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In Silicon Valley, the word “pivot” has a specific, even hallowed meaning. “Pivot means you adjust as necessary,” says Mbwana Ailly, an entrepreneur in residence at I/O Ventures, a startup investment company in San Francisco. “When a tech investor bets on a project, they’re betting on the team and their chops not only to develop a product, but to adjust as needed… Pivot means okay, this didn’t work, but let’s go!”

Firing squad. Bloodbath. Armageddon. Pick your analogy—Tuesday was a disaster for the Democratic Party. As return after return trickled in from the thousands of contested races, large and small, the conventional wisdom also suffered a blow: Liberal firebrand Alan Grayson lost badly in his Florida district; Tea Party candidates actually prevented Republicans from taking control of the Senate; and threatened Democratic incumbents in Washington, California, and Massachusetts somehow held on.

JOHANNESBURG -- The first African World Cup didn't belong to Africa, at least not on the soccer field. Of the six African nations that made it to the quadrennial tournament, five fell early -- to indiscipline, tough competitors and heartbreaking missed opportunities. The plucky and focused Black Stars from Ghana were a bright spot for the continent, but when Sunday's final is over, the new FIFA champion will not be African.

Still, winning games isn't everything.

When I touched down in Lagos, Nigeria, this week, the first thing I did was buy a cell phone. The city's Saka Tinubu district hosts dozens of mobile vendors arrayed in small shops, piled high with all the major brands: Nokia, Motorola, Samsung. Among them is Belle-Vista Phone Warehouse, which styles itself as a "Blackberry Outlet." Young professionals stopped by after working hours to scoop up the Storm, the Curve, and other popular smartphones nestled in the display cases.

In the spring of 1989, weeks after the catastrophic sinking of an Exxon Valdez oil tanker in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, then-Senator Albert Gore, Jr. was leading the outcry against the company responsible for the second-worst oil spill in United States history. From his position on the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, Gore demanded to know if Exxon was “stonewalling” the cleanup efforts. A flustered Coast Guard commandant, Paul Yost, told Congress that Exxon was doing “the most that can be done.”

Joe Boswell quit his job at Camp David. But first, he played a tennis match with Michelle Obama. Her second chief of staff, Susan Sher, is an avid tennis fan, and Boswell, her assistant, was game for a doubles match. After a straight-sets victory, he leveled with the first lady of the United States. “I was tired of going through the motions,” he remembers. “She told me to go out and save the world and come back.”

The anti-incumbent wave in American politics has made looking for votes this fall like looking for water in the Arizona desert. The word from voters in Utah—where Republican Senator Bob Bennett lost his bid for renomination, and West Virginia, where on Tuesday Democratic House member Alan Mollohan was bounced after 30 years of service—has bathed the capital in a mood of grim resignation about the electoral fights ahead. In Manhattan Thursday, President Barack Obama will hold a glitzy pep rally of sorts for Democrats trying to weather the storm.

On the day he had officially proclaimed United States Census Day 2010, President Barack Obama ticked off a box marked "Black, African American or Negro." Though the form provided space for him to write in the story we know so well by now--Kenya, Kansas, Hawaii, Hyde Park--he chose the simpler, less divisive route.

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, passed an enormous, politically daring overhaul of the American health insurance and health care delivery system by a margin of 219-212. President Barack Obama, expected to sign the bill into law later this week, rejoiced with a high-five.

When Ayanna Pressley decided to take a shot at a seat on the city council in her adopted hometown of Boston, Mass., she was committed to winning by any means necessary. This meant cashing in her 401(k) retirement plan—earned over 16 years as a Democratic operative in Boston and in Washington for Sen. John Kerry and other lawmakers. With a mother needing regular care, chasing a job that depended entirely on her willingness to, say, shake hands outside Fenway Park, her run was something of a gamble.

Cantor versus Rangel. Boehner versus Biden. Getting health care done versus more of the same. The White House summit to debate health care reform is being characterized as a political cage match with the highest of stakes. But the meeting is also a story of Obama versus Obama.