so perhaps among some southern evangelicals, mitt romney's mormon faith could be an issue. wolf? >> three states at the top of the hour will be closing their polls. and within a few seconds. standby, and we will share exactly what we know at the top of the hour. we are watching georgia. georgia, very much on our minds georgia, very much on our minds right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com and we can make the first projection of the night. newt gingrich the former speaker of the house wins georgia. this was expected and all of the polls showing he had a substantial lead, but we can now formally project that newt gingrich will win georgia. 76 delegates at stake. we cannot yet make a formal projection with two other states closing right now. virginia and vermont. although, mitt romney is significantly ahead according to

the exit polls in both of the states. we want to get more information in both of the states before we make a formal projection, but right now, we can't make that. mitt romney though significant ahead in both virginia and vermont. standby, and we will be able to make a projection at some point. i want to go to mitt romney's headquarters in -- newt gingrich's headquarters in georgia, and some of them have not realized we have made a call. they are dancing there, and they will be fully excited when they know what is going on. let's share the exit poll information on the three states that have closed right now and put them up on the wall over he here. the georgia exit poll number, and here it will explain why we were able to make the projection that newt gingrich is the winner in his home state of georgia. take a look at this. according to the exit poll, e he got 45%, and nearly half of the republicans who voted in the primary in georgia.

26% for mitt romney, and 20% for rick santorum. only 8% for ron paul. a significant win, a significant win, we project, for newt gingrich. he needed the home state, and he gets the home state of georgia. take a look at vermont right now, and we have the exit poll numbers in vermont. take a look at this, and the significant lead for mitt romney in vermont next door to the home state of massachusetts. 38%, and look at who is second, according to the exit place, 27% for ron paul, and 23% for rick santorum and only 8% for newt gingrich. newt gingrich didn't do so well in vermont, but did well in georgia. over the john king and take a look at some of the early information we are getting. georgia a big win and he needed this win to keep on going, and i will assume he will keep on going carrying the home state, newt gingrich. >> and he very much needed to win, and will he only win there tonight or just in his home state. and let's look at who was voting, and how they were voting.

voting by ideology in georgia, and we asked, are you conservative or very conservative or moderate or liberal. so 4 in 10 describe themselves as very conservative and they go for 38% for speaker gingrich and there is the victory. so newt gingrich wins the most conservative voters in his state, and what about those who are somewhat conservative, and gingrich winning at a more narrow margin against mitt romney. but when you win the somewhat conservative, you will win the state. and look at the state of georgia and across the board in the states the number one issue is the economy and the budget deficit tends to run second among the conservative republican voters and the e k economy, and look at that 17-point gap between speaker gingrich and governor romney. we will watch it play out. and looking at vermont, very different here. 7 in 10 of those voting and more than 60% of those voting are

evangelicals and over 70% in tennessee. and only 26%, one quarter of evangelicals in the state of overmont. one thing that we want to look at in vermont do, you describe yourself as very conservative, moderate conservative or mad rat or liberal, and 29% somewhat conservative, and 18% very conservative and 54% moderate or liberal. we want to get some more votes or data when we go beyond that. >> and we will see that soon in vermont and remember in virginia two of the four candidates were on the ballot, and santorum and gingrich did not get enough signatures to be on the ballot, so we will see if romney is ahead in the exit polls in both of the statings, but we will see when we can make a formal projection. anderson? >> has mitt romney been able to make inroads for the moderate

conservatives or just divided among the very conservatives? >> well, he wouldn't be in the race if he had not made inroads. it is pocket by pocket, but no way to do as well as he is doing going into the super tuesday unless he were making inroads. he is not winning them, but making inroads. >> paul, you argue that he has done that by moving to the right. >> terrible price for the general election and two of the most important groups are women and latinos. look at the women. he is crushing santorum on television with negative ads and bashing him on contraception, and believe it. he said that rick santorum once voted for contraception for poor women, and it is an accurate ad, and he drove rick perry out of the race by attacking him on immigrati immigration, so to the right of rick santorum for contraception,

and to the right of rick perry on immigration, you are too far right. >> poor paul. well, too far to the right? >> you don't believe that romney has moved to the right? >> please, he has the bends. >> and he is on the right. he doesn't have to move to the right. but if romney were as far right as paul says, he wouldn't have these problems, but it would be all wrapped up. when you look at the survey numbers and the american voters who is more extreme, barack obama extremely liberal or mitt romney extremely conservative, and barack obama is 50-something extremely liberal and mitt romney is 30-something extremely conservative, so what paul is talking about has not happened. as far as the war on women, i checked the data and turns out that half of the republican voters are women. who knew? >> oh, well. it is a war that we are concerned about is thes a sought on the women's reproductive health. >> and i totally and completely ban any effort to oppose

abortion, contraception, excuse me. >> well, they have had a bad month when it comes to women for the republican party. they took what should have been a victory for them when barack obama made a decision that the catholic church did not like and turned it into a complete defeat for themselves by turning it into contraception. >> well, gloria making a point in the last couple of months, but i would say that barack obama for the last three years has done incredible damage to himself for americans. >> women are americans by the way. >> and we are talking about the whole country, and barack obama's primary was the first two years in office, and that primary, barack obama governed so far to the left and pushed to the left the american people overwhelmingly rejected barack obama and the republicans in the senate. >> and in the last straw poll, the president's approval rating was 50 and mitt romney's 28, and

the lowest of a recent front-runner, and romney is getting killed on the social issue, and he knows it. i guarantee you tonight, he does not stand up screaming and yelling about the contraception. >> well, there is a difference of romney and the republican party. gloria is right that the party has been dragged to a place where the party, itself, is hurting with the women, but romney is different than that, because he is a establishment republican and not conservative, and the party has been hurt with the women, but the case that the republicans make in the fall is economic with women and not social issues, and two-thirds of small businesses in this country are started by who? women. they can't do that now, because barack obama's taxes and spending and the regulatory climate that is choking women-owned businesses in the country. so there is a lot of story that will come back. >> and right now, though, the "wall street journal" poll put barack obama against mitt romney with women, and barack obama won by 18 points. >> i also just saw a poll of

among the latino voters where barack obama was, i mean, his, i don't remember what the actual number was -- >> 70 to 14% he is leading with the hispanic voters. and president obama and not president obama -- >> well, it is not disrespect. >> well, it is, because it is president barack obama and i called him president george w. bush and we should show respect at times, but the first thing he did when he became president was to sign the lilly led bbetter a to ensure employment for women, and he put two bills before the supreme court, and business owners know that president obama has been voting for 16 small business tax credits and women will support a candidate who support the economic few chushgs and i believe that candidate is president barack obama. >> and i want to bring in jessica yellin and from the white house perspective, it seems that president obama was

quick to reach out to the woman who testified and the women on the hill who rush limbaugh had attacked, and was that about politics? >> well -- look it is hard not to see it through the political lenses in this environment, and you know the democrats will say, how could the president resist this opportunity, anderson, because the republicans as gloria have made the point, have handed them this issue. they had a religion issue to begin with when the president first came out with the contraception mandate and then they turned it into this ongoing women's health issue when the republicans went for this blount amendment. but the bottom line is that you have to look at a it through the lenses of the suburban swing vote, and suburban women voters will be a key swing vote. both sides are going after the demographic and no surprise that both sides are working this issue as best they can, and the white house especially, because it is a women's vote they want

to get come november. >> and ari, have they changed it to a women's issue as opposed to religion issue? >> well, it is an issue about the power of the government to dictate to somebody this the private sector to provide this product and provide it for free. and the government should not do that whether it is a women's issue or men's issue and especially if it infringes on someone's religion. and the president promised that it would not exceed 8%, but it did, and the deficit would be cut in half, but it has increased and the president has increased the deficits and these are the big issues of the day, and this is what the he conmy and the election should be about. >> i want to answer the question. yes, the democrats have turned it into a women's issue, because that is the president's strategy, and ari is right, the president does not want this oelection to be a referendum on

the economic policy. so they want to shrink the middle until there is no middle so polarize it among every axis and pit men against women and rich against poor and pit everybody against everybody, and that is the strategy here, and shrink it. >> and these are politics for every decades. and these faultlines and tell a woman with endometriosis that in the birth control plan or the insurance plan she cannot have access to the full range of reproductive services. and tell a woman -- >> of course she can, but we won't make the catholics to pay for it. >> we are not -- >> you are wrong. >> 28 states allow exemption, and this is not about sex, but women's health. >> and mitt romney has decided that it is about his he has decided or the super pac, or which, because it is to attack

rick santorum on contraception, and mitt romney wants to zero out what is title ten which is a little over $300 million to provide contraception to poor women and over 5 million americans get their contraception for title ten and been around for ten years and president bush sr. is the congressman who wrote that law. it is a legitimate issue. >> it is totally wrong. >> no, it is not. and this is the position about the title ten. and we have to have a honest discussion about the facts here. >> it is. and 24% of the funding that goes to america's largest abortion provider comes from title ten, and that is what the president p -- what the republicans want to zero out. >> david gergen. >> well, donna is right about this, because these issues have helped the democrats and helped obama, but it is also important not to universalize or make sweeping assertions, because it is striking to me today that

"boston globe" reported that scott brown who has opened up a nine or ten-point lead against elizabeth warren and one of the reasons that scott brown as a republican is making headway over elizabeth warren is over this contraception issue in massachusetts. >> what do you make of that? >> i think that we should make it very careful about broad assertions of how they cut, because they cut differently in different places, and overall obama has been nimble in using this rush issue. it is a campaign issue and one that comes up in a campaign, u and he has been fast on the trigger. >> and he wants to abolish title ten, and that is where scott brown has been more centrist. go but it is an issue of the role of government and how iter sta -- it started and if the republicans had continued down the road saying it is a role of government in the life and what is ensured, health care, health care mandates and the rest, they might be getting somewhere.

and i want to bring in joe johns over at newt gingrich headquarters and you have been listening to this conversation, and where does newt gingrich play into this? >> well, i have to tell you that the most important thing that you have to say is not only is this a strategy to win the state and not only a strategy to win delegates, but the gingrich people more than once have told me that they think at the end of the day, rick santorum is going to collapse. that conservative voters out there won't stay with him because of the votes in the united states senate, and support for arlen specter and big labor and part of the strategy. so bottom line, georgia, they expected to win big and would like to see 50% or higher. then they go on the states like alabama, and they go on the states like mississippi and texas and hope for the best. back to you. >> jim acosta is over at the santorum head quart es and rick santorum is calling for newt gingrich to get out, jim. >> basically that is right, anderson. the santorum campaign is saying the opposite of what joe was

talking about a moment ago. and joe braybender, a senior strategist came out to brief the supporters and saying if newt gingrich got out of the race, we could go one-on-one with mitt romney and beat him in a lot of the contests and if newt gingrich were not in michigan, they could have won michigan and when they took out mitt romney one-on-one, they won like in the state of missouri. they feel they can win in different parts of the country. colorado out west, and minnesota, and iowa in the midwest, and they feel like because oft record, they should stay in and newt gingrich should drop out, but not surprisingly, but that is the spin from the santorum campaign tonight. one other thing is that the campaign aide said they had organizational difficulties, but starting to rectify them, because he said that they are the macgyver campaign and by the end of night, they don't want to

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only 9:43 until the polls close in ohio. that is a key political battleground, but we have news to report right now. cnn projects a win, a win, and

take a look at this, mitt romney we project is the winner of the virginia primary. mitt romney the former massachusetts governor scores another victory tonight. mitt romney the winner the virginia primary, and he was running only ron paul managed to get on the ballot in virginia and santorum and gingrich did not have enough strength to get the signatures necessary, but he did manage to win virginia, and that is a win for virginia for mitt romney. a win as we said earlier for newt gingrich in the home state of georgia. looking at the actual votes coming in. 3% of the vote in virginia coming in, and small number and up to 4%, and romney with 10,826 and ron paul with 8,114 and 43%, and only mitt romney and ron paul on the ballot in virginia. in alabama the polls closed a half hour ago, and we have not been able to make a projection

yet in vermont, but only 70 votes tallied and 38% for mitt romney and 27% for rick santorum, and 24% for ron paul and 9%s for newt gingrich, but that is only one percent. in georgia, we projected a win for newt gingrich, but 1% of the vote is in, and you can see 39% for newt gingrich, and 31% for rick santorum, and 24% for mitt romney, and 5% for ron paul, and very, very early, but based on the exit poll information we got, we projected a decisive win for newt gingrich in georgia. take a look at the map right now, and we will show you what we have seen so far, and changes unfolding. the yell low, and we are waiting for vermont where we have not been able to make a projection, because we don't have enough information. but we have projected georgia going for newt gingrich, and virginia going for mitt romney, and you see what is going on, and the white states are ten states who have elections or primaries or caucuses today, and

we will see what is going on in a few minutes. ohio, the polls will be closing there, and we will see what we can do at 7:30 p.m. eastern in a few minutes from now, and so we have a win for newt gingrich in his home state, and important and big win for mitt romney in virginia. it underscore has he got on the ballot and ron paul did get on the ballot, but rick santorum and newt gingrich did not. >> and we will see that organization and money and resources do matter. if rick santorum wins tennessee, we will see what happens, but he won't get all of the delegates, because of the filings deadlines as did newt gingrich. and the greatest gift is right here in the state of virginia and one of the questions for mitt romney is if he can win in the south. and virginia for romney tonight, because there are two candidates on the ballot. looking at the earlier results coming in, emphasize 5% of the vote in virginia and look at the lopsided and early start lining up with the exit poll as well, a

and when you see romney red and most significantly in the major population centers like roanoke and richmond and the populated washington suburbs filling in romney red, and he will put virginia in the column and pick up a good batch of the delegates there. pulling out the match, speaker gingrich winning his home state of georgia and the question is by how much? when we fill it in, we will look at congressional district to see where the delegates go for the state of alabama. vermont is filled in for romney, but it is based on early results, but we have not called the state of vermont yet. a tiny smaterring of of the results here. as we look at the results of ohio the come in, i want to show you something about the state of ohio. here is a big question, who is in touch with the tough economy and the struggling economy and in touch with the blue collar voters? and the analysts? and who understands the problems, and 32% said santorum, and 18%, gingrich, and paul,

19%, and romney 23%. so a split there in who the ohio republicans think are best in touch with them. and who is the best important candidate quality, and in ohio, more than 1 in 10 said can defeat president obama in november. and big for governor romney among those who say it is the most important. but for electability, good for romney, and then you will see santorum very, very strong, and we will be there in ohio counting the votes quite some time. >> well, they close the polls in ohio in about five minutes from now and we can go to the exit polls and make a projection and looks like it will be very, very close. we will be going to ohio right after this. look! the phillips' lady!

