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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor

 

The Evening Report for Thursday December 22 2011

12 DAYS UNTIL IOWA
19 DAYS UNTIL NEW HAMPSHIRE

BREAKING: A magnitude 5.9 earthquake has struck near Christchurch, New Zealand, the US Geological Survey reports

TOP STORY: A deal.

Late this afternoon, Speaker of the House John Boehner, looking weary and defeated after a week of intense negotiations, came to the microphones to announce that he had reached a deal with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to have the House pass the Senate bill extending the payroll tax cut for two months, adding a provision that seeks to accommodate the burden that some businesses may face from having to adjust their payroll filings as a result of the legislation.

He expected that the House and Senate would both act before Christmas- meaning tomorrow- to pass the bill by unanimous consent. That is, unless one member objects which, while entirely possible, is considered unlikely.

THE LATEST- from The Hill- “House Republican Leaders Cave- Agree To Pass Two-Month Bill”

“Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced the agreement with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Thursday evening after briefing rank-and-file House Republicans on a conference call. The House has agreed to pass a version of the Senate’s two-month payroll tax cut legislation, with a fix demanded by Republicans to make implementation easier.

According to a lawmaker who participated in the House GOP conference call, Boehner told the rank-and-file members that a deal was struck and the deed had been done. Unlike an extended phone call on Saturday, where members voiced extreme opposition to a Senate compromise, the Thursday conference call was one-way, and members were only allowed to listen in.

The agreement capped a disastrous week for Boehner, who was first forced into a fight with Senate Republicans by his own angry members and then was abandoned by senior Republicans, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the 2008 presidential nominee, and Karl Rove, the chief strategist for the last Republican president.

“I don’t think this is any time for celebration,” Boehner said as he announced the agreement in the basement of a nearly empty Capitol.

Asked if he caved on the issue, the Speaker replied: “You know, sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing, and sometimes it’s politically difficult to do the right thing.”

STATEMENT FROM SPEAKER BOEHNER announcing the deal:

“Senator Reid and I have reached an agreement that will ensure taxes do not increase for working families on January 1 while ensuring that a complex new reporting burden is not unintentionally imposed on small business job creators.  Under the terms of our agreement, a new bill will be approved by the House that reflects the bipartisan agreement in the Senate along with new language that allows job creators to process and withhold payroll taxation under the same accounting structure that is currently in place.  The Senate will join the House in immediately appointing conferees, with instructions to reach agreement in the weeks ahead on a full-year payroll tax extension.  We will ask the House and Senate to approve this agreement by unanimous consent before Christmas.  I thank our Members – particularly those who have remained here in the Capitol with the holidays approaching – for their efforts to enact a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut for working families.”

STATEMENT FROM MAJORITY LEADER REID affirming the deal-

“I am grateful that the voices of reason have prevailed and Speaker Boehner has agreed to pass the Senate’s bipartisan compromise. Year-long extensions of the payroll tax cut, unemployment insurance and Medicare payments for physicians has always been our goal, and Democrats will not rest until we have passed them. But there remain important differences between the parties on how to implement these policies, and it is critical that we protect middle-class families from a tax increase while we work them out.

“I look forward to appointing members of my caucus to continue negotiations towards a year-long agreement. Two months is not a long time, and I expect the negotiators to work expeditiously to forge year-long extensions of these critical policies.”

STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT OBAMA trumpeting what has been a very good week for his presidency-

“For the past several weeks, I’ve stated consistently that it was critical that Congress not go home without preventing a tax increase on 160 million working Americans. Today, I congratulate members of Congress for ending the partisan stalemate by reaching an agreement that meets that test.

Because of this agreement, every working American will keep his or her tax cut – about $1,000 for the average family. That’s about $40 in every paycheck. Vital unemployment insurance will continue for millions of Americans who are looking for work.  And when Congress returns, I urge them to keep working to reach an agreement that will extend this tax cut and unemployment insurance for all of 2012 without drama or delay.

This is good news, just in time for the holidays. This is the right thing to do to strengthen our families, grow our economy, and create new jobs.  This is real money that will make a real difference in people’s lives. And I want to thank every American who raised your voice to remind folks in this town what this debate was all about. It was about you. And today, your voices made all the difference.”

TONIGHT, THE PRESIDENT TWEETED FROM @WHITEHOUSE:

Thanks to all who shared #40dollars stories. Today’s victory is yours. Keep making your voices heard – it makes all the difference. –bo

PAYROLL TAKEAWAYS:

1/ This debate was a big deal. The question is how big a deal it remains weeks and months from now. Will it be seen as a defining moment in the relationship between President Obama and Congress, between Democrats and Republicans, between Republicans and the Tea Party- or will this debate, similar to the others we have seen this year over federal funding and the debt ceiling, be eclipsed by the next big battle?

2/ The White House found its voice. After a year of trying, and often coming up short, in its negotiations with Congress and after continued difficulty messaging and communicating with the public, the White House’s operation has seemingly come together over the last week. The #40Dollars campaign was really the first time the formal White House has successfully leveraged the social media tools they mastered in the 2008 election to help them win both a policy and a political debate, in a way that related to the average American.

3/ The Speaker is severely weakened. What we don’t know is if he is damaged beyond repair or, quite possibly and alternatively, if the Tea Party Republicans who forced a change in control in the House in 2010 have finally been shunned by enough of the traditional Republican establishment. Many believe that this group of freshman representatives revolted in the summer and prevented Speaker Boehner from agreeing to a grand bargain with President Obama. This time, the Speaker was at first ready to give in to their demands but then essentially said “not this time.”

WALL STREET- from CNBC-

“Stocks pushed into the close to finish around their highest levels for the second day in a row, as banks surged and Wall Street shrugged off fears of a global economic slowdown.

Financials, energy and technology — the market’s principal weak spot recently — led gainers, while commodities, particularly mining-related stocks, showed weakness. Consumer staples was the worst of the 10 Standard & Poor’s 500 sectors during a day in which the market traded in a tight range throughout the session.”

  • DOW up 62
  • NASDAQ up 21
  • S&P 500 up 10

CAMPAIGN 2012:

Former President George H. W. Bush endorsed Gov. Mitt Romney today.

(Earlier this year, Romney was the only one of the current presidential candidates to attend a tribute event for Pres. Bush at the Kennedy Center in Washington organized by the Points of Light Institute. THE EVENING REPORT was there that night and met President Bush and Governor Romney)

RON PAUL is surging in Iowa, although his campaign is coming under new questions about documents that have surfaced (similar- maybe even identical- to ones that surfaced with allegations of racism in 2008). Yesterday, Paul even walked out of an interview with CNN’s Glorida Borger.

And as NBC’s Domenico Montanaro reports, there may be more skeletons in the closet set to come out in these final days before the Caucus:

  • No federal regulations for car safety, medicines, even air traffic control
  • Don’t regulate raw milk:
  • Heroin, marijuana, cocaine, prostitution OK if states allow them
  • - No air conditioning for troops (as a way to bring them home)
  • Against the Americans with Disabilities Act
  • No FEMA
  • Believes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are unconstitutional

The question is how many of these past statements and positions, many which are quintessentially Ron Paul, will have staying power.

