memeorandum: Fred Thompson: Do I Really Have to be Here? (Rich Lowry/The Corner)

5:05 PM ET, December 31, 2007

Top Items:

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: Weekly Standard, michellemalkin.com, Hot Air, Sweetness & Light, Macsmind, Patterico's Pontifications, Wizbang and JammieWearingFool

Beth Fouhy / Associated Press:

Chelsea Clinton Guards Her Words — VINTON, Iowa (AP) - It's one thing for Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign to turn down interview requests for the candidate's daughter, Chelsea. But can't a 9-year-old reporter catch a break? — Sydney Rieckhoff, a Cedar Rapids fourth grader and …

Discussion: Don Surber, Macsmind, PunditGuy, Big Head DC and JammieWearingFool

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: Hillary, The Geraldo Of National Politics

Elizabeth Drew / The Politico:
First what? — In all the excitement over the prospect …

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard

Jonathan Martin / Jonathan Martin's Blogs:

Huckabee won't air negative ads — In a surprise move, Mike Huckabee said today that he won't air negative ads against Mitt Romney. — Claiming that he changed his mind this morning, Huckabee told reporters gathered in anticipation of seeing the spots that he would no longer attack Romney off the air …

Discussion: Riehl World View, The Carpetbagger Report, The Page, TIME, PoliGazette and GreenMountainPolitics1

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 …

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, MyDD, Firedoglake and The American Mind

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: MSNBC, QandO and Hot Air

Nancy Cordes / CBS News:

Huckabee's Morning Run — From CBS News Correspondent Nancy Cordes, who's covering the Huckabee campaign: — DES MOINES, IOWA — Mike Huckabee has won the photo op battle of the day, and it's only 8am. He went for a jog around Gray's Lake in Des Moines flanked by some local doctors …

Discussion: Jonathan Martin's Blogs and Mike Huckabee for President

Joe Klein / TIME: Swampland:
Huckabust — Just when you think the Republican presidential race …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

The Rothenberg / The Rothenberg Political Report:

In Iowa, Will Edwards Divide and Conquer? — While the Democratic race has often, and quite accurately, been described as a choice between change (Barack Obama and John Edwards) and experience (Hillary Rodham Clinton), it has, in the final days before Iowa, become another kind of choice as well.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Open Left, Betsy's Page, MyDD, Blue Crab Boulevard, New York Times and Primary Monitor Blog

Joe Klein / TIME: Swampland:

Today in Iowa — Coupla thoughts, off the top—I've seen Huckabee and Romney; Obama, Clinton and Edwards in the past 48 hours and it just startling how different the quality is between the Democratic and Republican campaigns this year. The Republicans are total amateur hour, tiny crowds, half-crazed bickering among the candidates.

Discussion: Rising Hegemon and The Trail

Noam Scheiber / The New Republic:
Decoding the Obama Conference Call

Discussion: TalkLeft, Marc Ambinder and PoliGazette

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
Report: Obama Takes “Dig” At Edwards' Trial Lawyer Past

Discussion: The Trail

Booman Tribune:
Stu Rothenberg: A Corporate Shill Villager

Discussion: Eschaton and Hullabaloo

John Whitesides / Reuters:
Clinton leads in Iowa but Edwards gains

Discussion: Firedoglake and Taylor Marsh

Peter Galbraith / Guardian:

Pakistan may not make it — The country's future now depends on a power struggle between the army and Bhutto's son — With the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's survival depends on the outcome of a struggle between the army and Bhutto's Pakistan People's party, now headed by her 19-year-old son Bilawal.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Prairie Weather

This Is London:
BENAZIR BHUTTO'S SON TO HAVE 24-HOUR ARMED GUARD WHILE STUDYING AT OXFORD

Discussion: The Daily Dish

Martin Kady II / The Crypt's Blogs:

Barbour taps Rep. Wicker to replace Lott — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has named Rep. Roger Wicker as the next Republican senator from Mississippi, ushering in a new era for the state in the wake of Sen. Trent Lott's surprise retirement from the Senate.

Discussion: Mississippi Governor …, The Swamp, New York Times and Think Progress

Jack Elliott Jr / Associated Press:
Miss. congressman replacing Sen. Lott

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Redstate and Wonkette

New York Times:

Looking at America — There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators …

Discussion: Jules Crittenden, Wonkette, TBogg, American Power, Brilliant at Breakfast, Rook's Rant, Firedoglake, Hullabaloo and Prairie Weather

Douglas Feiden / NY Daily News:

Bedbug epidemic attacks New York City — A bedbug epidemic has exploded in every corner of New York City - striking even upper East Side luxury apartments owned by Gov. Spitzer's father, the Daily News has learned. — The blood-sucking nocturnal creatures have infested a Park Ave. penthouse …

Discussion: Gothamist, Wizbang and The Corner

Steve / The Washington Note:

Enough of Soft & Fuzzy Bipartisanship: America Needs a Dissident Ticket — The other day, I mentioned Bloomberg's increasing fascination with running for President. According to an inside Bloomberg source, the “environment is not yet right” to commit to a run, but “he's working through the details of a possible strategy.”

Discussion: Prairie Weather and Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Michael Bloomberg: Trans-partisan savior

Discussion: Reason Magazine, The Huffington Post, Power Line, Horses Mouth, D-Day, TalkLeft, CBS News, Matthew Yglesias, Democratic Strategist, Ankle Biting Pundits, Brendan Nyhan, Outside The Beltway, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Gothamist, Washington Monthly, Bob Cesca's Goddamn … and Middle Earth Journal

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Great Divide — Yesterday The Times published a highly informative chart laying out the positions of the presidential candidates on major issues. It was, I'd argue, a useful reality check for those who believe that the next president can somehow usher in a new era of bipartisan cooperation.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, BitsBlog, Washington Post, My Left Wing, Donklephant, The Carpetbagger Report, Interesting Times, The Mahablog, Prairie Weather, Norwegianity, TalkLeft, Crooks and Liars and Liberal Values

New York Post:

HOIST BY THEIR OWN PETARD — For the past 20 years, the Media Research Center has been compiling its list of notable quotables. The quotes, from prominent members of the mainstream news media, provide a clear window into the leftist mindset that pervades most of America's large news organizations.

Discussion: Wake up America and Blue Crab Boulevard

Pundit Review Radio / BLACKFIVE:

ANTI-MILITARY LAWYER DAMAGES MARINE'S CAR ON EVE OF DEPLOYMENT — This ought to make your blood boil. And this Marine should receive a commendation for not kicking the living crap out of the guy...seriously. — Marine Sgt Mike McNulty is on activation orders to Iraq (second tour).

Discussion: Confederate Yankee, Atlas Shrugs, Fausta's blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, Moonbattery, Classical Values, Bill Hobbs, protein wisdom, The Sundries Shack, UrbanGrounds and Riehl World View

William Safire / New York Times:

The Office Pool, 2008 — THIS is the 34th annual office pool in this space, a New Year's tradition that has become the most excruciating multiple-choice prediction test in world media. Nostradamus himself couldn't score over 50 percent. Last year, despite a good bet on surging optimism in Iraq, I was mistaken 12 times out of 15.

Discussion: The Glittering Eye, Daimnation! and The Campaign Spot

Jennifer Jacobs / Des Moines Register:

Iowans pick up on Clinton's silence — Iowa Falls, Ia. - Iowans have noticied that Democrat Hillary Clinton is not taking public questions from audiences during her final-push campaign rallies. — After her 40-minute monologue ended shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday, Clinton immediately began …

Discussion: TalkLeft, BitsBlog and Blue Crab Boulevard