Gaining in Popularity Today - A C-SPAN Joe Biden Reality Show - There's a White House petition so it must be serious - http://abcn.ws/1105D3d

Running Out of Steam - E Plurbus Trillion - The strange myth of the trillion dollar coin continues to circulate. Greg Krieg points out the Catch-22 of Obama being able to mint the coin but Congress having control of who goes on the face - http://abcn.ws/VnmLKk (Krieg)

Cabinetology - President Obama returns from Hawaii this weekend just as Congress leaves town for the next one (House) and two (Senate) weeks.

That means we won't see any confirmation hearings between now and at least Jan. 21, but we're reaching fever pitch among the punditocracy that Defense and Treasury cabinet announcements are in the offing - http://abcn.ws/VITLMf

Jon Karl and Devin Dwyer lay out the tea leaves:

The announcement of who will replace outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta could come as soon as Monday, sources told ABC News.

Meanwhile, the president is also eyeing a replacement for outgoing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the longest-serving member of Obama's first-term economic team and one-time lead negotiator for the administration in the "fiscal cliff" talks.

Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel is a leading candidate to head the Department of Defense, while current Chief of Staff Jack Lew is the likely nominee for the top role at Treasury.

Geithner plans to depart his post "around the inauguration" Jan. 20, a Treasury spokesperson said Thursday, putting the department in transition just as the administration confronts the next "cliffs" over the automatic spending cuts and nation's debt limit. http://abcn.ws/VITLMf

Jumping Straight to Govt. Shutdown - Arlette Saenz notices these: Cornyn: "It may be necessary to partially shut down the government in order to secure the long-term fiscal well being of our country, rather than plod along the path of Greece, Italy and Spain."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told the Dallas Morning News that he would be open to a partial government shutdown, pointing to the 1995 shutdown as "the greatest degree of fiscal responsibility we have seen from Congress in modern times."

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Wednesday urged Republicans to consider a partial government shutdown, saying it would be "a hell of a lot better" than agreeing to a deal with no spending cuts. http://abcn.ws/VowiRn

The Senate Made Obama's Victory Official - http://abcn.ws/UoWJ8k

AP Tabulated Official Results… Romney Got 47.2 Percent - http://abcn.ws/VAgyNp

And interesting notes from Amy Walter -

1) Swing State Voting Up, Even While Overall Vote Was Down 1.7% From 2008: The eight battleground states - Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin - saw an average of 2.5 percent increase in votes cast. Colorado saw the biggest jump from 2008 at seven percent. Meanwhile fewer votes were cast in Ohio this year than in 2008 (down 2.2%).

Total votes cast this year was 129,055,884 a 1.7 percent drop from the 2008 tally of 131,293,995.

2) Red States Saw A Bigger Drop Off Than Blue States In red states, the average difference between the 2008 vote and 2012 was -1.8%. The drop-off in blue states was about half that at -.9%.

3) Vermont and Alaska Had Biggest Drop In Votes Cast From 2008 at -7.9%.

4) DC had the highest increase in votes cast at 10.5%.

5) Utah Saw Increase In Votes Cast While Hawaii and Illinois Vote Totals Down From 2008 Romney did best Obama in one category: the hometown boy vote. More votes were cast in Utah and Massachusetts this year than in 2008 (though Michigan's total vote was down 5.4%). Meanwhile, voters in Obama's boyhood home state cast 4.2% fewer ballots this year than in 2008. And, in Illinois, the state that sent Obama to the Senate in 2004, the total vote was down 5% from 2008.

Pelosi's Photo Op Photo Shop - After four reps (including DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz) showed up late to the Democratic Congresswomen's photo shoot yesterday, Pelosi's office edited them into the picture. (John Parkinson) http://abcn.ws/VAC5We

The Floor Will Come to Order! - CNN asked Senate Parliamentary experts how to fix procedure… and it makes my head hurt - not simple - http://bit.ly/Up0EHu

Force of Habit - Roll Call noticed a rare flub when the Senate clerk called Mr. Akaka at the start of a quorum call.

House & Senate Approve $9.7 Billion in Sandy Relief - Pelosi wonders why this bill had to wait for the 113th Congress. http://abcn.ws/VADegr

Barney for Senate? - Two days into his retirement, former Mass. Congressman Barney Frank announced he wants a piece of the post-fiscal cliff action in the Senate. http://abcn.ws/UNBYqu