The Week Magazine - News reviews and opinion, arts, entertainment & political cartoons

Clinton delivers

But will her big speech be enough?

Best opinion: Detroit Free Press, CQ, Wash. Post, MarketWatch...

Jeering Mugabe

Does open hostility from opposition lawmakers suggest Zimbabwe’s strongman is losing his grip?

Best opinion: London Times, BBC News, SW Radio Africa

What Obama should say

Making the sale at the Democratic convention

Best opinion: Wall St. Journal, Wash. Post, Nat. Review ...

DAVID FRUM: Can Obama Dare to be Dull?

From around the Web: Today's Best Columns

Obama and McCain embrace “symbolic gestures to falsely suggest they’ve made tough choices.” Welcome to the era of “fantasy politics.”

Robert Samuelson/The Washington Post

The rich parts of China are now “more state of the art than rich America. It’s time to “get back to work” and do some nation-building at home.

Thomas Friedman/The New York Times

“The idea that there is a vast war over the moral and spiritual compass of the nation is a dramatic narrative.” It just isn’t true.

Dick Meyer/Los Angeles Times

Some like to berate Congress for doing too little. “But the last thing sensible Americans should want is for senators and representatives to assemble and pass more laws.”

Jeff Jacoby/The Boston Globe

Judging by the lame protests in Denver, “what’s left of the leftover ‘60s movement is all sizzle and no steak. Or veggie burger. Deep-fried tofu. Whatever.”

Michelle Malkin/National Review Online

Banking on failures, Expensive beer hopping- The FDIC considers borrowing from the U.S. Treasury as more banks appear on its failure watch list. Heineken’s profit rises as people keep drinking premium beer. And clean energy’s dirty secret is that we can’t get it from Point A to Point B.

Best columns: Reversing mortgages, Giving credit- “The reverse mortgage sounds like a pretty sweet deal,” says Fortune’s Eugenia Levenson in CNNMoney.com, but it has some steep costs. Credit unions have “a kind of sleepy, backwater image,” says Brett Arends in The Wall Street Journal, but they offer “some surprisingly good deals.”

News & Opinion

How Bill Clinton matters - Will the former president get firmly behind Obama? Does it matter?

What Biden does for Obama - Obama's running mate adds experience, but does he reduce the chance of change?

Defining Olympic success - The Beijing Games were dazzling, but were they worth the steep price?

The prevalence of school spanking - Should teachers be allowed to use corporal punishment?

How to stop the Taliban surge - Does NATO hold the key to saving Afghanistan?

Arts & Leisure

Cher as Catwoman - Is Cher, 62, too old, or is she perfect for a part in the next Batman film?

David Beckham: The Musical? - Will the soccer star's life story make a good stage production?

‘The War Within’: What to expect from Bob Woodward’s new book - Is Woodward's latest book a scathing exposé of the Bush administration?

Why Malaysia might ban Avril Lavigne - Is the pop singer too risqué for Malaysian audiences?

Best books … chosen by Siri Hustvedt - Novelist and poet Siri Hustvedt is the author of What I Loved and The Enchantment of Lily Dahl. Her most recent novel is The Sorrows of an American, published by Henry Holt.

Cartoons & Short Takes

Shakespeare's playhouse, Togo's Olympic medal - Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe are the remains of the playhouse where William Shakespeare staged some of his first works.

Training cheerleaders, Jennifer Aniston's new boyfriend, Great Dane's big swallow - Twenty-six teenage cheerleaders from Texas had to be rescued after they all squeezed into a single elevator at a cheerleading camp.

Species act overhaul, No charges over tainted hiring - A proposed overhaul of the 1973 Endangered Species Act would allow government officials, rather than independent experts, to evaluate the environmental impact of any changes.