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POLITICO's Morning Score:

By James Hohmann (
mailto:jhohmann@politico.com
jhohmann@politico.com ; Twitter: @jameshohmann)

DUBUQUE, Iowa-After months of publicly downplaying expectations and privately laying the groundwork to compete, Mitt Romney looks increasingly ready to make a play for Iowa in the final two months before the caucuses. On Friday, it came out that his campaign is targeting Perry with robocalls on immigration here. Today, the former Massachusetts governor makes two appearances on the eastern edge of the Hawkeye State.

SNEAK PEEK - CROSSROADS LAUNCHES THE 1600 FUND: American Crossroads will launch a new initiative and website today, The 1600 Fund, for activists, donors and journalists to learn about the group's efforts in the presidential election. It will be a clearinghouse for the conservative group's ads, web videos and grassroots networking. The Obama Files, a feature on the new site, will highlight research materials produced by their research and communications departments. The microsite will also aggregate publicly available print and video research from other web pages. Check it out:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2af8bec814c1646b7fbc7e4ca50b07219b020549f429537bedf7ab0184de939e
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=2af8bec814c1646b7fbc7e4ca50b07219b020549f429537bedf7ab0184de939e .

FIRST IN SCORE - GINGRICH ROLLS OUT SOUTH CAROLINA TEAM: Newt Gingrich's campaign will announce the names of the nine people leading up their Palmetto State effort later this morning. Two longtime Gingrich hands have moved to South Carolina; Adam Waldeck, to be state director, and Vince Haley, to be policy director. Ruth Sherlock and Leslie Gaines of Sherlock and Gaines Consulting Group of Greenville will assist. Regional Directors include: state Rep. Joshua Putnam, for the Upstate; DeLinda Ridings, for the Midlands; Myrtle Beach tea party leader Gerri McDaniel, for the Pee Dee region; preacher and internet marketing expert Chris Horne, for Charleston. Joanne Jones, vice chairman of the
Charleston Tea Party, will organize coalitions for the Gingrich campaign. The former speaker plans to open his state headquarters in Greenville on Saturday.

** As Bachmann attacks, Hahn gets more labor backing and Mandel finally files his financial disclosure paperwork, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.

THE STAKES - FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD: This week, debates in Michigan on Wednesday and South Carolina on Saturday offer the GOP field plenty of opportunities to break through coverage of the Herman Cain saga. These could give a new sense of urgency to a nominating contest that officially kicks off with Iowa's caucuses in less than 60 days. With that in mind, we have these questions for the week ahead:

(1) What is the next tangible step, after coming here, that Romney will take to show he is serious about competing in Iowa?

(2) Will Cain's wife, Gloria, publicly come to her husband's defense?

(3) Is the Rick Perry who shows up at Wednesday's debate going to look more like the loose one in the viral video or the timid one who tried to skate through the New Hampshire debate without making a mistake?

(4) How does Gingrich capitalize on the second look he is getting from Iowa voters?
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(5) Will Michele Bachmann attack Cain more than any other candidate on stage Wednesday?

THE FRONTRUNNER -

FIRST IN SCORE - THINKPROGRESS TARGETS ROMNEY WITH NEW SITE: ThinkProgress will launch a new microsite later this morning called "You Don't Know Mitt: 99 Facts About Mitt Romney." It has 99 quotes from or about Romney divided into categories, from the economy to the environment and social issues. Each item is individually shareable on Twitter and Facebook. Two examples: "19. Back in 2002, a spokesman for Mitt Romney derided an anti-tax pledge as 'government by gimmickry.' He signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge in 2012...34. Mitt Romney said that catching bin Laden would be 'insignificant' and it's 'not worth moving heaven and earth.'" Check it out:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd60e959788b5ba29442a89916210ac381333aec08d7d67dfc
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd60e959788b5ba29442a89916210ac381333aec08d7d67dfc .

HOW DEMOCRATS ARE BRACKETING ROMNEY IN IOWA: Protect Your Care, the IE set up to support the federal health care law, will have protestors at Romney's stops with "Hands off my Medicare signs." This is the kick-off of an effort to try defining the spending proposal Romney unveiled Friday as a Paul Ryan-inspired plan to end Medicare. Ryan praised Romney and his plan, which Democrats will soon use against him. The Iowa Democratic Party will host a 10:45 press conference to decry "Romney's plan to weaken middle class security." A state senator will explain, in so many words, that Romney's new economic plan "places a greater burden on the middle class and the elderly by continuing to offer
special breaks for large corporations, millionaires and billionaires."

ROMNEY LEADS ON ELECTABILITY, BUT STRUGGLES ON OTHER MEASURES: A Washington Post-ABC poll tested the Republican candidates on six attributes or characteristics. "Romney has a sizable lead in just one: One-third of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents say he has the best chance of anyone in the field to defeat Obama in 2012," Dan Balz and Jon Cohen write in today's Post. "In the other five areas tested in the new survey, Romney shows no greater strength than other GOP contenders...Nearly half of all of the Republicans polled say they are less likely to support Romney because of his work on health care, and the number peaks at 55 percent among the most conservative. Overall, 20 percent
are less likely to vote for him because of his religion, but that rises to 32 percent among those who are very conservative."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fdcba282e33aba82a677e25ec986a408105e5f41562962645f
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SOFTENING ROMNEY'S IMAGE PAYS DIVIDENDS WITH WOMEN: The Boston Globe looks at how well Romney is doing with women compared to past elections: "The small but persistent gender gap seems to have emerged because, women say, they appreciate Romney's values, family story, business background - and, yes, his chiseled good looks - while being less interested in the ideological critiques that seem to be causing him more problems with male voters. It amounts to seeing him through a different lens."
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CAIN -

TOP TALKER - FOES COUNT ON CAIN TO SELF-DESTRUCT: "No one is willing to flat out say it, but the Republican and Democratic Party establishments have already written off Herman Cain," Alex Burns writes in the story leading our site this morning. "Cain's rivals on the right hope his support will bleed away on its own and they don't want to anger Cain's remaining fans." On Meet the Press yesterday, Jon Huntsman said that "legitimate questions have been raised" about Cain's behavior but pretty much left it at that. "At a Texas appearance on Saturday night, Cain told reporters who asked about the harassment issue: 'Don't even go there...We are getting back on message.'" Burns' story:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fda5c3c0ac7aac1dd0c1e0fac3d7941340aea56a7f9a47b46f
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fda5c3c0ac7aac1dd0c1e0fac3d7941340aea56a7f9a47b46f . A Reuters/Ipsos poll out Sunday found Cain's favorability dipped from 66 to 57 percent among Republicans last week and 39 percent of Republicans think the sexual harassment allegations are true:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fdb94b11fb5f1fa47ba5ef5c5adabba73d912701d06d15b20a
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fdb94b11fb5f1fa47ba5ef5c5adabba73d912701d06d15b20a .

THE EXCEPTION - BACHMANN ATTACKS CAIN AS INCONSISTENT: The Minnesota congresswoman declined to directly answer questions about the sexual harassment charges, but she went after Cain hard in a pre-taped radio interview that will air today on Scott Hennen's conservative talk show. Per NBC's write-up: "'There has been 10 instances in the last month where he's changed his positions on significant issues,' Bachmann said during the call, citing Cain's shifting statements on abortion, on a federal marriage amendment, and his modification of his own 9-9-9 plan... 'He said that he would allow the terrorists to go out of Guantanamo Bay,' Bachmann said. 'In other words, he would release the
terrorists. Then he changed his mind and said, 'No.'' She continued, 'He just said this week that China was developing a nuclear weapon. They've had one for 47 years.'" It sure sounds like she is telegraphing lines of attack she might take in Wednesday's debate:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd461174e5224e94cf6e71237608c2e529aed32693165e1ced
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd461174e5224e94cf6e71237608c2e529aed32693165e1ced .

RNC EXCLUSIVE - HIGHLIGHTING WAYS THE STIMULUS DIDN'T LIVE UP TO THE HYPE: The Republican National Committee Research Department is using Friday's unemployment report to remind people about the failures of the 2009 stimulus. They have compiled a five-page document called "The $825 Billion Big Fail" to emphasize where it fell short of the promises he made when selling it. They use the shot/chaser format, juxtaposing several "what we were told" quotes against "what happened" statistics.
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd47547fd0a12c35af510dcc931a4a639956be3a6f187ef73c
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SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE - HOW THEY LAMPOONED PERRY'S VIRAL SPEECH: Perry's character popped up during "Weekend Update" to explain why he looked goofy during his New Hampshire speech the Friday before last. Video:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fdc08b50c80a01195da34d15c30bedc745d83f12ecf49677a7
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fdc08b50c80a01195da34d15c30bedc745d83f12ecf49677a7 .

