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    • What to watch for Thursday in politics

      Thursday is another day of stumping and fundraising in the GOP presidential nomination race.

      Rick Santorum is staying in Puerto Rico for a second day. On Wednesday, he warmed up voters there by telling them they must declare English their only official language to achieve statehood. Puerto Rico's caucuses are Sunday.

      Newt Gingrich will be in Illinois, which has a primary on Tuesday, and his wife, Callista, will be there with him. He was in Illinois on Wednesday, too, and not sounding very upbeat. He expressed frustration with the news media and his own party failing to appreciate his "large ideas." Maybe Thursday will be a better day.

      Ron Paul will be in Missouri, which will hold caucuses on Saturday, and Mitt Romney will attend  fundraisers in New York before traveling to Puerto Rico on Friday. Romney had a fundraiser Wednesday at the Waldorf Astoria and about 150 Occupy Wall Street protesters greeted him.

      President Obama heads to Largo, Md., to deliver remarks on American energy, and

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    • Click photo to view more images. (AP/Charles Dharapak)Click photo to view more images. (AP/Charles Dharapak)Stars from "Downton Abbey," "The Wire," and "Homeland" will be there. Hillary Clinton is coming solo. So are George Clooney and Virgin Atlantic chief Richard Branson. Anna Wintour, widely thought to be the inspiration for "The Devil Wears Prada," made the guest list. So did investor Warren "The Oracle of Omaha" Buffett. And an Ohio mom who wrote to President Barack Obama about being the parent of four children who serve in the military.

      The White House on Wednesday released the list of guests scheduled to join Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the state dinner in honor of visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha.

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    • (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

      It is easy to imagine the private gnashing of teeth and the rending of garments among Republican Party elites. By losing Alabama and Mississippi, Mitt Romney proved again that he is an establishment candidate with a strange power to anesthetize grassroots enthusiasm. The soaring Rick Santorum boasts a strange power to reopen seemingly settled 1950s moral disputes. Any day now, Santorum may turn his sights on such national crises as teenage petting. Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich has been reduced to the 2012 equivalent of an old-time favorite son sticking around in case the Tampa convention needs a third choice on the seventh ballot. As for Ron Paul, let's just politely say that it is more than a media conspiracy that is keeping him from victory.

      Beyond the limitations of the four remaining candidates, there is another frequently voiced Republican lament: "Why are we still squabbling among each other when by now we should be concentrating on beating President Obama?"

      March has traditionally been the rally-around-the-flag month in presidential politics, the moment when a de facto nominee is anointed and all remaining primaries become Soviet-style referenda devoid of meaning or suspense. Insiders in both parties prize predictability, which is why the Ides of March usually marks the demise of any would-be Caesar unwilling to accept the verdict of the political gods. Persnickety voters and the messiness of democracy can be tolerated, but not when they get in the way of orderly five-months-in-advance planning for a late-summer convention.

      This obsession with an early conclusion to the primaries is ludicrous, both in political terms and as a way of picking a president. A presumptive nominee waiting around for months until the confetti bath at the convention, with no real public responsibilities, can look ridiculous. Back in 1996, Bob Dole was so befuddled by the pre-convention waiting game that he resigned from the Senate that he loved in order to vault himself back into the headlines. A swift end to the 2004 Democratic nomination fight left John Kerry ill-prepared and unarmed against an assault from the Swift Boat Veterans over his Vietnam War record. Kerry's response: An unusually swift early July vice-presidential choice of John Edwards, who was said to have "honored the lessons of home and family learned in North Carolina." (But as John McCain demonstrated in 2008, five months of unhurried reflection about potential running mates does not automatically produce a sterling vice-presidential pick.)

      The main reason not to rush the choice of a presidential nominee is that (warning: startling revelation ahead) circumstances change. Issues emerge out of nowhere, like gasoline prices comparable to college tuition payments or war-hawk talk of bombing Iran's nuclear program. Over the weekend, Santorum prophesied, "That may become the issue of the day come this fall—a nuclear Iran." In self-serving fashion, Santorum went on to argue, "We're not electing a C.E.O. We're electing a commander in chief."

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    • British PM Cameron's State Dinner preview placecard

      Of all the things to keep secret about British Prime Minister David Cameron's visit to the White House, what kind of wines will be served at the state dinner in his honor on Wednesday might not seem to be among them.

      But the menu for the swank event—an "America's Backyard"-themed soirée under a gala tent on the South Lawn of the president's mansion—discloses only that "an American wine will be paired with each course."

      As Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, that's probably not by accident: After the dinner honoring Chinese President Hu Jintao last year, the Obama White House ended the practice of listing the name, year and appellation of wines served at such functions. During the Hu event, guests drank a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon that ran about $115 a bottle but sold for as much as $399 after it was featured on the dinner list, according to Bloomberg News.

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    • Santorum (Dusty Compton/AP)Coming off victories in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday, Rick Santorum now faces a more formidable challenge against Mitt Romney in Illinois' Republican primary next week.

      With 54 delegates at stake, the contest is an opportunity for Mitt Romney to make significant gains in increasing his delegate count. For Santorum, it is a chance to once again shake up the race with an upset.

      Despite Romney "losing" two southern states on Tuesday, he received the most votes in caucuses in Hawaii and American Samoa, netting more delegates than Santorum or Newt Gingrich, who finished just ahead of Romney in both Mississippi and Alabama. He now leads Santorum, his closest rival, by nearly 250 delegates, according to the Wall Street Journal.

      The latest primary polls in Illinois show a close race: A Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll of registered voters last week showed Romney leading with 35 percentage points, ahead of Santorum with 31, which is within the poll's margin of error.

      In the days before the primary, Illinois airwaves will be flooded with ads supporting Romney, who is expected to spend $3 million on air time when you include spending by the campaign and the pro-Romney super PAC, Restore Our Future. Compare that to Santorum, who has no air cover in the state as of this writing. Instead, Santorum is focusing his resources on the upcoming primaries in Puerto Rico and Louisiana.

      This is not to say that big spending on ad buys automatically equates to victory. Santorum squeezed out victories in Mississippi and Alabama, where Romney outspent Santorum five to one and three to one, respectively.

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