The Golden Report

2 Days To Go..It’s a Three-Way Race…Santorum’s Surging but Romney’s the Frontrunner…Gingrich’s Going Negative…Huntsman’s Putting His Own Money In…Happy New Year!…The Evening Report for Sunday January 01, 2012

2 DAYS UNTIL IOWA (28 delegates)
9 DAYS UNTIL NEW HAMPSHIRE (12 delegates)
20 DAYS UNTIL SOUTH CAROLINA (25 delegates)
23 DAYS UNTIL THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

THE LATEST FROM IOWA- headline from The Fix’s Chris Cillizza- on the ground in Des Moines- “Romney has best odds, Santorum has the momentum”

CILLIZZA- “At this point, there’s not much left for the candidates — or the reporters who cover them — to do but wait and wonder.”

But, in fact, THERE IS ONE MORE NEWS CYCLE BETWEEN NOW AND CAUCUS DAY- So tomorrow is pivotal. Which of the following will be Monday’s story line?

Santorum’s surge continues and he looks to be the come from behind winner of the Caucus
Santorum’s support is falling as social conservatives take one final look. He’s likely to finish a close 2nd or 3rd behind Romney
Perry’s support is growing and he is challenging Santorum and Paul for the top three
Or something else

WHAT TO WATCH- does the Romney campaign engage with Santorum before Iowa or does the campaign (or perhaps the uncoordinated Super PACS supporting Romney) wait until the week before New Hampshire?

ONE THING IS CLEAR- the media is infatuated with Rick Santorum right now. For better or worse, he is getting all of the attention- and will through Caucus Day, unless something changes.

NEWT’S GOING NEGATIVE- but will it be too little too late for the embattled former frontrunner?

from POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin in MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA

“Leaving his pledge of a positive campaign behind, Gingrich pressed a tough line of attack that portrayed the former Massachusetts governor as soft on abortion - a major vulnerability for the frontrunner that hadn’t been raised directly by any of his opponents.

“I think New Hampshire is the perfect state to have a debate over Romneycare and to have a debate about tax-paid abortions, which he signed, and to have a debate about putting Planned Parenthood on a government board, which he signed, and to have a debate about appointing liberal judges, which he did,” said Gingrich, starting in Marshalltown, Iowa, the case he’ll take to the Granite State and beyond next week.

Gingrich’s comments suggest that his contrast with Romney on taxes this week either didn’t penetrate or aren’t sufficient to take down the frontrunner and that he needs to attack the former pro-abortion rights governor on a more explosive issue.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY- from Mitt Romney tonight in Council Bluffs, Iowa-

“You know, I’ve been looking at some video clips on YouTube, of President Obama, then candidate Obama, going through Iowa making promises. The gap between his promises and his performance is the largest I’ve seen since, well, the Kardashian wedding and the promise of ‘til death do us part.”

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF NON-CONTENDERS IN THE IOWA CAUCUS: This interesting fundraising pitch from Jon Huntsman, who is skipping Iowa but making a run in New Hampshire next week, today in an e-mail to supporters:

“I am so humbled at the tremendous response we’ve received that today I am adding a special wrinkle: from now until midnight Wednesday, Mary Kaye and I will personally match – dollar for dollar – every new donation our campaign receives.

In just a few minutes, I will be holding a town hall in Deerfield, New Hampshire – our third event of the day, and 143rd event in the state. With only nine days to go until New Hampshire’s primary, it is critical that we have the resources – both on the ground and on TV – to compete with Mitt Romney.”

MORE FROM HUNTSMAN- A web video attack ad against RON PAUL’s foreign policy released this weekend, which is straight out of the Twilight Zone. Literally.

THE POLL DRIVING THE WEEKEND- the Des Moines Register survey released at 8pm ET on New Year’s Eve- which found a three-way dead heat between ROMNEY, PAUL and SANTORUM

Romney 24%, Paul 22%, Santorum 15%, Gingrich 12%, Perry 11%, Bachmann 7%, Huntsman 2%

WAITING FOR the final PPP poll before the Caucus to be released later tonight

WHO WON THE DAY? Rick Santorum, according to POLITICO’s James Hohmann

“He’s facing intensifying scrutiny, but he’s also now THE center of attention out here, from Meet the Press to cable chatter. Momentum is his best friend. He’s in the right place at the right time.Voters we talked to at his event here make us feel like there’s definitely something of a bandwagon effect going on..”

TOMORROW’S TOP TALKER- New York Times- “Google Hones Its Advertising Message, Playing to Emotions”

“Though Google is a household name, it needs to tell its story now for a few reasons. It needs new businesses like the Chrome browser and the Google Plus social network to succeed if it is going to find sources of revenue beyond search ads.

The ads are also part of Google’s mission, led by Larry Page, its co-founder and chief executive, to pare down its product offering and make Google products more attractive, intuitive and integrated with one another

BIG QUOTE- “Google’s an online brand,” [Google Event Planner Lorin] Pollack said. “You can’t experience the brand except for typing keys. It’s a huge responsibility to actually bring that brand to life outside of the computer.”

AT THE BOX OFFICE- so far- results for the four day holiday weekend that is continuing-

1/ Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol $31.2 million
2/ Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows $22 million
3/ Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked $18.3 million
4/ War Horse $16.9 million
5/ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo $16.3 million

SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL- GIANTS 14, DALLAS 0 with 4 minutes left in the 2nd

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The Evening Report for Friday December 16

FRIDAY’S EARLY EDITION

18 DAYS UNTIL IOWA

TOP STORY: Shutdown Averted- The latest from The Hill-

“The House easily approved a $1 trillion omnibus Friday, sending the bill to a Senate for a likely weekend vote.

Senate passage would send the bill to the White House and avert a government shutdown, but won’t end Congress’s business for the year. Lawmakers are expected to return to Washington next week to complete work on an extension of a payroll tax cut.

Despite the frictions between the two parties throughout the week, the bill was approved in an overwhelming 296-121 vote. Thirty-five Democrats and 86 Republicans voted against it. More Democrats (149) voted for the package than Republicans (147).

The bill, H.R. 2055, covers spending for Defense, Energy and Water, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Interior, Labor/Health and Human Services, Legislative Branch, Military Construction/VA, and State/Foreign Operations.”

THE ISSUE still being negotiated that is holding up passage of a payroll tax cut extension: the Keystone XL Pipeline.

CAMPAIGN 2012

After a debate performance in which the general political consensus is he won, MITT ROMNEY ended the week with continued political momentum, today announcing the endorsement of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley- from The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake-

“Neither South Carolina nor the nation can afford four more years of President Obama, and Mitt Romney is the right person to take him on and get America back on track,” Haley said.

Haley also backed Romney in the 2008 presidential campaign, when she was in the state legislature, and Romney returned the favor by backing her governor bid in 2010 (and sending $60,000 to her campaign through his various state-level political action committees). She had long promised to endorse in the 2012 race, but it wasn’t clear that she would line up behind Romney again.

In Haley, Romney gets the support of one of the rising young (39 years old) stars in GOP politics. Haley is the first female governor of the Palmetto State and the second Indian-American governor in United States history. With camera-friendly looks and an attractive personal style, she could quickly become a popular surrogate for the Romney campaign”

COMING UP: Tomorrow night at 8pm- the DES MOINES REGISTER announces their endorsement. This is always seen as a pivotal moment in the race for Iowa.

THE WEEK ON THE STREET- From CNBC- “Stocks End Bad Week with Mixed Trading”-

“Wall Street limped to the closing bell Friday, closing out a rough week with modest gains in technology and little movement in the Dow.

Traders had to contend with yet another ratings agency warning on debt, while the quadruple witching scenario, in which four key options and futures contract expire, brought more volume to the market but little in the way of gains.

Energy stocks helped keep the market afloat while health care and utilities were among the weakest performers. The market rallied in the morning, but gains soon evaporated after the close of the European markets and the Fitch warning cast a pall and ruined the chances for a second straight day of gains.”

DOW down 2
NASDAQ up 14
S&P 500 up 4

FOR THE WEEK the DOW was down almost 3 percent

ZEITGEIST 2011 was released by GOOGLE this morning- delving into the troves of data collected this year by the Internet’s leading search engine. http://www.googlezeitgeist.com/en

TOP TEN SEARCHES OF 2011:

1/ Rebecca Black
2/ Google+
3/ Ryan Dunn
4/ Casey Anthony
5/ Battlefield 3
6/ iPhone 5
7/ Adele
8/ 東京電力 (The Fukushima I Plant damaged from a March earthquake in Japan that the government ordered closed)
9/ Steve Jobs
10/ iPad 2

FINALLY... In last night’s GOP debate, the 6 Republican presidential candidates name-dropped 12 former presidents 33 times, according to a review of the debate transcript by the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota

“Historian Newt Gingrich led the charge by name-dropping eight former U.S. presidents a total of 22 times: Ronald Reagan (6), Bill Clinton (4), Thomas Jefferson (3), Jimmy Carter (3), Abraham Lincoln (2), Franklin Roosevelt (2), Andrew Jackson (1), and Herbert Hoover (1).

