By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

So as per usual I caught up with the mail bag on our blog last night. The good, the bad and the ugly. Almost exactly in that order. I can't believe my pal from Umbro, Maine was talking Patriots trash. Go Giants, Stephanie! Even though I have New England in my blood and have spent the equivalent of years of my life there, I bleed Giant blue.

A fella named Brandon wrote a post to say I was taking the network steadily downhill. (Thanks, other posters -- a few of the items Brandon mentioned in making his case were subjects I was responding to on this blog -- not subjects that had aired on the broadcast!) Then Brandon was, in turn, gently smacked down by members of my army from New England and Minnesota. Hey James Zipadelli: are you any relation to Tony Stewart's crew chief? And while we're on a scattershot tear here, was anyone outraged at the size of the police escort that took Britney Spears to the hospital last night?

Let's get down to business: tonight we have politics covered as usual (interesting debate last night, and another one tonight), the National Guard, China, health, and the UN's newest envoy for peace as profiled by Ann Curry. We hope you'll join us.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

As the father of a daughter in the performing arts, the death of Margaret Truman yesterday gave me reason to repeat my favorite Harry Truman story on the air. Incensed by what critic Paul Hume wrote in the Washington Post after Margaret's concert at Constitution Hall, he pulled a sheet of White House letterhead out of the top drawer of his desk and fired off what might have amounted to the last unguarded, unvarnished and completely unhinged outburst by a President on paper, reproduced here:

It went like this:

I've just read your lousy review of Margaret's concert. I've come to the conclusion that you are an "eight-ulcer man on four-ulcer pay." It seems to me that you are a frustrated old man who wishes he could have been successful... Someday I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose and a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below.

Speaking of varnish: there's been much talk among my friends in what I call the "blue curtain crowd" -- the political advance people who set up campaign events -- about Obama's performance on primary and caucus nights. While many viewers may notice that his speeches seem smooth and practiced and orderly, (even amid the hubub and controlled chaos of a ballroom on election night) they may not instantly notice the reason why: the teleprompter that joins the Senator on stage for major events. Advance people who are aware of Obama's "secret weapon" (of course a prompter only helps if you're adept at reading one while seeming not to) have been wondering why other campaigns haven't started using them as well. Now they have. Kind of.

For viewers who noticed a slightly different forward stare during McCain's acceptance speech in Florida last night, there was a reason for that, too: a single, head-on prompter. These are usually big-screen TV's converted to the purpose at large events (big hotel ballroom banquets and televised award shows) and not often seen in politics except at conventions, to supplement the two glass plates on either side of the speaker. The interesting aspect of its use last night was that it was the ONLY prompter screen available to the Senator -- who kept returning his sharp gaze to a fixed spot seemingly in the middle of the room, looking away only occasionally to ad lib or pause for applause. The truth is that after the victory McCain pulled off last night, his supporters would have been happy if he'd read aloud from the phone book.

Tonight on our broadcast (delivered using my customary forward stare), we'll have this new day in politics. Edwards and Giuliani are out, and now it gets even more interesting. Two campaigns that attracted a lot of interest, expended a lot of energy and raised a lot of money -- will now try to transfer the heft of support to others. McCain is the recipient on the Republican side, and Edwards was non-committal today. We'll have it all. We hope you can join us for the best political coverage on television, and the rest of the news of this day.

 

by John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News, Washington

Army Spec. Alex Jimenez of Lawrence, Mass., was promoted to sergeant on Jan. 7, but he wasn't around to accept his promotion. Jimenez, 25, is one of four Americans listed as missing and presumed captured in Iraq. Jimenez and Pvt. Byron Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., have not been seen since they were ambushed south of Baghdad on May 12, 2007.

"Nothing in my life has ever been like this," Jimenez's father told the Boston Globe. "I stay strong because I think Alex is not dead, but sometimes all I can do is cry."

Besides Jimenez and Fouty, two other U.S. soldiers are missing and believed held captive in Iraq. Spc. Ahmed Qusai al-Taei, 41, an Iraqi-American and Army translator, was kidnapped Oct. 23, 2006, in Baghdad while visiting his Iraqi wife, and Staff Sgt. Keith Maupin, 23, of Batavia, Ohio, disappeared April 9, 2004, after his fuel convoy was ambushed. Maupin was later seen on videotape, surrounded by masked men holding automatic rifles.

In past wars, by comparison, 78,000 Americans are still missing from World War II; 8,100 from the Korean War; 1,763 from the Vietnam War, and 125 from the Cold War.

"These are all guys in reconnaissance flights [during the Cold War] who were downed by the Soviets," the Pentagon's Larry Greer said.

To view tributes to service members who've died this year in Iraq and Afghanistan, click here and then click on the individual photographs, which include the following seven U.S. casualties from last week:

1. Marine Lance Cpl. James Gluff, 20, of Tunnel Hill, Ga.

2. Army Sgt. Michael Sturdivant, 20, of Conway, Ark.

3. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Miller, 24, of Iowa City, Iowa.

4. Army Pfc. Duncan Crookston, 19, of Denver.

5. Army Sgt. Tracy Birkman, 41, of New Castle, Va.

6. Army Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Kahler, 29, of Granite Falls, Minn.

7. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Wilson, 28, of Boynton Beach, Fla.

 

Washington Producer John Rutherford is a decorated Vietnam veteran. He posts a weekly tribute to service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

A guy named Mike has posted on my blog, "I feel as if Mr. Williams needs to respond to others (sic) posts...just a thought, does anyone from Nightly News read these????"

Well, Mike, the answer to your question is: yes. We read them all.. a lot of us do, and we take them seriously. We wouldn't be anywhere without "customers" -- in our case our viewers and visitors to our site. The problem is: if we chose to respond to them all, we'd never get a broadcast on the air. By nature, of course, its a free-fire zone. I expect that. We have some lovely folks, who I've named here before, who always seem to have kind things to say, and are loyal, committed viewers. Their comments can often make my day, and I often regret that I lack the free time to write back just as often to thank them.

