memeorandum: Desperate Husband — In the run-up to Saturday's South Carolina … (William Kristol/New York Times)

2:40 PM ET, January 28, 2008

Top Items:

Obama Gains, But Still Lags In Big States — Barack Obama's overwhelming weekend victory in South Carolina's Democratic primary gives him new momentum in the run-up to the near-national nominating contest a week from tomorrow, known as Super Tuesday. — But Mr. Obama heads into the 22-state showdown as the underdog.

Discussion: New York Times, Boston Globe, The Swamp, New York Post, TIME, Balloon Juice, MSNBC, The Caucus, Outside The Beltway, Real Clear Politics, protein wisdom, Donklephant, Taylor Marsh, TalkLeft and Truthdig

Beth Reinhard / Naked Politics:

Janet Reno endorses Clinton — Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who served in Bill Clinton's administration, is backing his wife in Tuesday's presidential primary. — Reno, who ran for governor in 2002 and served as Miami-Dade State Attorney, is one of Florida's best-known politicians.

Discussion: The New Republic, You Decide 08!, Gateway Pundit, Spin Cycle, JammieWearingFool and Riehl World View

William Kristol / New York Times:

Desperate Husband — In the run-up to Saturday's South Carolina primary, Bill Clinton repeatedly denounced racial divisions in American politics. Indeed, he said Friday in Spartanburg, Americans are “literally aching to live in a post-racial future." — But Clinton certainly hasn't been hastening that day.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Carpetbagger Report, Captain's Quarters, The Campaign Spot, Connecting.the.Dots, The Corner and Washington Monthly

Katharine Q. Seelye / The Caucus:

Jackson: Not Upset by Clinton Remarks — The Rev. Jesse Jackson said late Sunday that he was not offended by comments on Saturday by former President Bill Clinton, who brought up Mr. Jackson's name in response to a question about Senator Barack Obama. — Mr. Clinton had noted that Mr. Jackson …

Discussion: Political Punch, Political Radar, Gateway Pundit, TPM Election Central and The Trail

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Lessons of 1992 — It's starting to feel a bit like 1992 again. A Bush is in the White House, the economy is a mess, and there's a candidate who, in the view of a number of observers, is running on a message of hope, of moving past partisan differences, that resembles Bill Clinton's campaign 16 years ago.

Discussion: Wonkette, HillaryClinton.com, Angry Bear, The Crone Speaks, TalkLeft, A Chequer-Board of Nights … and Middle Earth Journal

Quinnipiac University News and Events:

January 28, 2008 - McCain, Romney Tops In Florida GOP Race, As Giuliani Fades, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Clinton Has 20-Point Lead Among Democrats — Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are running neck and neck among Florida likely Republican voters …

Discussion: FOX Embeds and The Trail

Hindrocket / Power Line:
A RUN ON THE BANK — Every indication is that Rudy Giuliani …

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, Gateway Pundit and Democracy Project

Washington Times:
Giuliani falls far behind in Florida

Discussion: Commentary and The Raw Story

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
McCain hits Romney hard on Fla. radio

Discussion: The Swamp and Commentary

Jacob Weisberg / New York Times:

The Bush Who Got Away — AS George W. Bush prepares to deliver his final State of the Union address, it's worth revisiting the first speech he gave to a joint session of Congress. His valedictory words tonight will provide an opportunity to reflect on the kind of president Mr. Bush was.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Washington Post, Corrente, Brilliant at Breakfast, The Heretik, Lawyers, Guns and Money and TBogg

Roger Runningen / Bloomberg:
President Bush to Curtail Congressional Earmarks

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Outside The Beltway and Blue Crab Boulevard

Michael Abramowitz / Washington Post:
Economy, War To Dominate State of Union

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Politico, CNN, New York Times, Washington Wire, Associated Press, Blog entry, Eschaton, AlterNet.org, NewsBusters.org, Outside The Beltway, Captain's Quarters, Wonkette, Shakespeare's Sister, Power Line, Gateway Pundit, The Mahablog and The Gate

Patrick O'Connor / The Crypt's Blogs:
Boehner challenges Congress to go further than Bush on earmark reductions

Discussion: New York Times, The Foundry, Wall Street Journal and Captain's Quarters

Nitya / Political Radar:

