Bill O’Reilly opened his show announcing a particularly exciting interview double-header today– yes, 2012 Republican candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would be on the program, but not before an extended interview with his former nemesis, former President Bill Clinton. O’Reilly got the former President’s opinion on just about every political topic in the news today, but, naturally, the most fascinating tidbits of the interview related to Gingrich and his ability to win the nomination. President Clinton had a thought or two on this.

One of the major problems facing Republican presidential frontrunners Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney is their longtime support for a national individual health insurance mandate, a major pillar of the dreaded Obamacare that conservative base voters hate so much. Romney passed an individual mandate as Massachusetts Governor, and expressed support for a national mandate. Gingrich, as Romney forced him to admit, all but thought the idea up. But there is one leading presidential candidate with a long record of opposition to mandating the purchase of health insurance.

In perhaps the most interesting segment of tonight’s Bloomberg/Washington Post Republican presidential debate, moderator Charlie Rose stepped out of the debate and let the candidates shoot questions at each other. Not surprisingly, most of the question went to frontrunner Mitt Romney, and of those the most informative exchange occurred between Romney and Texas governor Rick Perry, who challenged Romney on the most contentious part of his resume: the passing of “Romneycare” in Massachusetts.

While his show may be the newest on MSNBC, Al Sharpton is already proving he isn’t afraid of booking guests that disagree with him. That led to fairly loud debate last night, where Dallas Tea Party leader Phillip Dennis fielded Sharpton’s outraged questions about his movement– questions that seemed to either undermine Mitt Romney or dismiss the whole movement– and was led to conclude Sharpton “fears” the Tea Party.

During a recent town hall meeting set in a pastoral lake side setting, President Obama took a question about the reform of medical marijuana and strangely segued into the term ‘Obamacare.’ We suggested that he was simply “reclaiming the word‘ — which has been used repeatedly as a derisive hot-button term for the president’s detractors. But last night, Stephen Colbert broke down the true etymology of the term, and its not “Obama” and “Care” as the president suggested.

Yesterday we reported on the meanint of the political term “Obamacare” and how its lightening rod effect for criticism on both sides of the aisle. Another relatively recent political term that also has diametric connotations depending on political beliefs is “Tea Party.” Some feel that the Tea Party movement is most responsible for the new era of fiscal responsibility, small government and austerity that will help the federal government out of its current deficit crisis. Many others see the Tea Party as obstinate and extreme ideologues who demonstrated that they were willing to crash the US economy (or at least lead to a credit default) during the recent debt negotiations. Based on the recent Web-based political ad put out by the Democratic party, it’s clear that they are betting that the majority thinks negatively about the Tea Party, which you can watch below.

The term “Obamacare” is about as loaded a word as you could possibly imagine in the age of opinion media. On the right, it’s used as a way to not just deride the Obama administration’s efforts to reform health care, but also runaway spending and “big government.” On the left, it’s seen as a tell that whomever is using that particular term watches Fox News or listens to Rush Limbaugh. Well, during a town hall appearance today, President Obama weighed in on the term, and let his audience know that its use doesn’t bother him at all. Reclaiming the word?

It’s been a busy day of Rep. Michele Bachmann news, so it’s fitting the candidate would conclude the day with a television appearance herself, talking entitlement reform with Bill O’Reilly and outlining the steps she would take to save the economy, beginning with firing Tim Geithner and repealing “Obamacare.”

The Department of Health and Human Services really established that America’s private insurance companies must allow access to preventive health care needs to women. Free H.I.V. screenings, free counseling, even free breast pumps are covered under the plan which could start as soon as next August. Stephen Colbert is predictably outraged over this, declaring last [...]

With the debt ceiling talk finally behind the nation, it’s time to focus once again on the fledgling economy and generating jobs once more takes the fore. On tonight’s O’Reilly Factor, Bill O’Reilly turned his attention to the stock market’s decline, and while he lay the majority of the blame on the feet of the Obama administration, argued that extremists in Congress on the left and the right are causing much of the investor skepticism hurting the economy.

The Washington Post recently ran a story on the latest in Obama’s healthcare reform. Soon almost all health insurance plans might be required to offer patients free coverage of prescription birth control, breast pump rentals, counseling for domestic violence and annual wellness exams and HIV tests.

