Governing as a national majority

BY STENY HOYER

I will never forget how I felt two weeks ago when I watched Barack Obama celebrating with more than a hundred thousand in Chicago, tens of millions across our nation, and millions more around the world. Now, Congress has to ensure that we live up to the possibility of that day, and the promise of this moment in history.

Gerald Herbert/AP Photo

Letting automakers fail a mistake

BY MARIO MURGADO

''We are all connected, and everything is interdependent, which can be seen on a global scale when you look at economic conditions, population sizes and the rise and fall of individual opinion.'' -- The Dalai Lama

• Big 3 automakers make bailout case to the public
• Peugeot Citroen to cut 2,700 jobs
• GM to temporarily stop production at Thai plant
• Bailout with a price: Chapter 11 bankruptcy
• Dems delay auto bailout vote, seek plan from Big 3
• Romney adamantly against auto industry bailout
• Japan's exports mark biggest decline in 7 years
• Dow falls below 8,000 amid Big Three fears
• U.S. trade accords face change
• The Driven blog has the latest in the automotive world
• Do you agree with Mario Murgado?

A secretarial State of mind

BY AARON DAVID MILLER

Having worked for six secretaries of State over 20 years, I have a pretty clear sense of what makes a good one -- and with the economic and financial crisis overshadowing foreign policy these days, the selection of an effective secretary of State is now more imperative than ever.

Team `Chimerica'

BY NIALL FERGUSON

Future historians, I suspect, will look back on Saturday's anticlimactic G-20 gathering in Washington less as Bretton Woods 2.0 and more as a rerun of the London Economic Conference of 1933. Back then, representatives of 66 nations completely failed to agree on a concerted international response to the Great Depression. The fault lay mainly with the newly elected U.S. president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who vetoed European proposals for currency stabilization.

In Darfur, call mass rape what it is: Genocide

BY DAVID SCHEFFER

People hear the word ''genocide'' and think of 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust or the estimated 800,000 mostly Tutsis slaughtered in Rwanda. They do not imagine that rape can be so well planned and done on such a mass scale as to wipe out much of an ethnic group just as thoroughly, if more slowly, than large-scale murder.

This summit's promise

BY JAMES D. WOLFENSOHN

Saturday's meeting of the Group of 20 leaders is a landmark in the evolution of global governance, one that I hope will create an opportunity to address a number of global issues. We have reached this point due to the perceived impotence of our initial response to the economic crisis. That response was led by members of the Group of Seven: the old boys' club of advanced countries that has traditionally taken the lead in tackling global crises.

The $200 campaign finance fix

BY FRED WERTHEIMER

The presidential public financing system, created in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, has served the country well for most of its existence. The system became outdated and outmoded, however, as Congress failed for more than three decades to modernize it. Today it is no longer viable.

Let's negotiate a new car deal

BY DOUGLAS OLIN

One of the first real challenges President-elect Barack Obama faces will be what to do about the ailing American auto giants. The stakes are high. For more than 100 years, the Big Three automakers have been a cornerstone of the U.S. economy and an important symbol of American industrial might. The auto industry is the largest manufacturing industry in America. And it's not just the 239,341 employees of Chrysler, Ford and GM.

Stopping a global meltdown

BY C. FRED BERGSTEN

When the finance ministers of the world's top economies convened in Washington last month, around the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund, they developed a remarkably successful international strategy for responding to the financial crisis, which had reached panic proportions in the markets. It was promptly implemented at the national level by all the key countries and quelled the worst of the anxieties. When the leaders of the top 20 of these countries meet on Saturday, they must build...

Record defense spending, less security

BY CHARLES V. PENA

Can the United States really afford to spend an additional $600 billion on the Pentagon next year, on top of the $750 billion Wall Street bailout and another planned stimulus package? More important, is it necessary?

Temporary setback for same-sex marriages

BY JOHN CORVINO

On election night, I was less anxious about whether Barack Obama would become president than about whether a certain little girl could marry her princess.

Opinion: The gay-black divide

BY JASMYNE A. CANNICK

I am a perfect example of why the fight against Proposition 8, which amends California's Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, failed to win black support.

With Obama election, there's hope for the Mideast

BY DAOUD KUTTAB

A curious thing has happened as Americans were choosing their first black president. Democracy suddenly ceased to be a bad word for many genuine democrats in the Middle East.

We don't need those Ds and Rs

BY PATT MORRISON

The election's over; should political parties be over too? Is it time to junk the Ds and the Rs after politicians' names, and all the baggage that comes with them?

Russia vs. Europe, the same old story

BY JOHN LAUGHLAND

According to a widely held view, the election of Barack Obama is good news for Russia. The new U.S. president -- runs the argument -- will abandon the confrontational style of George W. Bush and adopt a more conciliatory line in foreign affairs, including in relations with Moscow.