memeorandum: Republican lawmakers begin pushback against Obama recess appointments (Peter Schroeder/The Hill)

11:25 AM ET, January 30, 2012

Top Items:

Obama: The most polarizing president. Ever. — President Obama ran — and won — in 2008 on the idea of uniting the country. But, each of his first three years in office have marked historic highs in political polarization, with Democrats largely approving of him and Republicans deeply disapproving.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, Shakesville, Pirate's Cove, National Review and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Newsmax Wires / NewsMax.com:

InsiderAdvantage Poll: Gingrich Surging, Race ‘Tighter Than Expected’ — More ways to share... Mixx — Stumbled — LinkedIn — Vine — Buzzflash — Newstrust — Technocrati — Forward Article — A new InsiderAdvantage poll conducted Sunday night of likely Republican voters …

Discussion: Ballot Box, Washington Monthly, Taylor Marsh, TalkLeft, M.JOSEPH SHEPPARD'S …, Riehl World View, The Political Carnival and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Quinnipiac University:

Romney Romps To 14-Point Lead In Florida GOP Primary, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has a 43 - 29 percent lead over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich among Republican likely voters in Florida, the nation's first big-state presidential primary …

Discussion: The Caucus, Washington Post, Florida Times Union, Ballot Box, CBS Miami, msnbc.com, National Review, MiamiHerald.com and Marist Poll

John Heilemann / New York Magazine:

Newt May Be Mad and Mental Enough to Fight On Long After Florida — For some churchgoers, the attendance of Sunday morning services is a ritual rooted in reflection, for others in repentance, for others in rejoicing, and for still others in all three. But for Newt Gingrich …

Michelle Malkin:

For Santorum — Rick Santorum opposed TARP. — He didn't cave when Chicken Littles in Washington invoked a manufactured crisis in 2008. He didn't follow the pro-bailout GOP crowd — including Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich — and he didn't have to obfuscate or rationalize his position then or now …

Discussion: Agence France Presse, American Thinker and The Right Scoop

Susan Page / USA Today:

Swing States poll: Romney and Obama tied; Gingrich trails — WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney essentially ties Barack Obama in the nation's key battlegrounds, a USA TODAY/Gallup Swing States survey finds, while rival Newt Gingrich now trails the president by a decisive 14 percentage points.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, The Moderate Voice, Viking Pundit, Race 4 2012 and National Review

Andrew Burton / ABCNEWS:

Rick Santorum Says Daughter Bella Has a ‘Miraculous Turnaround’ — DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Rick Santorum made his first public comments on the health of his youngest daughter, Isabella, this evening on a tele-town hall with voters, saying she has had a “miraculous turnaround.”

Discussion: The Spectacle Blog

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Little Movement in Florida

Discussion: The Politico and Hot Air

Jonathan Martinand Maggie Haberman / The Politico:
Newt Gingrich's long march

Discussion: CNN, Business Insider, BuzzFeed and Reuters

American Prospect:
Gingrich Can't Lose! — LUTZ, FLORIDA—As Newt Gingrich plummets …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

James Hohmann / The Politico:
Rick Santorum's daughter improving

Discussion: Washington Post, Betsy's Page, Outside the Beltway and Hot Air

Catalina Camia / USA Today:
Santorum hits campaign trail after child's health scare

Discussion: National Review, LifeNews.com and The Agonist

Matt K. Lewis / The Daily Caller:
An internal Gingrich campaign memo obtained by The Daily Caller shows …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

Wall Street Journal:
Romney Regains His Edge

Discussion: msnbc.com and Algemeiner.com

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Austerity Debacle — Last week the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a British think tank, released a startling chart comparing the current slump with past recessions and recoveries. It turns out that by one important measure — changes in real G.D.P. since the recession began …

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Mahablog, TheMoneyIllusion, Cafe Hayek, Prairie Weather and The Independent

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:

Jeb Bush Remains Silent on Endorsement — MIAMI — A steady stream of endorsements has been flowing to Mitt Romney, with his campaign promoting Republicans who are giving their blessing to his presidential candidacy. Yet on the eve of the Florida primary, he has been unable to land the biggest catch of all: Jeb Bush.

Discussion: Associated Press, ABCNEWS, GOP 12, The Caucus and Campaign 2012

Karen Famighetti / Media Matters for America:

Wash. Post's Parker Wildly Distorts Charitable Giving Of Obama, Romney — On this morning's edition of The Chris Matthews Show, panelist Kathleen Parker claimed that Mitt Romney has “give[n] away “42 percent of his income, compared to Obama, who gave away 1 percent to charity.

New York Times:

U.S. Drones Patrolling Its Skies Provoke Outrage in Iraq — BAGHDAD — A month after the last American troops left Iraq, the State Department is operating a small fleet of surveillance drones here to help protect the United States Embassy and consulates, as well as American personnel.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, News Desk, Lawfare, Prairie Weather, Israel Matzav, emptywheel, The Page and Truthdig

The Politico:

The bipartisan myth — Every time there is divided government in Washington, there is a revival — among elite journalists, think tank commentators and respectable politicians of all stripes — of a cherished idea about how business should get done in the nation's capital:

Discussion: American Prospect

Michael Brendan Dougherty / Business Insider:

Here Is The Anti-Obama Administration Letter That Was Read To Almost Every Catholic Sitting In Church On Sunday — The Catholic Church is fighting mad with the Obama Administration, and nearly every Catholic sitting in a pew this weekend heard the reasons why.

Discussion: Power Line, The Gateway Pundit, American Spectator, The PJ Tatler and New York Times

Morgen / Verum Serum:

Gingrich Called for ObamaCare Mandate in May 2009, Said ObamaCare “Healthier...More Open” Process than HillaryCare — Note: I wanted to draw extra attention to the name on the byline since John does by far the majority of the blogging here. The opinions expressed below are my own …

Discussion: The Spectacle Blog, Hot Air, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Politics

msnbc.com:

First Thoughts: Writing on the wall — Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at Ring Power Lift Trucks in Jacksonville, Fla., Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. — By NBC's Chuck Todd, Domenico Montanaro, Carrie Dann, Natalie Cucchiara, Brooke Brower

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, National Review, Gawker and Balloon Juice

Rick Pleasures / The Politico:

How conservatives lost their moral compass — There's irony here in that liberals have viewed shame as a conservative ally. They associated it with Puritans and the puritanical who used shame, liberals said, to bludgeon people into moralistic behavior that denied their real passions and interests.

Richard Black / BBC:

UN panel aims for ‘a future worth choosing’ — Current patterns of consumption are not sustainable, the panel concludes, without major change — Growing inequality, environmental decline and “teetering” economies mean the world must change the way it does business, a UN report concludes.

Discussion: Pirate's Cove, Biased BBC and Truthdig

ProPublica:

Freddie Mac Bets Against American Homeowners — by Jesse Eisinger, ProPublica and Chris Arnold, NPR News … Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-owned mortgage giant, has placed multibillion-dollar bets that pay off if homeowners stay trapped in expensive mortgages with interest rates well above current rates.

Discussion: NPR, ThinkProgress, HousingWire and The Huffington Post