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


BREAKING - 'IT BEGINS WITH US' - President Barack Obama launched his 2012 campaign with a web video released before dawn Monday, featuring supporters talking about why the president's reelection matters to them. "There are so many things that are still on the table that need to be addressed," says one woman, named Gladys, from Nevada. "We want them to be addressed by President Obama." Says Ed, from North Carolina: "I don't agree with Obama on everything, but I respect him and I trust him." The video features clips of Obama's rise from "underdog senator" to president of the United States, but the president does not appear in new footage. Watch it here: http://bit.ly/eASEWz


WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: Obama's campaign is expected to file papers with the Federal Election Commission and open the doors to a dizzying fundraising schedule for the president and Vice President Joe Biden. The Wall Street Journal's Carol E. Lee reported over the weekend that Obama "will headline a fund-raiser in his hometown of Chicago, home to his campaign headquarters, over the next two weeks. He will also raise money in New York and make a swing out West, mixing stops for presidential events highlighting the economy and fund-raising in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The fund-raisers are billed as benefiting the Democratic National Committee, but once Mr. Obama formally opens his campaign, the money can be split between his 2012 bid and the DNC." http://on.wsj.com/e1ivf9


LAST NIGHT - REPUBLICANS BRACE: Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus held a conference call Sunday evening to brief the RNC's full membership on how the GOP would respond to the president's rollout. "There will be a flurry of emails, web videos and a website launched the moment he files with the FEC making the case about how he's failed to lead," an RNC official told POLITICO's Jonathan Martin. The committee has been lining up surrogates in D.C. and beyond, and RNC members are being given talking points, templates for press releases and other instructions for handling Obama's rollout.


FIRST IN SCORE - THE FLORIDA STANDOFF: RNC chief of staff Jeff Larson is scheduled to visit Tallahassee on Tuesday to meet with officials there about the 2012 primary calendar, according to Florida Republicans familiar with the trip. Larson plans to meet with aides to state Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon, who would be in a position to move Florida's rule-breaking Jan. 31 primary to a later date. But Florida Republicans still don't want to settle for anything less than fifth place on the primary calendar, and one emphasized: "There is nothing the RNC can do in this situation unless they are ready to offer a lifting of all sanctions related to Florida's primary being held prior to March 6, because it will be held prior to March 6." There's an urgency to the situation: Florida's already almost halfway through its regular legislative session, and with Haridopolos and Cannon preoccupied with overhauling education, Medicaid, medical liability and more, there's not a huge amount of time left to hammer out a plan for rescheduling the primary.


As Rand Paul seizes the moment, Mike Huckabee wins one and the Tim Kaine waiting game nears an end, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.


MONDAY STAKES - This might just be Washington's biggest news week of the year. President Barack Obama is kicking off his campaign. The deadline for averting a government shutdown is imminent. House Republicans are about to tackle Medicare and Medicaid. With the biggest fights of the year looming, here are some of the pols who have the most to gain or lose this week:


(1) Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, who's in the metaphorical driver's seat - and the literal camera's eye - as the president turns the ignition on his reelection bid; (2) House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, who's about to lead his party into a risky battle over entitlements reform that may well define the GOP leadership of the 112th Congress; (3) Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who's the only top-tier Republican presidential candidate with an active exploratory committee, meaning that every hour that passes in the second quarter is an hour he needs to be fundraising like gangbusters; (4) Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who's taking his antagonism of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to a new level, traveling to the Garden State Wednesday to deliver a Jefferson-Jackson speech that could help raise his national profile; (5) The late deciders in the GOP presidential field - think Sarah Palin, Mitch Daniels and Mike Huckabee - who will be losing ground against Barack Obama each day that they put off a 2012 decision now that the Democratic war machine is operational.


TODAY - From the White House guidance: "In the morning, the Vice President will travel to Durham, New Hampshire, where he will visit the University of New Hampshire with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan ... At 1:30 PM, the Vice President will attend an event with supporters of Organizing for America."


MORE N.H. - HE'S NOT RUNNING, BUT ... South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint will participate in an April 30 gathering hosted by former New Hampshire congressional candidate Jennifer Horn. The event, billed as "a first in the nation freedom forum," will also feature conservative Iowa Rep. Steve King. DeMint's appearance follows his trip to Iowa in late March for a conference King organized. http://bit.ly/eF3REm


RAND IN IOWA - THE OBAMA DEFENSE: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul continues to talk like a presidential candidate, and told Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson during a visit to the early caucus state that he doesn't think he's too green to run. Henderson: "Rand Paul is ready to jump in if his dad doesn't. 'I feel the passion to fix the problems in our country before it's too late,' Paul told Radio Iowa ... Paul dismisses the idea he'd be criticized for being inexperienced, just as Republicans criticized Barack Obama for being a first-term senator. 'Didn't seem to hurt him, did it?' Paul said, with a laugh." http://bit.ly/heWRC9


ONE MORE FROM THE RNC - DEBATE PLAN DOA? A proposal to organize the 2012 presidential debates through the RNC is already facing resistance, days after Indiana Committeeman Jim Bopp unveiled the plan along with Jeff Larson. Jmart reports: "Representatives of three potential GOP presidential candidates ... said the plan - under which the RNC would determine the format and moderators for each of their approved forums - would take too much power out of the hands of the candidates and likely add more debates to a calendar already stocked with them. 'This is a matter that should be left to the campaigns,' said a staffer to one likely hopeful. 'The RNC should be focused on Democrats and Obama. The ownership over this belongs to the campaigns. We can work with one another to come to an agreement.'" http://politi.co/fBNQne Read Bopp's email to campaigns on the RNC proposal here: http://politi.co/fJ8jvG


POPPING THIS MORNING - "Jon Huntsman, the rock 'n' roll years" - POLITICO's Ben Smith and Kasie Hunt take a look at the ambassador, way back when: "Jonny Huntsman didn't quite make it through his senior year of high school, and the cause was pretty plain to his classmates ... By the time high school ended, he was joining his bandmates in a converted radio station on the edge of town for five hours a day, practicing original progressive rock numbers and REO Speedwagon covers as his non-Mormon bandmates ducked out occasionally to get stoned in their cars ... There are two types of presidential candidates: Those who seem to have been running since the day they were born - think Mitt Romney or Bill Clinton - and those whose ambition and charisma develops later ... Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is firmly in the latter category." Read the whole thing: http://politi.co/eUnOtR


(STRAW) POLL OF THE DAY - HUCK'S A WINNER: Republicans in South Carolina's York County chose Mike Huckabee as their top pick for president in 2012 at a weekend convention. CNN's Peter Hamby: "Huckabee, who has shown no signs of mounting a repeat presidential bid in the state, nevertheless won the vote with 23 percent ... He was followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who captured 11 percent of the vote. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann finished third with 10 percent. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney netted 8 percent to finish fourth. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and reality television star Donald Trump tied for fifth, with 7 percent." http://bit.ly/hgEu4D


THE BUDGET FIGHT - PLANNED PARENTHOOD WIELDS SCAIFE - Planned Parenthood is calling an unlikely witness on its behalf in the debate over whether to continue federal funding for the group: billionaire conservative publisher Richard Mellon Scaife. The organization has taken out a full-page ad in Monday's Wall Street Journal to reprint a column by Scaife calling it "dead wrong" to defund Planned Parenthood. Writes Scaife: "Abortions are a minor aspect of Planned Parenthood's mission to provide reproductive health care educations and other services to Americans, regardless of income ... Many of their clients are poor Americans who cannot afford birth-control measures ... For many others, Planned Parenthood is the only safe, reliable source of counseling to avoid getting pregnant in the first place." See the ad here: http://politi.co/gg3MXr


NOT A GOOD HEADLINE - "Kinder spends time in St. Louis, courtesy of taxpayers" - The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri's "No. 2 official, who has a home in Cape Girardeau and an office in Jefferson City, has grown accustomed to staying at luxury hotels in St. Louis - and letting taxpayers pick up the tab. Since 2006, Kinder has billed the state for an average of more than two months per year at hotels in the St. Louis area. Even with a discounted government rate, Kinder has charged taxpayers a total of $35,050 for at least 329 nights at hotels in St. Louis and St. Louis County during that time period. That includes 236 nights at the Chase and 42 nights at the downtown Four Seasons." Kinder, a likely gubernatorial candidate, has defended his visits to St. Louis as part of the business of being lieutenant governor and said Sunday he will "not apologize for spending a lot of time there." http://bit.ly/ejPoo3 and http://bit.ly/dEeyzU


PLUS - THE SECOND-DAY STORY - Missouri Democrats will call on Kinder TODAY to release "all public documents relating to the luxury hotel stays, including his schedule of all events attended, and reimburse the state for all travel costs related to non-official business." Missouri Democratic Party executive director Matt Teter: "Particularly at a time when families are saving money to make ends meet, it's unconscionable to think that Peter Kinder is asking Missouri taxpayers to pay for his odd and extravagant lifestyle."


SNEAK PEEK - DEMS DRAG OUT DUFFY WOES: The Wisconsin Democratic Party wants to make freshman Rep. Sean Duffy's $174,000 gaffe a two-week story, in order to inflict maximum damage on the Republican for saying that he "struggles" on a congressional salary. State Democrats have put together a clips reel of voters responding to Duffy's comment, saying the congressman needs a "reality check" and is "in over his head." "I'd happily send him back to 'The Real World,'" says one woman. One man jabs: "It's really ridiculous to be whining about that kind of income." Watch it here: http://bit.ly/fDdd0y


KAINE WATCH - THE NEW TIMETABLE: Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine now plans to announce a run for Senate in "the next two weeks," senior Democrats told CNN's Jessica Yellin. POLITICO reported Saturday that Kaine's announcement could come "as early as next week," touching off an increasingly unpredictable succession scramble at the DNC: "[Former Ohio Gov. Ted] Strickland and [Florida Rep. Debbie] Wasserman Schultz are very much in contention, sources close to the process tell POLITICO, but President Obama's political team has expanded its hunt for a more out-of-the-box candidate for a job they view as central to keeping the White House and the Senate in 2012." http://politi.co/gRzzij


ELECTION EVE IN VEGAS - Voters in Nevada's biggest city go to the polls tomorrow to choose a successor for outgoing Mayor Oscar Goodman. The favorite is Goodman's wife, Carolyn Goodman, but with no candidate expected to crack 50 percent of the vote, the race will likely go to a June 7 runoff. The Las Vegas Review-Journal sums up the conventional wisdom: "The consensus of the campaigns is that Carolyn Goodman ... remains the front-runner. [Larry] Brown, a Clark County commissioner and former Las Vegas councilman, had been comfortably in second place, but is now in a tight contest with fellow commissioner [Chris] Giunchigliani." Tomorrow is also Election Day in Wisconsin, where voters will decide a hotly contested state Supreme Court election with important implications for Gov. Scott Walker. http://bit.ly/hPFWDq


CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Did the joke go over the way it was supposed to? No, it didn't. Congressman Quayle doesn't hold some kind of vendetta against Politico." - Richard Cullen, spokesman for Arizona Rep. Ben Quayle, cleaning up after his boss's performance at the Congressional Correspondents' Dinner http://bit.ly/hdosjq

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