–President Obama will address the nation from the Oval Office tonight on the end of combat operations in Iraq. Crowley provides some good context of the challenges the speech presents. Marc Ambinder engages in some (informed) speculation on what he’ll say. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs makes it sound like it will be a pivot from Iraq to a broader message about national security, the Mideast and, yes, the domestic economy. It’s unclear to what degree he’ll talk about the surge or ’08 campaign promises.
–House Minority Leader Boehner will offer a prebuttal on this, that and the other thing.
–The Gallup generic ballot tracking numbers show an all-time high for Republicans: a whopping 10-point lead. It looks like an outlier, but as Nate Silver notes, “The question is: an outlier relative to what?” Mark Halperin says it has Democrats spooked.
–Dave Weigel breaks down three steps to pull off a Tea Party primary insurgency. The next test case could be in Delaware.
–Rick Scott, the billionaire outsider who rankled Florida’s Republican establishment in his gubernatorial primary, has attracted two titans of the establishment for his unity tour beginning today: Jeb Bush and Haley Barbour.
–Andrew Ross Sorkin takes a crack at explaining the icy relationship between Obama and Wall Street and points to the politics of vilification. Yves Smith argues it’s actually about Obama tax policy hitting hedge fund managers’ wallets.
–Abbas sets up Obama-Clinton-Mitchell as the bridge builders to consensus.
–I think Gary Langer is very, very right on the “Obama is a Muslim” poll numbers.
–Walter Shapiro has a fun write-up of campaign ad cliches.
–And Dick Armey’s goats need a lot of TLC.
What did I miss?