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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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?

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.

Ron Paul Looking To "Shock The World" In The New Hampshire Primary  —  Here we go again with unnamed sources, unattributed quotes and pure gossip.  —  So cue the sighs in Concord.  —  But we've heard from two New Hampshire sources that senior staff on Team Paul are giddily telling Granite State activists …

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.

Justice Dept. Numbers Show Prison Trends  —  About one in every 31 adults in the United States was in prison, in jail or on supervised release at the end of last year, the Department of Justice reported yesterday.  —  An estimated 2.38 million people were incarcerated in state and federal facilities …

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 …

Counter-Terrorism Article Index :  —  Al Qaeda appears to be moving its main effort to Afghanistan, after operations in Iraq, North Africa, Somalia and Europe (not to mention North America) have all largely failed.  But continued Taliban activity in Pakistan and Afghanistan has provided al Qaeda …