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Bill Kristol, son of Irving, names Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) 79% , Mitt Romney, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) 79% , and others on his hypothetical shortlist of third-party candidates that he could run if Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee. The “Weekly Standard” editor and self-styled neoconservative power broker is back to talking about a third party, declaring that a Trump victory in Indiana would force him to re-focus on his so-called “Latter-Day Republicans” independent ticket. A third party could help to split the vote on the Right and elect Hillary Clinton president, which would allow Kristol to stave off...

It was inevitable. Mitt Romney is going to sell-out conservatives in his party in order to win the general. And if he wins, he'll sell them out again in order to be re-elected.* Zeke Miller and McKay Coppins reporting for Buzzfeed have found the first issue on which Romney is trying to put some distance between himself and the conservative wing of his party. Allahpundit, one of the most perceptive conservative bloggers, also detects the hint of conflict between the GOP candidate and the GOP Congress. Mitt Romney told reporters today that he supports efforts to extend low interest rates...

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) is expected to endorse Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney before Wisconsin's GOP primary next Tuesday, according to media reports. Ryan would be the latest in a string of high-profile endorsements for Romney this week, as party leaders have increasingly coalesced around the former Massachusetts governor's campaign. The Wisconsin lawmaker would join popular freshman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and former president George H. W. Bush in signaling support for Romney this week.

WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida endorsed Mitt Romney as the party's presidential nominee Wednesday night, saying it's increasingly clear that Romney will win the nomination and that continuing the primary fight will only damage the effort to defeat President Barack Obama. Rubio, a freshman senator and tea party favorite, said he's convinced that Romney will govern as a conservative and will be superior to Obama as a president.

Think Progress flags an amazing exchange on CNN, in which Eric Fehrnstrom, a top adviser to Mitt Romney, seems to confirm that the conservative positions Romney has been forced to take during the primary won’t be a big deal because he can simply erase them once he becomes the GOP nominee: HOST: Is there a concern that Santorum and Gingrich might force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election? FEHRNSTROM: Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like...

The organization that ignited the tea party as a national mass movement gave Mitt Romney perhaps his biggest victory yet, deciding to drop its opposition to his candidacy, a top executive in the group told The Washington Times. FreedomWorks, which organized the Sept. 12, 2009, mass demonstration on the Mall, says that while it will not give an explicit endorsement, the time has come for Republicans to unite around the former Massachusetts governor and focus on defeating President Obama. “It is a statistical fact that the numbers favor Mitt Romney,” FreedomWorks Vice President Russ Walker told The Times on Tuesday....

ROMNEY CAMPAIGN DRAGGED DOWN BY BIG BOATLOAD OF DELEGATESRead More » March 7, 2012   Mitt Romney won more than twice as many delegates on Super Tuesday as Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum. The Non-Fox Media's take-away is that Romney suffered a major setback Tuesday night.      No matter what happens, Barack Obama's boosters in the NFM portray it as a debilitating blow to Romney. On Nov. 7, The New York Times' headline will be: "Romney ekes out narrow electoral victory, leaving race uncertain."      To explain the widening gulf in delegates won by Romney compared to the others...

No #s yet, just some tidbits: I'd expect Michigan results between 10 and 11 tonight, and Arizona results between midnight and 1 AM (all eastern) Early observations on today's polls: Michigan still pretty close, but Romney headed for a huge win in Arizona. It looks like Romney has banked about a 30 point lead among early voters in Arizona and they're more than half the electorate. From the findings I didn't expect file: Babeu still seen more favorably than not by Arizona Republicans. Santorum's favorability numbers not what they were a week ago- the shine is finally wearing off with...

For those out there loving the current Republican race but worrying that it has become somewhat orthodox in appearance and stable in candidates and support numbers, fear not: ABC News’ Jonathan Karl has the blind item for you. In the most mysterious and, for the GOP, worrisome dispatch on the Republican field in a while, Karl reports that a “prominent Republican senator” told him that the Party will not stand for a Mitt Romney loss in Michigan, and that he expects a result like that to lead the Senator to “publicly call for the party to find a new candidate,”...