I debated Alan Grayson...well, sort of...

Earlier this month, I debated the once-and-future Congressman (sigh...) Alan Grayson on Fox 35 Orlando regarding whether ObamaCare was at fault for announced layoffs at Orlando Regional Healthcare Systems. 

Well, OK, I didn't really debate him in person. But we were both invited to comment on the story and I believe my analysis up very well against Grayson's predictable talking points:

President, Debate Moderator Can't Keep Facts Straight on Libya

During tonight's presidential debate, Mitt Romney directly challenged Barack Obama on the issue of the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya. With some assistance from teammate moderator Candy Crowley, Obama once again avoided telling the American people the straight truth about the events that led to the deaths of four Americans and heightened concerns about the safety of our diplomats around the globe.

After the debate, Crowley was forced to eat crow and admit that Romney's comments on Libya were actually correct:

Regarding the rest of Obama's desperate spin, the Romney campaign has helpfully put together a list of quotes and dates from the Obama administration's statements on Libya.

Now, this list might look strange to mainstream media types. You know, because it contains actual facts. Read on below...

Live-Blogging Tonight's Debate

Well, tonight started with an earthquake (yes, really)...it remains to be seen whether tonight's presidential debate will be as earth-shattering as the last one. Here's all the links to follow along the action tonight:

Shocker, I know: Biden got his facts wrong about Palin

"Hey Joe, I didn't know you could travel through time!"

At the vice presidential debate last night, Joe Biden made a curious comment regarding Sarah Palin:

“You know, I heard that death panel argument from Sarah Palin. It seems that every vice presidential debate, I hear this kind of stuff about panels. But let's talk about Medicare..."

Wait a second. Palin was claiming that  the implementation of ObamaCare would involve death panels in 2008?

The legislation wasn't introduced until the summer of 2009. 

Live-Blogging Tonight's VP Debate

Last week's presidential debate was an amazing, incredible evisceration of Barack Obama's campaign, and I am really looking forward to tonight's contest between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan.

Once again, I'll be live-blogging tonight from my Sulia account. You can follow the posts on the Sunshine State Sarah Facebook page or on Twitter at @rumpfshaker.

The Romney campaign has a widget for following the Twitter feeds of their staffers. I've embedded it below:

"Bad Lip Reading" of the Presidential Debate

The insanely clever (and possibly cleverly insane) people at Bad Lip Reading posted their version of the first debate between Obama and Romney yesterday:

Comeback for Obama in the next debate?

The consensus today, across the political spectrum, is that Romney annihilated Obama at the debate last night. The blamestorming on the Left has been nothing short of hysterical (I've been hashtagging tweets with #delicioustears), including Al Gore's pathetic excuse that Obama was suffering from altitude problems.

The question now is whether Obama will be able to mount a comeback the next time the two candidates meet on stage.

Apparently, the President may have a secret weapon:

Pre-Debate Blogger Call With Marco Rubio [AUDIO]

The Romney Digital Team set up a conference call with Senator Marco Rubio and several conservative bloggers before last night's presidential debate. Rubio is one of the best in the country at delivering the conservative message, and last night was no exception.

Rubio was very positive and upbeat during the call, both about Mitt Romney as a candidate, and about how he expected the Governor to do during the debate. As we now know, Rubio had good reason for optimism.

The campaign graciously permitted me to record the call, and I've posted it on my YouTube channel:

Live-Blogging the Debate

I'll be live-blogging the debate tonight from my Sulia account. You can follow the posts on the Sunshine State Sarah Facebook page or on Twitter at @rumpfshaker.

The Romney campaign has a widget for following the Twitter feeds of their staffers. I've embedded it below:

Mathematical breakdown behind Gingrich's troubles in Florida

Want to know why Newt Gingrich's campaign is falling apart in Florida? Here are the numbers that tell the story:

The Sayfie Review conducted a survey of likely Republican voters on January 27, 2012 (the day after the CNN debate in Jacksonville), and got some interesting numbers.

Jason Chaffetz: Rimshots, Romney, & Doing What's Right

After last Thursday's CNN debate in Jacksonville, I caught up with Jason Chaffetz, Republican Congressman from Utah's 3rd District, in the spin room. Here's a video of the interview:

#CNNdebate: River City Rumble!

Press filing room at the UNF student union.

Welcome to the #RiverCityRumble! (Credit for that hashtag goes to @AbelHarding, I believe.)

I'm here in the press filing room at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, getting ready to watch the latest Republican mud wrestling match debate, which will air on CNN starting at 8 pm.

