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.”
FOLLOW THE EVENING REPORT ON TWITTER: @EVENING_REPORT
LIKE THE EVENING REPORT ON FACEBOOK: FACEBOOK.COM/EVENINGREPORT
SUBSCRIBE TO THE EVENING REPORT: EVENINGEMAIL.COM
