Visual source: Newseum
Dan Balz:
In the aftermath of Rick Santorum’s clean sweep of Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, Mitt Romney is still, in fact, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. But the lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy among conservatives foreshadows a potentially ugly road ahead to Tampa and general election problems if he is nominee.
Colorado was the shocker. But given a choice between social issues and the economy, the GOP base went with social issues. It's a killer for the fall, but they don't care.
Jonathan Capehart:
Mitt Romney can’t translate his carefully manufactured aura of inevitability into reality because no one believes he is who he says he is. We all know this. But after his triple loss last night, I’m convinced that Romney’s problems with the Republican primary electorate and voters in general go deeper. They sense a lack of character in someone for a job that requires bedrock principles and core beliefs. And as far as I can tell, Romney has none.
EJ Dionne:
What Romney has failed to do is give voters strong reasons to be for him. He’s missing what Richard Nixon (yes, that Nixon) called “the lift of a driving dream.” And signs of economic improvement are making Romney’s critiques of the Obama economy more problematic by the week. In the meantime, Santorum keeps getting more appealing simply by staying out of the Romney-Gingrich slugfest.
As for Eastwood, his Super Bowl ad for Chrysler led many conservatives to reveal themselves as whiny complainers incapable of celebrating the achievements of American enterprise and public policy.
Indeed so.
Think Progress:
Catholic leaders and the GOP presidential candidates have intentionally distorted the Obama administration’s new rule requiring employers and insurers to provide reproductive health benefits at no additional cost sharing. Conservatives are seeking a way to politically unite Republican voters around a social issue and portray the regulation as a big government intrusion into religious liberties. In reality, the mandate is modeled on existing rules in six states, exempts houses of worship and other religious nonprofits that primarily employ and serve people of faith, and offers employers a transitional period of one year to determine how best to comply with the rule.
It’s also nothing new. Twenty-eight states already require organizations that offer prescription insurance to cover contraception and since 98 percent of Catholic women use birth control, many Catholic institutions offer the benefit to their employees.
Glenn Thrush/Politico:
One woman, a veteran Democratic operative, pointed to the resounding 71%-to-29% defeat of a 2012 referendum in Colorado that would have conferred “personhood” status on fetuses, making abortions of any kind comparable to murder. That was an extreme measure, she argues, but so is limiting access to birth control because you work at a diocese-run nursing home -- and 97 to 99 percent of Catholic women already use contraception.
The consultant, who worked on that effort, said internal polling conducted by the campaign in that critical swing state showed 70 percent approval of birth control among women: “It's a political winner for Obama with women voters who will decide the election,” she said.
“Own it,” said one female Obama surrogate.
WaPo:
All of that is good news for Santorum, a Catholic known for his strident opposition to abortion and homosexuality. His focus on courting religious conservative leaders in Colorado and the large rural evangelical populations in Minnesota and Missouri clearly paid off on Tuesday.
While Santorum is downplaying the role the contraception dispute played in his three-state victory, he attacked President Obama’s mandate repeatedly in the days leading up to the contests. And he didn’t just go after Obama. He also hit at Mitt Romney, who supported the distribution of emergency contraception to rape victims when he was governor of Massachusetts.
Just because the culture wars are back doesn't mean the GOP wins. It may be bad for Romney, but it's also bad for Republicans. Homophobia and misogyny are losing issues. But don't worry. I am confident they are far too dumb to get it.
LA Times:
But polls indicate that voters, even Catholic ones, agree that contraceptives should be offered by health plans, even those of faith-based employers. That gives Democrats hope they can benefit from the high-stakes battle.
"This makes Republicans look more extreme," said Eddie Vale, a spokesman for Protect Your Care, a health advocacy organization that has been leading attacks on GOP candidates opposed to the new healthcare law. "It's another concrete benefit they want to take away."
Gallup:
A record-low 10% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, down from 13% in January and the previous low of 11%, recorded in December 2011. Eighty-six percent disapprove of Congress, tying the record high for disapproval set in December.
Keep in mind that when John Boehner is speaking on any issue, the public hates this Congress.
Joy-Ann Reid/Miami Herald:
Karen Handel, the failed pol and onetime “Mama Grizzly” who turned the Susan G. Komen Foundation into just another scarred combatant in the culture wars, has resigned. Now, Komen for the Cure can go back to doing what it does best: putting on pink-clad, heavily corporate sponsored foot races in major cities to raise awareness — and lots of money — for the fight against breast cancer. Except that they can’t go back.
There are some things you just can’t take back...
Meanwhile, the controversy has forced women who would be otherwise sympathetic to Komen’s cause — women like myself who have lost loved ones to breast cancer — to take a deeper look at the organization. Turns out, they’re no stranger to controversy — over partnerships that have “pink-washed” everything from Smith & Wesson pistols to Kentucky Fried Chicken, and over their less media-covered decision to pull the plug on millions of dollars in funding for embryonic stem-cell research, which also delighted the religious right, but which isn’t exactly helpful if your goal is to find a cure for breast cancer.
Gail Collins:
When I was first married, my mother-in-law sat down at her kitchen table and told me about the day she went to confession and told the priest that she and her husband were using birth control. She had several young children, times were difficult — really, she could have produced a list of reasons longer than your arm.
“You’re no better than a whore on the street,” said the priest.
This was, as I said, a long time ago. It’s just an explanation of why the bishops are not the only Roman Catholics who are touchy about the issue of contraception.