Newt Gingrich predicted during a press conference following Saturday’s Nevada caucuses that he would emerge as the GOP front-runner again by the Texas primary.

The one problem with that: We have no idea when Texas will hold its primary. A spat over redistricting is likely to push it beyond its scheduled date, April 3.

LAS VEGAS — After a likely second-place finish in the Nevada caucuses Saturday, former House speaker Newt Gingrich sought to dispel the idea that he might drop out of the Republican presidential nomination any time soon, promising a hotel ballroom filled with reporters that he will fight on to the convention in the summer.

LAS VEGAS — In a meeting room at the Palazzo Hotel here over the past week, Newt Gingrich mapped out a detailed strategy that would keep him in the presidential race all the way to the Republican convention in Tampa in August.

At her Boy Toy 1980s zenith, Madonna would have hardly been Super Bowl material. She was too edgy, too rebellious, too naughty. And back then, Madonna wouldn't have wanted to perform at one of the most conventional events in America. It would have cramped her style.

LAS VEGAS — Mitt Romney secured an overwhelming victory in Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, giving the former Massachusetts governor his second consecutive win of the year as he tightened his claim to dominant front-runner status in what had been a turbulent Republican presidential race.

The playbook for Republican presidential contenders goes at least as far back as Richard Nixon: Run hard to the right in the primaries; steer back to the center for the general election.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has sold himself all along as the most electable Republican in the field. But as he moves closer to becoming the GOP standard-bearer, the candidate whose authenticity has been questioned from all sides faces a tricky challenge making a pivot for the next phase of the race.

Mitt Romney confirmed his status as the prohibitive front-runner in the GOP presidential race Saturday with a win in the Nevada caucuses.

But Romney’s apparently large margin of victory may say more about his opponents than his own candidacy.

No surprise: Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is the overwhelming victor in Nevada’s caucuses, supported by a politically-active Mormon base but dominating across demographic groups.

About a quarter of the electorate appears to be Mormon — the same as in 2008, when Romney won with 51 percent of the vote. But Romney also beat Gingrich with evangelical voters, according to entrance polls.

Just before 1:30 p.m. Aug. 3, a frustrated President Obama gathered Gene B. Sperling and the economic team in the White House and told them to design a jobs package he could offer the American public.

Obama had spent much of the year locked in negotiations with Republicans over the national debt, with little to show for the effort but a sagging approval rating. He had wanted to argue publicly for ideas to create jobs, but hesitated in the midst of negotiations. Liberal critics reprised a familiar critique of the Obama White House: that it too often bows to political constraints and forfeits what’s right for what’s possible or easy.

Newt Gingrich’s campaign remains roughly $600,000 in debt, two months after it reported deep debts and a long list of creditors, newly released campaign spending records show.

Fundraising by the former House speaker’s campaign has stepped up markedly since then and Gingrich just last month cut by half the $1.2 million owed in October 2010. Still, several outstanding creditors remain.

SAN LUIS, Arizona — An Arizona city council candidate struck from the ballot over her limited English skills concedes she is not fluent in the language but called the legal challenge an abuse of power that could keep her from serving a poor border community where most residents speak only Spanish.

Who says government can’t get anything right?

It was just two years ago that the Supreme Court, in a landmark decision, scraped away decades of barnacled case law obscuring our beloved Constitution and unequivocally established the right of corporations, unions and wealthy individuals to spend as much money as they want to influence the outcome of elections.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — With a victory seemingly at hand in the Nevada caucuses, Mitt Romney flew here on Saturday afternoon to exhort a large crowd of supporters to help him get President Obama “out of the way.”

Nevada Republicans are caucusing Saturday to determine who receives the state’s 28 delegates to the Republican National Convention.

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We are now just minutes away from getting the first results in the 2012 Nevada caucuses.

So besides listening to The Fix’s Nevada playlist, what else can you do to get ready for the big night?

LAS VEGAS — After high-octane campaigns in the first four states with primaries and caucuses this year, the Republican contest this week in Nevada has been a snoozer. That’s not likely to be the case come November.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

The Republican race this year wasn’t supposed to start until February, so voters didn’t have to be troubled with politics when they were still concentrating on mistletoe.

If you’re following the Nevada caucuses this evening, you may notice something different about the election results: They’ll be broadcast via Google and Twitter.

It’s the second time Republican Party officials have partnered with Google to release election results.  In January, the Iowa GOP provided caucus results via Google, providing a faster alternative to the Associated Press, which most news organizations use to provide election data.

People criticize GOP candidate Rick Santorum for leaving his sick daughter's side to campaign for the presidency. “She the People” writer Patricia Murphy wondered whether the criticism would be even harsher if Santorum's wife was running for president instead.