With polls showing Republican primary voters increasingly unhappy with their field of candidates, and President Obama showing greater strength against all potential competitors, it doesn't seem like it'll take a moat with alligators to keep the GOP out of the White House in 2012.
However, there's still time left for Republicans to find a Fred Thompson-esque white knight who can save the party's bacon.
Failing that, I suppose they can always pray that predictions of the Rapture occurring next Saturday prove true. It may be their best hope of avoiding an electoral disaster.
Morning lineup:
Meet the Press: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA); Roundtable: E.J. Dionne (Washington Post), Peggy Noonan (Wall Street Journal), Mark Halperin (TIME), Helene Cooper (New York Times) and Matt Bai (New York Times Magazine).
Face the Nation: House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH); Footage from President Obama's Town Hall.
This Week: South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R); Paul Krugman (New York Times); FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair; Former Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman; Former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin; Richard Haas (Council on Foreign Relations); Robert Kagan (Brookings Institution); Anthony Shadid (New York Times); Roundtable: George Will (Washington Post), Cokie Roberts (ABC News) and Amy Walters (ABC News).
Fox News Sunday: Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R); Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX); Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL); Sen. John McCain (R-AZ); Roundtable: Brit Hume (Fox News), Nina Easton (Fortune), Kim Strassel (Wall Street Journal) and Mort Zuckerman (Publisher, NY Daily News/US News & World Report).
State of the Union: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnnell (R-KY); Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI); Former Clinton Spokesman Joe Lockhart; Former Bush Strategist Michael Gerson; Former Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair (Ret.); Former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte; Reliable Sources: Michelle Cottle (Daily Beast); Lauren Ashburn (Ashburn Media); Debra Saunders (San Francisco Chronicle); Steve Coll (New Yorker); Glynnis MacNicol (Business Insider); Adam Buckman (Fancast.com).
The Chris Matthews Show: Norah O'Donnell (MSNBC); Howard Fineman (Huffington Post); Michael Duffy (TIME); Katty Kay (BBC).
Fareed Zakaria GPS: TBD.
Evening lineup:
60 Minutes will feature: the first interview with Defense Secretary Robert Gates since the killing of Osama bin Laden (preview); an interview with the former head of Afghanistan's intelligence service (preview); and, a report on the "sovereign citizen" movement, which the FBI considers a domestic threat (preview).
On Comedy Central:
Bill O'Reilly's arch-nemesis, Jon Stewart, reported on this week's non-troversial poetry reading at the White House.
The Daily Show
Monday: Writer/Documentary Filmmaker Jon Ronson
Tuesday: Author/Journalist Annie Jacobsen
Wednesday: Author/Professor Richard Beeman
Thursday: Administrator of the EPA Lisa P. Jackson
And Stephen Colbert – of Colbert Super PAC fame – sought to answer some of life's biggest questions.
The Colbert Report
Monday: Filmmaker Alison Klayman
Tuesday: Chairperson of the Tea Party Express Amy Kremer
Wednesday: Chief Economist of the President's Economic Recovery Board Austan Goolsbee
Thursday: Former NBA Player/Author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Elsewhere:
In a stunning display of hypocrisy (even for them), 41 House Republican freshmen asked Democrats to forgive and forget the outright lies they told last year.
House Republican freshmen admit that their so-called "MediScare" attacks on Democrats helped them win a big majority in 2010. Democrats had voted for the health care law, which included $500 billion in "cuts" to Medicare -- primarily slashing overpayments to private insurers -- and Republican challengers never let them forget it.
Now, they say, it's time to let bygones be bygones.
Nearly a dozen House Republican freshmen held a press conference outside the Capitol Tuesday morning to "wipe the slate clean," and "hit the reset button."
Meanwhile:
Rep. Michele Bachmann – who can be your presidential candidate for only $50 – was offered the opportunity to prove that she's smarter than a 10th grader.
As a typical high school student, I have found quite a few of your statements regarding The Constitution of the United States, the quality of public school education and general U.S. civics matters to be factually incorrect, inaccurately applied or grossly distorted. The frequency and scope of these comments prompted me to write this letter. [...]
Rep. Bachmann, the frequent inability you have shown to accurately and factually present even the most basic information about the United States led me to submit the follow challenge, pitting my public education against your advanced legal education:
I, Amy Myers, do hereby challenge Representative Michele Bachmann to a Public Forum Debate and/or Fact Test on The Constitution of the United States, United States History and United States Civics.
And in other scholastic news:
Mike Huckabee – who will not be running for president – launched a new money-making venture aimed at counterbalancing history's liberal bias.
Don't worry, American youth: Mike Huckabee has fixed American history. No longer will you suffer under what Huckabee calls "the 'blame America first' attitude prevalent in today's teaching."
Late Wednesday, Huckabee announced LearnOurHistory.com, a sort of BMG Music Club for what he calls "unbiased" historical lessons for kids. For around $15 each, the company will send you a new animated tale of American history each month, told through the eyes of a gang of time traveling kids.
The first video (available for just $9.95, with a gift bag full of goodies)? "The Reagan Revolution." Naturally.
Don't get left behind.
- Trix