President Obama faces a far more difficult election environment than he did in 2008. But that new political map his campaign created? Those new swing states are still in play in 2012.
SOPA supporters blast "Blackout Day."
A very interesting nugget down deep in this Reuters piece on Romney's taxes.
Tax analysts say Romney may have good reason to be reluctant to release his returns.Read More →His vast fortune is invested in dozens of funds linked to Bain Capital LLC, the powerhouse private equity firm he co-founded and led for 15 years. Several Bain funds have offshore connections and take advantage of tax breaks used only by the U.S. financial elite.
There are no reports of any injuries or anything close to injuries. But a smoke bomb of some sort was apparently thrown on to the White House grounds this evening, apparently during an Occupy protest outside the White House.
The Secret Service is currently investigating. Jennifer Bendery, a reporter for Huffpo, tweets that White House reporters are being forced to wait at the White House while the Secret Service investigates.
Late Update: From a White House press pool report of about 20 minutes ago ...
Upon returning to the WH, members of the press corps are being prevented from leaving the grounds. USSS investigating an object that was allegedly thrown over the fence.Penn Ave is closed as well.
Later Update: From another White House press pool report from 10:32 PM ...
After holding in the briefing room for 45 minutes, a WH official escorted the press corps out of the WH grounds through the EEOB and out to an exit on 17th Street.
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.
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