Mitt Romney

D'oh! Debt Hawks Fear Most GOP Tax Plans Will Increase Deficit

Brian Beutler | February 23, 2012, 1:48PM

A key test for the political establishment and the media this campaign cycle will be whether they accurately explain the Presidential candidates' budget plans to voters, or whether they allow the candidates to spin their way out of the severe implications of their own proposals. The election will hinge to a large extent on the two parties' visions for the role of the federal government and how to pay for it, and keeping the taxing and spending implication of those visions clear is the key to helping voters make informed decisions at the polls.

An event hosted Thursday morning by the fiscal discipline hawks at the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget offered this corner of the establishment an early critique of the GOP candidates' tax and spending plans -- all of which drew mixed reviews or worse.

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Mitt Romney

Why Florida Was A Dangerous Test Case For Romney's General Election Prospects

Brian Beutler | February 2, 2012, 5:41AM

Mitt Romney

The fight for Florida's fifty delegates was more than just a key test for the four remaining Republican presidential hopefuls. It also took the GOP's three year experiment with far-right politics into a more appropriate laboratory -- a state where the voters didn't reflect the party's base as neatly as they did in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

And though Mitt Romney trampled his opponents and solidified his status as the nominee-in-waiting, Florida was also a wake-up call. To win so resoundingly, Romney had to inch away from conservative movement dogma for the first time since he began his candidacy.

It wasn't easy.

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Mitt Romney

Three Key Questions Raised By Romney's Tax Revelations

Brian Beutler | January 25, 2012, 5:44AM

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney's campaign has tried desperately to put a lid back on the can of worms that burst open weeks ago when the one-time GOP presidential front runner declined to release any of his tax returns.

But by actually releasing his 2010 return, and an estimation of his 2011 return, camp Romney has provided reporters with some, but not all, of the answers they're looking for as they try to paint a complete picture of the finances of one of the wealthiest candidates for President in U.S. history.

Romney's revelations confirm that his effective tax rates in the past couple years have been as low or lower than those of workers with truly modest means. They also confirm that he's availed himself of truly complex tax strategies designed to boil his liability down to the lowest level allowed by the country's heavily rigged, labyrinthine tax code. And we know, too, that these are things Romney didn't want voters to know -- at least not yet.

But they raise a series of new questions that will likely require Romney to disclose several years' worth of additional tax returns if he wants to answer them satisfactorily. Here are three big ones that touch generally on the theme of Romney's efforts to reduce his tax burden by taking advantage of areas of the law that simply aren't available to most people.

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Iraq

Clinton: U.S. 'Fulfilled Commitment' In Iraq

Igor Bobic | October 23, 2011, 9:49AM

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Speaking with Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended the timing of the Obama administration's effort to withdraw American troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Pointing to the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq reached by the previous administration, Clinton said, "Bush also committed to withdrawing all troops by end of this year, so you have a bipartisan commitment to remove combat troops" by the end of 2011.

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Michele Bachmann

Bachmann Introduces Bill To Require Ultrasounds For Women Seeking Abortions

Eric Kleefeld | October 7, 2011, 10:41AM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), whose presidential campaign has been beset by a collapse in the polls and possible staffing issues, is taking on a new political front; she's introducing a strongly anti-abortion bill in the House, which could potentially help her rev up pro-life voters.

Bachmann's proposed "Heartbeat Informed Consent Act," announced on Thursday, would require a woman seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound, in order to view and hear a fetal heartbeat.

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Global Warming

What Consensus? Poll Shows Misconceptions About Scientific Agreement On Climate Change

David Teich | September 15, 2011, 2:30PM

ribeiroantonio / Shutterstock

While Republican candidates for president champion far right causes to try to capture the tea party vote in the primary, each will have to worry about moving back to the center should they win the nomination. On issues like entitlement reform, this may cause trouble. But when it comes to global warming, they might not have to scramble back to the middle: They may already be there.

According to a poll by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, while most Americans agree global warming is taking place, many are still badly misinformed about the scientific consensus surrounding its causes. From the study, only 29% of Republicans and 10% of Tea Partiers think most scientists believe global warming is taking place. While Democrats (55%) and independents (46%) do better on the question, they're still way off.