GINGRICH HAS A NEW NICKNAME FOR ROMNEY- via National Journal-

“When a Massachusetts moderate says I’m not conservative, it makes me want to laugh when he goes down that road,” Gingrich told radio host Tony Powers, responding to the former Bay State governor’s frequent charge. “When a Massachusetts moderate says Newt Gingrich is not conservative enough, other than break up laughing I don’t know what the correct response would be.”

Gingrich also criticized another rival, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who also has run ads critical of the former House speaker. “Paul’s case is different because he believes in legalizing drugs … thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon and believes Americans are responsible for 9/11, which makes no sense.”

GALLUP TRACKING POLL: Gingrich 27, Romney 21, Paul 12, Perry 7, Bachmann 6, Santorum 4, Huntsman 1, Cain

GINGRICH averages a 3.8% lead in an average of national polls for the Republican nomination

RON PAUL leads an average of recent polls in IOWA, topping Romney by 3.5%

In NEW HAMPSHIRE, MITT ROMNEY has a 13 point average lead over Newt Gingrich

The near-reverse is the case in SOUTH CAROLINA, where GINGRICH has a 16 point lead over Romney

And in FLORIDA, the last of the early primary states (at the end of January), GINGRICH retains a 18 point lead over Mitt Romney.

FINALLY…Matt Damon still has some beef with President Obama. Actually, a lot of beef. And he told Elle Magazine that the President should think about leaving after one term. From the Huffington Post-

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, ‘Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician,’” Damon tells the magazine. “You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better.”

Referring to the Occupy Wall Street movement, Damon continued: “If the Democrats think that they didn’t have a mandate — people are literally without any focus or leadership, just wandering out into the streets to yell right now because they are so pissed off … Imagine if they had a leader.”

The slam follows in the same vein as a number of other criticisms Damon has made of the President and the Democrats, including in March, when he criticized Obama’s education policy.

“I really think he misinterpreted his mandate. A friend of mine said to me the other day, I thought it was a great line, ‘I no longer hope for audacity,’” Damon told CNN host Piers Morgan. “He’s doubled down on a lot of things, going back to education… the idea that we’re testing kids and we’re tying teachers salaries to how kids are performing on tests, that kind of mechanized thinking has nothing to do with higher order. We’re training them, not teaching them.”

HAPPY HANUKKAH!

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The Evening Report for Thursday December 15

19 DAYS UNTIL IOWA

25 HOURS UNTIL A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

In Sioux City, Iowa tonight- the 13th Republican Presidential Candidates Debate. It is the final debate before the January 3rd Caucuses.

THE HEADLINE: “Newt Under Attack in Iowa Debate”

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT- POLITICO

“Asked about his views on the Keystone XL pipeline, and how House Republicans should handle their standoff with the president, Gingrich said he was consciously trying not to use overwrought rhetoric.

“I’ve been standing here editing. I’m very concerned about not appearing to be zany”

SECOND PLACE QUOTE OF THE NIGHT:

“You know, there are a lot of people out there — I understand it. There are a lot of folks that said Tim Tebow wasn’t going to be a very good NFL quarterback. There are people that stood up and said well, he doesn’t have the right throwing mechanisms, or he doesn’t — you know, he is not playing the game right. You know, he won two national championships, and that looked pretty good.”

“We’re the national champions in job creation back in Texas. But am i ready for the next level? Let me tell you — I hope I am the Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses.”

HOW IT PLAYED- The Washington Post-

“Answering a debate question about his electability, Gingrich invoked the conservative icon, but when asked about his leadership credentials, he turned the tables and cited a favorite of Democrats, former president Bill Clinton.

“I believe I can debate Barack Obama and I think in seven three-hour debates Barack Obama will not have a leg to stand on in trying to defend a record that is terrible and an ideology that is radical.”

Later, when pressed about his leadership ability, the former House speaker pointed to a record of accomplishments that includes a balanced budget and welfare reform while in Congress and touted his ability to have “actually worked things out with Bill Clinton.” Never mind the government shutdown in 1995 (these days, there are only a lot of threats, not actual shutdowns), and the fact that Gingrich’s House impeached the former president for only the second time in history. “

DEVELOPING TONIGHT…A tentative deal has been reached to avert a government shutdown, which would have Congress pass an omnibus appropriations bill by early Saturday morning and an extension of the payroll tax cut by the end of the weekend.

THE LATEST from THE HILL

“House and Senate negotiators on Thursday night reached a tentative agreement on a $1 trillion omnibus spending bill that would avert a government shutdown, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee announced.

Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said he expected the conference report to be filed later Thursday for a vote in both chambers Friday.

The 1,200-page legislation funds most of the federal government for the balance of fiscal 2012.

Republican leaders claimed they had a hand-shake agreement earlier in the week, but they said Democratic negotiators refused to sign off because the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) held up the agreement to gain leverage in a separate year-end dispute over the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. Democrats said some issues remained unresolved, including travel restrictions with Cuba.”

WALL STREET- from CNBC- “Stocks limped into the close Thursday, eking out the first positive day of the week as traders shifted their focus from Europe’s problems and onto some positive U.S. economic news.

Major averages finished the day modestly positive after surging by as much as 1 percent earlier. Defensive stocks such as staples, health care and utilities were most popular, while tech and energy lagged.”

  • DOW up 45
  • NASDAQ up 2
  • S&P up 4

FOR HISTORY...New York Times…”U.S. Marks End to 9-Year War, Leaving an Uncertain Iraq”

“After nearly nine years, about 4,500 American fatalities and $1 trillion, America’s war in Iraq is about to end. Officials marked the finish on Thursday with a modest ceremony at the airport days before the last troops take the southern highway to Kuwait, going out as they came in, to conclude the United States’ most ambitious and bloodiest military campaign since Vietnam.

For the United States, the war leaves an uncertain legacy as Americans weigh what may have been accomplished against the price paid, with so many dead and wounded. The Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, was vanquished, but the failure to find illicit weapons undermined the original rationale, leaving a bitter taste as casualties mounted. The lengthy conflict and repeated deployments strained the country and its resources, raising questions about America’s willingness to undertake future wars on such a grand scale.

Iraqis will be left with a country that is not exactly at war, and not exactly at peace. It has improved in many ways since the 2007 troop “surge,” but it is still a shattered country marred by violence and political dysfunction, a land defined on sectarian lines whose future, for better or worse, is now in the hands of its people.”

FINALLY…69th Grammy Awards nominations- the awards ceremony is set for January 15th…

BEST PICTURE, DRAMA
“War Horse”
“The Ides of March”
“The Help”
“Moneyball”
“Hugo”
“The Descendants”

BEST ACTOR, DRAMA
George Clooney, “The Descendants”
Brad Pitt, ”Moneyball”
Leonardo DiCaprio, ”J.Edgar”
Ryan Gosling, ”The Ides of March”
Michael Fassbender, ”Shame”

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA
Viola Davis, “‘The Help”
Meryl Streep, ”The Iron Lady”
Tilda Swinton, ”We Need to Talk About Kevin”
Rooney Mara, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
Glenn Close, ”Albert Nobbs”

BEST DIRECTOR
Martin Scorsese, ”Hugo”
George Clooney, ”The Ides of March”
Michel Hazanavicius, ”The Artist”
Alexander Payne, ”The Descendants”
Woody Allen, ”Midnight in Paris”


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The Evening Report for Wednesday December 14 

20 DAYS UNTIL IOWA

50 HOURS UNTIL A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

TOP STORY: Brinkmanship by both parties on Capitol Hill has set the federal government up for a potential shutdown effective Saturday morning after the Senate today rejected a House passed payroll tax bill, which also includes a provision speeding implementation of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline.

This evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid went to the White House to meet with President Obama and then return to the Capitol to sit down with Republican leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. This is at least the third time this year that the government has come within two days of a potential shutdown and, both times, a shutdown was avoided.

Conventional wisdom on the Hill remains that Congress will pass some sort of a continuing resolution before midnight on Friday, however, with only 50 hours remaining, nothing is certain.

TONIGHT’S DEVELOPMENT: Numerous reports say that Democrats are prepared to drop their proposal for a millionaire surtax to pay for extension of the payroll tax, a sign that with the impending holiday recess, the parties may be moving closer to a deal.

The Washington Post reports tonight:

“Taken together, the developments signaled the end game for a year of divided government — with a tea party-flavored majority in the House and Obama’s allies in the Senate — that has veered from near-catastrophe to last-minute compromise repeatedly since last January.

The rhetoric was biting at times.

“We have fiddled all year long, all year,” McConnell complained in a less-than-harmonious exchange on the Senate floor with Reid. He accused Democrats of “routinely setting up votes designed to divide us … to give the president a talking point out on the campaign trail.”

Reid shot back that McConnell had long ago declared Obama’s defeat to be his top priority. And he warned that unless Republicans show a willingness to bend, the country faces a government shutdown “that will be just as unpopular” as the two that occurred when Newt Gingrich was House speaker more than a decade ago.

It was a reminder — as if McConnell and current Speaker John Boehner of Ohio needed one — of the political debacle that ensued for Republicans when Gingrich was outmaneuvered in a showdown with former President Bill Clinton.”

GOVERNMENT PREPARES FOR POTENTIAL SHUTDOWN- The Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe-

“Cabinet secretaries and agency heads planned to send an e-mail message to workers by close of business Wednesday informing them that a shutdown could occur, according to multiple administration officials familiar with the plans.

A shutdown would not apply to a wide swath of agencies and departments that already have full-year funding in place thanks to a partial spending bill that passed in November, including the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, House and Urban Development, Justice, State, and Transportation, NASA, and other smaller agencies covered by separate appropriations measures.

In a statement, Office of Management and Budget spokesman Kenneth Baer said Wednesday that “There is no reason for the government to shut down.”Congress could act quickly to pass a short- or long-term spending measure, Baer said, as they have seven times already this year.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA made his first trip as President to FORT BRAGG NORTH CAROLINA today, speaking to soldiers who have deployed to Iraq

WALL STREET TODAY- from CNBC- “Worries over European debt again plagued Wall Street, sending stocks down at the close for a third straight day in a selloff that also hit commodities and energy stocks hard.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 and Dow industrials lost about 1 percent each, with energy down nearly 3 percent. All 10 S&P 500 sectors were negative with materials and industrials also getting hammered. Financials and health care were closest to positive territory.”

  • DOW down 131
  • NASDAQ down 40
  • S&P 500 down 14

CAMPAIGN 2012:

QUOTE OF THE DAY- Romney interview with the New York Times-

    “Zany is not what we need in a president.”

    “Zany is great in a campaign. It’s great on talk radio. It’s great in print, it makes for fun reading. But in terms of a president, we need a leader, and a leader needs to be someone who can bring Americans together.”

In IOWA tonight, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee did not give any clues as to which candidate he might be leaning towards endorsing, or even if he will endorse before the Caucus on January 3rd. Huckabee hosted the screening of a conservative film- “The Gift of Life”- in Des Moines attended by four presidential candidates- Santorum, Perry, Bachmann & Gingrich- tonight.

ROMNEY ATTACKS GINGRICH- in interview with CBS News-

    “[I was] frankly, very surprised that he would attack conservatism, he would attack free enterprise, he would attack capitalism. This is a party that believes in free enterprise.”

    Q: Is he in the wrong party?

    “Well, it depends on the day. I just think hes been unreliable in his support of conservative principles.”

ALSO

“Newt Gingrich has wealth from having worked in government. He’s a wealthy man, a very wealthy man. If you have a half a million dollar purchase from Tiffany’s, you’re not a middle-class American.”

TOMORROW NIGHT is the 13th Republican Presidential Candidates Debate of the 2012 primary- sponsored by FOX News and the Republican Party of Iowa- in Sioux City, Iowa.

THE EVENING REPORT will publish a special POST-DEBATE edition tomorrow night.

LEADING POLITICO TONIGHT- “Is Newt taking Iowa seriously enough?”- by Jonathan Martin-

“Gingrich’s return from the political grave has been premised on disregarding the practice of politics as usual, and he now seems to be betting that he can bypass the traditional, retail-focused path to victory in Iowa and still win. Asked if he was endangering his Iowa prospects, Gingrich acknowledged he was taking intense fire but said he’d ramp up his effort before January 3rd.

“I think Iowa’s going to be a challenge because you have everybody firing away simultaneously in a relatively small market,” the former speaker told reporters following his lecture here at the University of Iowa. “And so I think it’s going to require two weeks of my going around, telling the truth, letting people look at the negative ad, look at the truth and decide if they really want to give their vote to somebody who’s not telling the truth.”

Gingrich promised to do more retail events – he teased a post-Christmas bus tour – and said he’d do more ads.

But he also offered a mix of nonchalance and high-road confidence in explaining that he didn’t have enough money to match his rivals’ ad campaign and, in any event, wasn’t inclined to engage in traditional back-and-forth on the airwaves.”

REUTERS/IPSOS POLL HAS GINGRICH UP BY 10

  • GINGRICH 28
  • ROMNEY 18
  • PAUL 12
  • PERRY 12
  • BACHMANN 10
  • HUNTSMAN 5
  • SANTORUM 4

GALLUP TRACKING HAS GINGRICH UP BY 8

  • GINGRICH 31
  • ROMNEY 23
  • PAUL 9
  • BACHMANN 6
  • SANTORUM 4
  • HUNTSMAN 2

GENERAL ELECTION MASHUPS

OBAMA V. ROMNEY (USA TODAY) OBAMA: 47%, ROMNEY 46%
OBAMA V. GINGRICH (USA TODAY): OBAMA: 50% ROMNEY 44%

OBAMA V. ROMNEY (NBC/WSJ): OBAMA 47% ROMNEY 45%
OBAMA V GINGRICH (NBC/WSJ): OBAMA 51% GINGRICH 40%

OBAMA V ROMNEY (REUTERS) OBAMA 48% ROMNEY 40%
OBAMA V GINGRICH (REUTERS) OBAMA 51% GINGRICH 38%

FINALLY...

