Subject: POLITICO's Morning Score: Mica to endorse Romney--Firs draft Huntsman post-mortems--DNC descends on SC to bracket GOP--Gingrich stops talking about Bain--How much will pastors help Santorum?
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:25:48 -0600

By James Hohmann (
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked] ; Twitter: @jameshohmann)

COLUMBIA, S.C.-Rick Santorum is about to hold a press conference at the Lizard's Thicket restaurant here to attack Mitt Romney and Ron Paul for running negative campaigns. At a town hall meeting in Florence yesterday afternoon, he blasted the independent pro-Romney Super PAC for accusing him of supporting legislation to let convicted felons vote. "Yuck," he said of the negative ads. His goal in the coming days is to elevate himself vis-a-vis Romney as he tries to rally conservatives behind him, but he'll need to be careful to not look like he's whining:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b8ad33ae4f497d78240542fc84a9ee5a8575f482bf99a38b96 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b8ad33ae4f497d78240542fc84a9ee5a8575f482bf99a38b96 .

FIRST IN SCORE - MICA TO ENDORSE ROMNEY:While everybody is focused of South Carolina, Romney continues to run a strong Florida campaign and rack up support in the Sunshine State.Florida Congressman John Mica, the Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, plans to endorse the former Massachusetts governor today. "It has not been my practice to endorse candidates in primary elections, but...as I look at the field of candidates in this election, no one matches the outstanding business and elected executive credentials of Mitt Romney," he says in a forthcoming statement. Mica has spent two decades representing a politically-important chunk of the I-4 corridor.

HUNTSMAN TO DROP OUT - WILL ENDORSE ROMNEY IN 11 A.M. SPEECH IN MYRTLE BEACH:"The other calculation besides wanting to offer an olive branch to Romney: Huntsman would not be able to control coverage of his departure following the [Saturday] vote because it's assumed Rick Perry's expected withdrawal would compete for attention," Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Martin and Juana Summers write. "A source close to the campaign said some of Huntsman's advisers attempted to talk him out of the decision, urging the former ambassador to at least wait until after the South Carolina primary this Saturday. It was just [the same day] that he got the endorsement of The State, South Carolina's largest
 newspaper. 'It was entirely a family decision,' said the source...Though Huntsman spent the last few days in South Carolina and fundraising in New York, a top campaign official said they realized they had to call it quits when it became evident they had gotten no bump out of New Hampshire. 'We were expecting to be between 8 to 13 percent in the polls here,' said the official."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b878d8a3f8694b569fb37ea4e3c2d2748346b05c852761597b 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b878d8a3f8694b569fb37ea4e3c2d2748346b05c852761597b 

ROMNEY NOT LIKELY TO BE THERE:"A source close to the Huntsman campaign [told ABC late last night] that Romney is 'not currently' planning to attend Huntsman's Monday morning drop-out/endorsement announcement..."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b844b60a09d65a2f6ac329efb8c38f07334e8873d1a6bff7f6 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b844b60a09d65a2f6ac329efb8c38f07334e8873d1a6bff7f6 

HUNTSMAN DECIDED "DAYS AGO" - NEVER MADE A REAL EFFORT HERE:"Huntsman decided 'days ago' -- shortly after the New Hampshire primary -- that he would not go on with his campaign, according to a high-level source close to the campaign," per NBC. "Senior staffers in South Carolina say... the campaign had no infrastructure in the state and suffered from lack of resources and communication issues. Not even signs had arrived yet from New Hampshire. Many volunteers had no work assigned to them."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b896bcd97cb6d02902bf0766f2950c324311ddc7384c5810d5 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b896bcd97cb6d02902bf0766f2950c324311ddc7384c5810d5 

STAFF CAUGHT OFF GUARD: "Huntsman&#39;s campaign advance director was told the candidate was dropping out by a Romney staffer, who had been told by an NBC reporter minutes earlier,"NBC Romney embed Garrett Haake reports. "According to that Romney staffer, Huntsman campaign staff were at the debate walk through...asking 'real' questions and were seemingly fully involved. [Romney's] political director, for example, found out via a news alert." The Washington Post reports that Huntsman strategist John Weaver called Romney strategist Stuart Stevens to concede.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b896bcd97cb6d02902bf0766f2950c324311ddc7384c5810d5 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b896bcd97cb6d02902bf0766f2950c324311ddc7384c5810d5 