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Rick Scott

Unpopular Gov. Rick Scott Wants To 'Make Sure Florida Is The Model For The Country' (VIDEO)

David Taintor | September 14, 2011, 12:08PM

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) on MSNBC's Morning 9/14/11

Highly unpopular Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) sat down with the folks of Morning Joe on Wednesday to discuss the Republican presidential candidates' chances in Florida as well as some of his state's own issues.

Asked how Mitt Romney and Rick Perry would do in Florida, Scott said he thinks either candidate could win in a general election. And Scott doesn't think Perry will be in much trouble for calling Social Security a "monstrous lie" and a "ponzi scheme."

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Mitt Romney

Romney Accuses 'Labor Stooges' At NLRB Of Political Payback

Susan Crabtree | September 12, 2011, 3:42PM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney joined the GOP's latest anti-union salvo -- reining in the National Labor Relations Board -- at an event in South Carolina Monday.

Romney, and his latest high-profile supporter Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, toured Boeing's new manufacturing plant in North Charleston. The NLRB is suing Boeing for moving an operation to South Carolina, a right-to-work state, from Washington state after unions protested there.

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2012

Gallup and ABC/WaPo: GOP Voters Like Perry, But Haven't Dumped Romney Yet

Kyle Leighton | September 6, 2011, 6:15PM

Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) and Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry might be the leader in the race for the GOP Presidential race at the moment, but the previous frontrunner isn't too shabby in the eyes of Republican primary voters either. New data from Gallup and an ABC/Washington Post survey both show that the candidates enjoy high favorability ratings among party faithful.

In the Gallup poll Perry is viewed favorably by 73 percent of GOP primary voters, while Romney sits at 71. Even though Perry has moved ahead of Romney in national polls, Romney still occasionally outpolls President Obama in match-ups, and has also been shown in some surveys to be the candidate that voters think could do better on the economy than the President. The advantage within the numbers for Perry is that for the moment, he's rated "strongly favorable" by fifteen points more than Romney, meaning his support is more intense.

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Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney Calls Obama Agenda 'A Payphone Strategy In A Smartphone World'

Benjy Sarlin | September 6, 2011, 3:44PM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney (MA)

Mitt Romney employed an elaborate telecommunications metaphor in his economic speech on Tuesday to criticize President Obama.

He began his speech by waving his own touchscreen phone in the air after waxing nostalgic about the days when you used to put a quarter in a payphone to make calls from the airport. Later, he returned to the theme in a major way.

"I mentioned a moment ago that we're now using smartphones, not payphones," he said. "President Obama's strategy is a payphone strategy and we're in a smartphone world. What he's doing is taking quarters and stuffing them into the payphone and he can't figure out why it isn't working anymore. It's not connected, Mr. President! Your payphone strategy does not work in a smartphone world."

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Rudy Giuliani

Giuliani Will Only Get In The 2012 Race If The GOP Field Looks "Really Desperate"

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 6, 2011, 2:31PM

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R)

Ex-America's Mayor Rudy Giuliani doesn't really have a home in the modern Republican presidential nomination system, he told a crowd in Washington today. And, he said, neither does anyone else not willing to hew to the farthest edge of social conservatism.

Giuliani stepped up to the podium at the National Press Club Tuesday to discuss the upcoming tenth anniversary of 9/11. But because he has actively kept talk of another run for President going for months now, he got some questions about it when his 9/11-focused lecture was over.

Once again, Giuliani said he was still considering a bid, but said that he's put off a decision until after the 10th anniversary of the attacks that propelled him from famous New York City mayor to international icon. However, Giuliani told the crowd, "I would have a hard time getting nominated," and said that he'd jump in only if the GOP field was looking "really desperate."

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Mitt Romney

Romney's Claim That Regulations Hurt The Economy To The Tune Of $1.75 Trillion Per Year Is Based On A Flawed Study

Benjy Sarlin | September 6, 2011, 2:01PM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney (R-MA)

According to Mitt Romney's USA Today op-ed this morning, "the federal government has estimated the price tag for its regulations at $1.75 trillion." It's an eye-popping number that's been making the rounds among conservative publications for awhile now, but it's based on a flawed study.

