Donald Trump won New Hampshire and, tonight, South Carolina, after a narrow loss in Iowa. Traditionally, that’s the path to the Republican nomination, as MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki explains.

In an attempt to force themselves into some sort of truce, Ted Cruz and Ben Carson decided to handle the situation like adults, face to face, mano a mano, standing alone in a guarded storage closet for nearly 25 minutes, according to a new report from The Daily Beast.

“Gentlemen, young men, marry you a woman. Dude—if she’s clean, and you’re clean, and you marry her, and you keep your sex right there, you’re never going to get a debilitating disease and/or death. It’s safe!”

Responding quickly to BuzzFeed’s newly uncovered interview in which Donald Trump advocates for invading Iraq, Anderson Cooper asked the man himself if he remembered answering in the affirmative. In response, Trump comes as close to breaking character as we’ve seen him yet. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

As the presidential election progresses, Wall Street grows increasingly fearful that the “radical” economic proposals of Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump could become a reality. They might want to worry about the “mainstream” candidates as well.

If you’ll recall, a few days ago, Heidi Cruz revealed that the human flesh mask she married has a habit of calling out of the blue and making noises at her set to song. Now, we get to hear that singing bag of skin for our very selves.

Tonight’s going to be weird. In one corner, we have Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Ben Carson engaging in an ostensibly civil “town hall” on CNN (the other three get their shot tomorrow night). In the other corner, Donald Trump and Joe Scarborough will be doing... something. Either way, we’ll be liveblogging every last second of it.

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has Donald Trump in second place, at 26 percent, to first-place Ted Cruz, at 28 percent. This is, as Philip Bump notes, “the first major poll in which Trump hasn’t led the field nationally since October.” That is another way of saying this poll is an outlier.

One of the most persistent and least useful arguments of this presidential campaign season is taking place among Democrats who (mostly) talk past one another about how economic inequality and racial inequality are or are not linked. Does someone have a good proposal? Let’s hear it.

If you’ll recall, a few days ago, Hillary Clinton barked like dog in an effort to mimic the Republican party. Now, Jeb Bush is mimicking Hillary mimicking the Republican party by doing—well, this.

South Carolina, whose main outputs through American history have been the Civil War and smokeable cancer, is still a bad place, according to a new survey by Public Policy Polling.

At the Republican debate on Saturday, Donald Trump declared, “I’m the only one on this stage that said: ‘Do not go into Iraq. Do not attack Iraq.’ Nobody else on this stage said that. And I said it loud and strong.” This is—as the man himself might say—a big fat lie.

Ben Carson made a lot of questionable decisions tonight (showing up at all, to name one). His biggest mistake, though, was the active choice to end the evening with a quote from Joseph Stalin—one that was, of course, a complete lie.

Jim Gilmore (otherwise known as the only veteran still in the running for president or, more often, “who?”) is no longer running for the GOP candidacy. This information probably does not affect you. And frankly, this information probably only marginally affects Jim Gilmore. Because as his online activity reveals, Jim Gilmore’s campaign was very, very sad.

Remember when Donald Trump kept insisting that he was only bringing up Ted Cruz’s citizen status because he was worried the Democrats might sue?

Right off the bat at tonight’s Democratic debate (surprise! there’s another debate), Hillary Clinton was pressed about some of her more staunch supporters’ recent claims. Specifically, Clinton was asked whether she, too, believes that women who don’t vote for her may be destined for hell. The only thing Hillary needed to say was “no.” Hillary, however, did not say “no.”

What, beyond a team of university psychologists, could explain the mechanism of Donald Trump’s mind? In the early 1990s, two journalists thought they’d figured it out, claiming Trump was fighting his overwhelming fear of being fat with a steady stream of amphetamine-like diet pills.

Donald Trump almost certainly has a dick. This much we know. What we don’t know (and let’s hope that never changes) is what that dick actually looks like. Artist Illma Gore, though, has an idea. And thanks to her most recent artwork, that idea is about to be seared into your memory.

Three hours after Carly Fiorina ended her presidential campaign yesterday, her reps sent out an email announcing that she’s “now available for speaking engagements around the world.” The system works.

Failed former HP CEO and now-failed candidate for president Carly Fiorina has decided to suspend her campaign. Bye Carly.