Under the Covers

Side by side, I think it's safe to see why Don Imus noted this morning that for the first time ever, Newsweek's cover was beyond better than Time's. Being superficial is fun.

But under-the-covers, the difference is even more pronounced. Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham's story is concise and fantastic as he acknowledges one major aspect of the Democratic victory's immediate impact. The new presence of 41's reality-based team within the faith-infused realm of 43's team of fools is intriguing and the analysis is welcome (even better, Meacham examines the rising influence of 41 using more than just Maureen Dowd-y "Daddy-talk" which I've decided after this Sunday's Meet the Press is getting tired. Surely Dowd has more material than "Who's your Mommy?" to describe this substantive political shift...).

Time's cover story writer, snippy Joe Klein, turns out an uninspired and tired analysis, that all-important "everybody's reaching for the center" story, which completely ignores the actual power shift, yes, say it, oh it hurts, Democrats won. Klein focuses on the obvious new "realist" Democratic players, tries to conflate them with the Elder Bush, and then throws in a Dowd-y wanna-be "Pride and Petulence" comment for good measure. Significantly, Klein only mentions aggressive, muscular sounding men that were architects (Rahm and Chuck) and winners (Sherwood and Webb) and nary a lady (We love Claire McCaskill. Go Claire.). Finally, something tells me more than just keeping Rumsfeld around doomed W. in this election, Joe. Shucks. Maybe all those other secrets & lies played a part? Who knows.

Have you also noticed the "all the new Dems are actually conservative" storyline popping up everywhere on cable television? Some of these "analysts" truly cannot see the forest for the trees. Thank goodness the New York Times ran a solid, serious piece Sunday that had the guts to call these folks what they really are: populists. (That wasn't hard, was it? Oh and let's throw in a quick New York Times' Iowa Watch, since newly-elected Congressman Dave Loebsack gets some quotes in this article, and a front page photo to boot.) Paul Krugman noted this populist-tinge in the new Congressional class as well in a superb column today; alas, I cannot share due to TimesSelect insanity. Good luck jumping that fence. I'm sure Dee and Ginny already have...