polling numbers for every Yes, I need my arms around you state, graphs historical polling trends, and charts voting patterns to anchor myself. Or, maybe I hear Ray in previous elections. Poll Tracker '08 allows you to sort states with the volume turned down, singing by how contested they are, how fresh their poll data is, or how ……...…"If I were a mountain jack heavily they lean to McCain or Obama.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 41/105 You can download Poll Tracker '08 on the iPhone App Store. It Palin's performance will also allow the campaign to keep up the costs just 99 cents, a small price to pay for satisfying your media war. As Palin put it in her closing statement, she was able craving for data anytime, anywhere. Get it on the App Store. to talk without the filter. But a little straight talk: Palin's problem with the press was not that we filtered her answer but that she Apple, the Apple logo, iPod, and iTunes are had no answer for us to filter. Another quibble: She said she trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. wasn't going to answer some of moderator Gwen Ifill's questions and other countries. iPhone is a trademark of Apple but then at the end took credit for taking tough questions. I think they call that chutzpah in Wasilla. Nevertheless, she and her Inc. allies will keep up the fight—which is great, because press- bashing rallies the base in a way that is not unappealing to middle-of-the-road voters. All voters hate the press.

The 90-second format, with little time for follow-up, favored politics Palin. She has one answer. She doesn't appear to have a second Champ vs. Doggone one, and she never had to give one. To the television audience, The debate's winners: Palin and Biden. Its loser: McCain. she no doubt looked in command. For those who were worried By John Dickerson about her capacity given her horrible interviews with Katie Friday, October 3, 2008, at 12:48 AM ET Couric, her performance suggested something important: that she could grow. In a focus group pollster Peter Hart held in St. Louis, Mo., the day of the debate for the Annenberg Public The puzzle of the vice-presidential debate looked as if it was Policy Center, a number of participants said she lacked going to be relatively easy. We knew the words we would use to experience but suggested she could grow into the job. By doing describe it—embarrassing, gaffe, and twaddle. All that was left well, Palin showed she studied and could hold her own. That's a was to figure out which candidate to fix them to. Either Joe low standard, but as a political standard, being used by the voters Biden would fulfill his role as the man known for producing who will determine the election, she passed. word clouds before that became an Internet term or Sarah Palin would produce one of those fearless answers that proved the Republicans are no doubt thrilled with the performance, and that topic she was certain about was one with which she had only matters. The McCain team says they've surpassed Bush's passing familiarity. performance in 2004 in the number of volunteers making phone calls and knocking on doors. Palin's performance will keep them It turned out to be harder than that to score. Those words will sit dialing and knocking. She's also helped her future prospects in unused. People watching for a car crash were disappointed. Palin the party, too. Partisans could excuse her bad interviews as press did well, and so did Biden. He was the winner by my standard— bias, but anyone who wants a future as a national politician in he knew his brief, he kept himself in check, and he was 2012 or beyond needs to perform in a debate. commanding. The CNN and CBS post-debate polls called it for Biden. The Fox focus group (not an exact comparison) called it But all of this takes McCain only so far. His campaign has been for Palin. bleeding for reasons other than Sarah Palin. The issue of the moment is the economy, and that's Obama's issue. That's why But regardless of who won or lost, a vice-presidential debate Obama is ahead in the national polls and now ahead in a score of doesn't matter unless it produces a major gaffe. This one didn't. battleground states. It's why McCain had to pull campaign So, people will vote on the person at the top of the ticket, and by operations out of Michigan. McCain couldn't overcome the bad that criterion, even if you think Palin won the debate, it's hard to economy there. Yes, Michigan has been a state that has been see how she changed the race much. That's not great news for hard hit, but the economy's bad everywhere. John McCain. Both national and state polls are going in the wrong direction for him. Those who watched Biden during the primaries knew he could do very well on the issues in a debate. His answers have strong What Palin did do is stop the bleeding. Six in 10 voters see her punctuation at the end. He was particularly sharp when talking as lacking the experience to be an effective president, and one- about Afghanistan and Pakistan. He also scored political points third are now less likely to vote for McCain because of her. providing a useful sound bite for his candidate when he Those numbers might improve. If nothing else, McCain will now questioned whether John McCain was really a maverick. The have an answer when he gets questions about why he picked McCain team doesn't think their candidate can win if he can't Palin. It was those kinds of questions that made him irritable and convince swing voters he's a maverick—that's why Palin used sarcastic in interviews this week. Now he can just point to the the word repeatedly. debate.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 42/105 Biden also kept his erratic character in check. In every cutaway hypotheticals, platform statements, and personal anecdotes. shot, he looked as though he was listening attentively, and he More important, we were agnostic as to whether the redacted treated Palin with respect (though he could be heard to sigh on facts were accurate. occasion). And when he broke down when talking about the death of his first wife and daughter, it seemed genuine. You be the judge: Is the fact-free debate all that different from the original? Drop me a line with your thoughts. (Don't be fooled At times what was supposed to be a throw-down turned into a by the sparse facts in the first few minutes. There are 203 hoedown as the candidates tried to out-folksy each other. Sarah redacted statements in the entire transcript.) Palin took us to the sidelines of the soccer games. (First hockey, now soccer—we'll be getting a spring sport soon.) Biden took us Mouse over the redacted facts to see the original text. to the gas station and Home Depot. Palin was dropping her G's and using expressions like doggone. Joe was speaking to the LEHRER: Gentlemen, at this very moment tonight, where do Catholics with "God love him" and reminding us a few times you stand on the financial recovery plan? First response to you, that his father called him "Champ." I'm just glad there wasn't Senator Obama. You have two minutes. dancing. Although, if there were, we might have been able to use those words. OBAMA: Well, thank you very much, Jim, and thanks to the commission and the University of Mississippi, "Ole Miss," for hosting us tonight. I can't think of a more important time for us to talk about the future of the country. politics You know, we are at a defining moment in our history. The Fact-Free Debate Redacted. How the debate reads with all the facts removed. By Chris Wilson And although we've heard a lot about Wall Street, those of you Monday, September 29, 2008, at 10:07 AM ET on Main Street I think have been struggling for a while, and you recognize that this could have an impact on all sectors of the economy. Presidential debates are the World Series of the fact-checking business. When candidates trade charges and countercharges for And you're wondering, how's it going to affect me? How's it 90 minutes, they create a lot of factual debris, and there is a going to affect my job? How's it going to affect my house? legion of people out there looking for anything that smells How's it going to affect my retirement savings or my ability to funny. During Friday's debate between Barack Obama and John send my children to college? McCain, the fact-checkers were out in force at the New York Times, the Washington Post, PolitiFact and Factchecker.org. (And that's not counting the fact-checking done by each of the So we have to move swiftly, and we have to move wisely. And candidates; take them for what they're worth.) Rarely have the I've put forward a series of proposals that make sure that we forces of truth, or at least accuracy, been so mobilized. protect taxpayers as we engage in this important rescue effort.

Which is all well and good—if you accept that it really matters No. 1, we've got to make sure that we've got oversight over this whether the candidates' facts are actually correct. As Slate's whole process; Redacted. Farhad Manjoo argued earlier this month, however, it's not at all clear that the costs of lying outweigh the benefits. And the No. 2, we've got to make sure that taxpayers, when they are history of debate gaffes is marked by crimes of style, not putting their money at risk, have the possibility of getting that accuracy. Do the facts that candidates spew at debates matter at money back and gains, if the market -- and when the market all, or do viewers secretly tune out any sentence with a number returns. in it and wait for the next one-liner? To test the question, Slate experimented with redacting every objective statement from the No. 3, we've got to make sure that none of that money is going debate transcript, leaving only the rhetoric that strings the facts to pad CEO bank accounts or to promote golden parachutes. together. And, No. 4, we've got to make sure that we're helping As always, the line between fact and opinion is a little hazy here, homeowners, because the root problem here has to do with the but in general the fact-checker's edict applies: If it's checkable, foreclosures that are taking place all across the country. it's a fact. In practice, this means we slashed any statement drawing on actual data or recalling past events while sparing

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 43/105 Now, we also have to recognize that this is a final verdict on House Republicans that decided that they would be part of the eight years of failed economic policies promoted by George solution to this problem. Bush, Redacted, a theory that basically says that we can shred regulations and consumer protections and give more and more to But I want to emphasize one point to all Americans tonight. This the most, and somehow prosperity will trickle down. isn't the beginning of the end of this crisis. This is the end of the beginning, if we come out with a package that will keep these It hasn't worked. And I think that the fundamentals of the institutions stable. economy have to be measured by whether or not the middle class is getting a fair shake. That's why I'm running for And we've got a lot of work to do. And we've got to create jobs. president, and that's what I hope we're going to be talking about And one of the areas, of course, is to eliminate our dependence tonight. on foreign oil.

LEHRER: Senator McCain, two minutes. LEHRER: All right, let's go back to my question. How do you all stand on the recovery plan? And talk to each other about it. MCCAIN: Well, thank you, Jim. And thanks to everybody. We've got five minutes. We can negotiate a deal right here.

And I do have a sad note tonight. Senator Kennedy is in the But, I mean, are you -- do you favor this plan, Senator Obama, hospital. He's a dear and beloved friend to all of us. Our thoughts and you, Senator McCain? Do you -- are you in favor of this and prayers go out to the lion of the Senate. plan?

I also want to thank the University of Mississippi for hosting us OBAMA: We haven't seen the language yet. And I do think that tonight. there's constructive work being done out there. So, for the viewers who are watching, I am optimistic about the capacity of And, Jim, I -- I've been not feeling too great about a lot of things us to come together with a plan. lately. So have a lot of Americans who are facing challenges. But I'm feeling a little better tonight, and I'll tell you why. The question, I think, that we have to ask ourselves is, how did we get into this situation in the first place? Because as we're here tonight in this debate, we are seeing, for the first time in a long time, Republicans and Democrats Redacted. together, sitting down, trying to work out a solution to this fiscal crisis that we're in. Redacted.

And have no doubt about the magnitude of this crisis. And we're So -- so the question, I think, that we've got to ask ourselves is, not talking about failure of institutions on Wall Street. We're yes, we've got to solve this problem short term. And we are talking about failures on Main Street, and people who will lose going to have to intervene; there's no doubt about that. their jobs, and their credits, and their homes, if we don't fix the greatest fiscal crisis, probably in -- certainly in our time, and I've But we're also going to have to look at, how is it that we been around a little while. shredded so many regulations? We did not set up a 21st-century regulatory framework to deal with these problems. And that in But the point is -- the point is, we have finally seen Republicans part has to do with an economic philosophy that says that and Democrats sitting down and negotiating together and regulation is always bad. coming up with a package. LEHRER: Are you going to vote for the plan, Senator McCain? This package has transparency in it. It has to have accountability and oversight. It has to have options for loans to failing MCCAIN: I -- I hope so. And I... businesses, rather than the government taking over those loans. We have to -- it has to have a package with a number of other essential elements to it. LEHRER: As a United States senator...

And, yes, I went back to Washington, and I met with my MCCAIN: Sure. Republicans in the House of Representatives. And they weren't part of the negotiations, and I understand that. And it was the LEHRER: ... you're going to vote for the plan?

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 44/105 MCCAIN: Sure. But -- but let me -- let me point out, Redacted. officer, who, frankly, at the end of each month, they've got a A lot of us saw this train wreck coming. little financial crisis going on.

But there's also the issue of responsibility. You've mentioned Redacted. We haven't been paying attention to them. And if you President Dwight David Eisenhower. Redacted. look at our tax policies, it's a classic example.

Somehow we've lost that accountability. I've been heavily LEHRER: So, Senator McCain, do you agree with what Senator criticized because Redacted. We've got to start also holding Obama just said? And, if you don't, tell him what you disagree people accountable, and we've got to reward people who with. succeed. MCCAIN: No, I -- look, we've got to fix the system. We've got But somehow in Washington today -- and I'm afraid on Wall fundamental problems in the system. And Main Street is paying Street -- greed is rewarded, excess is rewarded, and corruption -- a penalty for the excesses and greed in Washington, D.C., and on or certainly failure to carry out our responsibility is rewarded. Wall Street.

As president of the United States, people are going to be held So there's no doubt that we have a long way to go. And, accountable in my administration. And I promise you that that obviously, stricter interpretation and consolidation of the various will happen. regulatory agencies that weren't doing their job, that has brought on this crisis. LEHRER: Do you have something directly to say, Senator Obama, to Senator McCain about what he just said? But I have a fundamental belief in the goodness and strength of the American worker. And the American worker is the most OBAMA: Well, I think Senator McCain's absolutely right that productive, the most innovative. Redacted. we need more responsibility, but we need it not just when there's a crisis. I mean, we've had years in which the reigning economic But we've got to get through these times, but I have a ideology has been what's good for Wall Street, but not what's fundamental belief in the United States of America. And I still good for Main Street. believe, under the right leadership, our best days are ahead of us.

And there are folks out there who've been struggling before this LEHRER: All right, let's go to the next lead question, which is crisis took place. And that's why it's so important, as we solve essentially following up on this same subject. this short-term problem, that we look at some of the underlying issues that have led to wages and incomes for ordinary And you get two minutes to begin with, Senator McCain. And Americans to go down, the -- a health care system that is broken, using your word "fundamental," are there fundamental energy policies that are not working, because, you know, differences between your approach and Senator Obama's Redacted. approach to what you would do as president to lead this country out of the financial crisis? LEHRER: Say it directly to him. MCCAIN: Well, the first thing we have to do is get spending OBAMA: I do not think that they are. under control in Washington. It's completely out of control. It's gone -- Redacted. LEHRER: Say it directly to him. We Republicans came to power to change government, and OBAMA: Well, the -- John, Redacted. And... government changed us. And the -- the worst symptom on this disease is what my friend, Tom Coburn, calls earmarking as a MCCAIN: Are you afraid I couldn't hear him? gateway drug, because it's a gateway. It's a gateway to out-of- control spending and corruption. LEHRER: I'm just determined to get you all to talk to each other. And we have former members of Congress now residing in I'm going to try. federal prison because of the evils of this earmarking and pork- barrel spending. OBAMA: The -- and I just fundamentally disagree. And unless we are holding ourselves accountable day in, day out, not just when there's a crisis for folks who have power and influence and can hire lobbyists, but for the nurse, the teacher, the police

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 45/105 You know, we spent Redacted. I don't know if that was a MCCAIN: Redacted. He didn't happen to see that light during criminal issue or a paternal issue, but the fact is that it Redacted. the first three years as a member of the United States Senate, And it has got to be brought under control. Redacted.

As president of the United States, I want to assure you, I've got a Maybe to Senator Obama it's not a lot of money. But the point is pen. This one's kind of old. I've got a pen, and I'm going to veto that -- you see, I hear this all the time. "It's only $18 billion." every single spending bill that comes across my desk. I will Redacted Do you know that it's gone completely out of control make them famous. You will know their names. to the point where it corrupts people? It corrupts people.

Now, Senator Obama, you wanted to know one of the That's why we have, as I said, Redacted. It's a system that's got differences. a million dollars for every day that he's been in the to be cleaned up. United States Senate. I have fought against it my career. I have fought against it. I suggest that people go up on the Web site of Citizens Against Redacted. I didn't win Miss Congeniality in the United States Government Waste, and they'll look at those projects. Senate.

That kind of thing is not the way to rein in runaway spending in Now, Senator Obama didn't mention that, along with his tax Washington, D.C. That's one of the fundamental differences that cuts, Redacted. Senator Obama and I have. Now, that's a fundamental difference between myself and LEHRER: Senator Obama, two minutes. Senator Obama. I want to cut spending. I want to keep taxes low. The worst thing we could do in this economic climate is to raise OBAMA: Well, Senator McCain is absolutely right that the people's taxes. earmarks process has been abused, which is why Redacted. OBAMA: I -- I don't know where John is getting his figures. And he's also right that Redacted, although that wasn't the case Let's just be clear. with me. Redacted. Redacted. But let's be clear: Redacted. Redacted. I think those are pretty important priorities. Redacted. Now, $18 billion is important; $300 billion is really important. But let's go back to the original point. John, nobody is denying And in his tax plan, you would have Redacted. that $18 billion is important. And, absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make So my attitude is, we've got to grow the economy from the sure that we are not spending money unwisely. bottom up. Redacted. But the fact is that Redacted. And that means that the ordinary American out there who's collecting a paycheck every day, they've got a little extra money OBAMA: And when you look at Redacted, I think that is a to be able to buy a computer for their kid, to fill up on this gas continuation of the last eight years, and we can't afford another that is killing them. four.

And over time, that, I think, is going to be a better recipe for LEHRER: Respond directly to him about that, to Senator Obama economic growth than the -- the policies of President Bush that about that, about the -- he's made it twice now, about your tax -- John McCain wants to -- wants to follow. your policies about tax cuts.

LEHRER: Senator McCain? MCCAIN: Well -- well, let me give you an example of what Senator Obama finds objectionable, the business tax. MCCAIN: Well, again, I don't mean to go back and forth, but he... Right now, Redacted.

LEHRER: No, that's fine. Now, if you're a business person, and you can locate any place in the world, then, obviously, Redacted.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 46/105 Redacted. OBAMA: John, Redacted.

But, again, I want to return. Redacted. I can tell you, it's rife. It's MCCAIN: You've got to look at our record. You've got to look throughout. at our records. That's the important thing.

Redacted. Look at them. You'll be appalled. Who Redacted? Who has been the person who Redacted? Who's the person who has believed that Redacted? And And Redacted. Redacted.

So the point is, I want people to have tax cuts. Redacted. Let's give every American a choice: Redacted, and, two -- and Redacted. let Americans choose whether they want the -- the existing tax code or they want a new tax code. I know that the worst thing we could possibly do is to raise taxes on anybody, and a lot of people might be interested in Senator And so, again, look at the record, particularly the energy bill. Obama's definition of "rich." But, again, Senator Obama has shifted on a number of occasions. Redacted. LEHRER: Senator Obama, you have a question for Senator McCain on that? OBAMA: That's not true, John. That's not true.

OBAMA: Well, let me just make a couple of points. MCCAIN: And that's just a fact. Again, you can look it up.

LEHRER: All right. OBAMA: Look, it's just not true. And if we want to talk about oil company profits, Redacted. OBAMA: My definition -- here's what I can tell the American people: Redacted. And Redacted. Now, look, we all would love to lower taxes on everybody. But here's the problem: Redacted. And... Now, John mentioned the fact that business taxes on paper are high in this country, and he's absolutely right. Here's the MCCAIN: With all due respect, Redacted. problem: Redacted. OBAMA: No, but, John, the fact of the matter is, is that And what that means, then, is that Redacted. Redacted. We've got an emergency bill on the Senate floor right now that contains some good stuff, some stuff you want, including Redacted, but you're opposed to it because Redacted. It's Redacted. You just want Redacted. And that's a problem.

LEHRER: All right. All right, speaking of things that both of Just one last point I want to make, since Senator McCain talked you want, another lead question, and it has to do with the rescue about Redacted. Now, what he doesn't tell you is that Redacted. -- the financial rescue thing that we started -- started asking about. And what -- and the first answer is to you, Senator So Redacted.Here's the only problem: Redacted. Obama. As president, as a result of whatever financial rescue plan comes about and the billion, $700 billion, whatever it is it's It is not a good deal for the American people. But it's an example going to cost, what are you going to have to give up, in terms of of this notion that the market can always solve everything and the priorities that you would bring as president of the United that the less regulation we have, the better off we're going to be. States, as a result of having to pay for the financial rescue plan?

MCCAIN: Well, you know, let me just... OBAMA: Well, there are a range of things that are probably going to have to be delayed. Redacted. The economy is slowing LEHRER: We've got to go to another lead question. down, so it's hard to anticipate right now what the budget is going to look like next year. MCCAIN: I know we have to, but this is a classic example of walking the walk and talking the talk. But there's no doubt that we're not going to be able to do everything that I think needs to be done. There are some things We had an energy bill before the United States Senate. that I think have to be done. Redacted.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 47/105 We have to have energy independence, so Redacted, but most contracts. We now have defense systems that the costs are importantly by starting to invest in alternative energy, solar, completely out of control. wind, biodiesel, making sure that we're developing the fuel- efficient cars of the future right here in the United States, in Redacted. Ohio and Michigan, instead of Japan and South Korea. So we need to have fixed-cost contracts. We need very badly to We have to fix our health care system, which is putting an understand that defense spending is very important and vital, enormous burden on families. Just -- a report just came out that particularly in the new challenges we face in the world, but we Redacted. have to get a lot of the cost overruns under control.

They are getting crushed, and Redacted. I'm meeting folks all I know how to do that. over the country. We have to do that now, because it will actually make our businesses and our families better off. MCCAIN: Redacted. But I think that we have to examine every agency of government and find out those that are doing their job The third thing we have to do is we've got to make sure that and keep them and find out those that aren't and eliminate them we're competing in education. We've got to invest in science and and we'll have to scrub every agency of government. technology. Redacted. We've got to make sure that our children are keeping pace in math and in science. LEHRER: But if I hear the two of you correctly neither one of you is suggesting any major changes in what you want to do as And one of the things I think we have to do is make sure that president as a result of the financial bailout? Is that what you're college is affordable for every young person in America. saying?

And I also think that we're going to have to rebuild our OBAMA: No. As I said before, Jim, there are going to be things infrastructure, which Redacted, our roads, our bridges, but also that end up having to be ... broadband lines that reach into rural communities. LEHRER: Like what? Also, making sure that we have a new electricity grid to get the alternative energy to population centers that are using them. OBAMA: ... deferred and delayed. Well, look, Redacted. That is a big project. That is a multi-year project. So there are some -- some things that we've got to do structurally to make sure that we can compete in this global economy. We LEHRER: Not willing to give that up? can't shortchange those things. We've got to eliminate programs that don't work, and we've got to make sure that the programs that we do have are more efficient and cost less. OBAMA: Not willing to give up the need to do it but there may be individual components that we can't do. But John is right we have to make cuts. Redacted. LEHRER: Are you -- what priorities would you adjust, as president, Senator McCain, because of the -- because of the financial bailout cost? Redacted and we have to change the culture. Tom -- or John mentioned me being wildly liberal. Redacted but I think it is that it is also important to recognize Redacted. MCCAIN: Look, we, no matter what, we've got to cut spending. We have -- as I said, we've let government get completely out of control. LEHRER: What I'm trying to get at this is this. Excuse me if I may, senator. Trying to get at that you all -- one of you is going to be the president of the United States come January. At the -- Redacted. It's hard to reach across the aisle from that far to the in the middle of a huge financial crisis that is yet to be resolved. left. And what I'm trying to get at is how this is going to affect you not in very specific -- small ways but in major ways and the The point -- the point is -- the point is, we need to examine every approach to take as to the presidency. agency of government. MCCAIN: How about a spending freeze on everything but First of all, by the way, Redacted. defense, veteran affairs and entitlement programs.

I think that we have to return -- particularly in defense spending, LEHRER: Spending freeze? which is Redacted -- we have to do away with cost-plus

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 48/105 MCCAIN: I think we ought to seriously consider with the MCCAIN: Well, I want to make sure we're not handing the exceptions the caring of veterans national defense and several health care system over to the federal government which is other vital issues. Redacted. I want the families to make decisions between themselves and their doctors. Not the federal government. Look. LEHRER: Would you go for that? We have to obviously cut spending. Redacted. I would suggest he start by canceling some of those new spending program that he has. OBAMA: The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel. There are some programs that are very important that are under funded. I went to increase early We can't I think adjust spending around to take care of the very childhood education and the notion that we should freeze that much needed programs, including taking care of our veterans but when there may be, for example, this Medicare subsidy doesn't I also want to say again a healthy economy with low taxes would make sense. not raising anyone's taxes is probably the best recipe for eventually having our economy recover. Let me tell you another place to look for some savings. Redacted. It seems to me that if we're going to be strong at And spending restraint has got to be a vital part of that. And the home as well as strong abroad, that we have to look at bringing reason, one of the major reasons why we're in the difficulties we that war to a close. are in today is because spending got out of control. Redacted. And spending, I know, can be brought under control because MCCAIN: Look, Redacted. We have to have wind, tide, solar, Redacted. And I got plans to reduce and eliminate unnecessary and wasteful spending and if there's anybody here who thinks natural gas, flex fuel cars and all that but we also have to have there aren't agencies of government where spending can be cut offshore drilling and we also have to have nuclear power. and their budgets slashed they have not spent a lot of time in Washington. Redacted. You can't get there from here and the fact is that Redacted. Nuclear power is not only important as far as OBAMA: I just want to make this point, Jim. John, it's been your eliminating our dependence on foreign oil but it's also president who Redacted who presided over this increase in responsibility as far as climate change is concerned and the issue spending. This orgy of spending and enormous deficits I have been involved in for many, many years and I'm proud of the work of the work that I've done there along with President Redacted. So to stand here and after eight years and say that Clinton. you're going to lead on controlling spending and, you know, balancing our tax cuts so that they help middle class families when over the last eight years that hasn't happened I think just is, LEHRER: Before we go to another lead question. Let me figure you know, kind of hard to swallow. out a way to ask the same question in a slightly different way here. Are you -- are you willing to acknowledge both of you that this financial crisis is going to affect the way you rule the LEHRER: Quick response to Senator Obama. country as president of the United States beyond the kinds of things that you have already -- I mean, is it a major move? Is it MCCAIN: It's well-known that I have not been elected Miss going to have a major affect? Congeniality in the United States Senate nor with the administration. Redacted. I have a long record and the OBAMA: There's no doubt it will affect our budgets. There is no American people know me very well and that is independent and a maverick of the Senate and I'm happy to say that I've got a doubt about it. Not only -- Even if we get all $700 billion back, partner that's a good maverick along with me now. let's assume the markets recover, we' holding assets long enough that eventually taxpayers get it back and Redacted. If we're lucky and do it right, that could potentially happen but in the LEHRER: All right. Let's go another subject. Lead question, two short term there's an outlay and we may not see that money for a minutes to you, senator McCain. Much has been said about the while. lessons of Vietnam. What do you see as the lessons of Iraq?

And Redacted so there's no doubt that as president I'm go doing MCCAIN: I think the lessons of Iraq are very clear that you have to make some tough decision. cannot have a failed strategy that will then cause you to nearly lose a conflict. Our initial military success, we went in to Baghdad and everybody celebrated. And then the war was very The only point I want to make is this, that in order to make the badly mishandled. Redacted. This strategy requires additional tough decisions we have to know what our values are and who troops, it requires a fundamental change in strategy and I fought we're fighting for and our priorities and if Redacted, then I think we have made a bad decision and I want to make sure we're not for it. And finally, we came up with a great general and a shortchanging our long term priorities. strategy that has succeeded.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 49/105 This strategy has succeeded. And we are winning in Iraq. And not. The next president of the United States is going to have to we will come home with victory and with honor. And that decide how we leave, when we leave, and what we leave behind. withdrawal is the result of every counterinsurgency that That's the decision of the next president of the United States. succeeds. Redacted. MCCAIN: And I want to tell you that now that we will succeed and our troops will come home, and not in defeat, that we will Redacted... see a stable ally in the region and a fledgling democracy. LEHRER: Well, let's go at some of these things... The consequences of defeat would have been increased Iranian influence. It would have been increase in sectarian violence. It MCCAIN: Redacted. would have been a wider war, which the United States of America might have had to come back. LEHRER: What about that point? So there was a lot at stake there. And thanks to this great general, David Petraeus, and the troops who serve under him, MCCAIN: I mean, it's remarkable. they have succeeded. And we are winning in Iraq, and we will come home. And we will come home as we have when we have LEHRER: All right. What about that point? won other wars and not in defeat. OBAMA: Which point? He raised a whole bunch of them. LEHRER: Two minutes, how you see the lessons of Iraq, Senator Obama? LEHRER: I know, OK, let's go to the latter point and we'll back up. The point about your not having been... OBAMA: Well, this is an area where Senator McCain and I have a fundamental difference because I think the first question is OBAMA: Look, I'm very proud of my vice presidential whether we should have gone into the war in the first place. selection, Joe Biden, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as he explains, and as John well Now six years ago, I stood up and opposed this war at a time knows, Redacted. when it was politically risky to do so because I said that Redacted, and as a consequence, I thought that it was going to But that's Senate inside baseball. But let's get back to the core be a distraction. Now Senator McCain and President Bush had a issue here. Senator McCain is absolutely right that Redacted as very different judgment. a consequence of the extraordinary sacrifice of our troops and our military families. And I wish I had been wrong for the sake of the country and they had been right, but that's not the case. Redacted. Redacted, They have done a brilliant job, and General Petraeus has done a and most importantly, from a strategic national security brilliant job. But understand, that was a tactic designed to perspective, Redacted. contain the damage of the previous four years of mismanagement of this war. We took our eye off the ball. And not to mention that Redacted, at a time when we are in great distress here at home, and we just And so John likes -- John, you like to pretend like the war talked about the fact that our budget is way overstretched and we started in 2007. You talk about the surge. Redacted. You were are borrowing money from overseas to try to finance just some wrong. of the basic functions of our government. Redacted. You were wrong. Redacted. And you were wrong. So I think the lesson to be drawn is that we should never hesitate And so my question is... to use military force, and I will not, as president, in order to keep the American people safe. But we have to use our military LEHRER: Senator Obama... wisely. And we did not use our military wisely in Iraq. OBAMA: ... of judgment, of whether or not -- of whether or not LEHRER: Do you agree with that, the lesson of Iraq? -- if the question is who is best-equipped as the next president to make good decisions about how we use our military, how we MCCAIN: The next president of the United States is not going make sure that we are prepared and ready for the next conflict, to have to address the issue as to whether we went into Iraq or then I think we can take a look at our judgment.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 50/105 LEHRER: I have got a lot on the plate here... MCCAIN: Redacted.

MCCAIN: I'm afraid Senator Obama doesn't understand the OBAMA: That's not the case. difference between a tactic and a strategy. But the important -- I'd like to tell you, two Fourths of July ago I was in Baghdad. MCCAIN: That's what ... Redacted. OBAMA: What he said was a precipitous... I was honored to be there. I was honored to speak to those troops. And you know, afterwards, we spent a lot of time with MCCAIN: That's what Admiral Mullen said. them. And you know what they said to us? They said, let us win. They said, let us win. We don't want our kids coming back here. OBAMA: ... withdrawal would be dangerous. He did not say that. That's not true. And this strategy, and this general, they are winning. Senator Obama refuses to acknowledge that we are winning in Iraq. MCCAIN: Redacted. OBAMA: That's not true. And I'm -- I'm -- understand why Senator Obama was surprised and said that the surge succeeded beyond his wildest MCCAIN: They just passed an electoral... expectations.

OBAMA: That's not true. MCCAIN: It didn't exceed beyond mine, because I know that that's a strategy that has worked and can succeed. But if we MCCAIN: Redacted. And peace comes to the country, and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and adopt Senator prosperity. Obama's plan, then we will have a wider war and it will make things more complicated throughout the region, including in That's what's happening in Iraq, and it wasn't a tactic. Afghanistan.

LEHRER: Let me see... LEHRER: Afghanistan, lead -- a new -- a new lead question. Now, having resolved Iraq, we'll move to Afghanistan. OBAMA: Jim, Jim, this is a big... And it goes to you, Senator Obama, and it's a -- it picks up on a MCCAIN: It was a stratagem. Redacted. point that's already been made. Do you think more troops -- more U.S. troops should be sent to Afghanistan, how many, and when? OBAMA: Jim, there are a whole bunch of things we have got to answer. First of all, let's talk about this troop funding issue because John always brings this up. Redacted. OBAMA: Yes, I think we need more troops. I've been saying that for over a year now. Redacted. And I think that we have to do it as quickly as possible, because Redacted. We had a legitimate difference, and I absolutely understand the difference between tactics and strategy. And the strategic question that the president has to ask is not whether or not we Redacted. They are feeling emboldened. are employing a particular approach in the country once we have made the decision to be there. And we cannot separate Afghanistan from Iraq, because what our commanders have said is Redacted. The question is, was this wise? Redacted. We need more troops there. We need more resources there. Redacted. So I would send two to three additional brigades to Afghanistan. Now, keep in mind that Redacted. Redacted. And that is a strategic mistake, because Redacted and that But we can't do it if we are not willing to give Iraq back its Redacted. country. Now, what I've said is we should end this war responsibly. We should do it in phases. Redacted.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 51/105 So here's what we have to do comprehensively, though. It's not And we're going to have to help the Pakistanis go into these just more troops. areas and obtain the allegiance of the people. And it's going to be tough. Redacted. And it's going to be tough. But we have to get We have to press the Afghan government to make certain that the cooperation of the people in those areas. they are actually working for their people. And I've said this to President Karzai. And the Pakistanis are going to have to understand that Redacted. No. 2, we've got to deal with a growing poppy trade that Redacted. So we've got a lot of work to do in Afghanistan. But I'm confident, now that General Petraeus is in the new position of No. 3, we've got to deal with Pakistan, because Redacted, and command, that we will employ a strategy which not only means although, you know, under George Bush, Redacted, they have additional troops -- and, by the way, Redacted. not done what needs to be done to get rid of those safe havens. So it's not just the addition of troops that matters. It's a strategy And until we do, Americans here at home are not going to be that will succeed. And Pakistan is a very important element in safe. this. And I know how to work with him. And I guarantee you I would not publicly state that I'm going to attack them. LEHRER: Afghanistan, Senator McCain? OBAMA: Nobody talked about attacking Pakistan. Here's what I said. MCCAIN: First of all, I won't repeat the mistake that I regret enormously, and that is, after we were able to help the Afghan freedom fighters and drive the Russians out of Afghanistan, And if John wants to disagree with this, he can let me know, Redacted. that, if the United States has al Qaeda, bin Laden, top-level lieutenants in our sights, and Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act, then we should take them out. And the result over time was the Taliban, al Qaeda, and a lot of the difficulties we are facing today. So we can't ignore those lessons of history. Now, I think that's the right strategy; I think that's the right policy. Now, on this issue of aiding Pakistan, if you're going to aim a gun at somebody, George Shultz, our great secretary of state, And, John, I -- you're absolutely right that presidents have to be told me once, you'd better be prepared to pull the trigger. prudent in what they say. But, you know, coming from you, who, you know, Redacted, I don't know, you know, how credible that is. I think this is the right strategy. I'm not prepared at this time to cut off aid to Pakistan. So I'm not prepared to threaten it, as Senator Obama apparently wants to do, Redacted. Now, Senator McCain is also right that it's difficult. This is not an easy situation. You've got cross-border attacks against U.S. troops. We've got to get the support of the people of -- of Pakistan. Redacted. And we've got a choice. We could allow our troops to just be on Now, you don't do that. You don't say that out loud. If you have the defensive and absorb those blows again and again and again, to do things, you have to do things, and you work with the if Pakistan is unwilling to cooperate, or we have to start making some decisions. Pakistani government.

And the problem, John, with the strategy that's been pursued was Now, the new president of Pakistan, Kardari (sic), has got his hands full. Redacted. that, Redacted, we alienated the Pakistani population, because we were anti-democratic. We had a 20th-century mindset that basically said, "Well, you know, he may be a dictator, but he's Redacted. our dictator."

And, yes, Senator Obama calls for more troops, but what he And as a consequence, we lost legitimacy in Pakistan. doesn't understand, it's got to be a new strategy, the same Redacted. And in the meantime, Redacted. strategy that he condemned in Iraq. It's going to have to be employed in Afghanistan. That's going to change when I'm president of the United States.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 52/105 MCCAIN: I -- I don't think that Senator Obama understands that OBAMA: Jim, let me just make a point. I've got a bracelet, too, Redacted. Everybody who was around then, and had been there, from Sergeant - from the mother of Sergeant Ryan David and knew about it knew that it was a failed state. Jopeck, sure another mother is not going through what I'm going through. But let me tell you, you know, this business about bombing Iran and all that, let me tell you my record. No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain because they're carrying out the missions of their commander in chief. And we honor all the Redacted. service that they've provided. Our troops have performed brilliantly. The question is for the next president, are we making good judgments about how to keep America safe precisely And I saw that, and I saw the situation, and I stood up, and because sending our military into battle is such an enormous Redacted. step. Redacted. That was the right thing to do, to stop genocide and And the point that I originally made is that we took our eye off to preserve what was necessary inside of Europe. Afghanistan, we took our eye off the folks who perpetrated 9/11, Redacted and Senator McCain, nobody is talking about defeat I supported what we did in Kosovo. I supported it because in Iraq, but I have to say we are having enormous problems in Redacted. Afghanistan because of that decision.

And I have a record -- and Somalia, Redacted. And it is not true you have consistently been concerned about what happened in Afghanistan. At one point, Redacted. You So I have a record. I have a record of being involved in these don't muddle through the central front on terror and you don't national security issues, which involve the highest responsibility muddle through going after bin Laden. You don't muddle and the toughest decisions that any president can make, and that through stamping out the Taliban. is to send our young men and women into harm's way. I think that is something we have to take seriously. And when And I'll tell you, I had a town hall meeting in Wolfeboro, New I'm president, I will. Hampshire, and a woman stood up and she said, "Senator McCain, I want you to do me the honor of wearing a bracelet LEHRER: New ... with my son's name on it." MCCAIN: You might think that with that kind of concern that He was 22 years old and he was killed in combat outside of Senator Obama would have gone to Afghanistan, particularly Baghdad, Matthew Stanley, before Christmas last year. This was given his responsibilities as a subcommittee chairman. By the last August, a year ago. And I said, "I will -- I will wear his way, when I'm subcommittee chairman, we take up the issues bracelet with honor." under my subcommittee. But the important thing is -- the important thing is Redacted and I know what our security And this was August, a year ago. And then she said, "But, requirements are. I know what our needs are. So the point is that Senator McCain, I want you to do everything -- promise me one we will prevail in Afghanistan, but we need the new strategy and thing, that you'll do everything in your power to make sure that we need it to succeed. my son's death was not in vain." But the important thing is, if we suffer defeat in Iraq, which That means that that mission succeeds, just like those young Redacted, then that will have a calamitous effect in Afghanistan people who re-enlisted in Baghdad, just like the mother I met at and American national security interests in the region. Senator the airport the other day whose son was killed. And they all say Obama doesn't seem to understand there is a connected between to me that we don't want defeat. the two.

MCCAIN: A war that I was in, where we had an Army, that it LEHRER: I have some good news and bad news for the two of wasn't through any fault of their own, but they were defeated. you. You all are even on time, which is remarkable, considering And I know how hard it is for that -- for an Army and a military we've been going at it ... to recover from that. And it did and we will win this one and we won't come home in defeat and dishonor and probably have to OBAMA: A testimony to you, Jim. go back if we fail.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 53/105 LEHRER: I don't know about that. But the bad news is all my mortal enemy. That was cleared away. And what we've seen little five minute things have run over, so, anyhow, we'll adjust over the last several years is Iran's influence grow. Redacted. as we get there. But the amount of time is even. So obviously, our policy over the last eight years has not New lead question. And it goes two minutes to you, Senator worked. Senator McCain is absolutely right, we cannot tolerate a McCain, what is your reading on the threat to Iran right now to nuclear Iran. It would be a game changer. Not only would it the security of the United States? threaten Israel, a country that is our stalwart ally, but it would also create an environment in which you could set off an arms MCCAIN: My reading of the threat from Iran is that if Iran race in this Middle East. acquires nuclear weapons, it is an existential threat to the State of Israel and to other countries in the region because the other Now here's what we need to do. We do need tougher sanctions. I countries in the region will feel compelling requirement to do not agree with Senator McCain that we're going to be able to acquire nuclear weapons as well. execute the kind of sanctions we need without some cooperation with some countries like Russia and China that Redacted but Now we cannot a second Holocaust. Let's just make that very potentially have an interest in making sure Iran doesn't have a clear. What I have proposed for a long time, and I've had nuclear weapon. conversation with foreign leaders about forming a league of democracies, let's be clear and let's have some straight talk. But we are also going to have to, I believe, engage in tough Redacted. direct diplomacy with Iran and this is a major difference I have with Senator McCain, this notion by not talking to people we are I have proposed a league of democracies, a group of people - a punishing them has not worked. It has not worked in Iran, it has group of countries that share common interests, common values, not worked in North Korea. In each instance, our efforts of common ideals, they also control a lot of the world's economic isolation have actually accelerated their efforts to get nuclear power. We could impose significant meaningful, painful weapons. That will change when I'm president of the United sanctions on the Iranians that I think could have a beneficial States. effect. LEHRER: Senator, what about talking? The Iranians have a lousy government, so Redacted. So I am convinced that together, we can, with the French, with the MCCAIN: Redacted. Without precondition. Here is British, with the Germans and other countries, democracies Ahmadinenene [mispronunciation], Ahmadinejad, who is, around the world, we can affect Iranian behavior. Ahmadinejad, who Redacted, and we're going to sit down, without precondition, across the table, to legitimize and give a But have no doubt, but have no doubt that Redacted. And it is a propaganda platform to a person that is espousing the threat not only in this region but around the world. extermination of the state of Israel, and therefore then giving them more credence in the world arena and therefore saying, they've probably been doing the right thing, because you will sit What I'd also like to point out Redacted. down across the table from them and that will legitimize their illegal behavior. So this is a serious threat. This is a serious threat to security in the world, and I believe we can act and we can act with our The point is that throughout history, whether it be Ronald friends and allies and reduce that threat as quickly as possible, Reagan, who Redacted. but have no doubt about the ultimate result of them acquiring nuclear weapons. Or whether it be Nixon's trip to China, which Redacted. Look, I'll sit down with anybody, but there's got to be pre-conditions. LEHRER: Two minutes on Iran, Senator Obama. Those pre-conditions would apply that we wouldn't legitimize with a face to face meeting, a person like Ahmadinejad. Now, OBAMA: Well, let me just correct something very quickly. I Senator Obama said, without preconditions. believe the Republican Guard of Iran is a terrorist organization. I've consistently said so. What Senator McCain refers to is a OBAMA: So let's talk about this. First of all, Redacted. So he measure in the Senate that Redacted. may not be the right person to talk to. But I reserve the right, as president of the United States to meet with anybody at a time And ironically, the single thing that has strengthened Iran over and place of my choosing if I think it's going to keep America the last several years has been the war in Iraq. Iraq was Iran's safe.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 54/105 And I'm glad that Senator McCain brought up the history, the What Senator Obama doesn't seem to understand that if without bipartisan history of us engaging in direct diplomacy. precondition you sit down across the table from someone who Redacted, you legitimize those comments. Senator McCain mentioned Henry Kissinger, Redacted. This is dangerous. It isn't just naive; it's dangerous. And so we Now, understand what this means "without preconditions." It just have a fundamental difference of opinion. doesn't mean that you invite them over for tea one day. What it means is that we don't do what we've been doing, which is to As far as North Korea is concerned, Redacted. By the way, say, "Until you agree to do exactly what we say, we won't have North Korea, most repressive and brutal regime probably on direct contacts with you." Earth. Redacted.

There's a difference between preconditions and preparation. Of We don't know what the status of the dear leader's health is course we've got to do preparations, starting with low-level today, but we know this, that Redacted. diplomatic talks, and it may not work, because Iran is a rogue regime. And we ought to go back to a little bit of Ronald Reagan's "trust, but verify," and certainly not sit down across the table from -- But I will point out that I was called naive when I suggested that without precondition, as Senator Obama said he did twice, I we need to look at exploring contacts with Iran. And you know mean, it's just dangerous. what? Redacted. OBAMA: Look, I mean, Senator McCain keeps on using this Again, it may not work, but if it doesn't work, then we have example that suddenly the president would just meet with strengthened our ability to form alliances to impose the tough somebody without doing any preparation, without having low- sanctions that Senator McCain just mentioned. level talks. Nobody's been talking about that, and Senator McCain knows it. This is a mischaracterization of my position. And when we haven't done it, as in North Korea -- let me just take one more example -- in North Korea, we cut off talks. When we talk about preconditions -- and Redacted -- the idea is They're a member of the axis of evil. We can't deal with them. that we do not expect to solve every problem before we initiate talks. And you know what happened? Redacted. And, you know, the Bush administration has come to recognize When we re-engaged -- because, again, the Bush administration that it hasn't worked, this notion that we are simply silent when it reversed course on this -- then we have at least made some comes to our enemies. And the notion that we would sit with progress, although right now, because of the problems in North Ahmadinejad and not say anything while he's spewing his Korea, we are seeing it on shaky ground. nonsense and his vile comments is ridiculous. Nobody is even talking about that. And -- and I just -- so I just have to make this general point that the Bush administration, Redacted. MCCAIN: So let me get this right. We sit down with Ahmadinejad, and he says, "We're going to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth," and we say, "No, you're not"? Oh, please. MCCAIN: Of course.

OBAMA: If we can't meet with our friends, I don't know how OBAMA: No, let me tell... we're going to lead the world in terms of dealing with critical issues like terrorism. MCCAIN: By the way, my friend, Dr. Kissinger, who's been my friend for 35 years, would be interested to hear this conversation MCCAIN: I'm not going to set the White House visitors and Senator Obama's depiction of his -- of his positions on the schedule before I'm president of the United States. I don't even issue. I've known him for 35 years. have a seal yet. OBAMA: We will take a look. Look, Redacted. MCCAIN: And I guarantee you he would not -- he would not say that presidential top level. OBAMA: Of course not.

OBAMA: Nobody's talking about that. MCCAIN: Redacted.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 55/105 MCCAIN: Of course he encourages and other people encourage They have Redacted, and some of those loose nukes could fall contacts, and negotiations, and all other things. We do that all into the hands of al Qaeda. the time. This is an area where I've led on in the Senate, Redacted.That's LEHRER: We're going to go to a new... an area where we're going to have to work with Russia.

MCCAIN: And Senator Obama is parsing words when he says But we have to have a president who is clear that you don't deal precondition means preparation. with Russia based on staring into his eyes and seeing his soul. You deal with Russia based on, what are your -- what are the OBAMA: I am not parsing words. national security interests of the United States of America?

MCCAIN: He's parsing words, my friends. And we have to recognize that the way they've been behaving lately demands a sharp response from the international community and our allies. OBAMA: I'm using the same words that your advisers use.

Please, go ahead. LEHRER: Two minutes on Russia, Senator McCain.

MCCAIN: Well, I was interested in Senator Obama's reaction to LEHRER: New lead question. the Russian aggression against Georgia. Redacted Russia, goes to you, two minutes, Senator Obama. How do you see the relationship with Russia? Do you see them as a Again, a little bit of naivete there. He doesn't understand that Russia committed serious aggression against Georgia. And competitor? Do you see them as an enemy? Do you see them as Redacted that is basically a KGB apparatchik-run government. a potential partner?

OBAMA: Well, I think that, given what's happened over the last I looked into Mr. Putin's eyes, and I saw three letters, a "K," a several weeks and months, our entire Russian approach has to be "G," and a "B." And their aggression in Georgia is not acceptable behavior. evaluated, because a resurgent and very aggressive Russia is a threat to the peace and stability of the region. I don't believe we're going to go back to the Cold War. I am sure Their actions in Georgia were unacceptable. They were that that will not happen. But I do believe that we need to bolster our friends and allies. And that wasn't just about a problem unwarranted. And at this point, it is absolutely critical for the between Georgia and Russia. It had everything to do with next president to make clear that we have to follow through on energy. our six-party -- or the six-point cease-fire. They have to remove themselves from South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Redacted. It is absolutely important that we have a unified alliance and that we explain to the Russians that you cannot be a 21st-century It's not accidental that Redacted. superpower, or power, and act like a 20th-century dictatorship. MCCAIN: And they showed solidarity with them, but, also, they And we also have to affirm all the fledgling democracies in that are very concerned about the Russian threats to regain their region, you know, the Estonians, the Lithuanians, the Latvians, status of the old Russian to regain their status of the old Russian the Poles, the Czechs, that we are, in fact, going to be supportive empire. and in solidarity with them in their efforts. Redacted. Now, I think the Russians ought to understand that we will And to countries like Georgia and the Ukraine, I think we have support -- we, the United States -- will support the inclusion of to insist that they are free to join NATO if they meet the Georgia and Ukraine in the natural process, inclusion into requirements, and they should have a membership action plan NATO. immediately to start bringing them in. We also ought to make it very clear that Redacted. Now, we also can't return to a Cold War posture with respect to Russia. It's important that we recognize there are going to be By the way, I went there once, and we went inside and drove in, some areas of common interest. One is nuclear proliferation. and there was a huge poster. And this is -- this is Georgian

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 56/105 territory. And there was a huge poster of Vladimir Putin, and it That means that we, as one of the biggest consumers of oil -- said, "Vladimir Putin, our president." Redacted -- have to have an energy strategy not just to deal with Russia, but to deal with many of the rogue states we've talked It was very clear, the Russian intentions towards Georgia. They about, Iran, Venezuela. were just waiting to seize the opportunity. And that means, yes, increasing domestic production and off- So, this is a very difficult situation. We want to work with the shore drilling, but Redacted. So we can't simply drill our way Russians. But we also have every right to expect the Russians to out of the problem. behave in a fashion and keeping with a -- with a -- with a country who respects international boundaries and the norms of What we're going to have to do is to approach it through international behavior. alternative energy, like solar, and wind, and biodiesel, and, yes, nuclear energy, clean-coal technology. And, you know, I've got a And watch Ukraine. This whole thing has got a lot to do with plan for us to make a significant investment over the next 10 Ukraine, Crimea, the base of the Russian fleet in Sevastopol. years to do that. Redacted. And I have to say, Senator McCain and I, I think agree on the So watch Ukraine, and let's make sure that we -- that the importance of energy, but Senator McCain mentioned earlier the Ukrainians understand that we are their friend and ally. importance of looking at a record.

LEHRER: You see any -- do you have a major difference with Redacted. what he just said? And so we -- we -- we've got to walk the walk and not just talk OBAMA: No, actually, I think Senator McCain and I agree for the talk when it comes to energy independence, because this is the most part on these issues. Obviously, I disagree with this probably going to be just as vital for our economy and the pain notion that somehow we did not forcefully object to Russians that people are feeling at the pump -- and, you know, winter's going into Georgia. coming and home heating oil -- as it is our national security and the issue of climate change that's so important. Redacted. And, absolutely, I wanted a cessation of the violence, because it put an enormous strain on Georgia, and that's why LEHRER: We've got time for one more lead question segment. Redacted. We're way out of...

Because part of Russia's intentions here was to weaken the LEHRER: Quick response and then... economy to the point where President Saakashvili was so weakened that he might be replaced by somebody that Putin MCCAIN: No one from Arizona is against solar. And Senator favored more. Obama says he's for nuclear, but Redacted. So...

Two points I think are important to think about when it comes to OBAMA: That's just not true, John. John, I'm sorry, but that's Russia. not true.

No. 1 is we have to have foresight and anticipate some of these MCCAIN: ... it's hard to get there from here. And off-shore problems. So back in April, Redacted. That made no sense drilling is also something that is very important and it is a whatsoever. bridge.

And what we needed to do was replace them with international And we know that, if we drill off-shore and exploit a lot of these peacekeepers and a special envoy to resolve the crisis before it reserves, it will help, at temporarily, relieve our energy boiled over. requirements. And it will have, I think, an important effect on the price of a barrel of oil. That wasn't done. But had it been done, it's possible we could have avoided the issue. OBAMA: I just have to respond very quickly, just to correct -- just to correct the record. The second point I want to make is -- is the issue of energy. Russia is in part resurgent and Putin is feeling powerful because MCCAIN: So I want to say that, with the Nunn-Lugar thing... of petro-dollars, as Senator McCain mentioned.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 57/105 LEHRER: Excuse me, Senator. And we were -- we were opposed by the administration, another area where I differed with this administration. Redacted. OBAMA: John? And there were a series of recommendations, as I recall, more MCCAIN: ... Redacted. than 40. Redacted. I'm proud of that work, again, bipartisan, reaching across the aisle, working together, Democrat and OBAMA: I -- I just have to correct the record here. Redacted. Republican alike.

So we have a long way to go in our intelligence services. We And, Senator McCain, he says -- he talks about Arizona. have to do a better job in human intelligence. And we've got to -- to make sure that we have people who are trained interrogators LEHRER: All right. so that we don't ever torture a prisoner ever again.

OBAMA: I've got to make this point, Jim. We have to make sure that our technological and intelligence capabilities are better. We have to work more closely with our LEHRER: OK. allies. I know our allies, and I can work much more closely with them. OBAMA: He objects... But I can tell you that I think America is safer today than it was MCCAIN: I have voted for alternate fuel all of my time... on 9/11. But that doesn't mean that we don't have a long way to go. OBAMA: He -- he -- he objects... And I'd like to remind you, also, as a result of those LEHRER: One at a time, please. recommendations, we've probably had the largest reorganization of government since we established the Defense Department. And I think that those men and women in those agencies are OBAMA: He objected... doing a great job. LEHRER: One at a time. But we still have a long way to go before we can declare America safe, and that means doing a better job along our MCCAIN: No one can be opposed to alternate energy. borders, as well.

OBAMA: All right, fair enough. Let's move on. You've got one LEHRER: Two minutes, Senator Obama. more energy -- you've got one more question. OBAMA: Well, first of all, I think that we are safer in some LEHRER: This is the last -- last lead question. You have two ways. Obviously, Redacted. We have done some work in terms minutes each. And the question is this, beginning with you, of securing potential targets, but we still have a long way to go. Senator McCain. We've got to make sure that we're hardening our chemical sites. What do you think the likelihood is that there would be another We haven't done enough in terms of transit; we haven't done 9/11-type attack on the continental United States? enough in terms of ports.

MCCAIN: I think it's much less than it was the day after 9/11. I And the biggest threat that we face right now is not a nuclear think it -- that we have a safer nation, but we are a long way missile coming over the skies. It's in a suitcase. from safe. This is why the issue of nuclear proliferation is so important. It And I want to tell you that one of the things I'm most proud of, is the -- the biggest threat to the United States is a terrorist among others, because I have worked across the aisle. I have a getting their hands on nuclear weapons. long record on that, on a long series of reforms. And we -- Redacted. And I actually believe that we need missile But after 9/11, Senator Joe Lieberman and I decided that we defense, because of Iran and North Korea and the potential for needed a commission, and that was a commission to investigate them to obtain or to launch nuclear weapons, but I also believe 9/11, and find out what happened, and fix it. that, when Redacted, then we're making a mistake.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 58/105 The other thing that we have to focus on, though, is al Qaeda. OBAMA: Oh, there's no doubt. Look, over the last eight years, Redacted. We can't simply be focused on Iraq. We have to go to this administration, along with Senator McCain, have been the root cause, and that is in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That's solely focused on Iraq. That has been their priority. That has going to be critical. We are going to need more cooperation with been where all our resources have gone. our allies. In the meantime, bin Laden is still out there. He is not captured. And one last point I want to make. It is important for us to He is not killed. Al Qaeda is resurgent. understand that the way we are perceived in the world is going to make a difference, in terms of our capacity to get cooperation In the meantime, we've got challenges, for example, with China, and root out terrorism. Redacted. And they are active in countries like -- in regions like Latin America, and Asia, and Africa. They are -- the And one of the things that I intend to do as president is to restore conspicuousness of their presence is only matched by our America's standing in the world. Redacted. absence, because we've been focused on Iraq.

OBAMA: And this is the greatest country on Earth. But because We have weakened our capacity to project power around the of some of the mistakes that have been made -- and I give world because we have viewed everything through this single Senator McCain great credit on the torture issue, for having lens, not to mention, look at our economy. Redacted. identified that as something that undermines our long-term security -- because of those things, we, I think, are going to have And that means we can't provide health care to people who need a lot of work to do in the next administration to restore that sense it. We can't invest in science and technology, which will that America is that shining beacon on a hill. determine whether or not we are going to be competitive in the long term. LEHRER: Do you agree there's much to be done in a new administration to restore... Redacted. So this is a national security issue.

MCCAIN: But in the case of missile defense, Redacted. We haven't adequately funded veterans' care. I sit on the Veterans Affairs Committee, and we've got -- I meet veterans all We seem to come full circle again. Senator Obama still doesn't across the country who are trying to figure out, "How can I get quite understand -- or doesn't get it -- that if we fail in Iraq, it disability payments? I've got post-traumatic stress disorder, and encourages al Qaeda. They would establish a base in Iraq. yet I can't get treatment."

The consequences of defeat, which would result from his plan of So we have put all chips in, right there, and nobody is talking withdrawal and according to date certain, regardless of about losing this war. What we are talking about is recognizing conditions, Redacted -- possible defeat, loss of all the fragile that the next president has to have a broader strategic vision sacrifice that we've made of American blood and treasure, which about all the challenges that we face. grieves us all. That's been missing over the last eight years. That sense is All of that would be lost if we followed Senator Obama's plan to something that I want to restore. have specific dates with withdrawal, regardless of conditions on the ground. MCCAIN: I've been involved, as I mentioned to you before, in virtually every major national security challenge we've faced in And General Petraeus says we have had great success, but it's the last 20-some years. There are some advantages to very fragile. And we can't do what Senator Obama wants to do. experience, and knowledge, and judgment.

That is the central issue of our time. And I think Americans will And I -- and I honestly don't believe that Senator Obama has the judge very seriously as to whether that's the right path or the knowledge or experience and has made the wrong judgments in wrong path and who should be the next president of the United a number of areas, including his initial reaction to Russian States. invasion -- aggression in Georgia, to his -- you know, we've seen this stubbornness before in this administration to cling to a belief LEHRER: You see the same connections that Senator McCain that somehow the surge has not succeeded and failing to does? acknowledge that he was wrong about the surge is -- shows to me that we -- that -- that we need more flexibility in a president of the United States than that.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 59/105 As far as our other issues that he brought up are concerned, I University in St. Louis. My PBS colleague, Gwen Ifill, will be know the veterans. I know them well. And I know that they the moderator. know that I'll take care of them. And I've been proud of their support and their recognition of my service to the veterans. For now, from Oxford, Mississippi, thank you, senators, both. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you, and good night. And I love them. And I'll take care of them. And they know that I'll take care of them. And that's going to be my job.

But, also, I have the ability, and the knowledge, and the background to make the right judgments, to keep this country politics safe and secure. Tie Goes to Obama Neither candidate won a clear victory. Reform, prosperity, and peace, these are major challenges to the By John Dickerson United States of America. I don't think I need any on-the-job Saturday, September 27, 2008, at 12:44 AM ET training. I'm ready to go at it right now.

