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DRIVING THE WEEK-"WE CANNOT WAIT" WILL BE OBAMA'S NEW MANTRA:"With his jobs plan stymied in Congress by Republican opposition, President Obama on Monday will begin a series of executive-branch actions to confront housing, education and other economic problems over the coming months, heralded by a new mantra: 'We can't wait' for lawmakers to act," the New York Times reports this morning. "According to an administration official, Mr. Obama will kick off his new offensive in Las Vegas, ground zero of the housing bust, by promoting new rules for federally guaranteed mortgages so that more homeowners, those with little or no equity in their homes, can refinance and avert foreclosure."
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BRACKETING OBAMA -President Obama's first Las Vegas event today is at the Bellagio. Then he gives the policy speech at a private home. He'll wrap up Monday in Los Angeles with two more campaign events.

.ROMNEY HIGHLIGHTS NEVADA'S BAD ECONOMY:The Romney campaign targets the president as he heads to Vegas. In the latest installment of their Obama Isn't Working video series, five Nevadans talk about how bad things have gotten. The Silver State, after all, has the country's highest unemployment and foreclosure rates. A research document that accompanies the one-minute video recalls that Obama said Americans should not "blow a bunch of cash" in Vegas in 2009 and criticized the city as a convention destination in 2010. EXCLUSIVE to Score:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c9a9958d51ccbb02c615acd6900145aefc741ca002849286a432b873595a40f7
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c9a9958d51ccbb02c615acd6900145aefc741ca002849286a432b873595a40f7 .

.RNC SAYS POTUS SHOULDN'T BE CAMPAIGNING:The Republican National Committee also gets in on the attack, saying the president should focus on fixing the economy instead of raising money. A 30-second web video offers these juxtapositions: "For each new campaign office President Obama opens, there are over 15,000 new foreclosures. And for every million dollars Obama raises, $6.4 billion dollars are added to our national debt. Don't you wish we had a president who cared about your job? Not just his own?" First in Score:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c9a9958d51ccbb02db97201d6c49302c8c4876bd1b9f7aec6dfe51eace3c50d9
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=c9a9958d51ccbb02db97201d6c49302c8c4876bd1b9f7aec6dfe51eace3c50d9 .

.PUNDT PREP - "SOLYNDRA-LINKED FUNDRAISIER STILL BOOSTING OBAMA":"A former Energy Department official linked to the failed Solyndra solar enterprise deal continues to raise campaign money for President Obama and helped plan a fundraising luncheon that the president will attend in San Francisco on Tuesday," the Los Angeles Times reports this morning. "Steven Spinner, who remains in the top tier of Obama fundraisers, took part in a conference call in recent weeks devoted to planning the event at the W Hotel. He also has joined other Obama fundraising calls, according to a person familiar with Spinner's participation who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment
publicly."
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*** As Perry staffs up to talk about the flat tax, Jindal wins in a landslide and Biden keeps the door open to 2016, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.

THE STAKES - FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD: With no debates and the primary calendar fight resolved, attention turns to the early states this week and the attacks that the candidates levels at each other. Perry, looking to solidify his standing as the conservative alternative to Romney, continues to lay out his policy platform with a major speech Tuesday. Obama tries to convince voters that he is serious about turning the economy around. With all that in mind, we have these questions for the week ahead:

(1) How will Mitt Romney criticize Rick Perry's flat tax proposal Tuesday?

(2) How many points will Cain's positive intensity number fall in the coming days after attacks have mounted from the right?

(3) Does Obama's new "we cannot wait" mantra resonate with independents?

(4) Will anyone, except the Washington Post ombudsman, talk about the Marco Rubio story after today?

(5) Who will be the most prominent Republican to praise Obama for bringing the troops home from Iraq?

