Helpful advice for Republican presidential hopefuls on how to distinguish themselves between now and next year’s primaries.

Tonight in Greenville, South Carolina, five rivals for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination meet in the first debate of the campaign. I use the term “rivals” fairly loosely – I think the Matt Taibbi description of “Loony-ass Insurgents vs. Waffling Bores” applies a bit better. Most of the candidates with a legitimate shot at the nomination have decided to sit this one out. The debate consists of former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty; well-known frothy mixture Rick Santorum; guy who once ran a middling pizza chain Herman Cain; libertarian Rep. Ron Paul; and other libertarian, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson.

Stephen Colbert picked up on a theme that Just Say Now has been pushing for some time: that marijuana legalization in California in Prop 19 is more popular than any other candidate on the state ballot.

Colbert had a great segment last night about Prop 19, featuring an addiction drug warrior named Joseph Califano and former Governor of New Mexico and legalization advocate Gary Johnson.

The PPP poll (PDF) found that people age 18-29 favor Democrats over Republicans on the generic ballot by a margin of 62% to 18%. It’s ironic that both Boxer and Brown will benefit from higher youth turnout for Prop 19, considering the fact that both have come out against the measure.

Just Say Now is running phone banks into California, Arizona, South Dakota and Oregon in support of marijuana ballot initiatives. You can sign up here.

Live at the final day of NORML’s 2010 “Just Say Now” convention in Portland, OR: former New Mexico Governor and marijuana legalization advocate Gary Johnson (also: probable 2012 GOP Presidential candidate). Watch Governor Johnson live here.

Gary Johnson, the Republican former governor of New Mexico, was on MSNBC with Cenk Uygur to talk about the need to end marijuana prohibition. He knocked it out of the park; catch his interview here.

RT has been doing a great job of covering the brewing international crisis in Latin America caused by antiquated US drug policy, something that our media has virtually ignored. Last night Alyona Minkovski had FDL’s Michael Whitney on to discuss the Just Say Now campaign, following up a recent appearance by SSDP’s Executive Director Aaron Houston.