By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

What a week this has been. MSNBC's Mike Viquera just said on live television, "gloom and doom has consumed Congress." Senator Chris Dodd said last night's briefing by the nation's financial leaders was the most sobering briefing -- of any kind -- he's ever attended. The visitors to the Hill last night (from Treasury and the Fed, chiefly) described "the imminent collapse of the nation's financial system." You only need to hear that kind of thing once in your life. It gets your attention. We got such a good email question from a viewer in Kansas today -- we're going to ask it on the air of one of our experts.

And as I keep saying: while we're covering this story, others go on. In a world absent this financial meltdown, we'd likely be bringing a week's worth of coverage from Texas to an end tonight. We'd love to find a way to go cover it and bring whatever attention we can to their plight -- but now we're running up against another busy period in the race for President -- a new week that ends with perhaps the most important debate in the series of four. Last night I spent some time by satellite on the air at our Houston NBC Station, KPRC-TV -- talking to the anchor team and those viewers at home with power. There was little else I could do aside from telling them...assuring them...we are following their plight, covering the story, and they remain in our hearts and prayers. Please keep them in yours.

I hope wherever you are you're able to enjoy something of a good weekend. I hope you can join us for our Friday night broadcast.