Subject: POLITICO’s Morning Score: Gingrich launches TalesofMitt.com--Obama campaign memo: Romney, Gingrich damaged with Hispanics--Gingrich losing national lead to Romney in Gallup--Santorum daughter recovering from pneumonia
From: "Morning Score" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:03:46 -0600

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

PUNTA GORDA, Fla.-

FIRST IN SCORE - GINGRICH LAUNCHES TALESOFMITT.COM:Newt 2012 has launched a new website "to document all of Mitt Romney's flip flops and new stories trying to explain his liberal record." There are two new web videos up on the page: "Which Mitt Is It?" and "Mitt's Blind Trust Bluff." Gingrich spokesman RC Hammond goes on the attack in a forthcoming press release announcing the site: "Of course, the issue really isn't the correct understanding of blind trusts, despite Romney's convenient interpretations. It's whether voters can trust Mitt Romney. And as we've seen in 1994, 2002, 2008, and 2012, Mitt Romney will say anything and change any position just to get elected." Check out
 TalesofMitt.com:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c413bf53c58b18fc0f1ffd82128de15e7273a80cfb5c34c0965d 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c413bf53c58b18fc0f1ffd82128de15e7273a80cfb5c34c0965d .

NEW OBAMA MEMO - "REPUBLICANS SEAL THEIR FATE WITH HISPANIC VOTERS IN 2012":The president's reelection campaign will distribute a three-page memo today to argue that the president is in good shape with Hispanic voters. Obama for America Hispanic Pollster Sergio Bendixen and Director of Hispanic Press Gabriela Domenzain note that Obama easily beat a generic Republican in Florida and was seen favorably by the majority of Hispanic voters in Florida in the Republican-leaning Resurgent Republic poll out last week. "Many Hispanics see Romney's strong opposition to the DREAM Act and to any type of comprehensive immigration reform as more of a demagogic appeal to Tea Party voters... Gingrich`s
 characterization of Spanish as 'the language of living in a ghetto' is offensive at face value to Hispanics and neutralizes any credit he may have received for supporting legal status for 'undocumented abuelitas.' ... this upcoming election could seal Republican's fate with Hispanics not only in 2012, but for generations to come." Over the weekend, Josh Gerstein wrote a story about the savvy, highly-targeted courtship of Latinos by the White House:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c413f09bc21fb8115118741253c7947e7c249786bb20433760a8 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c413f09bc21fb8115118741253c7947e7c249786bb20433760a8 . Read the whole OFA memo:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c4139b8ae71c29614e472abd6c2f16cced5a340e3071377e9a47 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c4139b8ae71c29614e472abd6c2f16cced5a340e3071377e9a47 .

** As the campaigns wrap up their final day of campaigning in Florida, the RNC tries to turn DWS' HRC endorsement against her and another Adler prepares to run for Congress, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.

THE STAKES - FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD: Everyone expects a Romney victory in tomorrow's Florida's primary. "It not about winning here anymore," a Romney staffer told BuzzFeed yesterday. "It&#39;s about destroying Gingrich - and it&#39;s working.' (
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c4130a066a06253ab1be2efc339e6e8a97a9d352c2ad138092bf 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c4130a066a06253ab1be2efc339e6e8a97a9d352c2ad138092bf ) With that strategy in mind, we have these questions for the week ahead:

(1) How many points will Romney win women by in Florida?

(2) Will Gingrich's lead in the Gallup national tracking poll evaporate by the end of the week?

(3) What's the harshest attack Santorum levels at Gingrich this week as he tries to peel off some of his supporters?

(4) Is Herman Cain going to campaign with Gingrich after Florida?

(5) Does Newt even finish in the top two in Nevada?

TAMPA ON HIS MIND - GINGRICH HAS NO INCENTIVE TO CAPITULATE POST-FLORIDA:"Florida may well be a painful body blow, but Gingrich appears deadly serious about a long, bloody march all the way to Tampa - a scenario that is giving the GOP establishment nightmares," Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman write in the story leading our site this morning. "At 68 and already 14 years past his speakership, this is likely Gingrich's last chance at the political prize that he's been coveting for at least two decades. He's not Romney circa 2008 or Tim Pawlenty - being a good soldier and falling in line in hopes of being rewarded four years hence isn't an option. And the new rules in which states will
 distribute their delegates proportionally instead of by winner-take-all rules means that Gingrich can keep accruing a sizable number of delegates even if Romney is besting him...'When you take all the non-Romney votes, it's very likely that at the convention there will be a non-Romney majority and maybe a very substantial one,' he said. 'My job is to convert that into a Gingrich majority.'" It's that thinking that's prompting him to try nudging Santorum out of the race:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c413c0f4ce5943bd93ca684a6ace146901058aec8f16e78ec5f0 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c413c0f4ce5943bd93ca684a6ace146901058aec8f16e78ec5f0 .

LOOKING BEYOND FLORIDA - ROMNEY MACHINE FEELS GOOD ABOUT FEBRUARY:"There are seven elections in February, beginning with Nevada&#39;s caucuses Saturday. A series of lower-profile contests - including a non-binding Missouri caucus - come over the next week in Colorado, Minnesota and Maine. They&#39;re followed by a 17-day break, which ends with primaries in Arizona and Michigan on Feb. 28. The mid-month break, bookended by states considered favorable to Romney, presents significant challenges for the other candidates, who trail Romney in both money and organization," per the AP."I think the biggest thing to keep an eye on is that two-and-a-half-week down time between the 11th and the 28th,'
 said Romney political director Rich Beeson.'If you don&#39;t have momentum and resources coming into it, it&#39;s going to be hard to have momentum and resources coming out of it.'
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c4130950cc202b05b5ec1915fa95342a9936606bf420a2b61582 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c4130950cc202b05b5ec1915fa95342a9936606bf420a2b61582 

LATEST POLLING -

GALLUP - GINGRICH'S NATIONAL LEAD OVER ROMNEY DOWN TO 2 POINTS:"Gallup Daily tracking of national Republican registered voters&#39; preferences from Jan. 24-28 shows that Gingrich and Romney are now essentially tied, with Gingrich at 28% and Romney at 26%." Frank Newport says a Romney win here tomorrow "would likely bolster [Romney's] standing among Republicans nationally."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c413777b5e00e37615906ed2e026d583c9b75f35f97618b3fc7e 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3794e558d775c413777b5e00e37615906ed2e026d583c9b75f35f97618b3fc7e 

PUBLIC POLICY POLLING - GINGRICH STILL LEADING WITH TEA PARTIERS, EVANGELICALS IN FLORIDA:"PPP&#39;s second day of tracking in Florida finds little change in the state of the race. Mitt Romney leads with 39% to 32% for Newt Gingrich with Rick Santorum at 14% and Ron Paul at 11%," Democratic pollster Tom Jensen writes. "The reason we don&#39;t find Gingrich getting blown out by a double digit margin in Florida is that he&#39;s winning a lot of the same groups he did in South Carolina. He&#39;s up 37-33 with Evangelicals, 40-33 with Tea Partiers, and 36-29 with voters who describe themselves as &#39;very conservative.&#39; The problem for him is that he&#39;s not winning those groups by the
 same kinds of margins that he did in the Palmetto State."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc14458a1605da13fba40303958f29078bd66f24bdb72ba99a14 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc14458a1605da13fba40303958f29078bd66f24bdb72ba99a14 

NBC/MARIST - ROMNEY LEADS GINGRICH EVEN WITHOUT SANTORUM IN THE RACE:The topline isRomney, 42; Gingrich, 27; Santorum, 16; Paul, 11. "If Santorum were not in the competition, Romney would still be ahead of Gingrich, 49% to 33%. Santorum's supporters divide when asked who their second choice candidate is. 36% of Santorum's backers choose Gingrich while 35% are for Romney," per the Marist release. "Overall, 28% of likely Republican primary voters say Santorum is their fallback candidate while 27% select Romney. Gingrich is the second choice of 25% while 9% report Paul is their reserve candidate. 11% are undecided."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc14ae5466bdfdd53636c68947ea3fa72c8cbc0513bd10b6112d 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc14ae5466bdfdd53636c68947ea3fa72c8cbc0513bd10b6112d 

SCORE CONTEST - PREDICT THE FLORIDA OUTCOME:TheIowa and South Carolina prediction contests were fun, so let's try it again with the Sunshine State. Please email me your ranking for how the four candidates will finish with what percentage you think they'll get. Since most of you will guess the same order, the vote share (especially for Rick Santorum and Ron Paul) becomes more important. I will take the winner to dinner in Washington and send POLITICO t-shirts to the second and third place finishers. The deadline is 7 p.m. ET Tuesday. My email address is
mailto:[email-masked] 
[email-masked] .

