Open Thread

Thursday's Open Thread

Well, Santorum's gone and with his "suspension" of his campaign, the GOP primary is over. The General Election has begun. Here are the latest polls and campaign ads.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds President Obama has double-digit leads over Mitt Romney on who would do a better job of protecting the middle class, handling international affairs and dealing with health care. On personal traits, the president's edge is even bigger: He has a better than 2-to-1 advantage as the more friendly and likable of the two, and nearly that margin as "more inspiring."

In the national GOP's eyes, Delaware is most definitely an ophan state, as the state GOP here is in disarray, if not in outright war with itself. But then again, save Tom Kovach and the U.S. House race, since the state GOP has utterly failed at recruiting any credible candidates to challenge Sen. Carper, Gov. Markell and Lt. Gov. Denn, I wonder if the RNC will even bother with Delaware. Since the GOP has the House majority without Carney's seat, they are unlikely to spend money in a state that will guaranteed to go Democratic in the fall, and which has a favorite son on the Presidential ticket.

Today is going to be a slow day. It's Good Friday and the first night of Passover, and a lot of people are busy observing the holiday. If you are one of them, may you have a blessed day. Check out this year's best political viral meme: Texts from Hillary. And then enjoy some neat videos.

Now that the Republican Primary is ending, I am going to start posting campaign ads in the open threads. But before that, we do have two polls from Pennsylvania and New York showing Romney winning. That seems to confirm that yes, the race is over.

"Nobody thinks Romney's going to win. Let's just be honest. Can we just say this for everybody at home? Let me just say this for everybody at home. The Republican establishment -- I've yet to meet a single person in the Republican establishment that thinks Mitt Romney is going to win the general election this year. They won't say it on TV because they've got to go on TV and they don't want people writing them nasty emails. I obviously don't care. But I have yet to meet anybody in the Republican establishment that worked for George W. Bush, that works in the Republican congress, that worked for Ronald Reagan that thinks Mitt Romney is going to win the general election." -- Joe Scarborough, on Morning Joe.

Bill Clinton thinks that President Obama will win election quite easily.

"I think that he's gonna win handily, and I have for a long time. I actually have since the 2010 elections. [W]hat the right-wing says always sounds better when they're sayin' it than when they're doin' it. So I thought after the 2010 elections, they basically assured his reelection."

Tomorrow there are primaries in D.C., Wisconsin and Maryland. And then after that, the next primaries are on April 24, which serves as a sort of "Greater Northeast" primary. The states holding elections that day are our own first state, Delaware, as well as Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York. Romney is going to win Maryland and D.C., and in a few weeks he will win New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. For Santorum to continue any semblance of a campaign, and for him to have any reason at all to continue, he should really win Wisconsin, and he absolutely has to win Pennsylvania. If he does not win his home state, then he should be dragged from the race kicking and screaming. So, we are down to Frothy's Last Stand. It was fun while it lasted.

Sorry gang!  Not sure what happened here, but use this as your daily Open Thread.  Today's point and laugh moment comes from the champions of point and laugh:

I am going to miss the Republican primary polls when this clown show ends. First Read: "With Mitt Romney holding a sizable delegate lead and with more prominent Republicans (George H.W. Bush and Marco Rubio) formally endorsing the former Massachusetts governor, Tuesday's GOP primary in Wisconsin is shaping up to be Rick Santorum's last chance -- in math and perception. If Romney wins Wisconsin, Santorum can't stop him from getting to the magic number of 1,114 delegates, according to our math."

69 percent want out of Afghanistan now.

The new low represents the crossing of a certain psychological and cultural threshold. It means the Afghanistan war is now at least as unpopular as the Iraq war was at the height of public ire. In fact, by some measures, the war to beat the Taliban — the guys who gave safe harbor to the 9/11 terrorists — is now more unpopular than the one to get rid of Saddam and his alleged stockpiles of WMDs.

Mr. President, speed up that timetable.

We are in a polling drop off. The Republican Primary is ongoing, but with Romney the presumptive nominee, not many polling outfits are spending the money on the remaining primaries. The big remaining primary contests, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, will get polled as the dates of those primaries gets closer.