Crowley Political Report

By far one of the best photographers in the news business, New York Times photographer Stephen Crowley has been chronicling the 2012 presidential campaign in his own unique style. 

You can understand why Crowley Political Report is so proud of his work.

Stephen traveled with Romney on the Republican presidential candidate's trip to Great Britain, Israel and Poland. You won't find pictures like these anywhere else - including the one with the cat.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/08/01/us/politics/01romney.html

This story originally appeared in Columbia Journalism Review.

By Brian E. Crowley

FLORIDA — One of the most wearisome elements of media coverage of the 2012 election campaign is the often trite and lazy reporting about Hispanic/Latino voters. So it was refreshing to read a story on Sunday byMiami Herald political writer Marc Caputo that looked beyond the usual caricature of such voters.

Caputo’s lede immediately let readers know that they were in for something different here:

Rep. Ana Rivas Logan’s opponents call her loads of names on the campaign trail.

But one seemed to bother her more than others: “Nicaraguan.”

“They’re making calls to the little old Cubans, telling them, ‘Don’t vote for her. She’s a Nicaraguan. Your commitment is with the Cuban vote,’” a choked-up Logan said last week about her bare-knuckle race against fellow Republican Rep. Jose Felix “Pepe” Diaz.

Welcome to Miami.

This is a place where calling the daughter of Cuban parents a “Nicaraguan” is a slur even though she was born in Nicaragua and says so on her website. Diaz denies participating in or authorizing the attack.

The fact that it was 1) used against the Cuban-American lawmaker and 2) worked enough to deeply unsettle her is a sign of the hardball politics in Miami-Dade. And it stands as a clear sign that Florida’s Hispanic vote is anything but monolithic.

Just beyond the Spanish-English language barrier is a not-so-brave world of ethnic tensions, borderline racism and nationalistic pride that will subtly play out this election season…

Often the media—especially the national media—concentrates its reporting about Florida Hispanics on the Cuban community. There is no question that Cuban-American voters are a critical segment of the South Florida vote. But the growing generational divide within the community is too often overlooked by reporters. Second- and third-generation Cubans tend to be less rigid about some issues than first-generation Cubans who fled the Castro regime.

But the Herald’s Caputo went well beyond that obvious difference. He delved into areas that are rarely reported. For example, he wrote:

As folks fire up their grills and stare at the fireworks, they may want to remember that the Founding Fathers engaged in long, deep debates about the issues confronting the nation. In fact, without those debates and the compromises they fostered, we might be a very different country.

In our latest report for Columbia Journalism Review, Crowley Political Report editor Brian E. Crowley examines why Florida congressional Allen West and Lois Frankel, as well as U.S. Senate candidate Connie Mack, appear so reluctant to participate in political debates.

By Brian E. Crowley

FLORIDA — Former Miami Herald humor columnist Dave Barry once wrote: “I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don’t even invite me.”

In Florida, candidates are invited to the party—debates—they just refuse to go. When it comes to debating in the Sunshine State, candidates for federal office are saying, “No.” It is becoming a troubling trend.

This is an incredible discussion. Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio and The Daily Show's Jon Stewart engage in a lengthy chat about politics, the U.S. Senate and many of the issues confronting the nation.

The discussion is energetic, thoughtful, and brilliant. If you missed the extended after-show interview, take the time to view it.  Forget taking sides. Instead note the tone and depth of the discussion. 

Toward the end, Rubio makes a candid assessment of his time in the Senate that reveals his clear frustration. You may end up with a deeper appreciation of both Rubio and Stewart and wish that our nation's politicians would take the same approach to discussing our most important issues.

There are three parts to the show which you can see below.

In his latest Capital Gains and Games column, Stan Collender tell us that the folks who warn us that increasing deficits will lead to fiscal hell may have it all wrong.

Some excerpts:

. . .the absolute guarantee that we’ll be economically doomed if we don’t immediately repent on the deficit and live a virtuous balanced budget life — has never worked for me because it’s never been proved to be true. In addition, those who have insisted that reducing the federal deficit no matter what the economic situation have seemed to be proselytizing to validate their personal beliefs or accomplish their unrelated political goals rather than actually analyzing anything.

. . .

