Dayen’s news roundup from Valentine’s day includes stories you might have missed about Boehner’s House, mortgage settlements, Federal Reserve’s [non] enforcement, safety net, Obama’s budget, Nancy Brinker, Liz Warren, Crazy Pete Hoekstra, Herman Cain, Romney’s Maine win, Israel, India, and more.

Rick Perry is going to end his campaign for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. The AP and Politico both report that Perry will endorse Newt Gingrich after dropping out of the race.

Is it political skill, or just a friendly voter pool?

Herman Cain suppporters are bitter about the media’s treatment of their preferred candidate and torn between the two remaining GOP front-runners. Mitt Romney looks like a flip-flopping moderate and Gingrich like a faux conservative. Burned by their own candidate’s lack of national campaign experience without previous vetting, why not look at someone not yet in the race, but whom the GOP has relied on before?

Ground Control to Major Herm
Ground Control to Major Herm
Take your little blue pill and put your “helmet” on

In a said day for anyone who likes to laugh, Herman Cain suspended his Presidential campaign after multiple allegations of sexual harassment and extra-marital affairs, quoting Pokemon on the way out the door and shifting his prodigious star-power into a website rife with misspellings.

Give it up Herman, the train with women voters on it has left the station, with you left in the Clown Car parking lot.

Whether Herman Cain is actually reassessing his campaign or not, he’s done on the Presidential stage. And the data show that the biggest beneficiary of this is Newt liberal-hater Gingrich.

NOTE: The situation at various #Occupy locations is still being covered here. The entire purpose of Herman Cain’s candidacy — making money on the right-wing punditry circuit — has pretty much been fulfilled. So why not get out? It all depends on when the most profitable time of departure is, and whether there is a [...]

How do you spot the fringe candidate when they’re ALL fringe candidates?