The Golden Report

6 DAYS UNTIL NEW HAMPSHIRE (12 delegates)
17 DAYS UNTIL SOUTH CAROLINA (25 delegates)
20 DAYS UNTIL THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
27 DAYS UNTIL FLORIDA (50 delegates)

It was a busy news day. Here’s a look at what’s happened today:

• Mitt Romney officially won the Iowa Caucus by eight votes over Rick Santorum.
• Michele Bachmann said she was suspending her presidential campaign.
• Rick Perry returned to Texas, and then announced that he would be staying in the race, participating in this weekend’s debates and competing in the South Carolina Primary later this month.
• 2008 Republican Nominee John McCain endorsed Mitt Romney in New Hampshire.
• President Obama appointed Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, using a controversial recess appointment. He used the same authority to nominate three members of the National Labor Relations Board.

THE MAN OF THE DAY: RICK SANTORUM, who sent a shock wave through the Republican Party by earning 25% of last night’s Iowa Caucus vote. Today, Santorum moved on to New Hampshire as he faces the seemingly daunting task of building a campaign organization that is able to go toe-to-toe with Mitt Romney.

HE’S RAISED A MILLION DOLLARS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS: reports Jonathan Martin “their server briefly went down under the crush last night, said almost all of the cash came online.”

AND/BUT MITT ROMNEY WON THE DAY, says Maggie Habberman, “To be sure, Rick Santorum has had a good day - he’s still being treated as the clearest anti-Romney candidate, and he got helpful ink from the Wall Street Journal editorial page and columnist George Will. But Romney’s day was better.”

AND JMART SAYS ITS GOING TO BE HARD TO STOP ROMNEY NOW:

“Conservatives got a stark reminder Wednesday about just how difficult it will be to block his path to the nomination. Romney’s conservative opposition remains split and unable to unify behind a single alternative — all the more so with Rick Perry deciding to stay in the race Wednesday after hinting he might step aside. A high-profile Christian conservative, Gary Bauer, said he had no intention of joining a campaign to take down Romney.

And even second-place Iowa finisher Rick Santorum’s momentum hardly seemed enough to slow Romney in New Hampshire, where the former Massachusetts governor is sitting on a double-digit lead with five days until the primary.
Because of the divided nature of the opposition and Romney’s organizational and financial advantages, GOP elites made the case Wednesday that there was no clear way he could be stopped.”

A ‘VICTORY LAP’ IS EXACTLY HOW THE NEW YORK TIMES DESCRIBES ROMNEY’S DAY:

“After a round of morning television show appearances and a ride in a Boeing 737 packed with reporters, Mr. Romney headed for a high school gymnasium where he accepted the endorsement of a onetime bitter rival, Senator John McCain. He also showed off his network of support in the state, where the nation’s first primary takes place Tuesday, appearing with former Gov. John H. Sununu and Senator Kelly Ayotte, an indication of how the Republican establishment was rallying to his side.

“Do we think we can get more than an eight-vote margin here in New Hampshire?” he asked the crowd, a joking reference to his remarkably slim margin of victory in Iowa.

While Mr. Romney dominated the day-after-Iowa news coverage with his victory lap here, Mr. Santorum and his staff were slowly making the 1,400-mile journey from Des Moines in a King Air propeller plane that did not deliver them here until suppertime, too late to make a star turn on the evening news. He made a nighttime turn on Fox News and CNN and landed in time for a rally that drew hundreds.”

BUT, ABOUT THAT MCCAIN ENDORSEMENT- the Huffington Post’s Jon Ward thought the event was lackluster, much like Romney’s speech early this morning in Iowa:

“Mitt Romney’s first event here in the state where he enjoys a huge home-field advantage offered a rude awakening.

Three of the first four questioners were openly hostile to Romney, although one of them was an Occupy Manchester activist. And even the endorsement and appearance of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) failed to arouse much of a reaction from the Granite Staters in attendance.”

WHY POLITICAL ADVANCE IS SO IMPORTANT: ”And much of the blame probably lay with campaign planners, who scheduled Romney for an event at a time when most politically active people are working and put him in front of an audience made up in part of apathetic high school students. They also rushed McCain out onto the big stage so he could dominate the cable news during the afternoon, rather than waiting for an early-evening town hall in Peterborough, one of McCain’s favorite settings in the state.”

TONIGHT McCain and Romney made a joint appearance on Hannity.

SO WHAT’S NEXT?

Saturday- 14th Republican Presidential Candidates Debate, St. Anslem College, 9pm/ABC News
Sunday- Republican Presidential Candidates Debate, Mancheser, NH 9am/NBC News
Tuesday- New Hampshire Primary
Monday January 16th- Republican Presidential Candidates Debate, Myrtle Beach, SC
Thursday January 19th- 17th Republican Presidential Candidates Debate, Charleston, SC
Saturday January 21st- South Carolina Primary

SANTORUM MISSES DEADLINE FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA APRIL 3RD PRIMARY- “Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney all filed the required information by today’s 5 p.m. deadline and will appear on the ballot for DC’s April 3 primary. Michele Bachmann, who dropped her presidential bid earlier today, also did not file”

JON HUNTSMAN ON AIR IN NEW HAMPSHIRE: ”We’re getting screwed as Americans” his new ad - also his first- says.

PRESIDENT OBAMA went to Ohio today, his first public appearance of 2012 in a key battleground state. And the White House began the year fighting, choosing to usurp Senatorial custom and interpret the President’s constitutional authority to issue recess appointments broadly, nominating Richard Cordray as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

IN THIS MOVE, National Journal’s Stacy Kaper and Dan Friedman find clues to the President’s re-election strategy

“In one bold stroke, Obama broke what Democrats called an unprecedented GOP attempt to hold up installation of any CFPB chief unless Democrats agreed to change the agency’s structure. Republicans filibustered Cordray’s nomination last month. 

Obama’s move marks a new step in a procedural arms race in which both parties, while professing outrage, counter each other’s obstruction with new procedural tactics. Legally, Cordray has no better claim to a recess appointment than any other pending nominee. But because Republicans blocked Cordray on the grounds that they oppose the bureau rather than think him unqualified, Democrats feel they have a stronger political case for installing him.

Lawyers of all stripes agree that legal challenges are inevitable, and that, like the health care law, they could ultimately wind up before the Supreme Court.”

LOOK FOR AN INCREASINGLY COMBATIVE WHITE HOUSE to continue its “We Can’t Wait” strategy in the weeks ahead, portraying President Obama as a “warrior for the Middle Class”- a likely theme for this year’s State of the Union Address

WALL STREET- from CNBC- “The Dow and S&P clawed back into positive territory at the close Wednesday, adding to the sharp rally from the previous session, but gains were limited over renewed fears over the euro zone debt crisis.”

• DOW up 21
• NASDAQ down 0.36
• S&P 500 up 0.24

FINALLY… The Iowa Caucus results didn’t come in until very early this morning and cable news anchors stayed on the air  through it all. CNN’s coverage after 1am provided a lot of great bloopers

Here’s Erin Burnett flicking a magic wall, Anderson Cooper saying “have we all just given up here?” and “I don’t know what the hell a social media screen is” and Wolf Blitzer looking anxious in “Late Night Takes over CNN Anchors“ 

Here’s Piers Morgan clearly interrupting Anderson Cooper when he was about to follow-up with a question 

AND THE BEST VIDEO OF THE NIGHT Here’s Wolf Blitzer and John King ON THE PHONE with Clinton County Election Officials Edith & Carolyn, including “what do you mean the numbers don’t match?” 

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FROM ST. LOUIS TONIGHT: Game One of the 2011 World Series. 9pm score: St. Louis Cardinals: 0; Texas Rangers: 0 in the bottom of the fourth inning. 

TOP STORY: 18 tigers, 17 lions, 6 bears and 3 cougars, 3 mountain lions, 1 wolf and 1 baboon are dead tonight in Muskingum County, Ohio after the owner of an exotic animal farm opened the cages of his collection before killing himself in an apparent suicide today. Sheriff officials in the County then moved in to find the missing animals and to shoot them. One animal, a monkey, remains missing tonight, and he is thought to be carrying the Herpes B virus. It has been a bizarre story that has developed throughout the day. 

