Hey, everyone. It's good to be back. Belatedly, I hope you all had a nice holiday season.

Anyway, I really thought that if anything could bring America together, it was Madonna's reprehensibly awful Super Bowl halftime show yesterday. It was so bad, we should get Romney to fire whomever was responsible for it. (Nothing says the American heartland, or Indiana, quite like Madonna, "Vogue," and Roman Empire kitsch. Was Mellencamp too busy?) But then I took to Twitter and Facebook and found that a lot of people just looooved it. And so we have a new divide, and this one, too, is unbridgeable. There's just no accounting for terrible taste. But... onwards!

No More Mister Nice Blog: Romney's speeches, like the man himself, are devoid of uplift, offering sourness, not hope.

The Grey Matter: Romney isn't just gaffe-prone, he's a bad politician who can't go off-script without failing.

The Impolitic: He may not have much of a hope, but there are still good reasons to root for Newt.

Beeryblog: Can progressives really like a violent, war-like sport like football? (Yes, we can!)

Round-up by Michael J.W. Stickings of The Reaction. I'll be here all week.

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