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By Elena Schneider | 12/07/2015 10:02 AM EDT


With Theodoric Meyer and Scott Bland

The following newsletter is an abridged version of Campaign Pro's Morning Score. For an earlier morning read on exponentially more races - and for a more comprehensive aggregation of the day's most important campaign news - sign up for Campaign Pro today. (http://www.politicopro.com/proinfo)

AN OVAL OFFICE ADDRESS - REACTION TO OBAMA'S TERRORISM SPEECH: In his speech Sunday, President Barack Obama, for his part, "offered no new strategy for eliminating terror threats from ISIL and those the group inspires. Instead, he presented a broad survey of counter-terror tactics put in place since 9/11 and reviewed his administration's multifaceted approach to managing the chaos in Iraq and Syria that has allowed ISIL to thrive," POLITICO's Sarah Wheaton reported. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=90c35be3c4e3e96aa21d41690eeb69c32801d6d08fd7ba8624f7688c4c3de458

- Several Republicans went after Obama for linking the attacks in San Bernardino with a debate over gun control. Ahead of the speech, Ted Cruz urged Obama "not to try to change the subject to gun control," while Rand Paul tweeted afterward that Obama should not "attempt to turn a necessary discussion on terrorism and national security into an ineffective gun control debate." Kasich also alluded it, saying in a statement, "when terrorists threaten us, our response can't be to target our own constitutional rights. Marco Rubio criticized Obama, too, on for saying that it is "insane" that people on the no-fly list can buy guns. "There are people that work for DHS that are on the no-fly list,"
Rubio said. "[Obama] announced nothing new other than we need gun control, even though it would have done nothing to prevent the attack in California."

- It's not just that Democrats and Republicans can't agree on policy right now; they don't even agree on where to start the thought process. Even before the Paris attacks last month, while 77 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of independents said they feared gun violence more than a terrorist attack, a majority of Republicans said they were more fearful of terrorism, per a Marist-McClatchy poll. More Republicans than Democrats (47 percent to 35 percent) see foreign policy and terrorism as issues that will be "extremely important" to them in the next election, according to a CNN national survey released Friday.

- Ted Cruz is as good a barometer of the Republican grassroots as you can watch, and his decision to lean hard on 2nd Amendment defense immediately after the San Bernardino attacks speaks to how little appetite Republicans have for a gun-control conversation, even as Hillary Clinton and Obama rally their party on the issue. Further down the ballot, Democrats running for Senate and House are trying to distinguish themselves based on their commitment to gun control. Colorado encapsulates the split: In one Denver Post article, state Republicans take the offensive on "terrorism politics," while in another Democrats push for new gun control legislation:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=244fc896231e409e411c1efb5a6db7667a0b7cd67038d2bfcb3b35a67593c49e and http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=244fc896231e409ef30dd99788d370fe313b11181a3514def3056ab2072d78cb

Days until the 2016 election: 337.

Thanks for joining us. You can email tips to the whole Campaign Pro team at sbland@politico.com, eschneider@politico.com, krobillard@politico.com, tmeyer@politico.com and kcheney@politico.com.

You can also follow us on Twitter, where we tweet a lot about campaigns and occasionally about tweetstorms: @politicoscott, @ec_schneider, @politicokevin, @theodoricmeyer and @kyledcheney.

BABEU'S COMEBACK BID -Says he's talked with McCain about an endorsement: Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu was in town last week for meetings and a fundraiser to raise money for his campaign for the open seat in Arizona's 1st District, where he's facing a crowded field in the Republican primary. Campaign Pro caught up with Babeu at Bullfeathers - where else? - on Capitol Hill. Babeu, who started and quickly scrubbed an AZ-04 run in 2012, noted that he was the only Republican running in the vast district to hail from Pinal County, where he's been "elected and reelected" and which has a high number of GOP primary voters. As sprawling as the district is, the concentration for this first fight is
in my front yard," he said. "These people, my opponents, have to fight me there to win this battle."

- Babeu's been attacked by Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, who's vacating the seat run for Senate, since getting in the race, which he sees as a sign that he's doing something right. "She's already attacked me," he said. "No Republican was attacked by her or the DCCC until I got into this race." GOP Sen. John McCain is facing a primary challenge, too, but Babeu - who cut a famous ad with McCain in 2010, in which McCain called for "complet[ing] the danged fence" along the border - said he's backing McCain. And will McCain endorse him in the primary, too? "I've talked with the senator," Babeu said, but nothing's been finalized. "I hope to have his support as well as everyone's support in the
race," he added.

** A message from Sinclair Broadcast Group: Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest and most diversified television broadcasting company in the country today, delivers not only TV, the primary medium for reaching potential voters, but also targetable digital (mobile, video, email, social media and native) ad solutions. Contact Alan Brittan @ 703-236-9673. Sinclair, busy - Making Political Ads Work! **

WARREN FOCUSES ON THE SENATE - Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is fully engaged in Democrats' efforts to win back the Senate in 2016, the Boston Globe reports, even as she "has been conspicuously slower to engage in the 2016 presidential race." Warren said that 2014 was a "lousy" year for Democrats, which meant she should start campaigning even earlier for her colleagues. "She has endorsed in four of what's shaping up to be the nine closest Senate races. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ... has invoked her name 21 times in fund-raising e-mails since April - once highlighting her four times in a single day." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=244fc896231e409efae777b167bf0c8d996de1073923b941d3f7146b7ee305f7

EVENTS, MY DEAR SUBSCRIBER, EVENTS - POLITICO Caucus: Economy and the Election in New Hampshire: Join us as we bring POLITICO's New Hampshire Caucus members together for the first time for a deep-dive discussion, featuring a variety of perspectives, about the economic policy issues facing the next president. Speakers include Radio Host Arnie Arnesen; Jared Bernstein, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; Heather Boushey, Center for American Progress; Raymond Buckley, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair; David Gergen, Harvard Kennedy School; Douglas Holtz-Eakin, American Action Forum; Jennifer Horn, New Hampshire Republican Party Chair; Kevin Madden, Hamilton Place Strategies; James
Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute Dec. 7, 6 pm - New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College RSVP: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=244fc896231e409e93349026183adcf0481cd283c4a64da9f195e0373f87b037 Livestream POLITICO.com/live

PRESIDENTIAL SPEED READ - "Ted Cruz aims to elbow out Ben Carson," by POLITICO's Katie Glueck and Daniel Strauss in Cedar Rapids, Iowa: "Ted Cruz returns to Iowa this weekend aiming to capitalize on Ben Carson's precipitous decline and to establish himself as the anti-Washington candidate most qualified to be commander-in-chief. Both Cruz and Carson will court voters at the last big cattle-call scheduled in Iowa before the Feb. 1 caucuses - an event hosted by the conservative group FreedomWorks. And while the event was meant to focus on economics, the emergence of security and foreign policy is climbing to the top of the agenda, giving Cruz the edge his supporters think he needs to elbow
Carson out. ... Carson is doing much of the work for Cruz's camp." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=244fc896231e409edac0cc971a1b770b1e67e4152fb527fce483709c17ce5210

- "Marco Rubio, switching focus, aims to halt Ted Cruz's momentum," by The New York TImes' Jonathan Martin and Jeremy Peters: "For months, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida ran an above-the-fray presidential race, high-mindedly dismissing his Republican rivals' attacks and promising a campaign his family could be proud of long after 2016. No more. In interviews, speeches and in stealthier ways, Mr. Rubio has abruptly changed course, zeroing in on Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in an urgent effort to halt his momentum with conservative voters in this state and beyond. ... It is partly because of Mr. Rubio's operating assumption about the importance of momentum that he has turned so hard against Mr.
Cruz, trying to stir doubts among conservatives about a candidate whose calling card is ideological purity." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=244fc896231e409ec3c5510fa3fb8efb23ae1c17f294497228a00825eec79185

- "Sanders' focus on inequality overshadowed as guns, terror grab headlines," by The Washington Post's John Wagner: "Bernie Sanders returned to the campaign trail here this weekend facing a new foe beyond his Democratic rivals: current events. Terrorism and gun violence have dominated the headlines in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks and mass shootings in Colorado Springs and San Bernardino. But the Vermont senator is sticking largely to a script that has nothing to do with either - emphasizing income and wealth inequality instead, the same issues that generated an unexpected groundswell of support for him over the summer." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=244fc896231e409efa48a323bd5a5aa76c6d09c820d5e8f37c3f0bdcad609a73

- "Dynasties thrive on campaign staffs," by POLITICO's Isaac Arnsdorf: "The payrolls of Republican and Democratic candidates are already brimming with relatives of the politically well connected. From the staffs of Bush, Hillary Clinton and (briefly) Scott Walker to one of the super PACs supporting Ted Cruz, political scions are filling every kind of job from low-paying grunt work to senior adviser. Since donors pay the bills, campaigns can hire anyone they want and don't have to play by the nepotism rules that govern taxpayer-funded jobs." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=244fc896231e409e4c1a85ed406f0d4cdecaa73867336eecda2405c64fa3acf8

- 95,000 words and counting - The New York Times analyzed a week in Donald Trump's language, yielding powerful patterns, "demonstrating how Mr. Trump has built one of the most surprising political movements in decades and, historians say, echoing the appeals of some demagogues of the past century." A hint? "He has a particular habit of saying 'you' and 'we' as he inveighs against a dangerous 'them' or unnamed other," Patrick Healy and Maggie Haberman reported. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=244fc896231e409e640e09807d6b1e20b193d3601a6a8010d7e798218e669e96

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Obama said in his speech that Muslims are our sports heroes. What sport is he talking about, and who? Is Obama profiling?" - Donald Trump, tweeting last night.

** A message from Sinclair Broadcast Group: The race for influence in the 2016 election cycle is gaining speed. Everyone is looking to reach as big of an audience as possible and get significant portions of that audience motivated and educated enough to vote and mobilize probable supporters. As the pace quickens, more will be trying to find an edge to influence voters their way. Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest and most diversified television broadcasting company in the country today, can help you break through the clutter. Utilizing both TV, the primary medium for reaching potential voters and targetable digital (mobile, video, email, social media and native) ad solutions, Sinclair
Makes Political Ads Work! The bottom line is the bottom line - winning elections. At the Sinclair Broadcast Group, we have the ad tools necessary to help you to persuade, enlighten and activate voters. Contact Alan Brittan, Sinclair's Director of Political Ads for more details @ 703-236-9673. **

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