RUH'ROH - "MEDICAL HELP FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS COULD HAUNT MITT ROMNEY":That's the headline of a story in today's Los Angeles Times, which gets to the vortex of the two most touchy issues for the frontrunner right now (Romneycare and immigration). Noam Levey explains that the 2006 Massachusetts health care law "includes a program known as the Health Safety Net, which allows undocumented immigrants to get needed medical care along with others who lack insurance." EVEN IF THEY ARE ILLEGAL, poor immigrants can still get SUBSIDIZED health care (SOME MIGHT CALL THIS A "MAGNET"): "The Massachusetts program, which cost more than $400 million last year, paid for 1.1 million hospital and clinic
visits. It's unclear how many undocumented patients benefited because the state does not record that data. The Romney campaign referred questions to Tim Murphy, who served as Romney's state health and human services secretary. Murphy said the governor never intended the Health Safety Net to serve undocumented immigrants. BUT Massachusetts officials involved in crafting the healthcare law said there was broad understanding when Romney signed it that at least some people who would benefit would be in the country illegally."
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SOLYNDRAESQUE - "STATE LOAN PROGRAM THAT PERRY TOUTED HAD TO BE BAILED OUT":Today's Austin American-Statesman has a really negative story about a loan program that Perry administered as agriculture commissioner in the 1990s. "Over his eight years as Texas' farmer-in-chief, Perry oversaw a loan guarantee program with so many defaults that the state had to stop guaranteeing bank loans to startups in agribusiness and eventually bailed out the program with taxpayer money," Laylan Copelin writes. "The state auditor panned Perry's claims of creating jobs and criticized Perry and his fellow board members at the Texas Agricultural Finance Authority for not following their own lending guidelines. In
some instances, the auditor said, Perry and the authority guaranteed loans to applicants with a negative net worth or too much debt. Citing growing debts, the auditor finally suggested that state officials consider dismantling the program. Even as the first alarms were sounded, Perry defended the program, saying no taxpayer money was at risk, blaming others and claiming he had fixed it. It only got worse."
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ANOTHER CLIP FOR THE PERRY OPPO FILE -"PERRY, GOVERNOR'S OFFICE DOWNPLAYED ALLEGATIONS AT CENTERS FOR DISABLED":"...during his decade-long tenure in the governor's office, Perry and his staff repeatedly downplayed the severity of abuse and neglect allegations at Texas' state-run institutions for the disabled - until conditions became so dire the U.S. Attorney General was forced to intervene," Emily Ramshaw writes today in a piece that rehashes some deeply-reported-upon scandals of the last few years. It is the second of two parts. The first, which ran Sunday, reported that "two years after Texas leaders signed a federal agreement to improve care at the state's institutions, not even a
quarter of its terms have been met and mistreatment is still commonplace." Part 1:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e68d4b684bc30047f520a927cf1970c06a39355e79cc400c24192d57b9eca493
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e68d4b684bc30047f520a927cf1970c06a39355e79cc400c24192d57b9eca493 . Part 2:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e68d4b684bc3004765a062b3028bc41b81d57cb9ca2984af2733cbf4f3711fcf
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e68d4b684bc3004765a062b3028bc41b81d57cb9ca2984af2733cbf4f3711fcf .

THE CALENDAR CRYSTALLIZES -Nevada GOP's Central Committee voted Saturday to push the caucuses back from January 14 to February 4. New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner will likely announce January 10 as the date for the New Hampshire primary.