WHAT IT MEANS -Consensus is that this will have a negligible impact on South Carolina unless the race becomes tight in the final days, in which case it could be critical. Either way, it removes one more Romney alternative and will consolidate his support on the center-right and among the establishment. It's obviously a net plus for Romney. "There was no sense standing in the way of Romney," one Huntsman adviser told The Washington Post's Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza. "Every vote we took in South Carolina and Florida was from him."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b8f66257977fc027877551dc755fc5b7842340911341133cb0 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b8f66257977fc027877551dc755fc5b7842340911341133cb0 

PLURALITY OF HUNTSMAN VOTERS NAME ROMNEY AS 2ND CHOICE:"The polling firm Public Policy Polling dutifully tracks second-place preferences among the voters it surveys," Nate Silverwroteon his 538 blog. "I compiled the results from the seven surveys that Public Policy Polling has released since Christmas: two polls each in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and one poll in North Carolina. Among these seven surveys, there were roughly 550 supporters for Mr. Huntsman, a respectable sample size. Of these voters, 32 percent listed Mr. Romney as their second choice, more than for any other candidate. Twenty-four percent of Mr. Huntsman's supporters said they were undecided if they could not
 pick him. Ron Paul was the second-choice of 15 percent of Mr. Huntsman's supporters, while no other Republican candidate tallied in the double digits."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b82d5e10727041f7220b904d226b75000e9718f4d4287bf887 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b82d5e10727041f7220b904d226b75000e9718f4d4287bf887 

BUT THIS WON'T BRING SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES OVER:"Mr. Huntsman's decision was unlikely to have any particular influence where Mr. Romney needs it most, among social and religious conservatives who remain wary of Mr. Romney's ideological inconsistency," Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zeleny write in the New York Times.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b880c356ddb9075ff2e4d64550ef0cd7d08418eecc5f05d310 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b880c356ddb9075ff2e4d64550ef0cd7d08418eecc5f05d310 

South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Chad Connelly told ABC that this "doesn't change the dynamics of the race" in the state.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b844b60a09d65a2f6ac329efb8c38f07334e8873d1a6bff7f6 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b844b60a09d65a2f6ac329efb8c38f07334e8873d1a6bff7f6 

FLASHBACK - TOP 8 HUNTSMAN ATTACKS ON ROMNEY -Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed collected eight YouTube videos of Huntsman trashing Romney. Topics include flip-flops, jobs and electability. The final clip comes from just last weekend when he accused him of putting politics above country. Videos:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b80570d856307e243986678997678cf4ece9c3f7458fabae22 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=beb7d8cf208fa1b80570d856307e243986678997678cf4ece9c3f7458fabae22 .

For their part, the Huntsman campaign quickly removed all their anti-Romney YouTube videos. The micro-sites
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f999495bad87b58c3b394b24806e91adc556843eaad303ceb24 
www.10kbet.com  and
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f99574d87f26269adaf87ba7449ed98760552b5e1ed7ac1f640 
www.scaredmittless2012.com  now redirect to Yahoo.

This video is still up: Huntsman explained on Meet the Press in November why Romney can&#39;t beat Obama:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f99540fa82c2b14d33bd607addab6ccbf24d5685c65ad1e0ac9 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f99540fa82c2b14d33bd607addab6ccbf24d5685c65ad1e0ac9 . (H/T CNN's Peter Hamby)

POST MORTEMS -

BYRON YORK CALLS IT A BOUTIQUE CANDIDACY THAT DIDN'T SELL:"A number of Jon Huntsman&#39;s core positions were deeply conservative...Huntsman&#39;s problem was that, whatever his position on some key issues, he sent out political and cultural signals that screamed NPR, and not Fox News, that screamed liberal, and not conservative. Even though conservatives agreed with Huntsman on many things, they instinctively sensed he wasn&#39;t their guy. It wasn&#39;t hard for them to figure out."The most memorable example of this will always be when Huntsman and his family posed for an Annie Leibovitz spread in Vogue.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f99c20e34dbadd6125edadec9122d98b8ec1fd8bd8a2317d9b6 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f99c20e34dbadd6125edadec9122d98b8ec1fd8bd8a2317d9b6 

