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 Greetings, OBAMA DOING HIS BEST BULL MOOSE: Forget 'Hope', President Obama is heading to Osawatomie Kansas tomorrow to outline what looks like his big 2012 campaign theme: "Fairness" The White House said that Obama will outline his vision of an American society where "everyone engages in fair play, everyone does their fair share, and everyone gets a fair shot." The model is Teddy Roosevelt's "New Nationalism" speech given a century ago in the same town. Being a mere human and president, Obama hasn't delivered on the near "Messianic" hopes that were invested in his 2008 campaign. But this new theme has several advantages. It appeals both to the broad middle of America, and to the instincts and intuitions of Occupy Wall Street who have argued that income-inequality is the result of 'unfair' advantages that have accused to the 1 percent. Read more about Obama's speech at Business Insider. Then look at the model speech given by Teddy Roosevelt in 1912.
THE REPUBLICAN RACE: The fact is Republicans now have two incredibly weak front-runners. On the one hand, they have Mitt Romney, who has been unable to "close" the deal with conservatives in his party for five years. He is not gaining support anywhere despite a campaign with few flaws. Surging past Romney in Iowa, South Carolina, and Florida is Newt Gingrich. As Byron York pointed out in The Washington Examiner, close observers in Washington and Gingrich's former colleagues are skeptical if not hostile of the Gingrich candidacy. Real Americans out in America, are unclear exactly what it means that Gingrich was paid so handsomely as a political consultant, and they don't recall his various ideological deviations in the 1990s. They simply remember the Republican takeover of the House, a balanced budget, and welfare-reform - things that were unimaginable in the late 1980s. Both these front-runners are extremely vulnerable. And the immediate task facing them is become locked in a positive news-cycle that freezes over the Christmas holiday. Herman Cain dropped out over the weekend, and there is little to say other than that his meaningful presence in the race seemed over a long time ago. His dropping out further bolsters Newt Gingrich. FROM THIS MORNING: Shorter Paul Krugman: Republicans should win, but they are too craven or outright stupid. Shorter Peter Beinart: After all that noise, Republicans are looking to experienced candidates. Liberal Read: Brad Plumer looks at how Europe got into this much debt. Conservative Read: John McCormack on whether Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich has a problem with pro-life voters. THIS DAY IN POLITICS: On December 5, 1848, President James K. Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in California, triggering the 1949 Gold Rush. On December 5, 1944, Allied troops captured Ravenna, Italy. TWEET OF THE DAY: From Jon Huntsman's daughters over the proposed Trump debate, which Huntsman rejected late last week. 
WHAT'S NEXT: President of the New York Federal Reserve, Timothy Geithner meets with European leaders tomorrow in advance of what will be a historic effort to save the European monetary union. Any sign that Germans will not play along in the carefully choreographed series of policy responses can send markets tumbling. Please follow Politics on Twitter and Facebook. | 
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