And Now There are four (Clowns)

Lets see...We have had three primaries....Romney won in Iowa...Then he lost to Rick Santorum.   Romney won in Maine.....and Newt Gingrich ,using the most openly racist campaigning in a century won the South Carolina primary...Along the way, Michelle Bachman, Herman Cain, John Huntsman and Rick Perry have dropped out....

Look for Bat shit crazy Ron Paul to be the next person to drop out of this farce of a campaign and remember where you heard it first!

Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney will now take their desperate, yet heated battle to Republican voters in Florida at a presidential debate on Monday evening in Tampa Bay.

The GOP presidential primary having been thrown into upheaval by the former House speaker's victory in this past weekend's South Carolina primary, Mitt Romney appeared to be taking steps to halt any momentum Newt Gingrich intended to carry into Florida at Monday night's NBC News/National Journal/Tampa Bay Times debate.

The forum appeared set to become one of the fiercest battles of the Republican campaign, presaged by a day of sniping on the campaign trail that saw the Romney campaign unveil a more aggressive tack against Gingrich, who responded by characterizing the former Massachusetts governor as desperate. Aren't they all?

"I think as you look at the speaker’s record over time, it’s been highly erratic," Romney told the press after an event yesterday morning in Tampa. "He’s gone from pillar to post almost like a pinball machine, from item to item in a way which is highly erratic. It does not suggest a stable, thoughtful course which is normally associated with leadership."

The Romney campaign suggested that the former governor was likely to make that argument onstage in the next debate too. (I don't plan to be watching.If I need pure comedy,I can watch The Three Stooges.) It accompanies Romney's demand that Gingrich release records related to his lucrative consulting contract with Freddie Mac, as well as a 1997 investigation into Gingrich during his speakership that resulted in an official House reprimand and a $300,000 bill to reimburse investigatory costs.

For his part,Newt Gingrich has shown no sign of backing down from his attacks on Mitt Romney, a strategy he's employed to great effect after having reversed his pledge to stick exclusively to positive campaigning.

"It used to be pious baloney, but now it’s just desperate baloney," Gingrich said of Romney's attacks during an afternoon campaign stop. The former speaker joked his opponent should open up a deli. He could do the same himself with his race baiting self and his own brand of baloney.

The former speaker has been anything but a shrinking violet in his previous debate appearances, excoriating moderators for questions Gingrich asserts are unbecoming of a debate while doling out pithy responses to fellow Republicans.

The tenor of questions posed to Gingrich, though, may be tougher. Now that he’s a front-running candidate, he’ll face the kind of scrutiny accordant with his position. Not only will moderators ask more aggressive questions, but Gingrich will be targeted by Romney and the two other remaining candidates, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Rick Santorum, the winner of the Iowa caucus by the slimmest of margins, was particularly strong in last Thursday’s debate, in which he reminded viewers of Gingrich’s troubles as speaker, and the positions taken by Romney in the past that run counter to the GOP base.

Rick Santorum, the third place finisher in South Carolina, has vowed to continue fighting forward in Florida, but would need a strong couple of debates in order to avoid being subsumed by Gingrich as the chief conservative alternative to Romney.

Then there is crazy ass Ron Paul!!-The stakes in the next debate are somewhat lower for Paul, who has opted not to compete in the Florida primary in favor of focusing on GOP caucuses in February. But the libertarian-minded lawmaker has sometimes made for an unexpected ally of Romney’s in these debates by launching more pointed attacks of Gingrich and Santorum.

Florida holds its primary on Jan. 31, a contest limited in participation to registered Republicans only. The winner of the primary is awarded all of the state’s delegates; most states award delegates based on candidates’ share of the final vote.

I'm taking all of this in with a yawn....They are practically handing this election to President Obama.....Just with the things they are saying about each other.