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By James Hohmann (
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jhohmann@politico.com )

SNEAK PEAK - ROMNEY TO CAMPAIGN ON DOWNGRADE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE - Massachusetts received credit rating upgrades from both Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings while Mitt Romney was governor. As he steps up his presence on the campaign trail with three New Hampshire events today, Romney will brandish this element of his record to sharpen the contrast with President Obama. It could offer a golden peg for the Republican frontrunner because his campaign strategy is built around stressing his economic competence and criticizing Obama's economic leadership. Later this morning the Romney campaign will distribute a research document that juxtaposes the S&P's Friday downgrade of U.S. debt to AA+
against the S&P's March 2005 upgrade of Massachusetts bonds to AA. From the six-year-old S&P's upgrade note: "An economy that is deep and diverse is again producing jobs and reducing already historically low unemployment."

MORE - ROMNEY'S MESSAGE - "When I was governor, S&P rewarded Massachusetts with a credit rating upgrade for our sound fiscal management and the underlying strength of our economy. That didn't happen by accident. The president's failure to put the nation's fiscal and economic house in order has caused a massive loss of confidence that resulted in an embarrassing downgrade. In the Carter era, it was called 'malaise.' Under President Obama, it's called meltdown."

DEMS PUSH BACK - BRACKETING ROMNEY IN NEW HAMPSHIRE - Ray Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, will blast out a memo later this morning that accuses Romney and his competitors of marching in lock step with the most conservative elements of the state House. He argues that what Romney is doing to win the primary will hurt him in the general. "The presidential candidates sound a lot like Speaker Bill O'Brien's caucus of bullies," Buckley writes. "This Friday, Mitt Romney will visit New Hampshire Tea Party leader Ovide Lamontagne to make clear that he is one of them. But what Ovide will not tell Romney is the simple lesson he himself learned in 1996 in his failed run for New
Hampshire governor: if you pander to the extreme right in the primary as Romney is doing and as Ovide did, you'll lose in November."

***As all eyes turn to Ames, Walker stays out of the way and an NRCC ad gets pulled off the air, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.

THE STAKES - FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD - This is the most important week yet of the 2012 presidential race for Republicans. Romney starts to come out of his shell Monday. The GOP faces a referendum on its aggressive efforts in the states with Tuesday's recalls in Wisconsin. The presidential candidates debate for the first time since June 13 on Thursday. And then thousands of Iowans gather for the make-or-break Ames straw poll Saturday. We have these questions for the week ahead.

(1) What does Jon Huntsman think he can do in his first debate to revive his campaign?

(2) How sure is Tim Pawlenty that the people riding his buses to Ames will actually vote for him?

(3) Which Republican will hit Mitt Romney hardest this week, as the frontrunner tries to keep his focus on President Obama?

(4) Does either party actually think the results of the Wisconsin recall elections have national implications?

(5) How much does Rick Perry care what happens in Ames and how will he step on the post-straw poll bounce for whoever wins?

2012 TALKER - NEW YORKER TAKEOUT ON BACHMANN -Ryan Lizza's nine-thousand-word profile of Michele Bachmann posted overnight. Here are three tidbits from the piece:

SHE'S DRUDGE OBSESSED. Lizza flew aboard Bachmann's charter jet on her campaign announcement tour at the end of June. Flying from Iowa to New Hampshire, the high command discussed the play that the Drudge Report gave a story about Bachmann confusing actor John Wayne with serial killer John Wayne Gacy. "You never see anything about Romney on Drudge-ever," Bachmann said after her speech and debate coach, Brett O'Donnell, noted that Matt Drudge is friends with Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades.

MARCUS IS SELF CONSCIOUS. The candidate's husband, sitting next to Lizza in the back of the plane, wanted to talk about how he's being covered. "Newsweek came up with the word 'silver fox,'" he said. "Tell me what 'silver fox' means." Lizza asks if he wants the honest truth. "Oh, don't tell me it's something gay! Because I've been called that before," Marcus Bachmann responds. Lizza writes that he explained it probably had to do with his hair color. "O.K., I can handle that," the spouse said. When they land, Marcus Bachmann picks up a large suitcase: "I'm the high-maintenance traveler here, with the biggest, heaviest bag."

