Mark Halperin: “Romney’s Illinois win could be the beginning of the end of the Republican nomination fight. In order to get there, he faces two challenges: He’ll have to convince on-the-sidelines Republicans to endorse his candidacy, contribute to his campaign, and muscle Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich out of the race. And he’ll also have to persuade the media to reflect the reality that Romney is the only candidate who can win… Santorum probably has one more chance to change the paradigm with a win in Wisconsin on April 3, after an expected victory in Louisiana on Saturday.”

Fred Barnes: “Mitt Romney is close to finishing off his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, talk of a brokered GOP convention in August, and the prospect of a new candidate suddenly entering the contest.”

First Read: “Despite what some are saying, however, the race isn’t over — at least
not yet: The GOP primary contest moves on to Louisiana, where Santorum
is favored. And then, on April 3, it heads to DC, Maryland, and
Wisconsin. If Romney pulls off the upset in Louisiana and/or sweeps the
April 3 contests (especially Wisconsin), then it will be fair to
conclude the race is over.”

“It’s a form of welfare. You know, you’re having the taxpayers pay to take care of
somebody and I’m an ordinary citizen and I would think I should pay for
my own protection and it costs, I think, more than $50,000 a day to
protect those individuals. It’s a lot of money.”

— Ron Paul, quoted by Politico, on why he doesn’t want Secret Service protection.

Mitt Romney crushed Rick Santorum in the Illinois primary, but William Kristol still isn’t impressed.

“Watching Mitt Romney’s victory speech in Illinois didn’t reassure me about his chances against President Obama. (Watch it yourself to see if I’m being unfair.) Romney’s remarks consisted basically of the claim that the business of America is business, that he’s a businessman who understands business, and that we need ‘economic freedom’ not for the sake of freedom but to allow business to fuel the economy. It’s true that Romney will have plenty of time to improve for the general election, if, as seems likely (but still not inevitable!), he wins the nomination. But if he sticks with this core message, we’d better hope Republicans and independents are really determined to get rid of Barack Obama.”

Illinois Republicans “delivered a decisive victory to Mitt Romney in the state’s presidential primary Tuesday, crushing Rick Santorum in what amounted to the first big-state head-to-head contest among the front-runners for the GOP nomination,” the Chicago Tribune reports.

“Even more important for Romney, he swamped Santorum by winning 39 of the 54 elected delegates up for grabs in the state. Santorum had only five, though votes were still being counted in several Downstate congressional districts where he ran strongest.”

Chicago Sun Times: “Romney’s team knew that the suburbs were key — and scheduled a series of stops in the northwest suburbs in the closing days of the Illinois campaign.”

Exit polls: “Approximately two-thirds of Illinois primary voters said they want their preferred candidate to prevail regardless of how long that might take.”

Nate Silver notes that exits polls also show that 32% of Illinois voters decided whom to vote for either just today or in the last few days, a figure larger than in most other recent states.

CNN exit polls show Mitt Romney leading the Illinois GOP primary with 45%, followed by Rick Santorum at 35%, Newt Gingrich at 12%, Ron Paul at 8%.

Fox News projects Mitt Romney will win the Illinois primary.

A new Magellan Strategies poll in Louisiana finds Rick Santorum leading Mitt Romney by 13 points in Saturday’s GOP primary, 37% to 24%, followed by Newt Gingrich at 24% and Ron Paul at 3%.

If Gingrich were not in the race, 61% of his support would go to Santorum, and only 22% to Romney. In a one-on-one contest, Santorum would defeat Romney by 21 points, 55% to 34%.

“I think he has not done as well as we had hoped. None of us ever do in campaigns.”

— Sen. John McCain, in an interview with Don Imus, on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

When Bob Kerrey (D) registered to vote last month and “listed his sister’s address as his home — swearing under oath that it was his residence — he fully intended to live there for some time,” the Omaha World Herald reports.

A day later, Kerrey said, he “lucked out” in finding his own place when a real estate developer offered to let him live in his guest home.

The AP reports Nebraska Republicans are going to court to challenge Kerrey’s voter registration to keep him off the U.S. Senate ballot but the U.S. Constitution requires only that senators be a resident of the state they serve by the time they’re elected.

A new FEC report will shows Newt Gingrich has more debt than cash on hand, Politico reports.

Gingrich’s campaign will report $1.54 million in the bank but also continues to carry $1.55 million in debt and his contributions have apparently slowed significantly.

Jeff Greenfield: “If Romney has not secured the nomination by the time the delegates convene in Tampa, Fla., at the end of August, the prospects for a genuine floor fight are greater than you might imagine. The reason is that delegates who are bound or pledged to a candidate are only obligated to follow his wishes when it comes to voting for a nominee. And in most contentious conventions, it is a fight over the rules that has effectively determined the nominee.”

Despite some recent polls that found Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) leading in his re-election bid, a new Public Policy Polling survey shows challenger Elizabeth Warren (D) ahead, 46% to 41%.

Key findings: “Voters are more comfortable with Warren ideologically than they are with
Brown. 51% say that her views are ‘about right,’ compared to 44% for
the incumbent. She’s probably also benefiting from the fact that 54% of
Massachusetts voters think the Republican Party is too conservative,
compared to only 41% who think the Democratic Party is too liberal.”

A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that 68% of registered voters polled said they think that in general, it is inhumane to put the family dog on top of the car, compared with 14% who said it’s humane and 18% who weren’t sure.

That said, when told by pollsters that Mitt Romney had done so, 55% said it didn’t affect which candidate they would support, while 35% said it made them less likely to support Romney and 7% said it made them more likely to support him.

Former Rep. Mark Neumann (R), running for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin, used a pig at a news conference to symbolize how he would cut “pork” from the federal budget.

But as the video shows, that probably wasn’t such a good idea.

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A new video features Mitt Romney as Eminem. Just brilliant.

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