NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST January 16, 2008

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NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/us/politics/16assess.html?sq=gay&scp=2&pagewanted=print

News Analysis: No G.O.P. Anchor in Sight

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
January 16, 2008

Can anyone bring the Republicans together again?

The convincing victory by Mitt Romney in the Michigan primary on Tuesdaymeans three very different states - with dissimilar electorates driven bydistinctive sets of priorities - have embraced three separate candidates insearch of someone who can lead the party into a tough election and beyondPresident Bush.

Mr. Romney won easily in Michigan, where he grew up, with a pointed focus onthe slowing economy, which voters there overwhelmingly identified as the topissue. Senator John McCain of Arizona won New Hampshire last week with thebacking of independent voters, who are so influential there. And MikeHuckabee of Arkansas won the caucuses in Iowa powered by socialconservatives who make up a substantial part of its population.

On the most tangible level, the vote on Tuesday was proof from the ballotbox of what polls have shown: this is a party that is adrift, deeply dividedand uninspired when it comes to its presidential candidates and unsure ofhow to counter an energized Democratic Party.

Even in victory, Mr. Romney stood as evidence of the trouble the party findsitself in. He won, but only after a major effort in a state he once expectedto win in a walk. That was before he lost Iowa and New Hampshire, two otherstates where he had campaigned all out.

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WashingtonPost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/01/13/DI2008011302667_pf.html

Opinion Focus

Eugene Robinson
Washington Post Columnist
Tuesday, January 15, 2008; 1:00 PM

Washington Post opinion columnist Eugene Robinson was online Tuesday, Jan.15 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss his recent columns and the latest news.

Discussion Group: Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood

The transcript follows.

Archive: Eugene Robinson discussion transcripts

Eugene Robinson: Hi, everyone. Welcome to this week's free-for-all. I guesspolitics is on the menu, so let's go.

Charlotte, N.C.: Hillary is awfully Nixonian, or at least Rovian, as yourcolumn today demonstrates. But they must realize that their cynical strategycould turn out disastrously. Black folks are going to be upset if they takedown Obama like this. Mike Huckabee won 40 percent of the black vote inArkansas. If Hillary wins like this, and Huckabee wins, there finally willbe a migration away from the Democratic party, and that is a good thing ifthey are going to pull this kind of nonsense.

Eugene Robinson: My guess is that the argument over race between the Clintonand Obama campaigns will benefit Obama in the short run -- I think it willboost his vote in South Carolina. Longer term, I think he should avoid beingmarginalized as a "black candidate" rather than a presidential candidate whois black. He should be able to do that if he stays on-message.

_______________________

Sharon, Tenn.: Why is it that no one is discussing who is and who is not onthe 2008 Michigan Democratic Presidential Primary Ballot? What is the truestory here, and how can it be brought to the attention of the Americanpeople. Has this issue already been in the news and I just missed it? Obamais not on the ballot. Hillary is. I learned about this on C-SPAN.

Eugene Robinson: The Democratic Party stripped Michigan of its conventiondelegates because the state party moved the primary earlier on the calendarwithout permission. I've never quite understood why Clinton's name remainedon the ballot, but none of the Democrats have campaigned there (byagreement) and nobody gets the delegates.

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Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flaassess0116sbjan16,0,6611386.story

Romney's victory indicative of the split among Republicans
Party is adrift, facing tough task vs. Democrats

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
The New York Times
January 16, 2008

Can anyone bring the Republicans together again?

The victory by Mitt Romney in the Michigan primary on Tuesday night meansthree very different states - with dissimilar electorates driven bydistinctive sets of priorities - have embraced three separate candidates insearch of someone who can lead the party into a tough election and beyondPresident Bush.

Romney won in Michigan, the state where he grew up, with a pointed focus onthe slowing economy, which voters overwhelmingly identified as the top issuethere. Sen. John McCain of Arizona won New Hampshire last week with thebacking of independent voters, who are so influential in that state. AndMike Huckabee of Arkansas won the Iowa caucuses, powered by socialconservatives who make up a substantial part of the population there.

