In late September, while the political world was speculating about whether Chris Christie might jump into the GOP race and buzzing about First Michelle Obama shopping incognito at Target, Rick Santorum was quietly doing something of his own -- making money.

On Sept. 29 and 30, while he was mired in single digits in the polls and no one was giving him a chance to win the nomination, Santorum went and made $18,200 in two speeches, according to an amendment to his personal financial disclosure released today.

Santorum was paid $9,100 apiece speaking through the conservative Young America’s Foundation before the Institute of Management Accountants and before the Family Institute of Connecticut.

A look back at Santorum’s schedule for those two days shows no public events or campaigning.

In 2007, Mike Huckabee broke with the tradition of suspending giving paid speeches during campaigns when he hopped off the trail for several then-undisclosed speeches. He eventually lost the nomination, but got his own television show.

Santorum made between $1.4 and $1.6 million in the year-and-a-half reporting period before he launched his bid for president, according to his financial disclosure. But, on the trail, like Huckabee, he has lamented the personal financial cost of running for office.

BOULDER CITY, NV – President Obama touted solar energy as an “industry on the rise” and condemned Republican skeptics of this power source in his first stop on a nationwide energy tour.

“This is an industry on the rise. It’s a source of energy that’s becoming cheaper. And more and more businesses are starting to take notice,” Obama said, noting that 16 solar projects have been approved on public land since he took office.

But, standing in front of a vast field of solar panels set against a Nevada mountain skyline, Obama criticized those politicians who he said “make jokes” about alternative energy.

Using a new favorite catch phrase for lawmakers he considers outdated, Obama said, “If these people were around when Columbus set sail, they’d be charter members of the Flat Earth Society.”

The president toured the Copper Mountain photovoltaic facility in Boulder City, Nevada – the largest of its type in the country – before making his remarks, which were intended to highlight one pillar of his “all-of-the-above” energy strategy.

The Copper Mountain solar panel site was constructed in 2010 and produces enough solar energy to power more than 17,000 homes, according to plant’s owner company Sempra Generation. Most of the homes it powers are in Southern California, not Nevada.

While the bulk of the project was financed with private money, it did receive about $40 million in federal tax credits – the sort of funding Obama said the federal government should continue to provide in order to jump-start emerging industries.

He acknowledged, however, that such government investments sometimes do not pay off – an indirect reference, perhaps, to the Solyndra solar power company that went bankrupt in 2011 despite receiving $535 million in federal stimulus loan guarantees.

“Each successive generation recognizes that some technologies are going to work, some won’t; some companies will fail, some companies will succeed,” Obama said.

But he likened such failures to the trail-and-error of now-established industries like automobiles and airplanes, which he noted once were both fledgling technologies themselves.

“Not every auto company succeeded in the early days of the auto industry. Not every airplane manufacturer succeeded in the early days of aviation.” 

Obama also compared the Copper Mountain solar facility to an earlier federal energy project – the Hoover Dam, for which Boulder City, just 20 minutes away, was originally constructed as a suburb for dam builders during the 1930s.

“Eight decades ago, in the midst of the Great Depression, the people of Boulder City were busy working on another energy project that you may have heard of. Like today, it was a little bit ahead of its time,” Obama said, referring to the dam. “Even today it stands as a testimony to American ingenuity, American imagination and the power of the American spirit.”

Perhaps coincidentally, Obama’s praise of the Hoover Dam came just days after the government-funded project was mentioned by Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney as an example of the kind of large-scale construction projects America is capable of.

“We once built the interstate highway system and the Hoover Dam. Today, we can't even build a pipeline,” Romney said Monday in Illinois, referring to the stalled northern portion of the Keystone oil pipeline.

(Obama’s energy tour is not considered by the White House to be an official campaign jaunt.)

Congress could be barreling towards another showdown after House Republicans announced today they would need a short-term extension of federal funding for transportation projects to buy time to work on a longer-term reauthorization, a move Senate Democrats have rejected.

"I'm inclined not to do that," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in response to a question yesterday about the prospects for a short-term extension in the Senate.  Federal funding for highway and transit programs will expire on March 31if an extension or reauthorization is not passed.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica told reporters today that Republicans will be introducing a 90-day clean extension to give their members more time to finish their own five-year reauthorization bill. 

That bill -- which was once touted as Speaker Boehner's primary objective for the year -- has hit a number of snags over the past months. Parochial issues have plagued the legislation, causing members to reject it because of stipulations that directly affect their constituencies. Some conservatives also don't support the bill because they say it spends too much.

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), who is also on the Transportation Committee, said he's "confident" Reid will change his mind about a short-term extension. "I think Harry Reid will rethink that when it gets to March 30," Shuster said, "He wants to shut down the highway program? I don't think he wants to do that."

The Senate has already passed a two-year reauthorization that is currently sitting in House awaiting a vote. House Republicans don't support the measure, saying a two-year extension is not enough. But Boehner has said they may need to take up the Senate's bill if Republicans fail to coalesce around their own version.

Either way, the debate has real economic implications. If federal funding for these projects runs out, workers could be furloughed and some highway and transit programs could be stalled. Both parties agree that if Congress is going to pass a major "jobs bill" this year, this is it.

Republican presidential candidate and former Senator Rick Santorum holds up an Etch-a-sketch while addressing supporters at a "Get Out The Vote" rally in Mandeville, La., March 21, 2012.

ARBUTUS, MD -- Mitt Romney said he plans to run on the same issues in the general election as he has in the primary in response to a top aide's comment likening Romney's pivot to the general election to an Etch A Sketch.

Romney acted to hastily control the damage resulting from comments by adviser Eric Fehrnstrom on CNN, which prompted a day's worth of attacks from Democrats, as well as Romney's Republican rivals.

Romney told reporters following his lone event today that while his campaign will change organization, the issues on which he'll run "will be exactly the same."

"I'm running as a conservative Republican," he said. "I'll be running as a conservative Republican nominee."

The comments gave Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich a new weapon to use against Romney, figuratively and literally illustrating their case that the former Massachusetts governor is only a conservative of political convenience.

The two men, who lag behind Romney in the delegate count, jumped at the opportunity to attack Romney after a senior adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, this morning compared moving into the general election campaign to the children’s toy this morning, saying, “you can kind of shake it up and restart all of over again.”

Both Gingrich and Santorum brought small Etch A Sketch toys to their afternoon events in the state of Louisiana. 

“We're not looking for someone who's the Etch A Sketch candidate,” Santorum said after pulling out the toy during his event in Mandeville. “We're looking for someone who writes what they believe in in stone and stands true to what they say."

Santorum even told the crowd it was “the first of what I’m going to now call my ‘Etch A Sketch Tour of America.'"

“Given everybody's fears about Gov. Romney's flip flops, to have his communications director say publicly to all of us, if we're dumb enough to nominate him we should expect by the acceptance speech he'll move back to the left, triggers everything we should worry about,” Gingrich said as he began his town hall in Lake Charles, where he appeared holding the toy. "I think having an Etch A Sketch as your campaign model, raises every doubt about where we're going."

The former House speaker handed the popular childhood toy to a little girl sitting in the front row of the Harlequin Steaks and Seafood restaurant and joked, “You can now be a presidential candidate.” (Gingrich went on and autographed the toy for her after the event.)

Santorum said he purchased his Etch A Sketch at a Toys R Us store “down the way” while the Gingrich campaign simply said they bought the “Cars” themed toy today.

But the two candidates themselves were not alone in their purchases.

More than 2,000 miles away outside Romney's Arbutus event, Santorum’s press secretary was passing out mini Etch A Sketches in the parking lot.

Holding the one remaining toy she had yet to distribute, Alice Stewart told reporters this “gaffe” from a top Romney advisor “confirms what a lot of conservative have been afraid of.”

“The campaign acknowledged that his [Romney’s] conservative credentials can come and go with the climate, just like an Etch A Sketch, and we can’t have that,” Stewart said.

Romney had initially refused to address Fehrnstrom’s Etch A Sketch comments while asked several times on the ropeline following his event in Maryland.

“I’m not doing a press conference right now, OK?” Romney told reporters.

