Week In Review - January 7, 2012

Primary season officially kicked off on Tuesday with the Iowa caucus, and Newt Gingrich pessimistically and accurately predicted his own fate before the first vote was cast. Mitt Romney, who "won" the caucus, was seemingly unfazed by the strong performance of challenger Rick Santorum in Iowa, as the frontrunner kept his attention focused on attacks on President Obama. While ignoring his primary rivals seems like a suspect strategy, it's working for Romney, in large part because of the vigorous anyone-but-Obama zeal that exists within the Republican ranks, and the belief that Romney represents the party's best shot at defeating the incumbent. 

Off the campaign trail, we saw mixed results for the holiday retail season, while in the world of medicine, researchers shared overwhelmingly positive news related to control of the AIDS pandemic. 

Thanks to a wickedly funny newspaper type-o, there was a not-so-serious medical injury reported in sports this week. Also in the athletic arena, I compiled a comprehensive preview of the year ahead in tennis (I stand beside my Federer prediction, despite the injury to the champion's back this week).

Lastly, we laughed with the SNL skit that featured Melissa McCarthy's desperately horny office worker, and with the faux-bituary I penned for simian acting legend Cheetah, who passed away at the age of 80 last week.

As always, thanks for reading!