The March issue of The American Prospect is out, and with it, my feature profile of John Edwards. We've talked about him a lot on this blog, but I've actually held back most of my opinions, saving them for this piece. The catch, though, is that it's behind the subscription wall. So if you've got either a print or online subscription, you can get the article immediately. If not, you need to buy one of those.
This isn't an appeal I've often made, but it seems particularly relevant to this piece. This article cost the magazine money. Thousands, in fact, so I could travel with the candidate, and watch him in action, and get the necessary face time to probe his beliefs. It meant hundreds of phone calls and countless e-mails and endless edit meetings. In other words, it took resources. Some articles are like long, particularly well thought out blog posts. Others can only be done with the financial backing, institutional credibility, and support of a magazine (or other funder). This is one of the latter, and if it's a type of journalism you think worthwhile and want to read, it's really worth spending the $15 for an online pass, and even more worth spending the $20 for a print/online subscription. You can do either here.
I should say, too ,that this is a particularly good issue. The cover story attacking the glimmering neoliberal hopes of China's democratization is an important one, Noy's article on the Vietnamese art scene is fantastic, Kuttner is characteristically trenchant and serious on trade, there's a takedown of Clint Eastwood, etc. And in the end, supporting the magazine supports this blog, as it's their paychecks and indulgence that allow me to spend hours working on it every day.
