1.) Our long national nightmare might not be over — In the latest you’ve got to be kidding me news, TheDC’s Matt Lewis reports that Rick Perry may not be through running for president.
“Don’t look now, but Texas Governor Rick Perry might just run for president again some day. At least, that’s what some of his top advisers are hinting. During a series of interviews with The Daily Caller, former Perry aides — some on the record and some off the record — agreed the Texas governor might run for president in the future. And, to a man, they all blamed the campaign’s struggles primarily on a lack of time.”
Let’s put it this way: We should want Rick Perry to run for president again in the same way we should want former Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino to helm our next cruise. As for Perry’s campaign problems being due to lack of time, let’s just say there may have been other issues that revealed themselves over the course of his campaign.
2.) Machine Gun Romney — Mitt Romney entered Thursday night’s debate as a man on a mission. He went after Newt Gingrich repeatedly, even sometimes ridiculing the former speaker’s eccentric ideas. You’re probably thinking: How could you possibly ridicule any of Newt Gingrich’s eccentric ideas? TheDC’s Alex Pappas reports:
“Romney spent much of the second Florida GOP primary debate trying to regain momentum by playing offense against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the one person who threatens his inevitability as his party’s nominee … [H]e made fun of Gingrich’s desire for an American colony on the moon. ‘I spent 25 years in business. If I had a business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I’d say, ‘You’re fired,’ he quipped.”
Believe it or not, Gingrich actually had a pretty good response defending what on its face seems like a particularly ludicrous idea.
3.) Pat Sajak for President? — You’re not the only one who has to drink to get through an episode of “Wheel of Fortune” — so did host Pat Sajak, at least during the early years of the gameshow. TheDC’s Taylor Bigler reports:
“In an interview with Dan Le Batard on ESPN2, Sajak said that back in the early days of the game show, he and co-host Vanna White would take to margaritas during the show’s dinner break at Los Arcos in Burbank, Calif. ‘Vanna and I would … have two or three or six and then come and do the last shows and have trouble recognizing the alphabet,’ he said.”
Considering the poor crop of GOP contenders, this qualifies him to run for president. Run, Pat, run — and remember to throw a few back before your first debate.
4.) Reuters Ravages Rubio — In some ways, the Republican primary could be seen as the race to be Marco Rubio’s running mate — at least, most people think he is the leading candidate for the job no matter who wins the GOP nomination. The first term Florida senator is already a superstar with what appears to be a very bright future. So it comes as no surprise that some are trying to tear him down. But in a recent hit piece on him in Reuters, TheDC’s Matt Lewis documented at least 7 major errors, many of which were related to the fact that Rubio isn’t particularly wealthy — at least by U.S. Senate standards. Lewis notes how Republican politicians can’t win — they get attacked for being rich, they get attacked for being poor:
“Aside from the inaccuracies, it is interesting to note that Rubio’s debt is seen as a liability. Mitt Romney is frequently criticized by the media for being so wealthy that he’s out of touch with the common man. Meanwhile, Rubio — like most Americans — has faced financial difficulty — and yet that is also somehow a liability? Is there a magic amount of wealth that is just right? ”
5.) Poll of the Day — NBC News/Wall Street Journal Survey on hypothetical general election match-ups: Obama 49 — Romney 43; Obama 55 — Gingrich 37; Obama 53 — Santorum 38
6.) BIRTHDAYS! — Lil Jon of the 18th Century Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart turns 256; Idiot savant (sans the savant) Ed Schultz turns 58; most detested man in cable news Keith Olbermann turns 53; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart of the 21st Century Lil Jon turns 41.
VIDEO: Newt Gingrich should be careful when he uses “all three” and “wives” in a sentence