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... significant primary races dot the horizon: In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry (a trailblazer in reducing the size and scope of government) seeks to fend off a challenge from moderate Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. In California, conservative Assemblyman Chuck DeVore seeks to paint former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as an establishment liberal in their race to win the GOP nomination to challenge Sen. Barbara Boxer. In Florida, former House Speaker Marco Rubio is running for U.S. Senate against moderate Gov. Charlie Crist.

When all is said and done, we will have seen a tug-of-war for the heart and soul of the GOP playing out in three of our largest states (by population). Something to note is that the timeline allows for conservatives to focus and transfer their energies from one state to the next. The Texas primary is in March; three months later the battle shifts to California; after that, it's on to Florida for an August primary.

Next time someone tells you the Tea Partiers are an irrelevant fringe, remind them that the Tucscon branch of the Tea Partiers just mobilized to defeat a Democratic member of the city council, the first time in anyone's memory that an incumbent Democrat has been defeated; registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans 2-to-1. The term "black swan" is being thrown around for its rarity.

This is a party that doesn't respect women. I don't think they attract women to their party. I think they repulse women.

If and when the country crosses that line, it will be the No. 1 news story for days, recent stock market gains could recede, and consumer confidence will fall. And whether or not the economic crisis is coming to an end, such a high unemployment level has the potential to undermine the hard-won confidence enjoyed by the Obama administration.

Not really. But he did infer that anecdotes what he saw while walking around NYC means that the recession isn't as bad as the numbers indicate:

I’m not sure what to make of it, but casual observation suggests a stronger recovery than anything I see in published numbers. Lots of small-scale construction — home remodeling, tear-downs replacing old houses. Many new businesses and restaurants filling storefronts that were vacant a couple of months ago.

There’s the observation: walking around, things look better than I expected.

That's good for the people of New York and Princeton! Paul Krugman can see you guys are doing just fine! Of course, Krugman is not a resident of Detroit, Michigan, where the unemployment rate is over 17%, highest of any major metropolitan area in the nation. But the numbers don't matter to Paul Krugman; what matters is what those Nobel-Prize-winning eyes see in person.
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