Today's Ringside Seat - American Prospect

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE

John McCain arrived in Washington on March 5, 2008, for a victory lap after he had bested Mike Huckabee in Ohio and Texas the night before. He swung by the White House to accept the endorsement of President George W. Bush in a Rose Garden ceremony. It could have certainly been a moment of awkwardness; the two were longtime political foes with an especially strained history after Bush's campaign created a racist whisper campaign about McCain's adopted daughter. Instead, Bush was nothing but gracious: "He’s going to be the president who will bring determination to defeat an enemy," he said, "and a heart big enough to love those who hurt.”
With Rick Santorum out of the picture, Mitt Romney is in the same spot McCain was on that day. But instead of an outpouring of accolades, party leaders have responded with a collective shoulder shrug. "Yeah, I support Governor Romney for president of the United States," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday under inducement from reporters. "And he is going to be the nominee. And as you have noticed, the party is in the process of unifying behind him." House Speaker John Boehner offered his nod as well, but kept the red carpet rolled up. “It’s clear now that Mitt Romney is going to be our nominee," he acknowledged. The ever-eloquent Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert expressed the prevailing attitude at a GOP press conference Tuesday. "I’m not as excited as I am desperate,” he said. But lest everything seem too dire, Gohmert offered a sunny side: “Whether you’re liberal, whether you’re very conservative, you ought to be excited [about Romney] because he’s been on your side at one time or another.”
 
SO THEY SAY

"I went through school, I worked my way through, it took me seven years, I never borrowed a dime of money. ... I have very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt or even $80,000 of debt because there's no reason for that. We live in an opportunity society and people are forgetting that."

—North Carolina Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx
 

DAILY MEME: DOG EAT DOG

• The Daily Caller creates its latest faux scandal by revealing (by quoting Dreams from My Father) that Obama ate dog when he was a child in Indonesia.
• The Romney campaign’s Eric Fernstrom gets cheeky on Twitter. 
• The Obama campaign’s Ben LeBolt responds: “What's the next attack@EricFerhn and the RNC will surface on a 6-10 year old?”
• PETA defends the president: “A child has an excuse” for such culinary habits, though not an adult.
• Rush relates it to Jeremiah Wright for no apparent reason.
• Meanwhile, Scott Brown launches his own dog blog.
• Ann Romney claims Seamus “loved” riding atop the Romney family car.
• But let's all take a deep breath and remember what's important: Pets love Newt(unless they're penguins).

WHAT WE'RE WRITING

• Paul Waldman: How Mitt Romney’s supporters are like Seinfeld’s Uncle Leo.
• Clare Malone: Does it matter that Congress can’t pass a budget?

WHAT WE'RE READING

• Desperate for cash, Newt Gingrich sells his e-mail list to advertisers.
• The Secret Service also likes to party with Ted Nugent.
• Molly Ball: The Tea Party expands to Japan.
• Alec MacGillis: We can thank Mitt Romney for quelling anti-tax rhetoric.
• Charles Pierce: Please, Dems, pummel the demented GOP into submission.
• Gary Younge: Obama, the Rorschach test president.
• Somebody—namely Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell—actually says he would consider being Romney’s running mate.
• Virginia Senate candidate releases taxes; likes space shuttles and pieces of string.

POLL OF THE DAY

Orrin Hatch—senior Utah senator and master songwriter—appears poised to regain his party's nomination, but only by a narrow margin. Utah Republicans hold their party convention this weekend and according to a poll Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research, he has the support of 63 percent of the delegates. If he doesn't clear 60 percent he'll be forced into a primary this June, the situation his former colleague Bob Bennett faced two years ago when grassroots conservatives booted the incumbent out of office.