Print Magazine

September 1, 2008 Issue

Chris Bowers on the end of backlash politics, David Cole on the Hamdan verdict, Stuart Klawans on cinema.

Cover art by: Cover design by Gene Case & Stephen Kling/Avenging Angels from the poster by Shepard Fairey

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Editorial

Making History

Progressives are saying this is a moment of transformational politics. Is the party leadership listening?

Victor Navasky

Have Pantsuit, Will Travel

Hillary's signature attire is one phase in women's power-dressing; Michelle's sheath is another. But the shoes...

Patricia J. Williams

Media Gone Mad

The national news narrative from Denver is completely nuts: consider the unsourced myth of the Clinton-Obama feud.

Eric Alterman

From King to Obama

Barack Obama stands on the shoulders of many as he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. One set of those shoulders belongs to Jesse Jackson.

Steve Cobble

The Illusory Middle

Undecided voters don't care about left or right: they simply want a candidate they can trust. As he shifts to the center, Obama risks losing his greatest asset--authenticity.

Victor Navasky

The Hillary Diehards

If there were any real news here, 15,000 journalists would be reporting it. Instead, they gather soundbites from a few nut cases who consider politics a form of therapy.

Eric Alterman

From Fannie Lou Hamer to Barack Obama

Democrats have come a long way from the first Denver convention a century ago.

John Nichols

Guilty of Driving a Truck

Salim Hamdam's conviction and short sentence does nothing to repair the damage the Bush Administration has done.

David Cole

Obama and the Sisters

His convention speech should draw from the wisdom of black women activists who were the prophets of American democracy.

Melissa Harris-Perry

Noted.

The I-word, back on the table; Fannie Lou Hamer and the Democrats.

The Editors

Blood in the Caucasus

It's time for the US to dissolve its cold war military alliances and develop realistic new policies toward Russia.

Katrina vanden Heuvel

For a New Economics

The tepid platform Democrats will adopt in Denver isn't a new social contract, but it does go places Republicans never will. Let's hope Obama does better.

The Editors

Column

The Cold War President

He lacks the chops to deal with our economic crisis, so McCain's best strategy is to run as the President who'll fight the next cold war. Scary thing: he might win.

Robert Scheer

Raging Inflation

Our paychecks are disintegrating as we drive them to the bank. Forget hope and change: why aren't the candidates talking about inflation?

Nicholas von Hoffman

McCain’s Warped Worldview

His irrational mix of patriotic swagger and blindness to reality is proving disturbingly successful with millions of uninformed voters.

Robert Scheer

The 2008 Student Loan Blues

Some 200,000 college students won't qualify for loans in September, and millions more will pay higher interest rates. Can they count on Obama to help them out?

Nicholas von Hoffman

The Bear Stearns Conspiracy

Americans know all the details of the John Edwards affair. But they remain in the dark about a scandal that affects the livelihoods of millions. Who orchestrated the fall of Bear S...

Nicholas von Hoffman

Obama and the Politics of ‘Presumptuousness’

Dana Milbank's coverage of Obama in the Washington Post has become a symbol of a press corps that is almost as the Bush Administration.

Eric Alterman

Tested, Tried, Untrue

Critiques of Obama's suitability for the presidency are bookended by astonishingly contradictory stereotypes.

Patricia J. Williams

Management Styles

Calvin Trillin

The Bush Agenda (for 2009)

Idle hands are the devil's playthings...

Ward Sutton

Letters

Readers write back on the subprime crisis, affordable housing, E.L. Doctorow and more.

Our Readers

Feature

A Look at Tulane University’s Service-Learning Post-Katrina

Three years after Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University thrives, due in part to its revamped commitment to community.

Elizabeth Giegerich

The Nation Does Denver

The Nation hosts thought-provoking discussions and events in Denver during the DNC.

The Nation

Sex and Violence

This Week: Things get all twisty as Kang makes some moves her own damn self, and her slacker brother contemplates the Big Wave.

Gary Phillips

FBI Seeks Sweeping New Powers

Attorney General Michael Mukasey is poised to implement new rules that will create a new surveillance state.

Aziz Huq

What Would Mao Think of the Games?

He'd feel bad that the whole Communist era was airbrushed out of the Olympic spectacle. But he'd probably like the swimming.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Warning to Obama on the New Cold War

McCain and the neocons are heating up a conflict in the Caucasus; it's up to the peace movement to keep Obama from signing on.

Tom Hayden

Obama Nation Author Jerome Corsi’s Racist History Exposed

How a racist, conspiratorial crank became the Republican attack machine's anti-Obama point man.

Max Blumenthal

Will Youth Activists Recreate ’68 At This Year’s Conventions?

Thousands of young activists are poised to protest at the Democratic and Republican conventions. In the age of Obama, is street protest still relevant?

Michael Gould-Wartofsky

After Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf is history, but his opponents seem unable to agree on what to do next. After so many disappointments, can Pakistan rise to the occasion?

Barbara Crossette

Death and Dying

This Week: Congresswoman Kang hangs out in the loo, wide stance and all.

Gary Phillips

New Era for Pakistan–and Kashmir?

The resignation of Pervez Musharraf and a looming election in India offer hope that with the right leadership, the sixty-year faceoff over Kashmir might finally be resolved.

Barbara Crossette

Six Questions About Anthrax

And one answer: Bush's global 'war on terror' operates on a double standard.

Tom Engelhardt

Obama and King

As Obama accepts his party's presidential nomination on the forty-fifth anniversary of King's most famous speech, a historian looks beyond the obvious analogies.

Adele Oltman

Ceasefire and Chaos in Georgia

Once geopolitical lines are redrawn, the question must be answered: who started this war?

Margarita Akhvlediani

Bolivia Gets the Change It Asked For

Evo Morales expanded his mandate with a landslide victory in a referendum last week. But the Washington foreign policy establishment still won't acknowledge he's delivering on his...

Mark Weisbrot