BELLA SANTORUM - WILL BE RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL IN 2-4 DAYS:Rick Santorum said last night that his daughter Bella has experienced a "miraculous turnaround" since being diagnosed with pneumonia earlier in the weekend. On a telephone town hall for Florida voters, the former Pennsylvania senator said doctors predict that the three-year-old will be released from the hospital two to four days from now. "We've still got a long way to go, but she's without a doubt turned a corner," he said. Santorum canceled three Sunday campaign stops in Florida so he could care for his daughter. Bella suffers from a genetic condition known as Trisomy 18, or Edwards Syndrome. The syndrome causes an extra
 chromosome to interfere with normal development, causing mental and physical deformities.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc14b52dad104fde617573fc0344b69a9203d3b5b7368fdad921 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc14b52dad104fde617573fc0344b69a9203d3b5b7368fdad921 

THE FIGHT FOR FLORIDA-

SANTORUM WILL NOT RETURN - GOING TO MISSOURI, MINNESOTA TODAY:Santorum was supposed to appear in Boca Raton this morning, but his campaign announced last night that he'll fly from DC to St. Louis for a speech on manufacturing. Then he's going to a Pizza Ranch in far southwestern Minnesota to lay the groundwork ahead of that state's caucuses next week. From Minnesota, he goes to Colorado and Nevada on Tuesday.

GINGRICH HAS BEEN OUTSPENT BY NEARLY $12 MILLION ON FLORIDA AIRWAVES:"Through Friday, the Romney campaign and the super PAC Restore Our Future had spent a combined $15,340,000," a source monitoring the Sunshine State ad war told Alex Burns yesterday. "Gingrich's campaign and the super PAC Winning Our Future spent a comparatively paltry $3,390,000. That's just the differential in paid-media spending, so it doesn't include Romney's edge in field operations, mail, et cetera."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc14106b9da6524552f6248cf343a138dc57d14e29facf6b686b 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc14106b9da6524552f6248cf343a138dc57d14e29facf6b686b 

RNC WEB VIDEO - HIGHLIGHTS DNC CHAIR'S ENDORSEMENT OF HILLARY:Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents Florida in the House, was adamant on Face the Nation yesterday that Romney will not carry Florida in the general election, even if he taps Marco Rubio as his running mate. With the candidates in Florida, the Republican National Committee pulls out a clip of her rallying for Hillary Clinton ahead of the Democratic primary here four years ago. The 40-second video's tagline: "In 2008, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz knew Obama wasn't up to the job. Four years later, we all do."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc146fc39285dbdcc519bfd962255ac4f134f3eb9d42d3d3e2b6 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc146fc39285dbdcc519bfd962255ac4f134f3eb9d42d3d3e2b6 .

PRIMER FOR OUTSIDERS - THINK OF FLORIDA AS FIVE STATES:"There's the Panhandle, with areas that resemble the deep South and rural towns that are only recently attracting major businesses. There's north Florida, anchored in Jacksonville, with its large African-American population. The heart of the state is traversed by the I-4 corridor, a crucial swing area that 'in attitude and lifestyle is like St. Louis with palm trees,' said Quinnipiac University pollster Peter Brown. On the state's Gulf side, you'll find Midwestern retirees and wealth on the Gold Coast. South Florida teems with transplanted Northeasterners and a large Hispanic population." Maggie Haberman and Emily Schultheis:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc1442fb626680c7cf49b3aebdc8ad5bd0ef645ccd5fe1b11349 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc1442fb626680c7cf49b3aebdc8ad5bd0ef645ccd5fe1b11349 .

WHAT THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES ARE UP TO:Gingrich is in Jacksonville, Pensacola, Tampa and Fort Meyers. Romney goes to Jacksonville, Dunedin and The Villages. Santorum is in Missouri and Minnesota.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc1401ddf673e57119475e203f415a852d562dca0d9e9e8b5cf2 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc1401ddf673e57119475e203f415a852d562dca0d9e9e8b5cf2 

THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNALendorsed Romney yesterday:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc1472be4c746c2d4f2df393ec3c4024c91fd6ea94dc396fddc3 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc1472be4c746c2d4f2df393ec3c4024c91fd6ea94dc396fddc3 .

