I have already asked my question on StackOverflow, but the answers I got were lazy and not helpful (uninstall/re-install Visual Studio). Given Visual Studio's chief architect is a performance guru, I am sort of shocked at how slow Visual Studio is and how there are no guides out there for troubleshooting performance. I am even further disappointed that the Visual Studio 2012 help menu sends me to VS 2010 help articles.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16864651/whats-the-best-way-to-diagnose-visual-studio-slowness