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He could have bet a beer. Or maybe a steak dinner. But during a heated dispute with Rick Perry during Saturday night's debate in Des Moines, Iowa, Mitt Romney extended his right hand and asked the Texas governor if he'd wager $10,000 to settle a dispute over his healthcare record. The rich bet instantly provided Romney's opponents with new ammunition for their charge that he's out of touch with middle-class America.

(ENGLISH TRANSLATION): US Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich, Republican, For The Regularization of Immigration Status for Millions" In the Al Momento Noticias by El Molino - 11/23/2011 8:36 AM Two things became clear after the conclusion of the eleventh televised debate of Republican candidates, that Newt Gingrich is emerging in the polls, Mitt Romney moving to, and that he understands the importance of the Latino vote in United States to reach the White House in 2012. Last night, risking the wrath of the Tea Party rightwing who have set the tone on immigration in the debates, Gingrich took a position which...

Washington, United States The Republican candidates differ on their ideologies in various foreign policy issues in the second Republican presidential debate. Newt Gingrich, who more recently has emerged to the top of the race for the Republican presidential nomination, said that during his government did not expel immigrants without legal permission but already have a life founded in the United States. The applicant added that the Republicans can not say that his party is in favor of the family when separating parents from their children who were born in the country and have citizenship. Gingrich, also supported the antiterrorism law...

Transcript; NEWT GINGRICH: Well, I think if you have a secure border, if you've established that English is the official language of government, if you have a requirement for learning history in order to be an American, and American history to be an American citizen, and if you have an effective guest worker program, which means it's probably been outsourced to American Express, Visa or MasterCard, because they know how to stop fraud, at that point, I think you've got to look at a new and much more creative solution for the people who are here. ----------------------------------------- Some people here...

The smear campaign against Cain continues By now the internet, radio, television, and wagging tongues everywhere are all abuzz over the latest campaign blunder by Herman Cain. But is it really the gaffe everyone says it is? Or was it a selective editing job a la Ed Shultz? Well, call me cynical, but I’ve seen enough media shenanigans to be suspicious of anything taken out of context and this definitely tripped my radar. In the clip that has gone viral (below), Cain does appear to be caught off-guard by a question on Libya, a topic he ought to have been...

You've heard about the 53 seconds that supposedly ended a presidential campaign. Watch the 53 seconds that should end a presidency.

Nancy Pelosi: Dumber than soap. Nancy claims that we lose 500 million American jobs each month we don't pass her $1 trillion pork barrel spending boondoogle.

During his press conference in Hawaii, President Obama referenced being "here in Asia." As Americans know, Hawaii is the 50th state, admitted to the Union on Aug. 21, 1959. Mr. Obama also lists Hawaii as his birthplace, which makes his reference even more curious. So, is Hawaii part of Asia?

I wonder how in the world any Republican candidate will be able to debate with this guy.

One day after he experienced arguably the most humiliating gaffe of his political career, Gov. Rick Perry poked fun at himself on The Late Show with David Letterman by delivering the night's "Top 10" list. Letterman couldn't help referring to his guest in his monologue, saying he had a trio of concerns about Perry, including his conservative politics, his debating skills, and "three... crap. What was three?" Perry entered the stage looking visibly giddy before saluting the audience. He delivered the "Top 10 Rick Perry Excuses" for failing to remember the third federal agency he would abolish during Wednesday evening's...

By facing the issue and joking about it, Perry frames his gaffe as a funny moment rather than a serious, and seriously stupid, one. He takes control of the discussion. Every minute he's on the air being interviewed about it is one more minute his moment isn't being replayed, one more minute some panel of pundits isn't fretfully analyzing its stupendous terribleness. By allowing his memory glitch to be the topic of discussion and owning up to it, he helps exhaust the subject. Most of all, Perry is being humanized, albeit not in the way any politician would wish. For...

