There are actually a couple of odd things about the Mitt Romney gaffe that recently surfaced on the newly-Ben Smith-run Buzzfeed. In the brief clip, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney claims that “we (Americans) are the only people on Earth that put our hand over our heart during the playing of the National Anthem.”

The claim itself is weird (and false) on its face, but what’s equally weird is that he’s been making it for months.

Several months ago, Politico reporter Ben Smith lamented that his blog at the site was being trumped by his Twitter feed. Where once people would refresh his blog for updates, now they could simply follow him on Twitter and know what he was going to post before he posted it. The blog became secondary, slower – a formalized storehouse for organized pieces of information.

Reality TV star Jim Bob Duggar, from TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, endorsed Rick Santorum today at a rally in Polk City, Iowa. “All the people in America that have conservative family values have to get behind Rick Santorum for President,” Duggar said.

Politico‘s Ben Smith left many media heads askew in confusion when he announced that he was leaving the major political publication for Buzzfeed, previously most popularly known for its vast library of adorable animal videos. Howard Kurtz was certainly among those that didn’t see anything about this media move coming, and naturally had a few questions for the new editor in chief on his program yesterday.

Recent visitors to the front page of viral trend aggregator Buzzfeed, which recently added Politico’s Ben Smith to its staff, have been “treated” to a Silkwood shower-worthy YouTube video of a super-creepy guy videotaping a pair of sunbathers, one of whom the site alleges (but can’t confirm) is MSNBC star Rachel Maddow. The woman in the short video does bear a striking visual and aural resemblance to the Forward-Leaning liberal icon, but Mediaite has confirmed that the reluctant star of the video is not Rachel Maddow.

Innnneresting news: Politico’s Ben Smith is leaving the site within the next few weeks to take on a new position at… BuzzFeed.

Earlier today, Politico reported that Texas Gov. Rick Perry‘s campaign demanded that near-frontrunner Mitt Romney release his tax returns, which Romney’s camp says he won’t do until “next tax season.”

In a rare (these days) bit of bipartisanship, former Obama spokesman Bill Burton released a statement agreeing with the Perry camp, and zinging a recent Romney gaffe. If Romney does release his tax return, though, will Perry have to run it through Donald Trump to see if it’s real?

According to a Wonkette post Monday afternoon, GOP presidential hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann asked a crowd at an event in Iowa, “Who likes white people?”

The post was tweeted by Politico’s Ben Smith, who noted that it was an “out-of-context line (it’s a band name),” but The CW’s Alana Russo quickly pointed out that the unedited version clearly demonstrates that Bachmann actually roused the crowd with the strange applause line “Who likes wet people?”

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele pressed senior Obama adviser David Axelrod on the Politico piece that suggested Team Obama’s strategy would be to paint GOP hopeful Mitt Romney as “weird.”

Axelrod called the Politico story “garbage,” and agreed with Steele that any Obama campaign staffer who used such an attack against Romney would be fired. For now, at least, we’re still talking about how “weird” Romney is.

According to a new Politico piece, President Obama’s reelection team are zeroing in on Mitt Romney as the guy they’ll most likely have to beat come next November, and in interviewing about a dozen Obama advisers, the common narrative thread was Romney’s “weirdness.”

It appears that Fox News is not ready to take Media Matters’ “victory lap” over Glenn Beck‘s departure this week lying down. In fact, half of today’s Fox News Watch was dedicated to MMFA’s “guerrilla warfare,” and questioning whether their tax-exempt status was fair given the feud.

The unfolding scandal involving what Rep. Anthony Weiner calls a hack of his social media accounts has proven to be a roiling petri dish of new media sickness, as the rush to judgment has overshadowed the fair presentation of the facts. The initial rush to convict Rep. Weiner of tweeting a naughty picture to a follower in Seattle has led to equally irresponsible suggestions that Andrew Breitbart and his staff engineered a “hoax,” and sloppy reporting of the facts, all around.

