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Kathianne
07-19-2008, 07:11 PM
No, not grass, rather the magazines. *Satire Alert*, well perhaps:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/time_publishes_definitive_obama?utm_source=onion_r ss_daily


'Time' Publishes Definitive Obama Puff Piece

July 18, 2008 | Issue 44•29

NEW YORK—Hailed by media critics as the fluffiest, most toothless, and softest-hitting coverage of the presidential candidate to date, a story in this week's Time magazine is being called the definitive Barack Obama puff piece.
Enlarge Image Fluff Piece

One twelfth of the light, glossy, groundbreaking surface-level feature.

"No news publication has dared to barely scratch the surface like this before," columnist and campaign reporter Michael King wrote in The Washington Post Tuesday. "This profile sets a benchmark for mindless filler by which all other features about Sen. Obama will now be judged. Just impressive puff-journalism all around."

The 24-page profile, entitled "Boogyin' With Barack," hit newsstands Monday and contains photos of the candidate as a baby, graduating from Columbia University, standing and laughing, holding hands with his wife and best friend, Michelle, greeting a crowd of blue-collar autoworkers, eating breakfast with diner patrons, and staring pensively out of an airplane window while a pen and legal pad rest comfortably on his lowered tray table.

According to political analysts, the Time piece features the most lack-of-depth reporting on Obama ever published, and for the first time reveals a number of inconsequential truths about the candidate, including how he keeps in shape on the campaign trail, and which historical figures the presidential hopeful would choose to have dinner with....

But just for a comparison of the real TIME:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1824576,00.html


Saturday, Jul. 19, 2008
Obama Begins Afghanistan Tour
By Aryn Baker/Kabul

Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive U.S. Democratic presidential nominee, took his first step onto the world stage Saturday, landing in Afghanistan for what is expected to be a two day tour of a country he has identified as his (and Washington's) most pressing foreign policy challenge. Not that many in the country even knew he was planning a visit. You might call it the invisible man approach to building foreign policy credentials. While security around the presidential palace in the capital was amplified in anticipation that Obama would meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, no one at the palace, in the US embassy, at NATO headquarters in the country or in the US military would confirm his pending visit.

It's an understandable precaution — security in the capital has reached an all time low. On July 7 a suicide bomber rammed his explosives laden truck into the gates of the Indian embassy, killing 41 in the capital's worst terrorist attack. In April assassins attempted to kill Karzai at a national day parade, and in January militants conducted a sophisticated raid on the country's only luxury hotel, killing 9. This year in Afghanistan as a whole has been the bloodiest ever. For two months running foreign soldier casualties in Afghanistan have topped those in Iraq, Obama's anticipated next stop on a trip that will also take him to Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and Britain, even though the Iraqi theatre has more than twice as many troops. So far it looks as if the trend will continue in July...

...Indeed. Republican candidate John McCain, who has already visited Afghanistan, has accused Obama of making uninformed foreign policy plans. This weekend's visit may go a long way towards establishing Obama's foreign policy credentials, but it is questionable how much he will actually learn while on the ground. editorial: Go ahead, try to figure that one out. Like president Karzai, who rarely leaves the palace for fear of assassination attempts, Obama will be equally sheltered from the real Afghanistan. According to the Associated Press but as of yet unconfirmed by the US military, Obama visited US troops in the relatively safe province of Nangahar. While not exactly a Potemkin village, the provincial capital Jalalabad is one of the country's rare success stories, and far removed from the devastating instability that plagues most of the country. "I don't think that he will get the reality of Afghanistan," says Sancharaki. "Part of his visit will be with the American troops, and part in the palace, so that is only one angle. It would be better for Obama to talk to civil society, media and political parties to get the reality of Afghanistan."

Once such reality that he may miss is that while more troops will certainly help the country's security situation, they will not win the war. Afghanistan is besieged by a multitude of problems, not least of which is the endemic corruption that has eviscerated any faith the Afghans once had in their government. "Russia came here with 150 thousand troops, and you know what happened," says businessman Mohammad Akbar Bhai. "Even if you bring one million troops in Afghanistan, the West cannot win. What we need is honest government. If a river starts in mud, everything downstream will be dirty."

Dilloduck
07-19-2008, 09:32 PM
No, not grass, rather the magazines. *Satire Alert*, well perhaps:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/time_publishes_definitive_obama?utm_source=onion_r ss_daily



But just for a comparison of the real TIME:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1824576,00.html

I'm don't think it's proper to say "mud" in an article about Obama. How did that slip by the editors ? :laugh2: