John Heilemann notes many Republicans “are already looking past 2012. If either Romney or Santorum gains the nomination and then falls before Obama, flubbing an election that just months ago seemed eminently winnable, it will unleash a GOP apocalypse on November 7 — followed by an epic struggle between the regulars and red-hots to refashion the party. And make no mistake: A loss is what the GOP’s political class now expects.”

Said GOP strategist Ed Rollins: “Six months before this thing got going, every Republican I know was saying, ‘We’re gonna win, we’re gonna beat Obama.’ Now even those who’ve endorsed Romney say, “My God, what [an effing] mess.”‘

“I’m in the camp that believes that these folks are being refined and improved by this very difficult process.”

— Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R), quoted by NBC News, dismissing the notion that a long and bruising primary is cause for concern from Republicans.

A new American Research Group poll shows Mitt Romney with a slim lead in the Arizona GOP primary at 39%, followed by Rick Santorum at 35%, Newt Gingrich at 11% and Ron Paul at 9%.

A new Landmark/Rosetta Stone poll in Georgia shows Newt Gingrich with a double-digit lead over the GOP presidential field at 38%, followed by Rick Santorum at 25%, Mitt Romney at 19% and Ron Paul at 4%.

The number of undecided voters remains at 13% before the March 6 primary.

Politico caught Rick Santorum in a lie this afternoon after he “slipped away from the campaign trail” to speak to a super PAC fundraiser, despite denying previous reports that he planned to do so.

Even though Shepard Fairey already settled his case with Associated Press over using their photo as the basis for his iconic Obama “Hope” poster early, the Los Angeles Times reports the artist today entered a guilty plea to related criminal charges.

Fairey was charged with criminal contempt for destroying documents and manufacturing evidence, once again proving the cover up is almost always worse than the crime.

He now faces a maximum of six months in prison.

Mitt Romney may have had an empty stadium as the backdrop for his big speech today but Vice President Biden had a man behind him struggling to stay awake during his own speech.

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Mitt Romney delivered what was billed as a major economic speech today in Detroit but it mostly fell flat, The Hill reports.

“Television cameras showed rows of empty chairs as Romney rehashed many of the policies and quips he’d used in previous speeches, made a few jokes that appeared to fall flat with the audience and said that his wife, Ann, drove ‘a couple of Cadillacs,’ which will likely give Democrats more ammunition for their depiction of him as rich and out of touch.”

But this is priceless: “‘That’s my family leading the applause,’ he said quickly, although no one was clapping, then laughed again. No one appeared to laugh with him.”

“This feels good being back in Michigan. You know, the trees are the right height, the streets are just right. I like the fact that most of the cars I see are Detroit-made automobiles. I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs.”

— Mitt Romney, quoted by BuzzFeed, noting that he and his wife have four cars between them.

ABC News digs into the process of how each state in the Republican primary’s delegate count is determined.

“Delegates
are allotted to states based on two factors. The first is a
mathematical formula connected to a state’s congressional
districts… The second determining factor is a bit more puzzling to a
non-political wonk. In addition to congressional districts, delegate
totals are also based on the Republican Party’s influence throughout the
particular state. States get ‘bonus delegates’ for hitting various
marks; electing a Republican governor, electing a majority of Republican
leadership to either chamber of the state’s legislature, electing a
Republican senator within the six year period between Jan. 1, 2006 and
Dec. 31, 2011, etc.”

A Smart Politics study of the 17 debates conducted since the field first peaked at eight candidates last fall finds moderators for the six debates conducted by CNN spoke for only 15.9% of the broadcast. By contrast, the moderators at the three FOX debates spoke for 26.2% of the time.

The Hotline notes the many disadvantages Democrats face this year in gubernatorial races around the state.

“Democrats
are defending twice as many seats — 8 to Republicans’ 4 — this cycle.
On a national level, they’ll defend those seats with less money; the
Republican Governors Association more than doubled the fundraising haul
of their Democratic counterpart last year. And Democrats will spend most
of their money on defense. Of the Republican seats up in November,
Indiana is the only realistic pickup opportunity for the blue team.”

After a recount of his petition signatures, the Indianapolis Star reports Rick Santorum will appear on the May 8 Indiana Republican primary ballot after all.

First Read updates their Electoral College scorecard which shows the presidential race moving slightly in President Obama’s favor. They give 227 electoral vote to Obama vs. 197 to the Republican candidate with 114 toss up states.

270 to Win has a nice interactive version of the same forecast. They also have an iPad version of the map.

Jon Stewart can’t believe the GOP presidential campaign is still going on.

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