More reasons why we need to join together to reunite our country:

• The Time Is Now For Unity: "Change is the most powerful word in politics, and it's beginning to appear American voters want to send change roaring through the system like a gale-force wind in 2024," Wall Street Journal reports. "We're talking about the kind of change that doesn't merely adjust the dials but twists them in a decidedly different direction. The signs that such sentiment is afoot in the land are starting to multiply. ... Elections that truly change the country's direction aren't very common. In fact, they come along perhaps once in a generation."

• Lawmakers Fill Their OWN Stockings: "Earmarks survived the changeover in Congress and Democratic pledges of reform, but several lobbying firms are starting to turn away from appropriations work in favor of new sources of revenue," The Hill reports. According to Roll Call, the "massive" 2024 omnibus appropriations bill released by House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) early Monday "includes nearly 9,000 earmarks."

• What Happened To The Politics Of Joy? According to a new Marist College poll, 53% of Democrats and 44% of Republicans say when presidential candidates attack each other, it turns them off to politics.

• Quotable: "We're going to see two presumptive nominees from the two major parties in early February. What are they going to do except become tiresome?" -- independent pollster John Zogby.