A.B. Stoddard

One in six Americans believe the president is a Muslim, despite his repeated assertions that he is a Christian. And 36 percent of Americans do not believe Mormons are Christians. Pockets of the Deep South, where Obama is deeply unpopular, are home to some of the strongest anti-Mormon sentiment in the country. More than half the Republicans in Mississippi believe Mormonism is a cult. And you should hear what they say about President Obama.

Mitt Romney, who is running a risk-averse campaign with a real shot at winning the presidency, has chosen not to talk about his religion. So far, the Obama campaign has stayed away from the topic — this week, when Bill Maher called Mormonism a cult, senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said attacking Romney's religion was "not fair game."

1) Did the New York Times story on Joe Ricketts's supposed plans to attack President Obama's ties to his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright (which Ricketts now denies), help Republicans get Wright back in the spotlight? Or did the whole episode create another distraction for Obama from his record and afford his campaign an opportunity to attack extremists in the GOP?

2) Did House Speaker John Boehner's announcement on Tuesday that he would not agree to raise the debt ceiling again without a greater amount of spending cuts make House Republicans look like they are seriously concerned about the fiscal cliff we'll arrive at in December, when $8 trillion in tax cuts expire while spending cuts go into effect?

From journalists to Democrats to Republicans, many in Washington this week lamented the defeat of Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar in his GOP primary election Tuesday night — he is literally the embodiment of a time gone by. Known for his vast record of accomplishments in foreign and domestic policy, particularly in his pioneering work on securing nuclear weapons, Lugar was known for always striking the right tone and working with Democrats. The election wasn't even close. Lugar's opponent, Richard Mourdock, backed by the Tea Party, beat the 80-year-old, six-term incumbent by 20 points.

The race is on, and in a dead heat, as I described in my column this week. The focus for Mitt Romney is not only on shoring up support among conservatives who supported his rivals during the primary season, but on his pivot to a general-election electorate. Romney faces the greatest challenge appealing to female voters and Latinos, as polls currently show him far behind President Obama with both groups.

During the primary campaign, Romney used the issue of immigration to draw contrasts between himself and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, as well as with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.). Romney not only pledged to veto the DREAM Act, but said Arizona's new, controversial immigration law was a "model" for the nation. He also characterized Perry's support of in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants as "a magnet."

Since waste is the word of the week in Washington — along with "prostitute" and even "cookie" — let's put some taxpayer expenditures in context.

A junket in Vegas we all paid for, courtesy of the General Services Administration, is making headlines this week as Congress tried grilling GSA regional commissioner Jeffrey Neely about the lavish, $823,000 conference he arranged for GSA employees in 2010 that also included his wife and friends and turned out to be one of several trips he and his wife arranged on Uncle Sam's dime. Neely, whose emails told more than we need to know, pleaded the Fifth.

Pressure is mounting on former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) to leave the GOP race. Though some conservatives who have supported him have encouraged him to continue the fight, others are reconsidering, hoping an exit now could preserve his influence in the party later.

The same cannot be said for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). He says he knows he can't win. He doesn't even think Santorum can win the nomination, saying on Fox News Sunday that Mitt Romney is the most likely nominee. Gingrich admits his history-making, convention-busting plan to get to Tampa, divide the party and somehow end up the nominee is beyond a long shot. But he just won't leave. When asked by The Washington Post if there was anything that would cause him to exit the race, Gingrich replied, "Nothing."

Mitt Romney needs to shut down what could be an explosion in the GOP, should Rick Santorum defeat him in Tuesday's Illinois primary. Though it looks good, with Romney ahead in the polls and supported by many establishment Republicans in the state, Santorum has outperformed his polling before in state after state. A Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll puts Romney ahead by 4 points, within the margin of error.

No matter the outcome, Romney — of course — will remain ahead in the delegate count by far, claiming he retains an insurmountable lead. And Santorum, it should be noted, cannot win the delegate advantage in Illinois, as he is ineligible for 10 of the state’s 54 delegates. But he would be happy to win the popular vote there and defeat Romney in a big, blue state just one week after wins in Mississippi and Alabama.

Mitt Romney has said a win is a win. So two losses are two losses. It isn't so much that Rick Santorum won significant victories in Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday, but that Romney lost again. Sure, he won the delegate math again and is way ahead in the total count, as he won caucuses in American Samoa and Hawaii and split the Southern delegates with Santorum and Newt Gingrich. But often, the more you lose, well ... the more you might continue to lose.

Gingrich had warned Romney — after he tried talking "cheesy grits" instead of "cheese grits" — that if you don't understand grits, you probably don't understand the South.

By math or momentum, endorsements or establishment frustration, it is easy to finally measure Mitt Romney's advantages over his rivals at this critical moment in the campaign. While he isn't likely to win anywhere overwhelmingly on Super Tuesday, he will pile up an insurmountable delegate lead that will soon make him the nominee-to-be. That is, unless he loses Ohio and all hell breaks loose.

Short of a huge victory, there is no good road out of Michigan for Mitt Romney — and no quick resolution to the problems facing the GOP in November. Should Rick Santorum beat Romney in his home state, it is safe to say the former Massachusetts governor will face enormous challenges not only broadening his support and winning the nomination but convincing his nervous supporters and donors that he can hang on and win the nomination first and then in the fall.