MEDIA LEAD SHEET/APRIL 6, 2009 ISSUE (on newsstands Monday, March 30). To book correspondents, contact 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: "Obama Is Wrong"  (p. 20). As the debate over the rescue of the financial system-which is crucial in stabilizing the economy and returning the country to prosperity-unfolds, Paul Krugman has emerged as President Obama's toughest liberal critic, writes Newsweek Editor-at-Large Evan Thomas in his profile of Krugman.  Krugman, a columnist for The New York Times, a professor at Princeton and a Nobel Prize winner in economics, was a scourge of the Bush administration, but has been critical, if not hostile, to the Obama White House, skeptical of the bank bailout and pessimistic about the economy.  As the debate continues, there are worries among the establishment that his "despair" over the administration's bailout plan might be right. "Krugman may be exaggerating the decay of the financial system or the devotion of Obama's team to preserving it. But what if he's right, or part right?," Thomas writes.  "What if President Obama is squandering his only chance to step in and nationalize...the banks before they collapse altogether?"

http://www.newsweek.com/id/191393

BUSINESS: "The Education of Timothy Geithner" (p. 26). Senior Editor Michael Hirsh profiles Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who is finally starting to hit his stride.  For two months he seemed to stumble again and again as Obama's point man on the financial crisis. He disappointed markets and pundits with what seemed like hesitant half-steps, and the attacks on him grew ever more savage.  The criticisms have lessened since last Monday, March 23, when Geithner delivered the long-awaited details of his scheme to save the banking system.  And a few days later he revealed the most dramatic plan for regulating finance since the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 (the dismantling of which a decade ago may have contributed to the crisis).  Most of all, Geithner seemed, at long last, to take charge.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/191394

JONATHAN ALTER: "Caught in the Act of Thinking" (p. 29).  Senior Editor Jonathan Alter writes that the same reporters who had blasted President Obama for demeaning the presidency by cracking jokes on "The Tonight Show" and drinking a beer at a basketball game now claim Obama's boring. On Sunday he had to defend himself on "60 Minutes" from the charge that he was "punch drunk" with mirth; by Wednesday, he was derided as too serious and professorial.  However,  Obama seems perfectly content to be caught in the act of thinking in prime time.  In doing so, he may be making news in a larger sense. He was signaling that he actually trusts people to stick with him through a complex, long-term argument. This is a radical idea for an American president.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/191407

ECONOMY: "The Peril of Financial Linguistics" (p. 34).  Senior Editor Daniel Gross writes that the toxic assets, poorly performing mortgages and collateralized debt obligations festering on the books of banks that made truly execrable lending decisions have been transformed in the latest federal bank- rescue plan into "legacy loans" and "legacy securities"-safe for professional investors to purchase, provided, of course, they get lots of cheap government credit.  More insidiously, the word "legacy" is frequently deployed to deflect blame. Legacy financial issues are, by definition, holdovers from prior regimes.  The legacy gambit is necessary, in part, because the prior nomenclature used to describe the stuff in question was so corrosive. In trying to rebrand dodgy financial instruments, Treasury secretaries like Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner are continuing a recent tradition. So much of the finance sector's innovation in the past 30 years, it turns out, wasn't developing new stuff, but rather developing new ways of talking about preexisting stuff.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/191397

INTERNATIONAL: "The Return of the Baathists" (p. 36).  Correspondent Larry Kaplow reports that for years Iraqi parliamentarian Saleh al-Mutlaq has been the foremost defender of Iraqis with ties to Saddam Hussein's old party. In return, Mutlaq and his allies have been called just about everything from opportunists to terrorists. Nevertheless, he claims, he told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki four years ago that someday Maliki would beg the Baathists to come back. Now Iraq's fiercely anti-Baathist prime minister has come close to fulfilling Mutlaq's implausible prediction-though on his own terms. Maliki announced that Iraq would welcome the return of "those who at one time were obligated to be on the side of the former regime," as long as they accept Iraq's new order.  After six years, Iraq's ostracism of old Baathists is easing.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/191404

BUSINESS: "MadMan" (p. 38).  Senior Editor Daniel Lyons profiles brand genius Peter Arnell, who recently received criticism for his Tropicana redesign.  One blogger called Arnell "the Bernie Madoff of brands." In February, Tropicana announced it would revert to the old packaging.  That fiasco will cost Tropicana some money, but it could do even more damage to Arnell, who's been called one of the great brand impresarios of our age. Over the past two decades his agency has done high-profile work for clients like Samsung, Banana Republic, McDonald's, Home Depot and Pfizer.  But in fact Arnell's greatest invention may be himself. Over the years Arnell, 50, has turned himself into a powerhouse brand, wrapping himself in myth and packaging his personal narrative with the same flair he brings to a Super Bowl ad.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/191396

SOCIETY: "Tales of a Modern Diva" (p. 42). Associate Editor Jessica Bennett writes on the "high-maintenance" generation and how our obsession with beauty is changing our kids.  Girls today become accustomed to beauty treatments at a younger age and with more vigor than generations past. They are salon vets before they enter elementary school.  Reared on reality TV and celebrity makeovers, girls are using beauty products earlier, spending more and still feeling worse about themselves. Much has been made of the oversexualization of today's tweens. But what hasn't been discussed is what we might call their "diva-ization"-before they even hit the tween years.  According to a newsweek examination of the most common beauty trends, by the time your 10-year-old is 50, she'll have spent nearly $300,000 on just her hair and face. Today's girls are getting caught up in the beauty-maintenance game at ages when they should be learning how to read-and long before their beauty needs enhancing.  This is a group that's grown up on pop culture that screams, again and again, that everything, everything, is a candidate for upgrading.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/191247

ESSAY: "The Columbine Generation" (p. 56). General Editor Ramin Setoodeh reviews Dave Cullen's book "Columbine," which will likely be the definitive account for what happened during the Columbine High School shooting a decade ago.  There had been school shootings before, but this was the deadliest, the most horrifying, the one that wouldn't heal.   Cullen has a gift for excruciating detail and he shows every bullet fired and every victim taken down. He also, despite all odds, manages to humanize the killers, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, along with debunking some of the biggest fallacies about them.   

http://www.newsweek.com/id/191392                              

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