Super Tuesday Roundup

Over the weekend, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton made some “unconventional” moves, according to The Washington Post. Obama stumped in Idaho, a sparsely populated state with a largely Republican electorate. On her trip to California, Clinton did a 45-minute roundtable discussion with voters on the tabloid news show “Inside Edition.”

Roland S. Martin writes that the democratic “dream ticket” of Obama for president with Clinton as running mate is unfeasible. In this piece for CNN, he gives six reasons why.

The Chicago Tribune writes that a rise in the number of early voters registered in Illinois indicates that Obama will carry his home state. “A big vote from Illinois will tell the nation that the people who have known him the longest have great confidence in him,” writes the Tribune.

Christianity Today interviews Barack Obama and reflects on the relationship between his political positions and his Christian faith: “If Obama can trace his pro-choice views back to the American statement of faith, so can pro-life professor Robert George.” The magazine also writes that Obama’s message of freedom and equality sounds “beautiful to the Christian’s ears.”

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, a former GOP House member, says that after every Obama speech he is flooded with praise for the candidate from Republicans. The Washington Post considers the Illinois senator’s appeal to those on the right.

The Economist writes that McCain will likely “mop up” on Super Tuesday in New York, New Jersey and Illinois. Romney is expected to take Massachusetts, where he was once governor.

The Economist writes that Republican voters see McCain as a more likely commander-in-chief, but the former venture capitalist Romney contends that “America needs a president who understands the economy ‘right down to his DNA.’”

Over the past week McCain went on the record twice saying that during his stint as a Navy commander in the 1970s he led “for patriotism,” not “for profit.” Said in reaction to Romney’s assertion that McCain lacked the expertise to guide the nation’s economy, conservative pundits have taken McCain’s statement as meaning he thinks “patriotism is nobler than profits, or that there’s something wrong with profits.”

Romney does not believe a clear GOP frontrunner will emerge after Super Tuesday. “Looking at the numbers of delegates and the numbers of states, I don’t think somebody’s gonna walk away with the needed numbers,” he said while flying from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis.

Romney says that he won the Maine Republican caucuses on Feb. 2 after he had a 52 percent lead with 57 percent of caucuses reporting. While campaigning a day later, he said that the win “was an indication that conservative change is something that the American people want to see."

Associated Press Senior Managing Editor Mike Silverman talks with the Columbia Journalism Review about how the wire service plans to cover the 21 primaries on Super Tuesday. He says of exit poll reporting, “It’s a combination of journalism and science. The statistical models are there and we pay a lot of attention to them. And we don’t call a race until we’re confident.”