AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks at Rock Springs Baptist Church on Sunday, Feb. 26 in Milner, Ga.

MILNER, Ga. -- With just nine days to go until Super Tuesday, Newt Gingrich says he is staking the future of his presidential campaign on a win in his home state.
 
“It’s central to the future of our campaign and we’re going to do everything we can to win here,” Gingrich told reporters about a win in Georgia on March 6th.
 
Although the former House Speaker feels confident he can win the Peach State, he remains just cautiously optimistic.
 
“You can never be comfortable until it’s over,” Gingrich, who is leading in some polls in Georgia, said before speaking at Rock Springs Baptist Church's ‘God and Country Rally. “You can’t be comfortable when you have the Romney Super Pac willing to run things that are totally false and willing to spend million and millions of dollars trying to defeat you.”
 
But Georgia isn’t the only state the former house speaker believes he can perform well in.
 
“We hope to do very well in Oklahoma and Tennessee. We may surprise people in Idaho. We think we have a real fighting chance in Ohio,” Gingrich said Sunday evening. “We will have to wait and see how the day works out but I think it may be better than people expect.”
 
Prior to the 11 contests that take place on the first Tuesday in March, however, voters in Michigan and Arizona -- two states Gingrich hasn’t put forth much effort in -- will take to the polls. The Speaker did not campaign in Michigan at all and only held one public event in Arizona after last week’s presidential debate there. The Gingrich campaign seems to have basically conceded the last two states to vote in February to Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.
 
“I think Gov. Romney has to carry Michigan, I think he has an enormous amount at stake,” Gingrich claimed, but added later that he can still go to the Republican Convention even if Romney doesn’t withdraw from the race at some point.
 
“Of course we can go to Tampa with Mitt in the race,” the Speaker said. “You could have all four of us at Tampa. You could even have number five and six if somebody gets excited and jumps in."
 
Gingrich will spend the majority of his time before Super Tuesday in the state of Georgia.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) endorsed Mitt Romney for president during her appearance Sunday morning on “Meet the Press.”

Brewer said she viewed Romney as the most electable candidate to challenge President Obama this fall, and that she made her conclusion after meeting with the candidates and after a debate this week in Arizona.

“I have decided that I am going to publicly endorse Mitt Romney. I think he's the man that can carry the day,” Brewer said. “I think Mitt is by far the person who can go in and win.”

Brewer has become a national figurehead for efforts to curb illegal immigration after leading an effort to install one of the nation’s toughest immigration laws.

She also drew headlines for a confrontation recently with President Obama on an airport tarmac. She was photographed wagging a finger at the president after greeting him and handing him a handwritten note. Brewer described the exchange as being driven by Obama’s dissatisfaction with her book, though the president described the exchange as being “not a big deal.”

Romney is seen as the leader in Arizona, the winner of which is awarded all of the state’s delegates to the Republican National Convention this summer.

Forty-three percent of likely Republican primary voters said they intend to vote for Romney in a NBC News/Marist poll released midweek; he was followed by former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum at 27 percent, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 16 percent and Texas Rep. Ron Paul at 11 percent.

Arizona hosts its primary, along with Michigan, on Tuesday. A larger group of states host their primaries or caucuses a week later, on Super Tuesday. Brewer said she expected Super Tuesday to largely end the battle for the nomination, even if Santorum were to continue fighting.

“He might be in it but I think it’ll be overwhelmingly decided after Super Tuesday,” she said.

That poll also suggested that a Republican candidate who might embrace Arizona’s tough laws targeting illegal immigrants would fare better among primary voters. Brewer was the most vocal proponent of the law, which requires police officers to check the citizenship papers of people they stop or arrest if the officer suspects the person may be in this country illegally.

Sixty-seven percent of likely Republican primary voters said they would be more likely to support a candidate who backs that law, while 25 percent said it would have no effect. Six percent of Republicans said a candidate’s support for the law would make it less likely to win their vote.

Moreover, the poll found that 24 percent of Arizona Republicans said Romney best represents their views on immigration, while 20 percent said Gingrich, and 18 percent said Santorum.

TROY, Mich. -- It may just turn out that Mitt Romney's most important endorsement in his battle against Rick Santorum for the Michigan primary isn't Gov. Rick Snyder, or any of the host of legislators or local luminaries who've backed his candidacy this cycle, but instead Santorum himself - who supported Romney in 2008.

Saturday, before more than a thousand attendees of a conservative conference, Romney used Santorum's 2008 endorsement as a pivot, around which he turned from explaining his own vision to throwing a verbal haymaker at Santorum, who earlier Saturday at the same event called for the party to nominate a "consistent conservative" to take on Barack Obama.

"I can attest to my conservative credentials by quoting someone who endorsed me in 2008 campaign. Senator Santorum was kind enough to say on the Laura Ingraham show, he said, Mitt Romney, this is the guy who is really conservative and who we can trust. And when he came out and endorsed me he said these words: He said he is the clear, conservative candidate." Romney said. "He's right, I'm the conservative candidate and what we need in the White House is principled, conservative leadership and I¹ll bring it."

The audience reacted audibly here at the Americans For Prosperity conference as Romney proceeded to dissect Santorum as a creature of Washington who had sold out his principles.

"In that last debate we heard something about business as usual in Washington," Romney said. "When the senator mentioned that sometime you have to take one for the team what he was describing was the circumstances where he disagreed with something on principle but he had to vote for it because that was taking one for the team. We can't do that anymore. We can't continue to take one for the team. My team is the people of the United States of America, and I'm going to fight for that team, not for the partisans in Washington.

As the race for Michigan has tightened to a margin-of-error contest, Romney has racheted up his tactics and his rhetoric against Santorum. Saturday he delivered his most complete rebuke of the former senator's record, folding in attacks old and new, and hitting Santorum for supporting Planned Parenthood funding and Title X -- even though he claimed to be against those programs, and for funneling cash into earmark projects like the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere."

The newest line in the attack came in the form of tying Santorum to his former Senate colleague Arlen Specter, whom Santorum endorsed over conservative challenger Pat Toomey in 2004, and during Specter's run for president in 1996.

"Remember how he described how he supported Arlen Specter as an effort to get a deal to get some judges approved and then Arlen Specter said there was no such deal and he backed away from that," Romney said. "It was also 1996 when he supported Arlen Specter, by the way ... when Arlen Specter was running for president. Arlen Specter, the only pro-choice candidate we've seen in that race, there were other conservatives running like Bob Dole, he didn't support them. He supported the pro-choice candidate, Arlen Specter. This taking one for the team...  that's business as usual in Washington."

Romney's address here was well-received, including at least one standing ovation, but could be a preview of a more negative race to come between Romney and Santorum. Asked after his remarks why he had taken a more aggressive approach today against Romney, Santorum told reporters he had to "fight fire with fire."

Edited by NBC's Jay Rankin.

A group of Democratic women from Georgia, frustrated by recent bills limiting women’s reproductive rights, decided it was time to turn the tables on the men.

Their proposed bill would amend the state’s current abortion law by banning men from getting vasectomies.

“Thousands of children are deprived of birth in this state every year because of the lack of state regulation of vasectomies, said Rep. Yasmin Neal, a Democrat from the Atlanta suburb of Jonesboro, in a video statement on Wednesday. “The day has come where men should face the same pressure and invasion of privacy that women have faced for years.

Neal, who spearheaded the bill, tells NBC News her intention is to “shin[e] light on the double standard women face in the United States.”

The anti-vasectomy bill borrows some language directly from H.B. 954, a recently drafted anti-abortion bill in Georgia that would punish abortions performed after the 20th week of pregnancy with prison sentences between one and 10 years.

But Neal is not the only Democrat trying to use a bit of humor -- or exaggeration –- to combat legislation limiting women’s reproductive rights.

Constance Johnson, a Democratic state senator in Oklahoma, believed a proposed bill  in her state -- which would require women to undergo an ultrasound and listen and see the fetus before an abortion -- went too far.

So she proposed that zygotes should have the same rights as adults, and added: “However, any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman's vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.”

“My amendment seeks to draw attention to the absurdity, duplicity and lack of balance inherent in the policies of this state in regard to women,” Johnson wrote in a column for The Guardian. She later withdrew her amendment.

Opponents of abortion rights aren’t laughing.

Georgia State Rep. Doug McKillip (R), who sponsored the anti-abortion bill in the state, says Neal and her supporters are misunderstanding the issue.

McKillip -- who at the time of his interview with NBC News had not read Neal’s bill -- argues that his legislation is intended to protect life.

“This is a serious topic, not one that should be dealt with tongue-in-cheek,” he said.

“She’s making a mockery of the system,” added Genevieve Wilson, co-executive for Georgia Right for Life. “She’s ignoring the fact that children are being torn limb by limb.”

Neal counters, “We are very serious about proving a point, but also a serious bill was dropped.”

She continues, “I also find it ironic how a bill about men’s rights is ‘funny, tongue and cheek or humorous’ but a bill about women is ‘serious’ and needs to be debated, that's not fair.”

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Newt Gingrich says he does not object to states passing legislation allowing for same-sex marriage as legislatures are “doing it the right way.”

Asked by a local reporter about legislation passed here in Washington state, as well as Maryland, permitting same-sex marriage, Gingrich responded: "I think at least they're doing it the right way, which is going through voters, giving them a chance to vote -- and not having a handful of judges arbitrarily impose their will."

But the former House speaker added, “I don't agree with it. I would vote no if it were on a referendum where I was. But at least they're doing it the right way."

This stance stems from Gingrich’s belief that the 10th Amendment grants the authority for such decisions to the states, not the federal government.

These remarks come just one day after the Maryland State Senate passed a bill allowing for same-sex marriage; it now awaits the governor’s signature. Washington State’s governor signed similar legislation into law last week.

These two new laws will likely bring the total number of states permitting same-sex couples to marry to eight, plus the District of Columbia.

But will Gingrich’s comments potentially come back to haunt him?

Last summer, Rick Perry was criticized for saying states passing same-sex marriage was “fine with me.”

Perry then clarified his stance during an interview with the Family Research Council in late July before he officially entered the race for president.

"I probably needed to add a few words after that 'it's fine with me,' and that it's fine with me that a state is using their sovereign rights to decide an issue. Obviously, gay marriage is not fine with me. My stance hasn't changed," Perry said.

Pegged to President Obama's fundraiser yesterday with the NBA's Vince Carter, TheGrio.com's Perry Bacon Jr. notes how NBA players are strongly supporting the president and becoming more politically active.

Barack Obama is collecting major fundraising support from a small, influential group never truly tapped before by a presidential candidate: the National Basketball Association.

The Obama fundraiser held Thursday night at the Orlando home of the Dallas Mavericks Vince Carter was only the latest example of the strong backing the president is getting from former and current NBA players. Chicago Bulls star and league MVP Derrick Rose spoke at one of the events kicking off Obama's reelection campaign last spring. Former New York Knicks star Alan Houston also hosted a fundraiser.

A long list of players that included Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City), Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers) and Carmelo Anthony (New York) committed to play in an "Obama Classic" exhibition game last December that would serve as a campaign fundraiser. It was postponed amid the lockout but still supposed to happen this summer. Obama supporters will pay $200 for the lowest-priced seats, $5,000 to sit courtside.

The embrace by the players is not surprising; Obama is an avowed hoops fan and perhaps the most NBA-versed president in history. (Other presidents, including Bill Clinton, were big college basketball fans) NBA players are overwhelming African-American, and blacks are Obama's most devoted supporters.

At the same time, it's a new role for NBA players. Most of them speak little about politics. And it's a marked contrast from the most famous player of the previous generation of the NBA, Michael Jordan, who in 1990 refused to endorse Harvey Gantt, a black Democrat in North Carolina running for the U.S Senate.

Arlen Specter says he never had a conversation with Rick Santorum about supporting President George W. Bush’s Supreme Court nominations in exchange for the presidential candidate's backing in a tough 2004 re-election primary campaign.

Specter called assertions by Santorum that such an agreement had been struck “flatly not true.” 

In this week’s GOP debate, Santorum was put on the defensive about his past support for Specter, a former Republican senator from Pennsylvania who was viewed with suspicion by conservatives on many issues, particularly for his support of abortion rights. 

Santorum said that he spoke with Specter and received his assurance that, as the incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Specter would support Bush’s nominees.

“Arlen Specter was a senator who was going to be the chairman of the Judiciary Committee at a time when the most important issue that was coming up in the next session of Congress was two to three Supreme Court nominees,” Santorum said.  “We had a conversation, he asked me to support him.  I said, ‘will you support the president’s nominees?’  We had a 51-49 majority in the Senate.  He said ‘I’ll support the president’s nominees as chairman.’”