OBAMA: Well, let me just make a closing point. You know, my We've learned recently that John McCain likes chaos. First there father came from Kenya. That's where I get my name. was his surprise pick of Sarah Palin, then there was his hold- onto-your-hats rush back to Washington this week. The first And in the '60s, he wrote letter after letter to come to college presidential debate could have used a little of that homegrown here in the United States because the notion was that there was mayhem. It was a very sober and even exchange with nary a hint no other country on Earth where you could make it if you tried. of serendipity. The ideals and the values of the United States inspired the entire world. Obama and McCain looked like equals onstage. McCain turned in a marginally stronger performance, but Obama looked strong I don't think any of us can say that our standing in the world enough, and in a tough year for Republicans with Obama leading now, the way children around the world look at the United in the polls, that's a victory for the Democrat. Obama did what States, is the same. he needed to do to convince people he could be commander in chief—his challenge for the night. McCain showed he could talk And part of what we need to do, what the next president has to about the economy—his challenge—but not so brilliantly that he do -- and this is part of our judgment, this is part of how we're dented Obama's advantage on the issue. going to keep America safe -- is to -- to send a message to the world that we are going to invest in issues like education, we are Obama's big test was to help viewers see him as a possible going to invest in issues that -- that relate to how ordinary people commander in chief. There were a lot of people watching who are able to live out their dreams. have never taken such a considered look at the Democratic challenger. He was firm in his beliefs and clear in his views on And that is something that I'm going to be committed to as foreign policy. He performed better than he did on the 40 president of the United States. minutes of economic policy the two men discussed at the start of the debate. LEHRER: Few seconds. We're almost finished. McCain repeatedly asserted that on foreign-policy issues Obama "didn't understand." But Obama didn't look like a man who MCCAIN: Jim, when I came home from prison, I saw our didn't understand. McCain was essentially calling Obama a veterans being very badly treated, and it made me sad. Sarah Palin—but Obama didn't look like one. He walked back Redacted. his position on meeting with rogue leaders as far as he credibly could, and he was clear about when he would use military force, I guarantee you, as president of the United States, I know how to which balanced out his talk about diplomacy. heal the wounds of war, I know how to deal with our adversaries, and I know how to deal with our friends. Obama will benefit from having the better sound bite of the night. Cable-news producers didn't have many to choose from LEHRER: And that ends this debate tonight. for the endless analysis of the debate, but one clip they'll show will certainly be Obama's criticism of McCain on Iraq. "You On October 2, next Thursday, also at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, the said it was going to be quick and easy," Obama said. "You said two vice presidential candidates will debate at Washington we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 60/105 were wrong. You said that we were going to be greeted as Obama wouldn't talk straight when moderator Jim Lehrer liberators. You were wrong. You said that there was no history repeatedly asked the two men to name cuts they'd make to of violence between Shiite and Sunni. And you were wrong." It accommodate the financial bailout. McCain did talk straight— was assertive, and it weakened McCain's claim to superior suggesting an across-the-board spending freeze. That was candid judgment. but politically deadly. Obama has ads he can run about all the attractive-sounding programs that will be "cut" by such a freeze. Obama is lucky this was his best sound bite—because he gave McCain some good material to make a campaign commercial Obama is lucky that his "you were wrong" sound bite will live that makes just the opposite point. Eleven times Obama said on past the debate, because at several turns he didn't stand up for McCain was right. Before the debate was even over, the McCain himself. I can imagine Obama fans were frustrated their man team had spliced those into an ad for the crucial post-debate spin didn't throw a few big punches. As the two debated Obama's war. position on meeting with foreign leaders, McCain repeatedly overstated Obama's standpoint. After several rounds of back- Looming over the two men was an enormous American eagle and-forth, Obama only tepidly asserted his stance. When they with the traditional arrows in one claw and olive leaves in the debated the economy, Obama challenged the idea that McCain other. It was fitting that McCain stood under the arrows. It's not could change Washington's spending habits after voting with that all his answers favored military action. But he clearly had a Bush 90 percent of the time, but as he did so he petered out. He martial cast to his posture as he took tough stands against ended by mumbling, "I think, just it's, you know, kind of hard to Russia, Iran, and North Korea. That's his worldview. The swallow." Pfffft. question is whether that's the way the swing voters he needs to convince see things. In the post-Iraq world, polls show that There was lots of great body language to read. Obama looks Americans are wary of using military force to protect the down when he's saying something unpleasant—like delivering national interest. Swing voters, who almost by definition tend to an attack on his opponent. Obama looked at the audience more embrace a more moderate view, are probably closer to Obama's (as Kennedy did in 1960), McCain talked to the moderator (as worldview as it was framed in the debate. Nixon had). When McCain was talking, Obama looked at him, like he was a listener. McCain stared straight ahead when McCain was at pains to show that he knew the world very well. Obama was speaking, which at times made it appear as if Obama Almost every one of his foreign-policy answers had a little was scolding him for denting the car. footnote. He'd either visited the region or talked to the leader in question. He sounded like Al Gore as he easily pronounced a It was a bit of a disappointment there weren't more fireworks, host of complicated names and places with ease. (He got to since the format was designed to have the two candidates engage "Tymoshenko" and "Yushchenko" so quickly and easily, it each other. At one point the moderator nearly begged them to sounded like he was reading from Dr. Seuss.) take each other on. It was not to be. Just a day earlier they had met in the White House separated by five politicians. On the McCain, who had a bad week, looked at ease and in control. It stage, in Mississippi they seemed almost as far apart. may have been his best debate performance of the year. He delivered no zingers, but he also had no stumbles, and despite a few groaner jokes, he didn't lapse into too much boilerplate. Democrats had been whispering for days about his temperament. I mean, suspending his campaign to rush to Washington? What press box was that about? McCain's temperament seemed cool and even. His aides say that on the flight from Washington, he was joking Don't Blame Gwen Ifill If the Veep and teasing his staff, even though he'd left a chaotic mess in Debate Sucks Washington. McCain does seem to like chaos. What a stupid format. By Jack Shafer Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 5:19 PM ET From a political perspective, McCain was surprisingly strong during the conversation about the economy. He made a call for accountability and then relentlessly hammered the overblown spending in Washington. The potential problem for McCain is A 90-minute televised window through which we've been that people may have heard "cut spending, cut spending" and not invited to compare the political stands, leadership abilities, and have taken away anything that will help them in their daily lives. temperaments of vice-presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Obama countered by returning everything he said on the Joe Biden is about to open. economy to a discussion of the middle class. The organizer of the Oct. 2 face-off at Washington University is calling the event a "debate." But like the McCain vs. Obama

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 61/105 session that preceded it—overseen by the same outfit—the of the glittering generality made it possible for her to rely on Washington University matchup will demand less from the veep populism instead of policy." candidates than a five-minute appearance on Meet the Press. The rules governing its operation all but guarantee it. So if the debate We all have estimates about how long Sarah Palin could speak ends up revealing less about Palin's and Biden's positions than about nuclear proliferation, health care, immigration, the Wall can be found on a bumper sticker, if either candidate escapes Street bailout, the Iraq war, or the Kyoto Treaty without tough questions and seeks refuge in homey anecdotes, if the resorting to homilies and canned phrases. But force Joe Biden to debaters stop talking scant seconds after they start, don't blame go long on any one of those topics and who knows what sort of moderator Gwen Ifill of PBS. Blame the format. trouble his motormouth would get him into? Biden usually requires 90 seconds just to warm up and lubricate his vocal Negotiations between the McCain and Obama campaigns cords, after which he reliably barks some ridiculous gaffe. The resulted in a 90-minute format that calls for the two candidates 90-second maximum protects both veep candidates from their to stand at podiums and field questions in turn from moderator weaknesses. Ifill. Answers may not exceed 90 seconds, and two minutes of open discussion will follow each question. Each candidate will The Cheney-Edwards debate from 2004, also moderated by Ifill, give a 90-second closing statement. provides a preview of how inconsequential these bouts can be. Approaching the transcript, I expected a bloody prizefight According to the New York Times, the McCain campaign pushed between two heavyweights. Instead, I found two bantams on for this arrangement, which is more restrictive than the two- their bicycles, backpedaling. Ifill asked each candidate only 10 minute-response, five-minutes-of-open-discussion format of the questions, with most of the 90-minute session given over to first McCain-Obama debate, because the looser "format could tedious rebuttals and responses. The day after the Cheney- leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a Edwards debate, the Washington Post concluded that "the format disadvantage and largely on the defensive." was calculated to keep the fireworks subdued" and that the calculation had paid off. How much can a candidate say in 90 seconds? Depending on his or her mouth speed, somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 to WorldNetDaily suggests this week that Ifill's forthcoming book, 300 words. During the 2004 vice-presidential debate between The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, may Dick Cheney and John Edwards, the candidates were allowed compromise her performance as moderator because the book's 120 seconds per question, and they rarely spoke more than 400 success depends on the success of the Obama campaign. (See words. (The rules that year allowed for 90-second rebuttals and also Michelle Malkin and Tim Graham at the Media Research discussion-extension intervals at the moderator's discretion.) To Center.) Might Ifill take a dive for Joe Biden before an audience give you a sense of the brevity of 400 words, this article is just of tens of millions in hopes of increasing sales of a book passing the 300-word mark. scheduled for release in January? That doesn't square with common sense, nor does it square with what I know about Ifill's Whether you give a candidate 90 or 120 seconds to speak, work. If you're interested in her thoroughness and fairness as a abbreviated formats leave the weakest ones plenty of room to moderator and have caffeine enough to read the entire Cheney- hide. Because no rule forces the candidate to burn all of the Edwards debate transcript, do so. You'll see that she conducted allotted time answering the question, he can evade complexity herself in a completely professional—and boring—manner. and nuance by giving a rehearsed 30-second sound bite, especially if there is no provision for a follow-up question— Instead of knocking moderators, let's knock the format, which which there usually isn't. And as we observed in the Sept. 26 the campaigns ultimately control. Back in the early 1990s, McCain-Obama debate, the referee can't force the combatants Walter Goodman of the New York Times called for a debate into an "open discussion" if they choose not to punch: "I'm just template that forced candidates "accustomed to delivering determined to get you all to talk to each other," frustrated bromides on the stump and toying with interviewers" to actually moderator Jim Lehrer said early in that debate. grapple with issues. Forget about time limits, Goodman counseled, writing: The veep format at Washington University favors Palin, if Andrew Halcro is any guide to her debate techniques. Halcro When the usual slogans start popping out, repeatedly debated Sarah Palin in their contest for the job of leave it to the moderator to remind the Alaska governor in 2006. He writes in today's Christian Science candidate what the question is, and to press for Monitor that Palin was the "master of the nonanswer" in debates. a straight answer. He continues: "During the campaign, Palin's knowledge on public policy issues never matured—because it didn't have to. The candidates could also be compelled to Her ability to fill the debate halls with her presence and her gift confront each other, give and take, no place to hide. Instead of the charges and insinuations

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 62/105 that float through their commercials, there Science could be rebuttals and counter rebuttals. A Sex Dramedy tough, fair reporter—and specimens are What can Choke and Californication teach us about sex addiction? available on all the networks—can abet that By Daniel Engber healthy process, too. Monday, September 29, 2008, at 7:55 PM ET

Who could oppose Marquis of Queensberry-style rules governing 90-minute championship bouts between the Some addictions are funnier than others. There aren't many good candidates? Surely not WorldNetDaily, Michelle Malkin, or Tim heroin comedies; not even Ben Stiller can wring a laugh out of Graham. The only candidate afraid of showing what they've got smoking crack. Alcoholism, on the other hand, has its moments, is the candidate who's got nothing to show. and by long-standing convention smoking huge quantities of marijuana is truly hilarious. So where in this humor hierarchy ******* shall we put the compulsion to have sex?

No discussion of Gwen Ifill is complete without mentioning the It was high comedy as recently as 2007, when Will Ferrell's laden-with-innuendo 245-word piece that she co-bylined with satyrical lead in Blades of Glory reveled in his sex addiction as Maralee Schwartz and the late Ann Devroy for the Jan. 10, 1989, "a real disease with doctors and medicine and everything!" Now, Washington Post about Jennifer Fitzgerald. Many had gossiped with the Friday premiere of the film Choke, a darkly comic sex- in the absence of proof that President George H.W. Bush had rehab drama starring Sam Rockwell, and the Sunday debut of the had an affair with Fitzgerald, so the politically connected knew second season of Showtime's Californication, a half-hour family exactly what Ifill, Schwartz, and Devroy had on their minds dramedy with David Duchovny as a recovering sexaholic, the when they wrote this in their lede: condition seems to have found its place somewhere closer to the middle of the spectrum. Jennifer Fitzgerald, who has served President- elect George Bush in a variety of positions, Choke has elements of a classic stoner film—something like most recently running the vice presidential Harold and Kumar Can't Stop Masturbating. A couple of Senate offices, is expected to be named deputy slacker dudes create cheerful mayhem as they pursue their fix, chief of protocol in the new administration, clash with co-workers, and evade the law. But there's plenty of sources said yesterday. emotional pain to go with the sexual hijinks—severed friendships, the death of a parent, the discovery of rock bottom Send similarly scurrilous ledes to [email protected]. while bent over a public toilet. Californication also teeters And remind me to revisit Ifill's book when it comes out in between humor and pathos: The season begins with Duchovny's January. (E-mail may be quoted by name in "The Fray," Slate's character swearing off sex for the sake of his family, then readers' forum; in a future article; or elsewhere unless the writer chronicles his efforts to abstain. In Episode 1, he inadvertently stipulates otherwise. Permanent disclosure: Slate is owned by performs cunnilingus on a young woman whom he'd taken to be the Washington Post Co.) his girlfriend.* (Oops!) But no matter how wacky the indiscretion, each misstep results in a miserable argument and a Track my errors: This hand-built RSS feed will ring every time tearful near-breakup. (Then there's the added, implied drama of Slate runs a "Press Box" correction. For e-mail notification of Duchovny's real-life travails with compulsive sex.) errors in this specific column, type the word debate in the subject head of an e-mail message, and send it to So is Don Juanism funny, or is it sad? The pop-culture [email protected]. ambivalence reflects an uncertainty that extends all the way through the medical establishment—to the sex therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists who can't agree on how to define sexual addiction, or indeed whether it should be called an "addiction" at all. Partisans for the diagnosis see it as a valuable Schoolhouse Rock tool for expanding treatment and gaining acceptance for a long- suffering minority. Opponents view it as a dangerous intrusion Replication of morality into medicine and yet another avenue for the Looking for education reform in Obama's poverty platform. marketing of self-help books and psychopharmaceuticals. But By Paul Tough the debate rests on a much bigger question posed by modern Monday, September 29, 2008, at 10:08 AM ET brain science: What does it mean to be an addict in the 21st century?

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 63/105 The modern notion that you can be "addicted" to sex, or to any time in a medical journal in 1978; five years later, the diagnosis behavior—like eating, shopping, gambling, or texting—has been was popularized by addiction therapist and rehab entrepreneur in ascendance among scientists only for the past quarter-century. Patrick Carnes in his book Out of the Shadows. An early version of this idea did show up in the writings of Sigmund Freud, who in 1897 described the compulsive use of Through the 1990s and until today, the rhetoric of behavioral alcohol, morphine, and tobacco as a substitute for masturbation, addiction became even more reliant on neurochemistry. the "primary addiction." (His follower, Sandor Rado, an Pornography is now described by some psychologists as an th important figure in early-20 -century American psychology, "erototoxin" that triggers the release of an addictive cocktail of referred to the drug high as a "pharmacogenic orgasm.") But his neurotransmitters and hormones. A few weeks ago, Carnes theory carried little weight with researchers unaffiliated with explained to the New York Times that an orgasm releases as psychoanalysis. much dopamine as an alcoholic beverage.

By the time of World War I, researchers on drug dependence It's a reversal of Freud's formulation from more than a century had begun to make regular, clinical use of the word addiction— ago. We used to see drug abuse as a psychological problem— to suggest a psychological disorder, an affliction of the will like compulsive masturbation. Now, with our advanced rather than the body. A few decades later, the focus had begun to knowledge of the brain, we're starting to see compulsive shift to the chemistry of the drugs themselves. These scientists masturbators as victims of a disease, like drug addicts. were more interested in the particular effects that a substance has on the body—the biological dependency it creates—than the For all that, we're no closer to accepting the uneasy truth that behavioral patterns of its users, the addiction. addiction is something in between—a neurological disorder of free will, as National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora This neurophysiological approach to drug use reached its zenith Volkow would have it. She argues that a healthy brain can fend in the 1970s, when scientists finally worked out the connection off unhealthy impulses and desires. When the brain between addictive drugs, neurotransmitters, and the neural malfunctions, we lose the ability to inhibit compulsive behavior, "pleasure centers" of the mesolimbic reward system. The 1973 a situation she likens to driving a car with no brakes. discovery of opiate receptors in the brain made it clear that our normal pleasure response is something like a scaled-down In popular culture, the tension between behavior and disease version of a drug high: Heroin and morphine work by mimicking translates into a confusion between comedy and tragedy. Is a sex our natural brain chemicals, and overstimulating our mesolimbic addict like Will Ferrell's character in Blades of Glory—who even pathway. trolls for partners at his 12-step program—just a self-indulgent horn-dog? (The joke about sex addicts hooking up at group At the same time, a hippie-era boom of recreational drug use meetings also turns up in Choke, an episode of Cheers, and an forced researchers to broaden their definitions. Opiates weren't episode of Nip/Tuck.) Or is he more like a cancer patient, with the only habit-forming chemicals that triggered the mesolimbic no control over how or why he is afflicted? system—so did substances like cocaine, cannabis, and Quaaludes. Drug-rehab programs started to treat patients for When it comes to compulsive sexual behavior, the professionals broad "substance-abuse" problems rather than dependencies on have their own ambivalence, which plays out as a question of particular drugs. Since all these drugs shared a common brain semantics rather than aesthetics: The community argues over the pathway, a defect in that pathway could make someone inclusion of behavioral addictions—or even the word addiction susceptible to all of them at once. itself—in the next version of the DSM. Some argue that the euphemistic use of dependence has done little to eliminate the The new science of drug addiction opened the door for stigma associated with the condition. Others see the behavioral addictions, too. If activities like eating and sex could medicalization of behavior—sexual or otherwise—as a form of activate the same pleasure centers as heroin, morphine, and social control. cocaine, it was a small step to assume that repeated behavior might generate its own dependency. You don't need dope to get In a certain sense, they're just as confused as we are. a dopamine spike, so just about anything could take on the trappings of a chemical high. Correction, Sept. 30, 2008: The original version of this article described Duchovny's character as performing cunnilingus on Sure enough, psychologists of the era began to construe habit- an underage girl whom he'd taken to be his wife. Her age was forming or compulsive behaviors in chemical terms. never confirmed, and he mistook her for his girlfriend. (Return "Pathological gambling disorder," for one, was introduced into to the corrected sentence.) the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980 and was soon defined in parallel with substance-use disorders. Meanwhile, "sex addiction" was laid out for the first

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 64/105 room does the shredder take up—is it compact or unwieldy? Other relevant considerations: How easy is it to empty the trash can? Are there any noteworthy design extras, like an LCD screen shopping or a "basket full" indicator, and do these extras make much of a Home Slice difference? What's the best household paper shredder? By Laura Moser Efficiency (10 points): How loud is the shredder? This question Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at 2:18 PM ET mattered more than I'd anticipated, as some shredders made such an ungodly racket that I couldn't bring myself to switch them on Not long ago, I received an ominously official-looking without pregaming a couple of Excedrin first. Other points: Are correspondence from the Minneapolis/St. Paul branch of the the shreds small enough to effectively obliterate personal Federal Bureau of Investigation.* The enclosed letter informed information, foiling even the most energetic meth addict's me that I had recently been the victim of identity theft, but an attempts to piece the pages back together again? How quickly agent was there to help me sort my life out. does paper jam, and how easily can jams be undone? Last but not least, are these shredders, which ranged in price from $39.99 to $164.99, worth the money? The letter raised a few questions. First off: Why the Twin Cities, a place I had visited once on a post-collegiate road trip and otherwise had exactly zero connection to? Second: If my identity The results, from functional to phenomenal … had really been thieved, why hadn't I noticed? Why no long- distance phone charges to Sierra Leone, purchases of front-load washers in Singapore, or warrants for my arrest in New Zealand? Fellowes Powershred 8-Sheet Shredder, $46.99 (originally $119.99) I ignored the letter and its several follow-ups, feeling rather sorry for the hapless criminal who had taken the trouble to swipe a financial profile as slender as mine. It was only after hearing "Powershred" is right, in that this eight-sheet machine sounds several more consequential identity-theft stories from friends like an arsenal of power tools all in operation simultaneously. that I decided to get serious about protecting my personal (Imagine being trapped in a small bathroom with a weed information. I opened a new bank account, changed all my whacker, a chain saw, and a welder, and you will have some online passwords, and—once those hassles were out of the sense of this shredder's high-level clamor—really excruciating way—went in search of the highest-security paper shredder on stuff.) The pluses: I like that you can throw CDs and credit cards the market. Never again would I blithely drop a glossy NO in the same slot that takes the paper. Some other models require INTEREST PAYMENTS UNTIL MARCH 2010 offer into the you to switch slots depending on what you're shredding. But recycling bin … not without first obliterating all personal once I started feeding material into those machines, I didn't want information displayed thereon. to pause. The Fellowes also has some useful safety features, and you certainly can't beat the price. But unless you plan to shred Methodology wearing noise-canceling headphones and/or aspire to drive a family of raccoons out of your home office, you might have trouble with the decibel factor here. I also didn't like having to For several months now, I have been collecting junk mail so remove the hefty top to empty the bin. Next. assiduously that I came to fear ending up like Harlem's legendary Collyer brothers, who were buried alive under piles of their own garbage. It's true: I was staggered by the volume of Capacity: 6 paper that got stuffed through my mail slot every day, and that's Design: 5 after I repeatedly declined unwanted Pottery Barn clearance Efficiency: 4 catalogs at CatalogChoice.org. The only upside of getting all this Total: 15 (out of 30) unwanted junk is that it allowed me to put the six shredders I selected to the test. Royal AG10X 10-Sheet Cross Cut Shredder, $69.99 Capacity (10 points): The shredders I tested were all light- to The pale-beige color of this machine isn't exactly cheering, and I medium-duty, designed for home use, and capable of shredding regretted that you had to peer closely to notice the warning from eight to 12 pages at a time. Could these machines really graphics over the shredding slot, images that on other models take on as many pages as the manufacturers claimed? were thrillingly vivid. (Men's neckties! Infants' skulls!) The Royal is loud, and for the price it could stand a few more bells and whistles. De-jamming paper requires toggling the on/off Design (10 points): Always a crucial factor in assessing an switch over and over again, and emptying the basket is a messy object that will adorn your work space. Is it pretty? How much business, which is more the rule than the exception, I'm sad to

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 65/105 report. In fact, most of these flaws are fairly standard issue. Capacity: 4 There was nothing egregiously wrong with this perfectly Design: 9 functional 10-sheeter. Bonus points for accepting even more Efficiency: 6 paper than its stated 10-sheet capacity. Total: 19 (out of 30)

Capacity: 7 Design: 4 Staples 12-Sheet Diamond Cut Shredder, $129.99 Efficiency: 6 Supersize proportions notwithstanding—picture one of those Total: 17 (out of 30) step-lid trash cans—I was a big fan of this shredder. It lives up to its touted 12-sheet capacity, swallowing frequent-flier statements and cell-phone bills in a single swift chomp. You OfficeMax Diamond Cut Eight-Sheet Shredder, $39.99 could even see the bulkiness as an advantage if, like me, you are If you are looking for a supersimple, straightforward "light duty" unfond of emptying the (conveniently pull-out) bin after every model, this Office Max might be just your bag. It's compact, shredding session. And if you are sitting at your desk, the height easy to operate, and can take on a few pages more than its of this cylindrical shredder is just right. advertised eight-sheet capacity. And who can argue with the price? Drawbacks: It's pretty slow, and jams are hard to clear up. Capacity: 9 The on/off switch was temperamental, and you have to remove Design: 5 the top to clean out the bin. Still, if your shredding needs are Efficiency: 8 fairly low-volume, this nice-sized, bargain-price model is a solid Total: 22 (out of 30) pick.

Capacity: 6 Staples Mailmate M3 12-Sheet Shredder, $79.99 Design: 5 At first, the rather higher-than-necessary noise level of this 12- Efficiency: 6 sheeter put me off, but its other fine qualities soon came to Total: 17 (out of 30) compensate and then some. For one thing, it's remarkably compact, about the size of a laser-jet printer. It's delightfully easy to empty, with a plastic handle that allows you to slide out Fellowes Intellishred 12-Sheet Shredder, $164.99 (originally the bin without moving any furniture. The Mailmate also has $299.99) quite a lot of oomph, and not just for its size; it had no difficulty This latest, greatest Fellowes shredder is what the pundits might destroying even the thickest, most irresistible offer from some call all hat and no cattle. It gets all the details down: It has handy now-defunct lending institution. My only real quibble, other than little wheels, an attached basket to store on-deck documents, and the noise level, is the horizontal paper-feeding mechanism—the blinking lights to indicate, among other crises, an overstuffed bin others are all vertical—which can necessitate hovering over the and an overheated engine. This machine was also the quietest I machine a split second longer than my modern lifestyle really tested, a quality I cannot commend enough. Final perk: This cared to accommodate: Feeding it 12 pages is just as easy, or as shredder has a slide-out bin that seems to me a great leap difficult, as feeding it one. Still, if you are looking for a powerful forward in shredder design. Pulling out the basket—rather than identity-protector for a cramped space, you can do no better than decapitating the whole machine—greatly minimizes the the Mailmate. The next time I hear from the FBI, I hope it's just exertions of bin-emptying and the mess of stray shreds flying that clicking sound on the line that assures me they're tapping about after the fact. The top three shredders all shared this my phone again. feature. Capacity: 9 And yet, and yet. There is a not-insignificant chink in the armor, Design: 8 which is that the Intellishred just doesn't shred as many pages as Efficiency: 7 it should. A row of lights signals exactly how hard the shredder Total: 24 (out of 30) is working, blinking red at, and then rejecting, any too-thick bundle. This automatic shutdown feature is certainly useful at Correction, Oct. 2, 2008: The article originally referred to the preventing jams; the problem is that it gets activated much too FBI as the Federal Bureau of Investigations, plural. (Return to quickly. Instead of simply inserting a credit-card offer into the the corrected sentence.) jaws intact, you must first open the envelope, then feed a few pages at a time—an inconvenience that, to me, violates one of the primary principles of the home shredder and, for that matter, consumer appliances in general: Good technology should make life easier, not complicate it further.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 66/105 slate v Conversation starter: "Do you think the Yankees still prefer Joe From the Conventions to the First Girardi to Joe Torre?" Debate in Three Minutes Conversation stopper: "Food, glorious food! We're anxious to A daily video from Slate V try it! Three banquets a day! Our favorite diet!" Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 11:51 AM ET Cubs talking points: The Cubs made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in 100 years, thanks to solid starting slate v pitching, a high-powered offense, Lou Piniella's steady managerial hand, and the good karma emanating from backup Dear Prudence: Who's Your Daddy? catcher Koyie Hill, who cut off three fingers and his thumb in an A daily video from Slate V offseason table saw accident and still made it back to the majors Monday, September 29, 2008, at 10:37 AM ET by September. While you're not sure which factor deserves the most credit for Chicago's great season, you're nonetheless worried that, in leaving the catcher off the playoff roster, the Cubs risk falling victim to the Curse of Koyie Hill's Fingers. sports nut Cocktail Chatter: Baseball Playoffs Historical context: The Cubs haven't won the World Series since Edition 1908, when they were led by a double-play combination How to fake your way through the 2008 baseball playoffs. immortalized in verse by columnist Franklin P. Adams: "These By Justin Peters are the saddest of possible words/ Tinker to Evers to Chance." Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 7:12 AM ET Although "Theriot to DeRosa to Lee/ And sometimes Mike Fontenot and Ronny Cedeno play second base/ When DeRosa is Back again, it's Slate's surface-level guide to baseball's in right field" doesn't scan nearly as well, that shouldn't stop you postseason, written for those of you who think SportsCenter is from reciting it, repeatedly, to anybody who will listen. that indoor soccer complex off Route 41. Don't know Chone Figgins from Henry Higgins? We're here to help. Conversation starter: "Say what you want about Ryan Dempster and Aramis Ramirez—superutility man Mark DeRosa is the Cubs' MVP." National League Division Series, Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Chicago Cubs Conversation stopper: "Koyie Hill's Severed Fingers is the Dodgers talking points: Some statheads like to deride Los perfect name for my new death metal band!" Angeles general manager Ned Colletti as a free-spending relic whose affinity for overpriced veterans—Juan Pierre, Andruw National League Division Series, Milwaukee Brewers vs. Jones, Jason Schmidt—prevents the Dodgers' young talent from Philadelphia Phillies seeing the field. Counter that argument by noting, first, that Brewers talking points: There's no doubt that the Brewers owe Colletti's acquisitions almost always get catastrophically injured, their wild-card berth to midseason acquisition C.C. Sabathia, which frees up playing time for productive youngsters like Matt who posted an 11-2 record and a 1.65 ERA in 17 starts after Kemp, James Loney, Russell Martin, and Andre Ethier. Second, coming over from Cleveland. If the Brewers hope to advance, point out that overpriced veterans can be mighty useful: The they're going to need at least one other starter to pitch well. The Dodgers wouldn't have sniffed the playoffs without snagging candidates include Dave Bush (29 home runs allowed this Manny Ramirez at midseason. Then sabotage your own season), Jeff Suppan (8.44 ERA in September), and Yovani argument by declaring your irrational hatred for Colletti's Gallardo (one start since May 1). On second thought, maybe predecessor, Paul "Google Boy" DePodesta. they should just get Sabathia to start every game.

Historical context: While the Cubs have the Dodgers beat in the Historical context: If the Brewers win it all, they could be the long, tortured history department, you can still score some points fattest World Series champions in baseball history. Milwaukee's by noting that 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of the Dodgers' 40-man roster features 12 players who weigh 220 pounds or last World Series victory, the 50th anniversary of their first more, including the (allegedly) 270-pound Prince Fielder, the season in Los Angeles, and the 40th anniversary of Jack Wild's 290-pound Sabathia, and Seth McClung, who ballooned to 475 bravura performance as the Artful Dodger in Oliver! Mention pounds when he ate then-manager Ned Yost on Sept. 15. (The that last one often, because everybody loves Oliver! Brewers claim Yost was fired, but then how do you explain the ketchup stains on McClung's jersey?)

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 67/105 Conversation starter: "If the Brewers don't go anywhere this Conversation starter: "Everybody talks about the Rays' young year, you can blame it on OBP—Prince Fielder is the only hitters, but the bullpen's turnaround was the key to the team's regular with an on-base percentage over .350." success. Last year, they had one of the worst ERAs in baseball history; this year, they're fifth-best in the majors." Conversation stopper: "Forget this baseball foolishness. I'm betting it all on the bratwurst in the first-ever playoff sausage Conversation stopper: "Sure, Evan Longoria plays a great third race." base, but have you seen him in a ball gown? Ravishing."

Phillies talking points: After a slow start, Ryan Howard led all White Sox talking points: Chicago did everything possible to of baseball with 48 home runs and 146 RBI—including 10 blow the AL Central—going 11-15 in September, losing the homers and 28 RBI in September. Nevertheless, the Phillies are sweet-swinging Carlos Quentin to a case of bat rage, starting the the only playoff team in recent memory that's built around its punchless Ken Griffey Jr. and Nick Swisher on a regular basis, middle infielders. Lucky for the Phillies, Chase Utley and Jimmy adopting "It's Not Gonna Happen" as the team's unofficial motto. Rollins are really, really good—Utley hit .292 with 33 home Although your friends might argue that they squeaked into the runs and a .380 OBP while Rollins, although down from his playoffs thanks to solid starting pitching and veteran leadership, usual numbers, nonetheless hit .277 and stole 47 bases. It doesn't you suspect that the White Sox were galvanized by the fear that, matter that the outfield is mediocre or that the starting staff gets if they choked, manager Ozzie Guillen would follow through on battered after Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer. As long as Utley his frequent threats and throw them under an actual bus. and Rollins are in, you can't count the Phillies out. Historical context: Since winning the World Series in 2005, the Historical context: Just like in 2007, the Phillies came from verbose Guillen has feuded with seemingly everybody in behind in September to take the division away from the New baseball, including newspaper columnists, opposing players, York Mets. Unlike in 2007, it didn't feel like a fluke this year. umpires, and his own general manager. Feel free to get into the And also unlike 2007, the Mets will never, ever, ever have the Guillen spirit by loudly criticizing everybody with whom you chance to win a playoff game in Shea Stadium again and will are watching the game, especially those who are fat or possibly send that stadium to its grave not in a spirit of celebration but of homosexual. Your friends will think that you're a comic defeat. Eat it, New York City! Eat it, Mets! Philly! Woooo! genius—just like Ozzie!—and, also, that you're a huge jerk. Just like Ozzie! Conversation starter: "Sixteen wins and a sub-4.00 ERA at age 45? I'd like some of what Jamie Moyer's drinking." Conversation starter: "Don't be fooled by Paul Konerko's lousy overall numbers—he was one of the best sluggers in baseball in Conversation stopper: "Still smokin' at age 49? I'd like some of August and September." what Jamie Lee Curtis is drinking. Hubba hubba!" Conversation stopper: "Ken Griffey Jr. is old enough to be Ken American League Division Series, Tampa Bay Rays vs. Griffey Sr.'s father." Chicago White Sox Rays talking points: The Rays' master plan of being bad for a American League Division Series, Boston Red Sox vs. Los really, really long time and losing their star player to a horrible Angeles Angels of Anaheim wasting disease finally paid off this year. The draft picks they Red Sox talking points: After seven years of letting Manny reaped after a decade of badness (B.J. Upton, Evan Longoria, Ramirez be Manny Ramirez, the Red Sox finally tired of his James Shields, and many others) took the majors by storm, antics and traded him to the Dodgers in July. While popular leading the Rays to a division title after a sad, barren decade of opinion holds that the Ramirez trade was addition by futility. Send a thank-you card to ex-GM Chuck LaMar, subtraction, you're not too sure about that math: Manny had a complimenting him on his excellent strategy—and send a monster second half (.396 BA, 17 HR, 53 RBI) for the Dodgers, sympathy card to DH Rocco Baldelli, who really does have a and that kind of production in Fenway might have helped the horrible wasting disease. Red Sox win the division and secure home field advantage. Still, a .358 team OBP and a deep starting staff leaves you optimistic Historical context: After a decade of futility as the Tampa Bay about Boston's chances, even if you now have to settle for letting Devil Rays, the Rays dropped the "Devil" this season and Kevin Youkilis be Kevin Youkilis. zoomed to the top of the AL East. Of course, they also had good players for the first time ever, but this shouldn't stop you from Historical context: The impending demolition of Yankee insisting that the K.C. Royals' decades of futility will be over Stadium means that Fenway Park is now one of only two major just as soon as they change their name to the "Sunshine Bands." league stadiums built before the Great Depression—the other, of course, being Chicago's Wrigley Field. Your friends will

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 68/105 applaud your spirit when you repeatedly encourage the Dodgers Except Asian-American voters. Somehow, amid all the to "drop some depth charges at Wrigley," never realizing that demographic navel-gazing, the country's third-largest, fastest- you're actually advocating a violent and casualty-laden scorched- growing minority—now 15.2 million people, or 5 percent of the earth strategy. population—gets overlooked.

Conversation starter: "Sure, the Indians' Cliff Lee won more Not this week. Or, more accurately, not for several hours on games, but Daisuke Matsuzaka meant more to his team than any Tuesday. That's when a nonprofit group called Leadership other pitcher this year." Education for Asian Pacifics held a news conference excitingly titled "Political Role of Asian Americans Examined" while the Conversation stopper: "We might not win the Series this year, Obama campaign scheduled interviews about its outreach efforts but, hey, at least the Patriots still have Tom Brady." to Asian-American and Pacific Islander voters. The message from both events: Asian voters can make a difference. Attention Angels talking points: The Angels destroyed their American must be paid. League competition behind closer Francisco Rodriguez's record- setting 62 saves. You, however, realize that a lot of saves are More about that later. But first, a question: Why, with all our usually indicative of a crappy offense and are more impressed by obsessing over demographics, do we hear so little about the the Angels' anonymously efficient starting staff—the top five Asian-American vote? starters posted 70 wins and a 3.97 ERA. Although "Joe Saunders" and "Ervin Santana" sound suspiciously like aliases, The most obvious reason is size. Asian-Americans make up only you're not going to ask any questions as long as they keep 5 percent of the U.S. population. (Note: "Asian-American" here, winning. and at the press conference Tuesday, is defined in the broadest possible sense, to include Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Historical context: With those 62 saves, Francisco "K-Rod" Taiwanese, Japanese, Thai, Filipino, Indian, Pakistani, and Rodriguez effortlessly broke the previous major-league record, Indonesian, among others.) Fifteen million people is a lot, but which had been held by Bobby Thigpen, an average pitcher not compared with other ethnic groups. African-Americans now without a cool nickname who had one really good season in the number 38.4 million, according to the 2006 census; Latinos course of an undistinguished nine-year career. Follow in Ford boast 44.4 million. Plus, Asian-Americans have the lowest Frick's (supposed) footsteps and argue that K-Rod's record proportion of eligible voters compared with the populations should be accompanied by an asterisk because Bobby Thigpen (about 52 percent) of any racial group. And of those, very few really, really needs this. (about 50 percent in 2006) actually register to vote. So we're talking about 7 million eligible voters and about 3 million actual voters. Conversation starter: "Vladimir Guerrero in a down year is still more fearsome than pretty much every other hitter." But wait—it gets worse! The five states with the largest Asian populations are, in order, California, New York, Texas, Hawaii, Conversation stopper: "Gary Matthews Jr. in a down year is … and New Jersey. Not exactly the swingiest places around. There oh, wait, that's every year." are two big exceptions: Nevada and Virginia. Both states have rapidly growing Asian-American populations—they constitute 6 percent of eligible voters in Virginia, possibly enough to swing a competitive presidential race. swingers Another difficulty is the Asian-American community's Chinese Democracy heterogeneity. Koreans and Chinese and Vietnamese aren't Why don't we ever hear about the Asian-American vote? necessarily more or less fractured than Mexicans and Puerto By Christopher Beam Ricans and Cubans. But, unlike Latinos, they speak different Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 4:57 PM ET languages. Campaigns can easily cut Spanish-language ads to run nationwide; it's tougher to run ads in Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, etc. (Only about 60 percent of Asian-Americans speak Presidential campaigns can feel like an informal census. As the English.) Then you'd need to target ethnic media, which is costly candidates traverse the country, they pander to Latino voters, and, on the national level, of marginal benefit. African-American voters, working-class white voters, older voters, younger voters, elite-college-graduate voters … everyone Then there is the difficulty of targeting Asian-American issues. gets to feel important. This is a problem in ethnic politics generally—opinions on immigration, for example, are more diverse among blacks than among the interest groups that lobby on their behalf—but it is

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 69/105 especially acute among Asian-Americans. Yes, there are general making a targeted approach in a single election cycle," says bread-and-butter issues like health care and education for which Taeku Lee, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. platitudes about access and opportunity are useful. There are "You build a constituency over time." At the same time, the also hyperspecific concerns that are not ideal campaign talking Asian-American vote already is increasingly Democratic. By the points: Chinese care a lot about U.S.-China relations. Taiwanese time 80-20 could persuade four-fifths of the group to vote one care about China-Taiwan. Vietnamese favor anti-Communist way, they might already be there. 80-20 does take credit for policies. And Filipinos often vote based on whoever supports Hillary Clinton's winning the California Asian-American vote by benefits for Filipino veterans of World War II. Plus, segments of 3-1. But swinging party primaries isn't the goal here. the Asian-American community often disagree—as Taiwanese- Americans and Chinese-Americans do on Taiwan, for example, Another solution is strengthening the ground game. In Virginia, or Pakistanis and Indians on Kashmir. the Obama camp has hired Asian-American field directors and recruited Asian-American volunteers. It's also distributing Finally, as if demographics and geography and message weren't foreign-language campaign literature to local communities in challenging enough, there is partisanship. Or, more precisely, Fairfax County—in Vietnamese, for example, in Falls Church lack thereof. African-American voters break heavily toward and in Korean in Centreville. "We definitely have the potential Democrats; Latino voters (with the exception of Cubans) are to be the swing vote," says Betsy Kim of the Obama campaign. also largely Democratic. Asian-Americans, meanwhile, can't There's evidence, too: In 2006, Jim Webb won 76 percent of the make up their minds. About a third of them are Republican, a state's Asian-American voters and eked out a victory over third Democratic, and a third unaffiliated. This last group George Allen. Many believe those voters—with an assist by consists largely of immigrants—more than half of Asian- Allen's "macaca" moment—made the difference. McCain also American were born overseas—who often won't develop party has done some outreach, but the enthusiasm seems to lie with the loyalty for another generation. Democrats. One columnist even called Obama "the first Asian- American president." An argument can be made—and is—that excessive partisanship is exactly the problem with a lot of ethnic politics. It goes One area where politicians do make concessions is something like this: Democrats take black voters for granted, representation. Asian-Americans make up 5 percent of the Republicans don't even try to win them over, and the result is population, but only about 1 percent of elected officials. So they that they have less influence than they would if they had less want candidates to include more Asian-Americans in their party loyalty. administrations. President Bush earned points by appointing Elaine Chao secretary of labor. On a questionnaire, Hillary But an argument can also be made that partisanship enhances Clinton promised to select Asian-American judges; Obama influence. On the national level, the most powerful groups— balked at quotas but committed to appointing qualified Asian- unions, African-Americans, evangelicals—are often the most Americans. partisan. A pandering politician wants to maximize the efficiency of his pandering. So if the strategy is to mobilize the Experts offer up all sorts of other solutions to the relative base, it makes more sense to court a loyal group. (Plus, it gets invisibility of Asian-Americans in politics. Terry Ao, director of you more media coverage. The one time the national media the Asian American Justice Center, argues that congressional noticed Asian-Americans this election cycle was when Hillary districts must be redrawn to consolidate the Asian-American Clinton won 75 percent of their votes in California.) vote. She also says the U.S. census understates their population—since Asian-Americans value their privacy and So what are Asian-Americans planning to do about their immigrants are often afraid to provide information—and needs underwhelming influence? One idea is something called the 80- tweaking. Voter registration is another solution. Once Asian- 20 Initiative, a political action committee dedicated to Americans register, says Lee, they vote in high numbers. Some persuading 80 percent of Asian-Americans to vote for one side. activists also encourage pollsters to include "Asian-American" Since 2000, the group has endorsed a candidate and asked as a demographic, instead of lumping it in with "Other." And of Asians to support him or her. (They endorsed Gore in 2000 and course, electing more Asian-American leaders would raise their Kerry in 2004. In the 2008 primaries, it was Hillary; in the profile considerably. The best-known Asian-American general, it's Obama.) The goal of the group, the brainchild of politicians now are probably Hawaii Sens. Daniel Inouye and former Delaware Lt. Gov. S.B. Woo, is eventually to turn the Daniel Akaka, both Democrats, and Chao and Louisiana Gov. Asian-American vote into a bloc vote that can swing both ways, Bobby Jindal, both Republicans. Republican or Democrat. Since 1980, the Asian-American population has tripled. By It's a quixotic enterprise. On the one hand, it's an artificial way to 2030, it's expected to nearly double again. Meanwhile, Asian- replicate the normally organic process of party identification— Americans are flooding battleground states like Nevada, and so far, it hasn't quite worked. "You can't get to 80-20 by Minnesota, and Virginia faster than other immigrant groups. So

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 70/105 maybe 80-20 shouldn't be telling Asian-Americans how to vote. current polls, which are now quite favorable for Obama. Maybe it should be telling them where to move. Statewide polls can be unreliable, though, because of small samples and crazy methodology, so analysts also look at other cues like party registration. If the party that is traditionally the underdog is signing up lots of new voters—perhaps enough to make up for the 2004 margin—it might hint that the state is swingers really in play. In traditionally red Colorado, for example, Democrats have seen the number of registered voters grow. It's So You Think You're a Swing Voter? also worth checking who or what else is on the ballot: Anti- Think again: It depends on whether you live in a swing state. union initiatives in Colorado might help McCain, while popular By John Dickerson candidates like Mark Warner, who is running for Senate in Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at 8:23 PM ET Virginia, might help Obama.

When determining swing states, there is really only one iron- If you are lonely, declare yourself a swing voter. You'll get lots clad rule: Don't listen to what the campaigns say. They will of attention. Volunteers will come to your house with reading claim to be competing in states they're not serious about to throw material. Politicians will beam at you. The pollsters will come in off their opponent and make them spend time, money, and swarms. Tell them you are either undecided or committed but attention defending their turf. willing to change your mind. Your phone will ring incessantly, and if it's not a legitimate pollster, it'll be a push-pollster telling horror stories or a reporter who wants to know your every whim. Instead, watch where the campaigns spend their time and money. If you frequent a diner or some other authentic-looking eatery The best way to tell whether a campaign is serious about a state near a major airport, a network producer will put you on is if the campaigns are spending money on advertisements and television. staff and offices in the state. And the most important indicator is how much time the candidate is spending in the state. If the candidate's spouse goes but the candidate doesn't, it probably Just one thing, though: Do you live in a swing state? You don't? means the campaign is not hopeful about the state but not yet Oh—then, never mind. If you're lonely, get a dog. willing to take it totally off the list.

There may have been a time when the political world cared Iowa is an interesting test case of this theory: It's a true swing about the views of voters in non-swing states, but with just 34 state. Gore won it in 2000. Bush won it in 2004. Obama has days until the election—and some voting already under way—all been ahead there consistently in the polls. He started his that matters is what happens in the 15 or so states that will campaign with a caucus victory in Iowa. McCain has constantly determine whether Barack Obama or John McCain will win the bashed ethanol subsidies, as he did in the last debate, which 270 electoral votes necessary to become the next president. doesn't endear him to some Iowa voters.

You've heard of most of the battleground states before. Ohio and The upshot is that Obama campaign aides think they've got the Florida are the two most famous, making all of the other swing state locked up. The McCain team, meanwhile, says it's seen a states jealous because they've had movies made about them. dramatic pickup in Republican support in Iowa, mirroring a Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico are also larger trend it sees across the battleground states. Since the Palin among the traditional swing states that have supported pick, McCain aides say, the number of volunteers willing to candidates from both parties in recent elections. make calls and knock on doors in swing states has surpassed the number who did so in 2004 for George Bush. They say this The number of battleground states is not fixed. Different news boost of energy has been particularly strong in Iowa, where organizations have varying counts. NBC, CNN, the Washington Republicans' support for McCain was far less enthusiastic than Post, the New York Times, Mark Ambinder, and Pollster.com, all Democrats' support for Obama. see it slightly differently. The slight distinction among the different analysts is about which new states will be accorded the They're blowing smoke, right? Perhaps. But McCain has been to coveted "swing state" title and which traditional swing states Iowa twice in the last two weeks, and he's running ads there. should fall off the list. Indiana and North Carolina are new states There's nothing more precious in the final days of a campaign flickering in the desirable "tossup" category, whereas Iowa, a than the candidate's time. A candidate's visit generates state George W. Bush won in 2004, appears to be headed out of enthusiasm among supporters, helps organize volunteers, and McCain's reach. gets lots of local news coverage. You don't waste that on a state that's not in play. McCain's advisers might still be wrong about To determine the states that are truly competitive, we start with Iowa. But at least they're backing up their beliefs with their the states that historically have been close and then look at the candidate.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 71/105 A few months ago, when the Obama campaign said it was going There have been many efforts to find the one key voting bloc to compete in Indiana, it looked as if it was just making that will turn the election—soccer moms, Wal-Mart Moms, mischief. A Democrat hasn't won the state since 1964. But the office-park Dads—but in "The Future of Red, Blue and Purple state is starting to look as if it might be a genuine tossup. Polls America," Ruy Teixeira explains why those descriptions have are tightening—particularly one from respected pollster Ann always been either too simplistic or wildly wrong. It's more Seltzer—and Republicans seem to feel some genuine level of likely that the winning candidate will need to make inroads into threat. The Republican National Committee is running ads there a variety of swing groups. against Obama. McCain will have to retain his party's traditional advantage North Carolina is like Indiana. It is not a swing state in the sense among men while trying to convince independents and soft that it swings from one party to the other from election to Democrats to support him. These voters are torn, says McCain election. It has been reliably Republican since 1976, but there is pollster Bill Bill Mcinturff. They "really admire" McCain, he a hint it may swing this time. Obama is up in the polls, riding a says, but they also want "to make absolutely sure that there's wave of concern about the economy and perhaps even growing going to be change, including change on the economic front." fears about Sarah Palin. McCain's aides say that since the Palin pick, they have seen some improvement among professional women. They also say Once campaigns fix on their battleground states, they run a two- it's fallen off as the Obama campaign has reached out to those track strategy. First, they reach out to their base with highly same women by stressing Obama's positions on the economy partisan appeals. But because they can't win with their base and on abortion. alone, they hunt for those weakly committed and undecided swing voters. Though swing voters get lots of attention, they're The Democratic Leadership Council argues that Obama, even if nothing without a strong base—as George McGovern, Michael he performs well among Democratic constituencies, needs to Dukakis, and John Kerry learned. All three won the swing vote, make inroads into white working-class voters—those men and according to post-election polls, but none had enough of a base women with no college degree who work and live in the vote to win. competitive suburbs. He doesn't have to win that group. (Democrats haven't since 1984.) He just needs not to lose by a Just because you say you're an independent or unaffiliated voter wide margin. Polls suggest he may be on his way. Obama has doesn't mean you're a swing voter. A lot of people who are the clear advantage over McCain with voters on the issues of the registered independents turn out to be hidden partisans, and a economy and who will change Washington. He has also been portion of those who are registered in one of the two parties are shrinking his gap with McCain on which candidate has the nevertheless up for grabs. The former Hillary Clinton supporters qualities necessary to be president. have been a vocal example from the current election cycle. As the science of targeting all voters becomes more precise— Studies over the years have shown that swing voters tend to be Obama voters prefer Starbucks; McCain voters prefer Wal- less engaged with the campaign than partisans and are slightly Mart—identifying voters who are undecided has become even less educated and more moderate. They often live in suburbs, more refined. Instead of focusing on large blocs of swing voters, especially what political scientists call urbanizing suburbs, campaigns can now target blocs within blocks, like gun-owning which can be found between the metropolitan Democratic women with children who live in suburbs. So if you have strongholds and the Republican fringe suburbs and rural areas— decided to be a swing voter, don't be surprised if the campaigns areas like the suburbs outside Philadelphia, where McCain and already know a lot about you when they come calling. Obama are fighting over the issue of stem-cell research. McCain pitched himself to moderate voters as a champion of such research. Obama responded with ads contending, incorrectly, that McCain is opposed to it. McCain aides are happy even to be in this fight. The Philadelphia suburbs were thought to be lost to swingers Republican candidates. Don't Take It for Granite Democrats control New Hampshire, but Obama still faces a tough battle here. Swing-voter makeup varies from state to state. Latino voters By John Swansburg play a larger role in Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada. The Monday, September 29, 2008, at 5:02 PM ET targeted suburbs in Virginia and Pennsylvania are more moderate than those around St. Louis or Cincinnati. In states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan, the uncommitted voters tend CONCORD, N.H.—At first glance, New Hampshire looks like to be older, whereas in growth states like Colorado, Nevada, and it's Barack Obama's to lose. Though George W. Bush won the Virginia they tend to be younger. state in 2000, he did so narrowly. In 2004, John Kerry won a

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 72/105 slim victory here, making it the only state where Bush failed to means breaking ranks with his own party. McCain's causes have repeat. Then came the 2006 midterms. The Democrats also tended to resonate with the state's voters—his disdain for practically took over the state, unseating two Republican wasteful government spending appeals to New Hampshire's members of Congress, winning control of both houses of the GOP and its right-leaning independents, who man one of the last state legislature, and returning Gov. John Lynch to office with outposts of Rockefeller Republicanism. 74 percent of the vote. They even won a majority on the state's unusual but influential executive council, when a septuagenarian Yet there's another, simpler explanation for McCain's popularity probate bondsman named John Shea beat out a moderate here: "His willingness to work his butt off," says David Carney, Republican he'd lost to four times previously. (Apparently not White House political director for the first President Bush and a sanguine about his chances, Shea left for a European vacation on Hancock resident. Since 1999, McCain has more or less made Election Day. After some initial confusion, he was located at a New Hampshire his second home (though he probably wouldn't Belgian hotel and notified of his victory via fax.) put it that way, his home-count being a touchy subject). Instead, McCain is fond of telling a joke starring his late friend Mo Yet if Obama is going to keep New Hampshire in the blue Udall, another Arizona member of Congress who made a bid for column, he's going to have to work at it. The state isn't as the White House: "Guy in Concord says to another guy in Democratic as the 2006 election makes it seem. And if any Concord, 'What do you think of Mo Udall for president?' Other Republican can take it back, it's John McCain. guy says, 'I don't know, I only met him twice.' "

The Democratic victories in 2006 were the result of several As McCain says, it's funny because it's true: New Hampshire's factors unique to the midterms. This election year, New primary has outsized importance, and voters here are used to Hampshire will do away with straight-ticket voting, but in 2006, getting extra-special attention. McCain has been ubiquitous. In voters had the option of pulling the lever for a party's whole slate the run-up to the 2000 primary, he conducted more than 100 of candidates. The election of John Shea suggests many did just town hall meetings; in an effort to save his candidacy in 2008, he that. With the wildly popular Lynch at the top of the ticket, and held 101 more. Even Arnie Arnesen, host of the liberal local talk the Republican Party seen as responsible for a failing war, the show Political Chowder, praises McCain for how hard he's Democrats were poised for a rout. campaigned in the state and for his willingness to go on shows like hers. "I'd probably be invited to McCain's inaugural and not What that rout belies is a state still closely split between Barack's," Arnesen says with a laugh. "And I don't want him to Republicans and Democrats—at last count, the GOP held on to a win and he knows I don't want him to win." small advantage of 4,891 more registered voters. With the presidential race now at the top of the ticket, and concern about A couple of weekends ago, Obama was in the state for two Iraq eclipsed by worries about the economy and energy costs, public events, an evening rally in Concord, the state capital, and Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire a Saturday-morning gathering in Manchester, its biggest city. Survey Center, expects the 2008 results to look less like 2006 (With 109,000 residents, it's hardly a metropolis, but compared than like 2004. John Kerry carried the state by a mere 9,247 with the sleepy villages that dot the rest of the state, it might as votes, and that was over Bush, whom even New Hampshire well be Vegas—which is what locals call it.) That same Republicans seem to like about as much as they like Carl Levin. weekend, McCain did a toe-touch in New Hampshire, making a quick Sunday-afternoon visit to the small town of Loudon. By contrast, McCain and New Hampshire have maintained a Small, that is, except for the two weekends a year when its robust mutual-appreciation society since 2000. In the state population jumps from about 4,500 to 150,000, as RVs full of primary that year, he defeated Bush by an embarrassing 18 NASCAR fans hitch up at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. percentage points. In the 2008 primary, voters passed over a New Hampshire taxpayer (Mitt Romney, who owns a house on I'm only an occasional visitor to New Hampshire, but this was Lake Winnipesaukee) to revive McCain's flagging 2008 the second time I'd seen McCain at the same event—he'd shown presidential bid. up for the 2006 race, too. McCain mingled with voters in the infield and made brief remarks with Cindy standing at his side. New Hampshire's license plates have made its "Live free or die" ("That's his wife?" I overheard a Bobby Labonte fan ask his motto famous, but it's not just a motto. This is a state with no buddy. "Good for him.") The McCains got a warm welcome, sales tax and no income tax on wages. It's the only state in the though the fans I was standing with were clearly more excited to union without an adult seat-belt law. It's a state that grants its spot NASCAR legend "King" Richard Petty loping around the citizens an explicit "right of revolution"—see Article 10 of the dais than to see the senior senator from Arizona on top of it. state constitution—should the people's liberty ever become endangered. Such a place might seem to have a natural affinity Eight years of campaigning here is a lot, but will it be enough? for McCain, the self-styled "maverick" who boasts of his No one I spoke with, Democrat or Republican, was willing to willingness to stand up for the causes he believes in, even if it venture a guess at who will prevail in New Hampshire, and the

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 73/105 polls show the candidates in a dead heat.(Same goes for the immediately. The others wanted to discuss ways to license music other big contest in the state, between incumbent Republican to Muxtape—though at terms that Ouellette found onerous. Sen. John Sununu and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen.) In the end, Ouellette walked away from the talks; he says he's relaunching the race may come down to a force beyond the candidates' Muxtape as a place for bands to release music and manage control—demographics. relationships with their fans. As a simple mix-tape service, Muxtape is no more. Southern New Hampshire has become the Republican stronghold, thanks to an influx of GOP voters from an unlikely I began to realize how much of a shame that is as I tested source: Massachusetts. According to UNH's Smith, the MySpace Music this week. Industry observers are calling the Massachusetts transplants who have settled in places like service—a joint project between MySpace and four major record Nashua and Salem tend to cite three reasons for moving: cheaper labels that allows people to stream millions of songs online for housing, lower taxes, and fewer liberals. But at the same time, free—a "breakthrough," though that term only highlights the retirees from places like New York and Connecticut are moving industry's history of intransigence. Sure, it's nice that the music to New Hampshire's Lakes Region, and white-collar workers are industry has finally found a way to give us free music while also moving from elsewhere in blue New England to take jobs in the compensating artists. (They'll get a share of the revenue the site state's expanding service sector. These voters may not have been generates from advertising.) But while the site may represent a around to attend multiple McCain town meetings. They may breakthrough in business negotiations, it doesn't offer much that have moved to New Hampshire not in pursuit of Liberty but other online music services (both legal and illegal) haven't because they got a job at Fidelity. And they're probably going to offered before. As I struggled to navigate its cluttered user vote for Barack Obama. interface, I thought fondly of dearly departed sites like Muxtape—services that weren't authorized by the industry but that succeeded because they offered a better experience than anything music executives have yet cooked up. technology MySpace Music does indeed let you listen to a huge number of Everything Means Nothing to Me songs through the Web. I found its catalog extensive—I was able to listen to most songs that I searched for within a few seconds MySpace Music lets you listen to pretty much every song ever recorded, and it still sucks. of typing their names—but not complete. For instance, while I By Farhad Manjoo dug up a somewhat obscure Greek song (Stelios Kazantzidis' Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 4:42 PM ET "Efuge Efuge," used in a memorable scene in Season 2 of The Wire), there were only a handful of tracks available from the new Jenny Lewis album. While MySpace Music may come in In March, a Web designer named Justin Ouellette created a handy while you're at work or DJing a party, creating a brilliant music-sharing site called Muxtape. Ouellette took his streaming playlist from a huge catalog of songs isn't completely inspiration from the past—the Nick Hornby era of cassette mix novel. At least two other industry-licensed music sites—Imeem tapes, a time when countless lovelorn souls fancied themselves and Last.fm—have offered the same service since last year; they, the curators of high-concept custom albums. These days we've too, feature lots of songs but also many omissions. And none of moved on to mixing CDs, but Ouellette—like everyone else these sites beat the simple, fast-loading user interface of who's bemoaned the state of the recording industry during the YouTube, which remains the best place to search if you feel a last decade—saw that the Internet had much greater potential to sudden need to hear a song you don't have. broadcast our musical tastes. With Muxtape, Ouellette made sharing music over the Web much simpler than creating a With certain restrictions, MySpace Music also lets you share physical mix tape: Just upload your MP3s to the site, name your your playlists with your friends. This might have been its best mix, and send the link—an easy-to-remember URL, feature, but the restrictions rankle: MySpace will allow you to yourmix.muxtape.com—to all your pals. make only one of your playlists public—you can't make one mix tape for your spouse and another for your mom. Worse, you can That, at least, was Ouellette's vision—and for five months, share your playlist only through your MySpace profile; if you Muxtape was a sublime reality. But not surprisingly, on Aug. 15, want to send it to your co-workers, you've got to be OK with Ouellette's hosting service received a copyright infringement them seeing pictures of you dressed up as a drunken pirate. notice from the Recording Industry Association of America. Last Imeem's playlist-sharing features are much better—it lets you week, Ouellette published a lengthy account of his dealings with share more playlists, and you can embed them on other sites. label executives during the past half-year. His story reveals that the music industry has a more nuanced take on upstart music- This gets to the single biggest problem with the MySpace Music sharing sites than it did in the Napster era. Only some of the service—it's MySpace's music service. Every feature remains industry reps Ouellette spoke to threatened to shut him down tied to a social network that has become enormously popular

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 74/105 despite its terrible user interface and—since the rise of technology Facebook—appeals mostly to an adolescent demographic. You I'm a PC, and I'm Worried About My need to have a MySpace account to use MySpace Music; if you've resisted getting a MySpace profile, the music service isn't Image reason enough to sign up. Little about using MySpace Music is Microsoft's $300 million campaign to prove Windows isn't lame. pleasant: Its song search engine, for example, is extremely By Farhad Manjoo limited, giving you no way to refine your query by narrowing it Monday, September 29, 2008, at 4:08 PM ET down to certain albums or versions of songs. When you search for a popular track—say, Lil Wayne's "Lollipop"—you get dozens of results and no explanation for how each version Bill Gates hates Apple's "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" ads. He argues differs from the other. MySpace also lacks any "music- that they exaggerate the difficulties of using Windows and, discovery" engine—it doesn't tell you what you might like based worse, that they're mean-spirited, maligning 90 percent of the on what your friends like or what you've searched for or listened computer-using public as "dullards" and "klutzes"—folks who to in the past. Worst of all, the system is gummed up by ads. don't belong at the cool table. "I don't know why [Apple is] Every inch of every page is plastered with some flashy acting like it's superior," he told Newsweek last year. "I don't sponsorship message; along with being ugly and off-putting, the even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in ads slow down the entire site. these things—or if you're really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There's not even the These annoying ads are expected to be quite lucrative for slightest shred of truth to it." MySpace and the music industry. Record labels also hope that MySpace will present competition for Apple, which has gained Gates stepped away from a day-to-day role at Microsoft this enormous power in the music business through the iTunes Music summer, but the company's much-discussed new $300 million Store—the largest retailer of music in the country, beating not marketing campaign follows his critique of the Apple ads. Its only other online stores but also offline stores like Wal-Mart. core message: Hey, Apple, who are you calling square? Each ad But if the labels want to create an alternative to iTunes, they begins with a John Hodgman look-alike—played by Sean Siler, would do well to study its rise. Apple's genius was to minimize a Microsoft engineer—who declares, "I'm a PC, and I've been its service's restrictions by amping up its usability. People are made into a stereotype." He's followed by an international army willing to put up with iTunes' annoying copy-protection scheme of Windows users who tell us what makes each of them so because finding and buying songs there is amazingly fast, easy, special: "I'm a PC, and I'm not what you'd call hip," says a black and fun. The same holds for Hulu, the wonderful TV-streaming scientist with a British accent. There's a geneticist, a graffiti site that NBC and Fox launched last year. Sure, it has ads, but artist, a shark biologist, a jeans designer, a guy who turns cow they don't crowd your entire field of view, and the sponsorship manure into fuel, and an astronaut. Gates pops in to say, "I'm a messages feel like a reasonable price for the service you're PC, and I wear glasses." "I wear glasses," replies a school kid in getting. MySpace Music doesn't elicit the same thrill. The site's Africa. The most memorable quip, perhaps unintentionally, design is so terrible and overly commercialized that not even the comes from mind-body guru Deepak Chopra: "I am a PC and a service's amazing breadth—remember, you can find nearly any human being. Not a human doing. Not a human thinking. A song you want in seconds—can save it from being a drag to use. human being."

