“From northern Michigan’s iron mines to Pennsylvania’s natural-gas fields, the industrial heartland of America is humming with jobs again as a region once left for dead recovers faster than the rest of the U.S.,” Bloomberg reports.

“The turnaround may shape this year’s race for the White House as President Barack Obama seeks to reverse Republican gains in the Midwest… The economies of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania — all states Obama won in 2008 — have improved faster than that of the U.S. since the recession’s depth in April 2009, according to the Philadelphia Federal Reserve. Michigan is expected to lead all 50 states during the next six months.”

When David Axelrod tweeted a photo of President Obama and his dog in a car with the caption, “How loving dog owners transport their dogs,” it was clearly shot a Mitt Romney who once put his dog in a crate on top of his car for a family vacation road trip.

But, as Michael Scherer points out, it’s part of a broader strategy of using a dog whistle to paint Romney as uncaring and out of touch.

“Over the weekend, the campaign rolled out the Pet Lovers For Obama Facebook page, which among other things promotes all the Obama dog swag for sale from the campaign. There is the Bo ‘I Bark For Barack’ car magnet, the Obama leash, the Obama dog collar, the Obama dog bowl… It goes on.”

Mitt Romney now says he was “vastly outspent” in South Carolina and that’s why he lost to Newt Gingrich.

Said Romney: “You know, in South Carolina we were vastly outspent with negative ads attacking me and we stood back and spoke about President Obama and suffered the consequence of that.”

But Politico notes independent analyses show that Romney’s campaign and associated Super PACs “spent nearly double what Gingrich’s forces did in the state.”

Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (I) — who left the Republican Party during his unsuccessful 2010 U.S. Senate bid — told Chuck Todd that he’d consider voting for President Obama in November.

Said Crist: “Consider? Sure, I would consider that. I really think he’s sincere and genuine. I think we have a lot time, a lot of issues to talk about, but I think, in his heart, he’s trying to do what’s right for the country overall.”

Crist also said he wouldn’t rule out running for office as a Democrat himself in the future.

“Republican leaders in Florida, determined to give the state a big say in picking the nominee, decided having their delegation slashed from 99 to 50 was worth it and set Florida’s primary for Jan. 31. The RNC has said Florida will be a winner-take-all primary, but that decision is still subject to challenge,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.

The challenge could come this summer.

Jim Geraghty notes that if the results “are in line with recent polls, Mitt Romney will win 50 delegates and everyone else will win none. (Thus, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul spent a limited amount of time and resources in Florida.) But if it were proportional, Romney would win about 20-25, Gingrich would win about 14-16, Santorum would win about 5-7, and Paul would win 5-6. In other words, Newt Gingrich may have enormous incentive to file protests and perhaps even legal challenges to the RNC to make Florida allocate its delegates proportionally.”

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo predicted that 2012 will be “the Twitter election,” reports Tech Crunch.

Said Costello: “Candidates who don’t participate on Twitter while the debates are going on will be left behind because the next morning is too late to respond.”

Embattled Iowa Republican chairman Matt Strawn will leave his post at the end of next week, the Des Moines Register reports.

“Strawn has come under heavy fire recently from presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s backers who think he deliberately refused to acknowledge Santorum’s victory in the caucuses… In his resignation announcement this morning, he doesn’t mention the controversy over Iowa’s excruciatingly close caucus count — an omission that could further irritate Santorum’s backers.”

Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) announced in Indiana that he is retiring at the end of his current term, the Indianapolis Star reports.

National Journal: “Burton was first elected in 1982 but was facing another serious primary challenge: A poll earlier this month showed Burton narrowly leading a GOP primary field, but only pulling 29% support. Burton won a five-way primary in 2010 with just 30% of the vote.”

“You mean those who said I was dead in June? Those who said I was dead in December? They are about as accurate as they were the last two times they were wrong.”

— Newt Gingrich, quoted by ABC News, refuting predictions the presidential race would be effectively over if he lost in Florida.

He said the race would go on for “six or eight months” and then added: “unless Romney drops out earlier.”

“While his GOP rivals duke it out in a bloody Florida primary on Tuesday, Ron Paul will continue stumping for votes in the caucus states that dominate the political calendar over the next week,” ABC News reports.