BACHMANN WAS NOT POPULAR WHEN SHE WORKED AT THE IRS. While she describes herself as a "former federal tax litigation attorney," Bachmann apparently took just one case to the courtroom. Lizza interviewed six of Bachmann's former colleagues in the small Internal Revenue Service office where she worked from 1988 to 1992, a period during which she gave birth to two children. "...[A]ll six former colleagues said that the primary fact they remembered about Bachmann was that she spent a good portion of her time of maternity leave-the I.R.S. had a fairly generous policy-and that caused resentment."

There are also illuminating interviews with her law school advisor, the Republican state senator she toppled in 2000 and one of Bachmann's foster children. The full piece is here:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaafe9e508f17495f9b0ce66fe5454da82e4b6c4145fac52d5cd
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaafe9e508f17495f9b0ce66fe5454da82e4b6c4145fac52d5cd . Bachmann also gets this week's Newsweek cover. See Lois Romano's article:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaafd0a79e391ae02a5ee5c0e1946d91c98e071c421c0a716aa4
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaafd0a79e391ae02a5ee5c0e1946d91c98e071c421c0a716aa4 .

COUNTDOWN TO AMES -Molly Ball's curtain raiser on the straw poll is leading POLITICO's home page this morning: "No candidate will come out of Ames the same as he or she went in. Some may not come out at all. And one will emerge as the top challenger to Mitt Romney [who is skipping it]...It's a week that will prove or disprove the conventional wisdom: Ron Paul's struggling to be taken seriously, Rick Santorum's hoping for attention, Herman Cain's fading fast, [Newt] Gingrich is sliding toward irrelevance and Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter's run remains mostly confusing. The stakes are highest for Pawlenty and Bachmann, as the former Minnesota governor pits two years of organizational
build-up against the enthusiasm that has made the congresswoman the Iowa frontrunner as both try to prove their viability." Molly adds that "the less strength everyone else in the field shows, the wider the opening for [Perry] to get in."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaaf3906665eb9ead939e29a2832744e38de109d54919de6b218
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaaf3906665eb9ead939e29a2832744e38de109d54919de6b218

PREVIEW - DNC LAUNCHING "EXTREME AIMS" CAMPAIGN - In conjunction with Ames, the Democratic National Committee will launch a campaign today that seeks to tie the GOP candidates to the tea party, Paul Ryan and Jim DeMint. It's called "Extreme Aims: Wrong for Seniors. Wrong for the Middle Class." [Get the word play on Aims vs. Ames...] It starts with a 70-second web ad this morning called "The GOP's Extreme Aims" that argues just that point. Later in the week the DNC will unveil a website that highlights each candidate's vulnerabilities. Watch the ad here:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaaf8f9c770fd757fb416cfb4767448781512acf8ef111889d12
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaaf8f9c770fd757fb416cfb4767448781512acf8ef111889d12 .

The committee plans a human presence in Iowa: communications director Brad Woodhouse arrives Thursday and chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz gets in Friday. DWS does a roundtable discussion Friday morning in Des Moines and then speaks on the "soapbox" at the Iowa state fair. [A source says the Florida congresswoman might eat something fried on a stick at the fair.] Then she's off to Ames for national and local TV hits.