Still, MySpace Music offers some hope. Two years ago the idea I don't think that's meant to make you laugh. While the ads' tone that the music industry might allow a Web company to stream is light, they're self-consciously self-serious. The people in these songs for free seemed unthinkable. But we've been getting music spots don't just use PCs, they are P.C.—in contrast to Apple's for free online for years now—a site that offers to give it to us white-bread twosome, everything about them is politically, legally isn't going to succeed unless it throws in features that racially, environmentally, and ideologically correct. Where haven't been implemented well elsewhere (like sharing Apple once held up the great men and women of our age for playlists). And it's got to be pretty and work well, too. That the their courage to "Think different," Microsoft seems to be saying industry has taken a stab toward creating such a service is that each of us is special in our own way—special enough that promising. Maybe someday it'll consider doing something as we don't need software to define us. It's the sort of message you simple and elegant as Muxtape. As Ouellette put it in his rarely hear now that Stuart Smalley is off the air, and as a farewell note: "The industry will catch up some day; it pretty Windows user, I suppose I should be grateful for the affirmation. much has to." In reality, I'm slightly embarrassed by the suggestion that I should be doing something great with my machine. I'm a PC, and I spend my days looking for silly things online. Am I using the wrong computer?

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 75/105 Still, the new ads mark a clever marketing turn. Unlike Apple, But perhaps the Windows hordes can rally around their shared Microsoft seldom traffics in cultural commentary. Many of its annoyance at Apple's ads. After two years of seeing Justin TV ads resemble spots for luxury cars—they feature lots of shots Long's Mac tweak John Hodgman's PC, don't you want to grab of businessmen getting things done and vague promises of future him by the hoodie and tell him to get a real job? But getting efficiencies. As a result, most are completely forgettable. There annoyed at Apple isn't the same as rallying around Windows. As are only two Windows commercials I can call to mind: the they are, Microsoft's new ads probably won't rehabilitate its launching spot for Windows 95, which was great mostly for its image. Some adjustments are in order: Make the ads funnier, soundtrack (the Stones' "Start Me Up"), and the recent ill- less serious, and more visually and stylistically appealing. Yes, advised "Mojave Experiment" campaign for Windows Vista, make them more like the Apple ads. I'd also suggest expanding which sought to prove that people can be fooled into loving Gates' role: Once regarded as a corporate villain, he has Microsoft's software. morphed, over the years, into a saintly figure, and he makes for a very likable mascot for the firm. What makes the new ads notable, of course, is their swagger. Microsoft has decided to fight Apple on its own turf, taking on But even though they need work, the new ads mark a good start. the idea that Steve Jobs and co. are better, smarter, and hipper Microsoft isn't facing any sort of emergency. Its market share than everyone else. In business, taking a rival's ads too seriously isn't plunging. What it needs is a slight adjustment of its image, a is a risky gambit. In the 1980s, Coke famously responded to the new gloss on an aging brand. If it persists with this campaign— "Pepsi Challenge" campaign—which showed that people prefer goosing Apple for being exclusive, painting itself as not terribly Pepsi in blind taste tests—by changing its formula. New Coke out of touch—it might one day be cool to identify yourself as a didn't work out so well. But unlike Coca-Cola, Microsoft needed PC. to respond to Apple. Even if they are mean, Apple's ads seem to be working. While the Mac's market share still isn't close to that of Windows, Macs have seen faster sales growth than PCs in the last year, and Windows Vista, routinely panned in Apple's ads, is now routinely panned by a lot of people who haven't used it. television The End of Star Wars Even if they are a little saccharine, the core message of With a new television series, the space opera reaches its logical conclusion. Microsoft's ads—that Apple is snooty—should resonate. That's By Troy Patterson because Apple is snooty. Here's a quote from Steve Jobs, circa Friday, October 3, 2008, at 11:27 AM ET the mid-1990s: "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste." Apple's corporate identity is built on that mind-set—on its supposed underdog More mischievous than ever our old friend Yoda these days is. exclusivity, on the idea that choosing a Mac is an act of noble On the new weekly series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Cartoon rebellion against the totalitarian IBM-Microsoft regime. Apple Network, Fridays at 9 p.m. ET), the tiny Jedi master seems tinier has been very successful in cementing this image. I once asked than ever, trickier, too. Bouncing through a battle scene in the Jason Snell, the editorial director of the company that publishes second episode, he scurries acrobatically—a wise and wiseass Macworld magazine, about the difference between people who jumping bean. Deftly does he outmaneuver some robots buy Macs and people who buy Windows. No one buys controlled by an Eartha-Kittenish villainess named Ventress. In Windows, he said. There are only Mac people: people who've the 3-D digital animation of this series, his skin glows a healthy consciously chosen to buy a computer for its differences. Folks shade of moss, and his sprightliness helps this latest George who use Windows didn't choose to use Windows—they don't Lucas diversion achieve some commendable action-adventure make any decision at all. They just took what everyone else had. zip.

The last time I needed a new computer, I made my decision Watching The Clone Wars, I decided that it would entertain based on price, not operating system: A Dell was the cheapest certain discerning sixth-graders—and this was even after machine I could find. (I'm not completely a Windows person; as recognizing that these warm feelings have been conditioned over a tech columnist, I switch computers often, and I've owned three decades. The relentless grandeur of John Williams' old several Macs over the years.) Microsoft's new ads suggest that score simply excites a Pavlonian response, with its fanfare for my kind of nondecision is OK. Being in the lazy majority is just common boyishness triggering a stream of drool from any fine because, hey, you study sharks, and that's pretty awesome. American male with the slightest trace of geek in his makeup. To be sure, inclusivity is a harder sell than exclusivity. "Hey, we're conformists!" just isn't as catchy as, "Hey, we're special To appease the more committed geeks in the audience, I should and different!" note that this show is not to be confused with the article-free Star Wars: Clone Wars, an animated series from 2003. Rather, it follows a theatrical film titled Star Wars: The Clone Wars,

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 76/105 which opened to contemptuous reviews in August and, critics Watching the financial networks during the meltdown. presumed, existed foremost as a feature-length promo for the By Troy Patterson state-of-the-art show that debuts Friday night. The new series Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 5:24 PM ET depicts some military campaigns that unfolded around the time of the two most recent live-action Star Wars films. With Monday having gone down as Wall Street's bleakest day Those also being the two most soulless installments of Lucas' since the 1987 crash, Tuesday rated as the hairiest in the history space opera, most sane adults will not have the strength even to of the financial news networks. It was business as unusual, with begin sorting out what is up with all the confederacies and the journalists of burnished CNBC, gaudy Fox Business, and coalitions in this corner of the galaxy. It is enough to that know dapper little Bloomberg variously barking with compensatory that Anakin Skywalker and his cleft chin are around and that confidence and squirming abjectly, asking for frank assessments they bring a nobility of purpose to blowing things up. Many of and pleading for Panglossian answers, quelling panic and the objects of this up-blowing are clones, which enables the reflecting it. Perhaps CNBC's Dennis Kneale, showing his show to achieve an impressive body count without disturbing a sensitive side and feeling bullish about catharsis, made the best parent's moral sense. Some clones, especially the good guys, show of converting hysteria into a laugh line: "It's awfully scary experience moments of torture in their hand-me-down spirits. out there, so what should you do with your money? I think you "We're just clones, sir," one says to his boss in a moment of should cry over it." peril. "We're meant to be expendable." That was around 1 p.m. on Power Lunch. The Dow was Here, Anakin has a spunky wisp of a girl sidekick named bouncing back, and Kneale's colleague Bob Pisani, diligently Ahsoka Tano. She's a space-opera cutie (full lips, retroussé nose, parsing the weirdness of traders basing their decisions on the striped hair) on a mission to win over a female audience—a kind most fleeting illusions of political winds, was starting to run out of avatar for both the children who've only recently outgrown of synonyms for weird. "We're in a bizarre world," he had said. Dora the Explorer and older, dorkier girls given to fantasizing "Are we in a strange world or what?" he would yet say. It is about entering hyperspace while wearing a tube top. Ahsoka and quite a peculiar world indeed, thought the viewer, when a Anakin squabble like 10-year-olds playing My First Flirtation. channel promises man-on-the-street reactions from "Main Street" and then delivers vox pops taped in downtown In the first episode—titled, with a melodramatic majesty that's Manhattan. vintage Lucasfilm, "Rising Malevolence"—the two of them play hooky in order to go on a rescue mission with one-in-a-million CNBC introduced a few such segments to the strains of a horror- odds, and they bicker. At the end of the episode, after disobeying show score, a snippet of apprehensive violins. At the bottom of orders to go on their humanitarian lark, they're ordered into a the screen in the chyron, the network asked, "Is Your Money meeting with the Jedi Council for a slap on the wrist. Uplifting Safe?" This was the central question of the day, and one that Anakin says to perky Ahsoka: "Through it all, you never gave CNBC tended to address with thoroughness and sobriety, but it up. You did a great job, but if I'm getting in trouble for this, was being posed in a font—grotty, rotted-out, fit for the opening you're gonna share some of the blame, too. So, c'mon, let's go!" credits of some apocalyptic thriller or lurid prison She replies: "Right beside, ya, sky guy!" Then R2-D2 tweets and documentary—that implied that your money was presently being toodles like a bemused chaperone. excreted by cash-eating bacteria.

Cute! Too cute? Does it matter!? The Clone Wars feels like the Meanwhile, the Fox Business Network ran promos razzing logical terminus of Star Wars' three-decades-old adventure in CNBC for slacking in its coverage over the weekend. Fox prolonged preadolescence. In the '70s, critics Michael Pye and boasted, "We own this story." (On the off chance it actually Lynda Myles pegged the wizardly original as "pinball on a does, would not Tuesday have been a good time to sell?) Being cosmic scale." The new series aspires to the level of a virtual- the financial news network most directly engaged with politics, reality game. That's both the source of its great visual charm and Fox cut, around 11 a.m., to John McCain on the campaign trail the key to its emptiness, which is too dull to get worked up in Iowa, where he gave Main Street a meat-and-potatoes lecture about—it's a vision of storytelling as a game that's all sensation, on the credit crisis. Being the financial news network most and it's meant to be expendable. directly engaged in propaganda, Fox followed the speech with analysis claiming that McCain was "really getting into the nitty- gritty" in the talk, when really the senator had not dared to say anything that might surprise the most average freshman in the most remedial macroeconomics course. Being the financial news network furthest down-market, Fox soon thereafter ran a television commercial for a gizmo that hones the blades of disposable Subprime Time razors.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 77/105 The network was a bit at odds with itself. The screens behind the The Big Sort anchor desk counted away at an indignant "rescue watch." House Members Aren't Supposed To Pardon me: "RE$CUE WATCH." At 11:15 a.m., it had been "1 Day, 16:15:30" since, like, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi had Just "Vote Their Districts" ordered the release of the money-eating supergerms and then Why representatives can support the bailout bill even if their constituents hate commenced to cackle. Meanwhile, in front of the screen, anchor it. By Bill Bishop Dagen McDowell was fixing a smile bright as searchlights at the Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 5:29 PM ET camera, as if trying to restore consumer confidence through the exuberant baring of optimistic teeth. Like her Fox colleagues and the CNBC competition, she seemed more than slightly frazzled and wired—a messenger unwillingly getting accustomed to the sensation of being shot at. Send in your e- the browser mails, she implored viewers, "even if it's hate mail! Just don't Blogging for Dollars make it threats!" How do bloggers make money? By Michael Agger The mood at Bloomberg was notably more subdued, with Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 6:28 PM ET academics offering cool reason, investors soberly pushing the "remarketing" of the failed bailout bill, and the understated stock ticker crawling with good news in suave green. (Compare this Last week, the blog search engine Technorati released its 2008 with Fox's garish neoclassical looks or CNBC's silver graphical State of the Blogosphere report with the slightly menacing bling and the sound-effect whoosh of its incoming updates.) And promise to "deliver even deeper insights into the blogging anchor Deirdre Bolton was a revelation in a tweed blazer. On the mind." Bloggers create 900,000 blog posts a day worldwide, and Monday of "Wall Street's free fall"—those were Bolton's words, some of them are actually making money. Blogs with 100,000 or said with a steel you want to hang onto—Vanity Fair released a more unique visitors a month earn an average of $75,000 profile of CNBC's Maria Bartiromo and Erin Burnett that gapes annually—though that figure is skewed by the small percentage at the extent to which business television has become a babe of blogs that make more than $200,000 a year. The estimates game. ("On the floor of the N.Y.S.E., the Fox women are from a 2007 Business Week article are older but juicier: The referred to as 'the Foxtrots,' says the producer of a rival network, LOLcat empire rakes in $5,600 per month; Overheard in New because 'they trot around the floor in unbelievably York gets $8,100 per month; and Perez Hilton, gossip king, unprofessional clothing.' ") Boys, if you prefer your financial scoops up $111,000 per month. journalism delivered pulchritudinously, but if the crass tartiness of the Foxtrots only turns your thoughts to plumbing (the need to With this kind of cash sloshing around, one wonders: What does make yourself clean again, the urge to hose off their makeup), it take to live the dream—to write what I know, and then watch then do tune into Bloomberg's In Focus, co-hosted by capable the money flow? Bolton and her fabulous cheekbones. From the perspective of someone who doesn't blog, blogging But I suspect that superstardom will elude Bolton, that she is seems attractive. Bloggers such as Jason Kottke ($5,300/month) destined to remain a coterie item, as this subset of TV news has and the Fug girls ($6,240/month) pursue what naturally interests a rather particular sense of subtlety. The mood at CNBC's them without many constraints on length or style. While those investment-cheerleading show Mad Money was also relatively two are genuine stars of the blogging world, there are plenty of subdued on Tuesday. Host Jim Cramer went easy on punctuating smaller, personal blogs that bring in decent change with the his pro-speculation monologue with sound effects (machine-gun Amazon Associates program (you receive a referral fee if fire, Handel's Messiah). In abusing a toy bird—his way of someone buys a book, CD, etc. via a link from your blog) and attacking, in effigy, the parrots of conventional wisdom—he search ads from Google. (The big G analyzes your site and restrained himself to stabbing the thing and working it over with places relevant ads; you get paid if people click on them.) a hatchet and chewing on its head. Turning to the theme of Google-ad profiteering is an entire universe in and of itself—one intestinal distress, Jim Cramer merely doused a Jim Cramer blogger by the name of Shoemoney became famous (well, Digg- bobble-head doll with liquid antacid. On business TV, the famous) when he posted a picture of himself with a check from potential for a second Great Depression is nothing to worry Google for $132,994.97 for one month of clicks. about. The only thing we have to fear is mania. Blogs with decent traffic and a voice are also getting snapped up by blog-ad networks, which in turn package them as niche audiences to advertisers. On Blogads, advertisers can choose the "Blogs for Dudes!" hive or the "Jewish Republican Channel." Federated Media groups blogs into subjects such as "Parenting"

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 78/105 and "News 2.0"; there is also a boutique network for blogs that insights. In Mann's case, that might mean less ad revenue but don't want to cover themselves with ads called The Deck. These more speaking engagements. networks present blogs as "grassroots intellectual economy" and describe their audiences as loyal, engaged, and likely to see ads Once a blog hobbyist goes pro, he or she faces a daily pressure as not just ads, but useful bits of information. This may be a to churn out new material. In the wrong mind, that can lead to comfort to squeamish indie bloggers since it hints that putting top-10 lists, recycled ideas, half-baked notions, lots of viral ads on your site is not selling out but helping out. videos, and a general increase in information pollution. Is there any way out of this scenario? In 2005, Jason Kottke announced While monetizing your blog may be easier than ever, all of this that he had quit his job to blog full-time and asked his readers to comes with an ever-present hammer: the need to drive traffic. become "micropatrons" at a suggested rate of $30. He received This month, the writer/blogger/productivity thinker Merlin Mann $39,900 from 1,450 people but abandoned the experiment after a opened a window onto his angst with an anniversary post. Mann year. Kottke is vague about the reasons why he swore off is best-known as the creator of the Hipster PDA (a modified micropatronage, but he suggests that he was worried that people Moleskine notebook) and his Inbox Zero talk (turn your e-mail wouldn't donate year after year. In order to build a bigger into actions). In a post titled "Four Years," Mann sketches out audience and potential new donors, he would have had to do how his site, 43 Folders, grew from a personal dumping ground some of the cheesy things to drive traffic (i.e., "Top Five Best" for his "mental sausage" into a full-featured destination for posts) and/or become a cult of personality (overshare, start flame productivity nerds and life-hackers. In 2005, he experienced a wars, social network relentlessly). These days, he accepts ads as key transition: part of the Deck network.

At some point that year, 43f became the The bloggers at the vanguard of the post-quality-vs.-post- surreal and unexpected circus tent under which quantity debate are those who work for Nick Denton's Gawker my family began drawing an increasing media. This year, Denton introduced a new pay system that gave amount of its income. This was weird, but it his bloggers a base salary and also paid them a quarterly bonus was also exactly as gratifying as it sounds. based upon the amount of page views their items receive. Or to Which is to say, "very." But, my small oversimplify, they were being paid by popularity. (To follow the measure of something like success did not go complicated ins and outs of the "blogonomics" of the Gawker unnoticed. In fact, the popularity of small pay structure, read Felix Salmon's Portfolio blog.) The memo blogs like 43 Folders contributed to the arrival explains the decision as an effort to reward and encourage more of a gentrifying wagon train of carpetbaggers, original, scoopy items, but, as Denton's writers and ex-writers speculators, and confidence men, all eager to quickly pointed out, there's not an obvious correlation between pan the web's glistening riverbed for easy gold. quality and page views. Despite a few exceptions, such as the And, brother, did these guys love to post and Tom Cruise Scientology video, no one can predict a Web hit. post and post. Do we get the blogs we deserve? We vote by click, after all. Mann's problem was especially acute. His income was partially Perhaps we shouldn't look at all those top 10 lists and Britney dependent on advertising, and ads are sold on a cost-per- Spears photos. Successful blogs, such as Zen Habits, tend to impression basis. That is, the more traffic you have, the more balance the more fast-food type posts with longer, more complex ads you can sell (and also the more chances that someone will ideas that will presumably keep readers coming back—although click on one of the Google ads or affiliate links on your site). there are plenty of people who make a living posting dubious But a site that teaches you how to streamline your tasks and free crap. Perhaps the escape route out of a hit-driven blogosphere is your time yet constantly shovels new posts, lists, and all of our newfound "friends." The Internet has always been very information at you is oxymoronic—and also kind of moronic. good at counting page views but not so great at assigning value to what's actually in those pages. Facebook, FriendFeed, Mann could have overlooked this contradiction, but he chose StumbleUpon, and the sharing feature of Google Reader have instead to live his advice. Declaring an end to "productivity their annoying, nudgy aspects, but they allow us to rely on one pr0n," Mann has promised fewer, better posts and rolled out a another to sort out what is interesting and worthy. Put it on a T- new mission statement: "43 Folders is Merlin Mann's website shirt: Friends Don't Let Friends Read Bad Content. about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work." The further irony here is that Mann's less-is-more strategy may prove to be more profitable. The usability guru Jakob Nielsen has long recommended that experts "write articles, not blog postings," with the idea that demonstrating the chat room expertise is the best way to distinguish yourself from Internet Up for Debate amateurs and ultimately persuade someone to pay you for your Emily Bazelon and Dahlia Lithwick take readers' questions about tonight's vice-

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 79/105 presidential face-off. Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 4:46 PM ET On the other hand, the account in the NYT of Palin's past debate performances offers some reason to worry on her account: "Ms. Slate "XX Factor" bloggers Emily Bazelon and Dahlia Lithwick Palin often spoke in generalities and showed scant aptitude for were online at Washingtonpost.com to chat with readers about developing arguments beyond a talking point or two. Her the vice-presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. sentences were distinguished by their repetition of words, by the An unedited transcript of the chat follows. use of the phrase here in Alaska and for gaps. On paper, her sentences would have been difficult to diagram." Emily Bazelon: Hi Everyone, Hmm. Doesn't sound like this is her great strength. Thanks for joining us. Dahlia and I are looking forward to tackling your questions. The pre-debate debate! Here's the link. ______Malvern, Pa.: I am so confused by Sarah Palin I can't even stand it. How can someone who is obviously articulate in her Salt Lake City: If, as Politico is reporting today, Palin's strategy own folksy way (based on her Alaska debate videos) come is to go on the attack against Biden, how does he respond across as so vacant and inarticulate in the Kate Couric without looking like he's weak or, alternately, looking like a interviews? It's not that she should be an expert on every bully? Personally, I kind of like the idea of (given the recent Supreme Court decision; even if she couldn't name one, she at economic and congressional meltdown) of "taking the high road" least should have been able to put together a couple of sentences so to speak ... such as: "in this crisis, the American people are like "we're going to nominate judges who won't legislate from less interested in a fight than in a clear description of plans to the bench or take liberties with our Constitution." In your place us back on the right track ... here are mine—describe opinion, which Sarah Palin is going to show up tonight? Also, if yours." What do you think? you got to ask her one and only one question, what would it be? washingtonpost.com: Palin's new plan: Go after Biden Dahlia Lithwick: Hi there Malvern and thanks for the great (Politico, Oct. 2) question. My husband put the same query this way last night: "Dahlia how can you keep saying Pain is horrible at interviews Dahlia Lithwick: Hey Salt Lake and thank you for writing in. but will be great at the debate? What? What???!" I think you are And I think you are onto something about the attack-doggery. right that the Sarah Palin who shows up tonight will be very Seems to me that McCain's chomping away at Obama last week different from the one who tried to fake her way through the backfired, or at least the polls suggest the audience was Couric interviews. I have seen video of her earlier debates. She unimpressed. That surprised me, I confess. I though McCain had is good. She has 90 seconds to respond tonite. No cagey won the debate. But you speak to a new mood in the country that followup questions. I bet you see the gal who wowed them at the is more and more fatigued by attacks. People are terrified about convention more than the one who gets spoofed on SNL. She is their wallets and their 401ks and their sons in Iraq. Its not clear a better in a crowd, better in a debate, and better against an slam at community organizers will close the deal anymore. I opponent. If I could ask her just one question it would be "Who would add that Obama's ability to "take the high road" most of isn't a media elite?" the time seems to be paying off just now. That said Palin lies to do scrappy. Its hard to imagine her doing anything else but going ______after Biden full tilt.

Boston: I don't think people should assume Palin is going to be ______terrible because of her Couric interviews, because my understanding is that they all were done on the same day. So Minneapolis: Ms. Bazelon, I enjoyed your piece detailing the maybe she just got knocked off her stride early on and never got painful watching of Palin's wretched performance. Do you really it back. However, if she can't recover after a break in her stride, think that Palin's performance in tonight's debate and the rest of that seems like invaluable information for Biden. the campaign will make a difference for female presidential candidates in four years? Has Clinton already broken the glass Emily Bazelon: Agreed—good call not to assume Palin can't ceiling, or is Palin's nomination really making it less likely to handle the debate because she couldn't handle Couric. The TV have viable women candidates for the White House in the interviews were open-ended. Couric asked good follow-up foreseeable future? questions. The debate is a far more canned format. Palin should be able to stick to what she knows more easily.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 80/105 Emily Bazelon: Hey thank you. Yes, I do think Palin's Ms. Kouric's interview was totally hostile. No other candidate performance matters. Clinton should have definitely broken this for national office has had followups in the form of "name glass ceiling. But that doesn't mean she did. She's one example another—this is your third and final chance, name another." That of a female candidate for president who oozed competence. But questioning is worthy of a third-grade school teacher abusing a until we have a bunch of other examples, she and Palin are an n student. You know that; no one can deny that. So, why do you of 2. That makes them both important to voters' perceptions. I'm ignore it in your article criticizing Palin? Look, you folks from not arguing that Palin can undo what Clinton accomplished Slate have dug yourselves one big hole. Can you really survive exactly. But she can fuzz it up, create new room for doubt, or economically if all you do is pander to left-wing radicalism? really new excuses for people who remain skeptical about a woman in the White House, or the Office of the Vice President. Emily Bazelon: I thought Couric was pretty restrained, actually. She wouldn't have asked Palin the same question more than once ______if Palin had answered it the first time. When she asked Biden about a Supreme Court case he disagreed with, he answered Main Street: Who do you think will be the primary viewers of readily and fluidly. There are other moments in his interview tonight's debate—those who don't like Palin and are hoping to that she could have pressed harder on—I posted on Slate this see her fall on her face, or those who do like her and are hoping morning about how his characterization of Roe v. Wade as to see her score against Biden? I don't think there's really a representing "consensus" utterly puzzled me. But to me, the middle ground at this point. question that matters about Palin's interviews with Couric isn't whose fault they are. It's how we feel about a vice president who Emily Bazelon: I think the audience will be big for a VP debate. gives the kind of thin, not knowledgeable answers she gave. For one thing, aren't we all expecting a little entertainment? If it's all dry and executed via boring sound bite, I know I'll be ______disappointed. Given that Palin's poll numbers are down, maybe there are more detractors out there, and certainly she has sparked Anonymous: From Dahlia's article: "When Palin tanks, it's good a backlash of women and men who want to see her fail, both for the country if you want Obama and Biden to win, but it's bad because of her conservative policy views and her persona. But for the future of women in national politics." I really don't agree I'm sure Palin's fans will be tuning in to root her on. They are a with this—it may be bad for underqualified women in national loyal and energized group—as excited about her as Barack politics, and thank god for that. "Pretty and spunky" shouldn't be Obama's swooners are about him. enough when coupled with what seems like a one-dimensional thought process. I don't think Palin cares about knowing the ______details—she is a frightening morphing of Cheney and Bush. She's a Decider taking direction from God and doing her damnedest to keep her actions and communications out of reach Northern Virginia: To me, the buzz around this debate is akin to that of a NASCAR race—half the people go for the racing, from the public. but the other half go in anticipation of a big wreck or two. I am very interested in seeing what each candidate has to say and how No one from the XX factor seemed to have any love for Hillary they say it, but I will admit—part of me wants to see a wreck or when she was running, but it would be a fantastic thing to see two. her debate Palin tonight—we have no lack of competent women on the national political stage. I'm hoping this experience with Dahlia Lithwick: You know I am not even sure I know what a Palin makes people appreciate the qualified women we do have. It was a cheap gambit to put her on the ticket, and let's all hope it wreck would look like here. Having endured the brutally awful fails. She will do women aspiring to that higher office no favors "I'll get back to ya" or Palin's anguished inability to discuss any by being an incompetent first. Supreme Court cases it's hard to imagine tonight being any more likely to produce a truly groan-worthy moment. That said I am wearing a turtleneck in the event that I need to avert my eyes. As Dahlia Lithwick: Anonymous, I half-corrected myself on that Emily noted in her piece, it is NEVER ever pleasant to witness a front in today's XX factor posting where I finally came round to car wreck. Any thoughts on whether women are more inclined to observing, as you do, that Palin's problems transcend her gender cringe in these moments as men?? and that women are starting to understand that part of gender freedom is the freedom to suck spectacularly on the national ______stage. I agree it would be tremendous to see a Hillary-Sarah debate but don't discount that some of Palin's toughest critics have been women too, from Couric's sharp interview to Miami: Ms. Bazelon, you write: "Sarah Palin's murder boards Campbell Brown's Free Sarah Palin to Kathleen Parker at NRO, have taken place in public. We've all watched her stumped and the smart competent women you are looking for have been on stumbling in her interviews with Katie Couric." You know that

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 81/105 the front lines of diffusing the charge that attacks on Palin are all Emily Bazelon: Good points and smart prediction. Agreed that sexist. the follow-up question is what Palin most has to fear. I can see her performing the way you predict in terms of pithiness and ______one-liners. That's what I would have predicted after watching her initial launch and her speech at the convention. She seemed smart, dogged, poised, confident. She needs to be that Sarah Salt Lake City: I'm worried Palin is going to be cracking jokes Palin tonight, rather than the defensive, straining, tense and one-liners throughout the debate to distract people from the lack of substance in her statements. Should Biden laugh at her candidate we've been seeing in these TV interviews. Can she jokes? Should he try to be funny too (a scary thought, pull that off on the open terrain of a debate? considering how often his foot is in his mouth)? Or should he try to be more serious and draw attention away from Palin's ______attempts to win our hearts? Arlington, Va.: In regards to Couric being hostile to Palin, what Emily Bazelon: Dahlia is the author of the genius piece giving I found most telling was when Couric sat down with both advice to Biden for the debates (here's the link). I'll add my two McCain and Palin, and McCain chastized Couric. It really had cents: Biden should laugh at her jokes and generally try to come the feeling of a parent-teacher conference about a less-than- across as likeable and cheery. Palin does cheery well; he should stellar student. Palin sat there, silent, letting "dad" do the talking. try to, too. But I share your fear that if he tries to be funny he'll It spoke volumes to me, and not in Palin's favor. step in it. I think his main task is to be substantive and serious without being condescending. It will be enough if he staves off Emily Bazelon: Yes I don't think that moment did either disaster by avoiding a big misstep. He's not the main show McCain or Palin any favors. I don't really understand why they tonight. Palin is. sat for that interview. The best way for them to rehabilitate Palin's image is to stick to the sympathetic airwaves of ______conservative talk radio and TV. There, the audience is with them, and the scorn of the MSM is a plus. The drawback, of course, is that they need the center as well as the Republican Potomac, Md.: Do you really think poll numbers will be base to win, and the center isn't Rush Limbaugh's big draw. changed materially by this debate, given that so many voters have formed opinions about Palin from the abysmal performance in the last month, and that Biden is such a known quantity ______already after both a long congressional tenure and presidential campaigns. Aren't we really just looking for good entertainment Washington: Emily, in your article "The Un-Hillary" you talk tonight, causing no real change the campaigns' standing? about the possibility of a new glass ceiling to replace the one with the 18 million Hillary cracks. ... What do you think, Dahlia Lithwick: I agree that the poll numbers will go where specifically, that new glass ceiling will look like? Is Sarah they will go regardless of tonight's debate, although I imagine Palin's entirely flawed and insulting candidacy the last chance the hope is that while Biden is, as you say, a known quantity, women will get to achieve executive office in the U.S.? Also, Palin might burnish some of that sparkle she had in early does Pelosi have an effect on this new glass ceiling? Given that September. Will it change the outcome in November? prolly not. she has been so ineffective and was blamed (wrongly in my But would a great performance from her allay the widespread opinion, but blamed nonetheless) for the failure of the bailout sense that McCain's judgment is just horrible? I think so. package, do you think they will give the speaker role to another woman anytime soon? ______Emily Bazelon: That's such a good set of questions. You know, Washington: Just a comment: I think Palin is going to do just this is the problem with having so few examples to choose from. Each one—Clinton, Pelosi, Palin—looms so large in our fine tonight. My prediction is that she will hammer at Obama consciousness. It's not fair to any of them, really. Sigh. It's more (and apparently Biden) with pithy statements and well-delivered than I can bear, however, to think that we've seen our last one-liners. Seems to me she is a savvy politician, and can get a woman presidential candidate or speaker of the House for a little mean and dirty with a smile on her face, which makes it come across as not so mean—just folksy and blunt. Full while. That's such a stark conclusion to draw from the criticism of either Palin or Pelosi, or all of it combined. Two reasons to disclosure—I don't like Palin, and Obama's got my vote. That hope otherwise: However these women may falter—and I agree said, I think Palin is likely to step up to the plate tonight. Unless, with you that the attacks on Pelosi have been overblown—they of course, Gwen Ifill asks those pesky, specific follow-up are still making the presence of women on the national stage into questions. more of a norm. And also, there must be younger women and

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 82/105 girls out there with a talent for politics who are watching them I think it's all over: McCain abandons efforts to win Michigan and thinking: I could do that. I know I could. (AP, Oct. 2).

______Dahlia Lithwick: wow

Pittsburgh: Is there any way to criticize Palin's performances in ______her interviews (and, depending on what happens, in the debate) without falling into the trap about the media "picking on" Palin Long Island, N.Y.: With the success of the media campaign to or somehow presenting "gotcha" questions? I'm a Republican, set expectations so low for Palin and so high for Biden, is it but I am so frustrated by my party right now (a very long story) possible for Palin to lose and/or Biden to win? Feels like a and the way they are handing this election. To claim "gotcha brilliant set up to me. journalism" for a question from a regular citizen makes no sense to me, but I don't see any way of refuting these arguments with Emily Bazelon: Yes I hear you. It's hard to imagine that Palin logic given that every refutation is turned into another attack. won't exceed expectations. If she strings together coherent sentences, she'll go a ways toward putting to rest the painful, Dahlia Lithwick: Pittsburgh. You have just voiced my own grimacing silences in her TV interviews. It'll be up to us to frustration with this current campaign. This seize-the-victim race remember that crossing a very low bar doesn't mean winning. I or what our wonderful John Dickerson characterizes as the fight don't think, though, that Biden loses if Palin simply doesn't fall for the greatest "umbrage" at every turn has so completely on her face. It's more that anything like a tie will seem like a diminished the tone of the race. Everyone in the media is forced victory for her. Unless we remember not to grade on a curve. to pick their way thru the minefield of unacceptable words or ideas ("don't. say. lipstick.") and is left feeling silenced and ______angry. The public feels that the debate has been sullied by claims and counterclaims of victimhood and they are left feeling angry. And even the candidates are so sold on the Umbrage Express Montreal: I was excited to see maybe some personality, some that they begin to claim—as has Palin—both that they will not mud-slinging, some cringe-worthy awfulness. "Like watching talk to the media AND that the media is silencing them. Can you two children play with a loaded gun," as Millbank put it earlier. imagine if we ordered pizza in this sad, roundabout, coded But it actually is going to be vapid, substanceless and mind- fashion??? Is this any way to talk to one another about critical numbingly boring, isn't it? Two people stiffly trying to avoid questions of governance? The good news is I think a lot of folks saying anything. I'm right, aren't I? share your frustration at this narrow political conversation. Maybe we have hit maximum acceptable umbrage, and can Emily Bazelon: What a disappointment that will be! I'm holding retreat to sanity? out for a classic moment or two. Otherwise, it'll be hard to stay awake! ______Washington: I'm no Biden fan, but I know there is a debate about the debate, on how he should act tonight. I personally Bloomfield, N.J.: I think Palin's assumed strategy of glittering think he should give short and clean answers. Talk about the generalities will work. Why? Because it worked last week for good of the nation. Take zero shots at Palin, but focus on McCain. Time and again he repeated his talking points, even McCain. If she wants to get nasty while he's nice, that's fine. Let directly after Obama reasonably—and at length—defused and her talk as much as possible—she is uncomfortable with quiet parried them. Could it be that Palin was picked specifically spaces. because she's so good at charging ahead with the canned reply, regardless of what the question was? Emily Bazelon: Focusing on McCain could make Biden seem like the grown-up taking on the other grown up. On the other Dahlia Lithwick: Bloomfield. Hiya. Why is it you think hand, if he ignores Palin entirely, that itself could seem McCain's "glittering generalities" worked? The post debate dismissive or insulting. Plus he is after all running for the same polling I saw suggested Obama was the winner. You are right office she is. So I think it's a tricky line to walk. Short and that the qualities Palin has brought to her scripted speeches and clean—hard to argue with that. prior debates—folksiness, narrative, zingers, etc—probably appealed to the McCain camp when they picked her. But I can't ______help but feel that they misjudged the mood of the country (or perhaps more fairly, didn't plan on the financial crisis?) People are too freaked out for glittering generalities just now. And especially generalities of the Palin variety in which she uncorks

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 83/105 the same soundbytes over and over in response to a multitude of ______questions. The generalities lose some of the glitter with use, and start to sound a little shopworn. But maybe thats my own in-the- Arlington, Va.: It seems that the way to shake up Palin is to put tankness speaking . . . her off the carefully and narrowly crafted track the handlers put her on. Can Biden do this and not come off looking bad himself? ______If so, how?

Philadelphia: I'm curious about what you think Ifill's strategy Dahlia Lithwick: I really do think Biden will disserve himself if should be for the debate. Many have said that part of Couric's he sees his role as throwing Palin off tonight. I think he needs to effectiveness is that as a woman questioning a woman, she let Palin shake herself up or alternatively to just look smart. He canceled the gender bias noise around Palin. Ifill is also a should act like he is debating a very smart fig tree and mostly woman (obviously—and a fantastic one at that), but the dust-up just ignore her. I know its not very vice-presidential but the about her upcoming book suggests that the McCain camp is alternative will be to look like a bully. attempting to insinuate that racial bias will cancel out gender neutrality here. I don't think Ifill should have to shift whatever ______her gameplan is, but do you think she will? And if so, how? Detroit: During the primaries, I supported Hillary Clinton (FYI, Dahlia Lithwick: So far it looks to me that Ifill has kept her I am a man). I received a lot of eye-rolls and/or looks of cool over this flap, treating it with some mild amusement and disbelief from my meat-and-potatoes male friends (Republicans not much else. And it would have been a much bigger flap if and Democrats)—they just couldn't believe I would support folks hadnt known about the book for a while now. The worst "her." Now those same friends don't have near the same level of kind of umbrage depends on an invented gotcha moment. That distaste for Sarah Palin, even though they think she is said it will be hard for Ifill not to be aware that her neutrality is unqualified for this nomination. Have you experienced similar being loudly disputed in some corners. I wish there were some differences in perceptions of Hillary and Palin? Do you think deft way for her to acknowledge it and move on. Mostly I physical appearance is a contributing factor? I do—and I think imagine she will be the pro that she is tonight. And I hope she many men always will judge accomplished females, at least won't falter on the followups. partly, through that filter.

______Emily Bazelon: My own sense is that you're right, Palin's physical appeal is pulling in male voters. That's what I take from Chicago: It's a little late in the season to be asking this, but those Palin Is A Fox posters. I'd like to think that your friends every time I see or hear Palin, I wonder why it's not Kay Bailey had thought-out policy reasons for dissing Hillary and Hutchison or another qualified woman. Is there really a lack of embracing Sarah. They think McCain-Palin are right on the war, strong conservative women, or is there something about Palin on cutting taxes for the wealthy, etc. Or at least that those issues that I—and much of the rest of the country—is missing? are what the choice will come down to for them in the end, come November. Emily Bazelon: There are other strong conservative women who McCain could have picked, though I don't think he had a ______list the length of an arm to choose from. I wonder, though, whether Palin beat out the rest precisely because of some of the Fredericton, New Brunswick: Yes we care up here, 'cause qualities that now seem like potential liabilities, not with the when housing slumps in the U.S. sawmills close in Canada! Are Republican base, but with other voters. She's perky. She's there safe words males like me can use to describe what we don't unthreatening. She's Puritan sexy, per this piece. And whether like about Sarah Palin in blunt terms, and the narrow- or you like her or not, she's a fresh face. And she also has deep shallow-minded politics she represents, without coming off as a resonance among Christian conservatives. Rightly, I think, they bully, sexist pig or dinosaur? take her as proof that John McCain means it when he says that he'll do things like appoint Supreme Court justices in the mold of Dahlia Lithwick: Hi Fredericton. I'd stick to words like John Roberts and Sam Alito. "unprepared" and "parochial" in describing Gov. Palin and stay away from references to lipstick or pitbulls. You can probably When you frame Palin that way, she does offer a pretty unique infuse new meaning into the debate we are having down here set of attributes. Several months ago our colleague John about hockey moms. My sister in law is a hockey mom in Dickerson predicted her as VP choice as a process of reverse- Ottawa. I gather that largely means preparing pureed foods . . . engineering. Input a) Republican woman 2) pro-life 3) executive experience 4) Washington outsider 5)conservative bona fides and the output is Sarah Palin. ______

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 84/105 Philadelphia: "The drawback, of course, is that they need the parlayed a lot of bumper stickers into a lot of debate victories center as well as the Republican base to win, and the center isn't however. I wouldn't underestimate her ability to make a bumper Rush Limbaugh's big draw." Which is funny, because—at least sticker sound like reasoned analysis. going by the center and moderate Republican people I know— the Palin selection has sent them running to the Obama camp. ______

Emily Bazelon: Yes that's an aspect of the backlash I Midlothian, Va.: Emily, if you've read any of the history mentioned. When I did this chat soon after Palin's selection, a surrounding Roe v. Wade and the work Blackmun did, you'd few women wrote in to say that they'd been Hillary supporters, understand Biden's answer reflects a deep understanding of the they'd thought about supporting McCain—but they were insulted many factors at work in that decision. Roe was a consensus by his choice of Palin as a ploy to win them to his side. I think if decision, in which Blackmun gave a little, took a little and came Palin had more moderate and centrist views this could have up with a rather awkward decision designed to create a played out very differently. But not believing in evolution, or consensus on the court. Powell did something similar in Bakke. allowing for abortion for rape and incest victims—these are Biden's answer reflects just how smart and intellectually curious positions that put you in a narrow slice of the American pie. the man really is.

______Emily Bazelon: Well, sorry, I just don't buy it. At the time, yes, Justice Blackmun put enormous effort into crafting a Rockville, Md.: Don't forget Geraldine Ferraro—she, Hillary compromise. And since he won 7 out of 9 of the votes of the and Palin make an n of 3. justices who were then on the court, in that moment he succeeded. (I wish he'd framed the decision in terms of women's Emily Bazelon: True! right to equality instead of privacy, a word that appears nowhere in the constitution, but put that aside for now.) My point is that ______beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Roe became the lightening rod we know it today. Biden could have cited polls showing that the majority of Americans don't want the ruling Minneapolis: Dahlia, do you think Senator Biden should bring overturned outright. But I don't think we're anywhere near up how he raised his family as a single dad after the tragic death consensus, as a country, on the question of legalization of of his wife, especially if Gov. Palin gives him an opening like abortion, on second trimester abortions, which Roe allows for, "the good old boys in Washington don't know what its like to on parental notification, etc. Whatever it's merits, I think there's raise a family"? a good historical argument that Roe fueled division by nationalizing a right that parts of the country didn't embrace. To Dahlia Lithwick: Minneapolis, the truth is I tend to become talk now about it in terms of consensus just seems like wishful very uneasy when candidates turn debates into a sort of olympics thinking. of personal hardship. Maybe that is just the Vulcan in me but unless Biden is really being clubbed senseless in the touching The other thing that bothered me about Biden's answer was that personal narrative department tonight, I'd probably advise him to he talked about the trimester framework of Roe as if it were still tell stories of other peoples hardships, and be rock solid on good law, which it's really not, in light of Planned Parenthood v. policy and substance. Casey in 1992. The legal standard since Casey is whether a government regulation is an "undue burden" on a woman's right ______to an abortion.

New York: Isn't a debate on this level like an intensive ______interview? At some point, the clever vamping has to give way to a command of the subject at hand. If Biden gives substantive Austin, TX: If the McCain camp was so adamant about answers and Palin provides only bumper stickers, that can't look choosing a woman for the VP nomination, why pick Palin when good. Add to that the fact that the financial world looks to be there are more experienced, better prepared women within the tanking. Pithiness just isn't going to do it, I'm afraid. party? Why not Kay Bailey Hutchison, Olympia Snowe or Elizabeth Dole? They would come with their own individual Dahlia Lithwick: New York I am not sure its so much an limitations, but at least they would be familiar with such basic intensive interview as a series of competing monologues matters as Supreme Court History. (interrupted in this case by admonitions to "talk to each other" which will be ignored as they were last week). Still you are right Dahlia Lithwick: Austin that will be the enduring question that in times of crisis, especially an economic crisis, folks are when all this ends, no matter how it ends. Why pick a mediocre hungry for real leadership more than bumper stickers. Palin has woman (albeit a mediocre woman with real political abilities)

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 85/105 when you could have picked an extraordinary one? The answers possessed no inclination to self-celebration, and so inspired no don't look good for McCain. Either there was something about inclination to resentment. My two favorite stars, after the an accomplished, established, seasoned woman politician that untouchable Cary Grant, are Newman and Nicholson. But if it's got in the way of his Pygmalion complex, or he truly believed he Jack's world and we just live in it, Newman always seemed didn't need any help at all on the ticket beyond a uterus. Either happy to live in ours. He was inclined to "ordinary happiness," way I think he miscalculated and the more women ask "Why not as a professor of mine once beautifully put it, or the prerogative Condi/Kay/Olympia" et. al. the more that miscalculation seems of the celebrity to freely choose the parameters of normal human to have backfired. This has been great fun and I hope we can do satisfaction. His channel to godliness paved by good looks, the Monday Morning Quarterback sometime soon. Thanks so charisma, and infallible instinct in front of a camera, he much for reading and for pushing back at us! nonetheless married long, loved well, and did good works. (If there is more to this story—aside from racing cars—then I don't ______want to know.) Who could begrudge him that twinkle? It was always on our behalf, never his. Wooster, Ohio: I have to admit that I was a Palin fan ... at first. I identified with her on many levels—I am the same age, have Paul Newman made better films than The Verdict, a booze- four children, am well-educated and have a great job. That all soaked bit of Boston gothic from 1982, but it was this ended when she started her public interviews. What bothers me performance I kept replaying in my head after I heard he died. more than the fact that she did not know the answers to the Newman's charms were abundant, of course, so it was questions being asked is how she answered them. I honestly remarkable to watch him keep them so completely in check. As believe I could have answered those interview questions better a redemption narrative and courtroom drama, The Verdict is than she did, despite having absolutely no foreign policy nothing more than solid, but it is that, and through and through, experience (except what I read on sites like this). with David Mamet writing the script and Sidney Lumet directing. (It's a wee bit overplayed: The Verdict is bathed in so much whiskey and lace curtain, it's a wonder it doesn't break into I believe she is an intelligent woman, with the ability to learn and catch up on the things she needs to know for the vice "Danny Boy" midway through the second reel.) But Newman brings Frank Galvin, the standard Hollywood cliché of the wash- presidency. It is much more difficult to teach someone how up, to life. Fans of the movie are quick to cite Galvin's jury handle tough questions (whether or not you know the summation, a bravura piece of restraint, to be sure, and a short answers)—some individuals are better at handling pressure than scene in which Galvin, the night before the trial opens, shuts others. I think that is more important. It is much easier to learn foreign policy, than it is to take control of a "fight or flight" himself in a closet and begins to suspire madly in the throes of instinct. She appeared to take flight in those interviews, and we panic. just can't have that. But the scene I kept coming back to sets up the whole film. It's hardly noticeable. Newman is intent on bedding a fellow barfly Emily Bazelon: Here's a great comment that goes to your point, I think: played by Charlotte Rampling. He buys her dinner the night before voir dire, and for the first time in the film, we come up close to Newman's face. The deep-set mask of middle-aged Thanks, everyone—great questions, and great fun chatting with failure softens. Watch Newman here, ye who would be actors; you! study him. Where does this come from? "See, the jury believes. The jury wants to believe." The lines are almost inconsequential. But Newman is giving us evidence that Galvin is still alive. "It is something to see. I have to go down there tomorrow and pick out 12 of them. All of them—all their lives—say, 'It's a sham, it's the dilettante rigged, you can't fight city hall. But when they step into that jury The Paul Newman Scene I Can't Get Out box … you just barely see it in their eyes. Maybe, maybe …" of My Head Rampling leans imperceptibly forward. "Maybe what?" And Newman exhales—just a little—putting a lifetime of defeat into It's from The Verdict, but it's not the one you're thinking of. By Stephen Metcalf that exhale, and suddenly Frank Galvin is talking about himself. Monday, September 29, 2008, at 11:00 AM ET "Maybe I could do something right."

Paul Newman reminded us—with a smile, a twinkle, a total Paul Newman was blessed with abnormally good looks and economy of gesture—how infrequently the beautiful are abnormally good scripts, but also something more: that magical comfortable in their own skin, how infrequently the elect are quiddity that makes you celebrate someone for his strokes of gracious. He enters, and immediately, the pantheon of Grant, good fortune. On the evidence of dozens of performances, he Tracy, and Stewart, for reminding us of that magical Emersonian

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 86/105 place, of America in its own imagination of itself, where the off on selling entirely, clinging to the hope that real-estate superhuman and the all-too-human become indistinguishable. markets will recover.

Of course, these factors can be offset by the forced relocation that comes with default and foreclosure—when an owner is unable or unwilling to continue making mortgage payments, the dismal science whether to move is no longer a matter of choice. You've Just Been Offered a Great New As a result of these counteracting forces—the "positive" impact Job in Charlotte! of foreclosure or the negative effect of loss aversion and Too bad you can't sell your house in Tampa. financial constraints—the overall impact of negative equity on By Ray Fisman mobility is a matter for the housing data to decide. The Monday, September 29, 2008, at 11:28 AM ET researchers use data from the American Housing Survey, a biennial survey of homeowners in metropolitan areas across the America has always allocated its resources according to the so- United States that has been conducted since 1985, with results called market mechanism—if the price of oil goes up, people available through 2005. Respondents were asked for the value of start building more oil rigs. And if more computer programmers their mortgages and to estimate the current resale value of their are needed in Silicon Valley, the "price" of programmers goes homes—if the first of these was the bigger number, then the up, motivating more college students to study computer science researchers classified the unfortunate owner as having a negative and more programmers to move from New York to San equity stake in his home. And since the surveyors returned to the Francisco. But in the wake of our country's subprime meltdown, same homes year after year, it's easy to figure out when houses many are questioning the market's magical ability to allocate have changed hands. capital—we've got too many suburban tract homes and not enough R & D labs and bridge upgrades. Looking to the future, Earlier housing booms and busts may seem like mere blips there may not be much capital to be allocated at all: With credit compared to the current crisis. But the authors were able to scarce, aspiring Googles and eBays will have a lot more trouble identify many local real-estate ups and downs over the two scratching together the funds to open shop. decades when the survey was conducted. For example, a Californian who bought a $250,000 home in 1989 could expect And now it turns out that the current crisis might also undermine to get only around $200,000 if he put it on the market eight years the efficient redeployment of human resources. A well-timed later. Buyers in other volatile markets like Boston and the oil recent study by economists Fernando Ferreira, Joseph Gyourko, cities of the South saw similar fluctuations. and Joseph Tracy finds that homeowners who have "negative equity" in their homes—that is, a mortgage that exceeds its The authors calculate that every two years, about 12 percent of resale value—are 50 percent less likely to move than those who home-owning Americans moved. But for those with negative can afford to pay off their mortgages with a home sale. Given equity—about 2.6 percent of respondents during the 1985-2005 where the housing market is headed, millions of workers may be period of study—the probability of moving is cut nearly in half. locked in place in the years to come, throwing yet more sand into the gears of America's market economy. A great job opportunity in Charlotte, N.C., isn't worth much to you if you What does this tell us about the current crisis? The authors are can't (or won't) sell your house in Tampa, Fla. appropriately circumspect about extrapolating their findings to the current mortgage meltdown. The magnitude of our housing problems is unprecedented: Given the free and easy credit There are both financial and psychological explanations for why flowing into the housing market in recent years, many buyers having an outsized mortgage on a relatively modest home purchased their homes with minimal down payments. Even a reduces mobility. First, if you owe more on your house than modest decline in home values—say, one that brings them back you'll earn by selling it, you may not have the cash on hand to to their 2002 levels—will push many homes purchased at the close the deal, let alone put a down payment on a new home. peak into negative equity. Also, buyers with outsized mortgages Higher interest rates will have a similar effect, pushing the cost in the past were less likely to resemble the high-risk borrowers of a new mortgage out of a potential homebuyer's reach. And if that the subprime mortgage market brought to home ownership. your mortgage is "underwater," odds are you'd be selling your This new class of borrowers may be much less able to soldier on, home at a loss, a psychologically painful prospect to making payments on houses that they could never afford in the contemplate (what behavioral economists appropriately refer to first place. As a result, we've already seen a lot more people slip as loss aversion). Rather than absorb that loss, people who into default and foreclosure—nearly 91,000 of them in August bought at the market's peak tend to set high asking prices and, as 2008 alone. So there will soon be a lot more workers on the a result, are forced to sit much longer on unsold homes or hold move, whether they like it or not.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 87/105 But forcing people from homes they'd like to keep may not be ("I am not a crook"), and crafty shadings of the truth ("I did not any better for the efficient functioning of labor markets than have sexual relations with that woman") can be diagrammed locking in homeowners who would like to move. Foreclosed with equal ease. But some politicians—our current president workers may be uprooted from jobs in which they're happy and included—offer meanderings in the higher realms of drivel that productive in their desperate scramble to find a place to live leave the diagrammer groping for the Tylenol ("Families is (which, in turn, may not be in a place that offers particularly where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream") or the attractive employment prospects). The dream of American gin bottle ("I remember meeting a mother of a child who was homeownership may yet turn into even more of a nightmare for abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office"). the efficient workings of the free market. So let's take a crack at a few of Palin's doozies. From the Katie Couric interview:

It's very important when you consider even the good word national security issues with Russia as Putin Diagramming Sarah rears his head and comes into the air space of Can Palin's sentences stand up to a grammarian? the United States of America, where—where By Kitty Burns Florey do they go? Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 7:07 PM ET A diagrammer doesn't care about who "they" are in that last stuttered question or fuss over the problem of the head-rearing There are plenty of people out there—not only English teachers Putin coming into our "air space." A diagrammer simply but also amateur language buffs like me—who believe that diagrams. I didn't have a clue about what to do with the question diagramming a sentence provides insight into the mind of its that ends it. Otherwise, in its mice chase cats way, the sentence perpetrator. The more the diagram is forced to wander around is perfectly diagrammable. the page, loop back on itself, and generally stretch its capabilities, the more it reveals that the mind that created the sentence is either a richly educated one—with a Proustian grasp of language that pushes the limits of expression—or such an impoverished one that it can produce only hot air, baloney, and Other Palinisms are not so tractable. From the Charlie Gibson twaddle. interview:

I found myself considering this paradox once again when I know that John McCain will do that and I, as confronted with the sentences of Sarah Palin, the Republican his vice president, families we are blessed with vice-presidential nominee. No one but a Republican denial that vote of the American people and are specialist could argue with the fact that Sarah Palin's recent TV elected to serve and are sworn in on January appearances have scaled the heights of inanity. The sentences 20, that will be our top priority is to defend the she uttered in interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, American people. and Katie Couric seem to twitter all over the place like mourning doves frightened at the feeder. Which left me wondering: What I didn't stop to marvel at the mad thrusting of that pet political can we learn from diagramming them? watchword "families" into the text. I just rolled up my sleeves and attempted to bring order out of the chaos: One thing we can't learn, of course, is whether her words are true or make sense. Part of the appeal of diagramming is the fact that just about any sentence can be diagrammed, even when it is gibberish. Cats chase mice and Mice chase cats present the same kind of entity to the diagrammer. So does Muffins bludgeon bookcases. If it's a string of words containing a certain number I had to give up. This sentence is not for diagramming of parts of speech arranged in reasonably coherent order, it can lightweights. If there's anyone out there who can kick this sucker be hacked and beaten into a diagram. into line, I'd be delighted to hear from you. To me, it's not English—it's a collection of words strung together to elicit a reaction, floating ands and prepositional phrases ("with that vote Once we start diagramming political sentences, the diagram's of the American people") be damned. It requires not a diagram indifference to meaning can be especially striking. Stirring but a selection of push buttons. words like "I have a dream," the magisterial Declaration of Independence (a staple of diagramming teachers), bald-faced lies

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 88/105 Granted, diagramming usually deals with written English. We from East Anglia in New England, or Germans and don't expect speech to reach the heights of eloquence or even Scandinavians in the Upper Midwest. lucidity that the written word is capable of. In our world, politicians don't do much writing: Their preferred Many Alaska residents came from the Pacific Northwest or communication is the canned speech. But they're also forced, Western Canada, and features of the dialects of these regions are from time to time, to answer questions, and their answers often the most prominent in Alaskan English. Alaskan English even resemble the rambling nonsense, obfuscation, and grammatical has a certain amount of "Canadian raising," the sound change insanity that many of us would produce when put on the spot. that makes a Canadian about sound something like a boot. There are also a significant number of immigrants from the Midwest in Yet surely, more than most of us, politicians need to be able to Alaska, and they have contributed different elements to Alaskan think on their feet, to have a brain that works quickly and speech. And in parts of Alaska, there is influence from Eskimo rationally under pressure. Do we really want to be led by and Indian languages, though this is typically found only in someone who, when asked a straightforward question, flails people raised in native villages, and this speech is popularly around like an undergraduate who stayed up all night boozing associated with remote regions. instead of studying for the exam? Alaska also has its own distinctive lexicon culled from a variety In a few short weeks, Sarah Palin has produced enough of languages; it includes sourdough, or "long-time native of poppycock to keep parsers and diagrammers busy for a long Alaska," and cheechako, or "newcomer" (from Chinook Jargon). time. In the end, though, out of her mass of verbiage in the Sean Alaska also gave us the parka (from Russian, ultimately from Hannity interview, Palin did manage to emit a perfectly lucid Nenets, a Samoyedic language of northern Russia). Overall, diagram-ready statement that sums up, albeit modestly, not the because of the mixture of people and the large number of state of the economy that she was (more or less) talking about newcomers, Alaskan English is often hard to place, with both but the quality of her thinking: Westerners and Midwesterners thinking that it sounds oddly foreign; indeed, some Westerners have said that Palin sounds like a Midwesterner, and Midwesterners that she sounds Western.

