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New York prepares for the GOP Convention.

New York, Sept. 6
For the runup to next week’s convention, the magazine covers all things Republican. From a gossipy look at the Bush twins’ history of partying in the city to a confessional piece by Adam Bellow about becoming an Upper West Side conservative, the special issue succeeds in presenting the GOP as New Yorkers see it. The magazine also examines the cultural gaps between Republican delegates and the city’s natives with a bit of reporting from such distinctly un-New York places as Florida and Nevada. Another article profiles conservative agent provocateur James Taranto, author of the Wall Street Journal’s Best of the Web. A “geek” stuck between the proper world of the WSJ and the coarse world of blogs, Taranto has nonetheless turned his site into one of the most influential on the Web. Also worth reading: the magazine’s attempt to prank celebs into thinking the GOP wanted them for the convention.

Economist, Aug. 28 The cover story on George Bush’s presidency assesses what the magazine considers his most historically significant achievements: the transformation of foreign policy, the development of “big-government conservatism,” and the expansion of executive power. The magazine argues that the significance of Bush’s agenda has yet to be understood by his critics or his supporters. The article is best read alongside David Brooks’ piece in the New York Times Magazine, which takes Bush’s presidency as a starting point and asks how Republicans should continue. Al Jazeera, the Qatari satellite news network, soon will launch an English channel to accompany its main Arabic one, the magazine reports. Another article considers the mixed messages sent by Shaukat Aziz’s appointment as Pakistan’s new prime minister. Aziz is a businessman who will likely seek closer ties with India, but he is also a technocrat without a constituency, which undermines the country’s steps toward democracy.

New York Times Magazine, Aug. 29, 2004 In the cover story, David Brooks returns to the topic to which he devoted his best Weekly Standard pieces in the 1990s: charting a new course for the Republican Party. Brooks outlines his vision of a new “progressive conservatism,” touching on everything from energy policy to social mobility. The idea is a refinement of the “national greatness conservatism” he espoused at the Standard; three years of a war on terror (which he argues is actually “a war on Islamic extremism”) obviously have influenced his thinking. Another article examines the bizarre case of Susan Lindauer, a former Capitol Hill staffer who allegedly tried to work as a back channel between Iraq and the United States. In March, Lindauer was arrested by the FBI and charged with serving as “an unregistered agent of a foreign government.” The magazine presents her as an accomplished, capable woman who is nonetheless caught up in a confusing “paranoid landscape” of her own creation.

Los Angeles, September 2004 The “exclusive”cover story rambles on for nearly 8,000 words before delivering the goods: The tabloids owned by American Media Inc. (the National Enquirer, the Star, the Globe) stopped reporting on Arnold Schwarzenegger scandals after AMI acquired several body-building magazines associated with Schwarzenegger. * The article concludes that the tabs’ reluctance to go after the actor (previously one of their favorite targets) helped him win the race to replace California Gov. Gray Davis. It also implies that the money Schwarzenegger receives through his partnership with AMI compromises him as governor. Neither of these conclusions stands up to much scrutiny. The mainstream media were all over Schwarzenegger’s sex scandals, and it was widely reported that AMI was paying the governor a $250,000 annual salary that was in turn being donated to charity. What is new in this report is the blind-sourced allegation that Schwarzenegger receives an additional $250,000 a year from AMI. * The deal between Schwarzenegger and AMI is interesting, but it’s hardly damning—and it’s not worth the pages of windup that chronicle the entire history of the tabloid industry.

The New Yorker, Aug. 30 In her book A Problem From Hell, Samantha Power argued that the American political system does not encourage U.S. leaders to prevent genocide. That earlier perspective is what makes her examination of the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region particularly compelling. A congressional resolution has described the situation in Darfur as genocide, and a domestic coalition of African-Americans and evangelical Christians is urging the government to intervene. Yet just as the political incentives for intervention materialized, other factors emerged to discourage action. From the nation’s lack of post-Iraq moral authority to a public relations campaign by the Sudanese government, America again has found a reason not to act. The piece is one of the best analyses of the Darfur crisis. The magazine injects a little social science into the media’s mindless chatter about swing voters with an excellent review of the different theories of voters’ behavior.

