With the Super Bowl approaching, CNN took the opportunity to chat with the biggest star in the sport who won’t be playing tomorrow: Tim Tebow, who was gracious and sweet about people criticizing him but appeared a little less prepared to be asked on national television what he looks for in a potential mate. Host Suzanne Malveaux asked him about just about everything– politics, sports, future plans– but the most entertaining part of the interview came when a blushing Tebow found himself answering questions about his love life.

On Monday morning’s Fox and Friends, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney let out another one of those “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake!” bursts of honesty which, like a burlesque revue at a leper colony, are revealing, but not in a good way. Asked if his father’s Mexican birthplace is helping him with Florida’s Hispanic community, Romney replied “You know, I wish I could claim that I’m Hispanic…”

Last night at a Republican fundraiser in Florida, former presidential candidate Herman Cain endorsed former rival Newt Gingrich for the GOP nomination, praising him for being a “patriot” and his willingness to press ahead in the race even after “going through the sausage grinder.” Cain appeared on stage at a West Palm Beach County Republican event a week after making his “unconventional endorsement” and made a presidential endorsement that was decidedly more conventional.

There has been a lot of high-minded chatter among the political media elite deriding the proliferation of presidential debates this election cycle. As CNN prepares to air the 19th Republican Primary debate tonight, Starting Point anchor Soledad O’Brien wondered if this GOP reality show is a good thing. Roland Martin argued that the debates have been revealing, noting “If we didn’t have 19 debates, trust me, Rick Perry would still be in this race.”

Well, it looks like Walker, Texas Ranger is following closely on the boot heels of Perry, Texas Governor. That’s right, just like Rick Perry before him, Chuck Norris has endorsed Newt Gingrich for president. It’s weird because, from what I’ve gathered on the Internet, Chuck Norris doesn’t typically endorse candidates publicly. He merely thinks about them and all the other candidates die instantly.

Well, there goes another one. Rick Perry, has left the 2012 campaign trail.

Perry came into the race like a whirlwind. And why wouldn’t he? After a few years of “change” that has left many Americans disillusioned, here was a Texas governor with great employment stats who literally looked and sounded exactly like Josh Brolin imitating George W. Bush. However, once Perry started appearing at debates, the gaffes started piling up and people were left thinking more of Will Ferrell than Brolin.

After disappointing showings in both Iowa (where his campaign dropped a whole lot of money) and New Hampshire, CNN reported today that Rick Perry will be dropping out of the race. Perry will be holding a press conference today at 11 a.m. EST in North Charleston, S.C., where he will presumably be ending his campaign. (UPDATE: And that’s just what he did. We’ve included video of the speech below as well as a transcript.)

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham called upon Texas Governor Rick Perry to quit his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. “Rick Perry should drop out of this race,” Ingraham exclaimed. “And I like Rick Perry, I thought he was pretty cool in the last debate except for that little problem with calling Turkey an Islamic terrorist regime. I mean, God bless him but he’s not putting the time to kind of know anything about foreign policy and you can’t be president if you don’t know anything about foreign policy.”

Rosie O’Donnell spoke with CNN’s Piers Morgan about the GOP race, and discussed the anti-gay rhetoric being espoused in some of the various campaigns. “We’re a backward nation in many ways,” O’Donnell observed. “That’s one of the ways most evident nowadays especially with the election — to think you can turn on the presidential debate and you can have people actually say they think being gay is wrong is shocking in 2012. It’s shocking to me.”

During a tense exchange about Texas Governor Rick Perry on MSNBC’s Martin Bashir, South Carolina Senator Larry Grooms laid a verbal smackdown on Bashir that left the anchor speechless.

Turkish Ambassador to the United States, Namik Tan hit back at Texas Governor Rick Perry after his remarks that spurred an international incident during last night’s Republican debate where he called the country “ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists” and suggested the country be kicked out of NATO and its foreign aid be eliminated.

During Fox News’ South Carolina debate, Texas Governor Rick Perry called upon Turkey to be kicked out of NATO, saying the country was being ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists. Perry’s response might surprise many, as Turkey is a longstanding US ally in NATO, and a critical diplomatic partner engaged in “a working relationship that is one of the most important but least discussed developments shaping (2011)’s change in the Arab world.”

