http://www.slate.com Slate--the Internet's informed look at news, politics, and culture. Slate separates the facts from the spin with thought-provoking stories, irreverent humor, and delicious reads. ©2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC en-us Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:01 PST Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:01 PST 120 No A summary of what's in the major U.S. newspapers. A summary of what's in the major U.S. newspapers. Slate Magazine Slate Podmaster podmaster@slate.com http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/2121330/2127745/2142930/textcasts.png http://www.slate.com slate news politics arts culture science 15:00 http://www.slate.com/id/2199023/ http://www.slate.com/id/2199023/ today's papers Palin Comparison By Barron YoungSmith Posted Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008, at 6:25 AM ET All the papers lead with John McCain's surprise selection of Alaska governor Sarah Palin for his running mate. He shocked election-watchers and scrambled the presidential race with a "Hail Mary pass"--eschewing more conventional choices for the inexperienced, socially conservative, corruption-fighting "hockey mom." Appearing together in Ohio, McCain lauded her reform credentials, while Palin framed her candidacy as an extension of Hillary Clinton's quest to "shatter [the] glass ceiling." The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal call it a risky play to revitalize John McCain's "maverick" image. Choosing Palin undercuts the argument that Barack Obama is too inexperienced, raising questions about John McCain's age and judgment. But it could pay off: Palin--an NRA member and staunch pro-lifer--is energizing evangelicals and tempting Hillary Clinton voters to defect. An LAT analysis piece worries it's a sign that McCain relies on short-sighted "gut-checks," while an early version of the WSJ lead called it a "calculated bet." It's likely a bit of both--McCain's a high-stakes gambler who knows the odds. The papers all have the same details about McCain's selection process: He spoke to Palin three times--once at the National Governors Association meeting in February, once on the phone last Sunday, and Thursday morning, when he offered her the job. (On Wednesday, she met with McCain's advisors at the home of the Hensley family's foot-soldier, Bob "Call Delgado" Delgado.) The LAT and WSJ raise questions about whether Palin was properly vetted. The WP, LAT, and NYT also front biographies of Palin. The WP and LAT play up her compelling life story and her reputation for reform--formerly mayor of Wasilla, population 7,000, she made her name by initiating an ethics investigation of Republican king-maker Randy Ruedrich--but the NYT is far more critical of her record. A separate NYT piece looks at an ongoing ethics investigation of Palin, involving pressure to fire her brother-in-law, a state trooper. The WP off-leads, and the NYT stuffs, New Orleans's preparations for Hurricane Gustav, which will touch down on Tuesday morning. Massive new floodgates should protect much of the city, but improvements haven't been made in vulnerable areas like the Ninth Ward. A mandatory evacuation order may come on Sunday. The NYT off-leads with a natural gas-powered vehicle boom in Utah. A combination of price controls and infrastructure improvements have set off a frenzy to buy specialized Hondas and illegally modify cars, as Utahans take advantage of fuel that costs the equivalent of 87 cents a gallon. The WP fronts a growing battle over Jewishness in Israel. Zionists have been trying to swell Israel's Jewish population by wooing new converts, but the ultra-Orthodox courts are concerned about watering down Judaism. They've been fighting back, imposing increasingly strict criteria that have invalidated conversions and marriages. A WP front profiles the first-ever American confab of the Slow Food Movement--which combines concern over food production processes with gourmet tastes. The San Francisco convention comes just as many of the movement's ideas are becoming mainstream. The NYT fronts a look at India's newest ex-Maoist public intellectual: Chadra Bhan Prasad has made a name for himself by arguing that capitalism is the antidote to caste discrimination. The LAT fronts the discovery of 12 beheaded bodies in Mexico, a result of the escalating war for control of the country's new drug routes. And the NYT reefers a new Bush administration attempt to reaffirm that we are legally "at war" against al Qaeda. The language, included in a proposal to hear legal appeals for Gitmo detainees, is an attempt to institutionalize tools President Bush has used in the "long war"--including interrogation, surveillance, and detention of suspected terrorists as "enemy combatants." Barron YoungSmith is a reporter-researcher at The New Republic. Copyright 2007 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC today's papers Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:01 PST slate news politics arts culture science 15:00 http://www.slate.com/id/2198917/ http://www.slate.com/id/2198917/ today's papers Fight Night By Daniel Politi Posted Friday, Aug. 29, 2008, at 6:00 AM ET The papers lead with Barack Obama accepting the Democratic nomination for president last night in front of more than 84,000 people at a packed outdoor football stadium. When Obama walked onstage, the "cheering went on for several minutes; the stadium erupted with hundreds of camera flashes and shuddered from the concussion of thousands of stamping feet," notes the Wall Street Journal. USA Today says the Democratic Convention ended "with a display of fireworks and pageantry worthy of an Olympic opening."  