Barack Obama’s most difficult international test in the next year will very likely be here in Pakistan. A country with 170 million people and up to 60 nuclear weapons may be collapsing.

Op-Ed Columnist - The Pakistan Test - NYTimes.com

Afghanistan’s swift unraveling has created new — and in some quarters unrealistic — enthusiasm for talks with the Taliban.

Editorial - Talking With the Taliban - NYTimes.com

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. Over time, American government built a bigger safety net so workers could survive the vicissitudes of this creative destruction — with unemployment insurance and soon, one hopes, health care security. But the government has generally not interfered in the dynamic process itself, which is the source of the country’s prosperity.

Op-Ed Columnist - Bailout to Nowhere - NYTimes.com

We realize that helping Detroit involves big risks. After bailing out the financial system, it will encourage other companies to seek sustenance at Washington’s trough. Washington will have to learn to say no. But at this juncture, Detroit is too big to allow it to fail. And who knows? It may learn to survive.

i disagree with this

saving the financial system is to me about saving the infrastructure of the economy but Detroit is a different animal. If large US car manufacturers go to the wall then it would create severe economic pain and particularly hit blue collar workers but whilst it seems harsh to save certain white collar workers and let blue collar workers go to the wall I think that ultimately is a sentimental argument (and it suddenly occurs to me as funny how this is soviet socialist iconography and how the republicans with their Joe the Plumber stuff have appropriated soviet imagery). There has to be a line in the sand and to me the government intervening to bail out sectors of the economy is justified when those sectors are integral parts of the economic infrastructure but otherwise it isn't. Otherwise it really is, maybe not the road to socialism, but just delaying the inevitable economic reckoning. In the UK in the 1970s the government owned and ran the trains, the telephone network, the coal and steel industries, the energy companies, the water companies, and certain car manufacturers et al. Then came the 1980s and privatisation and now coal, steel and car manufacturing has gone and of the rest what is left; mostly energy, water and telephone companies, has been rationalized and is often foreign owned. I say don't waste tax payers money delaying the inevitable. It is a siren song: save jobs, too big to fail, but where do you stop and how far does the pendulum swing. There is a definite place for market discipline. Bail outs don't save communities of hard working people but just gives them false hope and that perhaps proves the cruelest blow. In the UK the privatisation that inevitably came was no soft landing for the blue collar communities.

Editorial - More Money for Detroit - NYTimes.com

IF you think way back to the start of this marathon campaign, back when it seemed preposterous that any black man could be a serious presidential contender, then you remember the biggest fear about Barack Obama: a crazy person might take a shot at him.
...
But we’re not at Election Day yet, and if voters are to have their final say, both America and Obama have to get there safely. The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder. The onus is on the man who says he puts his country first to call off the dogs, pit bulls and otherwise.

which connects to this a start but how much of a stand will McCain take?

McCain, who is no racist, turned to this desperate strategy only as Obama started to pull ahead.

from here

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has become embroiled in a war of words with racial undertones after clashing with a civil rights icon.

John Lewis accused Mr McCain's campaign of "sowing hatred" against opponent Barack Obama and said he was reminded of 1960s segregationist George Wallace.

Mr McCain, who recently said Mr Lewis was one of his most admired Americans, called the reference "beyond the pale".
...
The Obama campaign quickly said it did not believe Mr McCain's campaign was in any way comparable to Wallace.

Decius pointed to this
yes McCain is playing with powerful and dangerous irrational forces

I memed the start of a stand and perhaps was overly optimistic and naive in seeing that as the start of a fight back against "this desperate strategy" and a return to honour.

We shall see.

Op-Ed Columnist - The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama - NYTimes.com

Decius wrote:

noteworthy wrote:
ubernoir wrote:
I don't support him but he has once again proved himself an American hero. Late in the day and imperfect but he took a stand.

Lets just be clear here. He did not do this just to be honorable. There have been a number of concerns raised in numerous quarters over the past few days that the attempts to link Obama with Ayers, and therefore domestic terrorism, might increase the chance that some crazy right winger might try to kill him. Given the breadth of the calls for McCain to tone it down it is almost certain that this was a capitulation to concerns that their campaign has gone too far.

Consider this:

These men didn't kill Martin Luther King, but they contributed to an atmosphere of nationalism, white supremacy and cheap unreflective patriotism that ultimately got a lot of people killed.

Let me be clear--This is the ghost that McCain Campaign is summoning. This is the Ring Of Power that they want to wield. The Muslim charge, the "Hussein" thing is nothing more than today's red-baiting, and it is what it was then--a cover for racists. You may say I'm overreacting, and I really hope you're right. 999,000 out 1 million times we'll go on like normal and proceed to Election Day. But if some shit pops off, the thug and thug-mongers will not be able to throw up their hands and say "How could I have known?" Ignorance will not save them. Their stupidity is a scourge on us all.

oh I agree that the whole thing has gone way too far but I think this goes back decades and yes I agree that there is calculation. The race card thread as written about here and the swift boat style are very dangerous to society in general and to Obama particularly if some loony is going to start shooting as you point out and is dangerous to the process. However I get the feeling and it's not something I can prove that McCain dislikes this approach. The approach that did for him in 2000 and I think is what is leading him to stop the Campaign playing the Wright card despite being urged. I do think, it is a gut thing I confess maybe a hope and a belief in the process, in America's capacity to reinvent itself and that is what my instinct tells me McCain wants the Republican Party to reinvent itself. America needs the Republican Party because like it or not it is a two-party system. For too long the "ignorance is strength" wing of the party has been gaining strength and clearly McCain played to this with his VP pick. I think McCain is conflicted and under enormous pressure but knows the difference between right and wrong.

RE: BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US Elections 2008 | McCain defends rival Obama

The leaders of Europe's four largest economic powers vowed Saturday to protect their banks from the continuing reverberations of the increasingly global financial crisis but could not agree on a common Europe-wide strategy.

...

The outcome seemed to fall well short of the common policy that French and other officials had spoken of in recent days amid a rapid series of financial failures and a freezing up of the capital markets in Europe, which rival or by some measures exceed the size of the U.S. markets. The disunity in Europe also was apparent in complaints by some other countries that they were not even included in the discussion.

Failure to pursue a broader bailout reflected particularly strong opposition from Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain to any attempt at pooling resources for a Europe-wide fund to protect weak banks. Each government should handle its own banking problems, they said, because each country -- and even each bank -- has specific problems that must be dealt with in different ways.

once again so much for European cohesion
Europe could learn a lesson from the Democrats and Republicans on working together and putting ideology and electoral considerations second to the greater good (the second applies to you Mr Brown for shame)

No Joint European Strategy On Banks - washingtonpost.com

Princeton economists review recent events on Wall Street and assess the implications for the economy and public policy.

If you are short on time, you might consider skipping to Krugman at 50:00...

YouTube - Crisis on Wall Street - Gold Star

Many people on both the right and the left are outraged at the idea of using taxpayer money to bail out America’s financial system. They’re right to be outraged, but doing nothing isn’t a serious option. Right now, players throughout the system are refusing to lend and hoarding cash — and this collapse of credit reminds many economists of the run on the banks that brought on the Great Depression.

It’s true that we don’t know for sure that the parallel is a fair one. Maybe we can let Wall Street implode and Main Street would escape largely unscathed. But that’s not a chance we want to take.

So the grown-up thing is to do something to rescue the financial system. The big question is, are there any grown-ups around — and will they be able to take charge?

i trust Paul Krugman's opinion on this as someone who knows far more about it than me and I remember reading him talking about a housing bubble and saying it was dangerous rather a long time ago Jan 2006. It makes rather interesting reading now although I didn't take it too seriously at the time.

Op-Ed Columnist - Where Are the Grown-Ups? - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

World leaders are parading through New York this week for a United Nations General Assembly reviewing their (lack of) progress in fighting global poverty. That’s urgent and necessary, but what they aren’t talking enough about is one of the grimmest of all manifestations of poverty — sex trafficking.

Op-Ed Columnist - A Heroine From the Brothels - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com