The New Republic

Does Romney have it right on minimum wage?

“It’s well known that Mitt Romney is a shameless flip-flopper ready to shed any and all traces of his former moderation to win the GOP nomination. But this week we’ve seen an instance where Romney has been falsely accused of flip-flopping, yet Romney, hilariously, hasn’t protested, presumably because he has no particular interest in correcting the record.”

- Timothy Noah, Psst. Romney Still Supports Minimum Wage

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Why haven’t Romney’s rivals exploited his latest gaffe?

“Both Jonathan Chait and Jonathan Cohn today noted the utter incompetence of Mitt Romney’s GOP rivals when it comes to basic opposition research, as shown by their failure to dig up two 2009 statements in which Romney supported a national individual health insurance mandate. These statements are completely at odds with Romney’s claim throughout this campaign that he has never backed a national individual mandate, but rather simply thought it appropriate for the people of his own state. Yet Mssrs. Santorum, Gingrich et al apparently could not bother to dig up the statements, which were contained in two very obscure corners: a USA Today column and Meet the Press appearance.”

-Alec MacGillis, Just How Pathetic are Romney’s Opponents?

Read our Super Tuesday primer and know what’s at stake for today’s big vote. Also, read Jonathan Bernstein’s analysis on how caucuses affect the nominating process.

“Regardless of whether Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum comes out ahead in Ohio later today, Super Tuesday already promises to make at least one growing segment of America’s political class gleeful: caucus skeptics.”

-Jonathan Bernstein, Yes, Caucuses Are Unfair. No, We Shouldn’t Mind

What’s it like to attend the same church as Rick Santorum?

“Rick Santorum’s Catholic faith is an obvious centerpiece of his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, and it is rare for him to speak without referencing his religious beliefs. It is also rare, however, to hear him speak about his particular church, St. Catherine of Siena, which he and his family have belonged to for at least a decade. Even his 2005 manifesto on his personal faith and politics, It Takes a Family, did not mention the church. I was curious to learn more about it, so last Friday morning, I attended a 9 a.m. Mass there.”

- Molly Redden, Rick Santorum’s Virginia Church and Opus Dei

How did today’s GOP become the party of Jerry Falwell?

“Before Falwell, if liberals wanted to increase the minimum wage by one dollar and conservatives did not want to increase it at all, they could compromise and raise the minimum wage by fifty cents. Before Falwell, the American public’s ambivalence about abortion could find expression in the Hyde Amendment, which does not prohibit abortion but denies federal funds for the procedure. After Falwell, such compromises were seen not as part of the art of governance, but as a betrayal of first principles. After Falwell, conservatives could not entertain differences of opinion on many issues without being accused of political heresy.”

-Michael Sean Winters, “How the Ghost of Jerry Falwell Conquered the Republican Party”

Photo courtesy of The Huffington Post

Do you think the work of Bettina Inclan will attract Latino voters to the GOP come November?

“In late January, on the eve of the Florida primary, Bettina Inclán, the 32-year-old head of Hispanic outreach for the Republican National Committee (RNC), appeared on Fox News opposite progressive activist Simon Rosenberg to discuss the Latino vote. To say that the deck was stacked against Inclán in this fight would be an understatement.” - Molly Redden, Mission Impossible: Meet the Woman Tasked with Selling the GOP to Latinos

Mitt Romney’s new Spanish-language ad is replete with feel-good stock footage and is devoid of any mention of his stance on immigration.

“Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, looks into the camera and says: ‘Romney cree en nosotros’ (Romney believes in us). When the whole thing is over, the viewer is supposed to feel warm and fuzzy about Mitt—but instead, I was left asking: What about immigration?”

- Nathan Pippenger, “Why Romney’s First Spanish-Language Ad Won’t Make a Difference”

Is Romney really so deluded as to believe he can get the support of Hispanic voters by using the term “illegals” in debates and vowing to veto the DREAM Act?

Moderate Mitt?

Mitt Romney’s budget proposal states that the United States should find $500 billion in savings by 2016.

“So why don’t people recognize this proposal for the radical idea it is? One reason is that the Romney plan may be less severe than the ones other Republican presidential candidates have put forward. Santorum and Perry, for example, want to cap spending at 18 percent of GDP, while enacting larger tax cuts that and balanced budget requirements that would likely require even more drastic spending cuts.”

- Jonathan Cohn, “Moderate Mitt? Have You Looked at His Budget?”

Are these proposed cuts to non-defense spending more radical than Mitt Romney would like voters to think?

Could Rick Santorum cost Romney the presidency?

“Last night we re-learned an important lesson from 2008: In Iowa, the Republican candidate with momentum way exceeds his final poll numbers; the Republican candidate named Mitt Romney … doesn’t.”

- Noam Scheiber “How Rick Santorum Could Cost Romney the Presidency”

With the media turning now to dwell on Romney’s vulnerabilities, the question for Rick Santorum is whether he’s savvy enough to capitalize on his post-Iowa opportunities.

Can he stay sunny and positive while Newt (and, in New Hampshire, Jon Huntsman) rough Romney up?

The New Hampshire primary is only a week away. Be sure to follow continued coverage of the GOP campaign on TNR’s campaign blog, the Stump and on Twitter @TNR.

Photo courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor.

Is Mitt Romney poised for victory in Iowa?

“Romney’s nomination, if it indeed occurs, will be mainly attributable to a demolition derby similar to, and perhaps even weirder than, the one that haphazardly produced John McCain’s nomination in 2008. Romney’s own nomination may now be approaching inevitability, but let’s not forget that it was once very much preventable.”

-Ed Kilgore, “The Many Accidents That Produced Romney’s ‘Inevitable’ Nomination”

For more Iowa caucus coverage, read TNR Senior Editor Alec MacGillis’s dispatches from the Hawkeye State on TNR’s campaign blog the Stump, and be sure to check out his most recent blog posts on Rick Perry’s Texas-sized collapse and Mitt Romney’s awkward campaign stylings.

Photo courtesy of Politico.