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1.) Meet Romney’s secret weapon: Newton Leroy Gingrich — Mitt Romney’s most important victory on Super Tuesday may not have been in Ohio and may not have really even technically been a victory. Newt Gingrich’s win in Georgia was perhaps the most important result for Romney since it gave Gingrich a reason to stay in the race and continue to split the anti-Romney vote with Rick Santorum. Romney’s worse nightmare remains going one-on-one with Santorum, TheDC’s Alex Pappas reports:
“A scenario involving a Gingrich departure from the race, helping Santorum consolidate the anti-Romney vote, still threatens the former Massachusetts governor. Santorum supporters point to Gingrich’s failure to win a single state outside of the South. ‘Right now, if you’re either Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich, you’re thinking, ‘oh my gosh, if I could just get Mitt Romney one-on-one,’’ said political commentator Juan Williams on Fox News. ‘It’s still the case that they would think, ‘I can beat him.'”
2.) The Battle of Ohio — Mitt Romney edged out Rick Santorum to win Ohio Tuesday night. TheDC’s Jamie Weinstein (ME!) compiled a list of 10 interesting tidbits from CNN’s Ohio exit poll. Some intriguing results include that “Santorum won a plurality of Democrats by 20 percentage points and a plurality of independents by 6 percentage points” and “Ron Paul fared better among ‘moderate or liberal’ voters than among either ‘somewhat conservative’ or ‘very conservative’ voters.”
But perhaps the saddest result of the night is that Dennis “the menace” Kucinich lost his primary and therefore will no longer be with us in the U.S. Congress after this year. Congress just got a little tamer and a little saner — and a lot more boring.
3.) Sarah picks her Romeo — Sarah Palin revealed Tuesday night to Neil Cavuto who she cast her ballot for in Alaska. TheDC’s Jeff Poor reports that she chose the person she thought could “best bust through the Orwellian Obama rhetoric”:
“’I thought who best could do that — my own personal opinion — is the cheerful one, Newt Gingrich,’ she said. ‘I have appreciated what he has to for — stood boldly for. He has been the underdog in many of these primary races and these caucuses, and I’ve respected what he has stood for. Up here what we have — it’s not a primary, basically it’s not even a caucus — it’s a presidential preference poll. My preference tonight was for the cheerful one.'”
Just when you thought Gingrich’s “Dream Team” couldn’t get any dreamier, Palin comes along and completely blows your mind. Move over Todd Palin, Chuck Norris and Rick Perry — a new sheriff may be officially joining the posse soon.
4.) Limbaugh’s Revenge — On Saturday Carbonite dumped Rush Limbaugh for his slutty comments. This week, investors dumped Carbonite. TheDC’s Jeff Poor reports:
“However, it hasn’t done much to contribute to his company’s stock price. Since the market opened on Monday through its close today, Carbonite stock (NASDAQ:CARB) has plummeted nearly 12 percent, outpacing the drop of the NASDAQ index in that same time period by nine-and-a-half points. It was also one of the biggest decliners on the NASDAQ on Tuesday.”
5.) Poll of the day: Americans support military action to halt Iranian nuclear proliferation — NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll asks, “If Iran continues with its nuclear research and is close to developing a nuclear weapon, do you believe the United States should or should not initiate military action to destroy Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons?”: 52% say the U.S. should initiate military action, 40% say it shouldn’t, 8% are unsure.
6.) BIRTHDAYS! — Pope Clement XIII turns 319 … Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner turns 70 (hat tip: Goofy) … Antiguan cricketer Viv Richards turns 60 … Comedian Wanda Sykes turns 48.
VIDEO: McConnell calls for resolution “authorizing the use of force” against Iran