As the deficit rose to the point we’ve been told would bring immediate and unmistakable retribution from an angry economic deity, interest rates have fallen, the private sector has been reporting record earnings and is hoarding cash, and inflation is about as absent from monthly economic statistics as it can be.

. . .

the combination of economic conditions the United States is experiencing puts the current federal budget deficits and those who have championed them on the side of the angels rather than the demons because none of the other components of gross domestic product are making growth possible. State and local governments continue to increase revenues and cut back on spending, consumers and businesses aren’t spending, and the economic woes in Europe and elsewhere mean that trade isn’t available to help.

That makes federal fiscal and monetary policy the only two drivers of economic growth. With interest rates already low and the Federal Reserve’s options limited, the budget deficit is an economic blessing rather than a curse.

Whichever side you are on in current debate about the federal deficit, Collender's column is worth a read. You may not agree, but it will give you something to ponder.

You can also watch Collender talk about the economy on CNBC below:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It all seems a little silly. A young man with the group We Are Change, breathlessly chases Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio through several ballrooms trying to get him to answer a question about the Bilderberg Group.

We Are Change describes this video thusly:

"Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange confronts U.S. Senator for Florida Marco Rubio on Bilderberg. Watch Luke navigate hotel obstacles to repeatedly find & confront the Senator."

Well there is a lot of dodging and weaving and scurrying about but to what end? And poor Luke actually thinks he is being quite bold here and showing those silly folks in the media how it's really done.

We actually sort of like Luke's moxie.

When it comes to Jeb Bush, "no" is not enough.

By Brian E. Crowley for Columbia Journalism Reveiw

Sitting across from Jeb Bush last week on the set of CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose asked: “You are basically saying what about this conversation about running as the running mate of Mitt Romney?”

Conversation? What conversation? There is no conversation other than the ones being held by Rose and other members of the media who simply refuse to accept the former Florida governor’s answer. For months, Bush has repeatedly said he is not interested in running for vice president. This comes after years of telling anyone who asked that he would not run for president in 2012. Patiently and politely Bush answered Rose.

I’m not going to do it and I’m not going to be asked and it’s not going happen. That doesn’t mean I don’t have a voice. Doesn’t mean I don’t want to enthusiastically support Mitt Romney. I intend to do that. I’m doing it. But I’m not going to be a candidate with him.”

“Under no circumstances?”

“Under no circumstances.”

“So if he comes and asks, you say, ‘Sorry, go somewhere else?’”

“Yes.”

You would think this was breaking news. Stories began ricocheting across the internet as if no one had ever heard Bush say it before. Some headlines:

Veep Beat: Jeb Bush Rules Out VP, but Not Future W.H. Run - ABC News The Note

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush rules out VP bid —Reuters

 Jeb Bush: ‘Under no circumstances’ would I take VP gig —The Capitol Column

Jeb Bush says ‘under no circumstances’ would he take VP job —CNN Political Ticker

Jeb Bush says no to being Romney’s vice president —Los Angeles Times Politics Now

Where are the editors? Where is anyone in any newsroom asking, “Is this news?”

Here't the latest report in Columbia Journalism Review taking a look at the polling controversy in Florida:

Herald’s Caputo dives deep on diverging polls

Do other news organizations undermine their credibility when they don’t do the same?

By Brian E. Crowley

Voters here have reason to be confused this week as they look at two polls, coming out one day apart, with one showing Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney in the state and the other showing Romney leading Obama.

Isn't it the dream of every reporter to be featured in a campaign video? Crowley Political Report almost missed this Obama campaign video that popped up Friday with Florida's very own Tampa Bay Times reporter Adam Smith.

That's Adam asking Mitt Romney a question during a Florida Republican debate. 

The story below originally appeared in Columbia Journalism Review:

By Brian E. Crowley

Much of the national media appears to be in love with Florida’s junior senator—Republican Marco Rubio. Back on March 23, Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post wrote about potential vice-presidential running mates for Republican nominee Mitt Romney and offered this gushing assessment:

The case for Rubio is simple and close to conclusive. He’s Hispanic, giving the GOP an opportunity to reestablish some sort of foothold in that electorally critical community. He’s from Florida, a major swing state. He’s a tea party favorite thanks to destruction of moderate Governor Charlie Crist in a Senate primary in 2010. And, he’s young; at 42 years old, Rubio is 23 years Romney’s junior. Rubio’s not perfect—we hear whispers that his time in the state legislature could be mined by a good opposition researcher—but he’s a clear number one choice in our Line.

Cillizza offered little that was new with this. He accepts the notion that some Hispanics will swoon just because Rubio is on the ticket. He is enamored by the fact that Rubio is young. (And note that Rubio is even younger than Cillizza thinks; he is 40, turning 41 on May 28.)

Cillizza also joins the chorus of those who believe Rubio could help Romney win Florida. Perhaps, but I suggest he read an impressive April analysis by Nate Silver of The New York Times, who concludes that running mates may have little impact on winning their home state. (Also, we humbly suggest that if there is information that could “be mined by a good opposition researcher” about Rubio’s state legislative record, perhaps the Post might want to put on its miner’s helmet.)

When Rubio gave a foreign policy speech at the Brookings Institution, The Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung both fawned over Rubio and backhanded the GOP: Rubio, she wrote, “took another step onto the national stage Wednesday with a foreign policy speech that positioned him squarely in the middle between a dying breed of GOP moderates and his partisan brethren who have condemned President Obama as an international weakling.”

DeYoung offered no quotes from members of the “dying breed” or the “partisan brethren.” And had she talked to at least a few members of the “partisan brethren,” DeYoung may have discovered, as Politico did here that some foreign policy conservatives were unhappy with Rubio’s speech.

A new story by Brian E. Crowley for Columbia Journalism Review begins this way:

Whenever Sean Hannity interviews Marco Rubio, he gushes like 12-year old smitten with the girl next-door. Hannity’s beating heart could be heard as he swooned through an introduction of the Florida GOP senator during his March 28 broadcast on Fox News.

After exploring Hannity's apparent love affair with Marco Rubio, the story goes on to look at the reporting that was done by the Tampa Bay Times Adam Smith and Alex Leary:

. . .no one, until this week, has looked beyond Rubio’s insistence that he is not trying to position himself to get the job. In a smartly done story, Smith and Leary took a closer look at the actions of Rubio and his advisers—and they conclude that Rubio has in fact been positioning himself to become the vice presidential nominee.

Read the full story here.

And don't forget to follow Crowley Political Report on Twitter @crowleyreport

Family concerns resulted in a bit of a hiatus for Crowley Political Report.  So it seems appropriate to re-enter the fray with the family.  Today, the New York Times has a great photo essay of President Obama's recent campaign trip to California and Washington.  The photos are by Crowley Political Report's favorite photographer - Stephen Crowley.

Stephen is a unique talent. Yes, I know, he is my brother and you would expect me to say that. But here is what James Estrin wrote about Stephen in 2010:

Stephen Crowley has spent most of his career masquerading as a newspaper photographer while producing idiosyncratic projects that push the boundaries of photojournalism and reveal unvarnished truths behind his most frequent subject: Washington politics.

Mr. Crowley, a staff photographer for The New York Times, consistently takes risks in his photography. He was employing complex compositions in newspaper photography long before the style became trendy.

In his political photographs, Mr. Crowley shows his Washington subjects warts and all. In personal projects like “Urban Archaeology” and “Crowleygraphs,” his black-and-white images are elegant and precise. Sometimes, he combines the political and personal in diptychs andtetraptychs, adding a sharp sense of irony.

“Washington is all artifice and show business — even more so today than when I started,” Mr. Crowley said. “There is a lot to be upset about these days, and there are a lot of people to hold accountable in media and politics. I think there is a thread of humor through my work, and humor is just a form of anger, if you think about it.”

Read more here.  And see his Obama photo essay here. 

Stephen has not just covered Washington politics. He has traveled the world for the Times, from tiny village to war zones. Everywhere he goes, he photographs tell a story that no one else does.

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Crowley Political Report takes a closer look at this weekend's Times/Herald Republican presidential campaign poll for Columbia Journalism Review. The polls stories were written by Tampa Bay Times political editor Adam Smith and Miami Herald political writer Marc Caputo. Some excerpts from the CJR report:

Both reporters went to considerable length to describe the complexities of the campaign and the reasons for Romney’s apparent resurgence and Gingrich’s apparent slide. Where they failed, however, is in what they did not report.

