Open Thread

A new CNN survey of Republicans finds that they want a Romney-Rice ticket. Yes, Condoleeza "No one could have predicted 9/11" Rice leads the veepstakes with 26%, ahead of Rick Santorum at 21%, Marco Rubio at 14%, Chris Christie at 14%, and Paul Ryan at 8%. I wonder if this poll offered the names or if these names were volunteered. But putting her on the ticket would be a disastrous move on Romney's part.

"Many progressive donors think President Obama has it in the bag. But he doesn't even have it in the shopping cart yet, much less in the bag." Paul Begala, in an interview with Greg Sargent, saying Democratic donors need to step up. To illustrate that point, Romney has gotten a post-primary bounce. All polls, even yesterday's CNN poll shoiwng a 9 point Obama lead, show improvement for Romney.

I thank Nemski for helping out with the open threads during the last several days. I was very busy in real life elsewhere. Do we have polls? That's a silly question. An Associated Press analysis of the presidential battleground finds Mitt Romney likely has 188 electorate votes in states that are either solidly Republican or leaning Republican while President Obama has 242 electoral votes in safe Democratic or likely Democratic states. That leaves 104 electoral votes in states that are purely tossups: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. I would give the President the edge in Colorado, Florida, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia. Indeed, the only swing state I see him losing is Iowa.

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.