A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows plenty of reason for Mitt Romney to smile, and for Rick Perry to check his rear-view mirror. On the heels of a debate that saw Perry take a beating on Social Security, his lead in this poll has dropped from 12% in late August, to just 7% in a poll taken days after the CNN/Tea Party debate. Prior to the debate, a Zogby Poll had Perry with an 18-point lead. Coupled with the fact that Perry still loses in head-to-head polling with President Obama, while Romney wins, is Perry’s campaign headed for trouble?

In one of several recent ugly audience reactions at Republican debates, several in the crowd at last night’s CNN/Tea Party Express debate hooted their approval at moderator Wolf Blitzer‘s followup question about leaving a hypothetical coma patient to die if he couldn’t pay for care. Rep. Ron Paul said that the uninsured should “take (their) own risks,” and Blitzer rejoined, “are you saying that society should just let him die?”

At Monday night’s CNN/Tea Party Debate, moderator Wolf Blitzer asked Rep. Michele Bachmann if she agreed that fed chairman Ben Bernanke should be tried for treason. Bachmann passed on the question of Bernanke’s possible trial for his life. In a moment reminiscent of last week’s Death Penalty Ovation, the audience was unequivocal, cheering the suggestion loudly. Given the opportunity to recant, Gov. Rick Perry corrected Blitzer as to his original statement, and doubled down instead.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul can’t remember Texas Governor Rick Perry‘s name. In what is shaping up to be the most contentious intrastate Republican presidential clash since Tim Pawlenty and Rep. Michele Bachmann duked it out at last week’s debate, GOP frontrunner Rep. Paul mocked his governor in front of a crowd in New Hampshire today, noting that, despite his years of railing against the Federal Reserve, he had “never once suggested Bernanke committed treason,” like a certain “Southern governor.”

On last night’s Ed Show, host Ed Schultz played an out-of-context clip of Texas Governor Rick Perry discussing a “black cloud” over America, suggesting he was making a potentially racist comment about the President. Tonight, he apologized and played the clip in full, which shows Perry was clearly referencing the national debt, though added that “the full context” of many other clips “show who [Perry] really is,” and it’s not, to Schultz, a pretty picture.

Being a campaigning politician is tricky. You want to be sure you speak to your base without alienating other potential voters. You need to make sure that your speeches are clear, concise, and memorable, without risking misinterpretation. And you want to make sure to use strong rhetoric and make firm promises to show that you are a real and competent leader, without making it seem like you’d sign off on the murder of, say, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke. Such is the balance GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry found himself tipping during his speech last night at an Iowa fundraiser.

It’s been a long strange trip for Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. When it was first released in 1946, it received mixed reviews. However, it’s now considered an all time classic. And, in 1947, the FBI completed a memo calling the film Communist propaganda. However, today in 2011, Glenn Beck, enemy of Communists everywhere, used the film to explain his ideology and how we’re all being robbed by the evil Federal Reserve.

Come on, folks. Lets take a trip to Bedford Falls with our guardian angel, Glenn Beck.

Too Big To Fail, Andrew Ross Sorkin‘s exposé on the 2008 financial crisis, is being adapted into a movie for HBO, and the cast list has been announced today. Paul Giamatti, whose past performance in John Adams makes him no stranger to HBO adaptations, will be playing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, William Hurt will be playing former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and Billy Crudup will probably have to apply a bit of blush to play the perpetually ruddy current Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

2009 was a remarkably troubled year for magazine publishing. But a few titles were able to eke out some positive attention and influence over the field — thanks, in part, to the vision and leadership of their editors. In our first end-of-year media poll, we ask our loyal, smart, and attractive users to share their thoughts on who had the biggest year in various media categories. Our first category: Magazine Editors.

Last night, Bill O’Reilly had Time Magazine managing editor Rick Stengel on his show to discuss Time‘s decision to name Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke as their Person of the Year. After Stengel explained their decision to put Bernanke on the cover (over the Kardashian sisters, as O’Reilly suggested), the conversation turned to print as a medium. According to O’Reilly, Newsweek isn’t going to survive.

Warning: viewers of certain cable news programs that have blamed the nation’s recent economic problems on Barney Frank may not want to watch this video for fear that one’s head might explode. MSNBC anchor (and Alan Greenspan spouse) Andrea Mitchell had Congressman Frank on to discuss Time Magazine’s naming of Ben Bernanke as Person of the Year.

After all of the speculation that Barack Obama was going to be Time‘s Person of the Year for the second year in a row, the award went to … Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Since announcing the pick, Time has been sending signals that seem to say that President Obama, who was announced to be a finalist for the award on Monday, but was not really in contention after all:

Time takes its ‘Person of the Year’ very seriously, as evidenced by this year’s pick: United States Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who I suspect is really just a fill in for the U.S. economy, which yes, is absolutely the overriding issue of the year. Had Time taken the whole thing slightly less seriously they probably would have considered picking someone who might actually sell magazines

Turns out when President Obama sends out his spokesperson to inform the Air Force One press pool that he wants them to relax and furthermore assures them that “nobody’s looking to make any news” what he actually means is that one day into his Martha’s Vineyard vacation he is going to hold a press conference to announce that he will be reappointing Republican Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman.