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


BREAKING OVERNIGHT - "W.H. meeting narrows differences, but still no deal" - POLITICO's David Rogers: "Facing a midnight Friday deadline, the White House and Republicans have substantially narrowed their differences on spending but still fear a government shutdown because of a serious divide over anti-abortion policy riders demanded by House conservatives. 'I am not yet prepared to express wild optimism,' said President Barack Obama, after meeting with top leaders again Thursday night ... The House GOP leadership confirmed later that a meeting of the Republican Conference has been tentatively scheduled for Friday at noon. But as a measure of how skittish the situation remains, aides rushed to add that no one yet expects that this will be used to vet a potential deal." http://politi.co/fZZ4M9


MORE ROGERS: "Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pledged to work 'to resolve our remaining differences.' But Reid made no attempt to hide his pessimism ... At the same time, the president's own leverage has appeared to grow, as the focus moved beyond spending toward social policy. Calling the GOP's bluff and thereby protecting fellow Democrats, Obama promised to veto a last effort by House Republicans seeking political cover from the fallout that is sure to follow any government shutdown at a time when the nation is at war." http://politi.co/fZZ4M9


OBAMA'S DAY - From the White House guidance: "The President will no longer travel to Indianapolis, Indiana ... [T]he President will attend meetings at the White House. The President's trip to Williamsburg, Virginia is still TBD."


RNC BACKS UP THE HOUSE: The Republican National Committee held a conference call Thursday with a group of state party officials from targeted states with Democratic senators. Their goal: To pressure Democrats to support the House-backed resolution to keep government open for a week and extend funding for the military. The call included state party executive directors and communications directors from states with Democratic senators who have supported past continuing resolutions. "We're trying to move this debate beyond the Beltway," an RNC official told POLITICO's Jonathan Martin. State parties will use email lists, press releases and social media to urge voters to call their senators and apply pressure from the ground level. So far, the House bill hasn't moved in the upper chamber: http://politi.co/gfmr68


As lawyers descend on Wisconsin, Rahm Emanuel lets bygones be bygones and Donald Trump loses a viewer, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.


FRIDAY STANDINGS - BETTER OFF NOW? It's hard to say who the biggest winners and losers are this week, since we don't yet know how the shutdown negotiations will be resolved. But with that caveat, here's how Morning Score thinks some of the week's major players should answer the question: Are you better off now than you were seven days ago?


BETTER OFF: (1) Deputy OMB Director Jeffrey Zients, who briefed the White House press corps yesterday on the potential government shutdown, and who could become a major public figure in the event that he has to manage a closure of the federal bureaucracy; (2) New York real estate mogul Donald Trump, whose 2012 flirtations and birther-friendly rants became harder to laugh off when he tied Mike Huckabee for second in a national poll and earned a direct phone call with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus; (3) Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose rising star seemed to have stalled after she was passed over for the DCCC chairmanship, and who is now weeks away from becoming the head of an even higher-profile committee and a key figure in the 2012 campaign.


WORSE OFF: (1) Washington D.C., which has once again become a bargaining chip in federal politics, as Congress negotiates over whether to end funding for Planned Parenthood in the district and the city faces major service interruptions if lawmakers fail to reach a deal; (2) Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who did an amazingly bad job of responding to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch story detailing his frequent, taxpayer-funded stays at luxury hotels, making a bad news cycle a longer and worse one; (2) Wisconsin Democrats, who fumbled the expectations game by pumping up their campaign against Justice David Prosser to the point that it overshadowed all other elections this week, including a more winnable race for Milwaukee County executive that the Democratic candidate won handily.


MORE ON WISCONSIN - HEAD SNAP - The advantage in Wisconsin's Supreme Court race shifted rapidly to Prosser after officials in Waukesha County announced that human error had deprived the conservative candidate of a more than 7,500-vote advantage in the area. And that's touched off a whole new round of fighting, the Journal Sentinel reports: "Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus said Thursday that she failed to save on her computer and then report 14,315 votes in the city of Brookfield, omitting them entirely in an unofficial total she released after Tuesday's election ... [JoAnne] Kloppenburg supporters reacted with alarm, pointing out that Nickolaus had worked in the Assembly Republican caucus during the time that Prosser, a former Republican lawmaker, served as the Assembly speaker ...'This is a serious breach of election procedure,' [Wisconsin Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca] said. 'We're going to look further.'" Democrats are apoplectic, and one emailed Score: "At first blush, Katherine Nickolaus is Katherine Harris without any pretense." http://bit.ly/gTq1WN


ON THE LEGAL TEAMS - IT'S A REMATCH - Republican superlawyer Ben Ginsberg and Democratic superlawyer Marc Elias have signed on to help Prosser and Kloppenburg, respectively. The Capital Times: "Elias is the same attorney who represented Democratic challenger Al Franken in his eight-month epic recount battle with incumbent Republican Norm Coleman ... Ginsberg ... played a prominent role in the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential recount effort in Florida. He was also part of the team that represented Coleman in his recount effort." http://bit.ly/faB9Uf


SHUTDOWN READING - ROVE'S WARNING - A government shutdown could give President Obama an opportunity to appear strong in a confrontation, Karl Rove warns in his weekly polling analysis. Noting that President Bill Clinton's "strong leader" rating jumped by double digits after his clashes with a GOP-held Congress, Rove writes: "While government shutdowns didn't jeopardize Republicans' hold on Congress, they helped President Clinton position himself for a successful 1996 re-election. President Obama's ratings as a strong leader have slipped this year-Gallup polling last week found he had dropped 8 points. Republicans should be careful not to let him recover as he gears up for his 2012 re-election campaign." http://bit.ly/e3WQGU


AXELROD'S TAKE: The former senior White House adviser told Chicago reporter Greg Hinz that the shutdown fight had exposed congressional Republicans as a "group that is very partisan and ideological." Hinz relays the message that Axelrod - and other top Democrats - are delivering on the budget stalemate: "[W]hile talking about the possible government shutdown, Mr. Axelrod made a clear political point while seemingly taking the high road. Mr. Obama 'has met the Republicans more than halfway,' he said. But Republicans are busy pushing for things like a cutoff of funding for Planned Parenthood. Just last year, voters 'didn't vote for more ideology.'" http://bit.ly/dSNq5U


PLUS - TAKE NOTE - More from Hinz's extended interview from Axelrod: "[H]e pretty uch suggested that Mr. Obama's re-election message will be that he came in at a tough time, made tough decisions to improve America and now needs help to preserve what's been gained ... Only when asked about the failure to close the terrorist prison in Guantanamo, Cuba, did Mr. Axelrod sound a little defensive, effectively saying that the president played a difficult hand as well as he could." http://bit.ly/dSNq5U


POPPING ON 2012 LIVE - "Shut it down: Bachmann, Paul oppose temporary funding bill" - Kasie Hunt: "Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul - the only two presidential hopefuls in the U.S. House - both voted against a bill that would keep the government running for another week while lawmakers hash out a budget compromise ... The bill, passed Thursday afternoon on a 247-181 vote with mostly Republican support, would fund the government for a week and fully fund the Defense Department through September. Only six House Republicans voted against it ... Bachmann says she voted against it because it doesn't defund Obama's health care law. 'I had previously pledged to reject any [budget bill] which does not defund that spending,' she said in a statement." http://politi.co/gw3hwz


BARBOUR'S FLORIDA PLEDGE: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour plans to play to win in Florida's presidential primary, no matter when it's scheduled or what penalty the state might face from the RNC. The Miami Herald's Marc Caputo: "Barbour, a likely Republican presidential candidate ... wouldn't answer the most important question on the minds of political insiders. Should Florida be punished for having an early primary? 'I'm going to run in the Florida primary whenever they have it,' Barbour said, declining to give a yes or no answer. 'And I'm going to run in the Florida primary if I run for president. I'm going to run to win the Florida primary whether they have any delegates or have as many delegates or twice as many delegates or no delegates.'" http://bit.ly/i68u8a


POLL OF THE DAY - MEET THE TRUMP VOTER: Donald Trump's favorability rating is only narrowly in negative territory, according to Gallup, which found 43 percent of Americans favorably disposed toward Trump and 47 percent unfavorably disposed. The poll also smoked out just what kind of voters like the "Apprentice" star: Voters aged 18-49 gave Trump a favorability rating of 49 percent positive, 40 percent negative, while older age groups panned him. Midwesterners liked Trump more than they disliked him, 51 percent to 39 percent, while Trump was in negative territory everywhere else. And voters with "some college" education were favorable to Trump, 51 percent to 40 percent, while college graduates, postgraduates and voters who didn't attend college all disliked Trump more than they liked him. More details here: http://bit.ly/i6U9Oz


FIVE'S ENOUGH? FOX DEBATE APPROACHES: County convention season heats up this weekend in South Carolina, while the first presidential debate there looms on May 5. South Carolina Republican Party Chair Karen Floyd said there are no plans to delay that forum, even though only two 2012 hopefuls have committed to attend. The Greenville News: "[T]he relative slowness of the GOP field to congeal has prompted a four-month delay to the other spring presidential debate ... Floyd told GreenvilleOnline.com there'll be no such delay in Greenville and predicted at least five participants in the May 5 Fox News debate at the Peace Center for the Performing Arts. Two potential candidates, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, have publicly committed." http://bit.ly/ehih3x


ELSEWHERE IN S.C. - THEY REALLY LIKE HER: Michele Bachmann's upcoming trip to South Carolina has generated so much interest that event organizers have sought out a venue that can hold ten times as many people as they expected. The Island Packet: "Local organizers of a free, public event this month to bring U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann to Bluffton figured about 200 people would come to see the Tea Party leader and potential presidential candidate. That number is now expected to climb to 2,000 or more. ... [Organizer Kimberly] Tatro said she knew the drive would be a success but didn't think it would grow so large. 'I do believe it's going to be something that Bluffton has never seen before,' she said." http://bit.ly/f8uTDu


ALL GEORGIANS NOW - NEWT'S HOME BASE - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is headed to his onetime home state of Georgia for a local star-studded fundraiser. Joining Gingrich at the Intercontinental Hotel in Buckhead, per the Journal-Constitution's Jim Galloway: "Gov. Nathan Deal, former Gov. Sonny Perdue, and former governor and U.S. Sen. Zell Miller - making a rare personal appearance ... A stiff drink and a photo with Gingrich will cost you $2,500. For $1,000, you still get the drink ... Leigh Ann Gillis, who raised money for both Perdue and 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain, is standing by to take your check." http://bit.ly/eu3N3v


START DATE - DWS COMING IN MAY - The Democratic National Committee is expected to give its formal approval to Debbie Wasserman Schultz's selection as chair in a meeting early next month. The South Florida Sun Sentinel: "Donna Brazile, interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, set a meeting for May 4 in Washington to approve the selection, and no signs of opposition have emerged. ... Wasserman Schultz, 44, of Weston, will continue to represent her South Florida district while taking charge of the national party. She is presently vice chairwoman of the DNC." http://bit.ly/dNMoaZ


STRANGE BUT TRUE - "Rahm Emanuel to help former foe Carol Moseley Braun retire campaign debt" - The Tribune reports: "During the mayoral campaign, candidate Carol Moseley Braun often chided opponent Rahm Emanuel for his fundraising prowess. Now that the election is done, she's hoping to use some of his money-raising abilities to retire her campaign debt. Braun's campaign emailed an invitation Thursday evening saying Emanuel would be a special guest at an April 21 'unity celebration' at Karyn's on Green ... Days after the national Democratic losses in the November election, Braun criticized Emanuel for going to Hollywood to collect campaign checks at a fundraiser hosted by media industry titans. She suggested the former White House chief of staff fit in better on the West Coast than the Midwest." http://bit.ly/h2Yr4Q


CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Boycotting the Apprentice!" - Ashley Biden, daughter of the vice president, zinging Donald Trump on her Facebook page http://politi.co/eeRetk

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