Newspaper polling (and the coverage of such polling) has long been a pet peeve of mine. Smith, Caputo and others with whom I worked as a political reporter have been subjected to my railing about newspaper polls countless times.

In Caputo’s and Smith’s stories, there is a clear example of what is wrong with newspaper polls and the coverage thereof. Both reporters wrote that their poll showed that Romney has a 24-point lead over Gingrich among Hispanic voters—52 to 28 percent. But readers were not told important details about these numbers. I interviewed Brad Coker of Mason-Dixon Polling and Research who conducted the poll for the newspapers. He said the survey of 500 registered, likely voting, Republicans included just 75 Hispanics. Of those 75 Hispanics surveyed, the number consisted “heavily” of Cuban Americans who live in Miami-Dade county.

Now, the argument can be made that Miami-Dade Cuban Americans will be the overwhelming majority of Hispanic voters in the Florida primary, as Caputo explains in his story. But neither Caputo nor Smith tells readers that their Hispanic survey is, in fact, not a comprehensive look at Florida Hispanic voters. Coker told me that if he were doing a detailed survey of Hispanics he would have surveyed 400 not 75.

Once you realize that the survey sample is 75, it begs the next question: What is the margin of error? The Times and Herald reported that the margin of error for the 500 Republicans surveyed was 4.5 percent. True. But what they did not tell readers was the margin of error for the 75 Hispanic voters surveyed, which Coker told me was plus or minus 12 percent. That means that the percentage of Hispanics who support Romney ranges from 40 percent to 64 percent and the percentage supporting Gingrich ranges from 16 percent to 40 percent.

What does it really mean? That there is little statistical value in the number of Hispanics surveyed. This is a common problem when news organizations report subgroups in their polls. Often the numbers surveyed are too small to reveal any meaningful information.

. . . 

Another problem is that neither the Times nor the Herald released its complete polling results with questions and crosstabs (the Times posted poll questions online). While print news holes may be too small, there is no reason not to post all of this information on the newspaper websites. The timing of the release is also problematic. The poll was conducted during the period of January 24-26. The results were not released on the newspaper websites until very late on Saturday, January 28. The results then appeared in the Sunday paper, three days after the survey was completed. Pollsters will tell you there is simply too much volatility that close to an election to hold on to poll results for three days. Even voters surveyed on the 24th could have changed their opinion by the 25th.

. . .

News organizations are getting increasingly sloppy with reporting on—and addressing the shortcomings of—their own polls, not to mention asking tough questions of all the other polls that seem to pop up every day.

The National Council on Public Polls offers 20 questions journalists should ask about poll results. Let’s ask them.

You can read the entire Columbia Journalism Review report here.

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Who is Sheldon Adelson, and why does he matter to the presidential campaign? If you are a Florida voter and rely on your local newspaper for your information, you likely have no clue. Yet Adelson is likely to be—along with his wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson—one of the most important figures in determining who will win the January 31 Florida Republican primary.

That is the start of new Columbia Journalism Review story by Crowley Political Report. 

Other excepts:

This is a moment when Florida voters should be able to look to their news organizations to dissect the attack ads they’re seeing and hearing, explore who is paying for these ads (to the extent it can be known, an admitted challenge) and, perhaps, why they’re paying, and to offer a primer on super PACs and the complex new world of campaign spending.

So far, from my reading and watching, Florida’s news organizations have largely fallen short.

This week, Florida celebrated the 35th anniversary of a very snowy day that reached all the way down to South Florida. Which got Crowley Political Report wondering - does Rick Santorum have a snowball's chance of winning the Sunshine State Republican primary?

Santorum has become a bit of a hard luck candidate.

Imagine what the pundits would have been saying before New Hampshire if Iowa had been able to count the votes correctly.

He would have been the candidate of the hour. Yup, the talking heads would have made more of a 34-vote Santorum win than an 8-vote Romney win. Santorum winning would have been big news. Losing by 8 votes - not so much.

And, as much as Santorum has tried, he has simply been unable to catch the imagination of CNN, MSNBC, FOX and the others. 

He is ponderous in debates and often comes across as a nerd with a temper. He has neither the faux-presidential demeanor of Mitt Romney nor the quick mind and acid tongue of Newt Gringrich.

