Fineman: Obama Nomination Makes History | Newsweek Politics: Conventions

Underqualified for the Overrated
Christopher Hitchens 10/10/2009 12:00:00 AM
Alfred Nobel had one odd thing in common with Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway and Marcus Garvey. He had the chance to read about his own death in the newspapers. It seems that he was so depressed by the emphasis that the obituarists laid on his pioneering work on dynamite—the WMD of its day—that he resolved at once to upgrade his real death notice by endowing an award for international peace.
President of Planet Earth
Howard Fineman 10/10/2009 12:00:00 AM
In the rose garden last Friday, Barack Obama, with a deep sense of humility and in the name of all mankind, reluctantly accepted the Nobel Peace Prize committee's decision proclaiming him president of planet Earth. He will be sworn in at a glittering ceremony in Oslo in December. In the meantime, Obama has decided to retain the title and the powers of president of the United States, commander in chief of land, sea, and air forces, and team captain of pickup games behind the South Portico. (Click here to follow Howard Fineman)
Brains Are Back!
Michael Hirsh 11/7/2008 12:00:00 AM
For two days now, Americans have celebrated the idea that we may have finally atoned for our nation's original sin, slavery, along with its long legacy of racism. We can rejoice in the world's accolades over the election of a multicultural African-American to the presidency after nearly eight years of cringing in shame as the Bush administration methodically curdled our Constitutional values and sullied our global reputation as a beacon of hope. Every once in a while, it seems, we Americans do manage to live up to our ideals rather than betray them. Hooray!
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."
Message to Superdelegates: Stand Aside
Eleanor Clift 2/15/2008 12:00:00 AM
Think of it as the air war and the ground war, Eli Pariser explains. He's the executive director of MoveOn.org, the progressive Internet assemblage of 3.2 million members mobilizing its forces to put a Democrat in the White House. Tall with dark hair and a shy smile, Pariser is a self-described "geek--a Web and IT guy." A Web site he created in 2001 called 911Peace (advocating a multilateral foreign policy) attracted a half million visitors. He remembers being in his pajamas in his apartment in Boston trying to figure out what to do with the tens of thousands of e-mails pouring in. He was 20 years old.
THE LAST WORD
The Final Repudiation
George F. Will
In a Presidential contest replete with novelties, none was more significant than this: A candidate's campaign—for his party's nomination, then for the presidency—was itself virtually the entire validation of his candidacy. Voters have endorsed Barack Obama's audacious—but not, they have said, presumptuous—proposition, which was: The skill, tenacity, strategic vision and tactical nimbleness of my campaign is proof that I am presidential timber.