About some of the other posts: do I WANT to respond to the woman who wrote last week BEGGING me to stop wearing contact lenses? Sure. Mostly because I don't wear contact lenses, and never have. Then there's the guy who wrote me after I said I had 2,500 songs on my iPod. His point? If I bought them all on iTunes, it was an obscenely large investment in music, and if I burned them from discs or got them from friends, I've broken the law. You see my point here.

Add to all those the people who have decided on my politics and those who contend we're throwing the election to one candidate or another... or the most recent dustup, over the fact that I repeatedly called last night's speech the President's "SEVENTH State of the Union Address." Producer Subrata De researched it, and points out the fact everyone's missing: The President did NOT give a State of the Union Address in 2001, and instead delivered an address before a Joint Session of Congress on 2/27/01. He delivered his first State of the Union on 1/29/02, and his last was last evening. The White House says it is "highly unlikely" that he will appear at the end of his term, save the chance of a televised "farewell address" from the White House at the end of his term.

And a piece of trivia: the President's most recent reading list. He recently finished The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever, by Mark Frost, and The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, by the late David Halberstam. The President is currently reading The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, by Rick Atkinson.

I hope you can join us for Nightly News. We'll be here all night, of course, on duty to update the broadcast as the time zones move west, with the latest from the Florida primary. We will also have special reports on NBC and MSNBC... all of it kicks off in a short time with our political coverage on Nightly News.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Several of us gathered today for our annual lunch with the President on the day of the State of the Union address -- and while the President is known not to be feeling any pangs of wistfulness or sentimentality as he prepares to address a joint session of Congress for perhaps the last time: it was clear early on that today's gathering would be different than past years.

We were first taken to the Blue Room, where Presidents Tyler and Taft stared down on us from their portraits, until it was time to pile into the elevator to the residence portion of the White House, where we had a very nice meal and good conversation in the yellow oval room -- followed afterward by a stroll through the quarters to the President's study, which was formerly President Lincoln's office. For fellow Presidential history buffs, the room is a sensory assault: there's McKinley's treaty table (beneath the painting of McKinley standing alongside it), there's Grant's couch (beneath Grant's painting), there's Lincoln on the wall, not far from the engraving on the mantel mentioning "President Johnson" (that would be Andrew and not Lyndon). Modern touches abound, however: a flat-screen TV, and my favorite sighting of the day: there on the credenza, attached to a Bose Sound Dock speaker system, was the Presidential iPod: which happens to be the red and black U-2 version of the video iPod. I'm thinking housegift from Bono. We're checking on that.

The conversation around the table (that's the official photo released by the White House today, on the left) during the meal was fascinating and wide-ranging -- I'll have to carefully go over my notes before writing anything of substance. While this event each year usually generates a ton of conspiratorial media/government collusion theories, the truth is that while journalists have enjoyed private and semi-private "audiences" with Presidents since the formation of the office, journalists are very seldom able to directly quote Presidents at such gatherings -- so the rules allow for us to reflect his thinking, except for those portions of the conversation explicitly off the record, which is equally common. A portion of the conversation was devoted to a preview of tonight's speech -- we then talked to the President about foreign policy and domestic politics and even domestic life.

We'll have a significant amount of politics on the broadcast tonight: the dual Kennedy endorsements for Obama, the Clinton campaign (and the former President's controversial role), a speech preview, the French money mystery and more. We'll originate the broadcast from Capitol Hill in Washington tonight, and we'll come back on the air for our live speech coverage later in the evening, with Tim Russert by my side. Thanks for joining us as always.

by Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

Good afternoon. I'm back in New York after covering the Democratic South Carolina primary in Columbia. We had a super welcome from the folks there, and I want to thank everyone who braved the chilly temperatures to join me during our TODAY Show broadcasts on Main Street the last two mornings.

Meantime, in the 1 1/2 hours I was in the air today, the political headlines were rapidly changing – with word Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy will endorse Barack Obama tomorrow in Washington. This will come on the heels of Caroline Kennedy's impassioned endorsement of Obama in a New York Times Op-Ed piece this morning.

Obama meantime, has little chance to bask in the afterglow of his South Carolina performance.  Both he and Hillary Clinton will soon face their biggest test yet, when they compete in the twenty-four Super Tuesday primaries on February 5th. In addition to Lee Cowan's wrap-up of the Democratic race, NBC's Andrea Mitchell will join me tonight to talk about growing concern within the party about the role of Bill Clinton. Andrea says some of that concern can be described as anger, and she will come on tonight to tell us what she's hearing, and what the Clintons might do about it.

The temperature is rising in Florida, where John McCain is challenging Mitt Romney in the build-up to Tuesday's Republican primary. The punches and counter punches are getting sharper between the two over the War in Iraq and the economy. Ron Allen is covering that for us.

We'll be looking ahead to what promises to be another week to watch on Wall Street as the Fed is poised to cut interest rates for the second time in a week. Erin Burnett, from our financial news channel CNBC, will be with us to explain why this is happening, and what the potential down side of further interest cuts might be.

Still on the subject of the economy, despite all the headlines of hard times, there are parts of this country enjoying an economic boom, and we'll have the story of one of them
.
We've got all that, plus my test drive of the smallest car on the road, which has just gone on sale in America. Is the Smart Car a smart move?

Finally, a lot of you have written in to tell us my story about black voters in a Greenville, South Carolina barbershop last night, didn't add up. How could a 63-year-old man have voted for John F. Kennedy in 1960? Good catch. He couldn't have. The mistake, however, was not in what he told me, but in my question, when I said, "you voted for Kennedy, that would have been in 1960. What was South Carolina like?"  When the gentleman and I were chatting before the cameras rolled, he spoke about how he supported Kennedy when he ran. In my question I clearly extrapolated his comments to mean he voted for Kennedy. While he didn't correct me, the fault is all mine. I sincerely hope my poor math didn't take away from an important conversation going on in that barbershop and other places across America about the role of race in politics. Thanks, as always, for keeping us honest. Your thoughts are always appreciated.