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we are only about a minute away, one minute away from the bottom of the hour, and we are going to be able to get some results from arguably the most important super tuesday contest. polling places across ohio the key battleground state closes at the bottom of the hour at 7:30 p.m. eastern, about a minute from now. 63 delegates at stake in ohio, and it is the second largest prize of the night. it is a key battleground state, and remember, that no republican, no republican has ever won the white house in november without first winning ohio. whoever wins ohio will walk away with something very, very important. a proven victory in a state with a history of deciding presidential elections, ohio.

the candidates have been competing fiercely in ohio and all of the polls showing it is very very close in ohio, and the stakes clearly enormous right now. we have been watching ohio throughout the day, and we have correspondents throughout the state. in just a few seconds the polls will close in ohio, and let's see what we can do, whether or not we will be able to make a projection or not, but guess what? ohio, ohio, ohio. the key battleground state. and as expected we cannot make a projection in ohio right now. it is close. the exit poll results though are in. let's share with you what the voters were telling us after they emerged from the polling booths in ohio these are the results from the cnn exit poll. 40% for mitt romney. 36% for rick santorum. 12% for newt gingrich, and 11% for ron paul, and you see a four-point spread. these are early numbers in the

exit poll and they could change, but right now, these are the exit poll questions, and we are being transparent with you, with a slight advantage for mitt romney over "situation room" in the key battleground state of ohio. let's go to candy crowley who is covering the romney campaign in boston right now. and candy, this is is a moment that i am sure that mitt romney would love to say, i won ohio. >> absolutely. that would be the major headline and here are the three reasons they believe they will do well there tonight. and they are hoping for a victory and here are the signs pointing to that. one is momentum going into this, and he was the guy on the glide path, and rick santorum had been up and mitt romney off of his michigan and arizona wins was moving ahead. that is number one. number two, they have also said, listen, we are the ones who have the folks who can get out the votes. we have the ground game.

so they believe very much that that's on their side. and number three, and they believe it will help mitt romney as we get further on down the line. they do expect this to go on, and that is usually when we ask that question, who do you think has the best chance to beat president obama, mitt romney's name comes up in the exit polls and sometimes in the entrance polls, because they believe it is more critical as we move closer and closer to finding a nominee. those are the three things that bode well for tonight, although they are extremely cautious here. you heard mitt romney earlier after he voted here in massachusetts saying, gee, i don't know how we will do tonight. nobody predicted they would flat out win, but they do believe they have those things on their side, wolf. >> it would be a huge night for mitt romney if he goes on the win in ohio. we cannot make a projection, but the exit polls show a slight edge for him over rick santorum. and now we go to stubenville, where they are lowering expectations, the santorum

campaign, aren't they, jim? >> well, they are. they are being cautious here as well, wolf. i want to underscore what candy was saying, because the santorum campaign is not predicting one way or another, but they are lowering expectations saying if they come in second with the popular vote, that is saying a victory for them, because they have been outspent 12 to 1. they also feel they are walking away with less delegates than they could have considering the paperwork snafu. and here in stubenville, ohio, this is where we are inside of a district where they won't be able to win delegates, because of the paperwork snafu, and they are conceding the point that yes, they have had some organizational problems in the state, but they say they are the campaign that is built to take on mitt romney going down the road to heading towards the convention, and they were saying

tonight, and sounding defiant, wolf, that mitt romney cannot get 1,144 to clinch the nomination and he can say all he wants that he can't clinch it, but he can't either, and they are prepared to take the fight to the convention if need be. >> and so they are waiting for a win, and so is ron paul, and we go the dana bash who is in the cincinnati area, hamilton county, board of elections, and this is a central part of ohio where john boehner is from, and set the scene for us there, dana where the polls have just closed. >> that is right, southwest ohio is crucial, and this particular county, hamilton county is one to watch, because it is not only a swing county, but a swing county in a swing state, and one of the most important counties to watch in the general election, but also for the republican primary. we want the show you and the viewers what we will show you later as they get the ball lots coming in in about 45 minutes,

but this is a room where they are going to be counting the ballots, and they are going to be feeding some of it will be electronic, if you can look in here, there is a card reader, where they will get information in there and zip it in and go to the computer, and later, wolf, we will take you back to the director of the board of elections, and we are going to try to get the realtime vote results, as they are getting it here, wolf. >> dana, that is interesting, because it is going to be a close race, and it will be anxious to get the information there. let's dig deeper with john king over there who has been reviewing the exit poll information. >> it is fascinating. with know it is a tight race and we look through and ask what are you looking for? and we showed you earlier that the ohioans say they want the biggest quality to beat obama, and they say that mitt romney has the edge over rick santorum, and shouldn't he be winning the state? well, that is the edge and the advantage at the moment, but they went away on me, wolf, and i want to reset that.

and senator santorum is the most conservative? and he wins over who has the most morale character, so what are you looking for in ohio? well, dana mentioned in hamilton county, and it is a critical area, and strong establishment town that governor romney needs to do well around cincinnati. i would argue he needs to do well here, because the city of columbus needs to lean democrat democratic, but romney tends the do well with the upscale suburban voters. but if you go to the outside of suburbs around cleveland, a lot of the areas are important for mitt romney. and i will use yellow for rick santorum. and remember, down here, in this area bordering pennsylvania, critical and toledo as well and why he has been targeting the blue collar voters in this economy and he is better candidate for them. i want to do a history lesson and go back in time saying why

is he doing this? well, i want to go back to the democratic primary in 2008, and you see hillary clinton winning here, and blue collars youngstown, and akron and toledo and barack obama in suburban columbus, and columbus, and cleveland and african-american population as well, but president obama out in the suburbs. so tonight in terms of the turnout, you have the same dynamic, and more upscale suburban voters were critical for barack obama, and they are critical for mitt romney, and the blue collar voters were huge for hillary clinton and they are huge tonight for senator santorum, wolf. >> okay. john, a lot of information to digest, and certainly so far, newt gingrich wins georgia and mitt romney winning virginia. but guess what? we have more information to report to you right now. a second win for mitt romney on the super tuesday. take a look at this. we project mitt romney will win

the state of vermont in new england. and he is from massachusetts. it is expected. we make this projection based on the exit poll information that we have received as well as some of the actual numbers coming in. mitt romney is the winner in vermont. his second win of the night. he also won, we project in virginia. newt gingrich wins in georgia. we will take a look at the map and show you what is going on right now. you see it. wins for mitt romney in vermont and virginia, and you see the win for newt gingrich in georgia. we are waiting for ohio. the polls in ohio have closed, but we have not been able to make a projection. we have other states closing at the top of the the hour at 8:00 massachusetts closing, and oklahoma closes, and tennessee closes. that is right at the top of the hour. we will see if we can make any projections in those three states, but it is a significant development and a win is a win. mitt romney has two wins tonight so far tonight. so it is a significant development. it was fully expected, but anderson cooper, i expect that

the mitt romney is excited to win those states. >> well, a win is a win. and for you guys, what is important, ohio? >> ohio and delegate count though, because you can't separate the two. if you are inside of a presidential campaign at this point, you are looking more at the total delegates than what states did you win, because that is what it comes down to, and as we started to talk about attrition, and if you are mitt romney that is how you grind the opponents out of the race by picking up so many delegates that even in a state that you narrowly lost that it is impossible for anybody else to get there. >> and ohio has been a bellwether state for candidates? >> yes, and it is like romney that he has to make for the likability case. like he has won florida and michigan and arizona, and these are all important states in the general election against barack obama where he is demonstrating strength, and demonstrating that if you can bring the conservatives along with the established republicans, you can put together a campaign and ari

is right about the delegate count, because the romney people are right there watching massachusetts and santorum falls below 15%, he gets zero delegates even though it is proposh gnat and the same in georgia, and zero delegates there even if it is proportional. and we have to watch the line. >> and ohio matters the most for the reasons that alex and ari state. that is why it is so instructive that the chart that erin burnett showed about the spending of team romney and team santorum is a multiple factor of four to five to one and maybe more. santorum just unable so far to marshall the resources that he knew that was the most important state for him certainly, and he didn't, and was not able to compete on the dollars. that is what it is. >> they have been both targeting the blue collar workers and has romney made inroads in that, because he is not making a relatable argument, but the argument that he knows the economy. >> maybe. maybe. >> and in michigan his own state. >> and i am told that ron paul

may be speaking. >> he is speaking right now at a caucus in fargo, north dakota, but i want to check in with jim spellman, the reporter on the scene for us. and jill, set the scene for us, and then i want to hear from ron paul. >> sure, wolf. there is a couplet a least 2,000 people here to gather to listen to ron paul, and as they have been voting i have seen by far more voters here in the district location than any other candidate by far. let's take a listen, wolf. >> well, the polls in north dakota close at 10:00 p.m. eastern. >> that is right, wolf. >> next year we will celebrate the federal reserve by repealing the federal reserve act. but, a lot has happened in the last four years, and these problems have been going on for a long time and it would nice to

blame one person or one ed administration, but it is going on for a long time, and so many young people here, and you are realizing that you are getting a bad rap for what you are inheriting and the deal, the better deal can be found in less government and only sending peel to washington who has actually read the constitution and willing to obawill t willing to obey the constitution and willing to take their oath of office seriously. [ applause ] which would be, which would do so many wonderful things for us. for instance, if you are tired of the wars, and i hope that you are sick and tired of the wars we are involved in, and what if we had the return to the constitution that the founders made sure in the document of the constitution that the wars would only occur not by the executive branch, but only by the people through their representatives in

congress, and that is the way that all wars should be declared and if they are declared, they should be declared, won, and come home. that is the way it is supposed to be. but since, since world war ii, we have gone the war without a declaration, and for that reason we have essentially not won one of those wars. it has added a lot of tragedy. just in the past ten years, these wars that we are fighting in the middle east over 8500 americans have died and 44,000 have come back with serious injuries and amputations and all kinds of problems and hundreds of thousands looking for help because of post-traumatic stress syndrome, and at the same time economically, it is damaging. it has added $4 trillion to the national debt. that is what you are inheriting and this is the reason that it is so important if you are talking about the peace and the prosperity, that you is to change the constitution and have a lot less war and make a more sincere effort to promote the

cause of peace. [ applause ] this is going on for a long time and both edadministrations have been doing this, and this is the reason that the message of liberty actually brings people together, because individuals see that the parties are not doing a very good job. you elect one party to cut the spending, and they raise the debt and spending as well and the other party goes in and nothing changes. so if you look at the candidates today, there is very little difference except for one. [ applause ] the rest of the candidates support the status quo, and the foreign policy has not changed and the monetary policy has not change and no challenge to the federal reserve system, and most of all, there is no, no desire to protect personal libber the i and personal privacy and protect us from the intrusiveness of the

federal government to protect your right to use the internet. these are the kinds of things that are so important to so many people, and unfortunately, that is not offered. i believe it is the offering up of a program that emphasizes personal liberty, and the constitution and the sound and sensible foreign and monetary policy is the reason that we are getting such a great reception here in north dakota. ron paul making the case to caucusgoers in fargo, north dakota. there is a large caucus, there and he is going through the major points of why he believes he should be the next president of the united states. we will continue to monitor ron paul's address. later in the evening we will hear from other candidates as well. let's take a look at close look at ohio right now with the polls closed in ohio a few moments ago. we have 1% of the vote in, in ohio and so far, very, very early, and mitt romney with a lead, and these are official

votes. 39% to 37% for rick santorum, but look at how small the numbers are so far. 1,837 for prrm mitt romney and 1,767 for rick santorum. and he is only ahead by 70 votes right now, and so we will see what happens, but only less than 1% of the vote is in, and 16% for newt gingrich, and 7% for ron paul. we are taking a closer look at ohio. ohio is a key battleground and politically, it is a major bonanza for whoever wins ohio tonight. we saw the exit polls, john king, and the exit polls earlier suggesting a slight advantage for mitt romney in ohio and not long ago that the polls in ohio showed that santorum is ahead, but mitt romney has been spending, and the super pac, and his own campaign and ton of money spent in ohio trying to do to santorum what they successfully did to gingrich in iowa. >> and remember on this night when rick santorum won in missouri, and won in minnesota, and won out in colorado, where

was newt gingrich? ohio, because that was critical. so what happened? he fell back and won his home state tonight. so he has south carolina and georgia as victories for newt gingrich. and can he get another one tonight? we listened to congressman ron paul, and what is mising from the map? well, tonight, nearly half of the states will have voted. and ron paul does not have inwithes, but delegates. you cannot win the nomination without a win. what is happening so far? we mentioned ohio and it is colored romney red, but when you zoom into the state, we have 1% of the vote in, and governor romney is leading, but it is a small lead, 39 to 37% with a little bit of the votes in, and remember that i talked about how key the cleveland suburbs are, and lake county and very important to mitt romney, and that is where he is leading at the moment, but a small number of votes in and small percentage of the votes in, and 3% vote lead there for mitt romney, and these blue collar votes

to rick santorum, and that is a key battle for him. and mitt romney has won ten states and if you look at the map, 11 is filled in romney red, because he is leading. and governor romney has ten states at the moment coming into the night, and he would like to add ohio and he believes he can add idaho and a chance in north dakota and the question is can he get tennessee? there is no question that we will look at governor romney winning more states. where will oklahoma go? gingrich ahead a month ago and santorum ahead late in the polls, and we fully expect massachusetts to become a romney state. >> and looking at georgia is the biggest delegate prize of the night, and georgia we project will go to newt gingrich, and how is it filling in, because we have 3% of the overall vote in. >> you see gingrich and santorum and typical in the states of a purple fill-in, and a tiny, tiny count, and alex mentioned that you have the 20% threshold and the proportionality kicks in and

we can sew you later in it maerts when the states fill in, and mitt romney winning one tiny county over here by a handful of votes right there. as you watch it fill in, newt gingrich will win the state without a doubt, and then the count is how high is the vote count, and where is the vote count, because the delegates are ap po apportioned on the districts. and this is the biggest basket of votes tonight. >> and this is what we project now for the viewers the order we project is that golden state wins and romney second and santorum third and ron paul fourth. i guess it will depend on the percentages as far as the delegate distribution is concerned. >> how high is the percentage of the vote and do you have viability, and you have to get over that threshold and do you win by districts as you apportion it out. we have 3% of the vote by go and you have the start thinking about who you will get for delegates, and we have to break

it down with a lot of vote counting in georgia and a lot of the vote counting in ohio and beyond. >> three more states, john, getting ready to close at the top of the hour, and will we make a projection in massachusetts, oklahoma and tennessee? standby, you are watching the election coverage from the cnn election center. come back with us. [ male announcer ] what if we told you that cadillac borrowed technology from ferrari to develop its suspension system? or what if we told you that ferrari borrowed technology from cadillac to develop its suspension system? magnetic ride control -- pioneered by cadillac, perfected in the 556-horsepower cts-v.

