We’ve been hearing a lot from former Pres. George W. Bush as his publicity tour for Decision Points continues.

But although the Financial Times didn’t get an interview with him, one of their reporters did recall a story that indicated Bush was ready to support Barack Obama over John McCain in 2008.

A very blunt assessment of the American political scene from a former Obama administration official is getting attention today.

John Podesta was asked by the Financial Times for his take on the “health” of American politics – and he thinks it “sucks.”

According to a new business profile in the Financial Times, conservative magazine and daily website Newsmax thrived in a year filled with media misery, scoring $35 million in revenue, after $25 million in 2008, and scoring a much-anticipated Sarah Palin endorsement in a chat with Sean Hannity. Speaking of Fox News, does this sound familiar: “liberal media” alternative excels in increasingly partisan news space? Bingo.

By 2005, it was time for Rupert Murdoch to “get serious” about the internet. Or so starts the engaging Financial Times profile of the wilting social network MySpace, which New Corporation acquired that summer. Kids, Murdoch noticed, were “watching less television and reading fewer newspapers,” and the most fertile ground was online. Well-intentioned, but then things crumbled.

Black Friday may take on a whole new and scarier meaning today. Depending how closely you were paying attention to the news (or Twitter) between yesterday’s turkey courses you may have heard whispers about Dubai — and its debt crisis which shook global markets over Thanksgiving and sent the Dow tumbling 193 points. The news is not good, and we’ll probably be hearing a lot more about it. Here’s a short overview.

The $250,000 that Vice Magazine spent on an exclusive party in Brooklyn last month was a good investment in at least one respect: Vice has gotten scads of free, adoring media attention since. Its latest Financial Times profile highlights a few of its secrets to success. Namely: keep circ small and don’t worry about newsstand revenue, but sell everything else.

Blog fights are not just for the Tumblrs, even Nobel prize winning economists/columnists are susceptible! Behold NYT‘s Paul Krugman, who reacted harshly to Niall Ferguson‘s lede in a FT article last week, which compared Obama to Felix the (Black) Cat. Krugman has since referred to Ferguson as a whiner, and a now poseur. Who knew he had it in him.

How did a lede like the one in Niall Ferguson’s column today make it past the Financial Times editors? The Financial Times is British paper and so arguably not quite as sensitive to the historical racial nerves Ferguson’s lede touches on. But still! Are we supposed to conclude that Barack Obama is lucky because he is black?

Rupert Murdoch is not scared to take your money! While the New York Times continues to be all willy-nilly about whether or not to charge for content, Rupe, whose WSJ has been behind a paid firewall since the start, is going to charge for everything!

The obvious question remains: will people pay?