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- Recent Prospect alum Pema Levy thinks that Newt Gingrich has a shot at stealing Iowa, if the evangelicals learn to stop worrying and give up trying to love the Rom. Which shouldn't be too hard, because it is now proven that there is an inverse relationship between Romney's likeability and voters' exposure to the former Massachusetts governor. This relationship has become the only thing unwaveringly true about the Romney campaign. Gingrich's chances will also be much improved once Cain drops out of the race (which will happen soon), because the voters getting off the Cain Train will most likely defect to the Gingrich camp, as Jamelle Bouie points out.
- Speaking of things that seem to be heading to an inevitable end, the Euro Zone is not looking too good.
- Daily Intel reminds us that there are other candidates who shouldn't have ever run for the presidency, namely Rick Perry, who "made the mistake of...talking...out loud...about stuff."
- Fox News predicts that Obama will win in 2012!
- But, Ryan Lizza points out that a Romney/Rubio ticket could probably peel away part of the Obama coalition. If they promised to install avowed evangelical Siri as Secretary of State, that would be a terrifying ticket...
- However, we haven't even figured out the GOP primary yet, and as Nate Silver notes, the long, spacey primary calendar means that all of our preconceptions about who will win (which, by they way, have changed at least five times already) may prove incorrect. We've still got a long bumpy election cycle ahead!
- Hendrik Hertzberg had a great piece on Barney Frank's career today. It ended with a post-Congress blessing: "If Barney Frank has decided he'd now rather be happy translating rational policy into reality as a practical public intellectual, away from Capitol Hill-well, he's entitled. And more power to him." And if you were wondering who will be the top Dem on the House Financial Services Committee, as all good wonks are wont to do, Matt Glassman has the definitive refresher on all the timey-wimey Congressional rules that will pick his successor.