BRIAN WILLIAMS INTERVIEWS MARCEL THE SHELL. If you haven’t yet seen the video from Monday Night’s ROCK CENTER, America #1 evening newsman traveled to Brooklyn to interview the Mama and Papa of this Internet sensation

“Marcel has plenty of spunk, which he brought to his interview with Williams. When asked if having just one eye has affected him in any way, Marcel returned, “Has having one nose affected you in any way, Brian?”

The conversation made Williams chortle. He even hinted that he and his colleagues could learn a thing or two from Marcel. “A lot of network primetime shows would kill for 14 million plus viewers,” Williams said. “When the second installment hit the web, it had more viewers by its first night than a lot of popular cable news shows and it’s already up to three million.”

“Rock Center” debuted in November with 4.1 million total viewers.”


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The Evening Report for Tuesday December 13

21 DAYS UNTIL IOWA

JUST IN: Conservative activist and former Delaware senate candidate Christine O’Donnell tonight announced her endorsement of Mitt Romney on FOX News. And tonight, the Romney campaign is TRUMPETING the endorsement.

TOP STORY: The House passed a payroll tax cut extension this evening; it is considered dead on arrival in Senate.

THE VOTE: 234-to-193. 10 Democrats joined 224 Republicans in backing the measure, while 14 Republicans and 179 Democrats voted no.

WHAT’S NEXT: Unclear. Democrats are using as leverage in the debate over the payroll tax cut the omnibus appropriations bill which will fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year.

That bill is ready to be filed and considered and has bipartisan support. But Senate Majority Leader Reid doesn’t want to bring it to the floor until there is an agreement on the tax cut, as the omnibus is the last remaining “must-pass” item before the holiday recess. That despite the fact the tax cut expires on 12/31. The current continuing resolution funding the government expires on Friday night, 12/16.

TRUMP’S FIRED- Today the man who has played an outsized role in the Republican primary so far said he was pulling out of his own debate, which was set to be held in Iowa two weeks from tonight sponsored by Newsmax. Only Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum had agreed to participate.

GETTING LOCAL- President Obama conducted interviews with four regional network affiliates today. The White House Communications Office has scheduled these block interviews with TV stations from around the country about twice a month, allowing the President to sit for questions with reporters outside of the White House Press Corps.

Today he was interviewed on WVEC (Norfolk, VA), WEAR (Pennsacola, FL), KOAA (Colorado Springs, CO) and KIMO (Seattle, WA).

HERE’S HOW KOAA-NBC5-Coloardo Springs led their 5pm broadcast tonight, with a clip of President Obama’s interview with a local news anchor saying “Colorado, I always like to think, is the future of America” then a 3-part split screen with video from the interview, a live picture of the press briefing, and B-roll of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Then, local reporter Rob Quirk live from the North Lawn of The White House.

A theme for this round of regional television interviews was the end of the war in Iraq. THE WHITE HOUSE has released an interactive timeline that walks through the President’s speeches and decision-points on Iraq since taking office at whitehouse.gov/iraq

DEFENSE SECRETARY LEON PANETTA made a previously unannounced visit to Afghanistan today

J.W. MARRIOTT, JR. announced today that he will retire as CEO of MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, the international hotel chain his parents started and which is headquartered in Bethesda, MD.

The Washington Post reports on the end of an era of a local business leader:

“Throughout the growth of his family’s company and the industry, there was Mr. Marriott, as his devoutly loyal employees call him, espousing his family’s simple maxim that if you take care of your employees, your employees will take care of your customers, and your customers will come back.

That philosophy still permeates the company — which is now worth nearly $10 billion and employs 129,000 people — after countless nights of putting heads in beds. Arne Sorenson, a trusted Marriott lieutenant for more than a decade, will become chief executive in March, the first non-Marriott to run the company. J.W. Marriott, known as Bill, will become executive chairman.”

TODAY ON THE STREET- from CNBC- “Wall Street sold off sharply in the final hour of trade after the Federal Reserve delivered little hope that it would turn on the easing spigots anytime soon and as a formerly rosy holiday retail season suddenly turned gloomy.

Major averages closed just off their lows from the day in a selloff that began shortly after the Fed’s Open Market Committee released its meeting statement shortly after 2. The red numbers accelerated into the close as banks and energy — leaders during a morning rally — turned tail and dropped sharply.”

  • DOW down 66
  • NASDAQ down 33
  • S&P 500 down 11

CAMPAIGN 2012- THREE WEEKS UNTIL IOWA CAUCUS NIGHT

GINGRICH STAFFER OUT IN IOWA- Following a Des Moines Register report that a staffer for the Gingrich Campaign raised questions about Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, the campaign today fired the staffer.

Via POLITICO: Craig Bergman agreed to step away from his role with Newt 2012 today,” Gingrich spokseman RC Hammond said in a statement. “He made a comment to a focus group prior to becoming an employee that is inconsistent with Newt 2012’s pledge to run a positive and solutions orientated campaign.” 

GINGRICH TOPS ROMNEY BY 17 POINTS in new NBC NEWS/WALL STREET JOURNAL POLL (a national survey) released tonight at 6:30pm.

  • GINGRICH 40
  • ROMNEY 23
  • PAUL 9
  • BACHMANN 8
  • PERRY 6
  • HUNTSMAN 5
  • SANTORUM 3

THREE POINTS:

1/ It’s the first time that Gingrich has topped 40 points in a national survey.
2/ Romney remains mired in the low to mid 20s.
3/ The field is separating between Newt/Romney and everyone else, with Ron Paul currently in third place, 14 points behind Romney

In IOWA, Gingrich has a 12-point lead over Romney according to a Real Clear Politics average of recent polls
In NEW HAMPSHIRE, Romney has a 10-point lead over Gingrich, with Paul in 3rd and Huntsman in 4th.
In SOUTH CAROLINA, Gingrich has almost a 20-point lead over Romney.

HARD HITTING AD by RON PAUL in IOWA “Selling Access”

As one political observer put it today “we didn’t know Ron Paul could create an ad that good”

FINALLY.…No Labels, the 501(c)(4) organization formed about a year ago with the lofty goal of bringing Republicans and Democrats together, today took their first tangible step at relevance in a crowded political environment, releasing a blueprint for reforms that Congress can make to the way it does business, unveiling a 12-step action plan to “Make Congress Work” at nolabels.org/work including

1/ No Budget, No Pay- members of Congress would not be paid if the annual Congressional budget process wasn’t completed on time
6/ Question Time for the President- a monthly forum for Members of Congress to ask questions of the President, a la Prime Minister’s Questions
8/ No Pledge But the Oath of Office
10/ Bipartisan Seating
11/ Formation of a Bipartisan Leadership  Committee

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The Evening Report for Monday December 12

22 DAYS UNTIL IOWA

TOP STORY: NEARING A DEAL- Reports from Capitol Hill that Congressional appropriators have reached a deal- barring technical corrections- on a $1+ trillion spending measure to fund the federal government into next fiscal year, a key item on Congress’ to-do list before the holiday recess.

