6:00pm The Republican: Five questions for Tim Pawlenty from Lowry and Ponnuru at NRO

4:45pm Video round-up:

• Thaddeus McCotter: Obama's "obsessive-compulsive pursuit of an abominable government takeover of health care has despoiled the people's house and alienated Americans"
• Newt Gingrich: I can't thank the press corps enough for showing America last week that I'm not a Washington figure but an outsider
• Sen. Richard Lugar (former Mitch Daniels boss): "I'm surprised and disappointed" that Daniels isn't running

4:00pm Opinion: Herb London: The UN vote on (a non-democratic) Palestinian state poses a historic threat to Israel and the West

2:30pm Video: John Fund gives an overview of the "other guys" - the non-establishment, non-frontrunning GOP 2012 field

2:15pm The Republican: Draft Paul Ryan? Eric Cantor thinks it would be a good idea

1:15pm "A Time for Truth": The full remarks of Tim Pawlenty's presidential campaign announcement

12:00pm The Republican: Medicare will change because it must: the question is whether Republicans will have the courage to continue defending the right kinds of changes

10:30am Videos:

• RNC Chair Reince Priebus: Yes the 2012 field is solid, but the election will really be a referendum on Obama
• WSJ's Jonathan Weisman discusses what Mitch Daniels' announcement means for the 2012 field

10:00am Tim Pawlenty's big gamble: Shift the discussion from cutting spending that others like to cutting spending that YOU like

7:00am Excerpts from Tim Pawlenty's formal 2012 announcement today

Ryan Streeter on The Republican: Draft Paul Ryan: With Daniels out, the idea sounds more appealing all the time

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: Senate GOP won't 'coalesce' around one budget proposal

"Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday that Senate Republicans are “not going to be able to coalesce” around one budget proposal. McConnell said he would support a budget proposal offered by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is planning to bring up for a vote in the Senate this week. But he also said the Senate should consider other Republican proposals." - The Hill

Congressman Paul Ryan challenges Democrats to propose alternative to his budget

"The architect of the House Republican plan for overhauling Medicare says it's time to move beyond petty politics and focus on dealing with the nation's fiscal problems, and he's challenging Democrats to show leadership on budget cuts." - Fox News

 > Yesterday on Video: Ryan schools Gregory: "Leaders are elected to lead. I don't consult polls to tell me what my principles are or policies should be - leaders change polls"

"The special congressional election in western New York on Tuesday could offer an early answer to one of the key questions of the 2012 election cycle: Will Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to reshape Medicare cost the GOP at the ballot box?" - Washington Times

"As voters head to the polls in the suburbs of Rochester and Buffalo, a myriad of factors could shake up this bare-knuckles brawl." Robert Costa outlines five things to watch. - National Review Online

The "Gang of Six" collapse: The winners, the losers and a few in between

"The collapse of the Gang of Six this week has had far-reaching ramifications on Capitol Hill, with the group’s failure to produce a deficit-reduction plan yielding winners and losers. The group’s implosion, coupled with other budget plans that have failed to gain traction, has given the spotlight to Vice President Joe Biden and his bipartisan effort to cut spending while also raising the nation’s debt ceiling. " - The Hill

Clive Crook: "Attending to the insane discussions in Congress over different kinds of default, one wonders why the US has not lost its triple-A credit rating already" - FT ($)

With Daniels out, GOP field takes clearer shape

"Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’s decision not to run for president in 2012, while deflating the hopes of many in the Republican establishment, has helped solidify what has been a fluid GOP field and brought more clarity to the challenges ahead for leading contenders." - Washington Post | Washington Times 

• Mark McKinnon: "Given Mitch Daniels’ and Mike Huckabee’s decisions not to run, and Newt Gingrich’s shaky campaign launch, the fiercely partisan Texas governor could be a top presidential contender among social conservatives and Tea Party types" - The Daily Beast
• John E. Sununu: "Presidential primary season makes candidates stronger" - Boston Globe
• Erick Erickson: "Republicans, not just conservatives, are at risk of a self-fulfilling, self-defeating prophecy that the field sucks and cannot beat Obama. It’s the economy, stupid. It always has been. It always will be. And America can do better than Barack Obama with any of the candidates we now have." - RedState

> Yesterday on The Republican: 

• A requiem for 2012: Five reasons why Mitch Daniels’ decision not to run makes Sunday May 22 a sad day for America
• The ins, the probably ins and the maybes: Conservatives reflect on the 2012 race after Daniels

On eve of his 2012 announcement, Tim Pawlenty promises to 'tell the truth'

"Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is officially declaring his presidential candidacy on Monday. But he offered a sneak peak to supporters in a YouTube video posted Sunday, in which he pledges to speak candidly about the nation’s challenges." - LA Times | Washington Wire on the WSJ

• "The road to the presidential nomination used to run through the Iowa caucuses. But that might not be the case anymore, which makes former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s (R) plan to go all in in the Hawkeye State a bigger gamble than in previous cycles." - Roll Call ($)
• "Mitch Daniels’ exit couldn’t have come at a better time for Tim Pawlenty" - Politico

> Yesterday on Video: Tim Pawlenty's video in advance of his formal 2012 announcement tomorrow

...while appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Newt Gingrich was forced to defend the revelation that he and his wife once carried as much as $500,000 in debt with the jeweler Tiffany & Co., the jeweler famous for its trademark blue packaging." - WSJ

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor blames Arab 'hatred,' not '67 border dispute, for peace-talk impasse

"Taking a shot at President Obama, the second-ranking House Republican said Sunday that Arab culture – not the dispute over 1967 borders – is to blame for the long-standing absence of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Painting in broad strokes, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) accused the Palestinians – and the Arab world more generally – of harboring a "resentment and hatred" toward Israel that, he says, has made an accord impossible." - The Hill | Transcript of Majority Leader Eric Cantor's remarks at AIPAC

"Appearing before a pro-Israel audience, President Obama said Sunday the world won’t stand for more delays in forging Middle East peace and reaffirmed his support for an accord based partly on boundary lines in place before Israel made territorial gains in the 1967 war." - LA Times | Transcript of President Obama's remarks at AIPAC

Defense Secretary Robert Gates warns against deep military cuts

"Outgoing Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned Sunday against sharply cutting the size and reach of the U.S. armed forces to trim the deficit, portraying the country’s military might as an essential safeguard of global stability. The comments to graduating students at the University of Notre Dame came as some Republicans and Democrats look to defense as a way to address the U.S deficit, running about $1.4 trillion for this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30." - Washington Post | New York Times

Other news in brief:

• "The nation’s biggest banks and mortgage lenders have amassed a glut of foreclosed homes that threatens to deepen the housing slump." - New York Times
• "Spain’s Socialists suffered their worst electoral defeat in more than 30 years as voters punished Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s party for soaring unemployment and spending cuts that aimed to shield the country from Europe’s debt crisis." - Bloomberg
• "Father-and-son Muslim clerics in South Florida, arrested on charges alleging they aided Pakistani terrorists, will challenge the prosecution’s effort to detain them until they go to trial in federal court." - Miami Herald
• "Cash-strapped states are scaling back efforts to provide life-saving medicines to HIV patients. The result: more than 8,300 people — a record number — are on waiting lists in 13 states to get antiretrovirals and other drugs used to treat HIV and AIDS or the side effects, mental health conditions or opportunistic infections." - Washington Post

Ross Douthat: Who will play Dominique Strauss-Kahn?

"To most Americans, the tale of Dominique Strauss-Kahn probably seems like fodder for a “Law and Order” episode, or maybe a cable-TV message movie. He’s just another high-profile man behaving badly, part Arnold Schwarzenegger and part Ben Roethlisberger and more obscure than both. But the story of the I.M.F. director charged with sexually assaulting a hotel maid is actually a natural fit for a more high-minded genre. In the hands of the right screenwriter, Strauss-Kahn’s arrest could be the central thread in one of those sprawling, complex, kaleidoscope-of-globalization movies that aspire to Oscar glory. Think “Traffic” or “Syriana,” “Crash” or “Babel”: the kind of movie that leapfrogs around the planet, shifting from place to place and perspective to perspective in an effort to bring an entire Big Issue into focus. Instead of the war on drugs or race relations in Los Angeles, though, the subject of this movie would be the potential collapse of the European Union." - New York Times

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