The past 12 months have been an incredible time for professional commentators - they have got almost nothing right. So who knows what surprises are in store. 

Voters are feeling uncertain and ornery. And now, perhaps a bit weary and depressed. None of the candidates has been particularly inspiring to their fellow Republicans. 

After Thursday night's debate, Santorum got little attention. Most of the focus was on Gingrich for brushing back CNN's John King over questions about Gringrich's relationship with an ex-wife. Some commentators compared the moment to Ronald Reagan's famous outburst - "I am paying for this microphone Mr. Green" - at the 1980 Nashua Telegraph debate.

Crowley Political Report was at the Reagan debate with George H.W. Bush. Reagan was much better than Gingrich. Judge for yourself below.

But first, back to the question - does Santorum have a snowball's chance in Florida? Yes. But the snow didn't last on the ground for more than a few hours in 1977, and Santorum may have to push past either Gingrich or Mitt Romney in South Carolina if he doesn't want to melt here.

(Note: in the video Reagan says Mr. Green. The moderator's name was actually Jon Breen.)

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Crowley Political Report, as part of our ongoing examination of media coverage of the Florida presidential campaign for Columbia Journalism Review, took a look at news reporting about Mitt Romney's visit to Florida this week.

Some excerpts:

Romney spoke for a bit more than 15 minutes. Toss in another 15 minutes of shaking hands, and Romney spent a mere 30 minutes on public view—none of it particularly newsworthy.

But the armada of media on hand would have led viewers and readers to believe that this was not just a major Republican campaign event, but the political event of the campaign. Romney’s relatively brief visit to Florida, which also included two closed-press fundraisers on the island of Palm Beach, was greeted with print, web, and broadcast stories the day before his arrival and breathless coverage during his visit.

...

Did Romney deserve this extensive coverage? As the leading presidential candidate, someone widely presumed to be the likely nominee, Romney has earned a higher level of scrutiny.

But were readers and viewers well served? Much of the coverage was superficial or even cheerleading.

...

That leads to a final question—would other candidates have received the same attention? Maybe. While news organizations have often seemed befuddled over the last year in trying to figure out who the leading candidates were at any given moment, today there is more clarity. Votes have been cast. Reporters know who has the needed money and other resources to campaign successfully in a large state such as Florida. So news organizations can make better judgments.

But if Florida news organizations have made the decision that Romney deserves extraordinary coverage, then they need to make sure that coverage includes an equally in-depth look at Romney’s views about issues important to Floridians—housing and foreclosures, Florida’s deep unemployment, severe cuts to the space program, relationships with Cuba and Haiti, and oil drilling off Florida’s coast are just a few examples.

Assignment editors and reporters should remember that it is not up to the candidate to make the news. You can find it yourself.

Read the entire report which high praise for work done by the Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

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Crowley Political Report took a look at Florida newspaper front pages on Wednesday morning and found that overall the newspapers were unimaginative and did a dismal job for their readers.

It was especially surprising to see the Orlando Sentinel and Sun-Sentinel front pages which were used simply to point readers to their inside pages to find a story about Iowa.

We explored Florida's Iowa coverage for Columbia Journal Review. Some excerpts: 

By the end of this month, the contest for the Republican presidential nomination will move to the Sunshine State, so you might think that readers here had a particular interest in the outcome of this week’s Iowa caucuses.

If so, they weren’t well-served by the state’s newspapers. A look at a dozen Florida front pages from Wednesday showed that nearly all relied on The Associated Press or their parent companies’ Washington bureaus to report the results from Iowa. 

Two of state’s major papers gave particularly short shrift to the caucus results. Both the Orlando Sentinel and the Sun-Sentinel played stories about Iowa inside their Wednesday morning editions. The Sun-Sentinel teased from a small front-page box to 3A, the Orlando Sentinel from the front-page mast to A17.

The late hour when the caucus was finally called for Mitt Romney may have had something to do with those decisions—and the Sun-Sentinel also directed print readers to its website—but the papers’ coverage was not any more impressive online.

Both newspapers are part of the Tribune chain, and it was surprising to see how their next-day coverage treated the caucuses as a minor event. The newspapers seemed to be telling readers that they knew they simply could not compete with late results and overwhelming television and web coverage.