We’ve all been there, which may have been what made Rick Perry’s gaffe during Wednesday night’s televised Republican debates extra grimace-inducing. In a media interview on Thursday morning, the Texas governor defended his failure to recall the name of the third government agency he wanted to abolish – a glitch punctuated by an embarrassing “oops” – by pointing out that “All of us make mistakes. I’m a human being.” But what’s actually happening in our brains when we screw up? ....When our brain becomes narrowly focused – as Perry’s brain was when it was suggested that the name of the...

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, looking to bounce back from a recent debate gaffe, doubled-down in his own defense Thursday by admitting debating is not his strength. “If we’re electing the Debater-in-Chief, don’t elect me,” the Texas governor said on Fox News, repeating his previous criticism of President Obama, who he calls a “great debater.” Earlier in the day, Perry called President Obama “sleek as a mink” over his debate-style on conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham’s show. Perry stayed on message in his latest appearance, part of a media blitz Thursday following a debate misstep the previous night in...

Something to make the Perry supporters feel less awful: "At last night's gubernatorial debate, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) appeared to be at a lost for words during her opening statement, leading to some long, awkward pauses" ... "UPDATE 9/3/10: Jan Brewer says she won't be participating in any more debates. The Arizona Daily Star reports: Incumbent Republican Jan Brewer said Thursday she has no intention of participating in any more events with Democrat Terry Goddard." Also see: Arizona Governor stumbles during debate

Rick Perry swiftly came to the spin room after the end of the GOP debate Wednesday night and directly told reporters that he screwed up on stage. "I'm glad I had my boots on tonight," Perry said. "I stepped in it out there." Continue Reading Perry froze up on stage as he attempted to list the three federal departments he planned to cut, naming Education and Commerce but forgetting the Department of Energy. Said Perry: "I may have forgotten Energy, but I haven't forgotten my conservative principles." Asked by a reporter if that moment was embarrassing, Perry said: "I stepped...

(Machine Translation from German to English) -- ("Perry' s Debatten-Desaster : "Ähm, oops, sorry"): "There should be a settlement with the intra-party rivals Herman Cain, but then Rick Perry catapulted out of the presidential race in the U.S. Republicans. In a televised debate of the candidates had the Texans a highly embarrassing blackout. It is exactly 21.20 clock in Michigan, as Rick Perry 's presidential ambitions. For almost one and a half hours, the top eight candidates debated the U.S. Republicans already in the north gym of Oakland University in Detroit.

(By Google Translation from French to English so diction off a bit:)--("Oups... Je ne me souviens plus": l'incroyable gaffe de Rick Perry") "At the last night debate between the Republican candidates, the Governor of Texas was a great moment of solitude. Which virtually eliminates him from the nomination contest. We already knew: the debates are not the strong suit of Rick Perry. These early performances have also cost him his status as favorite in the Republican nomination. But Wednesday night, the governor of Texas has hit the rock bottom. It was a great moment of solitude during a debate organized...

"Governor Rick Perry of Texas suffered one of the worst stumbles in American presidential debate history when he spent nearly a minute trying and failing to remember the name of a government department he had vowed to abolish....

It's no accident that Mitt Romney has done so well during this election cycle. He has excellent name recognition, he's extremely well organized, he's a great fundraiser, he's become a polished debater, and he's not gaffe prone. His business experience doesn't hurt either, although it is worth noting that the only reason he's able to brag that he's not a "career politician" is because he lost to Ted Kennedy for the Senate and probably would have lost in 2008 had he run for governor of Massachusetts again. All that being said, there's a reason why Mitt Romney has been unable...

GAFFE-OLOGYStrategery, misunderestimated, refudiate: former President George W. Bush and Sarah Palin have been chastised by journalists and academes for their inventive language and occasional grammatical gaffes for years. Now it is President Obama’s turn. Here comes “Obama Grammar: Using the President’s Bloopers to Improve Your English,” a new book that parses Mr. Obama’s command of the language, or lack thereof.“The first wordsmith is, in fact, an occasional stem-winder who is grammatically challenged,” says author and Harvard-educated historian William Proctor, who pored over 3,000 pages of the president’s official speeches and remarks. He’s convinced that Americans — particularly students — can...