memeorandum: Romney's Profitable Past (National Review)

1:15 PM ET, January 10, 2012

Top Items:

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Majority of Conservatives See Romney as “Acceptable” — Only Romney now seen as acceptable by majority of Republicans — PRINCETON, NJ — Mitt Romney is the now the only candidate that a majority of conservative and moderate/liberal Republicans nationwide see as an “acceptable” GOP nominee for president.

Discussion: American Prospect, today.yougov.com News, American Spectator, Catholic Bandita, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Weasel Zippers, Outside the Beltway, Ballot Box, Patterico's Pontifications and The Lonely Conservative

Ann Gerhart / Washington Post:

New Hampshire polls open in Dixville Notch — with nine votes — DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. — The voters of this tiny hamlet, all nine of them, have spoken. Very briefly. — The polls opened here at midnight and closed less than a minute later, and the tally was final by 12:05 a.m. On the Republican side …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, ThinkProgress, Wonkette, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, msnbc.com, Mediaite, Prairie Weather, The Political Carnival, Truthdig, unionleader.com and Washington Wire

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:

Poll: Among GOP hopefuls, Romney fares best against Obama — CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto. — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holds a two-point lead against President Obama …

Discussion: Associated Press, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, No More Mister Nice Blog, Hit & Run, Hot Air, Weekly Standard and Ron Paul 2012 Presidential …

National Review:

Romney's Profitable Past — Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Jon Huntsman seem to be engaged in a perverse contest to be the Republican presidential candidate to say the most asinine thing about Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital, the private-equity firm at which he served as chief executive …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Daily Kos and The Enterprise Blog

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
Fighting on Democrats' turf

Discussion: New York Magazine, Slate, Democratic Strategist and Balloon Juice

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:
Poll: 58% of Republicans want more presidential choices

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Ballot Box, The PJ Tatler, Hot Air and Pew Research Center …

Josh Lederman / The Hill:
Crowd boos mentioning of McCain's name at Santorum event

Discussion: The Politico, CNN, The Caucus, WSJ Blogs - WSJ, Shakesville, Reuters, Connecting.the.Dots, Riehl World View, Doug Ross and Weasel Zippers

Steven Shepard / NationalJournal.com:
Poll: Romney, Paul Tie Obama

Discussion: CBS News, Vox Popoli and Scared Monkeys

Aaron Carroll / The Incidental Economist:

Lots of people can't fire their insurance companies — Governor Romney is getting a lot of heat for a line that appears to have been taken out of context. I'd like to talk about it in context. I think that's much more illuminating: … Gov. Romney is not saying that he enjoys telling people that they no longer have a job.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Paul Krugman, The Daily Dish and Brad DeLong

James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:

Why You Cannot Say You ‘Like’ Firing People — As Derek Thompson points out on our site, and as the Romney campaign will be fully justified in reiterating, obviously Mitt Romney did not mean that he enjoys the process of telling people “you're gone!” when he made his infamous “I like being able to fire people” remark in New Hampshire.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, CNN, CBS News, The Mahablog, Hullabaloo, ThinkProgress, Ballot Box, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, INSTAPUTZ and Wonkette

Alexander Burns / The Politico:
Perry: Mitt's company ‘just vultures’ who ‘eat the carcass’ of companies (Updated)

Discussion: Guardian, Washington Post, msnbc.com, Campaign 2012 and The Page

Paul Bedard / US News:

Poll: Americans, 2-1, Fear Obama's Reelection — When it comes to how Americans view President Obama going into the new year, there appears to be very little spirit of Auld Lang Syne. Instead, according to the new Washington Whispers poll, many voters aren't forgetting what they dislike about Obama and want him out office.

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, Hot Air, Conservatives4Palin, The Gateway Pundit, Pirate's Cove, UrbanGrounds, Weasel Zippers and Israel Matzav

Torie Bosch / Slate:

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie Responds to Female Hecklers With Offensive Oral Sex Joke … - New Hampshire Debate: Gingrich Attacks Romney for His “Pious Baloney” - CBS Stakes Its Claim as the Adult Contemporary of the Network Morning Shows — Chris Christie Responds to Female Hecklers With Lame …

Discussion: Don Surber, The Reaction, Rumproast, The Impolitic, CBS News, Feministing, Sky Dancing, Taylor Marsh, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Washington Monthly, TBogg, National Review and The PJ Tatler

Ann Althouse / Althouse:
A Slate resident feminist hears Gov. Christie talking about oral sex when he's obviously not.

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative

Ryan Sabalow / Record Searchlight Stories:

UPDATED: Herger to announce retirement; LaMalfa to run for his seat — After a quarter century representing the north state, U.S. Rep. Wally Herger will announce today he is planning to retire at the end of his current term and state Sen. Doug LaMalfa will be running for his seat.

