WHILE WE WERE AWAY....

Well, we're finally back from the holidays. Hope yours were enjoyable and relaxing.

A few things happened while we were away. Nothing too earthshaking, but we'll go at them from newest to oldest and then get back to up to speed tomorrow.

ROMNEY IS IN-ISH

No surprise here. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, fresh off a family vacation to Utah, formed an exploratory committee, the final step before a full-blown entry into the race. At one point it was reported that Romney would skip the step and jump right in to the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

THE GIULIANI PAPERS

The New York Daily News reported Tuesday that it obtained a "lost" copy of a 140-page playbook for the Rudy Giuliani presidential campaign. Today, the paper reported that Giuliani claimed the document was stolen. The New York Post, meanwhile, reports the Giuliani people believe the book was pilfered by aides to Florida's new Republican governor Charles Crist during a campaign visit by Giuliani on behalf of Crist. Lost or stolen, The Daily News reports today the incident doesn't reflect well on Giuliani.

Interesting how life does NOT imitate art in this case. If you remember on the final season of the West Wing fictitious GOP presidential Candidate Sen. Arnold Vinick's (Alan Alda) top aide found a briefcase full of sensative documents belonging to Vinick's Democratic opponent Rep. Matt Santos (Jimmy Smitts). After much soul-searching, Vinick gave the briefcase back to Santos without revealing the damaging information it contained.

SURPRISE IN A RECENT POLL

The folks at Giuliani Blog had an interesting post while we were away. According to the blog, an American Research Group poll of early primary/caucus states shows Giuliani ahead in two of the four races (Iowa and Nevada) and John McCain leading in two others (New Hampshire and South Carolina). The two are not far apart in any of the states.

The surprise here is that former House speaker Newt Gingrich is nipping at their heels in two of the races and finishes a solid third in all four, while Mitt Romney is little more than a blip. Romney has been falling steadily in the polls since his perceived flip-flop on gay issues.

WHAT'S THAT TERRORIST LEADER'S NAME AGAIN?

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was sitting out the holiday season in Hawaii, trying to stay out of the limelight while he makes a final decision on whether or not to seek the Democratic nomination. But, the Illinois senator was thrust back in the news yesterday, when CNN ran a heading under a story about the fugitive terrorist leader from Saudi Arabia, asking the question "where's Obama?" The Chicago Tribune reports Wolf Blitzer himself called the Illinois senator to apologize for the sticky situation in Wolf's Situation Room.

BUSH FOR V.P.?

As Jeb Bush's tenure as governor of Florida was coming to an end a couple of weeks ago, he made an off-handed comment that he had no future in politics. Well, the New York Times reported recently that Bush didn't mean that exactly. While the presidency seems unlikely - since big brother 'W' has botched things so badly - the Times reports rumblings persist that Jeb may be willing to play second fiddle to John McCain on the GOP ticket in 2008.

EDWARDS OFFICIALLY ENTERS THE FREY

We saved this for last for today's post only because it is the oldest news we're catching up on. Former Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards officially announced his candidacy for the party's presidential nomination just after Christmas. Edwards has been drawing huge crowds in his post-announcement tour of early primary states and is the leader in the most-recent Iowa poll.

The Nation's Web site reported recently that Edwards is offering the progressive wing of the party a lot more this time around than he did when he ran in 2004.