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right now, we'rewatching a close fight between mitt romney and rick santorum for the critical battleground of ohio. >> and polls are about to close in four more states in super tuesday's marathon. >> ten states and hundreds of delegates are on the line at the same time. >> this time, we have to get the choice right. >> will this night bring any clarity to the most unpredictable race in clarity. >> we just need to stay on the island and not get votedo. >> polls about to close in massachusetts, tennessee and oklahoma. it's america's choice and it's super tuesday. mitt romney is counting on a win in his home state of massachusetts. >> i need republicans to get out and vote. >> but in this south and west, he may be vulnerable to rick

santorum's one-two punch. >> we feel good about tennessee and oklahoma. >> the romney-santorum showdown is intense as this night wears down. >> a choice between tweedle dumb and tweedle dee. >> i will not embarrass you in the white house. >> will any candidate emerge as the big super tuesday winner or loser? republicans are choosing and the world is watching and nothing in this election compares to what's happening right now. welcome back to our viewers in the united states and around the world, the most watched super tuesday contest in ohio, still as of this moment up in the air. now, we're standing by for the first results from three more states, oklahoma, tennessee, and massachusetts. polls close there right at the top of the hour in a few

minutes. a total of 133 delegates are at stake in those three states. cnn's exclusive ballot and caucus cameras are in place across the country to take you inside the voting and bring you the results before anyone else. our anchors and correspondents are out in full force for our super tuesday coverage including candy crowley and jim acosta. let's go to candy first at mitt romney headquarters in massachusetts. candy. >> reporter: wolf, massachusetts, obviously, a second home, at least, we went to one of mitt romney's home states in michigan, they're expecting a big win here in massachusetts when the polls close. it will be enough the democrats, the democratic party in massachusetts was in fact using it as a get out the vote for president obama, trying to get more vote others to come in the democratic primary than come in the republican primary. no real contest here as to the result for romney, but they're just looking at those overall numbers.

wol wolf. >> thanks. let's go to rick santorum headquarters in ohio. jim. >> reporter: rick was once up by double digits in this state and his campaign is starting to lower expectations just a touch and saying a second place finish in ohio would be just fine but not hang their heads in ohio, sounding defiant. >> anderson cooper is keeping a score for all of us. >> exciting night throughout the night. check our super tuesday scoreboard. cnn projected two wins for mitt romney, virginia and vermont, no real surprises there, one win for newt gingrich in georgia, again, not a huge surprise. no wins yet for last or ron paul. that could change at the top of the hour. as more results come in, we will keep you uchpdated with our virtual convention. and we predict the next poll closings, we check in with erin.

>> we talk about ohio. take a look at the state of ohio, this has been a comeback kid state. you look at unemployment, that's the best. there are only two parts worse than the national average. columbus at 7%, significantly better. you look at ohio, some of the best to worse for the ohio economy. the unemployment rate at 10.6% at the peak. it is now only 7.9%, one of the best improved and a big part of the story. >> john king, as we count down to the next poll closings, also keeping close watch on the battle for ohio. john. >> let's look at what we're waiting for the next hour. two very important states. the state of tennessee. one thing we're looking for, senator santorum needs to win the state of tennessee tonight. yes, 71% are you a white evangelical born again christian and hthat has been a source of

strength. with 10 states voting across the country, different states have different electorates, evangelicals in times square, 72% in oklahoma say they're born again evangelical, 72% in tennessee and oklahoma and watch if they go for senator santorum. battleground ohio. interesting question. your opinion of the tea party. nearly 6 in 10 say they supported the tea party as they voted in ohio. how did they break down with the candidates? she doesn't want to work at the moment. i want to show you the results in ohio. a little while ago, colored red for romney and slight edge for senator santorum, an emphasis on slight. and the cleveland suburbs criminal to romney and cincinnati, akron, blue collar areas, absolutely critical to senator santorum as he hopes,

show he hopes to keep romney from getting a victory. >> so far, romney is on the scoreboard, gingrich on the core board and ron paul still waiting for his first win in a primary or caucus. getting ready to close in three states, we're watching it very closely. we will watch tennessee, oklahoma, massachusetts, get ready for this. another win for mitt romney. look at this. his home state of massachusetts, citizen now projects based on the exit polling information, mitt romney, the former governor of massachusetts, wins in massachusetts. massachusetts, 38 delegates at stake. we also project his win in massachusetts, his home state will be larger than newt gingrich's win in georgia. newt gingrich's home state. we are not yet able to make a projection in oklahoma. we are not yet able to make a projection in tennessee, but we

can share with you the exit poll information we have on all three of these states. let's start in oklahoma. first, early exit polls in oklahoma, what people told us as they emerged from the polling booths. in oklahoma, a key state on this evening, these are the exit poll results, look at this. 38% for rick santorum, good news for santorum, 25% for mitt romney, 24% for newt gingrich, 12% in the exit poll for ron paul. let's look at tennessee. these are the exit poll results in tennessee, important numbers, once again, santorum ahead in tennessee with 35%, according to the exit poll, romney, 28%, gingrich, 23%, 11% for ron paul. let's look at massachusetts. we do project romney the winner of his home state of massachusetts. here are the exit poll results. look at this. overwhelmingly voting for romney, 70% according to the massachusetts exit poll for romney, 12% for santorum, 9% for

ron paul, only 4% for newt gingrich. let's take a look at the map. the third win so far for mitt romney. we project he wins in massachusetts, we project he wins in virginia and vermont. newt gingrich we projected wins in georgia. ohio, we have not yet been able to make a projection. romney is winning, let's go to the headquarters and see how the crowd is reacting. we got a picture at romney headquarters. let's take a look and see. maybe they don't know. his margin of victory is very very significant in massachusetts, and he needed to win massachusetts and he won it decisively. the exit poll numbers impressive for romney but santorum is showing strength in those two other states, tennessee and oklahoma which has closed their voting. >> voubl, very important states, particul particularly, tennessee, ohio. as far as you're concerned, ohio

the most important? >> ohio is the most important. bellwether state. if you're the republican to win the presidency, you become the nominee, you have to win ohio. it has all kinds of demographics you like to appeal to. >> blue collar voters? >> blue collar voters. >> the problem for romney in ohio is the same problem he's been having all along in almost every primary except in this south, which is with people who strongly identify with the party, people who self-identify as very conservative and something we're seeing, particularly in the south, is people who believe religion matters a great deal to their vote. we see this in tennessee, see it in oklahoma. >> you're suggesting there's a mormon question? >> i think i'm beginning to see, at least particularly in the south, there really may be a mormon question or -- >> just as there was a catholic question for jack kennedy.

>> or santorum appeals to evangelicals and born again because of his positions on the culture issues. i do think religion is something we ought to keep an eye on. >> there's no question the road to the white house goes through ohio. you really have to win there, i think, if you want to get to the white house on either side. if he were able to win -- if romney were able to win and send a signal he can win in the rust belt. earlier on there seemed to be some indications he had a hard time in the rust belt. if he wins michigan and ohio he has a much more credible claim. >> his critics saying he was out of touch and several people own nascar teams but he's made an effort to appeal to blue collar voters by putting himself in the economy, even if it's not a relatability issue, he's run companies and knows how to create jobs. >> interesting, when candy thought why the romney people thoughthy were doing reasonably

well tonight, she didn't talk about this, but i do think and we saw this last week, he's been better as a candidate, more disciplined, hasn't had any gaffes in a couple of weeks now. >> nice. >> you got to have progress where you can find it. i also think he's been doing a better job connect egg. that speech he gave last week, we talked about it afterwards, a much better speech than he's giving, more effective on the stump. >> he's talking more about the economy, rejiggered his campaign to focus and kind of veered off a bit and now talking about the economy and jobs and the deficit. >> i want to bring in the republic others. do you agree romney is more focused. >> david is right, the speech he gave last week was focused on obama and the kind of thing obama wants to hear. his advertising hasn't been. he's still carpet bombing his opponents. still has to do it and winning

tactically day-by-day. ohio republican primary is not primary america. 1% african-american, real ohio, 12. 46% female and 51% in real ohio. 96% white in this primary in ohio, only 81% white in the real ohio. almost twice as many senior citize citizens. 26% and real ohio, 14%. even if he can win there, it's not represented. the republican parties getting older, whiter and more right wing not a good thing to build a future on. >> your question of connecting with voters, how do you do that? a lot of times we make a mistake in politics, you can connect to tell you they're like voters. you don't do that. the way you connect with voters, you elevate them. you tell them this election is not about you, it's about them and this election in this country's future -- >> are you quoting president barack obama? specifically saying that things

speech. >> mitt romney suffers from the same disease barack obama does at times. tell you about them. i'm a businessman. i'm very bright, barack obama and tell us the differences between them. that's not the way you connecticut with voters. you look at a voter and say, look, this corinthians buntry i trouble. it's in your future and your hands and your life. you have to get lower than the voter in a way. you have to be a servant lead tore connect with people. that's very hard for people who have been ceos. he's a ceo, manager, used to being the guy to push a button and turn a company one way or the other. what does he do? goes to voters and starts talking what he would do opposed to their role and their value in saving a country turning the country around. >> he's doing whatever it takes to win. he has closed a gap with rick santorum by spending millions of dollars in negative advertisement.

80% of ads in restore our future, negative advertisement. the only time he's capturing voters is when he's negative against president obama and -- that's terrible. >> and the republican candidates. >> he's winning by being negative, let's be honest. >> nobody ever ran negative ads against them. >> people are starting to suffer political amnesia and forget what happened in 2008. in the middle of that election, that was quite divisive. hillary clinton attacked barack obama over ties to slumlord tony rezko and said he wasn't ready for a 3:00 phone call and said shame on you and said he was lying about her health care record. that race got tough. here's what democrats said about it. they will keep pounding there and pounding each other and bloodying each other and no one is winning. that's governor fill bled so of tennessee and dodd said back

biting and sniping on an hourly basis is undermining our ability to win an election. >> you don't see this chipping away? >> i think you have to take a broader view at elections. here's what happened today, today's poll. nobody after the democratic primary was over remembered the divisiveness. it was divisive. i think it's equally possible nobody will remember the divisiveness of the republican race particularly if the polls show it's still relatively close to barack obama as nominee. >> barack obama didn't move an inch to the left to ideologically defeat hillary. >> i think alex is right. >> he did not endorse single y payer heart attack, that that -- payer health care. he did not endorse exxonmobil some people on the right might have liked. watch, the dream act going to the right of rick perry on immigration, going to the right of rick santorum. >> they both have

vulnerabilities. both candidates have vulnerabilitie vulnerabilities. >> in his first two years of office and did it regularly. >> the longer we have a party and the longer the democratic party went through the process, we kept picking up people and kept exciting people and doing voter registration campaigns. >> you think republicans are turning people off? >> look at the latest "wall street journal" poll. most republicans, 4 in 10 unenthusiastic, depressed. >> gallup showed the exact same thing about the democratic primary in 2008. 56-35, democrats said the primary was doing more harm than good in march. in april -- >> that wasn't reality. >> that that's my point. >> it feels worse than it does after it was over. >> turnout wasn't down like in the republican system. >> let's check in with wolf. >> let's look at tennessee and oklahoma first. the votes are starting to come in. we have not made a projection in

neither of these states, although santorum according to exit polls is ahead. with 1% of voters in, santorum is showing that lead, 48% to 23% for mitt romney, newt gingrich, 26%, 6% for ron paul. oklahoma, very early. you see only a handful of votes coming in. not able to make a projection in oklahoma or tennessee for that matter. wait and see. both of the exit polls in both of those states showed santorum i had. let's look at ohio. real votes coming in. several,000 right now. mitt romney maintaining his lead at 40%. 10,578, with rick santorum at 9,770, newt gingrich, ron paul in fourth place. let's go to john king. in this kind of situation, even though our exit poll showed romney slightly ahead of santorum in ohio, we could wait until we actually get a lot more numbers before we can make a

projection. >> just get a couple points like that, four points, it's an exit poll and there is a margin of error and you want to catch the votes. >> and now it's romney red and before, santorum purple. now romney red. it's just starting to fill in. 2% of votes officially counted. that's tiny and miniscule. what i would expect is see if senator santorum can fill in. see the purple here and here. another one comes in, these are small rural counties where you find evangelicals and tea party voters where he's been stronger in other states like this. another key area for senator santorum. blue collar towns. youngstown. slight lead right now, nothing doesn't represent 1% of the votes? . senator santorum needs to do better in this county than that. one of the things you watch for. toledo another to watch in lucas

county. largedy democratic area, but in republican primary blue collar votes to go. if you're governor romney and see some red starting to fill in, you're encouraged. upscale voters, tends to do better with higher income voters. in the southwest corner of the state, this is a big republican area, very important in statewide elections, i will zoom in on hamilton county where senator rob portman is from, mentioned by many as a potential vice president candidate, very organized county and statewide elections they run up the numbers in hamilton county and very driven in a turnout in republican primary in the suburb, governor romney needs to do very well. you look at the votes, we say zero percent of hamilton county, tiny amount of votes, one or two precincts in, that's right now. we could use more votes in

hamilton county. >> dan fla bash is over there. are you getting new numbers, dana? >> reporter: i am in hamilton county with the director of the board of elections, amy siearcy. they just finished counting the absentee voters. what do you have so far? >> it's exciting, a little over 2% in. >> reporter: show us on the screen. mitt romney has a 12 percentage point lead. over 1,000 raw votes in hamilton county with just about 2.2, 4%. >> reporter: not a huge pers percentage. 2.2% is barely anything but gives us an early look how this county is going. as somebody who lives here, you understand how critical it is, john king was talking about how this could determine the whole outcome of the state for this primary. >> hamilton county is a pivotal county in this state of ohio.