One group that does seem happy with all the buzz of the children’s toy today is the Ohio Art Company, the Etch A Sketch manufacturer.

"Happy to see Etch A Sketch, an American classic toy, is DRAWING attention with political candidates as a cultural icon and important piece of our society," said Nicole Gresh, spokeswoman for the manufacturer. "A profound toy, highly recognized and loved by all, is now SHAKING up the national debate. Nothing is as quintessentially American as Etch A Sketch and a good old fashion political debate.”

Alex Moe reported from Lake Charles, LA. Jamie Novogrod reported from Mandeville, LA.

The political undertones of President Obama's energy-related tour of swing states haven't been lost by the Republican super PAC American Crossroads, which launched new TV ads in the states where the president will stop.

As NBC News’ Ali Weinberg pointed out, Obama's tour will tout his energy policies in states that have stubbornly high gas prices.

But Crossroads, the brainchild of former Bush operatives Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, isn't content to let that message go uncontested; the group made a $650,000 ad buy in Albuquerque, Las Vegas and Columbus -- the major media markets near the locations of Obama's stops.

The blistering attack ad suggests that the Obama administration allowed for gas to go up by $2 dollars a gallon, and neglected to develop American oil shale or support construction of the Keystone pipeline. It also uses sound from National Journal’s Major Garrett, who says in the ad: “At the White House for 3 weeks, the word has been deflect or shield on gas prices. Put up the deflector shield.”

The ad can be seen here:

The size and scope of the ad buy demonstrates the influences of these deep-pocketed super PACs during the 2012 election cycle. Instead of dominating the local airwaves with his own message in swing states, the president will have to contend with countermessaging from a well-funded group of mainly unknown donors pushing back on his every word.

CHICAGO, IL -- Newt Gingrich prides himself in running an unconventional presidential campaign and the man who currently oversees the team’s daily operations of that campaign fits this “anti-establishment” mold perfectly.

Patrick Millsaps, 39, Gingrich’s chief of staff, explains that he “stumbled into working in politics” a few years ago. He was brought on as the campaign’s top aide in late December amid an implosion in Gingrich’s numbers heading into the Iowa caucuses – the first contest that would launch two and a half months of voting.

“I got involved in politics by happenstance; I needed a job out of college,” said Millsaps, who graduated from Samford University in 1995 with a degree in Psychology after a short stint as a preacher. (He remains a licensed Baptist Minister who can still marry and bury people.)

Growing up in Marietta, GA, Millsaps was a constituent of the Republican lawmaker who would become his future boss – former House Speaker Gingrich. But the two men only met once, in 1994, as Gingrich worked the ropeline following an event. Eighteen years later, Millsaps, a lifelong Georgian, made his interest in helping the campaign known.

“The one type of race I have never been involved in as a volunteer was a presidential race,” Millsaps recalls telling one of Gingrich’s close advisors, Randy Evans, in early 2011. “I told him if there is ever a way I can help in a meaningful way, let me know.”

Nine months later, Evans did just that. Millsaps was contacted by the Gingrich campaign the day after Christmas (as he was about to take a week vacation), and flew to Iowa first thing to start as deputy legal counsel.

“One day he was in a court room in Southern Georgia, the next he was smack in the middle of the GOP primary. He didn’t blink,” Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said.

Having graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law in 2000, Millsaps has been practicing law ever since.

“In 1996, I worked as a deputy political director for a United States Senate candidate in Georgia,” he said. “I decided to go to law school after we lost the primary and after that I decided I was just done with politics.”

Moving to Camilla, GA – a small town in the Southwest section of the state – back in 2004, Millsaps started his own law practice while his wife, Elizabeth, opened a pharmacy. He continued to stay active in politics here and there, helping his former law school friends organize events for politicians near him, while also raising his three small daughters.

After working with the Gingrich campaign for just more than a month, the speaker promoted Millsaps to chief of staff when their charter plane landed in Reno, NV in early February. In this new role, Millsaps changed the organizational structure of the campaign and even created internal teams to help the process flow better.

“I think I brought a perspective that was very non-DC – there is nothing further from Washington, D.C. than Southwest Georgia,” he said.

This is the type of campaign Gingrich is trying to run, according to Millsaps, who admitted he thought he would be off the campaign after South Carolina. “It has been a benefit that I have worked on enough campaigns that I know my way around campaigns but it has also been a benefit that I bring a different perspective to the table,” he said.

“Patrick has really done a great job at doing a lot with limited resources in such a short amount of time,” Hammond said.

Now, Millsaps and the speaker work together very closely every day and have even become friends, complementing each other with their traits along the way.

“Speaker Gingrich is the one who came up with $2.50 gasoline. Nobody saw gasoline as the big issue. He has the big idea of how he wants his campaign to go and what we need to be talking about and then I am the one who tries to figure out what kind of assets we have and how we get the message out,” Millsaps said.

Millsaps described himself as the campaign’s “problem solver” and noted that the campaign always had a great product in its candidate – they just needed someone to push that material out the door to voters.

Vowing to only work for politicians he truly believes in, Millsaps says Gingrich has really struck him as a different type of politicians and doesn’t see this type of campaign happening again.

“Newt is the most intellectually curious person I have ever met,” he said. “I have met a lot of politicians that are just so full of themselves that you will never get a word in edgewise but Newt is the opposite of this.”

No matter what happens in the next few weeks, the chief of staff says he is in for the long haul.

“I am one of these people who believes that God has a plan for me and I am just going to see what happens next. I will stay with the campaign and hopefully take it all the way to Tampa and then see what happens,” Millsaps said. “I learned a long time ago that the people who try to plan their lives out seem to be disappointed.”

Adding to his list of victories, Mitt Romney’s convincing win in Illinois has many bloggers analyzing what it means -- and if it could signal the end of the GOP race.

Conservative Erick Erickson of Red State simply says: “In Illinois, Romney won. Period.”

"The Santorum campaign stumbled badly in Puerto Rico, gave up a lead in Illinois, and the candidate proved horribly undisciplined. Like Dug the dog in Up getting distracted by every random squirrel, Rick Santorum loses all ability to focus when social issues come up. His lack of discipline and message focus steering those issues to families as he did so beautifully in the Mesa, AZ debate has hindered him and solidified a media narrative that he is more concerned with those issues than jobs and the economy. It is not fair. It is not even accurate. But fairness and accuracy are rare commodities in American retail politics and Rick Santorum has not leveraged his strengths well.

On the other hand, Mitt Romney’s win in Illinois still highlights his struggles. Blue collar voters are not fond of him. Staunchly conservative voters are not either. Evangelical voters also are not fond of him. The voters do not feel quite comfortable with their pick. But though evangelicals and social conservatives are the base of the base of the Republican Party, they are not enough to stop Mitt Romney and a spending advantage some have estimated topped 20 to 1 against Santorum in Illinois.”

Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Beast notes that although Romney won, he continually struggles to convince the Conservative base, which can pose a problem in November.

“…In a state where Romney did very well, with a 12 point margin over Santorum, that he still lost non-college educated whites by 7 percent and was essentially tied with Santorum among those earning under $50,000 a year. I think this means real vulnerability to the attack line coming in the fall that he is the Wall Street mega-rich candidate who wants even more tax cuts for people like him and Ryan-style cuts in the safety net. And he still lost the white evangelical vote by seven points.

I don't think his weakness among the very conservative matters much for the general. They'll turn out for him. But I do think his continued weakness with the core enthusiasts in the GOP base, white evangelicals, is a potential problem for turnout this November. Some of it is surely about his Mormonism; some of it his patrician Yankee style. But he'll need something powerful to motivate these voters, while not poisoning his appeal to moderate Republicans by emphasizing issues like abortion, gays and contraception.”

But Jay Cost, conservative contributor at National Review Online, says if Romney continues to win with his core groups, the path to the GOP presidential nomination will come sooner than later.

“Without a substantial shift in these major blocs (suburban, upscale, relatively moderate voters), there is no way Santorum will come close to Romney in terms of votes or delegates. The electoral math is simply undeniable: The Mid-Atlantic states and California, where demographics favor Romney, are still to vote; plus, the big delegate hauls remaining in the South — North Carolina and Texas — are more like Florida than Mississippi, full of upscale, suburban voters who have typically backed Romney...

