A RARE MOMENT OF CANDOR  —  Dan Bartlett, on the White House's use of right wing blogs:

Landlord Describes Suspected Mall Shooter  —  Witness 'Kept Hoping God Would Spare Us'  —  OMAHA, Neb. — The shooter at Westroads Mall was identified as Robert A. Hawkins of Bellevue, according to the Sarpy County Sheriff's Department.  —  Hawkins, 19, had been arrested on a couple …

Hillary Campaign Acknowledges That County Chair Backing Hillary Passed Along Obama Muslim Smear Email  —  A day after the Hillary campaign hit the Obama camp for bullying voters in nasty phone calls, the Hillary crew has just acknowledged that an Iowa county chair volunteering …

Zogby Latest:Zogby Latest: Iowa: Dead Heats; New Hampshire: Clinton suffers shrinkage; Romney recovers strong lead after autumnal fade; The Angry Electorate: Four of five Democrats and two-thirds of Republicans say they are angry at the U.S. political system  —  Utica, New York …

The System Is Working  —  Maybe this isn't acknowledged enough, but it seems to me that the Founders would for the first time be pleased with how the United States has been adjusting policy and personnel in wartime this past year.  I think when historians look back, they will note a few things.

WHITE HOUSE IRAN INTEL STORY 2.0  —  Guess it wasn't his final answer.  —  Dana Perino takes another crack at explaining what Mike McConnell told the president about Iran back in August ...  Dripping with credibility, no?

Revenge of the Evangelicals  —  Remember how evangelicals had "matured"?  Remember how the war on terror had replaced social issues?  It shouldn't be hard, since all those things were being said a couple of weeks ago (heck, still being said maybe even a few days ago).

The Inside Story Of The SwiftBoaters Finally Told  —  This is the most important book you'll buy this year: To Set The Record Straight, How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry, by Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler, with Forward by John O'Neill.

Oprah rally moved to football stadium  —  COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) - Relax, University of South Carolina football fans.  Your season may be over, but Williams-Brice Stadium won't be empty for long.  —  Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign announced Wednesday afternoon …

The Science of Gore's Nobel  —  What if everyone believes in global warmism only because everyone believes in global warmism?  —  The Nobel Committee might as well have called it Al Gore's Inner Peace Prize, given the way it seems designed to help him disown his lifelong ambition …

Law professors petition against on-campus military recruiting  —  Nearly the entire faculty of Stanford Law School has signed an e-mail to students encouraging those interested in a career in the military to meet recruiters off campus, a move that one Stanford alum argues puts the school at risk of violating the Solomon Amendment.

Three simple points about Iran/NIE  —  These don't qualify as news, given no doubt voluminous discussion overnight (my time) in the U.S. Still, for my own personal record:  —  1) The report is unambiguously good news, of the sort we're not accustomed to receiving in recent years from that part of the world.

Cheney: Iraq to be self-governing by 2009  —  Vice President Cheney today predicted Iraq will be a self-governing democracy by the time he leaves office, calling the current U.S. surge strategy "a remarkable success story" that will be studied for years to come.

It's getting ugly: Specter accuses Reid of violating decorum  —  There's a delicate snow falling on Washington today, and lawmakers are planning to light the Capitol Christmas tree in a bipartisan ceremony at dusk.  —  But inside the Senate chamber, they're at one another's throats as end of year gamesmanship heats up.

MISTY WATERCOLOR MEMORIES, OF THE FOG OF WAR  —  [Found in a dumpster behind Marty Peretz's townhouse!  First draft of Franklin Foer's epic blamestorm at TNR]  —  By Franklin Foer … When Michael Goldfarb, a blogger for The Weekly Standard, left me a message on a Tuesday afternoon in mid-July, I didn't know him or his byline.

Coalition sues Land Office over wind farms  —  Groups, including King Ranch, want to require extensive environmental review of wind projects.  —  The famed King Ranch and a coalition of environmental groups sued Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson in federal court Tuesday …