Update: Harry Enten, of FiveThirtyEight, sums up the confusion on the Republican side of the aisle. 

Interesting analysis of the Ohio vote by Tim Carney. HRC aiming for a clean sweep. 

Kasich has won Ohio, according to CNN and Fox News. 

The Rubio presidential campaign, to all intents and purposes, is over. 

Kasich is leading Trump by 12, according to preliminary results from the Ohio Secretary of State.

Live primary results, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal. Thus far, Hillary and The Donald seem to be running away with it in the state of Florida, while exit polls indicate late-deciders in the state of Ohio supported their governor, John Kasich. What that portends for the final election numbers remains to be seen, but we’ll bring you the results when they’ve been tallied.

The most notable development leading up to today’s pivotal primaries is, of course, the raft of prominent Donald Trump endorsements, including those of former governor Jan Brewer and immigration stalwart Senator Jeff Sessions. Why the latter decided to endorse Trump rather than his Texas colleague is open to debate, although Mark Krikorian-a Cruz supporter-has an interesting theory.

The New York Times has published 2 stories of interest to those of us in the immigration reform camp, focusing on the 2 main competitors-at the moment-for the Republican nomination. One describes the sub rosa pressure campaign initiated by the Gang of 8 against conservative radio talkers who were skeptical of embracing their amnesty proposal in 2013. You can read the NYT account here, and the more complete-and presumably, honest-description of the Rush-GO8 conclave by Mr. Limbaugh himself on his website. It should be noted that if the Times is attempting to bolster the candidacy of Marco Rubio, a la John McCain during his past presidential runs, this is impeccably poor timing on its part.

Then again, the Old Gray Lady might simply be trying to practice the craft of journalism-however ineptly-during this contentious  primary season. It also has published a tantalizing account of what its editor claims is Donald Trump softening his immigration stance in an off-the-record conversation with Times’ staffers. One wonders what the significance of “off the record” information is if you then disclose hints of that content to the general public. Also, one has to wonder whether Trump’s response mirrored his answer to a presumably similar set of questions posed by Byron York.

National Review-the anti-Trump conservative publication of record for some-has published some interesting pieces on the various Trump-related controversies that have cropped up recently, including a fascinating piece on Trump University, as well as a much less compelling article about the Donald’s use of foreign nationals to work on his construction projects. Surprisingly, NR has also published an essay by its former editor John O’Sullivan-currently a Ted Cruz backer-explaining the provenance of the Trump phenomenon. It should be required reading for those Republicans positing a GOP crackup.

Update: Post-caucus analysis by the BBC. As predicted, Jeb is out. Epic failure. Trump wins. 

The returns are starting to roll in.

Whether or not it’s simply a matter of wishful thinking on the part of Rubio supporters, the rumors of a Bush withdrawal continue to percolate. The fact that he’s been forced to rely upon his brother-former President George W. Bush-in order to inject life into his flagging campaign is an indication of the desperation plaguing Jeb’s presidential effort, to say nothing of the astronomical burn rate his heretofore unsuccessful bid has achieved. It remains to be seen whether South Carolina will mark a turning point in this race, but my suspicion is that neither Barbara nor Dubya will be able to salvage an essentially doomed campaign.

You can follow live coverage of both the South Carolina primary and the Nevada Caucuses here. This website, naturally, will provide post-election analysis in the days ahead.

Even though the political obituaries of the Clinton dynasty are already being written, it should be noted that due to the undemocratic nature of the Democratic Party primary process she is still ahead of her socialist opponent, Senator Sanders. So don’t expect Hillary to obligingly accept another unexpected defeat at the hands of a leftist insurgent, although trends do not augur in her favor.

An equally fascinating race is taking shape on the GOP side of the aisle, as the worried donor class tries to find a suitably pliant candidate to put forward as the anti-Cruz/Trump standard bearer. Daniel Larison has an astute analysis of this process-and why it is likely to fail-in The American Conservative.

Regardless of which candidates find themselves as the nominees in November, we are in all likelihood going to experience a very interesting presidential race in the months ahead. Buckle up, folks.

Update: According to CNN projections Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have emerged victorious from tonight’s primary. Notch one for the notoriously inaccurate polling industry! 

We’ll see whether New Hampshire lives up to its state motto later tonight, although the pickings are rather slim in this regard. You can follow the undoubtedly dubious exit polling data from ABC News here. Until the final results come in, we recommend reading Mark Krikorian’s excellent anti-Rubio polemic published by National Review Online earlier today.

Although generally regarded as more conservative than others vying furiously for the establishment vote, i.e. the cheap labor and cheap votes coalition, Rubio is actually a rather dismal echo of his equally open borders primary competitors. If you need proof of this, look no further than his corporate benefactors. That being said, expect media shills-of both the corporatist Republican and bien pensant liberal variety-to continue extolling the virtues of Univision’s favorite GOPer.

Here are the county-by-county results of the Iowa caucuses. Unsurprisingly, there were allegations of dirty tricks during the voting process, both in the Democratic and the Republican camps. One of the most interesting analyses of the first major contest of the 2016 campaign comes from Reason Magazine, where Peter Suderman makes the compelling argument that Hillary Clinton is a singularly weak presidential candidate. Although it’s not a novel observation, his exploration of just how far Clinton’s stock has fallen over the past month is worth examining.

Update: Senator Cruz has emerged victorious, with Donald Trump and Marco Rubio rounding out the top 3, while Hillary Clinton and her socialist opponent are virtually even with nearly all of the precincts counted. 

The Guardian is tracking the Iowa vote as it comes in. Follow the county-by-county results here. 

Breitbart is providing live coverage of the Iowa Caucuses as the returns come in. Follow it here. 

After nearly a year of jockeying and polls in our interminably long presidential news cycle, we’ll finally know later tonight who the actual front-runners in the Republican and Democratic fields are. Whether this is truly the year of the insurgent candidate remains to be seen, but rest assured we will be here to cover the results and their political aftermath.

Until then, we recommend checking out some of our good friend Pamela Hall’s photos from the anti-capitalist, pro-Bernie Sanders march which took place in Manhattan this weekend. It would be interesting to find out if they checked in at Starbucks afterwards.

Check it out for yourself.

Update: You can find Roy Beck’s thoughts on last night’s encounter here.

Of the year, that is. For those of you who weren’t able to watch the full 3 hour-long extravaganza, including the preliminary “kiddie” debate, I suggest skimming the fantastic coverage provided by Numbers USA on its Twitter account, which-as usual-got to the heart of the matter. The upshot, from what I gather, is that Marco Rubio, chief architect of the Gang of 8 mass amnesty, attempted to destroy Ted Cruz’s credibility on the immigration by pointing out Cruz’s own less than stellar record on the issue while reaffirming his universally unpopular stance.

If Senator Rubio is the future of the GOP, then I suppose there’s a reason why Mrs. Clinton is grinning. On to 2016…

A veto-proof majority in the House has just told Barack Obama that, empty assurances notwithstanding, it doesn’t trust this administration to “vet” the 10,000+ Syrian refugees who it intends to resettle within the United States.  The Sith Lord himself, Harry Reid, intends to crush this before it makes its way to the President’s desk.

Contact Your Senators Now!