I'm rather pleasantly surprised <i>Newsweek</i> published this and gave it this kind of cover treatment. I don't believe for a moment they've changed their stripes there -- Niall Ferguson was a McCain adviser so not part of their usual coterie of dyed-in-the-wool liberals -- but perhaps this is part of a new direction to try to be more objective and balanced in their coverage now that they're no longer under the iron boot of the Washington Post.

I would be far more hopeful if Juan Williams, Ed Koch or Mario Cuomo were intellectually honest enough to have penned this editorial.