In the August 19, 2010 issue
'Why Has He Fallen Short?'
Frank Rich
The Obama of Hope and Change was too tough an act for Obama, a mere chief executive, to follow. Only Hollywood might have the power to create a superhero who could fulfill the messianic dreams kindled by his presence and rhetoric, maintain the riveting drama of his unlikely ascent, and sustain the national mood of deliverance that greeted his victory. As soon as Inauguration Day turned to night, the real Obama was destined to depreciate like the shiny new luxury car that starts to lose its book value the moment it's driven off the lot.
The Crisis & the Euro
George Soros
The situation is eerily reminiscent of the 1930s. Doubts about sovereign credit are forcing reductions in budget deficits at a time when the banking system and the economy may not be strong enough to do without fiscal and monetary stimulus. Keynes taught us that budget deficits are essential for countercyclical policies in times of deflation, yet governments everywhere feel compelled to reduce them under pressure from the financial markets.
Iraq: The Impasse
Joost Hiltermann
It is easy to underestimate how much fear can obstruct a society's recovery from horrific violence or repression, or both; and fear now dominates Iraq as its leaders try to make a new start after decades of a ruthless tyranny, its violent removal, and the chaotic aftermath.
Martin Filler: Designing Mad Men
Garry Wills: What I Told the President
Michael Tomasky: The Senate's Energy Failure
Christopher Benfey: Emily Dickinson in the Bronx
Jeff Madrick: No Fix for Wall Street
The Marrying Kind
Diane Johnson
On Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage by Elizabeth Gilbert, and four other books.
The Temptation of Elena Kagan
Ronald Dworkin
The Kagan hearings have been almost universally denounced as pointless and calls for reform have increased. It is important to review the hearings in some detail to consider how far that charge is justified and how confirmation hearings might be improved.
Righteous & Wrong
Malise Ruthven
Paul Berman's The Flight of the Intellectuals elaborates on the theme of an embattled liberal civilization facing a totalitarian or fascist onslaught. The book points an accusing finger at two particular writers--Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton-Ash--whom Berman regards as exemplifying liberal intellectual pusillanimity. Berman, however, is not to be bothered by inconvenient truths that might arrest the flow of his rhetoric. His vision is crassly ideological: facts that might interfere with his argument are liable to be discarded or ignored.
Plus: Daniel Wilkinson on the new challenge to repressive Cuba, Tim Parks on the shame of the World Cup, Edmund White on the Beats, David Cole on the Roberts Court vs. free speech , exchanges on the food movement and the Tea Party, and more.
