Newsweek, Nov. 24 Karl Rove offers a 10-point plan for the Republican Party, stressing the importance of adapting the GOP’s core values for the new era. “The party should embrace both tradition and reform; grass-roots Republicans want to apply timeless conservative principles to the new circumstances facing America.” The party must make inroads among young people by promoting a “green” agenda and should focus on retaking Congress in 2010. … The cover story likens Barack Obama to Abraham Lincoln, which the 44th president himself did in the pages of Time in 2005. Both men are known for their humility, strong rhetoric, and taking the helm during a pivotal historical moment. … The lame-duck Bush administration is being flooded with pardon requests, but those hoping for one are likely to be disappointed as Bush has granted fewer pardons than any modern president.
Weekly Standard, Nov. 24 The cover story examines the Chinese government’s alleged practice of harvesting the organs of imprisoned dissidents to sell on the black market. Because the initial claims were made by members of the Falun Gong, they have gone unheard for years. “For various reasons, some valid, some shameful, the credibility of persecuted refugees has often been doubted in the West.”… Fred Barnes thinks President Obama will breathe new life into the GOP simply by enacting his liberal policy agenda. “Starting now, the person with the biggest role in shaping what Republicans and conservatives say and do is President Barack Obama.”… An article drops in on the Republican Governor’s Association convention in Miami, picking the brains of the party’s rising stars about Bush’s legacy. Only Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah confronts Bush’s job performance, saying he was not a fan.
New Republic, Dec. 3 With the selection of Rahm Emanuel as Obama’s chief of staff, Noam Scheiber wonders whether Obama is truly committed to his mantra of “No drama.” Scheiber also ponders what Washington, where “rumor-mongering and backbiting are semi-official sports,” will do to the morale of Obama’s faithful campaign workers, when forced to mix with “every ambitious law-school grad along the Amtrak corridor.”… An article on Detroit’s ailing auto industry imagines what would happen if the big three—GM, Ford, and Chrysler—were allowed to fail. At least 3 million people would immediately lose their jobs, but from there the crisis would “reach into every community with a parts supplier or factory—and, to a lesser extent, into every town and city with a dealership. In short, virtually every community in the country would be touched.”
New York, Nov. 24
As the infamous Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital—“the nuthouse, the punch line, the must-avoid vacation spot”—enters redevelopment as a hotel and conference center, a story reminisces about the prominent place the “Chelsea Hotel of the mad” has enjoyed in popular culture over the last 78 years. Norman Mailer was sent there in 1960 after he stabbed his wife with a penknife. Mark David Chapman, who shot John Lennon, paid a visit in 1980. … The gulf emirate of Dubai has emerged as a sandy safe haven for those fleeing the financial meltdown in the United States. The expatriate community seems to consist largely of blond Texans like 24-year-old Brooke Butler, who found a sales job there a month after starting her search. However, Butler and her peers do not seem to be digging in for the long term. “People don’t stay in Dubai for long. Everyone is passing through. But for now they are here, waiting out the storm.”
The New Yorker, Nov. 24 The magazine’s food issue features Calvin Trillin’s piece on the meat-seeking quest he took to Snow’s Barbeque, which Texas Monthly just dubbed the best barbecue in the Lone Star state. The restaurant’s hours—it’s only open on Saturdays starting at 8 a.m.—required the author to make the early-morning trek to partake in pounds of smoked brisket, sausage, and pork. … To prepare Malia and Sasha for life in the White House, an article offers anecdotes from former first kids on domestic life at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “The generations of girls who have inhabited the White House compose a sort of underground society, initiating one another into the place’s charms—‘Have a helluva good time,’ Alice Roosevelt Longworth wrote to Susan Ford.” One is left to wonder what sort of advice the Bush twins will give the Obama sisters.
