If you're planning a cruise sometime soon, don't look at this picture.
Called on to defend calling the leaders of Turkey "Islamic terrorists", Rick Perry managed to accuse Wolf Blitzer of defending honor-killing.
Rush transcript and video after the jump ...
Read More →The issue of Romney's tax returns has loomed large on cable news throughout the day. However, those relentless reporters at Fox & Friends had a pressing question of their own: "who even cares?"
Newt says he could support a Muslim for President as long as they "give up Shari'a."
A funny little nugget buried in Romney's statement this morning on his tax returns. In passing, Romney said although most of his money came from investment income, a small amount came from speeches. "I get speakers fees from time to time but not very much." Well, it turns out that amount is over $374,000 last year. Which is a fair amount of money, though to give some perspective, not a wild amount of money compared to what other retired politicians make giving speeches.
Read More →Rick Perry now running in third place ... in Texas.
The Turkish Ambassador to the United States, Namik Tan, has issued a statement in response to Rick Perry's suggestion at last night's debate that Turkey's government is run by "Islamic terrorists".
Full statement after the jump ...
Read More →Mitt Romney says he won't raise anyone's taxes no matter what. But I'm starting to get the sense he might be raising his own taxes pretty quickly. Everybody noted in last night's debate that Romney seemed to cross the threshold on the tax return release question. He didn't promise he would but he said he "probably" would in April. To me, the key tell there was that he still didn't commit.
But on the campaign trail this morning, he gave us, I think, a bit more sense of what's up.
Here's what Romney said this morning ...
Read More →A new crop of Ron Paul newsletters just surfaced.
It's common knowledge that Republicans aren't excited about their presidential candidates. But there's now some evidence that lack of excitement may be sapping enthusiasm for the general election too.
And we're back to round two of the payroll tax battle.
TPM's Michael Lester truncated tonight's (boisterous) GOP debate into 100 seconds for your viewing pleasure.
While you're in video-watching mode, check out the crowd going absolutely wild as Newt laid into Juan Williams. Newt was throwing out red meat like Nero to the lions. It was quite something to behold.
I think Rick Perry just said that Turkey is now being run by "Islamic terrorists".
Newt's really on fire tonight. Really not sure that it's going to matter much. But he's back into that mode of serving up perfect red meat for the Republican primary electorate.
9:37 PM: I'm curious to see how Romney does when actually challenged on the US auto industry.
9:43 PM: "Time will tell." "Probably what I'll do." Those were Romney's key lines on taxes. You'll see a lot of follow ups trying to get him to nail that down to a real commitment.
9:51 PM: Ron Paul: MLK is with me on the drug war and the wars abroad. So even with the newsletters that's still 2 out of three and that ain't bad.
9:54 PM: Newt is raucous and shameless as usual. But this is the kind of performance that helped him rocket to the top of the polls.
Running updates on every turn of tonight's debate at TPMLiveWire.
9:24 PM: This primary race is pretty much over -- if we're talking about any serious chance of Mitt Romney not being the nominee. But there are a lot Republicans watching that last exchange who had some real heartburn. When at all seriously challenged, Romney quickly loses his cool. That's a problem if you're in a race with serious opposition -- which Romney really hasn't been.
9:01 PM: And here we go. Any real way Romney can muff this at this point? I doubt. What's different now is that I really wonder whether Gingrich, Perry, Santorum even have the oooomph left in them to make a real fight of it tonight.
9:04 PM: Mitt's giving Newt that, "Dude, I've so smoked you look." ... Actually not a bad answer from Gingrich ... The subtext is pretty clear here: Newt, what the F were you thinking?
9:07 PM: Pretty clear at this point that Fox has fallen into line on this one. Baier didn't press Romney on the tax issue, which surprises me.
9:14 PM: Romney is amazingly cocky in this debate. Thing is though, why not? At this point there's just no one up there who can really challenge him and in the national numbers the big move to Romney has started.
9:17 PM: I'm not sure I've seen something like this before. The whole subtext of the debate basically is challenging everybody to shut up and stop attacking Romney.
9:21 PM: Man, if only Santorum weren't a hopeless candidate, this sort of good debating might actually make him a contender.
TPM is announcing a new Senior Developer position working from our New York office. Full job listing after the jump.
Read More →Tonight's South Carolina debate is at 9 PM. Here's what to watch for. We will of course be here covering it live.
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