FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
There's growing concern among Republicans that Mitt Romney can't deliver. If he loses his home state of Michigan next week, expect those whispers to become shouts.
Rick Santorum has opened a 10-percentage point lead over Romney in one national poll - his largest lead ever. Gallup's latest daily tracking poll shows Santorum leading Romney 36% to 26%. Santorum is also leading in Michigan, where Romney's father was governor, and in the key swing state of Ohio.
And all the money in the world doesn't seem to matter. The Romney campaign spent nearly $19 million last month. The super PAC supporting him spent another $14 million, and he's still fighting off the likes of Rick Santorum. What's more, Romney spent nearly three times what he brought in last month.
One of the few things still working in Romney's favor is electability. A USA Today/Gallup Poll shows Americans think Romney is nearly twice as likely as Santorum to beat President Obama.
Meanwhile, some senior Republicans are so nervous about the state of the race that they are circulating a so-called Plan B: a scenario where another candidate - who's not even in the race yet - wins the nomination and faces off against Obama.
Some of the names out there include the usual suspects: Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
While none of them seems all that interested, there's always Sarah Palin. The half-term dropout governor of Alaska says that if there were a brokered convention, she'd "do whatever I could to help." That prospect should help Republicans sleep well at night.
Here’s my question to you: How close is Mitt Romney to becoming toast?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Rick Santorum says he can win swing states, but he lost a third Senate term in his own Pennsylvania by a whopping 18-point margin.
A stunning defeat for a two-term incumbent.
Santorum lost almost every region in Pennsylvania and almost every demographic group - including blue collar workers.
Supporters say Santorum lost the 2006 race due to a tough political climate for Republicans: President George W. Bush was unpopular, as was the Iraq war.
But there was more than that to Santorum's landslide loss - a lot more.
And if Mitt Romney wants to defeat Rick Santorum - who is the current flavor of the month in the polls - all he has to do is read some of this stuff aloud at campaign stops:
In 2006, Santorum faced charges of hypocrisy for living in Virginia with his family while a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and allowing a Pennsylvania school to pay for his children's online education.
He blamed "radical feminists" for forcing women to work and questioned the need for two-working-parent households. Try explaining that to Americans struggling to make ends meet.
Santorum has compared homosexuality to incest and polygamy and suggested that Boston liberals were to blame for the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. Can you spell wacko?
Santorum also inserted himself into the Terri Schiavo case - where some members of the government thought it was their job, not the family's, to decide if a brain-damaged woman should have her feeding tube removed. It was a disgrace.
Here’s my question to you: Does Rick Santorum have electability issues if he lost his Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat by 18 points?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Mitt Romney grew up in Michigan. his father, George Romney, was the president of American Motors and later the governor.
Two weeks from today, there's a very real chance Romney could lose the Republican primary in his home state.
Now, it's one thing to lose any of the other 49 states, but it's another thing entirely to lose your home state where your dad was governor.
Michigan is a state especially hard-hit by the recession and chronic unemployment. We came within an eyelash of losing the domestic auto industry, which was born and almost died in Detroit.
So if there's ever a place where a wealthy Republican who seems out-of-touch with the common man might have a problem, it's Michigan - and he's got a problem there.
Polls show Romney trailing Rick Santorum - 33% to 27%.
In an attempt to connect with Michigan voters, Romney is out with an op-ed piece in today's Detroit news. In it, he calls himself a "son of Detroit" and says that American cars "got in my bones early."
He also defends an op-ed piece he wrote back in 2008 called Let Detroit go Bankrupt, in which he suggested managed bankruptcy would have been preferable to a bailout of America's car companies. Maybe so, but without the bailout many of the people Romney is looking for support from today probably wouldn't even be around.
Romney insists things in Detroit got worse after President Obama's intervention. He writes the government should sell off its auto stock - and turn that money over to the taxpayers.
Here’s my question to you: How big a deal would it be if Mitt Romney loses his home state of Michigan?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Mitt Romney's not selling what conservatives want to buy.
