memeorandum: New Clinton campaign out to show her likability (USA Today)

1:10 PM ET, December 17, 2007

Top Items:

Mark Murray / MSNBC:

First Read: King endorses Romney... no, Thompson — From NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann — And the endorsements keep coming... Congressman Steve King (R), one of Iowa's most strident critics of illegal immigration and a champion of the state's rural conservatives, has endorsed Romney.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, TownHall Blog, The Carpetbagger Report, Open Left, Wake up America, michellemalkin.com, TPM Election Central, First State Politics, Patrick Ruffini and The Trail

Michelle Malkin:

Newsflash: Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King endorses Thompson — Scroll down for updates... Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King announced his endorsement for president this morning. He's going with Fred Thompson. — As I mentioned, Rep. King has been one of the strongest proponents of strict immigration enforcement.

Discussion: Fred File, The Campaign Spot, Riehl World View and Sister Toldjah

Learfield / Radio Iowa:
Congressman King endorses....Fred Thompson

Discussion: MSNBC, Hot Air and Right Wing Nut House

Chris Cillizza / The Fix: Thompson Gets Key Endorsement in Iowa

Marc Ambinder:
Endorsements Galore! — 1. Rep. Steve King, (R-IA) …

Discussion: The Stump

USA Today:

New Clinton campaign out to show her likability — New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, trying to warm up an image some voters perceive as cold, starts a drive Monday to showcase her personal side with testimonials from friends, associates and constituents she has helped.

Discussion: protein wisdom, Comments from Left Field, Hot Air, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Gateway Pundit, MSNBC, Washington Times, Blue Crab Boulevard, New York Times, RIGHTWINGSPARKLE, The Heretik, Scared Monkeys, Macsmind, The Page and Fausta's blog

Michelle Malkin:

Operation Rescue Hillary — Ah, the whiff of desperation in morning. Can you smell it? It's Hillary Clinton's new perfume. She's on a whirlwind media tour this morning to rescue her crumbling campaign. "You can look inside her mouth, if you want." Eww.

Discussion: The Swamp, The Huffington Post, New York Post and Associated Press

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Big Table Fantasies — Broadly speaking, the serious contenders for the Democratic nomination are offering similar policy proposals — the dispute over health care mandates notwithstanding. But there are large differences among the candidates in their beliefs about what it will take to turn a progressive agenda into reality.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Political Radar, Taylor Marsh, Open Left, democracyarsenal.org, Brian Beutler, politburo diktat 2.0, Norwegianity, Prairie Weather, MyDD, Cafe Hayek, Connecting.the.Dots, Daniel W. Drezner and Tom Watson

Geoff Earle / New York Post:

KERREY'S PRAISE OF BARACK A BIG O-BOMBO — NEW SCHOOL President and former US Sen. Bob Kerrey just couldn't help himself from applauding Barack Obama after endorsing Hillary Rodham Clinton in Iowa yesterday - until he gave a left-handed compliment that almost sounded like it was cooked up in Clinton's headquarters.

Discussion: Political Punch, Des Moines Register, The Campaign Spot and Political Machine

Patrick Healy / New York Times:
In '08 Race, the Other Clinton Steps Up Publicly

Discussion: The Swamp, MSNBC, CNN Political Ticker, The Politico, TownHall Blog, TIME, The Stump, No More Mister Nice Blog and Shakespeare's Sister

Tony Leys / Des Moines Register: Iowa's first lady to back Edwards for president

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

Paul's one-day haul a record — Rep. Ron Paul of Texas yesterday broke the single-day Republican presidential-campaign fundraising record he set last month, raising about $6 million and giving him almost $18 million for the fourth quarter. — His new record came on a day in which former Massachusetts …

Discussion: Examining Presidential …, TechRepublican.com and Boston Globe

Jose Antonio Vargas / The Trail:
Ron Paul Beats Own Fundraising Record

Discussion: The Newshoggers, The Caucus, Personal Democracy Forum, Liberal Values, PoliBlog (TM), Connecting.the.Dots, PoliGazette, The Democratic Daily and Los Angeles Times

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
Ron Paul becomes $6 million man

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, Facing South and Reason Magazine

Marc Ambinder:
Paul's $16M Haul... Impressive. No Buts.

