Mitt Romney brings in just over $20 million a year according to his most recent tax returns. That is a lot of money. Let’s try to put that amount of income in perspective by comparing it to the income earned by an average hourly wage employee. To make as much as Mitt Romney received, a person would need an hourly wage job that paid $10,000 an hour. So a $10,000 bet is just an hour’s pay. No problem.

One week ago Mitt Romney was riding high. He had a 23 point lead in the Gallup national polling, held a big lead in South Carolina and was on track to quickly wrapping up the nomination. A lot has changed in just seven days. Romney’s national lead has dropped to just 10 points, still large but moving in the wrong direction quickly.

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.

Hey, you know what conservatives really really hate? Conservatives just can’t stand it when rich people and corporations use their vast wealth to game the system! Just don’t ask them to support any kind of public campaign financing or limits on corporate political spending…

Shorter Rick Perry: “No, no, it’s supposed to be hard to get a ballot, not hard to get on a ballot!”

The Republican base is still not particularly enthusiastic about the field of potential presidential nominees according to Pew Research. It appears Mitt Romney is on track to winning, not because he is a great candidate, but simply because he managed to be the best of a rather pathetic lot.

To the extent Santorum can make this a race, he’s helped by winnowing the field. Michele Bachmann cancelled planned events in South Carolina and will hold a press conference back in Iowa this morning. Similarly, Rick Perry, in his campaign concession speech, said he would go back to Texas and “reassess” the results.

Finally, after a very long campaign defined by too many debates, an endless parade of short lived surges to first place and frankly some incredible silliness combined with SuperPAC negative ads, people will actually start voting in Iowa on who will become the Republican party’s presidential nominee.

The latest polls show a three-way race between Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Movement toward Santorum sprung from one poll, from CNN, which sampled only Republicans, despite the ease of same-day party registration in Iowa and the expectation of up to 20-25% of the caucus electorate being composed of Democrats and independents.

In the litany of the Religious Right, Lawrence is critically important to know. It’s not only important to LGBT activists; it’s one ruling the Religious Right rails against when they talk about activist judges. It’s a big deal.