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2012

Voters Just Can't Quit Obama: Economic Numbers In The Tank, Americans Still Like The President

Kyle Leighton | September 6, 2011, 12:00PM

President Barack Obama

The first day back from summer break in Washington brought fresh evidence that the race for 2012 will be a competitive one, and the President is on shaky ground. Three new polls from NBC/Wall Street Journal, ABC/Washington Post and Politico/George Washington University all had one major message: President Obama's approval ratings are at their lowest levels, but people still like him. And the jury is still out on who can actually beat him.

NBC trumpeted the headline "President 'is no longer the favorite to win re-election,' Democratic pollster says," and then cited numbers that are similar to many seen in August. Obama's general approval rating in the NBC/WSJ poll is underwater at 44 percent against 51 percent disapproval. On the economy it's more bleak, at 37 approval versus 59 percent disapproval. ABC/WaPo showed similar numbers as did Politico/GWU.

We have also seen similar numbers over the last month, in the Gallup and Rasmussen tracking polls, in CNN surveys and in Quinnipiac. The question at this point is not if the President will see tough challenge, but given the economic numbers, how is it that he is still ahead of his potential GOP rivals?

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Mitt Romney

Romney Previews Big Economy Speech In USA Today Op-ed

Benjy Sarlin | September 6, 2011, 10:09AM

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney is set to deliver a detailed address on how he plans to turn around the economy this afternoon, but he offered up a preview in USA Today this morning.

"Tomorrow, I will introduce a plan consisting of 59 specific proposals -- including 10 concrete actions I will take on my first day in office -- to turn around America's economy," Romney wrote. "Each proposal is rooted in the conservative premise that government itself cannot create jobs. At best, government can provide a framework in which economic growth can occur. All too often, however, government gets in the way. The past three years of unparalleled government expansion have retaught that lesson all too well."

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Rick Perry

What Kind Of Debater Is Rick Perry? A Good And Cautious One

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 6, 2011, 9:30AM

Rick Perry speaks at a campaign stop in Florence, SC, August 19, 2011.

Politico's Molly Ball takes a deep dive into Texas Gov. Rick Perry's past debate performances as his first appearance in a presidential debate approaches Wednesday night.

What did she find? A man who has kept off the debate stage as much as he could during his unprecedented three terms as governor of Texas (he's debated just four times since he got the job), but "rarely makes a mistake" when he takes the stage "and almost always manages to win by not losing."

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Rick Perry

Ron Paul Calls Rick Perry 'Al Gore's Texas Cheerleader' In TV Ad

Benjy Sarlin | September 6, 2011, 9:00AM

New Ron Paul TV Ad, "The One"

Not all Texans are enamored with Rick Perry, as Ron Paul's new TV ad demonstrates. The new TV spot goes after Perry hard over his late conversion to the Republican Party in 1989, selling Paul as the true heir to Ronald Reagan...who also used to be a Democrat.

Here's the spot, which Politico reports will go on the air with a six-figure buy.

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Polls

Speech Week: Obama, Romney Battle For The High Ground On Jobs

Kyle Leighton | September 6, 2011, 6:15AM

President Barack Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA)

Congress is back from recess this week, and as TPM has pointed out, the 2012 election starts Thursday. The President will be delivering his highly anticipated jobs speech then, after former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney lays out his plan on Tuesday. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, ahead in the polls for the GOP presidential nomination, has been talking about his record as a job creator at home, but hasn't been particularly specific about what he would do as president.

As voters tune back in again as fall approaches, there will be effectively one question on their minds: who can revive the economy? It remains the most important issue, and unless something drastically changes, it will be the issue that the 2012 election hinges on. So when it comes to the economy, who's on the best ground in prelude to this weeks' big events?

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Rick Perry

Meet The Money Behind Rick Perry

Benjy Sarlin | September 6, 2011, 6:10AM

Texas Governor and Presidential Candidate Rick Perry (R)

Texans don't like the government interfering with their business, especially campaign donations, where state laws allow contributors to fork over unlimited cash. No one has benefited more from this arrangement than Rick Perry, who has raised $100 million over the last decade, nearly half of which came from just 204 ultra-wealthy donors.

You're going to be hearing a lot about those donors over the next few weeks, for a couple of reasons. One is that Perry has a reputation for being especially friendly with his most loyal backers: separate analyses by the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times concluded that large percentages of his top donors received some benefit from the state during his tenure as governor. Perry's camp told both papers, as they've told the Texas press for years, that they were doled out on the merits.

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Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney Swears He's Jim DeMint's Kind Of Guy

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 5, 2011, 7:26PM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney (MA)

It was quite a performance. But was it enough?

Mitt Romney ended his tour through Tea Party country on Monday with a late-scheduled slot at Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-SC) Palmetto Freedom Forum. DeMint backed Romney's run for the White House in 2008, but has not extended him much love this time around.

As he did at a New Hampshire tea party rally over the weekend, Romney laid out his case that the haters on the right are wrong and, truly, the former governor of Massachusetts is just the man the angry wing of the GOP is looking for.

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Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin To Tea Party: You're Winning. Don't Blow It Now

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 5, 2011, 1:44PM

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin addressed a Tea Party Express rally in Manchester, New Hampshire on Monday, a day after Mitt Romney addressed his first-ever tea party event in the same state.

For Romney, it was a political gamble. As a rule, tea partiers don't like him much -- and some even conspired to embarrass him publicly as he took the tea party mic.

Speaking Monday, Palin seemed to send those tea partiers a message. Romney's new kowtowing shows you are winning in a big way, she told the crowd. Now don't blow it.

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Jim DeMint

Candidates Head To SC To Sit At Jim DeMint's Right Hand

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 5, 2011, 10:38AM

Jim DeMint

Updated: September 5, 2011, 3:48PM

If you're a Republican running for president, there are few endorsements you want more than that of tea party hero Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). And today, contenders for next year's nomination are in South Carolina to kiss DeMint's ring.

DeMint is hosting a candidate forum on Monday afternoon bringing Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Herman Cain to the Palmetto State. The event is a big one for the 2012 candidates, as DeMint holds sway nationally over one of the most activist branches of the GOP (he's among the tea party's favorite politicians) as well as with Republicans back home (South Carolina votes early in the primary season, and loves to say it "picks Presidents.")

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Sarah Palin

Comedian Speaking Before Palin In Iowa Calls Liberals 'Special Needs Children'

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 3, 2011, 4:23PM

Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) in Madison, Wisconsin, April 16, 2011.

Well, this has the potential to become awkward.

Sarah Palin made her much-anticipated Iowa speech in Indianola Saturday, and the news is there's not much news. Palin didn't announce her candidacy for president during her address, though she told a reporter afterwards is she is still considering jumping in.

But what another speaker at the event said before Palin spoke is making headlines, and threatening to add another layer of embarrassment to the strange, petty drama that surrounded the event -- and Palin -- last week.

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2012 elections

Supposed Obama 'Defector' Bundled For John McCain In 2008

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 2, 2011, 3:32PM

Kenneth Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, with his wife Anne Dias Griffin.

They may be popping champagne corks over at the headquarters of the Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads Republican money machine after the Huffington Post reported the group snagged Obama 2008 bundler Ken Griffin, according to the latest FEC report.

But a simple Google search uncovers that all that glitters is not political gold when it comes to Griffin, a hedge fund founder from Chicago and a rich donor who raised big cash for President Obama and his rival John McCain in the last presidential election.

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2012

71% Of Republicans Don't Want Sarah Palin To Run

Benjy Sarlin | September 2, 2011, 3:19PM

Sarah Palin

It seems Sarah Palin has worn out her welcome with Republicans. An astounding 71% of GOP voters say they don't want Palin to run for president, according to a new poll by FOX News, with 25% supporting a bid and 4% unsure.

The numbers are brutal for Palin, who was long regarded as a potential frontrunner for the 2012 nomination. Even among Tea Party-identifying Republicans she fares poorly: 68% say she shouldn't run versus only 28% who say she should. The numbers aren't that far off from the general electorate, 74% of whom don't want her to run versus 20% who do. Outside of Tea Partiers, more than 70% of every demographic broken out in the poll's crosstabs -- men, women, white voters, non-white voters, voters with college degrees, voters without college degrees -- are against a Palin run.

As TPM noted this week, there hasn't exactly been a clamor going up among Republicans for a Sarah Palin run while she's tested the waters in recent weeks. Maybe the disastrous box office returns for a movie celebrating her Alaska governorship were an early warning sign.

h/t Gawker

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney Tries To Make August Job Numbers Rick Perry's Problem

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 2, 2011, 9:12AM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney (R-MA)

It's clear to Mitt Romney what Americans should do about the terrible August job numbers released Friday.