Author Toni Morrison Endorses Obama — ABC News' Rick Klein and Sunlen Miller Report: Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison — who famously declared Bill Clinton to be the nation's “first black president” in a 1998 essay — today endorsed Barack Obama for president, via letter from Morrison to the Illinois senator.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, The Swamp, protein wisdom, Confederate Yankee, TalkLeft, Brad Warthen's Blog, The Carpetbagger Report, The Heretik, TPM Election Central, Wonkette, Classical Values, Shakespeare's Sister, The Strata-Sphere and Sister Toldjah

IMAO.US:
Just So Someone Says It Publicly

Discussion: Althouse and Feministe

John Fund / Wall Street Journal:

Winging It — John McCain has a golden opportunity to make peace with conservatives. Will he take advantage of it? — John McCain has to decide just how comfortable he wants the conservative base of the Republican Party to be with his candidacy. Although he touts his conservative credentials …

Discussion: The Corner, Washington Monthly, The Swamp, Hot Air, Captain's Quarters, New York Times, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, The Campaign Spot, Taylor Marsh and The Volokh Conspiracy

Kathryn Jean Lopez / The Corner: Re: Fund and McCain

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

What's at stake today in the Senate's FISA filibuster vote — Last August, the Democratic Congress amended FISA when it passed the Protect America Act because the Bush administration and Mike McConnell shrilly warned — literally — that the country would be attacked by The Terrorists if they didn't do so immediately.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Think Progress, TPMmuckraker, Washington Times, The Garlic, CREDO Action, Open Left and D-Day

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Hillary Clinton Statement on FISA

Discussion: The Sideshow, MyDD, Daily Kos, Open Left and CREDO Action

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

Team Obama Is Courting Everybody But the Press — GREENVILLE, S.C. — When reporters filed onto Barack Obama's press plane after his acrimonious debate with Hillary Rodham Clinton last week, one thing was noticeably missing amid the wine and snacks on the Boeing 737.

Discussion: New York Times, Boston Globe, JustOneMinute, Providence Journal, Jon Swift, Comments from Left Field, Jules Crittenden and Washington Monthly

CBS News:

Interrogator Shares Saddam's Confessions — (CBS) For a man who drew America into two wars and countless military engagements, we never knew what Saddam Hussein was thinking. But you are going to hear more than has ever been revealed before. — After his capture, Saddam met every day with one man …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Firedoglake and Cato-at-liberty

CBS News:
Interrogator Shares Saddam's Confessions

Discussion: democracyarsenal.org and PrestoPundit

Michael J. Totten:

The Final Mission, Part I — FALLUJAH - At the end of 2006 there were 3,000 Marines in Fallujah. Despite what you might expect during a surge of troops to Iraq, that number has been reduced by 90 percent. All Iraqi Army soldiers have likewise redeployed from the city.

Discussion: BLACKFIVE, The Strata-Sphere and Gateway Pundit

Blue Texan / Firedoglake:

Actual CNN Headline: “Huckabee Challenges Romney Over Fried Chicken” — It gets harder and harder to tell the difference between The Most Trusted Name In News and The Onion every day. … What. The. Hell. Who cares how Willard eats his fried chicken? — But pizza? That's something else entirely.

CNN: Huckabee challenges Romney over fried chicken

Carolyn Lochhead / San Francisco Chronicle:

Obama takes big risk on driver's license issue — (01-28) 04:00 PST Washington — Sen. Barack Obama easily won the African American vote in South Carolina, but to woo California Latinos, where he is running 3-to-1 behind rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, he is taking a giant risk …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, michellemalkin.com, PoliPundit.com and ImmigrationProf Blog

John Heilemann / New York Magazine:

The Test — Inside the Clinton and Obama war rooms, they've spent months preparing for Super Tuesday by shaping and reshaping two candidates with similar politics — but very different worldviews. — Photographs by Shiho Fukada — The tableau on Odell Clark Place in Harlem …

Discussion: FOX Embeds and The Page

Spencer Ackerman / The Washington Independent:

CIA Largely in the Dark on Interrogation Tactics — In a bucolic field two miles north of Mount Vernon, beside a baseball diamond in Fort Hunt Park, Va., about 20 veterans of a secret World War II intelligence unit gathered together last year for the first time since 1946.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, TPMmuckraker, toohotfortnr and Unfogged