SOUTH CAROLINA TALKER - DEMINT WILL NOT ENDORSE: Jim DeMint does not plan to endorse anyone during the GOP primaries. The South Carolina senator backed Romney in 2008, but it could hurt the tea party kingmaker's ability to raise money for his effort to elect conservatives to the Senate if he threw his weight behind someone who conservatives are leery of. The bright side for Romney is that DeMint did not endorse Perry. This is part of a larger trend in which early state influencers are opting not to endorse:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd5630e90a6eceff193d780fb4569b1b9b0a61e6f82ee22fb7
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd5630e90a6eceff193d780fb4569b1b9b0a61e6f82ee22fb7 . In the interview during which he revealed his plan to sit the primaries out, DeMint left some wiggle room to change his mind:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd77e4874cd2ae8ed63a781d96a309103090749cde928ce5db
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd77e4874cd2ae8ed63a781d96a309103090749cde928ce5db .

FLORIDA TALKER - GOP INSIDERS LESS CONFIDENT THAN DEMS ABOUT PRESIDENTIAL: Adam Smith was surprised by the results of his latest Florida Insider Poll, published yesterday. "Among more than 100 of Florida's most plugged-in politicos, Democrats are more optimistic than Republicans about winning the White House next year. Nine percent of Democrats surveyed said they expect Obama to lose the election - and only if Mitt Romney is the GOP nominee - while nearly 29 percent of the Republicans predict Obama will win...Romney is also the clear favorite to win Florida's Jan. 31 primary, with 82 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Republicans and all the independents predicting the former Massachusetts
governor will come out on top."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fdc35bff711a862719525c22dd183718380e9cdb7ff93f83f8
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WHAT THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES ARE UP TO: Romney speaks to employees at Giese Manufacturing here at 12:30 p.m. and gives a speech to the Iowa American Water Co. in Davenport at 5:30 p.m. Bachmann delivers a speech to the Family Research Council in D.C. Santorum hosts a town hall in Rochester, N.H. Cain appears at midnight as a guest on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" (It's pre-taped.)

COMING TUESDAY - ABC/YAHOO WILL INTERVIEW ALL THE CANDIDATES: "ABC News and Yahoo! News will launch an unprecedented day of live, online-first interviews with each of the leading Republican Presidential candidates from the campaign trail. The interviews...will be live-streamed on ABCNews.com and Yahoo.com," the network announced yesterday. The assignments: "George Stephanopoulos to interview Mitt Romney in Chicago, Illinois; Jonathan Karl to interview Herman Cain in Scottsdale, Arizona; Christiane Amanpour to interview Rick Perry in Austin, Texas; Jake Tapper to interview Newt Gingrich in Washington, DC; Terry Moran to interview Ron Paul in Clute, Texas; Ron Claiborne to interview Michelle
Bachmann in Charleston, SC; John Berman to interview Rick Santorum in Manchester, New Hampshire; Sharyn Alfonsi to interview Jon Huntsman in Coral Gables, Florida." The release:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fdc7fe310ee441248ae0875e34fba9b7f0e9b3d7c5b7aab67f
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fdc7fe310ee441248ae0875e34fba9b7f0e9b3d7c5b7aab67f .

WHAT THE PRESIDENT IS UP TO: "In the morning, the President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office. The President will then meet with senior advisors...In the afternoon, the President will meet with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen...Later, the President will meet with Secretary of State Clinton in the Oval Office...In the evening, the President will attend a campaign event at a private residence."

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED ON THE SUNDAY SHOWS-

PAUL HAS "NO INTENTION" TO RUN AS INDEPENDENT - WON'T COMMIT TO SUPPORT GOP NOMINEE: 'I have no intention of doing that. That doesn't make sense to me to even think about it, let alone plan to do that,' Paul told Fox News Sunday. From their write-up: "But Paul said that if he's not the nominee, he's not certain that he would support the GOP nominee. 'Probably not unless I get to talk to them and find out what they believe in...I would be reluctant to jump on board and tell all of the supporters that have given me trust and money that all of a sudden, I'd say, all we've done is for naught. So, let's support anybody at all ... even if they disagree with everything that we do.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd30e0ac91ee736993e004b5b5dffcd754dc96e588894c9ca8
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd30e0ac91ee736993e004b5b5dffcd754dc96e588894c9ca8

