March 31

We have reached the point in year, where the Republican nomination seems to have produced a foregone conclusion and with the fall campaign still a bit off, other news stories have taken national precedent in the past week. Those include the tragic story from Florida involving the shooting death of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman and the racial powderkeg that many feel could explode due to it. Significant attention was also directed towards the Supreme Court this past week as the challenge against Obamacare was heard. Conventional wisdom was that the Administration fared very poorly at the Court and that they should prepare to see the most significant legislation enacted under Barack Obama struck down as unconstitutional in the next few months. The whole court challenge and debate over the "individual mandate" will certainly continue to be a major point of discussion in a general election campaign between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, who backed such a concept on a statewide level when he was Governor.

For Romney, it was another week of increasing inevitability as the soon to be face of the current Republican Party was formally endorsed by GOP stars of the past, including former President George H.W. Bush, as well as those who are seen of the stars of the future, including Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, both of whom are often discussed as potential Romney running-mates.

This coming Tuesday is expected to be another one of victory for the Romney campaign, certainly in the District of Columbia and Maryland, but also increasingly so in Wisconsin , where polls now indicate he could take America's Dairyland by double digits.

Romney's march towards the nomination has certainly now been noticed by opponent Newt Gingrich, who has seen to dramatically alter his tone in the past week. News has come out that Gingrich and Romney had a private meeting not long ago and while we may not know exactly what was discussed, it seems as if Gingrich, who was once waging thermonuclear rhetorical warfare on Romney has now scaled it back. In fact, Gingrich is now saying it is likely that Romney will eventually clinch the number of delegates needed, and while he is saying he is not prepared to exit the race, he is talking about a Romney win and the party unifying behind him as a foregone conclusion. In a way, that resembles the relationship between Mike Huckabee and John McCain in the latter stages of the last Republican primary. Gingrich has additionally laid off many key staffers and lost the financial backing of Sheldon Adelson, all signs that he has to now have seen the writing on the wall.

Rick Santorum continues to press forward though as Romney's chief opponent, both nationally and in the states but if he fails to win a contest on Tuesday, speculation will continue to mount about his future viability in the race, and whether he wants to trudge on towards the potential of an embarrassing home state of Pennsylvania, or if he thinks his political future might be better served by a quicker exit.