Some, notably a blogger at DailyKos, have suggested that the screen shot that Andrew Breitbart‘s Big Government ran when it broke the Anthony Weiner Twitter story is a forgery. Our resident expert, Philip Bump, reviewed their findings, and newly-released data about the original YFrog photo, and found evidence that strongly suggests Breitbart’s innocence, and supports Weiner’s contention that he was hacked. Here is Phil’s analysis of the DailyKos findings, and the newly-released cache information on the YFrog photo.

As details slowly unfold in the Memorial Day saga of Rep. Anthony Weiner‘s (D-NY) social media accounts, which he says were hacked to allow the distribution of a lewd photo via Twitter, the surplus of speculation has been exceeded only by a shortage of firsthand information. Rep. Weiner’s office has trickled out some information, but now, for the first time, the alleged intended recipient of the picture, Gennette Nicole Cordova, is speaking out exclusively, in a lengthy statement to The NY Daily News.

It may be too soon to say for sure, but this Memorial Day weekend may go down in the annals of Twitter history, as one of the strangest ones imaginable. Rep. Anthony Weiner claimed that his Twitter account had been hacked after an inappropriate photo surfaced that was alleged to have been sent to a college student via the social media platform. There are a slew of legitimate questions, however, that remain. Once answered, they could do irreparable damage to some high profile personalities, particularly if there is more to the story, as there most certainly is. (See update at end of post for Gennette Cordova’s public statement on the matter).

Presidential candidates, as a rule, hate being corrected by lowly reporters. Just ask Tim Pawlenty. Meeting with reporters on the trail, Pawlenty was asked about U.S. policy towards Iran, but seemed to be referring to Iraq in his response, “I think the situation now in Iran is such that Secretary Gates is negotiating with whether the United States Military will be there beyond the end of this year. And they’re looking to the Iranians to see if they invite the Americans to stay, invite us to stay.” The extended answer was interrupted by a reporter who said “you mean Iraq, not Iran.”

And naturally, it was caught on tape and distributed, Politico’s Ben Smith says, by “the new Democratic group American Bridge.”

Yep, that was no typo. 2016. Politico’s Ben Smith has looked over the mountain of the 2012 election to see what’s down the path, and he sees same sex marriage as a potentially huge issue in the race for the Democratic nomination. Smith says a conversation with Bob Shrum about “three or four Democrats already operating with an eye on the national stage” included a discussion of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

POLITICO’s Ben Smith, citing “a source familiar with the move” says Fox News has terminated its contracts with Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. According to the report, the decision was motivated by the
passing of a May 1 deadline for the two potential presidential candidates to decide on a White House run.

Well this is certainly something you don’t see every day. Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist has recorded a no-nonsense video apologizing to Talking Head’s front man David Byrne for the unlicensed use of the song “Road To Nowhere” during his Senate run of last year. Byrne and his team of lawyers reportedly forced Crist into taping this apology as part of a settlement in the copyright lawsuit.

The Arizona Democratic Party heard rumors that Sarah Palin might be thinking about moving her base of operations from Wasilla to Scottsdale and they jumped into action. That is, they wrote a pithy fundraising letter–this stuff could mean big bucks. “Help us send a strong message that Arizona should not be a stepping stone for extremist politicians and their radical agendas,” wrote party executive director Luis Heredia in an email to supporters. “Contribute to the Arizona Democratic Party.”

This morning on Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy weirdly went after Politico‘s Ben Smith, calling Politico a “lefty web site” and reading some unflattering comments about Smith from commenters to Smith’s articles. Elevating the criticism from random anonymous commenters seems at best a unique way to target a reporter whose credibility is in question, but will anyone really think it’s effective?

Well, finally! It took them practically forever, but the Republicans have saved America and started a great upward economic swing. At least, that’s what an email sent by Eric Cantor’s team to reporters this morning says. However, some of those reporters have taken the time to look into the emails claims and aren’t entirely convinced.

James Fallows of the Atlantic and Ben Smith of Politico are both covering the “Chinese Professor” attack ad from Citizens Against Government Waste (video below).

That was fast. Faisal Shahzad, the so-called Times Sq. Bomber who (bunglingly) attempted to blow up an SUV in Times Sq. back in May was convicted to like in prison this morning after pleading guilty to the charges.

Politico’s Ben Smith is reporting that Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp., parent company of Fox News, donated $1 million to Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby that supports Republican candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.