Details of TIME's Nov. 18 Issue

TIME COVER: JOE KLEIN ON THE STATE OF HILLARY: SHE'S A GLOBAL CELEBRITY, BUT CAN SECRETRAY CLINTON MAKE A MORE PEACEFUL WORLD? — Klein writes, “She has the potential to become the most powerful public diplomat the U.S. has fielded in quite some time, although her performance so far, at home and abroad, has been perplexing at times...The White House is perplexed by the uncharacteristic lack of discipline indicated by Clinton's occasional overseas gaffes.  These tensions are well within the boundaries of normal, creative policymaking. There is absolutely no indication that the Secretary is frustrated to the point of jumping ship—or returning to politics as a candidate for governor of New York, as has been rumored. Quite the contrary, she seems intent on making history as Secretary of State. To do that, though, she will have to have the same authority at home as she has abroad. She will have to become the President's primary foreign policy voice.”  Pakistani government spokeswoman and member of Parliament Farahnaz Ispahani tells TIME, “Clinton's willingness to meet with everyone, hostile or not, has made a big impression – and because she's Hillary Clinton, with a real history of affinity for this country, it means so much.” With behind-the-scenes photos for by Callie Shell, taken during Secretary Clinton's recent trip overseas, and portraits by Marco Grob.

TIME CONTRIBUTOR RAMESH PONNURU ON THE FUTURE OF THE GOP—Ponnuru writes, “Republicans' principal problem in recent elections has not been that they are too far right, or – as a lot of conservatives like to think – not far right enough ... The problem has instead been that voters have not thought Republicans of any stripe had answers to their most pressing concerns.  Addressing those concerns, rather than repositioning itself along the ideological spectrum, is the party's main challenge.”

TIME'S JAMES PONIEWOZIK ON “THE MOST SIGNIFICANT BIAS OUT THERE: MODERATE BIAS”—Poniewozik argues that caution, an adherence to the status-quo and class bias all feed in to the media's “preference for centrism,” writing, “Categories like Pew's ‘liberal,' ‘conservative,' and ‘neither' imply that our society is as simplistic about media bias as we are about politics (when in fact both involve nuanced positions) ... Our conception of politics is broken if it cannot account for the fact that Michael Moore and Glenn Beck come to some of the same conclusions while having very different philosophies... Sean Hannity's Republicanism, Beck's populism and Mike Huckabee's Christian conservatism are very different—as are, say, Rachel Maddow's progressivism and Chris Matthews' Democratic insiderdom. American politics has civil libertarians and Wall Street conservatives and social-justice moralist-populists and much more. And they all, in these unsettled times, have various issues with the centrist establishment—which has its own permutations and camps. All of this promises wild and interesting times for journalists to cover, but they won't be able to do it from the neutral center. Because there isn't one, and there never was.”