Brooks on McCain. Hayes on Obama. Krugman on Edwards.
THE LOVE-IN IN L.A. (Noam Scheiber, The New Republic)
WILL DEMOCRATS HAVE TO CUT A DEAL FOR THE NOMINATION? (June Kronholz, Wall Street Journal) It is increasingly looking like next week’s Super Tuesday primaries won’t produce a Democratic front-runner. So then what? The Democratic nomination isn’t likely to be settled on the floor of this summer’s convention, political experts say. But that doesn’t mean that a nomination brokered by party leaders is impossible – or that things won’t get even nastier… At that point, the loyalty of the candidates’ pledged delegates, the intentions of hundreds of currently unpledged “superdelegates,” the negotiating skill of party leaders and the outcome of a dispute over whether to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan each could prove decisive.
DEMOCRATS NOW DRIVING FOR DELEGATES (Alan Wirzbicki, Boston Globe) In the early contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, the candidates sought the momentum that comes with victory. Now, political analysts said, the Democrats are focused on winning enough votes in the right places to maximize their chances of accumulating delegates - even if it means fighting for votes in states they are likely to lose or maximizing their winning percentage in places where they are already strong.
MORE: Democrats Defend Home Turf (Wall Street Journal)
AS OBAMA PLANS 24-STATE BLITZ, GOP HOPEFULS REIN IN SPENDING (Howard Kurtz, Washington Post) Sen. Barack Obama has launched an eight-figure, 24-state barrage of television advertising, heading into the Super Tuesday contests and beyond, that will carry his message to twice as many states as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s ads will reach with her current ad buy. While Obama (Ill.) plans to spend more than $10 million on a blitz that will run through Tuesday, the two leading Republican presidential candidates are spending far less on the air wars. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who delayed airing any Super Tuesday commercials, plans to spend $2 million to $3 million in the remaining five days and has released only one ad in California. His chief rival, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), plans a modest buy on national cable networks.
MORE OBAMA MULA: Obama Donors Pick Up Pace: A $32 Million Month (Washington Post)
MCCAIN’S CRITICS ON RIGHT LOOK AGAIN (David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times) Senator John McCain has long aroused almost unanimous opposition from the leaders of the right. Accusing him of crimes against conservative orthodoxy like voting against a big tax cut and opposing a federal ban on same-sex marriage, conservative activists have agitated for months to thwart his Republican presidential primary campaign.That, however, was before he emerged this week as the party’s front-runner. Since his victory in the Florida primary, the growing possibility that Mr. McCain may carry the Republican banner in November is causing anguish to the right. Some, including James C. Dobson and Rush Limbaugh, say it is far too late for forgiveness. But others, faced with the prospect of either a Democrat sitting in the White House or a Republican elected without them, are beginning to look at Mr. McCain’s record in a new light.
ROMNEY’S COMEBACK PLAN TRUMPETS HIS CONSERVATISM (Elizabeth Holmes, Wall Street Journal) Mitt Romney hopes to revive his Republican campaign by championing himself as the last true conservative contender. “We’re quite far apart,” Mr. Romney said of John McCain yesterday at a news conference here. “That distinction is what will, in the final analysis, be my best weapon in a battle to the finish.” … Mr. McCain’s maverick voting record and occasional more-liberal stances have angered many party stalwarts. Still, polls suggest Mr. Romney is trailing Sen. McCain by double digits as they head into Super Tuesday, when more delegates are up for grabs than in all the earlier contests combined. (NB: The WSJ op-ed page has his back.)
ON MITT’S MULA (via the Boston Globe): Mitt Romney, the multimillionaire venture capitalist and former Massachusetts governor, reported last night that he plowed $18 million of his own money into his presidential campaign during the last three months of 2007, bringing the total sum spent from his fortune to $35.4 million. Romney donated twice as much of his own money than he raised from contributors during the fourth quarter, about $9.1 million… The total spending from his own deep pockets puts him just below H. Ross Perot, the billionaire businessman who spent $63.5 million on his 1992 third-party presidential campaign, and Steve Forbes, the wealthy publisher who spent $38 million on his run for the Republican nomination in 1996.
PAUL LIKES HIS MAINE PROSPECTS (Associated Press) With highly motivated supporters and a natural appeal to a mass of like-minded independents, Ron Paul has promising prospects in this weekend’s Maine Republican caucuses, party officials and other observers say. Maine’s GOP polling today, Saturday and Sunday may give the Texas congressman his best shot at winning a state, which would be big, coming just days before Tuesday’s presidential preference contests in more than 20 states. It doesn’t hurt that Paul’s visit this week made him the only presidential candidate from either party to visit Maine before the caucuses.