Thus, the Pennsylvania primary in late April is key. The demographic mix will favor Romney, but it is Santorum’s home state. If Romney wins there, game over. If Santorum wins, then the race will probably drag out until June.”

Jennifer Rubin, a pro-Romney conservative opinion blogger for the Washington Post writes that after Romney’s victory last night in Illinois, he is finally receiving the credit he deserves. 

“Mitt Romney’s Illinois win was so impressive that neither Rick Santorum nor the press corps bothered to spin the results. Whatever the verb — “crushed,” “rolled,” or “clobbered” — there was rare consensus that Romney had finally crossed the threshold from “weak front-runner” to ”presumptive nominee.” Both the extent of the victory and the reminder that Santorum is essentially a well-funded Mike Huckabee (winning only in rural areas or among very conservative evangelicals) have, it seems, forced the chattering class to adjust its analysis to fit reality...

As we’ve said before, by the end of a presidential primary, the winner seems more polished and presidential than at the beginning of the contest. This is both a factor of how we view him and the shot of confidence a candidate gets after all the elections, speeches, debates and interviews. It is a grueling process, but in the end the winner is elevated. The press and Democratic operatives would have us believe that Romney has been diminished by the process. In fact, as last night demonstrated, quite the opposite is true.”

President Obama today embarks on a two-day, four-time-zone tour to highlight his administration’s efforts in both traditional and alternative energy production.

But despite the stated official purpose for the trip, there will be strong political undercurrents at each stop: three of the four states Obama will visit -- Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio -- are vital to his re-election chances, while the fourth, Oklahoma, is at the heart of a political maelstrom over exactly the issue Obama will talk about: energy production.

One other factor unites the four states Obama will visit: each suffers from stubbornly high gas prices, a reminder that even as the president seeks to highlight his administration’s efforts in energy production, there’s no substitute in voters’ minds – or wallets – for lowering prices at the pump.

Jason Reed / Reuters

President Barack Obama walks to Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base. Obama is traveling to Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Ohio for events on his energy initiative.

Nevada sunshine
President Obama will first stop in Boulder City, Nev., to showcase the Copper Mountain Solar 1 Facility, the largest photovoltaic plant in the United States. This visit will allow the president to highlight his efforts to diversify the “country’s energy portfolio,” according to the White House -- one of the cornerstones of his stated “all-of-the-above” energy production strategy.

Nevada is also a critical part of the president’s re-election strategy in the West. He turned the state blue in 2008 with 55 percent, higher than George W. Bush’s 51-47 margin of victory in 2004.

Boulder City, where Obama visits Wednesday, is in Clark County (home to Las Vegas), one of only three counties Obama won in 2008, along with Washoe and Carson City. But they are population centers.

The president needs a strong performance in those two counties to win Nevada again, said Nevada political commentator and journalist Jon Ralston.

“The way Democrats win statewide in Nevada is generally to build up a huge bank of votes in Clark County, which has two-thirds of the population,” he said, “and then do OK in Washoe County to make up for the hemorrhaging in the other rural counties.”

But Ralston cautioned that Obama’s approval in the state has slipped recently; a poll conducted by Republican firm Public Opinion Strategies in late February found that 47 percent of likely voters would re-elect Obama, while 49% would elect a “new person” (the poll did not, however, test head-to-head matchups between Obama and hypothetical Republican nominees).

Potential slippage could be exacerbated by continued high gas prices (averaging $3.96 in Boulder City on Tuesday), as well as that the unemployment (12.7%) and foreclosure rates (one in every 278 Nevada homes is in foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac) are the highest in the country.

Ralston added that while Nevada’s sunny weather makes it a natural fit for the president to tout his solar energy plan, voters in the state, as elsewhere in the country, are likely more concerned about filling up their cars and keeping their homes than they are advances in solar-energy production.

“There’s a reason to wonder if this is the right message for Nevada,” Ralston said. “I think most people can’t relate to solar energy in Boulder City; they’re thinking, ‘What are you going to do to help me with my underwater mortgage or how are you going to help me get a job, Mr. President?’”

Nevada’s state politics do, however, offer the Obama administration a silver lining in an unlikely, probably unintentional advocate: Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval. Though unemployment remains the highest in the country, Sandoval has highlighted the 2-point drop in the rate since Sandoval took office – the conditions for which Obama could argue he helped create.

During an interview with CNN Feb. 3rd, Sandoval noted, “When I came into the office one year ago, our unemployment rate was 14.9. I think we have done well in terms of getting it down to 12.6.”

When asked by the interviewer whether President Obama could also take some credit in the falling unemployment rate, Sandoval answered, “Well, he can try to do that” before moving on to federal regulation of the mining industry.

“If I were the Obama campaign I’d pull Sandoval quotes out and put them on TV here,” Ralston said of the governor’s optimistic outlook.

Drilling in New Mexico
After the president speaks in Nevada, Air Force One will jet over to New Mexico, where the president will speak against a backdrop of federal oil and gas production fields to tout his administration’s “commitment to expanding domestic oil and gas production,” according to the White House.

While Obama won the state in 2008 with 56 percent, anchoring his victory in urban areas with large Hispanic populations like Albuquerque (60% of the vote), Santa Fe (77%) and Las Cruces (58%), he took only 27% in Lea County, where he will be speaking Wednesday.

Joe Monahan, author of the political blog New Mexico Politics, said Obama’s visit to solid-red “enemy territory” sends a message, intentional or not, that the campaign is looking to potentially expand its playing field in the key re-election battleground.

“Anytime he’s going to set foot in an area that’s traditionally Republican territory, that’s going to make them a bit nervous. He’s going down there showing his flag,” Monahan said.

But terminally high gas prices (averaging $3.75 in Lea County on Tuesday) will continue to plague him in New Mexico as it will in other top swing states, especially because those costs hit one of Obama’s key constituencies in the state – Hispanic voters, many of whom are low-income earners – particularly hard, Monahan said.

“It’s really a political thermometer, and it doesn’t surprise anyone that he’s down in Eddy County trying to show he’s doing all he says he can to promote a productive energy policy,” he added, referring to a county that houses Carlsbad, near where the president is touring.

The political pipeline in Oklahoma
The president begins the second day of his energy tour in Cushing, Okla., not to make a showing in a key re-election state -- John McCain won it in 2008 with 65 percent and is the only state in the country where every county voted more Republican than 2008.

Rather, it’s an effort to put his mark on a politically red-hot issue in both Washington and on the campaign trail -- the energy company TransCanada’s Keystone oil pipeline.

The Obama administration rejected a portion of the company’s plan that would have extended over U.S. borders from Canada, an international pipeline over which the federal government has diplomatic authority. But TransCanada is going ahead with plans to build a domestic line from Cushing to the Gulf of Mexico, which does not require presidential approval.

While President Obama has stopped short of taking responsibility for approving the Cushing pipeline, he has touted it in past appearances as an example of the kind of drilling he says his administration wants to increase.

““We're approving dozens of new pipelines. We just announced that we'll do whatever we can to speed up construction of a pipeline in Oklahoma that's going to relieve a bottleneck and get more oil to the Gulf -- to the refineries down there -- and that's going to help create jobs, encourage more production,” Obama said at a March 7th energy policy speech in Charlotte, N.C.

But Rep. Frank Lucas, whose Oklahoma district encompasses Cushing, says the president’s speech there Thursday, which he will make in front of pipes that will form the new Keystone pipeline, is “a P.R. event celebrating what private enterprise has done with private money without any influence of the White House.”

Lucas added that “while it’s good the president is celebrating what private enterprise and money is doing” he said it was “a shame he wouldn’t give permission” to the portion of the pipeline that would extend through Canada.

Republicans were also quick to pan news that Obama will announce during the Cushing visit that his administration will expedite the permit process for the southern portion of the pipeline, saying he is once again seeking to take ownership of a process that does not involve the White House.

“This is like a governor personally issuing a fishing license,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner. “The President’s attempt to take credit for a pipeline he blocked and personally lobbied Congress against is staggering in its disingenuousness. This portion of the pipeline is being built in spite of the President, not because of him.”

In addition to the national political undertones of his visit to Cushing, gas prices will also loom over the president there – while the average is on the lower end of the cities he’s visiting, it is still hovering around $3.62 in Payne County, where Cushing is.

Research in Ohio
Obama will end his trip in Ohio, a Midwestern state whose narrow 51-47 percent victory the president is looking to repeat in 2012. He’s already visited the state twice this year – once to make remarks on the economy and visit with a family at their home and once to bring British Prime Minister David Cameron to an NCAA basketball game.

On Thursday, Obama will highlight the capabilities of American universities in energy research and development at Ohio State University in Columbus, whose county he won 49-40 percent in 2008 (and whose No. 2-seeded basketball team is in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen).

Ohio is yet another key portion of the president’s Midwestern path to victory, and, in fact, a late February NBC-Marist poll found that while Ohio voters were split evenly, 45-45 percent, on his job approval, he fared better than Mitt Romney, GOP frontrunner, by double digits, 50-38 percent.

But Ohio’s gas prices -- as high as $4.03 in Columbus on Tuesday -- present a different challenge for the incumbent looking to win over the state’s key blue-collar voters.

On the very day that Mitt Romney picked up a key endorsement from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), his campaign is now receiving criticism after a top adviser suggested that Romney could hit a "reset button" in the general election -- like someone shaking up an "Etch A Sketch."

On CNN this morning, adviser Eric Fehrnstrom -- who worked for Romney when he was Massachusetts governor, as well as on his two presidential campaigns -- was asked if he was concerned that the GOP primary has forced Romney too far to the right, which could hurt him with moderate voters in the general.

Fehrnstrom's answer: "Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again."

He added, "But I will say, if you look at the exit polling data in Illinois, you'll see that Mitt Romney is broadly acceptable to most of the factions in the party. You have to do that in order to become the major party nominee. He's winning conservatives; he's winning Tea Party voters; he's winning men, women; he's winning Catholics and Protestants."

The Santorum campaign quickly seized on Fehrnstrom's "Etch A Sketch" comment, charging that it was an admission that Romney will abandon his conservative positions in a general election.

"We all knew Mitt Romney didn't have any core convictions, but we appreciate his staff going on national television to affirm that point for anyone who had any doubts," said Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley. "Voters can trust that Rick Santorum will say what he believes, and do what he says. They may not always agree with Rick Santorum, but they can trust him because they know he is a man of principle. Clearly, the same cannot be said of Governor Romney."

The Obama campaign also piled on. Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter tweeted that Fehrnstrom "says on CNN that Romney will erase his hard right positions in general election like an etch-a-sketch. Yeah, don't think so."

While it's commonplace for a general-election candidate to tack back to the center in a general election -- think Barack Obama shifting his position on renegotiating NAFTA -- this is particularly tricky territory for Romney, who once supported abortion rights (but now opposes them), who raised fees and revenues as Massachusetts governor (but now opposes that), and who championed an individual health-care mandate in his state (but now opposes a federal one).

MONROE, LA – Newt Gingrich faces a significant hurdle in his strategy of winning the GOP presidential nomination at the party’s August convention, lengthening the already-long odds of him becoming the Republican nominee.
 
The former House speaker is already struggling to stay afloat financially; he finished behind Texas Rep. Ron Paul in last night’s Illinois primary, even though Paul barely campaigned in the state.
 
Nonetheless, Gingrich has vowed to press his candidacy all the way through the Republican National Convention this August in Tampa, Fla. His strategy hinges on the assumption that Romney will fail to win the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination, prompting a contested convention in which Gingrich could emerge as conservatives’ consensus choice.
 
But an RNC rule stipulating that candidates seeking the nomination must have won a plurality of votes in at least five states could complicate Gingrich’s already far-fetched strategy. RNC rule No. 40 states:

Nominations(b) Each candidate for nomination for President of the United States and Vice President of the United States shall demonstrate the support of a plurality of the delegates from each of five (5) or more states, severally, prior to the presentation of the name of that candidate for nomination. 

RNC Chairman Reince Preibus issued a stern warning to the candidates to that end this morning on the Daily Rundown.
 
“It's an important rule,” he said. “So when these candidates are adding up their delegates or when people out there have a particular issue that they would like to move at the convention, they had better make sure they at least have a plurality of five states to make these things happen.”
 
Gingrich, of course, has only won two primaries – first, South Carolina, and second, Georgia, the state he had represented in Congress. (Paul finds himself in a similar situation, having won delegates, but no caucuses or primaries.)
 
“Obviously we need to win some more states,” said a source close to the Gingrich campaign, acknowledging that they need to win at least three more states before the August convention. “I don’t think he [Gingrich] would be doing this if he didn’t think there was a road to winning.”
 
There is a caveat that could allow Gingrich to slip through. RNC press secretary Kirsten Kukowski told NBC News that a candidate may still be nominated at the convention if they are able to garner a plurality of five states on the floor. The only real road toward accomplishing that would involve capturing unbound delegates, who will be few and far between come August.
 
While this scenario remains possible, the likelihood of it actually happening seems slim.
 
If no GOP candidate reaches the 1,144 delegates needed to seal the nomination by the Tampa convention, it would open the possibility that all four remaining candidates would participate in a floor fight.
 
“The purpose of the primary season is to vet your candidate. The purpose of the convention is to pick your candidate,” the Gingrich source says. “The longer we stay in this race, the longer people are going to contrast and compare and then you get to the convention and then, we will have this big debate on who our nominee needs to be.”
 
But if Gingrich cannot win five states – or even if he does win just five – he would still face a perception problem come convention time. With 56 states and territories in play, it would be difficult for the winner of just a handful of those contests to make the case that he deserves the nomination.
 
“To change history, the primaries, in your favor is exceedingly difficult and almost unrealistic,” said Doug Heye, the former RNC communications director turned political consultant. “For a lot of folks, the perception that Gingrich cannot win is already there and you’ve seen it state after state as Gingrich has been left out of the conversation.”
 
RNC rule No. 40, Heye noted, basically codifies the notion that Gingrich no longer faces a viable path to the nomination.
 
“I fully expect that Speaker Gingrich will be in Tampa this summer but not as a viable candidate for President of the United States,” he said.

Jeb Bush endorsed Mitt Romney for president on Wednesday, giving the former Massachusetts governor another important boost from the prominent political clan.

Bush, a figure whom many Republicans had urged to seek the presidency, called Romney this morning to inform him of his plan to endorse, according to a Romney campaign official.

The former Florida governor joins his father, former President George H.W. Bush, in endorsing Romney. Jeb Bush's brother, former President George W. Bush, has not made an endorsement in the race.

Jeb Bush said in a statement:

Congratulations to Governor Mitt Romney on his win last night and to all the candidates for a hard fought, thoughtful debate and primary season.  Primary elections have been held in thirty-four states, and now is the time for Republicans to unite behind Governor Romney and take our message of fiscal conservatism and job creation to all voters this fall.  I am endorsing Mitt Romney for our Party’s nomination.  We face huge challenges, and we need a leader who understands the economy, recognizes more government regulation is not the answer, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism and works to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to succeed.

As Bush's statement indicates, his endorsement comes at a point in the primary where Republicans, following Romney's win in last night's Illinois primary by a wide margin, may begin to rally around Romney's candidacy. A popular figure within the GOP, Bush had been one of the few major Republicans yet to make an endorsement.

Romney holds his ground winning Illinois by 12 points (and widening his delegate lead)… Romney also beginning to find his stump speech… Gingrich, who finished 4^th, approaches danger territory -- becoming more fodder for late-night comedians… Paul remains AWOL… Why Romney won Illinois: It’s the demography, stupid… He also rocked the Chicago suburbs… NBC’s new delegate count: Romney 485, Santorum 193, Gingrich 137, Paul 34… Five observations from yesterday’s FEC reports… Wrapping up last night’s congressional primaries… And Obama embarks on his energy-related swing.

*** Romney holds his ground: It wasn't a blowout win or a knockout punch, but Mitt Romney's 12-point victory in Illinois (and his even more decisive delegate haul) was exactly what he needed to do to keep his grasp on the GOP nomination. As for Rick Santorum, it was an expected loss and he kept the primary competitive despite being greatly outspent and out-organized, but it's now more and more difficult to see how he could capture the nomination. Despite what some are saying, however, the race isn't over -- at least not yet: The GOP primary contest moves on to Louisiana, where Santorum is favored. And then, on April 3, it heads to DC, Maryland, and Wisconsin. If Romney pulls off the upset in Louisiana and/or sweeps the April 3 contests (especially Wisconsin), then it will be fair to conclude the race is over. Bottom line: After a rockier-than-expected flight, the landing gear for Air Romney has been lowered, but the plane hasn’t yet touched the ground. Landings get aborted, and this one could, too -- it’s all in the hands of the folks in Wisconsin (or maybe even Louisiana).

Jeff Haynes / Reuters

Mitt Romney won the Illinois Republican primary with ease Tuesday night, allowing him to grow his delegate advantage over his rivals in the fight for the party's presidential nomination.

*** Romney’s also beginning to find his stump speech: While last night’s results in Illinois didn’t reveal any new information about the GOP primary race (more on that below), we learned something from Romney’s victory speech: He’s beginning to get comfortable with a stump speech that might actually last a while. His delivery was looser, and the narrative he’s trying to tell -- that he’s uniquely qualified to do this -- is getting better. He’s the businessman again; he even acknowledges some of his faults as a businessman, but says those lessons will serve him well. And he’s also trying to combine the businessman narrative with a values argument against the president that pays homage to an issue elite conservatives care a lot about: American exceptionalism.  Romney also sounded optimistic. The speech still had its share of empty rhetoric that lacked definition and his examples about the great things America does (like the Hoover Dam and Interstate Highway System) were PUBLIC works projects (and plays into the president’s hands potentially). But overall, it’s an improvement from his previous attempts at a stump and the delivery was better.

*** Gingrich approaches dangerous territory: Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich is getting close to dangerous territory: the embarrassment line. Last night, he finished fourth -- behind Ron Paul -- with just 8%. He appeared on FOX, but he spoke very briefly because he kept getting bumped by the Romney and Santorum speeches. Folks, that tells you all you need to know. Gingrich and his campaign have always been a target for late-night comedians (and they were at it AGAIN last night). But after last night -- and if he doesn’t win Louisiana -- that target is only going to get bigger and bigger.

*** Paul remains AWOL: As for Ron Paul, is he even running for president anymore? Today, he’s AWOL again from the campaign trail; in fact, his last campaign event was a week ago, on March 14. As NBC’s Chris Donovan points out, Paul has run for the GOP nomination in ’08 and in ’12, and -- despite the money he’s raised and the following he now has -- he’s been unable to win a SINGLE state in either cycle.

*** Illinois isn’t Alabama or Mississippi (and it’s not even Ohio): The biggest reason why Romney won in Illinois last night? It’s the demography, stupid. Indeed, we’ve reached the point in the GOP race where all you have to do is plug in a state’s demographic data (ideology, religion, income status), and you can pretty much determine who is going to win. According to the exit poll, just four in 10 GOP primary voters in Illinois described themselves as evangelical Christians -- versus eight in 10 who said that in Alabama and Mississippi. As the Washington Post’s Dan Balz points out, Romney has won every state where exit polls have found evangelical Christians to account for less than 50% of GOP primary voters, and he’s lost every state where they’ve been more than 50%. In addition last night, 29% say they were "very conservative,” compared with 42% who said that in Mississippi and 36% in Alabama. And 37% of Republican primary voters in Illinois said their total family income exceeds $100,000. But just 23% in Alabama and 26% in Mississippi said that. Another way to look at this: Romney has yet to lose a primary in a blue state. Another way to look at this: Romney has yet to lose a PRIMARY in a blue state. (Yes, we know he has lost some blue state CAUCUSES).

*** Rockin’ the suburbs: What also fueled Romney’s win were the Chicago suburbs. His margin of victory was 107,000 votes, but he got a 122,000-vote difference out of these areas -- the Cook County suburbs (45,000), DuPage County (27,000), Lake County (16,000), Chicago (14,000), Will County (8,000), Kane County (7,000), McHenry County (5,000).

*** The delegate count: While Romney won Illinois by 12 points last night (47%-35%), his delegate haul was even bigger. He captured 41 delegates to Santorum’s 10 -- with three delegates still undecided. Here’s NBC’s delegate count to date: Romney 485, Santorum 193, Gingrich 137, Paul 34. According to our math, Romney needs to win about 48% of the remaining delegates to reach 1,114, while Santorum needs to win about 69%.

*** Five observations from the FEC reports: One, Obama's fundraising and cash on hand is on par -- more or less -- with Bush's numbers in '04 (which is surprising given what many, including us, thought he was capable of raising at the beginning of this race)... Two, Romney's burn rate is over 100% (which might explain why the Super PAC, and not the campaign, is airing ads in post-Illinois races)...  Three, the pro-Santorum Super PAC has just $365,000 in the bank (Foster Friess, you have a call on Line 2)... Four, Gingrich now has more in debt ($1.55 million) than cash on hand ($1.54 million)… And five, the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA continues to be a flop, with it raising just $2 million (half of which came from Bill Maher). By the way, don’t overlook the spending numbers for the campaigns. It’s where you learn the philosophies of the campaign. Obama’s campaign is putting a LARGE emphasis (read: money) online. A large chunk of the February spending was devoted to online advertising. Also, do note that the Obama campaign continues to keep overall STAFF salaries down, at least compared to what other campaigns pay, including Romney. In fact, Romney has at least five staffers who make more than Obama’s campaign manager.

*** The February FEC totals:
Obama (raised $21.3 million, spent $12.6 million, $85 million COH)
Romney (raised $12 million, spent $12.4 million, $7.3 million COH)
Santorum (raised $9 million, spent $7.9 million, $2.6 million COH)
Gingrich (raised $2.6 million, spent $2.9 million, $1.5 million COH)
Paul (raised $3.3 million, spent $3.5 million, $1.4 million COH)
Restore Our Future (raised $6.4 million, spent $12.2 million, $10.4 million COH)
Red White and Blue Fund (raised $2.9 million, spent $3.2 million, $365,000 COH)
Winning Our Future (raised $5.7 million -- $5.5 million from the Adelson family -- spent $5.8 million, $2.3 million COH)
Priorities USA (raised $2 million – half coming from Bill Maher – spent $500,000, and has $2.8 million COH)

*** Wrapping up the congressional primaries: There also were plenty of interesting congressional primary contests in Illinois last night. Per msnbc.com’s Mike O’Brien, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R) beat Rep. Don Manzullo (R), allowing Eric Cantor (who had controversially endorsed Kinzinger) to breathe a sign of relief… Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D) beat former Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D)… Tammy Duckworth (D) beat Raja Krishnamoorthi (D) for the right to take on GOP Rep. Joe Walsh… And Brad Schenider beat progressive favorite Ilya Sheyman.

*** On the trail, per NBC’s Adam Perez: Romney fundraises in D.C. and hosts an town hall event in Arbutus, MD...Gingrich visits Louisiana, campaigning in Pineville, Lake Charles, and Lafayette…Santorum also makes a stop in the Pelican State, rallying in Harvey, Mandeville, and Alexandria.

*** All about energy (and gas prices): Lastly, President Obama today embarks on his energy-related swing, giving remarks in Nevada at 4:20 pm ET and in New Mexico at 8:15 pm ET. First Read will have more on this swing later today.

Countdown to Louisiana primary: 3 days
Countdown to DC, Maryland, Wisconsin primaries: 13 days
Countdown to Election Day: 230 days

Click here to sign up for First Read emails.
Text FIRST to 622639, to sign up for First Read alerts to your mobile phone.
Check us out on Facebook and also on Twitter. Follow us @chucktodd, @mmurraypolitics, @DomenicoNBC, @brookebrower

*** Wednesday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: RNC Chairman Reince Priebus… The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza and Politico’s Jonathan Martin on Romney’s win and where things go from here… A deep dive into First Lady Michelle Obama’s role in the 2012 campaign with former Clinton White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers… More 2012 news with the AP’s Kasie Hunt, Republican strategist and Romney adviser Kevin Madden and Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress.

*** Wednesday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt, the New York Times’ Catherine Rampell, the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, former Shell Oil Pres John Hofmeister; Salon.com’s David Weigel, TPM founder and editor Josh Marshall, former Florida Judge Alex Ferrer, and journalist Karen Hunter.

*** Wednesday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: : MSNBC’S Thomas Roberts talks with Santorum spokeswoman Alice Stewart, Nevada political writer Jon Ralston, Alicia Menendez, Tony Fratto, and  NBC’s Chuck Todd.

*** Wednesday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include former RNC Chair Michael Steele, Salon.com’s Steve Kornacki, New York Times Magazine Editor Hugo Lindgren, Abby Huntsman Livingston, Santorum National Communications Director Hogan Gidley, and former Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt

*** Wednesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews Condoleezza Rice, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, NBC’s Chuck Todd, Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter, NY Times’ Charles Blow, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and Fred Hochberg, chairman and president of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S.

*** Wednesday’s “News Nations with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall interviews Al Sharpton, Michael Smerconish, The Hill’s A.B. stoddard, and Jimmy Williams.

With 99% in, Romney led Santorum in Illinois 47%-35%. He got 41 of 54 delegates up for grabs so far. Santorum got 10. Total: Romney 485, Santorum 193, Gingrich 137, Paul 34. That means Romney is 42% of the way to the magic number of 1,144.

Romney won by running up the score in seven areas in or near Chicago. His margin of victory was 107,000 votes, but he got a 122,000-vote difference out of these areas -- the Cook suburbs (45,000), Dupage County (27,000), Lake County (16,000), Chicago (14,000), Will County (8,000), Kane County (7,000), McHenry County (5,000).

The Chicago Tribune called it a “decisive victory.” More: “The results provided the former Massachusetts governor with a sizable victory and also resurrected the aura of inevitability that his campaign has tried to project, only to be thwarted by close elections and even defeats in other states. Yet low voter turnout throughout Illinois raised questions about Republican enthusiasm for any of the presidential contenders….”

PAUL: He told Jay Leno that Secret Service protection is “a form of welfare.” But if he were to get Secret Service protection, he would choose the nickname “Bulldog.” “I go after the Fed and all that big spending,” he said.

ROMNEY: Illinois “was a far more substantial showing for Romney than the grudging victories he eked out in the previous few weeks in Michigan and Ohio, primaries that did as much to raise questions about his ability to attract Republican support as to quell those questions,” the AP writes.

The AP: “Mitt Romney's win in the Illinois Republican primary rested on broad leads among voters with higher incomes and more formal education, with a boost from those focused on defeating President Barack Obama in November….”

The New York Daily News: “Mitt Romney scored a big Heartland win in Illinois Tuesday, knocking back Rick Santorum and leaving himself poised to grab the GOP front-runner mantle for good.”

Fred Barnes: "Mitt Romney is close to finishing off his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, talk of a brokered GOP convention in August, and the prospect of a new candidate suddenly entering the contest." (Hat tip: Political Wire)

Bill Kristol though wasn’t impressed. "Watching Mitt Romney's victory speech in Illinois didn't reassure me about his chances against President Obama.

Another victory for Romney – FreedomWorks has dropped its opposition to him: “It is a statistical fact that the numbers favor Mitt Romney,” FreedomWorks Vice President Russ Walker told The Washington Times. “We are dedicated to defeating Obama and electing a conservative Senate that will help Romney repeal Obamacare and address the nation’s economic and spending challenges.”

SANTORUM: From Gettysburg, Santorum pointed to win in conservative areas: "If you look at what's going to happen tonight, we're going to win Downstate, we're going to win central Illinois, we're going to (win) western Illinois," he said. "We won the areas that conservatives and Republicans populate. We're very happy about that. We're happy about the delegates we're going to get too."

The Chicago Tribune’s editorial page: “Watching Illinois vote totals overwhelm him from a Tuesday night gathering in Gettysburg, Pa., Rick Santorum must have felt the anguish of all those Confederate ghosts. Like Gen. Robert E. Lee attacking the Union's Maj. Gen. George Meade, Santorum had a direct shot: Illinois was Santorum vs. Mitt Romney. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul mostly bypassed the Land of Lincoln. Here Santorum could prove that, in a two-man fight in a big and diverse state, voters would rally to him. Illinois would be for him what Confederates hoped for Pickett's Charge: a shocking puncture that turns a battle's tide. In the end, Gen. Lee had to withdraw from Gettysburg; his trail of wounded Rebs famously stretched 14 miles. Santorum doesn't have to withdraw from anything. But his fight for Illinois ended in comparable defeat.”

The Boston Globe’s Rowland: “April, for Rick Santorum, may indeed be the cruelest month. … He has a good chance of beating Mitt Romney in the southern state of Louisiana on Saturday, the last primary election in March. But after that, April brings votes in seven northern states and the District of Columbia that award a combined 329 delegates. Romney is favored in most with the exception of Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania and perhaps Wisconsin. If Romney performs strongly and the delegate math increasingly favors the front-runner, Santorum will face increasing calls to stand down from his challenge by the end of the month.”

The Washington Post’s Tumulty on Santorum: “[T]the very qualities that made him a contender are turning into problems, as he is more frequently being tripped up by saying what is on his mind and by sometimes-errant tactical instincts. His candid comments and unconventional moves were badges of authenticity in the early contests, but they now raise doubts about Santorum’s capacity to be his party’s standard-bearer in the general election. And they have hampered Santorum’s ability to capi­tal­ize on opportunities to narrow the gap with Mitt Romney, particularly in large states with diverse electorates.”

The New York Daily News: “It looks like Rick Santorum may have a ‘Jeremiah Wright’ of his own. The Republican presidential candidate is coming under the microscope after he attended a Louisiana church service this week where the pastor suggested non-Christians should ‘get out’ of America.

Crossroads is following President Obama with ads in New Mexico, Las Vegas, and Ohio.

“President Obama will not mark the two-year anniversary of his signing of the healthcare law — which takes place days before the Supreme Court offers a decision on the constitutionality of his signature legislative achievement,” The Hill writes. “Senior administration officials said on Tuesday that Obama will not be offering a vigorous public defense of the law, holding events or even making public remarks in the lead-up to the Supreme Court case.”

ARIZONA: “A bill that would let more Arizona employers drop coverage for birth control drugs stalled Monday in the state Senate because of increasing opposition from women who feared they would have to reveal private health information to employers,” the New York Daily News writes.

VIRGINIA: A Quinnipiac poll shows a majority of voters still approve of the job Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (and veepstakes contender) is doing by a 53%-42% margin, but that represents a 25-point shift from last month, when it was 58%-24%. The drop for McDonnell is a shift by women. They gave him a 49%-34% approval this month, down from 54%-25% last month.

The state legislature is under water with just a 38%-47% approval. Quinnipiac writes, “Virginia voters disagree 52 - 41 percent with a new law that requires women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound examination at least 24 hours before the procedure. Voters say 72 - 21 percent that government should not make laws which try to convince women seeking an abortion to change their minds.  Voters also prefer 53 - 40 percent Virginia's old law which limited an individual's handgun purchases to one per month, over the new law which has no limits.”

A freshman congressman unseated a 10-term veteran colleague in a bitter Republican primary in a redrawn Illinois district. 

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R) unseated longtime Rep. Don Manzullo in Illinois's redrawn 16th congressional district. The Associated Press called the race for Kinzinger on Tuesday evening. 

AP, file

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, right, unseated longtime Rep. Don Manzullo, left, in a bitter Republican primary.

The Kinzinger-Manzullo battle was just one of several districts forming the undercard of the day's presidential primary battle between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. (Romney won that race handily.)

But none of those contests were as bitter or high-profile, though, as the battle between the veteran Manzullo and Kinzinger, a 34-year-old Air Force veteran and deputy whip in the House who is seen as a potential rising star in the GOP.

The two Republicans had been drawn into a shared district by Democrats in the state legislature. The new 16th district had been seen as marginally favorable to Manzullo. 

