Jeb Bush told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that Mitt Romney should pick Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as his running mate, calling him “dynamic, joyful, disciplined and principled.”

Said Bush: “He is the best orator of American politics today, a good family man. He is not only a consistent conservative, but he has managed to find a way to communicate a conservative message full of hope and optimism.”

A new Quinnipiac poll in Connecticut finds Linda McMahon (R) leading former Rep. Christopher Shays (R) in a Republican U.S. Senate primary, 51% to 42%.

However, Shays was stronger against the possible Democratic candidates, Rep. Christopher Murphy (D) and Susan Bysiewicz (D). Murphy leads the Democratic primary race, 37% to 25%.

Vice President Joe Biden “has quietly assembled an A-team of advisers who would, without doubt, be considered the nucleus of a presidential campaign — if only he wouldn’t be 73 in 2016,” Politico reports.

“Biden’s age would snuff the last embers of a presidential ambition that led him to a pair of crushing defeats in 1988 and 2008, or so many in Barack Obama’s camp thought when they first tapped him. But the old fire crackles yet. And Biden, spurred in part by those rumors about being replaced on the ticket by Hillary Clinton (who turns 69 in ’16), is campaigning with a young man’s tenacity in 2012 — with an eye toward keeping all of his options open.”

“Since 1976, no serious contender, Democrat or Republican, has watched his favorable ratings fall as low as Romney’s have in recent months,” Andrew Romano: points out.

“Or watched his unfavorable ratings climb as high. Or watched his overall numbers stay underwater — that is, more unfavorable than favorable — for so long. At this rate, Romney is shaping up to be the most unpopular presidential nominee on record.”

Jonathan Chait: “The main reason, I suspect, is that the Republican Party is extremely unpopular. The Bush years deeply discredited the GOP, and while Republicans were able to make gains in 2010 by default, as the out party during an economic crisis, they did nothing to rehabilitate their image. Indeed, they have embraced even more unpopular positions than the ones that George W. Bush advocated.”

While party rules
may prevent Newt Gingrich from being presented for the Republican
presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, ABC News notes that this isn’t as meaningful as some have made it out to be.

“If
Gingrich fails to meet the five-state threshold, he won’t be eligible
for the nomination when the convention begins. No delegate will be able
to nominate him for the nomination, technically, on the convention
floor. This rule doesn’t nix Gingrich’s chances, even if he fails to win
five states. Effectively, anyone can win the GOP’s nomination in Tampa,
without having won or even campaigned in a single state… An RNC
official acknowledged that on later rounds of voting, it would  be
possible for a motion to be made to nominate a candidate who did not
qualify on previous rounds. Essentially, the
nomination-for-the-nomination process begins anew. At that point, a new
candidate could demonstrate plurality support from five states and
qualify.”

The Hotline
notes that the Florida Republican party has made a “very substantial”
television ad buy touting Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) record as he
seeks to recover from dismal approval numbers.

A bit early: “When was
the last time a state party tried to boost a governor’s image with a TV
ad more than two years before he faces reelection?… Some Republicans
are concerned Scott could drag down the presidential ticket in the swing
state.”

The Hill
reports on a rift that has developed among House Republicans between
House leadership and the rank-and-file over primary battles that feature
two Republican incumbents.

Said an anonymous House Republican, “Some members are angry… If leaders get involved…I think they risk a revolt.”

Last fall, polling in the single digits for the GOP presidential nomination, Rick Santorum was giving paid speeches, NBC News reports.

He made $18,200 in two speeches, according to an amendment to his personal financial disclosure released today.

It only took the DNC a few hours to put the Etch-A-Sketch comments from a Mitt Romney advisor into a new web ad.

Meanwhile, BuzzFeed notes Rick Santorum’s campaign tweeted a photo of Santorum playing with an Etch-A-Sketch saying he was studying Romney’s policy positions.

[Read more…]

Walter Shapiro looks at the story of Mitt Romney’s dog Seamus “heroically riding for 12 hours in a dog carrier atop the family’s station wagon during a 1983 vacation to Canada” and says it has less to do with his treatment of animals than it does his treatment of people.

“What gives the Seamus story legs (four) is the inadvertent glimpse it offers of Romney’s rigidity. For all the natural parental annoyance with the constant are-we-there-yet demands and the bodily needs of five boys on the trek to Canada, it is a rare father who would so zealously limit bathroom and food stops. Remember: The Romneys were not exactly desperate refugees racing to get across the Canadian border before they were stopped by the authorities. They were an affluent American family on vacation, but with all the spontaneous joy of an automotive assembly line. Seamus was collateral damage. What matters is the suck-it-up discipline that Mitt Romney tried to impose on his family.”

“People are not cyborgs — they have human needs, including a propensity for rest stops and, in politics, healthy egos. But an awareness of these personal factors does not seem to be part of the Romney repertoire.”

Nate Silver: “At the betting market Intrade, Mr. Santorum is now given just a 1.5 percent chance of winning the nomination — lower than the combined total for a series of dark-horse figures like Jeb Bush, Sarah Palin and Chris Christie, who together have about a 3 percent chance. The race will continue on until Mr. Romney clinches or everyone else quits, but the only real question is whether Mr. Romney could somehow beat himself.”