1. An incarcerated felon got 40 percent of the vote against the sitting president of the United States in the West Virginia Democratic primary. Barack Obama has trouble in coal country.
2. There was huge turnout in Wisconsin’s barely contested Republican primary for governor. Democratic nominee Tom Barrett has his work cut out for him against Scott Walker.
3. Barrett’s opponent Kathleen Falk actually had stronger union support, but they are getting on board now.
4. Despite his recent success in state GOP conventions, Ron Paul didn’t do any better than Newt Gingrich in consolidating the remaining anti-Romney vote in last night’s primaries. He even fell into third place in West Virginia. But Paul didn’t do very much in any of those states either. His campaign continues to deemphasize primaries as Mitt Romney is starting to roll up landslide victories.
5. Gingrich nevertheless advises Romney to pursue Paul’s voters, tying them to the discontent seen in the European elections.
6. Pretty striking that Obama waits until the day after North Carolina’s Amendment One passes to contemplate — and these are still just rumors as I write this — coming out in support of same-sex marriage.
7. A lot of the people lamenting Richard Lugar’s defeat are treating bipartisanship as if it were an end in itself. TARP, Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, the Iraq war, and the country’s descent into debt were all in varying degrees bipartisan.
