Bhutto's Assassination Deals Blow to U.S. Goal for Pakistan  —  The assassination today of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is a major blow to the U.S. goal of stabilizing Pakistan, a volatile ally with nuclear weapons that has served as a frontline against extremism since the Sept. 11 …

Be Reasonable  —  As Iowa sizes up the candidates, so do I.  —  By next week politically active Iowans will have met and tallied their votes.  Their decision this year will have a huge impact on the 2008 election, and a decisive impact on various candidacies.  Some will be done in.  Some will be made.

Obama runs even with Clinton in two key states  —  A new Times/Bloomberg Poll finds them statistically tied in New Hampshire and in a three-way race with Edwards in Iowa.  GOP's Huckabee has a big lead in Iowa but trails Romney by a wide margin up north.  —  WASHINGTON — Barack Obama …

Under Attack, Drug Maker Turned to Giuliani for Help  —  In western Virginia, far from the limelight, United States Attorney John L. Brownlee found himself on the telephone last year with a political and legal superstar, Rudolph W. Giuliani.  —  For years, Mr. Brownlee and his small team …

Bhutto death makes McCain man of the moment  —  URBANDALE, Iowa — John McCain, older than dirt and with more scars than Frankenstein as he likes to say, suddenly wasn't looking so bad.  —  Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated in Pakistan and the political conversation in America had changed.

Trouble With Trade  —  While the United States has long imported oil and other raw materials from the third world, we used to import manufactured goods mainly from other rich countries like Canada, European nations and Japan.  —  But recently we crossed an important watershed …

Pastors Urged To Caucus By Huckabee Supporters  —  Here's an explicit example of how Mike Huckabee is relying on an outsourced Get-Out-The-Caucusers effort and on the implied support of pastors — under the radar.  —  Pastor Rick Scarborough is hosting a conference call with Iowa pastors …

Taxation and the right of exit  —  The Economist's Free Exchange writes that many higher-earning Danes are voting on its tax regime . . . with their feet: … The numbers don't seem that large, but they come out of Denmark's most valuable human capital; the immigrants flowing the other way tend to be much lower skilled.

Iowa Saturated by Political Ads  —  DES MOINES — One week before Iowa kicks off the presidential nomination contest, the campaigns are spending three times as much money flooding the airwaves and the Internet as candidates did in 2004, hoping to sway the huge number of undecided voters after months of on-the-ground appeals.

Military Paper Challenges Defense Dept.  —  WASHINGTON — Top editors at the military newspaper Stars and Stripes are asking for full disclosure of the paper's relationship with a Department of Defense publicity program, called America Supports You, after disclosures that money for the program was funneled through the newspaper.