The Golden Report

POST-DEBATE EDITION

BREAKING: The Trustees of Pennsylvania State University held a news conference at 10pm to announce that they have fired head football coach Joe Paterno and University President Graham Spanier amid a growing child sex abuse scandal with allegations of abuse facing a longtime assistant coach. Yesterday, Paterno announced that he had planned to retire after this season.

THE DEBATE:

The Ninth Republican Presidential Candidates Debate just concluded from the campus of Oakland University in Oakland (outside of Rochester), Michigan. The one-hour forty-five minute debate aired on CNBC and was moderated by John Harwood and Maria Bartiromo.

THREE Takeaway from tonight’s debate:

1/ Rick Perry suffered a seemingly devastating moment for his campaign when he suggested that he would eliminate three federal departments under his budget/deficit reduction plan, then turned to Ron Paul (who proposes eliminating five departments) to list them, and could not remember the third, after Education and Commerce.

Another candidate on stage said “EPA” in an attempt to help Perry recover. But then Perry was prompted by Harwood “seriously? seriously, EPA was the one you were looking for?” he asked. And Perry was still not able to come up with the third cabinet department…Harwood “but you can’t name the third one?” Perry “I would do away with education…with commerce..and..let’s see…I can’t..the third one…I’m sorry.”

Twenty minutes later, when answering a different question, Perry finally said that he was trying to remember that it was the department of energy.

Here’s the video of the full question (it’s about 2 minutes long, forward to 1:40 for the Perry “oops” moment)

2/ Herman Cain went through the debate nearly unscathed. Now in the second week of allegations of sexual harassment, and with four accusers who have come forward with statements alleging misconduct by Cain, this was the dominant campaign narrative going into the debate.

But we knew this debate was hard-centered around jobs and the economy. Indeed, although the first question (on the Italian debt crisis) did go to Cain, it wasn’t until 20 minutes into the debate that Cain was asked directly about the allegations. Moderator Maria Bartaromo was booed by the audience for asking the question and Cain gave what has become his standard response- blaming the media and saying that he does not deserve to be judged in the court of public opinion.

Harwood asked a follow-up question to Romney- asking whether he would fire Cain if he was CEO of his company. Romney ducked and avoided an opportunity to draw distance between himself and (for now) his chief rival for the Republican nomination. That was a telling exchange that ended the discussion of Cain’s allegations at the debate. And now with a Perry fumble, it is possible that Cain has escaped completely from allegations that threatened his candidacy.

3/ Mitt Romney looked and sounded like the Republican presidential nominee. With the exception of messed up hair tonight, Romney was in control when answering questions and gave solid, well-rounded answers on everything from taxes to the European debt crisis to Chinese currency manipulation. He avoided calling out other candidates by name, choosing instead to focus all criticism on President Obama. Likewise, only Jon Huntsman took a serious shot at Romney (continuing a theme he started on Meet the Press on Sunday), accusing Romney of waffling on his Chinese policy. Despite some edging by Harwood, the exchange did not result in any of the intra-candidate fireworks like we have seen in previous debates

THE EVENING REPORT DEBATE SCORECARD: Romney, Cain, Gingrich, Huntsman, Santorum, Bachmann, Paul, Perry.

IN OTHER NEWS:

AWFUL STORY FOR VETERANS DAY: Breaking tonight from the Washington Post- “Remains of war dead dumped in landfill”

“The Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years disposed of portions of troops’ remains by cremating them and dumping the ashes in a Virginia landfill, a practice that officials have since abandoned in favor of burial at sea.

The Dover, Del., mortuary, the main point of entry for the nation’s war dead and the target of federal investigations of alleged mishandling of remains, engaged in the practice from 2003 to 2008, according to Air Force officials. The manner of disposal was not disclosed to relatives of fallen service members.”

IS ITALY NEXT IN EUROPEAN DEBT CRISIS? The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down over 3% today on new fears from Europe that Italy may be the next county to suffer from a growing sovereign debt crisis. Borrowing costs today hit 7% as the BBC reports:

“Italy’s cost of borrowing has touched a new record, a day after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he would resign once budget reforms were passed. If Italy tried to borrow money today, payable in 10 years, it would have to pay an interest rate of more than 7%.

Investors fear that Italy could become the next victim of the debt crisis. In a bid to calm markets, President Giorgio Napolitano said reforms would be passed and Mr Berlusconi would resign “within a few days. The 7% level is widely viewed as unsustainable and was the point at which Portugal, Greece and the Irish Republic were forced to seek a bailout.”

WALL STREET

• Dow down 328
• NASDAQ down 106
• S&P 500 down 47

FINALLY- Today the federal government conducted the first ever nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS), broadcasting a 30-second alert at 2pm ET on all television and radio stations across the country. The FCC, other federal agencies, and the private sector are still reviewing the data from today’s test- which worked well in some places, and not so well in others, according to a statement from the FCC,

“The Nationwide EAS Test served the purpose for which it was intended, to identify gaps and generate a comprehensive set of data to help strengthen our ability to communicate during real emergencies. Based on preliminary data, large regions of the country received the test but some areas did not. We are currently in the process of collecting and analyzing data, and will reach a conclusion when that process is complete.”

Here’s how the test looked today: (scroll to about 2 minutes in this amateur video).

Tuesday November 01, 2011

TOP STORY: Bank of America today reversed its previous decision and said that it will not go forward with a planned $5 monthly fee on debit cards. After public outcry- extending to the ongoing Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York and around the county- and an online petition that acquired over 300,000 signatories- the Bank bowed to criticism. Initially, Bank of America blamed the need for the bank fee on the Dodd Frank financial regulatory reform legislation, passed last year, and a signature achievement of President Obama’s first term. Today, the Bank said that a changing industry environment prompted it to reverse course.

STATEMENT FROM BANK OF AMERICA: “We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee,” said David Darnell, co-chief operating officer. “Our customers’ voices are most important to us. As a result, we are not currently charging the fee and will not be moving forward with any additional plans to do so.”

GREECE: Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou gave conflicting signs today on whether or not he will move forward with a referendum on the European Union’s bailout package that was initially brokered last week- and that will be the subject of EU and G-20 meetings later this week. Yesterday, the Prime Minister said that he would go forward with the planned national referendum- which is unlikely to succeed given large public resentment and ongoing protests in the streets of Athens. According to the BBC, Papandreou said that he “has a clear mandate” to hold the referendum. However, French President Nicolas Sarkozy today said that the announcement “surprised all of Europe.” As a result of the uncertainty, worldwide financial markets have been lower over the past two days.