From The Hill:

“Congress must approve the omnibus or a temporary spending measure by the end of the day Friday to prevent a government shutdown.

Though they are still working out details, negotiators have been able to agree on a full nine-bill package that they plan to file with the House Rules Committee on Tuesday.

The package will include the Labor-Health and Interior-Environment bills, despite worries late last week that the two parties would be unable to resolve differences over those two spending packages. Aides said compromises had been worked out on controversial environmental, union and healthcare riders.

Another key compromise on the overall omnibus is an agreement to put disaster aid in a separate bill.

The August debt-ceiling deal set a top-line spending limit in 2012 of $1.043 trillion for all 12 appropriations bills, but also permits additional disaster spending of up to $11.3 billion.

 “

The bill is expected to be filed in the House of Representatives tomorrow.

TO-DO LIST: Congress must act on the following items before recessing for the year:

  • Payroll tax extension
  • Unemployment insurance extension
  • Medicare “doc fix” and other tax provisions due to expire on 12/31

ENDING A WAR: President Obama met today with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Washington, three weeks before the last remaining United States troops are scheduled to leave that country, ending the 7-year long US war in Iraq.

From National Journal:

“This is a historic moment,” Obama said Monday during a visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “A war is ending. A new day is upon us and let us never forget those who gave us this chance.”

Speaking to reporters alongside Maliki, Obama said the Iraqi premier’s decisions regarding the region were motivated by his sense of nationalism rather than any loyalty to his Shiite neighbor, Iran.

“Prime Minister Maliki has been explicit here in the United States, he’s been explicit back in Iraq that his interest is in maintaining Iraqi sovereignty and preventing meddling by anybody inside of Iraq, and I believe him,” Obama said. “He has shown himself to make very tough decisions in the interest of Iraqi nationalism, even if they cause problems with his neighbor.”

SOUNDBITE: In response to a reporter’s question on whether the invasion of Iraq was a “dumb war” “the President said “History will judge the original decision to go into Iraq.”

RNC ATTACKS OBAMA ON 60 MINUTES- Last night, the President said it was his job to “put forward a vision for the country that benefits the vast majority of Americans.” Today, the RNC is up with a new ad that says “America needs jobs, not a vision” Expect this to be a continued line of attack next year

THE LONG ROAD: In an interview today with POLITICO’s Mike Allen in New Hampshire, Mitt Romney suggested that the primary season, that he had once wanted to finish swiftly with victories in the early states, could last well into the spring.

“You see how dramatically the numbers have moved and how quickly they have over the last year?” he replied Monday during a video interview at a grubby French-Canadian diner, Chez Vachon, a storied campaign stop that has hosted George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

“It’s a very fluid electorate. I think I’ll get the nomination. I can’t predict when. … I’ve got — what? — five or six more months to go to make that a reality.”

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS MEET GINGRICH-HUNTSMAN today in New Hampshire during a meeting between the candidates at opposite ends of national public opinion polling.

From the AP’s Steve Peoples:

“There were no time limits, formal rules or reporters asking questions.

And if you ask Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman, they would say there were no clear winners or losers Monday night in what was billed as a “Lincoln-Douglas” presidential debate modeled after the 1858 meetings of Illinois Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.

In fact, after a 90-minute free-flowing discussion about foreign policy and national security, it was difficult to discern a single area where the Republican presidential contenders disagreed. There were no rhetorical bombs thrown. And what criticism surfaced was aimed at President Barack Obama and America’s threats abroad.

Yet Gingrich was absolutely thrilled.

“This is what we should have a lot more of, because this is substantive,” said Gingrich, the former House speaker. “This is not a Hollywood game. This is not a reality show. This is reality.”

In some ways, the format was a dream come true for Gingrich, a self-proclaimed historian and former college professor, whose intellect and willingness to challenge his rivals has aided a sudden rise in the polls. Having lost most of his campaign cash and staffers over the summer, he bet his presidential ambitions almost exclusively on national media interviews and debates.”

WALL STREET: “An aggressive two-week rally came to a quiet thud Monday on Wall Street, in a light-volume selloff triggered by the familiar fears that Europe was far from solving its sovereign debt crisis,” CNBC reports

  • DOW down 163
  • NASDAQ down 35
  • S&P 500 down 19

“STRONG” PARODIES: Last week, we brought you Rick Perry’s campaign ad “Strong” in which he says “You don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”

It now has more dislikes on YouTube than Rebecca Black’s “Friday” and has drawn rebukes and criticism despite being widely viewed and discussed.

The AP ran a story today on the several video parodies that have been posted as replies to Perry’s ad.

“First, there’s the jacket. Many videos have noted that it’s the same type worn by actor Heath Ledger in the 2005 movie “Brokeback Mountain,” which centers on a long love affair between two cowboys.

Many of the video parodies feature actors wearing the shirt and jacket combo, including video satirist Andy Cobb.

“I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m an atheist,” Cobb says, “but you know there’s something wrong with this country when politicians think it’s OK to hate on gays and nonbelievers in ads.”

Another video shows a brown-jacketed rabbi, Jason Miller.

“I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a Jew,” Miller says. “There’s something wrong in our country when gays can serve openly in the military but still can’t marry each other in most U.S. states.”

FOR PROFESSIONAL COMMENT: Stephen Farnsworth, an associate professor of communications at George Mason University, said the ad may well help Perry in Iowa, where polls are starting to show him inch up a bit. But Farnsworth said the ad’s message — and the parodies it has spawned — won’t help in the long run, particularly when it comes to connecting with moderate and swing voters.

“The worst thing to be in American politics is a joke,” Farnsworth said.

The Huffington Post is running a contest where you can vote for your favorite parody video, including one that has nearly 100,00 views by THE EVENING REPORT’s resident video blogger JAMES KOTECKI.

FINALLY: RETHINKING THE INK- The Washington Post-

“If tattoos are the marks of an era — declarations of love, of loss, of triumph, of youthful exuberance or youthful foolishness — then tattoo removals are about regret, confessions that those landmarks are in the past. They’re about the realization that whatever you believed in with such force that you wanted it eternally branded on your skin is now foreign to you.

According to the Pew Research Center, more than 40 percent of Americans between the ages of 26 and 40 have at least one tattoo. Getting a tattoo, once the province of sailors rather than suburbanites, is so mainstream that tats are inked at the mall and seen on everyone from Middle American mothers to H Street hipsters to Hollywood starlets.

Perhaps not surprisingly, a parallel trend is emerging: tattoo removal, with dozens of businesses and training schools opening across the country.”

Obama Strategy Against Gingrich

As reported in Playbook this morning, David Axelrod offered some insight yesterday into the Obama 2012 playbook in going after Newt Gingrich. This is also a story being reported, in different forms, by National Journal and the New York Times this morning.

