The Big Story: Hillary For Sec. of State?
The press is buzzing with reports that Barack Obama is considering Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. The latest wrinkle: Reuters reports that Hillary travelled to Chicago yesterday, though her office says it was for personal business.

Obama Switching Weekly Dem Address From Radio To YouTube
Barack Obama today will record the weekly Democratic address on video, to be posted on YouTube -- a first for this mode of party communication. Obama's transition office has announced that he will continue to record the weekly address as online video during his presidency, with the audio track also released for radio uses as has been done before.

K Street Becoming A Democratic Neighborhood
The Washington Post reports that lobbying firms are quickly reconfiguring themselves for the new Democratic dominance in Washington, and are recruiting Dem staffers at a rapid clip. "In this climate, Democratic backgrounds are attractive to people," said Laura Sheehan, a former policy director for the DCCC who recently became vice president of marketing and communications for the American Gas Association.

Biden Speaks With World Leaders
The Obama transition office announced that Joe Biden has spoken to several world leaders this week: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni; Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak; Israeli Likud Leader Binyamin "Bibi" Netanyahu; Polish President Lech Kaczynski; British Prime Minister Gordon Brown; Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Romney Courting The National Review Cruise
Mitt Romney is meeting with a group of top GOPers: The National Review post-election Caribbean cruise. National Review's 2007 cruise, which went to Alaska, was the venue where Sarah Palin introduced herself to the right-wing media elite, leading to her being placed on the 2008 GOP ticket.

Steele Officially Running For RNC Chair
Michael Steele, the former Maryland Lt. Governor and unsuccessful nominee for Senate in 2006, has officially thrown his hat in the ring in the race to be the next chairman of the Republican National Committee -- and he'll be running firmly from the right. "The core values of our party should not change," Steele told the Washington Post. "We are the conservative voice in America."

Report: Barbour Turns Down Run For RNC Chair
Jonathan Martin reports that a group of Republican governors approached Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour at the Republican Governors Association Conference, asking him to run for RNC chairman. Barbour, who served as RNC chair in the 90s, turned down the offer.

Report: McCain Veep Isn't Romney Or Pawlenty -- Who Is It???
John McCain is holding his big event at 12 p.m. ET today in Dayton, Ohio, where he will announce his running mate. MSNBC is reporting this morning that it won't be either Mitt Romney or Tim Pawlenty, the two previous frontrunners -- with the last-minute speculation now focusing on first-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

The Obamas And Bidens In Pennsylvania Today
Barack Obama And Joe Biden, plus Michelle and Jill, are starting on their swing-state bus tour today, starting in Pennsylvania and then continuing over the next few days through Ohio and Michigan. They open tonight in Beaver, Pennsylvania, with a rally at 7:30 p.m. ET.

John McCain Turns 72
Today is John McCain's 72nd birthday. His best present: A whole lot of media hype today over his VP pick.

Report: Chartered Plane Leaves Alaska For Dayton
Jonathan Martin reports that a chartered airplane left Anchorage last night, with the destination being Dayton, Ohio -- the site of John McCain's vice-presidential announcement today. This has led to a lot of speculation that Palin is the pick.

GOP Considering Convention Delay
The Washington Post reports that the Republican Party is considering a delay to its national convention, in light of the expected landfall of Hurricane Gustav down in the Gulf Coast. Bear in mind that a convention has so many logistical complexities that it cannot be rescheduled, only have days and speaking slots completely chopped off -- which would seriously damage the GOP's efforts at staging a good pep rally.

Cindy McCain's Half-Sister: I'm Dead-Seat Against John And Cindy
In another soap-opera development in Cindy McCain's life, her estranged half-sister Kathleen Hensley Portalski says she's voting for Barack Obama. Here's what Portalski had to say about Cindy, who has described herself as an only child and refuses to acknowledge Portalski: "I question whether Cindy is someone I'd want to see in the White House as first lady."

Report: McCain Running Mate Will Be ... ???
Various reports are coming out about John McCain's veep-hunt, with Mark Halperin reporting that GOP sources say it will be Mitt Romney. On the other hand, the New York Times reports that the campaign is considering another pick: General David Petraeus.

Both Presidential Candidates Off The Trail Today
Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain have any scheduled public events for today.

Obama VP Could Be Today -- Or Tomorrow?
The Associated Press reports that Barack Obama could announce his running mate as early as today. On the other hand, Obama has already said he's decided who it's going to be, so it should be either today or tomorrow -- which is to say, the AP doesn't have any more of a clue about when the announcement is coming than the rest of us do.

Report: Obama Tells Runners-Up They Didn't Get It
CNN reports that Barack Obama has called several candidates who were on his short list for VP, to tell them that they didn't get it. But as you might expect, CNN was not able to find out who actually got these calls.

Poll: Obama Ahead In Michigan
A new Selzer poll of Michigan gives Barack Obama a 46%-39% lead in this must-win state, beyond the ±3% margin of error. However, the pollster's analysis finds that one third of respondents could potentially change their minds, and the race could come down to which topics dominate the race -- if it's about the economy then Obama wins, while McCain would benefit from a focus on national security.

Ticketless Obama Supporters Heading To Denver, Anyway
Tickets to the Democratic convention have already run out, but that's not stopping some people -- the Los Angeles Times reports that hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people are heading to Denver just so they can stand outside.

Hillary Still Deep In Debt
Hillary Clinton's debt-relief efforts were only able to raise $1.2 million in the month of July, leaving her with $11 million in remaining debts to vendors. Another $13 million is owed to candidate herself, for a total of $24 million, but she has said she will not seek to have her personal loans paid back.

Obama Arrives In Afghanistan
Barack Obama has arrived in Afghanistan, meeting with American General Jeffrey Schloesser, commander of NATO forces. "I want to, obviously, talk to the commanders and get a sense both in Afghanistan and in Baghdad of, you know, what the most, their biggest concerns are," Obama told reporters before he first departed for the trip in secret on Thursday, "and I want to thank our troops for the heroic work that they've been doing."

John McCain Raising Money Today
John McCain does not have any public events scheduled for today, but will instead be holding a series of fundraising events.

Maliki Backs Obama's 16-Month Timetable
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has endorsed Barack Obama's call for a timetable to leave Iraq, a development with serious ramifications for the American debate over foreign policy. "US presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months," Maliki told German news magazine Der Spiegel. "That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes."

McCain To Focus On Economy This Week
John McCain is set to use this week to focus on economic issues, while his rival Barack Obama is overseas focusing on foreign policy. McCain will then hold campaign events this week in Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Ohio, where he will try to shore up his image on kitchen-table issues where he's tended to lag behind his Dem rival.

LAT: Romney Getting On McCain's Good Side
The Los Angeles Times reports that Mitt Romney has more and more maneuvered his way into John McCain's favor, with active fundraising efforts to help the man who defeated him in the primaries: "Even if McCain goes on to pick someone else as his running mate, Romney's dutiful, well-noted slogging for the party's winner after his own defeat will help bolster his standing within a GOP party that traditionally awards its presidential nominations to the next in line."

New Right-Wing Ad: Obama "Worse Than A Flip-Flopper!"
A new right-wing group called Let Freedom Ring is launching an attack ad against Barack Obama, which it says will run with an ad buy of several hundred thousand dollars. The ad accuses Obama of being worse than a flip-flopper, holding two contrary positions at the same time:

Rudy Starts New Leadership PAC For New York Republicans
In a sign that Rudy Giuliani might not be done just yet with electoral politics, the former mayor has started a new leadership PAC called Solutions America -- which despite its national name, will reportedly aid New York Republican. Take it as a sign that Rudy might be looking at a run for governor in 2010.

Here's a video of Mitt Romney's press conference earlier today alongside John McCain, endorsing McCain for president after the often bitter campaign the two fought through up until last week:

Mitt Romney is officially joining in the Republican effort to unite behind John McCain. CNN reports that Romney will endorse McCain today at an event scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET in Boston, and will ask his delegates to vote for McCain.

When he dropped out last week, Romney said that a continued primary fight would delay the launch of a national effort against the Democrats. After a brief period of mourning for his campaign, endorsing McCain was the next logical step, and definitely a necessary one if he wants to remain in the good graces of the Republican establishment.

Here are some highlights from Mitt Romney's speech today at CPAC, in which he quit the presidential race after a very bad Super Tuesday result:

• "As of today, more than 4 million people have given me their vote for President, less than Senator McCain's 4.7 million, but quite a statement nonetheless. Eleven states have given me their nod, compared to his 13. Of course, because size does matter, he's doing quite a bit better with his number of delegates."

• "I have been struck by the enormous differences in the wealth and well-being of people of different nations. I have read a number of scholarly explanations for the disparities. I found the most convincing was that written by David Landes, a professor emeritus from Harvard University. I presume he's a liberal – I guess that's redundant."

• "If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

The full prepared text is available after the jump.

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Romney is speaking before CPAC right now, explaining why he's suspending his campaign, and according to advance excerpts given to the Associated Press, Romney will say:

"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

Guess Mitt's determined to exit this thing with his now-cosmic levels of ignominy completely undiminished....

CNN is reporting that three sources tell the network that Romney is hanging up his Mittens. He's suspending his campaign.

CNN also reports that Mitt had tentatively decided to quit last night but made the final decision this morning. Romney is about to address the CPAC conference, where he'll make it official.

Just think, all that money and technology spent on building the perfect GOP Robo-candidate -- all for naught.

Today's a big day for John McCain — he's giving his speech to the CPAC conference, where he will do his best to assuage the doubts of the many conservative activists in attendance. During the speech, expect him to stress how he got involved in politics as a "foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution," and to attack the right-wing bona-fides of a certain former Massachusetts governor who used to not be so conservative.

In that spirit, here's McCain's new ad running in the Potomac Primary area, attacking Mitt Romney for his past political life as an anti-Reagan liberal:

"If we can't trust trust Mitt Romney on Ronald Reagan," the announcer asks, "how can we trust him to lead America?"

McCain is also running some of his other standard ads, such as the "True Conservative" spot, which name-drops Reagan profusely.

Today's Gallup and Rasmussen tracking polls, their final national polls before Super Tuesday, show Hillary Clinton and John McCain with the leads going into this crucial day — a sign that both of them are the overall favorites for tonight.

Here are the Dem numbers, compared to yesterday's:

Gallup: Clinton 47% (+0), Obama 42% (-1)

Rasmussen: Clinton 47% (+1), Obama 40% (+0)

On the Republican side, John McCain's support may have dipped a bit in Gallup, but he's still doing more than fine:

Gallup: McCain 41% (-4), Romney 24% (-1), Huckabee 21% (+4)

Rasmussen: McCain 34% (+1), Romney 30% (+0), Huckabee 20% (-2)

This morning's Zogby polls show John McCain on track for some big victories tomorrow, with California being the only real trouble spot:

California:
Romney 40% (+3)
McCain 32% (-2)
Huckabee 12%

Missouri:
McCain 35% (-1)
Huckabee 27%(+0)
Romney 24% (+2)

New Jersey:
McCain 52% (-2)
Romney 26% (+3)
Huckabee 7% (+0)

New York:
McCain 53% (+4)
Romney 19% (-4)
Huckabee 8% (+0)

A new Zogby poll in California — a state that may well decide the direction of the Democratic race — shows Barack Obama taking a small lead over Hillary Clinton, within the margin of error. Obama has 45% to Clinton's 41%, with Obama's 20-point lead among men making up for Hillary's 11-point lead with women.

