Ever so slowly, and ever so reluctantly, Republicans are lining up in typical jackbooted fashion behind Mitt Romney. The still-feisty Gingrich is an exception, of course, and he’s been hammering Romney for some time now as a “Massachusetts moderate,” but so too is Santorum, who is hoping for a comeback, post-Iowa, with strong showings in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri today, strong enough perhaps to let him blow past Newt into second place, and, with Newt apparently on the decline...

If you’re interested, I’m live-blogging tonight’s results from Florida (just as I did for Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina) over at my place. (And just for some fun I’ve got some Rush for you as well. “Big Money,” of course.) We all knew who was going to win, and it may very well be that we’re witnessing the beginning of the end of this mostly embarrassing race for the Republican nomination for president. I just don’t see how Newt comes back...

If you’re interested in my liberal take on Obama’s speech, see here. Suffice it to say that while I generally agree with most of his various policy proposals, I think it’s by far the worst State of the Union address he’s given. There’s no vision, no philosophy, nothing. Expect possibly for populist economic nationalism. And that’s just delusional, a clear refusal to see how the world really works and what America needs to do to get back on its feet. Of course I’m...

Guest post by Rob Miller Rob Miller is a US Marine Corps combat veteran who served in Iraq in 2003 and 2004. A Charleston native and a graduate of the University of South Carolina, Rob and his family currently reside in Beaufort, South Carolina. Having served over thirteen years in the United States Marine Corps, from enlisted infantry Marine to Company Commander, serving twice in Iraq to include the Battle of Fallujah in November 2004, I know leadership is the one quality every military service...

As you’ve surely heard by now, Jon Huntsman — Huntsman the Formidable, I once called him — has pulled out of the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. His withdrawal at this stage was hardly a surprise. Though he finished a fairly strong third in New Hampshire, where he campaigned relentlessly and into which basket he put pretty much every egg he had, he has never been a viable contender for the nomination. The latest Gallup national poll has him at just two percent,...

If you’re interested, I’m live-blogging the results of the New Hampshire primary over at my place, looking at the results but also offering some broader commentary about the GOP race. Quick comments: It’s all about expectations, as you know, and about that much-overused word, “narrative.” And the problem for Romney tonight is that he has nothing to gain and much to lose. And if he underperforms, particularly with all the battering he’s been taking over his destructive...

If you’re interested, I’m live-blogging the results of the Iowa caucuses over at my place. Is it a great day for democracy? Well, that’s the intention. Old-school democracy. Hardly the way it’s done anymore. Caucuses (particularly in Iowa), unlike primaries, represent a sort of idyllic (if mostly obsolete) Jeffersonianism, the people actually coming out, talking politics, and making their choices. Unlike the atomized process of voting in a booth, in privacy, this is about...

Guest post by Ali Ezzatyar Approaching the one-year anniversary of the Arab spring, it’s very easy to forget that the events of 2011 would have been unthinkable last Christmas. Browse through the op-ed pages of every major newspaper or foreign policy journal, or the title of any of the books that were being published on the region this time last year: not a single clear, quantifiable notion that one man’s self-immolation in Tunisia would light the entire region on fire. One of the earliest,...

A video representation of the race to be the 2012 Republican nominee for president. Why Santorum? Why not? Every other sensible prediction I and many others have made has gone down in ruins — like the Hindenburg, if you will: It’ll be Romney. Republicans like establishment types, he’s got money and organization, and he’s next in line for a party that likes clean succession. Wait. Bachmann is crazy, but maybe the right sort of crazy for today’s crazy GOP. No, she’s...

What goes up, must come down. (Even science-denying Republicans can’t refute Newton. Well, they can, but it just makes them look like idiots.) And The Newt is, apparently, coming down. Nate Silver: The polling data I’ve seen over the past two or three days suggests that Newt Gingrich’s momentum has stopped — and has probably reversed itself. The most troubling numbers for Mr. Gingrich are in Iowa, where three recent polls show that his lead — which had been in double-digits...

Writing last Friday at The Des Moines Register, extreme Tea Partying Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, son of renegade libertarian Republican Ron Paul, pulled no punches in going after GOP presidential frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich: Unfortunately, while all Republican candidates would be an improvement over the present administration, two of the current frontrunners simply do not represent the tea party, the conservative movement, or the type of change our country desperately needs in 2012....

When you’re on top, people try to bring you down. Especially when you keep telling people you’re on top. Actually, while this may be a general rule, it hasn’t really applied to the 2012 Republican presidential race. Romney has been at or near the top more or less throughout the campaign so far, but he has, interestingly enough, avoided the vicious attacks one might have expected. Even Romneycare, his (deeply unpopular among Republicans) proto-Obamacare health reform in Massachusetts,...

Guest post by Justin Oberman Just over ten years ago, a far-reaching and convoluted bill was enacted. It created a new government agency that most Americans think is a big hassle, if not worse. The Transportation Security Administration, born in the wake of 9/11, enters its second decade with a list of successes and shortcomings that we should examine. As the agency’s third employee, I worked at the TSA for more than four years and continue to watch it closely. The story of its formation offers...

That seems like a pretty stupid statement, doesn’t it? I mean, he’s by far the most “electable” of the GOP candidates for president. He’s got solid ground campaigns all across the country. Rove and the moneyed establishment seems to be behind him. His rivals on the right have proven to be embarrassing disasters, either rising quickly to the top and burning out almost as quickly (Bachmann, Perry) or never standing a chance (Santorum). A fairly sensible middle-ground candidate...

I’ve been arguing for some time now that it’s way too early to count Rick Perry out. He’s still the most formidable conservative in the race, the overwhelming majority of Republicans are anti-Romney, or at least uncomfortable with Romney, and he can certainly rebound off his recent lows and remake himself as the voice, and choice, of the right (and hence of the GOP base). Well, here he comes: On Tuesday I will announce my “Cut, Balance and Grow” plan to scrap the current...

Guest post by Ali Ezzatyar Ali Ezzatyar is a journalist and American attorney practising in Paris, France. He is a frequent contributor to TMV and The Reaction. Qaddafi’s death well and truly spells the end of another Arab dictatorship. Three out of the four out-and-out Arab dictatorships in North Africa have fallen in the last year. Now is a good time to take a step back to examine what this all means for the region and the world, as the Arab uprisings continue to rage on. Question one: Have...

I had heard of Amanda Knox, the young American woman convicted of murder in Italy, but I didn’t think all that much about her case until I read The Monster of Florence, the fantastic book by crime writer Douglas Preston and Italian journalist Mario Spezi on perhaps the most notorious serial killer in Italian history — it includes an afterward on the Knox case, presented as yet another case of gross injustice on the part of the incredibly corrupt Italian legal system (with some of the...

I wrote recently that the GOP presidential race has become, with Rick Perry’s recent collapse, Mitt Romney’s race to lose. Romney may not have a high ceiling, but his (more) conservative opposition is divided and, unless some other candidate steps up to unite the anti-Romney vote (as many suspected Perry would do, and as it seemed he was in fact going to do given his early popularity), he may end up winning almost by default, as the least weak in a field of embarrassingly weak candidates. Looking...

As you may have heard, Congressional Republicans have sent a letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke arguing that “further intervention by the Federal Reserve could exacerbate current problems or further harm the U.S. economy,” that is, urging him to do nothing about the economy at this perilous time. As Matthew Yglesias puts it, they are basically urging him to keep unemployment high. Here’s how David Frum, a conservative (if also a renegade Republican) explains the letter: I’m...

The other night, Rick Perry told Sean Hannity — who treated Perry the way he treats Sarah Palin, which is to say, the way Sasha Grey, in her former professional capacity, used to treat an erect penis — that he is not, in fact, a secessionist: HANNITY: Some people said, well, you used the term once “secession.” That’s not anything — is that something you believe? PERRY: No, and I never used that term, at all. HANNITY: Then why was it reported so heavily? PERRY:...

Rarely, these days, do I bother with the NYT’s Tom Friedman. (While he occupies a lofty perch in the punditocratic universe, he is essentially the master of myopic, self-absorbed ignorance masquerading as sophisticated internationalism. And I say that as someone who occasionally agrees with him.) But let’s take a look at his column from Saturday, a piece on the current state of Israel: I’ve never been more worried about Israel’s future. The crumbling of key pillars of Israel’s...

Specifically, that the Republicans are a party of extremism and have no interest in compromise even for the sake of America’s basic financial health (as when they held the country hostage over the debt ceiling)? Maybe. Here’s Ezra Klein (in a must-read post): The choice, it turned out, wasn’t between winning by making tough choices and hard compromises and winning by running as a populist. It was between losing because he was unable to get Washington to make tough choices and hard compromises...

Guest post by Ali Ezzatyar The colonel’s departure has come to pass. His defiant radio broadcasts are relics of a foregone dictator in denial. As the National Transitional Council marches on Tripoli this week, the Arab Spring turned Arab Summer will establish its third concrete instance of regime change. But after a hard fought and messy victory, what comes next? Whatever the next chapter in this story, Libya through the remainder of 2011 will influence U.S. policy makers on the Middle East...

Hurricane Irene, currently a Category 3 slamming the Bahamas, is heading directly for the U.S. It is expected to make landfall in North Carolina on Saturday: Airline flights and events were canceled or postponed in advance of Hurricane Irene, a dangerous storm that is expected to bring widespread damage, power outages and flooding from North Carolina to New England. A hurricane warning was issued Thursday for coastal North Carolina from Little River Inlet north to the Virginia border, including the...

I never thought The Newt ever had a realistic shot at the Republican presidential nomination, for a variety of reasons that I’ll get to shortly. But I thought he’d be in the race at least through the early primaries, if only to reinforce the Gingrich brand that has been so profitable to him. Actually, I’m not sure if I thought that. Given that there’s really no good reason for him to be in the race, it was inevitable that his candidacy would flame out. It was just a matter...