Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–With all eyes turning to Tuesday’s primaries, a Halter-Lincoln runoff looks likely in Arkansas, Rand Paul is crushing in Kentucky, and the Sestak-Specter contest is shaping up to be a squeaker.
—Nate Silver looks at how anti-establishment candidates may fare in general elections, positing that GOP insurgents carry more risk.
—BP says it has managed to partially tap the Deepwater Horizon leak to the tune of 1,000 barrels a day. That may leave as many as 69,000 barrels still spilling into the Gulf every 24 hours.
–GM (of 61 percent federal government ownership) posts its first quarterly profit since 2007.
–A cloture vote on financial reform could come as early as Wednesday. Damian Paletta has a nice rundown of the remaining issues. In short, there are yet-to-be-voted-on amendments that would 1) re-instate Glass-Steagall 2) add in the Volcker Rule (nix proprietary trading desks) 3) exempt car-dealers from consumer finance regulation and 4) limit the Fed’s power to regulate companies that aren’t mainly financial institutions. The White House is fighting hard to get 2 in and keep 3 out. Most crucially, we’ve yet to see a manager’s amendment, which may strip certain parts of the legislation or make last minute additions.
–As I’ve noted before, the regulatory power of the bill is snowballing as it rolls through Congress. (Disclaimer: Manager’s amendment, conference report, House approval and second Senate approval pending.)
–Our colleague Michael Grunwald remains skeptical of final passage.
–Some frank climate bill pessimism from Chuck Schumer.
–Kagan’s confirmation is pretty much a foregone conclusion. Newt Gingrich didn’t get that memo.
–And, via Gawker, the best political ad of the cycle, perhaps all time. The incredulous horse reaction shot (0:47) is one of many priceless moments packed into this 70-second doozy:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU7fhIO7DG0]
What did I miss?
UPDATE: And definitely read Peter Beinart essay’s on Israel and the American Jewish generational gap that Michael highlights.