Clinton plan: Let Bill lash out  —  So maybe Bill Clinton isn't quite so far off-message as we had assumed.  —  After two weeks of reports on the former president's temper, the former first lady's supposed inability to keep him on script, and the ostensibly dire impact on his legacy …

The Clinton-Obama exchange  —  CNN is providing transcript, and the full transcript of their first exchange is after the jump.  —  It began with this line from Obama, on his taxing and spending plans: “What she said wasn't true."  —  MODERATOR: She says that the new programs that she proposes she essentially

The Voters Revolt  —  The Reagan administration had its pragmatists and its so-called ideologues.  It had James Baker as well as Ed Meese.  Reagan carried moderate states like Connecticut, Wisconsin and Washington, as well as conservative ones like Wyoming and South Carolina.

Pre-emptive nuclear strike ‘an option’  —  The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the “imminent” spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.

Attorneys probe deepens  —  The federal investigation into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys could jolt the political landscape ahead of the November elections, according to several people close to the inquiry.  —  Washington's attention has been diverted from the scandal since …

Someone Didn't Get The Word  —  Fareed Zakaria: … Ah, those sad, sad, Democrats.  So unaware that the war's over.  The dude who killed at least fourteen and wounded seventeen in Tikrit must, like the Democrats, have been wearing partisan blinders when he failed to acknowledge the surge's success in bringing the war to an end.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS  —  It's hard for me to think of much good from this debate.  If you view debates like a boxing match, I guess it was lively and perhaps entertaining, in the sense that a good boxing match can be, though the fighting was more intense than well executed.

The Democratic Debate in South Carolina  —  DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES PARTICIPATE IN A DEBATE SPONSORED BY CNN AND THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS ON JANUARY 21, 2008.  SPEAKERS: SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, D-N.Y., FORMER SEN. JOHN EDWARDS, D-N.C., SEN. BARACK OBAMA …

Fed cuts interest rate  —  WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve, confronted with a global stock sell-off fanned by increased fears of a recession, slashed a key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point on Tuesday and indicated further rate cuts were likely.

In Matters Big and Small, Crossing Giuliani Had Price  —  Rudolph W. Giuliani likens himself to a boxer who never takes a punch without swinging back.  As mayor, he made the vengeful roundhouse an instrument of government, clipping anyone who crossed him.  —  In August 1997, James Schillaci …