The votes from New Hampshire are coming in. No surprise, Mitt Romney is ahead.

If you are following the primary, here's the vote tally in progress.

Kevin Drum cites this NYTimes article:

President Obama and his campaign aides are facing a conundrum as they decide how to tarnish the man they see as their likely opponent in the battle ahead. Do they go the flip-flopper route? Or do they go the out-of-touch, protector-of-Wall-Street route?

After a very intelligent description of how the GOP race is likely to unfold (shorter: It's over and Romney is well positioned to remain an acceptable "anti-Obama"), Kevin then writes "if [Obama] has to choose, my guess is that he should forget about the flip-flopping and simply do everything he can to force Romney into the wingnut conservative camp." I prefer the NYTimes' formulation - "out-of-touch, protector-of-Wall-Street." I would add that I would tar Romney with the foibles of the entire GOP, which he has endorsed, more or less, in the primary campaign (think "ending Medicare as we know it.")

But most of this will be using Romney as a foil to define Obama as a champion of working Americans and against the excesses of the 1%. Since August, President Obama has been excellent in this regard in my view. As I commented yesterday, since August, Obama and his team have engaged in excellent politics. Yesterday's recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the CFPB is another case in point-- a wonderful fight to pick with Republicans. Part of the timing I think is to goad Romney into denouncing the CFPB in a prominent way- to highlight the 1% vs. 99% argument.

In any event, I think the Obama reelection campaign is off to a good start. Sure, better policies would be preferable. But nothing good is going to happen in terms of policy for a while, given GOP control of the Congress.

Speaking for me only

Michelle Bachman, who came in 6th in the Iowa caucuses, has ended her campaign.

Here are the final Iowa caucus tallys. Romney won by 8 votes over Santorum.

Update: Rick Perry is staying in -- he's counting on South Carolina.

Update 10:30 pm: Rick Perry suspends campaign due to poor Iowa results. Newt is in 4th place, Romney and Santorum are tied for the lead. McCain will endorse Romney tomorrow in New Hampshire.

The overhyped Iowa caucuses are underway. Will Romney, Ron Paul or Santorum win?

I cared enough about the Iowa caucuses in 2008 to get credentialed, travel to Iowa and attend. Here's my live-blog of what it was like. Here's a photo of the people at the caucus I attended.

This year I find the attention on Iowa baffling and absurd. Maybe it's because it's only about Republicans. Or maybe it's because they really don't matter.

In any event, CBS is predicting a three-way race between Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum.

President Obama's re-election campaign released this video today, outlining five ways for Obama to win 270 electoral votes in 2012.

Here are the personal residences of the top Republican candidates. Better photo viewing here.

House with the most mirrors: Newt Gingrich.

In 2008, the media did a similar feature on the homes of Democratic candidates.