The Republicans are debating each other once again—this time in Las Vegas. We're holding them accountable in real time with tweets and fact checks. Tune in to CNN at 8 p.m. ET and follow along at our debate HQ for the Democratic response.

The Republicans are debating each other once again—this time in Las Vegas. We're holding them accountable in real time with tweets and fact checks. Tune in to CNN at 8 p.m. ET and follow along at our debate HQ for the Democratic response.

Another debate, another fact-checking session.

Tonight, the Republican presidential candidates are gathering in New Hampshire. They'll try to outdo each other with misleading statements, record distortions, and false attacks on the President—and we'll keep them honest with real-time fact checks and tweets.

Tune into the debate on Bloomberg TV at 8 p.m. ET, and follow along with the Democrats at our debate headquarters page.

Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt released a memo this morning underscoring just how out of step with average Americans the 2012 Republican presidential candidates have become in their quest to pander to the extreme right-wing Tea Party.

LaBolt writes:

"From economics to immigration, Governor Perry, Governor Romney, and the Republican field have embraced policies that the American people oppose. The campaign to win the Republican nomination has become a campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Tea Party. They would return to policies that have been tried before and done nothing to improve economic security for the middle class, rewarding special interests who can afford to pay for lobbyists instead of looking out for working families.

"While the President is fighting to create jobs and put money in the pockets of middle-class Americans, the Republican candidates have proposed extending tax breaks for large corporations and tax cuts for the wealthiest while allowing special interests to write their own rules."

Read the memo here.

When Republican debate audiences cheered for Texas's execution record, chanted in support of letting an uninsured man die, and booed an active-duty gay soldier, the candidates on stage were silent.

None of them spoke up to admonish the crowd and call for civility. Or as the Concord Monitor put it: "Not one candidate, in situations that cried out for leadership, exhibited leadership."

Watch and share our new video.

When Republican debate audiences cheered for Texas's execution record, chanted in support of letting an uninsured man die, and booed an active-duty gay soldier, the candidates on stage were silent.

None of them spoke up to admonish the crowd and call for civility. Or as the Concord Monitor put it: "Not one candidate, in situations that cried out for leadership, exhibited leadership."

Watch and share our new video.

When Republican debate audiences cheered for Texas's execution record, chanted in support of letting an uninsured man die, and booed an active-duty gay soldier, the candidates on stage were silent.

None of them spoke up to admonish the crowd and call for civility. Or as the Concord Monitor put it: "Not one candidate, in situations that cried out for leadership, exhibited leadership."

Watch and share our new video.

You know the drill—the Republicans are debating each other in Orlando, and we're keeping them honest.

Check out our debate headquarters starting at 9 p.m. ET. We'll be putting together real-time tweets and fact checks as the GOP candidates distort their records and make outrageous claims.

The Republican presidential candidates are debating each other once again—and this time the debate is co-sponsored by the Tea Party Express.

Don't miss a minute of the action. Tune into the debate on CNN at 8 p.m., and follow along at our debate HQ page for real-time tweets, fact checks, and Democratic Party responses to the inaccurate, misleading, and straight-up absurd claims the GOP candidates make.

The Republican presidential candidates are gathering at the Reagan Library in California for a debate tonight—and we're joining in the fun.

Check out our debate HQ page at 8 p.m. ET for real-time tweets, fact checks, and more Democratic responses.

On the heels of last week’s GOP presidential debate and Ames straw poll, it’s become clear that primary allegiance of these Republican candidates is to the Tea Party. This extreme ideology drives their fight to protect special interests and tax cuts for millionaires and corporations—while the security of the middle class, students, and seniors withers on the vine.

The Tea Party’s stranglehold on GOP candidates made headlines again last week when Mitt Romney told Iowa voters that “corporations are people, my friend,” in response to a question about corporations paying their fair share in taxes. The Tea Party registered another champion for their extremism when Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy on Saturday.

All told, last week was a good for the Tea Party, but bad for the American people. See for yourself.

On the heels of last week’s GOP presidential debate and Ames straw poll, it’s become clear that primary allegiance of these Republican candidates is to the Tea Party. This extreme ideology drives their fight to protect special interests and tax cuts for millionaires and corporations—while the security of the middle class, students, and seniors withers on the vine.

