Mike Allen at The Politico describes the special Newsweek double edition due out on Monday:
PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA IS ON THE COVER OF NEWSWEEK (!) — Release: “In the December 29, 2008-January 5, 2009 double issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, December 22), ‘The New Global Elite,’ correspondents from around the world compile the first ever list of the world’s 50 most powerful people and explore their importance in the world today.”
Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham writes in his editor’s note: “Power in the early days of the Age of Obama is being shaped by three forces: a resurgence of American credibility, the global recession and what my colleague Fareed Zakaria calls ‘the rise of the rest’–the emergence of countries such as India, China and Brazil. … Some of this power is exerted directly (Obama’s), some indirectly (David Axelrod’s). We considered wealth, missiles, box office. Vladimir Putin is here (at No. 9) because of Russia’s geopolitical clout, but no higher because his economy is cratering. And we tried to capture trends and power shifts–from the return of the state to the economy to the rise of Pentecostalism.”
The “Age of Obama?” …The “resurgence of American credibility?”
And, here we thought America showed its credibility when it finally acted to remove Saddam Hussein after a decade of warnings and UN declarations and brought democracy to 25 million people in Iraq and another 25 million Afghans.
The fact that Bush and Republicans didn’t bail out when the going got tough was a pretty credible event, too.
It’s really a pathetic sign for the mainstream media when one of the leading “news” magazines is more liberal than the DNC website.
More… Newsweek also says that the Clintons are the perfect couple to repair America’s image abroad.
Bleck.