how hamilton goes is often how the state of ohio goes. we're a typically swing county and swing state. >> reporter: i want to show the numbers. mitt romney has 3,788 votes, rick santorum, 2,763 and newt gingrich and ron paul and on down. there you see at least for the early results, mitt romney is winning. i want to tell you something interesting how this is going to work. we are currently waiting for 25 trucks to arrive here where we are, in downtown cincinnati and actually, we will hear them pulling up outside this window and probably hear the beep of the trucks soon. those trucks will be delivering all the ballots from around this very important county of hamilton county and once we get some results, we'll get it back to you. >> thanks. we will check in with you periodically to get the latest information of ohio. let's look at tennessee. 5% of the actual vote of tennessee is now in and santorum maintaining his lead, 42% to 31%

and 18% for newt gingrich and 7% for ron paul. we have not projected a winner in times squa in tennessee but exit poll showed santorum ahead. we need more numbers to make a projection in tennessee. do we have updated numbers in oklahoma? still small numbers. 40 delegates at stake, 39 for santorum, 27% for gingrich, 24% for romney, 8% for ron paul. our exit poll numbers showed santorum ahead in oklahoma and we don't have enough information yet to make a projection in oklahoma. we're watching ohio very closely. we have more information coming in from ohio. we'll take a quick break. more from the cnn "election center" after this.

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there are caucuses in election. they don't close for another 3 1/2 hours. but we are up there in wasilla. we heard about it only a few years ago. standing by with a special guests, the former governor of that state. paul, talk to her. >> reporter: i will, wolf. why -- by the way, sarah palin says hello and just voted in wasilla. a lot of people are asking, who did you vote for tonight? who would you like to see emerge

as the gop front-runner? >> i will not tell you who i voted for in the preference poll. i want to say hi to vote and thank you for being here in wasilla. every vote counties and every state matters and why i want to see this process continue and more people have a say in who the nominee should be. >> while you won't say who you're leaning for, is there something you think is extremely important to the gop platform this year you want to see come to fruition? >> yeah. i want to see the process and more debate who it is that can bust through the obama pandering we see and bust through with facts and history and logic and common sense in order for american voters to understand we do have a choice. there is a contrast between the incumbent, barack obama and any of the four on the gop ticket, who best can bust through that rhetoric and express their ideas and solutions to get our economy on the right track, that's the nominee i want to see

forerunner. >> reporter: is there any fear if this drags on for a long time, you will sap war chests and cause a situation where the party becomes too divided? >> i am not a believer in that not at this point. i believe the competition makes all our candidates better. remember, there are five men running for president and i think barack obama is the worst choice, is the last choice. so the four in front of him, as they duke it out in the arena of ideas and solutions to propose, the more of that for better. >> sarah palin for president, 2016, is it possible? >> anything in this life, in this world is possible. anything is possible for an american. and i don't discount any idea or plan that at this point isn't in my control, anything's possible. >> reporter: but would you seriously consider a run? >> i would seriously consider whatever i can do to help our country, to put things back on the right track. our economy, the foreign policy, proposals we have to see put

forward in order to secure our homeland, and the americans especially, our brave fighting men and women overseas right now in places perhaps we shouldn't be right now, anything i can do to help, i will be willing to help. >> reporter: this year for you, what's issue number one? >> issue number one is a combination of the economy and the military needs that i, having a family member in the military, serving in a war zone right now, am intimately aware of. we do have some foreign policy proposals right now the gop is putting forth i believe will help strengthen the military, won't slash the military troops, the benefits they have earned. a lot of military issues are important to me. of course the economy, getting the job market back humming again and we do that by developing resources we have in alaska, oil, natural gas, all those things near and dear to alask alaskan's heart certainly are

near and dare to america's heart and getting with the economy and military. >> reporter: onow, to wolf. >> there's a delay, but thank the former governor and political nominee for all of this. i'm curious how she's reacting to this controversy and there were vial words uttered to sarah palin by liberal democrats and want to know if she wants to weigh in on this controversy. >> reporter: wolf wants to know if you want to weigh in on the transfers and vial words were used towards you and how about the controversy with rush limbaugh? >> i think he hypocrisy for rush limbaugh to have been called out

and retract what he used in his first amendment rights and never is the same applied to the leftist radicals that say such horrible things about the handicapped, about women, the defenseless. i think that's the definition of h hypocrisy. that's my two cents worth. >> reporter: and from john king, we apologize, sarah palin's husband is patiently waiting. >> we thought we would bust through and here you are. >> i would ask the governor about the possibility of an open convention. if there is an open convention and if someone said, i want to place your name in nomination, would she stop them? >> reporter: it's the open convention question, if we wind up with an open convention and someone wants to place your name in the hat, would you stop them? would you be open to that? >> as i say, anything is possible.

i don't closeny doors that perhaps would be open out there, so, no, i wouldn't close that door. my plan is to be at that convention. >> reporter: i thank you profusely for stopping. >> you are a lucky dude that i did. thank you. >> reporter: thank you so much. i appreciate todd stopping as well and your family. >> appreciate you. thank you. thank you for being in wasilla. >> reporter: you're welcome. we're glad to be here. as we said, not just sarah palin, but to expect that as many as 1,000 people will come through here as multiple districts vote in wasilla, alaska, of course, very exciting, a wild card, if you will. they're not really sure how this will go. you've got no political poll. sarah, let me ask you while i'm here, do you feel anybody has an advantage? >> there's a strong libertarian strength and i think ron paul will do well. romney won four years ago the caucus preferential poll. and newt gingrich is spot on with energy development and so

important to alaskans and alaskan is a very conservative state so red rick santorum could do very well. kind of, i think, a microcosm of the rest of the country. things are up in the air. we don't know. >> if i might add, here in the valley, they say santorum has been running very well with evangelical christian. >> sir, of which i am one. all four candidates are great and five men running for president and the four that you just mentioned are better than the incumbent, anybody but obama. >> thank you so much. thank you for taking time out. >> thanks. >> reporter: there you have it, the story from wasilla, wolf, john and the rest of you, back to the studio. >> we'll call him the lucky dude. appreciate it very much. we saw the first dude of alaska there as well. anderson, let's assess what we just heard right now from the former republican vice-presidential nominee. she's not closing any doors. if there's an open convention, 2016, she's got her options all

open. >> paul begala, democrat, is smiling like a cheshire cat, thrilled. >> i bet a lot of republicans watched paul's interview with governor palin and said, why can't the boys running do great job and clarity. she did not do a great job in interviews running with senator mccain. she did a great job there seriously. the knowin notion she's still holding out, if there's a brokered convention, she's still holding out. that may be the biggest news story of the night. >> alex. >> gulp. >> that got his tongue. >> when campaigns aren't about big things, small things become big. mitt romney has not been able to close town this race. what happened because of that? all of a sudden, doors stay open, campaigns stay in, and find funders to keep campaigns alive and sarah palin sticks her foot in the door for the

convention saying i will be sitting in the stands in case you need me. she wasn't disavowing any interest in still being the republican nominee tonight. all of this starts with one candidate's inability to grab this election that's laid out in front of him and make it his and that has to be mitt romney. >> can you imagine a scenar scenario -- >> no. i think the nominee is in the field and probably one of three and one of two and probably one of one. we'll see what the delegate count is. remember, it's not that last long lasting republican primary. huckabee dropped out march 4th 2008, do dole dropped out march 9th in 1988 and not until may against reagan in 19 80 for the other. >> do you think sarah palin has a role in the republican party

as a candidate in this future? >> yes, indeed. >> if democrats have their way. >> i agree with former governor sarah palin when she said that, you know, we have so many states to go, so many voters who have not had a chance to take a look at these candidates. mitt romney was out of the race four years ago. is the an opportunity for him to introduce himself, to continue to connect with those conservative voters. agree with her on that issue. >> sarah palin's negatives. remember where she was a few months ago when this process was starting and we were looking who was going to be in and out. her negatives even among ranges were substantial. she is a very polarizing figure politically on the ballot. she would give barack obama the election he wants,s which an election that's about the republican, not about obama and his economic record. sarah palin, to her credit, saw that and stepped back and realized that -- and very few politicians actually put country before self these days.

she did. she stepped back and said, you know what, i can be the power behind the thousand thrones opposed to sitting one. if she rethinks that, we could be back where this whole thing started. i think she'd be polarizing again. >> okay. it's not happening. these candidates are not going to suddenly step out of the way and say, oh, sarah palin, right. we forget about you. how about coming in and rescuing the republican party? the people who work for these candidates, these candidates themselves have fought a hard race. you don't walk in and rescue the part. it they won't do it for mitch daniels or chris christie. anybody who got in now would probably lose. if you wait until the convention, come on, don't think so. >> i don't think for a second she was seriously thinking she's going to be drafted at the convention. she's very artful and i respect her for it at keeping her name alive. this is about sarah palin ink. you want to keep that stock

value very high and she's very good at it. >> do you see down the road a political campaign in her future. >> sure. >> or does sarah palin ink continue on? >> i think sarah palin ink rolls on. >> that's the business of the future. >> you know what, you never kno know. >> you disagree. >> i think she is an incredibly sincere political figure. she loves her country. she's concerned about it. she steps back. there are other ways to be important in the republican party other than run for president. >> i have no doubt. that was my question. do you see her running for an office. >> anderson, we're having such a hard time predicting what's happening this week and this month, who knows in four years. >> we have six hours. >> considering the volatility of the electorate, she can raise money. she has 100% name recognition and there's a lot of negativity and commands media coverage. >> when is the next time she will be on our air, we have to

make the most of it. >> the answer should have been -- >> she is a polarizing figure. as long as she remains that, she'll have the strength to be within the party but -- >> i will be voting for the republican for re-election, right? that would have been the political answer to give, right? >> three states have closed, voting in ohio, tennessee, oklahoma, we have not yet been able to make projections in those states but we're working really really hard, based on exit poll information we got and the actual votes coming in. we'll see if we can make a projection very soon. stand by for that. we're also waiting to hear from the winner of the georgia primary, newt gingrich, getting ready to speak to his supporters in atlanta. stand by. our coverage continues right after this. [ male announcer ] what if we told you that cadillac

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newt gingrich speaking to his supporters in atlanta, and he will start receiving secret service protection, just like two others, mitt romney and rick santorum, newt gingrich receiving secret service protection. and the polls are closed but no projections in two states. 10% in, mitt romney 40% to rick santorum's 37%. mitt romney almost 3300 votes ahead of santorum. newt gingrich, only 14%, ron paul, 7%. it's very very close in ohio, according to the exit polls, we had mitt romney slightly ahead of rick santorum. we're waiting for actual vote count before we can make a projection. in tennessee, 15% in, rick santorum maintaining a

significant lead. we have just project ed rick santorum will win. you saw that check go on as i was talking. rick santorum, cnn projects will carry tennessee. you can see based on the exit poll information, actual vote count with 15% of the vote in, rick santorum the pennsylvania senator will win tennessee, the first win of the night for rick santorum, a very important win to give him a little bit of momentum on this day. peter hamby is on the scene for us in nashville. rick santorum needed a win and got a win in an important state. >> reporter: he really did. this is a state mitt romney hoped he could close with newt gingrich closing down and romney thought they could eke it out. a lot of early votes went santorum's way. we're watching davidson county

in nashville, place where romney was supposed to do well. we actually got the news first before they heard it here in the tennessee war room where we are at the country music hall of fame in nashville, by far the coolest primary night location so far. is the a big win for rick santorum. he had to do well here, and oklahoma, the two big delegate prices. -- prizes. he's won a lot of caucuses but this is a good 2001 have at his belt. >> newt gingrich is getting ready to talk. his supporters all excited he has won the state of georgia. you see him there with his wife, newt gingrich getting ready to speak. maybe calista, his wife will speak first. we'll watch and see what happens, an important win for gingrich, important win in georgia. in tennessee, apparently did not do that well in tennessee.

georgia, he wins. let's watch a little bit of this and see what's going on. we'll listen to calista and gingrich. >> thank you for that warm welcome. it's great to be back in atlanta. what an exciting evening. we are so proud of our many volunteers who have worked hard here and throughout the state of georgia. thank you from the bottom of our hearts. you have made this evening possible and we are very grateful. we have truly enjoyed being back in georgia throughout this campaign and are humbled by your overwhelming support and prayers. thank you. newt and i are engaged in this race because we believe america is at a crossroads and care deeply about the future of our country. there are only a few months left before the most important election in our lifetimes. our only opponent is barack

obama. [ applause ] and we are committed to removing him from the white house. [ applause ] >> this campaign is far from over, and tomorrow will bring another chapter in the race for the nomination. [ applause ] >> newt is the only candidate with the experience and knowledge necessary to rebuild the america we love. [ applause ] >> he has a successful national record of creating jobs, balancing the budget and reforming the government. today, we need a leader with bold solutions to create a better future for all americans.