UPDATE: The Associated Press reports tonight that Greece’s Cabinet has concluded a marathon meeting and decided to back the Prime Minister in his call for a national referendum on the European bailout package.

• DOW down 297
• NASDAQ down 77
• S&P 500 down 35

QUOTABLE: “This brings all of the concerns about Europe back to the front burner,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James. “If this ends up turning into a financial catastrophe in Europe, then no one will escape it,” in an article tonight published in the Washington Post

SUPERCOMMITTEE: The Joint Congressional Committee on Deficit Reduction today held its latest public hearing- potentially the last time the committee will open its doors to the public and the media before a November 23rd deadline to report back a proposal to reduce the national deficit by at least $1.2 trillion.

“We are now entering the critical final phase of this process,” said Committee co-chairwoman Patty Murray today. Today’s news were reports that the Supercommittee may be considering reforms of Social Security in its proposal- previously the “third rail” of politics was thought to be outside of the committee’s consideration. Media reports have gone back and forth in recent weeks as to how successful the Supercommittee might be, but today there are several reports, encouraged by a speech House Speaker John Boehner gave last night, that the Committee may still “go large”- maybe picking up where the President and the Speaker left off in their negotiations over the summer.

612,000 : that’s the number of residents in Connecticut who are without power tonight, three days after an unusual October snow storm dumped over two feet of snow in some places. Connecticut Light and Power, the primary utility company in the state, has still not given estimated restoration times for over half of the towns in the state and has only improved the number of outages by 200,000 in the past three days, prompting outrage by the State’s governor and other elected officials. Of the remaining power outages from the weekend storm, Connecticut has more than any other state. The utility says it still may be until Sunday night- a full week after the storm- until all customers have power restored. Many school districts have gone ahead and canceled all classes for the balance of the week- the second time they have had to do so this year (the first week of school was delayed from many jurisdictions because of power outages stemming from damage caused by Hurricane Irene).

MICHAEL JACKSON TRIAL: In the manslaughter trial of Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson’s personal physician who faces charges of giving the pop start a lethal dose of the anaesthetic drug propofol in his home before he died in 2009, the defense today called its final witness and announced that Murray will not take the stand in his own defense. The defense could rests its case by the end of the week.

MINIBUS: The Senate today passed a “minibus” bill that funds give cabinet agencies for the fiscal year that began on September 30th. The minibus procedure might be the way forward for the remaining annual appropriations bills- mandatory legislation that funds the government- as House Republicans (especially Tea Party members) object to a single large-scale appropriations bill, which in recent years has become a favored procedure for Congresses under both Republican and Democratic control. The vote on today’s bill, funding the Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and NASA and the FBI, at a cost of $182 billion, was 69-30, a rare bi-partisan vote in the Senate.

FROM PLAYBOOK: Readers of the EVENING REPORT know that we find our inspiration from the daily newsletter produced by POLITICO Chief White House Correspondent Mike Allen. We like to think of ourselves as an early version of Playbook [indeed, in this morning’s edition, Allen used a quote from Alexander Burn’s story on Herman Cain that we also used in last evening’s REPORT]. But tonight, we give full credit to Allen and pull a fascinating segment from this morning’s PLAYBOOK. Today, the White House welcomed local news reporters from around the country to The White House- giving them extraordinary access for local network affiliates and brief interviews with President Obama. We found it interesting- and thought our readers would like it as well.

“LIVE FROM THE WHITE HOUSE” TAKES LOCAL ANCHORS BEHIND SCENES: Anchors from nine local TV stations will spend today at the White House, meeting top officials and getting brief individual interviews with President Obama before broadcasting sweeps-month evening newscasts from the South Lawn. It’s a 21st-century update to the old “radio row,” which let talk-show hosts to broadcast from the White House, with West Wing officials going from microphone to microphone during drive-time shows. The White House is building risers on the South Lawn for the evening newscasts, which are being spread out by time zones - three from the East, two from Central, one from Mountain and two from Pacific. Each station will run cable from the riser to its network’s fiber line in the Rose Garden. Each anchor will get to ask Jay Carney a question during the briefing; have lunch with David Plouffe; interview a White House staffer from the station’s home market; get an on-camera tour with a White House curator; and tour the kitchen garden with Assistant Chef Sam Kass.

Participants are from Portland, Ore. (KGW, NBC, Tracy Barr); Phoenix (KSAZ, Fox, John Hook); Denver (KUSA, NBC, Adele Arakawa); Minneapolis (WCCO, CBS, Amelia Santaniello); Houston (KTRK, ABC, Dave Ward); Omaha (KETV, ABC, Rob McCartney); Tampa (WTVT, Fox, Mark Wilson); Hampton Roads (WAVY, NBC, Tom Schaad); and Philadelphia (WPVI, ABC, Brian Taff). A 10th participant will be Nikole Killion, representing Hearst stations, including WMUR in Manchester, N.H.

The ringmaster is Deputy White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest , who said the mission is “to increase interest and raise the profile of the president’s efforts to strengthen the economy and create jobs in local communities across the country, and explain to Americans how their communities will benefit from the president’s agenda. … The highlight of the day will be an opportunity to briefly interview the President from the Cabinet Room about the American Jobs Act … The anchors will also interview Cabinet secretaries … about how the bipartisan proposals included in the president’s American Jobs Act would create jobs in their community and put money in the pocket of every single American worker and small business owner.”

FINALLY: Google announced a redesigned look for GMail today, highlighting on its blog the new features, including: “streamlined conversation, elastic density, new customized themes in high definition, smarter navigation, and better search. As Erick Schonfeld reviews on TechCrunch today, “Messages aren’t as bunched up as before and easier to read. Adding a social element, Google is adding profile pictures beside each message, and the labels pop out more. The density of the text also adjusts depending on your screen size and resolution, making it easier on the eyes. The new design is in line with some of the changes Google just made to Google Reader in terms of spacing and overall feel.” Check it out!

Happy Halloween!

PREMIERING TONIGHT: “Rock Center” with Brian Williams- the network’s new primetime new magazine hosted by the anchor of the top-ranked evening news broadcast.

TOP STORY: It was a bad day for Herman Cain. As POLITICO first reported last night, the Republican presidential frontrunner is facing charges of sexual harassment that stem from his time as head of the National Restaurant Association. As chance would have it, Cain was in Washington today, where he was trailed by beltway political reporters. This morning, Cain spoke at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and at 12:30 he delivered a luncheon address at the National Press Club. In between, he went on FOX News for an interview and later this afternoon was interviewed by PBS’s Judy Woodruff for the Newshour tonight.

