Just look under the Hollywood sign.

Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner HOBBS, N.M. — You learn something new every day. In driving around the country, I’ve learned that oil companies reserve large numbers of motel rooms in this city and others so that oil rig workers have places to stay. In some cities it’s almost impossible to get a hotel room. You have to carefully plan in advance. That’s also the story of the months leading up to the 2012 presidential election: we’re learning something new every day....

Yes, it’s true. Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 2008 opposition research file on former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney has now been posted online. Every page of it HERE. The immediate reaction is to suggest this is bad news for Romney. Actually it’s good news for Romney: if his advisers are smart (and the jury is still out on that) they will go through every line and sentence of it and prepare counter arguments and even overprepare. I’m sure there is some overlap with this and Obama &...

Only months ago Wisconsin’s union-busting Gov. Scott Walker seemed to feel he was on the path to becoming another President Ronald Reagan. But now it sounds as if he’s more likely to be on the path to becoming another California Gov. Gray Davis, the Governor recalled by voters in 2003: Critics of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin submitted to the state on Tuesday more than a million signatures, nearly twice as many as required, on recall petitions against him to force a new election. State...

By all accounts, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is poised to win the South Carolina primary and go on to win big in Florida. Very soon this lady will have sung. But now — at the seeming moment of his triumph — things are suddenly getting rockier for Romney. You can see it in three development. DEVELOPMENT ONE: The Democratic National Committee was apparently ecstatic over his performance at last night’s South Carolina debate. So much so that they quickly put out a video....

Can’t Rick Perry take a hint? I mean, REALLY…

Due to travel, I got online late. The following are some live blogging entries on the debate in South Carolina between GOPers seeking the 2012 Republican nomination. These are the reactions of an independent voter who has been in both parties — reactions not to political stands as much as to how they answered, came across and how what they say will help or hurt them with their voters and independent voters. Since I’ve started this late I will also include some live blogging from other...

Polls are coming out faster now than McDonald’s hamburgers — and new ones keep delivering good news for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and mixed news for President Barack Obama. How much in disarray is Romney’s opposition? So much so that evangelicals are now enmeshed in an accusation war about whether the vote of 150 social conservative activists this weekend was somehow rigged so that former Pennyslvania Senator Rick Santorum and not former House Speaker Newt Gingrich came...

A quick post. I am in Alamogordo, New Mexico right now about to leave my hotel here for another city on my national tour, but it needs to be said: Barring some huge political event, the GOP nominee WILL be former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Why? 1. A series of new polls show Romney is way ahead of the others nationally. 2. A new poll shows that if Romney runs against Barack Obama the President will beat him by one point. Yes, I know the GOP has been accused of having a death wish, but this would...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from Andrew Sullivan, who concludes what I have also concluded: Barack Obama seems to be operating on a different wavelength than many past Presidents so his foes may underestimate him at their peril. I’ve concluded that when history is written Barack Obama won’t be categorized as “another JFK” or like FDR, Harry Truman, or even as his critics suggest like the ever-hapless Jimmy Carter. Rather, he has his own unusual style and the jury...

How hateful has our politics become? This hateful: An email recently sent by Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal (R-Hutchinson) to his Republican colleagues appears to endorse a controversial prayer that some say calls for the untimely death of President Obama. “Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8.” That’s the slogan an email from O’Neal refers to, a phrase that’s become popular in some circles on bumper stickers and other merchandise. The bible passage itself reads, “Let...

It can happen. Miraculous resurrection can sometimes emerge from unspeakable tragedy. On Sept. 11, 2001 Lauren Manning, senior vice president and partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment bank which had several floors of offices in the World Trade Center, was on her way to work and getting ready to enter the elevator at the North Tower when the 9/11 terrorist attack punched the building — and a giant, massive fireball originating on the 90th floor engulfed her in the lobby, burning her to...

Manny Francisco, Manila, The Phillippines This new poll out of South Carolina could be subtitled in two ways: #1 Romney Soars in South Carolina #2 Gingrich Self-Destructs in South Carolina The bottom line is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had been doing well in South Carolina, and then seemed according to one poll within a few points of the presumptive front-runner, former Massachusetts Mitt Romney. But then the controversy over Gingrich’s use of the Bain Capital issue against Romney...

Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News Is South Carolina a tossup or isn’t it? My betting is: it is NOT and that, in the end, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will win and then win big in Florida — where a recent poll shows him with a whopping lead. On the other hand, the question is the trending on polling. And this poll suggests it is close in South Carolina, indeed: As the GOP races settles into South Carolina, Mitt Romney isn’t enjoying the double-digit lead he held in New Hampshire,...

Seeing the likely nomination of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 150 conservative activists gathered in Texas have decided to give their support to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in an effort to halt what now seems to be in the political cards: the splitting of social conservatives’ votes among several candidates which would allow Romney to sail his way to victories in South Carolina, Florida and at the convention. The Hill reports: A group of conservative activists decided Saturday...

Our Quote of the Day comes from a troubling piece in The Global Post about the war across the border against “Los Zetas,” Mexico’s drug cartels’ powerful army: MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Residents of the town of Fresnillo in northeast Mexico cowered in their homes as gunfire rattled between federal police and cartel gunmen on the streets outside. When the shooting subsided, those brave enough to peer out their doors saw the corpses of nine gunmen sprawled on the concrete. Police...

You’ve heard of “suicide by cop”? America is now seemingly witnessing political suicide by tea. Tea Party, that is. Only a few months ago Republicans seemed poised to fulfill a dream: if the economy continued to recover slowly or was barely on the mend, and if President Barack Obama continued to appear to be a nice guy who could give a terrific scripted speech but was inept as a leader and problem-solver, Republicans could capture control of the Senate, Congress and White House. They could...

A scandal is now unfolding involving a video that administration officials reportedly believe is indeed authentic — a video showing a small group of Marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters. Why should that video be such a big deal? Because such an act would violate the traditional norms taught by military commanders about how the U.S. military should behave. And also because the video could become a potent recruiting tool for the Taliban, Al Qaeda or for any group that seeks...

Andrew Sullivan has an intriguing post. He has seen the anti-Romney, Bain Capital film that Newt Gingrich’s camp is touting and says it’s devastating — so much so that he thinks Romney could lose: I just watched the Bain documentary featured below and being broadcast throughout South Carolina by Newt Gingrich’s SuperPac in full. It’s loaded with out-of-context quotes and heavily biased; it focuses on the specific human suffering of the necessary “creative destruction”...

Eric Allie, Caglecartoons.com At at time when there are inklings that political opponents of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney may be considering bowing to the demands of talk show (and de facto Republican Party strategist) titan Rush Limabaugh and other members of the GOP establishment on trimming criticism of Romney’s role at Bain Capital, the question is arising: is Romney indeed “inevitable” or is it that narrative spin? The answer: he increasingly looks inevitable —...

Is a pullback now beginning on attacks by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and perhaps others on attacks on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for Romney’s role at Bain Capital? It sounds that way. Actually, I figured a pullback would begin once I learned that conservative talker (and Ruler of the GOP in some ways) Rush Limbaugh was blasting it. The Politico reports: Newt Gingrich signaled Wednesday that he believes his criticism of Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital is a mistake...

What’s a risky business to go into? Apparently one of the riskiest is to be a nuclear scientist in Iran – since yet another one has been killed: At a time of growing tension over its nuclear program and mounting belligerence toward the West, Iran reported on Wednesday that an Iranian nuclear scientist died in what was termed a “terrorist bomb blast” in northern Tehran when an unidentified motorcyclist attached a magnetic explosive device to his car. It was the fourth such attack reported...

Is Mitt Romney now unstoppable? Here’s a roundup on this question.

Many TV viewers have no idea what an incredible performer Mandy Patinkin is. Watch him here doing a live performance of “Buddie’s Blues,” one of the songs from the masterpiece score of “Follies.” The character is having a bit of a breakdown: Here’s another great interpretation of this piece, by Danny Burstein:

If former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had lost New Hampshire or barely won it would have been a huge news story. In the end, he won and by a sizeable margin. But does this mean he’s a shoo in now for the nomination? Or can he be derailed? Is he a candidate who can be appealing to moderates, independents and centrists or has he now moved too far into the Talk Radio Political Culture territory and made his case so convincingly that the old Mitt Romney who ran against Teddy Kennedy is gone...