JOHN WEAVER LEAVES THE RACE WITH HIS BRAND DAMAGED:"Jon Huntsman's campaign was a better idea than it was a reality, and the idea was John Weaver's," Ben Smith's BuzzFeed reports on John McCain's onetime guru. "'You get a lot of good out of the guy, you get a lot of brilliance out of the guy - but you get a lot of dysfunction out of the guy,' a Republican who has often worked with Weaver said Sunday night...Members of Huntsman's family blame what they saw as a debacle on Weaver, the Republican said. 'It's really going to get ugly.'To Weaver's critics, he's a 'Svengali,' as one said, persuading a wealthy, talented former governor to blow his money and his name on a lost cause. To his
 admirers, Weaver had the right strategy -- to nip Romney in New Hampshire - and a message that would have made Huntsman formidable in November, and was let down by the candidate and his wealthy father."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f9922d5959e6fa81e36ec43bf18a57fc96ad21a9e9c0ac143c3 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f9922d5959e6fa81e36ec43bf18a57fc96ad21a9e9c0ac143c3 

** As Gingrich backs off Bain, fundamentalists accuse Catholics of vote tampering and Perry says the administration's response to a controversial photo shows disrespect for the troops, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.

THE STAKES - FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD: The make-or-break South Carolina primary is five days away. The overarching question is whether conservatives will get behind someone to who can stop (or slow) Romney. More likely than voters rallying to Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum is that the conservative vote remains splintered. But the situation is fluid. With that in mind, we have these questions for the days ahead:

(1) Does the coming round of South Carolina polling show conservatives getting behind Santorum?

(2) How many times will Newt Gingrich utter the word Bain today?

(3) What will Huntsman say to explain his past criticisms of Romney?

(4) How long do Santorum and Gingrich wait before they start really going after each other?

(5) Will Huntsman dropping out prompt any respected conservatives to call on Perry to get out before South Carolina?

TONIGHT'S DEBATE DRIVES THE DAY:Myrtle Beach is a hive of activity today ahead of the 9 p.m. ET debate on Fox News. Here are details of events, including the South Carolina Tea Party Convention and the Faith and Freedom Presidential Forum:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f99f9c57ec83a81092bff77e37722ae30305405a68e09143364 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f99f9c57ec83a81092bff77e37722ae30305405a68e09143364 .

STANDING ORDER: The on-camera, left-to-right order as seen from the audience will be Perry - Santorum - Romney - Gingrich - Paul. (h/t Dylan Byers)

SNEAK PEEK - THE DNC'S SOUTH CAROLINA BRACKETING PLAN:The Democratic National Committee will have a full time presence in South Carolina between now and the election on Saturday. Democratic Governors Association Chairman Martin O&#39;Malley and DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse will react to the GOP/FOX News Debate on Monday in Myrtle Beach with a 2 p.m. press conference at the Breakers. Woodhouse will be in the state through Wednesday. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz will come to Charleston for Thursday's debate. DNC Vice Chair and Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak will be in the state on Friday. DNC Executive Director Patrick Gaspard will be in Columbia on Friday and Charleston on
 Election Day. Wasserman Schultz will be in Columbia on Election Day on Saturday.

TALKING POINTS FOR DEMOCRATIC SURROGATES AT TONIGHT'S DEBATE: A Democratic Party official emails over the talking points that all the surrogates coming down here will use: "As his unsubstantiated claim of creating 100,000 jobs as a corporate layoff specialist at Bain Capital has disappeared - his latest ad only claims 'thousands' - Mitt Romney has become both the incredibly shrinking job creator and the incredibly shrinking candidate. In fact, Mitt Romney&#39;s very rationale as a candidate hasn&#39;t just shrunk - it&#39;s all but disappeared...What&#39;s worse, as Massachusetts Governor, not only did Mitt Romney have one of the worst job creation records in the nation (47th out of 50),
 but he increased government jobs at six times the rate of private sector jobs...It's clear that Mitt Romney will say or do anything to get elected -- the question is, after basing his entire campaign on his ability to create jobs, what does he say next?" The DNC will use this new visual to challenge Romney's job creation pitch:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f994026d0b647eae7c5fe0ad418c246f1a456c90bde5254665e 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f994026d0b647eae7c5fe0ad418c246f1a456c90bde5254665e .

