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Hillary’s once formidable lead in the national polls seems to have evaporated.

Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshal has an update on where the campaign stands just days before Super Tuesday as well as highlights from last night’s GOP debate:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhNJJcy6t0A[/youtube]

>> NPR wrap-up.

Tote Board: “For what it’s worth (which may not be much), the general pundit consensus is that Mitt Romney didn’t get the breakthrough he needed at last night’s debate.”

Steve Stark, who covers 2008 Presidential race through his Presidential Tote Board column and blog tells us what Romney’s second place finish in the Sunshine State means for his candidacy.

The former vice presidential candidate has lacked a first place finish to date and came in a disapppointed third in his home state of South Carolina.

His official announcement was made in New Orleans today, where he inititally announced his run for the presidency.

The Arizona senator wins the Florida primary with Romney finishing second. Guliani’s third place finish prompts him to exit the race.

Presidential Tote Board: “McCain is now the man to catch for the GOP nomination.”

On Point: Can McCain rally the conservative wing of the GOP around him?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-kW3fiJieQ[/youtube]

Voters head to the polls in Florida today in what is by all accounts a tight race for the top spot between John McCain and Mitt Romney.

McCain leads Romney 35 percent to 31 percent in today’s Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby tracking survey (though Romney has taken the lead in a Rasmussen national poll). Rudy Guliani and Mike Huckabee trail at a distant third, both at 13 percent.

A tepid showing may well bring an end to the former mayor of New York’s candidacy — not to mention represent a stunning rebuke of his Sunshine State strategy.

Here & Now’s Jill Kaufman gets this primary update from Juan Vasquez, deputy editorial page editor at the Miami Herald.
Audio is about five minutes in length:

NPR will broadcast live news coverage of the Florida returns hosted by Robert Siegel. Listen online or on the radio beginning at 10:00 p.m.

Obama scores a Kennedy hat trick: The endorsments of Caroline Kennedy, Senator Ted Kennedy and Rhode Island Representative Patrick Kennedy have pundits parsing what it all means for the Illinois senator in the Bay State and beyond.

WBUR political analyst Dan Payne says the Kennedy imprimatur, aside from its powerful symbolic value (in her weekend Times op-ed, Caroline Kennedy passed the torch from her late father to Obama ) gives the Illinois senator maybe a ten point bump in Massachusetts, where a recent poll shows Clinton with a double-digit lead.

The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn says the endorsements may help Obama in states with sizeable Latino voters, whom are trending towards Hillary, but are a constituency among which the Kennedy name carries some weight due to RFK’s support of Cesar Chavez and Senator Edward Kennedy’s work on behalf of liberal immigration reform.

The Kennedy connection is factored into On Point’s political prognosticating in today’s hour one program that looks forward to Super Tuesday, February 5th, when nearly two dozen states are in play.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Eawu8pQxRI[/youtube]

“Democrats in South Carolina turned out in unprecedented numbers for their primary Saturday and handed Sen. Barack Obama a 2-to-1 victory over Sen. Hillary Clinton…”

Clinton-Obama feud cools ahead of tomorrow’s South Carolina primary. One poll shows Obama 13-points in front of Hillary and Edwards within striking distance of second place.

Brad Warthen, editorial page editor at The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina gives Here & Now’s Jane Clayson this primary preview:

Audio is about four minutes in length:

The economy dominated the GOP debate last evening in Florida — the last one before the state’s winner-take-all primary on Tuesday.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wqWWOtpeAw[/youtube]

PrezVid has more GOP debate highlights here and here.

Pundits give Romney good grades. Others note Giuliani failed to deliver a much needed breakthrough performance.

Here & Now features a wide-ranging conversation about the state of the Democratic Party in 2008 and beyond. Monica Brady-Myerov speak with Julian Zelizer, professor of history and Public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School and John Judis, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment and senior editor at the New Republic. Click here to listen.

President Clinton Works the Crowd

Originally uploaded by WBUR

Former President Clinton isn’t pulling any political punches on the campaign trail, leaving the primary recipient, Barack Obama, wondering which Clinton he is competing against: Hillary, Bill or both?

On Point takes a look at Bill Clinton, center-stage, in Hillary’s race.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJkgD2YmWfM[/youtube]

Robin Young speaks with Rick Klein, senior political reporter for ABC’s The Note, who parses the GOP’s internal fault lines.

