memeorandum: Pro-Romney group raises ad budget to $3.4M in Florida (Cameron Joseph/Ballot Box)

12:35 PM ET, January 11, 2012

Top Items:

Zeke Miller / Politics:

Ron Paul To Everyone But Mitt: Drop Out — Campaign says unite behind Ron Paul to defeat Romney. — (Getty Images / Chip Somodevilla) — MANCHESTER, New Hampshire—Rep. Ron Paul's campaign called on the rest of the Republican field to drop out of the race and unite behind him in order to defeat Mitt Romney.

Discussion: The Other McCain, Hit & Run, The Daily Dish, Outside the Beltway, Shakesville, The Gateway Pundit, Questions and Observations, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Atlantic Online, Ballot Box, Mediaite and Gallup

The Politico:

Mitt Romney vs. the dead-enders — HOOKSETT, N.H. - Any remotely sympathetic observer would have to say that Mitt Romney easily cleared the bar on what he needed to do in the New Hampshire primary, and in the process took a big step toward the Republican presidential nomination.

Discussion: CNN, The Mahablog and Taylor Marsh

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

A tale of two speeches — After watching Mitt Romney's speech in New Hampshire last night, I went back and watched Barack Obama's speech in New Hampshire, delivered almost exactly four years ago. The contrast told me quite a bit about the two candidates. — Obama, who'd just lost …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Romney Looks Strong in South Carolina and Beyond — The conventional wisdom holds that South Carolina is likely to be the toughest test yet for Mitt Romney's campaign. But I'm not so sure that's true. From my vantage point, Mr. Romney's position there looks fairly robust.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, New York Times, The Politico, Washington Post, The Caucus, Daily Kos, Democratic Strategist, Politics and Saint Petersblog

Joshua Green / Bloomberg:

Attack Film Depicts Romney as ‘Ruthless’ Rich — Mitt Romney is depicted as a financier “more ruthless than Wall Street” and a son of privilege responsible for laying off thousands of workers in a 28-minute film set to be released tomorrow in South Carolina bankrolled by supporters of Newt Gingrich.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Wall Street Journal, Jezebel, Campaign 2012, Applesauce, American Spectator, Naked Politics, Rush Limbaugh, Riehl World View, The Caucus, The Enterprise Blog, Guardian, News Desk, The Politico and Taegan Goddard's …

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:

Pro-Romney group raises ad budget to $3.4M in Florida — Restore Our Future, an outside group backing Mitt Romney's candidacy, has increased its ad spending in Florida to $3.4 million, the group confirmed to The Hill Wednesday morning. — The ad buy is significant, and the group …

Discussion: CNN

Mackenzie Weinger / The Politico:

Mitt Romney: N.H. shows Bain attacks flopped — Mitt Romney made the rounds on the morning shows Wednesday, saying the New Hampshire primary results show the Bain attacks against him just don't work given the poor showings by Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry. — Romney said rivals criticizing …

Discussion: Daily Kos, CNN and ABCNEWS

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Romney raises impressive $24M in fourth quarter

Discussion: Hot Air

Associated Press:
Romney wins in NH, cements front-runner position

Discussion: Hot Air, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Moderate Voice, The Politico, American Power, The Other McCain, The Gateway Pundit, Big Government, Fox News, Weasel Zippers, Flopping Aces, Connecting.the.Dots, CNN, Scared Monkeys, Ballot Box and Wizbang

Washington Post:
Conservative activists scramble to stop Mitt Romney

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Hit & Run, Daily Kos and The Politico

Alexander Burns / The Politico:
Mitt Romney still must answer 5 questions after New Hampshire

Discussion: Washington Monthly, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and ABCNEWS

Adam Beam / The State:
Rally will feature Gingrich, Clyburn

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler, Betsy's Page, Don Surber and National Review

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:
Barack Hussein Gingrich

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The PJ Tatler, The Daily Caller and Big Government

New York Times:

