I think, unquestionably, the big story out of tonight’s debate is that no one really landed a glove on Newt Gingrich. Not Mitt Romney. And not anyone else. Not even close. There were a few tries. But Newt’s a clever guy and managed to parry them pretty well. The closest the debate got to exposing Newt’s shortcomings was the exchange over the Palestinians. But it was pretty subtle and not something that is going to hurt Gingrich in a primary battle. So again, no one laid a glove on Gingrich. And that alone makes it a huge victory for Gingrich since the tide of the race is moving overwhelmingly in his direction. Read More

Mitt spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom tells TPM bet moment was “a good moment for Mitt Romney.”

Members of Christian paramilitary “savior unit” charged with home invasion in Mississippi.

Romney enlists Ann Coulter as new Iowa surrogate.

There’s a new poll out tonight from NBC/Marist with a lot of new data on the GOP primary race. But there’s one bit of data buried down deep in the results that caught TPM Reader GL’s eye. And it’s quite an eye-popper.

At this moment, according to this poll, President Obama is beating both Gingrich and Romney … in South Carolina. Right, that’s well-known bellwether South Carolina, home of John C. Calhoun, Strom Thurmond and a lot of other worthies but not many statewide Democrats in recent years.

The same pollster polled Mitt v. Obama back in October and had Romney by +6. Now he’s at -3 — a 9 point move. Not good for Mitt.

For obvious reasons, they didn’t even test Gingrich back then. (In the same poll, Obama beats both handily in Florida.)

No, I do not expect President Obama to be committing a lot of resources to the South Carolina race. Nor do I expect him to win there. But these are not good numbers for the GOP with a supposedly lukewarm popularity president and near catastrophic levels of unemployment.

I really couldn’t buy the idea that Mitt Romney could be in trouble. Until I started poring over the poll numbers and looking at next month’s caucus and primary calendar. Take a look.

It looks like Nice Newt ™ lasted about 48 hours. Behold the return of Mean Newt.

Asked this morning whether he should give back his Freddie Mac money, as Mitt Romney suggested, Newt responded: “I would just say that if Gov. Romney would like to give back all of the money he’s earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years at Bain, that I would be glad to listen to him.”

Romney unleashes Staples founder Tom Stemberg on Newt Gingrich.

Anti-gay Alabama Republican Gov candidate had secret life as inseminator of lesbians in New Zealand.

Facebook wants you to know that they think Newt Gingrich’s Facebook page is awesome.