As POLITICO’s Alex Burns reports tonight, Cain’s day was filled with conflicting stories and carefully worded statements:

“Cain told the PBS “NewsHour” that he recalled a financial “agreement” with a woman who accused him of inappropriate behavior at the National Restaurant Association.

Only hours before, Cain said he was unaware of any “settlement” related to sexual harassment – a reversal he attempted to explain away through verbal hair-splitting.

“I was aware that an agreement was reached. The word ‘settlement’ versus the word ‘agreement’ you know, I’m not sure what they called it. I know that there was some sort of agreement, but because it ended up being minimal, they didn’t have to bring it to me. My general counsel and the head of human resources had the authority to resolve this thing,” Cain said.”

WHERE THIS LEAVES THE CAMPAIGN: This is the kind of story that just isn’t going to away for Cain. The media is looking into every aspect of this story..and it hardly matters that it may be 15 years old. Cain is not helping his cause by seemingly changing the story by the hour- such inconsistencies make him appear to be a candidate who is confused and on the defensive. The person who might gain the most from what is turning into the political story of the week? Mitt Romney. For every day before voting begins that the attention is on somebody other than Romney, the better for Romney’s chances- and for the air of inevitability around him.

RICK PERRY also had a bad day. This video (and other variations and spoofs) is making its way around the Internet. It shows Perry in New Hampshire delivering a speech over the weekend. He appears more animated than usual, very lively behind the podium with frequent gesticulations, almost as if he is intoxicated. It’s too early to know what this video may mean for the campaign- if anything- but it did get airtime on the evening news tonight

JUST IN- Connecticut has been declared a Federal Disaster Area, per an order signed by President Obama this evening. It makes aid available for state and local governments in response to the weekend’s unusual but devastating October snow storm. Over half of Connecticut Light and Power customers remain without electricity tonight and many jurisdictions issued emergency orders postponing Halloween festivities, including trick-or-treating, tonight. It could be a week or longer before power is restored.

GREECE’S Prime Minister, George Papandreou, announced today that his nation will hold a referendum on a bailout proposal once details are finalized with the European Union. Protests have continued in Greece since the framework for a deal was announced last week and it is unclear if a no-confidence vote like what Papandreou is proposing would pass.

WALL STREET: News from overseas was felt on Wall Street again today and markets finished near their lows for the session.

• DOW down 276
• NASDAQ down 53
• S&P 500 down 32

PRESIDENT OBAMA underwent a physical exam today (his second since taking office) and the White House reported the President’s medical report, which found him in “excellent health” and “fit for duty”

“All clinical data indicate he will remain so for the duration of his Presidency. The president is current on all age-appropriate screening tests. He is ‘fit at fifty’ and “staying health at 50+” the report says. It also reported a “well healed lower lip laceration.” Benign skin tags were removed from the President’s neck.

THE PRESIDENT weighs 181.3 pounds.

UNESCO- the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Affairs Organization- most well-known for the UNESCO World Heritage Sites- today voted to permit the Palestinian Authority to have full membership in its body- a move that prompted the United States to announce that it would pull its funding for UNESCO, per standing US law. The United States supports UNESCO with about 22% of its budget- $80 million a year.

As the Associated Press reports:

“The prohibition on U.S. funding of U.N. agencies that recognize a Palestinian state was included in two pieces of legislation that were signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 and President Bill Clinton in 1994.

The 1990 law prohibits the appropriation of funds “for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as a member state.”

In 1994, Congress barred funding “any affiliated organization of the United Nations which grants full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood.”

AND FINALLY…Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries are divorcing, it was announced today. TMZ broke the story and obtained the official divorce documents. The couple have been married since August 20th, “in a lavish ceremony in Montecito, CA. There are reports that the wedding cost as much as $10 mil, which means $138,888 for every day until today,” TMZ reported.

TOP STORY: Progress has been made in the Eurozone debt crisis negotiations ongoing in Brussels. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has endorsed a proposal that would ask banks within the 27-member European Union to raise approximately $150 billion as a “buffer” against expected losses. 

Negotiations are continuing on other aspects of the financial proposal, including the fate of the bankrupt nation of Greece. As the BBC reports from Brussels tonight, “There are fears the Greek debt crisis could spread to Italy and Spain. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there remained “many problems to settle”. As she arrived in Brussels on Wednesday, she said: “The world is watching Germany and Europe. They are looking to see if we are ready and able to assume our responsibilities during Europe’s worst crisis since the end of World War II.”But according to draft summit conclusions there are still plenty of details to pin down.”

On WALL STREET today:

• DOW up 162
• NASDAQ up 12
• S&P 500 up 13

SUPERCOMMITTEE: Senate Democrats today announced a proposal for the Joint Congressional Committee on Deficit Reduction to pick up where the President and Speaker Boehner left off in their summer negotiations over a “grand bargain,” urging the Committee to adopt a $3 trillion package of deficit reduction when it reports back one month from now. The President and Speaker were negotiating a $4 trillion grand bargain and $1 trillion in deficit reduction was adopted in the eventual bill that raised the debt ceiling in August. 

But the 1:1 proposal- where increases in revenue (taxes) would equal reductions in spending, faces near insurmountable opposition from Republicans, including those on the Committee. As Lori Montgomery reports tonight in the Washington Post, “So far, the response from the GOP has not been favorable. Although they declined to comment publicly on the offer, Republican aides privately dismissed the tax and stimulus pieces as unacceptable.Republicans also questioned the timing of the offer, which comes nearly two months after the talks began, and suggested that Democrats may be trying to paint themselves as reasonable negotiators, knowing full well that the offer would not fly with the GOP.”

2012: Rick Perry becomes the first candidate with paid television advertising in the 2012 presidential campaign. Perry is up on the air with an ad-buy in Iowa today. In it, he begins by pledging to create 2.5 million new jobs as president. “And I know something about that,” he says. 

Note: this video clip (via POLITICO) is as the ad appeared on KCCI in Des Moines (forward to 1:44 to see the short Perry ad).

