Dan Balz on the slow start to the 2012 campaign. "At this point four years ago, the race for the White House was already in high gear. Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) filed his declaration of candidacy soon after the 2006 midterm elections. Barack Obama, then just a junior senator from Illinois, stirred Democratic hearts during a December trip to New Hampshire. Talented operatives spent the final months of the year juggling offers from rival campaigns in a furious bid to sign up staff."

"In contrast to all that, the Republicans' 2012 campaign is off to a less-hurried start. Candidates are gauging fundraising needs and laying plans. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) will be in Iowa this month. But the timetable for announcements and serious engagement has been pushed into next year."

The Des Moines Register posts an AP story saying that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said he wouldn’t run for president in 2012. “’I’m not being coy at all. I’m not running for president in 2012. Period. No ifs, ands or buts, no caveats,’ Jindal told The Associated Press in an interview. ‘We have made great progress in Louisiana, but we’ve got a lot more work to do.’”

At least one Alaska Republican doesn't think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president -- Lisa Murkowski, who is moving toward an unprecedented write-in victory in her Senate bid against Palin-backed Joe Miller, whom she lost to in a GOP primary. In an interview on CBS last night, Murkowski said of Palin: "I just do not think that she has those leadership qualities, that intellectual curiosity that allows for building good and great policies. You know, she was my governor for two years, and I don't think that she enjoyed governing."

IOWA: “Former Republican candidate for governor Bob Vander Plaats will lead a reorganized conservative policy and political advocacy group aimed in part at becoming an influential player in the campaign for Iowa’s 2012 Republican presidential caucuses,” the Des Moines Register writes. “Vander Plaats, who led a campaign to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices in the Nov. 2 election, said Monday he will become president and chief executive officer of an umbrella group that includes the Iowa Family Policy Center, Marriage Matters and their political action committee.”

MASSACHUSETTS: "US Senator Scott Brown said yesterday that he recognizes he has a target on his back in Democratic Massachusetts and hopes that, with midterm elections over, Congress will focus more on job creation," the Boston Globe reports," the Boston Globe reports. "In a speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce that mixed politics and policy, Brown, a Republican, said that Washington has wasted too much time on fluff at the expense of cutting taxes and spending, and that he considers himself an underdog for reelection in 2012."