Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are slugging it out in Florida ahead of the final national debate before the battleground state heads to the polls.

Mr Gingrich said his rival was part of the "old order", treating voters as though they were "stupid" and "timid".

But a pro-Romney support group released an attack ad that claimed Mr Gingrich's relationship with former President Ronald Reagan was overblown.

Florida is a key swing state that holds its nominating contest next Tuesday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16752655

Meanwhile at Pulpit Central:

http://www.christianpost.com/news/interview-robert-jeffress-refuses-to-back-down-on-mormonism-is-a-cult-57933/

The religion question offered an interesting insight into the broad range that is represented by the Republican candidates.

On one end is Ron Paul, who acknowledges his own faith, but basically says it will have little practical impact on his governing.

On the other end is Rick Santorum, who whips up the audience by declaring that "faith has everything to do with it."

http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/debates/2012-01-26-republican-debate?hp

Newt Gingrich briefly set aside earthly concerns such as debt and the deficit to promise the American people that if they elected him president, he would establish a colony on the moon.

In a speech near Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre, the Republican hopeful and space-travel enthusiast pledged that by 2020 American families would be living and working on the lunar surface.

He even proposed that, when the colony’s population reached 13,000, it could apply to become the 51st state of the union.

The rancour continued yesterday, when Romney attacked Gingrich as ''Dr Newt and Mr Hyde'' because of conflicting campaign messages, and Gingrich returning fire, saying the party would not beat Barack Obama with a candidate who held Swiss and Cayman Islands bank accounts and owned shares in the banks that were repossessing the homes of Florida residents.

But also critical to the candidates' chances stands a fast-growing voter bloc that will assume an increasingly influential role in American politics, more generally, in years to come.