memeorandum: Hillary Chokes Back Tears, Wins (My) Respect (Noam Scheiber/The New Republic)

5:50 PM ET, January 7, 2008

Top Items:

TALK OF HILLARY EXIT ENGULFS CAMPAIGNS — Facing a double-digit defeat in New Hampshire, a sudden collapse in national polls and an expected fund-raising drought, Senator Hillary Clinton is preparing for a tough decision: Does she get out of the race? And when?!

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Clinton fights back tears: 'It's not easy' — Exhausted and facing the prospect of losing the second test of her primary campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton fought back tears as her voice broke at the close of a sedate event in a Portsmouth coffee shop. — She expressed the sheer difficulty …

Discussion: Riehl World View, The Carpetbagger Report, Liberty Pundit, Right Wing Nut House, Blogs of War and Blue Crab Boulevard

Jennifer Parker / Political Radar:

Clinton Gets Emotional on Campaign Trail — ABC News' Kate Snow Reports: Campaigning in New Hampshire one day before the first-in-the-nation primary, Senator Hillary Clinton got emotional and had tears in her eyes as she spoke with voters about how hard it is to balance a busy campaign life and her passion for the country's future.

Discussion: MSNBC, Power Line, Captain's Quarters, michellemalkin.com, TalkLeft, Bookworm Room, The Sundries Shack, Salon, QandO, Outside The Beltway, On Deadline and Boston Globe

Robert Shrum / NY Daily News:

Sen. Clinton's massive mistake - and the final chance to fix it — Be Our Guest — If (although I strongly suspect the right word is “when") Hillary Clinton loses tomorrow's New Hampshire primary, there will be a few proto-obituaries for her campaign and many more stories about how it will be “shaken up” or “relaunched.”

Discussion: The Politico, The Belmont Club, The Democratic Daily, The Trail, HazZzMat, Talking Points Memo, Outside The Beltway, Liberal Values, Weekly Standard, Riehl World View, The Moderate Voice, Washington Post and Blue Crab Boulevard

Michael Elmore / Political Radar:

Rivals Reacts to Teary Clinton — ABC News' David Muir, Raelyn Johnson and Sunlen Miller Report: Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., on the tail end of his 36-hour campaigning marathon in New Hampshire on day before the primary vote, reacted to rival Sen. Hillary Clinton's emotional moment Monday.

Discussion: Feministing, Too Sense and Macsmind

Emily Friedman / ABCNEWS:

Can Clinton's Emotions Get the Best of Her? — N.Y. Senator's Recent Displays of Emotion Have Political Analysts Buzzing — How voters interpret Sen. Hillary Clinton's composure — emotional, cold or just plain tough — could be a deciding factor in her campaign for the presidency, political analysts told ABCNEWS.com.

Discussion: Cogitamus and Making Light

CNN:
Clinton gets emotional at New Hampshire stop

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, The Page and TIME: Swampland

WSJ.com:
Emotional Moment for Clinton in N.H.

Discussion: Marc Ambinder, New York Magazine, The Caucus, Hot Air, Althouse, Open Left, Talking Points Memo, Attytood, Tammy Bruce, Taylor Marsh and L.A. Times

Ezra Klein / American Prospect:
EMOTION ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL.

Discussion: Spin Cycle and Oliver Willis

Fernando Suarez / CBS News: Clinton Fights Back Tears

Noam Scheiber / The New Republic: Hillary Chokes Back Tears, Wins (My) Respect

USA Today:

Gallup: Clinton-Obama tied nationally; Huckabee leads GOP — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama each drew 33% of the support from Democrats surveyed in its latest national poll, Gallup just announced. — In mid-December, well before Obama won last Thursday's Democratic caucuses in Iowa …

Discussion: Pollster.com and TPM Election Central

Zogby:
Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby New Hampshire Tracking Poll: Big “Mo-bama” …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, TPM Election Central and Donklephant

Frank James / The Swamp:
Romney: If McCain loses in NH, he's toast

Discussion: The Politico and Hot Air

Ernie Paicopolos / Fox News:
FOX News Poll: McCain Makes Late Surge In New Hampshire—Takes Top Spot

Discussion: Pollster.com

Atrios / Eschaton:

Conservative Victims — From Red State. This is pretty hilarious even for them. … There's more, but you get the idea. It's the fault of liberals that they can't run their website because... hell I don't know.

