A month ago I pointed to some patterns which have shown up in the 2012 primary cycle which suggest to me that the digital news revolution (which is really a nationalization of news) may be changing the role early primary and caucus states have played in US politics for forty-plus years.

Put simply, the old idea was that these smallish states were largely self-contained political news worlds where a kind of intensive, organization-heavy politicking ruled the day. Because of this, each was its own little contest, in which a different set of candidates might catch fire. But multi-platform, 24/7 political news and chatter is now so pervasive that these different battles don’t look that distinct.

It doesn’t speak directly to this issue. But Mitt Romney looks to be doing pretty well in South Carolina. He has a solid lead. But political hands in the state tell our Evan McMorris-Santoro that Romney’s managing to do it with very little of the retail-style campaigning which has been so critical to past winners. We’ll have to see how it pans out. But I think this is part of the same trend.

Evan McMorris-Santoro reports that Rick Santorum has a well-regarded ground game in South Carolina, and yet he’s still not surging in the polls. Why? Well, it could be because of tone deaf moments like this.

Starting at 8pm Eastern, Fox News will be showing the pre-recorded “Candidates’ Forum” that Mike Huckabee hosted in South Carolina today. TPM will be chronicling it live in the livewire.

Evan McMorris-Santoro on why the Romney campaign thinks it can pull off a victory in South Carolina without having a particularly stellar ground game.

South Carolina was always going to be a real race. And now it is.

A video chronicle of how Romney’s job creation claims have dwindled, and dwindled fast.

I suspect that the GOP nomination battle is pretty close to done. But don’t be so sure about South Carolina itself. I heard the pundits talking this morning on MSNBC about how Rick Santorum, rather than Newt Gingrich, was the one who could give Mitt Romney a run for his money in the state. But that sounded really off to me. The latest polls suggest that Santorum is losing support, as is Romney and Gingrich is either holding his own or gaining.

Check out this trend chart after the jump …

“Quiet Rooms.”

Turns out the government doesn’t need Warren Buffett’s help to make up most of the budget deficit. It would be in pretty good shape if it could only collect all of the money legally owed to it anyway. But guess who’s standing in the way of that?

At least, that’s what you’d think if all you had to go on was cable news today. Michael Lester wraps up the GOP establishment freakout into a stunning 100 seconds. Meanwhile, Benjy Sarlin teases out its implications here.