Everyone makes a point of emphasizing that Obama's address was much more critical of John McCain than his usual speeches. It "was less lofty than his earlier rhetorical forays, more specific on the policies he would pursue as president and more scathing toward McCain," the Washington Post summarizes. The Los Angeles Times agrees and says it "was more sharply worded than his usual lyrical prose." The New York Times notes that Obama "went so far as to attack the presumed strength of Mr. McCain's campaign, national security." As expected, Obama focused much of his speech on the economy as he tied the problems currently faced by the country's middle class to the "failed presidency of George W. Bush." The Iraq war was once a centerpiece of Obama's campaign strategy, but an analysis by the LAT reveals he spent only four minutes of his 44-minute speech on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan while he devoted 16 minutes to economic issues. As for substance, the WSJ says that the Democratic nominee "presented some long-standing and fairly conventional Democratic economic proposals." He called for a middle-class tax cut, urged the elimination of capital gains taxes for small businesses, and pledged he would "finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East" within 10 years. USAT points out that at times "the speech seemed like a State of the Union, detailing proposals to recruit teachers, lower health care premiums and revise bankruptcy laws." One theme that Obama came back to repeatedly was to tie McCain to Bush while he characterized his opponent as the personification of "the broken politics in Washington," which has been a theme throughout his campaign. He also said that McCain simply doesn't understand the everyday problems that plague average Americans. "It's not because John McCain doesn't care," he said. "It's because John McCain doesn't get it." Obama lashed out at McCain's attempts to portray him as a celebrity who is obsessed with the sound of his own voice and unable to lead. The Democratic nominee spoke of his mother's experience using food stamps, his grandmother's difficult rise in the workplace, and his own work organizing unemployed steelworkers. "I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine," Obama said. He also described these kinds of attacks as the same old Washington politics. "If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from," he said. After more than a month of tepid responses to McCain's attacks, Obama fought back and unveiled a "more combative" candidate, notes the LAT. The LAT summarizes the new Obama's message: "Ordinary people are hurting economically, the Bush administration has failed to respond, and a McCain presidency would represent nothing but 'more of the same.' " Ultimately, "the centerpiece of his acceptance speech was a sharp-edged, almost populist, economic message." The WP's Dan Balz says Obama's criticism toward McCain and Bush, combined with his message of change was exactly what "many nervous Democrats were hoping for." But despite all the policy prescriptions to cure the nation's ills, Obama didn't "set the clear priorities that some of his critics say his governing agenda has lacked," writes Balz. As has been the case throughout most of the convention, Obama never directly talked about the historic aspect of his nomination, even when he noted that he was delivering his address on the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. The NYT notes that yesterday Obama became only the third nominee of a major party to leave the site of the convention and deliver his acceptance speech at a stadium. When John F. Kennedy did it in 1960, there were plenty of empty seats, but yesterday the stadium was packed hours before Obama reached the podium. Both the NYT and WP front stories describing the scene at the stadium yesterday and note that many waited for hours to get inside. "The scene was one of the most unusual sights in the annals of American political conventions," notes the NYT. The closing day of a convention suddenly looked more like an open-air concert rather than a place for party insiders and donors to mingle. It was Obama's big night, but that doesn't mean John McCain didn't try to sneak into the picture. In an ad released last night on cable and in battleground states, the presumptive Republican nominee congratulated his opponent and hinted at the historic significance of his candidacy. "How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day," McCain said in the ad. "Tomorrow, we'll be back at it. But tonight, senator, job well done." The WSJ notes this was simply part of McCain's effort to "seize the momentum" and turn the media's attention away from