"In order to change the direction of this country, we need to change presidents," Romney said in a statement Friday. President Obama "has failed," he said, and it's time for the country to move on from hope and change.

But it's also clear to Romney what Republican primary voters should do in the wake of the ugly jobs report: go against what appears to be their nature and pick someone other than Rick Perry to be their presidential nominee next year.

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2012

So Much For Huntsman 2.0: The 'Crazy' Candidate Swings Right

Benjy Sarlin | September 2, 2011, 6:25AM

Jon Huntsman

Billing himself as the candidate of the "real world" and highlighting his breaks from party orthodoxy, Jon Huntsman has tried to brand himself as a pragmatic truth-teller in a GOP that has swung too far towards the hardline right.

But his rhetoric and policy hasn't always matched up with the broader message in recent days. The tension is most evident in his grand jobs plan, the centerpiece of which is a proposal to slash taxes for the wealthy while eliminating a plethora of popular breaks for homeowners and middle class Americans. Huntsman sells the move on its purity -- tax expenditures for corporations and average Americans alike would be dropped to lower rates -- but realistically, the plan has virtually no chance of passing Congressional muster. The Bowles-Simpson deficit commission, hardly a darling of the left, acknowledged as much in their report last year, suggesting lawmakers keep some of the most popular breaks -- like the mortgage interest deductions, exemptions for employer-provided health care, and the earned income tax credit -- in order to generate sufficient support for tax reform along the lines Huntsman proposes.

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Barack Obama

Obama Approval Among Women Drops, But It's Men He Has To Watch Out For

Kyle Leighton | September 2, 2011, 6:25AM

President Barack Obama (D)

Some recent headlines have suggested that President Obama is losing support with women, who have consistently given him higher marks than men right since his 2008 election. "Women no longer are a bright spot for Obama," the AP commented in a write up of its own poll, which showed that the President was below 50 percent approval with both women and men. But these numbers, from what is the lowest point in the President's term ratings-wise, are neither different from other surveys, nor are they the whole story.

Women voters have provided the buffer for Obama's overall approval rating, which has been stubbornly high even though the President faced a number of challenges over the last two and a half years, economic and otherwise. A look back at some major polls show that men as a group have shifted greatly from Obama, from the highs of his early Presidency to below 40 percent. But despite some headlines, women voters have generally stuck with the President and they don't seem ready to fire him yet.

On the face of it you wouldn't get that impression from one of the main polling stories of this past week: the fact that female support in the Gallup tracking poll of Obama's approval hit a weekly low of 41 percent. But here's why that's not giving a complete picture.

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2012

FOX Poll: Bachmann Getting Hammered By Perry's Surge In Polls

Kyle Leighton | September 1, 2011, 6:49PM

FOX News came out with a new poll Thursday evening that confirmed the numbers from other polls showing Texas Gov. Rick Perry shooting to the top of the GOP field in the race for the party's presidential nomination. Unfortunately for Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), it seems that much of Perry's success is coming at her loss.

Perry leads with 26 percent of GOP voters, followed by now chief rival Mitt Romney at 18 percent. Bachmann, who had been reaching second place in national polls before the entrance of Perry in the race, was relegated to being the first choice of only 4 percent of Republicans.

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2012

Perry Slams 'Blatantly False' Attack Ad From Pro-Bachmann PAC

Benjy Sarlin | September 1, 2011, 4:32PM

A Super PAC supporting Michele Bachmann's campaign, Keep Conservatives United, threw one of the first on-air punches of the 2012 GOP primary this week, lighting into Rick Perry as a big spending governor who is not a "Tea Party guy." Now the Perry camp is pushing back hard, condemning the South Carolina TV ad and releasing a detailed fact check disputing its claims.

"Gov. Perry is a proven fiscal conservative, having cut taxes, signed six balanced budgets, and led Texas to become America's top job-creating state," Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan told reporters. "Congresswoman Bachmann's front-group ad is patently and provably false. Unlike Washington, the Texas budget is balanced, does not run deficits and limits spending, even as Texas added jobs and population in big numbers."

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2012

Jon Huntsman Fires New Hampshire Campaign Manager

Benjy Sarlin | September 1, 2011, 1:41PM

Jon Huntsman

Jon Huntsman is shaking up his staff in New Hampshire, dropping his campaign manager for the state, Ethan Elion, and replacing him with a former aide to Tim Pawlenty.

