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By Alexander Burns (
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aburns@politico.com ) and James Hohmann (
mailto:jhohmann@politico.com
jhohmann@politico.com )

FIRST IN SCORE - MITT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID - The Republican presidential frontrunner is ending the week also exactly as he started it: with a hard-hitting, well-produced, emotionally charged video branding President Barack Obama as out of touch on the economy. Mitt Romney and his team have been hammering Obama for saying the economy had hit some "bumps in the road to recovery." Today's video spotlights Obama's words and quotes White House press secretary Jay Carney saying Monday, "Bump in the road is exactly what the president said ... We are headed in the right direction." The video asks, "Right direction?" -and cuts to a series of voters telling the camera, "I'm an American," with the
last saying: "Not a bump in the road."

THE KICKER: "President Obama's 20 million bumps in the road would stretch from the White House to Los Angeles ... and back ... Believe In America November 6, 2012." Watch the full, general election-oriented video here:
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N.H. SIREN - ROMNEY IN COMMAND - The former Massachusetts governor has built a strong lead in the Granite State, taking support from 42 percent of likely Republican primary voters in a Magellan poll commissioned by NH Journal. The closest runners-up are Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul, who clock in at 10 percent each. The rest of the lineup: Sarah Palin - 7 percent; Rudy Giuliani - 6 percent; Tim Pawlenty - 5 percent; Newt Gingrich - 4 percent; Herman Cain and Jon Huntsman - 3 percent; Rick Santorum - 2 percent. More on the N.H.-focused Huntsman: "Only 14% of Republicans view him favorably. More than twice that number - 36% - have an unfavorable view. Among self-identified conservatives
Huntsman is in even worse shape. Only 11% of them have a favorable view of Huntsman versus 41% who have an unfavorable view."
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http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=7a4186fa09537c847525b9474a74bf10754ca7c92715b759cf754075a34fdae4 [Note: Several of NH Journal's backers are GOP consultants, but none are aligned with Romney.]

POPPING OVERNIGHT - T-PAW BACK ON OFFENSE - 'CO-CONSPIRATOR' - Tim Pawlenty appeared on Fox News last night to clean up his unsteady New Hampshire debate performance, telling Sean Hannity that when he was asked a question about Mitt Romney's health care record he "should have answered it directly." Pawlenty's direct answer? Here you go: "I don't think we can have a nominee that was involved in the development and construction of Obamacare and then continues to defend it ... I don't think you can prosecute the political case against President Obama if you are a co-conspirator in one of the main charges against the president, on the political level." POLITICO's Maggie Haberman concludes: "It
may take a little while for Pawlenty to erase some of the memories of the debate, but there's certainly no doubt that, politically, the fight is joined."
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As Dan Pfeiffer takes the stage, Jon Huntsman scratches a speech and Des Moines gains one new resident, here's POLITICO's Morning Score: your daily guide to the permanent campaign.

