Recap: The South Carolina GOP Forum/Softball Tournament

In case you were busy putting your white shoes in storage, here's what you missed at today's Palmetto Freedom Forum (an American Principles Project/Jim DeMint's ego joint), which we livetweeted over @TheInDecider.

* We thought this was going to be Rick Perry's first formal Q&A appearance as a 2012 candidate. Unfortunately, Texas is on fire, so he was unable to attend.

* Moderators Steve King, Jim DeMint and Robert P. George peppered the candidates with tough questions designed to force them out of their comfort zones and into the real iss- hahahaha, no. I hadn't seen this many softballs since my junior high gym class. Just a reminder, the current GOP candidates love the Constitution, hate Barack Obama and are pretty iffy on gays and ladies' reproductive organs.

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Tags: Constitution, Economy, Health Care, Herman Cain, Jim DeMint, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Palmetto Freedom Forum, Primaries, Republicans, Ron Paul, South Carolina, Steve King

From the Pork Barrel: King DeMint

* America's largest banks are getting new custom suits, but not the pinstriped kind.

* Potential president Newt Gingrich suggests we sell Alaska to solve the national debt crisis. Relax, it's a joke! (The 'potential president Newt Gingrich' thing. Oh, the Alaska thing, too.)

* Mitt Romney's jobs plan will be "sweeping and specific." So… a 3,928-page .pdf that he explains in a single tweet?

* Don't forget, Sarah Palin's on-again, off-again appearance at tomorrow's Tea Party rally in Indianola, Iowa is on again. She will fill the time between "California-based recording artist Steve Vaus" and "Carrie and Stacie Stoetling, two sisters from Iowa."

* On Monday, as America gets drunk on cheap beer, Jim DeMint will be toiling away at the Palmetto Freedom Forum, asking GOP candidates tough (?) questions and begging people to call him a kingmaker. This is Rick Perry and Mitt Romney's first time going mano a mano in a debate, so it'll definitely be exciting a thing that happens. We will livetweet the proceedings over at @TheInDecider, starting at 3pm EST, possibly while getting drunk on cheap beer. Join us!

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Tags: Alaska, Banks, Iowa, Jim DeMint, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Palmetto Freedom Forum, Pork Barrel, Primaries, Republicans, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin