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"Rope-a-Dope"John Kerry's campaign strategy.

By Josh Levin
Updated Friday, April 23, 2004, at 4:16 PM ET

New Republic, May 3
A former official from Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority argues that his ex-colleagues and the United Nations are—surprise, surprise—screwing up the country. By supporting parliamentary style elections à la Britain—where voters pick a national party instead a local representatives—authorities open the door for well-organized extremist parties to take control and shut down the chances for more moderate politicians obtaining some power. … Ryan Lizza's "Campaign Journal" calls John Kerry's current strategy a "rope-a-dope." While Bush spends gobs of cash and pounds Kerry with negative ads, Kerry goes about raising money (nearly $50 million in the past month) and lets other people do the attacking. Then when summer comes around, Kerry's war chest will be full and he'll start firing back at the president with full force.—A.Z.

Economist, April 24
The cover warns that inflation, and the U.S. economy, is back on the upswing, and the Fed had better start raising interest rates because its "super-loose monetary policy is fuelling potential bubbles abroad as well as at home." … A special report on Israel reveals little: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is appeasing his right-wing base; the EU is pushing hard for an orderly Israeli withdrawal; Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is cajoling different Palestinian factions to accept a power-sharing agreement and is coming under fire for being too cozy with Bush; and a sidebar article reports—now that they've released a former technician who leaked secrets to the public 18 years ago—that Israel (obviously) doesn't want anyone knowing too much about their nuclear weapons program.—A.Z.

New York Times Magazine

New York Times Magazine, April 25
How is the Bush campaign like a Tupperware party? The cover story argues that the re-election effort is one big "multilevel marketing scheme"—like Amway, which, the author notes, "has often been compared to a cult." But despite the somewhat sinister analogy, the strategy seems innocuous: National HQ, in Arlington, Va., recruits volunteers to recruit volunteers (particularly in swing states) and keeps close tabs on the results. This micromanaging ruffles some feathers. Betty Kitchen, a 66-year-old Ohio resident and longtime political volunteer, has been told to recruit 643 people, pronto. She sounds uncertain about her prospects and what will happen if she fails to meet the quota: "They can't fire you, right?" But Ohio's Democratic state chairman seems laissez-faire about the Republicans' organizational investment in shoe-leather: "I don't care how many people they register," he says. "They're still in trouble."—J.T.

Atlantic Monthly

Atlantic Monthly, May 2004
In the 20,000-word cover story, former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines styles himself hero and martyr. Raines laments that he faced resentment from staff at all levels for refashioning the "calcified front page" and breaking down a culture of "mañana journalism." He nevertheless proved that an "elderly Buick had the horsepower to run at Grand Prix speed" before being felled by Jayson Blair, a disaster he equates with a heart attack or a plane crash. Furthest descent into conspiracy theory: A "small enclave of neoconservative editors" habitually filibustered against stories involving minorities and social welfare. (Read Slate's Jack Shafer's analysis of the "autobiography of Howell Raines.") … William Langewiesche crafts a captivating narrative from the 1994 sinking of the Estonia during a storm in the Baltic Sea. Using survivor testimony, he documents both the engineering catastrophes that befell the 510-foot ferry and the horrible deaths of more than 850 people in a brutal few minutes in which the "mere act of getting dressed was enough to condemn people to death."

Weekly Standard

Weekly Standard, April 26
A feature story tries to debunk the notion that the war in Iraq will bankrupt the American treasury. Reasonable estimates place Iraqi oil revenues at a total of $80 billion between 2004 and 2007. If those numbers are reached and Iraq's debts are reduced, the Congressional Budget Office says the United States may not need to spend any money on the reconstruction "beyond the $18.4 billion already appropriated." The real cost is security: If you figure $100 billion a year for the next four years, that's still only 1 percent of the American GDP. … An editorial chides Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon for underestimating the number of troops needed to win the Iraq war. The essay concludes, "If his current secretary of defense cannot make the adjustments that are necessary, the president should find one who will."

Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report

Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report, April 26
The job of security: Time's report on the need for intelligence reform focuses on the "most dysfunctional agency of all," the FBI. The bureau, which has traditionally farmed out intelligence work to agents who couldn't cut it on the street, now may create a "service within the service" that would focus entirely on intel gathering. … In a preview of Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack, Newsweek reports that in the run-up to the war with Iraq, President Bush relied "more on divine guidance than the considered opinions of his top advisors" like Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld. … While Newsweek predicts that George Tenet, who reportedly told Bush that WMD were a "slam dunk," may get the most flack from the Woodward book, U.S. News makes a strange case for the CIA director's job security. Tenet is clearly a Bush favorite because he's the only official ever allowed to break protocol and appear in an official Oval Office photo without a jacket.

Transitional phase: Newsweek says the U.S. has spent $1 billion to train 100,000 Iraqi "police, soldiers, and civil-defense personnel"—and didn't get anywhere near its money's worth. When one battalion of the reconstituted army was sent to quell an uprising in a Shiite slum this month, troops either ran away or turned against American soldiers. … Time says Lakhdar Brahimi wants to dump the CPA's 25-member governing council in favor of an interim government of technocrats that will run things before elections in 2005. The piece expresses doubts that putting the U.N. stamp on the transition plan will necessarily please Iraqis—owing to years of sanctions and alleged corruption in the oil-for-food program, the U.N.'s rep in Iraq isn't much better than the U.S.'s. (Newsweek notes that due to security concerns Brahimi mostly stayed in the "green zone" during his entire 10-day visit to Iraq.)

The latest pain rage: The magazines all go with news-free cover stories. Newsweek's cover runs through the options for treating your persistent back pain. The latest fads include spinal-fusion surgery and a controversial back guru who theorizes that all pain comes from repressed rage. … U.S. News reports that around 9 million adults have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorders. The piece has lots of numbers—4 percent of American adults suffer from the disorders; less than 25 percent know they have it—but little in the way of explanation for what causes hyperactivity. … Time's short essays on 100 influential newsmakers include Richard Clarke on Osama Bin Laden, Elie Wiesel on Pope John Paul II, Donald Trump on Mark Burnett, Bono on Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, and someone who isn't famous on Bono.

—Julia Turner and Avi Zenilman also contributed to this column.

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Josh Levin is a Slate associate editor. You can e-mail him at .
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