Top Items:

Florida shows perils of Gingrich for GOP — If the Newt surge persists over the next few months the biggest winner is going to be Barack Obama. We can see that pretty clearly in our newest Florida poll. — If Mitt Romney's the Republican nominee, Obama's in a lot of trouble in the Sunshine State.
Discussion:
GOP 12, Indecision Forever, Hot Air and Campaign 2012
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Christie: Gingrich Has Never Run Anything — With Newt Gingrich's popularity growing in Florida, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie came to South Florida today to campaign for Mitt Romney and dismissed the former House speaker as the “newest flavor of the two weeks.”
Discussion:
Washington Wire, Opinion L.A. and Los Angeles Times

Fox's temptation: Newt — As Newtmentum continues to build, some members of Washington's chattering class are beginning to wonder whether Fox News chairman Roger Ailes might throw his network's weight behind former contributor Gingrich — a move that would deal a powerful blow to Mitt Romney …
Discussion:
Washington Post and Business Insider


Mitt Romney preps Newt Gingrich attack — Mitt Romney's campaign advisers insist they're no more scared of Newt Gingrich than the candidates who've surged before — but they're already rolling out a playbook that show they know the latest alarm isn't a drill.

Harkin: Gingrich as GOP nominee would be “heaven sent” (audio)
Discussion:
The Hill

Gingrich's hand ‘always six inches from the self-destruct button’
Discussion:
Washington Post, Associated Press, msnbc.com, GOP 12 and National Review

Santorum attacks Gingrich, calls himself 'solid, consistent conservative"
Discussion:
CNN


How Republicans are being taught to talk about Occupy Wall Street — ORLANDO, Fla. — The Republican Governor's Association met this week in Florida to give GOP state executives a chance to rejuvenate, strategize and team-build. But during a plenary session on Wednesday, one question kept coming up …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Crooks and Liars, Washington Post, Hullabaloo, Los Angeles Times, Taylor Marsh, Wonkette, Daily Kos, Little Green Footballs, True Blue Liberal, No More Mister Nice Blog, Gawker, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Booman Tribune, The Impolitic, The Mahablog, Corrente and Business Insider
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China's Superior Economic Model — The free-market fundamentalist economic model is being thrown onto the trash heap of history. — Andy Grove, the founder and chairman of Intel, provocatively wrote in Businessweek last year that, “Our fundamental economic beliefs, which we have elevated …

Michele Bachmann debates same-sex rights with high-school students in Waverly — Waverly, Ia. - Amidst a breezy appearance before an enthusiastic crowd at pizza restaurant here, presidential candidate Michele Bachmann debated two high school students over whether civil rights included the right of same-sex couples to marry.
Discussion:
Business Insider, pandagon.net, ThinkProgress, The Raw Story and Joe. My. God.
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Iowa Students Challenge Michele Bachmann on Same-Sex Marriage, Gay Issues: VIDEO
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs and Balloon Juice

US Embassy in Iran? Michele Bachmann's ‘Oops’ Moment
Discussion:
PolitickerNY, The Iowa Republican, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Sense of Events

Boehner calls on Obama to help Congress alter automatic cuts — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday called on President Obama to intercede in the growing push to change the automatic spending cuts to military and domestic programs triggered by the congressional supercommittee's failure to strike a deficit-reduction deal.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
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Islamists Say They Have Mandate in Egypt Voting — CAIRO — Islamists claimed a decisive victory on Wednesday as early election results put them on track to win a dominant majority in Egypt's first Parliament since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, the most significant step yet …
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, Hot Air, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, National Review, Rod Dreher, Guardian, neo-neocon, Hullabaloo, Outside the Beltway, Weasel Zippers, The Heritage Foundation, White House Dossier, Ben Smith's Blog, Michael Totten, Questions and Observations, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, msnbc.com and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Gingrich, Santorum, Bachmann Fail to File Full Slates of NH Delegates — As recently as two weeks ago, the Gingrich campaign was apparently unable to name 40 New Hampshire supporters of his presidential campaign. — Candidates needed to file their slates of 20 delegates to the National Convention …
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Gingrich meets with Trump Monday …
Discussion:
msnbc.com, CNN, Los Angeles Times, 2012 Election Central, ABCNEWS, Hot Air and Taylor Marsh


