memeorandum: Sarah Palin: 'Wasn't Hard' To Choose Between Donald Trump And Ted Cruz (Charlie Spiering/Breitbart)

1:00 PM ET, February 1, 2016

Top Items:

Charlie Spiering / Breitbart:

Sarah Palin: 'Wasn't Hard' To Choose Between Donald Trump And Ted Cruz — Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin joined the Today show to talk about her endorsement of Donald Trump as Iowans go to caucus tonight for the Republican presidential primary. — “This was probably a tough call for you …

Mark Savage / BBC:

Adele: Donald Trump ‘had no permission’ to use music — Pop star Adele has issued a statement to distance herself from Donald Trump, after he used her music at his rallies. — The Republican presidential candidate, whose slogan is “Make America great again”, has recently …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Independent, Washington Times and The Week

Scott Stump / TODAY.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Sarah Palin talks Iowa, GOP and controversial PTSD comments — Sarah Palin joined TODAY on Monday to talk about the Republican hopefuls in the Iowa caucuses, and she also addressed controversial comments she made on the campaign trail involving PTSD and President Obama.

Discussion: Washington Post, KFOR-TV, Raw Story, Business Insider and The Week

Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:

Iowa poll reveals a line of attack that could sink Trump — DES MOINES — The final poll ahead of Monday's caucuses showed Donald Trump rallying to a five-point lead over Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, with two days to go before voting, but it also revealed a line of attack that could sink Trump.

Discussion: Betsy's Page, Florida Politics, American Thinker, Weekly Standard, FiveThirtyEight, Fox News Insider and RedState

Meridith McGraw / ABC News:
Donald Trump Admits Being a ‘Little Bit Nervous’ About Today's Iowa Caucuses

Discussion: Politico, Associated Press, Florida Politics and The Week

Glenn Thrush / Politico:

How Clinton is plotting to go after Trump — DES MOINES, Iowa — It's tunnel-vision time for Hillary Clinton as she battles Bernie Sanders here — but she's casting some serious side-eye in Donald Trump's direction. — After months of laughing off Trump — and assuming his ascent would propel …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, New York Post and NPR

Ben Schreckinger / Politico:

How Trump Did It — What they heard as they ate deli sandwiches around Donald Trump's hulking, wooden conference table sounded like the businessman's typical bravado. These 25 New York political operatives had come to ask him to run for governor. But Trump had another plan—a very specific plan—to run for president.

Justin Wolfers / New York Times:

Now a Solid Bet: Donald Trump's Nomination Chances Are Better Than 50 Percent — Donald Trump is now more likely than not to win the Republican nomination. — On the day of the Iowa caucuses, the political prediction markets, where traders bet on the outcome of the election …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Week and PredictWise

Kenneth P. Vogel / Politico:
Trump, king of free media, finally bankrolls campaign

Discussion: USA Today, National Review, BuzzFeed, Hot Air and Raw Story

Bloomberg Business:

The Power of the Super-PAC Wanes as Trump Prepares for Iowa Test — With billionaire Donald Trump sitting firmly atop the Republican field, the willingness of big establishment donors to underwrite his competitors' war chests has fizzled. — About 17 donors gave $1 million …

Discussion: Washington Post and Politico

Associated Press:
Bush Doing Whatever It Takes to Stay Relevant

Discussion: Politico, The Other McCain, The Resurgent, ABC News, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Florida Politics and BuzzFeed

Charlie Spiering / Breitbart:
Bloomberg's Joshua Green: There Is No Rubio ‘Surge’ In Iowa

Discussion: Opinion Savvy and No More Mister Nice Blog

New York Times:
Rival Factions of Top Donors Get Behind Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz

Discussion: Washington Post and Politico

CNN: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio are money race winners

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Hillary Clinton May Win Iowa After All — It would be entirely reasonable to presume that Bernie Sanders has momentum in Iowa. He's gained on Hillary Clinton in national polls. He keeps pulling further ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire. And he's made substantial gains in Iowa relative to his position late last year.

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Business Insider, TalkLeft and The Mahablog

John Wagner / Washington Post:
O'Malley secured loan to stay afloat, has staff working without pay in Iowa

Discussion: Mashable

CNN:
CNN/WMUR poll: Trump, Sanders still up in New Hampshire

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Outside the Beltway and Boston Herald

John Wagner / Washington Post:
A more agitated Sanders tries to fend off attacks of nervous establishment

Discussion: Bangor Daily News

CBS News:
Final poll shows tight races ahead of Iowa caucuses

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, Washington Free Beacon, National Review and ABC News

Fox News:

Official: Withheld Clinton emails contain ‘operational’ intel, put lives at risk — EXCLUSIVE: Highly classified Hillary Clinton emails that the intelligence community and State Department recently deemed too damaging to national security to release contain “operational intelligence” …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Free Beacon, Mediaite, Hot Air and The Right Scoop

Hugh Hewitt / Washington Examiner: Hillary's emails disqualify her from the presidency

Caitlin Cruz / Talking Points Memo:

Trump Condemns Cruz's ‘Most Disgraceful’ Voter Violation Mailers — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump condemned mailers sent by Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) presidential campaign over the weekend, which implied Iowa voters had violated election law. — The mailer, which uses social pressure …

Discussion: BuzzFeed

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:
U.S. Senator Disenfranchised By Iowa Caucus Rules

Discussion: Associated Press and Vox

Mario Trujillo / The Hill:
Microsoft on the hot seat in Iowa

Discussion: Breitbart, Washington Post and Hot Air

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

GOP braces for a post-Iowa collision — DES MOINES, Iowa — The bruised and battered Republican Party establishment is bracing for a collision — with the candidates running under its banner. — With the GOP political class growing increasingly worried that insurgents Donald Trump …

Isaac Arnsdorf / Politico:
GOP candidates start limping in the money race

Discussion: The Week

Associated Press:
Among GOP Rivals to Trump and Cruz, Rubio Has Most Cash

Discussion: ABC News and Washington Monthly

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Wind, Sun and Fire — So what's really at stake in this year's election? Well, among other things, the fate of the planet. — Last year was the hottest on record, by a wide margin, which should — but won't — put an end to climate deniers' claims that global warming has stopped.

Joe Romm / ThinkProgress:
Why The Renewables Revolution Is Now Unstoppable

Discussion: MIT Technology Review and New York Times

Dan Bilefsky / New York Times:

Benoît Violier, Top French-Swiss Chef, Dies at 44 — LONDON — The French-Swiss chef Benoît Violier, who scaled the heights of gastronomy to preside over a small Swiss restaurant that was named the best in the world in December, has died in what seems to have been suicide, according to the police.

Discussion: Eater and The Week

Joe Weisenthal / Bloomberg Business:

BofA: The Oil Crash Is Kicking Off One of the Largest Wealth Transfers In Human History — A $3 trillion shift. — Economists are still hotly debating whether the oil crash has been a net positive for advanced economies. — Optimists argue that cheap oil is a good thing for consumers …

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight