After months of trying to ameliorate a disease ravaging the GOP, Jon Huntsman Jr. has moved into fighting cancers that afflict human beings rather than the body politic by taking over as chairman of a foundation that funds his family’s Institute, a research, education and treatment center with a full-time faculty and staff of 1300. In his political hiatus, Huntsman worked hard but failed to offer Republicans...

Each new poll that coming out of Florida has worse news for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. I guess this one suggests voters didn’t suddenly run to him following Sarah Palin’s defense of him: Mitt Romney may be on his way to a decisive victory in the Florida GOP primary Tuesday, according to a new NBC/Marist poll. Romney leads Newt Gingrich by 15 points, 42 percent to 27 percent in the crucial...

Nate Silver looks at a variety of polls and gives us the bottom line: unless there is some huge shift, a consensus of polls indicates former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will beat former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Florida’s presidential primary on Tuesday: You can find pretty much every species of poll in Florida right now. There are traditional polls and automated polls, Internet polls and partisan...

It’s not as though Obama is a particularly adept debater. But the subject comes up constantly on the Republican side, or so Maureen Dowd believes. They seem to have forgotten that, while Obama has had dazzling moments of strength in executing Osama and in swashbuckling derring-do against Somali pirates — if not in dealing with Congress — he was no Abe Lincoln in debates. He did not like debating,...

Four years ago, Obama campaigned with hope and change. He ran against George W. Bush’s track record, even though Bush was not running again. Today, Republicans campaign with fear and "against Europe", although Europe won’t be on the ballot box in November. For Obama, Bush was "the other" against which he defined himself. For Republicans that "other" is Europe. (See...

The Washington-Wall Street Revolving Door Just Keeps Spinning Along by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship We’ve already made our choice for the best headline of the year, so far: “Citigroup Replaces JPMorgan as White House Chief of Staff.” When we saw it on the website Gawker.com we had to smile — but the smile didn’t last long. There’s simply too much truth in that headline;...

Why is Mexico’s ‘war on drugs’ proving to be the longest and most deadly battle in the nation’s history? Columnist Luis Javier Garrido of Mexico’s La Jornada outlines in great detail how the companies and government agencies which are supposed to battle narco-trafficking are proving so profitable, neither governments nor the companies they pay wish it to end. For La Jornada,...

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com A new Reuters/Ipsos online poll mirrors what most polls are finding: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney seems to have Big Mo in Florida while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s poll numbers are going anywhere but in the direction of the moon: White House hopeful Mitt Romney widened his lead over rival Newt Gingrich to 11 percentage points in Florida, according to Reuters/Ipsos...

Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is continuing in his evolution as a conservative candidate most appealing to those who idolize conservative talk shows and as a candidate who most reflects those in the GOP who seemingly seek a smaller tentby making it clear those who don’t fit a rigid ideological profile need not attempt entry. His two latest endorsements are sure to be (additional) baggage for him...

GOP Faces the Odds by Peter Funt It’s a two-man race now, Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney. Here’s the betting line on key categories that seem to matter most in debates and on the stump. In the category of Falsely Characterizing Obama, Romney uses “European Socialist,” which is powerful and connects well with xenophobic voters. Gingrich relies on “Saul Alinsky Radical.” Alinsky,...

What’s the definition of a “sour loser?” THIS.

Ghosts of GOP past are rising from political tombs to sound alarms about Newt in the White House even as the last Florida debate has him on the defensive about the past and future. Gingrich fails in his attempt to use Wolf Blitzer as the kind of tackle dummy he made out of CNN colleague John King in South Carolina, while 1996 candidate Bob Dole is joined by Tom Delay, Ann Coulter, Elliott Abrams and other Conservatives...

Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Inspired by my Twitter find yesterday, I decided to poke around Google+ and Twitter for insights into tonight’s GOP debate. Instead, I found myself tracking claims about Newt Gingrich. Here we go, factoids to show and tell: 1993: “‘The vast lion’s share of balancing the budget was done with the budget in 1993 that [Gingrich] led the opposition to,’ Clinton said Tuesday on NBC.”...

Like much of the rest of the world, German commentators have been captivated by the death-match between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. And opinions seem almost unanimous. Echoing the views of just about everyone we’ve seen, columnist Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger of Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes that whether Gingrich wins the nomination or not, he cannot be good for the party or...

How bad is the damage Republicans are doing to one another in the Republican primaries? This editorial from Germany’s Der Tagesspiegel outlines why, at least from outside the United States, it looks like reelecting Obama may turn out to be a cake walk. The Der Tagesspiegel editorial starts out this way: Mitt Romney, the favorite, is tottering. But who can replace him as President Obama’s opponent?...

This is live blogging of the CNN Florida Republican Presidential debate. Note that due to logistical reasons I have started late. So I will include links and live blogging from around the Internet and news organizations. MY entries entries will be on top PST. When this debate is completed an EXTENSIVE roundup: Will be placed on top of the live blogging. Commentary live blogging: The debate ends. Winners: Santorum...

David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Top conservatives and members of the GOP establishment are now in a full throttle (figuratively and literally) assault against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s attempt to win the 2012 Republican nomination by painting himself as a great party man and conservative. And one of the biggest Republican establishment guns from days past has entered the fray: former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who headed...

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey is detecting a shift on the eve of what is expected to be a fireworks-packed Presidential debate in Florida: Rasmussen finds former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney now back on top in Florida: Mitt Romney has jumped back ahead in the fevered Florida Republican Primary race with his support back to where it was before Newt Gingrich’s big win Saturday in South Carolina. The...

SMUG CAPTION ABOUT WHITE REPUBLICANS GOES HERE With five days to go before the Florida presidential primary, public-opinion polls in the Sunshine State are sending a mixed message. But one thing is for sure, a primary that once appeared to be a cakewalk for Mitt Romney may well turn out to be pivotal for the hapless candidate. An averaging of the polls on Wednesday revealed a 4 percentage point lead for Gingrich....

On the night of his triumph in the South Carolina primary, Newt Gingrich declared that “The centerpiece of this campaign, I believe, is American exceptionalism versus the radicalism of Saul Alinsky.” That reference and subsequent references to Alinsky surely puzzled viewers of a certain age and probably many viewers of all ages. This is because Alinsky, a legendary community organizer, died in...

It turns that now it has been proven and Newt Gingrich has admitted he was wrong about the witnesses he had to rebut his ex-wife’s allegations and ABC’s response to his purported offer to bring them foward. A slight inaccuracy — but, hey, it allowed him to puff up his big melodramatic moment against the press and hit that good, old hot button that helped him with the South Carolina primary....