I hope you can join us for the Sunday edition of NBC Nightly News.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Here at the office on a Saturday afternoon, I was surprised to receive a phone call from Mitt Romney -- thanking me for supplying him with the answer to the question about Ronald Reagan's tax policy at last week's debate -- we both marveled at how well the system worked -- I was able to whisper answers into my microphone, which in turn went to a transmitter attached to his back, beneath his suit (the very same system we used, with great success, with President Bush at a previous debate) which fed a tiny earpiece, fitted in his inner ear without visible wiring. We are currently in discussions with other campaigns -- we are willing to provide this service to others, provided the price is right.

Okay, we've had our fun for this Saturday. While the above is a parody, the charges made over the past 48 hours on the internet are not -- some of them made by people who should know better. We still aren't sure whose voice that was -- there were 13 hot microphones in that room (five podium mics, five tie-mounted mics for the candidates, one each for Tim and me and one for Paul Tash, seated in the audience) -- and as someone from this network told one of the websites, correctly, I think: everyone in that hall finished Tim's question (at least to themselves), so I think it's entirely plausible that someone muttered it under their breath to themselves subconsciously and somewhere near one of the open mics...kind of like the way some of us watch Jeopardy -- saying the answer to ourselves. To repeat: none of the candidates had an earpiece, nor were any of their handlers allowed anywhere near them in the wings. The audience in the hall could not hear the whisper, but we could and the viewing audience could. The candidates could not hear the whisper. I don't know who said it. Let's keep our eyes on the ball.

None of this is going to matter when we're all wiped out by the falling spy satellite.

On the broadcast tonight: politics, and lots of it. We're here to cover the South Carolina primary -- we'll be updating all the feeds of Nightly News, to the west with the time zones as the evening goes on. We'll be doing live updates on the NBC Television network and on MSNBC. We have other news as well, of course: on the drama playing out in France, the wrath of nature in California, and more. We hope to see you tonight -- thanks for tuning in.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Apparently while I was in the air en route home from Florida there was some traffic on the Internet about last night's grassy knoll "whispered moment" right after this question from Tim Russert to Mitt Romney during the debate: "Will you do for Social Security what Ronald Reagan did in 1983?" With the benefit of an earpiece on stage, I distinctly heard what some viewers apparently heard. Someone said in a whisper, but audibly:

"He raised taxes..."

I remember looking around the stage with a start - scanning the faces of the candidates, trying to figure out who had just said that. Apparently, others heard it, too. We're actually polling all of our folks (those who were anywhere near an open mike) and watching all of our iso tapes (where we record camera angles that isolate individual candidates) to see who the whispering bandit is. Its not as if anyone committed any offense - in fact, whoever it was was both fast on the draw and correct about where Tim was going with his question. It was just an oddly disjointed, not-immediately-identifiable voice, thus the mystery.

Back in New York, I'm here to tell you today's Continental Airlines flight 700 from Ft. Lauderdale to Newark was one of the worst I've ever been on. This time it wasn't the airline's fault. It was the people on the plane: nasty kids, even worse parents... a situation made that much more nightmarish by the continuing horror of the discovery I made boarding our flight to Miami two nights ago: My iPod was in its charger - in my office - and not in my briefcase. The prospect of traveling without it terrifies me, and during the opening 30 minutes of today's flight I would have done anything to have had just ONE of my 2,500 songs. I've never been so happy to see my home state come into view, as we circled over Soprano-land on final approach over the urban jungle of northern Jersey prior to landing.

I was driving through Las Vegas ten days ago with producer Subrata De (on our way to a redeye to New York, I recall - it all tends to run together) when I motioned toward a cluster of existing high-rise hotels, adjacent to some new construction, the Monte Carlo hotel among them. I mentioned the struggle of the Las Vegas Fire Department to stay ahead of the construction boom (there are 40,000 new hotel rooms currently under construction) and made some sort of vague, dark prediction akin to "one of these days, one of these is gonna go up..." And by the time we landed this afternoon and arrived in the newsroom, every television was showing live pictures of the fire at the Monte Carlo. It took a long while to get water on that fire today, and I imagine there will be a long investigation into how it happened and how quickly it spread. Note the jet-black smoke that came from the initial incursion of the fire into those hotel rooms: That's the carpeting, wall coverings, fabrics, furniture, electronics - all the synthetic materials and surfaces and fabrications that make up today's commercial construction. I don't envy the Battalion Chief who was the first to roll up on the scene of that one today. Considering how it might have ended, a lot of people have a lot of blessings to count today in Las Vegas.

Friday night's broadcast covers the Vegas fire, the political campaign (including the the whispering mystery if we managed to solve it soon enough for airtime), the Gaza situation, the war in Iraq - capped off by our Friday night feature on those who are Making a Difference. Saturday night, we'll be back here at work to cover the South Carolina results. Then on Monday, it's off to Washington for the president's State of the Union speech. We sure hope you can join us.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

My chief regret traveling into and out of as many places as we do is that we never get to stop and enjoy where we are, or otherwise take it in.  It's especially true at debates, where a lot of people are here to push a political angle or candidate -- and we often become prisoners in our hotel rooms rather than step out into the scrum.  At colleges like this one, Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, hosting a debate means mobilizing an army of volunteers -- mostly students -- who are overjoyed to have the event here and have been working on it for weeks.  We arrive a few hours before the event, get shunted into a makeshift office (the work of Nightly News goes on, regardless of  the clock ticking down to tonight's 9pm start time) and leave immediately after the conclusion.  It never feels like we give them the attention they deserve.  On rare occasions, we're on the ground long enough to get a sense of place.  One of the great joys of my life in this business was a side trip I took to Corregidor while covering the Clinton White House during a summit in Manila.  I'm so glad, having read so much history, that I forced myself to go and see a place I'd otherwise never get to. I was able to stand in the exact spot where Douglas MacArthur once stood,  and walk through the fortified tunnels deep inside the island.  Sadly, there will be no such exploration here, as we leave just hours after the debate, and the press of the news business will keep us from enjoying this beautiful spot in Boca Raton.

