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3:35 PM ET, January 25, 2012

Top Items:

Lucy Madison / CBS News:

Poll: High Marks for Obama's State of the Union Speech — CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto. — An overwhelming majority of Americans approved of the overall message in President Obama's State of the Union speech …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Taegan Goddard's …, The Raw Story, ABCNEWS, ThinkProgress and The Politico

Eric Ostermeier / Smart Politics:

“My Message is Simple”: Obama's SOTU Written at 8th Grade Level for Third Straight Year — Obama's SOTU addresses have the lowest average Flesch-Kincaid score of any modern president; Obama owns three of the six lowest-scoring addresses since FDR — For the third consecutive State of the Union Address …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Hot Air, Stinque, Weasel Zippers, Wonkette, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Althouse and Saint Petersblog

The White House:

Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address — Washington, D.C. — THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans: — Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq.

Byron Tau / The Politico:

State of the Union registers at 8th grade reading level — President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address again rated at an 8th grade comprehension level on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test — the third lowest score of any State of the Union address since 1934.

Discussion: NewsBusters.org and LewRockwell.com Blog

Politics:

Republicans: State Of The Union Sounds Familiar — The Republican National Committee points out that Obama has been saying the stuff from year to year. Not sure it's exactly an attack, but it's a pretty compelling video. — BuzzFeed Politics — BuzzFeed — More from BuzzFeed Pol... ›

Daniel Strauss / The Hill:
Gov. Daniels: Obama is ‘pro-poverty’

Discussion: ThinkProgress, CNN, The Politico and Jammie Wearing Fools

John Hinderaker / Power Line:
Toward A Fairer America

Discussion: Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog

New York Times:
The State of the Union in 2012 — A year ago, after the last State …

Discussion: ad astra and The Loyal Opposition

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
Obama's State of the Union speech: Confrontation wrapped in Kumbaya

Discussion: Salon, Washington Wire, Outside the Beltway, Wall Street Journal, Pirate's Cove, Gawker, HousingWire, The Moderate Voice and The Page

Daniel Strauss / Ballot Box:

Pelosi's office says she has no new dirt on Newt Gingrich — Rep. Nancy Pelosi's office on Wednesday said the minority leader doesn't have any dirt on Newt Gingrich. — Pelosi has suggested in two interviews that she knows something that could prevent Gingrich from becoming president …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and GOP 12

Washington Examiner:

What really happened in the Gingrich ethics case? — The Romney campaign has been hitting Newt Gingrich hard over the 1990s ethics case that resulted in the former Speaker being reprimanded and paying a $300,000 penalty. Before the Iowa caucuses, Romney and his supporting super PAC …

Discussion: Hot Air, HillBuzz.org, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Daily Caller, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Riehl World View

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Romney blasts Gingrich over attacks on debate moderators, news media — Mitt Romney attacked his GOP presidential rival Newt Gingrich over what has to date been one Gingrich's most effective debate methods - going after the moderators and the media for questions he deems inappropriate.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Wake up America, Reuters and National Review

RealClearPolitics Video Log:

Pelosi On A Gingrich Presidency: “That Will Never Happen” — John King, CNN: “You make your case there passionately for President Obama. But also understand that this is a tough reelection climate for any president, Democrat or Republican in this economy.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, JONATHAN TURLEY, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The PJ Tatler, Washington Times, Althouse, Campaign 2012 and Michelle Malkin

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Reagan Count: Gingrich 55, Romney 6 — In Monday night's debate in Tampa, Fla., Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, mentioned Ronald Reagan just four words into his first answer of the night. It was the first of five times that Mr. Gingrich would mention Reagan; no other candidate did so even once.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, National Review, Outside the Beltway, Saint Petersblog, The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, HillBuzz.org, GOP 12 and Mediaite

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:
Gingrich says Pelosi is living in a fantasy world

Discussion: Wake up America, The Politico and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Christian Heinze / GOP 12:
Romney wants to know Pelosi's secret

Discussion: Daily Kos and Saint Petersblog

Marc Caputo / Naked Politics:

Rubio scolds Gingrich camp, says ad bashing ‘anti-immigrant’ Romney is ‘inaccurate, inflammatory’ — Sen. Marco Rubio scolded Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign over a Spanish-language radio ad that accuses rival Mitt Romney of being “anti-immigrant” — “This kind of language is more than just unfortunate.