“But in many ways, to the extent that there is kind of [an] angry base, … he’s expert at speaking to that. … [H]e was kind of the godfather of gridlock. He really, more than any single person, fomented this atmosphere in Washington where people are no longer respectful opponents but rather enemies — and you didn’t just disqualify the position of your opponent, you tried to disqualify them as Americans. That really began with him. I was tickled when I saw his ad in Iowa talking about how he’s going to bring the country together to solve problems. He’d be, like, the least likely person you’d assign that task to, based on his record and his approach. …

Romney Strategy Against Gingrich

ABC News reports this morning in The Note on the expected Romney campaign strategy against Newt Gingrich, who is now challenging Romney for frontrunner status. ABC reports that the Romney campaign held a series of meetings over last weekend to develop the strategy, below:

–Romney will not go after Gingrich on personal issues, but ABC News has learned that you can expect to see Romney surrogates making fairly direct references to Gingrich’s tumultuous past. You can also expect to see Ann Romney and the Romney family on the trail much more, especially in South Carolina, to create a visual contrast.

–The Romney team sees Gingrich’s temperament as a weakness. Romney, himself, will highlight the importance of temperament by discussing his record as a leader. Surrogates are likely to go after Newt directly.

–You will see the Romney team begin to utilize their huge financial advantage. One Republican says expect ads in South Carolina soon. Not because they think it will guarantee victory — polls show them trailing there — but because they are concerned with keeping it close.

–The Romney team will flex its organizational muscle, especially in Florida where they have an extensive infrastructure

The Evening Report for Tuesday December 06

28 DAYS UNTIL IOWA

TOP STORY: President Obama delivered a major speech today in Oswatomie, Kansas, the site of a speech by President Theordore Roosevelt on August 31, 1910 in which the 26th President laid out his vision for a “new nationalism.”

It is a theme that President Obama hopes to adopt as a central message of his 2012 presidential election campaign, and a defining vision for his administration. As such, it was the most significant speech the President has given in months- going back at least to the Address to a Joint Session of Congress in September on jobs and the economy.

FROM THE PRESIDENTS REMARKS:

“There’s been a great debate over the best way to restore growth and prosperity, restore balance, restore fairness. Throughout the country, it’s sparked protests and political movements—from the tea party to the people who’ve been occupying the streets of New York and other cities…

…But…this is not just another political debate. This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class…

I’m here in Kansas to reaffirm my deep conviction that we’re greater together than we are on our own. I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, when everyone plays by the same rules. These aren’t Democratic values or Republican values. These aren’t 1 percent values or 99 percent values. They’re American values. And we have to reclaim them.”

ON ROOSEVELT

“Roosevelt also knew that the free market has never been a free license to take whatever you can from whomever you can. He understood the free market only works when there are rules of the road that ensure competition is fair and open and honest. And so he busted up monopolies, forcing those companies to compete for consumers with better services and better prices. And today, they still must. He fought to make sure businesses couldn’t profit by exploiting children or selling food or medicine that wasn’t safe. And today, they still can’t.”

ON REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION

“Now, just as there was in Teddy Roosevelt’s time, there is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. “The market will take care of everything,” they tell us. If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes — especially for the wealthy — our economy will grow stronger. Sure, they say, there will be winners and losers. But if the winners do really well, then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everybody else. And, they argue, even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, well, that’s the price of liberty.

Now, it’s a simple theory. And we have to admit, it’s one that speaks to our rugged individualism and our healthy skepticism of too much government. That’s in America’s DNA. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. But here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible postwar booms of the ‘50s and ‘60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade. I mean, understand, it’s not as if we haven’t tried this theory.

Remember in those years, in 2001 and 2003, Congress passed two of the most expensive tax cuts for the wealthy in history. And what did it get us? The slowest job growth in half a century. Massive deficits that have made it much harder to pay for the investments that built this country and provided the basic security that helped millions of Americans reach and stay in the middle class — things like education and infrastructure, science and technology, Medicare and Social Security.”

ON INEQUALITY

“We simply cannot return to this brand of “you’re on your own” economics if we’re serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country. We know that it doesn’t result in a strong economy. It results in an economy that invests too little in its people and in its future. We know it doesn’t result in a prosperity that trickles down. It results in a prosperity that’s enjoyed by fewer and fewer of our citizens.”

WHAT THIS SPEECH MEANS

For President Obama, the Osawatomie speech has the potential to be a watershed and a turning point.

If the President and his re-election campaign (and his Administration, for that matter) can capture the themes that he discussed today, put them in terms the average American will understand, and continue to hammer them repeatedly over the next eleven months, it will draw enough of a contrast between the President and his Republican opponent that places the President on the side of the average American, thereby paving his road to re-election.

We know the President can deliver a good speech- and he did again today- but we have also learned that his Administration has been remarkably weak at translating speeches into policy, and into winning arguments for those policies. If they fail to do so again with this idea of wealth inequality, economic fairness and “21st century new nationalism,” then today’s debate remains the same.

CAMPAIGN 2012


New polls out so far this week show one clear message: Newt Gingrich is leading the Republican presidential race. Some pundits are even going as far as saying the nomination is now Gingrich’s to lose.

While the Romney campaign contests this, they are clearly worried, making their candidate available to the media for the first time, today appearing on Neil Cavuto’s show on FOX News and on Sunday sitting down with Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday, in what will be Romney’s first Sunday morning talk show interview in more than 20 months.

ABC NEWS/WASHINGTON POST IOWA POLL

  • Gingrich 33%
  • Paul 18%
  • Romney 18%
  • Perry 11%
  • Bachmann 8%
  • Santorum 7%
  • Huntsman 2%

CBS/NEW YORK TIMES IOWA POLL

  • Gingrich 31%
  • Romney 17%
  • Perry 11%
  • Bachmann 9%
  • Santorum 4%
  • Huntsman 1%

Both of the above polls were taken in the days before Herman Cain officially withdrew from the race. Both polls asked respondents to rank their candidates with, and without, Cain, and the numbers without Cain are reported above.

REAL CLEAR POLITICS AVERAGE OF IOWA POLLS: Gingrich +11.6%

POLITICO LEAD STORY TONIGHT “THE MITT PIVOT”

“With Gingrich surging in the caucuses, narrowing Romney’s advantage in New Hampshire and staking out a sizable lead in national polls, the former Massachusetts governor is entering a post-frontrunner phase that requires a more active engagement with both voters and his GOP rivals.

“It’s time for our closing argument. And I’m making the closing argument to the American people,” Romney said.

Hopes for wrapping up the nomination with a quick-strike victory, which would require a strong showing in Iowa, are fading. Romney’s comments effectively marked a public concession that the play-it-safe approach he’s held to so far this year – limiting his interviews and doing only modest amounts of retail campaigning – simply won’t cut it anymore.”

CONTEXT: The “Closing Argument” comment came in Romney’s Cavuto interview today

THE TRUMP DEBATE: Only two candidates- Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum- have agreed to participate in the candidates forum to be moderated by Donald Trump on Tuesday December 27th. Today, Romney announced he would not participate.

WALL STREET: As the markets continue to watch Europe with great intent, markets were relatively quiet in trading today.

