Week 2

1.Petraeus Meets His Match by Joe Klein of Time Magazine

Senator Joseph Lieberman has become something of an agent provocateur in the semiannual Petraeus-Crocker hearings staged by the U.S. Senate. This semester he chose to open his remarks by chastising unnamed colleagues for having a "hear no progress ... see no progress ... speak no progress" attitude about the war in Iraq. The debate had finally moved on to more fertile turf: If things were going so well, why were Crocker and Petraeus so reluctant to come home? The Senator who mined this turf most profitably was ... Barack Obama. Obama hit Petraeus and Crocker with an artful series of questions about the two main threats: Sunni terrorists like al-Qaeda in Iraq, and Iran. He noted that al-Qaeda had been rejected by the Iraqi Sunnis and chased to the northern city of Mosul. If U.S. and Iraqi troops succeeded there, what was next? He proposed: "Our goal is not to hunt down and eliminate every single trace of al-Qaeda but rather to create a manageable situation where they're not posing a threat to Iraq." Petraeus said Obama was "exactly right."



2.The Story of Barack Obama's Mother by Amanda Ripley of Time Magazine

Each of us lives a life of contradictory truths. We are not one thing or another. Barack Obama's mother was at least a dozen things. S. Ann Soetoro was a teen mother who later got a Ph.D. in anthropology; a white woman from the Midwest who was more comfortable in Indonesia; a natural-born mother obsessed with her work; a romantic pragmatist, if such a thing is possible. Ironically, the person who mattered most in Obama's life is the one we know the least about—maybe because being partly African in America is still seen as being simply black and color is still a preoccupation above almost all else. There is not enough room in the conversation for the rest of a man's story.



3.Who needs a poverty Czar? By Michael Grunwald of Times Magazine
Hillary Clinton's call for a new cabinet-level post is just the wrong approach. The Cabinet needs to shrink, not grow. Hillary Clinton made an impassioned statement in a Memphis speech, pledging to create a cabinet-level poverty czar who will be "solely and fully devoted to ending poverty as we know it in America." Soon after, John Edwards made an impassioned statement about her impassioned statement, just as she had hoped: "America's need to address the great moral issue of poverty demands strong action, and a cabinet-level poverty position is exactly that kind of action."



4.Has McCain Flip-Flopped on Torture? By Michael Scherer of Times Magaine
Despite Democratic criticism that he has softened his position to win an election, a look at the record shows the former prisoner of war has remained consistent.AS a candidate who relies on his carfully cultivated image as a straight-talking, maverick, John McCain has few issues as symbolically important as torture. No Republican has been as outspoken an opponent of prisoner mistreatment and abuse as McCain, and his own painful experience as a prisoner during the Vietnam War, has granted him a unique moral authority on the issue.



5.TIME Poll: Clinton Hangs Onto Lead in Pennsylvania By Michael Duffy of Time Magazine

Backed by more than half of all white female Democrats, Hillary Clinton holds a six point lead over Barack Obama in Pennsylvania, a new statewide poll by TIME reveals. When leaners — voters who have not firmly decided whom to vote for but are leaning one way or the other — are added in, Clinton's six point lead grows to eight points, 49% to 41%.



6.Al, Jesse and Barack by Joshua Alston of Newsweek
Barack Obama is asking us to talk through our racial problems. But what if that actually works?Obama has made himself the first viable black presidential candidate in large part by selling a vision of the future in which our nation's racial wounds can be healed by cooperation rather than opposition. A major component of Obama's strategy has been to distance himself from prominent black leaders while being careful not to minimize their contributions.

7.A Silver Lining In the Blue Battle by Markos Moulitsas of Newsweek
Hillary's destructive coup attempt: it's a good thing for the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton has proved during the past few months that she is a fighter, that she is tenacious, and that she is in the race to win. There's just one problem. She's already lost. No matter how you define victory, Barack Obama holds an insurmountable lead in the race to earn the Democratic nomination. He leads in the one metric that matters most: the pledged delegates chosen directly by Democratic voters. But he also leads in the popular vote,the number of states won and money raised. Still, Obama's advantages aren't large enough to allow him an outright victory. He needs the 20 percent of party delegates who aren't bound to a candidate. It's with these superdelegates that Clinton has staked her ephemeral chances.

8.Pledged to Hillary--But Predicting Obama by Jessica Ramirez of Newsweek
A Clinton superdelegate talks about race, black oratory and why he's sticking with his longshot candidate. Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's connection to Senator Hillary Clinton dates back to the Clintons' Arkansas days. Even then, Cleaver says, he was very fond of the former First Lady. So it was a surprise to hear the congressman, who is a superdelegate and has pledged his support to Clinton, tell the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that he thought Sen. Barack Obama would win the presidency in November. He took a few shots at Obama, as well, commenting on his rhetorical skills and the implications of being an African-American nominee. Cleaver spoke to NEWSWEEK's Jessica Ramirez about his comments and the future of his party.

9.Superdelegate Sweepstakes by Suzanne Smalley of Newsweek
Inside the drive to settle the Dems' fight by June. Last weekend, Bill Clinton's temporarily cool façade once again cracked, underscoring the pressure the Democratic candidates and their supporters face as the increasingly contentious primary battle drags on with no resolution in sight. In a meeting with several California superdelegates, many of them still uncommitted, Clinton grew angry when Rachel Binah, a Hillary supporter from Northern California, told him she was sorry to hear James Carville call former Clinton cabinet member Bill Richardson "Judas Iscariot" after learning of Richardson's decision to endorse Barack Obama. The episode, which was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, highlights the enormous power the superdelegates wield and the stress that power is placing on the campaigns trying to woo their support. The former president's flare-up comes at a time when party luminaries are openly expressing frustration with Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean's laissez-faire approach to an internecine fight that many fear could grow even more negative before it produces a nominee.

10. Maverick Mike by Sarah Elkins of Newsweek
Presidential candidate Mike Gravel on joining the Libertarian Party, the Democrats' self-destructive nature and John McCain's 'stability. After the crowded presidential primary shrunk from eight Democrats and 11 Republicans to only three viable candidates between the two parties, what's a spurned presidential hopeful to do? Well, if you're Ron Paul, you ignore John McCain's inevitability and keep running anyway. If you're former U.S. senator Mike Gravel, you switch parties. Last Monday, the former Democrat swung by the Libertarian Party's national headquarters and defected. "We handed him a [membership] card on the spot," says Shane Cory, the party's executive director. Two days later, Gravel formally announced he would run to be the Libertarian candidate for president, joining a field of 15 others. Cory wouldn't comment on Gravel's chances at the convention, which will take start in Denver on May 22, but he did say that Gravel's party swap has garnered some much-appreciated exposure for the Libertarians.