memeorandum: A Diligent Clinton Keeps Her Head Down (Dan Balz/The Trail)

11:15 PM ET, December 31, 2007

Top Items:

Katharine Q. Seelye / The Caucus:

Huckabee's Remarkable Play — DES MOINES — Talk about political jujitsu! — Mike Huckabee is holding a press conference right now in which he was supposed to unveil a new negative ad against arch rival Mitt Romney. — But Mr. Huckabee came to the press conference and announced …

Discussion: Stop The ACLU, MSNBC, QandO, Hot Air, Blogs of War, American Power, NewsBusters.org, Primary Monitor Blog, A Chequer-Board of Nights …, Donklephant and Say Anything

Thomas Beaumont / Des Moines Register:

New Iowa Poll: Obama widens lead over Clinton — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has widened his lead in Iowa over Hillary Clinton and John Edwards heading into Thursday's nominating caucuses, according to The Des Moines Register's final Iowa Poll before the 2008 nominating contests.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Marc Ambinder, Right Wing Nut House, TIME, Taegan Goddard's …, Hotline On Call, The Democratic Daily, Washington Wire, Primary Monitor Blog and The Page

Joe Klein / TIME: Swampland:

Huckabust — Just when you think the Republican presidential race can't get weirder...Mike Huckabee holds a press conference here to announce that he'd just made a last minute decision not to air a negative TV ad slamming Romney. — And then he airs the ad (Video courtesy of Mark Halperin who was setting in the row behund me).

Discussion: Booman Tribune and The Page

Jonathan Roos / Des Moines Register:

GOP poll: Huckabee maintains lead over Romney — Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist minister riding a wave of support from fundamentalist Christians, tops Mitt Romney for first place in a new Des Moines Register poll of Iowans planning to attend Thursday's Republican caucuses.

Discussion: The New Republic and GreenMountainPolitics1

Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:

Saying He Pulled Negative Ad, Huckabee Shows It — DES MOINES — In an act of political jujitsu, Mike Huckabee has halted a negative ad that he was about to broadcast on television Monday against his Republican rival, Mitt Romney. But while claiming the moral high ground …

Discussion: The Swamp, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, The Politico, The New Republic, Cliff Schecter and Opinions You Should Have

Mike Ferner / AfterDowningStreet.org:

PEACE ACTIVISTS OCCUPY HUCKABEE'S IOWA CAMPAIGN OFFICE — Protesters ask former Baptist minister, “Who Would Jesus Bomb?" — Des Moines - With 40 percent of Iowa's Republican caucus voters expected to come from the ranks of conservative Christians, peace activists occupied Mike Huckabee's …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Firedoglake

Marc Ambinder:

Huckabee Decides Not To Air Those Nasty Ads...And Then Airs A Nasty Ad — The Romney campaign is already calling this a “meltdown." Whatever it is, it's a little bizarre. — So Mike Huckabee schedules a news conference to talk about the negative ads he's decided to run against Mitt Romney.

Discussion: Iowa Independent, Washington Monthly, MyDD and The American Mind

Jonathan Martin / Jonathan Martin's Blogs:

Huck's instant classic — Mike Huckabee's move to not run ads hitting back at Mitt Romney is a risky move that could rejuvenate his fading campaign — or ensure his defeat on Thursday. — >> Check out the press conference slideshow — That Huckabee still showed the spot to dozens …

Discussion: The Caucus and Patterico's Pontifications

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Huckabee pulls out surprise move

Discussion: Riehl World View, CBS News, Firedoglake, Outside The Beltway, The Page, The Carpetbagger Report, GreenMountainPolitics1, TIME, PoliGazette and Wall Street Journal

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
DMR Poll: Obama widens lead, Huck still up

Discussion: The New Republic and Des Moines Register

Dan Balz / The Trail:
A Diligent Clinton Keeps Her Head Down

Discussion: Newsday and MyDD

Ron Fournier / Associated Press:
ON DEADLINE: Did Huckabee go too far?

Discussion: Power Line

Liz Sidoti / Associated Press:
Huckabee won't air anti-Romney ad

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, MarketWatch, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, CNN and PunditGuy

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

YEP, IT'S AN OUTRAGE — As we get deeper into the campaign, I do not have a problem with excluding candidates who are not generating any substantial public support. Gravel, I think, was an example of that in the Democratic debates. But I think the Paulbots have a pretty good case for outrage …

Discussion: The Swamp and Hullabaloo

CNN:
Protesters block Huckabee

Discussion: MSNBC and The Moderate Voice

John Distaso / New Hampshire Union Leader:
FOX, ABC to reduce debate fields

Discussion: Marc Ambinder

Glenn Thrush / Newsday:

Hillary says she risked life on White House trips — VINTON, Iowa - Ever since Barack Obama suggested Hillary Clinton's eight years as first lady were a glorified tea party a few days back, she's looked for an opening to strike back. — On Saturday night in Dubuque she pounced …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Captain's Quarters, MangledCat, Hot Air, Fausta's blog, JammieWearingFool, Sister Toldjah, Patterico's Pontifications, Sweetness & Light, Macsmind, Wizbang and Gateway Pundit

Dean Barnett / Weekly Standard:
The Quiet Heroism of Hillary Clinton

Discussion: A Chequer-Board of Nights …

The Big Trunk / Power Line:

MS. HILLARY DOES PAKISTAN — Thomas Houlahan comments on Ms. Hillary's recent discussions of events in Pakistan with Wolf Blitzer and George Stephanopoulos, addressing the question: “How credible is Hillary Clinton on Pakistan?" Houlahan writes: … A transcript of Senator Clinton's interview …

Discussion: protein wisdom, Political Machine, Hot Air and Atlas Shrugs

Peter Galbraith / Guardian:
Pakistan may not make it — The country's future now depends …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh and Prairie Weather

Middle East Times:
OP-ED: Thomas Houlahan

Discussion: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

David Paul Kuhn / The Politico:

Nader throws support to Edwards — MUSCATINE, Iowa — Ralph Nader unleashed on Hillary Rodham Clinton Monday - criticizing her for being soft on defense spending and a chum of big business - and expressed his strong support for John Edwards. — In an 11th hour effort to encourage liberal Iowans to …

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:

What if Iowa Settles Nothing for Democrats? — DES MOINES — Iowa is packed with presidential candidates and hundreds of campaign aides, advisers and contributors. Twenty-five hundred representatives of news organizations have been granted credentials to cover the caucuses on Thursday night, twice as many as in 2004.

Discussion: The Swamp, The New Republic and politburo diktat 2.0

Peter Graff / Reuters:

In a safer Baghdad, Iraqis party for 2008 — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - On New Year's Eve Ridaa al-Azzawi squeezed into his pointy snakeskin boots, his tight black sweater and his snazzy corduroy flared jeans, hustled down to a Baghdad hotel ballroom and partied for peace.

Discussion: Sister Toldjah and Sweetness & Light

JoinRudy2008:

STRATEGY MEMO: LOOKING GOOD … As voting nears in the Republican nomination process, our campaign remains convinced that our strategy we have long had in place is right - bold, innovative and designed to deal with the radically different election calendar. While many of the beltway insiders seem …

Discussion: Jonathan Martin's Blogs and TIME