gop primary

James Lileks: "The Toll"

Slate: "The 'Birth Control Permission Slip' Is Insulting and Misleading"

Shikha Dalmia: "Romneycare does not have the numbers on its side"

Derek Thompson: "The Collapse of Print Advertising in 1 Graph"

Conservative Intelligence Briefing: Michigan exit poll shows primary is way too close to predict

Politico: "How Mitt Romney booked Kid Rock"

Austin Ameican Statesman: "Perry stays in presidential race, says it 'wasn't a hard decision'"

Rush Limbaugh: "This Race is Far From Over"

As voters get their first formal chance to weigh in on the Republican presidential nomination process, here are five questions that will be answered during tonight’s Iowa caucuses:

It’s likely that no candidate will win so much as 30 percent of the votes cast in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses. Yet you can bet that the press corps will crown as the big winner the candidate who gets perhaps one-quarter of the votes of caucus-goers in a state that’s half the size of the average state. Meanwhile, those who get one-sixth, or one-seventh, or one-eighth, of that same vote, will be labeled as losers who might want to think about dropping out of the national race.  This, of course, is foolishness.

The Virginia Republican Party is apparently planning to require voters in the March 6 Virginia GOP presidential primary to sign a form that says, “I, the undersigned, pledge that I intend to support the nominee of the Republican Party for president.”

1. I thought Newt Gingrich did not do well. Not just when he defended his (essentially indefensible) work at Freddie Mac, but also when he cited FDR as a model for how he would handle the court. Terrible argument, one that any self-proclaimed constitutional conservative should be concerned about.

My better half stumbles across some interesting reports from people in New Hampshire:

So a writer I follow who lives in New Hampshire just tweeted:

@publicroad: I live in NH & just got a robocall polling me about what I think about Romney vs. Gingrich vs. *Jeb Bush*.

Other folks are reporting the same polling is taking place in New Hampshire.

According to the latest Gallup poll, support for Newt Gingrich has dropped from 37 percent to 31 percent in just the course of a week. He still maintains a comfortable lead over Romney, whose support has held steady at 22 percent in Gallup's poll. However, the rapid drop suggests that maybe some of the attacks on Gingrich have taken their toll.

The Hill: "Dem lawmaker blasts ‘Professor Obama’ as arrogant, alienating"

Mickey Kaus: "How is New Poverty like New Coke?"

Gallup’s polling of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents now shows Newt Gingrich with a 15-point lead over runner-up Mitt Romney — 37 to 22 percent.

Nate Silver: "The Buyer’s Remorse Primary"

Bloomberg: "How Paulson Gave Hedge Funds Advance Word"