The GOP candidates’ allegiance to Tea Party ideology made headlines again last week when Mitt Romney told Iowa voters that “corporations are people, my friend,” in response to a question about corporations paying their fair share in taxes. The Tea Party registered another champion for their extremism when Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy on Saturday.

All told, last week was a good for the Tea Party, but bad for the American people. See for yourself.

Last night during the Republican presidential debate in Iowa, the Fox News moderator asked the eight participating candidates if they would oppose a hypothetical plan to reduce the deficit by cutting spending $10 for every $1 raised in new revenue—even if that $1 came from the wealthiest Americans. The verdict was unanimous: All eight pledged their loyalty to the Tea Party and rejected a balanced plan.

This was only one example of the GOP’s espousal of Tea Party extremism. Throughout the debate, job creation was a secondary topic, and the words “middle class” were not mentioned once.

The Republican candidates proved they had no new ideas to offer—they simply support the same failed GOP policies that led to the recession in the first place. And Americans cannot afford to go back.

Check out this web video responding to the Republican pledge of allegiance to the Tea Party:

In the most explicit attribution to date, a S&P director yesterday said that the United States’ credit rating downgrade was a direct result of Republican brinksmanship that threatened our country with the first-ever government default. It’s a damning indictment of Republicans’ ideological policies, as well as the disruption they have caused to the political process.

As Politico reports, senior director of S&P Joydeep Mukherji said that the “stability and effectiveness of American political institutions were undermined by the fact that ‘people in the political arena were even talking about a potential default.’”

Mukherji continued by saying that the extreme dissenting opinions are uncommon in the political system of advanced countries, such as the United States. “This kind of rhetoric is not common amongst AAA sovereigns.”

While the S&P downgrade was a flawed financial decision, the political consideration is clear—politics, not policy, drove the decision.

Last night during the Republican presidential debate, we didn’t see the candidates back away from the policies singled out by S&P—we watched a full embrace.

Michele Bachmann, Tea Party darling and fact-free enthusiast, had this to say about raising the debt ceiling and defaulting on our credit:

When they dropped our credit rating what they said is, we don't have an ability to repay our debt. That's what the final word was from them. I was proved right in my position. We should not have raised the debt ceiling.

Except, that’s not at all what S&P said. S&P could not have been more definitive:

The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy.

That brinkmanship championed by Bachmann, as well as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and other Tea Party-supported officials, has remained a steadfast and mainstream GOP position despite being refuted time and again.

They represent a party out of touch with American voters and neglectful of the impact their policies have on our country.

Tonight, starting at 9:00 p.m. ET, the field of Republican presidential candidates will debate in Ames, Iowa, and we’ll be joining them. We created a debate page to fact check, live blog, and live tweet the debate—and we want you to participate in the conversation as well.

Moderated by Fox News host Bret Baier, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Santorum will all be there.

Buckle up, put your chair and tray table in the upright position, and turn on your electronic devices—tonight’s going to be fun: democrats.org/news/aug11debate/.

Tonight, starting at 9:00 p.m. ET, the field of Republican presidential candidates will debate in Ames, Iowa, and we’ll be joining them. We created a debate page to fact check, live blog, and live tweet the debate—and we want you to participate in the conversation as well.

Moderated by Fox News host Bret Baier, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Santorum will all be there.

Buckle up, put your chair and tray table in the upright position, and turn on your electronic devices—tonight’s going to be fun: democrats.org/news/aug11debate/.

From: Melanie Roussell, DNC National Press Secretary

To: Interested Parties

Date:  August 11, 2011

Re:  What to Expect from Tonight’s Republican Debate

With 179 days left before the Iowa Caucuses, the American people are increasingly turned off by what they are learning about the Republican presidential candidates and who they fight for. Instead of new ideas that give the middle class more security, we hear the same old policies that carve out special benefits for the special interests. Instead of a new approach that puts party aside and America first, we hear a rigid and extreme ideology that asks working and middle class families to carry the entire load.

This is why the GOP is seeing its support erode significantly.  In two recent polls the GOP is seeing some of the highest negative ratings ever—driven in large part by their willingness to let the extreme Tea Party dictate the Republican Party’s agenda and take over the party, with the 2012 Republican candidates following their lead.

