Even though Newt Gingrich has announced he’ll end his presidential campaign next week, the New York Times reports he’s still campaigning.

“One of the quirky indulgences of modern campaigns is that candidates announce their intent to run for president on multiple occasions — essentially, stunts to milk media attention. They announce the formation of exploratory committees, announce that they intend to run, announce that they are actually running, etc. Ever the innovator, Mr. Gingrich has applied that ritual to quitting.”

Karl Rove‘s latest electoral vote forecast finds President Obama with 220 votes and another 64 votes which “lean Obama.” Mitt Romney has 93 votes with another 79 which “lean Romney.” The remaining 82 votes are “toss ups.”

Most interesting: Rove lists both South Carolina and Missouri as “toss up” states.

“I’m not going anywhere, don’t worry.”

— New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), quoted by ABC News, when a supporter said, “I really, really hope that you serve your term here.”

“My commitment to my Church and faith is all encompassing.”

— Mitt Romney, in a 2002 interview with the Mormon newspaper Church News, via BuzzFeed which notes Romney often dismisses questions about his religion arguing that he’s “not running for pastor-in-chief.”

Stuart Rothenberg notes that all of the talk about Mitt Romney’s running mate “is a lot of wasted, useless, meaningless hot air” but warns that cable television news networks have “4,416 hours to fill from May 1 to the end of October — and they’ll need to fill some of those hours with chatter from people who want to hear themselves talk about running mate selections.”

A Wenzel Strategies poll in Indiana shows Richard Mourdock (R) leading Sen. Richard Lugar (R) in the GOP U.S. Senate primary by five points, 44% to 39%.

The poll was conducted by a Mourdock-supporting group. The primary is on May 8.

Vice President Joe Biden sharply criticized Mitt Romney in a campaign speech by digging up a Romney quote from 2008, BuzzFeed reports.

Said Romney at the time: “Well, if we want somebody who has a lot of experience in foreign policy, we can simply go to the State Department and pluck out one of the tens of thousands of people who work there… A president is not a foreign policy expert.”

Biden: “In my view, the last thing I think we need is a president who will subcontract our foreign policy to some expert at the State Department.”

The Seattle Times notes it’s been “a common practice in politics for years” for trackers to follow politicians trying to get their gaffes recorded “and most politicians have learned to blow off such tracking efforts.”

But Washington gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna (R) “appeared to let it get under his skin” in an encounter earlier this week. McKenna told the tracker — who identified herself as a “youth worker” — wasn’t being “honest” and was trying to “bushwhack” him. Walking away, he said, “You’re just trying to gain a political advantage, sorry. Why don’t you go get a job?”

Of course, the exchange is on video.

[Read more…]

Mark Halperin: “Commentators are focusing for now on Florida Senate phenom Marco Rubio as a potential vice-presidential prospect… Meanwhile, real pros are gaming out a more relevant question: How can Romney’s team turn Ohio Senator Rob Portman into a “surprise” selection after months of insider consensus that he in the inevitable and smartest pick?”

First Read: “President Obama continues — and has slightly added to — his electoral-vote lead. There are 231 electoral votes in the Democratic column (either in the solid, likely, or lean categories), and there are 197 on the Republican side; 110 electoral votes are toss-up. In our previous NBC News map, which we released in late February, the Democratic advantage was 227-197. The only changes from February until now were that we moved New Hampshire from toss-up to Lean Dem; we moved Indiana from Likely GOP to Lean GOP; and we moved Georgia from Lean GOP to Likely GOP.”

Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “Based on our analysis, Obama starts with a presumed base of 247 electoral votes, just 23 short of the magic number of 270 — but not all of them are truly secure. Romney starts with a much firmer but not ironclad 206. The election will be decided mainly in seven states with 85 toss-up votes: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia.”

A new Fox News poll finds a majority of Americans — 61% for President Obama and 58% for Mitt Romney — think neither have a plan to fix the economy.

The general election match up shows both men in a dead heat at 46% each.