Election 2008: A Voter's Guide

This collection offers up a handy set of sketches for each 2008 presidential candidate (or, in the case of Newt Gingrich, likely candidate) from the two major parties. Michael Crowley's unflattering chapter on Clinton focuses on her militaristic and interventionist instincts, while John B. Judis's take on McCain centers on his recent alignment with neoconservatives on foreign policy and war. Ryan Lizza's essay on Barack Obama has an authoritative grasp of the candidate's political idealism and background in hardheaded community organizing. These brief, usually perceptive profiles prove handiest with lesser-known candidates, offering solid introductions with insights into larger political trends. In a fascinating long-view essay, John B. Judis dissects these trends detailing major shifts in party politics and constituencies (tenuously favoring Democrats) that he calls a ""creeping realignment"" nearly two decades in the making. Lizza's amusing and instructive tale about Mark Warner's aborted presidential bid-and ""the agony of running for president""-serves as a kind of epilogue, while an appendix charts ""where they stand"" on the bigger issues, from war to health care.