Republican race

While the GOP establishment already hit peak panic following Trump's Super Tuesday rout, it is about to "rise above" said peak based on an advance transcript of the speech that Mitt Romney will deliver later on Thursday to the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah according, in which he will declare that "Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat."

Yesterday the GOP strategist Patrick Ruffini sent out 19 successive tweets sharing his assessment of the Republican race so far. I hope someone will Storify them so you can all easily read them, but until then, follow the link above. His basic argument is that the GOP race is settling into a pattern. Trump has a hard core of supporters nationally, but he can’t seem to grow beyond it. They are, however, unshakable in their support of him:

While algos patiently await the only thing that matters for US stocks today which is Janet Yellen's testimony before Congress. expected to be released at 8:30 am (and previewed here), the rest of the world this morning is a hot mess of schizophrenic highs and lows.

Last week, the “teflon Don” took a hit in Iowa.

Despite the fact that the last Des Moines Register poll before the caucus showed the brazen billionaire pulling ahead of Ted Cruz in the state for the first time since August, Donald Trump lost, in what many deemed a surprising outcome.

Initially, Trump congratulated Cruz. Later, he called the senator a cheater and accused him of “stealing” the state by bilking the hapless Ben Carson out of votes.