On the most tangible level, the vote on Tuesday was proof from the ballotbox of what polls have shown: This is a party that is adrift, unenthusiasticabout any of its presidential candidates and unsure of how to counter anenergized Democratic Party.

Even in victory, Romney stood as evidence of the trouble the party findsitself in. He won, but only after a major effort in a state he once expectedto win in a walk. That was before he lost Iowa and New Hampshire, two stateswhere he had campaigned all out.

More than any candidate in the Republican field, Romney has made a consciouseffort to reassemble the coalition of economic and social conservatives thatcame together with Ronald Reagan and that Bush kept remarkably unified inhis two campaigns and through much of his tenure in the White House.Romney's difficulties have highlighted the strains in that coalition.

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Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-huckabee,0,4229336.story

Huckabee, 3rd in Mich, Looks to SC

By LIBBY QUAID
Associated Press Writer
10:47 PM EST, January 15, 2008

LEXINGTON, S.C.

Mike Huckabee, nursing a second third-place finish in northern states,looked ahead to the South where he hopes his Arkansas roots and Baptistbackground will put him back on a winning track in South Carolina.

"Ladies and gentlemen we're going to win South Carolina," he declared tosupporters in Lexington.

Huckabee, the winner of the Iowa caucuses, has emerged from the back of thepack into an improbable contender. But he has since had to watch John McCainwin New Hampshire and, now, Mitt Romney win Michigan. He is staking his newfoothold on South Carolina's social conservatives and religious voters aswell as young working-class voters attracted to his economic populistmessage. South Carolina's GOP primary is Saturday.

"We put a flag in the ground here Saturday," he said of the state. "We'regoing to make it real clear that the first-in-the-South primary is going togive their support to the first-in-the-South candidate."

The state is more familiar ground for the folksy ordained Baptist minister.More than half of the state's likely Republican voters are whiteevangelicals, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & thePress. It was those voters who carried Huckabee to victory in Iowa.

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Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-dems_16jan16,1,4349721.story

Campaign 2008: Democrats sweetly sheathe their knives
It's not about gender, race, they all agree

By John McCormick and Michael Martinez
Tribune correspondents
January 16, 2008

LAS VEGAS

For much of the evening, it felt at times as if the candidates might holdhands around the large wooden table where they sat, with compliments,teasing and first-name familiarity.

After several days of some of the campaign's most heated rhetoric so far,including some that ventured into explosive issues of race, the top threeDemocratic presidential candidates gathered for a debate that offered apolite and conciliatory tone.

Each offered a more subdued approach, as they sought to steer voterattention to economic matters and the Iraq war, while saying they don't wantrace or gender to dominate their campaigns.

"How did we get here?" moderator Brian Williams asked Sen. Hillary Clinton,after summarizing recent statements involving Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,President Lyndon Johnson and teenage drug use by Sen. Barack Obama.

Area of accord

"What's most important is that Sen. Obama and I agree completely that, youknow, neither race nor gender should be a part of this campaign," the NewYork senator said, before noting the historic nature of both her and Obama'scandidacies.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/opinion/16wed1.html?ex=1201150800&en=17978d6d10c127c9&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVERFEATURES

Editorial: A Quick Fix for Electronic Voting

January 16, 2008

When Americans go to the polls in November, many will likely have to casttheir ballots on unreliable paperless electronic voting machines. If theelection is close, the country could end up with a rerun of 2000's bitterlycontentious and mistrusted count. In an effort to avoid another suchdisaster, Representative Rush Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, plans tointroduce a bill this week that would help address the weaknesses inelectronic voting. Congress should pass it without delay.

The flaws of electronic voting machines have been thoroughly documented byacademic studies and by voters' experiences. The machines are far toovulnerable to hacking that could change the outcomes of elections. They arealso so prone to mechanical error and breakdown that there is no way to besure that the totals they report are correct. In some cases, these machineshave been known to "flip" votes - award votes cast for one candidate to anopponent.

The solution is for all votes to be recorded on paper records. Voters canthen verify that their choice has been accurately reflected - and the paperrecord can be used as a backup for the electronic machines. Whenever votesare tallied on electronic machines, there should be an audit of paperrecords as a check on the electronic results. If the paper totals do notmatch the electronic tallies, something has clearly gone wrong - and thetally of the paper ballots can be treated as the official one.

As voters have learned about the problems with electronic voting, they havesensibly pressed their representatives to adopt laws requiringvoter-verified paper records. Most states, including New York, Ohio andCalifornia have now done so. Mr. Holt's bill would make money available onan expedited basis - in time for this year's election - for jurisdictionsthat still have not.

In addition to money for upgrading to paper-based voting, the bill wouldprovide funds to conduct audits of paper records. It rightly prodsjurisdictions to adopt optical-scan voting, in which ballots are marked byhand, much like a standardized test, and then fed into a computer fortabulation. Optical scans are the most reliable, efficient andcost-effective technology available. The bill also allows jurisdictions touse the money to switch to simple paper ballots that are counted by hand.

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Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-race_16jan16,1,5665028.story

Campaign 2008: Fault line for black Democratic leaders
Many civil rights-era power brokers go against Obama even as rising-starpoliticians show their support

By Mike Dorning and Christi Parsons
Washington Bureau
January 16, 2008

WASHINGTON

Even as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were trying to de- escalate acontroversy over race in the presidential nominating contest, one ofCongress' foremost black power brokers came out to fire one more shot,leveling it right at the African-American candidate who might break racialbarriers to the White House.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who heads the House Ways and Means Committee,told New York 1 cable news Monday that Obama was "absolutely stupid" in hispart of an exchange over the relative influence of Rev. Martin Luther KingJr. and President Lyndon Johnson in passing civil rights legislation.

Those comments tracked the remarks of Black Entertainment Television'sbillionaire founder Robert Johnson, another reigning figure in the blackpolitical establishment, who rushed to the defense of the campaign of Sen.Hillary Clinton, with a racially tinged counterpunch to Obama, saying Obamawanted to be like a "reasonable, likable" Sidney Poitier character.

In some ways, the contest is playing out among black political leaders as adebate with generational overtones.

At Clinton's side have been not only Rangel and Johnson but civil rightsstandout Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and former UN Ambassador Andrew Young, whoin videotaped remarks to black Atlanta residents suggested Bill Clinton was"every bit as black as Barack."

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Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011604646.html

44 Percent Vote Against Clinton

Wednesday, January 16, 2008; A07

About 44 percent of Michigan Democrats voted against Sen. Hillary RodhamClinton (N.Y.) yesterday in the party's primary, with the vast majority ofthat group marking "uncommitted" on ballots that did not include any othermajor candidates.

All of the major Democratic candidates except Clinton withdrew their namesfrom the ballot after the national party punished Michigan for holding itsprimary too early by stripping the state of its delegates to the party'snational convention in August.

With 89 percent counted, Clinton captured 56 percent of the vote. Rep.Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) placed third with about 4 percent, behind 39percent for "uncommitted." Thousands of voters also backed Sen. ChristopherJ. Dodd (Conn.), who dropped out of the race two weeks ago, and formersenator Mike Gravel (Alaska), who has barely campaigned.



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Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/15/AR2008011503239.html

Black-Oriented News Could Use a New Golden Age

By Courtland Milloy
Wednesday, January 16, 2008; B01

Turn on the television news these days and you'll see history being made. Acharismatic black man and a savvy white woman are running neck and neck tobecome the Democratic nominee for president. But despite the rich racial andgender implications of Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's candidacies, youwon't see much in the way of news analysis by African Americans -- men orwomen.

It wasn't always like this. Not so long ago, you could watch news programsthat featured a wide range of insight and perspective by black experts. Thestation to watch, believe it or not, was Black Entertainment Television --that is, before the cable network was sold to Viacom in 2000 and most of itsnews programming was canceled.

