With all due respect, there have been a lot of Rick Perry gaffes in this campaign so far. Heck, I don’t think even Perry would argue with that. I have to say, though, this is one of the most enjoyable. You see, during an Iowa town hall, Perry was asked a question about a Supreme Court case that, by all indications, he knew nothing about. However, instead of backing down, he bravely powered through and just kept talking, somehow managing to give a two and a half minute answer about…something.

For the last few years, there’s been a great hullabaloo made over the “War on Christmas” — basically, the belief that companies, networks, and other public entities have phased out “Christmas” and replaced it with “holidays.” Fox News — led in the movement by Bill O’Reilly — has been a leader in the resistance of the movement, but we wanted to see if there were any other networks keeping “Christmas” in the lexicon, possibly in a more understated manner.

In an interview with the New Hampshire Union-Leader, which was broadcast in full on CSPAN, Mitt Romney argued that audience moderation — a point of particular interest this campaign season — is not a part of his job as a presidential hopeful. “I haven’t made it my practice to listen to the cheers and the views and then to try and correct the people on their expressions of their views,” he said, arguing that he would can his line while letting all voices, disagreeable and not, be heard.

After a fairly messy booking process and on the tail of a Fox News poll showing the Republican Party really doesn’t want her to run for office, Sarah Palin returned to form today in Iowa, where she railed against the Obama administration and “crony capitalism” for a good half hour, got in a few punchlines, and riled up the crowd with demands to “reclaim our country.”

In an act of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Congressional floor surrealism, Sen. Orrin Hatch presented the Senate floor today with an image of beloved Gilligan’s Island character Thurston Howell III during a monologue on tax policy. Suggesting that Democrats, and especially President Barack Obama, were being unfair in calling those that make $200,000 a year as rich as millionaires like Howell, and brought a photo with him to remind Democrats of what millionaires look like.

Sources close to her confirmed late last night that First Lady Betty Ford, widow of President Gerald Ford, passed away at age 93 in Palm Springs, California. Ford rose to become one of the most popular modern first ladies in part due to her support of women’s rights causes at the time and her work towards acceptance of substance abuse as an illness and the world of the Betty Ford Center.

Surprising no one, the opening sketch for tonight’s episode of Saturday Night Live was a reading of Osama bin Laden’s last will and testament on C-SPAN (where else?). Bin Laden’s requests included having Dakota Fanning as a pall bearer, provided she is still under 12 and a virgin at the time of his death, as well as a directive to not bury him at sea. Whoops, we’ve failed on both counts!

President Obama was introduced with an intentionally cheesy video package (picture Barney Stinson’s video resume from “How I Met Your Mother”) set to Rick Derringer’s “I Am A Real American” and featuring a repeating shot of his birth certificate set against an American flag background. Obama addressed the birther issue in his speech as well, announcing “I am prepared to go a step further…I am releasing my official birth video,” which turned out to be the opening number from The Lion King. The president even had a few choice words for Donald Trump.

Say what you will Anthony Weiner, but it’s undeniable that the man has quite a sense of humor. This is, after all, a person who made his awkward high school yearbook picture his Twitter avatar. Weiner was able to show off his comedic ability – while giving some on-point media advice – at the Congressional Correspondent’s Dinner, which was broadcast last night on C-SPAN 3.

Who needs Jon Stewart for ironically detached and comedic commentary on political absurdities? With The Daily Show on break, Rep. Anthony Weiner (a former summer house share buddy of the Comedy Central fake newsman) took to the House floor and fearlessly ripped the House GOP for their vote to defund NPR. And who did Weiner choose to play the victims? None other than Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers the hosts of NPR’s weekend show Car Talk.

Joe Manchin is the Democratic junior senator from West Virginia who got a lot of attention for his somewhat notorious “Dead Aim” campaign ad that featured his shooting of a piece of paper that had “Cap and Trade Bill” printed on it. It wasn’t so much the gun shooting that raised a nation’s eyebrows, it was Manchin’s rhetoric that appeared to counter President Obama‘s positions, specifically with regards to what he called “the bad parts of ObamaCare.” Well Manchin appears to be going after Obama again, though this time its on the Senate floor.