Cain: Wife didn't know about friendship, ‘financial assistance’ to Ginger White — MANCHESTER - Herman Cain acknowledged Thursday that he repeatedly gave Ginger White money to help her with “month-to-month bills and expenses” without telling his wife. — In fact, the embattled presidential candidate …
Discussion:
New York Times
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Raise Taxes on Rich to Reward True Job Creators: Nick Hanauer — It is a tenet of American economic beliefs, and an article of faith for Republicans that is seldom contested by Democrats: If taxes are raised on the rich, job creation will stop. — Trouble is, sometimes the things that we know to be true are dead wrong.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, ThinkProgress, Political Mojo and Hullabaloo


Group calls for Bush arrest — Amnesty International is calling for the arrest of former President George W. Bush while he is travelling overseas in Africa. — The human rights group issued a statement Thursday calling for the governments of Ethiopia, Tanzania or Zambia to take the former president into custody.
Discussion:
Agence France Presse and ThinkProgress


New Hampshire GOP Speaker Discourages Students From Voting Because They'll Vote ‘Liberal’ — New Hampshire Speaker William O'Brien (R) — As ThinkProgress has been reporting, the slew of unnecessary voter ID laws passed by Republicans in many states this year are a transparent attempt …
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Rick Perry 2012 video: 'I'm Rick Perry and...what's that line again?' — Rick Perry is heading to Jay Leno's couch tonight, and he's making the most of it - airing this campaign ad in Iowa, in which he takes on his own “oops” moment from the CNBC debate in which he couldn't remember the third agency he'd cut …
Discussion:
CNN, msnbc.com, GOP 12 and Business Insider


Barack Obama and blue-collar Pennsylvania voters : Take 2 — SCRANTON, Pa. — They were never a natural fit. — President Barack Obama lost white working-class voters in this Rust Belt state during the 2008 Democratic primary, after describing them as bitter people who “cling” to God and guns.
Discussion:
Pirate's Cove, CANNONFIRE and Taylor Marsh
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Study: Racial Bias Cost Obama 3 to 5 Points in 2008 Election
Discussion:
ThinkProgress


Cheapest Primary in a Decade Defies Campaign Spending Prediction — Even as experts predict that the 2012 presidential race will be the most expensive in U.S. history, a funny thing is happening on the way to the Republican nomination: It's becoming one of the cheapest primaries in a more than a decade.
Discussion:
Don Surber, Yahoo! News, ABCNEWS, The Impolitic, The Political Carnival, Althouse and USA Today

Unearthed: Gingrich Makes the Case for GSE's on Freddie Mac's Web Site in 2007/2008 — I'm a little late with this - it's been at least a couple of weeks since Bloomberg broke the story that Newt Gingrich received $1.6 million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac over a decade or so.
Discussion:
Washington Post, judicialwatch.org, The Right Scoop, The Other McCain, Campaign 2012, Ed Driscoll and National Review

A Banker Speaks, With Regret — If you want to understand why the Occupy movement has found such traction, it helps to listen to a former banker like James Theckston. He fully acknowledges that he and other bankers are mostly responsible for the country's housing mess.
Discussion:
Rod Dreher, Business Insider, Firedoglake, ThinkProgress, Prairie Weather, Shakesville, naked capitalism, AlterNet, The Daily Caller and Booman Tribune


Unauthorized Immigrants: Length of Residency, Patterns of Parenthood — OVERVIEW — Nearly two-thirds of the 10.2 million unauthorized adult immigrants in the United States have lived in this country for at least 10 years and nearly half are parents of minor children …
Discussion:
The Caucus, Political Mojo, Reuters and Hit & Run

The strange GOP embrace of Simpson-Bowles — The Republican National Committee today sent out what has to be the strangest press release I've seen in a long while. The RNC, in turns out, is outraged that President Obama hasn't embraced the Simpson-Bowles debt-reduction plan.

Huntsman offers a ‘Mittstant Replay’ — Honestly, is there any entity in politics more effective in slamming Mitt Romney than Jon Huntsman's presidential campaign? — In this new video, Team Huntsman not only draws additional attention to Romney's awful interview with Fox News, but also fact-checks Romney's denials about flip-flops.

Bachmann Campaign In Hot Water Over Misuse of Homeschooler Email List — The Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators (NICHE) has sent out an email to its members that says Michele Bachmann's campaign uploaded the group's email list into their campaign database without permission.
Discussion:
Wonkette, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Iowa Caucuses, The Hill and GOP 12


Pawlenty Explains his Campaign-Ending “Obamneycare” Whiff … - Gingrich Is the Only Candidate Who Talks About How He'd Govern the Country. Good for Him. - The Senate's Gruesome Decision To Allow the Military To Detain Citizens Without a Trial Forever - The Artist Is Slight …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller