memeorandum: Highway to heaven — Is Huckabee's highway plan the nuttiest thing … (Megan McArdle)

4:35 PM ET, January 26, 2008

Top Items:

John O'Connor / The State:

Signs pointing to record turnout — If voters surge, party could share winner's momentum — Good weather and an attractive slate of candidates have South Carolina Democrats expecting record turnout for today's presidential primary, continuing a trend seen in other early-voting states.

Discussion: The Trail, Wonkette, The Caucus, QandO, The Strata-Sphere and New York Times

Zogby:

Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Polls: Obama Solidifies Lead as Election Day Looms in South Carolina; McCain Holds Narrow Lead Over Romney in Florida; Others Far Back — 1/23-25 — 1/22-24 — 1/21-23 — 1/20-22 — Obama — 41% — 38% — 39% — 43% — Clinton — 26% — 25%

Discussion: Commentary, The Page, Talking Points Memo, The Moderate Voice, Pajamas Media, SurveyUSA, Sister Toldjah, Wake up America, Scared Monkeys, MyDD, Reuters and Pollster.com

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:

Spinning South Carolina, II — Clinton puts out a memo from Howard Wolfson this morning that pushes the expectation that she will lose, and includes a reminder that she fought for “each and every vote." — There's also a note on the importance of delegates (funny how whoever is losing …

Discussion: TownHall Blog, MyDD and Open Left

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:

Surge in Early Balloting Shifts Florida Races — BOCA RATON, Fla. — A surge of early voting by Florida Democrats and Republicans has startled officials here and injected additional complexity into the state's presidential primaries on Tuesday. — Democratic candidates are not overtly campaigning …

Discussion: Hot Air and Prairie Weather

Amy Chozick / Wall Street Journal:

To Truly Win in Carolina, Obama Needs Large Margin — COLUMBIA, S.C. — When is a win in the South Carolina Democratic primary really a win? — For Sen. Barack Obama, anything less than a decisive victory Saturday might lead some political operatives and observers to shrug off a first-place finish as a given.

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
CHESS — TPM Reader RR sees the angle ...

Discussion: TalkLeft

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:
A Stress-Filled Week Shows Obama With a Blend of Humor and Fire

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC and Brendan Nyhan

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Rules? The Clintons Don't Need No Stinkin' Rules!

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House, The Moderate Voice, Associated Press, Outside The Beltway, A Blog For All, Macsmind, The Carpetbagger Report, The Corner and Public Secrets

CNN: Obama, Edwards have a lot on the line in South Carolina

Chris Frates / The Politico:
Clinton pursues selective strategy in S.C.

Discussion: About.com US Politics, Riehl World View and New York Times

Jim Davenport / Associated Press:
No problems with machines, weather

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

Los Angeles Times:

Is the right right on the Clintons? — Hillary's campaign tactics are causing some liberals to turn against the couple. — Something strange happened the other day. All these different people — friends, co-workers, relatives, people on a liberal e-mail list I read — kept saying the same thing …

Bob Herbert / New York Times:

Questions for the Clintons — Charleston, S.C. — Joseph P. Riley Jr. has been mayor of this historic and often tense city since the mid-1970s. He's a Democrat, highly respected and has worked diligently to heal racial wounds that have festered in some cases for hundreds of years.

Discussion: Horses Mouth, Election Central, JustOneMinute, MSNBC, The Mahablog, Prairie Weather, Brendan Nyhan, Norwegianity, Heading Right and Talking Points Memo

Michael Graham / Boston Herald:

It's no-win for Barack — Clintons marginalize him as black candidate … Well, the media finally got the negative, slash-and-burn, “dirty politics” South Carolina primary they've been looking for. — They just weren't looking for it from the Democrats.

Discussion: JustOneMinute

Scott W. Johnson / Weekly Standard:

He Didn't Give at the Office — Remember that picture of Yasser Arafat, blood donor? — Charles Enderlin is the France 2 Jerusalem correspondent who broadcast the incendiary account of the death of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura at the hands of Israeli troops operating in the Gaza Strip in September 2000.

Discussion: Israel Matzav, Solomonia, Captain's Quarters, Hot Air, Democracy Project and Gateway Pundit

The Big Trunk / Power Line:
HE DIDN'T GIVE AT THE OFFICE

Discussion: Reuters and Pajamas Media

Mark Steyn / The Corner: If it doesn't bleed, it still leads

Garry Wills / New York Times:

Two Presidents Are Worse Than One — SENATOR Hillary Clinton has based her campaign on experience — 35 years of it by her count. That must include her eight years in the White House. — Some may debate whether those years count as executive experience.

Discussion: The Daily Dish, The Carpetbagger Report and TPMCafe blogs

Colbert I. King / Washington Post:
Billary's Adventures in Primaryland

Discussion: Firedoglake and The Carpetbagger Report

Mike Allen / The Politico:
Bush presses Congress on FISA

Discussion: AMERICAblog

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

THE PROBLEM WITH BILL 2.0 — I've been trying for several days now to sort out my reactions to the increasingly bitter turn of the Democratic nomination race. So let share with you my thoughts about where we are. — As I told you at the time, I thought most of the charges that the Clintons …

Discussion: Firedoglake

philly.com:

Nude Buttocks May Cost ABC $1.4 Million — WASHINGTON - The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $1.4 million fine against 52 ABC Television Network stations over a 2003 broadcast of cop drama NYPD Blue. — The fine is for a scene where a boy surprises a woman as she prepares to take a shower.

Discussion: Eschaton, TigerHawk and Suburban Guerrilla

New York Times:

Société Générale's Sales May Have Incited Market Plunge — PARIS — As panic swept European markets on Monday, word spread that a big hedge fund was in trouble and dumping stocks. — Someone was selling, all right — Société Générale.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Grasping Reality … and The Big Picture

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Romney Whisper Update — This thing won't quite go away. A reader writes: … I really don't know what happened. But I have yet to hear a convincing explanation either.

Discussion: AfterDowningStreet.org