Tonight, Young America’s Foundation held a banquet honoring the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan. Sarah Palin delivered the keynote. It’s a Sarah Palin speech, so Palin lovers will love it, Palin haters will hate it, and there’s not much more to it than that. Video after the jump.

Ron Paul is nothing if not an conservative iconoclast. The Texas Republican House Representative, with deep libertarian roots is taking a counter-intuitive departure from the traditional and established GOP rhetoric on the issue of WikiLeaks. In an impassioned speech on the U.S. House floor, Paul likened the attack on Julian Assange to “killing the messenger for bringing bad news” before providing nine provocative questions for Americans to consider.

On Meet The Press today, Senators John Kyl and Dick Durbin discussed the START treaty and its slow progress in the Senate. Durbin went so far as to say that people who pay for cable news should ask for refunds when they watch C-SPAN and see nothing happening.

During a recent appearance on CSPAN’s Washington Journal, presumptive presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich took a shot at MSNBC anchors Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews. Why? Gingrich claimed to watch a couple of years ago moderated by “the relentlessly hostile” and “so left-wing hosts” designed to embarrass the GOP candidates. Turns out? Neither Olbermann nor Matthews ever moderated a debate with GOP hopefuls. Hmmm.

This is the sort of programming that could really get people to tune into CSPAN! During a BookTV discussion of Jonah Goldberg‘s latest book Proud to Be Right two of the panelists who had contributed essays to the tome got into an interesting back and forth. Todd Seavey and Helen Rittelmeyer used to date, and judging by Seavey’s comments, he’s still fairly bitter about the break-up. The Daily Caller described it as “the wonkiest, nerdiest Internet revenge ever.”

At least he must be happy she specifically wanted to talk to him. A 90-year-old C-SPAN viewer requested specifically to ask the “colored man” anchoring Washington Journal why it is “coloreds” are still angry about this whole “slavery” thing. When told the conversation topic on the program today was actually Wall Street, she felt it was important to clarify: “I’m not a racist.”

It seemed inevitable that someone would say this to Sen. Al Franken before his tenure in Congress was over. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, fed up with Franken’s alleged various funny faces and eye-rolling during his speaking time, went up to the senator after his allotted time and derisively reminded him that “this isn’t Saturday Night Live, Al.

Sitting before Congress as if standing before a firing squad, it only took about five minutes of the House committee’s opening statements for BP CEO Tony Hayward to stop looking like the sort of man who has the will to live. But amid the barrage of scolding and stark reminders of his company’s negligence, someone threw Hayward a lifeboat: an apology.

Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions questioned the strength of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan‘s moral principles today. Sessions argued that Kagan’s opposition of military recruitment on the Harvard campus– which she called a discriminatory group due to its Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy– was hypocritical as she did not also protest against the creation of a new Center for Islamic Studies “and Sharia Law.”

The White House is letting its hair down tonight to welcome President Felipe Calderon and the Mexican delegation to La Casa Blanca, and President Barack Obama gave a heartfelt speech reassuring President Calderon of their alliance and thanking the Mexican people for their contributions to society.

Since his recent comments that Tea Party members could launch an Oklahoma City-esque terror offensive, 90s nostalgics are clinging to the alternate universe where former president Bill Clinton is still in charge, and he’s keeping the dream alive by continuing to make policy on tv. He turned his eye to Goldman Sachs today, and he is “not sure they violated the law.”

Jon Stewart and The Daily Show took on the C-SPAN caller last night who was sick of hearing so many black people and wanted the network to change it’s name “from C-SPAN to Black-SPAN.”

But it wasn’t so much the caller that Stewart had a problem with – it was the reaction (or, non-reaction) of the host.

Earlier today, a caller called into the channel’s Washington Journal about the way they handle their callers. His main complaint: too many black people.
The caller, Bill, a Republican from St. Paul, seems to be believe that no black people can be conservatives and since they all worship Obama and therefore C-SPAN should take less of their calls to remain impartial (No black conservatives? Hasn’t he seen Michael Steele all over the news today?). It dissolves into racist nonsense almost immediately with Bill giving great insight about how C-SPAN should change their name to BLACK-SPAN. Ooh, burn.

While many people were yawning their way through the news networks’ coverage of the White House’s Health Care Summit, a government transparency advocacy group turned the event on its head and used social media and streaming technology to possibly become the next C-SPAN, PolitiFact or Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com.