Maryland & Wisconsin Get To Play Today

The clown show that is the GOP nominating game of 2012 continues today with primaries being held in Maryland, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. After today, 31 states, the federal district, and all U.S. territories will have held their primaries or caucuses and the Republicans still won't have a candidate nominated.

At least 1144 delegates are needed for a candidate to win the nomination, and so far, no candidate is even close to that number. According to RealClearPolitics Romney has 566 delegates so far, to 263 for Santorum, 140 for Gingrich, and 67 for Paul. Romney has a clear lead in delegates, but he is still far from clinching the nomination.

The primaries being held today have a total of 98 delegates at stake -- Maryland has 37, Wisconsin has 42, and the District of Columbia has 19. Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) is favored in today's primaries, but even if he swept all the delegates at stake today (which is doubtful) he would still not even have 700 delegates. Unless all of his opponents suddenly drop out of the race (also doubtful), it looks like this race will probably stretch into late May or early June -- and there's still an outside chance of a brokered convention.

Here are the latest polls on today's primaries:

PUBLIC POLICY POLLING (Maryland)
Mitt Romney...............52%
Rick Santorum...............27%
Newt Gingrich...............10%
Ron Paul...............9%
Other/Undecided...............2%

PUBLIC POLICY POLLING (Wisconsin)
Mitt Romney...............43%
Rick Santorum...............36%
Ron Paul...............11%
Newt Gingrich...............8%
Other/Undecided...............2%

WE ASK AMERICA POLL (Wisconsin)
Mitt Romney...............39%
Rick Santorum...............31%
Ron Paul...............16%
Newt Gingrich...............15%