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Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says that women should support him because of a health insurance law he passed as the governor of Massachusetts -- even though he has promised to repeal a similar law passed by President Barack Obama.

During an interview that aired on Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Romney why women should vote for him after a fellow Republican, Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), suggested that women could not get pregnant from "legitimate rape."

"Look, I am the guy that was able to get health care for all of the women -- and men -- in my state," the former Massachusetts governor explained. "There was talking about it at the federal level. We did something."

"So, you're saying look at Romneycare?" Wallace wondered.

"Absolutely," Romney replied. "I'm very proud of what we did, and the fact that we helped women and men and children in my state."

"And then with regards to contraceptives, of course Republicans and myself in particular recognize that people should have a right to use contraceptives. There is absolutely no validity whatsoever to the Obama effort and try and bring that up. And with regards to the issue of abortion, that is something where men and women have alternative views on that or different views."

Throughout his campaign, Romney has pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which fact checking organizations have determined "is identical to the Massachusetts health care plan -- the same thing."

By repealing Obama's health reforms, women could once again face insurance co-pays for contraception, screening for HIV, breastfeeding support, domestic violence counseling and other services.

Romney's running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), has voted for legislation that would ban some forms of birth control, ban abortion and end funding for Planned Parenthood, according to the Obama campaign.

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Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) on Sunday predicted that if the United States Supreme Court strikes down a key part of President Barack Obama's health care reform law, it could actually benefit him in the 2012 general election.

Dean told Fox News host Chris Wallace that the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate was "something that's not really necessary."

"If the justices strike it down, it might actually help the president because people don't like the mandate," he explained. "But if the rest of the bill stays intact, I think it will ultimately seen as a victory for the president. He'll do fine."

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) indicated that his party was already planning the best way to spin the Supreme Court's decision against the president.

"I think it will be pretty interesting if former constitutional law professor President Obama's signature law gets kicked out because it's unconstitutional," the former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman quipped. "The fact of the matter is that the law is very unpopular. Unlike most entitlements, it has continued to stay unpopular after it was enacted."

For his part, Dean agreed that the law was unpopular, but Americans "actually do like what is in it."

"I think the president is in great shape in health care unless they strike down the whole bill," he added. "This is the most political Supreme Court we've ever had. Seventy-three percent of the American people believe that politics motivates the Supreme Court, and I am one of those 73 percent. So, I think a lot of this is going to be seen as politics."

Barbour suggested that the president would not be able to run against the ruling because voters "are going to favor the Supreme Court's opinion if the Supreme Court does, in fact, strike down the law."

"President Obama's policies on health care, on energy are his problem," he opined. "They're the wrong policies. They are bad for the country."

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Rep. Michele Bachmann insisted this week that the reason 40 million Americans "choose" not to buy health care insurance has nothing to do with the cost.

Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity after attending Supreme Court arguments on Wednesday, the former Republican presidential candidate said that the Obama administration was wrong to suggest that insurance could be regulated because everyone would eventually be in the health care market.

"One argument that the government was trying to make is that somehow health care is uniquely different," Bachmann explained. "That government can regulate it because everyone participates. Health insurance is not uniquely different."

"It’s still an opportunity that some people choose to engage in, but 40 million people do not."

She continued: "And the premise was made that people don’t buy insurance because they can’t afford it. That’s not true. There are people who just decide they want to roll the dice and take their chances that they won’t need insurance."

A survey (PDF) by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families found in 2009 that 66 percent thought Congress' top priority should be making health care more affordable. In all, 44 percent of those polled said they had cut back on household spending in the previous two years as a result of health care costs.

The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured determined (PDF) in 2007 that 80 percent of those without health insurance were working families.

In 2010, Bachmann became the first lawmaker to introduce legislation to repeal President Barack Obama's health care reform law.

As justices were hearing oral arguments on Monday, the Minnesota Republican stood on the steps in front of the Supreme Court and told several tea party groups that "this is the day that we have been waiting for!"

“We have not waived the white flag of surrender on socialize medicine!” she exclaimed. “This is one of the most important, consequential decisions that will ever come before this court. … We believe that the Constitution means something!”

(H/T: Think Progress)

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Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann told a man who said he had no teeth that single-payer health care was the "worst possible system."

At a campaign stop in New Hampshire Monday, a man asked the candidate about her desire to "wean everybody" except for older Americans off of Social Security and Medicare.

"The president in all likelihood plans that Medicare will collapse and go broke and instead, what will happen is that everyone will go into Obamacare," Bachmann argued. "There's too many beautiful 85-year-old frail women who are depending on this system. And I love these senior citizens too much to have them worried that that's not going to be there for them... We made a promise. We have to keep the promise. For these beautiful young people that are here today, we can't chain them to a 75 percent effective tax rate. I won't do that to these people."

By the time the man asked his follow-up question, the campaign staff has already taken away the microphone, making his comments inaudible. But it was clear from Bachmann's response and from journalist Charlie Perkins that the man had said he had "no teeth."

