Santorum: GOP better off with Obama than ‘Etch A Sketch’ Republican  —  SAN ANTONIO, TX — Rick Santorum today suggested it would be better to stick with President Obama over a candidate that might be “the Etch A Sketch candidate of the future” — a shot at chief rival Mitt Romney.

James O'Keefe's Panty-Stealing ‘Rape Barn’ Sex Scandal  —  It's a right-wing rabble-rouser showdown!  Jazz-handed pimp impersonator James O'Keefe is at “#WAR” with a former Project Veritas colleague who is now blogging an O'Keefe tell-all involving stolen panties, drugged beers, a “rape barn …

5 things Dems got wrong on health care  —  President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies thought their political assumptions were airtight during the yearlong battle to overhaul the health care system.  —  Voters would reward them, they thought, even if Democrats muscled a bill through without Republican support.

Obamacare: The reckoning  —  Obamacare dominated the 2010 midterms, driving its Democratic authors to a historic electoral shellacking.  But since then, the issue has slipped quietly underground.  —  Now it's back, summoned to the national stage by the confluence of three disparate events …

Obama heckled during energy speech in Ohio  —  A heckler interrupted President Obama's speech on energy policy Thursday at Ohio State University.  —  The president, looking frustrated, stopped speaking and addressed the man  —  “Sir.  Im here to speak to these folks.  You can hold your own rally.

Florida governor appoints new prosecutor in Trayvon Martin case  —  Gun control advocates say the Florida law that authorizes using deadly force to stop someone from committing a serious crime also encourages violent behavior.  NBC's Pete Williams reports.  —  By msnbc.com staff

SUSPECT ‘KIDNAPPED MAN’ AND THEN ‘WALKED AROUND CITY WITH SWORD IN HIS HAND’  —  Suspected serial killer Mohammad Mera, who broke out of an Afghanistan jail in 2008 as part of a mass Taliban escape, once kidnapped another man, it has been reported.  —  A close family friend …

U.S. Inches Toward Goal of Energy Independence  —  MIDLAND, Tex. — The desolate stretch of West Texas desert known as the Permian Basin is still the lonely domain of scurrying roadrunners by day and howling coyotes by night.  But the roar of scores of new oil rigs and the distinctive acrid fumes …

Specter says he might vote for Romney  —  Former Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) says he might vote for Mitt Romney in November, depending on which version of Romney shows up for the general election.  —  “I'm going to wait to see which Romney it is,” said Specter in an interview with The Hill at his elegant apartment in Georgetown.

Self-sustaining stimulus  —  Larry Summers says fiscal stimulus can pay for itself  —  WHEN he was at the Treasury nearly 20 years ago Larry Summers would counsel President Bill Clinton on the merits of “stimulative austerity”: cut deficits, and interest rates will fall by enough to produce stronger economic growth.

Tilting the Toss Ups - the Eight Races That Will Decide the Senate  —  Ah, the Senate.  The battle for control fascinates us — and all election observers — because there are so many intriguing races and personalities.  Yet, as we update our ratings today and move in a new direction …

Locke Foundation blog uses racist image in blog on NC's Amendment One (UPDATED)  —  The Meck Deck, an official blog of the Art Pope-funded conservative John Locke Foundation, this week published racially-charged and homophobic imagery of President Obama in a piece this on the president's opposition …