FOX NEWS

CNN/TIME EARLY STATE POLLS:

Romney 24%
Cain 21%
Paul 12%
Gingrich 10%
Perry 10%
Bachmann 6%
Santorum 2%
Huntsman 1%

Romney 40%
Cain 13%
Paul 12%
Huntsman 6%
Gingrich 5%
Perry 4%

Romney 25%
Cain 23%
Paul 12%
Perry 11%
Gingrich 8%
Bachmann 4%
Santorum 1%
Huntsman 1%

Romney 30%
Cain 18%
Gingrich 9%
Perry 9%
Paul 6%
Bachmann 4%
Huntsman 2%
Santorum 1%

—>Romney’s lead in Iowa is impressive considering he has not actively campaigned in the state- he was in Iowa last Thursday, but then announced that he would not be participating in a key Republican party dinner next month

—>Very important to remember that Mitt Romney is leading in all of the early Republican states. Although the margin between Romney and the second-tier candidate in the states varies, it shows his strength now as a formidable front-runner

FINALLY…a British coroner announced today the official cause of death for singer Amy Winehouse in July: alcohol overdose. “That was the ruling of a coroner’s inquest into the death of the Grammy-winning soul singer, who died with empty vodka bottles in her room and lethal amounts of alcohol in her blood – more than five times the British drunk driving limit. Coroner Suzanne Greenaway gave a verdict of “death by misadventure,” saying Wednesday the singer suffered accidental alcohol poisoning when she resumed drinking after weeks of abstinence. ”The unintended consequence of such potentially fatal levels (of alcohol) was her sudden and unexpected death,” Greenaway said.”

WELCOME to a new look and feel for THE EVENING REPORT. Let me know what you think

HAPPENING NOW: Game Five of the World Series. After four innings. its CARDINALS 2, RANGERS 1

TOP STORY: In Nevada late this afternoon, Pres. Obama announced a new plan for homeowners facing foreclosure or living in homes that are “under water,” easing federal regulations to make it easier for homeowners to refinance their mortgages

As the Washington Post’s ZACHARY GOLDFARB (who had a piece in today’s paper highly critical of the Administration’s housing policy to date) reports tonight, “Housing regulators say that 1 million borrowers might be eligible, but that is only one-tenth of the number of homeowners who need help. And while estimates cited by the administration suggest the average homeowner might save $2,500 per year, other projections from housing regulators were in the range of $312 per year, depending on upfront fees the borrower pays, which may include several thousand dollars in closing costs.”

The housing policy announcement was the first in the Administration’s new “We Can’t Wait” campaign- the new rhetorical theme- replacing the “Pass The Bill” mantra the President has used since the mid-September introduction of the American Jobs Act in a primetime Address to Congress

TOMORROW’S TOP TALKER..TONIGHT.. “Republicans Embrace Twitter for ‘12” by the New York Times’ JENNIFER STEINHAUER:

“It’s a bit of a table turn on Mr. Obama, whose 2008 campaign capitalized on social media in a way that left Republicans bruised and scrambling. Now, after a post-election order from Speaker John A. Boehner that year, House Republicans have embraced Twitter as their karaoke microphone to push their message against the White House bullhorn.

The insta-Tweet has revolutionized rapid response operations that just two years ago relied heavily on cable television, e-mails and news conferences to spread the word of the opposition, which often took a day or two to gain momentum. That time lag could delay the message from taking hold, a result Republicans were eager to undo.”

Republican House members have more than twice as many followers as their Democratic counterparts — about 1.3 million versus roughly 600,000 — and are far more active on Twitter with more than 157,000 individual Twitter messages, versus roughly 62,000 for Democrats.

“The Republicans in Congress are using new media technology to compete for the attention of Beltway reporters,” said Josh Earnest, the White House deputy press secretary. “We use it to compete for the attention of the American people,” he said, pointing to interactive forums that the White House conducts. “These are two different goals.”

At a daily meeting in Mr. Boehner’s office, the communications staff decides what they should be Twittering and blogging about, said Don Seymour, the speaker’s digital communications director. He sits at a desk with one computer for his e-mail and another monitor for his Tweet Deck, his iPad on his lap and a Coke in one hand. A half-dozen televisions show various stations and the House and Senate floors above, where someone might say something that begs for instant reaction.”

THE FULL ARTICLE is a Must-Read

WALL STREET today: All eyes on BRUSSELS two days before 17 European nations meet to reach a decision on a Eurozone bailout, bank restructuring and a solution to the debt crisis in Greece

• DOW up 105
• NASDAQ up 62
• S&P 500 up 16

TUNISIA yesterday held its first elections since the revolution at the end of last year that sparked the Arab Awakening. The widely-watched elections were the first in the region since interim governments took control following the deposition of longtime dictators. Official election results in Tunisia are expected tomorrow- but early returns show that the moderate Islamist party Ennahdha is on track to be declared the victor. This government will draft the country’s new constitution

JOHN PODESTA announced today that he was stepping aside as the President of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress. President Bill Clinton’s former Chief of Staff will remain the Chairman of CAP and also volunteer one-day a week as an advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, POLITICO reports. Podesta chaired the Obama/Biden transition effort in 2008 and 2009. In 1998, John and his brother Tony Podesta co-founded the powerhouse DC lobbying firm The Podesta Group. CAP’s Chief Operating Officer Neera Tanden will become the next President

MEET THE PRESS Executive Producer BETSY FISCHER and POLITICO reporter JONATHAN MARTIN are engaged, the couple announced on Saturday. Fischer posted to her Facebook page yesterday, “Excited to change my FB status to engaged - can’t wait to marry my best friend Jonathan Martin. Makes me happy every day. A surprise propsal Friday night at the Inn at Perry Cabin on MD Eastern Shore = smiling all weekend.”

ABC POLITICAL REPORTER RICK KLEIN and his wife, Laine Kaplowitz, welcomed their third child, Max Rubin Klein, into the world on Saturday. Klein is co-host of ABC’s midday “Topline” broadcast and a frequent staple of the ABC News Washington bureau (and the Twitterspehere,@RickKlein)

OBAMA Campaign Manager Jim Messina today announced that BRODERICK JOHNSON will be joining the 2012 campaign as a senior advisor and national surrogate. Johnson served as an informal advisor in 2008 but did not join the Administration upon President Obama’s election, instead choosing to go to K Street as a lobbyist. Johnson is married to NPR’s MICHELE NORRIS, co-host of All Things Considered. Norris announced today that she will take a leave of absence while her husband works on the campaign, saying in a statement , “Given the nature of Broderick’s position with the campaign and the impact that it will most certainly have on our family life, I will temporarily step away from my hosting duties until after the 2012 elections.I will be leaving the host chair at the end of this week, but I’m not going far. I will be wearing a different hat for a while, producing signature segments and features and working on new reporting projects. While I will of course recuse myself from all election coverage, there’s still an awful lot of ground that I can till in this interim role.”

