Newt Gingrich suggested he “may withdraw from the presidential race if he has a poor showing in the Delaware primary Tuesday — a state where he has been actively campaigning for several weeks,” NBC News reports.

Said Gingrich: “I think we need to take a deep look at what we are doing.”

A new Merrill/Morrison Institute poll in Arizona finds Mitt Romney barely leading President Obama in a general election match up, 42% to 40%, with another 18% undecided.

Said pollster Bruce Merrill: “The eventual outcome also may be dependent on whether former Surgeon General Richard Carmona can mount a vigorous campaign for retiring Sen. John Kyl’s seat, a campaign that would stimulate turnout in the Hispanic community. While I think if the election were held today Romney probably would win, it appears Obama can mount a competitive campaign in Arizona.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) told Fox News that his party faces a “real challenge” in holding on to its majority in the House.

Said Boehner: “We have 50 of our members in tough races, 89 freshmen running for their first reelections and we have 32 districts that are in states where there is no presidential campaign going to be run, no big Senate race and we call these orphan districts. You take 18 of them, California, Illinois and New York, where you know we’re not likely to do well at the top of the ticket and those districts are frankly pretty vulnerable.”

He added: “I would say that there is a two in three chance that we win control of the House again but there’s a one in three chance that we could lose and I’m being myself, frank. We’ve got a big challenge and we’ve got work to do.”

The law firm where former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (I) works, gave $50,000 to a pro-Obama Super PAC, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

The head of the firm is “a big time Democratic donor” but the donation also “adds a layer to Crist’s political conversion, from Republican governor to independent candidate for U.S. Senate to talked about Democratic candidate for governor.”

Edward Luce: “By this stage in the 1984 election, Ronald Reagan was proclaiming ‘Morning in America’. Barack Obama has so far had no such opportunity. Unlike the sharp rebound from the brutal recession of Reagan’s first term, today’s recovery has yet to break through dawn. It began just under three years ago. Most Americans say they feel no different.”

“Nor has Mr Obama found a good catchline to frame his side of the story. Last year he picked the slogan: ‘Winning the future’. It quickly vanished. In his State of the Union address this year, he switched to ‘An America built to last’ — and that was pretty much the last that was heard of it. He has yet to find a campaign theme that is built to last.”

Former Rep. Cynthia McKinney is preparing to run for her old House district on the Green Party ticket, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.

A “lightning-rod political figure,” McKinney was defeated in 2006 by Hank Johnson (D) “after a much-publicized run-in with a U.S. Capitol police officer and her accusations that the Bush administration may have known beforehand about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”

“If Rubio passes the vetting process, assuming he does, I think he’s the obvious choice. And if he says he doesn’t want the office, he’ll find a horse’s head in his bed. The next day he will accept. Romney’s not going to take no for an answer. We have ways, we Republicans.”

— Charles Krauthammer, on Inside Washington.

[Read more…]

“Most millionaire politicians achieve wealth before winning office,” the Omaha World Herald notes.

But Nebraska U.S. Senate candidate Jon Bruning (R) “blazed a different path, one in which an ambition for affluence led to involvement and investment in at least 17 private companies, nearly all while serving as Nebraska’s attorney general.”

“Along the way, the Republican front-runner for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat built a multimillion-dollar net worth while drawing a salary that ranged between $75,000 and $95,000 as the state’s top lawyer. His business pursuits have emerged as an issue in the campaign, prompting critics to question how he could find the time to fulfill his public responsibilities.”

Former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH): “The president is in full campaign mode. So is Congress. The federal government has been put into a holding pattern until the November elections… President Obama could go back to Chicago and campaign from there… Members of Congress could go back to their districts or wherever else it is they live, since everyone knows that nothing is going to happen.”

“If Washington was vacated, it would be a more honest expression of the reality of the status of governance for the next six months. It might help the American people believe that there is some integrity to the situation.”