–Texas holds its primaries today, and most national attention is directed at the Republican gubernatorial contest. Current Governor Rick Perry is expected to come away with a win after having successfully defined his opponent, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, as too Washington for the Lonestar crowd. The real question is whether he can lock up 50 percent of the vote to avoid a costly runoff.
–Hutchison struggled to find an answer to Perry’s punches, but I think her overall difficulties illustrate how voter sentiment — at least in this case — ran more toward anti-Washington than merely anti-incumbency. It also casts the efficacy of the once powerful Bush machine into question.
–Harold Ford Jr. has decided against a Senate run in New York. He says he didn’t want to help chances of a Republican takeover with a bloody primary challenge against Gillibrand.
—Ben Smith thinks Ford — anxious his Wall Street base would jump ship — was scared off by the shadow of publishing and real estate magnate Mort Zuckerman.
–Paterson’s political goose is not just well done, it’s beginning to burn.
—Maggie Haberman notes both Ford’s exit and Paterson’s blowup vindicate controversial White House political moves.
–Jason Horowitz has a long story in the Washington Post on tensions over Rahm Emanuel. He reports some Dems are sour that Obama and his campaign inner circle have not shared the chief of staff’s penchant for pragmatism at every turn and, in neglecting to do so, have hurt prospects in November. There’s a lot of politics at work here, but it sounds to me more like run-of-the-mill griping than any serious rifts at the White House. Of the two policy issues brought up — the KSM trial and health care — my impression was that the civilian trial was largely Holder’s call and a smaller, broad consensus reform package was something of a pipe dream.
–Romney’s campaign book tour kicks off today will a bunch of interviews in New York. He’s already done “Today” and he’s slated to chat with the ladies of “The View” a bit later. The real catnip for 2012 prognosticators is the fact that while he’s doing Letterman, Palin is over at Leno.
–And finally, Bunning is still at it.
What did I miss?