memeorandum: Obama rallies House Democrats at retreat (Jonathan Easley/The Hill)

3:30 PM ET, January 27, 2012

Top Items:

Romney Pulls Ahead In See-Saw Florida Gop Primary, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Men Shift From Gingrich To Romney — Just four days before the nation's first big-state presidential primary, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney opens up a 38 - 29 percent lead over former House Speaker …

Discussion: Firedoglake, NationalJournal.com, Washington Post, The Other McCain, Sunshine State News, GOP 12, Reuters, Florida Times Union, The Strata-Sphere, The Moderate Voice, American Spectator, Presidential Power, Hot Air, Post on Politics and The Buzz Florida Politics Feed

ABCNEWS:

Brutal Newt Gingrich Ad in the Works — Newt Gingrich is responding to last night's debate with a brutal new ad accusing Romney of trying to mislead, deceive, and distort his way to the White House. — Here's the money line: “What kind of man would mislead, distort and deceive just to win an election?

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Hill, GOP 12 and Taegan Goddard's …

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:

Newt Loses It — Last night's presidential candidate debate in Jacksonville, cosponsored by CNN and the Hispanic Leadership Network, was Newt Gingrich's best and perhaps last chance to get his mojo back against a confluence of negative pressures—from sustained attacks to his left and right …

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Ross Douthat, New York Magazine, The Politico, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Mahablog

Brent Budowsky / Pundits Blog:
Ron Paul will defeat Mitt Romney in the Virginia primary

Discussion: CNN, Hot Air and Eunomia

today.yougov.com News:
Mitt Romney's Tax Problem

Discussion: American Prospect, Taylor Marsh and Daily Kos

Robert Costa / National Review:
Jeb to Newt: Stop the ‘Ridiculous’ Crist Talk

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Hotline On Call and Naked Politics

Dan Farber / CBS News: Bob Dole hopes Gingrich has no chance to be president

New York Times:
Romney Stays on the Offense With Gingrich

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Caucus, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Politico, Reuters, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, ABCNEWS, The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, Ballot Box, Media Decoder and The Page, more at Mediagazer »

Alex Isenstadtand Jake Sherman / The Politico:
Newt Gingrich 2012 rise unnerves House GOP

Discussion: The Brody File and Connecting.the.Dots

Washington Post:

Ron Paul signed off on racist newsletters in the 1990s, associates say — Ron Paul, well known as a physician, congressman and libertarian , has also been a businessman who pursued a marketing strategy that included publishing provocative, racially charged newsletters to make money and spread his ideas …

Discussion: The Hill, Little Green Footballs, Gawker, Hit & Run, Outside the Beltway, Hot Air, Daily Kos, YID With LID, The Daily Dish, GOP 12, The PJ Tatler, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Political Mojo

Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic Online:

No One Left to Lie To — The truth hurts: … More: … More: … More: … More: … All parties agree that Ron Paul is not, personally, racist and that he didn't write the passages. This is comforting. I am not an anti-Semite. But give me a check to tell Harlem the Jews invented AIDS, and I'll do it.

Wall Street Journal:

No Need to Panic About Global Warming — There's no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to ‘decarbonize’ the world's economy. — Editor's Note: The following has been signed by the 16 scientists listed at the end of the article: — A candidate for public office …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Don Surber, Pirate's Cove and Hit & Run

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:

“Cui Bono” Indeed! — In a world full of doubt and contention, there are a few things, other than the proverbial items of death and taxes, you can count on to be completely reliable. And one of those is the ideological mendacity of the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal.

Discussion: Political Mojo and The Daily Caller

NBC's Domenico Montanaro / msnbc.com:

Gingrich leads Romney, but badly trails Obama — Newt Gingrich leads Mitt Romney among Republicans, but he is the weakest of the Republican candidates tested against President Obama, according to an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday evening.

