RIP Betty Ford.
President Obama says that a "balanced approach" is needed to get a debt deal and basically puts cuts to Medicare on the table.
Eric Cantor's take on jobs and the economy becomes wildly incoherent.
Under fire for a First Amendment-busting pledge to ban pornography being circulated among GOP presidential hopefuls, religious right group THE FAMiLY LEADER (yeah, that's the way they want it spelled) says people are misunderstanding what the pledge calls for. "We are not calling for a nationwide band [sic] on pornography," says TFL head Bob Vander Plaats. The pledge is meant "to imply opposition to women being forced into pornography or prostitution."
Really? You think you need to get Republican candidates to sign a pledge to be against literal sexual slavery? Just how awful and conscienceless do you believe GOP presidential hopefuls are?
Of course, Vander Plaats' bigger problem is that the pledge also states that African-American children were better off under the institution of slavery. So not all slavery is a bad thing, I guess. Both Bachmann and Santorum have signed it, demonstrating just how stupid both those candidates are.
Former CIA chief and current SecDef Leon Panetta says we're "within reach" of defeating al Qaeda.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is said to be personally calling GOP activists in Iowa. Beware all the speculation that Perry would change everything in the race. You know who the last big "gonna change everything" GOP late-starter was? That powerhouse named Fred Thompson.
Finally, Welfare state success story Paul Ryan loves him some insanely expensive wine.
