NYT > Opinion

• Clocking the Candidates
  The front-running Democrats, thanks mostly to a smaller field, got a lot more time to speak than the front-running Republicans in the televised debates of 2007.
• After Benazir Bhutto
  Ms. Bhutto’s death leaves the Bush administration with the principled, if unfamiliar, option of using American resources to fortify Pakistan’s battered democratic institutions.
• Preventing AIDS Prevention
  Congress and President Bush should act to eliminate the law that prohibits the use of federal funds for needle-exchange programs in the United States or abroad.
• Protection and Pay for Federal Judges
  There now seems to be sufficient support on Capitol Hill to pass a judicial pay raise. Its supporters should move on the issue as soon as Congress returns in January.
• Miracle on 32nd Street
  If Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s development team presented its proposal for a new Pennsylvania Station to the public, then commuters could push to make the project happen.
• Trouble With Trade
  For the sake of the world as a whole, I hope that we respond to the trouble with trade not by shutting trade down, but by doing things like strengthening the social safety net.
• The Sidney Awards II
  Today, we’ll celebrate more polemical essays from 2007, including a meditation on an American soldier’s death in Iraq and a clarification on the issue of immigration.
• The Uninvited Guest
  Jet lag, if seen in the right light, can open up the world.
• That Way iCutting Lies
  A new patent and its ordering ramifications.
• War for the Holidays
  As most Americans enjoy the holidays, several nations in Africa are preparing for the onslaught of war.
• No Mundane Madness
  The madness of the holidays gets trumped by a larger insanity.
• Bound for Academic Glory?
  A new report on higher education raises questions about how public universities can improve.
• Not Your Mom’s Apple Pie Chart
  How readers fared solving the "Which Came First?" mystery.
• When They Told Me Norman Wrote a BookÂ…
  The author unearths a little-known book by Norman Mailer and finds himself in it.
• Protecting a $155 Billion Pot
  Thomas DiNapoli has moved forward in trying to make the state comptroller’s office more accountable to the public. He should keep aiming in that direction.
• State Without Pity
  Texas’s governor, Legislature, courts and voters should reassess their addiction to executions.
• The Work Remaining
  A halfway resolution of the United States attorneys scandal is not enough. It needs to be investigated vigorously and completely.
• When Christmas Morning Comes
  Christmas is imbued with a recognition that the transition from sleep to waking always carries with it the immeasurable gift of a new day.
• Broken Polls
  Election officials in other states should follow Ohio’s and Colorado’s lead in promoting fair and honest elections.
• Weakening Pakistan
  Pakistanis need to turn out in force on Election Day to ensure that everybody — not just Pervez Musharraf — can have a say in Pakistan’s future.
• A Colony With a Conscience
  This republic owes its enduring strength to a fragile, scorched and little-known document called the Flushing Remonstrance.
• You Must Remember This
  A look at the important news that most of us have forgotten from 2007.
• Mortgage Meltdown
  Is there a remedy to the mortgage crisis?
• St. Nick in the Big City
  The modern Santa may be happy, but does he still care about the poor?
• ‘Ode to Joy,’ Followed by Chaos and Despair
  While Beethoven’s work may seem an innocuous choice for the official anthem of the European Union, it actually tells much more than one would expect about Europe’s predicament today.
• A Dessert With a Past
  How America narrowly escaped Christmas pudding.