MEDIA LEAD SHEET/SEPTEMBER 22, 2008 ISSUE (on newsstands Monday, September 15, 2008). To book correspondents, contact Brenda Velez at 212-445-4078—Brenda.Velez@Newsweek.com—or Grace Huh at 212-445-5831—Grace.Huh@Newsweek.com. Read the issue and Web exclusives at www.Newsweek.com.

COVER: “What Women Want” (p. 30). Senior Editor Julia Baird writes that although the building excitement over Sarah Palin has given John McCain an 11-point shift among white women, according to the latest Newsweek poll, history suggests that policy issues, rather than gender identity, may determine the outcome of this election. “What is now known as the Palin Effect seems to be overturning almost a century of wisdom about the way women think and vote,” Baird writes. That’s partially because pollsters for most of the past century neglected to actually ask them what they want. “They do want a better economy, their sons and daughters brought home from war, better health care, a good educational system. They want fairer media (the Newsweek Poll found that 34 percent of white women think the media have been too critical of Palin, and that one quarter of Clinton supporters agree). And to see more mothers making decisions that affect their lives. To have the chance to run for office alongside men without being called hags or fools. And, as Aretha Franklin might say, a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158893

DANIEL GROSS: “Lemons, But No Lehman Aid” (p. 25). Senior Editor Daniel Gross writes that as policymakers hasten to save some companies from the ravages of creative destruction, they leave others to fail. “Clearly, financial firms get extra consideration. But being involved in the money trade is no guarantee,” he writes. “These days, size alone doesn’t matter. Earlier this decade, Enron, WorldCom and Global Crossing, three gargantuan companies, went bust while the government looked the other way. Of course, when the aforementioned companies filed for Chapter 11, nobody lost electricity or was unable to make a phone call. ‘But if the government envisions that a failure will have a serious adverse consequence on the economy, it’s going to step in,’ says Benton Gup, a professor of banking at the University of Alabama and editor of the collection ‘Too Big to Fail: Policies and Practices in Government Bailouts.’”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158615

JONATHAN ALTER: “A Reality Check on ‘Change’” (p. 41). Senior Editor Jonathan Alter writes, “Rather than debating whether Barack Obama voted to teach sex education to kindergartners (he didn’t) or called Sarah Palin a pig (he didn’t), it would be nice if the central dynamic of this contest were about, say, the record and temperament of each candidate.” Alter looks at McCain and Obama’s Senate records and adds that while record and temperament might not be campaign issues, they may “tell us a lot more about the future president than all the trivia that passes for news at the moment.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158767

POLITICS: “Heard Any Good Stories Lately?” (p. 42). Senior Editor Sharon Begley writes that narratives have been used to attract voters at least since Lincoln’s campaign managers cast him as the rugged rail-splitter from the country’s frontier, not the prosperous railroad lawyer he was. But the power of the narrative has grown as party identification has weakened—putting more voters in play—and as the culture has changed. “The outsized power of the personal narrative today compared with even a generation ago,” Begley writes, “reflects something that has become almost a cliché in political analysis—namely, that emotions, more than a dispassionate and rational analysis of candidates’ records and positions, determine many voters’ choice on election day.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158749

INTERNATIONAL: “Pakistan’s Dangerous Double Game” (p. 44). South Asia Bureau Chief Ron Moreau and Investigative Correspondent Mark Hosenball report that combating Taliban insurgency leader Sirajuddin Haqqani’s fighters in the tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border has become one of the top priorities for American commanders in Afghanistan. But U.S officials say they have evidence that some elements of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, are protecting or even helping the Haqqani network in Pakistan itself, and it’s raising tensions between America and Pakistan, supposed allies in the war against terror. Senior Pakistani officers say now is not the time to move against Haqqani because of their limited forces, and because they are concentrating on militants like Baitullah Mehsud, another powerful Taliban leader. The Pakistani military and the ISI may also see the Haqqani network and other Taliban forces as potential assets to gain influence inside Afghanistan. As long as they’re not attacking Pakistani targets, say several Pakistan experts, the Haqqanis are not a priority. According to the Americans, however, Pakistani inaction has allowed the Haqqanis to grow from one insurgent group among many into perhaps the most deadly threat to U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158861

HEALTH FOR LIFE: “Mysteries Of Memory” (p. 64). Reporter Jeneen Interlandi reports that research published earlier this month in the journal Science has provided some important clues into how the brain builds memories. UCLA neuroscientists measured neural activity in the brains of 13 study participants as they watched short video clips of shows like “Seinfeld” and “The Simpsons.” Afterward, while their brains were still being monitored, subjects were asked to describe whichever of the video clips came to mind. The same neurons that had fired as they watched a given clip fired again when they recalled that clip. The findings offer the first proof of a long-held assumption—that reactivation of the neurons initially involved in an experience forms the basis of human memory. As exciting as that finding may be, however, some memory experts say the true significance of this study lies not in when the neurons fired, but in where they were located—the hippocampus.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158758

ART: “The Vatican Breaks Its DaVinci Code” (p. 70). Special Correspondent Barbie Nadeau reports on why, after several hundred years, the Catholic Church has gotten back into the modern-art business. This fall the Holy See hopes to revive its cultural side by searching for artists willing to create new interpretations of tired spiritual art. The Vatican campaign is nothing short of a genius hunt for a modern-day Michelangelo or Raphael. The artists will be chosen by a commission made up of art critics and art-savvy clergy. The Vatican will send the best forward, perhaps even to the Venice Biennale, a competition for contemporary artists the Vatican once dismissed as “the breakdown of art in modern times.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158580

MOVIES: “A Perfect Casting Call” (p. 72). Senior Editor David Ansen reviews Darren Aronofsky’s  “The Wrestler,” starring Mickey Rourke. “The miracle and mystery of perfect casting came to mind at the Toronto film festival as I sat alongside 580 enthralled viewers witnessing the resurrection of Mickey Rourke,” Ansen writes. “To say this is a great comeback for an actor whose talent was exceeded only by his self-destructiveness is obvious. But this was a kind of harmonic convergence of player and part that happens once in a blue moon—the actor vanishing so completely inside a role that our sense of his ‘real’ identity is permanently altered.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158591

TIP SHEET: “The Devils Want Prada” (p. 74). Chicago Correspondent Karen Springen provides parents with some tips on how to balance the desire to make your fashion conscious kids happy without going bankrupt. Some of the tips include speaking with kids of all ages about the fashions they see teen stars wearing in the movies or TV; creating a clothing budget for them to control, or explaining that you can’t afford an expensive item rather than saying, “no.”               

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

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