MEDIA LEAD SHEET/OCTOBER 27, 2008 ISSUE (on newsstands Monday, October 20, 2008). To book correspondents, contact Brenda Velez at 212-445-4078-Brenda.Velez@Newsweek.com- Katherine Barna at 212-445-4859-Katherine.Barna@Newsweek.com-or Grace Huh at 212-445-5831-Grace.Huh@Newsweek.com. Read the issue and Web exclusives at www.Newsweek.com.

COVER: America the Conservative (p. 32). Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham writes an essay looking at how Barack Obama's lead in the polls over John McCain may appear to signal the dawn of a new progressive era, but he believes as a country, America is still strikingly conservative.  "But history...tells us that Democratic presidents from FDR to JFK to LBJ to Carter to Clinton usually wind up moving farther right than they thought they ever would, or they pay for their continued liberalism at the polls," Meacham writes.  "Should Obama win, he will have to govern a nation that is more instinctively conservative than it is liberal-a perennial reality that past Democratic presidents have ignored at their peril."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/164656

"We're Heading Left Once Again" (p. 38). Senior Editor Jonathan Alter writes a counterpoint to Jon Meacham's essay, saying that for all the statistical permutations, analyzing the makeup of the American electorate for the past half-century is fairly simple. "Since about 1980, we've been living in a center-right America, but we're center-center now, and likely headed left. Even if McCain pulls an upset, the Democratic Congress would nudge him leftward on issues like alternative energy and taxes (and his health care plan would be DOA). Should Obama win, he will press hard for his ambitious agenda, even, aides say, at the risk of being a one-term president. Then it would all be about execution."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/164503

TECHTONIC SHIFTS: DAN LYONS: "Why is Jerry Yang Still in Charge?"  (p. 24). Senior Editor Dan Lyons writes that eight months ago, Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang had a chance to sell his company to Microsoft for $43 billion. He refused. Now Yahoo's market value stands at $18 billion. A spokesman for Yahoo notes that Yahoo was willing to sell at a higher price, and that Microsoft, not Yahoo, walked away from the deal. No matter how it happened, Yahoo's failure to hook up with Microsoft may rank as one of the greatest  boneheaded moves in the history of tech." And Yang remains in charge, "furiously scrambling to come up with a Plan B for turning around his ailing Internet company."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/164493

POLITICS: "Do the Wright Thing" (p. 44). White House Correspondent Holly Bailey reports that top aides to John McCain share the dismay of his hard-core supporters who would like to see him go after
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Barack Obama by bringing up the Rev. Jeremiah Wright again. McCain won't. The main reason: any attack could be viewed as racially insensitve-or stir up racist sentiments-and that gets personal for McCain. There was a racial smear directed at his family during the South Carolina primary in 2000, when he ran against George W. Bush. Plus, Bailey reports, there are probably other factors. Bringing up Wright at this point would open his campaign to charges of hypocrisy and even desperation.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/164504

INTERNATIONAL: "In Iraq, the Doctors Are Out" (p. 46). Baghdad Bureau Chief Larry Kaplow reports that while Baghdad is not as violent as it was four years ago, bringing real stability to the city depends on thousands of educated professionals who fled the country during the war and its aftermath. The place can't be fixed without their help. But unlike most other refugees, Iraq's engineers, entrepreneurs, teachers and doctors had the skills to land residence permits and good jobs elsewhere. Now they have less incentive than most to return to a land where they could again be subject to the brutal dictates of gun-wielding illiterates. The medical profession in particular has been hollowed out.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/164496

TERROR: "The Biscuit Breaker" (p. 48). Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Dan Ephron profiles psychologist Steven Reisner, who has made it his mission to get psychologists out of the business of helping the military as they break down prisoners.  In 2004, he read about the secret program at Guantánamo Bay and other sites where military and civilian psychologists have often watched through the glass when detainees have been interrogated. He is convinced that some of the techniques used in those interrogations amounted to torture.  Reisner's crusade has been waged largely within the American Psychological Association-in the minutiae of association bylaws and on the pages of internal listservs.  Last week, balloting began for a new APA president in what for many is a referendum on the relationship between psychologists and the military. 

http://www.newsweek.com/id/164497

BUSINESS: "The Money Man" (p. 52). Senior Editor Michael Hirsh profiles Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who, in recent weeks, has been trying, in effect, to save the world. He has super-empowered the Fed, expanding its lending authority in unprecedented ways, while fighting off a global financial panic that feels to him alarmingly like the one that led to the Great Depression, his life's focus as a scholar. In the past year, Bernanke has more than doubled the Fed's balance sheet-the amount it can spend-to $1.77 trillion, and flung open new lending windows to commercial businesses and governments across the world.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/164492

CULTURE: "The Original Culture Warrior" (p. 62). Senior Writer Jeremy McCarter previews the Leonard Bernstein celebration in New York City. Led by Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic, "Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds" marks the 90th anniversary of his birth and the 50th anniversary of his appointment as music director of the Philharmonic. McCarter writes that the Bernstein festival reminds us that one of our civilization's triumphs has been finding ways to reconcile "elite" and "popular," to stop treating the words like opposing epithets. At a time when so many other echoes of Camelot are in the air, we may yet see the return of its cultural spirit, one that few Americans have embodied as fully as Lenny Bernstein.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/164499

TELEVISION: "Sarah Palin, Reality Star" (p. 67). Associate Editor Joshua Alston reports that Sarah Palin missed an opportunity in her interview with Katie Couric to make the argument that hailing from Alaska is a qualification for the vice presidency. It's not because Alaska is close to Russia, but because Alaska is Alaska. Alaska is a big hit in American homes, as it's the setting of so many "He-Man" television shows-the nonfiction genre that focuses on unpleasant, difficult and dangerous work. Alaska, at least the reality television version, is an intimidating force. It's huge. It's desolate. It's freezing cold. Alaska does not forgive. Alaska is not your friend.  And Palin is the embodiment of Alaskan grit.          

http://www.newsweek.com/id/164528
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