RAPID RESPONSE-OUTSIDE GROUP READIES FOR HEALTH CARE ATTACKS-Protect Your Care, the Democratic-leaning group created to defend the Affordable Care Act, expects an onslaught of attacks on the health law in the run-up to Ames. So they're planning to send staff to Iowa and spend on paid media. "We will also be defending Mitt Romney from unfair Republican and tea party attacks on his MA health care plan and support for the individual responsibility provision," Communications Director Eddie Vale writes at the top of a 3,100-word "clip & save" guide that outlines how Romney, Pawlenty and Huntsman have each backed away from supporting more progressive health care approaches during their
governorships. The memo, shared in advance with Score, will go out today. On Bachmann, Vale concludes: "She is the only candidate with a 'pure' health care record from the conservative point of view. Our researchers have not been able to find any examples of her supporting the Affordable Care Act or mandates." Here's the memo: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b41bd631ba101da8ebf9b073fccc7fa72cb61e05b81a3bb677c47f9ea5b8c96 Speaking of records, here's a Minneapolis Star Tribune story from Sunday's paper on how Pawlenty has evolved on health care:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaafb972af85995a520f605bd41913545cd4769b3c0e29c995e1
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaafb972af85995a520f605bd41913545cd4769b3c0e29c995e1 .

WHAT THE CANDIDATES ARE UP TO TODAY - Romney addresses the Concord Chamber of Commerce at 9:30 a.m., the Manchester Rotary Club at noon and then hosts a town hall in Nashua at 6 p.m. McCotter hosts an open conversation at a Concord coffee shop at 10:30 a.m. and meets with Rep. Frank Guinta at Rochester 912 project meeting at 6:30 p.m. In Iowa: Pawlenty visits Viking Magazine employees in Ames at 10 a.m., hosts a town hall at Rich's Brew in Johnston at 4 p.m. and speaks at an Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition house party in Clive at 5:30 p.m. Bachmann does a town hall meeting at a community center at 11:30 in Atlantic, Iowa, and a 2:30 p.m. rally in Council Bluffs. Cain attends three stops for
his 'Common Sense Solutions' bus tour: the Sioux City Jewish Coalition meeting at 11 a.m., Cronk's Cafe in Denison at 2 p.m. and Bayliss Park in Council Bluffs at 4:30 p.m.

MEANWHILE - THE PRESIDENT BUILDS HIS WAR CHEST - Obama speaks at 6:40 p.m. at a DNC fundraiser in an undisclosed "private residence" in D.C. Then he motorcades to the St. Regis Hotel for another DNC fundraiser at 7:40 p.m. Both-including the one at the hotel-are print pool only. This means no visuals.

SAY A PRAYER - PERRY'S HOUSTON RESPONSE - Overall the Texas governor's participation in "The Response" has to be judged a political success, at least in the short term. It helps bolster his standing with the religious right as he lays the groundwork for a campaign that will focus on economic issues. Although there is still the danger that Perry's decision to wear his faith on his sleeve may scare away less evangelical Republicans in New Hampshire and hurt his prospects in the general election, POLITICO's Kasie Hunt noted from Houston that "the simple act of speaking here - an inconceivable choice for many of his potential Republican opponents - shows that Perry has decided not just to
accept the political risk that such a religious event represents. He has embraced it..."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaafdd15925fe35b0ae64f5a72ac410764f89fe75ebae323528e
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaafdd15925fe35b0ae64f5a72ac410764f89fe75ebae323528e

WISCONSIN PREVIEW - NOT A TOTAL RECALL - POLITICO's Dave Catanese is in Wisconsin ahead of tomorrow's recall elections. "Democrats on the ground here are increasingly confident they will pick-up two state Senate seats, but are warning that winning the third necessary for a takeover is a tenuous prospect," he writes. "Despite hype from some in the party apparatus about a 'six for six' sweep Tuesday, the more realistic scenario is winning two or three seats, according to those involved in the ground game." Dave obtained a private memo from the Democratic-leaning We Are Wisconsin group to donors. Read it here:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaafc66b0a8c374e8fc9154fb1f86fd053792997593ac4004663
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaafc66b0a8c374e8fc9154fb1f86fd053792997593ac4004663 .

