Yesterday we wrote about Penn Jillette going off on President Obama. However, he wasn’t the only entertainment icon to give his (negative) thoughts on a 2012 presidential candidate. Bruce Willis did an interview with Esquire Magazine. In it, the actor explained that he’s grown tired of interviews because he knows that he’ll say something he shouldn’t like dissing Mitt Romney.

South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn did not get the memo regarding attacks on Bain Capital… or did he? Appearing on MSNBC’s Jansing and Co. on Tuesday, Rep. Clyburn characterized former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain in the most “war on womeny” of ways when he said that Romney’s work consisted of “raping companies.”

A massive expose in the L.A. Times on Tuesday resurrects the political attack on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s wife Ann Romney and her expensive hobby of keeping and riding dressage horses. The L.A. Times reveals a lawsuit that the Romney’s had to settle in which the extent of their addiction to pricey hobby riding. However, while the L.A. Times refrains from drawing political conclusions from their expose, those conclusions had been made in the past by other media outlets that sought to shed light on Ann Romney’s pecuniary habits.

On CNN’s Starting Point Tuesday morning, Soledad O’Brien spoke with Romney campaign adviser Barbara Comstock, questioning her on whether her candidate’s campaign ad —”Big Bain Backfire,” which used Newark mayor Cory Booker‘s recent comments to attack President Obama was taken out of context.

“Cory Booker says he’s furious and was taken out of context. Is he right?” O’Brien asked Comstock.

On Monday’s Late Show, host David Letterman offered a glimpse at a campaign ad showing how a Mitt Romney presidency might look.

After joking that Romney has so much money on him that his wallet requires a handle and wheels, Letterman cued the ad.

The Obama campaign spent the better part of the day of attempting to recover from Newark Mayor Cory Booker‘s near-scuttling of a major component of their reelection effort, coming very close with President Obama‘s strong double-down at a press conference this afternoon. Then, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt took to Anderson Cooper 360 to undo as much of that as he could.

Pegged on the media frenzy surrounding Newark Mayor Cory Booker‘s comments about President Barack Obama‘s attacks on Mitt Romney‘s record at Bain Capital, Rev. Al Sharpton had a fiery segment with former RNC Chairman Michael Steele and Gov. Ed Rendell. Sharpton ended by questioning Booker’s comments, while Steele encouraged them.

MSNBC host Chris Matthews slammed the Sunday morning institution Meet the Press on his program on Monday. He said that Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker’s engaged in “sabotage,” disabling a major attack on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s tenure with the private equity firm Bain Capital. But what is perhaps most shocking is how quickly the attacks on Bain have come apart when one prominent voice too many departs from the preferred line on Bain. With the Bain attacks on life support, the Obama campaign may find itself having to break out its strongest attacks against Romney far earlier than it would have preferred.

During a press conference at the NATO Summit in Chicago, President Obama was asked about the hot political story of the day, Newark Mayor Cory Booker‘s criticism (and walkback) of the Obama campaign’s focus on Mitt Romney‘s record at Bain Capital. The President said he thought Booker was “an outstanding mayor,” and pushed back on the Romney campaign’s claim that the Bain attacks are a “distraction.”

Newark Mayor Cory Booker‘s YouTube walkback of comments criticizing President Obama’s campaign has been dubbed a “hostage video” by some, implying that Booker was leaned on to reverse himself. During an interview with CNN’s Brooke Baldwin, however, Obama/Biden Press Secretary Ben LaBolt denied that the campaign had any contact with Mayor Booker prior to the release of the YouTube video, despite David Axelrod’s earlier non-denial.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker caused quite a stir when he criticized President Barack Obama‘s attack on Bain Capital. Rather inevitably, Mitt Romney‘s campaign has released an ad featuring Booker (who is an Obama surrogate). The message: even the president’s own party is turning against him.

David Axelrod, senior advisor to President Obama’s reelection campaign, engaged in a contentious interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Monday over the appropriateness of attacks on the private equity firm Bain Capital. Mitchell and Axelrod spoke over each other several times as he attempted to explain an interview that Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker gave on NBCs Meet the Press on Sunday in which he appeared to contradict the Obama campaign’s messaging regarding former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s tenure with Bain.

“[Cory] Booker would rather be seen on Oprah’s couch than in City Hall,” former Newark mayor Sharpe James remarked of a successor he once defeated long ago, before he became a convicted felon, to the Star-Ledger shortly after leaving jail. Mayor Cory Booker– the media darling, the movie star, the executive of a post-industrial tragedy of a city– has always had an image of being just a bit on the safe side for a New Jersey politician, a little too much of a goody two-shoes. Perhaps knowing, perhaps otherwise, the Mayor tore off the yoke of of a pristine reputation from his chest yesterday in what many are considering a “gaffe”: attacking the President of his party (and his nation) with the vocabulary of a true New Jersey politician. And by turning the Democratic National Committee against him, Mayor Booker may have just put potential 2012 gubernatorial rival Gov. Chris Christie in checkmate.

On Monday’s edition of Morning Joe, New York Magazine contributing editor Benjamin Wallace-Wells discussed his new article on the lessons Mitt Romney learned from his father George’s failed 1968 Republican primary campaign. Wells posited that, in some ways, the current presumptive Republican nominee is more like Richard Nixon than George Romney, especially in how he has handled the current rightward shift in the conservative base.

During an appearance on Meet the Press, Newark Mayor Cory Booker decried “nauseating” campaign tactics coming from both parties, singling out in particular attacks from the Obama campaign on Mitt Romney’s private sector experience at Bain Capital. Well, Booker slightly backtracked from his remarks on YouTube, explaining that while he may have an issue with how negative the race has become, he thinks Romney’s ties to Bain Capital are certainly fair game for the Obama campaign, and even encouraged them to look into the Republican candidate’s business past.

It’s only a matter of time before this presidential race turns nasty. And while everyone in the media has their popcorn makers ready for the inevitable ad war, both campaigns have, so far, acted as deterrents for some of the more highly charged rhetoric in the campaign. Mitt Romney publicly shut down the idea that he would capitalize on Reverend Jeremiah Wright to attack President Obama. Chris Matthews predicted on his show today that the likely 2012 winner will the the candidate who goes further in getting negative against their opponent.

Mitt Romney has been touting his private sector experience to help bolster his economic credentials by stating that he is a job creator. He recently released an ad claiming on his first day in office, he would take several steps to create new jobs. On today’s Meet the Press, CNBC’s Jim Cramer argued that while Romney might try to claim it, most people don’t see him as a job creator, rather, they view him as more of a “job destroyer.”

On Sunday morning’s Up with Chris Hayes, host Chris Hayes led off with the umpteenth cable news discussion of the Obama campaign’s assault on Mitt Romney‘s record at Bain Capital, and Romney’s attempt to draw a “character assassination” foul over it. Hayes and panel raised interesting questions about whether Team Obama’s courtship of private equity donors amounts to hypocrisy, and whether Romney’s Bain record is an indicator of how he would govern, among others.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker sat in on today’s Meet the Press panel, and during a long discussion on the economy’s impact on the 2012 presidential election, Booker made it clear he thinks the election should be focused on the economy and not on “nauseating” “crap” that has been dominating the news cycles recently. He condemned not just the Republicans’ attacks on Reverend Wright, but Democratic attacks on private equity firms to hit Mitt Romney.

Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod appeared on CNN’s State of the Union today to discuss a discarded Super PAC ad proposal that was trying to bring President Obama‘s old pastor Reverend Wright back into the race. Some liberal pundits have been saying that because conservatives think Wright is fair game, Mitt Romney‘s Mormon faith should be on the table as well. Axelrod was quick to repudiate any attacks on Romney’s religion, and contrasted the Obama team’s handling of that issue with how Romney’s team has handled the Wright situation.

Hilary Rosen, whose profile as a pundit was raised perhaps the highest of any other during the peak of the “War on Women” contraception and motherhood debate, told CNN today that she “hated” the term “War on Women” and found the concept “disturbing.” Rosen, on a panel to debate women as a political constituency with Margaret Hoover and host Christine Romans, explained that it did not make sense to “think of women as a constituency– we are the majority,” and she and Hoover agreed that, as far as the economy goes, women are just as much at its mercy as men.

The story of a Super PAC planning on resuscitating Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue has raised questions on both sides of the aisle– from the ethics of doing so to why the mainstream media avoided the topic. On Fox & Friends this morning, Jonah Goldberg noted that he found in the mainstream media a “deep, nagging insecurity” about the way they handled the 2008 campaign, one that has made them somewhat hesitant to bring up issues from 2008 that could politically help the President.

It is 2012 and the nation faces a brand new presidential election, but somehow Rev. Jeremiah Wright has become, once again, a focal point in the campaign, due in some part to a Super PAC proposal the New York Times dug up suggesting hammering that point into the political consciousness of voters. On last night’s Ed Show, host Ed Schultz argued the fairness and relevance of bringing up Wright again, and how Mitt Romney may be exposing himself to attack over his Mormon faith if he allows his campaign to go after Wright.

In honor of Mitt Romney‘s commencement speech at Liberty University last week, Bill Maher used his show-ending New Rule tonight to question the validity of the entire university’s credentials and argue that when they give out diplomas, it “cheapens my degree from a real school.” Maher said that because of Liberty’s religious bent, the university isn’t on par with “legitimate” universities that provide students with a comprehensive education.

Big Journalism Editor in Chief Dana Loesch has been tweeting some astute analysis of Mitt Romney‘s response to the race baiting Joe Ricketts-commissioned attack strategy against President Obama, particularly that the candidate is “playing good cop to PACs bad cop,”: and is “acting outraged” as part of that strategy.

Her analysis is so astute, in fact, that one liberal blogger thinks these revelations may have come from the horse’s mouth.