Given my life-long study of President Johnson, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out his personal history where this University is concerned: 44 years ago, President Johnson came here to dedicate the new campus and receive the first-ever honorary degree from this institution.  There's a picture of the event in the borrowed office I'm using while I prepare for the broadcast this afternoon.

                            

Johnson had been a teacher back home in Texas before he got into politics, and here at FAU he called for "a new revolution" in American education. It was October 25, 1964 -- just nine days before the general election, and Johnson won in a landslide that year. He carried every state but Arizona (Republican opponent Barry Goldwater's home state), and five states of the Deep South: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. LBJ's 1964 sweep included Florida, but it was one of only three times in the 14 elections since 1952 that a Democrat has carried the state (the others being Carter in 1976 and Clinton in 1996). And Johnson's margin in Florida (51-49%) was a lot narrower that it was nationwide (61-38%).

Florida's history of going Republican can make a crucial difference in presidential elections (see Bush v. Gore, 2000). Florida has a whopping 27 electoral votes -- more than any state except California, New York and Texas -- and that's ten percent of the total needed to win. Come November, that will provide a big advantage to whomever wins the Sunshine State, something sure to be on the minds of the GOP candidates as they take the stage here tonight.

One postscript: Lyndon Johnson's 1964 election blowout was preceded by a very real blowout while he was here in Florida. The president had flown into Fort Lauderdale, and was traveling by motorcade to Boca Raton for the FAU dedication. As his heavy, bulletproof Lincoln bubble-top limousine arrived on campus, the left rear tire blew out (with a "muffled report," according to one press account). As the limo came to a stop, the president was hustled into a Secret Service follow-up car, and continued without incident. There was no explanation of why that supposedly puncture-proof presidential tire went flat.

Tonight on the broadcast, we'll set the political stakes going into this evening's debate.  We'll also have complete coverage of today's moving pieces in Washington on the economy, and an update on the Gaza situation.  We hope you can join us for Nightly News from here in Boca Raton, and for tonight's debate on MSNBC at 9 eastern time and again at 9pm on the West Coast.

By Mark Hudspeth, NBC News producer

Editor's note: Mark Hudspeth is on the campaign trail with NBC's Lee Cowan, whose report on how the candidates keep going... and going... and going airs tonight on the broadcast. 

I certainly wasn't the first person who had found himself sitting in church on a Sunday morning regretting a long night in Vegas. But even so, last Sunday seemed strangely unique.

I was unsuccessfully trying not to yawn, crammed in a small section of the balcony of Ebenezer Baptist Church with several dozen sleep-deprived journalists and Barack Obama campaign press aides. Most of us had spent nearly every waking hour of our 18-to-22 hour days together for more than three weeks, and had rushed to catch an overnight press charter just hours after the finding out the results of the Nevada Caucus. It was the only way to get to Atlanta in time to see Obama address the home church of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the eve of the holiday created in King's honor.

It seems like such a long time ago. I can't believe it hasn't even been a week. Lee Cowan and I have been on the road covering the Obama campaign since Christmas Day. We were on and off the trail sporadically for a few weeks before that and there are quite a few who have been out longer than that. And as the campaign reaches fever pitch leading up to the February 5th contests, it's not just the candidates, but those of us who follow their every move, who are slowly starting to realize that the frenetic pace we've been keeping is nowhere near finished. And like them we have to dig deep to keep going.

I don't know why I didn't go right to sleep on that flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta. It would have been such a nice long stretch of the REM sleep that's been in such short supply lately. That's actually not true. I do know why: a plane full of reporters covering the same story, all of whom just made both a deadline and a flight by the skin of their teeth can be a pretty lively group. We spent most of the flight chattering about the nuances of the delegate/popular vote split, speculating about whether it had been a mistake for Obama to go home to Chicago rather than stay and react to the results (maybe we were just jealous that he was doing what we all wanted to do), and commiserating about the challenges of working for East Coast news organizations while out west (my alarm to get up and do the Today Show that morning had gone off at 2a.m.).

Most of us in the balcony last Sunday had been on a similar flight to New Hampshire just hours after Obama delivered his victory speech the night of the Iowa Caucus, and will probably do it again a few hours after the polls close in South Carolina this Saturday-–regardless of the outcome.

Days on the trail seem eerily similar, yet all are different. From state to state and city to city, the candidate's speeches -- much like the floral pattern on the buses that carry us from event to event -- are mostly the same. From the early morning bag call to late night events timed for the 11p.m. local news, our day becomes mostly a search for those small departures from that sameness that become the day's news. That and the AC power we need to charge the laptops, Blackberrys, cell phones, and cameras we use to tell those stories.

Sometimes the campaign does what it can to help us fight the inevitable fatigue, like usually they have Red Bull energy drink on the bus. But sometimes they don't, like today when they scheduled a roundtable with voters right after a conference call on economic policy.

But the fatigue is always short lived, because soon enough one of those small departures hits you like cold water in the face and it's like a whole new day. And there's going to be a lot of new days before this race is settled. And until then I have no intention of missing any of them.

 

Hi. More stuff on the stock market (a wilder ride than anything at Six Flags); the credit markets (harder to decipher than a Paul Thomas Anderson film); and the plot point no economic meltdown is complete without: the rogue trader (dude, where's my $7 billion?)

Between the Federal Reserve, the Executive Branch, Congress (working together.. gasp!), state regulators, the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (FannieMae, FreddieMac), Jim Cramer and Larry Kudlow, the powers-that-be are throwing everything including the kitchen sink at the equity markets, which have been tip-toeing a little too close to the abyss lately. Huge, surprise Fed Funds rate cuts, 2-minute drill stimulus packages, bond insurer bailout tirades and meetings, hikes in conforming loan limits, it's all coming, rapid fire. Will it be enough, or did the excesses of the past few years create so many problems that even the kitchen sink can't put out all the fires? Let's start with the bond insurers.  

A couple of months ago, I spent a bunch of time trying to understand what a Structured Investment Vehicle was and whether the Treasury Secretary's idea of setting up a Super-SIV so banks could pool bad stuff they had parked in their SIVs in one place. A lot of reasonable people writing about the issue said the Super-SIV would never get off the ground, and it turned out, it didn't. No one wanted to invest in the Super-SIV, so the banks started repatriating what was in their off-balance sheet SIVs onto their books, and we all saw giant write-downs at bank after bank in Q4. Now there's talk of a bailout of a group of bond insurers called monolines, which used to provide plain-vanilla coverage to municipalities, but branched out into exotic credit derivatives during the last few years. That included insurance for bonds based on mortgage debt, which has now gone bad. The fear is that if the insurers default, it will have a really nasty ripple effect throughout the entire global financial system. The downgrade of one of those insurers, Ambac, on Friday may have been what triggered the global stock market freakout Monday and Tuesday. 

So here's the state of play: yesterday, the Financial Times reported on a meeting of banks and representatives of the bond insurers, organized by New York State's insurance commissioner. The report hinted that a possible bailout of the insurers by a consortiuim of banks was in the works. As the original FT story came out, the Dow rocketed from down 340 points to up 299. (Coincidence? Uhhh...) But today, CNBC's Charlie Gasparino pours some icy cold water on yesterday's optimistic take, arguing that not only was yesterday's meeting of little consequence (no agreement from the banks on substance), it may have materially affected the companies' ability to actually be bailed out by some private equity bottom-feeders who were eyeballing them when their stock was at $5.00 a share. After yesterday's news, the bond insurers' stock prices took off like rockets, and private equity is not so interested at $14 a share. So to make a really long story only sort of long, it might be a reasonable conclusion to draw, that a monoline bailout makes about as much sense as the Super-SIV. It may not happen. But like the Super-SIV plan, the prospect that it might happen was enough to keep equity and credit markets out of the pit of despair, for the time being at least. Advocates of a bailout point to the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund fiasco, as a template. The WSJ raised it.. and there was more today from NakedCapitalism. On the other hand, Felix Salmon at Portfolio doesn't think the monolines are all that important. And by the way, the subplot of all this is that when all the news about the monolines started hitting critical mass awhile back, Warren Buffett stepped in and said he'd be opening up his own bond insurance shop. Show of hands: do you think Warren Buffett knows what he's doing? Don't you think if the existing monolines were save-able, he woulda bought one of them? OK, hands down.  

Back to more basics now and Existing Home Sales for December. CalculatedRisk has the latest ugly installment. In summary: December sales fell 2.2% to a 10 year low, down 22% year-over-year; prices fell 6% year-over-year; for the year 2007, median prices fell for the first time in 40 years. Here's a fun quote from March, 2003 to go with that last stat: "It is, of course, possible for home prices to fall as they did in a couple of quarters in 1990. But any analogy to stock market pricing behavior and bubbles is a rather large stretch. First, to sell a home, one almost invariably must move out and in the process confront substantial transaction costs in the form of brokerage fees and taxes. These transaction costs greatly discourage the type of buying and selling frenzy that often characterizes bubbles in financial markets. Second, there is no national housing market in the United States. Local conditions dominate, even though mortgage interest rates are similar throughout the country. Home prices in Portland, Maine, do not arbitrage those in Portland, Oregon. Thus, any bubbles that might emerge would tend to be local, not national, in scope." Who said it? (Answer at the end of this blog post, but not upside-down cause I don't know how to do that.) 

Now to the stimulus package that the White House and House leaders announced today. Tax rebates, business tax cuts, and somewhat controversially, an increase in the conforming loan limits for the FHA, and government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mike "Mish" Shedlock made the case against stimulus before the final details were announced (see especially the part about conforming loan limit increases being DOA, as they should be. Double-oof.) Paul Krugman says the Democrats caved on providing stimulus to those most likely to spend it.  Yves at NakedCapitalism (again) weighs in on the monetary side. And just as a reminder that piling up more debt might not be the best solution to a debt crisis in this country.. here's David Leonhardt's NYT piece about the "good times" we've just experienced.

And what would a global stock market meltdown be without a rogue trader? France's second-largest bank, Societie Generale, fell victim to a "brilliant" 31 year old who managed to hide $7 billion worth of bad bets on the direction of various stock markets until late last week. The fact that SocGen had to unwind this guy's trades into the wicked selling that was already taking place Monday is being chalked up to "Murphy's Law" according to the bank's president. Oof. Oh well, at least the kid who lost $31,000 and posted his trades on YouTube Sunday night can get a little per-SPEC-tive!

GUESS THAT QUOTE ANSWER: The Maestro, Alan Greenspan.  

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

That is how one of our producers described the pictures from Gaza today. The story in Gaza changed in a fundamental way today. We'll have coverage of that, the markets, politics, and health. We'll also have the reporting of Tom Brokaw and Ann Curry -- in the same broadcast.

All of my elective time is taken up by prepping for Thursday's GOP debate -- I leave for Florida after the broadcast tonight, and Tim Russert and I will meet up there tomorrow for a final prep session or two before tomorrow night's broadcast.

The Heath Ledger story is so very sad -- I'm seeing huge interest in it on the web today, and not all facets of the early reporting have proven to be accurate.

It's not too early to tell you about a great segment we've slated for tomorrow night: how do the candidates do it? Long days, motel rooms, bad food, endless airplane hops and handshakes. Sometimes its a wonder they get two words in a row right. And when they DON'T, you can bet we'll be all over it.

We also have some great web material on kids and the internet, nuns and our green planet, and more on Ann Curry's emotional reporting from tonight. We're happy to have you with us tonight...and we'll look for you from Florida tomorrow evening.

By Robert Bazell, NBC News chief science correspondent

It is a debate that has been running through the history of modern cardiology.  The first surgery to bypass clogged arteries to the heart was performed in 1967.  Ten years later a doctor opened a clogged artery with a tiny balloon on the end of a wire inserted through a vein from the groin to the heart in a procedure called angioplasty.

Washington Producer John Rutherford is a decorated Vietnam veteran. He posts a weekly tribute to service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

by John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News, Washington

Friendly fire deaths are an unfortunate casualty of any war. The Pentagon officially lists 13 American friendly fire deaths in Iraq and six in Afghanistan. The most famous was the 2004 death of former pro football player Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. At least 10 European and Canadian troops have also died in friendly fire incidents in Afghanistan. In the latest one, Dutch troops accidentally killed two of their own men during a Jan. 12 nighttime battle in southern Afghanistan.

The Army continues to investigate the Jan. 9 deaths of three members of the 101st Airborne Division to determine whether they were killed by enemy or friendly fire in Samarra, Iraq. The three soldiers died in a three-hour firefight in which U.S. aircraft blasted insurgent positions with rockets, 500-pound bombs, and .50-caliber guns. The bodies of two of the men, Pfc. Ivan Merlo, 19, of San Marcos, Calif., and Pfc. Phillip Pannier, 22, of Washburn, Ill., were found during the battle. Sgt. David Hart, 22, of Lake View Terrace, Calif., died later of his injuries.

Last week, six more soldiers died in Iraq, including another three members of the 101st Airborne. Please click here and then click on the individual photos to read their tributes.

By Marisa Buchanan, NBC News producer

There is a public reason French Catholic priest Father Patrick Desbois gives about why he has worked so tirelessly for seven years uncovering a little-known part of the holocaust during World War Two. "Pope John Paul II said to the Jews, 'We are brothers,'" Father Desbois told Ann Curry, "but when you are brothers, you have to help your brothers. And I cannot accept that my brothers are laying the fields of a Christian country."

By Geoff Tofield, NBC producer

For Hard Times: A Nightly survival guide, Nightly News presented viewers with ways to keep afloat during these tough economic times in a two-part series. Some notes and tips from NBC producer Geoff Tofield, who produced CNBC's Carl Quintanilla's Hard Times segments, which aired Monday, Jan. 21, and Tuesday, Jan. 22:

There are hundreds of credit repair companies, many of which need to make money. Some of those are scams. Here's a reasonably safe place to start for those who want to look into debt help, credit repair, etc:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/repair.shtm

For our story, we spoke to the President of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling,  which represents a large group of non-profit community-based agencies (100 member agencies, about 900 local offices) that serve more than three million people a year, by their own measure. They provide no-cost but also low-cost services (depends on the need):
http://www.nfcc.org and http://www.debtadvice.org

We also spoke to a woman in Monday's story who received assistance from the Community Development Corporation of Long Island. CDCLI is under the umbrella of Neighborworks America, which was chartered  by Congress in 1978. Neighborworks is a group of 240 community development groups in all 50 states. It was established as a neighborhood revitalization effort helping needy and lower-income areas in everything from energy efficiency to small business assistance, and while they do that they are (obviously) helping lots of people these days facing rate adjustments and foreclosure.
Their Web site: http://www.nw.org

Watch Part 1 of the Hard Times series here.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

I can't think of a more nerve-wracking day watching CNBC, going back to the aftermath of 9-11. What a jittery feeling knowing what we knew overnight about Asian markets -- but cooler heads have apparently prevailed.

We'll talk about the economy tonight -- also about politics -- and last night's turn for the personal in the CNN debate. Tim Russert will be with us to talk politics. We'll also report on diabetes, the troubles in Gaza and more.

I'm off now to do a special report on the network on the day's market trading (Mike Taibbi rode out the day on the trading floor of a Wall Street firm -- that will be interesting to see on the air tonight) and then start compiling the broadcast.

I also want to call your attention to a great piece from Richard Engel in Iraq that will go up on our Nightly News website immediately following the broadcast.

A busy day, and it promises to end with a busy broadcast tonight. We appreciate you being with us.

Hi. Hoo boy, the past few days make me wish I could just noodle around on this blog instead of attending to my actual job. We live interesting times, and this morning's stock market open was more exciting than a Giants field goal attempt at Lambeau (sorry Williams boys-- your boys are going down!) Since this space has been in an obessive-compulsive mode over the economy and the financial markets since last July, we'll just dispense with the obvious and start digging into what's under the surface. There's are big questions about what's really going on in the banking system and the financial markets now, and we'll try to ferret out the best the internet has to offer for some answers.

The obvious: the Fed (with one absent and one dissenter) cut the Fed Funds target rate by a whopping 75 basis points this morning, an hour before the stock market opened. It was the first emergency Fed Funds cut since September 17, 2001 and the biggest one since the FFT became the fed's main policy tool back in 1990. Was it a surprise? Sort of.. there was certainly a lot of speculation they'd do it based on the mondo-world-sell-off from the day before. Did it work? Well as we all saw, the Dow plunged 464 points then reversed, made it all the way to -38 and has been holding in the -100 points or so range for much of the day. So, stick save by the Fed.. an outright crash averted for today. (And the second time the market seemed to be heading into the abyss and was "saved" by an emergency cut-- the last one was the surprise Discount rate cut August 17. By the way, that was 1,108 Dow points ago.) But lots of question about what the Fed may really be looking at as it slashes away at the FFT, especially with demand for bank credit way, way down. Trying to parse what's going on behind the scenes, Russ Winter of the Wall Street Examiner channels Jerry Maguire and wants the banks to "Show Me the Moneeeeey!" And the Financial Armageddon blog take the deflationist side of the argument, which would explain agressive rate cuts in the face low interbank demand, high commodity prices and consumer inflation. On the fundamentals front, Bank of America and Wachovia reported earnings today. Or "earnings" might be more appropriate since they were bascially zero for the fourth quarter.

Backing up a bit, Jared Bernstein and Dean Baker writing at TPMCafe take a look at where we stand. Brian Wingfield writing in Forbes, with a skeptical eye toward the Fed's move. The Economist sniffs the air and finds a whiff of Fed panic. And Randall Forsyth of Barron's welcomes us to The Great Crash of '08.

Another big risk area that we've talked about before, the bond insurers, comes up in most of the links above. It certainly seems like Friday's ratings downgrade of Ambac at least contibuted to if not triggered the global selloff yesterday. Bloomberg sums up how the sleepy, profitable business of municipal bond insurance morphed into the monster that ate the world's financial markets. Nat Worden at thestreet.com wrote about the hazard over the weekend. And in light of all that, this blast from the past from Business Week on the father of mortgage securitization is a good read. (hat tip: Enfinity at TickerForum) 

Looking forward now, CalculatedRisk posted today about the "jingle mail" phenomenon (the amount you owe on your mortgage exceeds the value of your home. You mail the keys to the bank and leave.) Whether this is going to become a socially acceptable thing to do as more and more borrowers find themselves in this position is a growing worry for banks, which came up on Wachovia's conference call this morning.

And here's another post from Financial Armageddon on who won't be suffering in the recession: lawyers. The NYT has more of the same.

How bad was Sunday night for newbie-type day-traders dabbling in electronic futures? Scroll down to the post: THE STOCK MARKET RUINED MY LIFE to watch a youg'n lose $31,000 in real time. (Caution: foul language. Seriously. Nothing but foul language.) [UPDATE: YouTube took the video down. I told you it was foul language!]

Hey kid, here's some advice, old-school style.

Well, since you can no longer see the trading guy video, here's another dose of harsh.. courtesy of Jim Kunstler.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

A longtime member of my computer "favorites" list was discovered by the New York Times this morning. While their Business section profile will tell you much of what you need to know about the blogger Michael Yon, I constantly visit his website looking for updates.

I first met Michael in Iraq -- I was travelling with my late friend and good luck charm, retired four-star Army General Wayne Downing. Yon was attached to the group we were with for the night -- and when General Downing discovered who he was, it was as if he'd met a rock star. Wayne thought Michael's website was one of the few where he could find the truth about the status of the war.

Yon is a former SF (Special Forces) guy, who knows his way around -- around Iraq, around a military base, and now, the world of journalism. If you read only one dispatch by Michael Yon, read Gates of Fire. It is as real a depiction as I've read of the height of the fighting there. It's gripping journalism, and it chiefly serves as a character study of the incredible young men and women serving their country in this nation's dual wars.

Michael's style isn't for everyone, nor is his viewpoint. His journalism speaks with an unusual voice -- but it's one I find familiar after my time in Iraq, and the time I've spent around the military. His is the voice of the soldier, often unfazed by what he sees, mission-focused and battle-hardened. These guys don't scare easily, and they never let up, and Michael tells the story from their point of view.

After we lost Wayne Downing this past year, I donated money in Wayne's name so that Michael could continue his work. We need his voice amid all the other noise about the war in Iraq, and I'm happy to know that more readers will now come his way by dint of this morning's story in the Times.

On another front: I spent much of the latter half of last night in shock, along with my son, that our beloved Giants are actually going to the Super Bowl. It's Yankees/Red Sox all over again: the two great cities of New York and Boston, pitted against each other once again. While we all admire the leadership of the great Favre, our boys didn't give up in the cold -- the Eli Manning era, as many papers speculated today, just might be under way.

Now to the news: the cold, the economy, politics and more. (And speaking of the economy: if you're not up on just how serious things have become on that front, be sure to read my colleague Chris Colvin's blogs on the subject.) Richard Engel is back on post in Bagdhad, and as proof of that, he tonight offers a rare interview with the commanding U.S. General -- who these days is the subject of rumors that he's going to either head NATO or run for office of some sort back home in the States. We will take a moment to remember Dr. King (the spirit of this day will permeate much of our political reporting at the top of the broadcast) with his own words from what I think is his most chilling speech, on the last night of his life. As a photographer from that era put it earlier today on MSNBC, King was a General, fighting the last battles of the Civil War. We'll remember the General tonight. Thanks for being with us as always.

by Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

Greetings from the Columbia, South Carolina Metropolitan Airport. I'm on my way back to New York to anchor tonight's edition of NBC Nightly News. That is, IF our flight is cleared to takeoff in time. The gate agent just announced there's a "ground stop" at my destination airport, or what the FAA calls "traffic management system." Translation: too many airplanes, not enough air space available, and you'll take off when we can squeeze your airplane in. I fly several times a month on this job and it's become a familiar and frustrating routine. Judging from the rolled eyes and sighs from my fellow passengers, my guess is it's a routine they also know well.

Ok, enough of my whining. How about the real road warriors: the presidential candidates, who remain in a holding pattern with each hoping to land the status of undisputed frontrunner.  Mike Huckabee told me the other day he could absorb a loss in South Carolina, but in talking to him, I had the sense he really thought he would win the state. Fred Thompson, on the other hand, mused openly to me that maybe it is necessary to start running for president when you're in high school in order to be successful. I couldn't tell if it was an expression of regret on his part, or simply a veiled shot at some of his competitors. In any case, last night's results give him a lot to think over, and since he and Huckabee seem to be appealing to many of the same kinds of voters, my guess is Huckabee would prefer he think fast. And then there's John McCain. As every TV commentator noted last night, this was the guy whose candidacy was written of as dead on arrival several months ago. No matter what happens from this point on, his story by itself is remarkable. McCain, of course, still faces a very alive Mitt Romney who continues to rack up the delegates. Romney is playing a very effective numbers game.

We'll be breaking it all down on Nightly News tonight, and look ahead to next Saturday's South Carolina Democratic primary. I'll be back in Columbia for that.  Of course, if this plane doesn't board soon, I may be better off just staying here. DID YOU HEAR THAT MISTER GATE AGENT? (Sorry, whining again.)

Thanks for checking out the blog. I hope to see you later on NBC Nightly News.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Tonight my friend who usually occupies the anchor chair on Saturday night, Lester Holt, is in the field in South Carolina covering a slice of the most exciting election year in modern American politics. Tim Russert and I are here holding down the fort in New York, where we've been watching these results come in all day. While Romney was a foregone conclusion in Nevada, the internal numbers are nevertheless fascinating. And while few would have predicted a Clinton victory in Nevada just a few days ago (when the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama), the Clinton campaign has shown its strength today in the West. Now we focus on the 7pm poll closing in South Carolina, where it SNOWED in parts of the state today -- and where tonight's result will almost surely break the tie (of three contests/three separate winners) in the GOP. The process keeps going and going...with a remarkably small attrition rate given where we are. It is a fascinating Saturday in politics -- and on a cold night in January, our modest group of colleagues is huddled together in New York preparing the broadcast as I write this.

We have some great stories in the lineup this evening: in addition to complete political coverage, we have Savanah Guthrie on the economy (and sudden bipartisanship breaking out in Washington over the need for a stimulus package) and a fascinating closing segment on a discovery in Antarctica.

We hope you can join us tonight for Nightly News. Lester will be back in the chair where he belongs by this time tomorrow night.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

Not long after we're off the air and en route home tonight after the broadcast, some of us will circle back and come to work tomorrow for a rare "Saturday session" for many of us on the weekday Nightly News team. Tim Russert and I are coming in to cover and report on the results from South Carolina and Nevada -- in what is turning into a fascinating, ultra-competitive (and exhausting) political year. First things first: tonight we'll cover the political state of play, as well as the state of the economy, and we'll have our Friday Making a Difference segment.

I also want to thank those of you who are launching the grassroots movement to buy me a personal jet. While I'd really miss those four-hour redeye flights from Las Vegas to Newark, I guess I'd get used to it in time. In fairness to my employers, you should know: we often have to arrange charter aircraft if the destinations and arrival and departure times don't lend themselves to commercial air travel. The case I always cite is Banda Aceh, Indonesia after the awful tsunami there in December, 2004. No commercial air travel was allowed to land or take off during the first two days of that crisis, so a charter jet was the only option we had. Somehow (and so far, at least) thanks to the hard work of a lot of people, we always get where we need to go.

Thanks for watching this past week. We have indeed covered a lot of ground and a lot of news in the space of just five days. We'll be back at work tomorrow night, then Lester Holt will take the reins on Sunday. I'll be home rooting for the Giants. We'll be back on Monday to start another week, which will include a Republican debate in Florida. Have a great weekend, and thanks for watching.

By Maria Menounos, NBC News contributing correspondent

 

I flew from New York (having finished my duties on the Today Show Wednesday) to Columbia, South Carolina to interview Sarah Huckabee and Meghan McCain. I had been efforting the candidates' kids for a few weeks and finally started getting responses.

 

By Kevin Tibbles, NBC News correspondent

When I got home last night I sat my kids down to talk about the litany of suburban travails that soooo take over daily life.

"Who's gonna pick up whom?"  "Why won't you eat fruit?"  My clothes are wrinkled. Why didn't you empty the dryer?"

It was a little different however as, thanks to this job of mine, I met someone yesterday who is special. So, we talked about that instead.

If I was in reporter mode here, I would type..."Farah Ahmedi is a 20 year old Afghan refugee who lost one of her legs when she stepped on a land mine. She eventually left her homeland to make her way to the United States and a new life."

All of that is true, of course. But, none of it really describes this remarkable young woman. With an ill-fitting prosthetic leg and her ailing mother in tow, Farah walked over the mountains into Pakistan. She survived the dangerous and fetid refugee camps, came to America, educated herself in a new culture, has written a book about her experiences and has inspired almost everyone she's met. Many now volunteer to help other refugees in America.

Video: Watch the report as it aired on 'Nightly News'

Her intense, dark eyes destroy any notion that Farah Ahmedi will ever allow circumstance or disability get in the way of her goal. She lobbies against landmines and works to save the children of Afghanistan. Today this remarkable woman, who makes a difference every single day, becomes a U.S. citizen. She says she is so grateful to have the freedom of choice in the country that has made such a difference to her.

By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor

It always happens.

Anytime I'm forced to take a red-eye, the moment I board, the captain gets on the PA and says some variation of the following, "Folks, from the flight deck...good news...we've got some good tail winds tonight and we'll be four hours, ten minutes en route to New York tonight."

Everybody's different, but I equate nighttime with sleep. The fallacy of the red-eye is that you'll actually get restful sleep over four hours spent inside an aluminum tube, sitting next to a guy who has chosen your particular flight to catch up on some bill-paying under the intense glow of the reading lamp...which in the darkness of the cabin gives off the same amount of light as the sun. I'd much prefer the captain to tell us we're taking a special route over the polar cap, with our flaps partially extended to slow down our airspeed, allowing us all eight hours of restful sleep en route. I get how that would affect commerce, the environment and the like...but I dread spending the day after a red-eye...recovering from a red-eye. At least someone gave it an appropriate nickname.

The upside from last night's experience? I learned of a new use of the language. After arriving in the welcoming confines of Newark Airport, and after the wait for our luggage stretched into 40 minutes, I asked the Continental Airlines baggage supervisor what the hold-up was. She told me there had been a "problem downloading the bags." We're downloading bags now! I think that means tossing them from the cargo hold onto a cart, but I'm not sure.

To the broadcast: we just watched the Dow drop 300 points, there's a human cloning story in the news, Mitt Romney had quite an encounter with a reporter today, and our terrific series on gender, "The Truth About Boys and Girls," continues tonight. So we'll muster our energy, gather our forces and we'll have it all for you tonight -- we sure appreciate you joining us.