Everyday we ask influential politicos to send us their top three bullet points that are driving the day's conversation in and outside Washington:

Senior Editor of MarioWire.com Mario Solis-Marich:

– Arizona Desert Sands: This weekend John McCain said that Arizona is up for grabs because of the GOP's botching of Latino issues. It could go from up for grabs to a Democratic slam dunk should the White House ever find a beyond the beltway Latino strategy.

– Golden State Beach Sands: A bipartisan California group, led by GOP consultant Mike Madrid, filed a ballot initiative that would give undocumented workers safe harbor and that has the added bonus of bringing in $500 million in new state tax receipts, insuring that the immigration issue will be hot in 2012.

– Quicksand: Mitt Romney continues to fall in all polls as he tries to explain the fluidity of his “convictions." Obama may end up facing nominee Gingrich who has apparently decided to run on a platform of repealing child labor laws.

RedState.Com Editor Erick-Woods Erickson:

– Something weird is happening. Not a day goes by that I do not get emails from really to the right conservatives pondering whether Jon Huntsman might just be the gut to rally around. Huntsman? Yeah. There's something going on out there, fueled by continued doubts in Rick Perry's ability to get it together and a real fear that, given history, Newt Gingrich will implode.

– Best selling book among conservatives in the past week? Breach of Trust by Tom Coburn. The quote-sharing going on across the Internet and in email inboxes is huge. Most every conservative likes Tom Coburn. His book paints a devastating portrait of Newt Gingrich.

– Rumor is that Herman Cain will endorse Newt Gingrich. If so, this further hurts Mitt Romney. Romney's strategy has largely been to keep throwing life lines to other candidates to keep them in the race so consolidation behind one non-Romney does not happen. He's out of time with that strategy now.

Editor’s Note: The blog is a place for a freewheeling exchange of ideas and opinions. CNN does not endorse anything said by its contributors.

Everyday we ask influential politicos to send us their top three bullet points that are driving the day's conversation in and outside Washington:

RedState.Com Editor Erick-Woods Erickson:

– Good news for the President, at least superficially. Unemployment is below 9% for the first time since March of 2009. The underlying bad news is the labor participation rate is getting smaller. The number of people who just gave up was over 300,000. The other bad news for the President is that most sectors of the economy saw unemployment rise, but the Christmas retail sector saw unemployment fall. So, this could be temporary and could start the post-holiday season with headlines of a spike in unemployment.

– Herman Cain's campaign is now in free fall. It has gotten embarassing just to make eye contact with his campaign. But, I think if he drops out now he will be making an admission against interest that the allegations of an affair are true. He might as well hang on.

– Put this in the "I'll believe it when I see it" file, but after I wrote at RedState.com that there was no way Rick Santorum gets competitive, several highly regarded people emailed me that there is an underground movement of church goers in Iowa prepared to go all in for Rick Santorum. We'll see if he can do something. I'm not sure he even knows the rationale for his race anymore.

Firedoglake.com Blogger/Founder Jane Hamsher:

– Occupy Tacoma, WA Receives Much Needed Warm Weather Gear from OccupySupply!

– California Independents Really Dislike Gingrich

– The Myth of Profligate Euro Zone Countries

Editor’s Note: The blog is a place for a freewheeling exchange of ideas and opinions. CNN does not endorse anything said by its contributors.

Every day we ask influential politicos to send us their top three bullet points that are driving the day's conversation inside and outside Washington.

Senior Editor of MarioWire.com Mario Solis-Marich:

– Day Late: Now that we have seen mayors across the country aggressively respond to the presence of the Occupy movement, will we see any courageously respond to their concerns?

– Dollar short: Colorado Republican Congressman Mike Coffman is under attack for not demanding real action from the GOP members of the failed congressional deficit committee. His response to accusations that he didn’t demand enough are that he asked for the elimination of $103 billion in tax cuts for defense contractors. If the group had accepted his recommendation, it would have been far short of its trillion dollar goal.

– Penny Unwise: Herman Cain’s campaign manager is saying that his boss’s presidential campaign is moving forward. Now, he only needs to convince the candidates’ donors.

RedState.Com Editor Erick-Woods Erickson:

– Democrats are in the unusual position of out maneuvering the GOP on tax cuts. The GOP doesn't want to do it and the Democrats are having a field day. The GOP should try to make them permanent.

– The hits are coming fast on Gingrich. Ron Paul has a very effective ad attacking Gingrich's record. Social conservatives are starting to speak up too. If he can survive the next few weeks the race could be his.