the Democrats. The most significant part of the effort will be McCain's announcement of a running mate this morning. As a side benefit, the timing of the announcement is also likely to take attention away from the fact that McCain turns 72 today. Regardless of what the Republican nominee does though, the truth is that the media's attention is likely to turn away from the Democrats, but it won't be to McCain's advantage. USAT fronts, and everyone covers, a look at how communities along the Gulf Coast were busy preparing for the possible arrival of Tropical Storm Gustav, which gained strength yesterday after killing more than 50 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republican. Forecasters say Gustav could strengthen to a Category 3 hurricane and is projected to hit somewhere between Texas and Florida early next week. Louisiana's governor said there's "a real possibility" the hurricane would hit his state, and, of course, everyone brings up parallels with Hurricane Katrina that devastated the Gulf Coast three years ago today. Government officials are now rushing to put into action emergency plans that were drafted to help avoid a repeat of the disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina. As officials planned for a potential evacuation, and New Orleans residents tried to decide whether to take this potential threat seriously, many worried that a strong storm could expose weaknesses in the flood protection systems built after Katrina. The WSJ points out that although lots of work has been done to protect New Orleans, "for every dollar that has been invested so far, at least three more of the federal dollars approved to shield the city from massive storms remain unspent." All this talk of Hurricane Katrina and the reminders of the slow relief effort is bad news for McCain, who is set to be officially nominated as his party's presidential candidate next week. The papers hear word that Republican officials are considering delaying the start of the convention. "Senior Republicans said images of political celebration in the Twin Cities while thousands of Americans flee a hurricane could be disastrous," reports the Post. Still, it could also be a chance for McCain to distance himself from the president since, as the LAT points out, "There is perhaps no issue over which McCain has been more critical of the Bush administration than its handling of the 2005 storm." The NYT and WSJ front, and everyone mentions, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin saying in an interview that he thinks the Bush administration may have wanted to provoke a crisis in Georgia in order to help a candidate in the U.S. presidential election. Although he wasn't named, few doubt the Russian leader meant McCain. Putin didn't really present any evidence but went on to say he suspects Americans were present during the combat because a U.S. passport was found in the rubble of a building where Georgian forces were based during the recent conflict. The war of words was a clear sign that Moscow isn't in a rush to mend its relationship with Washington. The WSJ also hears that the Bush administration is considering whether to suspend disarmament talks with Russia. Some think there's a chance that all negotiations between Washington and Moscow will cease for the remaining months of the Bush presidency. Maybe it's just as well because no one really seems to be interested in being in Washington these days. "It's apocalyptically empty," notes the WP's Joel Achenbach. "We're in an emptiness trifecta: It's August, Congress is in recess, and there's a convention going on out there, in Denver, reportedly." There were around a dozen reporters at the White House morning briefing yesterday, and one said he finds it amazing there are 15,000 people with media credentials in Denver. "Here they are, covering the process of selecting the president," a CBS News radio reporter said, "and nobody is covering the actual president!" Daniel Politi writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@slate.com. Copyright 2007 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC today's papers Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:01 PST slate news politics arts culture science 15:00 http://www.slate.com/id/2198833/ http://www.slate.com/id/2198833/ today's papers Making It Official By Daniel Politi Posted Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008, at 6:17 AM ET The papers all lead with Barack Obama officially becoming the first African-American presidential nominee of a major party. USA Today makes the point directly in its banner headline: "A Night for History," which is a theme that is echoed in all the papers. In a carefully choreographed event that was the result of weeks of negotiations, Sen. Hillary Clinton stepped up to the microphone as her home state of New York was called upon to cast its votes. Clinton then moved to suspend the roll call and nominate Obama by acclamation "in the spirit of unity." The Washington Post points out that Clinton's "gesture of conciliation brought to a conclusion the closest and hardest-fought nomination battle Democrats have waged in the modern era of presidential politics." And the crowd went wild. "With the tension released, the scene inside the Pepsi Center was like an end-of-semester party," notes the Los Angeles Times. "Delegates whooped, embraced and danced in the aisles." Despite all the careful planning, the New York Times points out that Democrats weren't eager to draw "attention to the lingering resentments between Clinton and Obama delegates," and it was the "first time in at least 50 years that Democrats have not scheduled their roll call on prime-time television." In the end, there wasn't much reason to worry. As the Wall Street Journal highlights, "most, but not all, of Sen. Clinton's loyal supporters already were following her example" and casting their votes for Obama before the former first lady ended the roll call. Even former President Bill Clinton's home state of Arkansas cast most of its votes for Obama. Later in the evening, Bill Clinton strode onto the stage and after a roaring welcome offered an "enthusiastic and unstinting" (NYT) endorsement of Obama "in a series of simple, declarative statements that left no room for doubt" (LAT) about his support for the nominee. Although the former president recognized that "in the end, my candidate didn't win," Clinton repeatedly stated that Obama is ready to be president and emphasized that the country can't afford to have another Republican in the White House. ("The only way he could have endorsed Obama more enthusiastically is if he'd kissed him," writes Slate's John Dickerson.) "Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she is going to do everything she can to elect Barack Obama," he said. "That makes two of us." The NYT says the former president "arguably did a better job than Mrs. Clinton the night before in making the case" for Obama. In a Page One analysis, the WP's David Maraniss notes that after the kerfuffle over whether Obama was trying to put limits on what Bill Clinton could say in his speech, it was a "good call" to let the former president say whatever he wanted. "Perhaps not even Obama himself could have conjured up an oration so powerful on his behalf," Maraniss writes. Clinton even drew parallels between his run for the White House and Obama's campaign as if "he were finally, after months of reserve and hotheadedness, giving the new kid his blessing." Sen. Joseph Biden finished off the scheduled programming of the convention as he accepted the nomination to be vice president and painted himself as a defender of the working class, a key group that Obama is struggling to win over. Besides the autobiographical parts of his address, Biden also made it clear that, as USAT points out, he's "likely to spend this campaign as the most traditional of vice presidential nominees: leading the attack against the opposition." After calling McCain "my friend," Biden quickly proceeded to feverishly link McCain to President Bush. "The choice in this election is clear," he said. "These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader." The night ended with a so-called surprise visit from Obama, who hugged Biden and heaped praise on the Clintons. Interestingly enough, the NYT chooses to refer to Obama by his full name, "Barack Hussein Obama," not only in its lead story but also in a profile of the nominee that runs on the front page. None of the other papers does this, and as far as TP can tell, it's the first time in the past year that the NYT has written Obama's middle name in a straight news story outside of a quote. Thursday is Obama's big day, and on the convention stage he explained why he would be moving the convention over to Mile High Stadium tomorrow. "We want to open up this convention to make sure that everybody that wants to come can join in the party and join in the effort to take America back," he said. But the NYT notes on Page One that some Obama aides are worried the setting will give more fuel to Republican efforts to cast Obama as a celebrity politician without substance to back up his lofty rhetoric. Yesterday, workers were trying to figure out how to make the setting "feel more intimate," but he will still be delivering his speech in front of columns, which the McCain campaign has already labeled "Temple of Obama." Although Obama intends to devote much of his speech to economic issues, some worry the message will be lost in such a huge setting. On the other side of the aisle, the NYT fronts, and the WP goes inside with, word that John McCain has made his choice for running mate and the two will appear together at a rally in Ohio on Friday. Apparently only a few people know whom McCain has chosen, and the papers say the top three people under consideration continue to be former Gov. Mitt Romney, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. Choosing Lieberman, a supporter of abortion rights, could complicate McCain's efforts to lure conservative Republicans to his side. And while Romney has frequently been cited as a favorite, some think it would be a bad idea to have such a wealthy candidate on the ticket at a time when many are struggling to pay the bills. In other news, the NYT fronts word that the U.S. military has handed over more than 200 militants captured in Afghanistan and Iraq back to the intelligence services in