“Paul does well in caucus states, where superior organization and passionate supporters play to his strengths and could allow the Texas congressman to pick up more delegates than Gingrich and Santorum combined this week.”

CNN: “Although Paul is charting an unconventional path to capture his party’s nomination, the Texas congressman and champion of libertarian ideals, said he intends to stay in the race through the fall convention.”

A new ABC News-Washington Post poll finds neither Mitt Romney’s nor Newt Gingrich’s private sector experience “is playing particularly well with the American public, although Gingrich’s consulting work draws far more criticism than Romney’s background buying and restructuring companies.”

“Americans by a broad 54% to 24% hold an unfavorable opinion of Gingrich’s work as a consultant for companies with an interest in federal policymaking after he left elective office. The division on Romney, while not positive, is much closer: Forty percent see his work experience negatively, vs. 35% positively.”

Polls show Suzanne Bonamici (D) holding a comfortable lead over Rob Cornilles (R) heading into the last day of balloting in the vote-by-mail special election to replace former Rep. David Wu (D-OR).

First Read: “The DCCC spent A LOT of money on this race; some might argue TOO much. But as they will argue, a loss of this special would have been DEVASTATING to their national narrative of keeping the House in play. So overpaying to avoid that storyline was worth it to them.”

Politico: “Republicans glumly acknowledge there’s little reason to expect the kind of upset the GOP scored last fall.”

First Read: “With Mitt Romney’s expected victory at tonight’s Florida primary, the New York Times asks a very good question: Will it mark the beginning of the end of the GOP nominating season, or will it merely signal the end of the beginning? On the one hand, Romney winning Florida would give him a victory in the largest, most diverse, and electorally important state so far. It would demonstrate his ability to bounce back from a major setback (the Jan. 21 South Carolina primary), as well as his organizational and financial strength.”

“On the other hand, you could argue that the Republican nominating contest is far from being over. For starters, Newt Gingrich has vowed to ‘go all the way to the convention.’ After all, hell hath no fury like a presidential candidate who believes he’s been scorned. Ron Paul’s campaign will continue, too.”

All polls in the state will be closed by 8:00 pm ET.

John Batchelor: “The traditional rationalization about intraparty smears is that it’s too early to dismiss the GOP’s chances; that it’s healthy for the party to battle with mud-flinging; that all this will be forgiven in the heat of August when the party embraces the man who would be king. However, the recklessness of Gingrich’s assault on Romney as Long John Silver, and the ruthlessness of the party’s Romney chorus screeching at Gingrich as the Undead, all this does reinforce doubts already in place with the independent voters, as well as creating a YouTube bonanza of clips for the Obama re-elect ops in Chicago.”

John Avlon reports that a staggering 92% of the political ads run in Florida over the last week have been negative.

“This tsunami of sleaze is being propelled by unprecedented advertising
buys. The Romney campaign and its associated super PAC, Restore Our
Future, have spent $15.3 million in Florida over the past month alone…
To put this in perspective, John McCain spent $11 million on ads during
his entire 2008 primary campaign.”

Notes ad tracker Kenneth Goldstein: “For as long as I’ve been in politics, 14 years, journalists call me and ask if this is the most negative election ad atmosphere I’ve ever seen. And every year I say, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. But this year it’s true. This primary season is the most negative it’s ever been. I have absolutely never seen television advertising so negative in a Republican presidential primary.”

Congressional Democrats “are embracing the populist agenda President Obama outlined in his State of the Union speech,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada is planning votes all spring and summer in an attempt to end the tax breaks that corporations and wealthy individuals like Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney enjoy.”

“Democrats would prefer to frame this election as a choice between the two parties, using these kinds of contrasts, rather than, as Republicans position the campaign, a referendum on Obama’s policies.”

Comedian Stephen Colbert’s “satirical super PAC raised some serious cash,” Politico reports.

“Between July 1 and Dec. 31, Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow collected more than $825,400, ending the year with nearly $674,000 cash on hand, according to disclosures filed over night with the Federal Election Commission.”

“What a pathetic situation to be running for the President of the United States with nothing positive to say. All you got to do is try to tear your opponent down to where they get smaller than you are, that’s the Romney model.”

— Newt Gingrich, quoted by NBC News, criticizing GOP rival Mitt Romney.