In a CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday: “[F]avorable views of the Republican party dropped eight points over the past month, to 33 percent. Fifty-nine percent say they have an unfavorable view of the Republican party, an all-time high dating back to 1992 when the question was first asked.” http://bit.ly/pp9t8F: “More Americans now think that members of Congress who support the Tea Party are having a negative effect than said that in January, at the start of the new Congress. Currently, 29% judge the impact of Tea Party supporters as mostly negative compared with 22% who see their impact as mostly positive.  

At the beginning of the year, the balance of opinion was just the opposite: 27% said that Tea Party members in Congress would have a positive impact, while 18% expected a negative effect.” http://t.co/v7hZidL

Despite these historic negative ratings, we should expect to hear more from this field of Republican presidential contenders who have not only embraced the same failed policies of the past that eroded middle class security and led our country to the brink of depression,but who have also embraced an extreme and rigid ideology that will hurt America’s seniors and the middle class.

In advance of tonight’s debate, we wanted to highlight some key points we expect to hear from the Republican candidates as they continue to fight for the title of “Most Extreme,” in their efforts to pander to the far-right Tea Party base of the Republican Party to seek the nomination.

Failure of Leadership - Duck, Dodge and Dismantle

Make no mistake the Republican presidential contenders have fully embraced what we call the Duck, Dodge and Dismantle approach to leadership because they are ducking their obligation to the Middle Class; dodging their obligation to our nation’s seniors; and, they want to dismantle critical education and job creation programs while protecting tax breaks for the wealthy, big oil and corporate jet owners.  They support the same unbalanced economic policies as Washington Republicans.

Tonight you will hear GOP presidential contenders continue to tout their support for the Republican budget that would end Medicare as we know while giving NEW tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and the special interests. While they ask average Americans to cut back and sacrifice, they ask nothing of those at the very top.

Moreover, the actions or lack thereof of candidates like Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann and others are clear – these Republican candidates for President are not interested in leading.  They simply want to please the far-right, extreme Tea Party base of their partybecause that is what being the standard bearer of the Republican Party today requires.

Pushing the Nation to the Brink

Expect the overwhelming majority of the Republicans on the stage tonight to proudly state that they would not have supported the bipartisan debt agreement that prevented our country from defaulting on its debt for the first time in history.  To these candidates, compromise is a dirty word and the prospect of America not paying its bills was a risk they were willing to take.

The recent decision by S & P to downgrade the United States debt, as flawed as it is, highlighted the need for the type of compromise and consensus that the candidates opposed.  In fact, part of what the S & P based its reasoning on was the fact that Republicans in Congress were unwilling to consider revenues.  While Democratic leaders showed their commitment to standing with President Obama to support a grand bargain that asked everyone to compromise, Speaker Boehner and his Tea Party Caucus, during negotiations, walked away no less than three times. At a moment when America should have been their top concern, they put politics, party and rigid ideology first. And the Republican presidential candidates backed them up – and the GOP field will double down on that flawed approach to leadership tonight.

Extreme Aims toward America’s Seniors

Over the course of their campaigns, each of the Republicans running for president has proven that their priority is not standing up for seniors or America’s middle class; their priority is protecting the wealthy and the special interests.  Look for them to say more of the same tonight.

Both Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty endorsed a Cut, Cap and Balance proposal that would have cut Medicaid by one-third over 10 years and nearly half by 2050.  According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, that alone could cause 36 million people to lose their Medicaid coverage, including individuals with disabilities and seniors in nursing homes. 

Jon Huntsman, who proudly called himself a radical for wanting to end Medicare as we know it, endorsed the principles of Cut, Cap and Balance including a balanced budget amendment. The amendment that the House will consider would put a cap on what the government pays out in Social Security and Medicare while allowing one-third of the members of Congress to block asking the wealthiest to pay their fair share. It would be easier to cut Social Security than it would to close corporate tax loopholes for private jets and Wall Street bankers. The amendment, coupled with the cuts from the House Republican budget, would change the rules for generations of Americans who paid into Social Security and Medicare week after week and paycheck after paycheck. Instead of getting what they paid for and earned, they would see cuts that could result in a $1,500 per year average reduction in benefits for the 70 million seniors on Social Security, and an average reduction of approximately $1,100 per year for those who receive Medicare.

Extreme Aims toward the Middle Class

All of the Republicans have committed to the same extreme economic policies of the Republicans who held Washington hostage over the course of the last month.  They all support protecting corporate subsidies and tax loopholes instead of protecting investments in critical programs that would create the jobs of the future, like education, research and development of clean energy. In addition, their cuts would cost middle class families jobs.

For example, Mitt Romney has consistently ducked and dodged on the most pressing issues facing America including the debt ceiling debate.  Not only did he wait until 12 hours before the final vote to actually say something—leading one reporter to say Romney was in a “Mittness Protection Program”—he endorsed the Cut, Cap and Balance plan that would have harmed our economic recovery in the short-term while simultaneously hurting our long-term economic competitiveness all while putting a greater burden on America’s oldest citizens and our most vulnerable.  Look for him to reassert his support for Cut, Cap and Balance tonight.

To her credit Michele Bachmann did not actually vote for the Cut, Cap, and Balance – because she didn’t think it was extreme enough!  She told Fox News that America should pay off all our foreign creditors first, even if that means slashing Medicare and Social Security payments to America’s seniors. We expect her to repeat similar sentiments tonight.

Additionally, look for Herman Cain to tout more failed economic policies like his support for a “fair tax” for everyone, which even the Wall Street Journal editorial board called “the most radical reform imaginable” and one that would “hit hard the young, middle-income families.” 

Conclusion

As we expect to see tonight, the GOP candidates’ extreme aims to appease the far-right wing of the Republican Party show that Republicans are more concerned with protecting their special interest friends and the wealthy than protecting working families.  The GOP would rather seniors and the middle class sacrifice and the wealthy pay even less in taxes.  Unlike President Obama, their policies would eliminate, not create, opportunities for the middle class.  They are not interested in a balanced approach to reducing America’s deficit that increases revenues and protects America’s promise to our seniors and middle class through Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. 

From day one President Obama has been willing to do the hard work to address the fiscal mess he inherited and move our country in the right direction.  The President has worked tirelessly to bring our economy back from the brink, get it growing again and to create jobs for middle class families. He understands we have a long term deficit problem and that special interests aren’t left off the hook when it comes to paying their fair share. And sadly, to date all we’ve seen from the current GOP field is a Duck, Dodge and Dismantle approach.  Tonight in Iowa we should not expect anything different than more of the same failed economic policies that brought our economy to the brink and advocacy of extreme policies that will hurt seniors and the middle class.

We introduce to you a brand new resource for all things Republican in the 2012 election cycle.

This new tool tells voters what they need to know about the GOP field, with biographical points and content specific to each candidate. For Jon Huntsman, Michelle Bachmann, Mitt Romney, and Tim Pawlenty, we're launching new videos as well. This whole site will tell the story of how GOP policies would duck, dodge, and dismantle critical benefits for seniors, low-income families, students, and the middle class.

Right now, all the Republican candidates are running on a mostly identical platform catered toward the ideological extremism of the Tea Party, without regard for its impact on America’s economy and most vulnerable. This site will help make that point as well.

So if you want to know which candidate is the Tiffany Shopper of the Year? Or which ranked 47/50 in job creation as governor? Or which candidate wants to abolish the Federal Reserve (hint: He has two first names)?

Check out the hot new GOP 2012: Duck, Dodge, and Dismantle.

Also, make sure you follow along with us tomorrow night as the nine Republican candidates debate in Ames, Iowa. It’ll be a wild ride.

How often do you hear a Republican presidential candidate say something that caused you to scratch your head? How many times have you read a GOP claim that belies logic, muddles facts, and sounds so Loony Tunes you can’t believe the person who said it has a platform to speak in public?

You are not alone. And now you don’t have to suffer alone either.

Introducing @GOPsayWhat, the Twitter account that compiles the radical, ‘round-the-bend, you-must-be-kidding, someone-get-this-person-a-history-book craziness that flows from the GOP field of 2012 hopefuls and other party figureheads.

Their goal is to inform public debate. And we want to help them – in our own way, of course.

So when you hear something that must be shared, tweet it at @GOPsayWhat. If nothing else, follow along, retweet to your followers, and know that you don’t have to rage alone.

In the run up to Thursday’s Republican debate in Iowa and Saturday’s Ames straw poll, we’re launching a new project that will help voters better understand the positions of the 2012 Republican field. These candidates have been overtaken by the Tea Party and are pushing an agenda that would end Medicare as we know it, give millionaires the tax cuts they don’t deserve, and dismantle programs critical for education and economic growth.

Watch the video, but be sure to check back all week as we gear up for Thursday—when we’ll be covering the debate live, so make sure you follow along.