MEDIA LEAD SHEET/SEPTEMBER 8, 2008 ISSUE (on newsstands Monday, September 1, 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. **The Newsweek Communications Office will be closed on Monday, September 1.

COVER: “Special Republican Convention Issue” (p. 24). In this preview of the Republican National Convention, Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham opens the cover package with an in-depth look at the legacy of John McCain’s father and vivacious, politically astute mother and how they influenced his life. In an interview with Meacham, McCain says that although his father, a naval officer, was gone a great deal, his mother reminded him and his siblings of him and of his example. “My mom, who really idolized my dad, had the effect on us of kind of idolizing him.” McCain also opens up about his father’s struggles with alcoholism and how that changed the way he viewed his father. “I not only idolized him but I also understood that he had flaws like all of us.” Meacham writes that there is a lot more to McCain than many realize. “John McCain is an eager, cold-eyed politician who has sought the White House for a decade, compromised and reversed himself and believes he is an actor in a grand, unfolding saga. He is also more comfortable with shades of gray than he appears—a sense of nuance rooted, it seems, in an early life in which he at once revered his father and felt sorry for him.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156488

Interview:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156489

 “McCain’s Mrs. Right” (p. 24). Editor-At-Large Evan Thomas and San Francisco Bureau Chief Karen Breslau profile Alaska Governor and newly selected running mate for John McCain, Sarah Palin. Although the choice of Palin was a shocker to some conservative pundits, choosing her is historic, although it undercuts McCain’s attack on Obama as a greenhorn lacking in experience, especially abroad. Palin is going to have to essentially take a crash course in foreign affairs before the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate against Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156472

“To Dream a Little Dream of Us” (p. 35). Contributing Editor Ellis Cose writes that the Republican National Convention this week will be a showcase for dreams—and arguments about how to make them real. “The Republicans will do their best to match the Democrats’ soaring rhetoric.” Cose writes. This contest he adds, “is more about who is the best dream merchant. Make no mistake: both candidates, and both parties, have dreams to sell. Or, more accurately, they have different versions of the same dream—the American Dream. In the end, the election is likely to go to the candidate who best argues his dream is the more authentic—and his approach the most American.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156357

             “McCain’s ‘Hail Sarah’ Pass” (p. 55). Senior Editor Jonathan Alter writes that McCain’s selection of Gov. Palin as his running mate may prove to be irresponsible. He has “selected a potential leader of the free world who knows little or nothing about the major issues of the day beyond energy,” Alter writes. He adds that although her acceptance speech suggests she could be a natural on the national stage, “politics, like all professions, isn’t as easy as it looks. Palin’s odds of emerging unscathed are slim. In fact, she’s been all but set up for failure.” Although it’s “possible that Palin is so talented that she will prove to be the face of the GOP’s future. More likely, this ‘Hail Sarah’ pass won’t do much to help John McCain get into the end zone. He’ll win or lose for other reasons,” he writes.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156258

“A Penchant For the Politics Of the Poke” (p. 58). Senior Writer and Political Correspondent Jonathan Darman writes that this year John McCain “has finally assumed the leadership of the conservative movement by disavowing the same rebellious tradition he once cherished. To date, in his challenge to Barack Obama, he has run an entirely conventional conservative Republican campaign. But while the attacks may prove effective…they hardly feel subversive, dramatic or new,” Darman writes. “Even the choice of Sarah Palin, a reliable social conservative and tax-cutter,” suggests John McCain “is less interested in being dramatic for the sake of principle than he is in being dramatic for drama’s sake.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156353

DANIEL GROSS: “Get Ready for the ‘Pain of Paying’” (p. 18). Senior Editor Daniel Gross writes that we are quickly reverting from a borrow-and-buy model to the old school cash-and-carry model. “This shock to the system has the capacity to alter the already fragile psychology of the consumer,” Gross writes. “And make no mistake, deducting the price of a pair of shoes directly from your bank account packs a much more potent emotional punch than charging the pair of Allen-Edmonds loafers on your American Express platinum card. Chalk it up to a concept called ‘the pain of paying,’”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156342

HEALTH CARE: “Is Medicare Healthy?” (p. 56). General Editor Mary Carmichael interviews Joseph Newhouse, a Medicare expert and professor of health policy at Harvard University and asks what the next president will need to do to fix Medicare. According to Newhouse, the problem with Obama’s proposed price controls, is that “the government can’t be in the position of paying any price that a manufacturer names… There ought to be some kind of ability to set prices.” McCain’s proposed increase in premiums for prescription-drug coverage for those making more than $160,000 a year wouldn’t work because “that high-income group is a very small percentage of the elderly. There aren’t enough of them to make much of a dent if the goal is to save money,” Newhouse says.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156349

INSIDE BUSINESS: “Is America Losing At Globalization?” (p. 66). Gross writes that there are signs that the United States is losing ground in the daily global competition for economic supremacy. In the 1990’s, “American consumers and businesses seemed to regard globalization and free trade as net positives. The integration of China and the former Soviet bloc into the trading system lowered inflation, opened new markets and brought billions of workers into the labor force,” Gross writes. “But in this decade, rampant growth in emerging markets has mercilessly boosted prices for energy and commodities; competition from foreign workers has tamped down wage growth, and the weak dollar has made U.S. companies vulnerable to foreign buyers… As a result, Americans are now more inclined to see themselves as victims of globalization—rather than as beneficiaries of it. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll this spring found that 50 percent of respondents said free trade hurt the economy, while only 26 percent said it helped.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156343

“Why Economics Isn’t A Zero-Sum Game” (p. 67). Newsweek’s Business Roundtable looks at the two faces of globalization, and whether the U.S. can stay ahead. Participants in the roundtable included Robert Reich, former secretary of Labor under Clinton, who now teaches at the University of California, Berkeley; M. Kathryn Eickhoff, former chief economist of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan; Wilbur Ross, billionaire investor and past director of the Turnaround Management Association; Bob Lutz, head of global product development at General Motors; Marissa Mayer, V.P. of search products and user experience at Google, and John Snow, former Treasury secretary under George W. Bush, now chairman of Cerberus Capital Management.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/156251

###