During an appearance on Meet the Press this morning that was mostly focused on foreign policy, David Gregory asked John McCain for his take on the race for the Republican nomination so far, and why Mitt Romney seems unable to seal the deal before the convention. And McCain did not mince words, calling the 2012 race the “nastiest” he’s ever seen, and attributing a lot of it to the large number of negative ads put out by Super PACs. He said all the negativity has been driving up every candidates’ unfavorables, and that ends up helping President Obama in the fall.

Mitt Romney appeared on Fox News Sunday this morning, and he was put on the defense when Bret Baier pointed out to him that looking at the number of votes each candidate has gotten compared to how much money they’ve spent, Romney has spent substantially more money per vote than his rivals. Romney defended the amount of money he’s spent in the campaign, arguing that the Republicans need a nominee with enough finances to take on the president.

In a continuation of the right wing’s newfound fetish for the early nineties and microfiche, the conservative Hate-O(bama)-sphere has cooked up another half-baked “smoking gun” to destroy President Obama’s presidency. This time, it’s a quote from a 1990 interview that they say demonstrates that President Obama hates America. MSNBC mainstay Rachel Maddow tracked down similar (maybe even worser) quotes from Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush that have yet to make the wingnuts spin.

For those of you who are getting sick and tired of this long, protracted Republican fight over who gets to be the nominee, console yourselves with the fact that it will all be over soon. Maybe. Chris Matthews talked about what lies ahead for Mitt Romney in the race to face President Obama on his show today, and his main contention was that despite Newt Gingrich continuing his campaign, it’s basically now a two-man race between Romney and Rick Santorum.

Gas prices have become a big issue in the Republican presidential race, with the GOP candidates criticizing President Obama over the rising price of gas. Newt Gingrich has been promoting his $2.50 gas proposal on the campaign trail, and now Mitt Romney is targeting not just President Obama, but two of his cabinet secretaries and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, over the rising cost of gas prices, and said during a campaign stop last night that all three of them, the “gas hike trio,” should be fired.

Donald Trump really does not like Rick Santorum. After becoming a Mitt Romney surrogate, Trump has taken to calling for Santorum to step aside and calling him “not a team player” for staying in the race. On last night’s On the Record, he made the same calls, arguing that “women would vote against him like you wouldn’t believe” and he “has no knowledge of economics,” but when asked whether Newt Gingrich, who has won two states, should do the same, Trump abstained. “He’s a friend of mine– and he’s a member of my club in Washington.”

Chris Christie is rapidly emerging as Mitt Romney‘s most valuable surrogate and he came out swinging this week in Chicago, telling an audience at a rally to be “very leery” of members of Congress– which, of course, all the remaining non-Romney candidates are. Namely, he phrased it as putting “another member of Congress” in there, implying that much of President Obama’s faults are beyond ideology and boil down to experience.

Newt Gingrich, “the cheerful one,” is, indeed, remaining ever cheerful and optimistic about his presidential bid. Following rumors that billionaire Sheldon Adelson would stop donating to his super PAC, Gingrich said he doesn’t need Adelson’s money to stay in the race.

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum threatened his own Santoromentum this week when, while campaigning in Puerto Rico, he remarked that English as the “main language” is a requirement for statehood. Santorum now says he was misquoted, but the Romney campaign was quick to capitalize on the gaffe.

However, on CNN’s Starting Point Friday morning, Romney supporter Carlos Gutierrez, called the campaign’s statement “A little on the snobby side.”

Appearing on Fox and Friends Friday morning, Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich struck back at President Obama remarks yesterday that “If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail, they probably must have been founding members of the flat earth society. They would not believe that the world was round!” Co-host Brian Kilmeade surmised that the President was stealing the former Speaker of the House’s lines. “He’s even using your phrases a little bit!” Kilmeade exclaimed.

Recently, Newt Gingrich said the new ABC show GCB is anti-Christian. Following the comment, Kristin Chenoweth, who stars in the series, responded and said Gingrich is wrong, and she wouldn’t make fun of her own religion that way.

America Live host Megyn Kelly invited GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney onto the program Wednesday afternoon to discuss a wide range of topics — from Gingrich to mandates to riches, oh my.

Today’s Southern primaries are delegate rich and possibly make-or-break for some Republican candidates, notable Georgian Newt Gingrich, who had only South Carolina and Georgia to his name coming into today’s race. For now, we at least know that the numbers in Alabama appear to show Rick Santorum has taken that state away from Gingrich, and NBC is projecting him the winner.

