(Headline courtesy of our Search Engine Optimization desk)

From Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal:

Tax Deal Is Shaping 2012 GOP Campaign

WASHINGTON—The tax deal now before Congress has kicked off the first real debate of the 2012 Republican presidential campaign, with several prospective candidates heralding the package as a victory for taxpayers and others criticizing it as a costly stimulus bill in disguise.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have both come out sharply against the measure, which President Barack Obama hammered out last week with Senate Republican leaders. Both cite the deal’s price tag, with Mr. Romney saying it will heap billions more onto the nation’s debt load.

Supporting the package are former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, all of whom praise the deal as good for the economy and the only way to spare Americans the jolt of a sudden tax increase that otherwise would take effect on Jan. 1.

The debate suggests an early line of cleavage among the potential 2012 Republican aspirants on the key issues of taxes and government spending.

(Emphasis all ours.)

Nothing like SEO blogging, no?

UPDATE:

Romney has tried to raise his overall profile lately (tax deal, START, Obamacare), but New York Times columnist Russ Douthat says that’s created a strange result:

Because everything he does feels like a pander, I don’t know where he really stands on any of them.

No one will ever say that about Sarah Palin, though, and she’s doing some profile-raising as well – even turning to the “lamestream media.” Via Politico:

After making attacks on what she memorably labeled “the lamestream media” one of her signature issues, Sarah Palin has started to experiment with a new strategy toward the press — engaging it.

The former Alaska governor has started cautiously cooperating with some of the same media outlets she and her supporters have accused of unfair and inaccurate coverage they feel has caricatured her as a flaky lightweight — a narrative her team seems determined to rewrite as Palin openly weighs a bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

You can see how that’s working out tomorrow on ABC’s Good Morning America.