Tonight’s the Night: [Michael Calderone, Politico]: “But one postponement and some grudging acceptance later, the CNN/ YouTube-sponsored debate — taking place Wednesday in St. Petersburg, Fla. — could display just how far the Republicans have come in embracing new media.”
Spinning Tales: [Janet Elder, The New York Times]: “It was inevitable. A poll comes out and it dominates the news and changes the way people are thinking about the campaign. That’s just what happened last week when ABC News and The Washington Post released a poll of Iowa caucus goers.”
Follow the Money: [Ben Smith, Politico]: As New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, according to previously undisclosed government records.
He’s No Chuck Norris, But: [Michael D. Shear, The Washington Post]: “Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee won the endorsement of Jerry Falwell Jr., the son of the late Christian Coalition founder, boosting further his efforts to woo evangelical voters and Christian conservatives in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.”
Lifeless: [Jim Kuhnhenn, AP]: “A Republican group that backs abortion rights will start an ad campaign this weekend in Iowa and New Hampshire portraying Mitt Romney as a flip-flopper and drawing attention to a questionnaire he filled out in 2002 endorsing legal abortions.”
--Ben Crair