“If you’re looking for something to go after in a political sense, just listen to the Vice President. He’s got plenty of material for us.”

— Mitt Romney, quoted by NBC News.

“I think the mistakes made in 2008 will have a big effect, as they should in 2012. The 2008 process was evaluated almost entirely through a political prism.”

— GOP strategist Steve Schmidt, quoted by the Washington Post, who oversaw Sen. John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Joshua Spivak reports the four Democratic state Senate hopefuls in Wisconsin will all face “fake” primary opponents. Republican leaders confirmed the tactic which they also used in last year’s recall races.

“The goal is to push the election so it is on the same day as the Walker recall — otherwise, the Democrats may have had a serious advantage in those races (as their votes would be more likely to come out for the Gubernatorial primary vote).”

A new Rasmussen survey in Wisconsin finds Mitt Romney with a double-digit lead over Rick Santorum in next week’s GOP presidential primary, 44% to 34%, with Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul each at 7%.

Though he’s promised a fight all the way to the convention, Newt Gingrich told WTMJ that Mitt Romney “is clearly the front-runner” and “will probably” win enough delegates to secure the Republican presidential nomination.

As well-regarded Republicans continue to line up behind Mitt Romney–including George H.W. Bush, Marco Rubio, and Paul Ryan — Adam Sorensen underlines why there has been a sudden rush to back the likely nominee.

“You might read these statements as examples of lukewarm sentiment for the candidate — Dave Weigel compares them to Ted Kennedy’s swooning endorsement of Obama at the height of the epic 2008 Democratic primary — but I’m not sure that’s entirely fair. There is a real and legitimate concern among Republicans that in recent years, their party has at times lost focus on winning general elections (see Christine O’Donnell). The Establishment endorsers’ target audience — Republicans who want to see the primary play out a bit longer — is not one that needs to be swept off its feet… The goal is to show that Romney has already won it, and that it’s time to move on to taking down Obama.”

“It’s been tried in our history and it hasn’t worked. It
didn’t work when we tried it in the decade before the Great Depression.
It didn’t work when we tried it in the last decade. We just tried this.
What they’re peddling has been tried — it did not work!”

— President Obama, in a fiery campaign speech in Vermont, referring to Republican proposals as “you’re on your own economics.”

After congressional candidate Matt Doheny (R) insisted that photos of him kissing a campaign consultant were “out of context,” the New York Post provides some context.

Doheny was “recently spotted partying in a DC bar with two women, groping both and kissing one. Neither one was his fiancée.”

And they have it on video.

“The video and photo didn’t come as a shock to some GOP insiders. They
described the former Wall Street investor as a party-hearty kind of guy.”

[Read more…]

The Los Angeles Times
notes that Wisconsin and the state’s “embattled governor” Scott Walker
(R) should serve as a warning for the Republican presidential candidates
of the “danger of lurching too far to the right in a presidential
battleground state.”

“The prominence of divisive social issues —
rather than a tight focus on jobs and the economy — in the race for the
Republican presidential nomination has delighted Democrats looking ahead
to November… On Saturday, Romney plans to join Santorum and Newt
Gingrich in Waukesha at a Faith and Freedom Coalition forum. The
gathering of Wisconsin conservatives will be fraught with temptation for
the presidential candidates to offer Republican primary voters still
more of what will likely cause trouble for the party’s nominee in the
fall.”