Hillary Clinton could be Sec. of State  —  Several Obama transition advisers are strongly advocating Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) for secretary of State, a move that would create the ultimate “Team of Rivals” cabinet, according to officials involved in the discussions.

Bailout to Nowhere  —  Not so long ago, corporate giants with names like PanAm, ITT and Montgomery Ward roamed the earth.  They faded and were replaced by new companies with names like Microsoft, Southwest Airlines and Target.  The U.S. became famous for this pattern of decay and new growth.

Campaign Bogeyman William Ayers Talks to ‘GMA’  —  'Good Morning America's' Chris Cuomo Grills '60s Radical Bill Ayers  —  William Ayers, the 1960s radical whose violent history became a focal point in the 2008 presidential election, said today that the Republicans unfairly “demonized” …

A Ticket to The Hague for Dick Cheney?  —  Gene Burns is one of the nation's most popular talk radio hosts.  For years he has dismissed accounts of torture; America, he has said, does not torture.  But last night, after watching Torturing Democracy and realizing that he had not understood …

More Allegations of Misconduct in Alabama Governor Case  —  Next month in Atlanta, a federal court will hear the high-profile appeal of former Alabama governor Don E. Siegelman, whose conviction on corruption charges in 2006 became one of the most publicly debated cases to emerge from eight years …

Obama Ties Automaker Rescue to Regulation  —  Top advisers to President-elect Barack Obama are helping to draft an auto industry rescue plan that would bring new government oversight, including the possibility of an auto czar who could ensure the money was being used wisely.

The YouTube Presidency  —  The White House has gone YouTube.  —  Today, President-elect Obama will record the weekly Democratic address not just on radio but also on video — a first.  The address, typically four minutes long, will be turned into a YouTube video and posted on Obama's transition site …

Free the GOP  —  The Party Won't Win Back the Middle as Long As It's Hostage to Social Fundamentalists  —  Four years ago, in the week after the 2004 presidential election, we were working furiously to put the finishing touches on the book we co-authored, “It's My Party Too …

Vast Obama network becomes a political football  —  Some Obama advisors want to blend his campaign operation with the Democratic National Committee.  Others worry that such a move could cause the grass-roots organization to unravel.  —  Reporting from Washington — It is the biggest …

CIA Chief: Iraq Not Main Front  —  CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said yesterday that al-Qaeda remains the single greatest threat to the United States but that Iraq is no longer the central front in the broader war on terrorism.  —  “Today, the flow of money, weapons and foreign fighters …

Depression Economics Returns  —  The economic news, in case you haven't noticed, keeps getting worse.  Bad as it is, however, I don't expect another Great Depression.  In fact, we probably won't see the unemployment rate match its post-Depression peak of 10.7 percent, reached in 1982 (although I wish I was sure about that).

McCain Campaign Retrospective  —  I wrote a piece for the new issue on the McCain campaign, focusing especially on the endgame and the fight over Palin.  I know a lot of people are already sick of this stuff, but I wanted to talk to people in the campaign to satisfy my curiosity as much as anything else.

Vladimir Putin ‘wanted to hang Georgian President Saakashvili by the balls’  —  Nicolas Sarkozy saved the President of Georgia from being hanged “by the balls” — a threat made last summer by Vladimir Putin, according to an account that emerged yesterday from the Élysée Palace.

Retail Sales Collapse in October  —  The Census Bureau reports that retail sales collapsed in October: … The following graph shows the year-over-year change in nominal and real retail sales since 1993.  —  Click on graph for larger image in new window.