MEDIA LEAD SHEET/MAY 5, 2008 ISSUE (on newsstands Monday, April 28). To book correspondents, contact Brenda Velez at 212-445-4078—Brenda.Velez@Newsweek.com, Grace Huh at 212-445-5831—Grace.Huh@Newsweek.com—or Jan Angilella at 212-445-5638—Jan.Angilella@Newsweek.com. Articles are posted on www.Newsweek.com. 

COVER: “Obama’s Bubba Gap” (p. 28). Editor-At-Large Evan Thomas, White House Correspondent Holly Bailey and Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe report on why Obama’s opponents are tapping into Americans’ fears of an “other” and painting Obama as an out-of-touch elitist, while the working man worries about layoffs at the plant. Americans do not like to talk about class, and they want to believe racism is a thing of the past. But there has long been a dark side to democratic politics, a willingness to play on prejudice, to get men and women to vote their fears and not their hopes. Those prejudices fade and seem to die down, but they never quite go away. They remain embers for cunning political operatives to fan into flames. In a new Newsweek Poll, 19 percent of American voters say that the country is not ready to elect an African-American president. The poll also shows that more than half the voters said they think “most” (12 percent) or “some” (41 percent) of the voters will “have reservations about voting for a black candidate that they are not willing to express.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134398

“Hope vs. Fear” (p. 36). Senior Editor and Columnist Jonathan Alter writes that a President Barack Hussein Obama would pose a shock to the country’s system. “Opposition to him is not so much old-fashioned racism as fear of the ‘other,’ with the subtext not just our tortured racial history, but tangled views of class and patriotism,” Alter writes. “Fortunately for him, different strains of the American character often work to ease our anxieties: openness, optimism, hope.” Alter adds that the big question this year is whether voters are sick of fear campaigns.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134321

“McCain’s Hidden Advantage” (p. 37). Contributing Editor Ellis Cose writes that the surprise in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary was that recent events had virtually no effect on the result. “Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton could have stayed home for the past month and a half and the outcome would have been essentially the same. Women and older voters, for the most part, would have come out for Clinton; blacks, young people and the highly educated elite would have backed Obama.” writes Cose. “This is good news for Obama—at least in the short term…But what is good for Obama now might be fatal later. Demographics don’t necessarily favor him, or any Democrat, in the general election.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134323

“An Unfamiliar Narrative” (p. 38). Associate Editor Raina Kelley writes that “the idea that the black candidate is successfully being portrayed as an elitist by the two white candidates is priceless, and may be the truest indicator of how far African-Americans have come since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 40 years ago,” she writes. “If Obama seems alien, it may not be simply because he’s the African-American presidential front runner, but because he’s an African-American politician who doesn’t flaunt his scars. As he says again and again in speeches, only in this country would his story be possible.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134324

THE MONEY CULTURE: “The Age of Grand Dilution” (p. 24). Senior Editor and Columnist Daniel Gross writes that the steps financial institutions are taking bear a heavy cost: dilution. “Most Americans experience dilution at bars, when unscrupulous bartenders cut top-shelf alcohol with excessive amounts of tonic or juice in mixed drinks,” Gross writes. “In recent months we’ve been feeling it in our wallets, as inflation (up 4 percent in the year that ended in March) has eroded wages. Now it’s Wall Street’s turn.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134310

“The Natural No More” (p. 39). Senior Writer and Political Correspondent Jonathan Darman writes that for months, it’s been a great mystery how Bill Clinton, the most gifted politician of a generation, could become an unceasing gaffe machine. “The problem is that second-banana Bill Clinton, stripped of his leader’s charisma, is sometimes hard to like. The Clinton tragedy is not, as some would have it, that the former president lets his base desires compromise his enormous talents. Rather, it’s that a man of such talents would waste so much time proclaiming himself the victim,” he writes.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134320

NATION: “Brownsville’s Bad Lie” (p. 40). Los Angeles Bureau Chief Andrew Murr reports on why an alliance of concerned citizens from Brownsville, Texas plan to fight the government over the fence slated for the U.S. and Mexico border. They decry “the wall,” as a waste of money and argue that it will crimp the economy and trample landowners’ rights. Chief among their concerns is the possibility that the fence will despoil the environment. In early April, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff waived three dozen laws that he said interfered with his ability to build the fence. Among them: the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134319

INTERNATIONAL: “Liberate Us From The Liberators” (p. 44). Africa Bureau Chief Scott Johnson and National Security Correspondent John Barry report on Zimbabwe’s political dilemma and it’s apparent meltdown since its March 29 presidential election. Government officials still insist they need to recount results from the general elections, and every few days they release a revised total from one disputed constituency or another. Opposition supporters and much of the outside world, however, recognize this as a sham—“If [Zimbabweans] had voted for Mugabe, we would have the results” by now, Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. assistant secretary of State for African affairs, said last week—and with each passing day resentments are hardening and the economy has ground to a halt.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134375

SHARON BEGLEY: “Heat Your Vegetables”  (p. 48). Senior Editor Sharon Begley writes about how climate change is impacting harvests around the world. “The international panel of scientists that analyzes climate change concluded last year that the mid- and high latitudes will enjoy higher crop yields when average temperatures rise 1 to 3 degrees above today’s, something we’re on track for by 2020…However, details such as how vanishing glaciers will affect rivers that provide irrigation water to India and China are only now being factored in, and the results are enough to make you hoard 20-pound bags of rice,” Begley writes.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134313

HISTORY: “The Women the President Loved” (p. 57). Senior Editor Julia Baird reviews historian Joseph E. Persico’s new book, “Franklin and Lucy: President Roosevelt, Mrs. Rutherfurd, and the Other Remarkable Women in His Life.” “What is most interesting about this tale is what these two giants of American history managed to achieve together, despite their shortcomings—and that they somehow negotiated a marriage where they sought succor and sustenance from others, but still believed in each other,” Baird writes.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/134307

TIP SHEET: “Mother’s Day” (p. 58). Newsweek gathered an assortment of great gift ideas, just in time for Mother’s Day, and asked online toy retailer eBeanstalk.com to poll moms about what they want. The results included French macaroons from lepicerie.com; floral garden clogs from capeclogs.com; peony and rose bouquets, and a Flip Video Ultra camcorder.    

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/tipsheet/

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