– I never thought I'd see the day that a Republican complained about an unfair interview by Fox News, but Mitt Romney is complaining about Bret Baier asking Romney about his record. At least he isn't being asked about affairs or the other stuff Cain and Gingrich have endured of late.

Editor’s Note: The blog is a place for a freewheeling exchange of ideas and opinions. CNN does not endorse anything said by its contributors.

Every day we ask influential politicos to send us their top three bullet points that are driving the day's conversation inside and outside Washington.

RedState.Com Editor Erick-Woods Erickson:

– Last night's CNN debate will be the debate that became Mitt Romney's undoing. Why? Two issues where he was thrown off guard by repeated attack. First, during the exchange over "Romneycare" he said he did not get the job done in Massachusetts. The more troubling one is Romney's quote responding to Perry. Romney let his guard down and said, in response to his lawn service hiring illegal aliens, "So we went to the company and we said, ‘look, you can’t have any illegals working on our property. I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake. We can’t have illegals!’” That will exacerbate pre-existing distrust.

– Where was this Rick Perry? His campaign strategy to change his debate style and ignore the rules probably bought him a lifeline.

– Debate winner? Newt Gingrich. He had one serious flub. His exchange with Romney on "Romneycare" hurt both me. It hurt Romney because it held him accountable for a half-truth. It hurt Gingrich because he went on record as an individual mandate supporter. But Gingrich's substantive answers throughout the debate last night were awesome.

Firedoglake.com Blogger/Founder Jane Hamsher:

– The Next Bailout: BofA Moves Derivatives into Insured Institution

– Live Blog of #OWS: Day 32, Human Chain Protects Medical Tent from NYPD Confiscation

– State of the Occupation (Tues Night Roundup)

Editor’s Note: The blog is a place for a freewheeling exchange of ideas and opinions. CNN does not endorse anything said by its contributors.

Every day we ask influential politicos to send us their top three bullet points that are driving the day's conversation inside and outside Washington.

RedState.Com Editor Erick-Woods Erickson:

– Rick Perry released an energy independence plan today citing things he can do without Congressional approval in his first 100 days in office. But the bigger question for him is whether he can even get the nomination at this point.

– What is the cash on hand? The one weapon in his arsenal he has to reclaim the top spot is Perry's $15 million cash on hand. Herman Cain reportedly has less than a million cash on hand, though his fundraising has picked up. It most likely won't be at a competitive level for a while though, which then might open the door to a Gingrich flirtation with the non-Romney crowd.

– President Obama seems to have lost any mojo he might have once had. Congress isn't passing his jobs bill. Bill Daley is saying he's leaving at the end of the term. Congressional Democrats don't want him campaigning with them. It's like George H. W. Bush after breaking his "no news taxes" promise — the GOP didn't want to be seen with him.

Side note: Happy Anniversary to my wife. She's suffered with me for 11 years

Firedoglake.com Blogger/Founder Jane Hamsher:

– First Step in Eviction of Occupy Wall Street Advanced

– Live Blog for #OWS: Day 28, NYPD Surrounding Liberty Park; Eviction Could Come Soon–

– That Giant Sucking Sound

Editor’s Note: The blog is a place for a freewheeling exchange of ideas and opinions. CNN does not endorse anything said by its contributors.

Every day we ask influential politicos to send us their top three bullet points that are driving the day's conversation inside and outside Washington.

RedState.Com Editor Erick-Woods Erickson:

– The President will address the nation and Congress next Thursday. He will compete against the Saints, some other NFL team that will lose to the Saints, Arizona, and Oklahoma. My money is on the American people watching football.

– A Michele Bachmann -supporting Super PAC is out with an ad against Rick Perry. It has the appearance of trying to get free media play without an actual ad buy, but the direct attacks have begun.

– Sarah Palin is going to New Hampshire. Mitt Romney is too. Again, they'll be there the same day. Maybe Palin is a stalking horse for the anti-Romney crowd.

Senior Editor of MarioWire.com Mario Solis-Marich:

– First Date: Speaker Boehner finally makes history on the jobs front by being the first in his position to deny a President his choice on a joint session of congress, Obama wanted to address unemployment on the first day of congress and as usual the GOP had other plans.

– Break Up: Dick Cheney promised heads would explode once his book was published but nobody knew that it would be conservative craniums, does Bush’s silence signal his concurrence with his VP’s “facts”?

– Wall Flowers: Barack Obama’s tight inner circle is being questioned as Latino community leaders whisper the question: why doesn’t any part of his campaign brain include somebody that understands basic Spanglish?

Editor’s Note: The blog is a place for a freewheeling exchange of ideas and opinions. CNN does not endorse anything said by its contributors.