Karl Rove's Memoir: Act of Vengeance In Courage and Consequence , his tale of the George W. Bush years, Karl Rove disses his critics and defends the boss. No news there

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It's Her Party: The Brilliance of Sarah Palin Sarah Palin, who gave the keynote address to the Tea Party convention, is clever, deceptive and infuriating — which makes her the Republicans' most potent force

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JOE KLEIN, TIME MAGAZINE: "But there’s a big difference here between the Democratic and Republican parties. In the Republican party, the base is the right wing. In the Democratic party, the base isn’t the left wing. The base is African-Americans, a lot of Hispanics, trade union people, and so on. You have a bunch of bloggers on the left, but I don’t think that they carry the same weight as the maniacs on the right do with the Republican party."
 

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Why We're Failing Our Schools The government has billions to spend on public education, but teachers' unions are standing in the way
 

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Does Obama's Education Plan Make the Grade? The President's plan for education reform is a good start. Here's how to make it even better

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The CIA Double Cross: How Bad a Blow in Afghanistan? The lethal attack on the CIA by Jordanian suicide bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi raises doubts about the reliability of America's allies in the war in Afghanistan
 

Unraveling the Middle East Muddle Obama's push for an Arab-Israeli peace is floundering. It's time to focus on what's actually achievable
 

 Joe Klein's IN THE ARENA column for TIME magazine. These were art directed by Cynthia Hoffman and Andree Kahlmorgan.

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