POLITICO Playbook: HAPPY 2016! DRUDGE’s FAVORITE THINGS: The year in banner headlines

Good Friday morning (barely) from South Beach in Miami, where 19 Allens rang in 2016 by watching an all-finale fireworks show from Scott and Sheri's oceanfront balcony after a day at the Orange Bowl, where we ran into Clemson grad Alex Skatell. Nephew Evan, that lacrosse prodigy you met at White House events during the Bush years (now 21 -- a junior at Chapel Hill), had the foresight to pre-deploy two bottles of Korbel, which we drank in plastic cups from the lobby. Pic of our midnight view of South Beach https://bit.ly/1YVssyJ

Our plan for New Year's resolutions, which you might want to try: Don't tell anyone what they are -- and see if they notice! Happiest '16 to you and yours - thank you for starting this historic year with us. Send us your scoops, corrections, suggestions, rants, gripes: [email protected] and [email protected]. 

By Mike Allen (@mikeallen; [email protected]) and Daniel Lippman (@dlippman; [email protected])

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MARK McKINNON on Facebook: "I continue to believe that in spite of all the challenges that surround us, we live in a magical time. ... We added a grandchild not long ago, and will add another next year. Last year was fabulous. Spent a ton of time at 10,000 feet with my bride communing with the hills. Next year is back into the frying pan, but that's OK. We'll see if we still got some juice left. Either way, gonna kick it hard and carry on."

CLICK OF THE DAY - First time we have done this: the year in Drudge banners! "Matt Drudge's banner year ," by Nolan McCaskill (assist: Blake Hounshell): "Politics has changed radically since he opened shop 20 years ago; Drudge hasn't. He remains distinctly old-school, sticking to his no-frills design ... [T]here's [still] one thing Matt Drudge does better than anybody, and that's drive a news cycle with a big, bold headline atop his page. ... POLITICO trolled through Drudge's archive and collected nearly every banner - 515 in total - from this year ... What we found was an overweening obsession with ... Bill and Hillary Clinton, leavened by ... moments of sweetness, such as a photograph of a cake on Hillary's 68th birthday.

"Drudge also worries about terrorism and the threat of terrorism ... Undocumented immigrants ... are another frequent topic, along with ... Obama's ... actions to protect them. ... Drudge showed interest in stories about Scott Walker, particularly if they came with a photo of the Wisconsin governor riding a Harley. ... [F]or all Donald Trump dominated our political lives in 2015, he [played less] of a role in Drudge's. ... Shirtless or sleeveless pics of Martin O'Malley were a common trope, along with Joe Biden wearing shades." https://politi.co/1ZEQZdt

LOVE THIS TRADITION - WashPost Style cover, "THE LIST 2016," by Jessica Contera, with 26 contributors: OUT: Endorsements; IN: Retweets ... OUT: Thoughts and prayers; IN: Background checks ... OUT: Storen and Papelbon; IN: A closer who doesn't choke ... OUT: Anniversaries; IN: Birthdays ... OUT: Ride sharing; IN: Sharing your ride sharing ... OUT: Momofuku; IN: Momotombo ... OUT: Abandoning Afghanistan; IN: Commercializing Cuba ... 

OUT: Raúl Castro; IN: Julian Castro ... OUT: Your brand; IN: Your scent ... OUT: Trash to table; IN: Farm to face ... OUT: Iowa; IN: Florida ... OUT: Data; IN: Metadata ... OUT: No tip restaurants; IN: Medium plates ... OUT: Kobe retirement tour; IN: Biden retirement tour ... OUT: The Uber/Tinder/Netflix for [a thing]; IN: [The thing] ... OUT: Diverse; IN: Normal." https://wapo.st/1NZ2160

2016 PLAYERS -- "Chaos in Carson campaign as top aides resign: Campaign manager Barry Bennett and communications director Doug Watts," by Kyle Cheney: "Armstrong Williams, a close Carson confidant, told POLITICO that Robert Dees, a Carson adviser and retired Army general, will now chair the campaign, filling a leadership role that's been vacant for months. 'General Dees is going to run the organization,' Williams said. It's unclear who will fill Bennett's post as campaign manager, handling the daily staff operation ... the duty could fall to Ed Brookover, a veteran campaign strategist." https://politi.co/1IIGFgq

DATA DU JOUR - "State: Hundreds of old Clinton emails newly classified," by AP's Ken Thomas: "1,274 of Clinton's emails have been retroactively classified since the department started reviewing them for public release." https://apne.ws/1RdYfu6

CLICKER -- "The 7 must-read Hillary Clinton emails," by Kyle Cheney: "1. 'You look cute' ... 2. The pivot to Asia ... 3. Riding w/ HRC ... 4. 'What does "fubar" mean? ... 5. Wiggling out of jury duty ... 6. 'Woman of leisure' ... 7. 'Clinton was spectacular.'" https://politi.co/1R3p1XR

POWER PLAYERS -- "[George] Soros regretted supporting Obama in 2008," by Kyle Cheney and Ken Vogel: "In an email to Clinton, Neera Tanden ... recounted a conversation she had while seated next to Soros at a dinner sponsored by ... Democracy Alliance. ... Tanden wrote that Soros 'said he's been impressed that he can always call/meet with you on an issue of policy and said he hasn't met with the President ever.'" https://politi.co/1UjFYLc

** A message from NextGen Climate: How do we protect and grow our economy? Ensure our national security? Create healthier lives for our families and communities? By transitioning to 50 percent clean energy by 2030. Confronting climate change is essential to the issues most important to our nation. Learn how: https://nextgenclimate.org/playbook **

SPOTTED: Former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich at the hot springs near San Miguel de Allende, Mexico ... newly-engaged Benny Johnson and fiancée Katelyn Rieley at Chicago tasting restaurant Alinea.

DAILY TRUMP -- "Trump's Strongest Supporters: A Certain Kind of Democrat," by Upshot's Nate Cohn:"His very best voters are self-identified Republicans who nonetheless are registered as Democrats. It's a coalition that's concentrated in the South, Appalachia and the industrial North, according to data ... [from] Civis Analytics ... He fares best in a broad swath of the country stretching from the Gulf Coast, up the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, to upstate New York. ... 

"Trump's best state is West Virginia, followed by New York. Eight of Mr. Trump's 10 best congressional districts are in New York, including several on Long Island. North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and South Carolina follow. ... Trump's strength fades as one heads west. Nearly all of his weakest states - 16 of his worst 19 - lie west of the Mississippi." https://nyti.ms/1kxjcmH

ON OBAMA'S NIGHTSTAND -- "What Obama's reading about in Hawaii: Murder and aliens," by Eliza Collins : "The president has four books on his vacation reading list, according to a White House pool report: 'The Whites' by Richard Price, 'Purity' by Jonathan Franzen, 'The Wright Brothers' by David McCullough and 'The Three-Body Problem' by Liu Cixin. ... 'The Whites' is a novel about a New York City detective and how he is haunted by cases he couldn't solve. ... 'Purity,' Franzen's third major novel, is ... another book about murder. ... 'The Three Body Problem' is a Chinese science fiction novel - part of one of the most popular sci-fi trilogies in Chinese history. ... 'The Wright Brothers' is more straightforward: a history of the brothers who pioneered human flight." https://politi.co/1YSnh7Y

HOT VIDEO - Obama's 19-min. conversation with Jerry Seinfeld for "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" https://bit.ly/1IGKiDH

OBAMA STARTS '16 BIG - From weekly address, off embargo at 6 a.m.: "A few months ago, I directed my team ... to look into any new actions I can take to help reduce gun violence. And on Monday, I'll meet with our Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, to discuss our options. Because I get too many letters from parents, and teachers, and kids, to sit around and do nothing.

"I get letters from responsible gun owners who grieve with us every time these tragedies happen; who share my belief that the Second Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms; and who share my belief we can protect that right while keeping an irresponsible, dangerous few from inflicting harm on a massive scale." Full text https://1.usa.gov/1OwToPt

--WashPost 1-col. lead, "Obama's big push on ISIS strategy: HE WANTS CLEARER PICTURE OF EFFORTS -- Terrorist attacks preceded message blitz," by Karen DeYoung (homepage headline: "White House retools its message on U.S. strategy in Syria"; online story headline: "Obama thinks his Syria strategy is right - and folks just don't get it"): "[W]hile many outside the administration found the strategy itself lacking, Obama felt what they really needed was to do a better job of explaining it. He ordered what [an] official called an 'uptick in our communications tempo.'

"Within days of their return [from Asia in late November, right after the Paris attacks], deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes had drafted a memo for the president's approval, outlining specific tasks for officials at all levels, starting with the president himself.

"Cabinet secretaries needed to talk more in public about all elements of the strategy. The media needed more briefings. Everybody needed to become more comfortable with Twitter. ... 'It's fair to say that DOD will be doing more,' [a] senior official said of the Defense Department. 'What you saw of [SecDef Ash] Carter, you will continue to see of other Cabinet principals. ... It's something that we're all going to be focusing on, certainly going into early [this] year.'"  https://wapo.st/1R1Nbl1

PLAYBOOK IN-BOX, from a former Obama official: "I read KDY [Karen DeYoung] and cringed. They always think their problems can be solved with better communications and then they compound that misdiagnosis by talking publicly about how they are going to change how they communicate. It's been 7 years! When will they learn?!?!"

TRAIL TALK - NYT A1, top of col. 1, "Punch Lines Versus Polish On Iowa Trail: An Informal Christie and a Lofty Rubio," by Michael Barbaro in Muscatine, Iowa: "Christie's ... staff picks coffeehouses, bowling alleys and even bars as sites [for his Iowa town halls]. (Bars are inexpensive, staff members say, and the setting all but guarantees a crowd.) He uses no stage or barriers, just a microphone and a bottle of water with the label ripped off. ... The audience at a cafe here broke into laughter 21 times. ... 

"Rubio's events are much more meticulously planned, [with] cloth-covered fencing ... around the perimeter of the room. (Aides said it made the young lawmaker seem more presidential.) He speaks the entire time atop a raised platform, flanked by enormous red-white-and-blue campaign posters lit by spotlights. Polished applause lines tumble from his mouth: In Clinton, Iowa, the crowd interrupted him at least 15 times with bursts of clapping. ... 

"Christie ... projects the unhumble [!] air of a seasoned elected official, expressing bewilderment and umbrage that lesser men ... from the legislative branch ... believe they are capable of occupying the White House. ... Rubio ... bypasses talk of résumé and rivals to evoke the threat of a liberal agenda that he warns could send the United States ... into an irretrievable downward spiral of big-government decay." https://nyti.ms/1OoC5UV

WATCH OUT, HILL TWEETERS -- "Twitter brings back Politwoops," by Nolan McCaskill: "The social media giant reached an agreement with The Sunlight Foundation and The Open State Foundation, two government accountability organizations, to revive the site, which tracks deleted tweets from politicians and their staffs. ... Twitter effectively shut down Politwoops in June when it revoked The Sunlight Foundation's access to its developer, API." https://politi.co/22BsPDl Twitter's blog post https://bit.ly/1R2zdzO

CHOOSE YOUR NEWS - Yahoo's Matt Bai, yesterday, "Rubio is not a Republican Obama. And that's his problem" https://yhoo.it/1kxjeuP ... NYT, Dec. 25, "Marco Rubio Looks in the Mirror and Sees a Republican Obama" https://nyti.ms/1msNxUW

FUN VIDEO -- From Kurt Bardella's country-music newsletter, The Morning Hangover, "The Cure for Your New Year's Eve Morning Hangover": "Kip Moore, Canaan Smith, Dierks Bentley, Kacey Musgraves and Eric Church share their Morning Hangover cures." 2-min. video https://bit.ly/1OvDrsK

POSTWATCH -- WALTER PINCUS's last WashPost column, "A farewell to The Washington Post": "It was Ben Bradlee who hired me originally in 1966 ... Years ago, I once walked into Ben's office to ask for a raise. He listened for a moment - he never gave you his full attention for more than a minute or two - and with his wonderful smile he growled back, 'You ought to pay me for all the fun you are having." https://wapo.st/1JM9B28

--"Washington Post: Harold Meyerson column dropped because he failed to attract readers," by Hadas Gold: "Journalists, liberals and many in the political and labor worlds ... expressed regret ... '[W]hile our decision should never be made based only on clicks, I think it would be arrogant to entirely ignore what our readers are telling us' editorial page editor Fred Hiatt said." https://politi.co/1PAdA6p Final column https://wapo.st/1MJWqyA

BIRTHDAYS: Rick Perry alum Rob Johnson ... Daniel Arrigg Koh, chief of staff to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh ... Politico's Tomer Ovadia and Kara Kearns (h/ts Roy) ... James Glassman, chairman and CEO at Public Affairs Engagement and a Bush Presidential Center and State alum, is 69 ... Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) ... IMF chief Christine Lagarde is 60 ... Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) is 62 ... former Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) is 94 ... Katie Lee, an Ed Markey and Juliette Kayyem alum ... former N.J. Sen. and Gov. Jon Corzine ... AT&T's Kevin McGrann, a Boehner alum ... Nirmal Mankani ... WashPost's Brady Dennis ... Brightfind's Jeremy Bates ... Ted Bridis, AP's editor of its Pulitzer-winning investigative team ... J.D. Bryant, digital advertising strategist at 270 Strategies and an OFA alum ... Todd Webster, chief of staff for Sen. Chris Coons (h/t Jon Haber) ... Ken Toltz, founder of Safe Campus Colorado ... Hannah Schwartz and Michael Kelly, both former deputy press secretaries for Tim Kaine Senate campaign ... Bush 43 WH alum Meagan Vargas ... 

... Margot Friedman, principal at Dupont Circle Communications ... Hugh Delehanty ... Alison Howard, director of alliance relations Alliance Defending Freedom ... Kate Beale Maguire, director of Peace Corps Response and a Hillary, Gillibrand and USAID alum ... Brian Frederick, chief of staff at the ALS Association and an alum of Sports Fans Coalition and Media Matters, is 41 (h/t wife Carolyn Frederick) ... Esther Haluts ... Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, now part of Everytown for Gun Safety (h/t birthday boy Ken Toltz) ... Remy White ... 

... C-SPAN's Nicole Ninh ... Tony Esoldo ... Jim Flynt ... Kay Wood ... Sally Slater, account director at Bliss Integrated Communication ... Uber's Andrew Greene ... Josh Nanberg, president at Ampersand Strategies and an AIPAC alum, is 42 ... Abdul Qayyum Khosa ... Max Richtman ... Najam Kunjahi ... Jay Kahn ... Junaid Khan ... Jennifer Hall ... Paul Ullman (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) ... Walt Gorski ... Nizar Latif Al-Babli ... Katie Lee, an Ed Markey and Juliette Kayyem alum ... Grandmaster Flash is 58 ... Noah Sierota (Echosmith) is 20 (h/ts AP)

DESSERT - 2015 Top 20 Worldwide Tours, by concert-industry trade publication Pollstar (Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2015): 1. Taylor Swift ... 2. AC/DC ... 3. One Direction ... 4. U2 ... 5. Foo Fighters ... 6. Fleetwood Mac ... 7. Ed Sheeran ... 8. Kenny Chesney ... 9. Garth Brooks ... 10. Rolling Stones ... 11. Madonna ... 12. Kevin Hart ... 13. Paul McCartney ... 14. Elton John ... 15. Violetta ... 16. Maroon 5 ... 17. Luke Bryan ... 18. Billy Joel ... 19. $69.0; Shania Twain ... 20. Neil Diamond. PDF chart, with grosses and agencies  https://bit.ly/1Ox2uM9 (h/t AP)

** A message from NextGen Climate: Citigroup estimates climate change will cost the global economy $44 trillion. The Pentagon calls climate change a "threat multiplier" that puts our national security at risk, contributes to the spread of terrorism, and fuels humanitarian crises. Doctors warn climate change will harm air quality, spread disease, and put our families' lives at risk. Find out why responsible political leadership requires a real climate plan that powers America with at least 50 percent clean energy by 2030. https://nextgenclimate.org/playbook **

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