Weekly Standard, Aug. 30
The magazine seizes on the Olympics as an opportunity to reconsider Title IX, America’s gender equality requirement for collegiate athletics. While the law’s goal is laudable, the magazine writes, it has decimated successful men’s sports programs (such as swimming, track, and wrestling) at colleges around the country. The points about quotas and equality of opportunity versus equality of outcome will be familiar to veterans of the affirmative-action debate. Another article reports on the increasing number of peasants protesting the Chinese government. An estimated 40 million peasants have lost their land to industrial development, and those who remain are frustrated by the corruption of local officials. The magazine argues that these peasants present a growing challenge to the authorities, who have yet to develop a response. The piece is interesting in light of a New Republic article about another protest movement forming in response to the country’s environmental policies; officials seem similarly confounded by that group.

Time, Newsweek,and U.S. News & World Report, Aug. 30
No peace in Najaf: As the standoff between Muqtada Sadr and the interim Iraqi government continues in Najaf, Newsweek had one of the few journalists, a photographer, exploring the town behind the Coalition security perimeter. He meets enthusiastic insurgents who treat the siege as a celebration. … U.S. News quotes a senior Bush administration official as saying that Sadr has rigged Najaf’s holiest site, the Imam Ali shrine, with explosives that he intends to detonate if American forces get too close. Any damage to the shrine would be devastating to America’s image in the Muslim world, but the magazine notes that it cannot confirm the official’s account. … Time argues that resolving the showdown in Najaf will boost the interim government’s standing among most Iraqis, but adds that if Sadr and his Mahdi Army escape to fight again the insurgency will spread.

College rankings and campus conservatives: U.S. News publishes its annual ranking of the nation’s colleges. This issue, eagerly awaited by hypercompetitive high school seniors and college admissions officers alike, seems to have become the magazine’s raison d’être. This year Harvard and Princeton tie for No. 1, Yale takes third, UPenn fourth, and Duke, MIT, and Stanford tie for fifth. * For a thorough critique of the rankings (and, of course, an alternative list) check out the November 2003 Atlantic MonthlyTime examines the conservative movement’s growth on college campuses. The magazine notes that reporters tend to rediscover the “new” phenomenon of college conservatives every few years, yet incorrectly concludes that it has something new to offer. In fact, the story reaches essentially the same conclusion the New York Times Magazine did in last year’s cover story “The Young Hipublicans.” Both articles argue that the college conservative movement has succeeded because campuses are dominated by liberals and conservatism amounts to a new counterculture. However, Time stuffs its piece with statistics, perhaps to prove it’s not presenting a bogus trend piece.

The campaign continues: For those confused by the back-and-forth over John Kerry’s Vietnam service, Time offers a concise roundup of the charges against Kerry and the actual evidence in each case. U.S. News interviews Laura Bush and Teresa Heinz Kerry, but a better portrait of their husbands emerges from its assessment of how both men respond to adversity. Newsweek looks ahead to next week’s Republican Convention. While most protestors will meet in New York City, a group of “hacktivists” will gather online to disrupt the GOP’s Internet presence. The hackers hope to bring down Republican e-mail systems and Web servers. The magazine admits, however, that distinguishing between these digital activists’ boasts and their actual plans is difficult. Another Newsweek article reports that New York Gov. George Pataki, who’s introducing Bush at the convention, may be considering a presidential run of his own in 2008. Last month, New York ran a thorough examination of the possibility.

Correction, Aug. 25: This article originally stated that Duke “rounded out the top five” of the U.S. News college rankings. Duke actually tied for fifth with MIT and Stanford. (Return to the corrected sentence.)

Correction, Aug. 25: This article originally stated that a Los Angeles magazine piece on Arnold Schwarzenegger said that tabloid company AMI didn’t report on Schwarzenegger after it brought him on as a business partner. Actually, the piece says the tabloids stopped writing about Schwarzenegger before he became a partner with AMI. Also, this article originally claimed that Schwarzenegger’s annual salary from AMI was donated to charity. While the Los Angeles magazine story says a portion of Schwarzenegger’s salary went to charity, it also claims the governor was given additional money that he kept. (Return to the corrected sentence.)