FIRST LOOK - TRUMPS' VIDEO GREETING:In a recorded message that will play during the Faith and Freedom kickoff event, Donald Trump says Barack Obama must be defeated in 2012 and that he is watching the South Carolina primary results very closely.Caution, it's a really big file:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f9941a8cd54f7a2ef2b18a9f4995795eb5df382809c52b731fd 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f9941a8cd54f7a2ef2b18a9f4995795eb5df382809c52b731fd .

THE BATTLE FOR SOUTH CAROLINA -

AIRWAVES SATURATED WITH $11 MILLION IN ADS:"Candidates and super PACs have committed about $8 million to advertising here on broadcast TV since the beginning of December, according to figures provided by a Republican strategist who closely monitors media spending," Jeremy Peters writes in today's New York Times. "In 2008, when five Republican candidates were spending heavily here, the amount spent on broadcast TV was $6.9 million, according to Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group. With the addition of three Democratic candidates, the total in 2008 was $13.5 million.When radio and cable television are factored in this year, the total committed so far approaches $11 million. Kantar
 Media added up the number of times Republican presidential campaign commercials appeared on broadcast television here in 2008: 17,629. As of late Friday afternoon, with eight days to go until the primary, Kantar had counted 13,398 commercials, meaning the 2012 total will outpace 2008, probably by a significant amount, because advertising tends to be heaviest in the final week of a campaign."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f991d6b14e415b74ea0d935cf7158b6fa1f915e8a5cca16beb5 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f991d6b14e415b74ea0d935cf7158b6fa1f915e8a5cca16beb5 

COLBERT SUPER PAC AD HITS MITT:John Lithgow narrates a faux attack ad against Romney on behalf of Stephen Colbert's joke exploratory campaign. The tagline: "If corporations are people, then Mitt Romney is Mitt the Ripper."30-seconds:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f999f60c57cbc5d6049b53b4cc7c57fd7ee4153740345914191 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=669e7e288eb31f999f60c57cbc5d6049b53b4cc7c57fd7ee4153740345914191 .

PAUL RETURNS - ENDORSED BY SANFORD'S FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF:Afterfour days in Texas, Paul came to Myrtle Beach yesterday afternoon to unveil what his campaign had promoted as a "game-changing" endorsement. "Paul's operation here isn't as strong as what he had going into the two previous early states. But the backing of Tom Davis, a well-known fiscal conservative who served as chief of staff under Gov. Mark Sanford before being elected to the legislature, kicked off what his campaign is promising to be a week of intensified activity ahead of Saturday's primary," Mackenzie Wagner reports. "Davis said he'd met with all of the major Republican contenders ... but his decision stemmed from Paul's
 focus on the debt. Davis noted he was a personal fan of Paul, sharing he watches video clips of the Texas Republican 'as much as my daughter watches Glee.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c786debbc7950f7750a705921f3f2f9a5e5699abde744dfea8 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c786debbc7950f7750a705921f3f2f9a5e5699abde744dfea8 

"The odds are right now that Romney, he pulls it off," Paul told the New York Times' Rich Oppel in an interview in Texas this weekend. "But he doesn't even have a guarantee in a week. That whole thing can shift rather quickly."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c71640dc1c45991aa54c4b6ca277ade71e27e2631770689240 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c71640dc1c45991aa54c4b6ca277ade71e27e2631770689240 

CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT SHOWS SIGNS OF RALLYING AROUND SANTORUM:

HE WON THE SATURDAY VOTE AT THE TEXAS MEETING:Leaders of prominent conservative Christian groups threw their overwhelming support Saturday behind Santorum in the Republican presidential contest, an attempt to rally around a single challenger to [Romney]," per The Wall Street Journal. "Over the course of the two days, leaders of about 150 socially conservative groups, as well as activists and financiers, heard pitches from the candidates&#39; surrogates and then winnowed their favorites to Messrs. Gingrich and Santorum. After three ballots, Mr. Santorum emerged with the votes of about 75 percent of the conservatives, with Mr. Gingrich gathering the remaining 25 percent, according to Tony
 Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council and unofficial spokesman for the meeting." Many think it's too late to make a difference, and that the group vote will not sway leaders who have already backed Gingrich and Perry.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c76bdaaee2d531177b189f3f802e181a7b8fa2c0f8194f7c49 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c76bdaaee2d531177b189f3f802e181a7b8fa2c0f8194f7c49 

GINGRICH DOWNPLAYS IT:"Well, I think that report was very highly exaggerated," he said on Meet the Press. "We basically split that group. I got a very good number of votes, and I think as of noon today that Reverend Jim Garlow and Congressman J.C. Watts and others who were there are going to be talking. And I think they&#39;ll indicate that I have very strong support from Christian conservatives and social conservatives. And that that support continues."