"Sarah Crawford Stewart, a seasoned New Hampshire strategist, will be taking over many of the day-to-day responsibilities in her role as New Hampshire senior adviser," a spokesman told the New Hampshire Union Leader. The campaign is very pleased with the leadership team we have in place in New Hampshire."

Stewart was Pawlenty's state director and also worked on John McCain's successful 2000 and 2008 primary campaigns.

It's a bit of a stretch to call any state a "must-win" for Huntsman given that he's barely registering in national polling at the moment, sharing the bottom-tier with candidates like Thad McCotter and Gary Johnson. But as a far as Huntsman has a path to the nomination, it runs through New Hampshire, where he's hoping he can appeal to independent and moderate voters to jumpstart his campaign.

2012

Poll: GOP Insiders Overwhelmingly Favor Romney

Benjy Sarlin | September 1, 2011, 1:09PM

GOP Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney (R-MA)

Republican "insiders" are wary of Rick Perry's ability to win, according to a survey by National Journal, picking Mitt Romney by a wide margin as the more electable candidate.

The poll, which regularly checks in with a pool of Republican and Democratic strategists, finds both parties in agreement that Romney is the superior candidate. Republicans think the GOP would be better off nominating him by a 69% to 31% margin. That number is even higher among Democratic insiders, 83% of whom see Romney as the better bet versus 17% for Perry.

Unnamed insiders from both parties cited questions about Perry's ability to win over independents given his resume as a hardline conservative, red-state governor. "Perry can fire up the base, but this election will be won in the middle, not on the fringes," one Republican said.

Given his recent appeals to the Tea Party, winning a poll of veteran Republican politicos may not be the most exciting achievement for Romney. And given that Perry is amassing a solid lead in national polls and surging in a number of early primary and caucus states, it may not be the most representative slice of GOP opinion either. A recent PPP poll of South Carolina, for example, showed Perry cleaning up not only with the conservative, Tea Party wing of the GOP, but with more moderate Republicans that should in theory be Romney's base.

Google

Google, Fox News Team Up For Republican Presidential Debate

David Taintor | September 1, 2011, 1:03PM

Google and Fox News announced on Thursday that they're teaming up to present a Republican presidential debate on Sept. 22.

While the debate itself was already scheduled, Google's partnership adds an interactive element. A YouTube channel launched Thursday offers viewers an opportunity to submit questions to the candidates.

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Rick Perry

Rick Perry's "Star Wars" Problem Haunts Him As He Heads For The Reagan Library

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 1, 2011, 9:08AM

Next week -- as everyone in the universe now knows -- Rick Perry will appear in a televised debate at the Reagan Library in California. The debate will be Perry's first as a presidential candidate, and it takes place on what is virtually hallowed ground for Republicans.

But Perry will walk in facing questions about one of Reagan's favorite projects: the Strategic Defense Initiative, nicknamed "Star Wars." On the trail recently, Perry's been trying to deflect his past as a Democrat and supporter of Al Gore's first presidential bid. One method of doing that has been playing down Gore's 1988 position on "Star Wars" or SDI.

But as ABC News' Michael Falcone points out, Perry's SDI talk is somewhat short of the mark.

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Sarah Palin

Christine O'Donnell Takes To Twitter After Tea Party Rejection

Benjy Sarlin | September 1, 2011, 8:33AM

Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell

The epic drama between Sarah Palin, Christine O'Donnell, and the Tea Party of America over who would appear at an event in Iowa this weekend appears to have reached its conclusion: Palin is in. O'Donnell is out.

But that's about all they agree on. According to CNN, Palin's camp was upset after O'Donnell's staff told the Tea Party group that they had the ex-governor's support in joining the event, even claiming that the two had been exchanging text messages. The group's president, Ken Crow, finally dropped O'Donnell (after briefly re-inviting her) once Palin put her appearance "on hold."

O'Donnell, who is promoting her book "Troublemaker," took to Twitter to defend her behavior and suggested reporters were inventing Palin sources as part of a conspiracy to hurt the Tea Party.

