Newt Inc. Endorsed by Union-Leader

++Steve Benen puts the endorsement of Newt Gingrich by the Manchester Union-Leader in perspective. The newspaper has endorsed Pat Buchanan twice, Steve Forbes and last time ended up with John McCain. But symbolically it is a blow to WilLard Romney, who now lives there and has banked on New Hampshire propelling him to the presidency. Today, the newspaper went out of its way to swat Romney, saying that he would be appropriate for the late 19th century.

++David Frum, writing for the National Post in Canada, said that there are only two candidates worth supporting in the Republican race--Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. The rest of the article is devoted to what a hash Newt made of his House speakership and how he is notoriously disorganized. Frum puzzled me with his assertion that Romney had the expansive worldview needed for a President and knew all about the national debt and how the European crisis will impact us. I have no idea what he's talking about since none of that has come through in the last 11--count them 11--debates.

++Up with Chris Hayes blasted CNN for allowing David Addington to ask questions at the Republican Foreign Policy debate. Hayes is right of course but it gets difficult to make the case anymore if none of the advocates for torture were ever prosecuted or legally sanctioned. I am afraid I agree with George Washington's Jonathan Turley, who slammed the Obama Administration for not pursuing the case against the torture lawyers. The problem is that the torture issue now becomes less a matter of illegality and crimes against humanity than a difference of political opinion. If a Republican is elected in 2012, then torture would be restored if we go by the statements of the candidates.

++Paul Krugman writes today in the New York Times a sort of defense of President Obama and an argument why liberals should not abandon him. Krugman cites his differences with President Obama--the size of the stimulus package and underestimating how long the United States would take to recover from the Great Recession.

++The Recall Scott Walker campaign has passed the half-way mark for signatures. The Walker counter-attack are strange ads chastising voters for spending money on these silly recall campaigns.

++The pink panty sherriff in Arizona, Mr. anti-immigrant, has endorsed Rick Perry. I guess this is meant to counter Perry's loss of support from conservatives for his position on in-state tuition for the children of undocumented immigrants.

++The conservative website Red State has posted two articles about why Mitt Romney is unelectable. The interesting take of this is that it is not because of his fli-flopping but because of his association with Bain Capital. The idea is that Occupy Wall Street has changed the debate in the country and that Romney is the poster-child of the 1% and also the abuses of the recent past practices on Wall Street. They suggested the Obama campaign should just run the ads Ted Kennedy did against Romney during their Senate campaign.

Off to work. More Later.