Others have wondered whether her accent hails from Idaho, where her parents are from. But dialect features tend to come from one's peers, not one's parents, and Palin spent her the good word childhood in Alaska's Mat-Su Valley, which is where she got her distinctive manner of speaking. The next town over from What Kind of Accent Does Sarah Palin Wasilla, Palmer, has a large settlement of Minnesotans—who Have? were moved there by a government relief program in the Wasillan, actually. 1930s—and features of the Minnesotan dialect are thus By Jesse Sheidlower prominent in the Mat-Su Valley area. Hence the Fargo-like Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 1:30 PM ET elements in Palin's speech, in particular the sound of her "O" vowel. (Despite its name, Fargo took place mostly in Brainerd, Minn.) However, even in the area, many people speak a more Since Sarah Palin was selected as the Republican candidate for general Alaskan English, the sort one would find in nearby vice president, many people have made comments about her Anchorage. Palin's frequent dropping of the final G in -ing unusual speech, comparing it to accents heard in the movie words and her pronunciation of terrorist with two syllables Fargo, in the states of Wisconsin and Idaho, and in Canada. instead of three are characteristic of general Alaskan English Some have even attributed her manner of speaking to her (and Western English) rather than the specific Mat-Su Valley supposed stupidity. But Palin actually has an Alaskan accent, speech. one from the Matnuska and Susitna Valley region, where Palin's hometown, Wasilla, is located. Reaction to Palin's speech has been highly varied. Some people dislike it, finding it harsh or grating; others regard it as charming Alaska is an unusual dialect area. As with most regions of the or authentic. These are common responses to a distinctive Western United States, its inhabitants have typically arrived accent. Depending on the context, such an accent can make a from a variety of places, and comparatively recently. Western person seem stupid or uneducated or, conversely, honest and dialects are thus usually less sharply defined than many in the folksily trustworthy—often at the same time. Some people East, where there are long-established stable settlements that exploit this for effect, emphasizing and de-emphasizing dialect have given distinctive features to the dialect—as, for example, features to prompt a particular reaction. Linguists call this code- Scots and Northern Irish did in the Appalachians, or the Puritans switching. In this Palin interview with Katie Couric, you can

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 89/105 hear her enunciating her -ings and her yous more clearly in called eutrophication, which occurs when a higher concentration responses where she appeared to have a ready answer, and of nutrients results in algae blooms. According to one Australian returning to her more natural -in' and ya when she seemed study, the eutrophic impact of sending your food waste down the stumped, which suggests that Palin may have been deliberately disposal is more than three times larger than sending it to the attempting to minimize her dialect features for that audience. landfill. You'll also be using a lot more water if you decide to go with the disposal—and you'll be indirectly responsible for the Thanks to Joan Hall of the Dictionary of American Regional extraction of the metal needed to make the appliance. English and Alaska native James Crippen of the University of Hawaii. (A quick aside: As is often case with life-cycle analyses about consumer products, most studies on disposals are sponsored or requested by companies or groups with a financial interest in the results—like InSinkErator or the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association. This is often unavoidable: Getting good the green lantern data on these devices often requires the cooperation of the companies that make them.) Should We Dispose of Disposals? The best way to get rid of your leftover food. By Jacob Leibenluft On the other hand, it takes a considerable amount of energy to Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at 6:34 AM ET truck all that garbage from your curb to a landfill. (How much more will depend on where you live relative to the landfill, but average data compiled in both that Australian study and one I'm sorry to say I live in an apartment without a composter conducted in Wisconsin suggest a factor of two.) The for organic waste. Given the circumstances, am I better off decomposition of your trash in the landfill will likely result in feeding my leftover mashed potatoes into the garbage more damaging greenhouse gas emissions, since the breakdown disposal, so they don't end up in a landfill? Or should I of your food waste may produce methane so quickly that it can't throw them in the trash can, so they don't end up the water be captured. By contrast, some wastewater-treatment systems are supply? actually looking for more food solids, since that will make the process of converting waste into energy more efficient. And wastewater-treatment plants also provide a way to reuse leftover For years, the great garbage-disposal wars have been going on food as fertilizer—although critics have expressed concerns that without most of us even noticing. Cities like New York—along the use of biosolids on land land may not always be safe (PDF). with many governments in Europe—banned disposals altogether, arguing that the added food waste would overtax the The research is unambiguous about one point, though: Under water-treatment system. (New York removed the ban for normal circumstances, you should always compost if you can. residential kitchens in 1997.) Meanwhile, the appliance Otherwise, go ahead and use your garbage disposal if the manufacturers—along with homeowners and restaurants who following conditions are met: First, make sure that your prefer getting rid of food through the drain—have argued that community isn't running low on water. (To check your local the disposal is actually a green machine, reducing the amount of status, click here.) Don't put anything that is greasy or fatty in trash sent to landfills. the disposal. And find out whether your local water-treatment plant captures methane to produce energy. If it doesn't—and It is true that with the major exception of grease and fats—which your local landfill does—you may be better off tossing those can block pipes and cause overflows—water-treatment systems mashed potatoes in the trash. are designed pretty well to handle most of the scraps you might have left over from dinner. The leftovers you shovel into the Is there an environmental quandary that's been keeping you up at sink will eventually make their way to a wastewater plant, where night? Send it to [email protected], and check this the sewage goes through "grit treatment," which strains out the space every Tuesday. largest solid matter. (Sewage treatment is one of the few disciplines in which you can use words like grit, sludge, and scum as technical terms.) Whatever stuff gets separated from the water is either landfilled, condensed into fertilizer, or digested by microorganisms. today's business press Still, dumping waste into the water system has environmental Markets Pray House Can Deliver costs. There is evidence that the effluent that is pumped back By Bernhard Warner and Matthew Yeomans into local water streams does affect their chemical composition Friday, October 3, 2008, at 7:04 AM ET and aquatic life. In extreme cases, the result can be something

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 90/105 answer the questions she was being asked. The governor quickly turned it into a criticism of the media and Washington politicians. "I may not answer the questions the way that either today's papers the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight A League of Their Own to the American people and let 'em know my track record also." By Daniel Politi Friday, October 3, 2008, at 6:44 AM ET Biden repeatedly tried to link McCain with the Bush administration. In what the WP says may have been "the essence of the night," Palin replied in kind by saying that Americans The vice-presidential candidates faced off last night in an would eventually grow tired of the Democratic ticket "constantly eagerly anticipated debate that ultimately failed to deliver any of looking backwards, and pointing fingers, and doing the blame the game-changing moments that partisans on both sides were game." Biden was ready with a response: "Look, past is hoping for. The debate "included humor, emotion and sharp prologue." The LAT notes that in her eagerness "to portray Biden elbows," notes USA Today, as the candidates kept things as typical of the Washington establishment so despised by relatively peaceful while they eagerly sparred on taxes, Iraq, and voters, Palin at one point made an argument that echoed who can best bring change to Washington. Coming a day after Obama's thrust against McCain" when she said that "Americans the Senate voted in favor of the $700 billion bailout plan, it was are craving something new and different." hardly surprising the economy quickly took center stage, and Joe Biden and Sarah Palin each tried to portray their ticketmate as the candidate most capable of understanding the struggles of the Palin "delivered a livelier and more rhetorically compelling middle class. performance than Biden," says the LAT in an analysis that points out the governor winked at the audience, gave a "shout-out" to her brother's third-grade class, and talked of her connection to Ultimately, each "escaped without a major mishap," says the voters as a hockey and soccer mom. For his part, Biden seemed Washington Post, "and Palin seemed to repair an image that had more comfortable when dealing with policy. Still, the debate's been damaged by recent media interviews and increasing public most emotional moment belonged to Biden when he briefly doubts about her readiness for the nation's No. 2 job." While choked up when talking about the car accident that killed his many predicted Palin would be embarrassed on a national stage wife and daughter. The NYT's Alessandra Stanley says that when facing off against the veteran senator, the governor of "while her showmanship may have exhilarated her fans, it also Alaska largely held her own. Still, "Palin's novelty was on full helped Mr. Biden, who is normally known as something of a display," says the Los Angeles Times. "She winked repeatedly, know-it-all showoff; in contrast to her, he seemed reserved and and often uttered remarks in a sing-song lilt more often heard in sincere." a children's classroom than on the national stage." The New York Times agrees and says that Palin proved she "was unlike any other running mate in recent memory, using phrases like 'heck of In the end, the encounter may have left voters wishing there a lot' and 'Main Streeters like me' to appeal to working-class and were more vice-presidential debates. "Palin and Biden were each middle-class voters." But even as she displayed more confidence appealing in their own way—and in ways that neither McCain on the important issues, "her citing of facts sometimes came nor Obama were in their first debate last Friday," says the Post across as rote, she twice misstated the name of the top American in a front-page analysis. In its own analysis, USAT also general in Afghanistan, and she was chided at times for not compares the debate with last week's encounter and says the two sticking to the subject at hand," says the Wall Street Journal. running mates "delivered a fierce, fast-talking back-and-forth with tougher criticism than the presidential contenders traded in their first debate." While the "experience gap was evident throughout," as the LAT puts it, the NYT probably describes it best by saying that Palin "succeeded by not failing in any obvious way." She often relied The NYT says that while Palin may have helped McCain by on talking points and repeatedly referred to John McCain as a putting the focus back on the presidential candidates, it didn't "maverick." A while into the debate it seemed Biden had had "constitute the turning point the McCain campaign was looking enough of the word and replied that McCain "has been no for" at a time when Obama seems to be gaining ground with maverick on the things that matter to people's lives." And that voters. "This is going to help stop the bleeding," a Republican was Biden's strategy throughout the encounter as he mostly consultant said. "But this alone won't change the trend line." ignored Palin and made McCain the focus of his toughest There were new signs yesterday that McCain needs all the help attacks. he can get as his campaign announced that it was pulling its staff and advertising out of Michigan, a Democratic state where Republicans once thought McCain had a chance. At one point, when Biden attacked McCain for favoring deregulation and Palin answered by talking about taxes, the senator from Delaware did directly criticize Palin's failure to In a story that looks at the state of the presidential race, the WSJ points out that polls show Obama leading in almost enough

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 91/105 states to win the election. The Democratic nominee is ahead or The editorial pages of the LAT, NYT, and WP express tied in a few states that voted Republican in 2004, including disappointment in last night's debate. The WP says that the fact Ohio and Florida, and has a lead in Pennsylvania, which is the that "a rather surface-skimming discussion full of evasion and other Democratic state McCain's campaign has been targeting. mischaracterization was viewed as good news" for both Of course, a lot can change in a month, but right now McCain's candidates is a reflection of just how low the expectations were. campaign is "being forced to play defense in territory For its part, the NYT says the debate "did not change the Republicans have long taken for granted." essential truth" that McCain "made a wildly irresponsible choice" when he picked Palin. The LAT is the most decidedly In other news, the LAT fronts a look at how lawmakers who unimpressed with the "Joe and Sarah show," saying that the "two opposed the $700 billion bailout package have been on the candidates—aided and abetted by the singularly inarticulate receiving end of intense lobbying in advance of today's crucial work of moderator Gwen Ifill—combined to produce one of the vote in the House. Some of it has come from independent worst debates in modern American presidential history." citizens, but the powerful blitz has also been the result of a concerted effort by the country's major business groups to rally support for the rescue plan. It's still unclear whether the House will have enough votes to pass the measure, but there are hints that several lawmakers will be changing their vote, even if today's papers they're not willing to say so publicly just yet. Upping the Ante By Daniel Politi The WSJ appears to want to send a message directly to Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 6:08 AM ET lawmakers with a Page One piece that details how new economic data seem to suggest the crisis is rapidly getting worse in both the United States and Europe. Yesterday the Federal The Senate easily approved the $700 billion bailout plan last Reserve said that in the last week financial institutions grew night with a 74-to-25 vote. The Senate's strong, albeit reluctant, even more reluctant to offer basic short-term loans to companies. endorsement of the rescue package left supporters optimistic that The tightening up of so-called "commercial paper" is the "most the House will approve the measure by the end of the week. In worrying aspect of the crisis," says the WSJ. what USA Today describes as "a maneuver to reverse a stinging House rejection of the plan," the Senate added several popular measures to the original bill. How many? Well, just think of it While McCain was widely ridiculed for putting much of the this way: The rescue package began as a three-page proposal by blame for the financial crisis on Christopher Cox, the chairman the Treasury Department and now clocks in at 451 pages. These of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the NYT suggests additions include an increase in bank insurance limits and a host today that the Republican candidate may have been on to of popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals that add up something. The NYT says one of the root causes of the current to $150 billion. Its passage in the House remains far from certain crisis can be traced back to a brief meeting in 2004, where the as fiscally conservative Democrats have long opposed extending big investment banks pushed the SEC to allow them to take on the tax breaks unless they were offset by tax increases or more debt. A few months later, "the net capital rule" was spending cuts. Still, Republican leaders said they are optimistic changed, and "the five big independent investment firms were that the sweeteners would be enough to convince some unleashed." Although the new rules would allow the SEC to lawmakers to change their vote. keep banks away from excessively risky activity, the agency essentially ended up "outsourcing the job of monitoring risk to the banks themselves." Cox came onboard a year later, but he "Instead of siding with a $700 billion bailout, lawmakers could made it clear from the outset that oversight of the banks was not now say they voted for increased protection for deposits at the an important priority, and regulators essentially ignored any neighborhood bank, income tax relief for middle-class taxpayers problems that were discovered. and aid for schools in rural areas," notes the New York Times. Indeed, the Los Angeles Times points out that a few "of the changes appeared aimed at enticing specific lawmakers," The NYT reports that after months of criticism from the United including expanded coverage of mental illness and a tax break States, the Pakistani government has launched a full-scale for bicycle commuters. The Wall Street Journal says that the bill assault against the Taliban in the country's tribal regions. "After now has "a number of tax breaks that have been attacked by years of relative passivity, the army is now engaged in heavy fiscal conservatives, including an exemption from a 39-cent fighting with the militants on at least three fronts," says the excise tax for children's wooden practice arrows." But as angry Times. Even as many in Pakistan are convinced that something as they may be about these additions, the Washington Post must be done to root out the Taliban, the government has done suggests that, despite the increased burden on the taxpayer, little to prepare the country for the fighting and risks losing the many fiscally conservative Democrats will simply hold their "hearts and minds" of civilians who are increasingly critical of noses and vote yes in order to get the legislation to the president its alliance with the United States. as soon as possible.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 92/105 Adding to the drama of last night's Senate session, both proponent of federal intervention in the financial crisis is a move presidential candidates went back to Capitol Hill to cast votes in the senator "has perfected in 26 years on Capitol Hill." The favor of the bill. Their presence meant that Sen. Edward Republican nominee may follow his party's line in pushing for Kennedy, who is being treated for brain cancer, was the only smaller government, but he's also quick to embrace strong senator who didn't vote. Barack Obama gave a speech on the government regulation whenever there's a crisis or scandal. Senate floor, and the WP points out that he "echoed President While this willingness to break from his party's rhetoric is part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first fireside chat to the nation during the the reason McCain is often called a "maverick," it also means Great Depression" by calling on Americans to have "confidence that it's "hard to discern how the politician who boasts of and courage" during the economic downturn. John McCain delivering 'straight talk' would govern from the Oval Office," didn't address the chamber. The NYT reports on a bit of political says the LAT. tension that was evident last night as Obama "walked to the Republican side of the aisle to greet [McCain], who offered a On the day when the vice-presidential candidates are set to chilly look and a brief return handshake." debate, the WP fronts a new poll that shows how voters have quickly fallen out of love with Sarah Palin. Although her The WSJ is alone in mentioning that the new bill also includes a selection was seen as a possible game-changer, the poll reveals measure that reaffirms the Security and Exchange Commission's that she could actually end up hurting McCain among key power to suspend so-called mark-to-market accounting. The groups. Six in 10 voters say she lacks the experience to be move "was meant to send a message to the agency to re-evaluate effective as president, and one-third say they're less likely to the issue," which has "gained surprising traction" in recent days, vote for McCain because of her presence on the ticket. Most says the WSJ. The banking industry is strongly pushing for the critical to McCain is the revelation that while independent voters suspension of the rule that forces financial institutions to report were split on Palin's experience last month, they now "take the the current market price of their assets even if they have no negative view by about 2 to 1," says the Post. But in the intention of selling them. Some lawmakers are convinced the expectations game, Joe Biden is clearly the loser. Voters by a change could save taxpayers billions of dollars, while others say 19-point margin think the senator will do better in the debate. it would merely increase uncertainty. In a proposal so obvious that TP is mad he didn't think of it before, the WP's Steven The NYT fronts a puzzling piece about Biden that shockingly Pearlstein says there's an easy way to split the difference: reveals the senator who has served in Washington for 35 years "Require banks to disclose market prices right alongside their isn't really an "average guy." Yes, Biden may be able to say he own estimates of 'fair value.' Let the investors decide which to comes from a working-class neighborhood, but he now lives in a rely on." much bigger house than the average American! Well, that's not entirely fair, as the article does reveal some questionable use of The WSJ says the Fed is considering cutting interest rates even if his campaign funds. But ultimately, there just isn't much there as the bailout package makes it through Congress. The Fed has the entire crux of the article seems to be that he "appears to have been reluctant to continue cutting rates due to fears of inflation. benefited at times from the simple fact of who he is." So, does But after a string of bad economic data, officials are once again that mean he received a below-market interest rate when he went worried about "the risk of a severe recession," which is "known out looking for a loan? Nope. But the bank did pay special as a 'tail risk' because its likelihood is small but its effect would attention to his application, which hardly seems surprising be catastrophic." considering that any well-known person would have likely received the same treatment. The NYT also mentions some real- Now that the bailout has crossed one legislative hurdle, it's a estate dealings that do not sound 100 percent kosher but, again, good time to look back and answer the all-important how-did- can't point to anything improper about them. we-get-here question. Today, the NYT offers up a long but highly readable look at how a "36-hour period two weeks ago … While Americans worry about the financial crisis, a NYT Page spooked policy makers by opening fissures in the worldwide One story should serve as a reminder about how things could be financial system." While it should come as no surprise that the much, much worse. In (yet another) fascinating dispatch from "credit crisis has played out in places most people can't see," the Zimbabwe, the paper details just how ridiculous the country's NYT does a good job of explaining how the failure of Lehman hyperinflation has become. The government has imposed strict Bros. led to a crucial wave of panic among hedge-fund managers limits on how much money Zimbabweans can get out of banks, that seemed to have no end in sight. And while the plan to buy which means that many must stand in line for hours simply to toxic securities may have appeared to come out of nowhere, the get enough cash to buy a bar of soap. That is, if they're lucky NYT also makes clear that Fed and Treasury officials had been enough to get anything at all. As money loses value "literally by talking about the possibility since the bailout of Bear Stearns. the hour," many public employees, including teachers, nurses, and garbage collectors, have simply stopped showing up to work In a Page One piece, the LAT takes a look at how McCain's shift because their salaries don't even cover the cost of taking public from talking about the dangers of big government to being a transportation to get there.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 93/105 The WSJ takes a look at how mackerel has become the currency package would appeal to Republicans who voted against the bill of choice among inmates after federal prisons prohibited on Monday. smoking in 2004. Americans as a whole aren't big fans of the oily fish, but demand from prisons has grown in the past few Then again, it's unclear whether simply presenting the same bill years. "It never has done very well at all, regardless of the again wouldn't provide the same results. "There was a retailer," says one mackerel supplier, "but it's very popular in the widespread sense on Capitol Hill that Monday's vote had prisons." snapped the public to attention about the potential repercussions of Congress's failure to act," notes the WP. Consequently, lawmakers' offices were flooded with calls, and there was a marked shift in tone as constituents who found themselves spooked by the huge plunge in Wall Street demanded that today's papers Congress do something. "It's completely in the other direction Take the Bill and Run now," Boehner's spokesman said. But the WSJ says that House Democrats who voted against the bill received thousands of calls By Daniel Politi from constituents who mostly agreed with them. Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 6:33 AM ET Now lawmakers might realize that trying to do what their The Senate is taking over. After the House rejected the $700 constituents want is a little difficult when the public as a whole billion bailout of the financial system, senators decided to step isn't really sure of what it wants. Then again, with Election Day into the fray and shepherd the bill through Congress. After a day rapidly approaching, they have little choice. "It's not a moment of behind-the-scenes negotiations, Senate leaders scheduled a at which people can put the national interest ahead of constituent vote on a slightly revised package tonight with the expectation interest," a political science professor tells the LAT. The Post that the House would approve the measure by the end of the fronts the results of a new poll that reveals that almost all week. The revisions to the financial rescue plan include a one- Americans see the financial situation as a big problem and a year increase in the limit on federally insured deposits to majority describes it as a crisis. Still, the country remains $250,000 from $100,000 and a variety of tax breaks. The tweaks divided on support for the bailout plan, with 51 percent saying to the bill wouldn't change the basics of the rescue plan, "but that they believe the government could prevent the economic would add a populist tinge at a time when voters appear enraged woes from getting worse. at what many see as a bailout of Wall Street, not Main Street," notes the Wall Street Journal. The move to increase the deposit-insurance limits was endorsed by both presidential candidates as well as the Bush USA Today and the WSJ highlight that key lawmakers hope that administration yesterday and set "off a bit of a political tiff," having the Senate, including the two presidential candidates, says the NYT. House Republicans said that they had proposed vote in favor of the measure would build momentum for the bill the idea over the weekend but that it was rejected, while in the House. The Los Angeles Times notes that in the aftermath Democrats insisted that the issue wasn't even talked about. of the House's rejection of the measure, "there was no shortage Regardless, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle seem of suggestions" for new ways to confront the financial crisis. But receptive to the increase even as some experts say the $250,000 in coming up with the revisions to the measure, officials had to is completely arbitrary. The Post notes that some think the play what the New York Times describes as "a delicate balancing government should guarantee all bank deposits until the crisis is act" in order to ensure that the changes wouldn't lead to over, a move that has been embraced by a couple of European opposition from fiscally conservative Democrats. While some countries. The NYT points out that widespread approval for the lawmakers are quick to predict that the House will approve the move represents "a major lobbying coup for community banks." measure, the Washington Post says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi The group, the Independent Community Bankers of America, "responded tepidly to the Senate announcement, and it remained vowed to begin a big push to muster citizen support for the unclear when the House would consider the revised bill." bailout all across the country.

Key House officials also spent much of yesterday considering In a more controversial move, lawmakers are also considering changes that could be implemented to the financial rescue changing an accounting rule that many have blamed for package in order to attract more support, but given the Senate's exacerbating insecurity in the markets. Securities regulators decision to act quickly, it's unlikely that they will ever see the issued a statement yesterday giving companies more flexibility light of day. Everyone notes that even as lawmakers worried in how to figure out the value of complicated assets for which about losing some Democratic support with the changes to the there are no buyers. But some lawmakers want to take it further bill from the Senate, Republicans appeared receptive. House and temporarily suspend the so-called mark-to-market rules, Minority Leader John Boehner was consulted and apparently which require companies to reflect the market prices of their "gave the green light" to the changes, believing that the tax assets even if they have no intention of selling them. That might

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 94/105 improve balance sheets, but critics say it would merely provide a delinquent mortgages. Although the root of the problem is way for companies to hide their losses and could increase homeowners, the bailout plan "ignores this" even as the amount uncertainty. of money being requested "is almost certainly more than sufficient to pay off all currently delinquent mortgages." Helping Even as stock markets were in an upward trend after Monday's financial institutions is "a large, complex gamble," but paying huge sell-off, "the ripple effects from the U.S. financial crisis off mortgages would help "ordinary Americans and would intensified around the world," notes the WSJ. Yesterday, a quickly spill over to revive the financial markets." French-Belgian bank received a $9.2 billion bailout and became the fifth European financial institution to receive direct In what might very well be one of the most pretentious columns assistance from the government since Sunday. And in what the in recent memory, the NYT's Thomas Friedman says readers WSJ calls "one of the most ambitious measures taken by a should take the financial crisis seriously "because I know an government since the crisis began," Ireland announced that it unprecedented moment when I see one." Friedman then goes on would guarantee the debt of its top six financial institutions. The to say that "I've been frightened for my country only a few times WP points out that even as they try to put out fires, government in my life," and they were all during momentous events. This officials around the world recognize that they are "as dependent ability isn't something he gained with life experience; it's as ever on Washington to come up with a solution." apparently innate. "[E]ven as a boy of 9," he informs us, "I followed the tension of the Cuban missile crisis." With all the financial-related news, it's easy to forget that the vice-presidential candidates will face off tomorrow in an eagerly anticipated event. The NYT says that you have to go back to Dan Quayle in 1988 to remember a time when "debate expectations for a major party candidate [have] been as low as they will be on today's papers Thursday for Gov. Sarah Palin." The paper reviews her past Failure To Lead debate performances in Alaska and says that Palin displayed By Daniel Politi confidence even as she spoke in vague terms "and showed scant aptitude for developing arguments beyond a talking point or Tuesday, September 30, 2008, at 6:40 AM ET two." The WSJ points out that Democrats are trying to raise expectations for Palin's performance, and Palin played the same The roller-coaster ride is nowhere near over. That was the game this week saying that she's been listening to Biden speak message sent down from Capitol Hill yesterday as initial "since I was in the second grade." optimism quickly gave way to shock when the voting started in the House and it became clear there weren't enough votes to The LAT talks to some of her former rivals, who warn that she approve the $700 billion bailout plan. Lawmakers rejected the might not know the ins and outs of policy issues but has an compromise rescue package on a 228-205 vote, and nervous uncanny ability to offer up pithy statements that are appealing to investors quickly pressed the sell button. The markets began to voters. "The political landscape here is littered with people who plummet at the first sign of trouble, and by the end of the day the have underestimated Sarah Palin," a former rival said. In order to Dow Jones industrial average fell by almost 778 points, a new be successful, Sen. Joe Biden will have to take her seriously as record. It was "the most devastating stock market collapse in 21 an opponent while also being careful not to be "overly years," declares the Los Angeles Times. USA Today notes that aggressive against a candidate who radiates telegenic appeal," the 7 percent plunge "didn't even make the Dow's all-time top says the LAT. 10" but goes on to point out that the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index suffered its worst day since 1987's "Crash Monday." The Wall Street Journal highlights that the closely watched VIX USAT fronts a look at how Border Patrol agents are increasing index, which is often referred to as "the fear index," closed "at the number of supposedly random inspections in domestic trains, its highest levels in its 28-year history." buses, and ferries that are far from the border. The agents are beginning to take full advantage of their authority to search any mode of transportation within 100 miles of the border to catch "Rarely has a congressional vote held such high drama and illegal immigrants. And lest you think they're only focusing on produced such immediate repercussions," notes the Washington people who are trying to make a living in the United States, a Post. While it was expected that many rank-and-file lawmakers Border Patrol official affirms that their actions even help the would go against the wishes of their leaders, most were fight against terrorism. "They never know when we're going to expecting that the compromise bailout plan would pass the show up and what form we're going to take," he says. House after the marathon weekend negotiations. Even the White House declared itself optimistic before the vote. "The outcome after a slightly more than 40-minute vote on the House floor left In the WP's op-ed page, Jonathan Koppell and William lawmakers almost speechless," says the New York Times. But not Goetzmann suggest that the best fix for the current financial crisis would be to have the government simply pay off all the

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 95/105 for long. Republican and Democratic leaders quickly took to the but Pelosi and other leaders have been insisting that the bailout microphones and angrily blamed one another for the bill's defeat. must be approved with bipartisan support. For their part, Republicans suggested they could get a few more votes if slight In the end, 140 Democrats voted in favor of the bill, and 95 changes are made to the bill. voted against it, while 65 Republicans approved the measure, and 133 rejected it. Democrats quickly seized the numbers to say The NYT notes in a separate Page One analysis that many think the Republican leadership had failed to live up to its side of the the leaders of both parties made a critical mistake when they bargain as each party had pledged to deliver half its votes for the agreed to bring the bill to the House floor without having a vote bill. But Republican leaders said they lost several members at count set in stone. That's "a bad move at any time, but especially the last minute and blamed what they described as a partisan so in this case given the risk of the markets and the badly speech by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the vote, a charge weakened financial system reacting badly," says the NYT that that Democrats (and the WSJ editorial board) ridiculed. emphasizes how the bill's collapse represents a huge failure for Everyone says that yesterday's events more than confirmed the political leadership in Washington. President Bush's lame-duck status, as his influence among members of his own party is practically nonexistent. As lawmakers continue to negotiate, the markets are likely to continue suffering. A staggering $1.2 trillion disappeared from While some lawmakers pointed to ideological reasons for the U.S. stock market yesterday in what the NYT describes as rejecting the rescue package, everyone says the surge in angry "Wall Street's blackest day since the 1987 crash." The House's calls and e-mails from constituents opposed to the measure vote reverberated around the world, and all of the major stock played a pivotal role. As the LAT notes, there was no grass-roots markets in Asia were down this morning. So, even though those movement in favor of the bill, but there were plenty of groups who voted against the bailout may have wanted to send a that angrily opposed the measure. "People's re-elections played message to Wall Street fat cats, they also caused pain in "the not- into this to a much greater degree than I would have imagined," so-fat 401(k) retirement savings plans of millions of Americans," said Rep. Deborah Pryce, a Republican from Ohio who is notes the LAT. And the truth is that if the markets experience any retiring. Other lawmakers were clearly worried about how their more days like Monday, it's "going to hurt the average worker vote would play with their constituents a mere five weeks before with money in the market far more than it will hurt a bank Election Day. Although members may cite other reasons, "it was executive with millions of dollars to spare and a generous old-fashioned politics that killed the bill. … [T]oo many pension to boot." lawmakers weren't willing to risk losing their jobs," declares USAT. The bailout's failure in the House clearly presented a challenge to both presidential candidates, who had offered tepid The WSJ goes inside with a look at who cast the "no" votes and endorsements, but John McCain is the one with the most to lose. says they "came from a strange-bedfellows coalition" that Last week he claimed that he was suspending his campaign to spanned the ideological spectrum. Many of these nays came ensure that the important piece of legislation would pass from representatives of low-income districts, but the one thing Congress. The LAT notes that two hours before the House voted many had in common is a tough re-election fight. While the against the plan, McCain was telling a crowd in Ohio that he was majority of Democratic freshmen and all of the first-term instrumental in getting the piece of legislation through Congress, Republican lawmakers voted against the bill, the overwhelming a message that quickly changed once the votes came in. "The majority of those retiring from Capitol Hill voted in favor. But first defense was to go on offense," notes the NYT. McCain the LAT also points out that many of the no votes came from safe blamed Obama and the Democrats for injecting "unnecessary districts, partly because years of redistricting have created partisanship into the process" before quickly adding that it "is "politically polarized" areas where "members from those not the time to fix the blame; it's time to fix the problem." For districts have less incentive to compromise with the other party." his part, Obama reworked a speech that praised the agreement and instead said there's a "lot of blame to spread around." While So, what now? Congressional leaders and administration also calling for a bipartisan effort, Obama urged voters to officials vowed to work together, but no one is sure how to consider McCain's history of favoring deregulation when they proceed. "We've got much work to do, and this is much too consider whom to pick in November. important to simply let fail," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said. The earliest the House could consider another bill would be Unless Congress passes something, the Federal Reserve and the Thursday, when lawmakers will reconvene after a two-day break Treasury don't have much ammunition left in their arsenal to in observance of the Jewish New Year. The NYT says lawmakers deal with the deepening financial crisis. If lawmakers don't are considering having the Senate advance a bill, since its approve anything, the WSJ and WP both highlight that the Fed passage there is virtually assured. Some are suggesting that and Treasury would have little choice but to return to deciding Democrats should propose changes to guarantee more support on a case-by-case basis which institutions can be allowed to fail from their side of the aisle at the expense of Republican votes, and which should be rescued. And no one thinks that continuing

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 96/105 with this ad hoc process would do enough to increase confidence After a dramatic weekend filled with negotiations and in the markets and get credit moving again. The LAT says it discussions, lawmakers managed to achieve their goal of remains "an open question" whether the Fed and Treasury have reaching a compromise on the $700 billion bailout package enough power and resources to prevent "the cascading failure of before the markets open today. The House is scheduled to vote hundreds, perhaps thousands, of financial institutions and on the 110-page bill today with a Senate vote to follow as early paralysis spreading across the whole economy." as Wednesday. "All sides had to surrender something" in order to reach a deal, notes the New York Times. Still, their work is And in case voters needed a reminder that even some of the hardly over as "weary negotiators said that the hardest part is nation's largest banks aren't immune, most papers front the still before them" because congressional leaders now have to government-orchestrated sale of most of Wachovia to Citigroup step up their efforts to get support for the measure, notes USA for $1 a share, or about $2 billion. Citigroup will inherit Today. Despite the compromises, the basic outline of the rescue Wachovia's $312 billion loan portfolio, but the government package remains the same, as it would "effectively nationalize agreed to pay for any losses after the $42 billion mark. In return an array of mortgages and securities backed by them," the Wall for this guarantee, the government got $12 billion in preferred Street Journal summarizes. stocks and warrants. Despite signs that some who opposed the bailout plan last week Wachovia's sale is the latest example of how Wall Street has are now ready to support this new version, the deal still "faces been reshaped in the past few weeks with what the NYT calls "a strong opposition, and it remained unclear Sunday whether it wave of shotgun mergers." In a separate Page One piece, the would have enough votes to pass," says the Los Angeles Times. WSJ says that the "notoriously fragmented American banking The WSJ is a bit more optimistic and says that approval is seen system is going through a decade's worth of consolidation in a as likely "despite the measure's unpopularity." Both presidential matter of weeks." Now only the strongest banks are likely to candidates offered tepid endorsements. (The Washington Post's survive, and the consequences of this consolidation will be felt Web site appeared to be down this morning.) for years. Customers might see their fees go up because of a lack of competition, but on the upside, the mere size of these banks The NYT details how the weekend's marathon negotiating means they'll be less vulnerable to future economic shocks. Then sessions were filled with tense moments and included lots of again, these banks could decide to take bigger risks because they shouting back and forth between lawmakers and administration may be seen as too big to fail. officials. At one point early Sunday morning, it seemed as if Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was on the verge of collapse. Faced with a huge economic crisis, the country's political leaders "He was tired, but fine," reports the NYT. "have failed utterly and catastrophically to project any sense of authority, to give the world any reason to believe that this So, what's in this deal that would, as the WSJ puts it, "authorize country is being governed," writes the NYT's David Brooks. Just the biggest banking rescue in U.S. history"? Many of the details as they did with their anti-immigration crusade, House remain murky, but most of the basic items shouldn't come as a Republicans "have once again confused talk radio with reality" surprise to anyone who has been following the negotiations over and chose to listen to "the loudest and angriest voices in their the past week. Lawmakers added stronger oversight to the plan, party, oblivious to the complicated anxieties that lurk in most which would impose some limits on executive compensation and American minds." If the economy tanks, "they will go down in also require companies that benefit to provide an equity stake to history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century." the government so taxpayers can get some money back if it recovers. The bill also calls on the government to do more to "The basic problem here is that too many people don't help homeowners avoid foreclosure. understand the seriousness of the situation," writes the Post's Steven Pearlstein. "But it is a measure of how little trust remains Besides the equity stake, the compromise plan also includes a in both Washington and Wall Street that voters are willing to measure that would require the president to assess whether the risk a serious hit to their wealth and income rather than follow bailout has cost taxpayers money after five years. If it has, then their lead." the president must submit a plan to Congress that would force financial firms to pay up to make up for the difference. "This is a major, major change," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last night. today's papers The bill would distribute the money in installments, starting with Compromising Positions $250 billion plus $100 billion that could be released by the president as he sees fit. The other $350 billion would be handed By Daniel Politi out if the president approves and if there are no objections from Monday, September 29, 2008, at 6:45 AM ET Congress. If the bill passes, the Treasury would have 45 days to