.HOW IT PLAYED IN NEVADA:The Las Vegas Sun sub-headline blared: "State buckles to pressure from New Hampshire law." The lead-off quote: "We just basically want to be the adults in the room here," Nevada GOP chairwoman Amy Tarkanian said. "This has turned into a huge debacle... It's unnecessary, it's turned into a distraction...We will be the good guys in the end because we don't need to be New Hampshire's pinata." At the committee meeting, per the paper, "no one stood up to make an impassioned case against the switch."
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.HOW IT PLAYED IN NEW HAMPSHIRE:Concord Monitor headline: "N.H. prevails as Nevada delays vote." From the story: "New Hampshire officials were clearly happy. 'It's a win for the process and it's certainly a win for New Hampshire,' said Phyllis Woods, a RNC member from the Granite State."
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.THE NEW CALENDAR HELPS ROMNEY: "Republican handicappers say Mitt Romney's deep pockets and steadiness in the polls make him the best-positioned to benefit from a calendar that has suddenly been compressed, with nomination contests beginning a month earlier than GOP officials had planned, and also elongated, thanks to the break after the first five nominating contests," Neil King writes in today's Wall Street Journal.
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SATURDAY IN AMES - IOWA'S SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES AREN'T COALESCING:"In an audition before conservative Iowans, six GOP presidential candidates worked Saturday night to outdo one another on the authenticity of their Christian faith and the strength of their opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage," the Des Moines Register reports. "The Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition fall banquet was a night of subtle digs... Just 10 weeks before the GOP caucuses here, no single candidate has won the devotion of the evangelicals, who boosted evangelical Christian Mike Huckabee to a win in the caucuses four years ago. Iowa's Christian conservatives have earned a reputation for a fixation on social issues,
partly because voters last fall ousted three Iowa Supreme Court justices who helped legalize same-sex marriage here. But several members of the audience...said the economy trumps marriage and abortion issues right now."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=e68d4b684bc300477656f3b3f737763f94b2a307c808d9ccd6a201ffc4425229
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PERRY STAFFS UP - HIRES 2 STRATEGISTS WITH TAX MESSAGING EXPERTISE:"GOP strategy vets Nelson Warfield and Curt Anderson join Austin powers," Mark Halperin scooped last night, adding that "more big-name adds" are likely. "These are two smart guys. Both Warfield and Anderson have long histories with the tax reform/simplification movement - key as Perry starts selling his flat tax. Warfield also had a period of criticizing the flat tax, as a spokesman for Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign, when Steve Forbes was touting such a proposal; Warfield will now be Forbes' colleague on the Perry campaign. In some ways, the Texan's original, relatively small team had been overwhelmed by the demands
of getting a campaign up and running. How the additions will impact the balance of power within the campaign remains to be seen."
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BIRTHERISM, CONT. - IS PERRY NOT CONVINCED OBAMA WAS BORN HERE?In an interview with Parade Magazine, the Texas governor revived the birther issue by refusing to categorically rule out the conspiracy theories that Obama was not born in Hawaii. From the transcript: "Q:Governor, do you believe that President Barack Obama was born in the United States?A: I have no reason to think otherwise. Q:That's not a definitive, "Yes, I believe he"-A: Well, I don't have a definitive answer, because he's never seen my birth certificate... I had dinner with Donald Trump the other night...He doesn't think it's real...I don't have any idea. It doesn't matter. He's the President of the United States. He's
elected. It's a distractive issue."
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BACHMANN STAFF EXODUS - CAMPAIGN DENYING RESIGNATIONS MAKES A BAD STORY WORSE:WMUR broke the story Friday that all five paid members of Bachmann's New Hampshire staff had resigned. Campaign manager Keith Nahigian pushed back hard, expressing confidence in the team and insisting that he had not been notified anyone was leaving the campaign. Meanwhile, the ex-staffers confirmed their departures. On Saturday, the campaign acknowledged the exodus. "It's not that New Hampshire is not important, but our focus is on Iowa," said spokeswoman Alice Stewart, downplaying the significance of the resignations. CBS:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=78bcd541d11e38781fdb80bd1b9e0d9b4ce40a18e37832a4731105c6d1240c67
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=78bcd541d11e38781fdb80bd1b9e0d9b4ce40a18e37832a4731105c6d1240c67 .

WHAT THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES ARE UP TO:Romney hosts a rally at the New Hampshire state house in Concord before filing his paperwork to run in the primary. The state Democratic Party sent an email to supporters asking them to show up at the 9 a.m. rally to lob questions at him about his flip-flops. It's a state spinoff of the DNC's "Which Mitt?" campaign. Meanwhile, former Gov. John H. Sununu will make official his endorsement of Romney. The Union Leader broke the story:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=78bcd541d11e3878b1b80d022c7cb86e1c03dd16d0a9b05b4c6351b5902e3e88
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=78bcd541d11e3878b1b80d022c7cb86e1c03dd16d0a9b05b4c6351b5902e3e88 .

Santorum has seven meet-and-greets planned for these Iowa locales: Red Oak, Glenwood, Shenandoah, Clarinda, Bedford, Mount Ayr and Corning. Gingrich will visit Davenport, Maquoketa and Dubuque in Eastern Iowa.

EXCLUSIVE - ARIZONA'S SHERIFF BABEU FORMING CONGRESSIONAL EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE:Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, a Republican, will announce today that he is forming an exploratory committee for a likely House bid in Arizona's new fourth district. The newly-drawn district stretches from the Sheriff's home in San Tan Valley around Maricopa County, taking in Yavapai, Mohave, La Paz and Yuma counties. David Schweikert lived in Fountain Hills (in this district) but has thrown down the gauntlet on the adjoining Scottsdale district, so there is currently no incumbent there. Babeu, America's Sheriff of the Year, has made a national name for himself by vocally criticizing the Obama administration's
handling of Fast and Furious, the gun-running sting operation that went terribly wrong. The announcement statement (going out later) talks about the debt and immigration, with this quote from Babeu: "I believe it may be time for a new Sheriff in Washington.'

JINDAL WINS - A RECORD-SETTING LANDSLIDE IN LOUISIANA:"Gov. Bobby Jindal rolled to an easy re-election Saturday, defeating nine little-known and under-financed candidates in a record-setting landslide," the Times-Picayune reports. "Jindal's showed strength across the state, getting even 40 percent of the vote in heavily Democratic New Orleans." Jindal, who just turned 40, has a bright future ahead in Republican politics.
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BIDEN 2016 - VP KEEPS DOOR OPEN TO RUN:"My one focus now is getting the president reelected," Joe Biden told CNN's Candy Crowley in a pre-taped interview that aired Sunday. "That is the focus. And I'll make up my mind on that later. I'm probably in the best shape I've been in my life. I'm doing pretty well. I'm enjoying what I'm doing and as long as I do, I'm going to continue to do it. We'll find out. Let's get the president reelected." CNN write-up of Biden making his 2012 pitch:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=78bcd541d11e38781fdb80bd1b9e0d9b4ce40a18e37832a4731105c6d1240c67
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=78bcd541d11e38781fdb80bd1b9e0d9b4ce40a18e37832a4731105c6d1240c67 . Video on 2016:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=78bcd541d11e38783f11d9bf1a47fe3d7604408db29ae7dadc4f5bb49b1d4194
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=78bcd541d11e38783f11d9bf1a47fe3d7604408db29ae7dadc4f5bb49b1d4194

MORE SUNDAY SHOW HIGHLIGHTS - ON OBAMA'S IRAQ WITHDRAWAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

. Lindsey Graham on Fox: "I would argue that Iraq and Afghanistan's being run out of Chicago, not Washington, in terms of decisions."
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. John McCain on ABC, arguing that troops could have stayed: "It could have been negotiated...The question of immunity is being used as an excuse."
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. Michele Bachmann on CBS: "I believe that Iraq should reimburse the United States fully for the amount of money we've spent to liberate these people."
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. Hillary Clinton on NBC, asked whether the Iraq war was worth it: "We're going to have to wait a long time for the Iraqis themselves to answer that question."
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. Ron Paul on NBC: "They've morphed the private sector with the military. The CIA and contractors, it's a mixture. But there's gonna be 15,000 in the armed camp. You know, the fortress...The biggest embassy in the world."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=78bcd541d11e3878632c3114da4d339d67a6160183419e020f5b3a37b7380f45
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IS OBAMA RADIOACTIVE? - DEMS AVOID HIM ON THE HUSTING-"In trips to Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania - all states that he carried in 2008 - members of Congress were notably missing from the president's side," DaveCatanese and Alex Isenstadt write, calling it "a harbinger of a humbling election year to come."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=78bcd541d11e3878093de602a93353171e733ce1255d5ec7edfbe98bc14eb54d
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CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY:"We all knew he was going to steal, but he told us he was going to do it." - Jacinda LeJeune, a regular voter interviewed by the New York Times at a rice festival parade, praising former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards as he makes his post-prison comeback.
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