In an interview on MSNBC, Specter disputed that account.  “That is flatly not true.  We never had any such conversation.  It would be improper to make a commitment on a vote before I knew who the nominee was and whether I thought the nominee was qualified.”

Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks at the University of Miami in Florida on Feb. 23, 2012.

Unveiling NBC’s newest 2012 battleground map… Romney gives his big economic speech in Detroit at 12:15 pm ET… Charlie Cook and the emerging C.W. on Romney… Questions we have about that new pro-Romney Super PAC ad… Gingrich criticizes Obama’s apology for the Quran burning… And Dems to Obama: “Don’t say ‘America is back’”

*** NBC’s new battleground map: Much has changed since we last ran our NBC presidential battleground map back in early November. (Has it REALLY been that long?) The economy and labor market have improved; President Obama’s approval numbers have risen after his debt-ceiling blues; and the Republican primary contest has turned into a knock-down, drag-out fight. And that explains why our Electoral College scorecard has gone from 196 D vs. 195 R (with 147 toss-up electoral votes) back in November, to 227 D vs. 197 R with (114 toss-up). The big changes: We’ve moved Michigan and Wisconsin from toss-up to Lean Dem, reflecting Obama’s improved strength in both states; we’ve moved New Hampshire from Lean GOP to Toss-up; and we’ve moved Iowa from Toss-up to Lean GOP. The map and the changes on it are based on the public and private polling we’ve seen, as well as our conversations with operatives studying the battlegrounds. Again, we do not make our judgments SOLELY on public polling or based on poll averages.

Solid Dem (no chance at flip): DC, DE, HI, ME (3 EVs) MD, MA, NY, RI, VT (70 electoral votes)
Likely Dem (takes a landslide to flip): CA, CT, IL, WA (94)
Lean Dem: ME (1 EV) MN, NJ, NM, OR, MI, WI (63)
Toss-up: CO, FL, NV, NC, OH, PA, VA, NH (114)
Lean GOP: AZ, GA, IA, MO, (43)
Likely GOP (takes a landslide to flip): AL, AR, IN, LA, MS, MT, NE (1 EV), ND, SC, SD, TX (97)
Solid GOP (no chance at flip): AK, ID, KS, KY, NE (4 EVs) OK, TN, UT, WV, WY (57)

(Editor's Note: We accidentally put New Mexico in toss-up when we intended to put it in Lean D; that brings it to 227 D, 197, 114 toss. And the post now reflects that.)

*** Breaking down our moves: As we mentioned above, the moves of Wisconsin and Michigan are due to the president’s improved standing, but they also reflect the GOP’s struggles in both states and how Mitt Romney, in particular, appears to be unable to connect very well to Obama’s weakest swing voting group: working-class whites. And until Romney fixes that, those states may be unattainable. As for Iowa, Democratic operatives acknowledge the very LONG Republican campaign in Iowa may have taken a toll on the president. Remember, of all the primary states, it’s the one where candidates truly camped out. We saw a similar issue in New Hampshire, though that’s changed and it appears due to the Republican Party’s shift to the right on social issues during the campaign. By the way, you’ll notice we’ve split Maine. The new congressional map created the most Republican district in that state in quite some time. The president is still favored, but it won’t be a cakewalk.

*** Romney’s big economic speech: Four days until Michigan’s crucial GOP primary, and the big political event today is Mitt Romney’s economic speech at Ford Field in Detroit at 12:15 pm ET. Romney has already rolled out a big portion of it -- the lowered income-tax rates. And the consensus from conservative opinion elites: The plan is better than what it was (which kind of sums up Romney’s candidacy to date). Meanwhile, Democrats and the United Auto Workers are countering Romney’s speech today by holding a rally where they will use American-made cars from a nearby parking garage to spell out: “Romney: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” And Steven Rattner, who was the lead adviser of the Obama administration’s auto task force, writes a New York Times op-ed taking Romney to task for his opposition to the auto bailout

*** The emerging C.W. on Romney: And don’t miss Charlie Cook’s latest column in National Journal, which sums up some of the emerging C.W. about the state of Romney’s campaign (for the primary and general): “My assumption was that Romney would be the nominee and would make a good run. Now, I have begun to doubt both propositions. His odds of winning the nomination are growing longer. And even if he does, he has twisted and turned himself into a human pretzel. I’m not sure how electable he is. The alternatives, however, seem even less so.”

