Politics

No offense to Herman Cain, but it looked like Mitt Romney and Rick Perry were the only two serious candidates for president at last night's Republican debate.

At least from the way they treated one another.

Perry, the Texas governor, has fallen in the polls of late with Cain emerging as a more conservative alternative Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.

But while Cain still got plenty of attention Tuesday in Las Vegas, exchanges between Perry and Romney over immigration and health care dominated the night.

Personal exchanges that devolved into the kind of vitriolic attacks normally reserved for a general election ... or a bar fight. Watch one "highlight" below:

Rick Perry and Mitt Romney Argue at GOP Debate

Perry clearly knocked the normally unflappable Mitt off his game, but it remains to be seen whether this helps lift his own standing or lowers Romney's.

Either way, another great episode of the best reality show on TV.

Who got the best of this exchange?

Sean Penn channeled his inner Morgan Freeman this week.

The actor raised eyebrows by calling Tea Party members a bunch of racists, drawing a stinging rebuke from the national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots.

Penn referred to Tea Partiers as the “Get the N-Word Out of the White House Party” on Piers Morgan Tonight, saying its members want to "lynch" President Obama.

That sentiment and word choice did not sit well with many.

Sean Penn Rips Tea Party

Said Mark Meckler, co-founder and national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots:

“I’m fairly certain that Sean Penn has never been to a tea party or met anyone who belongs to a local tea party. I’d be happy to sit down and speak with him if he’s ever interested in really speaking with one of us and learning what we are about instead of just slandering millions of his fellow American citizens with racist hatred."

"While protected by the 1st Amendment, this rhetoric has no place in reasonable discourse in America. Then again, no one ever accused Sean Penn of ‘reasonable discourse.’”

We know where Herman Cain stands on this, but what about you?

Is the Tea Party racist?

Saturday Night Live went political last weekend with a faux Republican debate, seating the candidates - as was the case in the last real debate - in order of poll numbers.

Only bottom-feeder Rick Santorum was banished to a local gay bar instead of the debate table where contenders Herman Cain, Mitt Romney et al., were seated.

Needless to say, that did not go over well with the homophobe.

The cuts to SNL's faux Santorum (played by Andy Samberg) were funny due to his expressions, but more so due to their infrequency. Dude is just irrelevant now.

The decision to stick Rick in a gay bar of all places no doubt stems from his views on the LGBT community and the fact that he recently got so pissed at Google.

Santorum, in response, feels like he's being singled out for having strong views on "traditional marriage" a.k.a. despising homosexuals and all they stand for.

Really, though, what make the skit was Rick's declining importance. The lack of attention they paid Samberg reflected his 1-3 percent poll average brilliantly.

Santorum's comeback is posted below you care what he has to say, which you likely don't. That's the point. Time to back up the bus and head home, man.

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Republican Presidential hopeful Herman Cain is sorry, kind of, and says he was kidding, sorta, for a recent comment about an electric fence protecting the U.S.

Suddenly a bona fide contender for his party's nomination in '12, the Georgia businessman is now facing more intense scrutiny as his poll numbers surge up.

As such, his off-the-cuff comments are coming back to bite him at times ... such as when he called for an electric fence along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Campaigning in Arizona, Herman Cain appeared with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an aggressive anti-immigration proponent. "It was a joke," Cain said.

"I apologize if I offended anyone. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa."

However, the Phoenix New Times reports it might not be a joke. Cain doesn't want to offend anyone ... but he was kinda serious about the electric deal:

"I don't like to offend anyone, however, I don't apologize for using a combination of a fence. And it might be electrified, I'm not walking away from that."

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Susan Sarandon is an outspoken liberal who has once again generated controversy with a statement.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, says Sarandon is "a despicable person" who "doesn't know what she's talking about" when it comes to the pope's past.

During an interview over the weekend at the Hamptons Film Festival, the Oscar winner talked about sending a copy of the book "Dead Man Walking" to the pope and said: "The last one [Pope John Paul II], not this Nazi one we have now.”

Of course, it has come out that Pope Benedict actually was a member of the Hitler Youth party as a child, something required of boys his age at the time. But reps made it clear he never had any "active participation" in the group.

Sarandon drew laughter from the crowd at the event when she dropped this N word in reference to the pope a second time.

What do you think of the actress' claim? It's...

As the Occupy Wall Street "movement" rages on, the protesters Herman Cain hates are realizing that their mission is being heavily advertised ... why not make like the GOP Presidential hopeful and create a memorable tagline for it?

All the marches and sit-ins to protest socioeconomic inequality are being videotaped and photographed so much that it's become social media phenomenon as much as a political one. Depressing as the subject matter is, these are pretty good.

Here are our Top 10 favorite Occupy Wall Street signs, as seen on Twitter:

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He may never win an election, but thanks to his 9-9-9 tax plan, Herman Cain was the clear winner of last night's Republican Presidential Debate in New Hampshire.

If you believe any publicity is good publicity, the Georgia businessman is sitting pretty after his idea to overhaul the U.S. tax system got everybody's attention.

The 9-9-9 plan plugged by Cain every nine seconds is not, as John Huntsman suggested, the price of pizza (a good line, seeing as Cain was once CEO of Godfather's).

If Herman Cain were president, he'd abolish the IRS in favor of flat nine percent sales, business and income taxes. Logistically impossible? Perhaps, but man, so catchy!

Mitt Romney politely praised it while calling it too simplistic, but the best - and arguably most inappropriate, from a professed Christian - zinger came from Michele Bachmann.

Watch her assessment of Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan below:

Michele Bachmann on Herman Cain 9-9-9 Plan

Herman Cain:

Michelle Bachmann:

Presidential candidate Herman Cain will never be accused of mincing words ... or being a cliche. The African-American businessman recently raised eyebrows with some blunt comments on racism ... and how people need to get over it.

"I don't have a lot of patience for people who want to blame racism on the fact that some people don't make in America," he said Fox News' Hannity.

Here's Cain's interview from last night on this and other topics:

Herman Cain on Hannity

The Republican claimed that his academic and business achievements were "walking proof" that racism doesn't hold people back if they don't let it.

"I don't believe racism today holds anybody back in a big way," he said.

Cain also reiterated his attacks on Wall Street protesters from last week, accusing them of being jealous and calling the whole thing a distraction.

"I believe this a coordinated effort of the unions and Obama supporters to distract the American people" from failed administration policies.

Cain characterizes the movement as "class warfare," "Un-American" and petty. "If you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself," he said.

Despite never having held elected office, the Hermanator has lit a fire under GOP voters, surging in recent polls. What do you think of Cain?

You didn't think Hank Williams Jr. was gonna go quietly, did you?

Calling out Fox News and ESPN after an interview with the former led to his firing by the latter last week, the crooner has cut a new song, "Keep the Change."

In the song, Williams sings "So Fox n' Friends wanna put me down ... Ask for my opinion ... Twist it all around ... Two can play that gotcha game you'll see."

Yes. That's what it was. Pure spin. Listen to the track here:

Hank Williams, Jr. - Keep The Change

Hank also sings that the U.S. is "going down the drain" and says it's becoming "The United Socialist States of America." We're guessing he's not a Democrat.

After Hank ripped President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner golfing, likening it to Hitler and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu playing a round, ESPN yanked his Monday Night Football theme, then fired Williams a few days later.

The singer defiantly bashed ESPN, then recorded his "revenge" song.

Written and recorded in less than a day, the track was posted on his website Monday, along with "Hank Jr. for President" T-shirts ... an absolute MUST HAVE.

Your side:

Joseph Wurzelbacher, a.k.a. Joe the Plumber, the man who sparred with then-candidate Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign, is running for U.S. Congress.

Plumber filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to run for Congress in Ohio's Ninth District, and will soon launch an official "Joe for Congress 2012" site.

The Toledo Blade reported in August that Ohio Republicans were encouraging him to run, and Joe said he was open to the idea. Looks like that report was accurate.

Obama's opponent, Sen. John McCain, tried to use Joe as a poster boy of sorts for the type of working American he claimed would be hurt by Democratic policies.

It didn't work, obviously, but Joe left his mark on Ohio politics.

"Maybe we need some regular guys in there," he said this August. "That's what I've been doing the past two and a half years, encouraging regular Americans to run."

The conservative small business owner adds, "Tell the liberal media to go to hell and I don't care what you guys say about me, I'm going to try to fix this country."

In addition to speaking at tea party rallies and conservative conferences in recent years, he most recently helped start an organization to help wounded veterans.

He's got his hands full if he expects to win in 2012 in any case. Democratic incumbent Rep. Marcia Kaptur has been elected 15 straight times, none of them close.