2012

Christian Heinze reports on the latest Monmouth University, showing that New Jersey Republican governor Chris Christie remains popular at home: 

President Obama and the Democratic party sure are fighting wars on many fronts.

Newt Gingrich is using Rick Santorum's announcement that the former Pennsylvania senator is suspending his presidential campaign to make a last ditch effort at becoming the Republican nominee--by drawing a contrast with front runner Mitt Romney.

With Democrats defending 23 of the 33 Senate seats up for election in November, the opportunities for Republican pickups abound. Although Republicans will play defense in Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada, they will almost certainly make gains in North Dakota and Nebraska. Republicans have good opportunities to take Democratic seats in Missouri, Virginia, Montana, Florida, Wisconsin, and Ohio—and then there’s the list of Democratic seats that could become competitive.

It's over: CNN estimates that Barack Obama has won enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination for president in 2012.

Oh—the Republicans? OK, I'll concede that contest is getting close to over as well.

As polls close in Maryland and Washington, D.C., "NBC News projects Romney the winner of both," tweets NBC's Chuck Todd. "Should be a delegate sweep in MD but too early to call that part just yet," says Todd, suggesting that Romney will go over 50 percent of the vote in Maryland.

A final get out the vote call from Mitt Romney's campaign in Wisconsin suggests an unholy alliance of the Santorum campaign, "union bosses," Democrats, and Santorum's "cronies" might be conspiring to extend the GOP contest, and urges Wisconsin voters to stop those efforts by voting for Romney. The call seeks to align Romney with Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, whose challenge of public employee unions has made him immensely popular among the state's Republicans.

Rick Santorum is leading in his home state of Pennsylvania, according to a new Quinnipiac poll:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will not be joining in the effort to reelect President Barack Obama. "Senior administration officials confirmed on Monday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would not be joining the president on the campaign trail, given the explicit need to avoid making her position appear political," the Huffington Post reports.

In many ways, the story of the 2012 Republican primary has been the inability of Mitt Romney to win over more than a third of self-identified “strong Tea Party supporters” or “very conservative” voters. If he had received the support of those voters, even a slim majority of them, the race would almost certainly have been over weeks ago. 

With Mitt Romney leading the delegate race and the rapid coalescing of conservatives around him – Jeb Bush, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, and Paul Ryan with formal endorsements, and Jim DeMint and Pat Toomey with quasi-endorsements – there is increasing speculation about who the former Massachusetts Governor would pick as a running mate if he wins the Republican nomination.

NBC News reports on its latest poll of likely voters in Wisconsin's Republican primary contest: