How an Insurance Mandate Could Leave Many Worse Off  —  AMERICANS seem to like the idea of broadening health insurance coverage, but they may not want to be forced to buy it.  With health care costs high and rising, such government mandates would make many people worse off.

Deadly Blasts Rock Baghdad, Killing Dozens  —  BAGHDAD—Two powerful car bombs near high-profile government offices rocked the capital on Sunday in the deadliest attack here this year, killing at least 136 people and raising fresh worry about the capabilities of Iraq's security services ahead of national elections scheduled for January.

Leaderless: Senate Pushes For Public Option Without Obama's Support  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  President Barack Obama is actively discouraging Senate Democrats in their effort to include a public insurance option with a state opt-out clause as part of health care reform.

Afghan candidate says ‘dramatic’ surge needed, backs McChrystal  —  Afghanistan's opposition candidate backed Gen. Stanley McChrystal's recommendations for more troops Sunday, saying “the future of the country is at risk” without a “dramatic increase” in troop levels.

Veteran reporter's 5 lessons for Obama  —  Editor's note: Columnist and author Helen Thomas, 89, was a United Press International correspondent for 57 years and covered every U.S. president since John F. Kennedy.  Craig Crawford is a TV commentator and political writer.

Prosecutors Turn Tables on Student Journalists  —  EVANSTON, Ill. — For more than a decade, classes of students at Northwestern University's journalism school have been scrutinizing the work of prosecutors and the police.  The investigations into old crimes, as part of the Medill Innocence Project …

Obama outs Fox, but reveals a big flaw  —  Surely President Barack Obama and his advisers don't really think that their feud with Fox News will do anything but enhance the cable network's viewership.  A deeper problem is what the flap reveals about Team Obama, which seems to be more comfortable with campaigning than governing.

WILL PUTS ON LEATHER JACKET, DONS SKIS, EYES SHARK.... When my friend Mustang Bobby emailed yesterday to tell me George Will had written an entire column praising Rep. Michele Bachmann, I thought he was kidding.  Will may be conservative, but he considers himself something of an intellectual and serious thinker.

White House on Beirut Marine Barracks Bombing—Can't Remember Who Murdered 241 Americans  —  [Please subscribe.  There's too much news from the Middle East to miss a single article; and too little good analysis in the media to miss a single analysis.]  —  By Barry Rubin

In Defense of the ‘Balloon Boy’ Dad  —  FOR a country desperate for good news, the now-deflated “balloon boy” spectacle would seem to be the perfect tonic.  As Wolf Blitzer of CNN summed up the nation's unrestrained joy upon learning that the imperiled boy had never been in any peril whatsoever …

GOP officials: We won't abandon Dede  —  The National Republican Congressional Committee remains committed to embattled GOP nominee Dede Scozzafava in the upstate New York House special election, even as many of the party's top names throw their support to Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman.

Democratic Party encounters ‘Obama hangover’ in state, local elections  —  The president hits the campaign trail on behalf of Democrats, but the electricity of 2008 is tough to recapture.  —  Reporting from Kennett Square, Pa. - As he is quick to point out, President Obama is presiding over two wars …

Dan Rather: Don't curtail Fox News or any other cable infotainment shows  —  Former CBS anchor Dan Rather was asked Saturday about the collision between news and entertainment in network and cable news these days.  At a journalism awards luncheon at the Headliners Club in Austin …