You can follow my commentary at my twitter feed (@rumpfshaker) and I was also invited to live blog the debate for Sulia.com. Follow along at this address:

http://www.sulia.com/channel/gop-primaries-2012/

If you want just my feed, click here.

Some thoughts on last night's television

Lots of excitement on TV last night: Leonard and Penny might be getting back together, a great series of completely-immature-yet-still-hilarious double entendres from Sheldon, and a funny gag involving a life-size cardboard cutout of Zachary Quinto.

Oh, what's that? You came to Sunshine State Sarah for something other than a recap of Big Bang Theory's 100th episode? Heh. OK, fine. There was also some political stuff on last night too. Here's my thoughts...

Follow up from Saturday's GOP debate

Ah. Finally. Someone put the entire debate on YouTube. I was having the worst time getting the original video to embed properly and it was slowing down this site's load time. The perils of amateur web design...sigh...

Anyway, read my post from yesterday, and then I really recommend that you watch the debate when you get a chance. FYI there's some introductory remarks from the debate organizers and Frank Luntz, and the actual debate starts at about the 35 minute mark:

YouTube | PikaFilms | Thanksgiving Family Forum -- Complete Video

The GOP debate you probably didn't watch, but should have

Last night, CitizenLink, a Focus on the Family affiliate, sponsored a debate in Iowa last night between the Republican presidential candidates, focusing on social issues. But you probably didn't see it, because it was online only, in a livestream that was scheduled up against a lot of college football games. That's really a shame, because it was definitely worth watching.

(At the end of this post, I've included a link to the video of the entire debate, so you can watch it, and I strongly encourage you to do so.)

The Las Vegas Debate aka Conservative Slap Fight

Well, that was entertaining.

The Republican presidential candidates met in Las Vegas last night for the latest debate. As appropriate for the location, it was a wild evening with some of the nastiest fights ever between the candidates yet and even an appearance by Wayne Newton.

I've got the Twitter trending topics (from right after the debate ended) for you, and then some random little thoughts about the debate itself:

#StandWithRubio - GOP Candidates Announce Boycott of Univision Debate

Que imbecilidad

Spanish-language TV station Univision learned a lesson today about the limits of their influence.

After the story broke that Univision had released an embarrassing twenty year old story about Senator Marco Rubio's brother-in-law, allegedly in retaliation for Rubio's refusal to appear on the liberal Al Punto show (Shark Tank has a good write up here), three Hispanic Republican leaders - Congressman David Rivera, Florida House Majority Leader Carlos Lopez-Cantera, and Miami-Dade County Republican Party Chairman Erik Fresen - sent letters to the Republican National Committee and the Republican presidential campaigns.

The candidates responded in an avalanche today, with Herman Cain, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman, and Michele Bachmann all announcing that they would boycott a Univision-hosted debate unless the station made amends with Rubio.

More 20/20 Hindsight regarding Herman Cain

September 2011 is a month that Herman Cain will never forget. I've already written about how events last month should have made Cain's win at the Florida Presidency 5 straw poll less shocking, but September is far from the first time that Cain has exhibited strong potential. Check out these articles from back in May, when the first debate took place in South Carolina and Cain officially announced his candidacy:

Conservative snarky chicks x 3

One of the best things about going to gatherings like CPAC, RedState Gatherings, etc. is getting to meet other conservative bloggers and commentators. Two of my fellow conservative chicks and princesses of snark, Jenn Taylor and Lori Ziganto have a blog and online radio program called "That's What She Said," and they invited me on the program for last Thursday's show.

We discussed my experiences as an eyewitness to the infamous booing at the GOP debate last week, Herman Cain's exciting win at the straw poll, and the implications for the Republican contest for president. Jenn and Lori do a great job with their show and I had a really fun time as their guest.

You can download the show at iTunes or listen to it at the TWSS Dames blog.

Keith Olbermann calls me "improbable"...huh?!

Just when I think liberal media bias has reached the apex of insanity, I find something like this...

Keith Olbermann, who was too ridiculous for even MSNBC to tolerate, recently landed at Al Gore's internet television venture "Current TV." As expected, the move to an online audience hasn't toned down Olby's foaming-at-the-mouth liberal ranting.

This weekend, I got a tip on Twitter (thank you, @aipolitics) that Olbermann had mentioned me last week as part of his tiresome segment naming various people conservatives as "The Worst Person in the World." Unlike Olbermann, I know how to use Google (more on that in a minute), and easily found the video (relevant section starts at about the two-minute mark):