If ever there was a need for serious national black news shows, it's now.And no one succeeded in providing such a public service like Deborah R.Tang, a former BET vice president for news, who died recently of cancer. Shewas 60.

For 14 years, Tang created the kind of news programming that gave gravitasto an otherwise juvenile-minded network. These days, however, her signatureprograms, "BET Nightly News," with host Ed Gordon, and "Lead Story," aSunday morning political roundtable featuring black journalists, have beenreplaced with the most thoughtless fare.

The reality show "Hell Date" and the so-called black pop cultural expos¿"We Got to Do Better" (originally called "Hot Ghetto Mess") might beprofitable for Viacom, but for black viewers, they are intellectuallybankrupt.

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Detroit News

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/POLITICS/801150450/-1/rss

Exit poll: 7 in 10 voted Republican

Highlights from preliminary results of exit polling in Michigan's
presidential primaries Tuesday for The Associated Press and televisionnetworks:

The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 15, 2008

A REPUBLICAN PRIMARY AFTER ALL ...

The last time Michigan had a competitive Republican presidential primary, in2000, self-described Republican voters were a minority. Tuesday's GOPprimary had a much more normal partisan split, with a solid majority ofRepublicans and far fewer Democrats.

Michigan has open primaries and no registration by party, so voters chooseon primary day which partisan contest to vote in. In 2000 with no Democraticrace but for an eventual blowout in caucuses three weeks later, manyDemocrats voted in the Republican primary -- totaling 17 percent of thatelectorate, more than in any other GOP primary exit poll since at least1992.

On Tuesday there were both Democratic and Republican primaries and thoughballot maneuvering left the Democratic side in essence non-competitive,apparently it kept some Democrats from migrating to the Republicancontest -- where they made up fewer than one in 10 voters. In 2000,Republicans made up only 48 percent of the GOP primary electorate; Tuesdaythey were two-thirds of it. A quarter of Republican primary voters Tuesdaycalled themselves independent, down from 35 percent eight years ago.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/opinion/16wed3.html?ref=opinion

Editorial: The Supreme Court Club

January 16, 2008

Every year, the Supreme Court hears arguments in cases that can change thenation and reshape American rights. Just last week, it heard arguments on achallenge to a harsh Indiana voter ID law, a partisan scheme todisenfranchise poor and minority voters. It was, like many legal showdownsin the court, something Americans would have been interested in observingfirsthand. Yet beyond a few hundred visitors, the public was denied thatopportunity because members of the court, stubbornly clinging to theirclubby ways, refuse to allow their proceedings to be televised.

Chief Justice John Roberts even declined a news media request that herelease an audio recording as soon as the argument ended, much as the courthas done in a small number of high-interest cases since Bush v. Gore in2000. As things stand, the audiotape in the voting case will not beavailable for the public until sometime after the start of the next SupremeCourt term. This disdain for openness and transparency by an institutioncentral to the nation's democracy is unacceptable.

The risk that some lawyers or justices may occasionally play for thecameras, or that news shows might use short snippets of oral arguments outof context are trivial concerns next to the main cost of the justices'ongoing camera shyness, which is to inhibit robust, timely, andwell-informed discourse on the important, often vexing legal and socialissues that land at the court.

The Supreme Court began two years ago making transcripts of oral argumentspromptly available on the court's Web site. That is some progress, but drytranscripts are no substitute for letting Americans watch for themselves.

Justice Clarence Thomas told a Senate hearing last year that televising thecourt would have a negative impact on its argument sessions and would raisesecurity concerns "as members of the court who now have some degree ofanonymity would lose their anonymity." We are all for protecting justices,but some loss of privacy goes with the territory, and the justices arehardly anonymous. They have been turning up with increasing frequency ontelevision on their own time. And Mr. Thomas's fears did not deter him fromappearing on "60 Minutes" last fall to promote his book.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/opinion/16landsburg.html?ref=opinion

Op-Ed Contributor: What to Expect When You're Free Trading

By STEVEN E. LANDSBURG
Rochester
January 16, 2008

IN the days before Tuesday's Republican presidential primary in Michigan,Mitt Romney and John McCain battled over what the government owes to workerswho lose their jobs because of the foreign competition unleashed by freetrade. Their rhetoric differed - Mr. Romney said he would "fight for everysingle job," while Mr. McCain said some jobs "are not coming back" - buttheir proposed policies were remarkably similar: educate and retrain theworkers for new jobs.

All economists know that when American jobs are outsourced, Americans as agroup are net winners. What we lose through lower wages is more than offsetby what we gain through lower prices. In other words, the winners can morethan afford to compensate the losers. Does that mean they ought to? Does itcreate a moral mandate for the taxpayer-subsidized retraining programsproposed by Mr. McCain and Mr. Romney?

Um, no. Even if you've just lost your job, there's something fundamentallychurlish about blaming the very phenomenon that's elevated you above thesubsistence level since the day you were born. If the world owes youcompensation for enduring the downside of trade, what do you owe the worldfor enjoying the upside?

I doubt there's a human being on earth who hasn't benefited from theopportunity to trade freely with his neighbors. Imagine what your life wouldbe like if you had to grow your own food, make your own clothes and rely onyour grandmother's home remedies for health care. Access to a trainedphysician might reduce the demand for grandma's home remedies, but -especially at her age - she's still got plenty of reason to be thankful forhaving a doctor.

Some people suggest, however, that it makes sense to isolate the moraleffects of a single new trading opportunity or free trade agreement. Surelywe have fellow citizens who are hurt by those agreements, at least in thelimited sense that they'd be better off in a world where trade flourishes,except in this one instance. What do we owe those fellow citizens?

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The New York Times

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/republicans-brawl-democrats-yawn/index.html?ref=opinion

Republicans Brawl, Democrats Yawn

By David Brooks
January 15, 2008, 11:32 pm

Here are a few things that happened Tuesday night.

First, it was a good night for the Democrats and a bad night for theRepublicans. The Democratic debate has been a love fest. The candidates haveall (for very good reasons) decided to pull back from the mutual kamikazetone of the past few days. Their discussion constituted a repudiation ofturn-of-the-last-century writer Finley Peter Dunne of Chicago, who famouslysaid that politics ain't beanbag. Apparently politics is beanbag, becausethat's all the Democrats threw at each other tonight. I've seen moreconflict at a pacifists' stir-fry.

Meanwhile, the Republican prospects in the fall just got even dimmer. I saythis not only because a weak general election candidate won a primary, butbecause Mitt Romney's win pretty much guarantees a bitter fight for thenomination. If you doubt that, here is what Rush Limbaugh said about McCainand Huckabee on his program today: "I'm here to tell you, if either of thesetwo guys get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party, it's going to change it forever, be the end of it." This week, Rush and his radiomimics have been on the rampage on the party's modernizers, from NewtGingrich on over.

This thing will only get uglier.

Second, Mitt Romney found, as Hillary would say, his voice. I rememberwatching him campaign at a financial company about 6 months ago. He talkedabout business and was fantastic. The next event was at a senior citizencenter. He was ideological and dreadful. In Michigan, the full corporateMitt was on display.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/us/16ohio.html

Blue-Collar Jobs Disappear, Taking Families' Way of Life Along

By ERIK ECKHOLM
January 16, 2008

JACKSON, Ohio - After 30 years at a factory making truck parts, JeffreyEvans was earning $14.55 an hour in what he called "one of the better-payingjobs in the area."

Wearing a Harley-Davidson cap, a bittersweet reminder of crushed dreams, herecently described how astonished and betrayed he felt when the plant wasshut down in August after a labor dispute. Despite sporadic constructionwork, Mr. Evans has seen his income reduced by half.

So he was astonished yet again to find himself, at age 49, selling off hischerished Harley and most of his apartment furniture and moving in with hismother.

Middle-aged men moving in with parents, wives taking two jobs, veteranworkers taking overnight shifts at half their former pay, families movingWest - these are signs of the turmoil and stresses emerging in the littletowns and backwoods mobile homes of southeast Ohio, where dozens offactories and several coal mines have closed over the last decade, and smallbusinesses are giving way to big-box retailers and fast-food outlets.

Here, where the northern swells of the Appalachians lap the southern fringeof the Rust Belt, thousands of people who long had tough but sustainablelives are being wrenched into the working poor.

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/world/europe/16pope.html

Pope Cancels Speech After Protest at University

By IAN FISHER
January 16, 2008

ROME - Pope Benedict XVI, in a rare papal acquiescence to protest, hascanceled a speech at the prestigious Sapienza University here amidopposition by professors and students who say he is hostile to science.

"Following the well-known events of recent days," said a Vatican statementreleased Tuesday, "it seems opportune to delay the event." The statementsaid that a text of the speech, which was to have been given on Thursday,would still be sent to the university.

Dozens of students staging a sit-in at the university, where banners havebeen hung urging Benedict to stay away, cheered after the statement wasreleased.

But the decision also provoked anger about intimidation and censorship,stirring Italy's always sensitive relations between its religious andsecular traditions. Renato Guarini, the university's rector, told reportersthat the cancellation was "a defeat for the freedom of expression."

Prime Minister Romano Prodi, one of many politicians who condemned thedecision, said, "No voice should be stifled in our country, least of all thepope's."

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/business/16clone.html

F.D.A. Says Food From Cloned Animals Is Safe

By ANDREW MARTIN and ANDREW POLLACK
January 16, 2008

After years of debate, the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday declaredthat food from cloned animals and their progeny is safe to eat, clearing theway for milk and meat derived from genetic copies of prized dairy cows,steers and hogs to be sold at the grocery store.

The decision was hailed by cloning companies and some farmers, who have beenpushing for government approval in hopes of turning cloning into a routineagricultural tool. Because clones are costly, it is their offspring that aremost likely to be used for producing milk, hamburgers or pork chops, whilethe clones themselves are reserved for breeding.

"This is a huge milestone," said Mark Walton, president of ViaGen, a leadinglivestock cloning company in Austin, Tex.

Farmers had long observed a voluntary moratorium on the sale of clones andtheir offspring into the food supply. The F.D.A. on Tuesday effectivelylifted that for clone offspring. But another government agency, theAgriculture Department, asked farmers to continue withholding clonesthemselves from the food supply, saying the department wanted time to allayconcerns among retailers and overseas trading partners.

"We are very cognizant we have a global environment as it pertains tomovement of agricultural products," said Bruce I. Knight, under secretary ofagriculture for marketing and regulatory programs. He said it was his goalto have the transition last months, not years.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/15/AR2008011502860.html

A Prosperity Dilemma

By Michael Gerson
Wednesday, January 16, 2008; A15

I often write about the scandal of global poverty and preventable disease.

But the crisis of the future will be a crisis of prosperity.

In 1975, about 2.5 billion people were at "medium human development" --supplied with the basic necessities of life. Today, by the accounting of theUnited Nations, that figure exceeds 4 billion.

This, in many ways, is the world as we wished it. One of FranklinRoosevelt's Four Freedoms was "freedom from want . . . everywhere in theworld." And we have come closer to that goal than many would have predicted.Through most of history, poverty, squalor and early death were nearlyuniversal outside the courts of kings -- expected and justified as part ofthe natural order. Now more than 2 billion people in China and India aloneare becoming upwardly mobile consumers.

