The Liberals' Question: Is 2008 like 1980 or 1952? | Newsweek Politics

Hillary Rodham Powell?
Michael Hirsh 11/18/2008 12:00:00 AM
For the last few days, the blogosphere has been ablaze with speculation about the kind of damage Hillary Clinton could do to the Obama presidency if she becomes secretary of state. She doesn't have the job yet (the vetting of both her and her husband is said to be raising some questions). But for many commentators, the key question is whether Hillary would be controllable. "If President-elect Barack Obama taps Sen. Hillary Clinton to be his secretary of state, he would be giving her oversight of an area where the two former rivals diverged sharply during their prolonged primary battle," warned Scott Helman of The Boston Globe on Tuesday. Obama "will be forced to the left," opined Dick Morris. "Selecting Hillary Clinton as secretary of state will just cede more of his authority." Or as ABC's George Stephanopoulos put it on his blog: "Which meme will win out: Team of Rivals or Too Much Clinton?"
CAMPAIGN 2008
Projections of Power
Andrew Nagorski 11/3/2008 12:00:00 AM
So the seemingly endless U.S. presidential campaign is finally ending. If it started with a high level of excitement, it soon began to feel like Mao's Long March, a grueling journey where only the true believers could maintain their enthusiasm. Now, there will be more than just relief that the journey is over: there will be a new burst of excitement. This happens whenever a new president takes office, but it'll be doubly the case here. The weariness with eight years of the Bush administration and fears about the global economy guarantees that, at least for a while, the new team will inspire new hope at home and abroad, almost a dizzying sense of new possibilities.
COVER STORY: THE PRESIDENT’S INBOX
The World That Awaits
10/25/2008 12:00:00 AM
There are only two and a half months—76 days, to be precise— between Election Day and your Inauguration, and you will need every one of them to get ready for the world you will inherit. This is not the world you've been discussing on the trail for the last year or more: campaigning and governing could hardly be more different. The former is necessarily done in bold strokes and, to be honest, often approaches caricature. All candidates resist specifying priorities or trade-offs lest they forfeit precious support. You won, but at a price, as some of the things you said were better left unsaid. Even more important, the campaign did not prepare the public for the hard times to come.
INTERNATIONAL
Who Cares Where Spain Is?
Richard N. Haass 9/20/2008 12:00:00 AM
Consider the inbox of the 44th president of the United States. He will face ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; a Pakistani government that is unable or unwilling to take on the terrorists who have set up shop in the country's western reaches; and an Iran apparently intent on developing nuclear weapons. Beyond the greater Middle East, there are the challenges of a more assertive Russia, a rising China, a warming planet and a cooling world economy.
POLITICS
A Liberal’s Lament
Sean Wilentz 8/23/2008 12:00:00 AM
Barack Obama has chosen to deliver the most important speech of his young political career in a setting that suits his spectacular campaign in the presidential primaries. In front of 75,000 roaring, adoring Democrats at Invesco Field at Mile High stadium in Denver, he will give one of his uplifting arena-rock performances, while also evoking the spirits of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (on the 45th anniversary of the March on Washington) and John F. Kennedy (who moved his own acceptance speech in 1960 from the convention hall to the Los Angeles Coliseum).
LETTERS
Mail Call: Bullish on Obama

Readers of our cover package on Barack Obama's emerging world view reflected the excitement his candidacy generates. One saw him "as everything good in America." Another awaits "an America less unilateral and hubristic." And after the last eight years, one noted, "Obama can only shine."