Top Items:
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 …
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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 …
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:
Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Real Clear Politics, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, Pollster.com, MyDD and race42008.com
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
The Line: Someone Has to Win the GOP Nomination — You've heard all the conventional wisdom already. — Rudy Giuliani isn't positioned to win a single state before Florida's Jan. 29 primary. — Mitt Romney has fallen behind in Iowa and his flip flops on issues like abortion and gay rights …
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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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.
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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?
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Hasta La Vista — Tom Tancredo is an angry man. — We know this because he has proposed dropping bombs on Mecca. We know this because he sang “Dixie” at a South Carolina gathering full of Confederate flags and white supremacists. And we know this because he wants to expel 12 million people now living in the United States.
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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.
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.
Discussion:
The Radio Equalizer, Attytood, The Carpetbagger Report, TIME, alicublog, Betsy's Page, CALIFORNIA YANKEE, PoliGazette and The Corner
Luke Harding / Guardian:
Putin ‘has secret $40bn fortune’ — An unprecedented battle is taking place inside the Kremlin in advance of Vladimir Putin's departure from office, the Guardian has learned, with claims that the president presides over a secret multibillion-dollar fortune.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Publius Pundit, zenpundit.com, Fausta's blog, DownWithTyranny!, AMERICAblog, Macsmind and Sweetness & Light
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:
Wonkette, Reason Magazine, 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 …
Matt / Think Progress:
Cheney Repeatedly Met With Auto Execs Before White House Killed California's Emissions Law — Before EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson “answered the pleas of industry executives” by announcing his “decision to deny California the right to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles,” …
John Hawkins / Right Wing News:
An Interview With Fred Thompson's Wife, Jeri Thompson — Yesterday, I got together with Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Thompson, for a phone interview as she traveled around Iowa. Unfortunately, near the end of the interview, while she was running low on time, she hit a bad cell.