The course to fiscal sanity is straightforward: Congress and the next president must work together to reduce spending, especially on Medicare, and increase taxes, writes Ron Haskins.

Many onetime believers say Obama has no stomach for a fight. But rather than give up hope, Jonathan Freedland writes that Obama does not have such a bad record and still has time to move away from his early mistakes.

Harris Zafar says presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's opinion that he would support a Muslim for U.S. presidency only when the person publicly pledges to "give up sharia" is not just ignorant of him but also unconstitutional.

In an exclusive interview with TIME's Fareed Zakaria, President Obama opens up on Iran, Afghanistan, China and the challenges the U.S. faces in navigating a rapidly changing world.

The New York Times' Mark Landler discusses how Obama's response to escalating tensions with Iran will impact his campaign.

Patricia Zengerle presents criticism of the Republican candidates' approaches to foreign policy in a campaign that has centered primarily on domestic issues.

Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Washington Post addresses Republican criticism of "Romney capitalism" and the different visions it presents for our nation and its economy.

The Guardian's Simon Tisdall writes that Obama must find ways of dealing with Romney's rhetoric without betraying his own beliefs or overreacting to foreign crises.

Justin Velez-Hagan of Politic365 points out potential contradictions in Latino support for Obama in the 2012 presidential race.

Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto of The Nation discusses important issues for Latinos in the 2012 presidential race.

Ed Attwood of Arabian Business provides a quick review of Republican candidates' statements about the Arab world.

Deputy Editorial Page Editor Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post addresses issues that might be ignored in a discussion of President Obama's foreign policy while in office.

Harvard Kennedy School Professor R. Nicholas Burns discusses Republican candidates' foreign policy platforms and how they might take on President Obama in foreign policy in this Op-Ed in the Boston Globe.

Jonathan Broder argues that America's relative decline justifies Obama's vision of global engagement over the Republican vision of domination.

The Council on Foreign Relations has launched a new blog, The Candidates and the World, to provide information and nonpartisan analysis on the foreign policy and national security dimensions of the 2012 presidential race.

Peter Orszag writes that reaching a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff will require Republicans and Democrats to be more flexible about the positions they have staked out over tax and entitlement reforms.

"Principled compromise, prioritizing China, compassion, democracy-support, addressing detainee and drone policy as blemishes on our brand, and re-balancing soft and hard power tools ought to be touchstones of a post-2012 GOP foreign policy," says Mark P. Lagon.

Analyzing the relevance of the electoral college in the 2012 presidential election, Julia E. Sweig says, "Although slavery has since been abolished and we have universal suffrage, this unfair electoral college system painfully, and somewhat quaintly, lives on."

In the Middle East, there is a perception that President Obama and the United States cannot be relied upon. But Obama's reelection is now an opportunity for the president to show his leadership and reliability in the region, says Ed Husain.

In the coming months after his reelection, President Obama faces a number of Middle East crises, the most pressing of which are Iran and Syria, says Elliott Abrams.