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 97/105 outline how the government would decide what to buy and how elected. John McCain showed once again that he believes much to pay for it. It's clear, though, that the Treasury secretary "individual leaders can play a catalytic role and should use the would have much flexibility and wouldn't be limited just to bully pulpit to push politicians." For his part, Barack Obama buying up mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. demonstrated how he believes that "several minds are better than one" and showed that "he is wary of too much showmanship." The measure that would have the government insure the toxic While some say that Obama may have acted too calm and was debt rather than simply buy it—which was what House slow to react, McCain is the one who comes out of this with Republicans proposed last week, when they threatened to back more mixed reviews from members of his own party. Some away from the deal—"ultimately survived in limited form," insist McCain showed leadership, but others say he created a lot notes the WSJ. The proposal is included in the bill, but it is listed of chaos and drama without achieving any tangible benefits for along with the power to purchase the securities so it's unclear his campaign. whether the Treasury would actually use it. In a Page One piece, the LAT says that McCain's actions not only Much of the discussion this weekend centered on the limits to upset supporters, but also "gave new ammunition" to those who executive compensation, which seemed to be a done deal last have been raising questions about his judgment. "It was all very week. Some key Democrats were pushing for a one-size-fits-all dramatic, but maybe the American public is tired of drama after approach, but Paulson strongly objected. They finally agreed on the last eight years," said John Weaver, McCain's former a tiered measure that particularly focuses on preventing "golden campaign manager. By pushing so hard for a deal, McCain also parachute" payouts to executives but is rather narrow overall and managed to alienate some of the more conservative members of sets complicated limits, depending on how each firm participates his party, who warmed up to him only after he selected Gov. in the deal. In the end, the limits on executive pay "appear Sarah Palin as his running mate. unlikely to be used very often," says the NYT. Meanwhile, there are no indications that McCain's attempts to If there's one clear winner from this compromise plan, it's clearly suspend his campaign and delay Friday's debate helped him with Paulson, the LAT and NYT both point out in nearly identical voters. USAT and the LAT both publish polls that suggest voters analyses. Despite all the wheeling and dealing over the past were more impressed by Obama than McCain during the face- week, Paulson got almost everything he wanted, and if the plan off in Mississippi. USAT reports that debate viewers gave is approved, he and his successor would have a great deal of Obama a 17-percentage-point lead as the candidate with the best power over the U.S. economy. "Paulson's new powers will be ideas to solve the country's problems. They also said Obama did almost breathtaking in their scope," declares the LAT. "Rarely if better in the debate, 46 percent to 34 percent. The LAT points out ever has one man had such broad authority to spend government that while more people still see McCain as more knowledgeable, money as he sees fit," notes the NYT. To be sure, lawmakers did Obama was seen as more "presidential" by 46 percent of debate increase oversight and added the equity stake provision that watchers, compared with 33 percent who picked McCain. Paulson didn't like. But ultimately, if there's one striking thing Obama was also seen as more trustworthy and had a clear about the compromise, it's the great latitude that Paulson would advantage as the candidate who "cares about people like you." have in deciding how to implement its details. In the LAT's op-ed page, Douglas Schoen says that perhaps it's "The $700 billion question: Will it work?" asks USAT before time we start paying a bit of attention to candidates who aren't outlining the pros and cons. That's the key question as named McCain or Obama. Polls already show a bit of support lawmakers move to approve a deal that is likely to change the for third-party candidates in key states. And in a close election, a face of the American economy for decades to come. Even if the bit of support is all they need to change the outcome. As the plan works beautifully and manages to shore up the credit election draws near, "it's not the biggest poll percentages that markets, "it is unlikely to prevent the economy from sliding into demand scrutiny, but the smallest ones," writes Schoen. recession," notes the WSJ. (Of course, many think the U.S. "Because it could turn out that the crucial role in the 2008 economy is already in a recession.) "There will be some benefits election will be played by a candidate no one is talking about." of this plan, but we think the economy's already gone too far to prevent enough damage," an economist tells the WSJ. The NYT suggests that it's best to see the bailout as a very significant step that will leave lots of unfinished business to the next administration. "Managing this issue is going to dominate the today's papers agenda of the next president for two years," one expert said. Critical Mass By David Sessions In an analysis piece inside, the NYT says that the fight over the Sunday, September 28, 2008, at 4:40 AM ET bailout plan has probably provided voters the best view of how each of the presidential candidates would approach problems if

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 98/105 The Washington Post, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times All three front pages memorialize Paul Newman, the iconic star each lead Congress' late-night progress toward agreement on an of Cool Hand Luke who was known for his piecing blue eyes. economic bailout plan on Saturday. Yesterday's talks were Newman died of cancer in his home on Saturday at age 83. "If propelled by the need to act swiftly, and focused on adding strict Marlon Brando and James Dean defined the defiant American oversight to the $700 billion as well as exploring new ways to male as a sullen rebel, Paul Newman recreated him as a likable pay for the measure that would avoid sticking taxpayers with the renegade, a strikingly handsome figure of animal high spirits and bill. blue-eyed candor whose magnetism was almost impossible to resist," the NYT eulogizes. Newman acted in more than 65 "We're moving, we're moving," Sen. Christopher Dodd, D- movies in his 50-year career. (Slate's Dahlia Lithwick Conn., told the WP after last night's session, from which reminisced about Newman here.) Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson emerged around 12:30 a.m. (Both he and Sen. Nancy Pelosi called the evening's work The WP Style section profiles Robin Thicke, a "31-year-old "great progress.") Congress did reach a tentative agreement, the 'white guy who looks like a white guy' (right down to the blue NYT reports, with congressional staff working around the clock eyes) but who sings black music to majority-black audiences." to finalize language that will hopefully be ready for a Monday Thick's soulful R&B tracks have gained unprecedented vote. The new plan includes some limits on executive pay and popularity in the African-American community, with his single provides for strict oversight of the rescue monies. Additionally, "Lost Without U" becoming the most successful R&B song on the LAT reports, the updated accord is "expected to call for the the Billboard charts since 1965—and the first white performer to money to be made available in installments instead of one top the chart since 1992. Though he has transcended race in enormous lump sum." Democrats and Republicans both seem to virtually ever quantifiable way, Thicke says it "will always be a agree that the bailout should not take place "on the backs of part of the conversation," and enjoys talking about his unusual taxpayers," the WP reports, and even the conservatives most spot at the top of the black music industry. strongly against it expect the "critical mass" forming behind the current agreement to push it through Congress. The NYT Metro section stalks dethroned New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who is now a "face in the crowd" around the city. Based The NYT begins what is certain to be a long string of on e-mail messages obtained in a Freedom of Information Act investigation of exactly how the current crisis developed. An request and brief on-the-street encounters with Spitzer, the story off-lead story goes "behind" the AIG crisis, its headline pieces together the former governor's current routine and his reporting the insurer's "blind eye to a web of risk." The LAT's plans for the future. He currently works for his father's real- front page wonders if taxpayers might actually turn a profit on estate firm and has possible plans to rehabilitate his image the bailout, citing the government's 1994 rescue of the Mexican through charity or pro bono legal work. Spitzer is viciously peso—an investment that yielded a $500 million profit. The defensive of his policy reputation, saying he was "right" about WP's front page focuses on matters of the moment, like whether AIG when he attempted to oust its embattled chairman in 2005. the collective turn of the nation's heads toward the economy will hurt John McCain. Barack Obama has opened up a narrow lead WP ombudsman Deborah Howell responds to e-mails from 750 in national polls as well as significant battleground states, angry readers—"more than I heard from about the financial putting McCain on the defensive. "For McCain, the danger is crisis"—protesting a Pat Oliphant cartoon that ran on the Post's that previously undecided voters will become comfortable that Web site. The illustration depicted Sarah Palin speaking in Obama is ready to be president. The longer Obama can hold tongues to God, who responded that he couldn't understand her even a small lead, the more difficult it will be for McCain to "damn right wing gibberish." Howell's poll of Post editors finds reverse it." that the paper would not have run the cartoon in print.

An expansive, above-the-fold A1 story in the NYT highlights John McCain's "many ties" to the gambling industry, illustrating with an accompanying graphic that contributions from gambling interests to McCain's campaign are double those made to Barack today's papers Obama. McCain is a "lifelong gambler" and "one of the founding fathers of Indian gaming," according to a professor and Bombs Over a Bailout "leading Indian gambling expert." More than 40 of McCain's By Lydia DePillis advisers and fundraisers have worked for "an array of gambling Saturday, September 27, 2008, at 8:41 AM ET interests" ranging from Las Vegas casinos to online poker purveyors. The only comment the Times received from the In a doozy of a news day, Sen. John McCain decided to debate McCain campaign was a hostile suggestion that the story would after earlier saying he'd stay in Washington to fix the economy, a "insinuate impropriety on the part of Senator McCain where bailout agreement inched closer to completion, and lawmakers none exists" and "gamble away" its remaining credibility. still managed to debate other spending packages as part of their

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 99/105 day-to-day business of governing. The papers all lead with the for mortgage assets combined with tax cuts on investment gains. freewheeling, 90-minute showdown, which was supposed to But the WP fronts a colorful narrative of how McCain's return to center around foreign policy but which moderator Jim Lehrer Washington threw a wrench into the negotiations: According to allowed to veer extensively into the rapidly evolving financial the reporters, McCain derailed their emerging agreement by crisis. In the latter half of the debate, the candidates launched announcing that he wouldn't simply fall into lockstep with the into attacks on each others' foreign-policy positions, with party leadership. "Just like Iraq, I'm not afraid to go it alone if I McCain hammering away at Sen. Barack Obama's inexperience need to," McCain threatened. and seeking to distinguish his own record from that of President Bush. The Illinois senator repeatedly answered McCain's claims Meanwhile, the NYT reports above the fold that the much- with interjections of "that's not true," attempting to articulate maligned chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission relatively nuanced positions in prime-time TV terms. has admitted defeat, saying that his agency's voluntary oversight program for the banking industry was "fundamentally flawed Both candidates expressed optimism that Congress would soon from the beginning." The flagellation came as the SEC inspector settle on a plan to resolve the carnage on Wall Street but clashed general released a report harshly criticizing the agency's over their domestic economic agendas. McCain railed against monitoring of Bear Stearns before it went under in March. "out of control" spending in Washington—floating a spending freeze on everything but defense, veterans, and entitlements— Wachovia became the latest bank to start shopping around for while Obama dwelled on his middle-class tax cuts and pinned buyers as well as its stocks took a nosedive Friday with investors the current predicament on a trend toward market deregulation, spooking over its large mortgage portfolio. The WSJ says all on which Bush and McCain have tended to agree. The foreign- potential buyers are staying tight-lipped, but the NYT is reporting policy discussion lingered on where should be considered the that the bank has entered preliminary talks with Citigroup, central front in the effort to combat terrorism, with McCain figuring that even a government bailout won't save it from the insisting that Iraq still deserved substantial troop commitments trash heap. while Obama advocated for a shift in focus to Afghanistan. In parallel developments on the Hill, House Democrats passed a The Los Angeles Times finds that neither candidate committed $61 billion social services spending bill that won't make it into the kind of major gaffe that could have dominated the news law, since Senate Republicans just rejected a companion cycle for days, nor did they land the kind of knockout blow that measure and President Bush has promised to veto it anyway (OK would fundamentally alter the terms of the campaign. But most by Democrats, who freely admit the measure was designed to of the papers did highlight the candidates' differences in style. put Republicans on record as opposing social relief programs). The Wall Street Journal says that McCain adopted a "folksy" Senate Republicans are pushing for a vote on a $631 billion delivery—chuckling and smiling much more than his grave- measure for the Pentagon, veterans, homeland security faced opponent—while Obama appeared sharper and quicker on measures, and keeping agencies running at their current levels, the attack than he had previously. The Washington Post judges which Bush has indicated he will sign on into law. "This is the that McCain's voice "dripped with derision" as he belittled most expensive week in the history of the Republic," commented Obama's approach to meeting with leaders of rogue states, which Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. Obama countered with a chorus of "You were wrong. … You were wrong" about McCain's support for the entry into war with The papers also found room for several international stories of Iraq. The New York Times calls McCain "feisty and aggressive," considerable import. For one thing, modern-day Somali pirates but with an attachment to terms that those without several are wreaking havoc with shipping lanes through the Gulf of decades in the Senate might not understand, betraying a Aden, boarding ships with large weapons and seizing their generational gap that defines how the two are understood by a cargo. The pirate spokesman, reports the NYT, could not be language- and image-sensitive public. reached for comment.

Meanwhile, congressional lawmakers continue to wrangle over Taking action on the issue being debated in Mississippi, NATO the details of a bailout that the brass tacks have begun to has adopted a strategy—or at least the name of a strategy—from puncture. Although Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's original Iraq in Afghanistan, undertaking a "surge" of development plan remains largely intact, according to the WSJ, the Post projects to turn the rising tide of Taliban activity, the Post reports that House Democrats led by Rep. Barney Frank, D- reports inside. Mass., have made some tweaks, including granting taxpayers some equity in banks that participate in the bailout, a plan to release the money in stages rather than all at once, and limits on The LAT brings news that North Korea is apparently in the midst executive compensation. House Republicans, tired of being of a construction boom that has analysts baffled: Where is pushed around by the majority, looked on Thursday to be closing Pyongyang getting all that cash? ranks around a legislative alternative built on federal insurance

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 100/105 Russia has struck an oil deal with Venezuela, including forging a new consortium and a $1 billion military loan for the South So Gov. Sarah Palin can speak spontaneously in complete and American country. The NYT says the move grows out of events coherent sentences. in Georgia that have "reordered priorities" in Moscow. Let's judge her, then, as we would a presumptively seasoned and The NYT also has a long exegesis of China's milk problems, competent political leader. By that standard, on issues of foreign looking at how ridden with holes the country's dairy regulatory policy, she was outgunned by Sen. Joe Biden at every turn. system really is. The distraction of the Olympics deepened the contamination that has sickened 53,000 children, as did And more than Sen. Barack Obama, who could have answered inspectors who gave milk plants clean bills of health, if they some of Sen. John McCain's charges more forcefully in last were even inspected at all. But, the LAT notes, some have found week's debate, Biden made no effort to muffle his fire. When a way around it: renting cows. Palin called Obama's plan for a phased withdrawal from Iraq "a white flag of surrender," Biden shot back that the plan was identical to the policy of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

When Palin repeated her charge that Obama was "beyond naive" today's pictures in calling for negotiating with adversaries "without Today's Pictures preconditions," Biden explained what the phrase meant, then Wine and vine. noted that it was supported not just by the five former secretaries Friday, October 3, 2008, at 6:56 AM ET of state who recently co-authored an endorsement of the idea but by our allies, with whom Palin had just said we needed to work together. twitterbox When Palin recited McCain's line about applying the principles Gwen Ifill Lost This Debate of the Iraqi surge to Afghanistan, Biden (correctly) noted that the The latest from Slate's vice-presidential debate Twitter feed. U.S. commanding general in Afghanistan has said the surge Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 10:25 PM ET wouldn't work there. (By the way, it does not bother me at all that Palin referred to Gen. Dave McKiernan as "Gen. McClellan." We all make mistakes like that now and then.) Want instant commentary from Slate writers and editors on the debates? Bookmark this page, and follow along as we Twitter all three McCain-Obama face-offs and next week's vice presidential Finally, when Biden said the Bush administration's foreign showdown. Keep coming back to read our 20 latest tweets, policy has been an "abject failure," and proceeded to list the which will automatically update below. You can also follow us many ways in which that was so, Palin's only reply was to smile at http://twitter.com/Slate, and you can read an explanation of and say, "Enough playing the blame game." If Obama and Biden our Twitter project here. talk so much about change, she added (as if this were really a clever point), why do they spend so much time looking backward? Latest Twitter Updates To which Biden replied, with uncharacteristic pith, "Past is Follow us on Twitter. prologue." And so it is. At another point, he noted, "Facts matter." And so they do. . More to the point, he noted that McCain has never explained . how his policies would differ from Bush's on Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, or Iraq. In other words, even if Palin is right that 2009 is Year Zero, what would she and her No. 1 do differently? She didn't answer the question, any more than McCain ever has, perhaps because there is no answer. war stories She Still Knows Nothing When Biden was asked what line he would draw in deciding Palin proved that she can speak in complete sentences, but not that she whether to intervene in other countries militarily, he cited two understands anything about foreign policy. criteria: whether we had the capacity to make a difference and By Fred Kaplan whether the countries in question were committing genocide or Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 11:45 PM ET

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 101/105 harboring terrorists—in which case, he said, they would have form a unified government. It was in this sense that Obama forfeited the rights of sovereignty. meant that the surge was tactics while the political goal was strategy. McCain overshot when he kept saying that the surge Palin replied merely by hailing John McCain as a man "who "has succeeded," that the troops will come home with knows how to win a war, who's been there." (McCain has said "victory"—a word that McCain's demigod, Gen. David Petraeus, this about himself as well several times, though, with all due has many times explicitly declined to invoke, for good reason. respect for his military record, where's the proof of this claim? What wars has he won, and what did he do there?) Obama also did well in countering McCain's proposal for a League of Democracy—a group of democratic nations that One might disagree with Biden's criteria of intervention as would confront Iran when the U.N. Security Council can't excessively expansive, but at least it's an arguable position. because of Russia's and China's veto power. The problem with Palin's reply was a cliché. That sums up her performance as a this idea, as Obama noted, is that sanctions wouldn't be very whole. effective without the cooperation of Russia or China. The issue at stake—keeping Iran from building a nuclear bomb—has nothing to do with democracy and everything to do with common security interests. Russia can't be coddled on the matter, but cutting them off through a new Cold War is a counterproductive idea. Besides, the other democracies—mainly war stories Germany, France, and England—don't like the idea, so it's a Obama Wins on Foreign Policy nonstarter. It's a fantasy on every level. He stood up to McCain, and he had a more realistic vision of the world. By Fred Kaplan The two candidates weren't far apart on the question of letting Saturday, September 27, 2008, at 12:31 AM ET Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, but their differences, while subtle, were telling. McCain wants to let both countries into NATO right away (which would mean war with Russia, if the Sen. John McCain basically made four points in the foreign- treaty were taken seriously). Obama says they should be allowed policy sections of the first presidential debate: 1) He was for the to start the application process and should be admitted "if they surge (which "has succeeded") while Sen. Barack Obama meet requirements." The catch is that Georgia can't meet the opposed it; 2) he has experience, while Obama does not; 3) he requirements, one of which is that a member must have borders wants to form a League of Democracy to impose sanctions on that are agreed upon. Georgia's borders have long been in Iran; 4) Georgia and Ukraine should be admitted to NATO. dispute. This isn't just a loophole; an alliance can't agree to defend a member's borders if the borders are in contention from Obama dealt with those points—in some cases not as strongly as the outset. Again, it's a nonissue: Georgia is not going to be let he might have, but probably well enough—and made several of into NATO under the current circumstances, no matter what his own: the need to improve our standing in the world, to wipe McCain says. out al-Qaida in Afghanistan, to focus on creative diplomacy and not just bluster to solve problems, and to devise a sound energy McCain's fiercest rhetorical points were the ones that I thought policy in order, not least, to blunt Russia's resurgence. Obama didn't answer firmly enough. The first was that if we were to impose a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, as McCain did little to rebut those propositions except to say that Sen. Obama has proposed, the war would be lost. Obama could he knows how to do these things and that Obama's thinking is have noted two things. First, he is not talking about a total naive and dangerous. withdrawal. Second, and more to the point, the person who is insisting on a withdrawal timetable as a condition of any U.S. Scored on debaters' points, the match was close. Judged on the troop presence beyond the end of this year isn't Obama—it's substantive issues, especially on which candidate has the more Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq. Even the Bush realistic view of the world, Obama won hands down. administration has conceded this point. Does McCain want to keep troops in Iraq over the objection of the Iraqi government? It was odd that McCain put so much emphasis on Iraq. Yes, he supported the surge, which has played a major—but far from the McCain's second point was that he has experience. Several times only—role in reducing the violence in Iraq. But Obama could (at least four), he noted that he has been "involved" in every boast that he was against going into Iraq in the first place— national-security decision of the past twentysome years. He also which speaks more to the next president's judgment about took every opportunity to say, "I've been to Afghanistan, I know getting lassoed into future conflicts. And Obama was correct that the security needs. … I know how to heal the wounds of war," the surge was always, even on its own terms, a means to an etc., etc. At one point, he said, "There are some advantages in end—a way to reduce the violence so that the Iraqi leaders could

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 102/105 experience and judgment," then added, "I don't believe Senator do get better: Checking in a year later, the researchers found that Obama has that knowledge and experience." about one-quarter of the students who experienced earlier burnout had recovered and showed a decrease in suicidal Obama didn't answer these charges directly—but maybe he thoughts. didn't have to. I have never been any good at gauging how "the American people" view these sorts of things, but was McCain Explanation: Why should medical students be so stressed that protesting too much? My guess (and it's just a guess) is that by fully half feel burned out and so many have contemplated talking sensibly and coherently about issues of war and peace, suicide? Sometimes it is the result of the process of medical arguing with McCain at his own level or higher—simply by education itself. Medical students are expected to master an holding his own—Obama may have effectively rebutted the enormous volume of knowledge—more than can possibly be charge and made McCain's condescension seem prickly. One achieved. Students experience great anxiety in anticipating the could ask: If McCain has had all this experience, how did he get moment when they just can't recall something of enormous snookered on invading Iraq in the first place? If Obama's so importance and, as a result, commit some awful error, naive (the tag that McCain threw at him several times), how did potentially harming a patient. Faculty and the residents who do a he see through it? substantial amount of clinical teaching press students hard, leaving them with feelings of incompetence and uselessness. And does McCain really want to put such a high premium on the When students move from the classroom to clinical rotations, experience card right now? Next week, after all, Sarah Palin they shift through different medical specialties. Just when they debates Joe Biden. have a sense of having acquired a basic knowledge base of pediatrics or psychiatry or orthopedics, they're transferred to a new rotation, again starting at ground zero. As this is happening, opportunities for recreational breaks are limited while long hours can lead to a crushing fatigue. what's up, doc? There are other problems, too. Medical students are frequently Burnout U exposed to human suffering and death—experiences most have Depression and suicidal thoughts in medical students. never encountered before. They can feel abused, taken advantage By Sydney Spiesel of by institutions or superiors by overwork or inappropriate Thursday, October 2, 2008, at 6:57 AM ET assignments ("run down to the cafeteria and pick up our lunch"). Most are experiencing the stresses of dating (and, sadly, no— Problem: Over the years, many medical students have talked to real life isn't like the medical TV shows), and many are me about their stress. But so have undergraduate students, wondering if medicine was the right choice after all. There's one interns, residents, fellows, and practicing physicians—leading more source of anxiety and depression: Almost no one leaves me to wonder if medical students' stress was actually medical school without accumulating a huge debt—now extraordinary. I remember my medical school days as $140,000 on average—which has to be repaid somehow. moderately stressful, but, as my wife points out, I was somewhat insulated during medical school because I already had a family, Possible solutions: As is usually the case, it is easier to identify had left behind another career, and was older. Her perspective is and define a problem than to come up with a fix. We need to be wise, as I have learned from a recent paper in the Annals of alert to the signs of burnout, depression, and suicidal thinking in Internal Medicine that looked at stress and its consequences in medical students and to make available the mental-health U.S. medical students. services needed to help with these problems. Unfortunately, medical students with clinical depression are no better (indeed, Findings: The main findings are worrisome, indeed. The study perhaps worse) than the general population in seeking mental- included more than 2,000 students at seven medical schools and health services. Medical schools need to create an atmosphere in looked for evidence of burnout and suicidal thinking. About half which it is understood that there is no shame in seeking help. We the medical students reported the feelings that define burnout need to change faculty teaching styles toward the positive and (emotional exhaustion, a feeling of a loss of personal identity, a supportive. And senior physicians need to teach by example how sense of poor personal accomplishment). Many showed signs of to confront issues of life and death—and what to do and say depression and a decreased mental quality of life compared with when, really, there is nothing to do and say. peers not in medical school. The most disturbing finding was that each year about 10 percent of the observed students had active suicidal thoughts—a symptom we know carries a substantial risk for a future suicide attempt. Even more—about one student out of four—had thoughts about suicide sometime during medical school. The good news is that sometimes things

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 103/105 xx factor xxtra assumption that women can't hack it at these heights. We know The Un-Hillary that's not true—we've just watched Hillary Clinton power through a campaign with a masterful grasp of policy and detail. Why watching Sarah Palin is agony for women. By Emily Bazelon Clinton lost in part because she was the girl grind. Complex Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 6:23 PM ET sentences, the names of Supreme Court cases, and bizarre warnings about foreign heads of state invading our airspace weren't her problem. The fear now is that Palin is the anti- Hillary and that her lack of competence threatens to undo what When Harriet Miers blew her murder boards—days spent the Democratic primary did for women. Palin won't bust through grilling in preparation for her Senate confirmation hearings—she the ceiling that has Hillary's 18 million cracks in it. She'll give yanked her own nomination to the Supreme Court. Her men an excuse to replace it with a new one. "uncertain, underwhelming responses" made her handlers panic, and so Miers and the Bush administration called off the show. Worrying about this can lead you to an odd, even self- contradictory amalgam of anger and pity. Judith Warner Sarah Palin's murder boards have taken place in public. We've embodied this in the New York Times when she described all watched her stumped and stumbling in her interviews with watching Palin smile while sitting down with Henry Kissinger Katie Couric. Tuesday's tidbit, not yet on the air but courtesy of and feeling a "wave of self-recognition and sympathy" and an Howie Kurtz, is that when asked about the Supreme Court, Palin "upsurge of concern and kinship." In the next breath, in proper mentioned Roe v. Wade and then couldn't name another case. feminist fashion she points out that glamorizing incompetence This time, she didn't repeat stock phrases. She just went silent. "means that any woman who exudes competence will Kathleen Parker at the National Review Online and Fareed necessarily be excluded from the circle of sisterhood." But then Zakaria in Newsweek have called for her to follow Miers and Warner loops back to her opening sympathy and ends by casting pull out. But Palin isn't expendable—the Republican base that Palin's nomination as not only "an insult to the women (and mistrusted Miers loves her. So instead of bowing out, she heads men) of America" but "an act of cruelty toward her as well." The into her debate with Joe Biden with expectations so low either suggestion is that John McCain inflicted the cruelty when he she or her opponent seems bound to trip over them. picked her.

For women who are watching this all unfold, this means a lot of As Rebecca Traister points out in Salon, there's an obvious analysis, much of it angst-ridden. Conservatives express feminist comeback here. Shut down the "Palin pity party," straightforward disappointment. "I watch her interviews with the Traister urges. "Shaking our heads and wringing our hands in held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute sympathy with Sarah Palin is a disservice to every woman who button in case it gets too painful," Parker writes glumly. has ever been unfairly dismissed based on her gender, because "Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted." this is an utterly fair dismissal, based on an utter lack of ability and readiness." Good point. And an especially pertinent one on Many more-liberal women, meanwhile, make the point that the eve of the vice-presidential debate. Traister's argument Palin's poverty of knowledge is a big reason to doubt John refutes the McCain campaign's effort to spin the justified attacks McCain's judgment, as Ruth Marcus drives home in her column on Palin as sexism. The campaign can't dismiss Palin's critics as in the Washington Post this week. The problem is that Palin is a sexist for jumping on her thin, stock-phrase-laden answers to vice-presidential candidate who is not ready to be president, not reasonable questions. It would be sexist—and destructive for the that she's a woman who isn't ready. Given that, let her fail now, country—to demand less. But the answer isn't necessarily to before she does real damage in office. throw the sexism line back in the campaign's face, as Campbell Brown did on CNN last week. Brown scolded the campaign for But Palin's gender is at the center of another set of reactions I've treating Palin as if she's too delicate to handle the press. But been hearing and reading among women who don't support her where is Palin in this equation? Doesn't she have to account for ticket, filled with ambivalence over how bad she is. Laugh at the the way she's been shielded from questions that shouldn't be hard Tina Fey parodies that make Palin ridiculous just by quoting her for her to answer? verbatim. And then cry. When Palin tanks, it's good for the country if you want Obama and Biden to win, but it's bad for the Traister is right that this is on Palin at least as much as it's on future of women in national politics. I'm in this boat, too. Should John McCain. Palin put herself in line for the presidency; she we feel sorry for Sarah Palin? No. But if she fails miserably, we could have turned down the invitation to join the ticket. She might be excused for feeling a bit sorry for ourselves. gains from this campaign no matter what—before it, she had no national profile, now she has an outsized one, and all the Palin is the most prominent woman on the political stage at the criticism will just make her true fans love her more. (They're moment. By taking unprepared hesitancy and lack of preparation ready to eat Kathleen Parker alive.) She has cannily based her to a sentence-stopping level, she's yanking us back to the old appeal on scorning the media, so it hardly makes sense to feel

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 104/105 pity for her because the media are actually scornful, given all the fodder she's provided.

For all of these reasons, I should take Traister's advice and stop agonizing. I'm not ambivalent about Palin's positions on taxes, stem-cell research, or offshore drilling. Why should I be ambivalent about how she performs in the debate? What if Palin does unexpectedly well and gives McCain another boost in the polls? Better she should go down hard for knowing nothing about the Supreme Court than that the court should move ever rightward because the Republicans get to pick the next justices.

And yet. When I watch Palin, I can't help but cringe along with Parker. Call it women's solidarity, however misplaced. I keep coming back to this prim phrase: Please, don't make a spectacle of yourself. String some coherent sentences together. Your efforts to wrap yourself in Hillary's mantle make no sense in terms of what you'd actually do in office. But if you could pull off just a bit of her debating prowess—just a bit—I'll step a little lighter when I wake up Friday morning.

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 105/105

Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 105/105