TPM Editors’ Blog Opinions, Context & Ideas from TPM Editors

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Hooping It Up

It seemed kind of lame at first for President Obama to bring Prime Minister David Cameron to a NCAA tourney play-in game. For his first-ever basketball game, Cameron deserved better. But as it turned out last night in Dayton featured two record-setting comebacks, so Cameron got a good taste of March Madness. Photos of Barack and David.

David Kurtz

Scattershot

The presidential polls are still really wild at the moment. We had the CBS/NYT and ABC/WaPo polls which showed sharp drops for President Obama. Since then we've had Ipsos and Bloomberg polls which have showed a very different picture. And today we have a Pew poll which shows President Obama with an eye-popping 12 point margin over Mitt Romney. Trend chart after the jump ...

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Josh Marshall

He's Had Enough

Jon Stewart tells Fox News to "shut the f**k up."

Paul Werdel
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Venus Rising

Just when it seemed Mitt Romney had safely avoided making contraception an "issue" like some of his fellow Republicans, his comment yesterday that "we're going to get rid of" Planned Parenthood has once again placed women's health at the center of the presidential campaign debate.

David Kurtz

A Tale Of Two Economies

Faced with the challenge of unseating an incumbent president, the national GOP and the party's primary contenders have been reluctant to allow for any suggestion that the economy could be getting out of the ditch.

But what to do if you're a GOP governor running for reelection in a state where things are looking up?

Paul Werdel

3rd?

It's at least possible at this point that Romney could come in third in both Mississippi and Alabama. Looking likely he'll lose both.

Josh Marshall
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Mittsissippi. Or Not.

As we saw in Ohio, these races can go long into the night and surprise you in the end. But at the moment, things are not looking great for Mitt Romney in Mississippi. Could he still win? Absolutely. It's too close to call. But he seems to be underperforming in some key areas and the Mitt-favorable areas are ahead of the curve in terms of reporting. Certainly possible that Santorum wins both Southern primaries tonight. Stay Tuned.

Romney supporters and insiders were high-fiving each other on Twitter early this evening and the early exits showed a good margin for Romney. But now it's not looking so good.

Josh Marshall

The Horror

When CNN scooped Mitt's victory in Ohio, the ballot cams in the precincts were well ... awesome. Pretty much everything else, it's tragic and silly. Behold some special moments from tonight's coverage after the jump ...

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Josh Marshall

Santo Still In It

The latest round of exit polls show Santorum picking up some ground on Romney. Now a two point spread between the two in Mississippi.

Josh Marshall

Polls Closing At Top Of The Hour

Polls close statewide in Alabama and Mississippi at 8 p.m. ET. (Hawaii closes at 2 a.m. ET).

We'll also be watching two congressional primaries in Alabama, where a pair of House committee chairmen, Spencer Bachus and Jo Bonner, are being challenged. All of those results are at the top right of the TPM main page.

David Kurtz

Peter King Stars As Self-Styled 'Manhunter'

After inquiries from TPM, the U.S. Marshals Service is probing why a cameraman accompanying Rep. Peter King (R-NY) was allowed to film inside a private residence in violation of federal policy during a raid yesterday to apprehend fugitives.

King posted video from his ridealong on his "official" YouTube channel this afternoon, but removed the full version when TPM began asking questions about it. An edited version was later posted. Ryan Reilly and Nick Martin have the story.

David Kurtz

Runnin' On Empty

In today's Day In 100 Seconds, Fox News puts the sugar in your gas tank.

Watch.

Paul Werdel

Kiss My Grits

Jon Stewart to Mitt Romney: "You're a guy who looks like you just stepped off of the Monopoly board. You really think you're gonna appeal to Southerners by finding reference with them on the issues that matter most to them: their accent and choosing the right breakfast starch?" Watch.

David Kurtz

Most Recent Latest news stories from TPM reporters

TPM2012

Missouri Caucuses This Saturday Won't Have A Winner -- Until April And June

Rick Santorum won't be able to get a huge delegate win in the Missouri caucuses this Saturday -- in fact, nobody will, because there is not actually any direct voting on who the caucus attendees want to nominate. Santorum previously won the state's non-binding primary in a landslide on March 7, beating Mitt Romney by a margin of 55%-25%. The result helped to lift up Santorum's prospects as the new anti-Romney conservative choice, but the delegate selection process would not begin until the caucuses on...
Muckraker

Report On Misconduct In Ted Stevens Prosecution To Be Released Thursday

A federal appeals court on Wednesday refused to block the release of anindependent investigative report on prosecutorial misconduct during the trial of the late Sen. Ted Stevens. The decision means the report will be publicly released on Thursday, as scheduled. U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan has said the report by Henry F. Schuelke "chronicles significant prosecutorial misconduct in a highly publicized investigation and prosecution brought by the Public Integrity Section against an incumbent ...
Muckraker

Rep. Peter King Defends Videotaped Raid

First it was edited. Then it was scraped from his YouTube account altogether. But on Wednesday, Rep. Peter King said there was nothing wrong with videotaping an action-packed raid he participated in earlier in the week with federal law enforcement in New York. Following inquiries from TPM, the US Marshals Service on Tuesday said they were investigating whether the video King (R-NY) posted, which showed agents kicking down doors and chasing after a suspect in Brooklyn while he tagged along, violated...
TPM2012

Do Mitt Romney's Third Place Finishes Matter?

Mitt Romney came in third in Mississippi and Alabama Tuesday, an embarrassing finish after having campaigned hard and spent harder in both states. But Team Romney doesn't seem to think that matters -- they note their guy is still leading in the delegate fight, which is all that counts in the end. These dueling assessments of the battle for Dixie will define the race as it takes a pivotal turn to Illinois.
IdeaLab

National Renewable Energy Lab Bets On Black Silicon Solar Power

TINA CASEY Just when you think silicon is getting nudged aside as the material of choice for making photovoltaic cells, along comes the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The NREL on Tuesday announced it's entered into an agreement with Natcore Technology Inc., a Red Bank, NJ-based company, to develop a low cost way to manufacture high efficiency solar cells using NREL's latest innovation, a black silicon antireflective layer on solar cells. The agreement calls for relatively small spending ...
TPM2012

Colbert Prefers GOP Candidates' 'Knowledge-Free' Speeches

Stephen Colbert is tired of President Obama droning on and on with his fancy SAT words. He prefers the simpler stylings of the Republican presidential candidates. For example: Rick Santorum, talking about global warming, said we should ask plants what they think about dangerous levels of carbon dioxide. Mitt Romney said recently that you can't drive a car with a windmill on it. "If you put a windmill on top of your car, where does the dog go?" Colbert asked, referring to a road trip the Romney's took...
TPMDC

Jon Stewart Tells Fox News To 'Shut The F**k Up' About Hypocrisy

The pundits on Fox News, in a pickle after Republican hero Rush Limbaugh skewered a female Georgetown Law student, decided that Bill Maher is just as bad -- and on the left no less! Maher and other liberals "hide under the helmet" of comedy, they say, to justify their disgraceful jokes. "I guess by bringing up Bill Maher, Fox is saying, 'Huh? So we're even, right? Offsetting penalties. Let's just say we all get back to what really matters to Americans, whether Obama is a Sunni or a Shia.'"
TPMDC

The Right's Sandra Fluke Conspiracy Theories: A Guide

Searching for an escape hatch now that the contraception wars are spinning out of their control, Republicans and conservatives are working to turn the Sandra Fluke saga into one big liberal conspiracy. As Fluke vows that slurs won't silence women, here's a handy guide to the theories floating around on the right about the Georgetown law student who was smeared by Rush Limbaugh and has since created headaches for the GOP.
TPM2012

Romney Gives Planned Parenthood An Opening To Revive Contraception Fight (VIDEO)

Mitt Romney did not break any news Tuesday when he once again said he'd eliminate government funding for Planned Parenthood as part of his larger plan to cut spending. (That plan was best known until now for Romney's promise to put ads on "Sesame Street.") But Romney did state his plan in a slightly different way than he has before -- and that was all the kindling Democrats and progressives needed to relight the fire over women's health that many on the left have seen as a hugely winning issue against...
IdeaLab

Science Funding Gets Its Own Kickstarter: Petridish.org

There's a brand new crowd funding website in town, and its name is Petridish.org. Like Kickstarter, it allows aspiring project creators to pitch their ideas in the form of video and text to the open Web, offering promotional material in exchange for donations. Like Kickstarter, Petridish takes a 5 percent cut of all successfully funded projects for operating expenses and leaves the rest to the project creators to use to turn their ideas into reality. But Petridish.org, which launched in beta on...
TPM2012

Today On The Trail: March 14, 2012

Here are ten things you need to know today. Santorum takes Mississippi and Alabama: Rick Santorum won both big ticket states in last night's primaries. He won Mississippi with about 33% of the vote, to Gingrich's 31% and Romney's 30%. In Alabama, Santorum took 34.5%. Gingrich barely beat Romney, both taking around 29% of the vote. Romney wins Hawaii Caucuses: Romney had a rough night in the South, but he did win the Hawaii caucuses handily with 45% of the vote. Santorum pulled about 25%, Ron Paul was on...
TPMDC

