Huntsman Backs Off New Hampshire

Can Jon Huntsman pull a Santorum and finish strong in New Hampshire? “We’re going to do well,” the candidate said on CNN’s State of the Union. That sounds pretty confident, until you consider just weeks ago he declared, “We're going to win the New Hampshire primary." Despite a notable performance during Sunday’s debate, the poll numbers just might be taking a toll on Huntsman’s optimism.

The ‘Bain’ of Mitt Romney’s Existence

Maybe Mitt Romney should hire some fact checkers before the next debate? Obama adviser David Axelrod appeared on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, blasting Romney’s claim during Saturday’s ABC debate that he helped create 100,000 jobs while at Bain Capital. “He can’t back up that number, and his campaign has conceded that he can’t back [that number],” Axelrod said. With a Gingrich Super PAC documentary about Romney’s time at the firm on the way, will Bain Capital prove to be the Achilles heel of Romney’s campaign?

Ron Paul on Jim Crow Laws

Ron Paul’s libertarian principles sometimes get him in trouble when it comes to things like civil-rights legislation. On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked the Texas congressman about his opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act on the grounds that it doesn’t respect private property owners. “We can’t separate civil liberties from property,” Paul replied. Still, after Wallace pressed further on the implications of that statement on equal rights, Paul relented. “That’s ancient history, it’s been settled a long time ago and nobody’s going to go back to it. It would be the most devastating thing, stupid for people to do that, they’d lose their business,” he said.

McCain: ‘Iraq Is Unraveling’

Not everyone is focusing on the back-to-back GOP debates. Sen. John McCain appeared on CBS’s Face The Nation, where he issued a dire warning on Iraq. “Iraq is unraveling,” he said. “It’s unraveling because we didn’t keep residual force there.” McCain went so far as to predict a splintering of the country into three different states, and of course made sure to place the blame on Obama at every possible opportunity.

Reporters on Ignoring Low-Polling Candidates

How can the press justify investigating a candidate only after he surges in the polls? Well, as it turns out, there are several ways. On CNN’s Reliable Sources, a panel of reporters faced off with host Howard Kurtz. “We don’t do investigative stories on people at the bottom of the pack, because they’re at the bottom of the pack. Once they climb up and they might actually win something, well then is the time to do the investigative reporting,” said Politico’s Roger Simon. “Frankly this is the beauty of the process…Nobody is going to get through this process without getting intense scrutiny,” ABC’s Jon Karl added.