Lawrence O’Donnell dedicated his “Rewrite” segment tonight to socialism– no, not to extolling its virtues per se, but to teaching Republican candidates what his definition of socialism is and how, no matter how hard they try, Tim Pawlenty and Rep. Michele Bachmann are socialists if they are eager to rake in farm subsidies to keep Minnesota agriculture afloat. But in calling said subsidies “the worst kind of socialism,” O’Donnell reveals he has no idea what socialism is, either.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich released a video on YouTube this morning entitled “I oppose the Obamacare mandate. Period.” As the title suggests, he makes it plain and simple that he completely opposes a “mandate on individuals.” However, some people are pointing out that this seems to go against a stance he held in the past, both in previous years and, well, yesterday on Meet the Press.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney‘s future as a potential GOP nominee may hinge on how he handles comparisons between his “Romneycare” in Massachusetts and the “Obamacare” plan reviled by Republicans. In a speech Thursday, Romney tried to draw distinctions. “Our plan was a state solution to a state problem,” he said. Obama’s program “is a power grab by the federal government to put in place a one-size-fits-all plan across the nation.”

What Romney did not do in his speech–designed to address the issue before a formal campaign announcement–was to back away from the plan he passed as governor:

Today likely Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is giving a speech in Michigan to address his albatross: Romneycare. The universal healthcare bill he signed into law in Massachusetts and which served as a model for President Obama‘s similar plan, has long been believed to be a major hurdle for Romney in his bid to win the Republican nomination. And now an editorial from The Wall Street Journal suggests that hurdle is insurmountable.

On Laura Ingraham‘s radio show today, former Senator Evan Banh discussed his vote for President Barack Obama’s plans for health care reform.

Although he voted for the bill – or, as he phrased it, he voted to “try and accomplish the things that were good in the bill, and then hope to change those things that were either absent or needed to be corrected in the bill” – he admits he has some qualms with it, particularly with the notion that it will keep health care costs down.

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah gave a speech at Utah State University where he seemed to be testing out some new stand-up comedy material in front of a receptive audience as he trashed President Obama’s healthcare reform program. Although Hatch slightly hesitated before unleashing the harshest description of the bill, after he did, he jokingly apologized for his word choice, but seemed completely sincere with his sentiment.

Rush Limbaugh is not only upset with President Obama for leading this country towards what he deems to be a giant “constitutional crisis” but he’s also annoyed with your friends here at Mediaite. Rush previously claimed Obama would be “lawless” if he did not immediately follow the recent court decision declaring Obamacare to be unconstitutional and now he bizarrely takes us to task for not vociferously agreeing with him?

Mitt Romney appeared on Laura Ingraham‘s radio show and made quite a few revelations. Unsurprising, of course, is that he’s not the biggest fan of ObamaCare… much more surprising is that he admitted there were some flaws to “RomneyCare.”

Ann Coulter appeared in good spirits on tonight’s Hannity– “Obamacare,” to her the cornerstone of the Obama administration’s achievements, was deemed unconstitutional. But while she celebrated the takedown of that bill, she expressed to Sean Hannity a certain wariness about today’s other big news– the revolts in Egypt. “Mob riots like this,” she warned, “have never led to something good.”

Today in a Florida Federal Court, a major blow was dealt to President Obama’s healthcare reform bill. Judge Roger Vinson ruled that it was unconstitutional for Congress to require all Americans to purchase health insurance, however even more devastating, the opinion went on to say that “because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void.”

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann always knows how to deliver an eye-catching sound bite and today on the floor of the House of Representatives she did not disappoint by declaring that “Obamacare as we know it is the crown jewel of socialism – it is socialized medicine.” Bachmann also attempted to argue that taking steps towards repeal is not merely a symbolic act.

It seems that Anderson Cooper can’t get enough of hunter/rocker Ted Nugent on his special edition of 360º, and, as an opening act, Nugent sure is giving Piers Morgan a run for his money. After mocking CNN for hiring Eliot Spitzer earlier this week, Nugent went all out against a less risky target on a topic near and dear to his heart: obesity.

On Fox & Friends Tuesday morning, incoming House Republicans laid out their plans to take apart President Obama‘s landmark legislation on healthcare, with Rep-Elect Bobby Schilling of Illinois describing the plans in simple terms: “We’re gonna rip it out by its roots.”

“This is all about accountability, about a big tax bill that had a few pieces of reform attached to it,” said Schilling, who was part of a Fox & Friends panel of incoming GOP House members.

Columnist and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer is often the conservative contrarian and sometimes referred to as “a brilliant man”, therefore Republicans are often very interested to hear his advice. While many Republicans in the House of Representatives are eager to return to Congress in January so they can start with their plans to defund Obamacare, Krauthammer urges they put the brakes on such plans.