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Sensing Iowa win, Romney plans late push - WSJ

"Mitt Romney unveiled plans Thursday for an aggressive finishing sprint in Iowa designed to lock down a victory in Tuesday’s caucuses that would leave his rivals scrambling to catch up." - Washington Post

• At Romney rally, Iowa's moderate GOP 'Silent Majority' Voters starts talking - NPR

Gingrich perseveres in Iowa despite halving of support...

"Newt Gingrich tried to shrug off his disappointing poll numbers Thursday as he began his third day of a 22-stop bus tour in one of the most conservative stretches of Iowa. In one month his support has been halved and he has fallen from first to fourth place, according to the latest CNN/Time/ORC International poll. His message to Iowans: Nothing is settled yet." - WSJ | Highlights experience - NPR

...and maintains attacks on Romney

"Gingrich said that he has always stood with the conservative wing and that Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, represents the “timid,” “moderate,” “conciliatory” wing." - Washington Post

• The fact Bob Dole is calling friends in Iowa on behalf of Romney will confirm Gingrich's argument in the minds of some - USA Today
• Mitt Romney didn't just give Planned Parenthood money, he gave them extra power - RedState

Voters seem to like Gingrich's pro-growth message but still have doubts about the messenger - Kimberley Strassel for the Wall Street Journal

Tea-Party groundwork does NOT pay dividents for Gingrich - WSJ

Other polls confirm Rick-Mentum - USA Today | Weekly Standard | Fox

Perry’s internal polling confirms that Santorum’s surge is real - HotAir

• Rick Santorum Tells Ann Coulter to 'Get Her Facts Straight' - American Spectator
• "Thanks to Rich Lowry’s column on Santorum today, I’m reminded that the former senator has called for tripling the deduction for each dependent child. This falls short of my family-friendly tax policy ideal, but (as Lowry writes) it makes Santorum’s agenda “the most pro-family of any on offer from the GOP candidates” - Ross Douthat
• Santorum keeps offering up reminders that the high point of his political career, in many respects, was several presidencies ago - Politico

Santorum comes under attack from Rick Perry... The Washington Times reports the Texas Governor's claim that Santorum won $1 billion in earmarks. Santorum responds.

• ABC reports another Perry gaffe: "Perry admitted Thursday that he didn’t know about the Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas, a case decided while he was governor which struck down the state’s anti-sodomy law and similar laws in 13 others."

Mitt Romney dismissed any possibility that Ron Paul might win the Republican nomination - RCP

Ron Paul’s position that states should outlaw abortion even in “hard cases” but the federal government should not extend any rights to the unborn ought to be more disturbing to the pro-life movement than even an outright pro-abortion position - Eli Lehrer for FrumForum

Bachmann is fighting to avoid finishing dead last in the state where she was raised - Politico | Washington Post

Rollins says Bachmann eyeing VP slot avoided attacking Romney - NRO

• "Michele Bachmann says she's delighted that she's thought of in the same regard as Queen Elizabeth." - USA Today
• Bachmann compares herself to Margaret Thatcher - HuffPo

And on the subject of Margaret Thatcher... Her lesson is that decline is inevitable only if its self-fulfilling prophets prevail - Rich Lowry for NRO

Cato Institute finds that all candidates are light on details about what spending they'd cut - Daily Caller

• It's all economy for GOP voters - William Galston at TNR

Some candidates have bigger entourages than others

See the full graphic for all the candidates in the New York Times.

Peggy Noonan chooses her most memorable line of the campaign

"The most memorable line of the first phase? There's "9-9-9" and "Oops," but the best came from Mitt Romney when he was asked about the Gingrich campaign's failure to qualify for the Virginia ballot. Mr. Gingrich had compared it to Pearl Harbor, a setback, but we'll recover. Mr. Romney, breezily, to a reporter: "I think it's more like Lucille Ball at the chocolate factory." It made people laugh. It made them want to repeat it, which is the best free media of all, the line people can't resist saying in the office. And they laughed because it pinged off a truth: Gingrich is ad hoc, disorganized." - Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal

Joe Scarbourgh: GOP must now focus on independents

"Instead of calling Obama names or comparing political opponents to Joseph Stalin, Republican presidential candidates must learn to persuade swing voters in Bucks County, Pa., Tampa, Fla. and Columbus, Ohio." - Joe Scarborough for Politico

"A Gallup tracking poll released Thursday showed that Obama is once again underwater, plummeting to 41 percent approval and 50 percent disapproval, a sharp drop from earlier in the week" - The Hill

Team Obama lays out electoral map strategy - LA Times

Obama is NOT the clean guy he presents - UK Spectator

Sen. Ben Nelson's Retirement Signals Twilight of Blue Dog Democrats - Daily Beast

"Since 2000, the median income of working age households has fallen more than 10 percent. With the top 25 percent of earners grabbing a much larger slice of a shrinking pie, income losses for folks in the middle and working classes are much greater." - Peter Morici for Fox

Fox is number one cable news network for tenth year running - Commentary

The tension between communitarian and market conservatism - David Brooks in the New York Times

More from Rod Dreher at the American Conservative.

Petraeus considered resigning over Afghan drawdown - Weekly Standard

And finally... Resolutions that USA Today would like to see from politicians and others...

• stop electing politicians who promise low taxes and high benefits — The American voter
• count to 10 before I make a bet for $10,000 — Mitt Romney
• write my three talking points on my palm, like Sarah Palin — Rick Perry

READ THEM ALL.

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