On the Republican side, Mitt Romney has taken an apparent edge himself of 37% to John McCain's 34%, followed by Mike Huckabee with 12%. Although McCain has the support of the state Republican establishment, led by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Romney leads among those who say immigration and the war on terror are their top issues — probably owing to McCain's support for immigration reform and his opposition to torture.

Some more Zogby state poll numbers are available after the jump.

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The new ABC/Washington Post national poll shows a tight race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Here are the numbers, compared to the previous poll from three weeks ago:

Clinton 47% (+5)
Obama 43% (+6)

John Edwards was at 11% in the last poll, an indication that his support may be breaking fairly even between two remaining candidates in the country as a whole — though the breakdowns have also seemed to vary from state to state in other polls.

On the Republican side, it's a different story. John McCain is way ahead, and appears to have picked up virtually all of Rudy Giuliani's past support:

McCain 48% (+20)
Romney 24% (+5)
Huckabee 20% (-4)
Paul 7% (+4)

Mitt Romney can now claim to have won the final Republican contest before Super Tuesday: The Maine caucuses, which are being held town by town throughout this weekend. With 68% of the towns reporting, the Associated Press has projected Romney the winner with 52% of the state delegates to John McCain's 21%, followed by Ron Paul at 19% and Mike Huckabee with 6%.

That said, Romney probably won't get much of a bump here. After all, Maine is a small and out of the way state — and his victory in Wyoming didn't help him any in New Hampshire three days later.

Yesterday we brought you a roundup of Super Tuesday polls for the Democratic primaries. Today, we bring you the same for the Republicans.

The bottom line: John McCain has it made.

He leads in nearly every state, with Romney only having clear advantages in Massachusetts, Colorado and of course Utah. Huckabee runs well in some Southern states, but even then he'll probably lose a bunch to McCain. Compounding the trend for McCain, Rudy's former support will probably go almost entirely to him.

A complication: Republican primaries don't use uniform rules of delegate apportionment, like the Democrats do. Quite a few contests are winner-take-all, but many others are not. They do not use a proportional system, but instead distribute delegates by district (usually the same as House districts) and then accord all the district's delegates to the plurality winner.

What does that mean for the race? The Northeast — where McCain is strongest — is mostly winner-take-all. And where Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee do manage some strength, it's often in states that distribute delegates either by district or even proportionally, meaning that the map alone gives McCain a big advantage.

In short, expect McCain to rack up a lot of delegates on Tuesday. He won't clinch the nomination outright, but he may build up an advantage so large that his nomination becomes a foregone conclusion.

Check out our poll chart and further analysis after the jump.

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Mitt Romney fourth-quarter fundraising numbers are in, and it's not a pretty picture. The official total raised is a seemingly-impressive $27 million — but $18 million of it came from Mitt himself. Romney ended the year with $9 million cash on hand, meaning that he would have been broke if not for his own contribution.

For this whole cycle, Romney has raised a total of about $53 million from other people, and kicked in $35 million himself. An interesting trend in his campaign has been that as the campaign has gone on longer, the proportion of money raised from others has gone steadily down, while Mitt has come to rely more and more on Tagg's inheritance.

With five days to go until Super Tuesday, Mitt Romney's spokesperson is confirming that the Romney campaign has bought exactly zero TV ad time in any of the states that vote on Feb. 5.

"We currently haven't purchased any ad time yet," Romney spokesperson Kevin Madden confirmed to Election Central, when asked about Feb. 5th states.

The Associated Press, relying on anonymous officials, reported the lack of any ad buying on the Romney campaign's part. The Politico also confirmed this late yesterday evening.

Even more interesting, Madden also refused to say whether the campaign would be buying any ad time in any Feb. 5th state. Asked if Romney would buy any time, Madden said: "We don't telegraph strategic decisions like ad buying ahead of time."

This suggests the possibility that the campaign won't be buying any time in advance of the multi-state showdown that is likely to decide the race. At the least, this is a big boost for John McCain. At the most, it could amount to a possible admission that the Romney camp thinks the race is pretty much over.

Late Update: A Romney campaign official tells me that the campaign will be purchasing ad time today, though the official declined to specify how much and where.

Late Late Update: The Romney buy is in California, the crucial big state where McCain picked up the endorsement of Arnold Schwarzenegger today.

A new poll from Public Policy Polling (D) shows that Barack Obama might be sneaking up on Hillary Clinton in her home state of New York. Hillary leads with 45% of the vote, followed by Obama at 33% and John Edwards with 10%. In the demographic breakdown, Hillary leads 44%-29% among whites, Obama 44%-32% among African-Americans, and Hillary 64%-31% among Hispanics.

Bear in mind that all Democratic primaries use a form of proportional representation — so Obama could walk away with a decent chunk of delegates if he simply posts a respectable showing for an out-of-state challenger.

On the Republican side, it looks like John McCain will coast to a win in this winner-take-all contest. He leads with 34%, followed by the now-departed Rudy Giuliani at 20%, Mitt Romney with 19%, and Mike Huckabee with 10%.

John McCain appears to have just barely edged out Mitt Romney in the all-important Florida GOP primary, according to projections from CNN and the Associated Press.

Right now, with just over half reporting, McCain has 36%, Romney has 31% and Rudy is bringing up third with 15%.

The scuttlebutt in GOP circles is that the McCain and Romney camps are both aggressively lobbying Rudy for his endorsement, in the expectation that Rudy will drop out soon, perhaps even tonight.

More soon.

Late Update: Rudy is speaking now. It sounds very much like a drop-out speech. Rudy is telling America what it needs to do in order to not succumb to the terrorists without him at the helm.

Late Update: Tomorrow the GOP is set to debate in California. Will Rudy show? ABC News reports that the Rudy and McCain camps are negotiating over ways to give Rudy a graceful exit.

Late Update: Romney just gave his concession speech. His message, in a nutshell: Unions and Hillary are bad, and we should thank George W. Bush for keeping us safe for the past six years.

Late Update: One thing worth noting: This is the first GOP primary that wasn't open to independents, and McCain won it. If you look at the exit polls, you can see that McCain won the broad middle of GOPers, winning over Romney among somewhat liberal, moderate, and somewhat conservative Repubicans, and only losing to Romney among very conservative voters.

Late Update: It's done -- Rudy will drop out and endorse McCain.

A Democratic source who tracks media buys tells me something interesting that reflects how bad the environment is for Repubs this year: He says that no GOP candidate has a single ad up on the air in any of the Feb. 5th states, even though Super Tuesday is a week away.

He also provides a good explanation for the Mittmentum we've been seeing. According to the source, Mitt spent roughly $1.5 million on TV ads during the week ending January 25, while both John McCain and Rudy spent roughly $800,000 apiece.

This suggests that Romney might be succeeding partly because he's doubled the ad spending of McCain.

Anyway, I've got calls into the campaigns to confirm this. We'll keep you posted.

The final Zogby poll of the Florida primary gives John McCain an apparent lead in the Republican race, though like practically all other polls the race is still too close to call. Here are the numbers, compared to yesterday's release:

McCain 35% (+2)
Romney 31% (+1)
Giuliani 13% (-1)
Huckabee 13% (+2)
Paul 2% (+0)

The final SurveyUSA poll in the Florida primary shows that the Republican race is simply too close to call between John McCain and Mitt Romney. Here are the numbers, compared to the poll released earlier today:

McCain 32% (+1)
Romney 31% (-1)
Giuliani 15% (-1)
Huckabee 13% (+0)
Paul 6% (+1)

Analysis from SurveyUSA: "We can reveal that in the final totals it is McCain 31.6%, Romney 31.2%, but we will caution that those numbers are not materially different than the Romney 31.9%, McCain 31.3% numbers that SurveyUSA reported this morning. The movement is too small to be judged significant, and the best interpretation of the data and the trendlines is that the contest could go either way."