Discussion of the “fiscal cliff” since the presidential election has focused so far on the type and amount of tax increases that congressional Republicans might accept and the changes in entitlement programs that President Barack Obama and Democrats could agree to in exchange.

While Sunday morning’s talk shows were all abuzz about what UN Ambassador Susan Rice said or did not say on a previous round of Sunday morning talk shows, news was happening in the Middle East.

The immediate cause of the exploding conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was a series of attacks by Palestinian militants, including a missile fired at a jeep carrying Israeli soldiers inside Israel, and a rain of rockets against Israeli towns — more than 180 in the course of a few days.

David Petraeus made an enormous contribution to his country. He helped rescue the war effort in Iraq. He led the troop surge in Afghanistan. He was accepted by Democrats and Republicans — 94-0 — when President Barack Obama nominated him to be chief of the Central Intelligence Agency. Now he is gone because of an affair with his biographer. It would be nice if someone in authority said straight out why he had to go.

Severely cutting the retail window hours of 13,000 of the least-used post offices is a way for the U.S. Postal Service to address its serious funding shortage. But many Americans no doubt see it as the lesser of two evils.

Women have been voting in presidential elections since the 1920s, but rarely have their ballots been more decisive than the recent election.

On election night, a couple of hours before President Barack Obama was declared the victor, Bill O’Reilly offered his explanation for why Mitt Romney was about to lose.

Gov. Paul LePage has not said much since his party took a beating at the polls earlier this month, but from the few comments he has made we do not expect much change in his approach.

Is Grover Norquist really going to let John Boehner get away with this?

Environmentalists who are against building the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to the U.S. Gulf Coast have called a march on Washington this weekend to demand that President Barack Obama again reject it.