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By Carl M. CannonGood morning from Arizona. It’s Wednesday, February 22, the birthday of our first president – and a day when the four remaining Republican presidential candidates will face each other here as part of their quest to become the 45th president of the United States.
We will provide coverage of the GOP debate tonight, along with analysis from across the political spectrum on our pages tomorrow morning. I’ll also have a couple of additional thoughts about this day in U.S. history, but first let me point you to some original offerings by RCP political writers:
- Newt Gingrich enters tonight’s debate in Arizona needing to boost his flagging campaign. Scott Conroy reports that he’ll use rising gasoline prices – and the adversity he faces – for political fuel.
- With polls showing Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum within the margin of error of each other in Arizona and Michigan, both candidates have some tough decisions to make in the next six days. As Erin McPike notes, the stakes are high, especially for Romney.
- Romney is also discovering something that Barack Obama would be wise to take note of: the makeup of the electorate is always shifting. As I pointed out from Colorado, neither candidate can rely on past assumptions, especially the ones that served them well in 2008.
- After trailing in several recent polls, Romney now leads Santorum by two points in Michigan, according to a new survey. Caitlin Huey-Burns has the story.
If you cover the presidency, as I did for 15 years, you can’t help but be impressed at how many of the best precedents for that office can be traced directly to George Washington. Remarkable for a man born 280 years ago today. (By the way, I believe that the historical revisionists are mistaken in doubting the fable of the famous cherry tree. The story we were taught as kids -- that young George confessed to his father that he'd chopped it down -- is more likely true than not. But that’s grist for another column.)
Yesterday, I wrote about John Quincy Adams. Today, I’ll mention him again. Arizona celebrated its 100th year of statehood last week. It had been part of the Mexican state of Vieja California after Mexico wrested its independence from Spain in 1822. The United States took possession of most of the territory after the Mexican American war, while the southern one-third of the state – the portion below the Gila River – was purchased later.
And on this very date in 1819, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and Spanish foreign minister Don Luis de Onis put their signatures to a treaty in which Spain ceded its remaining claims to Florida to the United States. All of which signifies the following: Mexico and Spain facilitated the existence of that most American of rituals, organized baseball's annual spring training.
So, happy birthday, George Washington. And to all the major leaguers assembling in Arizona and Florida – and to the Republican candidates gathering here in the desert – I’ll say the same thing this morning: Play ball!
Carl M. Cannon
Washington Editor
RealClearPolitics