memeorandum: 2012 Live … DAYBOOK … CANDIDATE HUB … Categories (Alexander Burns/The Politico)

3:35 AM ET, January 18, 2012

Top Items:

Obama up 5 on Romney nationally — PPP's first national poll of 2012 finds Barack Obama with his best standing against Mitt Romney since last May, right after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Obama leads Romney 49-44. — It's not as if Obama's suddenly become popular.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, The American Independent, Washington Post, Patterico's Pontifications, Ballot Box, Daily Kos, The Caucus, Gothamist, No More Mister Nice Blog, Guardian and INSTAPUTZ

Jon Ward / The Huffington Post:

Newt Gingrich: If Mitt Romney Wins South Carolina, It's Over … South Carolina Primary Election , South Carolina Primary Election 2012 , Politics News — COLUMBIA, S.C. — Newt Gingrich came clean Tuesday afternoon, admitting that if he can't win this state's primary on Saturday …

Discussion: ABCNEWS and The Hill

Alexander Burns / The Politico:

Palin: I'd vote for Gingrich in South Carolina — Sarah Palin's not quite endorsing Newt Gingrich for president, but if she were a South Carolina voter, he's the one she'd cast her ballot for this weekend. — The idea, Palin explained on Fox News, would be to keep the primary season going.

Discussion: CNN

Wallacegw / CNN:

Gingrich urges Santorum, Perry to drop out — Florence, South Carolina (CNN) - Newt Gingrich is urging competitors Rick Santorum and Rick Perry bow out of the Republican presidential race so conservatives can rally behind one “anti-Mitt Romney” candidate. — A reporter asked …

Discussion: The Politico, The Hill, The Other McCain, Rick Santorum for President, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative, Washington Examiner and The Hill

Jon Bershad / Mediaite:

Chris Matthews Accuses Newt Gingrich Of Racially Charged Use Of The Name ‘Juan’ — A big moment of last night's debate came when moderator Juan Williams and Newt Gingrich argued over Gingrich's comments that many have seen as condescending towards blacks. However, Williams …

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh, THEROOT.COM and National Review

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Romney, Dewhurst lead in Texas

Discussion: Hot Air, Hit & Run, msnbc.com, Trail Blazers Blog, Ballot Box and Campaign 2012

Charles M. Blow / Campaign Stops:
Newt Gingrich and the Art of Racial Politics

Discussion: Mediaite, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Faith in Public Life, The Atlantic Online, The Daily Dish and Washington Post

Pete Kasperowicz / Ballot Box:
Gingrich doubles down on promise to follow Obama around the country to force debates

Discussion: CNN

Alexander Burns / The Politico:
Perry: Santorum a ‘good Catholic’

Discussion: CNN, National Review, The Other McCain and Questions and Observations

Patrick Marley / JSOnline:

Democrats file 1 million signatures for Walker recall — By Patrick Marley, Jason Stein and Don Walker of the Journal Sentinel — Madison - Democrats and organizers filed petitions Tuesday afternoon with more than a million signatures as they sought to force a recall election against Gov. Scott Walker …

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh, Big Government, The Daily Caller, Marathon Pundit, Booman Tribune, The Mahablog, Media Trackers, The Impolitic, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Colorlines, Althouse and Balloon Juice

Monica Davey / New York Times:

Organizers Say 1 Million Signed Petition to Recall Wisconsin Governor — Critics of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin on Tuesday said they had collected more than 1 million signatures, or nearly twice as many as required, on petitions to recall Mr. Walker and force a new election.

Brendan O'Brien / Reuters:
Enough signatures collected to recall Wisconsin governor

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Crooked Timber

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Dems gather more than one million signatures to recall Scott Walker

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Crooks and Liars, JSOnline and US Politics

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress: BREAKING: Walker Recall Effort Delivers More Than 1 Million Signatures

Fox News:

‘Occupy’ protesters suspected of throwing smoke bomb over White House fence — WASHINGTON - The Secret Service was responding Tuesday night to an escalating protest that may have involved one or more smoke bombs being thrown over the White House fence. — An estimated 1,000 protesters have gathered.