EVIDENCE THE MEETING COULD HAVE A LIMITED EFFECT -FUNDAMENTALISTS ACCUSE CATHOLICS OF RIGGING VOTE:Ralph Z. Hallow writes in the Washington Times that "a civil war is breaking out among evangelical leaders over allegations of a rigged election and ballot stuffing at a Saturday gathering of religious and social conservatives...in back-and-forth emails, Protestant fundamentalist leaders who attended - most of them backing [Gingrich] to be the anti-Romney candidate - are accusing Catholic participants of conniving to rig the vote. They said they were conned into leaving after the second ballot on Saturday. They said pro-Santorum participants held a third ballot which Mr. Santorum won with more
 than 70 percent of the vote - far higher than the nine-vote margin he won on the first ballot...Now, a prominent evangelical political organizer is saying to others confidentially he has evidence that in a least one instance a participant was seen writing Mr. Santorum's name on four separate ballots and putting them in the ballot box. Evangelicals who left after the second ballot are now calling on Bob Fisher, a leader of the proceedings, to hold a recount."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c7030b9bc225bb4564c1d58e3f9d6f15df07c8fb0adecc199e 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c7030b9bc225bb4564c1d58e3f9d6f15df07c8fb0adecc199e 

SANTORUM WHIPPED EVANGELICAL VOTES AT A PRAYER BREAKFAST:"I don't know if that ever happens with a group of Christian leaders - they were able to miraculously come together and stand in support of my candidacy," Santorum said to applause in Myrtle Beach yesterday. "We have an opportunity for South Carolina to stand behind a candidate who has consistently, courageously, forcefully, publicly and led the fight for values of the people who are going to vote next Saturday. The question is, will the people of South Carolina vote their conscience?"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c7d260da410c6cc8bb2cf87f11c97577d473467f38b1be965d 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c7d260da410c6cc8bb2cf87f11c97577d473467f38b1be965d 

SUNDAY SHOW HIGHLIGHTS -

GINGRICH TO RELEASE HIS TAX RETURNS THURSDAY:On Meetthe Press, Gingrich said he&#39;ll release his tax returns on Thursday. The idea is to highlight Romney's refusal to do so (many believe his effective tax rate will be low because of the way he receives his income). USA Today: "Andrea Saul, a Romney spokeswoman, said the former Massachusetts governor&#39;s campaign will 'look at the question of releasing tax returns during the next tax filing season.'She said in a statement that Gingrich 'is in no position to lecture anyone on disclosure' because he has yet to release records about his work for Freddie Mac."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c79de3e68f592ce0c6dc5c063cce4ca34ea3984b942434e8cd 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c79de3e68f592ce0c6dc5c063cce4ca34ea3984b942434e8cd 

SHOTS FIRED:Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond tweeted at Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul: "what day this week works for Governor Romney to release his tax returns? We are free any day ending in 'y.'"

PERRY TEPID ABOUT COMMITTING TO COMPETE BEYOND S.C.:Asked on CNN&#39;s 'State of the Union' if he would continue on his campaign in Florida if he finished last in South Carolina, Perry responded: 'That&#39;s my intention.'
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c745a53d2afce7c9a06eadfecfcff721500fcee72ccc7ed412 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c745a53d2afce7c9a06eadfecfcff721500fcee72ccc7ed412 

