Fifth debate in the last two weeks. Maybe fourth. Whatever. There have been more than zero, and now we’ve got our last one before Super Tuesday, until the other one that will probably happen before Super Tuesday. How will Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fare in this important (Barack is almost even with Hillary in California, says some poll!) debate? Whatever happens, this is an historic occasion: the Democratic nomination for president will not go to a white man this year. Instead, it’s a choice between two black women. Liveblogging hooray… MORE »

They hate each other. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton each wish the other would die, and then maybe shut up too. Tonight they will debate each other in Los Angeles, the population of which is 50% black, 50% Hispanic and mostly white. Everyone’s race is on the line. Everyone’s gender is on the line. I will be liveblogging it at 8 p.m. EST. Everything possible is happening tonight. MORE »

Barack Obama raised $32 million in the month of January alone. As Politico’s Ben Smith notes, “That would be more than $1 million a day.” Indeed, it is actually $750 million dollars a day. Barry also brought in 170,000 new donors, a.k.a. “Suckers for Hope.” This explains how he’s been able to buy such heavy advertising in the expensive Los Angeles market, with Change. [The Trail, Ben Smith]

CNN will partner with the Los Angeles Times and Politico to put on the last two debates of the primary season — Republicans on Jan. 30 and Demrats on Jan. 31 in LA, right before Super Tubersday. So if giving CNN yet another chance to screw up major debates is the first mistake, then allowing Wolf Blitzer to moderate one of them (Anderson Cooper the other, meh) is the second, third and fourth mistakes. It’s also interesting that CNN would partner with the LA Times, which called them the “Corrupt News Network” over the weekend. MORE »

Just days after the tragic announcement that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will no longer pretend to be married to his wife, Corina, French socialist leader and failed presidential candidate Ségolène Royal announced she has separated from her socialist boyfriend of 30 years — to whom she wasn’t even married! MORE »

Wonkette has a West Coast Bureau so we can read blogs about things that happened in LA last night just two miles from the West Coast Bureau. For example, Poppy Bush spoke Monday evening at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion downtown. The dude is like the Energizer Bunny of the New World Order — on Sunday he collapsed on a Palm Springs golf course, and on Monday he was telling lies and jokes to Republican loyalists.

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Barack Obama is making his first post-announcement campaign appearance in California today. You should head on over and check it out! Because it looks like California is about to approve a very early primary and the glory days of glamor spots such as Iowa and the “Granite State” are pretty much over, finally, the Illinois senator needs to convince the rich people of Los Angeles that he’s the best guy ever. Better even than Hillary! MORE »

Haunting new revelations show that Barry Obama secretly attended a madrassa in Los Angeles, the so-called “Occidental” (which means Middle Eastern Muslim) College in the eastside neighborhood of Eagle Rock. Occidental is a perfectly respectable liberal-arts college with a real pretty campus, actually, and Obama went there for two years before transferring to Columbia. But for some reason, the college doesn’t show up on his official biography. Why the secret shame? MORE »

* Jay Tea urges L.A. protesters to refrain from threat-making; real Americans don’t take kindly to it. The blogger compares “immigration advocates” to Seine-side haute protesters, concluding that each group is making unreasonable demands on their respective “system[s].” [Wizbang]
* Michelle Malkin characterizes attendants of the L.A. rally as “divisive militants” and reminds you that their sympathizers lurk in the mainstream. [Michelle Malkin]
* Don Surber believes this is a problem for California — not Bush — to solve. Federal resources remain “better invested” in an undisclosed “elsewhere.” [Don Surber]
* Glenn Reynolds considers the fates of political parties amidst the “backlash” of the protest march. [InstaPundit]
* Mickey Kaus posits immigration, ripe for GOP finesse, as the hot button issue in the midterm elections. Here’s how Republican candidates can play it, with minimal party damage incurred. [Slate]

Well, Los Angeles has gone “dark” (it is still daylight there). We have no idea if this is a big deal, but “The Situation Room” has devoted all six flatscreens to it so we’re pretty much freaking the fuck out. ALL SIX SCREENS, PEOPLE! MORE »

• Approval of Bush slips to new lows: 38% in Newsweek poll and 42% in Time poll; 28% are “satisfied with the way things are going” in the country and 57% have lost confidence in the government since Katrina, Newsweek reports. [Newsweek, Time]
• White House did not comprehend the scope of Katrina until Thursday night; Dan Bartlett prepared a DVD of news clips for Bush’s flight south. “Problems cascaded and compounded; each mistake made the next mistake worse,” writes Evan Thomas. “Bush’s leadership style and the bureaucratic culture combined to produce a disaster within a disaster.” [Newsweek]
• Purported al Qaeda operative threatens Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia in new video message: “So don’t believe Bush and Blair. . . If your leaders really cared about anything other than protecting their own wealth, status and positions, then they wouldn’t attempt to hide the real reasons for our operations by telling you that we are bloodthirsty sadists, who kill out of mere hatred of freedom and the Western way of life. . . When it comes to defending our religion, our freedom, and our brothers in faith, every one of us is Mohammed Atta.” [ABC News, USAT]
• Roberts‘ confirmation hearings begin today at noon; Judiciary Committee members will also be scrutinized. [WP, NYT, USAT, LAT]
• Bush makes third trip to Gulf region. [WP, NYT]

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