*** On that new Romney Super PAC ad: Yesterday, much was made -- including by us -- on the new Romney Super PAC TV ad (which describes how Romney worked to find a colleague’s missing daughter) that is nearly identical to one the Romney campaign aired in 2007. But we have some questions that go beyond the blurring line between Super PACs and the campaigns they’re supporting. One, why is the Super PAC running a positive ad? You run positive ads because either A) you’re in good shape or B) your negatives are sky-high. (We bet the latter.) Two, why hasn’t the campaign run a spot like this, and why haven’t we heard more about this rescue story from the candidate? And three, why is the Super PAC -- usually a dispenser of negative ads -- airing this positive bio ad? Does it say anything about the state of the Romney campaign’s war chest?

*** Gingrich criticizes Obama’s apology for Quran burning: In Washington state yesterday, Newt Gingrich criticized the Obama administration for apologizing to Afghan leaders after Qurans were burned at a military base, NBC’s Alex Moe reported. “The president apologized for the burning, but I haven't seen the president demand that the government of Afghanistan apologize for the killing of two young Americans,” Gingrich told a crowd of roughly 500. The Afghans, Gingrich believes, "do not deserve the apology of the United States” after an Afghan soldier shot two American troops at a protest that followed the desecration of the holy books. Later when campaigning in Idaho, Gingrich got this eyebrow-raising question from a voter: “The way I got it figured, and I'm kind of sick but - we had our hippie, which turned out to be a pedophile. OK? My gosh, just 19. Now we got our disco-dancing cokehead. It's time for my generation, and people are pissed off because of affirmative action, blah, blah blah.  Are you willing to get in there and raise some serious Hell and straighten things up?” Gingrich’s answer: "Well as Harry Truman said - somebody yelled at him at one point 'Give em hell Harry.' And he said 'I just tell the truth and it feels like Hell.'”

*** On the trail, per NBC’s Adam Perez: Santorum campaigns in Oklahoma and then stops by Michigan… Romney holds two events in the Wolverine State, including his big economic speech in Detroit… And Gingrich stumps in Washington, rallying in Olympia, Federal Way, and Everett.

*** Dems to Obama: “Don’t say ‘America is back’”: Finally, Democrats Stan Greenberg and James Carville produced a polling/focus group memo, and this part of it caught our attention: Obama’s declaration from his State of the Union that “America is back” doesn’t test well. “Claiming that ‘America is back’ is by far the weakest operative message and produces disastrous results. It is weaker than even the weakest Republican message and is 10 points weaker in intensity than either Republican message… Less than a quarter of independents say this message would make them more likely to support the President and no independents said that it would make them much more likely to support him.” 

Countdown to Arizona and Michigan primaries: 4 days
Countdown to Super Tuesday: 11 days
Countdown to Election Day: 256 days

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*** Friday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: Former Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) on being in the middle of the GOP primary debate… A deep dive into how exactly a new GOP candidate could still get into the race and rack up hundreds of delegates… NBC's Kristen Welker on the week's big developments in and around Washington… NBC's Atia Abawi with the latest from Afghanistan… More 2012 news with TIME's Michael Scherer, MSNBC’s Robert Traynham and former Obama White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

*** Friday's "Jansing & Co." line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews NEA-Secretary-Treasurer Rebecca Pringle, the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart; USA Today’s Jackie Kucinich; former Biden economic adviser Jared Bernstein, former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg, and National Journal’s/Hotline’s Reid Wilson.

*** Friday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up:  NBC’S Luke Russert (filling in for Thomas Roberts) interviews former RNC Chair Michael Steele,  former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, CNBC’s Ron Insana, presidential candidate Buddy Roemer, Politico’s Jim Vandehei & Newsweek/Daily Beast’s Andrew Romano.

*** Friday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include New York Magazine’s John Heilemann, the Daily Beast’s Patricia Murphy, Rolling Stone Editor Eric Bates, CNBC’s Eamon Javers, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, and “Act of Valor” Screenwriter Kurt Johnstad

*** Friday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, NBC’s Atia Abawi, Sen. Jim Webb, Gov. Bev Perdue, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Politico’s Lois Romano, former Defense Secretary William Cohen, and the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart.

