memeorandum: Big Night in S.C. (Chris Cillizza/The Fix)

6:55 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, The Palmetto Scoop, MyDD, Wonkette, The Caucus, QandO, The Strata-Sphere, MSNBC and Donklephant

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: The Politico, Ben Smith's Blogs, DownWithTyranny!, Hot Air and Prairie Weather

Mark Halperin / The Page:

Clinton Camp Memo on South Carolina, Florida, Feb. 5 States — To: Interested Parties — From: Howard Wolfson, Communications Director Re: South Carolina, Florida, and February 5 — The Obama campaign has been so confident of winning South Carolina that six months ago they flatly predicted victory in the Palmetto State.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, Spin Cycle, TIME: Swampland, Associated Press, Slog and Political Machine

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: Donklephant, TownHall Blog, MyDD and Open Left

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: Washington Wire, Commentary, Talking Points Memo, Taegan Goddard's …, Pajamas Media, SurveyUSA, Sister Toldjah, The Moderate Voice, Wake up America, Scared Monkeys, MyDD, Reuters and Pollster.com

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

Big Night in S.C. — Polls close in South Carolina in less than two hours and the Fix community is in a predicting frenzy about who will win tonight's Democratic primary. — But, since still have 90 minutes or so to kill, we thought we'd offer a few thoughts on tonight's proceedings before they, well, proceed.

Discussion: Firedoglake, New York Times and TIME

Amy Chozick / Wall Street Journal:
To Truly Win in Carolina, Obama Needs Large Margin

Discussion: Booman Tribune

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

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

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

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

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: Taylor Marsh, Election Central, Media Matters for America, JustOneMinute, TigerHawk, Horses Mouth, Brendan Nyhan, The Mahablog, Prairie Weather, Norwegianity, Heading Right and Talking Points Memo

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: Middle Earth Journal and TalkLeft

Michael Graham / Boston Herald:
It's no-win for Barack

Discussion: JustOneMinute

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

Discussion: Firedoglake and The Carpetbagger Report

CBS News:

“Clean” Movie Maven Arrested For Teen Sex — Utah Man Who Sold R-Rated Films Shorn Of Skin Arrested For Sex With 14-Year-Old Girls — (CBS) A Utah retailer of family-friendly tapes and DVDs - Hollywood films with the “dirty parts” cut out of them - has been arrested for trading sex with two 14-year-old girls.

Discussion: Cliff Schecter

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: BBC, Hot Air, The Corner, Biased BBC, Israel Matzav, Solomonia, Democracy Project, Captain's Quarters and Gateway Pundit

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

Discussion: Reuters and Pajamas Media

Liz Sidoti / Associated Press:

McCain: Romney favored Iraq withdrawal — ORLANDO, Fla. - John McCain accused Mitt Romney of wanting to set a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, drawing immediate protest from his Republican presidential rival who said: “That's simply wrong and it's dishonest, and he should apologize.”

Discussion: Hot Air, Jonathan Martin's Blogs and Riehl World View

The Politico:

E-mail smear taxes Obama campaign — COLUMBIA, SC -For over a year, largely out of the media glare, Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign has been fighting a determined, low-intensity conflict against the viral e-mail that forwards the myth that Obama is a crypto-Muslim Manchurian candidate.

Discussion: protein wisdom

Fred Barnes / Weekly Standard:

How Bush Decided on the Surge — A year ago, we were losing in Iraq. Then the president made the most momentous decision of his presidency. — The date: December 13, 2006. The location: a windowless conference room in the Pentagon known as the Tank. It was an inauspicious place …

Discussion: The Corner, neo-neocon and Gateway Pundit