RICK PERRY may be preparing for a campaign re-launch. TIME’s MARK HALPERIN reported this morning that Perry was adding new staff to his campaign- including George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign manager JOE ALLBAUGH (who later went on to serve as Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency). Also, the campaign’s first television ads in Iowa are expected to air as early as Wednesday of this week- which will make Perry the first candidate to go up on the air with paid advertisements in the 2012 cycle

FINALLY.. Netflix announced today that it has lost more than 800,000 subscribers over the past three months- after the company initially announced it was splitting its DVD-by-mail and online streaming businesses into two, with a price hike, and then rescinded that decision after public criticism several weeks later

BUT as the New York Times reports in a story tomorrow co-written by media correspondent BRIAN STELTER, the company actually reported good results for the third quarter, “Despite the decline in subscribers, the company did well financially in the quarter. It reported net income of $62.5 million, or $1.16, a share, compared with $38 million, or 70 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue rose 49 percent to $822 million. Both revenue and income topped analysts’ expectations,’ they write. The company also announced today a planned expansion into the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2012.

The story chronicles Netflix’s dramatic rise and fall- all in the course of the last two years, and Stelter describes it as a “cautionary tale for other companies that try to transform to new media from old.”

FRIDAY’S EARLY EDITION

TOP STORY: President Obama announced this afternoon that the roughly 43,000 remaining US troops in Iraq will be returning to the United States by the end of the year, after an agreement with the Iraqi government to grant immunity protection to US soldiers failed to be reached. 

“The rest of our troops in Iraq will come home at the end of the year. After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over,” the President said in an statement from the Brady Briefing Room at The White House earlier this afternoon. President Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki spoke by phone earlier today. 

Here’s how the Washington Post reports on the significant development today, “The failure to reach an agreement could pose security problems for the Iraqi government, still largely divided by sect and ethnicity, and for an Obama administration that inherited the war but has pledged an orderly withdrawal. If sectarian strife or other violence should break out in Iraq once U.S. forces have left, Obama could be blamed, particularly by his conservative critics, for abandoning Iraq after nearly nine years of war before it was ready to protect itself. But the result also allows for a more definitive conclusion to the divisive U.S. military operation in Iraq, which has cost nearly $1 trillion and more than 4,400 American lives.”

President Obama opposed the Iraq War from the beginning, a point of separation that his Democratic primary campaign against New York Senator Hillary Clinton seized upon. After taking office, the President announced, in February 2009, a drawdown of US forces that would conform with the agreement reached between Former President George W. Bush and Prime Minister al-Maliki late in Bush’s term. 

On August 31, 2010, President Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office, announcing that all US combat troops had left Iraq and only a provisional force of about 50,000 soldiers remained. The name of the military effort was offiicially changed from “Operation Iraqi Freedom” to “Operation New Dawn.” At present, about 10,000 of those troops have been withdrawn.

More than 4,400 Americans have been killed since the war in Iraq began in 2003 and the 8 1/2 year war is estimated to have cost US taxpayers over $1 trillion. 

MORE ON STEVE JOBS- from the Walter Isaacson biography, which will be published on Monday. As first reported by the Huffington Post last night, Jobs reported told President Obama at their first meeting in October 2010 that he believed that he would be a one-term president. The book is an extraordinary look inside the life of a deeply private man, who was awed in life and revered in the days since his death.

“Jobs, who was known for his prickly, stubborn personality, almost missed meeting President Obama in the fall of 2010 because he insisted that the president personally ask him for a meeting. Though his wife told him that Obama “was really psyched to meet with you,” Jobs insisted on the personal invitation, and the standoff lasted for five days. When he finally relented and they met at the Westin San Francisco Airport, Jobs was characteristically blunt. He seemed to have transformed from a liberal into a conservative.

“You’re headed for a one-term presidency,” he told Obama at the start of their meeting, insisting that the administration needed to be more business-friendly. As an example, Jobs described the ease with which companies can build factories in China compared to the United States, where “regulations and unnecessary costs” make it difficult for them.”

AND... the article describes Jobs’ obsessiveness with small details, including how he made an issue of a planned dessert on the menu when Obama met with technology leaders in Silicon Valley. 

“In preparation for the dinner, Jobs exhibited his notorious attention to detail, telling venture capitalist John Doerr that the menu of shrimp, cod and lentil salad was “far too fancy” and objecting to a chocolate truffle dessert. But he was overruled by the White House, which cited the president’s fondness for cream pie.”

WALL STREET was heading higher at the end of the trading day, with the DOW up almost 200 points amid optimism that a potential Eurozone deal could be reached in time for Sunday’s planned summit, and be passed at a second summit by Wednesday of next week. The $8 billion deal that is being discussed must still be approved by the International Monetary Fund, and- if all succeeds- would reach the bankrupt nation of Greece by mid-November, the BBC reports today. No doubt the outcome of Sunday’s critical meeting will set the stage for the next trading week, with a deal potentially bringing some stability to uncertain markets. 

GROUPON is preparing for a scaled-back IPO, and is expected to raise about $540 million, less than previously expected, when the company goes public next month. From Reuters, “The fact that Groupon has changed its accounting twice under pressure from regulators, and lost two chief operating officers this year, also has not instilled confidence…Groupon is one of the most closely watched IPOs this year, as turmoil in the financial markets disrupted many share offering plans and cut the value of the few that did get done. If Groupon succeeds, it will bode well for other companies also considering going public, including social gaming company Zynga and social network Facebook.”

2012:

THE LATEST POLLS

RASMUSSEN/IOWA: Cain 28%, Romney 21%, Paul 10%, Gingrich 9%, Bachmann 8%, Perry 7%, Santorum 4%, Huntsman 2%

GALLUP PRESIDENTIAL JOB APPROVAL: Approve 42%, Disapprove 50%

RASMUSSEN PRESIDENTIAL JOB APPROVAL: Approve 44%, Disapprove 55%

The big 2012 news today comes from WMUR in New Hampshire, who reported early this afternoon that the entire campaign staff of Rep. Michele Bachmann in the first primary state had quit. 

HERE’S A QUOTE that you don’t want to hear if you are a Republican running for president (via Reuters): “It certainly underscores the impression that New Hampshire isn’t a priority for her [Bachmann]. She’s totally written us off,” said former Republican state legislator Fran Wendelboe.

