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By Alexander Burns (@aburnspolitico, aburns@politico.com )


LAST NIGHT - OBAMA VS. 'REALITY SHOW' - The president told an audience of Democratic donors in New York last night that his budget clash with congressional Republicans will be a "clarifying moment" in American politics. And hours after he released his birth certificate to the public, Obama called for a "serious debate" over the direction of the country, swiping at unnamed parties who think politics is a "reality show." "Part of what happened this morning was me trying to remind the press and trying to remind both parties that what we do in politics is not a reality show. It's serious," Obama said. "We're going to have, between now and 2012, a serious debate about the kind of America we believe in. And it is my intention to make sure that as hopeful as 2008 was, I want 2012 to be an election in which we're not just talking slogans, we don't just have pretty posters, but we are looking soberly at the choices we face." Obama didn't denounce "Celebrity Apprentice" host Donald Trump by name, but earlier in the day he also urged reporters not to be distracted by "sideshows and carnival barkers."


POPPING TODAY - 'ANOTHER PELOSI BUDGET' - The National Republican Congressional Committee is launching a new set of budget- and spending-themed television ads, robo-calls and more, going after Democrats who supported their party's fiscal blueprint instead of the GOP plan. The target list is 23 members strong and includes a combination of clearly vulnerable lawmakers, such New York Rep. Bill Owens, and others who will only be vulnerable if redistricting alters their seats very significantly. Among those in the second category are Colorado Rep. Jared Polis and California Reps. Brad Sherman, Howard Berman and Laura Richardson. From the new robo-call script: "Thanks to [the congressman's] addiction to spending, the federal government borrows $4 billion every day ... He voted for another Pelosi budget that would strangle our economy with more spending, more debt and more borrowing from China." This is the latest salvo in an ongoing, low-dollar firefight between the NRCC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, designed to showcase arguments about the budget to national and local media.


THIS JUST IN - "Mass. Republicans want 'RomneyCare' repealed" - NH Journal: "A majority of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in Massachusetts would like to see the 2006 health care law enacted by then-Gov. Mitt Romney and the state legislature repealed and replaced with something else, according to a new survey by Magellan Strategies for NH Journal ... Fifty-three percent of respondents said they wanted to see the Massachusetts law repealed, while only twenty-nine percent said they wanted to keep it. Eighteen percent were undecided or unsure. Overall the plan is unpopular with Massachusetts Republicans. Fifty-one percent have an unfavorable opinion of it (Thirty-four percent view it very unfavorably) while only thirty percent view it favorably ... Forty-two percent of respondents to the poll said they believe Romney's health care law will harm his chances in the 2012 Republican presidential campaign. However, forty-three percent think it will make no difference and thirteen percent say is will help him." http://bit.ly/kIJ3c4


As Bill de Blasio turns the screws, the Nevada special begins and Robert Gibbs demands to see the tax returns, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.


THE 2012 SCORE - DANIELS'S CHOICE - Indiana legislators have passed a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks and defund Planned Parenthood in the state, sending the culturally loaded legislation to the desk of Gov. Mitch Daniels. POLITICO's Sarah Kliff reports that the bill puts "the presidential contender who has famously called for a 'truce' on social issues squarely in the middle of a contentious, national debate over Planned Parenthood's federal funding ... The bill, which passed the Indiana State House late Wednesday afternoon, would bar the state from entering into contracts with abortion providers, making an exception for hospitals and ambulatory centers. Planned Parenthood of Indiana operates 28 clinics in Indiana, eight of which are Title X funded clinics ... Groups on both sides of the issue tell POLITICO they expect Daniels to sign the bill, despite his reluctance to engage in social issues." http://politi.co/ieGBz1


MORE - RICHARDS RAISES THE STAKES - Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards challenged Daniels on the "truce" in a statement: "It's time for Governor Daniels, who called for a truce on social issues, to stay true to his word. As he promised, Governor Daniels should fix the economy and veto this bill that is driven by a clear social agenda and will cost the taxpayers of Indiana money."


THE WAY WE LIVE NOW - "A new era of accusation and innuendo" - POLITICO's Jonathan Martin and John Harris go big on the week that is: "It's hard to imagine Bill Clinton coming out to the White House briefing room to present evidence showing why people who thought he helped plot the murder of aide Vincent Foster-never mind official rulings of suicide-were wrong. George W. Bush, likewise, was never tempted to take to the Rose Garden to deny allegations from voices on the liberal fringe who believed that he knew about the pending September 11, 2001 attacks ahead of time and chose to let them happen. Obama did something like the equivalent of this, by releasing complete documentation from his Hawaii birth and then making a sober West Wing appearance to explain himself ... He did so, senior Obama advisers say, because of the radical reordering of the political-media universe over the past 15 years or so. The decline of traditional media and the rise of viral emails and partisan Web and cable TV platforms has meant the near-collapse of common facts ... 'We're dealing with a lot of the same things Clinton and frankly Bush dealt with but we're dealing with them at 1000 times the speed and with fewer referees,' said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. 'That is the downside of the disaggregation of the media' ... The days of not elevating an opponent or refraining from punching down are gone. 'You literally can't laugh anything off,' said [former Clinton White House press secretary Joe] Lockhart." http://politi.co/k7WlCu