How Congress Helps Republicans, But Not Democrats, Weather Bad Economies (Charts)

If President Obama's economic recovery continues apace, and his re-election prospects grow along with it, it won't be because Congress went out of its way to help. As we noted Tuesday, Obama's economy has benefitted from less of Washington's largesse than did crypto-Keynesian Ronald Reagan's. But this is actually part of a broader pattern. Recently, Republican presidents have benefited from accommodating Congress during times of economic weakness, while Democratic Presidents Clinton and Obama watched...
TPM2012

A Tale Of Two Economies: The GOP's Schizophrenic Jobs Message

Depending on which Republicans you ask, we're either living in the best of times, or the worst of times. For the national GOP, any notion of an economic recovery is a figment of Democrats' imaginations. When a third straight month of solid job numbers came in last week, officials responded with caution and contempt. They dashed out releases and tweets minimizing the size of the gains, and pushing back against the idea there's any recovery at all.
TPM2012

Rick Santorum Wins Alabama, Mississippi

Rick Santorum won primary victories in Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday, according to network projections, bolstering his credibility as Mitt Romney's top challenger and denying the former Massachusetts governor an opportunity to solidify his status as inevitable nominee. With most of the vote counted, Romney appeared likely to finish third in both races, with Newt Gingrich poised to take second. "We did it again," Santorum declared at an election night rally in Louisiana, saying his underdog campaign ...
TPM2012

CNN's Ballot-Cam-A-Palooza (VIDEO)

Ever keen to get the first reports on polling night, CNN on Tuesday sent its reporters out to the actual ballot-counting facilities. While the speed of the results may give CNN the edge over other networks, the need to send a camera along to film the goings-on could be questioned. While waiting for the results to come in, CNN viewers could check out convicts in Alabama and a door in Mississippi.
Muckraker

Rep. Peter King 'Manhunters' Video Sparks U.S. Marshals Probe

Updated: March 13, 2012, 9:46 PM A video posted to the YouTube account of Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has sparked an investigation by the U.S. Marshals Service into why a videographer accompanying the New York Republican was allowed to film inside private residences against a federal policy. Shortly after noon on Tuesday, a tweet from King's account linked to an eight minute video of a ride-along with a "fugitive task force" including U.S. marshals on Monday. It showed King, the chairman of the Homeland...
Muckraker

Anti-Gay Preacher Defends Performance From 'Offensive' Accusations

Bradlee Dean, the controversial preacher whose group shocked students at an Iowa high school last week, says his message has been misrepresented. "The press fabricated what happened as usual," Dean told TPM in an email Tuesday. Local press reported that Dean's band, Junkyard Prophet, performed and then split the attendees into several groups: boys, girls and teachers. The group showed students pictures of mutilated fetuses to teach about infanticide and reportedly told girls to take a submissive role...
TPM2012

Day In 100 Seconds: Obama On Empty, Fox Refuels

Rising gas prices are worrying millions of Americans, but delighting a select few: Fox News anchors eager to hammer Obama with the news. President Obama's approval numbers are slipping, and Fox hosts spent the day salivating over the opportunity to tie the polls to gas prices, and lay the blame for skyrocketing prices squarely on Obama. So, were people already disappointed? Are gas prices a factor? Will Fox continue to use any poll to bash Obama? Watch the coverage for yourself and decide:
IdeaLab

OpenStreetMap Aims To Become Most Popular Map On The Web

The organizers behind OpenStreetMap, a free crowdsourced digital world map, are still reveling in the news that Apple appears to have switched to using OpenStreetMap's data for locations outside the U.S. in lieu of its previous default, Google Maps, in a new version of Apple's mobile software. OpenStreetMap has consistently celebrated Apple's March 7 move, despite the fact that Apple still hasn't credited OpenStreetMap for using its data, in violation of its generous usage policy. But recent...
TPMDC

GOP Inviting Election Season Government Shutdown, Reid Warns

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is warning House Republicans they'll be setting themselves up for another tea party-inspired government shutdown fight, unless GOP leaders buck their conservative rank and file and hew to the terms of last summer's hard-fought debt-limit deal. House Republicans are prepared to introduce their budget resolution next Tuesday, and some signs suggest they'll call for cutting federal programs below the levels both parties agreed to in last August's debt-limit fight. On...

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