Open Thread

Three states voted yesterday in the GOP presidential primary with Rick Santorum winning the states of Alabama and Mississippi and Mitt Romney winning Hawaii. Things are more complicated than that, however, due to the fact that delegates to the RNC weren't given out on a winner-take-all basis. Thanks to his relatively close finishes in the two states won by Santorum and an additional victory in American Samoa, Mitt Romney actually came away with the most delegates last night. While Santorum and Romney did well, last night was a tough one for Newt Gingrich, who failed to win the popular vote in any of the contests. More below the break from the Washington Times:

Of all political groups, government employee unions have perhaps the greatest interest in growing government and staving off any political reforms. Many Republicans are unaware of this truth, but now it is New York Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo who is finding this out first-hand as he tries to restructure the awful mess that is the state's employee pension liability system. There are several reforms the greedy union bosses are fighting but the one they're most against is moving employees away from a defined benefit pension plan to the 401(k) plans that most Americans have. For the union 1 percenters, that is outrageous:

Today's starter topic of discussion is "Super Tuesday," a day when many states hold their primary elections simultaneously. In the past, the large number of primaries has been important in presidential campaigns. Not this year, according to Washington Times columnist Joseph Curl:

Department of Energy Secretary Stephen Chu has admitted something that conservatives have long suspected about the Obama Administration: It doesn't really care about the skyrocketing cost of energy.

In remarks to a congressional committee, Chu stated that "the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy" when asked if lowering gas prices was the Administration's top goal:

Two big topics of discussion that arose yesterday: Michigan and Arizona both delivered victories to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney over his opponents. Romney swept Arizona with 47 percent of the vote compared to 27 percent for Rick Santorum. In Michigan, things were much closer with the former governor taking the state 41 to 38 percent. Romney scored his Michigan win despite  slightly higher than normal participation from Democrats who crossed over to vote for Santorum, a point of contention between the two campaigns in recent days.

The other hot topic for today is the announcement from Republican senator Olympia Snowe that she will retire and rather than seek reelection in her state of Maine. Do you think this will harm the GOP's chances for taking back the Senate?

While it is unfortunate to have large numbers of people in positions of political power have no regard for the Constitution in their policymaking duties, it is at least refreshing to see one of them, in this case, Rep. Kathy Hochul (D-NY), admit that she and other Obamacare supporters are "not looking at the Constitution" when it comes to the law's individual mandate for healthcare.

After several welcome weeks off from televised debates, the GOPers are tangling again tonight on CNN. If you're watching, please join us for a live chat.

As with all NB live events, you are expected to abide by the NewsBusters terms of service. Vulgarity and general obnoxiousness will get you kicked from the chat room. You will need a Flash-enabled browser to participate.

Update: The debate has ended and so has the chat. Please use this post as an open thread.

Today's starter topic: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear another case on an important issue: racial and gender quotas often known as "affirmative action." This is one of several big issues before the court:

There have been some different numbers thrown about referring to President Obama's chances for being reelected based upon various economic indicators. If one looks at consumer spending an unemployment, the economy hasn't improved enough to assure an Obama win:

Since the beginning of the debate over Obamacare began, the left has taken to alternatively calling the unconstitutional "individual mandate" provision of the law a tax. In its briefs to the Supreme Court defending the law, the Administration has insisted that the penalty levvied against people who refuse to purchase medical insurance is a tax. Earlier this week, however, the Administration's top budget official was at great pains to avoid calling the mandate a tax:

With all the focus on Newt Gingrich versus Mitt Romney of late, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum not only reminded everyone of his presence once again, he did so in a sweep--taking caucus victories yesterday in the important states of Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri. He was not awarded any delegates for these victories, however, so the question for today is, how much do Santorum's triumphs count? A lot, not much, or somewhere in between?

The publishing of Peter Schweizer's Throw Them All Out seems to have inspired some of the editors and writers at the Washington Post who published this week an exposé on how many members of Congress are directing money in federal earmarks to projects that have some direct connection to themselves. It's not necessarily indicative of corruption but the data is fascinating to take a look at. From the Post's summary of its findings:

Mitt Romney wins big tonight in Florida. Use this thread to catch media bias reports on the night or make your own comments.