In the twilight of the Alabama and Mississippi Republican campaign season, former Rep. Michele Bachmann campaign head Ed Rollins visited Shepard Smith for some final thoughts on the race and the money pushing it forward. Rollins argued that the continuance of the race could be attributed almost single-handedly to SuperPACs, noting that without them, Mitt Romney could have easily shut down Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.

On Fox News earlier, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee advised the current presidential candidates to stop fighting with each other over which of them is the most conservative candidate because “compared to Barack Obama, they’re all conservative.” Huckabee warned that the negative nature of the race has boiled down to which of them is the “meanest junkyard dog.”

Two days ago on Fox News Sunday, Newt Gingrich called Mitt Romney the weakest Republican presidential frontrunner in almost a century. Yesterday on Fox & Friends, Romney responded by asking if he’s a weak frontrunner, what does that make Gingrich? So today, also on Fox & Friends, Gingrich responded to Romney’s response to Gingrich’s response to Romney’s frontrunner status. And they say TV is an echo chamber…

On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, columnist S.E. Cupp took some time to weigh in on the GOP candidates’ chances going forward in the South, particularly where Newt Gingrich — widely considered a “shoo-in” in the area, given he’s a Georgia native — is concerned. It turns out that Gingrich’s “Southern Strategy,” she shared, is something of a misnomer.

A favorite topic on The Five has always been how seemingly unfair it is that Hollywood feels ok with making fun of Christianity but not Islam. Personally, I’ve always assumed that this is because the hosts all have spec scripts for wacky Muslim sitcoms that they’re all desperately shopping around. Whatever the case, the issue has been debated a number of times on the show. However, no one on The Five is running for president (yet), so they have time to discuss such matters. That’s not the case for Newt Gingrich who got some grief today for throwing his two cents in about the show’s pet topic.

Even with a fair number of primaries ahead, Mitt Romney is trying to make the case that dragging out the race any further is a mistake, and that the other candidates should end the race and get behind him so the party is better poised to take on President Obama in November. He took it one rhetorical step further on Neil Cavuto‘s show today by saying the Republican party “would be signaling our doom” if the race ends in a brokered convention.

Yesterday Newt Gingrich said on Fox News Sunday that Mitt Romney is the weakest frontrunner the Republican party has had in almost a century. Romney appeared on Fox & Friends earlier today to talk about the race (and celebrate his birthday). Most of the interview consisted of Romney responding to charges made by his rivals, in particular Gingrich’s statement. Romney reacted by asking, “if I’m a weak frontrunner, what does that make Newt Gingrich?”

Fox News scored an exclusive last night saying that sources in the Newt Gingrich campaign are seriously considering the possibility of making Texas governor Rick Perry their vice presidential choice ahead of the RNC convention in Tampa. Carl Cameron reported that the campaign thinks a Gingrich-Perry ticket can help coalesce the Evangelical and tea party wings of the GOP. The Gingrich campaign, however, is flatly denying such conversations are taking place “at any level.”

As far as Mitt Romney is concerned, the race for the Republican nomination is all but officially decided. On This Week today, George Stephanopoulos asked Senator Lindsey Graham if his rivals should concede immediately in order to unite the party in opposition to President Obama. Graham agreed that Romney is essentially the party nominee, and unless something big happens in the race over the next few months, Romney will be heading into the convention the agreed-upon winner.

On Fox News Sunday today, Chris Wallace challenged Newt Gingrich on the chances of him taking the Republican nomination in the fall, stating that the math is such that Gingrich needs an overwhelming margin of all the outstanding delegates if he has any hope of getting it. Gingrich shot back by saying that he still has a good chance because Romney has not proven himself as a strong enough candidate over the course of the campaign, calling him the “weakest Republican frontrunner” in almost a century.

Newt Gingrich is spending his day campaigning to Republican crowds in the South, and took the opportunity to defend the Christian Southern demographic from the smears of the “elite media.” The culprit this time? ABC, for airing a show entitled “GCB” (“Good Christian Bitches”), which proves, according to Gingrich, that “anti-Christian bigotry is just fine in the entertainment industry” but the same of Islam is not.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been trying to revive his flagging campaign with the promise of $2.50-a-gallon gasoline, while other Republicans have tried to attack President Obama over rising gas prices. The President has handled these attacks pretty well, but it’s nice to see him getting an assist from the folks over at Fox News, who echoed President Obama’s responses to gas price politics…three years before he gave them. Countdown’s Keith Olbermann has the video, including Bill O’Reilly’s eerily similar remarks to President Obama’s, but in defense of President George W. Bush.