Fineman: Obama Nomination Makes History | Newsweek Politics: Conventions

CHAPTER 3
The Long Siege
11/5/2008 12:00:00 AM
III. In the days after his wife's back- from-the-brink victory in New Hampshire, Bill Clinton was full of righteous indignation. The former president had amassed an 81-page list of all the unfair and nasty things the Obama campaign had said, or was alleged to have said, about Hillary Clinton. The press was still in love with Obama, or so it seemed to Clinton, who complained to pretty much anyone who would listen. If the press wouldn't go after Obama, then Hillary's campaign would have to do the job, the ex-president urged. On Sunday, Jan. 13, Clinton got worked up in a phone conversation with Donna Brazile, a direct, strong-willed African-American woman who had been Al Gore's campaign manager and advised the Clintons from time to time. "If Barack Obama is nominated, it will be the worst denigration of public service," he told her, ranting on for much of an hour. Brazile kept asking him, "Why are you so angry?"
THE LAST WORD
Living History
Anna Quindlen 11/5/2008 12:00:00 AM
The American Museum of Natural History threw a spectacular party on New Year's Eve 1999, but perhaps the millennium really arrived there just a few weeks ago. A group of New York City schoolchildren were at an event marking the 150th birthday of Theodore Roosevelt, naturalist and president, and at the end of the visit one of the kids raised his hand. "I have a question," he said. "Was he black?"
FACING FACTS | Ellis Cose
Journalist of the Year
Ellis Cose 10/17/2008 12:00:00 AM
If only more journalists were like David Letterman. On Thursday night's "Late Show," Letterman confronted Sen. John McCain. He tenaciously pressed the presidential candidate on the accusation repeatedly hurled about by his running mate, Sarah Palin, that Barack Obama "pals around with terrorists." And he eventually got McCain to concede (if only in the most backhanded and ungracious way) that the charges—which happen to be ridiculous on their face—were just "words."
CAMPAIGN 2008
Mad Man
Richard Wolffe 10/16/2008 12:00:00 AM
In case anyone was wondering what tone John McCain would take in the final presidential debate, the answer came with his first response.
CHAPTER 6
The Great Debates

VI. Later, after McCain's ride to the rescue had been mocked in the press, some of his advisers blamed Steve Schmidt for the fiasco. The campaign's chief strategist was forever searching for the bold stroke, the instant game changer, but by urging McCain to go to Washington, he had impetuously and blindly steered the candidate into a trap. "McCain never saw it as a stunt," insisted one aide. But to most commentators, the bizarre rush back to Washington seemed gimmicky—one more tactical gambit in a campaign that seemed to lack any coherent or consistent strategy.
Part of Something Larger
Howard Fineman
By 1990, Artur Davis had worked his way up from a childhood of poverty in Alabama to the top of his graduating class at Harvard College, and he was a hard man to impress. On day one at Harvard Law, he stopped by a classroom to hear a speech by a senior who was the new president of the Law Review. Davis wasn't expecting much from the guy with a funny name. But he was surprised and riveted. "I still remember almost every word," Davis told me last week. "He said we faced three challenges. First: competence, which was expected. Second: excellence, which only some seek. Third: mastery, which very few ever tried for. It was a level of proficiency and skill so high it allowed you to do something better than anyone else. He urged us to seek that." It wasn't just what the man said, Davis recalls, but how he said it. "He had a casual way of conveying authority—a combination of command and comfort." The men became friends. Seventeen years passed until, a year ago, Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama became the first congressman outside Illinois to endorse the presidential candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama. Two weeks ago Obama won the Alabama primary with Davis as state campaign chair.