Romney Wins Maine, but Survey Shows Him Tied with Santorum. Plus: Obama's Budget and Videos from CPAC

Mitt Romney after his win in Maine on Saturday. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)Here's a quick look at what's happened in the world of politics this week:

Romney barely beats Paul in Maine caucuses

GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney won the Maine caucuses on Saturday, narrowly beating Ron Paul 39 percent to 36 percent.

Though Paul has yet to place first in a primary or caucus this season, he's vowing to stay in the race. His supporters say that his close finish in Maine might actually have been a win; two Maine counties cancelled their caucuses because of bad weather, and votes cast in those areas didn't get counted in the totals.

Rick Santorum was in third place with 18 percent of the vote, and Newt Gingrich was in fourth with 6 percent. Turnout was low -- only about 5,600 out of the state's 258,000 registered Republicans went to the polls.

Obama offers up his $3.8 trillion budget proposal for 2013

On Monday, President Barack Obama sent to Congress his proposal for the federal budget for fiscal year 2013, outlining his plans to raise taxes on the rich, cut spending, and add money to job training programs and shore up infrastructure programs.

Warning that "the last thing we need is for Washington to stand in the way of America's comeback," the president asked Congress to extend a payroll tax cut and pledged to cut $360 billion from Medicare and Medicaid by reducing payments to providers and drug companies, among other measures.

According to the White House, the plan would lower the federal deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years. But it also includes a budget shortfall of $901 billion by the end of 2013, and does not cut the federal deficit in half by the end of 2012, which was something that Obama had pledged to do when he took office.

"This budget does nothing to prevent the bankruptcy of critical programs, threatening the health and retirement security of current and future seniors," Republican House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan in a statement.

Romney wins CPAC straw poll, but is in a dead heat with Santorum nationwide

Mitt Romney won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, claiming 38 percent of the vote. Santorum was second with 31 percent, Gingrich took third with 15 percent, and Ron Paul was in fourth place with 12 percent.

But in spite of Romney's new lead among the GOP's most conservative, a Pew Research Center poll released on Monday shows Santorum barely ahead of Romney, 30 percent to 28 percent. Since the margin of error for the survey was plus or minus five percentage points, that puts the two GOP presidential hopefuls in a statistical dead heat leading up to the March 6 Super Tuesday primaries.

Palin addresses a cheering CPAC crowd

In her keynote address at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin slammed President Barack Obama, reprimanded the media, urged Conservatives to support a long and competitive primary season, and cautioned against infighting within the Republican party.

"The far left and their media allies can't beat us on the issues, so instead, they'll destroy our records. They'll smear our reputations. They'll even attack our families," Palin said. "Let's not do the job for them, okay Republicans?"

Watch her speech -- as well as Mitt Romney's, Newt Gingrich's, Rick Santorum's, and Mike Huckabee's -- below:











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