Though he holds a double-digit lead, Rick Santorum’s disorganization may cost him a chance at delegates in his home state.

The Daily: “The problem for Santorum springs from the fact that potential delegates in Pennsylvania run on a primary ballot uncommitted to any presidential candidate — meaning voters won’t know who they’ll support at the convention this summer… Romney, Ron Paul and even Newt Gingrich got some of their supporters on the ballot as delegate candidates. But Santorum’s campaign officials, who have struggled with ballot organization issues across the country, privately concede that they just didn’t have the time, nor resources, to organize their own supporters to run as delegates when the paperwork was due earlier this year.”

John Avlon: “A cleansing bout of craziness in 2012 could be just what the GOP needs. I’m talking about a nominee so far to the right that conservative populists get their fondest wish — and the Republican Party is forced to learn from the result. Namely, that there is such a thing as too extreme.”

“Giving conservative activists everything they want in a presidential nominee would ultimately be clarifying for the Republican Party… There’s nothing like losing 40 states to refocus the mind.”

The Wall Street Journal has interesting detail on Mitt Romney’s application to double the size of his beach house in La Jolla, CA: It will have an additional 3,600 square feet “of finished underground space, according to public records.”

“Tony Crisafi, one of the project’s architects, declined to comment on Mr. Romney’s motivations but says that these days, most of his clients want to be discreet about the scale of their home, and one way to do that is ‘by pushing things underground.'”

When Newt Gingrich was asked this morning what conditions could lead him to withdraw from the Republican presidential race, the Washington Post notes he said, “Probably none.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) said at a press conference that a bill that would force women seeking an abortion to undergo fetal ultrasounds was not “obtrusive” because women could simply close their eyes during the procedure.

Said Corbett: “I’m not making anybody watch, OK. Because you just have to close your eyes. As long as it’s on the exterior and not the interior.”

[Read more…]

A We Ask America poll in Illinois finds Mitt Romney leading the GOP primary field with 37%, followed by Rick Santorum at 31%, Newt Gingrich at 14% and Ron Paul at 8%.

A Rasmussen survey shows Romney leading with 41%, followed by Santorum at 32%, Gingrich at 14% and Paul at 7%.

The Illinois primary is next Tuesday.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) was facing perhaps his “gravest political threat” in a 36 year political career “but spent more than a year fighting back, mobilizing supporters to attend the caucuses and by early and anecdotal reports, appears to have fared well,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

Said Hatch: “I’ve been told that things went fairly well. Actually I’ve been told that things went really well, but who knows. I’m a tough old bird and nobody is going to push me around without a fight.”

GOP caucus-goers elected 4,000 state delegates, who will gather April 21 to vote on the party’s U.S. Senate nominee.

Byron York notes that in recent weeks it has been Mitt Romney’s wins “in the island territories — Marianas, Guam, Samoa, Virgin Islands — that gave Romney the edge in delegates. And on Sunday comes the primary in Puerto Rico. It’s possible that if Romney finally reaches the 1,144 delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination, his delegate margin of victory will have come from the islands.”

“Which leads to the question: Why are places that are not states, whose residents cannot vote for president, and which have no electoral votes allowed to play a potentially critical role in selecting the party’s nominee?”

Dave Weigel notes a Republican’s vote in Samoa was actually worth 4,182 times more than a Republican’s vote in Florida.

Lauren Ashburn and Howard Kurtz have an interesting NewsHour segment about President Obama campaign’s use of social media to roll out its 17-minute “documentary” by an Oscar-winning director.

They also examine the proliferation of negative Facebook groups that belittle and mock the presidential candidates.

[Read more…]

Jay Cost: “Right now, we are in the tenth week of the GOP primary battle, and about half of the delegates have been allocated. But check out the lines in 2008 and 2012, at this point in those cycles roughly 80 percent of the delegates had been allocated!”

“What does this mean in terms of Romney’s political strength? Put simply: it blunts it. This slow allocation of delegates gives poorly funded candidates time to stake out ground in smaller states, pick up a surprising win or two, gain momentum, and challenge the frontrunner.”

A new Gallup Poll finds just 35% of Republicans say they would vote “enthusiastically” for Mitt Romney if he wins the GOP nomination — “similar to Republicans’ feelings about voting for Romney in early 2008, but lower than the enthusiasm level for that year’s eventual GOP nominee, John McCain.”

Just 34% were enthusiastic about voting for Rick Santorum and only 28% were enthusiastic for Newt Gingrich.

“Republicans are also less enthusiastic about voting for their party’s current pool of candidates than Democrats were about voting for their potential nominees in both 2008 and in 2004.”