It was the first time FDR, Jackson, and Hoover had been mentioned across the 13 debates conducted since the initial gathering in Greenville, South Carolina on May 5th.

In addition to Gingrich, each of the other six candidates also got into the presidential name game Thursday:

· Michele Bachmann (3): Reagan (2), Carter (1)
· Rick Santorum (2): George W. Bush (2)
· Rick Perry (2): Reagan (1), Monroe (1)
· Mitt Romney (2): George H.W. Bush (1), Reagan (1)
· Jon Huntsman (1): Reagan (1)
· Ron Paul (1): Kennedy (1)

Gingrich has woven references to ex-presidents into the debates like no other - tallying a whopping 63 references to date - nearly three times more than his closest name-dropper, Rick Santorum at 22.”

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The Evening Report for Wednesday November 16, 2011

TOP STORY: The Supercommittee: will they or won’t they reach a deal one week from today when they report back on their deficit reduction proposal, as they are required to by law?

There have been conflicting reports throughout the day today as to whether the Committee will come up short or will reach a bi-partisan agreement. Today, the Committee announced that they will hold a public “mark-up” session next week, which will be an opportunity for each of the 12 members of the bi-partisan, bicameral panel to make public statements to voice their opinions on different pieces of the legislation, before they cast a single up or down vote in the middle of next week.

As we get closer to the final deadline for the Supercommittee, smaller issues are going to become big deals. Here’s what National Journal reports tonight is the latest sticking point: health care.

“A dispute broke out between super-committee negotiators on Wednesday over whether other committees can cut health programs in a two-step deficit-reduction process.

The disagreement involved the panel’s possible two-step strategy, which would have committees with tax jurisdiction raising billions from an overhaul of the tax code next year.

Republicans insisted that the committees also have the authority to cut any programs under their jurisdiction, including Medicare and Medicaid. Democrats balked, saying that the second-step committee cuts could come from tax changes only.”

One of the most remarkable traits of the Supercommittee since it was formed in the summer has been its overall secrecy and the ability of its members to be tight-lipped regarding aspects of the negotiations.

Indeed, on a pretty regular basis, each week has seen two types of stories: that the Committee was deadlocked and no where close to reaching a minimal agreement, and that the Committee was going to shock Washington, and the political system as a whole, by “going big” and producing a large deficit reduction grand bargain.

Still tonight, we don’t know which way the Committee is trending as there have been mixed signals for the past several days.

Here’s how POLITICO’s Jake Sherman & Manu Raju wrap up the Supercommittee’s day

“In sum, all the maneuvering seemed to paint a picture of confusion, panic and blame-passing as Congress with approval ratings in the gutter attempts to patch up yet another fiscal mess.

On a day when the national debt surpassed $15 trillion, the six Democrats and six Republicans on the supercommittee met separately in tense closed-door meetings and strategized with congressional leaders. In phone calls and personal meetings, Republicans discussed proposals old and new a half-dozen times — and each side struggled to coalesce around plans that could pass bipartisan muster, or be used to maximize political cover.”

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL TODAY

“Can you believe that? That’s what our president thinks is wrong with America? That Americans are lazy? That’s pathetic.” - Rick Perry

“Sometimes, I just don’t think that President Obama understands America.” - Mitt Romney

These quotes from the Republican presidential candidates come after President Obama was asked a question about foreign investment in the United States at the APEC Summit in Hawaii over the weekend. Here’s what he said:

“I think it’s important to remember that the United States is still the largest recipient of foreign investment in the world. And there are a lot of things that make foreign investors see the U.S. as a great opportunity: our stability, our openness, our innovative free-market culture. But we’ve been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We’ve kind of taken for granted — well, people will want to come here, and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America.”

To be fair to the President, his Republican rivals are taking his remark squarely out of context. The President was speaking to a group of business executives and was not referring to the American people specifically. However, the quote is likely to find its way, explicitly or subliminally, into the Republican strategy throughout 2012.

