Is Mitt Romney a wimp? That’s our cover this week, which asks if the former Massachusetts governor—who’s dodging the press, hiding his tax returns, and fearing the base—is too insecure to be president.

You can download the issue on the iPad later this morning—or see it on real-life newsstands tomorrow.

At the end of every day, confidential materials (tax returns, investment records and real estate documents) are returned to a secure vault inside the Romney campaign headquarters in Boston.

A vault! (From a New York Times story about the detailed hunt for Mitt Romney’s VP choice.)

How text messaging can save Barack Obama

The FEC’s unanimous ruling last week opened the doors for political candidates to gather money through a single text message. Supporters will be able to donate between $10 and $50 a month when the service is up and running in the coming weeks.

Obama tumblr, you guys on this?

pulsenews:

Today we’re launching our Election 2012 coverage on Pulse, which will be your hub for campaign news leading up to November 15th. We have over 25 partners delivering world-class breaking political news, straight to your mobile device. As we wait on the results of the Florida Primary today, you can follow your candidate of choice on Pulse and explore the opinion pieces from your favorite political commentators. Explore all that Pulse has to offer to keep you informed this election season: 

Brand New Content

Pulse now has the content you’ve been asking for from several brand new partners, launching today for the first time. Breaking political coverage from Fox News, The New Republic, Los Angeles Times, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and Reason Magazine is now yours to discover. Many of our existing partners are now launching political coverage for Pulse including The Daily Beast, The Atlantic, The Atlantic Wire, Slate, Al Jazeera and The Huffington Post. 

Big news in the iWorld! Pulse has launched its Election 2012 coverage—and we’re happy to be a part of the scrum. Find our political writers day-in, day-out in The Daily Beast politics feed.

dcdecoder:

What you need to know about today’s Florida primary.

• Mitt Romney, as you can see in the image from prediction market InTrade, is almost certainly going to win.

• Newt Gingrich, who was once leading in the Florida polls, has been massively outspent in Florida: Romney and his allies have ponied up the money for 12,768 television commercials to Gingrich’s comparatively paltry 210.

• In total ad spending, Gingrich may have been lapped as badly as five to one. 

• Spending by outside groups (meaning not the presidential campaigns themselves) is up a whopping 1,600 percent versus the same time in 2008, POLITICO reports.

• Romney proves organization is worth something: Nearly 40 percent of GOP Floridians cast their vote as an absentee ballot or in early voting and Romney won these voters by 12.5 percent over Gingrich. If you walk into election day with a 12.5 percent lead, you’re going to be hard pressed to lose the top spot.

• Why haven’t Ron Paul or Rick Santorum fought in Florida? Because the state awards its 50 delegates to the winner of the overall state ballot. At least they think they do…

• … because while Florida’s state Republican party wants a winner-take-all system, all Republican contests held before April are supposed to reward their delegates proportionally. POLITICO explains why this could get messy if the GOP convention comes down to counting delegates.

Rick: “So you’re tellin’ me there’s a chance…”

(Source: dcdecoder)

This week’s cover features a very Spartacus-looking Mitt Romney battling his way into the hearts and minds of conservatives nationwide. We’re, uh, kind’ve obsessed with this one. You like?

iamneuroticashell:

Oh, this makes all the hours I put in feel worth it…

(via gofollowmynewblog)

thepixmix:

That’s the truth…

And this is where we are today. Amazing what a few years will do.

Michael Solomon cast the GOP primaries for us and found some striking similarities. Ian McKellen as Ron Paul?! Yes. Ed Helms as Rick Santorum? Of course! And Cuba Gooding Jr. could play a mean Juan Williams. See the rest.

Curious what it’s like reporting from the campaign trail? We tagged along with Lloyd Grove to find out. Check the vid for a little behind-the-scenes New Hampshire campaign life.