Permawar: In a sudden change of course, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military forces out of Syria. He’s declaring success and getting out. “I consider the objectives that have been set for the Defense Ministry to be generally accomplished,” Putin was quoted as saying by the Russia Today news service.

Russian aircraft have been pounding Islamic State and rebel positions, including some groups supported by the United States. Russia says the first of its fighter jets left today.

The Long Trail: It’s the Ides of March and Marco Rubio needs to beware. As the Florida polls open today, Donald Trump leads in public opinion by 41.9 percent to 23.2 for Rubio in his home state. Once the hero of the upstart Tea Party movement, Rubio is now at the point where it is politically and mathematically impossible for him to win the Republican nomination through the primaries. If he loses Florida, and loses as big as the polls suggest, will Rubio drop out of the race or hope for deadlocked primaries and a brokered convention this summer?

Four other major states also vote today; Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio.

Trump may need to beware in Ohio, where some polls give Gov. John Kasich a nearly three-point lead. A Kasich win would hinder Trump’s quest for a majority to win the Republican nomination.

PoliSci 101: Veteran political analyst Jeff Greenfield writes in Politico that winning the nomination won’t be the end of the struggle for Hillary Clinton. Noting that “nearly six in 10 Americans do not consider Clinton honest and trustworthy,” Greenfield says, “If the discontent with the economy persists in the fall, or even deepens should the woes of China and Europe reach our shores, there is no Democrat more in the cross-hairs of an angry electorate than Clinton.”

Speaking of anger, The NY Times’ Paul Krugman writes that the Trump phenomenon is the result of years of Republican trash talk. “Racial dog whistles and suggestions that Democrats are un-American if not active traitors aren’t things that happen now and then, they’re an integral part of Republican political strategy.” He says, “The establishment is being destroyed by the monster it created.”

National Wrap: Sarah Palin has cancelled her appearances for Donald Trump and returned to Alaska after her husband Todd was in a bad snowmobile accident. This was shortly after she described anti-Trump protests as “Petty punk ass thuggery” — Aubrey McClendon, the former CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp, killed in a car accident March 2, was driving 88 miles per hour when he smashed into a bridge abutment. Just the day before he had been indicted on federal charges. Suicide is suspected — The Kalamazoo Uber driver accused of going on a shooting rampage and killing six people last month is reported to have told the police that the ride sharing app took over his brain and made him do it.

The Obit Page: Jay LaMonica, a former producer for ABC’s Nightline and a great journalist little known outside of the business has died after a long illness. LaMonica had been producing for Al Jazeera America’s magazine show “America Tonight” in recent years, but in the prime days of “Nightline,” he helped make it one of the best shows in the history of broadcasting.

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Editor’s Note: The full Cuba Diaries are now available at: https://therooneyreport.com/the-cuba-diaries/

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