[ applause ]. >> i believe that leader is my husband. [ applause ] >> please welcome former speaker of the house and the next president of the united states, newt gingrich! f [ applause ] >> newt gingrich newt gingrich newt gingrich newt gingrich newt gingrich newt

>> you know, is the amazing. i hope the analysts in washington and new york, who spent june and july explaining our campaign was dead will watch this tonight and learn a little bit from this crowd and from this place. [ applause ] we survived the national elite's effort to kill us in the summer because of you, because of people who said we are not going to allow the elite to decide who we are allowed to nominate.

and so with your help, thousands and thousands of people came to newt.org, and with your help, we survived the two most difficult months of a career which goes back to august of 1958. and june and july were really hard precisely because the national elite, especially in the republican party, had decided that a gingrich presidency was so frightening they had to kill it early. but you, you wouldn't let them do it. [ applause ] so with your help and the power of large solutions and big idea s, and clear communications in the debate, according to gallup,

i was the front-runner by 15 points and according to rasmussen the front-runner by 21 points, because you believed in the power of ideas, you believed people can make a difference, in fact, wall street money can be beaten by main street work. [ applause ] wall street money decided only a relentlessly negative $5 million campaign in iowa would work and they did reduce my support from 36 to 14% in three weeks of unrelenting negativity. once again, the media said, oh, i guess this is over finally. but you all said, no. at the very depths of the establishment rejecting it, thousands of more people came to

newt.org and signed up. >> yes. >> the result was, like south carolina, we won a historic victory and carried 43 out of 46 counties. it was extraordinary. [ applause ] i'm pretty sure that tonight we have a number of the south carolynians who helped us win who came over to help us celebrate this great victory. at that point, the forces of wall street figured out they were in real trouble. as the "new york times" reported later, they held a meeting on sunday morning after a saturday night primary and said, we have to destroy gingrich. one of them was quoted in the "new york times" as saying, we have to eviscerate him, which i thought was a fairly strong word in a republican primary. i would expect obama's people to

do that. i thought it was a tad much having spent my entire career building the republican party. so they piled on $20 million in three weeks of negativity in florida and we were still standing. we carried all of north florida. interestingly, everywhere we were, when we won, the vote went up. when wall street won, the vote went down. which i think is a pretty bad sign for this fall if we end up with a wall street candidate. at that point, they began to say, well, maybe he's gone. then, frankly, senator santorum did something very clever. he went to three states nobody else was in and he won them. the news media, disappoint to prove gingrich was gone said, now we have the person who will be the non-romney. calista and i looked at each other and jackie and jimmy and

kathy and paul and my two debate coaches, maggie and robert -- [ applause ] >> by the way, i would say for the performance they get out of me, the most underpaid debate coaches in america. although they will probably talk to me about that later on. i probably shouldn't have said it. at any event, we looked at each other and said, you know, remember when it was tim pawlenty who was going to crowd me out and remember then when it was michele bachmann and then it was our good friend, herman cain the first time and then for a brief moment, it was donald trump almost. then it was our good friend, rick perry, then herman cain the second time and now it's santorum. and you just can't quite get across to them, it's all right. there are lots of bunny rabbits that run through. i'm the tortoise, i just take one step at a time. [ applause ]

>> i have always tried to be very candid. sometimes it gets me in trouble, on balance, i think it's how i want to live and how i want to do things. so i said at the very peak of the santorum surge and all this stuff, if i can't carry my home state where people know me, i would have no credibility. and i knew the basic wall street technique, which was to come in and spend lots of -- how many of you have noticed negative ads? sn>> how many have noticed the reagan ad a total lie. that's what we're up against. it's one thing to have lots of money and another to lie with the money. i said, let's go home and i'll test it out.

i'll go home. calista and i crisscro-crossed state and kathy and jackie. and i have to say governor deal did a tremendous job and worked very hard. [ applause ] herman cain stepped up to the plate and worked very very hard. todd palin made phone calls and helped communicate there was a candidate who ought to be helped. in tennessee, fred thompson was tremendously helpful and in oklahoma, j.c. watts was extraordinary. [ applause ] so we basically put people power against money power. the very first race they called tonight, about 15 seconds after the polls closed.

[ applause ] >> i'm here first of all, to say thank you to each and every one of you, because you are the reason we survived every effort of the establishment to stop us. [ applause ] >> newt newt newt newt newt newt newt newt newt newt. >> now, being here, at the waverly brings back many memories. in 1994, this is where we learned that for the first time in 40 years there would be a republican speaker of the house. [ applause ] you know, for that entire campaign, all of the elites thought we were crazy. first of all, we ran a positive

campaign. we had a contract with america. they just thought that was weird. why would you go to all that trouble? have all these ideas? we didn't spend our time on lots and lots of negative ads. we spent our time communicating hope to the american people. the result was the largest one party increase in an off-year in american history because the american people want a chance to have hope again. >> so, as calista said, tomorrow will bring another chapter in the race for the nomination. it's more than a chapter in the race for the nomination. a chapter in a fight for the soul of the republican party, a chapter in the fight for the very nature of america, a chapter defining who we are as a people. let me be very clear.

i believe that i am the one candidate who has the ability to debate barack obama decisive ly. [ applause ] >> do it, do it, do it, do it. [ applause ] >> let me be straight. i don't believe the romney technique of outspending your opponent four or five to one with negative ads will work against barack obama because there is no possibility that any republican is going to out-raise the incumbent president of the united states, therefore you can't follow that strategy. what you have to have is somebody who knows what they

believe, understands how to articulate it so it cuts through all the media, offsets the bias of them lit media disappoint to re-elect the president and has the guts to take the president head-on every single time he's wrong. >> well, we run a very frugal campaign and we couldn't afford one. but i've already promised that if the president will agree to seven three hour debates in the lincoln-douglas tradition, he can use a teleprompter if he wants to.

i'll get to that in just a second. but i want you to know that in the morning, we are going on to alaba alabama. we are going on to mississippi. we are going on to kansas. that's just this week. i was actually in huntsville this afternoon, starting off our alabama effort. i want to say to all of you, any of you who have friends anywhere in the country, if you can e-mail them, paste on facebook something as simple as newt equals $2.50 a gallon gasoline and go to twitter and put in hashtag $2.50 gas. we run a very inexpensive straightforward inexpensive campaign. 29th give you one example how profoundly different we are both

from the other candidates and from the president. one that i would love to debate this president about. that's the one that a number of you are holding signs for. i want us to have an american energy policy so no president will ever again but to a saudi king. [ applause ] >> newt, newt, newt, newt, newt, newt. >> i want you to imagine the debate this fall. the president was right the other day. he's so nervous about gasoline prices and energy, that he's done two major speeches. i thought today, in one of the most shallow and self-serving

comments by a president i've heard in a long time, he was candid in his press conference. he said, you know, i'm really worried about higher gas prices because it will make it harder for me to get re-elected. i did not make this up. it was just nice to know that the president once again has managed to take the pain of the american people and turn it into his own personal problem. the fact is i'd love to debate this president because when you read these speeches, they are so deliciously incoherent, they are the perfect case study of liber liberalism run amuck. the president says, the republicans have three strategies. strategy number one is drilling, strategy number two is drilling,

strategy number three is drilli drilling. i want to say to him, mr. president, is the one of the rare occasions when i can say you are right! [ applause ] >> but the president had an alternative to drilling. is the why debating him would be just one of those moments where you could almost sell tickets for charity. the president said, we have to be practical, drilling won't solve it. and then he offered his practical solution. anybody here remember what it w was? algae. algae. i mean, i think this summer, as gas prices keep going up, one of our campaign techniques, should we have people go to gas stations with a jar of algae and

say to people, would you rather have the gingrich solution of drilling and having more oil or would you like to try to put this in your gas tank? i'm amazed that "saturday night live" hasn't taken that speech and turned it into a skit. you can't make this stuff up. it made it really intellectually totally incoherent, the president, literally two pages after he explains drilling doesn't work, the president explains, we had this great break through in natural gas, that we now have, thanks to new technology, over 100 years supply of natural gas. in fact we're going to create 600,000 new jobs the next decade out of natural gas and i am still waiting for one of the reporters at the white house to come out of their comatose re-elect obama stance and ask the following question, how does the president think we

discovered the natural gas? because, of course, the answer is -- >> yelling. >> right? i came up with a specific proposal to make vivid there could be a better future in practical terms. i proposed $2.50 a gallon as our goal. now, i have to say, my daughter jackie was off campaigning with herman cain and after two days of campaigning with herman, she came back to me sand said, you know, maybe we should change that. maybe it should be 2.4999. to his credit, herman said, no. that will not work as a marketing device. stick with 2-5-0. which he's very good at. >> i picked 2.$2.50.

i actually picked it by asking the oil experts what's a price at which you would have continuous exploration? because my goal is to have energy independence so we are free of the middle east. [ applause ] >> i will break away from newt gingrich because we have news, important news to report right no now. >> a second win for rick santorum tonight. cnn projects rick santorum the winner of the oklahoma primary he needed this win, he got this win. rick santorum, the former oppose senator getting his second win of the night. earlier, won tennessee. oklahoma, and important state, 40 delegates at stake. rick santorum the winner. let's show you the votes in oklahoma right now, how we made this projection, based on exit poll results, rick santorum out of the exit poll.

now, we have 15% of the official vote in, santorum with 34%, 18,594. 27% for romney, also 27% for gingrich, a close contest for second place in oklahoma right now with 15%, now 16% of the vote in. ron paul coming in third. but rick santorum, we project is the winner, is the winner in oklahoma. earlier, we projected he's the winner in tennessee. ohio is still very very close. we have not been able to make a projection. look how close it is with 20% of the vote in ohio in right now. 38% for santorum. he's almost 2,000 votes ahead of mitt romney with 37%. 88,111 for santorum, 96,159 for romney. 35,332, 15% for gingrich, only 8% for ron paul. this is with 20% of the vote in but the news right now is that

rick santorum we project wins oklahoma. here are the states as they're up. right now, we projected three wins for mitt romney, virginia, vermont and massachusetts. two wins for santorum, oklahoma and tennessee. one win for newt gingrich in georgia. we're waiting for ohio. three more states getting ready at 10 p.m. eastern, a little bit less than an hour from now, two of those will be closing the polls in idaho, north dakota, alaska at midnight eastern. you can see what's going on. oklahoma, an important win for rick santorum. ali velshi is on the scene for us in oklahoma. ali, you're with the ballot camera over there. set the scene for us. oklahoma, santorum needed another win. he got it in oklahoma. >> reporter: we moved over, wolf, because there's a big watch party going on, the state chairman is speaking behind me. the governor is here.

we've been in oklahoma the last few days talking to people. they've been telling us, they really feel more in tune with rick santorum in terms of the cultural values of the state. a very conservative state. the governor just called it the most red state in america. their big concern is energy, has a lower unemployment rate than the rest of the country. the pipelines run through here and the keystone pipeline was going to run through here and they share the energy outlook and their choice about who they felt shared their values and most people in this state we talked to said rick santorum. there was some question about who could win the election and a lot of people went to romney. a lot of people said rick santorum represents the social conservative values oklahoma represents. it's a win for them tonight. >> important win. first we project he wins in tennessee, now, oklahoma. still waiting for ohio right now.

ali. stand by. i will come back to you a little bit later. on the scene for us. take a look. here is the breakdown of what has happened so far. let me start in virginia. virginia, we projected a while ago, mitt romney was the winner. he was on the ballot in virginia. so was ron paul but the other two candidates, santorum and gingrich didn't get on the ballot. we project the win in virginia. same in vermont, mitt romney winner, all four candidates were on the ballot in vermont. mitt romney wins easily in vermont and wins easily in his home state of massachusetts as well, 38 delegates in massachusetts. so those are the three wins for mitt romney so far tonight. let's go over to the wins for rick santorum. right now, we projected he's the winner in tennessee, an important state, also rick santorum the winner in oklahoma. two important states. rick santorum we project is the winner. one state for newt gingrich, one state being georgia. newt gingrich is the winner in

georgia. he just wrapped up speaking in georgia. we heard most of his speech. you can see the winners so far. we're still waiting for ohio and three states are still vote right now, idaho, north dakota and alaska. idaho and north dakota close at the top of the hour, 10:00 p.m. eastern, alaska closes at midnight. you saw paul's interview with alaska governor sarah palin earlier. we might have highlights late tore share with you. so far a mixed bag. to anderson cooper. mixed bag. three wins for romney. two for santorum, one for newt gingrich and ohio critical and close. >> what do you make of what you all heard from the former speaker, alex? >> i think we see why newt gingrich is 1-9 tonight. we were talking earlier about how candidates connect with voters. i think that's a lesson in how not to. one of the things you explain to candidates, don't spend the

whole campaign telling voters you are more important than they are, how important you are. i'm speaker, i'm this, i'm that. there wasn't a single-story there in about a georgia voter, about anybody's life, anything to connect with. barack obama, when he ran, yes, we can, we are the change we've been waiting for. he gave the voter value in the political contest. there wasn't any of that. >> we did hear from speaker gingrich over and over the term "wall street," i guess he 's using that to refer to mitt romney as. >> he's complaining about the wall street money et cetera without note heing has his own super pac, las vegas money, money is money. they both have them. the biggest issue for newt, he's right, he has done a tremendous amount for the republican part. it those who remember when the senate and house went republican, newt had a lot to do for that. you can't go 1 for 10 and say, i'm on my way, we're going to the next stage. at some point, there's inevitability for newt's

candidacy. he can say people tried to write me off before. at some point, writing him off is going to be right. >> we will take a quick break because we understand rick santorum will be speaking and we will bring that to you live. [ todd ] hello? hello todd. just calling to let you know

i'm giving you the silent treatment. so you're calling to tell me you're giving me the silent treatment? ummm, yeah. jen, this is like the eighth time you've called... no, it's fine, my family has free unlimited mobile-to-any-mobile minutes -- i can call all i want. i don't think you understand how the silent treatment works. hello? [ male announcer ] buy unlimited messaging and get free unlimited calling to any mobile phone on any network. at&t.

three wins so far for mitt romney, two for rick santorum, one for newt gingrich. we're waiting for ohio. let's see where it stands with 23% of the vote in ohio in right now. rick santorum is building up a slight lead, 38-like t36%.