Video of the exchange indicated that the man did have at least a few teeth.

"You want socialized medicine," Bachmann said. "I want you to have the best dental health care you can have. I want you to have the best health care you can have, and that's why I don't want you to have socialized medicine. That would be the worst possible system you could have."

"The free market provides you with the best system and we have charitable organizations and there's universities who are willing to take people are indigent. There are programs that are set up for the indigent, but don't destroy the finest health care system in the world to have socialized medicine because we have people who are indigent in the society. We take care of people who are indigent, people without funds. We do that through charity or we do that through university programs."

Fox News' Washington managing editor has been caught red-handed.

As the health care debate was reaching a high point last year, a leaked e-mail shows Bill Sammon asked his news department to refer to the public option as the "government run option."

Later that evening, Fox News flagship news program, Special Report with Bret Baier, used the very phrase Sammon had requested.

The e-mail, obtained by the liberal watchdog Media Matters, indicates that Sammon sent the request after Republican pollster Frank Luntz said that polls show the "government option" was opposed by the public.

According to the report at Media Matters, in August of 2009 after Fox News' Sean Hannity used the term "public option," Luntz encouraged him to say "government option" instead.

"If you call it a 'public option,' the American people are split," Luntz said. "If you call it the 'government option,' the public is overwhelmingly against it."

"It's a great point, and from now on, I'm going to call it the government option," Hannity replied.

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Very early in his term, President Barack Obama says he knew that Republicans were going to oppose him at every turn.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Obama explained that it was first apparent to him while attempting to negotiate the stimulus bill.

I still remember going over to the Republican caucus to meet with them and present our ideas, and to solicit ideas from them before we presented the final package. And on the way over, the caucus essentially released a statement that said, "We're going to all vote 'No' as a caucus." And this was before we'd even had the conversation. At that point, we realized that we weren't going to get the kind of cooperation we'd anticipated. The strategy the Republicans were going to pursue was one of sitting on the sidelines, trying to gum up the works, based on the assumption that given the scope and size of the recovery, the economy probably wouldn't be very good, even in 2010, and that they were better off being able to assign the blame to us than work with us to try to solve the problem.

But even with that clear signal, the White House continued to try to make compromises with their opponents. The Obama administration took single-payer off the table and offered little support for the public option when campaigning for the health care bill. The final bill -- which contained neither -- had almost no Republican support.

In March, the president adopted a conservative call to open more waters to offshore oil drilling but got little in return. In the end, partisan bickering led to the climate bill being pulled in the Senate. Republicans have vowed to block legislation in the next Congress.

Politics Daily columnist David Corn thinks there is one fact that Obama should have been aware of: Republicans are zombies.

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Ed Schultz takes Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich to task for some of their recent comments at the wingnut so called Values Voters Summit last week. Here's what Huckabee had to say about people with pre-existing conditions.

It sounds so good, and it’s such a warm message to say we’re not gonna deny anyone from a preexisting condition. Look, I think that sounds terrific, but I want to ask you something from a common sense perspective. Suppose we applied that principle [to] our property insurance. And you can call your insurance agent and say, “I’d like to buy some insurance for my house.” He’d say, “Tell me about your house.” “Well sir, it burned down yesterday, but I’d like to insure it today.” And he’ll say “I’m sorry, but we can’t insure it after it’s already burned.” Well, no preexisting conditions.”

And here's Gingrich:

GINGRICH: When Secretary Sebelius said the other day she would punish insurance companies that told the truth about the cost of Obamacare, she was behaving exactly in the spirit of the Soviet tyranny. And if she’s going to represent left-wing thought police about Obamacare, she should be forced to resign by the new Congress.

This idea that we the people have to tolerate some bureaucrat being paid with our taxes to dictate free speech to us should end in January by the Republican Congress zeroing out her office and explaining that they would be glad to pay for it when someone is there who recognizes the rights of the American people.

Ed followed with some rah-rahing for the health care bill and insisting that Democrats shouldn't be running away from the issue this election cycle. I can understand why any of them that wanted single payer are going to have a hard time defending this weak tea that got passed instead. But as I've said all along, Republicans aren't going to do anything to improve it if they get back in charge. They'll either repeal or de-fund it and make it worse. They have absolutely no interest in doing anything to help anyone but the rich in the United States. And like Mike Huckabee who claims to be a religious man, they don't who care who dies while they play politics.

And the fact that crazy Newt Gingrich still has as much influence over Republican policy making and is considered credible by the party tells you about all you need to know about. The wingnuts have completely taken over the party.

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Well isn't this just special? Here's the one place Republicans are willing to work with the Obama administration. Destroying what's left of our social safety net and Social Security if they listen to the advice of this debt commission. Here's to hoping it goes over about as well as when Bush did his tour on privatizing Social Security. This is one policy we don't need the Republicans having an opportunity to tout as a bipartisan victory.

I'd love to know which policy wonk in the Obama administration is being overpaid to think this is a good idea or that who they picked to be assigned to the deficit commission such as wingnut Alan Simpson is a good idea.

Swain: You’ve said the deficit issue that are issues number one and number two. Do you… what will it be like to be a national politics in a national era of belt tightening that lies ahead for this country?

Cornyn: I think it’s going to be very tough and one reason why I think we need to fully engage with President Obama, I hope his debt commission which will report December the first comes out with a realistic and effective ways to deal with our mounting fiscal crisis. And I think it’s a good time for Republicans and Democrats to work together to confront this because it’s not going to go away and I think that’s what the American people want us to do and what we need to do.

But it’s not going to be pleasant… uhmm…that’s ah… what we signed on for and what I think you will see Republicans and Democrats do together if the President and the Democrats are serious about it I think we will meet them more than half way.

All I can say is that if Cornyn or the Obama administration thinks that this is going to go over with anyone any better than it did for Bush when he thought it was a good idea to go on a tour talking about privatizing Social Security, they're sadly mistaken. I would also add that watching Wall Street's excesses have done nothing but add to the mistrust of privatizing those accounts. People are now well aware of what would have happened and did happen to their savings when the markets took a dump. And we haven't regulated them to this day after that happening.

Little wonder most people might not want their Social Security checks tied to Wall Street. I know I don't. If either Cornyn or the Obama administration try to heap this type of bipartisan legislation on us in the near future we all need to be picking up our phones and telling them "hell no".

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A Republican candidate in Missouri warned Monday that his opponent and the president are blocking the path to salvation.

In an interview on the Gina Loudon radio program, Ed Martin said that President Barack Obama and Rep. Russ Carnahan and keeping people from finding the Lord.

"We're great because we created a place and space where people can be free," said Martin. "And they can choose Christ, they can choose to be faithful. They can worship, and they find their way to the Lord."

"And that's one of the things that's most destructive about the growth of government. It's this taking away that freedom. The freedom -- the ultimate freedom, to find your salvation, to get your salvation," he continued.

"And I think that's one of the things that we have to be very, very aware of that the Obama Administration and Congressman Carnahan are doing to us," he said.

"Very well said," agreed Loudon.

Fired Up! Missouri first noticed the interview Monday.

"This is pure lunacy, and as a person of faith, I find this incredibly offensive and outrageous. It's too insane for a response, really," wrote Sean at Fired Up! Missouri:

Martin doesn't explain which policies supported by Obama and Carnahan "take away all your choices" to be a Christian or find any other religion, perhaps because there aren't any. Maybe it's health care reform that keeps people from Jesus? Or unemployment benefits? Whatever they are, "we have to be very, very aware" of them anyway.

Martin's remarks echo comments he made about Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan in 2009. "She is very, very devious. She does -- with a, with a clever hand -- she does the devil's work," he said.

Cenk Uygur took on one of my least favorite pundits, John Avlon, in this segment on The Young Turks and did what you never see anyone in the our "mainstream media" do when allowing this hack to come on their shows, which is to call him out for the fact that there is no one on the left that you can honestly compare to the ultra-crazies we have on the right side of the aisle right now. The best Avlon could muster without going back to the 60's was to call unions left wing extremists.

Cenk made some other really great points like just how far to the right our country has moved when it comes to what you'd call a "centrist" these days and does a good job of attempting to explain to Avlon that what he calls "centrist" is actually "corporatist" and that when it comes to the issues that really matter to most Americans and what is causing to get hammered economically, unlike the wedge issues that get everyone riled up, people on the left and progressives are losing those battles, whether it be the bank bailouts, health care reform or tax breaks for the rich and for corporations. He also did a really good job explaining just how far what used to be called the center has shifted to the right where the positions of those on the left are what used to be considered moderate and that a lot of Republicans from past eras would be run out of today's Republican Party.

My only quibble with Cenk about this interview would be that he allowed Avlon to filibuster him a bit too often. He did finally have enough of it later in the interview and stopped him so he could make his points. He also allowed him to be portrayed as "independent" and didn't point out to his viewers that he worked for Rudy Giuliani.

That said it was a breath of fresh air to see this guy get challenged in the manner he deserves for once and premise of his book, which tries to paint people on the left as extremists when they're not and that calls centrism giving corporate America anything it wants, called a bunch of nonsense, which it is. Avlon finally showed his true colors with being an anti-union zealot in this interview with Cenk. It doesn't surprise me one bit but makes me dislike him even more than I did before listening to him call us "extremists" who are destroying America and the Democratic Party.

It's a long interview, over twenty minutes but if you've got that time to spare it is well worth is watching the king of the false equivalencies get his talking points taken apart for once. Good for Cenk. It would be nice to see MSNBC give him a job if they allowed him to do the type of interviews he just did here instead of just having him on Ratigan's show to debate wingnuts in a five minute debate box with Ratigan controlling the narrative. I'd say this interview ranks right up there with his take down of S.E. Cupp and Wayne Allyn Root.