TRUMP IN N.H. - WHAT THEY SAW AT THE REVOLUTION - The AP captured the man of the people in full form during yesterday's trip to the first-in-the-nation primary state: "After holding court before reporters, Trump traveled to several ... stops, all within a nine-mile radius of the Portsmouth airport. He spent a few minutes shaking hands at a Portsmouth diner but spent little time in conversation. Passing by a table of older men, he waved and said, 'Why aren't you at work?' 'We're retired!' answered the group of former workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. 'Don't touch Medicare, right?' Trump said, moving on without waiting for an answer." More from POLITICO's Maggie Haberman: "Trump spent his time in the Granite State ... traveling with a security detail and inside a loaner black stretch limousine, bearing the license plate REGAL 50 ... At the Wilcox Industries manufacturing plant, one stop on a tour whose details were kept secret until the last minute and which were a frenzy of scrambling reporters and photographers, Trump crowed. 'Did you hear?' he asked a group of about 50 workers at the Wilcox plant outside of Portsmouth. 'I am so proud of myself! I got this guy to show his birth certificate!'" http://bit.ly/lgbwRQ and http://politi.co/lQ1f5g


PLUS - 'NBC HAS CREATED A MONSTER' - So says MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell, who unloaded on Donald Trump and the network that employs him in a lengthy monologue last night, branding Trump as "the most deranged egomaniac in the history of NBC entertainment division." O'Donnell: "NBC has created a monster who is using his NBC fame to spew hatred, reeking with racist overtones and undertones about the president of the United States. NBC can no longer stand idly by, not for one more day. The NBC entertainment division could not possibly have created a worse conflict with the NBC News division." http://politi.co/kwAMeF


ONE MORE - GIBBS'S GAUNTLET - The former White House press secretary challenged Trump to open up his tax records now that the president has shared his birth certificate. Said Gibbs: "Donald Trump said he'd release his tax returns as soon as the president released his birth certificate, so the ball is in his court now and I know everybody is anxious to see his tax returns over the last 10 years." And the response: "Trump repeatedly ignored questions about whether he'd fulfill his pledge. Asked later about Gibbs' comments, Trump told POLITICO: 'Gibbs is a loser.'" http://politi.co/jL7fSP


DEBATE PREP - HALEY TEES IT UP: South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and at least three presidential candidates will speak to a Greenville tea party rally just hours before next week's GOP debate there. The Greenville News: "Haley will keynote the 'freedom rally' at the Hyatt Regency hotel on Main Street, while additional speakers at the nine-hour event include former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul. Other state and federal representatives for South Carolina will speak, according to the South Carolina Greenville Tea Party." Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore announced on Twitter that he will also participate. http://bit.ly/kKG3Jb


NEVADA BULLETIN - CALL HIM SEN. HELLER: Gov. Brian Sandoval named Rep. Dean Heller to the state's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat, giving the already-declared GOP Senate candidate a leg up on the 2012 campaign. The Las Vegas Sun: "With a solid 18 months left until the general election, it seems part of that politicking may end up taking place on the Senate floor -- where the votes Heller takes will be determined largely by the Nevada Democrats' most senior member and chief political operator, Harry Reid -- who controls the schedule on the Senate floor ... [O]nly a few minutes before Sandoval announced his decision to appoint Heller, Reid announced he planned to bring up a vote on Rep. Paul Ryan's fiscal 2012 budget in the Senate -- a bill he and most Democrats despise, and have openly derided as a secret plan to kill Medicare." http://bit.ly/jnYYkM


RALSTON'S TAKE - Nevada's premier political scribe predicted on NPR: "I think that the Republican caucus in the Senate will do for Dean Heller what it did not do for John Ensign during the last two years. Ensign was essentially shunned and not given any attention. I think they will try to get Heller a good committee appointment, and there will be an effort by the National Republican Senatorial Committee to make him seem like the greatest freshman senator in the history of senators. And to some extent, he'll get some benefit from that." http://n.pr/kPMfo7


RIPPLE EFFECT - THE SPECIAL IS ON - The Review-Journal notes that it's still unclear how Heller's replacement in the House will be chosen: "State law isn't clear on special election rules. Miller has told people he expects a court challenge no matter his decision. Republicans want the political parties to chose candidates for the special election ballot, which would allow GOP leaders to winnow down a crowded field of party hopefuls, including tea party favorite Sharron Angle." http://bit.ly/khs1Sd


TROUBLE ON STATEN ISLAND - GRIMM SWEATS: New York Rep. Michael Grimm's political problems just got worse. The freshman Republican is already under fire for a New Yorker report that he threatened to kill someone at a nightclub in 1999. Now, New York City's public advocate is pushing for more information on the incident: "In a public statement, [Bill] de Blasio - who once considered running for that seat - said 'Congressman Grimm has an obligation to fully address these allegations by letting the whole truth come out. I urge the Congressman to join me in calling on the New York City Police Department and the Justice Department to release all records surrounding this incident' ... Grimm said the allegations were made by an off-duty cop working security ... According to Grimm, the officer leveled the charges in order to cover up his own misconduct." http://bit.ly/m5aKfu


CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Don can be a grumpy guy. We all know that." - Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on the criticism of her in Donald Rumsfeld's recent memoir http://nyti.ms/jWP0ml

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