Top Items:
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 …
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Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Bringing A Water Pistol To A Firefight — The title has the most apt analogy, because while going after Rush Limbaugh makes sense for the Democratic presidential candidates, “bringing a knife to a gunfight” doesn't begin to describe the foolishness of a Republican candidate trying the same strategy.
Discussion:
Marc Ambinder
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Rush goes nuclear on Huckabee? Update: Audio added — Bryan's headline yesterday said it all. Geraghty has a list of choice quotes from today's tirade — “McCain's starting to look better to than this guy, and that's saying something” jumps out — but the partial transcript suggests …
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 …
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Deacon / Power Line:
THE “SCANDAL” THAT'S RIDICULOUS … That claim is incontestable. … The AP story is titled: Romney backpedals on statements — again.
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:
Alas, a blog, Balloon Juice, Macsmind, Talking Points Memo, Boston Globe and Political Machine
Michael Luo / New York Times:
Romney Learns That ‘Facts Are Stubborn Things’
Romney Learns That ‘Facts Are Stubborn Things’
Discussion:
BAGnewsNotes
USA Today:
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.
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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:
Outside The Beltway, TalkLeft, Pollster.com, Redstate, The Glittering Eye, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, MyDD and race42008.com
Zogby:
Zogby Poll: Obama Leads Top Republicans — Telephone survey shows fellow Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Edwards would defeat some GOPers, lose to others — UTICA, New York - Illinois Sen. Barack Obama would defeat all five of the top Republicans in prospective general election contests …
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?
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Steve Chaggaris / CBS News:
Huckabee: Gitmo Is “Too Nice” — From CBS News' Joy Lin and Mary Hood: — DAVENPORT, IA - Asked about Guantanamo, Mike Huckabee said he had visited the facility and said it was “disappointing” that military personnel were eating meals that averaged $1.60 while the detainees were eating Halal meals that cost over $4 each.
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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:
TPM Election Central, The Politico, Threat Level, Marc Ambinder, The Swamp, CNN Political Ticker, The Democratic Daily and Spin Cycle
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Martin Crutsinger / Associated Press:
Consumer Spending Surges in November — Consumer Spending Surges in November, Reducing Fears of Imminent Recession. — WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers put aside worries about slumping home sales and soaring gasoline prices and headed to the malls in November, pushing spending up by the largest amount in 3 1/2 years.
Discussion:
CARPE DIEM
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Tucker Carlson / The New Republic:
Pimp My Ride — On the road with Ron Paul's merry band of misfits and his hooker fan club. — The first thing I learned from driving around Nevada with Ron Paul for a couple of days: People really hate the Federal Reserve. This became clear midway through a speech Paul was giving …
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.
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 …