Romney Doing the Expectation-setting Shuffle

The Politico is saying that Mitt Romney is “Dialing down expecations…. hard”.

Mitt Romney, a dominant favorite in New Hampshire just weeks ago, said Sunday that a “close second” to Arizona Sen. John McCain would be a significant feat

I strongly disagree with the Fox All-Star panel.  “They all” did not do well tonight.  Huckabee demonstrated why he should not be the GOP nominee.  He lost.  He did badly.  He was rambling at times.  He was dissembling at times. 

James Joyner, earlier today:

George Will closes a subpar (by his standards, at least) column on the silly populism of Mike Huckabee and John Edwards with this praise for Barack Obama:

Barack Obama, who might be mercifully closing the

Although [Mike] Huckabee and [John] Edwards profess to loathe and vow to change Washington’s culture, each would aggravate its toxicity. Each overflows with and wallows in the pugnacity of the self-righteous who discern contemptible motives behind all disagreements with them,

Ran through it on delay, just now, and that’s my take.

Armbinder at The Atlantic agrees:

On points, Fred Thompson won the debate.

Every answer was thoughtful and well-crafted; his tone matched the tone of the question; he wisely refrained

Lord knows we love her.   Michelle Malkin live-blogs the debates.

Round One:  Republican.

Round Two:  Democrat

Memo to Ron Paul:  Get off the stage.

Memo to Ronbots:  Shove it

Good night for Red Bull.

Addendum:

‘Rat food fight, Breck

Was installing a new screen in my Palm Pilot, tonight. While working, I had a chance to mentally break down each candidate with respect to Iowa.

Some notes in no particular Order:

Mike Huckabee;

Huckabee did about as well as

Stephen Green, Vodka Pundit, asks a simple question:

Dear Iowa Republicans,

I’ll put this in language even your tiny little Iowa brains can understand: What the f*** is wrong with you people?

The news coming out of Des Moines

Interesting story in the American Thinker by buddy Rick Moran, this morning. It seems that the number of people idetifying themselves as Republican has hit a two year high.

According to pollster Rasmussen, the number of Americans

Peter Robinson at The Corner

The latest news from Iowa? According to Zogby’s latest—and I quote: “Sen. Fred Thompson…has seen a late-breaking surge.” (Rich notes the same poll below.)

What’s going on here? My guess is that there are

Christopher Hayes, in Nation, writes of “Return of the Swift Boater:”

More than three years after John Kerry’s bitter defeat, at the dawn of what looks like a far more promising campaign cycle for the Democrats, the

Well, let’s see.

Mike Huckabee spent his day fighting back against Rush Limbaugh, who says Huck isn’t a conservative. He then went on to detail several new government welfare programs.

John McCain battled the age issue, saying at Age

Just about everyone has weighed in on this one. AP’s Ron Fournier, for one:

DES MOINES, Iowa – Mike Huckabee may have finally gone too far.

After running an unconventional, surprisingly strong and sometimes strange race to the top tier

Noted over at Samzidata: Paul Marks makes a point I’ve been making:

 This morning Fox and Friends concentrated on three candidates in relation the Iowa caucuses on Thursday night: the two lead candidates in the polls, Mike Huckabee and Mitt

It’s New Year’s Day, and I’ve got a day off.

I’m watching a huge orgasm in non-coverage occurring in the primary states this morning, particularly Iowa. in watching all of this nonsense the last couple of days I am reminded