History Offers Post-Midterm Survival Tips For President  —  The president was in a funk.  Morose from midterm elections that handed Congress to the opposition, he stewed in private, vented to friends, turned on aides and summoned self-help gurus to help him understand just what went wrong.

Angry Shiites hurl stones at Maliki's motorcade  —  BAGHDAD — Angry Shiite Muslims pelted Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's motorcade with stones today after the Iraqi leader pleaded for national reconciliation at a memorial in Sadr City held for victims of a large-scale bombing attack last week.

Romney's dance to the right  —  IT'S LIKE turning a ballerina into a right-leaning elephant.  —  For more than a decade, Mitt Romney has been dancing around some hot-button social issues.  Now, he is running hard to the right to position himself for the 2008 presidential contest.

Iraq Study Group Weighs Overture to Iran and Syria  —  A draft report on strategies for Iraq, which will be debated here by a bipartisan commission beginning Monday, urges an aggressive regional diplomatic initiative that includes direct talks with Iran and Syria but sets no timetables …

CAN WE PLEASE SEE MORE OF CHARLIE RANGEL?  —  One of the problems of being part of the minority for twelve years is that not many people pay attention to you.  Then, when the spotlight finally seeks you out, you may be ill-prepared to act like part of the mainstream.

Hurricane Predictions Off Track As Tranquil Season Wafts Away  —  More from this channel:  —  This feature requires the Macromedia Flash Plugin.  Please visit http://www.macromedia.com/go/ getflashplayer to download this plugin.  —  It was not the hurricane season we expected, thank you.

Obama lifted by hand of God  —  Rising black star of Democrats connects with evangelicals  —  IN THE latest sign that the "God gap" between Republicans and Democrats is narrowing, one of America's biggest evangelical churches will this week welcome Senator Barack Obama …

Chilling Echo for Lebanon, Mirror of Regional Tension  —  In April 1975, gunmen fired on a church in East Beirut in what appeared to be an attempt to kill Pierre Gemayel, founder of the main right-wing Lebanese Christian militia.  He was not killed, but the shooting set off a cycle of revenge that became a 15-year civil war.

Bring back Saddam Hussein  —  Restoring the dictator to power may give Iraqis the jolt of authority they need.  Have a better solution?  —  THE DEBATE about Iraq has moved past the question of whether it was a mistake (everybody knows it was) to the more depressing question of whether it is possible to avert total disaster.

'Makings of bomb' found in airport car  —  A worker discovered the device in the trunk of a returned rental car.  It didn't contain explosives but the FBI is investigating.  —  A bomb-like device was found in a rental car Sunday morning at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport …

Woman faces fines for wreath peace sign  —  DENVER - A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti- Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

At the Inquirer, Shrink Globally, Slash Locally?  —  Brian Tierney, a onetime critic of the Philadelphia Inquirer who wound up buying the paper, is determined to take his new property in a different direction.  —  "We don't need a Jerusalem bureau," he says.  "What we need are more people in the South Jersey bureau."

The Gospel According to Jim Wallis  —  For Democrats to win back the White House, they may well have to rely on the power of the Almighty.  And it's not Bill Clinton.  —  JIM WALLIS IS PREACHING ABOUT A BIBLE TORN APART.  Wallis tells the crowd at the Seattle Pacific University chapel …

UK scientists invent male 'pill' that can be taken hours before sex  —  British scientists have developed a revolutionary pill that men could take as a one-off contraceptive just before a date.  —  The tablet would prevent a man from being able to impregnate a woman, but within a few hours his fertility would return to normal.