The Golden Report

4 DAYS UNTIL IOWA (28 delegates)
11 DAYS UNTIL NEW HAMPSHIRE (12 delegates)
22 DAYS UNTIL SOUTH CAROLINA (25 delegates)

ALL POLITICS EDITION

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Politics has become a really nasty, vicious, negative business and I think it’s disgusting and I think it’s dishonest”- Newt Gingrich to ABC’s Jonathan Karl

HIGHLIGHTS FROM TODAY ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL:

GINGRICH TEARS UP- from The Washington Post-

“Gingrich was asked to speak about a time his mother affected him at the event sponsored by CafeMom, a social networking website for mothers.

“You’ll get me all teary-eyed — Callista will tell you, I get teary-eyed every time we sing Christmas carols. My mother sang in the choir and loved singing in the choir,” Gingrich said, referring to his wife, as he fought back tears.

“But I identify my mother with being happy, loving life, having a sense of joy in her friends, but what she introduced me to, is late in her life she ended up in a long-term-care facility. She had bipolar disease, and depression, and she gradually acquired some physical ailments, and that introduced me to the issue of long-term care, which I did with [Former Nebraska Sen.] Bob Kerrey for three years, and that introduced me to the issue of Alzheimer’s, which I did with Bob Kerrey for three more years, and my whole emphasis on brain science comes indirectly from dealing with the real problems of real people in my family,” the former House Speaker continued, at moments stopping to cry.
The audience sympathetically cheered for Gingrich as he spoke about his mother.

“I do policy much easier than I do personal,” Gingrich joked.

WATCH VIDEO

FLASHBACK: Hillary Clinton January 2008, one day before the New Hampshire Primary that she went on to win- “This is very personal for me, it’s not just political, it’s not just public”

CHASER: Mitt Romney this evening at an event, via POLITICO’s Maggie Haberman:

“Here in Merrimack, Romney started talking about his parents and what they meant to him, and how they taught him to love America — and said, “No, no, I won’t cry.

ROMNEY SON MAKES A BIRTHER JOKE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE- via the Washington Post-

“He’s certainly not afraid of anything. He’s not hiding anything,” Matt Romney said in response to an query from an audience member on whether the former Massachusetts governor would release his tax returns. “You know, I heard someone suggest the other day that as soon as President Obama releases his grades and birth certificate and sort of a long list of things, then maybe he’d do it.”

Perhaps sensing trouble, the eldest Romney brother, Tagg, quickly jumped in.

“That was not my dad saying that,” he told the crowd.

“No, no, no, that was just a suggestion from someone else,” Matt Romney added.

AND THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN SEIZES ON IT- via ABC’s Jake Tapper-

“In a fundraising email, Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina pounced like a jungle caton a remark made by Mitt Romney’s son Matt, 40, seeking to paint his father as appealing to extreme elements.

“Friend,” wrote Messina in a mass email to supporters, “You’ve got to hear this. Asked at a Romney campaign event whether his father would follow decades of precedent and release his tax returns, Mitt Romney’s adult son Matt quoted the most recent Tea Party line, saying: ‘… As soon as President Obama releases his grades, and birth certificate, and sort of a long list of things, then maybe he will.’”

Asserted Messina, “This is how the Romney campaign thinks it’s going to win the Republican primary: by pandering to the dead-ender fringe of extremists who still question where the President was born. We can’t make them rewrite their talking points. But we can drive up the cost of this kind of politics.”

WELCOME TO THE GENERAL ELECTION

2012’s BIG STORY- RON PAUL TO AL HUNT ON POTENTIAL FOR A THIRD PARTY RUN ”I’ve never been an absolutist and say absolutely might or absolutely will, but I have no intention of doing. I can’t imagine it happening…we’re doing pretty well in the polls. So I’d better concentrate on the polls rather than on something like that.”

ROMNEY LEADING PAUL IN NBC/MARIST POLL IN IOWA

Romney 23%
Paul 21%
Santorum 15%
Perry 14%
Gingrich 13%
Bachmann 6%
Huntsman 2%

AND CONTINUES TO LEAD IN GALLUP DAILY TRACKING (NATIONAL)

Romney 26%
Gingrich 14%
Paul 11%
Perry 7%
Bachmann 5%
Santorum 5%
Huntsman 2%

TOMORROW at 7pm, the final Des Moines Register poll before the Caucus is released. We’ll have the results in a special Saturday edition of THE EVENING REPORT.

YOU’LL SEE THIS STORY AGAIN- Huffington Post’s Sam Stein- “Obama Campaign In Iowa Hopes To Flex Organizing Muscle”

“The Obama reelection campaign is paying significant attention to the Jan. 3 caucus, not just as a means of assessing future competition but also as a dry run for the 2012 general election. The president will technically be on the ballot. And his team would love nothing more than for him to scoop up more votes than some of the top names in the GOP primary. But the prevailing concern is to reengage the network of Hawkeye State supporters who initially pushed Barack Obama to the White House and to bring new ones into the fold.

In reporting on the Obama reelection team’s efforts in Iowa earlier this week, Politico referred to their work as a “shadow campaign.” In actuality, reelection aides are hoping that it ends up being a fairly open illustration of the very different styles of the president and his opponents.

“We have built this campaign from the ground up just like in ‘07 and ‘08,” said one Obama campaign official. “And in ‘07 and ‘08, it left a legacy in states in which we had a really strong field program and were able to engage volunteers. And what is clear is that Romney and the other candidates, rather than investing in organization and supporters on the ground, have instead competed on the air and on a national stage, and they haven’t left a legacy of a strong organization in states across the country. And they are not going to be able to just flip a switch. It takes time.”

WHAT TO WATCH FOR THIS WEEKEND: Endorsements matter in the hours before the Caucus. Also watch the DMR poll tomorrow night. This year’s caucus is unusual in that it falls the day after a long holiday weekend. Caucus-goers will be at home, likely watching local media, so small stories could make a big difference if they get significant media attention.

MUST-READ: NBC’s “Decision 2012: Iowa Caucus & New Hampshire Primary Guide” (.pdf) This is the briefing book NBC political reporters and anchors are reading this weekend to prepare for the next two weeks of political coverage.

WALL STREET- the final trading day of the year- from CNBC

• DOW down 69
• NASDAQ down 9
• S&P 500 down 5

DOW closed at 12217.56, finishing 1.4% higher for the month of December and 5.5% higher for the year.
NASDAQ closed at 2605.15, down 1.8% this year.
S&P 500 closed at 1257.60, essentially unchanged for 2011.

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