"The Choice," a lengthy, perceptive piece in the January 28 New Yorker outlining the differences in how Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama view the role of the president.

To Clinton, writes George Packer, "the presidency is more about pushing difficult legislation through a fractious Congress than it is about transforming society." Obama, on the other hand, has said: "It involves a vision for where the country needs to go ... and then being able to mobilize and inspire the American people to get behind that agenda for change."

"A senator," wrote Packer, "must convince fifty to sixty fellow-politicians; a president must rouse three hundred million fellow-citizens."