Tomorrow’s the big day. If you’re not totally psyched up, this music may help: 96 If that doesn’t quite work, how about this number from a mid-1960s original TV musical from a 1960s TV musical about Red Riding Hood: Or how about this?

He didn’t quite make a formal endorsement but it’s the closest thing to it. For months I’ve predicted that the Bush family would be backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. One sign: Republican political maven Karl Rove has clearly been critical of candidates giving Romney serious competition. But now The Act (endorsement) is (at least) partly done: Former President George H.W. Bush says his favorite is Mitt Romney – and he is not one of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s...

One of the most fascinating spectacles of 2011 has been watching Republicans’ love affair with Donald Trump, which blossomed as grandly as the flowers in Spring when he suddenly became the nation’s most famous birther. Suddenly, some conservative talkers who had dissed The Donald seemingly worshiped him. Suddenly, he had another network home besides NBC: Fox News, which loves anyone who does the opposite of love Barack Obama and was instrumental in spread anti-birther charges until the...

This seems fitting for Christmas: via foodservicewarehouse.com a GREAT Infographic “Visualizing The World’s Calorie Consumption”: Source: Food Service Warehouse

TPM’s Brian Beutler gives us details on how a politically trapped House Speaker John Boehner told House Republicans that he felt it was time that the payroll tax extension battle of December 11 was over: In a conference call with House Republicans early Thursday evening, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) took no questions after making it clear to his members that the game was up and they would have to swallow the Democratic payroll tax extension. Boehner laid out the agreement he forged to temporarily...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from The Christian Science Monitor which gives this take on how the payroll tax exemption battle: In the end, carrying on the fight was a losing proposition for a party that took back the House in 2011 on a pledge never to raise taxes. And – in a new development – Democrats learned to say, “No.” The deal marks a capitulation by the speaker, who appeared at the podium alone to announce the agreement, worked out with Senate majority leader Harry...

Over the past few days many pundits have noted the deafening silence of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was instrumental in coming up with the bipartisan payroll tax extension passed overwhelmingly by the Senate — and rejected by the Tea Party-influenced Republican House. Today Speaker of the House John Boehner held a press conference where he essentially said they House is standing its ground. Shortly after McConnell broke his silence. But the question is whether Boehner will pay...

Here’s a video animation take from Taiwan’s Next Media Animation on the House GOP refusing to pass the payroll tax extension:

CNN’s Gloria Borger asked Rep. Ron Paul some tough questions about some old newsletters that had some extremist and racist assertions — newsletters that were under his name but he says he did not write. Paul cut the interview short (not quite walking out since he said good bye and had his body mike taken off him. She was pressing him as to whether he read the disavowed newsletters under his name: On the other hand, some like Mediaite columnist Alex Alvarez wonder what’s going on...

Last night while listening to some news channels and talk shows on XM Radio, there were some analysts who said Tea Party members in Congress were almost giddy over stopping the payroll tax plan bipartisan Senate compromise. They feel it’ll also be good for them politically. But that isn’t the view of most independent Republican analysts, even those who are now trying to go on attack against the Democrats and spin this Christmas gift to rising-in-the-polls Barack Obama. But the question...

The Daily Beast’s Andrew Sullivan has long been a must-read as not just a blogger but in particular for any of his long-form magazine or newspaper pieces. One reason he’s a must read is that he marches to his own independent drummer and doesn’t always follow the journalistic or Republican Party pack. And now he’s doing it again on two fronts. He has written a post formally endorsing Rep. Ron Paul for the 2012 Republican nomination and President: perhaps becoming the first...

A warning from a professor in Germany. Think twice about giving a “boobs job voucher” as a gift this Christmas season: People planning to give their loved one a nip and tuck at Christmas could be risking more than upsetting their partners – cheap seasonal offers with time limits are not to be recommended, a top surgeon has warned. Professor Peter Vogt, president of the German Society of Plastic Surgeons, said such offers, frequently available online, did not give potential patients...

Tomorrow reliably-polarizing talk show hosts can be expected to applaud and cheerlead the Republican House for rejecting the bipartisan Senate plan as a great courageous development and brilliant political move, but there are many in the Republican establishment who are wondering how their party can get out of this political mess. Add to that the Wall Street Journal, which says in part: GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make...

You can nowhere see a better example of how far American politics has fallen then in this news story. And who is at the news center of this story that shows a kind of politics that would have been unthinkable years ago due to is blatantly exclusionary nature? Why, of course, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a person who members of both parties often point to as someone who poisoned the atmosphere in Congress with toxic rhetoric and helped create the attitude that other people from another party...

“DEAR COLUMNIST: I am 8 years old. “Some of my little friends say there is no political center in America. “Papa says ‘If you see it in THAT CAGLE COLUMN it’s so.’ “Please tell me the truth: is there a political center in America?” “P.S. My friends say there are no elves. Is that true? “P.S.S. And Last year AFTER Santa left the Christmas gifts some grey-haired fat man in a Santa suit slid down our chimney, took our food stamps away and left....

It continues to be ugly out there — out there, as in Congress. The reason: partisan gridlock. The increasingly likely victims: those who received payroll-tax cuts and unemployment benefits. Middle income Americans. But — hey — it’s great grist f or the 24/7 partisan wars. Your tax dollars at non-work: The Republican-led House today rejected a Senate-passed bill that extends a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits for two months. The vote was 229-193. The tax cut and...

There’s a book available on Amazon.com Everything Obama Knows About The Economy (Blank Inside) [Paperback]. It has 200 blank pages. A big seller: temporarily out of stock.

Did you ever think “ugly inside and out” was just an expression. No it wasn’t. Read about — and look at — this guy..revolting on so many levels. If there was an argument for capital punishment, this is one of them.

After running so many posts today about Newt Gingrich going down in more polls than a class of phone company trainees, here is news about a poll he has WON: Newt Gingrich might have dropped to third in Iowa — and he and Romney might be neck-and-neck in the latest CNN poll, but, among thousands of Tea Party activists from across the country, Gingrich retains a clear lead. Tea Party Patriots — the nation’s largest Tea Party organization — last night hosted a Presidential Tele Forum with Mitt...

Please…

Here’s yet ANOTHER poll showing Newt Gingrich’s lead over Mitt Romney collapsing — this time via Gallup: After enjoying 14- to 15-percentage-point leads over Mitt Romney in early December, Newt Gingrich is now statistically tied with Romney in national Republican preferences for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination: 26% for Gingrich vs. 24% for Romney. This follows a steady decline in support for Gingrich in the past 10 days. No single candidate has benefited proportionately more...

Many pundits in the new and old media today are beginning to conclude (based on their readings of polls and in some cases reporting in the state) that Rep. Ron Paul could win the Iowa caucus. But what would that mean in specific terms? The Christian Science Monitor sees this as the impact: But what if Paul actually wins Iowa? Few experts believe he has much, if any, chance to win the ultimate nomination. His views – which include abolishing the Federal Reserve, drastically cutting military spending,...

If money is the mother’s milk of politics, so are political polls, which can influence a press narrative, impact the amount of funding received, and bring in volunteers. The developing narrative in the political and polling world over the past few days has been the deflation of new anti-Romney front runner Newt Gingrich: and a new CNN national poll will add to it. His polling lead is now evaporated milk: he in a tie with Romney and Ron Paul continues his ascent, coming in third in the poll: A...

Another great animation from Taiwan’s Next Media Animation — this time on the death of North Korea’s Kim Jong-il:

No, this lady has not yet sung but a new Public Policy Polling poll in Iowa suggest that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is now “imploding”: their poll shows him on the descent, with Rep. Ron Paul in the lead and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney coming in second: Newt Gingrich’s campaign is rapidly imploding, and Ron Paul has now taken the lead in Iowa. He’s at 23% to 20% for Mitt Romney, 14% for Gingrich, 10% each for Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry,...