++Willard feels threatened by Newt today. Apparently,there is an upsurge of support for Gingrich after the debate and Willard had all his surrogates on a conference call trashing Gingrich. Observers note that when Romney doesn't feel threatened he attacks Obama but when he does he attacks his fellow Republicans.
++Meanwhile Newt cut a television ad from his remark on the debate that he just didn't want to make Obama's nose bloody, he wanted to knock Obama out. This was his fund-raiser this morning.
++Pew released a national poll showing Obama beating Romney 50-45. A three-way race is interesting: Obama at 44, Romney 32 and Ron Paul 18.
++But both Romney and Obama have someone else to worry about. Steven Colbert gets 13% and Obama 41 and Romney 38. The more likely third-party candidate will be the fomrer governor of New Mexico as a libertarian, Garry Johnson. He would take 7% away from the Republican.
++Willard is now facing more investigations into his financial history. Only yesterday, he bragged about being in the Investor Hall of Fame. Indeed, he may. But ABC News released tonight a report that he and his wife have between $5 and $25 million stashed away in the Cayman Islands through Bain Capital's special investments using tax shelters. The Romney camp is screaming that these investments are not tax shelters. But more will come. Allegedly, the Romney had $1 million from these investments in 2010.
++Newt didn't miss a trick with Romney's dodge that he would release his 2011 taxes in April, conveniently when the nomination race might be over. Newt is releasing his 2010 tax forms this week and announced he pays 31.5% income tax. This has triggered a flurry of posts on various websites to guess whether you pay higher taxes than Willard Romney. Romney is rumored to pay between 14 and 15%, which would make him in the rate equivalent of someone earning around $50-75,000. I am sure the 2011 income taxes will be made to look more respectable.
++But Mitt also lives with the ghost of his father. George Romney, who ran for the Republican nomination in 1968, was the forerunner of transparency and released 12 years of his taxes. Romney paid in those days an effective tax rate of 37%. In other words, his son may pay about one-third of his father's rate. What I found staggering was that George sometimes gave away more than 57% to charity and all his years he was far and away above the requirement of tithing, which Mormons adhere to. This will be the next interesting number of Romney's to check out.
++Mitt is also drawing fire for his past remarks that Bin Laden wasn't worth going after and his 2007 article attacking President Obama for wanting to go into Pakistan to get OBL.
++As Rick Perry drains away, he is getting some good lines off. Observers have noticed that several of the GOP candidates this year claimed that God told them to run. Perry at least had the good humor to suggest he told him to run but didn't tell him he would win.
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