Discussion: LewRockwell.com Blog

The Corner:
Ron Paul — Two Decades of Leadership [Rick Brookhiser]

Discussion: LewRockwell.com Blog

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Harry Reid — compare and contrast — (updated below - Update II) — Russ Feingold, today, on the effects of Harry Reid's pro-administration dirty work: … All of this stems from Reid's refusal to honor the "hold" placed on that bill by Chris Dodd, who has been in the Senate for 24 years.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Firedoglake, CQ Politics, Cogitamus, Ben Smith's Blogs, Eschaton and The Impolitic

Scarecrow / Firedoglake:

Who Will Stand with Chris Dodd for the Constitution? — Sometime today, Chris Dodd will take the floor in the US Senate and begin talking — a filibuster — and what he has to say touches on the most important issues facing this country. The immediate topic will be a bill to provide retroactive immunity …

Discussion: TIME: Swampland, TPMCafe blogs, Think Progress, Eschaton, culturekitchen, Blue Hampshire, Salon, Hullabaloo, First Draft, Chris Dodd National Blog, Lean Left, All Spin Zone, Corrente, The Anonymous Liberal, Macsmind and DownWithTyranny!

Washington Post:

Bush Faces Pressure to Shift War Priorities — As Iraq Calms, Focus Turns to Afghanistan — With violence on the decline in Iraq but on the upswing in Afghanistan, President Bush is facing new pressure from the U.S. military to accelerate a troop drawdown in Iraq and bulk up force levels in Afghanistan …

Discussion: Don Surber, Political Machine, Prairie Weather, On Deadline and SWJ Blog

Martin Kady II / The Politico:
Budget showdown looms

Discussion: The Swamp

New York Post:

BREAKDOWN IN THE FAST LANE — ANCHOR VIXEN BUSTED IN ASSAULT ON GAL COP — A foxy Philly anchorwoman - who once e-mailed sexy swimsuit snaps to a married TV talking head - became an anger woman yesterday, calling a female NYPD cop a "dyke bitch" and slugging her in the face, law-enforcement sources said.

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, PhillyGossip, JammieWearingFool, Tim Worstall Tabloid Edition, On Deadline and TMZ.com

Atrios / Eschaton:

Shorter Candidates — Obama: The system sucks, but I'm so awesome that it'll melt away before me. — Edwards: The system sucks, and we're gonna have to fight like hell to destroy it. — Clinton: The system sucks, and I know how to work within it more than anyone.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Democrats.com, The Impolitic and Open Left

Faiz / Think Progress:

Tony Snow: 'The Second War In This Country' Is 'The War On God' — Former White House press secretary Tony Snow is apparently attempting to remake himself into the image of Bill O'Reilly. In a series of recent public events, Snow has adopted the mantle of the right-wing's perceived "secular-progressive" war on conservatives.

Discussion: Eschaton, The Carpetbagger Report and Bob Cesca's Goddamn …

Associated Press:

Sarkozy linked with model-turned-singer — PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy's new love interest is supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni, reports said Monday after the two were photographed together at Disneyland Paris. — The respected news weekly L'Express posted a photo of the duo …

Discussion: Wonkette and Blue Crab Boulevard

Greg Mitchell / Editor and Publisher:

'Army Times' Article Describes U.S. Troop 'Mutiny' in Iraq — NEW YORK While violence is down in Iraq, Americans continue to die and fall badly wounded, and suffer severe stress and trauma caused by 15-month tours of duty. A remarkable article on Friday in the Army Times is titled: "Not us.