Visual source: Newseum
Jonathan Bernstein (pre-results):
In other words, this is probably the third chance — after South Carolina and Super Tuesday — that Mitt Romney has had to (possibly) end the active nomination fight with a very good night. But remember: The downside here isn't that the nomination will be at risk, only that he'll have to keep contesting primaries for at least a while longer.
Chris Cillizza:
Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum’s twin wins in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday night are almost certain to give him what he has long wanted: A one-on-one race with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.
Romney badly needs Illinois on Tuesday to keep from being even more embarrassed than now.
Kathleen Parker:
Mornin’, y’all,” said Mitt Romney recently to a Mississippi crowd. He started his day off right, he said, with “a biscuit and some cheesy grits.” That would be cheese grits, but never mind. Would Romney greet an audience at a Jewish Community Center with: “Oy vey, did I ever enjoy my loxies and bagels this morning!”? Or African Americans with: “Yo, dawg, wassup?”
Actually, yes, he might. Forever tattooed in the memory is the image of Romney approaching an African American baby at a 2008 Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. Pointing to the baby’s necklace, he said: “What’s happening? You got some bling-bling here!”
Yo.
Kathleen forever tries and fails to wrap her head around the fact that her party has so little to offer. But she might want to tackle how many Republicans don't believe in evolution and think Obama's a Muslim for a change of pace.
Reading Jennifer Rubin after a big Romney loss is like a Yankees fan reading the Boston Globe after a Red Sox loss:
The silver lining for Romney is that Gingrich, though coming in second in both races, vowed to stay in the race. It is the competition between Gingrich and Santorum that will help keep Santorum’s delegate count low, allowing Romney to maintain or lengthen his lead.
True. Romney will get the nod eventually, no thanks to conservatives and no thanks to the South. Then he will lose.
TPM suggests politics may play a role in the recovery:
National Journal:
Poll Shows Public Supports Obama on Gas Prices
More Americans trust President Obama than congressional Republicans to make the right decisions to bring down the price of gasoline, according to a new poll, although neither side commands a majority.
What’s more, as prices continue to rise and the specter of $5-per-gallon gas for the summer driving season looms over the political landscape, the latest United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll shows the public slightly more supportive of the energy priorities of the Democrats and the president than those of the GOP.
NY Times:
Stocks climbed to new heights in part on rosy retail sales data on Tuesday, pushing the broad market to levels last seen in June 2008 and the Nasdaq composite index to close above the 3,000 milestone for the first time since 2000.
See also
NASDAQ shrugs off Obama socialism, hits 3,000.
David Leonhardt:
“If you could know one thing and you had to predict which party was going to win the next presidential election,” Lynn Vavreck, a political scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said, “you couldn’t do better than knowing the change in economic growth.”
Particularly important, Ms. Vavreck said, were the first six months of an election year, when many voters form impressions that stick.
Paul Glastris:
In short, when judging Obama’s record so far, conservatives measure him against their fears, liberals against their hopes, and the rest of us against our pocketbooks. But if you measure Obama against other presidents—arguably the more relevant yardstick—a couple of things come to light. Speaking again in terms of sheer tonnage, Obama has gotten more done than any president since LBJ. But the effects of some of those achievements have yet to be felt by most Americans, often by design. Here, too, Obama is in good historical company.
Emily Swanson/Pollster.com:
The available evidence from the broader spectrum of available polls does not so far support the idea of a dramatic drop in Obama's approval, but does suggest that in the last month his rating has either leveled off or turned down slightly.
See
Obama's approval rating up to 50 percent: Reuters/Ipsos poll and
Gallup: Obama's Job Approval Rating Reaches 49% Over Weekend for more polling data in addition to the
CBS/NY Times and
ABC/WaPo polls.