Visual source: Newseum
Beth Fouhy at the Associated Press:
The uproar over Rush Limbaugh's derisive comments about a young woman's sex life is serving as a vivid reminder of the outsize role conservative media stars play in Republican politics.
With a Democratic president in the White House and no leading GOP elected official setting the party's agenda, Limbaugh and other media personalities like the late Andrew Breitbart and even Donald Trump have filled a vacuum for many conservatives seeking a full-throated political advocate. The popularity of such figures among Republican core voters has made party leaders reluctant to cross them, even when their comments or tactics steer well out of bounds.
CNN's
Peter Hamby:
Since 1988, when Michael Dukakis beat his main Democratic rivals in a slew of March primary states, "Super Tuesday" has usually played a pivotal role in determining presidential nominees in both parties.
This year, it will not.
That's because the mechanics of the 2012 Republican race are beginning to resemble those of the 2008 Democratic nomination fight, a grind-it-out battle for delegates that could last through well into the spring.
The Anniston Star Editorial Board points out a key difference between the 2012 and 2008 primary campaigns:
Pointing to recent history, Republicans can note that a prolonged fight among Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Obama in 2008 didn’t harm that party in the general election. The difference might be that Democrats wrestled over the choice between frontrunners respected by the party faithful. That’s not quite the case for Romney, whom the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds is viewed negatively by 40 percent of Americans.
The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Now it's the turn of voters in Super Tuesday's primaries to see how dangerously close the powerful super-PACs are to owning the political process.
In January, the super-PACs hit a milestone by outspending the candidates in the South Carolina Republican presidential primary on advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts.
The supers are not allowed to coordinate with candidate campaigns, but that is a sham rule. The big PACs don't have to worry about coordination because they are controlled, founded, or funded by friends or former consultants to the candidates.
Steve Benen runs down Mitt Romney's lack of courage, using Romney's refusal to renounce Limbaugh's statements as a springboard:
Is Romney comfortable with Limbaugh's smears? He'd rather talk about something else.
There's going to come a point later this year when the Obama campaign is likely to say, "Mitt Romney lacks the courage to be a leader." And the criticism will sting because it's based in fact.
Either Romney has the guts to lead or he doesn't. He had an opportunity on Friday to step up and he blew it.
Ed Rogers on the GOP's inability to look past social issues (or to properly handle them) in the 2012 race:
We can whine about it, or we can deal with the world the way it is. For Republicans, social issues are like a fire. Too close and you get burned; too far away and you are out in the cold. Our 2012 candidate has got to be good enough to keep the balance, without losing independent voters who are desperate for renewed economic growth. Whether or not the GOP gets it and how badly we want to win in 2012 will be clearer on Wednesday morning after the votes are counted.
Matthew Dowd at ABC News emphasizes that whatever the outcome, the GOP's nominee will finish the primary staggering across the finish line and that he'll enter the general election as one of the weakest nominees in recent memory:
All of the above, from the weak response to Limbaugh’s crazy remarks to a possible “damage-the-front-runner” game plan will only serve to make the likely Republican nominee very weak going into a tough battle against President Obama. And as of today, the polling shows that that has begun to happen. Romney looks to be the weakest Republican nominee coming out of this process in more than a generation. He needs to unite the Republican Party quickly but the “facts on the ground,” as they say in the military, certainly aren’t allowing him to do so.