HARD FEELINGS - KAY BAILEY WON'T TAKE BACK PERRY CRITICISMS: "Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) said Sunday that she would not take back any of the criticisms she made again Rick Perry during her 2010 gubernatorial primary campaign against him. 'I'm not going to backtrack on anything that I've said,' Hutchison said on CNN's State of the Union. 'I thought that we needed a choice in Texas and I certainly feel the same way about the United States.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd630c9795ae51da87af0309641e3c8f0b1ffaf41be1e52a88
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd630c9795ae51da87af0309641e3c8f0b1ffaf41be1e52a88

EXCLUSIVE - HAHN GETS POWERFUL LABOR ENDORSEMENT IN CALIFORNIA: The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 18 will announce the endorsement of freshman Rep. Janice Hahn today in her Democratic primary battle against Laura Richardson. Brian D'Arcy, the IBEW Business Manager, says in a forthcoming statement of the former L.A. city councilwoman: "We're supporting Janice Hahn's re-election campaign because she's been with us through the good times, and the bad times." Hahn scrambled as soon as the new congressional boundaries were announced to hold onto key labor backing. This endorsement comes after the House Ethics Committee voted Thursday to investigate whether
Richardson improperly pressured congressional staff to work on her 2010 campaign.

OUT THIS MORNING - NRCC LAUNCHING MICROSITE TO PUSH BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT: The National Republican Congressional Committee is launching a new effort this morning that is very similar to Code Red during health care. CodeRedInk.com will track for the next two weeks where Democrats stand on the Balanced Budget Amendment. The group will push to get Democrats on record about a Balanced Budget Amendment with press releases and other alerts. Then they will keep a whip count on the site. To get users engaged, they offer the chance to submit videos on the site expressing support for a BBA. "House Republicans are working together to make the Balanced Budget Amendment a reality, and we need your
support," NRCC chairman Pete Sessions says in a welcome video. Check it out:
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd8bc5cf7c07d7e79ff78c8ebcded53ecbde9efc4860b91470
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd8bc5cf7c07d7e79ff78c8ebcded53ecbde9efc4860b91470 .

OHIO SENATE - MANDEL FILES HIS FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: We have told you about Democrats' efforts to make hay of Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel's delay in filing his financial disclosure forms. On Friday, he finally did - six months after they were due. Per the Columbus Dispatch: "Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel's long-awaited federal disclosure statement shows that he and his wife have as much as $7.4 million in assets...Mandel's campaign staff said previously that the financial assets of his wife, Ilana Shafran Mandel, were the reason he took so long to file the disclosure form... The report showed 372 sources of income, assets and investment, all of them in ranges."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fb803897e3d795fd96da9b0e382533972fec85e3449f609e5606207c1f182be7
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INDIANA SENATE - LUGAR TRAILS TEA PARTY CHALLENGER IN HOME COUNTY: A poll released Friday night by a local Indianapolis affiliate, conducted with Franklin College, found incumbent Richard Lugar leading Richard Mourdock 49-28 in Marion County, which includes Indianapolis, but there are some signs of softness. From the WISH-TV write-up: "Lugar also has a high favorability rating at 59 percent. Mourdock gets a positive response from just 17 percent. Yet if you place Mourdock's name on the ballot next to his, Lugar fails to reach the 50 percent necessary to keep him in office...That 49 percent may be a sign of trouble for Lugar. (The poll has a sample of 228 likely Republican voters, with a
margin of error of 6.2 percent.)" Lugar was once mayor of Indianapolis.
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MISSISSIPPI ELECTION - "PERSONHOOD" AMENDMENT IS A TOSS UP: "It looks like the race to watch in Mississippi on Tuesday night will be the state's proposed 'Personhood Amendment,' which would make the state's laws regarding abortion and birth control the strictest of any state in the country," Tom Jensen writes in memo on top of polling he released overnight. "Right now it looks like it could go either way, with 45% of voters supporting the amendment and 44% opposed. Men (48-42), whites (54-37), and Republicans (65-28) support the proposal. But women (42-46), African Americans (26-59), Democrats (23-61), and independents (35-51) oppose it."
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CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Everyone loves him. Who doesn't? He has a great personality. But, this is the leader of the free world that we're talking about." - Michele Bachmann explains why Herman Cain is not qualified to be president, during a radio interview in which she describes herself as "the adult in the room."
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