TV show host Jimmy Fallon apologized to Rep. Michele Bachmann for a song played as the presidential candidate walked on stage for her interview on his late night show, CNN reports.

As Bachmann walked out to greet Fallon, the show’s band played a song by Fishbone called Lyin’ Ass Bitch.

A new Pew Research survey finds no evidence that Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith “would prevent rank-and-file Republicans, including white evangelicals, from coalescing around him if he wins the GOP nomination. Rather, the same Republicans who may have doubts about Romney’s faith are among the most vehement opponents of Barack Obama.”

Key findings: “Fully 91% of white evangelical Republican voters say they would back Romney over Obama in a general election matchup, and 79% would support Romney strongly. Overall, white evangelicals would be among the strongest Romney supporters if he is the GOP nominee challenging Obama next fall.”

“Representatives for leading social conservative groups in Iowa held a secret meeting Monday as part of an effort with one main goal: find and support a Republican presidential candidate who can stop Mitt Romney in Iowa,” CNN reports.

“The idea: avoid splintering the conservative vote in the state by rallying around one GOP rival who could win Iowa’s Jan. 3 caucus and then challenge Romney in New Hampshire and the other early voting states.”

Mitt Romney will announce the endorsement of Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the Washington Post reports, “a rising star in the Republican Party who had weighed a White House bid of his own before deciding to stay in the Senate and move up in his party’s leadership.”

The Daily Beast has video clips of the best parts from last night’s Republican presidential debate.

Newt Gingrich failed to qualify for the Missouri Republican primary, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The filing requirements were not particularly onerous: A $1,000 check and some paperwork were all that’s needed. But Gingrich failed to file by the deadline.

“Missouri’s primary is a ‘beauty contest,’ meaning that no delegates will be awarded. The state Republican Party will hold caucuses in March for that purpose. However, Missouri is a major state, and the nonbinding contest will be the only primary in the country between the Florida primary on Jan. 31 and the Arizona and Michigan primaries on Feb. 28. Candidates wishing to maintain their momentum, and media visibility, through that dry spell in February may well see Missouri as a place to compete for bragging rights.”

Mitt Romney, as in previous debates, was the best prepared and gave solid answers to all questions. But this time he had a worthy adversary in Newt Gingrich, who is clearly emboldened by his high polls numbers (and his own intellect). The thing to watch: Will Gingrich’s “humane” stance on immigration be the issue Romney can use to knock him off in Iowa?

Jon Huntsman had his best debate yet. It’s clear he’s given significant thought to these issues while living abroad as an ambassador.

Michele Bachmann also did reasonably well but strangely asserted that President Obama met with Iranian leaders. Nonetheless, it was her best debate in weeks.

Herman Cain is clearly out of his league. His solution to every problem is to get smart people in the room to decide. There’s clearly stuff still twirling around in his head.

Rick Perry didn’t implode but he didn’t distinguish himself either. He used nearly every answer as an opportunity to attack President Obama without actually offering workable solutions.

Rick Santorum was an afterthought.

However, it was most fun to watch Ron Paul. His positions are clear, consistent and interesting. On issues like the Patriot Act, drug trafficking and the Iraq war, he highlights a major split between the libertarian and neo-conservative wings of the Republican party. Paul’s problem is that his wing is probably no more than 20% of the Republican party today.

It’s not clear to me who actually “won” the debate. But it is clear that Romney still hasn’t pulled away from the pack despite his string of solid performances.

Just published: Mitt Romney: An Inside Look at the Man and His Politics by Ronald B. Scott.

Ben Smith notes the book takes a closer look at the Romney family. Romney’s eldest sister Jane, an actress who lives in Los Angeles is described “the Billy Carter of the Romney family” in part because she openly backed Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and campaigned for California Gov. Jerry Brown (D). She also had a “very acrimonious divorce” from a nephew of the head of the Mormon church.

Jane Romney apparently “is eager to have a visible role on her brother’s campaign which, in turn, is eager to keep her busy and out of trouble.”

Weekly Standard: “It’s becoming increasingly hard to say whether Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney, the two leading Republican presidential candidates, would fare better against Barack Obama.”

“Each of these two leading GOP candidates certainly has his strengths in an electoral vein. Romney consistently fares better than Gingrich among independents — the block of voters who will likely decide the election — while Gingrich’s support among the Tea Party could help energizing the party’s base, which in turn could influence independents (who are generally more apt to rally behind candidates who have the enthusiastic support of others — a fact that seems to be particularly true for GOP candidates across the years).”

Gallup: “Newt Gingrich now leads all of his Republican presidential rivals in garnering positive image ratings from Republicans and Republican leaners nationwide — marking a first for 2011. His +20 Positive Intensity Score gives Gingrich a sizable lead over Herman Cain, in second with +14, and Mitt Romney, in third with +11.”

If Mitt Romney can use President Obama’s words out of context in a new ad, Think Progress did the same to Romney in a very amusing video.

[Read more…]

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Pennsylvania shows Mitt Romney in a dead heat with President Obama at 45% each in the key swing state.

Key finding: “If you dig in on the undecided voters only 24% of them approve of Obama’s job performance to 70% who disapprove. They may not be completely sold on Romney yet but for the most part if you don’t approve of the incumbent President, you’re not going to vote for him. If those folks really had to make a decision today it’s likely they’d move in Romney’s direction and hand him the state.”

Michael Tomasky looks at a new study that shows how President Obama might be able to use demographics to win reelection despite a lousy economy.

“The paper is The Path to 270: Demographics Versus Economics in the 2012 Election by Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin of the Center for American Progress. You can probably figure out from the subtitle that the basic story is that demography favors Obama, while the likely underlying economic picture (i.e., still bleak) favors whoever is running against him. But the deeper story here is this: Obama isn’t going to get his 2008 levels of the white vote. But he can’t quite absorb white-vote totals that look like 2010. And he is going to have to fight hard, and smart, to keep them closer to the former than the latter.”

Ryan Lizza takes issue with the blatant misuse of a quote by President Obama in Mitt Romney’s new ad running in New Hampshire.

“This is one of those cases where a candidate has put out something that is demonstrably false. If a journalist or writer quoted someone in such an intellectually dishonest way, you would never trust the person’s writing again. And yet this episode is being reported by some as a clever tactic by the Romney camp to spark a debate about the ad’s accuracy that will serve to highlight its overall message that Obama has been a failure. (See, it worked!)”