BUT HE'S NOT TEPID ABOUT ACCUSING THE WHITE HOUSE OF HARBORING "DISDAIN FOR THE MILITARY":"What is really disturbing to me is just, kind of, the over-the-top rhetoric from this administration and their disdain for the military," Perry said on CNN when asked about the investigation into the picture of four Marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban members. "Well, obviously, 18, 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often, and that&#39;s what&#39;s occurred here. But, you know, when you&#39;re -- when you&#39;re in war -- and history, kind of, backs up there&#39;s a picture of General Patton doing basically the same thing in the Rhine river. And although there&#39;s not a
 picture, Churchill did the same thing on the Siegfried line... They shouldn&#39;t have done it. It&#39;s bad. But to call it a criminal act, I think, is over the top." Video:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c7dbb2d6e04350937398071b49d2214cfd7fce742da00c5452 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c7dbb2d6e04350937398071b49d2214cfd7fce742da00c5452 

HAS ROMNEY'S BAIN BECOME GINGRICH'S BANE? -

ON SUNDAY - NEWT DID NOT MENTION BAIN AT ALL:"A day after saying he wouldn&#39;t back down on criticizing Romney's tenure at Bain Capital, Gingrich visited a town allegedly affected by Bain, and did not mention Romney or Bain at all, instead talking about the importance of bringing manufacturing back to South Carolina," The Los Angeles Times' Alana Samuels writes. "In a town hall meeting at Land&#39;s End Restaurant in Georgetown, a town which Gingrich&#39;s 'super PAC,' Winning Our Future, used to criticize Bain for taking over a steel plant that then went bankrupt, Gingrich called on conservative voters to rally around him. 'Only by gathering up all the conservatives to support Newt
 Gingrich will we ensure that we will have a conservative to be the Republican nominee,' he said."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c731970ffbd6f4778279defe29c87539d857126b16de0f48fb 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c731970ffbd6f4778279defe29c87539d857126b16de0f48fb 

THAT CAME AFTER HE GOT BOOED AT HUCKABEE'S FORUM ON SATURDAY:"The audience at a presidential forum [in Charleston] Saturday booedNewt Gingrich for criticizingMitt Romney's record at Bain Capital afterMike Huckabee, the host, told the crowd that candidates would not be allowed to attack each other," NBC reported. Gingrich "began to say he would be visiting the city of Georgetown, which used to be home to a steel mill whose parent company was bought out by Bain...'Georgetown has a steel mill. Which was closed. Capital wasn't put at risk; capital was drained out of that company,' Gingrich said...The audience started booing Gingrich after he said, 'Governor Romney.' Huckabee interrupted
 Gingrich, saying, 'Mr. Speaker, we said we will not allow negative...'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c74d4ba970af2bc2298d426bc1540aaccb3aeaae6de2cd448a 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=70ba961a378714c74d4ba970af2bc2298d426bc1540aaccb3aeaae6de2cd448a 

WALL STREET JOURNAL - "FEATURED WORKERS CALL BAIN FILM INACCURATE":"Three former factory workers featured in a film about layoffs at companies bought by Mitt Romney&#39;s Bain Capital say they weren&#39;t laid off by Bain, as the film implied, but got promotions and raises after Bain bought the plant they worked in."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68ef9e5f9aaf5ec9c485ebda571513bfb15105374d89d9e4ff 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68ef9e5f9aaf5ec9c485ebda571513bfb15105374d89d9e4ff 

ASSOCIATED PRESS FACT CHECK - THE UNSUBSTANTIATED VS. THEDISCREDITED:"Mitt Romney&#39;s never-supported boast to have created more than 100,000 jobs as a venture capitalist has been countered by an attack film so flawed that the Republican presidential rival it was meant to help, Newt Gingrich, has asked the sponsoring political action committee to correct it or take it out of circulation," the AP's Calvin Woodward writes at the top of a fact check that picks apart the film. "Meanwhile, voters are no farther ahead in knowing whether Romney&#39;s work at Bain Capital - a complex record of company start-ups, revivals, flops and shutdowns - cost more jobs than it created, though there is
 gathering evidence it was not as rosy as he has portrayed."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e6821ef3cbf4f3531df662cc1f5e20148851865ad63310587f5 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e6821ef3cbf4f3531df662cc1f5e20148851865ad63310587f5 

PRO-NEWT PAC WILL KEEP RUNNING AD:'We stand by the film,' Rick Tyler, senior adviser to Winning Our Future, said on Fox News Sunday.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68985185b3bd09f7632caa6befbab0e4363bd9e49f19b24857 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68985185b3bd09f7632caa6befbab0e4363bd9e49f19b24857 