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Rick Perry

Rick Perry Defends Early Praise For Clinton Health Care Plan

Benjy Sarlin | September 1, 2011, 6:15AM

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)

Rick Perry says a letter he wrote in 1993 praising Hillary Clinton's health care reform efforts is misunderstood and should not be taken as an endorsement of the law.

The correspondence, recently dug up by The Daily Caller, dates back to when Perry was serving as Agriculture Commissioner in Texas. In it, he asked that rural communities be taken into consideration as a task force led by First Lady Hillary Clinton prepared their recommendations. But he also had some kind words for Clinton personally, writing "I think your efforts in trying to reform the nation's health care system are most commendable."

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Michele Bachmann

Michele Bachmann: Obama's Trying To Keep America's Eyes Off Us With Jobs Speech

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 31, 2011, 5:03PM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Michele Bachmann says President Obama scheduled his job speech on the same night as one of three nationally televised Republican presidential debates in the month of September because he wants to prevent Americans from seeing the group of Republicans who may face him next fall.

Earlier Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) called on Obama to move the speech, citing the time needed "for a security sweep of the House Chamber before receiving a President."

Bachmann supports Boehner's move, and said "clearly the administration has a great deal of insecurity about their job plan and the lack of it."

Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Bachmann argued, "Boehner is saying... rather than the president hiding his speech, and trying to divert the American people away from hearing from the presidential candidates on their assessment of his job that he failed to do for the economy."

She continued, "John Boehner is rightly saying, let's have the American people watch you."

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Jon Huntsman

Huntsman Debuts Jobs Plan: Tax Breaks For The Rich

Benjy Sarlin | August 31, 2011, 4:48PM

Jon Huntsman

Jon Huntsman is looking to reboot his flagging campaign with a new jobs plan, offering up a list of ideas to spur growth in a speech on Wednesday. But despite his recent breaks with party orthodoxy on issues like climate change, he stuck to the usual conservative line on revenue, putting tax breaks for the rich and corporations at the center of his proposal.

"I'm not running for president to promise solutions, I'm running to deliver solutions," he said, according to prepared remarks. "Some of my entitlement reforms come directly from the Paul Ryan Plan. Other solutions come from the Simpson-Bowles Commission - a bipartisan group that last year put forth some very sensible tax reforms."

Under Huntsman's proposal, the tax code would be simplified into three brackets of 8%, 14%, and 23%. In addition, the corporate tax rate would be lowered to 25%, and taxes on capital gains and dividends would be eliminated entirely.

Overall, however, the whole shift would be revenue neutral. How?

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2012

Boehner Asks Obama To Reschedule Jobs Speech

Thomas Lane | August 31, 2011, 4:20PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)

Just hours after President Obama scheduled his big jobs speech at the same time as the first GOP presidential debate featuring Texas Gov. Rick Perry, House Speaker John Boehner is asking that the President delay the speech by a day.

The format the White House requested for the address on September 7 was a big all-whistles-and-bells joint session of Congress. Boehner fired back in a very polite but pointed letter that made no mention of the GOP debate, but asked Obama to delay it until September 8, citing a different source of concern, namely that Congress won't have time to formally approve the joint resolution of both houses extending the invite for Obama to make the address.

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2012 elections

GOP Debate Sponsors Express Delight That Obama Is Upstaging Them

Thomas Lane | August 31, 2011, 3:31PM

President Obama delivers his first State of the Union address.

What do you do if you're sponsoring a televised GOP 2012 debate and the President of the United States schedules a major address to Congress that clashes with it?

Do you:
(a) Freak out and react angrily.
(b) Grin and bear it.

So far the hosts of the Sept. 7 GOP debate, Politico and NBC News, are taking the latter route. Politico's John Harris called it "a terrific turn of events," and tweeted: "It raises the profile of the whole evening ... makes it the first general election debate."

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Barack Obama

White House: Debate Organizers Can Always Reschedule Away From Our Jobs Speech

Evan McMorris-Santoro | August 31, 2011, 1:22PM

If organizers of next week's Republican presidential debate are upset that the White House is calling for a nationally-televised presidential speech before a joint session of Congress at the same time their event is scheduled to begin at the Reagan Library in California, the White House is not offering much in the way of apology.

"There were a lot of considerations," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters today. "And, obviously, one debate of many that's on one channel of many was not enough reason not to have the speech at the time that we decided to have it."

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