WHITE HOUSE SHOOTING INVESTIGATION: Police in Pennsylvania today arrested a 21 year-old man, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, who is suspected of firing an AK-47 assault rifle in close proximity to the White House late Friday evening.

Yesterday, the Secret Service announced that they had found shell casings and believe that a bullet had grazed a window on the upper level of The White House but they had not yet drawn a definitive link back to Hernandez, who is wanted in Friday’s incident.

As the Washington Post reports:

“Ortega-Hernandez fired shots with an AK-47-style assault rifle about 9:30 p.m. Friday — his 21st birthday — while in a car at 16th Street and Constitution Avenue, police said.

Minutes later, Ortega-Hernandez abandoned the car a short distance away, in the 2300 block of Constitution Avenue, and ran away, police said. They said they found the rifle and an undisclosed number of spent shell casings in the car.”

As for the bullet that was found on the White House property:

“For several days after the shooting, police said they had not found bullet-related damage to structures in the area. On Tuesday morning, however, authorities discovered at least one bullet hole in a window on the side of the White House facing the Ellipse and the Washington Monument, according to the Secret Service.

The bullet had pierced the “historic exterior glass” of the window but was stopped by ballistic glass installed behind the normal glass. “One additional round has been found on the exterior of the White House,” the Secret Service said in a statement.

The official familiar with the investigation said FBI ballistics examiners will seek to determine whether the bullets came from the assault rifle found in the car that Ortega-Hernandez abandoned.

The Secret Service said the damage “has not been conclusively connected to Friday’s incident, and an assessment of the exterior of the White House is ongoing.”

President Obama was not at The White House on Friday and is now in Australia, as part of an Asian-Pacific tour. Today the President announced that 250 Marines will begin to form a US military base in Australia next year, and 2,500 troops will be stationed in the region by 2013.

WALL STREET: In the final hour of trading on Wall Street today, the ratings agency Fitch delivered a report on US bank exposure to Europe that sent the markets sharply lower. The report said, “unless the euro zone debt crisis is resolved in a timely and orderly manner, the broad credit outlook for the U.S. banking industry could worsen.”

DOW down 191
NASDAQ down 47
S&P 500 down 21

ALL EYES ON SYRIA: Violence has intensified in Syria, the worst in the nearly seven months of consistent protest against the government of Bashar Assad, in the last 48-hours and all eyes are now on the region. The question everyone is asking is, “Is Syria next?” meaning the next nation to force its leader from power in the year-long Arab awakening.

Today the Arab League, which voted to kick Syria out over the weekend, issued a deadline for the Syrian government to end its oppression against its people in three days. It is not immediately clear what consequences may come as a result of that order. Many observers, however, say that the situation in Syria is much different that Libya or Egypt- namely that Assad has a greater chance of being toppled from within.

Here’s analysis from the BBC’s Jon Leyne in Damascus:

“As diplomatic pressure increases on Damascus, the situation on the ground is deteriorating as well.

Last night, soldiers who defected from the Syrian army mounted an attack on an intelligence base north of Damascus. It was the most significant attack so far by defectors and was remarkable for being against such a high-profile target so close to the capital.

More and more clashes are being reported between the regular army and opponents who now call themselves the Free Syrian Army.

That raises the spectre of this turning into a full-scale civil war. “

FINALLY...today Google announced its latest product, a large-scale entry into an already crowded market, with Google Music, at music.google.com. The launch of the Google Music Store, with easy download and integration with the Android platform, sets Google up as a competitor to Apple, which owns the iTunes Music Store which easily syncs with the iPhone and other Apple devices.

From the Associated Press,

“The desktop service is available to all users in the United States right now at music.google.com. The Google Music Android app should be available for all Android smartphones and tablets in the coming days for everyone with Android 2.2 and above. There was no mention of iOS devices like iPhones or iPads, though Google did note that the desktop Google Music Manager is available on Windows, Mac and Linux computers. (Beware, however, as the Google Music Beta was heavily criticized as taking weeks to upload a library worth of songs.)

Google also opened up a Google Music store, similar to iTunes, which the company says will be driven by musical recommendations. There are two kind of recommendations up front in the store: First, recommendations from Google’s “music geeks” about what’s hot on the music scene; and second, a machine-listening recommendation engine, which analyzes your entire collection and suggests which songs and albums the user may enjoy. The Android Market’s new music store is already open.”

The Evening Report for Tuesday November 01

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!