Top Items:
Molly Ball / Las Vegas Review-Journal:
THE NEVADA CAUCUS: Poll: Nevada going to Clinton, Romney — Obama picks up no ground; Giuliani fades — Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney have comfortable leads in Nevada going into Saturday's presidential campaign caucuses, according to a new Review-Journal poll.
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Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
The martyrdom of John McCain — COLUMBIA, S.C. - The national media thinks John McCain is under siege again, and his campaign is only too happy to help reporters file their stories. — At a rally Thursday, outside McCain's headquarters just down the street from the state capitol here …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Swamp, The New Republic, New York Post, NY Daily News, Tammy Bruce and MSNBC
The New Republic:
McCain, You Depress Me — My colleague Leon has been “rather stirred” by many things about John McCain, including his “decency about immigrants." I'm rather stirred by that too — it is my favorite thing about McCain, his capacity to argue that it's a profoundly American imperative …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias
Zogby:
Reuters/Zogby Polls: McCain Retains South Carolina Lead; Clinton Leads Obama in Nevada — South Carolina — Arizona Sen. John McCain is holding on to his lead in South Carolina as the Republican primary election there approaches, a new Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby three-day telephone tracking poll shows.
Nedra Pickler / Associated Press:
Obama Debuts New Act in Vegas — LAS VEGAS (AP) - The White House campaign has brought a new act to Vegas. Barack Obama has stepped up his campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton, and he's trying to use humor to bring her down before this weekend's Democratic presidential caucus.
Discussion:
The New Republic
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Matthew Yglesias:
Placing the Candidates — Interesting chart from the Pew Center. One piece of bad news for liberals is that it seems that the self-assessed ideology of the American people is still somewhat right of center. It's also funny how unhinged Republicans' views of Hillary Clinton are.
San Francisco Chronicle:
Mauling survivor said he yelled at tiger — (01-17) 18:05 PST SAN FRANCISCO — One of the two survivors of the San Francisco Zoo tiger attack that left a 17-year-old dead told the victim's father that the three had yelled and waved at the animal while standing atop the railing of the tiger's exhibit …
Jonathan Stein / MoJoBlog:
Mitt Romney's Lobbyist Connections — In a tense exchange with an AP reporter on Thursday, Mitt Romney insisted that even though a registered lobbyist is one of his senior advisers, lobbyists do not “run” his campaign. — The claim is part of Romney's new self-styled outsider message …
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Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
ROMNEY VS. THE PRESS.
ROMNEY VS. THE PRESS.
Discussion:
Chicago Tribune, TIME: Swampland, Washington Monthly, The Carpetbagger Report and Ground Game
Rich Lowry / Real Clear Politics:
Huck Hoax: Why He Won't Break Out — Mike Huckabee has pulled a neat trick.His appeal so far has been limited exclusively to evangelicals, yet the press has taken him seriously as a new populist force in the Republican Party who could at any moment “break out” to appeal to lower-income voters.
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The Corner:
Nicholas Burns and the Clinton Legacy at State — Reports indicate R. Nicholas Burns, the State Department's Number 3 official, will be stepping down. A career foreign service officer, Burns will best be remembered for his most visible post: the Clinton administration's top State Department spokesman during the mid-1990s.
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Ali / Think Progress:
O'Reilly Admits There Are 200K Homeless Vets, Still Says Edwards ‘Is A Liar’ Who Owes ‘An Apology’ — Recently, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly attacked former senator John Edwards for noting the 200,000 homeless veterans who “go to sleep under bridges and on grates” every night.
Discussion:
FOX Attacks, Crooks and Liars, The Carpetbagger Report, News Hounds and Media Matters for America
Gudjon Helgason / Associated Press:
Chess master Bobby Fischer dead at 64 — REYKJAVIK, Iceland - “Chess,” Bobby Fischer once said, “is life." It was the chess master's tragedy that the messy, tawdry details of his life often overshadowed the sublime genius of his game. Fischer, who has died at the age of 64, was a child prodigy …
Discussion:
Reuters, Reason Magazine, Commentary, Jon Swift, Yourish.com, Captain's Quarters, Wizbang, Shakespeare's Sister and JustOneMinute
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The Fact Hub:
Fact Check: Sen. Obama Followed Hillary's Lead On Stimulus — Today, Sen. Obama falsely claimed that Hillary followed his lead on introducing a stimulus package: … Actually, the opposite is true. Hillary first suggested a stimulus package in December.
Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
Callous Conservative — After watching Fred Thompson debate his Republican rivals, I have often wondered why he is not in the top tier of candidates. He seems to have John McCain's honesty, without his razor-sharp edges, and Mitt Romney's conservatism, without his jaw-dropping inconsistencies.
Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
McCain Lies His Head Off; NY Times Asleep at Switch — One of the most common-supply-side talking points is that tax cuts always lead to higher tax revenues. It's not really true (revenues crashed after the 2001 Bush tax cuts) but even if it were, it's misleading: Tax revenues tend to rise …
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
50 WAYS TO BE A LOSER — I know I've been hitting on the Rudy collapse story for a while. But it's just so vast there are a lot of points to cover. Remember that the Rudy ‘plan’ (which on many levels is a phony one anyway) was to plan for a knockout blow in February by winning big states like California.
Discussion:
Rasmussen Reports
USA Today:
Military: 75% of Baghdad areas now secure — About 75% of Baghdad's neighborhoods are now secure, a dramatic increase from 8% a year ago when President Bush ordered more troops to the capital, U.S. military figures show. — The military classifies 356 of Baghdad's 474 neighborhoods in the …
NY Daily News:
Ben Affleck made Nancy Pelosi giggly — Both Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek lost precious personal photos during vacations abroad over the holidays. Hayek, who's a new mom, got her laptop stolen, and Cruz's camera was lost or stolen, according to letters sent out by Hollywood legal giant Marty Singer …