memeorandum: A President's Defender Keeps His Distance (Nazila Fathi/New York Times)

4:30 PM ET, January 8, 2008

Top Items:

New Hampshire Turnout ‘Absolutely Huge’ — ABC News' Karen Travers Reports: New Hampshire Deputy Secretary of State Dave Scanlan told ABC News that turnout among primary voters today is “absolutely huge” — and there are concerns about running out of ballots in towns like Portsmouth, Keene, Hudson and Pelham.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, CNN, On Deadline, Wonkette and Outside The Beltway

Pat Grossmith / New Hampshire Union Leader:

Large voter turnout reported — MANCHESTER - Long lines of people formed inside some polls this morning minutes after they opened at 6 a.m. for the New Hampshire presidential primary. — Louise Gosselin, Ward 6 moderator, said election officials expected about 150 people to vote each hour at St. Pius X on Candia Road.

Discussion: TPM Election Central, The Huffington Post and Liberal Values

Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:
High turnout as towns seek extra ballots

Discussion: BobKrumm.com, The Carpetbagger Report, TPM Election Central, Riehl World View and Obsidian Wings

James Kirchick / The New Republic:

Angry White Man — The bigoted past of Ron Paul. — If you are a critic of the Bush administration, chances are that, at some point over the past six months, Ron Paul has said something that appealed to you. Paul describes himself as a libertarian, but, since his presidential campaign took off earlier …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Daily Dish, Althouse, Reason Magazine, Blogs of War, Donklephant, Confederate Yankee, Orcinus, Transterrestrial Musings, Commentary and Macsmind

Daniel Koffler / Pajamas Media:

RON PAUL BIGOTRY REVOLUTION — A damning New Republic expose on Ron Paul shows the “libertarian” Republican candidate to be a racist, a homophobe and an anti-Semite. Will his diehard supporters continue to defend a man who called Martin Luther King a gay pedophile?

Discussion: Hot Air, TownHall Blog and A Blog For All

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

Huckabee vows to defy birthright citizenship — Mike Huckabee wants to amend the Constitution to prevent children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens from automatically becoming American citizens, according to his top immigration surrogate — a radical step no other major presidential candidate has embraced.

Discussion: The Corner, The Opinionator, PoliBlog (TM), Outside The Beltway, D-Day, The Daily Dish, PoliPundit.com, The Carpetbagger Report, The Sundries Shack, Say Anything and Lawyers, Guns and Money

Byron York / The Corner:

Re: You Have to be Kidding Me — Mike Huckabee just released this statement: … The Times story looked a little odd from the start; I've never heard Huckabee talk about that idea. But hooking up with the Minutemen was not a good idea for Huckabee. One can be plenty tough …

Discussion: The Jawa Report

Mark R. Levin / The Corner:
You Have to Be Kidding Me

Discussion: Rasmussen Reports, Hot Air, Middle Earth Journal and Say Anything

Gloria Steinem / New York Times:

Women Are Never Front-Runners — Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life, whether the question is who must be in the kitchen or who could be in the White House.

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Even Conservative Media Chorus Sings Obama's Praises

Discussion: The Caucus, Booman Tribune, Taylor Marsh, The Democratic Daily, Donklephant, Macsmind and RealClearPolitics

Mark Leibovich / New York Times:
Clinton Goes Face to Face With the Public as Obama Plays Not to Lose

Discussion: JustOneMinute and Needlenose

Jose Antonio Vargas / The Trail:

Dartmouth Students Walk Out on Bill — HANOVER, N.H. — About thirty minutes into Bill Clinton's nearly two-hour stop here at Dartmouth College, a steady stream of students started walking out of the venue. — Moments later, Clinton — his voice hoarse, sometimes cracking …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Power Line, Heading Right, Daily Kos, Jack and Jill Politics, Mike's America, Captain's Quarters, A Blog For All, Blue Crab Boulevard, michellemalkin.com and Macsmind

Ben Adler / The Politico:
Dartmouth not feeling Obamentum

Discussion: Firedoglake

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:
Record N.H. Turnout Is Predicted

Discussion: You Decide 08!, MyDD and PoliGazette

Mark Blumenthal / Pollster.com:

LOOKING FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE EXIT POLLS? — Looking for leaked exit poll results from New Hampshire? Sorry to disappoint, but whatever their merits, we are unlikely to see any such leaked results until moments before the polls close. — In past years, the network consortium that conducts …

Discussion: Marc Ambinder and Democratic Strategist

Major Garrett / Major Garrett's Bourbon Room:

Back to the Future: Carville & Begala to join Clinton campaign — MANCHESTER, N.H. - It's back to the future at Hillary Clinton's campaign as some of the top advisers to former President Clinton are set to join to Hillary's faltering campaign as early as tomorrow.Senior Clinton sources tell Fox …

Discussion: Pam's House Blend

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs: Shake-up, the narrative — James Carville is coming on board …

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
James Carville Emphatically Denies That He's Going To Work For Hillary

Discussion: Commentary

New York Post:

IRAN 1, USA 0 — NAVAL ERROR IN THE GULF — EARLY Sunday morning, the US Navy lost its nerve and guaranteed that American sailors will die at Iranian hands in the future. — As three of our warships passed through the Straits of Hormuz, five small Iranian patrol craft rushed them.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Corner, QandO and Wolf Howling

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
Today's Must Read

Discussion: Associated Press, The Newshoggers, Boston Globe, Washington Post and American Street

Nazila Fathi / New York Times:

A President's Defender Keeps His Distance — TEHRAN — A rift is emerging between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, suggesting that the president no longer enjoys the ayatollah's full backing, as he did in the years after his election in 2005.

Discussion: American Footprints, Washington Monthly and TIME: Swampland

Christian Schneider / The Wisconsin Policy …:

The Woman Who Changed the World — With Barack Obama's meteoric rise topping the news these days, many people have forgotten the bizarre series of events that paved the way to his stunning ascendance. It's especially interesting given that some personal and minor details …

Discussion: American Street, American Power, michellemalkin.com, No More Mister Nice Blog and No Runny Eggs

New York Times:

Obama's Surge Deflates Forum and Talk of a Bloomberg Run — NORMAN, Okla. — He arrived here for what seemed like it could be a big moment. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, eyeing a third-party presidential bid, joined Republican and Democratic elders at a forum to denounce the extreme partisanship …

Discussion: NY Daily News, New York Post, JustOneMinute, Associated Press, Liberal Values, D-Day, The Carpetbagger Report, QandO, Captain's Quarters and Lawyers, Guns and Money

Jackie Calmes / Wall Street Journal:

Clinton Braces for Second Loss; Union, Senators May Back Obama — NASHUA, N.H. — With Barack Obama strongly favored — even within Hillary Clinton's camp — to win a second straight victory in today's New Hampshire Democratic primary, both rivals are looking to the next battle grounds.