Back when I was in my 20s, a friend of mine told me he had considered, as a birthday present to me, placing my name on the ballot for the presidential primary in New Hampshire. When he found out that the filing fee was $1,000, he thought better of it. I mention this as a reminder that there are a lot more people that run for president than those who actually get discussed by the media. For instance, in 2008, there were 19 Democrats and 21 Republicans on the ballot in New Hampshire. You never heard of most of them, because the news media didn't pay any attention to them. Which in many cases was probably perfectly appropriate.

Guess what? Neoconservatism is back, in the form of the 2012 GOP presidential candidates. Or so Politico tells us:

When George W. Bush left office in 2009, liberal Democrats and a fair number of moderate, traditional Republicans proclaimed the good news: the GOP neo-cons were dead, chased from Washington in disgrace.

But as Republican presidential hopefuls begin to develop foreign policy platforms, a clear and surprising pattern has emerged: they’re back, and so far winning the fight for the direction of the party.

For some reason, Politico's Alexander Burns completely buys the fiction that there is a truce on social issues within the Republican Party:

For the first time in three decades, a wide-open Republican presidential primary is unfolding in the shadow of an economic recession. That means even in the heavily socially conservative GOP, voters are more focused on the pocketbook than the Good Book.

A host of leaders on the cultural right told POLITICO they don’t intend to fight it. Instead, they hope to protect their role in the campaign by ensuring that social issues are part of a larger conservative message.

Next year's Democratic presidential convention will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina:

Democrats will gather in Charlotte, N.C., in September to vote on their nomination for the presidential election. The pick signals that President Obama will seek to re-create -- at least in part -- his winning electoral coalition.

If you haven't already, you should check out my column today on the Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments in McComish v. Bennett, a case which deals with Arizona's public-financing law. Here are the important parts:

McComish deals with an aspect of Arizona's public-financing law that provides extra funds for candidates who opt into the system when their opponents opt out. Candidates are still bound by spending limits, but if their opponent goes beyond that limit, they are given the funds to match their opponent's spending.

If you opened up your New York Times today, you would have seen this headline on the front page: "In a Shift, Fewer Younger Voters See Themselves As Democrats." More terrible news for the Dems! "There's a vibe," one college hunk says while pumping iron at the gym. "Right now it seems like Republicans just care a lot more than Democrats."

Wow -- I guess the nation's young people are abandoning the Democratic Party in droves. So how big has this swing been? Ten points? Twenty points? Let's amble on down to the 21st paragraph of the story:

I've got to disagree with Jamelle: Some key primary elections across the country yesterday can teach us a few lessons about the elections in 2010. While unemployment is the driving factor in voter discontent, the candidates a party puts forward matter. If you disagree, tell me where Harry Reid would be today were he not facing Tea Partier Sharron Angle.