Discussion: RedState, Fire Andrea Mitchell! and Weasel Zippers

Jessica Firger / Wall Street Journal:

Protest Sapped of Cash — Occupy Wall Street Freezes Spending on New Projects as Donations Dry Up — Occupy Wall Street—the movement built on protesting corporate greed and income inequality—is running out of money. — After raising more than $700,000 last fall …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The Politico, ThinkProgress, The Hill and Gothamist

Paul Bedard / US News:
Taxpayers on Hook for D.C. Protester's Potties

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Lonely Conservative

nbcwashington.com:
Apparent Smoke Bomb Tossed Over White House Fence

Discussion: msnbc.com and Talking Points Memo

Seung Min Kim / The Politico:
‘Occupy Congress’ protesters arrested

Discussion: nation.foxnews.com, Pat Dollard, Weasel Zippers and The Gateway Pundit

CNET:

Google will protest SOPA using popular home page — The tech sector is pulling out the big guns. — Google, the Web's top search company and one of technology's most influential powers in Washington, will post a link on its home page tomorrow to notify users of Google's opposition …

Discussion: Techdirt, Emily L. Hauser, Political Mojo and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
It's Baaaaaaaaack: Lamar Smith Says SOPA Markup To Resume In February

Discussion: Deadline.com, Daily Kos, Making Light and Insert Coin

Sue Gardner / Wikimedia Foundation:
English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The American Independent, Taylor Marsh, Moon of Alabama, The Democratic Daily, Bits, New York Magazine, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Outside the Beltway, Washington Post, Wake up America and Mediaite

Trevor Timm / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Search form — How PIPA and SOPA Violate White House Principles …

Discussion: TalkLeft, GigaOM, Grist, Scientific American, Computerworld, Game On, Gizmodo, Wikimedia Foundation, The Huffington Post, Balloon Juice, Making Light and Techdirt, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Kaczynski / Politics:

The Book On Mitt Romney: Here Is John McCain's Entire Opposition Research File … The Book On Mitt Romney: Here Is John McCain's Entire Opposition Research File — Politics Buzz A document found online by BuzzFeed appears to be John McCain's entire, 200-page opposition research file …

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Joel Gehrke / Campaign 2012:

WH: Newt's Obama food stamp charge is ‘crazy’ — President Obama's White House spokesman dismissed as “crazy” Newt Gingrich's claim that Obama has “put” people on food stamps, citing the ailing economy as the cause for the expanded use of welfare programs. — “Well, you know as well as I …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

RealClearPolitics Video Log:
Gingrich On Food Stamp Comment: “Among The Politically Correct, You Are Not Supposed To Use Facts …

Discussion: Big Government and RedState

Thomas Erdbrink / Washington Post:

U.S. drone that crashed in Iran goes miniature — A photo released by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps purports to show the RQ-170 drone that was reported crash in December. (Sepahnews via Associated Press) TEHRAN — For the American government, the crash of the RQ-170 drone in Iran was an embarrassment.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Atlas Shrugs

Donovan Slack / The Politico:

White House locked down because of ‘smoking objects’ — The White House was locked down Tuesday night because of “smoking objects” found near the North Portico as hundreds of protesters rallied outside the executive mansion, Secret Service officials said. — “We had approximately 1,000 …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Pirate's Cove and Firedoglake

Pat Garofalo / ThinkProgress:

Romney Admits His Tax Rate Is About 15 Percent, Lower Than Many Middle Class Families — Citizens for Tax Justice a few months ago estimated that Mitt Romney, due to most of his income coming from investments, pays a tax rate of around 14 percent, a far cry from the 35 percent top income tax rate.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, CNN, The Huffington Post, The Moderate Voice, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, The Caucus, Hot Air, Daily Kos, Wonkette, ABCNEWS, The Raw Story and The Mahablog

Washington Post:
Mitt Romney to release tax returns, estimates rate at about 15 percent

Discussion: The Hill, Campaign 2012, Hot Air, The New Republic, Paul Krugman, Washington Monthly, The Other McCain, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Political Mojo

Shelby Grad / L.A. NOW:

Pinkberry co-founder beat homeless man with tire iron, LAPD says — One of the founders of the popular Pinkberry yogurt chain is accused by police of chasing down a homeless man and beating him with a tire iron. — The incident took place in June 2011 on an off-ramp of the Hollywood Freeway …

Discussion: Opinion L.A., BuzzFeed and The Raw Story