From John Heilemann, quoting a “senior Romney strategist” on Mitt’s chances in the post-Newt era: “The dynamics couldn’t be better for us. I don’t see any scenario where we’re not the nominee.”

The Obama Administration — whether by design or coincidence — is putting the squeeze on Congress over raising the debt ceiling. Brian Beutler explains.

Nebraska Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson will not seek re-election, shrinking the margin of error for Democrats trying to hold on to a majority of the upper chamber.

Our three-decade love affair with ethanol subsidies may finally be over.

We have a new episode of Campaign In 100 Seconds all about Jon Huntsman and nice guys finishing last. But one caveat here.

Huntsman has thrown his all into New Hampshire, and it seems to be having some impact. I don’t want to overstate it. He’s in 4th place in the TPM Poll Average, but he’s definitely distanced himself from the single-digit also-rans, and has been on a steady upward trajectory since October: Read More

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker hasn’t been a man prone to much reconsideration of the path he set his state upon this past year.

Still though, he says, it was probably a bad idea to gab on the phone for 20 minutes with a guy he thought was David Koch.

In this new article from Reuters we see that some mainstream journalists are turning from ‘Ron Paul’s history of racist newsletters back in the day’ to the fact that his current ideas are … well, they may not be explicitly racist but they’re still seriously whacked. Read More

Meet the guy who might have kept Newt Gingrich (and Rick Perry) off the Virginia Primary ballot.

Words and phrases that weren’t part of the global lexicon when 2011 started: Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and Fukushima.

With the Iowa caucus a week from tomorrow, the thing that jumps out to me now is how much the race, at this stage, looks pretty much like we expected it to all along.

Romney is not looking very good in Iowa, where a more conservative/fringe candidate could very well beat him. He’s running strong in New Hampshire, where he has long been favored in part because he owns a home there and has high name recognition as the former governor of Massachusetts where the Boston media market saturates much of New Hampshire. That leaves a lot riding on the outcome in South Carolina.

That’s the basic dynamic of the race that we expected all along. The big difference is who the main alternatives to Mitt now are: Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul. Read More