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Hill and Hotline On Call

Jon Fleischman / FlashReport:
Breaking* U.S. Rep. Wally Herger To Retire; Endorsing Doug LaMalfa for Congress

Discussion: The Politico and Washington Post

New York Times:

A Big Check, and Gingrich Gets a Big Lift — MANCHESTER, N.H. — For weeks this winter, as Newt Gingrich's presidential hopes faltered under the weight of millions of dollars in attack ads paid for by backers of Mitt Romney, a small group of Gingrich supporters quietly lobbied for help …

Discussion: The Caucus, Law Blog, LobeLog.com, Wonkette, Washington Post and ABCNEWS

Washington Post:
The power of super PACs

Discussion: Campaign 2012 and ThinkProgress

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

U.S. Economic Confidence Rises to Seven-Month High — Americans' outlook for the economy is improving faster than their ratings of current conditions — PRINCETON, NJ — The Gallup Economic Confidence Index improved to -27 in the week ending Jan. 8, continuing the steady improvement …

Discussion: American Prospect, Real Time Economics and The Monkey Cage

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

Mitt Romney and 100,000 jobs: an untenable figure — “In the business I had, we invested in over 100 different businesses and net-net, taking out the ones where we lost jobs and those that we added, those businesses have now added over 100,000 jobs.” — Last week, when we first looked …

Discussion: The New Republic, Los Angeles Times, Hot Air, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, DownWithTyranny! and US Politics

The Politico:

Bill Daley resignation: Why he had to go — The Bill Daley era on Monday screeched to a jarring, clattering conclusion. — Daley, who departs after a little more than a year as President Barack Obama's chief of staff, was never a great fit inside the West Wing — and Obama …

Discussion: News Desk, Betsy's Page, The New Republic, The Spectacle Blog, Wonkette and The Hill

Pam Spaulding / Firedoglake:

NC Elections Official Resigns Rather than Facilitate the Marriage Discrimination Amendment — This thunderous letter of support for equality was sent to PHB and BlueNC by Sherre Toler, who, until last week was the director of elections for Harnett County in my state.

Discussion: BlueNC and ThinkProgress

Lynn Sweet:

Gibbs apologizes for Michelle Obama tiff; Jarrett statement — follow on Twitter: @lynnsweet — NASHUA, NH.—Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs apologized Monday for insulting First Lady Michelle Obama during an explosive staff meeting where he also laid into Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

New Jersey Online:

N.J. Assemblyman Alex DeCroce collapses, dies in Statehouse after long legislative session — TRENTON — Longtime Assemblyman Alex DeCroce, the leading Republican of the state's lower house who represented Morris County for 23 years, collapsed and died in a bathroom inside the Statehouse late Monday night …

Discussion: Associated Press and The Politico

Lisa Rogers / Gadsden Times:

Man in custody after shootout with police in Alabama City — A man thought to be an Islamic extremist is believed to have shot the windows out of at least two businesses in Alabama City early Sunday to lure police officers to the area and engage them in a shootout.

Discussion: Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs

Wall Street Journal:

The Stephanopoulos Standard — Republicans can turn media bias to their advantage. — A funny thing happened on the way to the New Hampshire primary: ABC moderator George Stephanopoulos embarrassed himself on national television with questions plainly intended to embarrass the Republican candidates.

Discussion: Vodkapundit

Rgauldin / BuzzFeed:

Did Jesus Intervene? — Did Jesus Intervene? — Sports Buzz Jesus is a busy guy, and doesn't have time to get involved in everything! Here's a simple guide illustrating where he decides to influence earthly affairs. — rgauldin — More from rgauldin › — Be the first of your friends to like this.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Obama 2012: 'Osama Bin Laden Will Never Again Walk the Face of This Earth. That's What Change Is.' — At a campaign event this evening at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., President Obama indicated that he had successfully brought about “change”—an ambiguous 2008 campaign promise …

Discussion: American Spectator and Weasel Zippers

Blogger Bob / The TSA Blog:

Cupcakegate — This will be short and “sweet.” Like many of you, when I think of a cupcake, I don't think of it being in a jar. However, the photo below shows the “cupcake” that was prohibited from being taken into the cabin of a plane last month. — Cupcake Jar Photo Courtesy of Consumertraveler.com

Discussion: Boing Boing, The Gateway Pundit, Jezebel and Campaign 2012

BREITBART.COM:

Fidel Castro: ‘robot’ better than Obama, Republicans — Cuban revolutionary icon Fidel Castro said Monday that a “robot” would be better in the White House than President Barack Obama — or any of the Republicans candidates in the 2012 election race. — “Is it not obvious that the worst …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers