The Note: Sprinting a Marathon

— -- WASHINGTON, Feb.5

President Bush says all the time that he is going to sprint to the finish of his presidency, but the weekend past -- and week future -- suggest that he will have to run hard to keep up with the men and woman who want his job.

(There is a 65% chance that that sentence will be The Note's lede 300 out of the next 306 days.)

As the Gang of 500 quibbles over their Palm steaks about which is politically most dead-- the war in Iraq, the Bush budget, or Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman -- all the must-read stories are about the hyper-speed race to take the oath in January, 2009. (Howie Kurtz captures the former perfectly: LINK)

To wit:

1. Bob Novak turns John McCain into Grover Norquist on taxes (which will make John Weaver happy), but says (correctly) that the media love for McCain has somewhat faded (which will make Weaver less so). LINK

2. The Boston Globe's Helman profiles Mitt Romney's bridge to the right, the incomparable and talented Peter Flaherty (Note to Helman: you aren't the only one courting the incomparable and talented Flaherty as a source!). LINK

3. Dick Morris and Eileen McGann predict a Giuliani-Huckabee face-off (sort of). LINK

4. In an important story laying out the infrastructure and metaphysical challenges for the Obama campaign, the Washington Post's Kornblut runs these seminal graphs of reporting, spin, and expectations setting:

"Rivals in the Democratic contest contend that [Obama] could raise as much as $40 million, potentially raking in $1 million in a single Hollywood fundraiser, and will all but fail an early test of his viability if he comes up with less than former North Carolina senator John Edwards before April. Edwards is expected to raise as much as $15 million in the first quarter, and Clinton is expected to raise as much as $30 million, though both of those campaigns, like Obama's, insist they could take in less." LINK

"'By all accounts, Obama is poised for a huge fundraising quarter,' said Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson, predicting that Obama will raise $25 million or more. Wolfson played down the notion that Obama's campaign needs time to get up to speed."

5. Reflecting the reality that the Clinton and Obama camps take John Edwards as serious as a heart attack, the New York Times' John Broder front pages the new tough tone (and health care and Iraq policies) of thesonofamillworker. LINK

6. The New York Daily News' McAuliff on Senator Clinton's money tree. LINK

7. For the addicted, the latest Granite State poll numbers, courtesy of John DiStaso and the Union Leader, suggesting why Hillary Clinton is the woman to beat. LINK

8. Bloomberg's Kristin Jensen and Jonathan D. Salant on (yet another reason: ties to Big Business) that Clinton is the woman to beat. LINK

9. Sunday's Union Leader had Michael Cousineau on the battle for premium New Hampshire office space. LINK

10. Al Hunt's Bloombergian take on the race overall, with the safe prediction of predictable unpredictability, and another nod to HRC's poll position. LINK

In a move reminiscent of Hillary Clinton taking on the State of the Union with her announcement meta tour, John Edwards plans to release the outlines of his health care plan today in the face of the President's budget.

Edwards plans to release the proposal online and do interviews on request, but not do any brick-and-mortar unveiling.

Meanwhile, President Bush sends Congress his $2.9 trillion dollar budget today. Over the weekend, he began framing his budget proposal as emphasizing restraint on domestic spending while making defense and war costs for Iraq and Afghanistan the top priority.

He also meets with his Cabinet at 9:55 am ET and poses for photos with 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Champ Jimmie Johnson at 1:40 pm ET.

Contrasting Big Casino sound will come at 2:00 pm ET when the top Democrats on the Senate and House budget panels, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Rep. John Spratt (D-SC), hold a 2:00 pm ET news conference to discuss the President's budget.

On the Iraq front, the Senate votes at 5:30 pm ET on a motion to invoke cloture to limit debate on Sen. Carl Levin's (D-MI) non-binding resolution, S. 470. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and other members of the GOP Leadership hold a 2:00 pm ET Capitol Hill presser on the Iraq resolution. Former Rep. Leon Panetta (D-CA), a member of the Iraq Study Group and a former Clinton White House chief of staff, speaks about options for Iraq at the Center for National Policy in Washington, D.C. at 4:00 pm ET.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) is raising coin in the Lone Star State today.

At 5:30 pm ET, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani endorses New York state Senate candidate Maureen O'Connell in Floral Park and Franklin Square, NY.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR) will be a guest on "The Live Desk" with Martha MacCallum on Fox News at 1:15 pm ET.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) holds an 11:00 am ET presser with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on the budget at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. The two New York Senators plan to criticize President Bush for what is expected to be "more than $70 billion" in cuts from Medicare and Medicaid.

Fresh off of his weekend effort to distinguish himself from the Democratic pack by urging Congress to cut off funding for U.S. fighting in Iraq, former Gov. Tom Vilsack (D-IA) delivers 3:15 pm ET to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) delivers 12:00 pm ET remarks to the Rotary Club in Rochester, NH, he delivers 3:45 pm ET remarks about Iraq to the College Democrats at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH, and he attends a 6:30 pm ET town hall meeting in Dover, NH.

Big Casino budget politics:
"The budget that President Bush will submit to Congress today," reports the Washington Post's Lori Montgomery, "shows the federal deficit falling in each of the next four years and would produce a $61 billion surplus in 2012, administration officials said. But to get there, Bush is counting on strong economic growth, diminishing costs in the Iraq war and tight domestic spending to offset the cost of his tax cuts."LINK

When President Bush presents his budget today he will "showcase a highway 'congestion initiative,' according to White House documents, with grants for state and local governments to experiment with anti-jam strategies," reports the Wall Street Journal's John D. McKinnon.

The Wall Street Journal's Deborah Solomon looks at President Bush's secret for spending heavily on guns and butter without triggering huge inflation.

"What's Mr. Bush's secret? Ingredient one: strong revenue growth driven by an economy distinguished by surging profits and rising incomes at the top, which are taxed more heavily than incomes at the bottom. Ingredient two: tax cuts and spending increases, which arrived when the U.S. economy needed a boost. Ingredient three, and perhaps the most significant: the willingness of foreigners to lend to the U.S., which finances the budget deficit without pushing up interest rates at a time when Americans don't save very much."

Richard Wolf of USA Today reports that President Bush will launch an initiative to fund national parks with a private donor government match program.LINK

USA Today's Wolf and David Jackson report that President Bush is trying to court Democrats as he unveils his new budget but Panetta says: "There has to be a degree of trust that you can work with the other side without getting a knife in your back."LINK

The Los Angeles Times' Peter Spiegel takes a look at President Bush's "tank-sized" defense budget.LINK

The Chicago Tribune's William Neikirk reports on the unusual coalition between liberal and conservative think tanks that "has been preaching this message in a nationwide "fiscal wake-up tour."LINK

Politics of Iraq:
Under a "Senate rebuke on Iraq is loud and unclear" headline, the Los Angeles Times' Noam Levey reports on the non-binding resolution criticizing President Bush's new Iraq plan and the confusion among lawmakers about exactly what the statement means.LINK

The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman look at the ways in which the debate on the non-binding resolution on Iraq will test Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) and the 19 other Senate GOPers facing reelection in 2008 -- "many from states where voters are angry with Bush's war policy and want the troops to begin heading home."LINK

The AP's Ramer and Glover team up to mesh their beats of New Hampshire and Iowa in one bundle of news, reporting that Iraq will likely shape up to be the major issue of 2008 in those states, as Democratic activists are increasingly unified and vocal in their opposition. LINK

Bush Administration agenda:
"Bush wants his legacy to be the long-term defeat of Islamic extremism. Indeed, senior officials close to Bush who did not wish to be identified discussing private conversations with the president tell Newsweek that Bush's plan after he leaves the White House is to continue to promote the spread of democracy in the Middle East by inviting world leaders to his own policy institute, to be built alongside his presidential library," write Newsweek's Bailey, Wolffe, and Thomas. LINK

DNC winter meeting overviews:
Clinton "presented herself as a tough, experienced pragmatist," Obama "offered himself as an inspirational critic of politics as usual. And Edwards "made himself the keeper of the Democratic flame, delivering a call for Democrats to reclaim their heritage," Dan Balz and Anne Kornblut reported in Saturday's Washington Post. LINK

"Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Edwards all drew a notably warm reception. None stirred the kind of wild response that Mr. Dean did in 2003," wrote Adam Nagourney and Pat Healy of the New York Times on Saturday. LINK

Iraq plans divide Democratic hopefuls, reported Tom Hamburger and Janet Hook in Saturday's Los Angeles Times. LINK

Reporting on the DNC meeting, ABC News' Jake Tapper outlined the positions being staked out on the issue of Iraq by the various candidates, including Gen Wesley Clark's highlighting of his military record, and the heckling from anti-war activists unique to Sen. Clinton's speech. Tapper also Noted that despite all the excitement, "Democrats in attendance seemed divided among the three front-runners," and highlighted several Democrats' impressions of the event. LINK