their home countries. Many of these fighters were secretly held without notifying the Red Cross about their presence "sometimes for weeks at a time." But the NYT emphasizes that the Red Cross interviews any prisoner who is going to be sent back home. Military officers say the repatriations are part of an effort to find alternative ways to handle these prisoners now that Guantanamo has fallen out of favor and the secret CIA prisons have come under attack. Officials insist they require countries to promise that they'll treat the prisoners well, but human rights groups say there's no way to follow up on these promises and see how the militants are being treated by their home countries, which include Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The WP and LAT front news that a group of scientists found a way to turn one cell into another inside living mice, creating a fascinating genetic transformation that could theoretically be used to treat a variety of diseases in humans without getting into the controversial issue of embryonic stem-cell research. The scientists managed to convert pancreas cells in diabetic mice into insulin-producing cells. "It's kind of an extreme makeover of a cell," the lead researcher explained. Some who work in the field were amazed at the discovery. "I'm stunned," one stem-cell expert said. "It introduces a whole new paradigm for treating disease." The NYT's Nicholas Kristof apologizes today to Steven Hatfill for his columns about the anthrax attacks that zeroed in on him as the primary suspect. Kristof makes it clear he's not issuing the apology because he has to (Hatfill won a multimillion-dollar payout from the government, but his lawsuit against the NYT was dismissed) but rather because he feels a "moral [obligation] to express regret for any added distress from my columns." Although Kristof says he was right to look into the issue, "the job of the news media is supposed to be to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. Instead, I managed to afflict the afflicted." Daniel Politi writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@slate.com. Copyright 2007 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC today's papers Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:01 PST slate news politics arts culture science 15:00 http://www.slate.com/id/2198730/ http://www.slate.com/id/2198730/ today's papers Stand by the Man By Daniel Politi Posted Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008, at 6:54 AM ET The papers lead with Sen. Hillary Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention yesterday. All the recent talk of how many Clinton supporters don't want to support Barack Obama meant that "the former first lady's address was the most highly anticipated of the convention, short of Obama's acceptance speech," notes the Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal flatly declares that her speech "was arguably as vital to the party's hopes for winning the White House" as Obama's address. And in the speech that USA Today says "could serve as a benediction to her 2008 presidential campaign," Clinton didn't waste any time telling her supporters that they should stand behind Obama. "Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose," she said. "We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines." The Los Angeles Times is quick to deliver a positive assessment and declares that Clinton accepted "defeat with grace and generosity." The New York Times, on the other hand, is just as quick to see a more sinister side to Clinton's actions declaring that she "took steps on Tuesday—deliberate steps, aides said—to keep the door open to a future bid for the presidency." Her aides apparently weren't eager to receive input from Obama's people on the content of the speech and "did not even provide a final draft to the Obama campaign well in advance of delivery, working on it until the last minute." But in her speech the former first lady mostly stuck to her No. 1 task of declaring her support for Obama "and she betrayed none of the anger and disappointment that she still feels." Whatever went on behind the scenes, Clinton adamantly declared that "Barack Obama is my candidate" and urged her supporters to look beyond personal squabbles and think about the big picture. "You haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership," Clinton said and added what will undoubtedly become one of the most memorable lines of the night: "No way. No how. No McCain." In addition to expressing gratitude to her supporters and urging them to back Obama, Clinton also launched a blistering attack on Sen. John McCain and repeatedly tied him to President Bush. "It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities," she said. "Because these days, they're awfully hard to tell apart." Clinton wasn't alone in attacking McCain from Denver yesterday, and the papers note that the message from the convention took a turn yesterday from the biographical, feel-good attitude of the first day to an emphasis on highlighting the differences between Obama and McCain. The Post and LAT point out that the effort was mirrored on the campaign trail as Obama also wasn't shy about forcefully contrasting himself with McCain. The WP notes that Obama even mentioned his opponent's "prisoner-of-war status in Vietnam in a way that suggested he will begin to challenge that as a credential for being president." Yesterday, however, was clearly Clinton's night, and Democrats hope her clear support for Obama will hurt McCain's efforts to woo her disaffected supporters to his camp. But that doesn't mean he'll stop trying. The WSJ details how the McCain campaign is trying to reach out to Clinton delegates at the convention in an effort that also "involves a sophisticated voter identification program" to zero in on supporters of the former first lady who might be willing to vote for McCain. Despite all this talk of unity, the papers also note that Democratic leaders were still debating the rules for today's roll-call vote. Tonight will be former President Bill Clinton's turn. "He, too, has the unification task," says the WSJ, "perhaps even tougher for the man who has been parsimonious in his praise" for Obama. The NYT says that the former president "remains angrier than people realize" about the primaries and how he was portrayed by Obama's supporters. The WP goes inside with a look at the "anything but close" relationship between the former president and Obama and points out that under a different context it's likely the two masterful politicians "could be pals." The Post says that while Clinton will not have any surprises up his sleeve today, he will still deliver the speech "with lingering feelings of estrangement" that have more to do with knowing that Obama doesn't like him than the fact that Obama defeated the former first lady. The LAT fronts, and the NYT goes inside with, a look at how some Democrats are getting worried that all the talk about the divisions among Democrats has hurt the Obama campaign's ability to effectively explain just what he would do about the economy as president, which is clearly the top concern of voters. The big fear is that the convention will end and Democrats will be left with the feeling that the Obama campaign squandered away all this free air time and didn't achieve one of its primary goals. In a Page One piece, USAT notes that Obama plans to delve deeply into this issue in his speech on Thursday. "I'm not aiming for a lot of high rhetoric," he said. "I'm much more concerned with communicating how I intend to help middle-class families." The NYT's Alessandra Stanley points out that while Clinton's achievements were celebrated in a historical context, there was, once again, no public mention of the fact that Obama will soon become the first African-American presidential nominee. The "visual effort to play down the extraordinary is what most distinguishes the two parties in the final phase of the election," writes Stanley. While Democrats want to emphasize how Obama and his family are typically American, Republicans will do their best to highlight the opposite. In other news, almost all the papers front Russia's official recognition of the independence of two separatist regions of Georgia. In a televised address, the Russian president said the country needed to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia in order to make sure their residents aren't attacked by Georgia. "This is not an easy choice, but it is the only way to save the lives of people," President Dmitry Medvedev said. Although, the situation in the separatist regions isn't likely to change much, as the areas were already pretty much autonomous. But, of course, everyone sees it as an effort for Russia to reassert its power in the region, and Western leaders, including President Bush, were swift in their condemnation. Western leaders will now be under increased pressure to do something as Russian officials are overtly stating that the tough words will never turn into action. The LAT notes that while a military response seems out of the question, Russia's presence in international institutions could be targeted, and economic sanctions could be imposed to make lives more difficult for the country's wealthy elite. The WP is alone in fronting the announcement by a United Nations team in Afghanistan that says it has "convincing evidence" that at least 90 civilians, including 60 children, were killed in an airstrike in Western Afghanistan on Friday. If true, it would likely be the highest civilian death toll from a U.S.-led airstrike in Afghanistan since 2001. The Defense Department says it still believes the airstrike was on a legitimate Taliban target but has vowed to investigate. The revelation comes at a time when Afghan officials are getting increasingly angrier over the growing reliance on airstrikes that are costing the lives of civilians. According to investigators, 165 civilians have been killed over the past two months in four airstrikes. The NYT gets word that two soldiers gave sworn statements saying that they, along with another service member, killed four Iraqis who were blindfolded and handcuffed. The three Americans soldiers then removed the handcuffs and blindfolds and proceeded to shove the bodies into a canal. The two soldiers who gave the statements said they each shot an Iraqi on orders from First Sgt. John Hatley, who shot the other two. On the WP's op-ed page, David Ignatius continues on his quest to get Americans interested in the prospect of peace talks between Israel and Syria. Today, Ignatius says that the Syrian president "appears ready for direct peace talks with Israel" but only if the United States agrees to unite with France as "co-sponsor" of the talks. But Syrian officials aren't optimistic that the Bush administration will suddenly be interested in changing its policy of isolating Syria. While Ignatius is guardedly optimistic in Damascus, the NYT's Thomas Friedman is depressed in Beijing. Friedman attended the closing ceremony of the Olympics and is decidedly impressed with how the city was transformed in the last seven years. "China has been preparing for the Olympics; we've been preparing for Al Qaeda," he writes. "The difference is starting to show." While Republicans want to talk about muscular foreign policy, Obama's campaign theme "has to be about who is strong enough, focused enough, creative enough and unifying enough to get Americans to rebuild America." Daniel Politi writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@slate.com. Copyright 2007 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC today's papers Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:01 PST slate news politics arts culture science 15:00 http://www.slate.com/id/2198624/ http://www.slate.com/id/2198624/ today's papers Passing the Torch By Daniel Politi Posted Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008, at 6:31 AM ET The papers lead with the opening day of the Democratic National Convention in Denver and they all focus their pieces on both Sen. Edward Kennedy and Michelle Obama. The New York Times calls Kennedy's surprise speech "triumphant" and says that it "evoked 50 years of party history." The historical symbolism attached to what USA Today describes as "an emotional tribute" to Kennedy is a theme that several of the papers note up high. The Los Angeles Times says it "was a parade of the past and future," while the Washington Post points out that "the face of the Democratic Party shifted on Monday night to a new generation of leaders." Michelle Obama's speech focused on her life and family and began to espouse a theme that will be repeated over and over again this week as she described "her husband—and his entire family—as embodiments of the American dream," notes the NYT. The Wall Street Journal says Michelle Obama "sought to humanize a couple that supporters fear may seem distant to many Americans." The WP calls Michelle Obama's speech "the climax" of the day "for a political party confident of its chances of capturing the White House but still struggling to lay aside its own divisions." The award for the paper that brings up the name of Sen. Hillary Clinton the quickest goes to the NYT, which manages to mention "the tension" in only the second sentence of its lead story. But the rest of the papers aren't far behind. Kennedy apparently decided only yesterday that he would give a speech at the convention and received a rousing standing ovation when he appeared on stage. Kennedy is fighting brain cancer; the WP notes that he "appeared spry," the LAT says that "his voice was strong," and the NYT points out that he sounded "very much like the man who enraptured the party's convention 28 years ago." Kennedy summoned the memory of his brother and echoed his speech from the 1980 convention by declaring, "The work begins anew. The hope rises again, and the dream lives on." Everyone says that Kennedy's speech helped at least give the appearance of party unity, even if tensions continued to linger between Clinton and Obama supporters. Michelle Obama also clearly tried to reach out to Clinton supporters by praising the former first lady even before mentioning Sen. Joe Biden in her speech and noting that she "put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling so that our daughters—and sons—can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher." The LAT is alone in mentioning that for all the talk about her husband, Michelle Obama "never mentioned his effort to break the ultimate racial barrier by winning the White House." No one can resist mentioning the picture-perfect moment when her two daughters joined their mother on stage and chatted with Obama over a video link from Kansas City, Mo. ("It was a beautiful family tableau," says Slate's John Dickerson. "The whole bunch seemed straight out of Central Casting. That's a cliché, and for the first black family with a realistic chance of living in the White House, becoming a cliché is a big win.") Despite all the positive words, all the papers make a point of emphasizing that much of the day's discussions on the convention floor continued to be about the ongoing tensions between supporters of Clinton and Obama. USAT even blankly states that "Clinton-watching has become the mesmerizing sideshow" of the convention and notes that any gestures or words by either half of the Clinton marriage are being constantly analyzed. It's difficult to know how much to really make of all this. For his part, Slate's John Dickerson says that "this kerfuffle was overblown" but still notes that the "situation was serious enough" that top officials from each camp felt the need to issue a statement emphasizing unity. And it's clear John McCain is trying to make the most of it as he has issued ads that mention Clinton in his quest to court her supporters. Clinton spoke up against the McCain ads yesterday and, once again, said she stood behind Obama but, the LAT, in a separate Page One piece devoted to the issue, says it was clear "that tensions have only swelled since the heat of a primary competition." These tensions run both ways. Obama supporters are angry at what they say is the Clintons' failure to do more to gather support for Obama. But Clinton supporters say the former first lady isn't getting enough credit for everything she's already done for him, plus they're still upset that she was never seriously considered as a running mate. A piece in today's WP won't do much to allay those feelings as it reveals that Obama told Clinton "it was unlikely he would choose her" at a private meeting after she conceded. Clinton supporters say they are particularly offended because Obama never even sought to have a meeting with her to discuss how she could help him win. Clinton will give her speech tonight and is expected to meet with her delegates and release them to Obama either today (WP) or tomorrow (LAT). The two camps are apparently working on a plan to allow delegates from some states to vote for either of the two senators and then interrupt the roll call to declare Obama the winner by unanimous consent. In the WP's op-ed page, Marie Cocco says that whatever she does "Clinton can't win tonight" because "[s]he will either be deemed too cool or all-too-cagily warm." While network analysts are likely to focus on tearful Clinton delegates as a sign of tensions in the party, Cocco notes that it's usually the nominee who takes charge to build unity once the rival has conceded. "Unless the loser happens to be a woman," writes Cocco. "Then it's just like high school, and she must do the work." Why all the tears? Why can't these supporters just move on and be happy for the fact that a woman came very close to being the nominee? In the NYT's op-ed page, Susan Faludi writes that it's important to understand that in the historical struggle for gender equality "every victory turns out to be partial or pyrrhic." Clinton will speak on the 88th anniversary of women's suffrage, which was, just like her candidacy, "not merely a cause in itself, but a symbolic rallying point, a color guard for a regiment of other ideas." Now, while many younger women say they don't care if there's a female president "they will still have all the abiding inequalities that Hillary Clinton, especially in defeat, symbolized." Meanwhile, the WP talks to delegates from several swing states and notes that there's a pervasive feeling of anxiety about Obama's prospects of winning the election. Some think Obama just needs to change his strategy, but others are concerned that voters in their states won't be easily convinced to pull the lever for a black candidate with an unusual background. The WP's Eugene Robinson says Democrats need to "snap out of it" and just stop worrying. "Unlike Republicans, Democrats like to obsess about what could go wrong." Robinson writes. "It's kind of a partisan hobby." In other news, the WP fronts, and everyone mentions, news that Pakistan's ruling coalition collapsed yesterday. Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister, said he would oppose the presidential candidacy of Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto's widower. Sharif says Zardari broke several promises, including a vow to reinstate the judges who were fired last year. The two parties will now face off Sept. 6, when lawmakers will elect a new president. In a related piece of news, the NYT reveals that several senior Bush administration officials are angry at Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to the United Nations, because he's apparently talked to Zardari several times on the phone and even planned to meet him next week in person. The meeting was quickly called off after Zardari told a senior U.S. official that Khalilzad was giving him "advice and help." Angry e-mails were exchanged, and many were particularly concerned due to the constant speculation that Khalilzad might want to be the next president of Afghanistan. Amazing animals. The NYT reports that crows appear to have an uncanny ability to recognize human faces. And in a Page One piece, the LAT reports that a group of scientists used Google Earth to discover that cattle usually orient themselves "in a north-south direction just like a compass needle." Studying the photographs from different areas of the world, they found that approximately two out of every three pointed roughly toward magnetic north. The paper asked a California dairy farmer if he's ever noticed this type of behavior. "Absolutely not," he said. "I don't spend a lot of time worrying about stuff like that." Daniel Politi writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@slate.com. Copyright 2007 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC today's papers Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:01 PST