Obama plan: Destroy Romney  —  Barack Obama's aides and advisers are preparing to center the president's re-election campaign on a ferocious personal assault on Mitt Romney's character and business background, a strategy grounded in the early stage expectation that the former Massachusetts governor is the likely GOP nominee.

As Rioting Widens, Cameron Deploys 10,000 More Police  —  By ALAN COWELL, RAVI SOMAIYA and JOHN F. BURNS  —  LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron pledged on Tuesday to flood the streets of London with 10,000 extra police officers and said Parliament would be recalled in emergency session …

The Day of Reckoning in Wisconsin Recall Fight  —  Outside groups, finger-pointing and acrimony have nearly eclipsed the original reason six state senators face voters today  —  Wisconsin is tired of standing.  —  First the state was told to “Stand with Walker.”  —  Ever since then, it's been “Stand with Rob Cowles.”

The most powerful man on Earth?  —  A familiar air of indecision preceded President Obama's pep talk to the nation.  —  The first draft of his schedule for Monday contained no plans to comment on the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor's.

Is Obama Smart?  —  A case study in stupid is as stupid does.  —  The aircraft was large, modern and considered among the world's safest.  But that night it was flying straight into a huge thunderstorm.  Turbulence was extreme, and airspeed indicators may not have been functioning properly.

How S&P downgraded the government — and itself  —  Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade the United States has drawn a lot of criticism.  The White House called its performance, which included a miscalculation of about $2 trillion, “amateur hour.”  Rep. Barney Frank was even less sparing.

Michael Moore to Obama: ‘Show some guts,’ arrest S&P head  —  Liberal firebrand Michael Moore called on President Obama to respond to the U.S. credit downgrade by arresting the leaders of the credit-ratings agencies.  —  On his Twitter feed Monday, the Oscar-winning film director also blamed …

Bachmann's political touch turns doubter into fan  —  Anyone who doubts Michele Bachmann's talents as a hands-on politician didn't see her performance here Monday.  In an otherwise unremarkable town hall meeting, Bachmann turned a potentially embarrassing encounter with a grouchy voter …

Who ‘made $10bn on 10/1 bet that U.S. credit rating would be downgraded’?  —  A mystery investor or hedge fund reportedly made a bet of almost $1billion at odds of 10/1 last month that the U.S. would lose its AAA credit rating.  —  Now questions are being asked of whether the trader …

Stop Sticking Our Heads in the Sand!  A Plan for Action on Jobs  —  Despite the claim that last week's jobs numbers were “better than expected,” they were in fact an abysmal indictment of US economic policy over the past two years.  The unemployment rate has remained near or above 9 percent …

Conquering the Storm  —  In the coming days we'll sort through the repercussions of S&P's downgrade of our credit rating, including concerns about the impact a potential interest rate increase would have on our ability to service our suffocating $14.5 trillion debt.