Tonight’s South Carolina Republican debate is off and running, and the candidates came out of the gate on the attack. After Newt Gingrich used his first question to immediately tackle Mitt Romney‘s record as CEO, Rick Perry followed shortly thereafter, citing the situation in a plant that Romney had bought and demanding more transparency, particularly to see Romney’s tax records.

Yes, another one of these again. With one candidate down today, Utah governor Jon Huntsman, and five of six Republican candidates on stage tonight (Buddy Roemer will be live-tweeting, as always), Bret Baier will be hosting a debate live from South Carolina– one in which, should a candidate aside from Mitt Romney do some serious damage to the frontrunner, could affect the third contest of the year.

Here’s an interesting friendship that’s developed during the election: That of former Utah governor Jon Huntsman and Texas governor Rick Perry. The two forged a bond during their time on the campaign trial, and as Politico reports, their families also got along quite well too. RELATED: Jon Huntsman Drops Out Of GOP Race (Full Speech [...]

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry appeared on CNN’s State Of The Union and defended the actions of the Marines who urinated on the corpses of dead Taliban fighters. Anchor Candy Crowley had asked the Texas Governor about the incident and what his response would’ve been had he been president. “Well, obviously, 18, 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often, and that’s what’s occurred here,” Perry explained.

There was a time in Massachusetts politics where Mitt Romney promised voters he would be to the left of Ted Kennedy on gay issues. That was many years ago, however– back when Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a new policy– and today, Rachel Maddow reported yesterday, Romney appears to face a strange dilemma. While the national Republican party advocates social conservatism and a repeal of gay marriage laws in the states that have them, Republican voters appear to be far more comfortable on the socially liberal side of the scale than anywhere else.

Politics is a name game. It is about who you know– at least in the sense that knowing who the players are in this elaborate dance that defines how we govern ourselves as a nation is critical to successful analysis. And then there are anomalies like Tim Tebow, black holes of cable news time and energy that, through no fault of their own, become fault lines along our political geography.

Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman will not appear on the Virginia ballot in their March 6 primary, after their legal teams bungled their ballot challenge after waiting too long. “They knew the rules in Virginia many months ago; the limitations on circulators affected them as soon as they began to circulate petitions,” U.S. District Judge John Gibney wrote.

Sometimes some stories are just too good to be true. Earlier today, the Los Angeles Times posted a write up of a campaign stop that Rick Perry made at the South Carolina restaurant. At the bottom of the article, the reporter made a brief reference to Perry accidentally trying to call on a mannequin during [...]

Texas governor Rick Perry is doubling down as he prepares for the upcoming South Carolina primary in the wake of his less than stellar showing in both Iowa and New Hampshire. As part of his media blitz, the presidential hopeful paid a visit to Savannah, GA’s WTKS, where he spoke with radio host Bill Edwards about Those Three Departments.

On his radio program Wednesday, Rush Limabugh slammed Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry over his criticism of Mitt Romney‘s work at Bain Capital, which the Texas Governor deemed “vulture capitalism.” “I’m sorry, folks, that is indefensible!” Limbaugh exclaimed.

Rick Perry had an indisputably rough night in New Hampshire. In fact, tonight, his eyes were entirely on South Carolina, and, on Hannity tonight, he didn’t even bother to talk about New Hampshire. But his night got worse as Sean Hannity challenged him on his claims that Mitt Romney was a “vulture capitalist”– going so far as to claim that Perry sounded like a member of Occupy Wall Street.

Meet Dick Perry. The Texas Governor? No, that’s Rick. Tucson-based musician Al “Dick” Perry has earned a highly-visible fourth position on the Arizona Republican Primary ballot. The better-known Perry will appear much further down the list.

MSNBC’s Al Sharpton takes a rather unique approach to finding his ideal candidate, borrowing a page from none other than Dr. Frankenstein. Here are the bits and pieces he’d take from several of the GOP candidates (Notably absent? Huntsman’s everything.) to form his version of the ideal Republican presidential candidate: