Open Thread

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.

Today begins the Supreme Court's nearly unprecedented three days of oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Given Commerce Clause precedent and caselaw going back to at least the mid 1930's, the Obamacare law should be upheld as constitutional. But you never know with conservative activist judges.

Since I was MIA yesterday, we have lots and lots of polling goodness inside today. In Connecticut, both Democrats and Republican agree that failed 2010 candidate Linda McMahon should be the Republican nominee for Lieberman's seat. See why inside.

I am traveling today, so hopefully my wonderful colleagues will provide you with some Open Thread goodness. Or you can provide it in the comments. See you tomorrow!

Mitt Romney is your nominee. Or then again maybe not. The sound of the celebrations of the Republcan side is .... is..... deafeningly quiet. I would more describe it as a half interested groan. Even though Mitt Romney has no real meaningful opposition, he may still fail to capture a majority of the delegates until June, unless of course Santorum and Gingrich drop out and endorse Romney now, and that is not going to happen. So given that, I would have to say Mitt Romney is the weakest presidential nominee on the Republican side since Wendell Wilkie.

From Chuck Todd:

The earliest Mitt Romney could win the 1,144 delegates needed to capture the GOP nomination, per our count is May 29, and that's assuming he wins every single delegate after today. If you assume that he wins a 60%-40% split of the remaining the delegates, Romney won't get to 1,144 until June 26, when Utah holds its primary. And if Romney and Rick Santorum continue to trade victories as they've been doing over the past month -- with Santorum winning his demographic strongholds and Romney winning his -- Romney would fall about 50 delegates short of the magic number, according to our math.

OPEN CONVENTION!!! SARAH PALIN COMPROMISE NOMINATION!!! No, no, God does not love me that much

Romney looks to be heading to a significant win in Illinois, which makes me wonder why the hell Rick Santorum wasted time in Puerto Rico sunning himself. That time lounging may have been better spent campaigning in deep red sections of downstate Illinois.

Governor Markell was on CNBC again this past Thursday. Here is part of his appearance.

Here are some polling numbers for this Green Saturday. Happy St. Patrick's Day to all.

A new Gallup Poll finds just 35% of Republicans say they would vote "enthusiastically" for either Mitt Romney if he wins the GOP nomination. Just 34% were enthusiastic about voting for Rick Santorum and only 28% were enthusiastic for Newt Gingrich.