Discussion: MiamiHerald.com, The Moderate Voice, Ballot Box, Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, The Caucus, GOP 12, Guardian, The PJ Tatler, Campaign 2012, Riptide 2.0 and The Other McCain

ABCNEWS:

Is Florida Still in Play for Republicans? — Only nine months from Election Day, Latino voters — the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc — favor President Obama over all the Republican candidates by a wide margin, according to a new poll conducted by Latino Decisions for Univision News and ABC News …

Discussion: The Politico, Washington Post, Political Mojo, Ballot Box and Saint Petersblog

The Politico:
Newt Gingrich plays the Charlie Crist card

Discussion: CNN, The Hill, GOP 12, Taylor Marsh, Saint Petersblog, Townhall.com and NewsMax.com

Kevinliptak / CNN:
Gingrich on Clinton impeachment, telling the truth

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

Danny Yadron / Washington Wire:
Gingrich Slams Romney Over Immigration

Discussion: Hot Air

Jim Miklaszewski / msnbc.com:

American hostage in Somalia rescued by US Navy SEALs in overnight raid — WASHINGTON — In a daring nighttime raid Tuesday, U.S. Navy SEALs rescued two hostages, including one American, who were being held by kidnappers in Somalia, U.S. officials tell NBC News.

Discussion: Reuters, Crooks and Liars, Little Green Footballs, Associated Press, Washington Monthly, Booman Tribune, iOwnTheWorld.com, Scared Monkeys and americanthinker.com

Jeffrey Gettleman / New York Times:
U.S. Military Frees 2 Western Hostages From Somali Pirates

Discussion: ThinkProgress, World Now, emptywheel, Guardian, Global Spin and News Desk

David Dayen / Firedoglake:

Obama's Schneiderman Gambit: Financial Fraud Unit Appears Designed to Fail, Grease Skids for Foreclosure Fraud Settlement — I'll pepper in my thoughts on the State of the Union Address throughout the day, but I would be remiss if I didn't start with the announcement of a Unit on Mortgage Origination …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Reality Check, Main Street, Baltimore Sun, naked capitalism, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Felix Salmon and Hullabaloo

Tina Dupuy / Crooks and Liars:

Awkward Family Photos: Mitt Laundry — Mitt Romney's hurdle in winning the love/respect/admiration/fear of his party can be summed up in one photo: It was taken by his son, Tagg (doesn't Sarah Palin have a kid with that name?) and put on Twitter this week. It's of Romney and his wife Ann …

Discussion: Political Mojo and AlterNet

Jared Bernstein / On the Economy:

When Fact Checkers Go Bad...Very Bad — OMG...this is beyond preposterous. — Politifact—the self-anointed fact checkers—grade this statement from the President speech tonight as “half-true:” … This is not half true or two-thirds true. It is just true. — So why, I ask you, why do they go where they go?

Discussion: A plain blog about politics, Washington Monthly, Politifact.com Truth …, Daily Kos, Saint Petersblog, Paul Krugman and Balloon Juice

Richard Hartley-Parkinson / Daily Mail:

Female driver who defied Saudi motoring ban dies in fatal road accident — A woman who defied a driving ban on female motorists in Saudi Arabia has died in a car crash. — Another was hurt in the crash in the only country in the world where females are banned from getting behind the wheel.

Discussion: Vox Popoli

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:

House Democrats spell Keystone ‘K-O-C-H’ — House Democrats are using the billionaire Koch brothers to score political points in their fight against the Keystone XL oil pipeline. — Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) suggested at a hearing Wednesday that Koch Industries …

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Mediaite

Alexander Burns / The Politico:

Newt slams Romney's ‘world of Swiss bank accounts’ — Via Ginger Gibson in Miami — if you thought the tax return issue was over and done with, think again:

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Post, Hot Air, GOP 12, Taylor Marsh and Daily Kos

Ronen Bergman / New York Times:

Will Israel Attack Iran? — As the Sabbath evening approached on Jan. 13, Ehud Barak paced the wide living-room floor of his home high above a street in north Tel Aviv, its walls lined with thousands of books on subjects ranging from philosophy and poetry to military strategy.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Israel Matzav, Guardian and The Politico

BuzzFeed:

The Biggest Newspaper In The World Is ... The Daily Mail!? — The British tabloid's zaftig website has unseated the New York Times for the top slot, per a comScore total. “The Daily Mail is not in our competitive set,” sniffs the Times's Murphy, who disputes the count.

Discussion: Poynter and Guardian, more at Mediagazer »