MICHAEL MOORE LOVES IT:New York Times columnist David Carr writes on the front of today's B section: "While watching it, I half-expected to see Michael Moore, the creator of 'Roger and Me' and 'Bowling for Columbine,' walk onto the screen to hammer the point home. Mr. Moore half-expected it himself... 'I wondered who they stole from my crew,' Mr. Moore said in a phone interview. 'It was fun to hear what I have been saying for 20 years, not just by any Republican candidate, but Newt Gingrich.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68541e4703978a2ef3db98ffe76e402b0190d3828aa587d792 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68541e4703978a2ef3db98ffe76e402b0190d3828aa587d792 

THIS HARDENS THE NARRATIVE - "CAMPAIGN STUMBLES PLAGUE GINGRICH":Julie Pace moves a blistering story over the wire about "a string of clumsy, head-scratching events staged by the Gingrich campaign since the Republican primary moved to South Carolina, a state that the candidate says he must win if he wants a shot at the nomination." The lead is him not being in the room after he was introduced at a Friday BBQ in the Upstate, which allowed Santorum to woo the crowd. Its part of a pattern of running chronically late: "On Saturday, Gingrich attended a question-and-answer session at a black church. Yet blacks made up just 2 percent of voters in the 2008 South Carolina GOP primary, according to
 exit polls. Oh, and it looked like nobody checked to make sure the microphones were working at the church forum... A [telephone conference] call scheduled for Saturday morning never took place. The dial-in number was invalid."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68526dda6be2b56195881aa50b47d3fc241216038b69ef5899 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68526dda6be2b56195881aa50b47d3fc241216038b69ef5899 

SOUTH CAROLINA FACEBOOK USERS SPLIT ON BAIN:"Forty-three percent of those surveyed said Romney&#39;s time at Bain is a 'legitimate campaign issue,' compared with 38 percent who said it isn&#39;t. Nineteen percent were unsure," according to Emily Schultheis. "Men and women were equally divided on the issue, but young voters, aged 18 to 29, were least likely to see Bain as an issue...The results only represent the sentiments of South Carolina users on Facebook, not registered voters or likely GOP primary voters that tend to be more reliable barometers of primary elections...Facebook and POLITICO are running a daily poll to gauge Facebook users' opinions about the South Carolina presidential
 primary. The poll surveyed 1,012 adult Facebook users in South Carolina on Sunday."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68a9973eb212c4cc204c538b83e58499553599f26e4f23982d 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68a9973eb212c4cc204c538b83e58499553599f26e4f23982d 

DAVID AXELROD tried to bring it back to Romney by faulting his record at Bain during a CNN interview: 'He&#39;s entitled to do [profit]. Nobody&#39;s begrudging that. The question is, is that the philosophy that you want in the White House?'
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68d03cae3634eb1993ec78742e37f56dd733c46c37f998320a 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68d03cae3634eb1993ec78742e37f56dd733c46c37f998320a 

SANTORUM SCRUTINY - NYT ON LINKS BETWEEN EARMARKS, CONTRIBUTIONS:"A review of some of his earmarks, viewed alongside his political donations, suggests that the river of federal money Mr. Santorum helped direct to Pennsylvania paid off handsomely in the form of campaign cash," Michael Luo and Mike McIntyre write on A1 of today's New York Times. "In just one piece of legislation, the defense appropriations bill for the 2006 fiscal year, Mr. Santorum helped secure $124 million in federal financing for 54 earmarks, according to a tally by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. In that year's election cycle, Mr. Santorum's Senate campaign committee and his 'leadership PAC' took in
 more than $200,000 in contributions from people associated with the companies that benefited or their lobbyists, an analysis of campaign finance records by The New York Times shows."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68178996fe3a5d036f1bbacb3a0680638adf136912580626a0 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68178996fe3a5d036f1bbacb3a0680638adf136912580626a0 

