memeorandum: USA TODAY / Gallup poll (USA Today)

2:10 PM ET, December 21, 2007

Top Items:

Poll: Obama makes gains, is even with Clinton in N.H. — PELHAM, N.H. — Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are locked in a dead heat among New Hampshire voters in a statewide USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, underscoring the volatility of the race less than three weeks before the nation's first primary.

Discussion: cmonitor.com, The Hill, Gateway Pundit, The Caucus, Wake up America, The Carpetbagger Report, QandO, TIME, Comments from Left Field, PoliGazette, Blue Crab Boulevard, TPM Election Central, Pollster.com, Boston Globe, AMERICAblog, MSNBC and Riehl World View

USA Today:

USA TODAY / Gallup poll — Results are based on interviews with 477 New Hampshire residents deemed most likely to vote in the Republican primary . The results for Section II are based on interviews with 510 New Hampshire residents deemed most likely to vote in the Democratic primary.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Outside The Beltway, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Real Clear Politics, Redstate, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, PoliBlog (TM), The Glittering Eye, Pollster.com, MyDD and race42008.com

Holly Ramer / Associated Press:

Clinton says wife a ‘world-class genius’ — WOLFEBORO, N.H. - Former President Clinton says his wife is a “world-class genius” when it comes to improving the lives of others. — Clinton stuck mostly to familiar themes in two hour-long appearances Thursday, describing at length what he views as the nation's biggest challenges.

Discussion: NY Daily News, MSNBC, Althouse, Political Machine, JammieWearingFool and New York Post

Zogby:
Zogby Poll: Obama Leads Top Republicans

Discussion: race42008.com

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
The Line: Someone Has to Win the GOP Nomination

Discussion: TalkLeft and MSNBC

Associated Press:
Huckabee Surges, Giuliani Plummets

Discussion: Fox News, The Moderate Voice, Right Wing News, Salon, Detroit News and Taegan Goddard's …

Michael Levenson / Boston Globe:

Romney never saw father on King march — Defends figurative words; evidence contradicts story — Mitt Romney acknowledged yesterday that he never saw his father march with Martin Luther King Jr. as he asserted in a nationally televised speech this month, and historical evidence shows …

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Corner, MoJoBlog, Dick Polman's American Debate, Political Machine, Chuck Adkins, Talking Politics, MSNBC, The Caucus, Vox Popoli, The Heretik, The Carpetbagger Report, Hotline On Call, Hot Air, Talking Points Memo and TPM Election Central

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

It Gets Better — Here's the latest on Mitt and MLK. Thirty years ago, Romney's version of the story was even more figurative:

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Macsmind, Balloon Juice and Political Machine

Mitt Romney For President News:
Gov. George Romney And Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Discussion: Power Line

Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:

Obama Camp Registers Anti-Clinton Web Sites — Campaign Plays Semantics Over Whether Sites Are Personal Attacks — Though Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has pledged to keep criticisms of his rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, focused on the issues, ABC News has learned that his campaign secretly registered …

Discussion: The Politico, CNN Political Ticker, The Swamp and Spin Cycle

Ben Smith / The Politico:
Obama runs tight campaign ship

Discussion: Open Left and Democratic Strategist

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central: Hey Obama — Who Are You Calling Desperate?

The Politico:

Dem leaders pressured to alter war strategy — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, despite their pledges to continue pushing to end the war in Iraq, face growing pressure from their rank-and-file Democrats to focus more attention on domestic, “pocketbook” issues in the upcoming election year.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, New York Times, The Swamp, Weekly Standard, Neptunus Lex, Open Left, QandO and Sister Toldjah

Janet Hook / Los Angeles Times:
Bush boxed in his congressional foes

Discussion: Buck Naked Politics and On Deadline

Patrick Healy / The Caucus:

Richardson Accuses Clinton of ‘Flip-Flop’ on Iraq Pullout — MUSCATINE, Iowa — I just got a phone call — unprompted — from Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democratic candidate for president, blasting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for saying she would withdraw nearly all American troops …

Discussion: Marc Ambinder, Matthew Yglesias, The Carpetbagger Report, MyDD, Open Left, RealClearPolitics, The Glittering Eye, Comments from Left Field, Riehl World View, TPM Election Central and Instapundit.com

The Fact Hub:
Gov. Bill Richardson Misquotes Hillary, Launches False Attack

Discussion: Taylor Marsh

Byron York / The Corner:

Why Isn't Anyone Paying Attention to This? — This was not exactly bannered across the front page of the New York Times yesterday. As a matter of fact, I don't think I saw it in my paper at all. But on the Times' website, dated December 20, there is this headline: “Giuliani's Office Shifted Money Around?

Discussion: The Sundries Shack, Hot Air and A Blog For All

Eugene Robinson / Washington Post:

A Problem Like Bill — Hillary Clinton tells audiences that having lived in the White House for eight eventful years, she's eager to take charge as president on “day one." Apparently, though, so is Bill. — Before the Clinton campaign's recent shift to themes of warmth and approachability …

Discussion: Fausta's blog and Betsy's Page

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: A Flibbertigibbet, A Will O' The Wisp, A Clown

The Campaign Spot:

Rush Limbaugh's First Shots at Huckabee — So everybody and their brother is listening to Rush today, wondering if he'll take a shot at Huckabee after an unnamed Huckabee aide in DC criticized Limbaugh... The first comment, moments into the show: “You want to whine like Mike Huckabee's whining …

Discussion: The Radio Equalizer, Riehl World View and Marc Ambinder

Mark Schmitt / American Prospect:

The “Theory of Change” Primary — Perhaps we are being too literal in believing that “hope” and bipartisanship are things that Obama naively believes are present and possible, when in fact they are a tactic, a method of subverting and breaking the unified conservative power structure.

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Carpetbagger Report, Matthew Yglesias, Lawyers, Guns and Money and Democratic Strategist

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Blindly Into the Bubble — When announcing Japan's surrender in 1945, Emperor Hirohito famously explained his decision as follows: “The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage." — There was a definite Hirohito feel to the explanation Ben Bernanke …

Discussion: THE LIBERAL JOURNAL, LewRockwell.com Blog and Norwegianity

Little Green Footballs:

Ron Paul's Photo-Op with Stormfront — An LGF reader emailed this photograph, showing Ron Paul at the Values Voters Presidential Debate in Fort Lauderdale on September 17, 2007. Immediately to Paul's left: Don Black, the owner of neo-Nazi hate site Stormfront.

Discussion: Reason Magazine, Wonkette, Comments from Left Field, A Blog For All, Liberal Values, Lone Star Times and PoliGazette

Caroline Glick / Jerusalem Post:

Column One: The triumph of legal defeatism — This week the IDF distributed ribbons to its soldiers and officers for their service in the war with Hizbullah in 2006. The ribbons were a source of embarrassment. Soldiers and officers, who like the general public view the war …

Discussion: The Corner, Israpundit and Democracy Project

Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:

American Pastoral — Mike Huckabee preaches to the choir, but not everyone's singing along. — I didn't see the famous floating cross. What I saw when I watched Mike Huckabee's Christmas commercial was a nice man in a sweater sitting next to a brightly lit tree.