Discussion: The Caucus, Reuters, GOP 12, Wake up America, The PJ Tatler, National Review, Hot Air and NewsMax.com

msnbc.com:
First Thoughts: Romney owned Gingrich, but problems linger

Discussion: Salon and Political Mojo

Neil King Jr / Wall Street Journal:
Gingrich Surges to Lead in Poll

Discussion: Daily Kos, Guardian and Shakesville

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Obama rallies House Democrats at retreat — President Obama looked to super-charge House Democrats at the caucus's annual conference Friday in Cambridge, Md., reframing the critical points from his State of the Union address for the pep-rally-style atmosphere.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Biden: Dems will take the House

Discussion: The Politico

James Pethokoukis / The Enterprise Blog:

The economic chart that may doom the Obama presidency — In his State of the Union response the other night, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels neatly summed up Mitt Romney's (who has a roughly 90 percent chance of being the GOP nominee according to Intrade) economic case against President Barack Obama …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and COURAGE IN AMERICA

Lucia Mutikani / Reuters:
U.S. growth quickens, but speed bumps ahead

Discussion: New York Times, Outside the Beltway, Hot Air and Sweetness & Light

Spencer Ackerman / Tablet Magazine:

Sounding Off — At the risk of sounding like the shtetl police, there's a right way and a wrong way for American Jews to argue with one another. The right way focuses on whose ideas are better—for America, for Israel, for the Jewish community, and for the world.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Big Journalism, The Debate Link, Balloon Juice and The Daily Dish

Jeffrey Lord / The Spectacle Blog:

Elliott Abrams Caught Misleading on Newt — As Ronald Reagan used to say: Well. — Yesterday we took note of former Reagan State Department official Elliott Abrams' piece over at NRO that went after Newt Gingrich on his relationship with Reagan. While voting regularly with Reagan …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Riehl World View, RedState, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Big Journalism, Guardian, Eunomia, Power Line, The Reality-Based Community, The Daily Caller, JOSHUAPUNDIT, American Spectator, Democracy in America and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Tim Mak / The Politico:

Voters polarized over Barack Obama, poll finds — President Obama's third year in office elicited some of the most polarized job approval ratings ever, as the differences between Republican and Democratic views of the president stood at near-record highs, a new survey shows.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup: Obama Ratings Historically Polarized

Josh Rogin / Foreign Policy:

Obama embraces Romney advisor's theory on “The Myth of American Decline” — President Barack Obama is personally enamored with a recent essay written by neoconservative writer Bob Kagan, an advisor to Mitt Romney, in which Kagan argues that the idea the United States is in decline is false.

Discussion: democracyarsenal.org, Daniel W. Drezner, Politics and blogs.telegraph.co.uk

Associated Press:
FACT CHECK: Gingrich gives an awkward defense of a speech that was seen as attacking Spanish

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

Brian Tashman / Right Wing Watch:

FRC: ‘Rebel Fleet Surrenders to Gay Empire’ — After first going after Girl Scout cookies, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins is now attacking the game Star Wars: The Old Republic for allowing same-sex relationships. Stephen Reid of Bioware announced that players in the MMO …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Towleroad News #gay and Good As You

Alicia M. Cohn / The Hill:

Huntsman steps away from politics in new job — Jon Huntsman accepted a new position as chairman at the Huntsman Cancer Foundation on Thursday, the cancer research center announced this week. — Huntsman's position was effective immediately on Thursday, meaning he had a new job just 10 days …

Discussion: CNN and The Impolitic

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez / USA Today:

Gov. Jan Brewer releases letter she handed to Obama — PHOENIX - In a sudden about-face, Gov. Jan Brewer on Thursday evening made public a copy of the letter she handed President Obama during their high-profile encounter a day earlier that dominated national news, the blogosphere and water-cooler conversation.

Discussion: Mediaite, Politics and NewsBusters.org blogs

Jeffrey H. Anderson / Weekly Standard:

'It's Not Worth Getting Angry About' — Tell that to the Tea Party. — More than anyone else during any of the previous Republican presidential debates, Rick Santorum took dead aim tonight at the similarities between Romneycare and Obamacare. Arguing that those similarities …

Discussion: Riehl World View, COURAGE IN AMERICA, Power Line, Campaign 2012 and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Jon Ward / The Huffington Post:

Romney Packed Debate Hall With Supporters, Gingrich Aide Says … 2012 Election , Barack Obama , Newt Gingrich 2012 , Republican Presidential Primary , Rick Santorum , Elections 2012 , Newt Gingrich , Video , FL Election , FL Election 2012 , FL Primary , FL Primary 2012 …