Unlike Arizona, Michigan will be close.  Although Santorum has the momentum over the last day, I am not sure he will be able to overcome Romney's advantage among absentee voters.

• PPP poll of Michigan Republicans: Romney 38%, Santorum 37%, Paul 14%, Paul 9%.
• Vanderbilt poll of Tennessee Republicans: Santorum 38%, Romney 20%, Paul 15%, Gingrich 13%.
• Verizon has decided to drop Bridges TV, a "a pioneering television network that seeks to challenge stereotypes of Muslims and create understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims."
• Obama is gaining among women.  The President has gained ten points among the female demographic since December.
• Five Thirty Eight blog gives Romney a 55% chance of winning Michigan, based on computer models.
• Rick Santorum has admitted using robocalls in campaigning in Michigan.
• On the campaign trail, Newt Gingrich said to citizens of Afghanistan, "you’re going to have to figure out how to live your own miserable life… Because you clearly don’t want to learn from me how to be unmiserable."
• Warren Buffet: "It's a myth" that US corporate taxes are high.

Michigan and Arizona are up.  On what will certainly turn out to be a wild election Tuesday, let's get it started with the top political clips circulating the blogs at this hour:

1) One of the most tragic school incidents since Columbine.

2) Romney knows a lot of Nascar team owners.  Good for him.  And how again can we relate to this guy?

3) If you live in Michigan, vote for Santorum!

4) Mitch Daniels is irresponsibly linking Obama's policy on the environment to the rise in gas prices.  Hello?  Ever heard of the countries Iran and Syria?

5) Conservative columnist: Romney is a dork.

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Going back to a tweet this morning from my very favorite, @LOLGOP, the GOP nomination will come down to whether voters feel more entitled or self-righteous.

‏ @LOLGOP

 

I saw Romney & Santorum speak. If Rick is connecting, it's because his self-righteousness is more appealing that Mitt's entitlement.

It goes back to my recent article about how the GOP is fractured between social conservatives and economic conservatives (and no, I won't call them "fiscal conservatives" because lowering taxes on the wealthy adds to the deficit and is anything but fiscally conservative).

The polls in Arizona and Michigan aren't looking good for Rick Santorum.  Ever since last week, as many including myself predicted on the night of the debate, the former Senator from Pennsylvania was poised for a free fall.  More recently, he is struggling most in surveys over the last few days among senior citizens.  Romney's schooling of Santorum in the debate last week was very telling.  It was yet another challenger to Romney shut down because they couldn't out-spin the spin-master.

Santorum has been campaigning hard in conservative upper Michigan.  All he can do now is maximize turnout enough among his base and maybe win a close race there.  Arizona on the other hand will be a complete blowout, it appears.  Romney has depressed conservative turnout enough in both places enough that he could sweep the February 28th states.

Hey remember after Santorum's huge victories in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado I said he wouldn't win another state until super Tuesday?  It's looking more likely.  Then again, for the sake of progressives, I hope he can pull out one win tomorrow.

Saying that we should have let Detroit go bankrupt is not a smart policy position.  A new Pew Research poll finds that 56% of voters nationwide support Obama's auto bailout, while 38% disapprove.

"But it does make you wonder about people on the other side of the battle: There truly is no willingness to give credit where credit is due?" asked columnist Julie Mack.  "No lessons learned? Is that what we want in our politicians? At what point does ideological purity become ideological blindness?"

Maureen Dowd:

The contenders in the Hester Prynne primaries are tripping over one another trying to be the most radical, unreasonable and insane candidate they can be. They pounce on any traces of sanity in the other candidates — be it humanity toward women, compassion toward immigrants or the willingness to make the rich pay a nickel more in taxes — and try to destroy them with it.

President Obama has deranged conservatives just as W. deranged liberals. The right’s image of Obama, though, is more a figment of its imagination than the left’s image of W. was.

Obviously!  I became a full-fledged progressive because the stuff about George W. Bush actually was true.  No, he didn't cause 9/11 like some of the Ron Paul crazies think.  But he did squander our opportunity to go after Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.  Outsourcing the job to Afghan warlords, we diverted attention to Iraq.  That isn't a myth.  Obama being a Muslim foreigner?  Now that's taking it to a whole other extreme.

For once, let's take Mitt Romney's advice.  Mitt Romney was asked point blank on FOX News, of all places, whether he is aware that some people won't vote him because of his super-rich lifestyle.  Romney's answer: if you can't relate, vote for the other guy.  I hope as many voters as possible take you up on that offer:

To go along with his batch of out of touch statements, this weekend Romney said that while he isn't a Nascar fan he has friends that are owners:

Asked by the AP reporter if he follows NASCAR, Romney responded, "Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans. But I have some great friends who are NASCAR team owners."

Ah yes, Romney is the rhetorical gift that keeps on giving! 

Santorum is falling in the polls rapidly.  Tuesday will be a good day for Mitt Romney.

• Gallup poll of Republican voters nationwide: Romney 31%, Santorum 29%, Gingrich 15%, Paul 11%.  And it's all because of the debate last week.
• Rasmussen poll of Michigan Republicans: Romney 40%, Santorum 34%
• PPP poll of Michigan Republicans: Romney 39%, Santorum 37%, Paul 13%, Gingrich 9%.
• Romney's recent surge in Michigan and Arizona can be attributed to his rise among senior voters.
• Can the GOP survive its billionaires?  "A freewheeling billionaire might not be able to sink a candidacy, but he could certainly make things difficult" as far as off-the-cuff rhetoric goes, writes the Washington Post.
• Rick Santorum thinks Obama apologizing for the Koran burnings shows weakness.  Not surprising, since most Republicans believe any form of diplomacy shows weakness.
• What the hell is the Daily Beast blog thinking?  They say Clearance Thomas on the GOP presidential ticket makes a lot of sense.
• Rick Santorum has sponsored a car at the Daytona 500.
• Arizona is a winner-take-all state and Michigan isn't.  Therefore if Santorum wins Michigan but loses Arizona he would end the night with less delegates than Mitt Romney.
• Could global warming shrink humanity?

On this day before we see whether Mitt Romney successfully bought Michigan and Arizona, are are the top political clips making their rounds on the progressive blogs at this hour:

1) Arizona Governor Jan Brewer endorses Mitt Romney, one news cycle before the vote.  I think Romney is a safe bet in Arizona.  If not, I will be surprised!

2) Dem Rapid Response: US relies less on foreign oil than any other time in the modern oil era.

3) Chris Hayes: We need to talk about Syria.

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4) Conservative George Will rips GOP's politicization of gas prices.

5) Santorum: I won't reach out to minorities and talk about food stamps.

The Tea Party has frightened the Wyoming GOP enough about President Obama that they have proposed a doomsday bill.  It would study what Wyoming could do when the US economy collapses and there is total anarchy.  A "Walking Dead" scenario, so to speak.

This comes despite the fact that the economy is gathering recovery momentum.  But in remaining on fear mode, the bill wastes taxpayer money doing something that the Republican Party usually preaches against.  The bill "would create a state-run government continuity task force, which would study and prepare Wyoming for potential catastrophes, from disruptions in food and energy supplies to a complete meltdown of the federal government."

States have enough unfunded mandates as it is because the federal government won't help them out.  Over the last few years, states have had to nickel and dime their way into balancing their budgets.  It is depressing and just flat out bad policy for the Wyoming GOP to waste money on a fear-based idea that would have absolutely no impact on anything because doomsday scenarios are the role of the federal government.  This genius spending idea could have instead been more money for their state infrastructure.  Nice going!

On the campaign trail GOP hopeful Rick Santorum said he "almost threw up" after reading JFK's 1960 speech on the separation of church and state.  Kennedy said that the separation of church and state should be absolute.

On the ABC News sunday show "This Week," host George Stephenopoulos asked Rick Santorum why it made him want to throw up:

Later in the interview, Stephanopoulos asked Santorum, “You think you wanted to throw up?”

“Well, yes, absolutely,” Santorum replied. “To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case? That makes me throw up.”

Actually, John F. Kennedy was not trying to remove religion from the public square.  He was simply protecting the constitution in saying religion shouldn't have a governmental role in the operation of the country.  In the words of Santorum's rival, "Nice try."

Also, millennials such as myself are happy to note that polling is trending in favor of protecting the separation between church and state.  Social conservatism is on the decline, especially after my generation lived through eight years of a president who cared more about inputting religion into his domestic and foreign policy than preventing the economy from collapsing.

If the GOP wants to continue fighting a losing war, they can.  It's time to get back to real issues like jobs, education and health care -- then the Republican Party can begin competing again in a majority of the country.

The DNC wasted no time pouncing on Mitt Romney for the embarrassing attendance at his major speech in Detroit about the economy.

The video was dubbed "Mitt Romney's Ford Field Fumble":

When even FOX News pokes fun at you, you know your campaign is in trouble.  Not even all the seats on the field were filled either.  This is a campaign that lacks really any grassroots support, as underscored by the fact that his large donors outnumber his small donors by a nine to one ratio.

Remember that American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Mitt Romney supported before he later opposed? According to a new CBO report, up to two million Americans are currently employed today as a result of that Obama recovery plan:

ARRA succeeded in its primary goal of protecting the economy during the worst of the recession. The CBO report finds that ARRA's impact on jobs peaked in the third quarter of 2010, when up to 3.6 million people owed their jobs to the Recovery Act. Since then, the Act's job impact has gradually declined as the economy recovers and certain provisions expire. More than 90 percent of ARRA funds were spent by December, according to CBO.

While the report focuses primarily on the fourth quarter of 2011, CBO also includes new projections of the Recovery Act's jobs impact through 2012. It projects that in the current quarter (the first quarter of 2012), there are 200,000 to 1.5 million more people employed because of ARRA.

You can't get a return on something without an investment.  Conservatives seem to think that cutting programs will magically result in more work and better wages.  We've been down that road before.  Many people refer to it as the 'lost decade'.