BADGER POLITICS - WHERE'S WALKER? - Catanese noticed that the two most polarizing Republicans in Wisconsin - Gov. Scott Walker and Rep. Paul Ryan - have kept a low profile in Wisconsin during the days before the recalls. Walker spoke to a closed-door meeting at the Republican National Committee meeting in Tampa Friday, and Ryan appeared on "Fox News Sunday." But they have not been out campaigning, and they're spokesmen say they don't plan to. Here's why the approach makes sense: a University of Wisconsin-Madison Badger poll (mentioned in Score last month) showed Walker with 59 percent disapproval.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaafae530d385bb1923b2c6f9131f0334e66a0fc0b18accabdd9
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=3c4e3e63128eaaafae530d385bb1923b2c6f9131f0334e66a0fc0b18accabdd9

EXCLUSIVE - DSCC HITS LINGLE AGAIN - Linda Lingle, the former Republican governor of Hawaii, is still only considering a run for the Senate seat that's opening up with the retirement of Daniel Akaka, but the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is stepping up its attacks to try keeping the best known Republican in the state out of the race. The committee will criticize her for closing public schools on 17 Fridays over two years, part of a broader critique of her record to come. "The fact is Linda Lingle tried to balance the budget on the backs of Hawaii students, and Hawaii residents will be sure to repay the favor and furlough Linda Lingle if she runs for Senate next year," DSCC
spokesman Matt Canter says in a press release coming later today. Last week the committee blasted Lingle for nominating Sarah Palin at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Obama, a native of the islands, carried the state with 72 percent of the vote.

NEVADA SPECIAL - NRCC AD PULLED OFF AIR - Two Reno affiliates have stopped airing an ad paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee that attacks Democratic congressional candidate Kate Marshall. They say its assertion that she backed a $500 million tax increase is unsubstantiated. From the Associated Press: "[KTVN-TV station manager Lawson Fox] says he could not recall pulling another political ad because of unproven statements in his 20 years at the station." A Democrat familiar with the race tells Score that this news comes as Marshall goes up on TV with an ad hitting Republican Mark Amodei over Medicare. The GOP has a registration advantage, but Dems hope this is a
turning point and argue that their candidate has a profile which fits the district. From the NRCC: 'The fact remains, that during Kate Marshall's tenure as Nevada treasurer, the economy suffered the largest increase in unemployment and home foreclosure rates in the nation.' AP:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b41bd631ba101da3ca0d6c959566ffe317c6fcccba746823531c4d7034c375e
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b41bd631ba101da3ca0d6c959566ffe317c6fcccba746823531c4d7034c375e . Explanation from one of the two stations that pulled the ads:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b41bd631ba101daeb83b0e8fee83bd05110aaf118fe2a85446abd0f51f512d0
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b41bd631ba101daeb83b0e8fee83bd05110aaf118fe2a85446abd0f51f512d0 .

TRAGEDY IN COLORADO - WYLY DIES - Major Republican donor Charles Wyly died in a car crash Sunday. The 77-year-old Texas billionaire was struck as he turned his Porsche onto a highway near Aspen. He was a major early financial supporter of House Republican Conference Chair Jeb Hensarling, among other prominent GOPers. The Dallas Morning News: "But the Wylys' political activity [he and his brother Sam] - along with their public profile - fell markedly around 2005, when the SEC began investigating their business activities. The subsequent lawsuit accused the brothers of illegal stock sales worth more than half a billion dollars... Recent rulings had gone against them...Two weeks before Wyly's
death, the court ordered the brothers to turn over several documents they had sought to withhold under attorney-client privilege."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b41bd631ba101dac5e42ff9a745df3aade2cb50156621fdf411ff833da4ffee
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b41bd631ba101dac5e42ff9a745df3aade2cb50156621fdf411ff833da4ffee

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "We need to fill in the crowd and make it look nice and tight for our national media guys." - An aide to Michele Bachmann, speaking into a loud speaker, as the candidate's bus (already running late) idled nearby.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b41bd631ba101da1ed579b0dc3a027e23d5bcec12f55134e9b5c8a42111cc6f
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=5b41bd631ba101da1ed579b0dc3a027e23d5bcec12f55134e9b5c8a42111cc6f

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