Newt Gingrich is the latest in a host of Republican presidential candidates to savor the "frontrunner" status given by the media. But just as fast as they giveth, they taketh away, as Jon Stewart illustrated on tonight's Daily Show. A clip of the segment is above.

Okay, I get that there aren't many good choices out there, but still: Newt Gingrich gets the most support in this Fox News poll asking, "Which Republican presidential candidate would you trust MOST with nuclear weapons?" We're finished.

Even though many were declaring his campaign for President over with as many as six months ago, Newt Gingrich has somehow come back to be the current GOP frontrunner. But with the title comes the scrutiny, as Gingrich learned this week after a renewed interest in his Greek cruise last summer. On tonight's Report, Stephen Colbert tried to do some damage control.

Newt Gingrich is now in first place in Public Policy Polling's monthly survey, with 28% of the vote. CNN shows him in second place, trailing Mitt Romney by only two percentage points. Fat Head has Made Good, people.

Around this time last week, we gave the fickle Republican base voters 10 days to start getting over this Herman Cain thing and commence with the "Gingrich Surge," "Newtmentum," "The Newtening," "Fat Head Makes Good" — whatever you prefer. With three days to go, it looks like they're complying. We were just screwing around. Oops!

It's a frustrating day for pundits! The political world just wants to see Herman Cain's rapid, painful demise, right now, so we can get on with the business of a "Gingrich surge," which can then be brought to its own rapid, painful demise, leading us to the eventual acceptance of Mitt Romney.

The Texas Tea Party Patriots, using what must be an alternative pricing model, will charge $200 for general admission to its upcoming "modified Lincoln-Douglas style debate" between Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain.

Newt Gingrich has often expressed his desire, were he to win the Republican nomination, to debate President Obama in seven three-hour "Lincoln-Douglas style debates." These area not likely to happen, for several reasons. But Gingrich has convinced Herman Cain to debate him next month in a "modified Lincoln–Douglas debate," the modification being, what... that they both argue the pro-slavery position? Hmm.

CNN's Western Republican presidential debate, held earlier tonight in Las Vegas, was quite a doozy. Of course, the highlight was Mitt Romney and Rick Perry's knock-down, drag-out fight over illegal immigration.

Okay, sorry, this post probably should have been tagged "NSFW" due to the large image of an old man's melting face. But let's move beyond courtesies: Was Ron Paul's eyebrow collapsing during Tuesday's debate? This image appears to show a fake eyebrow just stone cold fallin' off.

Newt and Callista Gingrich, authors of creepy children's elephant porn, love the comedy film The Hangover enough to see it seven times. It's "totally stupid, but we can't help ourselves," said Gingrich, who is allegedly running for president.

Finally, the definitive image of the Newt Gingrich 2012 presidential run has emerged: Callista Gingrich, sitting opposite an elephant furry, selling propaganda to children.

Former Rep. Alan Grayson wrote a blog post for the Daily Kos today. If that sentence isn't sad enough, here's the title: "I Told Newt He Looks Fat." Apparently Grayson once met Newt Gingrich on the floor of the House, and totally zing'ed him, and it was awesome.

Unpopular 1990s politician Newt Gingrich likes to hit all the big early presidential primary stops: Istanbul, the Greek Islands, California, California again, and Hawaii. Yes, Newt Gingrich appears to be going on a working vacation again, to "fundraise" during the week of his wedding anniversary.

The Republican candidates have all gathered in Ames, Iowa tonight for a terrifying Fox News debate. Did they really need to do this on a night with so many wonderful NFL preseason games? Lord, do they ever hate America. Anyway, what will they babble about, and who will win, and what else? Let's explore!

Yesterday, we published an item based on a former Newt Gingrich staffer's claim that Gingrich assembled his 1.3 million Twitter followers—a number that he's taken to bragging about—in part by buying fake Twitter followers. A lot of people did not think that was true! But today social networking search firm PeekYou announced that it had crunched the data and come to the conclusion that roughly 106,055 of Gingrich's million-plus followers are real people. The rest are fakes.

Yesterday Newt Gingrich laid out a new argument for why he should be the GOP presidential nominee: He's got the most Twitter followers. But according to a former Gingrich staffer, he bought them.

If there was ever a way to truly gauge a presidential candidate's popularity among voters, it would be by the number of Twitter followers they have. And that's what historical fiction author Newt Gingrich is banking on. He cried to The Marietta Daily Journal about "the elite media" going after him, and referenced this story about his "personal touch" on Twitter:

My personal favorite way to remember how far to the right the Republican party has move in only a few years is this 2008 Al Gore-funded commercial in which Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi urge the country to address climate change.

Jon Stewart opened The Daily Show tonight with a check on the fundraising successes (or failures) of the many Republicans vying to replace President Obama in 2012. From dead-in-the-water (or in the Tiffany showroom) Newt Gingrich to migraine-afflicted Michele Bachmann, video of Stewart's assessment is above.