Part one: Politics in the Bush era. The White House under siege -- How Bush blew it / Evan Thomas -- High noon in Crawford / Evgenia Peretz -- Political science: The Bush administration's war on the laboratory / Michael Specter -- The worst president in history? / Sean Wilentz -- Part two: State of the Union. Selling Washington / Elizabeth Drew -- The great American pork barrel / Ken Silverstein -- How divided are we? / James Q. Wilson -- Border war / John B. Judis -- Part three: (Not) politics as usual. None dare call it stolen: Ohio, the election, and America's Servile Press / Mark Crispin Miller -- A new black power / Walter Mosley -- The art of testifying: the confirmation hearings as theatre / Janet Malcolm -- The third term: the dawning of a different sort of post-presidency / Joe Conason -- Part four: Republicans vs. Democrats. Getting ahead in the GOP / Benjamin Wallace-Wells -- The framing wars / Matt Bai -- The Bush-Cheney era ends here / Ryan Lizza -- Not as lame as you think: Democrats learn the art of opposition / Amy Sullivan -- Party in search of a notion / Michael Tomasky -- Part five: Iraq and the war on terror. Why Iraq has no army / James Fallows -- Afghanistan: the other war / Christian Parenti -- Taking stock of the forever war / Mark Danner -- Big brother is listening / James Bamford -- Part six: America in an uncertain world. After neoconservatism / Francis Fukuyama -- The Iran plans / Seymour Hersh -- North Korea: the war game / Scott Stossel -- The Chinese are our friends / Thomas P.M. Barnett.