Can Obama Create a Transformational Presidency? | Newsweek Politics

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.
Morning Again
John Barry 7/8/2009 12:00:00 AM
President Barack Obama this week? No, President Ronald Reagan 21 years ago, in May 1988. Read together—Reagan's address to the students of Moscow State University; Obama's to the graduating class of the New Economic School—the speeches were delivered with the same goal: to speak directly to Russians, over their leaders' heads. Does Obama see himself as the heir to Ronald Reagan?
A Friend in Need
Jacob Weisberg 6/13/2009 12:00:00 AM
Since the first stirrings of the Arab-Israeli peace process after the Yom Kippur war in 1973, America's relations with Israel have been characterized by a paradox: those presidents regarded as the least friendly to the Jewish state have done it the most good. Its strong allies have proved much less helpful.
Moving Beyond Gut-Check Diplomacy
Eleanor Clift 5/8/2009 12:00:00 AM
Pakistan could be the source of the biggest nuclear crisis to face an American president since the Cold War. With images filling television screens of Pakistani refugees fleeing Taliban fighters, President Obama is trying to reassure a nervous world that the country's nuclear weapons are in no danger of falling into the hands of Islamic extremists, at least for now. After sending mixed signals about his confidence in the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Obama this week made it clear to the presidents of both countries that he's not going to bail on them. He has no choice, really, but how Obama handles this explosive part of the world, and the relationship he establishes with these men, will show how the president, a cool customer in all his interactions, might avoid personalizing his dealings with foreign leaders.
THE WORLD FROM WASHINGTON
The Party Of Goldwater?
Michael Hirsh 1/29/2009 12:00:00 AM
Is it possible history is repeating itself? As House Republicans defy President Obama over his stimulus package, the party seems to be reverting to form after decades of overreaching ambition and outsized growth; think of the GOP, perhaps, as the Citigroup of politics. Many Republicans seem resigned—even content—to go back to being the party of Barry Goldwater. In other words: We don't care if we're marginalized. In our hearts we know we're right. Never mind that the party suffered terrible defeats in 2008 and 2006, some thoughtful Republicans (mainly on the Senate side, like Lindsay Graham, as well as intellectuals such as David Frum) have been fretting for some time that the GOP base is getting too narrow. These days, you hear little talk of Karl Rove's bigger tent or reinventing conservatism. Quite the opposite: it seems as though the party has decided to go back to basics. The message they're sending: "We don't care if Obama won or that he's popular; let's just wait until the country sees the truth again, as old Barry did. Until then, we'll be happy to be the righteous minority again, proudly willing to go down in flames for our beliefs: government spending never works, and tax cuts always do. Keynesian stimulus is for liberal witch doctors."
BETWEEN THE LINES | Jonathan Alter
Points on the Board
Jonathan Alter 1/16/2009 12:00:00 AM
Nearly every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has loathed the idea of the "hundred days," and Barack Obama is no exception. The concept, first used to encapsulate the time elapsed between Napoleon's return from exile on the isle of Elba and his final defeat at the battle of Waterloo, is handy but artificial. Roosevelt provided its present meaning when he noticed that the special session of Congress he called in 1933 had lasted that long. It was a way for him to pat himself on the back.