*** Friday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall interviews the Washington Post’s Nia Malika Henderson, Jimmy Williams, Detroit Free Press editorial and opinion editor Steve Henderson, Zachary Karabell, and Daily Beast contributor Asra Nomani

*** Saturday’s (and Sunday’s) “Weekends with Alex Witt” line-up: In her latest “Office Politics” interview, MSNBC’s Alex Witt will speak with advertising mogul Donny Deutsch.

*** Saturday’s (and Sunday’s) “Melissa Harris-Perry” line-up: On Saturday: Irshad Manji, NYU Moral Courage Project; Elon James White, comedian, writer; Nona Willis Aronowitz, Good Magazine; Matt Welch, Reason Magazine; Micki McElya, UConn history prof. On Sunday: Anita Hill, Brandeis Univ; Harry Smith, NBC; Michael Steele, MSNBC/former RNC chair; Maria Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino; Robin Fryday, filmmaker "Barber of Birmingham"; Darren Armstrong, grandson of civil rights activist James Armstrong.

*** Saturday’s (and Sunday’s) “Up with Chris Hayes” line-up: On Saturday: Meghan McCain, MSNBC Contributor; Bob Herbert, former New York Times columnist; Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, Latino Decisions; James Poulos, The Daily Caller; Michelle Goldberg, Newsweek/Daily Beast; Thomas Schaller, Baltimore Sun. On Sunday: Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR); Eyal Press, The Nation; Dan Dicker, author of, "Oil's Endless Bid: Taming the Unreliable Price of Oil to Secure Our Economy"; Elise Jordan, former speechwriter to Condoleeza Rice; Jeremy Scahill, The Nation; Anne-Marie Slaughter, former Director of Policy Planning for the United States Department of State for the Obama administration.

GINGRICH: NBC’s Alex Moe reports that, for the first time in weeks, Gingrich mentioned and attacked Romney by name last night in Coeur d’Alene, ID, and attacked him as being an “amateur.” Gingrich added, “He’s not a severe conservative, he is at times severely distanced”; hit him on gun rights and abortion; and “I wasn’t sure what resolute meant, but it sounded good.”

ROMNEY: “It won't be hard to fit 1,200 members of the Detroit Economic Club into 65,000-seat Ford Field for today's speech by GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney,” the Detroit Free Press writes. “What will be hard is making it look like Romney isn't speaking to a nearly empty stadium. The Romney campaign and the Economic Club think they've solved the problem. The guests will be seated at one end of the playing surface, roughly between the end zone and the 30-yard line, while Romney will speak from a stage in front of them."

More: “They scrapped three earlier plans: one to have Romney stand in the end zone, speaking up to guests seated in the stands; another to have him on the sidelines near midfield, speaking to guests seated in the stadium's middle sections, and an initial plan to hold the event at the Westin Book Cadillac, which quickly became oversold. Steve Grigorian, chief operating officer for the Economic Club, said the two earlier Ford Field plans were changed because camera angles would have made it appear there was no one in the stadium but Romney.”

An ad run by the pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future called “Saved” is exactly the same ad as one the Romney campaign ran in 2007 called “The Search.” Super PACs and campaigns can’t coordinate, and Restore Our Future says it did not. "We purchased the rights to the footage from its owner Cold Harbor Films, which did not entail interacting with the Romney campaign," according to Restore Our Future Treasurer Charlie Spies, who was the chief financial officer and counsel for Romney's 2008 campaign. Cold Harbor Films is an arm of National Media, an ad firm run by Alex Castellanos, who was a strategist for the Romney 2008 campaign.

The Boston Globe: “Factcheck finds Mitt Romney wrong in describing state law on emergency contraception.”

“Romney has struggled with the Tea Party, and polls show movement activists remain skeptical of him in Michigan. But he seemed well-received among the crowd here tonight, and a standard line from his stump speech – ‘I believe in America’ – spurred a standing ovation,” the Boston Globe writes from a Tea Party rally in Milford, MI, with Romney, last night.

