Here are ten things you need to know today.
- Sunday shows line-up: White House senior adviser David Plouffe will be on Meet the Press; David Plouffe and Rep. Paul Ryan will be on Fox News Sunday; Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and David Plouffe will be on State of the Union; Michele Bachmann and David Plouffe will be on This Week; Rick Santorum, Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Chuck Schumer will be on Face the Nation.
- Santorum wins Louisiana: Rick Santorum won the Louisiana primary Saturday, taking 49% of the vote. Mitt Romney came in second with 26.7%, Newt Gingrich was third with 15.9%, and Ron Paul came in fourth with 6.1%.
- Louisiana exits show Santorum takes evangelicals: The exits of the Louisiana primary showed Rick Santorum winning evangelicals, a group he generally wins and has relied on throughout the campaign.
- Is GOP turnout up or down?: The dominant narrative is that GOP turnout is down this primary season. Indeed, exit polling in Louisiana Saturday showed light turnout. But over at the Washington Post, a recent analysis of primary contests in March show turnout rising and in some states surpassing 2008 levels.
- Romney won’t say what government programs he’d cut: In an interview with the Weekly Standard, Mitt Romney said that while he will cut government programs and likely agencies in order to cut the deficit, he won’t name which ones because it wouldn’t be politically expedient to do so. “One of the things I found in a short campaign against Ted Kennedy was that when I said, for instance, that I wanted to eliminate the Department of Education, that was used to suggest I don’t care about education,” Romney said, refusing to list specific cuts.
- Santorum says losing Senate seat was a ‘gift’: In Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum said that his embarrassing, 18-point loss in 2006 was actually a good thing because it meant that he was no longer a creature of Washington, an attack his rivals use against him: “And it was a great, in many respects, for me a great gift to get away, to separate out, to get back and involved in the private sector and have a little distance from Washington to see what was going on.”
- Santorum releases ‘ObamaVille’ video: The Santorum campaign released an apocalyptic-style video called “ObamaVille”, depicting a dark, scary world in 2014 if President Obama is re-elected. The campaign says it’s the first in a series of videos that will be released and is the work of senior strategist John Brabender.
- Gingrich promises to press on after Louisiana: After taking third place in Louisiana, a southern state, Newt Gingrich promised to press on, as always, saying in a statement what no pundits are still saying: “This is clearly still an open race. So, on behalf of the more than 176,000 Americans who have donated to Newt 2012, I will carry our solution oriented campaign to Tampa.”
- Santorum rules out 2016 bid: Rick Santorum ruled out running in 2016 if he doesn’t get the nomination this time, saying: “Oh my gosh, are you kidding me?” He continued, telling Fox New’s Neil Cavuto: “Mitt — Neil, let me just tell you. This has been an amazing experience. But I’m not doing this four years from now. I’m not doing this for any position.”
- Santorum in Wisconsin: Rick Santorum is the only candidate on the trail today. The former Senator is in Wisconsin holding two events Sunday. The Wisconsin primary, along with Maryland’s and Washington, D.C.’s, is the next contest on April 3.
