Mitt’s It: Another slate of GOP presidential primaries, another bundle of wins for Mitt Romney. Tonight brought victories for the former Massachusetts governor in New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island — victories he soaked in with a televised speech from New Hampshire, ever the general election battleground. “After 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and not a few long nights, I can say with confidence — and gratitude — that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility,” he said. (Photo by Gage Skidmore) source
Newt Gingrich may not make the ballot in Utah, after the check for his $500 ballot fee bounced. Utah Elections Director Mark Thomas confirmed that, after receiving the candidate’s paperwork and check in March, the state was recently contacted by the bank to notify them of the bounce. The state has apparently made multiple attempts to contact Gingrich, and have now given the candidate an April 20th deadline for the payment. Should they not hear from Gingrich in the next 8 days, he’ll be removed from the ballot. (Photo by Don Irvine Photos) source
The coronation bells are ringing, at least that’s how Mitt Romney seems to see it. On the heels of a three-state sweep (according to Wisconsin projections from CBS and Fox News), the GOP frontrunner delivered a speech dripping with the aura of inevitability that surrounded the start of his campaign, wavered against challenger after challenger, but ultimately now looks restored in full force. His victory speech tonight was, for all practical purposes, a red-meat general election speech — eschewing talk of his GOP rivals to roast the President — and touched on many of the themes we can expect to see over the next several months, primarily disparagement of President Obama’s economic policies, knowledge, and philosophy. Particularly notable, and we suspect it foreshadows the narrative to come, was a repeated phrase: “In Barack Obama’s government-centered society…” (Photo by Gage Skidmore, who you may have heard of.)
NBC News declares the Illinois GOP primary ‘too early to call’, Mitt Romney leading #ILprimary #Decision2012
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 21, 2012
Based on exit polls, Mitt Romney leads Illinois GOP primary. #CNNElections on.cnn.com/GBrfpu
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) March 21, 2012
NBC and CNN won’t call Illinois, but both have Mitt Romney leading. More updates as we see ‘em.
I wanted a brokered convention. That was one of my goals.Michael Steele • Discussing his role in the length of the current GOP primary season, and his thought process for scheduling primary contests during his time as chairman of the Republican National Committee. Steele has come under fire recently for creating a primary season that, by many accounts, appears to be benefiting President Obama far more than the Republican Party. Steele stuck by his decision-making, arguing that the longer primary season could re-engage Republican voters in states that have been largely ignored in previous contests. source (via • follow)
Could the primaries in Mississippi and Alabama be the beginning of the end for the social conservatives? Polls show a resurging Newt Gingrich could potentially upset rivals Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney in two key upcoming primaries. If Gingrich loses in Mississippi and Alabama he’d likely have to drop out, greatly increasing Santorum’s chances against Mitt Romney. But if he wins, Gingrich and Santorum would continue to compete for the social conservative vote, potentially tanking either candidate’s chance of upsetting current front-runner Mitt Romney.(photo via Politico) source
» More highlights from the report include: An abysmal 7.8% voter turnout in Massachusetts, the state where Mitt Romney served as governor, can’t bode well for the Republican presidential hopeful. Though it still wasn’t as bad as Virginia, where only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul appeared on ballots, and a mere 4.6% of the eligible voting population actually cast a vote. Read the full report here.
He said, she said, court papers said: On the “Answering the Attacks” section of Newt Gingrich’s website, his campaign denies the rumor that he divorced his wife when she was dying of cancer, asserting that “it was [Gingrich’s wife] that requested the divorce, not Newt.” However, court documents obtained by CNN show Newt filing for the divorce, not the other way around. A Newt spokesman responded, saying that “Newt Gingrich filed for a divorce from his wife Jackie Battley, but it was Jackie Battley who requested the divorce” (emphasis ours). But a petition filed by Battley (then Jackie Gingrich), also obtained by CNN, directly contradict this, stating: “Defendant shows that she has adequate and ample grounds for divorce, but that she does not desire one at this time.”
An unnecessary apology? Yesterday, a post over at America Blog noted that “Keep America American,” a phrase Mitt Romney sometimes uses while campaigning, is also a slogan once used by the Klu Klux Klan. Now, while this is embarrassing for the Romney campaign, it’s probably not an intentional effort by Romney to co-opt the KKK’s message, or pander to the group’s base. That is, it’s almost certainly just an unfortunate coincidence. What’s odd, though, is that hours after reporting on the story, MSNBC felt the need to issue an apology. But why? We missed MSNBC’s original report, but as you can see above, Chris Matthews specifically apologizes for “report[ing] on a blog item that compared a phrase used by the Romney campaign to one used by the KKK way back in the 1920s.” But…the phrase was used by both groups. It’s a fact. MSNBC doesn’t dispute this. So why was it, in Matthews’ words, “irresponsible,” and indicative of an “appalling lack of judgement,” for the network to point it out? Can someone who saw the original report shed some light on this? source
» What’s going on here? Actually, we’re not sure. Common wisdom says that Cain’s support flocked to Gingrich after the former dropped out of the race (or, sorry, “suspended” his campaign). So how come the same University of Iowa poll—taken in the state over a weeklong period—shows a drastic fall in the former House Speaker’s support after Cain’s exit? Of course, the standard “this is just one poll” disclaimer still applies; this could just be an anomaly. But a 13.3% decline in one week is significant, and outside the poll’s margin of error. Given the boom-bust tendency of the GOP field this year, we can’t help but wonder if this is the beginning of the end for Newt (note: it’s rather unusual for a polling house to make available the intra-week trends of a single poll; much respect to Reuters, who co-sponsored this poll, for doing so).
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His reasoning: “Regardless of how well [Gingrich] does on television, he will come off badly compared to Obama and look like nothing more than what he is: a fat, old, white man.” We’re betting Gingrich won’t take this bet. We’re also slightly surprised that Michael Savage has $1 million to spare.
Rick Perry, jockeying for the anti-gay vote: This ad, called “Strong,” has the Texas governor promising to end the Obama administration’s “war on religion” and touting his commitment to Christianity. “Something’s wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military,” Perry says, “but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas, or pray in school.” It’s unclear what policies President Obama has put in place to deny kids the right to openly celebrate Christmas. As of this writing, the video has 675 likes and 26,650 dislikes. source
One of the Republican weaknesses is that we rely too much on consultants and too much on talking points, and we don’t rely enough on actually knowing things.Newt Gingrich • In an interview with David Brody. Not quite sure what the political calculus is here, as admitting publicly that your entire party doesn’t know what it’s talking about is rarely good politics. However, not “actually knowing things” would seem to be a disqualifying factor for someone running for president, so Newt’s obviously exempting himself from this assessment. source (via • follow)
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