His focus on jobs and the economy just isn't connecting with the right wing of the GOP.
Peter Beinart writes in The Daily Beast that the Republican base is more fired up about how to keep government from destroying liberty than how to use government to grow the economy.
Yes, conservatives see shrinking government and boosting the economy as related, but their focus is on greater freedom.
It helps explain the success of many of the GOP candidates who have caught fire this time around - from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, and currently Rick Santorum.
All of them have described the 2012 election on some level as a struggle between government tyranny and individual freedom.
Chances are in November, more Americans will want to hear about how the next president can fix the economy and create jobs - which would play into Romney's strengths.
But for now he needs to figure out how to make conservatives like him.
And, here's a hint: His speech at the Conservative Politcal Action Conference is not the answer. In it, Romney described himself as a "severely conservative Republican governor." That's just awful.
Severely conservative?
It once again highlighted his problems on the right.
But Romney did get some good news over the weekend. After the Santorum sweep last Tuesday, Romney narrowly defeated Ron Paul to win the Maine caucuses, and he won the straw poll vote at CPAC.
And there's this: Should Romney become the nominee, conservatives could fall into line faster if they think it means defeating President Obama.
Here’s my question to you: Why can't Mitt Romney catch fire with conservatives?
Tune in to the Situation Room at 4pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
And, we love to know where you’re writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment.
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
160 million Americans could see their paychecks shrink at the end of the month - if Congress doesn't strike a deal on the payroll tax cut. This is the same cut they extended for only two months at the end of December, and those two months are just about up.
The payroll tax cut reduces how much many Americans pay into Social Security on their first $110,000 in wages.
Instead of paying in 6.2%, they've been paying 4.2% for the past year and two months.
For someone making $50,000, this tax cut is worth almost $1,000 per year. Significant money. Of course it's money we don't have, but that's never stopped the government before.
Just this afternoon, Congress inched one step closer to making a deal.
House Republicans now say they're willing to extend the payroll tax cut for the rest of this year without offsetting it with spending cuts elsewhere - something they weren't willing to do last week.
Can you tell it's an election year?
Republican leaders also say the measure could be voted on as soon as this week.
Lawmakers only have a little over two weeks to go before February 29, and they're scheduled to go on recess starting next week. They certainly deserve some more time off since they get so much done while they're in Washington.
Meanwhile the deadline could come even sooner, as many employers need to cut their first March-dated paychecks well before the last day of February. If Congress doesn't make a deal by the middle of this week, payroll processors will have to change their systems to reflect the higher tax rate.
Here’s my question to you: Should the payroll tax cut be extended yet again?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
As Syria's brutal crackdown intensifies it seems increasingly likely that there could be some sort of military action.
The United Nations is calling for the international community to protect the Syrian population.
One opposition group reports that government forces killed more than 130 civilians in Syria today - most of them in the city of Homs.
There are reports of bomb explosions every few minutes; of wounded people bleeding to death in the streets because they can't get help; and of snipers picking off civilians who are running for cover.
Doctors inside Syria say government forces are targeting hospitals, medical staff and patients.
Meanwhile the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command have started reviewing military options.
One senior official calls it a "scoping exercise" to see what's possible - given all our other military commitments in the region.
It's not unusual for the Pentagon to do such a planning exercise - so they have options ready if the president wants them.
They're likely considering everything from humanitarian relief to support for opposition groups. Senior officials tell CNN that outright military strikes are unlikely.
Some have suggested setting up a "humanitarian corridor" or safe haven for civilians. That could require the use of troops.
Others, including senator John McCain, have said the U.S. should consider all options "including arming the opposition."
The State Department says while they never take anything off the table, they don't think sending more arms into Syria is the answer.
It's believed that any military action in Syria would be riskier and more complicated than the Libyan mission. And a lot of people don't think the U.S. should have gotten involved in that.
Here’s my question to you: If there is military action against Syria, should the U.S. be involved?
Tune in to the Situation Room at 4pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
And, we love to know where you’re writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment.
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