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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Cheat Sheet - Romney’s VP Dilemma

Today: U.S. to Resume Talks With Taliban, Obama Raises $68M at End of 2011, Japan to Cut Iran Oil Imports
The Daily Beast Cheat Sheet: Morning

January 12, 2012
SHORTLIST

It's a bit too soon, even in the aftermath of his New Hampshire victory, for Mitt Romney to start picking a running mate, the most important decision of his campaign. But it's not too early for us to have some fun thinking about it. So who's on the shortlist—Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley? The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz runs down the pluses and minuses of potential Mitt running mates.

PEACE

Paging Hamid Karzai. The Obama administration announced that it will resume talks with the Taliban—provided the Afghan president does not have a problem, a senior official told The Washington Post. In December, a U.S.-Taliban deal that would have transferred five Afghan detainees from Guantánamo Bay to Qatar fell apart after Karzai said he wouldn't support it. While the U.S., Afghanistan, and the Taliban have said they are all for opening a Taliban office in Qatar, talks have not taken place since the falling out. The U.S. has maintained that talks with the Taliban must be Afghan-led, though some officials say the Taliban is not willing to sit down and talk to Afghanistan.

WAR CHEST

President Obama's approval rating might be faltering, but he can still raise a lot of money. Obama's campaign took in more than $68 million in the last three months of 2011, both for his own re-election and for the Democratic Party. Campaign officials had hoped to raise at least $60 million during the quarter. In total, Obama and the DNC raised more than $220 million in 2011. Meanwhile, Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren showed own her fundraising chops in the last quarter, raising $5.7 million, far more than her opponent Sen. Scott Brown's $3.2 million.

ISOLATION

Japan's finance minister announced his readiness to cut the amount of crude it imports from Iran, in a show of support for the U.S. economic war against Iran. "The nuclear development issue is an issue that the international community cannot overlook," said Jun Azumi, the Japanese finance minister, in a news conference with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Japan imports 10 percent of its crude from Iran. The U.S. got no such assurance from China, however, which said it wanted no part in the sanctions.

2012

After several days of attacks on his record at Bain Capital, Mitt Romney is readying a defense. That defense starts with a series of ads featuring Bain employees speaking positively about the company, a direct response to a 28 minute Bain movie Newt Gingrich released featuring people laid off by Bain. One adviser admits the Romney campaign was caught off guard by the attacks on Romney's private equity firm, but that now they're preparing to defend it more aggressively. "Being in favor of capitalism is always a major positive in the Republican primary," said Kevin Madden, one of Romney's advisers. Despite reports that quoted Gingrich as saying he'd crossed a line, he now says he isn't backing down.


MEMORIAL
Kim Jong-Il Will Be Embalmed
And put on display.
PREDICTIONS
Handwriting Expert: Newt Won't Drop Out
Speaker's upward-slanting 't' shows willpower.
UPRISING
Second Syrian Monitor May Quit
Says mission hasn't helped civilians.
99 PERCENT
Survey Finds Increasing Class Tension
Eclipses race and immigration conflicts.
BUH-BYE
Oscars May Leave Kodak Theater
Awards Show Considers Moving to Nokia Theatre in LA.
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