memeorandum: How Close Were We To War? (Ed Morrissey/Captain's Quarters)

6:15 PM ET, January 7, 2008

Top Items:

TALK OF HILLARY EXIT ENGULFS CAMPAIGNS — Facing a double-digit defeat in New Hampshire, a sudden collapse in national polls and an expected fund-raising drought, Senator Hillary Clinton is preparing for a tough decision: Does she get out of the race? And when?!

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Clinton fights back tears: 'It's not easy' — Exhausted and facing the prospect of losing the second test of her primary campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton fought back tears as her voice broke at the close of a sedate event in a Portsmouth coffee shop. — She expressed the sheer difficulty …

Discussion: Riehl World View, Liberty Pundit, The Carpetbagger Report, Blogs of War, Blue Crab Boulevard, Donklephant and Slog

Jennifer Parker / Political Radar:

Clinton Gets Emotional on Campaign Trail — ABC News' Kate Snow Reports: Campaigning in New Hampshire one day before the first-in-the-nation primary, Senator Hillary Clinton got emotional and had tears in her eyes as she spoke with voters about how hard it is to balance a busy campaign life and her passion for the country's future.

Discussion: Power Line, MSNBC, Captain's Quarters, michellemalkin.com, TalkLeft, Bookworm Room, The Sundries Shack, Salon, QandO, Outside The Beltway and On Deadline

Michael Elmore / Political Radar:

Rivals Reacts to Teary Clinton — ABC News' David Muir, Raelyn Johnson and Sunlen Miller Report: Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., on the tail end of his 36-hour campaigning marathon in New Hampshire on day before the primary vote, reacted to rival Sen. Hillary Clinton's emotional moment Monday.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Too Sense, Feministing and Macsmind

Robert Shrum / NY Daily News:

Sen. Clinton's massive mistake - and the final chance to fix it — Be Our Guest — If (although I strongly suspect the right word is “when") Hillary Clinton loses tomorrow's New Hampshire primary, there will be a few proto-obituaries for her campaign and many more stories about how it will be “shaken up” or “relaunched.”

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Politico, The Belmont Club, The Democratic Daily, The Trail, HazZzMat, Talking Points Memo, Outside The Beltway, Liberal Values, New York Magazine, Weekly Standard, Riehl World View, The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, Blue Crab Boulevard, Los Angeles Times and Captain's Quarters

CNN:

Clinton gets emotional at New Hampshire stop — PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire (CNN) — Hillary Clinton became visibly emotional at a New Hampshire campaign event today after a friendly question from a voter. — At the close of a Portsmouth campaign stop, Marianne Pernold-Young, 64, asked Clinton: “How do you do it?

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, The Page, UNCoRRELATED and TIME: Swampland

Emily Friedman / ABCNEWS:
Can Clinton's Emotions Get the Best of Her?

Discussion: Cogitamus and Making Light

The Anchoress:
Will 2008 finish what 1968 began?

Discussion: Power Line and Associated Press

Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
EMOTION ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL.

Discussion: Marc Ambinder and Oliver Willis

Noam Scheiber / The New Republic: Hillary Chokes Back Tears, Wins (My) Respect

WSJ.com:
Emotional Moment for Clinton in N.H.

Discussion: TPM Election Central, New York Magazine, The Caucus, Taylor Marsh, Hot Air, Althouse, Attytood, Open Left, Talking Points Memo, Tammy Bruce, L.A. Times and Boston Globe

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

How Close Were We To War? — According to The Telegraph, we came within moments of open warfare with Iran. Iranian patrol boats harassed the US Navy in international waters in the Straits of Hormuz over the weekend. They dropped unknown objects in the water and sent a threat of attack over the radio …

Discussion: Telegraph, Liberty Street, Corrente, The Glittering Eye and Sister Toldjah

Ali Akbar Dareini / Associated Press:

Iran plays down Gulf incident with US — TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's Foreign Ministry said Monday that a confrontation between Iranian boats and U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf over the weekend was “something normal” and was resolved. It suggested the Iranian boats had not recognized the U.S. vessels.

Discussion: juancole.com, Reuters, The Lede, American Footprints, Jules Crittenden and The Newshoggers

New York Times:
U.S. Describes Confrontation With Iranian Boats

Discussion: CNN, MSNBC, Hot Air, FP Passport, The Belmont Club and Prairie Weather

Atrios / Eschaton:

Conservative Victims — From Red State. This is pretty hilarious even for them. … There's more, but you get the idea. It's the fault of liberals that they can't run their website because... hell I don't know.