The New York Post says Mitt Romney’s trying to send Rick Santorum to the “principles’ office.” “Mitt Romney, hoping to harness Tea Party-fueled resentment of DC and regain the initiative in Michigan, pounded Rick Santorum yesterday for a series of cumbersome defenses that Santorum gave of his Senate voting record during Wednesday night’s debate,” the paper writes.

Even though he endorsed Romney, former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman is calling for a third-party movement, NBC’s Jo Ling Kent reports.

George Costanza didn’t like Romney invoking him at the debate.

SANTORUM: “Former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter said his former Senate colleague Rick Santorum was wrong when Santorum recounted a conversation they had about judicial nominees during last night’s Republican presidential debate,” the Boston Globe reports of Specter speaking on the Michael Smerconish radio program yesterday. “Specter said he made no such commitment. ‘He is not correct,’ Specter said. ‘I made no commitment to him about supporting judges. That would have been the wrong thing to do. As chairman of the committee I supported [Justices John] Roberts and [Samuel] Alito because I thought they were qualified for the job. But I made no deal.’ Specter said he had no conversation with Santorum in which he made a commitment about supporting judges who had not yet been nominated. ‘I wouldn’t do that,’ Specter said.”

Politifact Ohio gives Santorum a "false" for his claim that Romney backed cap and trade.

“Most people like President Barack Obama's proposal to make millionaires pay a significant share of their incomes in taxes. Yet they'd still rather cut spending than boost taxes to balance the federal budget, an Associated Press-GfK poll shows, giving Republicans an edge over Democrats in their core ideological dispute over the nation's fiscal ills,” AP writes, adding, “Sixty-five percent of the people in the AP-GfK poll favor Obama's plan to require people making $1 million or more pay taxes equal to at least 30 percent of their income. Just 26 percent opposed Obama's idea. Yet by 56 percent to 31 percent, more embraced cuts in government services than higher taxes as the best medicine for the budget, according to the survey, which was conducted Feb. 16 to 20.”

Michelle Obama fundraised for her husband's re-election campaign yesterday in Cincinnati.

ARIZONA: The Sheriff Babeu story is still dominating Arizona political coverage even with the primary coverage just days away. (And it was striking that there wasn’t a single question about it at Wednesday’s GOP debate in Arizona.)

MARYLAND: The Baltimore Sun: “Maryland Senate passes gay marriage bill.” “Gov. Martin O'Malley's bill to legalize same-sex marriage quickly won approval in the Maryland Senate Thursday night. The measure now needs the governor's signature,” the paper writes. “Cheers erupted in the Senate chambers after the 25-22 vote was read out loud and the group of seven gay and lesbian lawmakers from the House of Delegates rushed to the middle of the floor to embrace supportive senators.” More: “The vote makes Maryland the eighth state to approve gay nuptials — and the fourth state legislature to do so in the past 12 months.” But: “Implementation of the measure is far from certain. Even supporters concede that the law will likely be petitioned to referendum, and they expect Maryland voters to have the final say in November. The legislation has an effective date of January 2013 — well after the November election.”

MICHIGAN: The Detroit News reminds about the potential for Democratic spoilers on Tuesday. "With President Barack Obama unopposed, the possibility of independents and Democrats crossing over to vote Republican is another issue adding to interest in Tuesday's primary. Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer did not endorse the idea this week, but he didn't discourage it, either."

NEW MEXICO: Gov. Susana Martinez’s (R) hairdresser won’t cut the governor’s hair anymore because of her anti-same-sex marriage stance.

VIRGINIA: The Virginian-Pilot front page: “‘Personhood’ bill fails; abortion bill advances.”

The Richmond Times-Dispatch: “In stunning turnaround, Senate scraps 'personhood' bill.” “The state Senate on Thursday reined in perhaps the most sweeping proposed change to Virginia's abortion-related laws in years when it voted to derail a bill that would have conferred legal rights to fetuses,” the paper writes. “By a vote of 24-14, House Bill 1 — the so-called personhood bill sponsored by Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William — was re-referred to the Senate Education and Health Committee and carried over to the 2013 legislative session.”

WASHINGTON: Eliot Spitzer is hosting a fundraiser for Washington state Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Jay Inslee at Spitzer’s Fifth Avenue home.