Around much of the state the coverage was similarly uninspired, the headlines unimaginative and predictable:

“Down to the wire in Iowa” - Bradenton Herald and Daytona Beach News-Journal

“Photo finish in Iowa” - Sun-Sentinel, “A photo finish for GOP” - Miami Herald, and “GOP photo finish in Iowa” - Tampa Tribune.

There was a “Dead heat in chilly Iowa” - Naples Daily News and a “Deadlock in Iowa” -The Palm Beach Post

As the Columbia Journalism Report story continues, we exam how other Florida newspapers looked on Wednesday morning and what some of them did on Thursday morning.

Read the rest of the story here and see which newspaper did the best job.

 You couldn't help but laugh when Republican political operative Mike Murphy offered this comment during Sunday's Meet the Press when he was asked what will happen if Rick Santorum does well in the Iowa caucuses.

 "The media works like Jurassic Park dinosaurs, 30 feet tall, huge teeth, with all due respect, not always the biggest brain, and it follows movement," said Murphy. "And when it sees movement, Rick Santorum, it stomps over there and tries to eat Rick Santorum. And that's what next week is going to be like."

 You gotta love Murphy. He can spin the hell out of you and be combative but Murphy is always fun to be around and he often knows what he is talking about.

Crowley Political Report first met Murphy in New Hampshire in 1996 when the then 34-year old was the mastermind behind the plaid-shirt wearing campaign of Lamar Alexander.  Poor Lamar failed in 1996 and again four years later but for Murphy it helped kick-off his career as a Republican media master.

Murphy helped Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and others become governors. He has had less luck with presidential campaigns. Still, politics has made Murphy a rich man and he remains a shrewd observer of the media.

His dinosaur comment was a brilliant observation - especially of the past year's coverage of the presidential campaign where the national media lurched from one candidate to the other often on the thinnest evidence of viability.

Michele Bachmann became a serious candidate because of the Ames, Iowa straw vote. Really? 

Was Herman Cain really a viable candidate or did the polls simple reflect the new direction of the thundering herd of dinosaurs stomping in his direction?

And now, of course, everyone is simply shocked that anyone in Iowa is paying attention to Rick Santorum?

And poor Newt Gingrich, will the thundering herd head his way again?

After the caucus results are in, we'll find out quickly which way the dinosaurs are heading.

Which brings me to New Media. Warning: if all you are doing is following the dinosaur herd, you are not really adding to the conversation, you're just making stomping noises.

Mike Bender has left the Tampa Bay Times, aka St. Petersburg Times to join Bloomberg's new Tallahassee bureau.

Best is one of the best reporters in Tallahassee and his move to Bloomberg is big loss for the Times.

Bender is in New York where he is spending the week with Bloomberg editors. At first, Bender will be the only reporter in the new Bloomberg Tallahassee bureau but he expects the news organization to add staff.

Bloomberg also has a bureau in Miami.

"I'll be covering state government and politics," Bender, 34,  told Crowley Political Report. "And, I'll be doing enterprise reporting."

Bender will be back in Tallahassee on Monday.  If you are not following Bloomberg now, Bender is good reason to start.

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FlDemocracy2012.com, a creation of Florida's Scripps newspapers and televsion stations, asked a variety of Florida politcal types what they would give the Republican presidential candidates for Christmas.

The answers ranged from quite serious to ponderous to hillarious. Among those participating: Former Florida Senate President Ken Pruitt, former U.S. Reps. Tim Mahoney and Mark Foley, GOP political consultant Chris Ingram, Senate President Mike Haridopolos, USF Professor Wayne Garcia, and others.

A couple of their responses:

Former Florida Senate President Ken Pruitt (R): “I would give each one of the candidates a dove, representing peace, love and kindness, which is what we’re all going to need during this political season.”

Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL):  “That in the spirit of the holidays, Romney accidentally drinks spiked egg nog and admits it. That in his new role as a Catholic, Newt Gingrich abstains from lecturing the baby Jesus that Bethlehem was an invented location. That someone tells Bachmann that Hanukkah isn’t special bread you make French toast with. That someone explains to Rick Santorum that he doesn’t actually have to pretend he lives in Iowa after the caucuses.”

Read what others had to say here.

Note: Crowley Political Report does political analysis for WPTV NewChannel 5, a Scripps station.

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