Audio is about four minutes in length:

Hop over to Here & Now for a more extended conversation on this subject.

And speaking of fault lines, Josh Marshall explains how conservative animus towards McCain affects the dynamics of the Republican primaries.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNe5U1lNH4c[/youtube]

Rasmussen telephone poll has him with small lead over McCain in Florida, though trailing the Arizona senator by five points in Rasmussen’s national tracking poll.

In the wake of his lackluster finish in South Carolina last Saturday, Senator Fred Thompson is abandoning his quest for the GOP presidential nod. Now, as Political Intelligence observes, the race is on for Thompson’s supporters and for his endorsement.

“Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama sparred Monday night at a Democratic debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Each accused the other of deliberately distorting the truth for political gain.”

The hightlight reel courtesy TPM.

McCain edges out Huckabee in South Carolina and Romney wins handily in Nevada. For the Democrats, it is Clinton with a narrow win over Obama in Nevada with Edwards trailing substantially.

Presidential Tote Board says we are nearing the end of some candidacies.

Scott Huffmon, a political science professor at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, handicaps the GOP Primary and Mitt Romney’s prospects in the Palmetto State.

And Saturday’s Nevada caucuses are the first test of of Latino’s leanings in the 2008 presidential race. To get a sense of what direction they are tilting Robin Young speaks with reporter Ben Arnoldy, who’s covering the caucuses for The Christian Science Monitor.

Audio is about five and a half minutes in length:

DixieOriginally uploaded by denseatoms

Huckabee takes poke at McCain by resurrecting Confederate Battle flag as state’s right issue, telling South Carolinians outsiders shouldn’t tell them what to do with that flag. The former Arkansas governor comments stand in contrast to John McCain, who in 2000 said the stars and bars should be removed from the South Carolina Statehouse (it was in 2000, but remains on Statehouse grounds).

Romney and Associated Press reporter Glen Johnson get into heated exchange over campaign advisor.

Originally uploaded by Diamondduste

The mud is flying in the Palmetto State, with hard-to-trace mailings, ads and phone calls attacking the character and distorting the records of candidates both left and right.

Smears doomed John McCain’s insurgent candidacy there in 2000, with some pointing an accusing figure at political consultant Warren Tompkins, now with the Romney campaign.

Robin Young speaks with New York Times reporter Elizabeth Bumiller to find who is slinging what this time around.

Audio is about five and a half minutes in length:

And speaking of South Carolina, Politico says Mitt Romney is bypassing the state to focus on Nevada.

Dan Kennedy calls for major media to dig deeper into Ron Paul’s past as decades-old racist materials linked to the GOP candidate surface. Kennedy writes more about Paul’s past in The Guardian’s “comment is free…”

Romney’s Michigan win muddies the waters for the Republicans even further, with the GOP heading to South Carolina sans a definitive front-runner, teetering on “the verge of chaos,” so observes Jonathan Martin, senior writer for the Politico and On Point guest.

Daily Kos has assembled some of the more florid headlines describing the shifting dynamics of the race here.

And WBUR’s Fred Thys, who has been covering the Romney campaign in the Great Lakes state, attended a Romney rally in Southfield, Michigan last night. You can listen to his report here.

And let’s not forget the Democrats. NPR says the debate in Las Vegas last night was a cordial affair, with Obama and Clinton issuing “a truce on issues of race and gender.”

Here is the highlight reel courtesy TPMtv:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihTVIDndXhs[/youtube]

“Mitt Romney scored a victory Tuesday the Republican presidential primary in his native Michigan, a win he desperately needed to give his candidacy new life and set the stage for a wide-open Republican showdown in South Carolina in just four days. “

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ldXx0Wvu6o[/youtube]

“Here’s a guide to what’s at stake for the candidates in Michigan’s presidential primaries Jan. 15, and the issues that will be on voters’ minds.”

Kerfluffle over Clinton’s MLK remarks starts to abate as Clinton and Obama camps sue for peace.

“Barack Obama in recent days has sprinted ahead in the endorsement derby against Hillary Rodham Clinton when it comes to a certain breed of Democrat—politicians who have won statewide in places where Republicans dominate presidential politics.”