FINALLY...The Senate last night approved John Bryson to be President Obama’s second Secretary of Commerce. After a 74-26 confirmation vote, that was delayed for nearly five months because of Republican opposition, Bryson was formally sworn in today. He becomes the nation’s 37th Secretary of Commerce, succeeding former Washington Governor Gary Locke, who President Obama appointed this spring as his second Ambassador to China (replacing former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who is now seeking the Republican Presidential Nomination). 

Bryson is the former Chairman, CEO and President of the electric company Edison International. He graduated from Stanford University in 1965 and from Yale Law School in 1969. Bryson was also a Director at Boeing and Walt Disney and a Trustee at Stanford and the California Institute of Technology. 

JUST OUT- and highlighted on Drudge, so sure to lead the news cycle tomorrow- ABC News reports that an electric car company that received a government loan guarantee, and promoted by the Obama Administration- has begun production of the car in Finland because they could not find a suitable production facility in the United States. 

“Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department’s $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland. “There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle,” the car company’s founder and namesake told ABC News. “They don’t exist here.”

Much like the Solyndra controversy in recent weeks, where a similar loan guarantee program for the solar energy industry has come into question, watch for this story to drive (no pun intended) conservative attacks on the Obama Administration and, in particular, Energy Secretary Steven Chu (a former nobel prize winning professor). 

TOP STORY- The Death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddaffi- the longtime leader of the African nation of Libya- was killed earlier today, bringing to an end a campaign by rebel forces that toppled his government and seized his country. After uprisings that began in February, NATO- with the backing of the United States- began a coordinated international effort that gave support to the rebels, propelling them to the Libyan capital of Tripoli in August. Since then, the whereabouts of Qaddaffi have been a mystery, but he was always thought to have retreated to his hometown of Sirte, one of the last strongholds not in rebel hands. In recent days, a fierce battle for Sirte broke out and, today, rebel forces succeeded in taking control of the town. The circumstances of Qaddaffi’s exact cause of death have been the subject of speculation and false rumors all day. Reuters, which first reported his capture and then death, has broadcast a video which shows a bloody and mutilated Qaddaffi, severely wounded, in the midst of heavy fighting. 

PRESIDENT OBAMA went to the Rose Garden at 2pm today to deliver a brief statement on Qaddaffi’s death, saying, in part, “Today, we can definitively say that the Qaddafi regime has come to an end. The last major regime strongholds have fallen. The new government is consolidating the control over the country. And one of the world’s longest-serving dictators is no more.One year ago, the notion of a free Libya seemed impossible. But then the Libyan people rose up and demanded their rights. And when Qaddafi and his forces started going city to city, town by town, to brutalize men, women and children, the world refused to stand idly by.”

The President also made reference to the unpopular decision- criticized this spring- to involve the United States in the Libyan conflict, “Without putting a single U.S. service member on the ground, we achieved our objectives, and our NATO mission will soon come to an end,” he said. 

ARAB AWAKENING: Uprisings that began in Tunisia late last year have now spread throughout the broader Middle East and North Africa and dramatically changed the framework of the region, upsetting decades old geo-political relationships in the process, over the last 10 months. Three leaders have been forced from power:

TUNISIA- President Ben Ali was ousted in January and fled to Saudi Arabia, seeking exile, on January 14th

EGYPT- Hosni Mubarak resigned as President on February 11th and now faces criminal prosecution for war crimes in Egypt

LIBYA- The government of President Muammar al-Qaddafi was overthrown on August 23rd and Qaddafi was killed earlier today

Leaders of other Arab nations have announced that they will not seek re-election, but would stay in office in the interim. Protests continue in the nations of SYRIA, BAHRAIN and YEMEN. 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Pakistan today. She was sitting for interviews with a series of reporters when an aide showed her the news- at that time unconfirmed reports of Qaddafi’s capture- on a Blckberry. Her reaction was caught on camera, “Wow,” she said. 

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRRVzVE4v3A&feature=player_embedded

EUROPE: French and German leaders have delayed a decision on a Eurozone financial rescue package. A Summit planned for this weekend will go forward, but a second Summit will likely be held early next week where an agreement is expected to be announced. “The last-minute delay reinforced fears that European leaders are still far from containing a crisis that has become a threat to the world economy,” the New York Times reports tonight.

WALL STREET: The news from Europe resulted in a mixed day on Wall Street

DOW up 37
NASDAQ down 5
S&P 500 up 6

TOMORROW: President Obama will formally sign three free trade agreements passed by Congress last week, with South Korea, Panama and Colombia

FINALLY- Walter Isaacson, the official biographer of Steve Jobs, will release an updated biography of the Apple co-founder who died earlier this month on Monday. Today, it was reported that Jobs put off treatment for his pancreatic cancer for several months following initial diagnosis, opting instead for a series of remedies and home-based treatments. The details that Isaacson reports in the book (he will also appear in a 60 Minutes interview Sunday night) are fascinating.

“When he did take the path of surgery and science, Mr. Jobs did so with passion and curiosity, sparing no expense, pushing the frontiers of new treatments. According to Mr. Isaacson, once Mr. Jobs decided on the surgery and medical science, he became an expert — studying, guiding and deciding on each treatment. Mr. Isaacson said Mr. Jobs made the final decision on each new treatment regimen.

The DNA sequencing that Mr. Jobs ultimately went through was done by a collaboration of teams at Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Harvard and the Broad Institute of MIT. The sequencing, Mr. Isaacson writes, allowed doctors to tailor drugs and target them to the defective molecular pathways.”

A doctor told Mr. Jobs that the pioneering treatments of the kind he was undergoing would soon make most types of cancer a manageable chronic disease. Later, Mr. Jobs told Mr. Isaacson that he was either 

TOP STORY: The House of Representatives earlier tonight approved three trade agreements- with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. The Senate is currently in session and expected to also approve the free trade agreements by later tonight. The passage of the FTAs marks a rare occurrence in present-day Washington, bi-partisan consensus. The vote on the Colombian deal, the most contentious of the three, was 262-167, including 32 Democrats. Panama was approved 300-129. South Korea was approved by a 278-151 vote. In addition, the House approved an extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance legislation, with about half of the Republican caucus voting for the separate bill. Tomorrow, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak address a joint session of Congress and attends a State Dinner at The White House. Today’s action in Congress is the most significant on trade issues since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993. 

NEW NBC NEWS/WALL STREET JOURNAL POLL out tonight:

CAIN 27%

ROMNEY 23%

PERRY 16%

PAUL 11%

GINGRICH 8%

BACHMANN 5%

HUNTSMAN 3%

SANTORUM 1%

President Obama Job Approval Rating: 44%, Disapprove: 51%

The surge of Herman Cain to the top of the NBC/WSJ poll, conducted last Thursday through Monday (over the Columbus Day Weekend) is both surprising and clearly short-lived. After Cain’s performance in last night’s New Hampshire Debate, the media is not taking a serious examination of his “9-9-9” economic and tax plan and asking more critical questions.

HEAD TO HEADS:

Obama 46%

Romney 44%

Obama 49%

Cain 38%

Obama 51%

Perry 39%

Obama 44%

Generic Republican 42%

NEW HAMPSHIRE Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who has the sole authority under New Hampshire law to schedule the date of the state’s traditional “First in the Nation” presidential primary, today threatened to hold the primary in December of this year if Nevada does not change the date of their caucuses, currently scheduled for Saturday 01/14/2012. 

From Gardner’s extraordinary statement, “Why New Hampshire’s Primary Tradition is Important”:

DEMOCRACY IS HARD WORK.  Protecting American democracy has been a 

cause of freedom in our nation for over two centuries, and our fellow citizens who 

have gone before us dedicated their lives, and in some cases lost their lives, in that 

fight.  The principles of democracy and freedom are worth every bit of that fight.

For nearly 100 years, the New Hampshire First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary 

has had meaning and relevance to American politics.

NEW HAMSHIRE IS FIRST FOR A REASON

IT’S REALLY UP TO NEVADA.  If Nevada does not accept a date of Tuesday, 

January 17 th or later for its caucus, it leaves New Hampshire  no choice but to 

consider December of this year.  The dates of Tuesday, December 13th and 

Tuesday, December 6th are realistic options, and we have logistics in place to 

make either date happen if needed.

THE NEXT STEPS are not clear. Presumably, there will be negotiations between New Hampshire and Nevada, perhaps coordinated by the national Republican Party. It still seems very unlikely that, despite Gardner’s threats to the contrary, that the New Hampshire Primary will be held this year. the dates he mentioned are nearly (and less than) two months away. 

THE EVENING REPORT predicts that Gardner will eventually relent and schedule his state’s primary on Tuesday January 10th, eight days after Iowa and four days before Nevada. 

IN DETROIT today, the accused “underwear bomber,” Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab pleaded guilty to terrorism charges stemming from the attempted 2009 terrorist attack to bring down a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day. Abdul Muttalab had been acting in his own defense at his trial, which began this week. His guilty plea was an unexpected development.

“I carried with me an explosive device to avenge the killing of innocent Muslims,” Abdul Mutallab said, according to a CNN report, adding that the failed plot was in retaliation for “U.S. tyranny and oppression of Muslims. I am guilty of this by U.S. law, but not in the Koran,” he added. “If you laugh at us now, we will laugh to you later.”

STATEMENT from Attorney General Eric Holder “Contrary to what some have claimed, today’s plea removes any doubt that our courts are one of the most effective tools we have to fight terrorism and keep the American people safe.  Our priority in this case was to ensure that we arrested a man who tried to do us harm, that we collected actionable intelligence from him and that we prosecuted him in a way that was consistent with the rule of law.  We will continue to be aggressive in our fight against terrorism and those who target us, and we will let results, not rhetoric, guide our actions.”

Abdul Muttalab’s most serious of eight charges, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He is expected to be formally sentenced in early January next year. 

WALL STREET TODAY:

Dow up 103

NASDAQ up 21

S&P 500 up 12

IN EUROPE, Slovakian leaders have reached an agreement between the opposition party and the party of the outgoing government (dissolved yesterday in a no-confidence vote) to bring the Eurozone bailout fund back to parliament for a second vote by Friday, when it is expected to pass. Slovakia would then become the 17th and final European Union nation to approve the bailout, setting into motion the next steps in attempts by European leaders to save off a serious debt crisis. 

The Dow is now hovering around the unchanged mark, year to date.

FINALLY…it was a tough day for those who are still using the Blackberry, manufactured by the Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM). An international outage entered its third day today and spread through North America, causing messages, including SMS and the device’s popular Blackberry Messenger (BBM) feature to be delayed. RIM offered periodic updates throughout the day through their Twitter account and on their corporate web site. 

Here’s how the Wall Street Journal reports on the story tonight:

“RIM blamed the outages, affecting customers on at least five continents, on an internal technical glitch—a failed switch and an inoperable backup. But even as the company promised customers a day earlier that it had fixed that problem—and expected customer service to quickly return—disruptions spread.

In a hastily organized conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon, RIM’s chief technology officer for software, David Yach, said the company didn’t see any signs of hacking or other security breach, but industry analysts didn’t rule out sabotage.

RIM has seen its share price plummet this year—down about 60% since January—as competitors Apple Inc. and Google Inc.’s Android operating system snap up smartphone market share in North America and beyond.”

POST DEBATE EDITION

The Seventh Republican Presidential Candidates Debate just concluded from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Eight candidates shared the stage- and for the first time this election season, sat around what moderator Charlie Rose described as a “kitchen table.” The nearly two-hour debate, sponsored by Bloomberg and The Washington Post- and airing on Bloomberg television but not on a major cable news channel- was the second to be held in New Hampshire this cycle, the state which is expected to play host to the “first in the nation” primary in early January. 

Three takeaways:

1/ Romney is the frontrunner

2/ Cain has a 9-9-9 Problem

3/ Santorum had a good night.

1/ From his poise to his answers. His jokes to his choice of a candidate to address a question of. There was absolutely no doubt that Mitt Romney not only won this debate, but is the Republican presidential frontrunner with a good chance at beating President Obama next November. Romney towered over his opponents at tonight’s debate, deflecting their criticisms with a commanding presence that seemed professorial. He even at one point held his finger in the air and wagged it at Rick Perry, scolding him saying “I’m still talking Rick, I’m still talking.” When it came time to answer a hard question poised by the moderators- if Europe’s looming debt crisis was a threat to the American economy- Romney again played a card from the upper deck, challenging the premise of the question as hypothetical. And late in the debate when it seemed that there wouldn’t be a question specifically about it, he reminded his fellow candidates- as if they needed reminding- of the big political news pre-debate: that he had secured the coveted endorsement of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Yes, Romney is the Republican frontrunner and he handily won tonight’s debate.

2/ What spared Hermain Cain’s rise from third-tier to first-tier candidate in less than a month? His repetition at the six previous debates of his economic plan: 9-9-9. The simplicity of the catchphrase- that Jon Huntsman tonight said first reminded him of a pizza deal- is also Cain’s biggest liability. Huntsman, Bachmann, Gingrich, Santorum, Paul, Perry & Romney (those would be all of the other candidates) took swipes- some specific, some veiled, at the plan tonight. Santorum was the most aggressive- turning to the audience of Granite State residents notorious for their “live free or die” mantra and asking them how many want to see a 9% sales tax. No hands went up. “There’s your evidence, Herman, it’s not going to work,” Santorum said. 

3/ Which leads into the final point of the initial takeaways: Rick Santorum had a good night. Of the third-tier candidates, he was the most animated, even commanding at times. Clearly angered that Herman Cain has become the darling of Tea Party conservatives- a group that he needs in order to place well in January’s Iowa Caucus, Santorum knows that he was to either distinguish himself from Cain or tear him down. And he has decided on the latter. Watch to see how Mitt Romney- who remembers how Santorum joined his pile on of Rick Perry in previous debates- may come to the aide of Rick Santorum in next week’s debate. 

THE LEAD- as it is evolving, in The Washington Post, as of 10:15pm, “The government is the problem. That was the message Tuesday night as the eight Republican presidential hopefuls clamored to blame Washington for the nation’s economic ills. In turn, they pointed fingers at President Obama, the Federal Reserve and the government generally as the cause of the nation’s economic collapse. Together, they were strident in their belief that Obama-era regulations are stunting growth. Yet although the White House aspirants largely agreed on their overall visions, the two candidates whose positions at the top of the field were expected to rise or fall in Tuesday’s Washington Post-Bloomberg News debate at Dartmouth College — Texas Gov. Rick Perry and businessman Herman Cain — were short on policy specifics, even when pressed by the moderators.”

AND IN POLITICO, “The Republican presidential candidates found their target for the evening: Herman Cain and his “9-9-9” tax plan. The former pizza executive has thrilled Republican primary voters with his proposal to toss out the U.S. tax code and replace it with 9 percent taxes on business, income and sales. But now that he’s swiftly rising in the polls, his rivals are clearly hoping to puncture his political balloon.”

THE BACK TIER: Aside from some awkwardly-timed jokes, Jon Huntsman showed he is a candidate who will soon be forgotten in this field. And Rick Perry had another bad night. As we predicted last evening, he did not have nearly as much time as he has in previous debates, but when he did speak, he didn’t seem passionate or knowledgeable- at one point nearly-stuttering and looking around the room as if to say “I don’t know the answer.” Perry showed that his campaign is quickly on the decline. 

THE EVENING REPORT CANDIDATES RANKINGS- who won, and who lost- tonight’s debate:

Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman

IN OTHER NEWS

It was a very busy news Tuesday. Here are the other top stories of this day:

ISRAEL PRISONER SWAP IMMINENT 

The Israeli Cabinet- meeting in emergency session today- agreed to a prisoner swap that will allow Sgt. Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who has been held by the Palestinian group Hamas since 2006 to be released.

From the New York Times, “Israel and Hamas announced an agreement on Tuesday to exchange more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza for five years, a deal brokered by Egypt that seemed likely to shake up Middle East politics at a time when the region is immersed in turmoil.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told his nation in a live address on television that the soldier, Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who was  captured in June 2006 at the age of 19, could be home “within days,” ending what has been widely seen in Israel as a national trauma.It was unclear what drove the two to accept a deal that had been on the table for years. But both stand to benefit politically and had reasons to distract attention from the efforts of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, as he circles the globe seeking votes for his bid to gain United Nations membership for a state of Palestine.”

IRANIAN-LINKED TERROR PLOT UNRAVELED

Attorney General Eric Holder announced today that a FBI sting operation has uncovered and unraveled a significant plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States, with links to both Iran and Mexico. 

From Reuters, “U.S. authorities said they had broken up a plot by two men linked to Iran’s security agencies to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir. One was arrested last month while the other was believed to be in Iran. Iran denied the charges. But President Barack Obama called the plot a “flagrant violation of U.S. and international law” and Saudi Arabia said it was “despicable.” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder alleged that the plot was the work of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is the guardian of Iran’s 32-year-old revolution, and the Quds force, its covert, operational arm. “High-up officials in those (Iranian) agencies, which is an integral part of the Iranian government, were responsible for this plot,” Holder told the news conference. “I think one has to be concerned about the chilling nature of what the Iranian government attempted to do here,” he said

SLOVAKIA REJECTS EUROZONE BAILOUT FUND

This afternoon the Slovakian Parliament rejected, by 21 votes, the Eurozone bailout fund proposal. Slovakia is the 17th and final country whose approval is necessary for the measure to be ratified and its defeat sends into chaos the current efforts to save the European financial system from collapse. However, a second vote is expected in the Parliament within days and is expected to pass. Today’s measure also included a vote of no confidence against the sitting Slovak coalition government. 

From the BBC, “The governing coalition had linked the vote to a confidence motion and as a result has effectively been toppled. Slovakia is the last of the eurozone’s 17 members to vote on expanding the European Financial Stability Facility. However, the BBC’s Rob Cameron says a second vote could be held soon and is likely to succeed. The measure failed to pass by 21 votes, but that result had been anticipated after a junior party in the centre-right coalition said it would abstain. The Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party said it was opposed to Slovakia’s taxpayers being asked to cover the debts of richer countries. Many Slovaks feel their country - the second poorest in the eurozone - should not have to bail out countries like Greece.”

WALL STREET TODAY

Dow down 17

NASDAQ up 17

S&P 500 up 1

SENATE 

The Senate tonight, in a procedural vote, defeated President Obama’s jobs plan, in a complete bill form, failing to reach the 60 votes necessary to bring the bill to a vote. The President, campaigning in Orlando after touring a manufacturing plant in Pittsburgh and receiving an interim report from his Jobs and Competitiveness Council today, released a statement saying that tonight’s vote was only the beginning of his efforts to get Congress to pass the American Jobs Act.

From The Hill, “In the run-up to the vote, Obama’s political advisers portrayed it as a black-and-white partisan fight between a president trying to address the nation’s high unemployment rate and Senate Republican leaders more interested in partisan politics than the national good. “Their strategy is to suffocate the economy for the sake of what they think will be a political victory,” Jim Messina, campaign manager of Obama for America, wrote in an email to supporters. “They think that the more folks see Washington taking no action to create jobs, the better their chances in the next election. So they’re doing everything in their power to make sure nothing gets done.” [But] Centrist Democrats undercut that narrative by speaking out against Obama’s plan, even though they voted to debate it.”