memeorandum: December employment report: 200K new jobs, 8.5% unemployment (Jill Schlesinger/CBS News)

11:20 AM ET, January 7, 2012

Top Items:

Rick Santorum focuses on gay marriage — He suggests to a New Hampshire audience that an imprisoned father is preferable to a same-sex parent. — Mitt Romney leaves a campaign event outside an old peanut warehouse in Conway, S.C. (David Goldman, AP / January 6, 2012)

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Balloon Juice, The Daily Dish and Joe. My. God.

msnbc.com:

NBC/Marist Poll: Romney has 20-point lead in N.H.; Santorum gets Iowa bounce — A new NBC News-Marist poll of NH Republicans shows Romney with a 20-point lead. NBC's Chuck Todd reports. — Just four days until Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Outside the Beltway, Franklin Center, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com and Taegan Goddard's …

ABCNEWS:

Republican Candidates Ready to Rumble in Key New Hampshire Debate — CHICAGO - With the race for the Republican presidential nomination at its most critical moment to date, only days before the crucial New Hampshire primary, the six candidates will square off Saturday night in Manchester …

Discussion: Power Line

Jodi Kantor / New York Times:

Michelle Obama and the Evolution of a First Lady — Michelle Obama was privately fuming, not only at the president's team, but also at her husband. — In the days after the Democrats lost Edward Kennedy's Senate seat in January 2010, Barack Obama was even-keeled as usual in meetings …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Bangor Daily News and Weasel Zippers

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

‘The Obamas’: Book Reveals Friction Between Rahm Emanuel, Michelle Obama (UPDATE) … Barack Obama , Michelle Obama , Rahm Emanuel , White House , Obama , Video , Jodi Kantor , Obama White House , The Obamas , Obama Marriage , Obamas Marriage , The Obamas Jodi Kantor , Politics News

Discussion: iOwnTheWorld.com, Angry Black Lady Chronicles, Firedoglake, Guardian, The Politico and Lynn Sweet

Charles Lane / Washington Post:

Rick Santorum's baby—and mine. — The latest intra-pundit flap of Campaign 2012: a couple of my liberal colleagues have called Rick and Karen Santorum “crazy,” or “very weird” for wrapping and caressing the body of their baby, who died only two hours after emerging from 20 weeks in utero …

Universal Uclick / uExpress:

SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES UNITE FOR SANTORUM — On Tuesday night in Iowa, he stood before the cheering throngs like a Republican Rocky, or better yet, a latter-day Rudy suddenly lifted above his Notre Dame teammates in a fantastic storybook finish. — On Tuesday night, for the first time, Rick Santorum was a contender.

Discussion: Balloon Juice and National Review

Emily Schultheis / The Politico:
New Paul S.C. ad hits Santorum on ‘betrayal’

Discussion: Reuters, National Review, The Reaction, American Power, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Vox Popoli, ABCNEWS, Rasmussen Reports and New York Times

WMUR:
Poll: Romney Holds Onto Big Lead In NH

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Gallup, New York Times, Daily Kos, The Hill, Hot Air and Rasmussen Reports

Adam Sorensen / Time:
TIME/CNN/ORC Poll: Romney Storms Ahead in South Carolina

Discussion: Swampland, Political Mojo, Weasel Zippers, Guardian, Washington Post and Hot Air

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Paul blasts Santorum as ‘serial hypocrite’

Discussion: The Politico

Rick Perlstein / Crooks and Liars:
Santorum's ‘Freedom’ is Pretty Much Slavery

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and Hullabaloo

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

All We Are Saying . . . The establishment usually wins. That, after all, is what it means to be an establishment. But not always. Three of the last six presidents—Jimmy Carter in 1976, Ronald Reagan in 1980, and Barack Obama in 2008—ran against their own party's powerbrokers …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Sydney Morning Herald:

Climate change castaways consider move to Australia — Ben Doherty in Male, Maldives — Threat ... much of the Maldives could be lost to climate change. — THE President of what could be the first country in the world lost to climate change has urged Australia to prepare for a mass wave …

Discussion: Pirate's Cove, Fausta's Blog, Tim Blair and ThinkProgress

Elizabeth McNeil / People.com:

Kristy McNichol Wants to ‘Be Open About Who I Am’ — Kristy McNichol has been out of the public eye for 20 years. Now she's chosen to come out - to try to help kids who are being bullied. — McNichol, 49, who has lived with her partner Martie Allen, also 49, for the past two decades …

Discussion: Joe. My. God., Steve Rothaus' Gay … and Towleroad News #gay

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Government: The redistributionist behemoth — Liberals have a rendezvous with regret. Their largest achievement is today's redistributionist government. But such government is inherently regressive: It tends to distribute power and money to the strong, including itself.

Discussion: Campaign 2012 and Maggie's Farm

The Right Scoop:

Hilarious! McCain mistakenly refers to Romney as Obama — Oh man, this is classic. McCain totally referred to Romney as “President Obama” and went on for a few seconds before Gov. Haley corrected him. Hilarious! You know what they say about drunk people being more truthful, right?

Discussion: Michelle Malkin

John Hudson / The Atlantic Wire:

The Sultriest Members of Congress — If you're the best-looking member in Congress, that won't guarantee you a high-ranking committee chair but it will bring you coveted media attention. — That's the finding from a new study by two Israeli professors in the journal of Political Communication.

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Hotline On Call and New York Times

Jill Schlesinger / CBS News:

December employment report: 200K new jobs, 8.5% unemployment — 2011 ended on a high note for jobs. The December jobs report showed that 200,000 new jobs were created in the month, and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.5, the lowest rate since February 2009.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Political Mojo, New York Times, The Raw Story and Daily Kos

Jared Bernstein / On the Economy:
Jobs Report, Second Impressions: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Discussion: Firedoglake

Paul Conner / The Daily Caller:

Labor unions primary recipients of Obamacare waivers — Labor unions continued to receive the overwhelming majority of waivers from the president's health care reform law since the Obama administration tightened application rules last summer. — Documents released in a classic Friday …

Discussion: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Another Romney layoff victim, this one a conservative, speaks out — Reuters published a blockbuster story today on GS Technologies, a steel mill in Kansas City that was acquired by Bain Capital, leading to the layoffs of some 750 workers. In this case, the workers lost promised severance pay …