9 94,votes for mitt romney, 99,000 for rick santorum. newt gingrich, 15%. rick santorum doing well in ohio. our exit poll numbers earlier showed a slight lead for romney. we have not made a projection in ohio and don't have enough information. we will wait for the tally before we make a projection in ohio. we have a caucus camera in boise, idaho. they close at the much to the hour and in wasilla alaska. you saw paul's interview with sarah palin ea sarah palin earlier and in faring depo faring -- fargo, north dakota. they're counting ballots. and we have more races. jim spellman is in fargo. i want to go to him.

jim, set the scene for us. >> most of north dakota is in central time so the balloting has ended here. the mountain time portion of the state, about 15% of the electorate still up to the top of the next hour. they're counting votes here. this is dan and jamie. how's it going? how are you doing now? >> we're trying to match sure all our ballots match the number of registrants. >> reporter: tell us what are your results so far? >> we are the district at large so a lot of folks from around the state are supporting ron paul because he was here this evening. >> reporter: how many votes do you have for ron paul right now? >> it looks like about 60. >> reporter: and how many do you have for romney? >> 9. >> reporter: and rick santorum? >> 19. >> reporter: any votes for newt gingrich so far? >> he just got on the board. >> reporter: one vote for newt gingrich. it's been a big turnout for ron paul. definitely lot of his

supporters. he spoke here and that was the big attraction for people to come out and see their man and do the voting. >> how many people are at that caucus would you estimate right now, jim? >> reporter: they just finished voting. i think 2,000, 2500 people. they passed out 4,000 ballots amongst the different districts plus an at large. definitely about two-thirds of those are gone. 2,025 people. big turnout for them. they're very happy with it. the ron paul people are cautiously optimistic and think it will be a big night for them. they spent a lot of time getting their man here and there has been no negative advertising and feel that groundwork will be helpful. >> he's looking for his first win. can you go to the table and see about the vote coming in? i'm curious to see if that lopsided vote for ron paul is consistent with some other districts. >> reporter: how are you guys doing in district 27?

you have any numbers yet? >> nope. >> reporter: they're still counting in district 27. district 22, do you guys have any numbers here yet? >> no. >> reporter: no numbers yet. some they use the hash mark m method and some stats. >> we're keeping our eye on north dakota and boise, idaho. john king is with us watching this. i will do back to ohio right now. it's very very close in ohio. this could be a long night. >> the last time we looked at it, it might have been romney red, now santorum purple. welcome to super tuesday and the roller coaster battleground. about 7,000 votes, a little shy of that. 39-36%. only 24% of the vote in. when you look at the state again, we have seen this in other states, you're seeing a lot of purple and think, wow, rick santorum is winning in an a lot of states. to hit a tiny county, small

rural counties, tea party evangelical voters. you see that. where is governor romney doing well, the largest county in the state, largely democratic when we get to november. a big romney lead, almost none of the vote counted yet. when you see that santorum statewide vote. hardly any of the vote counted and up along the lake, romney with a decent lead there. 22%. >> i need to interrupt you a second. they're cheering at santorum headquarters in ohio getting ready to speak. we'll hear what he has to say. i think he's getting ready to walk in now. they're getting ready. finish your thought before we go to santorum. >> this is the battleground. still a lot of votes. hamilton county, hardly any vote in, romney with a big lead. you come back to the statewide numbers. santorum is leading at the moment. there is plenty of time and

plenty of room to see a romney comeback. you just saw the numbers change, 24% statewide, three percentage point literally 6,000 vote gap. it is not a big number when you're looking at so much of the vote out. why is ohio so important? santorum leading at the moment. he won tennessee, oklahoma, these are his previous victories. romney is taking new england, ohio is the one they will wait for. >> he's speaking to an enthusiastic group in ohio right now. let's listen in. >> thank you! well, thank you for coming out stu b stubenville, ohio. god bless you, thank you for being here. for the folks listening at home, we're in stubenville, ohio.

not too many presidential candidates come to stubenville, ohio, much less hold their victory party in stubenville, ohio. [ applause ] we're in a high school gymnasium. i just came from our war room, which doubles as the weight room for the high school. was pumping a little iron to get myself psyched for coming out here. we just prepared our talk where many talks were prepared for this gym floor, in the coach's room. this is our roots. standing here behind me is, well, a part of our family. because is the where we're from. we're from down here in the area of southeastern ohio, west

virginia, southwestern pennsylvania. where the folks who worked hard and built this country lived and worked for many many decades. [ applause ] i'm particularly excited to be here with my family. when i say "my family," i mean not just my family of our immediate family, but my mom, who's right here. this is my mom, kay, 93. [ applause ] and karen's mother and father, ken and bet telee ga-- betty g h ver. i have my brother and karen has several, karen is 1 of 11

children. you can imagine, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, we have a great crew back here, all behind us, all behind us, because this campaign is about the towns that have been left behind and the families that made those towns the greatest towns across this country. [ applause ] this was a big night tonight, lots of states. we're going to win a few, we're going to lose a few, but as it looks right now, we're going to get at least a couple of gold medals and a whole pacelful of silver medals. [ applause ] we can add to iowa, missouri, minnesota, colorado, now,

oklahoma and tennessee. [ applause ] >> we have won in the west, the midwest, and the south, and we're ready to win across this country! [ applause ] >> i want to thank again my wife. i know that those who have seen her on the campaign trail, the common refrain is more karen, less rick. but i'm working on it. i'm trying to get as good as she is at this political stuff. she has been an amazing partner for me and my conscience, my biggest supporter, my most importa important -- my most honest critic and someone who has kept our family together and continues to do remarkable and

incredible things for me everyday for me and all of us. thank you very much, my love. [ applause ] >> we have almost all the kids here. we have john, sara maria, where are you? patrick, elizabeth, peter and daniel. they're all wearing buttons for our little bella. we have everybody here. [ applause ] >> we went up against enormous odds not just here in the state of ohio, who knows how much we were out-spent but in every state. there wasn't a single state in the list i just gave you where i spent more money than the people i was able to defeat to win that state. in every case, we overcame the

odds. here in ohio, still too close to call. [ applause ] >> just like the folks here in stubenville and the ohio valley and all the valleys of this country that are the heart and soul of this country, they worked hard and they overcame odds. that's what -- that's what we're here to talk about. that's why we came to stubenville. that's one of the reasons i'm so proud to have my mom and father-in-law and mother-in-law up on stage with me. they're a part of the greatest generation of america. [ applause ] th >> they preserved liberty by sacrificing immeasurably to keep

this country free from despots. ladies and gentlemen, it's a bit different battle that we're engaged in today but it's no less a battle for the basic liberties that this country was founded upon. we have a group of people in washington and in other places around this country who believe that the elites in washington are the ones that should be making the decisions for all of us, and they have systematically gone and grown the size and scale of government to beyond where it's just unrecognizable. we are running deficits where we're borrowing 40 cents of every dollar. as you look at all of the young people here, the leaders in washington are saying to you, on your tab, and you will pay for this, the rest of your life. what right does the government have to do that to the next generation?

we have people who believe that america's best days are behind us. they believe that it's no longer possible for free enterprise, a free economy and free people to be able to build strong communities and families and be able to provide for themselves and their neighbors. no, we now need an increasingly pow powerful federal government to do this for us. >> no! >> the reason that karen and i ultimately decided to get into this race was because of that issue and in particular one issue. i've said it almost every stump speech i've given. if it wasn't for one particular issue that, to me, breaks the camel's back, with respect to liberty in this country, that is the issue of obama-care. >> [ booing ].

>> what we will go to in a very short period of time, the next two years, a little less than 50% of the people in this country depend on some form of federal payment some form of federal benefit to help provide for them. after obama-care, it will not be less than 50%, it will be 100%. now, every single american will be looking to the federal government, not to their neighbor, not to their church, not to their business or their employer, or to the community or nonprofit organization in their community, they will be looking always to those in charge, to those who now say to you that they are the allocator and creator of rights in america. ladies and gentlemen, this is

the begin ining of the end of freedom in america. once the government has control of your life, then they got you. that's why we decided to step o out. as you look, karen and i, seven children, ages 20 -- [ applause ] >> ages 20-3, not exactly the best time to be out running for the president of the united states. we've given up our jobs, we're living off our saves. yeah, we're making a little sacrifice for a very very big goal. that is replacing this president on november of this year. [ applause ]

>> in order to make that happen, the republican party has to nominate somebody who can talk about the broad vision of what america is. as i talk about in every one of my speeches, i talk about how important it is we remember who we are. reagan in is the farewell address to the american people worried about whether america would remember what made us great. that we are not a great country because we have a great and powerful government, we are a

great country because we believe that rights don't come from the government, but as in our founding document, the declaration of independence says, our rights come to us from our creator. [ applause ] >> the government's job and the constitution of this country was intended to do one thing. protect those rights, so each and every one of you would have the opportunity to build their own life, to take your own path, to create a strong family, strong neighborhood community, to state and country. that's what made america great. we built a great country from

the bottom up. we need people to go up against president obama and his vision of a top down government control, of not just health care, but of energy, and of manufacturing and of financial services and who knows what else is next, but this is a president who believes, believes he simply is better able to do this than you are, that he will be fairer than you are, with your fellow man. ladies and gentlemen, is the an election about fundamental liberty. and the signature piece, the signature piece of legislation that points this out, where you have economic rights created by the government, and then the government using its heavy hand to force you to buy insurance, to force you to take policies that you don't want, and, of course, to force you to take coverages that may even violate

your faith convictions. in this race, is there only one candidate who can go up on the most important issue of the day and make the case because i've never been for an individual mandate at a state or federal lev level -- [ applause ] >> [ responding ]. >> i've never passed a statewide government run health care system when i was governor, because, well, i wasn't gover r governor. but governor romney did. now we find out this week not only did he pass it in

massachusetts, he evacuated for it to be passed in washington d.c. in this middle of the debate on health care. it's one thing to defend a mandated top down government run health care program you imposed on the people of your state. it's another thing to recommend and encourage the president of the united states to impose the same thing on the american people, and it's another thing yet to go out and tell the american public that you didn't do it. we need a person running against president obama who is right on the issues and truthful with the american public. [ applause ] >> this race provides a great

opportunity for a great contrast. big things have to happen in this country to bring us back from the brink of insolvencinso. big things have to happen so we can secure our freedom. as i talked about this morning, in front of aipac, that we have a president that stands with our allies and defender this country and does not apologize for america around the world. [ applause ]. >> we need a fighter. we need a fighter and someone who learned what america was about by growing up in communities just like this. understanding how america and neighborhoods and families work, and believing in them.

understanding they're under a lot of stress and strain right now, much of which is put upon them by the government. understanding that that's the greatness of our country. my mom and my mother-in-law and father-in-law represent here on this stage the greatest generation. [ applause ] >> mom's hamming it up a little bit over there, okay. but the great eest generation w the greatest generation not because they had greater character or courage or perseverance than those of us today, the greatest generation was great because when freedom was at stake, they rose to meet the call to defend this country.

[ applause ] >> we are at a time in this country when freedom is at stake and you are all blessed, as i am, to be here at a time when your country needs you, to be here at a time, like the original founders of this country, who signed that declaration of independence. to be here at a time when freedom was at stake and people were willing to go out and do heroic and courageous things to win that victory. i want to thank all of you in ohio for overcoming enormous odds to make this a great night for us here in the buckeye state. [ applause ]

>> i want to thank in particular on stage, mike and frank dewine for standing up and fighting for me during the course of this. thank you. [ applause ]. >> he's wrapping up his speech, as you can see. rick santorum, a very happy rick santorum. i'm a little worried about his 93-year-old mother standing all that time. i hope she's going to be okay. i've met her. she's a very very spry 93-year-old woman. rick santorum, he's doing really well in ohio right now. take a look at this. 38% of the actual vote in ohio is in. he's got 39% to 35% for mitt romney. he's almost 16,000 votes ahead

of mitt romney with 38% of the vote in. gingrich and paul are way way behind in third and fourth place. rick santorum doing well. some key county is in ohio have not yet reported, counties where mitt romney presumably will do well. john king is taking a closer look. we will take a close look at that. we're also waiting to hear from mitt romney. keep watching the bottom of your screens. we have ohio, result s coming i. much more right after this. ♪

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a real battle under way in ohio right now. we're getting ready to hear from mitt romney to speak to his suppo supporters. he win his home state in massachusetts. here is the delegate count, what happened so far in the races we projected winners, romney with

81 delegates, gingrich, 24, took georgia, six for ron paul. here are the totals from all the contests until today. let's put it on the screen, all the delegate count, 288 for romney, 106 for santorum, 43 for gingrich, 52 for ron paul. 1,144 is the magic number you need. they're getting ready to speak. ann romney will introduce her husband. we will hear what she has to say and mitt romney has to say. watch the bottom of your screens because the ohio numbers are coming in, coming in relatively quickly right now. santorum slightly ahead so far. there are a bunch of key counties we virtually have no numbers yet, numbers where romney presumably is strong. we'll see what happens. let's listen to ann romney introduce her husband.

>> welcome. thank you so much. what was said so true, we're doing what he does best, we're winning by 72%. [ applause ] >> so far, three wins tonight and counting. so here we go. we have ten states to thank people in. i'm going to see if i can get through this list. let me see if i can do this. in alaska, by the way, they haven't even caucused yet but we will thank them anyway. lieutenant-governor tread well. senator lisa macukowski. >> a idaho, governor. travis hawks. in north dakota, thank you to senator john hobin. in ohio, here we go, senator rob portman, the linder family, eddie crawford, ron weinberg and

honorary buckeye donald trump. [ applause ] >> he was on the radio all the time for us in iowa. in oklahoma, san coburn. ryan leonard, fred how and harold ham. senator alexander and commissioner bill haggerty. in vermont, darcy johnston and state senators randy brock and vince elusey, thank you. more states, guy, sorry. in virginia, a big thank you to governor bob mcdonald -- bob mcdonnell. we love him. our wonderful friend, lieutenant-governor bill bolland. and house leader eric cantor. thank you for that endorsement. bobby killberg, jack gerard and

tom ferrell. finally, massachusetts, thank you! [ applause ] >> we want mitt, we want mitt, we want mitt, we want mitt, we want mitt, we want mitt, we want mi mitt. >> i have to thank senator scott brown, who's going to be your next senator. some of our favorite governors, bill weld and paul saluchi and our hearts go to paul and all the health problems and thank you brad jones. chris collins, sandy and paul, bob mcgin and ron. and a special thank you to the thousands and thousands of volunteers all across this

country. 10 states tonight, we have thousands of people making phone calls. thank you, we could not do it without all of you. thank you. we'll wait for more returns and more good news. thank you. >> mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt. >> i have -- i have something to say about some of the women i'm hearing from. we've been all across this country. do you know what women care about? this is what i love. women care about jobs. [ applause ] >> women care about the economy, they care about their children and they care about the debt and they're angry and furious about the entitlement debt we're leaving our children. this is what we're hearing when we're out there. this is our message. it's an economic message, about the future for our children. that's what i'm hearing out

there. from all of that, we know the guy who knows how to do and fix all that. i said, mitt, i'm never going to do this again, but here we are. the reason i'm here and the reason i'm behind mitt and the reason i'm fighting so hard and out there is because i believe he is the only person that can turn around america. so let's let him do that. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> she's the best. she is the best. thank you. >> go mitt, go, go mitt, go. >> thank you, wow. >> go mitt, go. >> she is the best. that was my son, tag with her and his wife, jen, and their children, ali and joe and thomas. great to have my family back in the home of massachusetts.

wonderful to be able to go home tonight for the first time in two months. [ applause ] >> what a -- ann said it right. what a great night. there are three states tonight under our belt and counting. we will get more before this night is over. we're on our way. we're so excited to be in the bay state tonight, celebrating with family and friends who worked tirelessly on this campaign. it's such an honor have the citizens i served as governor as part of our cause. your support really means everything to ann and me. and i'm not going to let you down. i'm going to get this nomination. [ applause ] >> tonight, we're doing some counting. we're counting up the delegates for the convention and it looks good. we're counting down the days until november. that looks even better. [ applause ]

>> we're going to take your vote, a huge vote tonight in massachusetts, and take that victory all the way to the white hous house. >> all the way, all the way, all the way, all the way. >> now, it's been -- it's been a long -- it's been a long road getting to super tuesday, let me be honest. and my opponents have worked very hard. i want to congratulate newt gingrich on a good night in georgia and rick santorum on his good night and ron paul for his steadfast commitment to our constitution and his strong support almost everywhere you go. he's got good followers. thanks, you guys, nice races. [ applause ] >> now, we officially started our campaign about nine months ago not very far from here at a

farmhouse in new hampshire, a beautiful spring day full of hope and promise, a day that made us all recognize once again how lucky we are to be americans. what we launched that day was not just an effort to win more votes and delegates, the start of an effort to restore the promise of america, the promise we know has been frayed by these difficult times. [ applause ] >> we sounded our clearing call across the country, from airport, tarmacs to factory floors, to door-to-door, heart-to-heart, face to face across the country. i met with moms and dads and teachers and students and factory workers and business owners. i've listened and i've learned. i hope i'm a better candidate, by the way for having done all that. [ applause ] i'm going to forever be grateful to you for the help you've given me and grateful to all those people who helped me through

this process and taught me along the way. i met some extraordinary folks. i met someone named norm burn, to me, exemplifies the innovative spirit. norm didn't go to college, didn't get an engineering degree but he does have 100 patents in his name. he turned a small shop in his basement into a very successful. it's entrepreneurs like norm burn who are going to get america's economy back on track if we can get the government out of the way. i've met parents like david mcarthur, may you saw him on the huckabee show, whose children in his case, have served their country in war. david's son was seriously injured in afghanistan as he described. he only returned from the front lines to face a new fight, to get the medical care he needed

and he surely has earned. and as i told david, i believe to those who put everything on the line for us, we owe them everything they need. you know, america's veterans, they deserve a lot better than long lines and reduced benefits, and as president, i'm going to make sure they get the care they deserve. so in running for office, i've had the chance of meeting people like norm and david, and their stories are of course inspiring. i have also met people who are hurting under the stagnant obama economy, and their stories are heartbreaking. some people have lost their jobs. others are working two jobs just to make ends meet. some used to be middle income, and now they're struggling again, right back where they started. as you know, the prices for gasoline and food and clothing and health care keep going up,

but their paychecks stay the same if they're lucky. president obama keep s telling these americans that the rafrby is sheer, but for them, the recession is not over. that's for sure. you know, from generation to generation in this country, americans have always known that the future would be brighter and better. we've always believed in a tomorrow full of possibility and prosperity and security. that deep confidence in a better tomorrow is the basic promise of america. but the day that day is being promi threatened by a faltering economy and a failed presidency. to the millions of americans who look around and can only see jobs they can't get and bills they can't pay, i have a message. you have not failed. you have a president that has failed you, and that's going to change.

president obama -- >> usa, usa, usa, usa! >> thanks, guys. you know, when he was campaigning, president obama said he would create jobs. but for 36 straight months, unemployment has been above 8%, and he's also said he would cut the deficit in half, and he's doubled it. i mean, as you know, the debts today are too high, the opportunities are too few, and we have seen enough of this president over the last three years to know we don't need another five of this president, that's for sure. look -- >> we need mitt, we need mitt, we need mitt, we need mitt! >> this president's run out of ideas. he's runexcuses, and in

2012, we're going to get him out of the white house. now, president obama seems to believe he's unchecked by the constitution. he's unresponse frb to the will of the people. he operates by command instead of by consensus. in a second term, he would be unrestrained by the demands of election, and one thing we can't afford is four years of barack obama with no one to answer to. these days, the president and his team keep telling us things are getting better, but 24 million americans are still struggling for work. they're high fiving each other in the west wing, but my friends, the truth is 8% unemployment is not the best america can do. it's just the best this administration can do. look, when i'm president, this

american economy will not be lagging behind. this american economy will be leading the world as it has and as it should and as it will do in the future. [ applause ] >> for this -- >> mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt, mitt! >> you know -- for this administration, the unemployment number is just another inconvenient statistic standing in the way of a second term, but nose numbers are more than data on a spreadsheet. they're worried families and anxious families and tonight, i would like to say to each of them, you're not forgotten. we will not leave you behind. our campaign is on the move, and

real change is finally on the way. >> we need mitt, we need mitt, we need mitt, we need mitt, we need mitt! >> these times may be tough, but our citizens still believe in the promise of america. and they deserve a president who believes in them. that's why our campaign is about more than just replacing a president. it's about restoring america's promise, and we will do it. >> go mitt, go, go mitt, go! go, mitt, go! >> we won't settle. we won't settle for this president's new normal. i'm offering a real choice and a new beginning. i have a plan that will deliver more jobs, less debt, and sma

smaller government. president obama raised the national debt. i will cut, cap, and balance the national budget, finally. he passed obamacare. i will repeal obamacare. he lost our triple a credit rating. i will restore our aaa credit rating. amazingly, he rejected the keystone pipeline. i will approve it. you know, he has stalled domestic energy production. i'm going to open up the lands for development so we can finally get the energy we need at a price we can afford. look, when it comes to the economy -- >> go, mitt, go, go, mitt, go! >> when it comes to this economy, my highest priority will be worrying about your job, not worrying about saving my

job. and by the way, i have a pro-growth tax plan, jobs plan, that's going to jump start the economy. president obama wants to raise your taxes. i'm going to cut them. that starts with an across the board 20% rate cut for every american. and by the way, i'm also going to repeal the alternative minimum tax and i will finally appallish the death tax. the president has proposed raising taxes for job creators. i will cut taxes for job creators. the president wants to raise taxes on savings and investment. i will help middle class families save and invest tax-free.

you know, it's interesting. after three years, this president does not have a single serious proposal for saving medicare or social security. i have a plan that saves both of them, and i have the courage to put that plan on the table and will win with the truth. as president, i will get our economy back on track and get our citizens back to work. and unlike president obama, i actually have the experience to deliver on that promise. as you know, i spent 25 years in business. i have been the steward of an olympics and the leader of this great state that we're all in tonight. i cut taxes 19 times here. i turned a budget shortfall into a surplus. i know how government kills jobs and yes, i know how it can help create jobs. i stand ready to lead our party, and i stand ready to lead our nation to prosperity.

[ applause ] >> all the way! all the way! all the way! all the way! all the way! >> i have said this before. and i'm going to say it again. this campaign is not just about a name on a ballot. it's about saving the soul of america. and it's driven by an unshakable optimism that lies within the heart of every american citizen. we know our future is brighter and better than these troubled times. we have been knocked down, tested, but we don't accept an america like this has limited. we know america is the land of opportunity. we still get up every morning and thank god we're americans. and we know -- [ applause ] >> usa!

u usa! usa! u usa! >> we also know with hard work and with strong leadership, with a president that will tell the truth, with a president that will live with integrity, that our greatest days as a nation are ahead of us thanks to the american people. and tonight, we have taken one more step towards restoring the promise of tomorrow. tomorrow, we wake up and we start again. and the next day, we'll do the same. and so will go day by day, step by step, door by door, heart to heart. there will be good days, there will be bad days. always long hours. never enough time to get everything done. but on november 6th, we're going to stand united. not only having won an election, but having saved a future. it's time -- it's time to believe in ourselves.

it's time to believe in ourselves. it's time to believe in america. and i'm asking you to join our cause. we need your energy and your conviction and your commitment. i'm asking for your to pledge your support at mittromney.com. get online. we need your voice and your vote in this campaign. and i'm asking you to join in the fight for our freedom. and insure that tomorrow will be better than today. let's go forward today. and restore the promise of america together. let's fight for the america we love. thank you, and god bless this great land. god bless the united states of america! thanks, you guys. >> all right, there you have it. mitt romney speaking before his supporters in massachusetts. the state he easily carried. he's also carried vermont and virginia. three states for mitt romney. two so far for santorum. he takes oklahoma, tennessee. one for newt gingrich in georgia. we're watching two more states,

the polls have just closed in idaho and north dakota. so far, we are not able to make a projection in idaho and north dakota, but look at ohio. look how close it is right now. 59% of the vote in, santorum slightly ahead of mitt romney. 38% to 36%. santorum with 254,757. romney, 254,739. santorum just slightly more than 10,000 votes ahead. gingrich and paul significantly behind. but you know, we're going to watch ohio very, very closely. look what is going on in north dakota right now. 73% of the vote in. santorum is ahead in north dakota as well. 39%. ron paul is second with 28%. mitt romney, third. 25%. newt gingrich, 8%. a small number of people participated in the caucuses in north dakota. 75% of the numbers in. santorum ahead in north dakota.

i want to focus in on ohio right now. you know, if romney loses the popular vote in ohio, he might still win the delegate count because santorum didn't get on the ballots in some of the congressional districts. bad performance on his staff's part, but as he luoses the race in ohio, this race is going on and on and on. >> the race is going on anyway. it's the on and on part that gets interesting if that stays purple. santorum is purple. romney is the deeper red. newt gingrich has won georgia. georgia and south dakota. we don't expect gingrich to win anywhere else tonight. the question is is he a regional southern candidate? when you look at this, look at the state. after winning michigan, governor romney thought i can come back in ohio. this is an incredibly close race. 10,764 votes. can romney make it up? yes, but the window is very tight. why is the answer yes? look up here, the biggest county

in the state, only 41% of the precinct's in, and that's a 7,000 vote lead. as the vote grows, if the margin stays the same, there's several,ntd votes for governor romney in that county alone. it is doable, but that margin has to stick. it also has to come in a big margin like this in hamilton county. this jumped from 6% to 40% in the last 10 or 15 minutes. romney, the edge, a little over 4,000 votes. he needs that to double. if you get up to 100%, it's a margin. it is doable if he keeps the votes coming in the populated areas. lucas county, a romney lead, not as big, but only 30% of the vote in. if he can keep the lead in this county if it matches up and gets to 100%, it's nearly 100 votes or there. the potential is there. >> what about columbus, the state capital? >> about half the vote in.

