Tonight's Republican debate.

As a former business executive and past governor, he can boast experience concerning economic activity and government policy-making. In fact, of all the GOP candidates in the field, Romney has the most standing to challenge Obama's economic actions (even if the company he led often brokered deals that resulted in job losses).

With his announcement speech, though, Romney is signaling that he's not prepared to have an adult conversation that transcends the scoring of political points. Romney's paramount responsibility as a presidential wannabe is to play to (or pander to) Republican primary voters. In the past, he has demonstrated how far he's willing to go in that regard by trading in his moderate/liberal positions on abortion, gay rights, and gun control for the traditional GOP stances on these matters. Issuing over-the-top assertions about the economy is not a stretch for him.

Bill Adair, editor of PolitiFact, recently told Minnesota Public Radio that he has never researched a Bachmann quote and found it to be true (the only major politician for which that's the case).

Here's an incomplete guide to Bachmann's greatest hits:

Bachmann, then a state senator, explains why she doesn't agree with the theory of evolution: "Where do we say that a cell became a blade of grass, which became a starfish, which became a cat, which became a donkey, which became a human being? There’s a real lack of evidence from change from actual species to a different type of species. That's where it's difficult to prove." Don't even get her started on how a bill becomes a law.

On Laura Ingram's radio show last week, Bachmann said: "To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump ... You want to talk about nanny state, I think we just got a new definition."

Bachmann's claim that the government is buying breast pumps is nonsense. The IRS simply announced it would allow people to deduct breast-feeding expenses from their taxes. And since breast pumps can be costly (I found them online in the range of $75 to $350), the tax break would be a relief to many working mothers. But for Bachmann and her ilk, any government intervention to support healthier options is fodder for harsh criticism.