German Bond Auction Fails  —  A year ago, Germany and France could probably have saved the euro—at least for a time—by stepping in to guarantee all the debts of the peripheral euro zone nations.  To be sure, this would have created quite a lot of other problems, but it would have saved their banks and their currency union.

First on CNN: Key social conservatives secretly meet to stop Romney in Iowa  —  Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) — Representatives for leading social conservative groups in Iowa held a secret meeting Monday as part of an effort with one main goal: find and support a Republican presidential candidate who can stop Mitt Romney in Iowa.

Team Romney Crows About That Obama Ad: “It Worked” … - Spitzer: How Obama Can Make the Bush Tax Cuts a Winning Campaign Issue  — Why Tiny Thanksgiving Dinners Are Better Than Huge Ones - Exuberant, Sunny, Not a Bit Snarky: The Joy of the New Muppets Movie

CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL  —  Full Transcript of CNN NATIONAL SECURITY DEBATE, 20:00-22:00  —  THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.  THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.  —  WOLF BLITZER, DEBATE MODERATOR AND CNN LEAD POLITICAL ANCHOR: Live from Washington, DC, for the Republican National Security Debate.

Katehi: Campus police were told not to use force against students  —  As the tent city on the University of California, Davis, tripled in size, Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi insisted Tuesday that the school's police department defied her orders when it used force against students in last week's pepper-spray fiasco.

FACT CHECK: How Serious is the Threat to Pakistan's Nuclear Program?  —  Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann serves on the House Intelligence Committee, so her comments on Pakistan's nuclear program represent either a news-making leak of previously unknown classified information or another …

Fallon apologizes to Bachmann  —  (CNN) - TV show host Jimmy Fallon apologized to GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann via Twitter Tuesday for a song played as the presidential candidate walked on stage for her Monday interview on NBC's “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.”

Demonstrators Plan to Occupy Retailers on Black Friday  —  Some demonstrators are planning to occupy retailers on Black Friday to protest “the business that are in the pockets of Wall Street.”  —  Organizers are encouraging consumers to either occupy or boycott retailers that are publicly traded …

Romney's Mormon Faith Likely a Factor in Primaries, Not in a General Election  —  Many Americans continue to see the Mormon faith as unfamiliar and different.  Half say they know little or nothing about Mormonism, half say it is a Christian religion while a third say it is not …

Sarkozy: Europe's “Liquidity Run” Has Begun Because There Is An Unsolvable $30 Trillion Problem  —  No, not that Sarkozy.  His half-brother - the one who actually can use a calculator.  In an interview on CNBC, the Carlyle group head had the temerity to tell the truth, the whole truth …

Jon Huntsman declares war on big banks and Too Big To Fail  —  With a brand new proposal, Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman is the only GOP 2012er to have moved beyond “repeal Dodd Frank” (which sounds like a return-to-the-status-quo) and fashioned a serious and comprehensive — and bold — financial reform plan.

The GOP needs a brokered convention  —  New rules mean Romney's rivals can save the party from an unpopular nominee  —  Mitt Romney and the candidates of the Not Mitt Romney movement (Credit: Chris Keane / Reuters)  —  It has been a tumultuous year for those eager to handicap the 2012 GOP race for president.

Man catches 881-pound tuna, seized by feds  —  A Massachusetts fisherman pulled in an 881-pound tuna this week only to have the federal authorities take it away.  It sounds like a libertarian twist on the classic novella by Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, but for Carlos Rafael, the saga is completely true.

Medvedev: Russia may target missile defense sites  —  will deploy new missiles aimed at U.S.  —  missile defense  —  sites in Europe if Washington goes ahead with the planned shield despite Russia's concerns,  —  President Dmitry Medvedev  —  said Wednesday.

New Trove of Stolen E-Mails From Climate Scientists Is Released  —  The anonymous hacker who shook the world of climate science two years ago by posting a trove of stolen e-mails delivered a new batch on Tuesday, stirring up climate-change contrarians a little more than a week before global negotiations …

Robertson: “What Is This ‘Mac And Cheese,’ Is That A Black Thing?”  —  Pat Robertson continued to amuse on The 700 Club today, asking host Kristi Watts following her interview with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, “What is this ‘mac and cheese,’ is that a black thing?”

CNN Poll: Blue collar Democrats' support for Obama drops  —  Washington (CNN) - Although President Barack Obama's overall approval rating remains steady, his standing among Democrats, and in particular among blue-collar Democrats, appears to have dropped, according to a new national survey.

Visions of LoLo, a Neighborhood Rising From Landfill  —  New Yorkers are fond, perhaps overly so, of assembling ever-creative names for newly hot neighborhoods, from NoMad (north of Madison Square Park) to SoBro (the South Bronx) to BoCoCa (Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens).  —  Multimedia

Cross removed at base in Afghanistan  —  A large cross that had been prominently displayed outside a chapel on an isolated military base in northern Afghanistan was taken down last week, prompting outrage from some American service members stationed there.  —  “We are here away from our families …

Post-supercommittee, Senate Dems ready to move $400 billion in new bills  —  After failing to reach a deal to reduce the deficit, the Senate will move next month to take up legislation that could add more than $400 billion to the deficit.  —  All of the proposals, such as the extension …

Medicare chief Don Berwick steps down in standoff with GOP senators over his confirmation  —  WASHINGTON — The point man for carrying out President Barack Obama's health care law will be stepping down after Republicans succeeded in blocking his confirmation by the Senate, an official said Wednesday.