  • DOW up 52
  • NASDAQ 6
  • S&P 500 up 1

CITIGROUP announced today that they are cutting 4,500 jobs next year, which is equal to about 2% of its workforce worldwide. A few months ago, Bank of America announced plans to cut 30,000 jobs next year.

FINALLY Alec Baldwin was kicked off an American Airlines plane today after using with his mobile phone as the plane was attempting to take off.

From the AP:

“After explaining what happened, Baldwin let out a storm of tweets ripping AA for their conduct. “#theresalwaysunited” he wrote, referring to the airline’s competitor, United. Then, he wrote, “But, oddly, 30 Rock plays inflight on American. #theresalwaysunited,” referring to his own TV show.

“United Airlines should buy Words With Friends,” Baldwin continued, propping up the competitor once again.

Baldwin then got on another plane, which he indicated by tweeting, “Now on the 3 o’clock American flight. The flight attendants already look…..smarter.”

But while they’ve got Baldwin on their plane now, American won’t be getting his business going forward.

#theresalwaysunited Last flight w American. Where retired Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950’s find jobs as flight attendants,” the Emmy-winner stated.

The onslaught continued, as he joked, “Now, as I was kicked off this flight, the word I was playing was UNITED,” and then said, “My words with friends user name is now #theresalwaysunited.”nts 24, Lions 10, in New Orleans tonight.

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The Evening Report for Sunday December 04, 2011

30 DAYS UNTIL IOWA

TOP STORY: Early returns are in from the Russian parliamentary election and with 75% of the vote being reported, Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia, has less support now than they reported in the last election in 2007. Three months from now, Putin is expected to run, and was widely expected to win, Russia’ presidential election.

From the BBC:

“Opposition parties have complained of violations of election laws.

Russia’s only independent monitoring group, Golos, says it has logged 5,300 complaints alleging violations of election laws.

The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg, in Moscow, says if confirmed, the result will be a significant embarrassment to Mr Putin, three months before he is scheduled to run again for the Russian presidency.

He says opposition parties are alleging widespread fraud, including the stuffing of ballot boxes and voters being offered money.

Mr Putin served as president from 2000 to 2008 but was prohibited by the constitution from running for a third consecutive term.”

THE BIG STORY THIS WEEK: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is in Europe as an important week begins to negotiate an endgame to the European debt crisis. The next summit of European leaders is scheduled for Friday.

CNBC reports:

“Expectations are rising that Friday’s summit of 27 EU leaders will yield a breakthrough. An agreement on tighter integration of the 17 countries that use the single currency — especially on budget matters — would be seen as a crucial first step. That could trigger further emergency aid from the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund or some combination, analysts say.

The coming days “will decide if the euro will survive or not,” Emma Marcegaglia, the head of Italy’s industrial lobby, Confindustria, said Sunday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Central Bank Chief Draghi, and even U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will star in a 5-day financial drama leading up to the summit.

If the summit is a failure, Sarkozy warned last week, “the world will not wait for Europe.”

Sarkozy and Merkel meet in Paris on Monday to unveil a proposal for closer political and economic ties between eurozone countries. While the leaders differ on some of the details, their cooperation has been so tight they have come to be known by a single name — “Merkozy.”

The two agree overall on the need for tougher rules that would prevent governments from spending or borrowing too much — and on certain penalties for persistent violators.”

US PARK POLICE arrested 31 demonstrators in Washington today, the first mass arrests of the Occupy DC movement that has set up camp at McPherson Square downtown for the past two months.

This morning, protestors erected a wooden structure, some 30 feet tall, that they claimed would serve as a house to provide warmth during the coming winter. Park Police ordered the structure removed because it lacked the proper permit. Shortly after noon when the protestors did not comply with the order, police sealed off the area and proceeded to arrest protestors within and crossing a police line.

As night fell, police brought in a cherry picker, and inflated a safety net-like apparatus used to catch victims jumping from burning buildings to arrest protestors that remained on the roof of the structure. After the area was cleared, police dismantled the structure but reports indicate there are no plans to remove the larger Occupy came in DC tonight. Today marks the first time that demonstrators have clashed with the Park Police.

CAMPAIGN 2012:

Businessman HERMAN CAIN dropped out of the Republican presidential race on Saturday, citing stress to himself and his family after recent allegations of sexual harassment and a 13-year affair.

In his exit speech, Cain said that he would, in short order, offer an endorsement. Today, POLITICO’s Mike Allen leads reporting suggesting that NEWT GINGRICH is likely to receive that endorsement, which would buoy the man now seen as the principal opponent to Mitt Romney.

JAMES KOTECKI VIDEO: Cain rather curiously decided to quote from the Pokemon in his speech leaving the presidential race on Saturday. Who else might Cain have quoted?

NEW DES MOINES REGISTER POLL released Saturday night, conducted while Cain remained a candidate in the race, offers an important snapshot in to the state of the caucus at the one mark to go marker.

  • GINGRICH 25%
  • PAUL 18%
  • ROMNEY 16%
  • BACHMANN 8%
  • CAIN 8%
  • PERRY 6%
  • SANTORUM 6%
  • HUNTSMAN 2%
  • NOT SURE 11%

GINGRICH leads ROMNEY by 6.2% according to the latest Real Clear Politics average of all recent national polls.

NBC NEWS and MARIST have new polls out today in the early primary states. These polls were also conducted before Cain exited the race.

IOWA

  • GINGRICH 26%
  • ROMNEY 18%
  • PAUL 17%
  • CAIN 9%
  • PERRY 9%
  • BACHMANN 5%
  • SANTORUM 5%
  • HUNTSMAN 2%

NEW HAMPSHIRE

  • ROMNEY 39%
  • GINGRICH 23%
  • PAUL 16%
  • HUNTSMAN 9%
  • PERRY 3%
  • BACHMANN 3%
  • CAIN 2%
  • SANTORUM 1%

For their part, the OBAMA CAMPAIGN is continuing to focus their attention on Mitt Romney, the man who the campaign believes still will become the Republican nominee to face President Obama next year.

In Sunday morning talk shows today, two campaign surrogates- Robert Gibbs and David Axelrod- purposely didn’t take the bait from moderators to offer the same attacks against Gingrich that they continue to levy against Romney.

For a sampling, here’s Axelrod on Meet The Press this morning with David Gregory:

“This is about, this is about public character.  This is about public character.  And, by the way, it’s not just Democrats, but most of the Republicans who are making the same case, David.  Jon Huntsman’s running ads, or his supporters are in New Hampshire on that right now.

Last night Governor Romney said that the, the EPA was the president’s tool to crush the private enterprise system.  When he was governor of Massachusetts he boasted that he had the toughest rules against CO2 emissions from plants, that he had the toughest rules when it comes to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. 

And now it’s like that never happened.  Now he’s, now he’s on the other side of it. THIS IS THE REASON I SUPPOSE WHY HE AND HIS AIDES ABSCONDED WITH THE HARD DRIVES FROM THEIR COMPUTERS WHEN THEY LEFT THE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE BECAUSE THEY THINK THEY CAN JUST ERASE THE PAST, that what you said before doesn’t matter now.  And so, yes, when it comes to his public character, he, he doesn’t have a core”

It’s a big quote that offers an important snapshot in the Obama Campaign’s strategy.