PRESIDENT OBAMA wrapped up his 3-day bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia today, campaigning for individual sections from his jobs bill that suffered defeat in the Senate last week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today announced that the first piece of the jobs bill- aide to hire teachers and police officers- would be brought to the Senate Floor as a stand-alone measure and be voted on Friday of this week. The bill, which would be funded with a surtax on Millionaires, faces opposition from Republicans and moderate Democrats and is not expected to reach the 60-vote threshold it needs for consideration. The Administration is continuing to campaign aggressively for the passage of the legislation- with First Lady Michelle Obama joining the President today in Virginia; and Vice President Joe Biden encouraging its passage in a separate appearance.

SOCIAL SECURITY: After two years of a 0% cost of living increase, social security recipients will see a 3.6% increase in their cost of living allowances in 2012, the Social Security Administration announced today. The average monthly Social Security check will increase $43 to $1,229. The cost of living increase also means that an extra 10 million Americans will pay into the system, with the first $110,100 of a person’s wages taxable for Social Security, up from $106,800 this year.

WALL STREET: News that the ongoing Euro Zone negotiations have stalled ahead of a weekend deadline helped to dampen the day on Wall Street and forced the major indices lower.

DOW down 72

NASDAQ down 53

S&P 500 down 15

SUPERCOMMITTEE: The Joint Congressional Committee on Deficit Reduction- charged with finding $1.2 trillion in savings in the federal budget by the end of next month, announced today that it will hold its next public hearing next Wednesday, October 26th, over a month after its last public hearing. The group- which is made up of both Republicans and Democrats appointed by the leadership in both chambers, on both sides of the aisle, has come under public criticism for holding the majority of their meetings behind closed doors. Just yesterday, the group met with the so-called “Gang of Six” senators who were meeting throughout the winter and spring to come up with a bi-partisan deficit reduction proposal. The Gang achieved some consensus during the summer’s debt ceiling negotiations but, ultimately, were unsuccessful in pushing a “grand bargain.” They hope to use the Supercommittee to continue their work. Next week’s public hearing will give us the first sense as to what the committee members are thinking, if there is the possibility that they may come to consensus before the November 23rd deadline, and the scope and scale of the package that may be under consideration.

2012 POLLS:

NBC/MARIST SOUTH CAROLINA: Cain 31%, Romney 28%, Perry 10%, Gingrich 7%, Paul 5%, Bachmann 5%, Santorum 2%, Huntsman 1%

NBC/MARIST FLORIDA: Romney 33%, Cain 32%, Perry 9%, Gingrich 6%, Paul 6%, Bachmann 2%, Huntsman 2%, Santorum 1%

ASSOCIATED PRESS national Republican presidential nomination:

Romney 30%

Cain 26%

Perry 13%

Gingrich 7%

Paul 8%

Bachmann 4%

Huntsman 2%

Santorum 2%

From the AP write up, “Among Republicans, the desire to oust Obama is clear, according to a new AP-GfK poll. But it has not resolved divisions over the choice of a nominee. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is reasonably popular, but he has not pulled away from the field. Former pizza company executive Herman Cain runs close to Romney as the candidate Republicans would most like to see on the ballot, but many Republicans are reluctant to back a man who has never held office. Texas Gov. Rick Perry lags in the poll, which was conducted before Tuesday night’s combative debate in Las Vegas.”

And key, “There seems to be a broad gender divide in the Republican contest. Among GOP women, Romney is favored over his nearest competitor, Cain, by 17 percentage points, with the rest of the field in single digits. The picture is more muddled among Republican men: 31 percent favor Cain, 26 percent Romney, 17 percent Perry, 10 percent Paul, and the rest are each 5 percent or below. Among all adults, regardless of party identification, 21 percent say they’d like the GOP to nominate Romney. Eighteen percent name Cain, 13 percent Perry and 11 percent Paul”

FINALLY: Remember the Cantaloupe outbreak of Listeria last month? Federal official now say that unsanitary packing procedures likely led to the outbreak of the disease that has sickened 123 people in 26 states and become one of the US’ largest food disease outbreaks in history. “Growth of the pathogen was probably exacerbated by the farm’s failure to pre-cool the cantaloupes. The company acknowledged that it had skipped a key step that pulls the heat from cantaloupe before it is refrigerated, possibly contributing to condensation and moist surfaces that encouraged the Listeria to grow,” the Washington Post reports tonight.