Let’s start off the Water Cooler by debating the inevitable: Are black eyed peas racist? Someone tell us now before it creates havoc tomorrow.

Another Path: A couple days ago  Erick Erickson laid out what could be a [mc_name name=’Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000595′ ] path to victory.  Teaparty.org  wrote about [mc_name name=”Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)” chamber=”senate” mcid=”C001098″ ]to victory back in April.  In October, Patrick Buchanan explained Donald Trump’s path to victory in The American Conservative. Here’s one for [mc_name name=’Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’P000603′ ] from Daily Caller.  If you were looking for a governor’s path to victory, Josh Kraushaar today shows us Chris Christie’s.  And, yes, all the headlines have the term ‘path to victory’ in them.  So, before someone writes the obligatory John Kasich path let’s come up with a less well worn headline using  Road to Glory or Highway to Happyville.  Anything but path to victory please.

Finally! A Poll:  At this point it could have an MoE of 17 and I wouldn’t care because…poll! Actually, this Gravis poll for Nevada has an error margin for the primaries at 5%.  Real Clear Politics has all the numbers, but here’s the top three: Trump 33; Cruz 20; Rubio 11.

Cashing In:  You know by now Ted Cruz has hauled in a whopping $20 million this quarter. Thatsa lotta little donors. By midday though we find he’s  been outraised, by Ben Carson. Carson will report bringing in $23 million.  How much came in while he was riding high in the polls and how much has be burned through already?  We’ll have to wait until the official details of the haul are released before some of the answers come out.

Love Him or Hate him:  Whatever your feelings for Donald Trump, give props to his spokeswoman  Katrina Pierson, who wore a bullet necklace to an interview. Politico highlights a bit of a dust up on Twitter, and Pierson said next time she might wear a fetus to “bring awareness to 50 million aborted people that will never [get] to be on Twitter.” She didn’t mean it literally, of course. As accessories go, Pierson’s may beat out tampon earrings for messaging.

Worst Day of the Year:  The last day of the year is like going to a hundred funerals all in a single day. TV Guide has up  photos of 99 people  who we said goodbye to this year. You’ll know them from the characters they played on The Avengers,  Star Trek and The Lost Boys and you’ll remember the songs they left behind.  This list is pretty extensive including athletes, politicians, musicians, writers, actors and some who gained notoriety for I’m not sure what exactly.

Its Midnight Somewhere: Seems like its getting harder to stay up until midnight just to sip champagne, kiss someone you may know and watch something get lowered from way up high (while secretly hoping the rope will  slip and there’s a loud splat.) Did you know it takes 26 hours for the New Year to get across all time zones? To speed things up use this slightly confusing chart from timeanddate.com to figure out where its midnight at so you can go to bed early without thinking you’ve been cheated out of New Year’s festivities.

Who’s Endorsing Whom:  Marco Rubio was on Fox yesterday and  Breitbart caught a snip of it.   He seems to be saying all the right things, getting his message out there and then threw in this line: “We are going to re-embrace the principles that made America great…”. Haven’t we heard a version of this phrase once already this season? Maybe I read it on a hat or something.

That’s it for today’s Water Cooler or is it Water Warmer?  Climate scientists are still debating so we’ll leave it to them. Meanwhile, leave a comment down below on what you found here or anything else that’s on your mind. Plus, its also a good place for breaking news. We may not fix it, but we might play with it for awhile.