Blaming U.S. and Israel, Iran Reports Killing of Nuclear Scientist — LONDON — At a time of growing tension over its nuclear program and mounting belligerence toward the West, Iran reported on Wednesday that an Iranian nuclear scientist died in what was termed a “terrorist bomb blast” …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Atlantic Online, Global Public Square, News Desk, The Lede and The Impolitic

Gordon Corera / BBC:

Iran car explosion ‘kills nuclear scientist’ in Tehran — BBC's Mohsen Asgari: “It seems a motor cyclist pasted a bomb to his car which he was in with two other passengers — A university lecturer and nuclear scientist has been killed in a car explosion in north Tehran, reports say.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, nation.foxnews.com and The Gateway Pundit

Fars News Agency:
Nuclear Scientist Killed in Terrorist Blast in Tehran

Discussion: YID With LID, emptywheel, Israel Matzav and Hot Air

James Meikle / Guardian: Iranian nuclear scientist killed in explosion

msnbc.com:

First Thoughts: Next up: The last stand — Next up: The last stand of South Carolina... And it's likely to get nasty there... How will Romney emerge 10 days for now: battered or the de facto nominee?... The message that could take on Romney (but is there a messenger to deliver it?)...

Discussion: The Political Carnival and ABCNEWS

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Santorum gambles, and loses, in NH

Discussion: The State, NY Daily News, msnbc.com and CNN

Jeff Zeleny / New York Times:
Romney Wins G.O.P. Primary in New Hampshire

Discussion: The Caucus, New York Times, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, The Stir By CafeMom, Democracy in America, Investor's Business Daily, The Politico, Outside the Beltway, Queerty, The Moderate Voice, About.com Conservative …, FiveThirtyEight and The Reaction

CNN:
GOP race moves south after Romney wins New Hampshire

Discussion: msnbc.com, Pirate's Cove, CBS Seattle and Ballot Box

Michael O'Brien / msnbc.com:
NBC News: Romney wins N.H. primary, Paul second

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Saint Petersblog, Associated Press, The Daily Beast, The Politico, Donklephant and Taylor Marsh

Mary Lu Carnevale / Washington Wire:

Obama Scores Easy Win; Rivals Pick Up 18% of N.H. Vote — While few noticed, President Barack Obama cruised to an easy victory in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, though a baker's dozen of others on the ballot and write-in candidates garnered about 18% of the vote.

ABCNEWS:
Biden Jabs Romney, Compares Republican Candidates to ‘Brush’

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and CNN

The Politico:
Mitt Romney's victory speech

Discussion: The New Republic, Betsy's Page and The Boston Globe

Felicia Sonmez / Reuters:
Mitt Romney's New Hampshire primary speech (TEXT)

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Huffington Post, The Enterprise Blog, FiveThirtyEight and Feministing

Anthony Faiola / Washington Post:

In Greece, fears that austerity is killing the economy — ATHENS — Deeply indebted and nearly bankrupt, this Mediterranean nation was forced to adopt tough austerity measures to slash its deficit and secure an international bailout. But as the Greek economy slides into free fall …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Paul Krugman and ECHIDNE of the snakes

Jim Dwyer / New York Times:

About New York: Belgian Tourist Arrested, but Crime Never Happened — Just before he was loaded into the police car, Aaron Vansintjan said, one of the officers looked at him. — “He said, 'I'm embarrassed,' ” Mr. Vansintjan said. — That was no obstacle to a bad situation's getting more perplexing by the minute.

Discussion: Gawker and The Awl

Isobel Coleman / The Atlantic Online:

Are Quotas for Women in Politics a Good Idea? — Pros and cons of requiring national parliaments to include a minimum number of women — Afghan parliamentary delegates wait for the start of a conference in Bonn, Germany / Reuters — MORE FROM THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

Discussion: Hot Air

John Cook / Gawker:

John Castle, 76-Year-Old Palm Beach Plutocrat, Breaks Insolent Waiter's Finger — It's an age-old and vexing question: How much is it fair to shave off the tip at a high-end restaurant to signal dissatisfaction with the waitstaff? Two percent? Five percent? Should you stiff them?

Discussion: DealBook