Mitt Romney Expected To Win CT, DE, NY, PA, RI Republican Primaries April 23 – Newt Gingrich to Reassess His Campaign – Obama Clinches DNC Nomination

The 2012 Presidential Candidates: Mitt Romney (R) and Barack Obama

Mitt Romney is expected to add to his lead in the GOP primary race today by winning the five April 23rd GOP primary contests in five states: CT, DE, NY, PA and RI. (CNN) After Rick Santorum bowed out of the race, the two remaining challengers, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, would have little opportunity in theses state contests. Gingrich, who currently has 137 Delegates according to the New York Times, will reassessing his campaign after today’s primaries(WXIA-Atlanta). With Gingrich out of the race, Ron Paul, with fewer than 100 delegates, will be the last “competitor” Romney will face in the remaining contests. With Santorum’s exit, Romney literally became the presumptive nominee, given the low delegate count of the remaining candidates, and the number of available delegates remaining added to a dose of reality.

Turn-out is anticipated to be low in all five primary states – including the Democrat Primary’s, where Barack Obama is the only candidate on the ballot - MSNBC summed up the Democrat Primary contest as: Ho Hum Obama on Brink of The Democratic Nomination.

To say the least, the 2012 contest excitement collapsed after Rick Santorum excited the race – and that excitement was on the GOP side, with the most enthusiasm coming from political junkies, pundits, reporters and the various candidate supporters.

The next phase: picking the V.P. (once the nomination is secure by virtue of accumulated delegates on the GOP side), followed by the beginnings of the General Election Campaign. The debates between the two candidates: Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, might not be a “grab the popcorn” moment, but then again, Romney, who’s debate skills have sharpened in recent years, has a take no prisoners approach to the debate, and the President, who’s oratorical skills are the legend of the media, may be found to ramble on a bit if cornered – between the two candidates, it may end up being more entertaining than previously imagined. In addition, Romney, who has been seriously vetted during the primary process, leaves little for the President to attack: should he attack Romney’s Health Care Mandate as Governor - Or Romney’s change of heart on issues? (Notably both candidates have flipped and flopped over the course of the past four years with lightening speed.) Romney, on the other hand has mounds of ammunition, those relating to the economy, foreign policy, and scandals within the green energy companies which were propped up by the Administration (see Solyndra).

What is somewhat unfortunate, in any general election, is that the State’s who hold primary contests after March, are left out of choices, other than protest votes, should they not approve of a candidate. The last competitive race in a general election was in 2008 between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The race ended with the June Primaries, and was settled at the Democrat National Convention by virtue of Super Delegate votes handing the nomination to Barack Obama. Clinton had the popular vote going into the Convention, the rest is, as they say, history.