TIGER WOODS ended a two-year streak without a competitive golf match win today, placing first in the Chevron World Challenge in Thousand Oaks, California.

From ESPN:

“He swept his arm across the air, yelled through the din of the gallery and slammed his fist in a celebration that was a long time coming.

Relief? Satisfaction? Vindication?

Woods wasn’t sure, and he didn’t much care.

“It just feels awesome whatever it is,” he said.

Trailing by one shot with two holes to play, Woods came up with two clutch putts. He holed a 15-footer for birdie on the par-3 17th to pull into a tie with Johnson, then hit a 9-iron from 158 yards that landed on the ridge behind the hole and rolled down to 6 feet.”

AT THE BOX OFFICE THIS WEEKEND

1/ Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn: $16.9 million
2/ The Muppets $11.2 million
3/ Hugo $7.6 million

SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL: After 3, it’s Saints 24, Lions 10, in New Orleans tonight.

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The Evening Report for Wednesday November 30, 2011

34 DAYS UNTIL IOWA

JUST IN: Virginia Attorney Governor Ken Cuccinelli will announce that he is running for governor in 2013, the Washington Post reports tonight.

Cuccinelli was elected Attorney General in 2009 and has become a hero among tea party conservatives for his positions on health care, immigration and gay rights.

Incumbent Republican Governor Bob McDonnell is not eligible to run for re-election in 2013 due to term limits. Cuccinelli is expected to face Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling in a primary.

On the Democratic side, former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe is reportedly considering a second attempt at the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

CAMPAIGN 2012:

NEWT GINGRICH ON FOX NEWS TONIGHT: “And it’s clear that across the country, people are saying, you know, I think we need Newt Gingrich,” he said. “Whereas I would have thought originally it was going to be Mitt and not-Mitt, I think it’s going to — it may turn out to be Newt and not-Newt.”

RON PAUL ATTACKS GINGRICH: In a new web video out today (that only has 301 views), the Ron Paul campaign attacks Gingrich for what they call “serial hypocrisy” and applies the same flip-flopping charge that is more often leveled against Mitt Romney, to Gingrich.

HERMAN CAIN ON FOX NEWS THIS AFTERNOON: “I can only conjecture that maybe I am the Democrats’ worst nightmare if I win the nomination … Maybe the Democrats want Newt Gingrich to win the nomination, so they can then go after his personal life.” Officially, Cain is still “reassessing” his candidacy.

AND THEN, Cain said this, via POLITICO, “On the many, many phone calls between him and the woman accusing him of having a 13-year affair Ginger White, Cain said: “I talked to a lot of people 61 times.”

STILL TONIGHT, Cain had more to say, in a 9pm news conference, he said he could not guarantee that more allegations could come forward.”I can’t say that someone won’t drum up another accusation. It just comes with the territory, he siad.

MITT ROMNEY UP WITH NH AD: The second ad of the campaign cycle put up by the Romney Campaign. Their first, last week, was widely criticized for a misleading quote from President Obama during the 2008 campaign. The ad is straightforward and attacks the President’s economic policy.

PRESIDENT OBAMA is in New York City tonight, attending four campaign fundraisers. Earlier today, the President was in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of Vice President Joe Biden (who is in Baghdad today) urging Congress to extend & expand the payroll tax cut passed last year for in 2012. He is due back at The White House at 12:30am Thursday.

ON CAPITOL HILL, there is some movement on extending the payroll tax cut, with GOP leadership emerging generally in favor of doing so, resisting the opposition of some more conservative members.

In a closed-door House Republican caucus meeting today, The Hill reports that Majority Leader Eric Cantor laid down the gauntlet, saying, “taxes are a Republican issue and you aren’t a Republican if you want to raise taxes on struggling families to fund bigger government.”

THE REPUBLICAN PLAN as it is currently being floated, would freeze pay for federal workers an additional year (it has already been frozen for two years), trim the federal workforce by roughly 10% and introduce some means-testing for federal programs such as Medicare and unemployment insurance.

Ordinarily, these proposals would be dismissed out of hand by Democrats (much like their proposal, to pay for the tax extension by charging a surtax on millionaire taxes, is being by Republicans), however, the proposals in the Republican plan are taken from the bi-partisan Simpson/Bowles Committee recommendations that many Democrats see as the basis for long-term deficit reduction.

COORDINATED ACTION BY THE FED and other central banks around the world this morning was designed to increase the amount of US dollars in circulation around the world and act as a buffer to continued anxiety over the European debt crisis.

As the New York Times reports:

“The banks announced that they would reduce by roughly half the cost of an existing program under which banks in foreign countries can borrow dollars from their own central banks, which in turn get those dollars from the Fed.  The banks also said that loans will be available until February 2013, extending a previous endpoint of August 2012.”

“The purpose of these actions is to ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses and so help foster economic activity,” the banks said in a statement. The participants in addition to the Fed were the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank.”

WALL STREET reported its best day of 2011 as a result of the Fed’s announcement:

  • DOW up 490 to 12,045
  • NASDAQ up 105 to 2,620
  • S&P 500 up 52 to 1,247

BILLY GRAHAM was admitted to a hospital today in North Carolina, reportedly suffering from pneumonia-like symptoms. The iconic Evangelical minister is 93-years old and has been in declining health in recent years.

$9 GAS? it looks like that’s a possibility this winter in NOME, ALASKA. A historic winter storm earlier this month prevented a barge from reaching the Alaskan city best known the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and now officials are coming up with a plan to fly small quantities of gasoline into the community of 3,500 residents, at an extraordinarily high cost.

The Associated Press reports on the predicament:

“A gallon of gas was selling for $5.98 and jet fuel $6.77 a gallon on Wednesday. The next barge delivery wouldn’t be until next June. In the meantime, flying fuel to the city could increase the cost per gallon by $3 to $4, officials said.”

“We are going to have to have fuel drivers picking up fuel 24 hours a day as flights are available to fly into Nome,” said Jason Evans, board chairman of Sitnasuak Native Corp., which provides services to the region.”

“Sitnasuak arranged in May with petroleum distributor Delta Western Inc. to have three barges deliver fuel to Nome, but only one arrived early in the summer, Evans said. That barge carried home heating fuel.”

“The storm that barreled into Alaska’s western coastline in mid-November, zeroing in on Nome, prevented the arrival of a barge carrying 1.6-million gallons of gasoline and diesel.”

FINALLY...the 2011 Rockefeller Christmas Tree is lit! This year’s tree is a 74-foot tall Norweigan Spruce from Miffinville, Pa. Over 34,00 lights- stretching some five miles- illuminate the tree.

The first Christmas Tree was placed in Rockefeller Plaza in 1931 and the first tree lighting ceremony was held in 1933. The 2011 tree will be illuminated each evening- and all day Christmas Day- until January 07, 2012.

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