WHAT THE PRESIDENT IS UP TO:"In the afternoon, the President will welcome President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia to the White House... Later, the President and the First Lady will host the Diplomatic Corps Reception for the foreign diplomatic corps in the East Room...In the evening, the President will participate in an interview with YouTube and Google+ to discuss his State of the Union Address. The interview will be held through a Google+ Hangout, making it the first completely virtual interview from the White House. The President will answer questions submitted by and voted on by over 225,000 people via YouTube. This interview will be streamed live on WhiteHouse.gov,
 YouTube.com/whitehouse and the Google+ page."

EXCLUSIVE - MEEHAN RAISES $314K IN Q4:PennsylvaniaRepublican Congressman Pat Meehan will report raising $314,000 in the fourth quarter and $1.3 million for the year. He has $970,000 cash on hand. That's top tier in what's sure to be an extremely competitive race - whether or not Joe Sestak decides to run.

NEW JERSEY HOUSE - JOHN ADLER'S WIDOW WILL RUN FOR HIS SE AT:Shelley Adler, the wife of the late John Adler, is seeking the Democratic nomination for Congress in New Jersey's Third Congressional District. A release that went out overnight says "Shelley is in the process of putting together a campaign organization and will be filing paperwork with the Federal Election Commission this week. A formal announcement will be held at a time not yet determined."

SUPER PACS BRANCHING OUT BEYOND ADS:"In the last few weeks, super PACs and other outside groups supporting Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul and President Barack Obama launched activities in Florida, other key states, and nationally - including phone banking, field organizing, direct mail, polling, state-of-the-race memos and even surrogate operations - that were once left mostly to the campaigns and parties," Ken Vogel and Dave Levinthal reports. "The ambitious expansion is another example of a shift in political power away from the major parties and their candidates to deep-pocketed outsiders. It's left campaign operatives and even candidates grumbling about whether the
 super PACs are actually helping their favored candidates. Campaigns generally are happy to let super PACs carpet bomb opponents with attack ads, but when it comes to direct-contact with voters and sensitive messaging, they fear that super PACs will muddle their framing, create confusion and duplicate efforts - wasting cash rather than complementing their campaigns." Here are images of the Santorum mailers:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc144fe7613d2cf2bd1d0d0c2671263eb87410f0be56823a67ef 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc144fe7613d2cf2bd1d0d0c2671263eb87410f0be56823a67ef ;
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc144223f8297cb868045c9ddd30599cd402284d3000b276b560 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=922a392a266ebc144223f8297cb868045c9ddd30599cd402284d3000b276b560 ;
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=684ee046e02398f50bed494e23b3d12b725086dffd2f0fd6b3cf0e39fc99b825 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=684ee046e02398f50bed494e23b3d12b725086dffd2f0fd6b3cf0e39fc99b825 . The story:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=684ee046e02398f5fc43cdfaf2ab447f1b36073e6f69a4fb546cd431e201c1ba 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=684ee046e02398f5fc43cdfaf2ab447f1b36073e6f69a4fb546cd431e201c1ba .

MCCAIN CONDEMNS SUPER PACS ON MEET THE PRESS:"McCain called out casino owner Sheldon Adelson, who has so far (with his wife) given $10 million to a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich, and hinted that he anticipates some kind of scandal to come. 'On both sides we have these incredible amounts of money. And I guarantee you there will be a scandal. There is too much money washing around politics. And it&#39;s making parties irrelevant, by the way.'" Jen Epstein:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=684ee046e02398f5f04611e58679f938c3ad4a299d154bb1fec9186b7a512eeb 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=684ee046e02398f5f04611e58679f938c3ad4a299d154bb1fec9186b7a512eeb 

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY:"I can make speeches all day long." - Newt Gingrich
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=684ee046e02398f501467532f051a7036dc3a54f3eb284e685c3a9352a7e5b8f 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=684ee046e02398f501467532f051a7036dc3a54f3eb284e685c3a9352a7e5b8f 

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