Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, Aug. 15, 2011.

(Credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry continued his attack on Social Security over the weekend, calling it a "Ponzi scheme" and a "monstrous lie" to younger Americans who should not expect to get back their contributions upon retirement.

"It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people. The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie," Perry said, according to the Houston Chronicle.

"It is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can't do that to them," Perry told a crowd a The Vine Coffeehouse in Ottumwa, Iowa.

Christine O'Donnell waves before giving her concession speech to supporters, Nov. 2, 2010, in Dover, Del.

(Credit: AP)

If you want to sell a book, and you seek out live television platforms to do so - particularly television news chat shows hosted by former tabloid editors - you had better be prepared to discuss the most contentious themes in that book.

Christine O'Donnell was not, and the tea party darling of Delaware was prepared to leave CNN host Piers Morgan in the lurch and call him rude to avoid discussing the hot-button issue of gay marriage on Wednesday night.

The US Treasury Department is seen on August 5, 2011 after Standard & Poor's cut the US credit rating for the first time in history.

(Credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

Late Friday, a Treasury Dept. spokesman told CBS News' Mark Knoller that "A judgment flawed by a $2-trillion error speaks for itself."

It was the first salvo in what will likely be extensive damage control by the Obama Administration, which now goes down in history as the first presidency to have a credit downgrade occur on its watch.

S&P cited "political brinksmanship" from both parties in its downgrade.

(Credit: Gerardo Mora/Getty Images)

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has signed a pledge sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage promising to support a federal constitutional amendment "defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman."

The pledge also includes promises to vigorously defend the Defense of Marriage Act in courts - something the Obama administration has decided not to do - and nominate Supreme Court and federal judges who "reject the idea our Founding Fathers inserted a right to gay marriage into our Constitution."

By signing the pledge, Romney also promises to establish a presidential commission on "religious liberty" that would investigate harassment or threats against those who have taken positions against same-sex marriage.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., gets a hug from her husband Marcus following her formal announcement to seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, Monday, June 27, 2011, in Waterloo, Iowa.

(Credit: Charlie Neibergall)

Marcus Bachmann, the husband of GOP presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann, acknowledged in an interview with the Star Tribune Thursday that his Christian counseling clinic engages in therapy seeking to turn gay people straight. But he said such therapy is only offered when a patient requests it, and that it is not the clinic's focus.

"We don't have an agenda or a philosophy of trying to change someone," he told the newspaper.

Bachmann's comments come following claims by patients who visited the clinic, Bachmann & Associates, that counselors tried to convert them from gay to straight. One man, posing as a patient seeking to be converted to straight, brought a hidden camera into a session at the clinic and recorded a counselor saying "God has created you for heterosexuality." (The counselor added that "God designed our eyes to be attracted to the woman's body, to be attracted to everything, to be attracted to her breasts.") Conversion therapy is opposed by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association and been called ineffective and harmful.

Updated 3:59 p.m. Eastern Time

Michele Bachmann's emergence as one of the top contenders for the Republican presidential nomination has meant increased scrutiny for the socially-conservative Minnesota representative. Her beliefs on homosexuality, in particular, have come under the microscope - despite the fact that Bachmann has repeatedly refused to discuss them since entering the presidential race.

Bachmann's beliefs have come under scrutiny because of her past record on gay issues as well as her family's source of income. While in the Minnesota statehouse, Bachmann championed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Her husband, Marcus Bachmann, runs a Christian counseling clinic where some patients say they were offered therapy on converting from gay to straight; hidden camera footage taken by a gay rights group shows a counselor at the clinic telling one man that "God has created you for heterosexuality." Marcus Bachmann is on record comparing homosexuals to "barbarians" who "need to be educated," but he has denied that his clinic engages in such therapy, which mental health professionals say is ineffective and harmful.

Bachmann's campaign - and Bachmann herself - has declined to answer repeated requests from CBS News for an explanation of her beliefs about homosexuality. But in 2004, when she was a state senator, Bachmann gave an hour-long speech outlining her opinions at the time.

Social conservative presidential candidate Michele Bachmann ups the ante in Iowa by signing a "values" pledge that other Republican presidential candidates may not support

Socially-conservative GOP presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has become the first candidate to sign a conservative Christian group's pledge to oppose same-sex marriage and uphold "core values."

Bachmann's commitment to the pledge ups the ante in Iowa, where the other Republican candidates may now be pressed harder to prove their social conservative credentials. The support of groups like Family Leader, which created the pledge, could be significant in the state, where 60 percent of the Republican electorate in 2008 identified as "born-again Christian."

(Credit: CBS)

The Family Leader, an influential Christian group led by Iowa conservative Bob Vander Plaats, is unveiling a pledge today that asks Republican presidential candidates to make a commitment to oppose same-sex marriage and Sharia law.

Vander Plaats, who served as Mike Huckabee's 2008 Iowa chairman, told the Christian Broadcasting Network that he would not endorse any presidential candidate that does not sign the pledge. Vander Plaats' endorsement could prove to be significant in the state, where 60 percent of the Iowa Republican electorate in 2008 was "born-again Christian."

The president, who was responding to Twitter questions in a live video, was asked to address some of the responses to his query toward the end of the town hall. The first came from Brian McKeon, who wrote, "Cut defense contracting, End war on Drugs. Eliminate agribiz and big oil subsidies. Invest in public campaign financing."

"That's not a bad list," Mr. Obama said, looking at the Tweet on a big screen.

(Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

NEW ORLEANS - Former presidential candidate and current talk show host Mike Huckabee says he is frustrated that he and his fellow social conservatives are often pigeonholed outside of mainstream conservatism.

"I do not share the idea that people who happen to believe that life is precious and that life still matters, I don't believe those people are somehow marginalized out of the mainstream," the former Arkansas governor told hundreds of conservative activists at the Republican Leadership Conference here.

Huckabee, who says he is not running in 2012, said he doesn't know of social conservatives who are not also both fiscal and national security conservatives.