A new Public Opinion Strategies (R) poll in Nebraska finds Deb Fischer (R) absolutely crushing former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 58% top 33%.

A new Garin Hart Yang (D) poll also shows Fischer way ahead, 52% to 38%.

Former Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL) “abruptly quit Florida’s Republican U.S. Senate race on Wednesday, all-but-assuring frontrunner Connie Mack IV the GOP nomination,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.

“LeMieux was behind in fundraising, behind in name identification and behind in big-name endorsements when compared to Mack, a sitting congressman from Fort Myers and the son and namesake of former Florida senator.”

A new We Ask America poll in Michigan finds Mitt Romney slightly ahead of President Obama, 45% to 43%.

“While Romney can lay claim to Michigan roots, it didn’t seem to help him
greatly in the Primary, and President Obama’s economic recovery program
that bailed out the auto industry should arguably give him a leg up
here. The fact this this and other polls have the race so close at this
point doesn’t bode well for conventional wisdom in the Wolverine State.”

A new We Ask America poll in Iowa finds President Obama barely ahead of Mitt Romney in the presidential race, 45% to 44%.

“Iowa — the state that helped launched President Obama’s political
rocket ship — may be reacting to the loss of ethanol subsidies and the
president’s stance on same-sex marriage (remember that Iowans voted
three judges out of office after they helped legalize gay marriage).”

First Read ponders the back and forth reports yesterday over whether Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is on Mitt Romney’s vice presidential short list.

“But here’s a little rule of thumb in American politics: If you have to say you’re vetting someone, is that someone really under serious consideration? Indeed, despite being the party’s rising star and a favorite of the GOP base, the signs always have pointed AGAINST Rubio being Romney’s pick. Why? For starters, he’s only been a U.S. senator for a year and a half, and he didn’t endorse Romney until late in the GOP primary season. Then there’s the opposition research out there on him — something that the Romney folks who worked for Charlie Crist’s 2010 Senate campaign know pretty well: Rubio charged more than $100,000 to state GOP credit cards, had racked up nearly $1 million in personal debt, and had nearly foreclosed on a home. No doubt that Rubio has plenty of assets (young, Latino, from Florida). But he also carries a lot of risk for the usually risk-averse Romney.”

Mark McKinnon says President Obama “has done it again. First he did it with gay marriage. Now with immigration.”

“It’s typical of the Democratic approach. Rather than creating a tidal wave that carries everyone, as Republicans generally do when they win, throw a thousand rocks and create a million ripples. Pick ’em off one by one. And, who knows, between Team Obama’s supernova data mining and demographic slicing and dicing and the president’s targeted-constituency executive orders, maybe that will be enough to claw their way to 50.1 percent of the vote.”

Politico: “Dating to the beginning of the cycle, 2012 has unfolded so far as a grinding, joyless slog, falling short in every respect of the larger-than-life personalities and debates of the 2008 campaign.”

“There have been small-ball presidential campaigns before, but veteran strategists and observers agree this race is reaching a record degree of triviality. Nothing previously can compare with a race being fought hour by hour in 140-character Twitter increments and blink-and-you-miss-it cable segments. Not to mention an endless flood of caustic television ads.”

President Obama’s campaign has two new television ads up in nine battleground states, attacking Mitt Romney for outsourcing and hiking a number of fees during his term as Massachusetts governor.

Mark Halperin: “Most notable here: they take a gratuitous shot at the Republican for being a ‘millionaire’ and they hit him from the right on taxes/fees.”

[Read more…]

A new Bloomberg poll shows President Obama leads Mitt Romney by a wide margin, 53% to 40% among likely voters, even as six in 10 say the nation is headed down the wrong track.

Meanwhile, just 39% view Romney favorably, while 48% see him unfavorably. A majority of likely voters, 55%, view him as more out of touch with average Americans compared with 36% who say the president is more out of touch.

Key finding: “The presidential race is roughly tied among the most enthusiastic voters, 49% of whom back Romney compared with 48% for Obama. Still, Romney inspires far less enthusiasm even among his supporters than does Obama, with 35% of Romney backers saying their support for him is ‘very strong,’ compared with 51% of Obama backers who say so.”

Said pollster Ann Selzer: “You can see in these data how important turnout will be. Those most enthusiastic about the election are more supportive of Romney, but Obama’s voters are more locked into their candidate than Romney’s. Building resolve to vote and making the vote stick is job one, and both candidates face obstacles toward getting that done.”

McKay Coppins looks at web traffic for stories about Mitt Romney and finds they almost always lag stories about President Obama.

 “In a sort of controlled experiment, BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski created two sets of similar, photo-heavy posts focused on the early lives of President Obama and Mitt Romney. One set focused on Obama’s and Romney’s childhoods, the other on Obama and Romney as young men. They were comparably promoted — with all four posts featured on the site’s front page, and pushed out into the social media sphere — but in both cases the Obama-centric posts vastly outperformed those about Romney.”

Politico: “Tim Pawlenty has jumped to the top of the vice presidential shortlist of several Mitt Romney advisers after emerging as the most effective — and well-liked — surrogate for the GOP nominee-to-be… The former Minnesota governor has impressed top Romney officials with his winning onstage presence at a grueling roster of Republican events throughout the country and with his low-maintenance personal style that has made him a favorite with the campaign’s tight-knit inner circle at the Boston headquarters.”

Wall Street Journal: “As is pro forma among potential picks, Mr. Pawlenty has shrugged off
questions about the No. 2 slot. But over time, his denials have shifted
from suggesting that Mr. Romney take his name off the list to noting
that anybody would be honored to serve, if asked.”

The Super PAC backing Mitt Romney said it would launch a $7.6 million television ad sweep across nine states, Reuters reports.

The ads will begin airing Wednesday and run through the end of June in presidential battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The purchase ends weeks of silence from Restore Our Future, “the independent spending group that emerged as the deep-pocketed heavyweight that barraged Romney’s Republican competitors in the race to become their party’s nominee.”

Despite reports to the contrary, Mitt Romney told the media that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is being “thoroughly vetted as part of our process” to select a vice presidential running mate.

“Elephants are among my favorites, partly because I’m Republican and partly because I’m big. Elephants make me feel like I’m the right size.”

— Newt Gingrich, quoted by ABC News, in an interview at the National Zoo. He added, “They’re very smart animals.”