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An Infighting ChanceThe New Republic on Hillary Clinton's intracampaign squabbles.

By Morgan Smith
Posted Tuesday, April 22, 2008, at 2:42 PM ET
New Republic

New Republic, May 5
The cover story reports on the "internecine intrigue" within Hillary Clinton's campaign, and ponders its shift from "highly disciplined machine" to "unruly rock band plagued by dysfunction and public infighting." The former first lady's team is filled with staffers who "distrust, disdain, or even flat-out despise each other," and the "sense of looming loss seems only to feed the fury, as advisers grab for what may be their last chance to right the ship." … An essay dissects Barack Obama's 16-month plan for withdrawal from Iraq, observing that it "assumes the many things that could go horribly wrong won't go wrong" and "doesn't seem entirely consistent" with the candidate's statements that he would "consult with 'commanders on the ground' " (who, "as the situation stands," do not recommend withdrawal). … A piece traces the erosion of Ralph Nader's reputation in liberal groups. One former Nader collaborator says, "In the public-interest community, he presumes to speak for progressives, and we're left behind cleaning up the shit."

Weekly Standard

Weekly Standard, April 28
An article on Barack Obama argues the Illinois senator resembles Jimmy Carter, "who also tended to believe that talking to America's foes would be enough to bring peace and that America was too often the chief source of the world's problems," rather than the "hawkish cold warrior" John F. Kennedy, with whom he is more often compared. … An article examines the 94 percent drop in prison homicides since 1973 despite the yearly increase in inmates criminologists feared would lead to "organizational collapse" and prisons "tense, dangerous, and too weakly governed to prevent high rates of individual and collective violence." According to the piece, the decline can be explained by a shift to "a hands-on management that focused on collecting 'key indicators' to track all in-house trends over time"—allowing officials to attack violence triggers like gang membership and more heavily prosecute other crimes committed in the prison. 

New York

New York, April 28
The cover story lauds Gossip Girl as the "most awesomely awesome show ever." The teen drama appeals because it "mocks our superficial fantasies while satisfying them, allowing us to partake in the over-the-top pleasures of the irresponsible superrich without anxiety or guilt or moralizing. It's class warfare as blood sport."… A feature investigates a "growing schism" in atheist circles. Some nonbelievers think the movement should build "new, human-centered quasi-religious organizations" (in essence, atheist churches) and that "atheism needs to stand for things, like evolution and ethics, not just against things, like God," while others reject any kind of organized belief system. … A piece advocates going barefoot, as it explains why, according to a podiatry study, shoes "have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait … denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot."

Newsweek

Newsweek, April 28
The cover story explores why so many Libyans from the coastal town of Darnah have become insurgency fighters in Iraq. Though jihadist recruits are often "in search of redemption," they are "far from being universally motivated by one global ideology… [and] seem to have been driven by personal factors like psychological trauma, sibling rivalry and sexual longing." But in Darnah, they are united by something else: "an almost obsessive devotion to their town's place in history." What may be driving Darnah's young men to jihad is a historic "ideal of armed resistance" that can be traced back to the Mediterranean town's fierce struggle against Italian occupation in the early 20th century and pride in its role in the Barbary Wars of the 1800s (in which it captured an American warship but was later taken over by U.S. troops). … A piece exposes the startling statistic that the  suicide rate among doctors is higher than any other profession and points to untreated depression as the cause. According to the piece, physicians fear that if they are diagnosed with a mental illness, "they could lose respect, referrals, income and even their licenses," and though many women are now working in the field, it is "still very much a macho profession; physicians are supposed to be the strong ones who care for the sick, not the sick ones who need to be cared for." 

The New Yorker

The New Yorker, April 28
A profile of Li Yang, founder of Li Yang Crazy English and the instructor who leads China's quest to teach the language to 50,000 of its Olympic volunteers before the summer games, divulges that the country "has been in the grip of 'English fever' … for more than a decade." His method, combined with a "flamboyantly patriotic" ethos, encourages "frenzied crowds" of students to shout English words to induce "total physical response, a kind of muscle memory for the brain." But his students' fervor also reveals "the gap between the English-speaking world and the non-English-speaking world is so profound that any act of hard work or sacrifice is worth the effort." … A piece skewers ABC's presentation of the Philadelphia Democratic debates, declaring Charles Gibson "greasily avuncular and patronizing," and noting that "if ever Gibson was in danger of raising the questioning to a level that might actually yield something useful for viewers, George Stephanopoulos … was by his side to make sure that didn't happen."

American Prospect

American Prospect, May 2008
The cover story probes John McCain's foreign-policy record to charge that the Arizona senator, "not Bush, is the real neo-con in the Republican Party." According to the piece, McCain believes "efforts at conflict prevention are fundamentally misguided," because "war is inevitable, so better get it over with as soon as possible." And, despite the hopes of "optimistic liberals" that the candidate has "shown some capacity to change his mind" and has diversified his group of advisers, he "remains as committed to a far-right vision of American foreign policy as ever." … A piece profiles efforts to draw low-income and minority communities into the mainstream environmental movement through green-collar job programs. This "eco-equity" approach, which combines environmental and social activism, can give people who aren't "white college graduates who drive Priuses and buy organic" an opening in the green movement, while providing economic mobility in access to new jobs.

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Morgan Smith is a former Slate intern.
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