memeorandum: What We Learned: Year End Edition (Hotline On Call)

3:25 PM ET, January 1, 2012

Top Items:

Romney leads Paul in new Des Moines Register Iowa Poll; Santorum surges — The Des Moines Register's latest Iowa Poll shows a surprise three-way match-up in contention to win the Iowa Republican caucuses: Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. — Santorum, who has been largely invisible …

Laura Bassett / The Huffington Post:

Ron Paul Flips Out Over Accusation That He Believed 9/11 Conspiracy Theories … GOP Candidates , Elections 2012 , Video , Ron Paul 2012 , Ron Paul Iowa , Ron Paul 9/11 , Ron Paul Newsletters , Ron Paul Racist , Ron-Paul-Conspiracy-Theory , Politics News — Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul …

Discussion: Lez Get Real, ABCNEWS, Washington Post, Mediaite and The Raw Story

msnbc.com:

First Thoughts: Breaking down the final Iowa poll — NBC's Domenico Montanaro reports on the ad race in Iowa, why Santorum's making his move, and how undecided voters might break on Election Night. — By NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro

Discussion: Iowa Caucuses, Washington Monthly, Taegan Goddard's … and The Politico

Niall Stanage / Ballot Box:

No endorsement yet by Rep. Steve King — DES MOINES, Iowa — With only two full days of campaigning left before the Iowa caucuses, one of the state's most influential conservative figures claims he still does not know whom he will support. — Rep. Steve King, who represents …

Discussion: CNN, The Politico and ABCNEWS

Des Moines Register:
Romney leads Paul in Des Moines Register Iowa Poll; Santorum surges

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, National Review, Los Angeles Times, The Other McCain, CNN, Hot Dish Politics, Washington Post, The PJ Tatler and Wall Street Journal

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Santorum downplays need to win, wants to beat Bachmann, Perry

Discussion: CNN

Niall Stanage / Ballot Box:
A new problem for Santorum in Iowa: Overcrowding

Discussion: CNN

New York Times:

I Just Got Here, but I Know Trouble When I See It — BELIEVE it or not, times are getting better. — At least that's what the dry statistics keep telling us. Industrial production, G.D.P. — the kind of figures that Washington and Wall Street sweat over — suggest that the economy is on the mend.

Discussion: The Big Picture, Brad DeLong and EconLog

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies — The benefits of his candidacy are widely ignored, as are the Democrats' own evils — As I've written about before, America's election season degrades mainstream political discourse even beyond its usual lowly state.

Discussion: Hot Air, alicublog, Taylor Marsh, The Mahablog, LewRockwell.com Blog, The Talking Dog, Wizbang, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Moderate Voice

Ross Douthat / New York Times:
Pariahs and Prophets — IN 1984, after serving three terms …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Patterico's Pontifications, Spengler and Rod Dreher

City Room:

Surging Back Into Zuccotti Park, Protesters Are Cleared by Police — Updated More than 500 people associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement gathered in Zuccotti Park on Saturday and, in a return to scenes from earlier in the year, the evening began with the sound of drumming and calls …

Discussion: Connecting.the.Dots, Mediaite and Weasel Zippers

New York Post:

OWS mob in clash with cops — Some 800 Occupy Wall Street protesters began the new year by trying to retake Zuccotti Park last night, starting a massive clash with police in which one officer was stabbed in the hand with a pair of scissors. — A suspect was arrested in the 11:30 p.m. incident, according to a law enforcement source.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Gschwarzcnn / CNN:

TRENDING: Democrats send ghost from Romney's past — (CNN) - Democrats aren't missing a chance to take aim at their favorite target: Republican presidential frontrunner and former Bain Capital executive Mitt Romney. — Randy Johnson, a worker laid off when Bain bought American Pad and Paper Company …

Discussion: The Politico

Julia Duin / Washington Post:

Adam Bellow hopes to give voice to the tea party with new conservative imprint at HarperCollins — NEW YORK — Attention, conservatives: Adam Bellow says this is your moment. — The intellectual left, he contends, is in a vacuum. The right is where there are ideas, variety, excitement.

Discussion: Fausta's Blog

Gautham Nagesh / The Hill:

Online community Reddit driving opposition to piracy bill — Members of Congress and their staff have grown used to scouring the Web, Twitter and Facebook to see where voters stand before finalizing their positions. But the heated debate over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) …

Discussion: Betabeat

John Mauldin / Business Insider:

You Can't Solve A Debt Problem With More Debt — “Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing for the known way is an impasse.” — Heraclitus, Fragments — Which path will we take? If we could only grow our way out of our sovereign debt problems.

Discussion: Questions and Observations

Associated Press:

Obama Signs Military Spending Bill — President Obama signed a broad military spending bill into law on Saturday despite “serious reservations” about provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists. — The bill also applies penalties …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The White House and Althouse