Monday's Starting Lineup

Good Monday morning. Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Wonder how Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao (R-LA), the lone GOPer invited to the WH for the Super Bowl, felt last night -- cheering his boys on while surrounded by Dems angling to take his seat back this Nov.

Here's Monday's snowy Starting Lineup, previewing the people who will make headlines today:

IL GOV. PAT QUINN: Quinn saved his re-election chances, and very possibly his entire party's ticket, when pawn broker/businessman Scott Lee Cohen (D) announced yesterday he would drop his bid to become IL LG.

Cohen won a surprise victory in the 2/2 primary, but since allegations of his checkered past have hit the papers, he's been under tremendous pressure to step down and call off his bid. Now, he's done so, and Dems everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief. That's because in IL, unlike in many states, the gov. and the LG run separately in the primary but together in a general election. Quinn, already facing a Dem Party split by a vicious primary, would have had to overcome a perhaps fatally wounded running mate as well -- a tough feat under any circumstances.

It's been a bad year for IL Dems all around. The saga surrounding Sen. Roland Burris (D) notwithstanding, the party has had to deal with contested GOV and SEN primaries, a damaged LG candidate, a SEN nominee with baggage GOPers will try and exploit and a GOV nominee who is decidedly outside the machine. With at least 3 targeted House seats in Dem control, the state could prove to be a boon for GOPers.

EX-AK GOV. SARAH PALIN: How could she not make the Starting Lineup today? Her major speech in Nashville this Saturday featured every possible major attack line against Pres. Obama, from health care to national security to jobs and the environment. Cheat sheet or not, Palin looked and sounded like a WH candidate -- all the more so when she told Fox News' Chris Wallace the next day she "would be willing" to run in '12 "if I believe that it's right for the country."

So much for subtlety. While MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney (R) and other possible WH'12 contenders insist they are focused on the '10 midterms, Palin is diving right in and doing her best to take control of the Tea Party movement. It would give her a powerful springboard for the '12 campaign, nut we have yet to see evidence of Palin helping many other GOP candidates, a key early step if she's going to make a bid.

But not everyone thinks Palin's apparent attempt to appropriate the Tea Party is a good thing. After all, it pigeon-holes a candidate who has yet to lay out a real set of concrete platform ideas, and it sets her up to fail her own base. If we've learned anything about the Tea Party movement, it is that each group around the country savors its independence. It revels being leaderless -- but don't mistake leaderless for directionless. Unless Palin has the deftest of touches and understands completely all the nuances of the larger movement (we doubt anybody really does), she may find her efforts to lead the crowd for naught.

DAVID PLOUFFE: The ex-Obama manager is back, advising the WH on how best to navigate the choppy '10 midterm waters. His answer, like those of many other Dem strategists: Make the '10 midterms a contrast between Dems and GOPers. "This isn't just a referendum on Democrats or our party," he told The Fix (see link). "It's a choice."

That Dems have done a poor job contrasting with GOPers, as Plouffe contends, is no surprise: DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen has been barking up that tree all year. But that's easier said than done. Both parties have tried to make the midterms a national referendum many times, and each time the efforts fail -- save the post-terrorist '02 midterms.

The difficulty doesn't mean it's a bad strategy. In fact, it may be Dems' only strategy. And voters still see the economy as Pres. Bush's fault. But that's why they elected Pres. Obama, and after a year in office, he has yet to find a solution to the problem. Dems will have a hard time making the obstructionist argument, blaming the GOP, when they have 59 seats in the Senate and an 80-seat majority in the House.