Santorum And Romney Spar Over Earmarks
Romney Gets Testy With Debate Moderator
Santorum Hits Mitt Over Contraception Issue
TPM Editors’ Blog Opinions, Context & Ideas from TPM Editors
Five Strikes And You're Out
How badly did Rick whiff tonight? Let us count the ways.
We're All World Net Daily Now
Maybe 18 months ago this stuff was the stuff of three or four members of Congress and World Net Daily. Now Mitt Romney just said that Iran may get nuclear material and give it to Hezbollah.
Hezbollah will bring it to Mexico.
Nuclear Hezbollah will climb over the fence and then blow up a nuclear warhead of a dirty bomb in Cleveland.
This is a presidential debate.
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Bizarre
Something profoundly comical about Romney attacking Rick Santorum over supporting Specter, when Santorum was the conservative backed into supporting the moderate Specter and Romney was probably to the left of Specter at the time.
What's With the Crowd
Is there really any question that the Romney Camp totally kicked butt getting their people into the hall? I mean, maybe everybody's beating up on Santorum. But this is not a crowd with an equal or proportional number of Santorum supporters.
Off the Rails
This is kind of amazing. The drift of this conversation is that not only should you be against contraceptives personally. And not only should you give religious exemptions to religious organizations. But even allowing any federal money to go to birth control is wrong. This is playing ball way back on GOP's 10 or 15 yard line.
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More Liveblogging
8:53 PM: Mitt is walking the only line available on birth control: This isn't about contraception; it's about religious freedom.
8:55 PM: No debate complete without Newt invoking "tyranny."
Not Just Happening
Clearly, Newt doesn't give a crap about competing in Michigan. But Romney just took his position on the auto bailout even further into total incoherence. He opposes the auto bailout. But now he only opposes the money given before the bankruptcy phase. And what happened when they put the companies through a managed bankruptcy was what Mitt wanted all the time. So they actually figured out what to do from Mitt. Only that wasn't good either because it was a sell out to the unions. In a Rube Goldberg kind of way it sort of makes sense. But having tried to pander in every possible way at the time and doing the same thing now, the whole thing just comes out as an incomprehensible jumble.
Every Last Update
Get the very latest debate updates at TPMLivewire.
Mitt Gets Miffed
It looks like the Romney campaign did a good job getting the audience stacked with his supporters. But Mitt's getting testy. We're seen this before. It usually doesn't go well for him.
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20th Debate Live Blogging
8:07 PM: Wow, Mitt goes for semi-current cultural reference -- George Costanza. Actually sort of surprised Mitt came up with that.
8:13 PM: Santorum hits Romney on aping Occupy Wall Street rhetoric. This is what he's referring to.
8:16 PM: Did Newt just say that getting rid of the Civil Service system would save $500 billion a year?
8:28 PM: Actually thought that was a very strong answer for Santorum. But the zero clapping and the handful of guffaws sort of suggests the audience didn't see it the same way.
8:29 PM: We're moving into people getting under Mitt's skin phase.
Better The Devil You Know?
The smell of sulfur and the heat of hellfire waft around today's Day in 100 Seconds.
More Trouble For Babeu?
There are more questions than answers in the strange case of Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu and his estranged lover. Nick Martin has been sniffing around one of the bigger unknowns of the case.
Failmentum
Romney camp says they edited out negative parts of Detroit News endorsement because they didn't want to violate copyright. Top 1st Amendment lawyer says that's total malarkey.
Inside The Tent
Our interview with Russ Feingold this afternoon, newly minted as one of the co-chairs for President Obama's reelection campaign but still highly critical of the President's Super PAC decision, reminds me of the old LBJ line: "It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in."
Lead Balloon Alert
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) moves to strip transvaginal ultrasound provision from state's controversial anti-abortion bill.
Watch This Closely
We were just debating in the TPM virtual newsroom whether Mitt's comments a short time ago about making "sure the top 1% keeps paying, paying the current share they're paying or more" is a shift in his rhetoric, a shift in his policy, or both.
We should have a clearer picture shortly because Mitt's campaign is unveiling in bits and pieces to reporters throughout the day the elements of Mitt's new and improved tax plan, an elaboration on the plan he released in September.
The feature of that plan Mitt was touting in today's rally in Arizona is that while it lowers marginal tax rates on the 1%, it will also deny them deductions they currently enjoy. Whether that results in a net increase or decrease in the tax burden for the 1% is one of the key questions we'll be looking to answer because, in the end, that's really all that counts.*
Read More →Occupy Mitt
You know the language of the "1%" has really penetrated deeply when even Mitt Romney can't resist it. Here's Mitt's quote from just a few moments ago on the trail in Chandler, Arizona pledging to make sure "the top 1%" keeps paying their "current share" or "more". Transcript after the jump ...
Read More →Must Be A Relief
Olympia Snowe (R-ME) won't be facing a primary challenge from a heavy metal rocker who writes science fiction after all.
Can't Make It Up
The headline sells itself: "Chris Christie And Rick Santorum Spar Over Satan, Whitney Houston"
Alternate headline: Why The Obama Camp Wants The GOP Primary Season To Drag Into Summer
Space Geek Alert
The Hubble Space Telescope makes another amazing discovery.
Pelosi: GOP Trying To ‘Censor’ Female Witness
Pelosi sent out an email petition on the back of a GOP refusal to televise a Democratic-led hearing on birth control.
Virginia House Passes Amended Ultrasound Bill
The Virginia House of Delegates passed an amended bill requiring ultrasounds before abortions.
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