It is often recounted, in fits of prosperous self-hatred, that America hasonly 5 percent of the world population while consuming 30 percent of globalresources. But this comparison is misunderstood. The rest of the world hasbeen underconsuming, because too many have lived in poverty. That is nowchanging as Asia buys oil and cars and air conditioners -- and we shouldwant it to change.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/15/AR2008011502861.html

A Different Recession: The Old Remedies Won't Work This Time

By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, January 16, 2008; A15

In a normal recession, the to-do list is clear. Copies of Keynes are dustedoff, the Fed lowers interest rates, the president and Congress cut taxes andhike spending. In time, purchasing, production and loans perk up, and Keynesis placed back on the shelf. No larger alterations to the economy are made,because our economy, but for the occasional bump in the road, isfundamentally sound.

This has been the drill in every recession since World War II.

Republicans and Democrats argue over whose taxes should be cut the most andwhich projects should be funded, but, under public pressure to do something,they usually find some mutually acceptable midpoint and enact a stimuluspackage. Even in today's hyperpartisan Washington, the odds still favor sucha deal.

This time, though, don't expect that to be the end of the story -- becausethe coming recession will not be normal, and our economy is notfundamentally sound. This time around, the nation will have to craft newversions of some of the reforms that Franklin Roosevelt created to steer thenation out of the Great Depression -- not because anything like a majordepression looms but because we face an economy that's been warped by twodevelopments we've not seen since FDR's time.

The first of these is the stagnation of ordinary Americans' incomes, aphenomenon that began back in the 1970s and that American families haveoffset by having both spouses work and by drawing on the rising value oftheir homes. With housing values toppling, no more spouses to send into theworkplace, and prices of gas, college and health care continuing to rise,consumers are played out. December was the cruelest month that Americanretailers have seen in many years, and, as Michael Barbaro and LouisUchitelle reported in Monday's New York Times, delinquency rates on creditcards, auto loans and mortgages have all been rising steeply for the pastyear.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/15/AR2008011502605.html?hpid=topnews

Romney Wins Michigan GOP Primary

By Juliet Eilperin and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 16, 2008; A01

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Jan. 15 -- Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romneyresoundingly won the Michigan presidential primary Tuesday, seizing hisfirst big victory in the Republican competition and blunting the momentum ofhis chief rival, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

Romney's triumph in the state where he was born and where his father servedas governor further scrambles a GOP field in which no candidate has beenable to win more than one major contest. McCain captured first place in theNew Hampshire primary Jan. 8 and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabeetopped the Iowa field five days earlier.

The race now shifts to South Carolina, where a tough three-way contest isexpected in the first Southern state to vote this primary season. McCain andHuckabee flew to the Palmetto State before the voting in Michigan ended, andRomney will head there Wednesday for a bus tour through the state.

With 89 percent counted, Romney had won 39 percent of the vote to McCain's30 percent. Huckabee trailed with 16 percent.

The surprisingly easy win in Michigan by a candidate whom many had writtenoff vaults Romney back into contention and reaffirms the sharpened campaignmessage that he debuted several days ago: an attack on Washington and anemphasis on the need for dramatic change in the way politics is practiced.

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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011600437.html?hpid=sec-nation

O.J. Simpson Due in Court for Bail Case

By KEN RITTER
The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 16, 2008; 11:31 AM

LAS VEGAS -- O.J. Simpson was set to appear Wednesday in a courtroom for ahearing on allegations that he violated his bail agreement as he awaitstrial in his armed robbery case _ accusations his lawyer says are false.

Simpson's attorney, Gabriel Grasso, filed a motion late Tuesday urging ajudge to reject Clark County District Attorney David Roger's effort to haveSimpson jailed without bail until his April 7 trial.

Legal experts say the judge probably will allow Simpson another chance atbail because he is not facing a capital murder charge. Simpson might get astern rebuke and the judge could raise the bail amount if she agrees thatSimpson violated a court order not to try to contact his co-defendants.

The district attorney says Simpson told his bail bondsman, Miguel Pereira,in an expletive-laced message to tell co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewarthow upset Simpson was about testimony during their preliminary hearing.

Roger's motion alleges Simpson "committed new crimes," but does notelaborate. His spokesman, Dan Kulin, declined to say if new charges would befiled against Simpson.

more . . . . .


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