For all the stiffness and the flip-flopping, what has really gotten Mitt Romney into trouble with the Republican primary electorate is when he says something that shades too close to the truth. We saw another example of that yesterday, when Romney committed the sin of explaining that austerity can worsen the economy in a recession.

Mitt Romney, struggling to regain the lead from Rick Santorum in national polls and facing a serious deficit in the key primary state of Michigan, has doubled down on his position against the auto industry rescue, arguing that the industry should have gone through a “managed bankruptcy,” mainly to squeeze out the United Auto Workers.

Newt Gingrich’s symphony of resentment at the media last night for daring to bring up the question of his marital infidelity was utterly predictable. And yet, mostly because of CNN debate moderator John King’s inability to follow up in any way, it was wildly successful at neutralizing the issue, and will propel Gingrich to victory in South Carolina on Saturday.

The story from Evan McMorris-Santoro here, about conservatives turning up their nose and saying “Meh” to the upcoming Marianne Gingrich revelations, even the open marriage stuff, is completely anecdotal. But it fits with a general story about redemption that conservative Christians often tell themselves to allow for a candidate who fails them morally but still offers them low taxes and a strong national defense.

Last night, Colbert closed his announcement with the words “Thank you, God bless you, and God bless Citizens United.” Nobody has done more to show how ludicrous our campaign finance system has become. If it leads to a reassessment of the system, his SuperPAC money will have been money well spent.

I finally got around to watching the trailer for the Winning Our Future PAC mini-documentary on Mitt Romney’s days at Bain Capital. Man, that’s tough stuff. The ad, which is actually a half-hour long (this is a trailer) will get massive airtime in South Carolina between now and their primary on January 21. And it paints the private equity business at Bain as a predatory capitalist scheme, making millions for investors while workers suffered.

Since Mitt Romney will, in all likelihood, be the Republican nominee for President this year (especially given his surge in South Carolina), it’s worth noting his tax plan, which the Tax Policy Center estimates will save $82,000 for every wage earner in the top 1%, while actually raising taxes slightly at the bottom of the income scale.

Jon Huntsman has always been able to get some media love, and it’s interesting how he’s using it in his last-ditch attempt to salvage his Presidential campaign. He’s going after Mitt Romney for being a servant to big banks and saying the TBTF banks need to be “right sized.”

To the extent Santorum can make this a race, he’s helped by winnowing the field. Michele Bachmann cancelled planned events in South Carolina and will hold a press conference back in Iowa this morning. Similarly, Rick Perry, in his campaign concession speech, said he would go back to Texas and “reassess” the results.

The latest polls show a three-way race between Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Movement toward Santorum sprung from one poll, from CNN, which sampled only Republicans, despite the ease of same-day party registration in Iowa and the expectation of up to 20-25% of the caucus electorate being composed of Democrats and independents.