WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney's recent losses to Rick Santorum in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota revealed a truism that Romney might want to study -- but not too much!

WASHINGTON -- The operative maxim in cable television can be summed up as follows: Is it good teevee?

WASHINGTON -- Another debate, another installment of "The Dating Game." Will the eventual winner be contestant Number One, Two ... Eight?

WASHINGTON -- Rick Perry's rapid lead over previous Republican front-runner Mitt Romney was predictable.

"Leading from behind." That's what an unnamed White House aide told the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza that Barack Obama was doing on Libya.

Never before has there been a televised presidential candidates debate so short a time before the Iowa Republicans' Ames straw poll.

Barack Obama did not watch the Republican presidential candidates' debate in Manchester, N.H., on Monday night, we are told. He was busy addressing a campaign fundraising event in Miami.

The Republicans' presidential debate Thursday night, sponsored by Fox News and Google, gave primary voters and caucus-goers at least one good reason to reject every candidate on the stage.

Elections are contests held during a moment in time between candidates who have records stretching back, often far back, into the past. So there is always a tension between the man (or woman) who is running and the moment.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- "We're not going to lose in New Hampshire." So says Mitt Romney's state coordinator, Jason McBride.

The Republican presidential candidates, except for Ron Paul, haven't been paying much attention to young voters in the primaries and caucuses so far. But any Republican nominee -- which is to say probably Mitt Romney, or maybe Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum -- had better be paying attention to them in the summer and fall.

Following his defeats in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri on Tuesday, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney looked to establish a citadel in Michigan which holds its primary on Feb. 28.