THE WEINER SEAT - ANOTHER NEW YORK SPECIAL - New Yorkers could head to the polls as soon as September to choose a successor to Anthony Weiner, in what will be the Empire State's fifth special congressional election since 2009. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is likely to call an election on Sept. 13, New York's primary day, or Nov. 8, the day of regularly scheduled general elections. Candidate selection is already underway. POLITICO's Alex Isenstadt and David Catanese report that New York Rep. Joe Crowley, the Queens Democratic boss, "has established a shortlist of potential candidates that includes City Councilman Mark Weprin, Assemblyman Rory Lancman, former City Councilwoman Melinda Katz
and former City Councilman Eric Gioia, according to one person familiar with his thinking." On the Republican side, two names circulating are City Councilman Eric Ulrich and investor Bob Turner, Weiner's 2010 opponent.
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THE LATEST FROM NETROOTS - FEINGOLD VS. PRIORITIES USA: Former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold used his evening address Thursday evening to decry the role money plays in politics, criticizing Democrats for taking advantage of weakened campaign finance regulations at the start of the 2012 cycle. Feingold called out Priorities USA Action, a pro-Obama group created by two former White House officials: "Creating those kinds of Super PACs is wrong ... People will see us as weak. People will see us as Corporate Lite. It's not just wrong. It's a dumb strategy." Feingold, who has not ruled out a comeback bid for Senate, also said criticism of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision should be part
of "every speech, every statement" in the 2012 campaign.
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HOURS AWAY - THE W.H.'S TURN - White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer will deliver the Netroots Nation keynote at 10 a.m., stepping before an audience of 2,000-plus attendees who support the president - but who have plenty of gripes with the way he's handled his job. Adam Green, founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, channeled liberal frustration with Obama in a conversation with Hohmann: "They shouldn't try to spin the Obama record ... People will vote for Obama, but we're going to focus our energy elsewhere in supporting actual progressive challengers and stuff, as opposed to focusing on the presidential." The Netroots crowd also booed an OFA worker Thursday for
defending Obama's record on gay rights:
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RIGHTONLINE STARTS TODAY - The RightOnline convention - organized in Minneapolis as a counterpoint to Netroots Nation - begins this evening. The first notable 2012 event is a screening of "The Undefeated," the pro-Palin documentary that will be introduced by Andrew Breitbart at 9 p.m. local time. On Saturday, the 2012 speakers begin in earnest, with appearances by Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Thaddeus McCotter. Watch the events here:
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MEANWHILE, IN LOUISIANA - HUNTSMAN CALLS IN SICK - A "bad cold" will prevent Jon Huntsman from addressing the Republican Leadership Conference as planned today. Instead, the former ambassador to China is sending his wife, Mary Kaye, and two daughters to meet with supporters in New Orleans. ABC News quotes Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller saying that the illness won't impact Huntsman's announcement tour, which is set to begin on Tuesday in New Jersey. Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty are also taking a pass on the RLC this year.
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STRAW POLL OPENS - Voting begins at 11:a.m. in New Orleans, shortly before Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Herman Cain are all scheduled to speak. Rick Perry and Buddy Roemer are also in the mix. Here's the RLC agenda:
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LAST NIGHT - 'THE NEWT GINGRICH SHOW' - The former House speaker used his slot at the RLC to reestablish his brand as the ideas candidate, Jmart reports: "Gingrich's campaign may be on life support ... but as long as he can afford to fly to events such as the Republican Leadership Conference he'll have a platform from which to speak. And speak. No longer constrained by campaign advisers who insisted on such conventions as 'message discipline,' Gingrich fulminated against President Obama, the news media, activist judges and assorted other liberal bogeymen for 41 minutes here Thursday night. It was classic Newt - slashing attacks, an array of ideas, and a few plugs for his website. All
jumbled together with little cohesion. The former speaker, it seems, is very much enjoying the post-consultant phase of his candidacy."
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BOOTS ON THE GROUND - PARRISH MOVES TO IOWA - Michele Bachmann's former chief of staff has relocated to Des Moines to focus on building the Minnesotan's presidential campaign there. The Des Moines Register reports that Andy Parrish "and his family are officially Iowa residents, although temporarily - they're renting an apartment in West Des Moines. His wife is expecting their second child in August, shortly after the Aug. 13 straw poll ... State Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Indianola, posted a message of welcome on Parrish's Facebook. 'Look forward to having you here,' wrote Sorenson, who is Bachmann's Iowa campaign director."
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AND - NEW IN HARDCOVER - Bachmann is preparing a book for release this fall with the help of Wall Street columnist John Fund. The New York Times reported that Bachmann has made a deal with Sentinel, Penguin's conservative imprint: "One person who saw Ms. Bachmann's proposal said the book was largely biographical, an account of the formation of her political and economic ideas. Ms. Bachmann was 'very impressive' in her meetings with publishers, winning over the skeptics in the room, the person said." Ben Smith says Bachmann's deal is "in its final stages but not quite done."
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THE 2011 SCORE - REFERENDUM IN OHIO: Labor has been mobilizing hard in the battleground state of Ohio to put a measure repealing Senate Bill 5, the anti-collective bargaining measure signed by GOP Gov. John Kasich, on the fall ballot. AFT president Randi Weingarten tipped off attendees at Netroots Nation last night that the petition-gathering process is close to success, announcing that organizers have "over 200,000 signatures." The coalition leading the anti-S.B. 5 push, We Are Ohio, has a "major announcement" scheduled for 1 p.m. Eastern today. The exact rules for the election are complicated - organizers need a certain percentage of voters in a certain number counties - but labor is
almost certainly near the number of signatures needed to touch off a big, Wisconsin-style, left-versus-right campaign this fall.

REDISTRICTING READ - A DRAW? Republicans are finding that their expected redistricting advantage isn't all it's cracked up to be. The huge GOP gains in state legislatures last year were supposed to help the party solidify its House majority, but major setbacks in California and Illinois may cause the map-drawing process to end in a wash, says Isenstadt: "Democrats now say they can seize as many as 10 seats in Illinois and California - enough to make up for anticipated losses in states set to unveil new maps soon, like North Carolina and Michigan, where Republicans oversee redistricting... But Republicans also contend that they are, in a way, trapped by their own success from last November's
elections... Around 40 states have yet to complete line-drawing, including key battlegrounds like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan."
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THE OTHER N.H. PRIMARY - GOV RACE BEGINS - Conservative attorney and former Senate candidate Ovide Lamontagne is reaching out to potential Republican primary opponents ahead of an expected 2012 bid for governor, the Union Leader reports. From the paper: "Lamontagne said in an interview ... that earlier [Thursday], he telephoned 2010 GOP gubernatorial nominee John Stephen and former congressman and current state Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley to invite them to meet with him ... Lamontagne, calling them friends, said he does not want to cut any deals, but believes that he, Stephen and Bradley should talk about the possibility of avoiding a divisive primary election in September 2012 and
reach a 'meeting of the minds.'"
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CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The guy's an idiot ... No sympathy." - Markos Moulitsas, on onetime progressive hero Anthony Weiner
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