Discussion: Corrente, Redstate, The Supreme Irony of Life and Angry Bear

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:

RedState Tells Readers Scoop Developers Are All Liberals, So Fork Over $25 Grand — I realize that there's one born every minute, but in a letter to RedState readers, Erick Erickson says that their readers need to raise $25,000 in order to keep them from being overrun by a liberal plot:

Think Progress:

O'Hanlon Mourns That Obama Was Right On Iraq — Brookings fellow Michael O'Hanlon continues his abysmal record of staking out the wrong positions on Iraq in an article in this morning's Wall Street Journal, criticizing presidential candidate and Illinois Senator Barack Obama's position on the war.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Center for American … and Cogitamus

Michael O'Hanlon / Wall Street Journal:

Obama and Iraq — One of Sen. Barack Obama's many strengths is his ability to inspire beyond party lines. Because he lacks the baggage of the past, and because his melodic message of hope speaks to many, he garnered much more support from independents in Iowa than either Hillary Clinton or John Edwards.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, JustOneMinute, Sadly, No!, Matthew Yglesias, Commentary, democracyarsenal.org, Captain's Quarters and toohotfortnr

USA Today:

Gallup: Clinton-Obama tied nationally; Huckabee leads GOP — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama each drew 33% of the support from Democrats surveyed in its latest national poll, Gallup just announced. — In mid-December, well before Obama won last Thursday's Democratic caucuses in Iowa …

Discussion: MyDD, Pollster.com and TPM Election Central

Mike Allen / The Politico:
HRC retrenches in face of Obama surge

Discussion: Spin Cycle

Michelle Malkin:

Duncan Hunter to make an announcement; Update: He's staying in, blasts media “knuckleheads” — Update 2:38pm Eastern. Rep. Hunter is staying in the race. He blasted “knucklehead, arrogant” TV execs at ABC and Fox for excluding him from the presidential debates this weekend.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, TVNewser, Los Angeles Times, Ground Game, Hot Air, Say Anything, BLACKFIVE and Outside The Beltway

CNN:
Struggling GOP candidate to stay in the race

Discussion: D-Day, The Campaign Spot and Wake up America

David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
DUNCAN “I GOT ONE DELEGATE IN WYOMING” HUNTER

Discussion: The Campaign Spot and Redstate

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:

Ron Paul Supporters Confront Frank Luntz — It's always great when Fox News calls for civility. After excluding Ron Paul (who is, per some polls, in a statistical tie for third in the GOP New Hampshire primary) from the debate last night, Fox's official pollster Frank Luntz's feathers …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and The Supreme Irony of Life

Melissa Bailey / New Haven Independent:
“You are ignoring America's savior!”

Discussion: TPMmuckraker and Cameron's Corner

Frank James / The Swamp:

Romney: If McCain loses in NH, he's toast — NASHUA, N.H.—Republican Mitt Romney says he's not predicting a victory in tomorrow's nation-leading primaries and said regardless of the outcome, his is a 50-state campaign for the nomination. — With the former Massachusetts governor …

Discussion: The Politico, Hot Air and The Hill

Zogby:
Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby New Hampshire Tracking Poll: Big “Mo-bama” …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, TPM Election Central, Donklephant, Wake up America and Pollster.com

Steven Maviglio / The California Majority Report:

CMR EXCLUSIVE: This Time It's For Real: Doolittle to Drop Out, Oller in for Congressional Seat — Embattled Congressman John Doolittle, the focus of a federal corruption probe, will announce that he will not seek re-election paving the way for former State Sen. Rico Oller …

Discussion: Hotline On Call

John Bresnahan / The Crypt's Blogs: Doolittle may drop reelection bid

Mark R. Levin / Human Events:

Man of the Year: Rush Limbaugh — Rush Limbaugh's detractors never learn. They've tried everything to come between Rush and his more than 20 million listeners, intending to destroy his appeal and impact. But it's a hopeless, almost laughable endeavor. They led boycotts against his advertisers …

Discussion: The Corner, Think Progress and Redstate

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:

Some Hillary Advisers Worry About Staying In Past New Hampshire; Others Urge Her To Fight On — Here's some detail on the internal discussions going on inside the Hillary campaign as they brace for the real possibility of a loss to Obama in New Hampshire tomorrow.

Discussion: PoliGazette