Here's your Daily Digest for Tuesday, April 10:
Obama v. Romney fight taking shape
There’s still more than a month of primaries to go, but President Barack Obama has focused his attention square on Mitt Romney — and vice versa.
Romney’s staggering delegate lead in the Republican presidential primaries has party officials and politicians throwing their weight behind him and declaring him the de facto nominee to face off against President Barack Obama in November. A poll conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News shows Obama would have an edge in a general election fight against Romney in many areas, but Romney’s economic advantage could be huge.
Yet of the registered voters polled, 51 percent said they would vote for Obama over the 44 percent who would choose Romney.
Obama has huge leads in a number of personality traits and issues from the poll — from likeability to support of women’s issues to protecting the middle class.
But a resounding number said they felt Romney would handle the federal budget deficit better than Obama. Check out the full poll results below.
The next set of primaries, two weeks from today, includes Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Rhode Island and Rick Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania. But the New York Times’ Five Thirty Eight blog projects Romney’s momentum may help him steal that primary from Santorum by a slim margin. The former senator has vowed to stay in the race until the convention in August, but a loss in his home state would be crushing. April 24 could be Santorum’s last stand.
Breivik ruled not insane
The man who confessed to killing more than 70 people in two attacks in Norway this summer has been found not to be criminally insane, according to the Associated Press.
Two psychiatrists re-examined Anders Behring Breivik and concluded he was not psychotic during or after the massacre. It contradicts a diagnosis from last fall, which said Breivik was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
Both assessments will be taken into account when Breivik’s trial starts April 16. The new diagnosis could mean he may face a prison sentence rather than commitment for psychiatric care. Breivik has said he is “satisfied” with the new conclusion.
Breivik admits he was behind the July 22 bomb in Oslo and the massacre at a youth camp on a nearby island. But he insists he’s not guilty for the 77 deaths because they were necessary in his fight against the spread of Islam in Europe.
“He won’t only defend [his actions],” Breivik’s lawyer Geir Lippestad said. “He will also regret that he didn’t go further.”
April 10 in history
-1815: Mount Tambora in Indonesia begins a three-month-long eruption
-1912: The Titanic sets sail from Southampton, England. It sank five days later.
-1916: Rodman Wanamaker founds the Professional Golfers' Association of America
-1970: Paul McCartney announces he's leaving the Beatles, trigging the band's break-up
