In a recent Huckabee appearance, Mitt Romney said he'd "absolutely" support a constitutional amendment defining conception as the beginning of life. In addition to outlawing abortion, such an amendment could ban many forms of birth control, a fact Romney was seemingly unaware of when pressed on his position during a campaign event on Thursday. So tonight, armed with beer and female anatomy diagrams, Rachel Maddow invited Romney to her "Man Cave" for a crash course in how babies are made.

Top Republicans are starting to weigh in on Muammar Qaddafi's death and one consistent theme is quickly emerging: Barack who?

Looks like Rick Perry is on Mitt Romney's list! (Right after the guy from LMFAO.) Last night, of course, Perry got Romney to show his "horror movie stepfather" side by doggedly interrupting the GOP frontrunner. Tonight, the Romney campaign put a "brutal" attack ad on YouTube—and then mysteriously pulled it. Drama!

Today we expressed some concern that Mitt Romney might explode. He just seems a little wound-up. So what can his handlers do to fix this problem? One commenter had some suggestions.

So last night: greatest debate ever, right? The vicious babies on stage, God bless , were so busy sniping at each other about who had more Mexicans in their front yards that Anderson Cooper barely had any time to make the cheesy situational jokes that is CNN's calling card. Hoo boy, what a madcap muckfest. Then again, we're kind of worried about Mitt Romney, whose head and a good chunk of his upper torso will soon disappear in a horrific explosion.

CNN's Western Republican presidential debate, held earlier tonight in Las Vegas, was quite a doozy. Of course, the highlight was Mitt Romney and Rick Perry's knock-down, drag-out fight over illegal immigration.

What's going on with Rick Perry and Mitt Romney? Perry—who more or less slept through his first GOP debates—aggressively jumped on frontrunner Romney in Las Vegas on Tuesday night, earning an enthusiastic response from Romney, who gently touched Perry and attempted to teach the Texas governor the rules. Of the debate. You can smell the testiness! All the drama, and tension, of two coked-up frat brothers arguing about politics at 6 a.m.! And poor Anderson Cooper, the supposed moderator, just sitting there there on the sidelines.

Just five days ago we published a tacky old Bain Capital photo of Mitt Romney and his swanky private equity buddies playing with money, and wondered how long it would take for one of Romney's many enemies to put it to use, attackwise. And sure enough, guess what's included in today's widely-distributed DNC memo? Stern words for Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell! Also, the Romney photo.

Meet Robert Halper, a retired trader and former vice chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Like a lot of wealthy Wall Street-connected 52-year-olds, Halper gave the maximum contribution of $2,500 to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. But this guy also wrote a $20,000 check to help launch Occupy Wall Street.

Time's Michael Scherer digs up this photo from the Romney media archives showing our man Mittens and his old Bain Capital buddies playing with money.

Yet another poll confirming Herman Cain's rise to the top of the presidential candidate pyramid has come out today. Public Policy Polling finds him securing 30% of the national primary vote in its monthly poll, a 22 percentage point gain from last month. What is going on here?

The good Governor Sandwiches of New Jersey, Chris Christie, will endorse old creep Mitt Romney this afternoon in New Hampshire, according to various BREAKING reports. So... will Chris Christie run for president now? Oh, wait.

Rick Perry's high production value filmmaker (whom Perry stole from loser Tim Pawlenty) has released his latest, scariest opus, just in time for Satan's birthday, Halloween.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's confirmation today that he would not seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination was a relief to Mitt Romney, who stood to lose out most if Christie entered the race. But as Jon Stewart explained on tonight's Daily Show, Romney's history of switching positions on key issues stands in his way more than a fat guy from Jersey ever could: "Mitt Romney has a bit of a problem... to win the Republican nomination, he has to convince Republican voters he's not actually Mitt Romney."

President Obama's not the only one desperately trying to raise last minute third quarter cash with transparent buddy-buddy gimmickry. Mitt Romney's also offering the opportunity of a lifetime: A chance to spend a day with him on the campaign trail! Can you even imagine having to spend an entire day with Mittens "Willard" Romney? Who's paying who here?

Mitt Romney is still pretending to be an immigration hawk for the purposes of destroying Rick Perry, who as Texas governor signed a law offering in-state tuition to children of illegal immigrants.

Saturday Night Live opened its 37th season tonight with a parody of Thursday's Fox News/Google Republican presidential debate. Despite being too long and wrought with cliche—Newt Gingrich has a huge head! Michele Bachmann's eyes are crazy!—the sketch managed to work thanks to Bill Hader as debate moderator Shep Smith and Alec Baldwin as the same confused, babbling version of Rick Perry that showed up to the real thing. A video of highlights is above; the full sketch is viewable here.

President of Pizza and Pokemon Herman Cain won today's straw poll of Florida GOP activists, receiving 37 percent of the votes cast. That's 22 more percentage points than second-place finisher Rick Perry received. For his prize, Cain got to ban a mosque.

Why does Rick Perry actually do to prepare for his debates? He should prepare more, because he's terrible at them.

Failed presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty took to Fox News' innumerate dementia variety hour, Fox & Friends, this morning, to make some hot news: He's endorsing Mitt Romney — for president, of all things! And Mittens, in return, is naming TPAW one of his national co-chairmen. What else? Will they spend long weekends in the Poconos together, too?