After a series of stressful weeks for Mitt Romney, filled with must-win contests and doubts about his electoral prospects, The Hotline notes that Romney finally has a week where he can let things fall as they will.

“Romney
has the least to lose this upcoming week as Alabama and Mississippi
voters head to the polls. True, talk that Romney can’t coalesce
conservative voters is likely to continue if Romney underperforms in the
red southern states. But the stakes are much higher for former House
Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Sen. Rick Santorum… If Gingrich loses
to Santorum, the former Speaker’s campaign would have a tough time
arguing there’s any credible path for him in the presidential race…
But if Gingrich wins, he remains a credible threat to Santorum in the
race, undercuts Santorum’s argument that he is the candidate to harness
conservative fervor, and ends Santorum’s hope (at least for the time
being) that Gingrich will drop out of the race.”

Juan Williams:
“The death of the political middle is the defining shift taking place
in American politics today. It is ending the tradition of political
leadership that rises above ideology, region, party, religion and even
race to attain statesmanship… The Congress has become an increasingly
uncomfortable place for voices of moderation. Many of them are fed up
and have decided that 2012 is the year they will call it
quits… Because of the exodus — if not expulsion — of the remaining
moderates from Congress this year, American politics will become even
more polarized and dysfunctional. If you like the ideological extremism
and obstructionist paralysis that has characterized the 112th Congress,
then you will love the 113th.”

Sources close to Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign tell Fox News that there are preliminary discussions to name Texas Gov. Rick Perry as his running mate in an effort to unite conservatives.

Perry endorsed Gingrich when he dropped his own presidential bid earlier this year.

However, at least two senior aides to Perry were apparently dismissive of the idea. One noted that in the past, Perry has likened the Vice Presidency to a bucket of warm spit.

Rick Klein: “If and when Romney locks down the GOP nod, this weekend’s voting will mark a case in point as to how. Romney was decimated in the biggest contest held Saturday, in Kansas, with Rick Santorum securing an outright majority in a four-way field, and Romney struggling to hit 20 percent.”

“But Romney appears likely to walk away from the weekend with about as many delegates in his column, and possibly even more. Romney won overwhelmingly in the U.S. territories of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands; add that to the final set of caucus contests in Wyoming, and Romney got to wash out his big loss in Kansas.”

“That means a handful of contests where turnout is rivaled by class presidency elections in midsize high schools may end up being responsible for selecting the party’s nominee… Wins like this weekend’s did not happen by accident. Romney’s was the only campaign to prepare for the long haul of the race with detailed legal and structural plans for how to win delegates in every obscure corner.”

“I’d like everybody to get out.”

— Rick Santorum, in an interview on Meet the Press, about his GOP presidential rivals.

A new Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll in Illinois shows Mitt Romney leading the GOP presidential field with 35%, followed by Rick Santorum at 31%, Newt Gingrich at 12% and Ron Paul at 7%.

However, 46% of voters said they could still change their minds before the March 20 primary.

Mitt Romney “won the presidential delegate vote at Wyoming’s county conventions, picking up seven of 12 delegates after local party meetings that also delivered at least two delegates to Rick Santorum,” the Casper Tribune reports.

Wyoming will send a total of 29 delegates this year to the Republican National Convention — “more than such larger states as Connecticut, Oregon and Nevada. Under Republican National Committee rules, Wyoming gets additional delegates for having a Republican governor, Republican congressional delegation and Republican majorities in its state Legislature.”

Google has a nice map of the Kansas caucus results as they come in.

There are 40 delegates are at stake: 12 are
congressional-district delegates awarded on a winner-take-all basis, 25 are awarded proportionally
based on the statewide vote provided the candidate breaks 20%, and an additional three delegates go to
the statewide winner.

Complete results are expected by 6 pm ET.

Update: The AP reports Rick Santorum “appears on his way to taking most of the state’s 40 delegates.”

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) will announce today that he is resigning from Congress to devote time to his run for governor, the Huffington Post reports.

“The move should allow the long-serving Washington Democrat to up his name recognition across the state, which has been one of the difficulties facing his gubernatorial campaign. The trans-continental commute from D.C. to Washington has severely limited the amount of time Inslee has been able to campaign in the state.”

Alan Colmes has an interesting interview with Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, who commented on the viral video of Derrick Bell and Barack Obama, saying, “Of course we hid this throughout the 2008 campaign. I don’t care if they find it now.”

He says he was joking, but it’s lost on those who insist the tape is a smoking gun that will help torpedo Obama’s re-election chances.

Despite previous indications that Newt Gingrich might quit the presidential race if he does not win in Alabama and Mississippi this Tuesday, Gingrich put that speculation to rest and committed to staying in the race to the convention, according to ABC News.

Said Gingrich: “We’ll clearly do well enough to move on and I think there’s a fair chance we’ll win. But I just want to set this to rest once and for all, we’re going to Tampa.”

A new Alabama State University poll shows Newt Gingrich surging into the lead in Alabama’s GOP presidential race with 21%, followed by Mitt Romney at 20% and Rick Santorum at 17%.

Said pollster Thomas Vocino: “According to our poll results that ended last evening, Gingrich is coming on strong in Alabama and his numbers are still rising. His support was declining five weeks earlier and now Gingrich appears to be the comeback candidate at the expense of Santorum and Romney.”

The New York Times looks at Mitt Romney’s “sometimes awkward style and aloof manner” which as governor affected his relationship with lawmakers he needed to pass legislation.

“For officials used to the glad-handing and alcohol-lubricated culture of local politics, Mr. Romney was an unfamiliar breed: a data-driven chief executive used to delivering unquestioned orders, a political newcomer who cast the legislature as a foe, a delegator who preferred working with just the leadership and an emotionally remote figure who tended not to socialize — and because of his Mormon religion did not drink. Even though he worked just a few hundred feet from them for four years, Mr. Romney displayed little interest in getting to know lawmakers and never developed real relationships with most members of the Democratic-dominated body.”

Interestingly, President Obama is also frequently criticized for his equally aloof governing style.