Heated Exchange At Romney Press Conference  —  From CBS News' Scott Conroy:  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. — There was an ice storm in South Carolina this morning, but it was even colder inside a Staples store where a Mitt Romney press conference suddenly went sour.  —  Romney was in the middle …

Ad: ‘Hillary Clinton is shameless’  —  The radio ad aired by one of Obama's labor allies re-injects ethnicity into the Democratic primary contest in sharp terms.  —  “Hillary Clinton does not respect our people,” the ad says in Spanish (original and Clinton campaign translation after the jump) …

Obama embodies party's vision  —  Nevada Democrats should caucus for Barack Obama, the freshman U.S. senator from Illinois, to represent them as the party's nominee to run for president of the United States.  He has the personal characteristics and political instincts expected of the person who leads this nation.

Huckabee Going Off the Rails  —  Mike Huckabee joins Mitt Romney on my personal list of candidates for whom I would not vote even if the only alternative is Hillary Clinton (in which case I'll just sit home and complain).  Why?  —  1. From ImmigrationProfBlog:

Confederate Flag Takes Center Stage Once Again  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Republican presidential candidates on Thursday moved to appeal to different types of conservative voters before the South Carolina primary, with Mike Huckabee using colorful language to declare the Confederate flag …

Joke leaves 'em gasping  —  Obama quip stuns Citizen of the West banquet crowd  —  A Greeley businessman apologized Wednesday after a joke about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama fell flat during the National Western Stock Show's annual Citizen of the West banquet.

Huge New Diebold Disparities Found in Manchester, Ward 5 During NH Hand Counts  —  Scores of Votes Mistallied for Every Democratic Candidate...  As mentioned last night, in this disturbing article, the early results of the hand counts of one Diebold precinct in Dennis Kucinich's election contest …

Bill Clinton, Stumping and Simmering  —  Hillary Rodham Clinton may be the spouse running for office, but it is more Bill Clinton who appears to be feeling the heat.  —  After weeks of complaining publicly about Barack Obama's record, the news media's coverage of the Democratic presidential race …

New Jersey Republican Presidential Primary  —  New Jersey: McCain 29% Giuliani 27%  —  In an election season filled with surprises, New Jersey's Republican Primary voters may be considering a surprise of their own.  The first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of that February 5 contest …

When Ross Perot Calls...  The former presidential candidate blasts John McCain, and gets an education about Barack Obama's religion.  —  The phone rang and it was Ross Perot, who hasn't given an interview in years.  Perot, who won 19 percent of the vote in the 1992 presidential election …

Gen. Tommy Franks Paid $100,000 To Endorse ‘F’ Veterans Charity  —  Congressional Investigators Say Only 25 Percent of Charity's Raised Funds Went to Vets  —  Retired U.S. Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who led the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, was paid $100,000 to endorse a veterans charity …

New Column: Answering Fred's Call  —  Commentators are citing the unpredictability of the Republican primary contests as proof that Reagan conservatism is dead when precisely the opposite conclusion is warranted.  —  The main reason the conventional wisdom is being shattered in the primaries …

No Ifs, Ands or Butts: Hitchens Calls It Quits  —  That bit of hell frozen over?  Courtesy of raffish provocateur Christopher Hitchens, who's given up his beloved cigarettes — cold turkey.  —  In an interview with the Financial Times published last week, Hitchens casually announced he'd quit smoking …

White House Study Found 473 Days of E-Mail Gone  —  The White House possesses no archived e-mail messages for many of its component offices, including the Executive Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President, for hundreds of days between 2003 and 2005, according to the summary …

Google's Earth  —  This is a very quick alert on Google's announcement this morning of $25 million in investments and grants from its moneymaking and philanthropic branches, all aimed at tackling challenges it sees as vital to fostering progress, particularly in the developing world …