The race had become a generational battle, and took on higher significance after a somewhat unusual endorsement by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, whose super PAC spent $50,000 on advertising against Manzullo.

Cantor’s decision to endorse added a new dimension of bitterness to the primary, prompting Manzullo to ask for the Virginia congressman’s resignation as majority leader.

Democratic leaders were more willing to get involved in another intramural scrape between Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., and former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, who was swept out of office by the Republican wave in 2010 after only a single term in office.

Jackson won the contest easily, and the AP called the race for him Tuesday evening.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,  traveled to Chicago earlier this month to endorse Jackson, who was facing the toughest primary battle of his career from Halvorson. Jackson has served in Congress since 1995 and is the son of the civil rights icon who shares the same name. 

But Jackson has also been forced to address allegations that he or an associate was engaged in an effort to raise campaign contributions for then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, in exchange for an appointment to Obama’s old Senate seat in 2008. Blagojevich was eventually convicted and sent to jail on corruption charges; the House Ethics Committee continues to investigate Jackson. 

Another Democratic favorite with ties to the Obama administration won a primary battle in her bid to challenge firebrand freshman GOP Rep. Joe Walsh in November. 

Tammy Duckworth, a disabled Iraq war veteran who served in the Obama administration as an official in the Department of Veterans Affairs, prevailed over opponent Raja Krishnamoorthi, according to the Associated Press. 

Duckworth, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006, enjoyed the support of top Democrats including David Axelrod, the Chicago-based senior strategist to President Obama. She'll face Walsh this fall in a new 8th district redrawn in Democrats' favor.

Liberals also suffered a disappointing loss, too, in a Democratic primary in Illinois’s 10th congressional district. Liberal advocacy groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee have raised money to promote candidate Ilya Sheyman over businessman Brad Schneider, a more moderate candidate favored by the establishment. 

Schneider was able to hold off Sheyman, though, in the battle to take on freshman Republican Rep. Bob Dold in a competitive suburban Chicago district.

GETTYSBURG, PA -- A senior adviser to Rick Santorum's presidential campaign said on Tuesday that the primary season had not yet reached halftime and and sought to downplay the importance of tonight's Illinois primary.

John Brabender, Santorum's senior strategist, deflected questions about the former Pennsylvania senator's performance in the Land of Lincoln, instead focusing on recent electoral successes.

"We had a pretty good last week where we won Kansas and Alabama and Mississippi. And now we'll see if Mitt Romney can finally win one that's in the heart of America, if you will," he said. "He's had a little trouble doing that in the last few weeks."

Brabender -- who made these comments before the networks called Illinois for Romney -- acknowledged that they do not feel like they have a shot at competing with Romney to win the state. He said, "Whoever wins the state doesn't matter as much as who wins the different congressional delegates, so that's how we'll be keeping score tonight."

But the longtime Santorum adviser also made clear that a loss would not slow down the campaign.

"We're not even at halftime yet. I think we have to have two more states to get to the half-way point roughly," said Brabender. "And so, you know, we'll get through tonight."

A Democratic aide on Capitol Hill has confirmed to NBC News that Democrats were notified that President Obama will announce that his administration will hasten the permit process for the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline during his visit to Cushing, Okla., Thursday.

A White House official would not confirm the reports and would only say, "On Thursday the President will reiterate his administration’s commitment to expediting the construction of a pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf of Mexico, relieving a bottleneck of oil and bringing domestic resources to market."

But Republicans were quick to lash out. Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said: "This is like a governor personally issuing a fishing license...There is only a minor, routine permit needed for this leg of the project. Only a desperate administration would inject the President of the United States into this trivial matter. The President’s attempt to take credit for a pipeline he blocked and personally lobbied Congress against is staggering in its dis-ingenuousness. This portion of the pipeline is being built in spite of the President, not because of him.’”

CNN first broke the news this evening.

In January, Republicans attached the Keystone XL Oil pipeline into legislation that would extend the payroll tax cut. The Obama administration denied the permit for the pipeline (which would extend from Canada to the Gulf Coast) saying there wasn't time to conduct an environmental review.

In February, TransCanada, the company behind Keystone, announced plans to build the southern portion of the pipeline which does not require the same type of presidential permit because it does not cross a border.

The issue has been a political lightning rod with Republicans accusing the president of stifling job growth by not approving the project, and environmentalists protesting the plan which they fear will harm the environment.

On Wednesday, the president will begin a two-day, four-state trip during which he will tout his "all of the above" energy policy. For weeks, Obama has defended his energy policy amid criticism from Republicans who have blamed him for high gas prices.

CHICAGO -- A report released today by the Federal Election Commission shows that pro-Romney Super PAC Restore our Future raised $6.4 million from just 97 donors in the month of February, while spending nearly twice that amount -- mostly on negative advertisements and mail targeting Romney's GOP rivals.
 
In total, the group spent $12.2 million last month, when seven nominating contests were held, including an expensive, tightly-fought battle in Michigan.

According to the FEC filing, Restore our Future ended the month with more than $10 million remaining cash on hand.
 
The largest single donor to the PAC in February was Texas homebuilder Bob Perry, who wrote Restore our Future a single $3-million check. Perry has given millions to Republican candidates and PACs like the Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads. Perry was also a primary financial backer behind the "Swiftboat Veterans for Truth" in 2004.
 
This fall, Perry wrote a $100,000 check to the Super PAC supporting his home state governor, Rick Perry, before switching his allegiance to Romney. FEC documents show he wrote a $500,000 check to Restore our Future in December.
 
And while the report shows Restore our Future is financed largely by large donations like Perry's, several small donors stand out. Two separate payday loan and check cashing companies, Advance America and Amscot, each made five-figure donations.
 
James Walkley of Colorado, who lists his occupation as "unemployed" wrote the group a $250 check.

The smallest donation came from a man named Richard Castalso of Lynnwood, Washington, who donated just $10 dollars on Feb. 6.

NBC News today asked House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) this question after he unveiled his budget plan that cuts trillions in spending: Will the eventual GOP nominee support it?

Ryan's answer: “Absolutely. I'm confident saying it.”
 
He added, “Whoever our nominee is going to be owes the country that choice of two futures. We're helping them put this together. And each of these people running for president have all given their various ideas on reforms, some that perfectly jive -- are consistent with what we're proposing here.”
 
In May of 2011, Democrat Kathy Hochul won a special election in a conservative leaning district right outside of Buffalo, NY. Her path to victory was an all-out assault on Ryan's budget -- specifically its overhaul of Medicare. Signs that read, “Save Medicare Vote Democratic!” were plastered all around the district. Hochul’s upset victory and gain of a GOP seat galvanized Democrats. They saw running against Ryan’s budget as the key to winning over seniors, a group that had largely left them in the 2010 midterm elections.
 
Around that time, Ryan’s budget, which had passed the House 235-193 on a largely party line vote, garnered some criticism from GOP presidential nominees. In May on "Meet the Press," Newt Gingrich called the Ryan budget “right-wing social engineering”; Gingrich has since backtracked and now supports it including the new one unveiled today.
 
Front-runner Mitt Romney embraced Ryan's budget today, with the campaign releasing this statement from the candidate: 

"I applaud House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and his colleagues for taking a bold step toward putting our nation back on the track to fiscal sanity and robust economic growth."

About two hours before polling places close, the first waves of exit poll data show that Illinois is vastly different -- when it comes to religion, ideology, and income status -- than what we saw last week in Alabama and Mississippi.

And that's potentially very good news for Mitt Romney, who has been favored to win this contest.

According to the exit poll so far, just four in 10 GOP primary voters in Illinois describe themselves as evangelical Christians -- versus eight in 10 who said that in Alabama and Mississippi. That's a huge shift.

In addition in Illinois, 31% say they are "very conservative" -- compared with 42% who said that in Mississippi and 36% in Alabama.

What's more, 37% of Republican primary voters in Illinois say their total family income exceeds $100,000. But just 23% in Alabama and 26% in Mississippi said that.

As Rick Santorum tries to gain ground on Mitt Romney in the race for Republican delegates, Santorum’s late start in states other than Iowa continues to make it hard for him to compete for every potential delegate.

Santorum will not compete for delegates in four of Illinois’ 18 congressional districts, meaning he is only eligible to win 44 of the state’s 54 delegates at stake tonight.

But it could have been even worse.

Copies of Santorum delegate petitions provided to NBC News by the Illinois State Board of Elections also show that in 10 other districts, Santorum did not have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. (In Illinois, a GOP candidate needs three people -- in most districts -- willing to be a delegate, plus 600 signatures to get on the ballot.)

The only way, however, for a candidate to be deemed ineligible is for a campaign to contest the signatures. In other words, the state is not going to check them unless a campaign officially asks it to do so.

The Romney campaign initially did challenge Santorum’s petitions in January, but dropped it after the Santorum campaign agreed to drop similar contests of Romney delegates, according to Jon Zahm, Santorum’s Illinois state director.

Santorum's campaign said it challenged the Romney delegates, because the petitions were notarized in Massachusetts, according to Zahm. (It's unclear, however, if that's the case or if notarizing out of state would have made the petitions invalid.)

While candidates run in a non-binding statewide primary in Illinois, the delegates run individually in congressional districts with their pledged presidential candidate printed next to their name. According to Illinois election law, each delegate must submit a petition to the State Board of Elections with at least 600 signatures in order to run.

The copies of Santorum’s petitions reveal he had fewer than 600 signatures in districts one, two, three, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, and 18. In seven of those districts, the petitions had fewer than half the required signatures.

Illinois is not the first state where a missed filing deadline has caused Santorum to lose out on delegates. On Super Tuesday, the Santorum campaign failed to meet filing deadlines in Ohio and Virginia causing the former Pennsylvania senator to forego competing for at least 55 delegates. Early next month, Santorum also failed to get on the ballot in the District of Columbia, where he will forego another 16 delegates in the district’s April 3 primary.

The delegate problems come in the context of a campaign where Santorum already faces a large delegate deficit. Based on delegates allotted by NBC News, Mitt Romney has 444 delegates, more than twice Santorum’s count of 183. (The state of Wyoming today switched one more delegate from Santorum to Romney.)

Santorum would have to significantly outperform his results so far in order to catch Romney and even approach getting the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

Ballot difficulties

It is not easy to meet ballot access requirements in many states, and Illinois is only the latest example the Santorum campaign has seen of getting a late start in launching a national campaign. 

The Santorum campaign did not start its Illinois effort in earnest until late December, according to Zahm, and had only a couple of weeks to get on the state’s primary ballot. In fact, given the late start and lack of a large paid staff in Illinois, it is a testament to Santorum’s volunteers in the state that he is on the ballot at all.

“We started Dec. 23rd,” says Zahm. “We had a two-week campaign to get on the ballot.”

From there, the Santorum campaign faced significant difficulty. With candidates’ delegates running as individuals in each congressional district, the Santorum campaign faced an uphill battle gathering enough signatures for their slates of delegates in such a short amount of time.

In other words, it’s not enough getting the candidate on the statewide ballot; the campaign had to work hard to identify people who would run as delegates and then get hundreds of Illinois Republicans to sign their petitions.

Santorum did not even submit delegate slates, any signatures at all, in the fourth, fifth, and seventh congressional districts -- and a human error resulted in the campaign failing to get on the ballot in the state’s 13th district as well.

As campaign volunteers rushed to get all of the petitions submitted to the State Board of Elections by the 5:00 pm CT deadline on Friday, Jan. 5, volunteers left one of the petition envelopes unopened, and it was mistakenly thrown away. By the time the campaign tried to rectify the mistake with the elections office, the deadline had already passed and Santorum delegates could not get on the ballot.

Contested delegates

Suspecting the Santorum campaign did not have enough signatures, the Romney campaign challenged the petitions of Santorum delegates in the 10 congressional districts where copies of the petitions show Santorum did not, in fact, have enough signatures.

In response, Zahm counter-challenged and filed contests against the Romney delegates, arguing the Romney delegate petitions were notarized by a notary in Massachusetts, which made the petitions invalid. Ultimately, both sides dropped their contests.

“I let the Romney people know I was going after them on that,” Zahm said. “They eventually came to me and asked me to withdraw that complaint as long as they withdrew theirs.”

Romney state chairman Dan Rutherford, also Illinois treasurer, was not available to comment, but Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul simply said the campaign decided not to force Santorum’s delegates off the ballot.

“Senator Santorum outright failed to qualify to be on the ballot in four congressional districts in Illinois,” said Saul in an email to NBC News. “However, in other districts where he fell short, it would have been incumbent on us or another campaign to force him off the ballot.  We decided against doing that.”

Saul blamed Santorum’s ballot problems on his own campaign.

“All of Sen. Santorum’s ballot-access problems have been a result of his own organizational failures,” Saul continued.

Santorum’s path ahead
The Santorum campaign acknowledges it will be difficult for any campaign to get to 1,144 delegates with four candidates in the race but remains confident they can still make inroads in the delegate race. In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Santorum adviser John Yob, brought on by the campaign as a delegate strategist, said there is a path for the former Pennsylvania senator to get to 1,144.

According to Yob, the campaign rests its delegate strategy on over-performing in May contests like Arkansas, Kentucky, and Texas and then picking up delegates in states like Iowa and Minnesota, which held caucuses earlier, but do not actually bind delegates until county and state conventions in April and May.

As for the organizational deficiencies, Santorum himself said the campaign struggled with the arcane rules of states with early deadlines, but that the organization now is in good shape.

“It’s amazing that we’re on the ballots we are – given how difficult these rules are from state to state and how different they are and the fact that we used volunteers to get this done in December,” Santorum contended on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Monday. “Since that time, of course, we’ve been fine. We’re getting on the ballots and, of course, as you’ve seen, our organization is pretty darn good.”

As for tonight’s primary in Illinois, Zahm thinks Santorum can still make a good showing despite starting at an initial delegate disadvantage.

“There’s 14 districts we’re competing in,” Zahm said. “My campaign plan calls for winning 10 of them. If we win 10, we’ll win 10 out of 18 and we’ll have a majority.”

Issues important to women have been front and center on the national stage -- and in Virginia over the past couple of months with talk of birth control, the kinds of ultrasounds women would be required to get, and personhood amendments.

And a poll out Tuesday morning shows women are fueling President Obama’s increased lead in the critical battleground.

The president is now up by eight points, 50-42 percent, over Mitt Romney in the state that could be key to whether Obama will be back for another four years in the White House, according to a Quinnipiac poll.

That’s up four points from a month ago and represents a 10-point shift from December, when Romney led 44-42 percent.

Even if Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is added to the ticket, the president still holds a commanding 50-43 percent lead.

"President Barack Obama has opened up some daylight in Virginia against his Republican challengers," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in a press release.

The difference has been women. Obama leads Romney with women, 52-39 percent. In December, Romney led with them 45-43 percent, a whopping 15-point change.

The Obama campaign has made a concerted effort to reach out to women, using the benefits of the new health-care law, for example, in mailers in swing states.

The president’s approval rating in the state is 49-47 percent, the first time he has been a net-positive since Quinnipiac started polling Virginia for this cycle last June.  Again, that’s driven by women, who approve of the president 52-43%.

With men and independents, though, the president is still a net-negative.

Kaine leads Allen in Senate race

The race for the U.S. Senate continues to be neck and neck, with former Gov. Tim Kaine leading former Sen. and Gov. George Allen by a narrow, 47-44 percent. But that’s a five-point shift from December, when Allen led 44%-42%.

Women are also backing Kaine (49-40percent) by a wider margin than men (43-46 percent). But not by quite as wide a margin as Obama.

And Kaine may have some room for improvement with black voters. African American backed Obama over Romney 94-5 percent. Kaine got 83-6 percent, so more are undecided. But, as the election nears, Kaine stands to benefit from the president’s efforts in the state, especially with black voters when he’s at the top of the ticket.

Virginia is a crucial Senate toss-up race that could determine control of the upper chamber. The open seat is currently held by retiring Democrat Jim Webb. Republicans need to take over three seats if President Obama loses reelection to win control, four if he wins.