The Big Stories

By Richard Stengel / Managing Editor

Even in the midst of a historic Democratic-primary race, there are some stories that cannot wait. I'm talking about Mark Thompson's groundbreaking investigative piece on the military's use of antidepressants for soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The story details what is really happening to the men and women waging war in our name. Antidepressants help many thousands of people, but is it acceptable that such drugs have become in many ways another tool of war, along with M-16s and body armor? The piece also touches on a larger policy issue: "If these wars are important enough," asks Thompson, our national-security correspondent and a Pulitzer Prize winner, "isn't it important to have sufficient troops so that the Pentagon doesn't have to keep recycling troops into combat like mental cannon fodder, without consideration to the price they ultimately have to bear?" The answer, of course, is yes.

Adopting a strategy akin to the military doctrine of overwhelming force, we also bring you comprehensive and insightful coverage, both in print and online, of the conclusion of the primary season. For TIME.com on the night of the final primaries, Mark Halperin reported on critical backstage maneuvering on Barack Obama's plane; David Von Drehle and Jay Newton-Small dissected Hillary Clinton's almost-concession speech; and Washington bureau chief James Carney examined John McCain's first real attempt to stop the Obama hope machine. In this week's magazine, Joe Klein explains how Hillary found her political soul during the campaign but warns that she could lose the Democrats the presidency if her fervency turns to intransigence. You'll also find Karen Tumulty's smart deconstruction of Obama's strategy, which features the Democratic nominee talking candidly with her about how he has stuck to a few basic principles. We also offer Amy Sullivan's counterintuitive analysis of Hillary and women voters: that she didn't win all that many of them and that a battle is under way between optimist and pessimist feminists. Peter Beinart explains why Obama would be foolish to be baited into a trip to Iraq. Jackson Dykman creates a revelatory graphic map of Clinton's and Obama's results by county across the country. And we have terrific behind-the-scenes pictures from Callie Shell with Obama and Diana Walker with Clinton.

Finally, I want to tell you about Josh Quittner's marvelously informed story about how Google, Facebook and Apple are competing to create the world's next great cyberplatform. The article makes it clear that the winner will reap billions, but it also offers us insight into the larger battle over redefining the Internet--and our lives.

Richard Stengel, MANAGING EDITOR