MEDIA LEAD SHEET/MARCH 17, 2008 ISSUE (on newsstands Monday, March 10). To book correspondents, contact LaVenia LaVelle at 212-445-4859—LaVenia.LaVelle@Newsweek.com—or Brenda Velez at 212-445-4078—Brenda.Velez@Newsweek.com. Articles are posted on www.Newsweek.com.

COVER: “Hear Her Roar” (p. 28). Newsweek examines gender, class and Hillary Clinton in its cover package that includes essays from Newsweek writers and beyond on the complex feelings Hillary stirs in many women. Author Tina Brown writes in a guest essay that, “Hillary’s appeal to the boomer gals is wider and deeper” than the gender wars of the past. “It’s a revolt that has been overdue for a while and has now found its focus in Clinton’s candidacy,” writes Brown, who spent time on the road with the Clinton campaign. Among the other voices featured is Monica Crowley, a nationally syndicated radio host and panelist on “The McLaughlin Group,” who offers advice from the conservative right.

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“The Legacy of My Grandmother” (p. 31). National Correspondent Allison Samuels writes that while some of her “more socially progressive girlfriends have expressed surprise and dismay” that she has no particular allegiance to Hillary Clinton, for her grandmother, “being a woman in control wasn’t something she had the luxury of deciding to fight for. She just was.” Samuels notes that in her grandmother’s lifetime—as well as her mother’s and, to some extent, hers—“race, not gender, has been the defining narrative.”

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“Sorry, Hillary, But Girls Already Rule” (p. 32). Reporter Sarah Kliff writes that Barack Obama’s mobilization of the youth vote doesn’t surprise her. But what shocks her is “how thoroughly uncool it is to back Hillary and how her twentysomething supporters are regularly put on the defensive for having the audacity to vote against hope, change and revolution.”

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“Push Us Around At Your Peril” (p. 33). Newsweek.com Editor Deidre Depke writes on whether the press is really ganging up on Clinton. “If Hillary Clinton hopes to be president, the answer had better be yes. Voters young and old—particularly women—have rallied to her side when what they see as the drumbeat of anti-Clinton rhetoric beats loudest,” she writes. “It was a bit by ‘Saturday Night Live’ guest host Tina Fey and Clinton impersonator Amy Poehler that helped send the sisterhood to the polls, armed and outraged.”

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“Scenes From a Tea for Two” (p. 34). Contributing Editor Eleanor Clift writes that she recognizes that Hillary’s in the fight of her life, “But I’m having a hard time with her campaign tactics. When she airily dismisses Barack Obama as someone who just makes a speech, she’s insulting all the people who are drawn to him, including many who support her.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/120074

“Lessons Learned From Last Time” (p. 36). Chief of Correspondents Mark Miller writes that little has changed since the many, often contradictory public narratives of Hillary Clinton were first set in 1992. “I thought then and believe today that Hillary Clinton is such a vexing public figure largely because she is a woman in the transitional generation that dramatically challenged gender roles and assumptions that led to the post-feminist world in which we now live,” he writes.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/120072

“Forced to Choose Under Pressure” (p. 38). Associate Editor Raina Kelley writes about the pressure she feels as a black woman. “As just one registered voter out of millions, why do I have to tell everyone I know who I am voting for? I cannot help but feel that my character hangs in the balance.”

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“It’s not Her. It’s That Marriage” (p. 38). Senior Editor Lisa Miller examines whether what America wants in a First Marriage is something more mythic than real. “Much of the hesitance I hear about Hillary in my (admittedly small) circles is a hesitance over seeing that marriage (say it in irritated italics) back in the White House for four or eight more years,” she writes.

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“Am I Betraying the ‘Sisterhood’?” (p. 39). Associate Editor Jessica Bennett writes that for her and her college friends Hillary is no longer the candidate of inspiration. She—like nearly every other young person she knows—has been sold on the Obama rock-star brand. “Yet while the fear of betraying the ‘universal sisterhood’ doesn’t have the same impact for twentysomething women as it does for our second-wave feminist mothers, we remain conflicted about the candidate so many love to hate,” she writes.

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THE TECHNOLOGIST: “Gone, Without a Trace” (p. 25). Senior Editor Steven Levy explores the downside of technology’s trend toward smaller and smaller devices, after throwing away his MacBook Air with the newspapers.

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BETWEEN THE LINES: “My Mother’s Painful Quandary” (p. 40). Senior Editor and Columnist Jonathan Alter writes about the “excruciatingly painful” choice facing his mother, now 80, this political year as she tries to decide between Clinton and Obama, both of whom she has met. Her “dilemma is bound up in her own history in the women’s movement and in the brutal world of Chicago politics. But it’s also representative of the conflicting feelings experienced by some of the older women who make up Hillary’s most committed base. In that sense, she’s a Democratic Everymom,” he writes.

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POLITICS: “Always Their Own Worst Enemies” (p. 41). Editor-at-Large Evan Thomas, National Correspondent Martha Brant and San Francisco Bureau Chief Karen Breslau report that big reason behind Hillary Clinton’s dramatic comeback against Barack Obama last week was the “red phone” ad. In the latest Newsweek Poll, when voters were asked “Who would you most trust to answer the phone at 3 a.m.?,” 45 percent answered John McCain, 27 percent said Hillary Clinton and 18 percent chose Barack Obama. Of course, it is impossible for voters to truly know how a presidential candidate will respond to a crisis in the Oval Office. But there are clues in Hillary Clinton’s background.

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LIVING POLITICS: “The Pennsylvania Polka” (p. 43). Senior Political Correspondent Howard Fineman writes that “Hillary Clinton begins the Pennsylvania political polka with a lead,” and if Obama wants to win he “has to contest the primary with all his might, even at the risk of a fight with Clinton that leaves them both damaged for the fall.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/120170

POLITICS Q&A: “‘A Common Experience’” (p. 44). National Correspondent Suzanne Smalley interviews Hillary Clinton, fresh off her wins in Texas and Ohio, about her relationship with women voters, her comeback strategy and why her candidacy is good for the Democratic Party. “We both have strong constituencies. I think my constituencies are broader and deeper and more likely to produce winning margins in the general election. But [Obama] also has obviously energized African-American voters, young voters, and we need to bring them together. We need to have a unified Democratic Party because we’re going to win in November,” Clinton tells Newsweek.

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TIP SHEET: “Get Ready for Digital” (p. 66). Special Correspondent Cathy Lu offers tips to help consumers navigate and prepare for the 2009 transition from analog to digital television transmission. “The good news,” she writes, “is that the majority of couch potatoes will be unaffected when the switchover occurs.”

http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/tipsheet/default.aspx

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