Discussion: Corrente, Redstate, The Supreme Irony of Life and Angry Bear

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:

RedState Tells Readers Scoop Developers Are All Liberals, So Fork Over $25 Grand — I realize that there's one born every minute, but in a letter to RedState readers, Erick Erickson says that their readers need to raise $25,000 in order to keep them from being overrun by a liberal plot:

Michael O'Hanlon / Wall Street Journal:

Obama and Iraq — One of Sen. Barack Obama's many strengths is his ability to inspire beyond party lines. Because he lacks the baggage of the past, and because his melodic message of hope speaks to many, he garnered much more support from independents in Iowa than either Hillary Clinton or John Edwards.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Sadly, No!, JustOneMinute, Matthew Yglesias, Commentary, democracyarsenal.org, Captain's Quarters and toohotfortnr

Think Progress:

O'Hanlon Mourns That Obama Was Right On Iraq — Brookings fellow Michael O'Hanlon continues his abysmal record of staking out the wrong positions on Iraq in an article in this morning's Wall Street Journal, criticizing presidential candidate and Illinois Senator Barack Obama's position on the war.

Discussion: Center for American … and Matthew Yglesias

Michelle Malkin:

Duncan Hunter to make an announcement; Update: He's staying in, blasts media “knuckleheads” — Update 2:38pm Eastern. Rep. Hunter is staying in the race. He blasted “knucklehead, arrogant” TV execs at ABC and Fox for excluding him from the presidential debates this weekend.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, TVNewser, Los Angeles Times, Ground Game, Hot Air, Say Anything, BLACKFIVE and Outside The Beltway

CNN:
Struggling GOP candidate to stay in the race

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, D-Day, The Campaign Spot and Wake up America

Juan Cole:

Iran IRGC Ships confront US Navy — That the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps coast guard would play chicken with the US Navy is not that surprising. Enemies at sea often taunt one another, and I think there were similar feints by Soviet subs in the old days.

Discussion: Associated Press, Reuters, The Lede, The Newshoggers, American Footprints, Jules Crittenden, ThreatsWatch and The Raw Story

New York Times:
U.S. Describes Confrontation With Iranian Boats

Discussion: CNN, MSNBC, FP Passport, Hot Air, The Belmont Club and Prairie Weather

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:

Ron Paul Supporters Confront Frank Luntz — It's always great when Fox News calls for civility. After excluding Ron Paul (who is, per some polls, in a statistical tie for third in the GOP New Hampshire primary) from the debate last night, Fox's official pollster Frank Luntz's feathers …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and The Supreme Irony of Life

Melissa Bailey / New Haven Independent:
“You are ignoring America's savior!”

Discussion: TPMmuckraker and Cameron's Corner

Greg Sargent / Horses Mouth:

Whoopsie! Kristol's First New York Times Column Attributes Quote To Wrong Author — So those critics who argued against the appointment of Bill Kristol as a New York Times columnist because of the quality of his work — rather than merely because of ideology — will now have yet more proof that they were on to something.

Discussion: Campaign for America's Future, Sadly, No!, The Opinionator and The Plank

William Kristol / New York Times:
President Mike Huckabee?

Mark R. Levin / Human Events:

Man of the Year: Rush Limbaugh — Rush Limbaugh's detractors never learn. They've tried everything to come between Rush and his more than 20 million listeners, intending to destroy his appeal and impact. But it's a hopeless, almost laughable endeavor. They led boycotts against his advertisers …

Discussion: The Corner, Think Progress and Redstate

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:

Some Hillary Advisers Worry About Staying In Past New Hampshire; Others Urge Her To Fight On — Here's some detail on the internal discussions going on inside the Hillary campaign as they brace for the real possibility of a loss to Obama in New Hampshire tomorrow.