Morning Briefing – January 3, 2012

The 1600 Report's daily roundup of what the White House is reading this morning online and in the papers:

Obama returns to chilly political scene (CNN)

The six Iowa counties to watch (WashPost)

Panetta to present vision to reduce military (NY Times)

Iowa's field of mediocrities (Politico)

Protests at Romney event – leads to 15 arrests (Des Moines Register)

Across America, the middle looks up for grabs – again (WSJ)

Team Obama hits back at GOP (CNN)

Iowa caucuses end candidacies instead of predicting nominees (Bloomberg)