So now the Supreme Court will look at President Obama’s signature health care reform. Will a ruling hurt Obama? A roundup.

Fasten your political seat belts. The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to President Barack Obama’s health care reform law — and commentators on cable and other news organizations this morning have predicted the final decision could come down by June 2012, right before the Nov. 12 elections: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to President Obama’s signature law on health care, it said Monday in an announcement that has nearly as much impact on partisan politics as the...

Governor Haley Barbour, R-Miss., truly one of the most politically astute Republicans on the scene, is stressing that despite some (not all) polls, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is not a true frontrunner in the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination race: Despite Mitt Romney’s consistently placing at or near the top in polls of the GOP presidential field, Governor Haley Barbour, R-Miss., says he’s “not a true frontrunner” – even if he is “the best known...

When CNN anchor Don Lemon released his autobiography “Transparent” several months ago the big news “peg” was that in the book he noted that in the book he announced that he was gay. This was the fact that seemed at the center of many new and old media stories about him and his book at the time. And then there was the racial component added to it: his experience of being gay and black which also generated stories. He was even on Joy Behar’s show as part of his transparency...

If you thought that only Herman Cain and Rick Perry have bad news, think again: President Barack Obama is now facing the prospect that some Democrats are refusing to back him. The Politico reports: Sen. Joe Lieberman was treated like an outcast back in 2008 when he broke from the Senate Democratic Caucus and openly opposed Barack Obama’s bid for the White House. Asked last week if he’d back Obama in 2012, the Connecticut independent said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I was back in...

Speculation is growing that the Supercommittee will fail. Heres today’s discussion from’ This Week: video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

As we often tell kids, for every decision and action there are consequences. And some consequences are emerging from the large number of Republican debates: Televised debates have had an outsize impact on this year’s Republican presidential race. But the demands of the debating schedule — Saturday’s event in South Carolina was the eleventh major clash — is taking its toll on the candidates, who find themselves constantly preparing for primetime. The frequency of the debates cuts back on the...

A coconut opening contest. Hawaii vs Trinidad (warning some adult language). TMV thanks Roger Gandelman for the tip.

Our political Quote of the Day comes from Mary Kate Cary, a former White House speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush. She writes on the U.S. News website that she has been defending Herman Cain amid sexual harassment allegations but will do so no longer. She sites new polls showing that Cain is starting to suffer a loss of support from women voters and says she suspects it’s even worse. She then writes: This whole thing is a shame, because so many of us liked Herman Cain’s ideas...

Separated at birth? Roseanne Roseannadanna and Michele Bachmann? Here’s one: The other:

Foreign policy and international affairs will ostensibly be the focus of tonight’s CBS News/National Journal Republican Presidential Debate in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In realilty much of the focus will be on whether former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney can both maintain his lead and begin to expand it out of its seeming ceiling, whether Texas Governor Rick Perry can recover from what most observers say is one of the worst flubs in televised debate history (after several poor debate performances)...

Well, now we have the answer. If you’ve been wondering who convinced Herman Cain to run for President, he says God did: “I prayed and prayed and prayed,” Cain told a group of young Republicans in Atlanta, according to National Journal. “I’m a man of faith, I had to do a lot of praying for this one, more praying than I’d ever done before in my life. And when I finally realized that it was God saying that this is what I needed to do, I was like Moses. ‘You’ve...

The Republican presidential hopefuls are having another debate again. If Texas Gov. Rick Perry has another “OOPS!” then this should become his campaign theme song:

Our political Quote of the Day comes from Time’s Joe Klein who looks at a recent CBS News poll that showed former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain still going strong, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney frozen at his usual polling take and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich rising: There are three messages being delivered in this poll. The first is about Mitt Romney, who has performed as well in these debates as I’ve ever seen a candidate perform–and who clearly is the Republicans’...

Various polls have shown beset former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain holding his own or in some cases seemingly strengthening his status as the emerging Anti-Romney, but these polls also have revealed some of his support — particularly from women — sagging in light of sexual allegations. But now a new McClatchy-Marist nationwide poll has Cain in third place with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich now in the place in the race that many have suggested he’d be: in second...

This old Candid Camera clip showing a stunt involving the power of conformity says more than original viewers may have thought. It explains some of what goes on in our schools, with peer pressure and some of the tiresome rhetoric and political attacks we see by partisans of both parties (and how quickly they fall in line with a new attack line):

A new CBS News Poll — which might be dubbed “consquences schmonsequences” – finds former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain at the top of the Republican nomination sweepstakes heap, with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich rising fast and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will hanging in there as a front-runner: In the Republican race for the presidential nomination, Newt Gingrich’s support continues to slowly grow, and he is now tied with Mitt Romney for second...

Hopes are being raised a bit in Europe and the United States: Greece has sworn in a new Prime Minister as Lucas Papademos replaces George Papandreou: Alexis Papachelas writes that perhaps it’ll be different this time: Clearly people’s rage won’t just die down overnight. Unemployment, high taxes and the incessant attack on the middle classes’ quality of life make this anger justifiable. Maybe, though, we will all take a step back from the edge of the abyss. Papademos Thursday exuded a...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has done some very impressive by-the-book damage control to try and undo the damage from his classic will-be-shown-for-generations brain freeze during the recent Republican Presidential candidates debate. He has explained, in effect apologized to his followers and deftly used humor. Last night he used humor by doing a perfectly delivered Top 10 List on David Letterman. In a scripted bit like this he knows how to use the camera perfectly. Will it undo the damage? Most likely...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from The Daily Beast’s John Avlon, who looks at the 2011 elections and concludes the results show the consequences of backlash and over-reach –and a strong rumbling of warning for both parties. I need to add that when the elections were held I was on a long drive in my national tour, which lasts until the end of May. My reaction in following election returns on XM Radio and hotel cable was that we are seeing yet another example of voters attempting...

Here it is. Back by popular demand (from two younger TMV readers): The famous Sy Si routine that Jack Benny did with Mel Blanc (who did the voices of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig,Tweety, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Speedy Gonzales, Sylvester, Barney Rubble, Dino the Dino and a host of others): Benny loved this routine and did it again: And again: Even in his final years, he loved doing it. Here he is on Johnny Carson, singing the praises of Mel Blanc — and doing his favorite routine. Benny and Blanc’s...

But what else do you expect?

Our political Quote of the Day comes from Mark McKinnon’ writing in The Daily Beast about Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s forgetting his own talking points at last nights GOP Presidential debate: Rick Perry is now the official Charlie Brown of presidential candidates. He reminds me of the kid who got held back in high school. Even though he’s been there longer than the rest of the class (or governor for 10 years), he still doesn’t know the answers. It’s one thing to not be able to tick...

Here is live blogging of tonight’s economy-driven CNBC Republican Presidential Debate at Oakland University in suburban Detroit. Although news attention remains on Herman Cain and the sexual harassment allegations against him (which sparked new partisan-motivated lows such as talk show host Rush Limbaugh going after an accuser’s 13 year old son) the bigger questions are a) will former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney come out of this more scarred or doing what he has not been able to do so...

We will be offering live blogging of tonight’s debate — live blogging from the viewpoint of an independent voter. TECHNICAL NOTE: The Internet at my hotel near Atlanta is a bit of a problem so the live blogging could be slower than unusual. Here is the final LIVE BLOGGING POST.