MILFORD, Mich. – Standing before members of eight Detroit-area Tea Party groups on Thursday, Mitt Romney angled for their support by promising to shrink government by slashing deficits and cutting programs. 

"In lowering the tax rates I'm going to make absolutely sure we don't add to the deficit,” Romney said as he laid out his new tax plan to several hundred attendees here. “For me, the highest priority is getting America on track to have a balanced budget."

Romney's campaign has courted Michigan Tea Party groups strategically, according to one adviser, who said that most Tea Party affiliates in Michigan are more interested in small government than social issues, which the campaign believes plays to Romney's perceived strengths.

"I've got a whole list of programs we're going to eliminate," Romney promised, vowing not to pass trillion dollar deficits onto the next generation, but not naming any program other than "Obamacare," which he said he would cut completely.

Romney also undercut his main rival in Michigan, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, although he never mentioned Santorum by name. He linked Santorum to big spending in Washington and accused him of selling out his principles.

"These politicians run for office, and then go to Washington, and something happens there. I'm not sure what's in the water, but they decide that they've got to take one for the team," Romney said, referencing Wednesday night’s Republican debate, during which Santorum defended his support of the federal No Child Left Behind law. "They keep on voting for the same old stuff, and spending grows and grows over the years."

Later, Romney took another, less veiled swipe at Santorum. The two were neck and neck in recent polls.

"People go to Washington and they vote for things they don't believe in,” Romney said. “One of the candidates last night spent most of the evening describing why it was he voted against his principles. And he said you know you've got to take it for the team every now and again. Well, my team is the people of the United States of America."

Rick Santorum’s campaign today released a new TV ad in Michigan drilling Mitt Romney on his past positions on everything from his stance on abortion, health care, taxes, and the role of government. 

And the TV ad does so mostly without sound -- and mostly only with text of past quotes from Romney.

Like: "I don't line up with the National Rifle Association (NRA).”

Also: "Romney also professed support for state funding of abortions for low income women."
 
And: "Romney Advisor Admits Romneycare was Blueprint for Obamacare."

"Since Mitt Romney refuses to talk about his own liberal record - we figured we'd show people what Mitt Romney says about Mitt Romney,” Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement accompanying the TV ad. “We wanted to give Gov. Romney's long-held positions and statements an opportunity to be heard."

The pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future is going up with an ad in Michigan and Arizona, starting tonight, that focuses on the story of Mitt Romney helping to lead the search for his business partner's daughter who went missing in New York City in the 1990s.

The story is true, but the ad is recycled.

In fact, the ad run by a SUPER PAC, called "Saved," is word-for-word the same ad that the Romney CAMPAIGN ran in 2007, called "The Search."

The only differences appear to be slightly different video of New York City and a different sign off. Instead of "I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this message," it's "Restore Our Future is responsible for the content of this message."

Super PACs and campaigns are, by federal law, not allowed coordinate.

Here are the ads and scripts: 

2012 Restore Our Future ad and script below:

My 14 year old daughter had disappeared in New York City for 3 days. No one could find her. My business partner stepped forward to take charge. He closed the company and brought almost all our employees to New York. He said I don't care how long takes, we're going to find her. He set up a command center and searched through the night. The man who helped save my daughter was Mitt Romney. Mitt's done a lot of things that people say are nearly impossible. But, for me, the most important thing he's ever done is to help save my daughter.

Restore Our Future is responsible for the content of this message.

2007 Romney campaign ad and script:

My 14 yr old daughter disappeared in New York City for three days. No one could find her. My business partner stepped forward to take charge. He closed the company and brought almost all of our employees to New York. He said I don’t care how long it takes, we're going to find her. He set up a command center and searched through the night. The man who helped save my daughter was Mitt Romney. Mitt's done a lot of things people say that are nearly impossible. But for me the most important thing he's ever done is to help save my daughter.

I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this message.

*** UPDATE *** NBC's Chuck Todd confirms that the video is the same as the 2007 ad and was purchased by Restore Our Future.

"We purchased the rights to the footage from its owner Cold Harbor Films, which did not entail interacting with the Romney campaign," according to Restore Our Future Treasurer Charlie Spies, who was the chief financial officer and counsel for Romney's 2008 campaign.

Cold Harbor Films is an arm of National Media, an ad firm run by Alex Castellanos, who was a strategist for the Romney 2008 campaign.