FUNDRAISING - BANKERS BACKING ROMNEY:"The country&#39;s biggest banks are overwhelmingly supporting Mitt Romney&#39;s bid for the Republican presidential nomination, an Observer analysis of federal campaign contributions shows," the Charlotte newspaper reported Sunday. "Employees at the five largest U.S. banks by assets, including Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co., gave Romney about $600,000 through the first three quarters of 2011, according to the most recent filings available from the Federal Election Commission.The second-largest recipient of bank employee contributions, President Barack Obama, had far less, about $200,000, the analysis showed. The Republican presidential
 hopeful with the second-highest total, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, dropped out of the race in mid-August.Romney received more from employees of those top five banks than all the other candidates combined."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68d0d80122e709da7a5bf62c7ddb6cf8fd095b42be76a40cb3 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68d0d80122e709da7a5bf62c7ddb6cf8fd095b42be76a40cb3 

LEADERSHIP CIRCLES - INSIDE OBAMA'S FUNDRAISING JUGGERNAUT:"Eager to widen its donor base, the Obama campaign is using its team of top fundraisers and donors to distribute marketing materials to thousands of potential top-dollar donors across the nation. Those who donate $5,000 -- the maximum legal contribution to a Presidential candidate in the 2012 cycle -- will gain a stream of perks large and small, sources said," per Reuters Eric Johnson. "The benefits could include free entry to campaign fundraisers featuring the President, access to strategy sessions at headquarters, and pizza parties at the homes of supporters to watch upcoming voting contests to pick the Republican candidate...The
 campaign hopes to draw thousands to this category of donor, which so far includes roughly 80 people in Chicago."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68bf9bd7939ac45b3bcb61b4c27f07ddd1ad5f8299f1fd8a37 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=74e3a47fb4553e68bf9bd7939ac45b3bcb61b4c27f07ddd1ad5f8299f1fd8a37 

PUNDIT PREP - 5 REASONS WHY FLORIDA MATTERS MORE THAN SOUTH CAROLINA: "One can&#39;t overstate the difference between campaigning in Florida and campaigning in the caucuses and primaries of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina," Adam Smith writes in today's Tampa Bay Times. "Here&#39;s how:1Size.Nearly 40 percent more voters turned out to elect the mayor of Jacksonville last year than turned out for Iowa&#39;s caucuses this month.2Closed primary.Florida will be the first contest in the nominating schedule where only Republicans can vote.3Early votes.Already, more than 118,000 Republicans have voted in Florida&#39;s presidential primary by absentee ballot - nearly as many as voted in the
 Iowa caucuses. By Jan. 31, more than one-third of all votes may already be cast.4Hispanic votes. Florida is the first state in the contests with a significant number of Republican Hispanic voters, a slight majority Cuban-American but also many Puerto Rican and other Hispanic voters, too.5Issues.The size and diversity of Florida make the issue matrix for candidates more complicated...Florida is essentially several different states in one."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=452cc1ea44003498174d8b427c523ae871395a46261ca91ad1fbe946f5f87bfe 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=452cc1ea44003498174d8b427c523ae871395a46261ca91ad1fbe946f5f87bfe 

VEEPWATCH - MCDONNELL GETS GREAT RECEPTION AT SOUTH CAROLINA TOWN HALL:Just in case anyone wasn't clear that Bob McDonnell is interested in being picked for the GOP ticket this year, the Virginia governor came to Myrtle Beach Saturday night for a town hall meeting with freshman Rep. Tim Scott to help seed the talk. He got a very positive reception at an outdoor event - which conflicted with the 49ers-Saints game - on a chilly night:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=452cc1ea44003498fe5750ee6f5ce061b12077c00a0fac38c4d4b026148c53e7 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=452cc1ea44003498fe5750ee6f5ce061b12077c00a0fac38c4d4b026148c53e7 

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY:"No matter how many sweater vests you wear, your arms will never get warm. That&#39;s why we rock the full zip Colombia fleece." - Rick Perry's son, Griffin, takes a playful shot at Rick Santorum on Twitter Sunday night
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=452cc1ea440034988d58929b30f046bb51f4b0f58c1994fac6ded5c380ab5fe3 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=452cc1ea440034988d58929b30f046bb51f4b0f58c1994fac6ded5c380ab5fe3 

Go to POLITICO Morning Score Now >> http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=452cc1ea44003498f4d744699544f51c219d086adbff7f78490d1101f38f8b75

=================================
2012 POLITICO, LLC
POLITICO Morning Score.
To unsubscribe, http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=452cc1ea4400349823631e0d38d68b0e660e2000fb188c50d031b63d2b031454
=================================