about a 2,000-vote difference right now at 50%. if the margin stays exactly the same and this is precincts, not necessarily vote counts, but if you double it, could be, emphasis on could be, a coup couple,ncouple couple,thousand votes for romney. you look over here, 100% of the vote is in, over here, 79% of the vote here. santorum will get additional voes, but it's not as populated. we can look at it by population. if you want to look at the population of the state. the thicker the lines, the thicker the area, the higher the population. in the thick population centers, that's dark red. governor romney is winning in the population centers at the moment which is wi as the rest of the vote comes in, he has a chance. but it's 12,000 votes. we're up to 60% of the vote. not much room for error. definitely hamilton county is key for governor romney. the corners of the state, the southwest corner, the northeast

corner is going to be critical. i want to pull out because you mentioned north dakota. look at this in the middle of the country. this is santorum's argument. he won colorado, oklahoma, started in ohio. missouri was a beauty contest. minnesota, north dakota, 78% of the vote in. romney running third. that was a disappointment for ron paul in another caucus state here. if you look at the map, you have two for gingrich here, the northeast and virginia, the o organizational failure to get on the ballt could be a big legacy in the race. we have to wait for idaho, alaska, and we'll keep counting in ohio. >> stand by because we have another important piece of news to report to our viewers right now. cnn projects that rick santorum will win north dakota caucus. you can see it right here. north dakota caucuses close at the top of the hour. 28 delegates at stake. a third win for rick santorum

tonight. he earlier won tennessee, earlier won oklahoma. now north dakota. mitt romney earlier won vermont, his home state of massachusetts, and virginia where only he and ron paul were on the ballot. gingrich won in georgia. we're waiting for idaho and alaska. north dakota finally, we have made the projection, north dakota, rick santorum wins. so it's three wins so far for santorum. three wins right now for mitt romney. but we're going to be waiting for ohio. right now, santorum, santorum has a slight lead in ohio right now. but it could be the tiebreaker, a very significant tiebreaker in ohio right now. i want to go to dana bash in cincinnati, hamilton county in ohio. tell our viewers what's going on over there because this race is really tight. santorum slightly ahead. >> this race is really tight. he's slightly ahead on the state

level, but here in very, very important hamilton county, he's not. with about half of the votes in to hamilton county, mitt romney is winning by about 3,700 votes. he's got 46%, and rick santorum has about 35%. so mitt romney is doing well here. however, i will tell you they're waiting for a very -- if we're getting specific and in the weeds, this is interesting. anderson township, that's a very important town that they're waiting for. it's also a place with a lot of tea party voters and probably a big voting area for rick santorum. we're watching that closely. i want to take you over here. this is where it's acdhael happening. this is where the folks here at the election center are counting the votes. they're getting actual cards in and they're putting them in card readers and it's sending the information into the computer system to give us a sense of where the votes are from

specific precincts. i mentioned to you earlier there will be trucks that will come here and physically bring the ballots from across the county, and that happened. i think we have video. some trucks and cars. even for a crusty reporter like me, it was cool to see that democracy in action. old fashioned democracy in action to see people pulling the ballots off the trucks and putting them into the bins and bringing them up here and watching them count them. some electronic, but still, it's pretty old fashioned. >> thanks very much. we'll stay on top of that. hamilton, which is cincinnati, an important part of the state indeed. it's interesting. i want you to explain to the viewers, john, even if santorum were to win the popular vote in ohio, romney could wind up getting more of the delegates of ohio. >> delegates are awarded in several ways. first, state-wide. proportionalty, unless somebody gets 50%, nobody is going to get

50%. we're safe in saying that. then there are district delegates. let me sneak over here, grab the ohio map. this is ohio divided. it's hard to see the districts in the cleveland area. but if you look at the other black lines within, this is ohio divided by all its congressional dwiths. a bunch of them are umhere in the cleveland, akron area, filled in in romney red. you see the exclamation points. these are places where santorum had defish aenlss. he does not have any delegates in those congressional districts or he can't get all of the delegates in the dwiths because they didn't meet the filing deadlines. the santorum campaign said we were struggling, we didn't have the organization money, the resources. he won tennessee, perhaps he could have won in virginia. leaving delegates on the table. and even if he wins in ohio, santorum will leave delegates on the table because you see him doing well in this district.

he won't get all of the delegates because of his filing defish aenciencie deficiencies. santorum doing well in this district, carrying all of the counties at this point. and in this district up here, which is much more competitive, some romney counties, some santorum counties, he could lose up. up here where he has issues, it looks like romney would carry that. it's likely looking at this map that you're going to have a close race either way, whether santorum holds on to the lead or romney can eke out a victory in ohio. romney is likely to get more delegates than senator santorum because of the filing and organizational deficiency. i want to put this over here to look at the state one more time, come out and come back in, purple at the moment. he won tennessee, won oklahoma, won north dakota. adding that to the four states he had won previously, this is the biggest prize of the night, and at the moment, again, 64% of

the vote in. look at that right there, 12,000 votes. that margin has been staying as the overall percentage goes up, which spells trouble for romney. but can he get half of the votes? there are a couple thousand votes he could get there, and then cleveland and summit county, around akron, but if romney is going to come back, he has to do it pretty quick and in populated areas. >> more and more difficult as the percentages go up. here is what we have so far, three wins for romney in virginia, vermont, and massachusetts. three wins for santorum, tennessee, north dakota, and oklahoma. one win for newt gingrich. three more states still outstanding, especially ohio. we're going to continue our coverage. much more coming up from the cnn election center right after this. [ todd ] hello? hello todd. just calling to let you know

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nice win for rick santorum in north dakota. he's doing well. won three states, he's won north dakota, won tennessee, won oklahoma. three states so far for mitt romney, vermont, virginia, and massachusetts. gingrich wins one. you can see what's going on. we're still waiting for ohio, waiting for idaho. they closed the caucuses in ohio just a while ago. this is the key state, ohio. rick santorum maintaining his lead, about 14,000 right now. 289,000 plus for santorum to 275,000 for mitt romney. 38% to 36%.

15% for gingrich, 9% for paul. look at idaho. nie 5% of the vote is in. but romney has a significant lead in idaho. 76% there. ron paul and santorum tied for second with 10%. 4% for gingrich in idaho. it's a very, very close in ohio. we're watching it very, very closely. a lot of people are wondering if this goes on and on and on, could it actually going all the way until the end of august when the republicans will convene their convention in tampa? tonight, tom foreman is taking us on a virtual convention to give us a sense of how the delegate count may play out. >> earlier, we looked at the array of forces, of delegates for each candidates here in our virtual convention floor in tampa. it's easy to see how mitt romney was leading in the delegate

count before tonight's votes came in and still far from establishing an insurmountable lead. now let's see how the battlefield is changing this evening. remember, at the end of the night, the delegates are all that matters, and even though it's complicated to figure out precisely how many each candidate is picking up, we can say with confidence this is one of the bigger nights for newt gingrich. we added his new delegates on the left. santorum is adding some, too. he's in the middle with purple. and wins including tennessee and oklahoma, we'll show more for him in that section soonl. ron paul picks up a few on the right, but look at mitt romney. expanding his lead, trying to grind down his opponents by picking up another hole block of seats. in short, the few from the podium at our virtual convention is changing rapidly, but so far, we still don't have an answer.

is this party headed for a coronation of a clear favorite in tampa or a confrontation between two or more contenders with legitimate claims to the nomination on this floor? >> tom foreman with our look at the virtual republican convention in tampa. let's show you what's going on. going to idaho. 6% of the vote is in. mitt romney has a significant lead so far in idaho. 1,184 votes. only 160 for ron paul. 149 for santorum. 59 for newt gingrich. romney with 6% of the vote in doing well in idaho. in ohio, look at this. 70% now in, and santorum's lead is actually growing. it's more than 15,000 right now. 305,850 for santorum. 290,848 for romney. 38% to 36%. it's a significant santorum lead. only 30% of the precincts

outstanding so far. we'll see if romney can overcome that 15,000-vote deficit. it's going to be increasingly difficult for romney to do so. we'll check back in ohio in a moment. i want to go to idaho right now where shannon traves is standing by in boise with more. you have a huge crowd there, shannon, behind you. where are you right now? tell us what's going on. >> right now, we're in the taco bell arena at boise state university. we were expecting this to kick off a little over an hour ago, but it's just starting now. to your point about huge, you can't get much bigger than this. i'm going to have our photo journalist pan the crowd. organizers are telling us, get this, 9,000 people in this arena. the arena itself, we're told, sits between 10,000 and 12,000 people. they're saying they have 9,000 so far. some of the organizers are wondering if this was the largest caucus so far of the season. we'll try to check those numbers and verify, but let's talk about

the process. you'll probably notice behind me, there's a line of people. these caucusgoers are lining up and are going to go behind the black curtain. we're going to zoom in. this guy, you might notice a white bucket. each of them are getting a coin. they're not writing anything down. they're taking the coin that they're getting from that person there and dropping it in a bucket, very varto the bucket that the man has right there. each one of the buckets, four buckets, has a candidate's name on it, mitt romney, rick santorum, "nancy grace." a newt gingrich, and ron paul. it looks like this, this isn't the exact coin, but it's similar to this. they cast their coins into the buckets, and then from there, the buckets going up that stage, up those stairs where we have a camera train on the coin counters, we'll call them, the vote counters, and cnn is the

only one to have a camera watching exclusively. we'll be watching that. i talked to a producer to see how long it would take. he said he hopes all 9,000 of the people, they hope they can get the votes finished in 45 minutes. >> romney doing well in idaho. stand by, shannon. we'll get back to you. i want to update the viewers on ohio. these are the latest official numbers from ohio. 70% in ohio, now in, santorum maintaining a 15,000-plus lead over romney. if santorum wins the popular vote in ohio, it's a major setback for romney. we'll go back, check the situation in ohio. john kung is taking a close look at the counties. can mitt romney overcome the 15,000-vote deficit with 30% of the vote outstanding. stand by. we'll be right back.

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oh my, this one has an infinity pool. i love those they just... and then drop off, kinda like the negotiator. three wins for romney, three wins for santorum. one wing for gingrich. let's take a look at ohio, take a look at the voting. 72% of the vote is now in. santorum still ahead by almost 15,000 votes. 38% to 36%. gingrich and ron paul, third and fourth. let's go to john king rights now, taking a closer look at ohio. a lot of people are asking, a asking whether or not there are enough votes out there to make up the 15,000 deficit. hold the thought because i'm told dana bash is in cincinnati. she's got new votes coming in. john, pay attention to this because these numbers are first being reported here, dana. tell us what you have. >> that's right.

this very important county, hamilton county, 80% reporting. romney is up here by about 10,000 votes. he's got 27,807. santorum has 17,267. so romney has about 48% of the votes, and rick santorum has about 29%. so there you see why i'm sure that we and other news organizations are not calling ohio. because this shows that mitt romney is doing well in this very, very important state, and they're still waiting for important townships in this county to come in. but you know, certainly defies the broader picture of the state of ohio. >> that's going to be a net plus of 6,000 votes for romney if you take a look. the 15,000 advantage that santorum had is going to go down by 6,000 if you take a look at these numbers coming in from hamilton county. >> you can't do the direct math because this lead is factored in, but that's about the right

math, 6,000 roughly. that's one county. that gets us up to 80%. more votes, presumably, more votes. so let's stretch the map back out. can he get elsewhere what he just got in hamilton county. will they give him a big jump? the answer is yes, but a thin needle to thread. where can he get them? he can get them in stark county. just 43% of the vote in. you see a romney lead. again, 43%, he's got the lead. if these margins hold up and that goes up, the rest of the vote comes in, you could see a couple thousand votes for romney. akron, summit county, 89%. that's a place where romney is leading. but that number was smaller a minute ago. now that it's up to 89%, smaller room to make up. this is it, the rest of the vote in hamilton county, and the vote in kuyahoga, a big romney lead.

he leads, you see the 7,000 vote difference, at 41%, if he get another 6,000 or 7,000 or 8,000, that's where you could make up the difference. otherwise, if you go around the lake, 100% of the vote is in there, 1p00% of the vote is in here, so we're starting to run out of places essentially for mitt romney to make up the difference. here is another key place to look, franklin county, a more populous area. a quarter of the vote to come in. romney could pick up a couple hunderate voedz hetes here, may thousand, but he's trying to thread a very thin needle. he needs hamilton county, franklin county, and summit and stark as well as the coy ahogua county. 41%, romney depending right now on the largest metropolitan area of ohio to make up a big difference. again, senator santorum had filing issues, organizational issues, so rom gnaw is going to

get more delegates out of the state of ohio no matter what happens. >> but the bragging rights. >> the moral power of that state being purple on the map tomorrow for santorum would be remarkable, to make the argument that shurp, mitt romney will have more delegates at the end of tonight, we know that. for rick santorum to wake up and say look at the middle of america, look at this huge, no republican has won the white house in modern history without winning the state of ohio. psychologically, if he won ohio, it's a different race. >> and they didn't spend much money in ohio. the romney folks spend a lot of money. it's going to be a significant embarrassment if they can't capture the vote. >> a quick break. much, much more after this. this at&t 4g network is fast.

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welcome back to our continuing coverage. what a night in ohio. take a look at the numbers. rick santorum, the lead is shrinking. rick santorum with 78% of the vote in. he has 336,000 votes. just 6,856 votes ahead of mitt romney, who has 37%. newt gingrich at 15%, ron paul at 9%. a very tightening of the race, but again, it's too close to call at this point. jim acosta threw a question to rick santorum just moments ago on the rope line, asking him what a win in ohio would mean for rick santorum. here's the answer. >> senator santorum, what happened if you win ohio, what happens to the race, do you think? >> we feel great. that's all i can say, we feel great. we're in this race. and we're in it to stay. >> and that means all the way to the convention if necessary?

>> to our panel here, contributors and analysts. what do you make of this? if you were in the romney camp tonight, donna brazile, how do you look at the numbers so far? >> i think the biggest issue for romney is he can't seal the deal. he can't seal the deal with self-described conservatives. he's having trouble with independents. and of course, he's still uninspiring to young people. mitt romney's problem is he can't put together the coalition to put it together. >> and among evangelicals. >> i haven't looked on them, prayed on them yet. >> he's praying on them. >> this is a scary night for mitt romney. santorum is going to be able to look him in the eye tomorrow and say you outspent me to three to one in tennessee, four to one in ohio, and in 90 of 95 counties in tennessee, i beat you, and in ohio, we don't know. this is getting scary close for romney. this a near-death experience.

>> near death? >> near death experience. what may happen is mitt romney has the strategy we're going to crush my opponents with more message, more media, more manpower in the states. he's not winning them, he's making the opponents lose. we may see that coming to an end. the candidates are getting known on their own. the negative ads may be having less effect. he may have to win more races as opposed to making his opponents lose. >> we come here, every week, this is the week he'll close the deal. if he was as bad closing thestr be homeless. it's not the campaign. he's got good people, the biggest super pac of them all, good ads. he's adjust not very good at this. he's just not that talented a paul tishz. >> a little longer term perspective here. compared to iowa, this could be a landslide tonight. what is fascinating is you might have a switch between michigan

and ohio. in michigan, romney won the popular vote and then santorum said, but i won the delegates. that didn't hold up, but it was true, a 50/50 split for a moment. ohio, switch it. you could have mitt romney win the delegates but santorum win the popular vote. everybody is going to say rick santorum won ohio. but if you're romney, again, back to basics. he's winning the delegates, and that's the grind. it's taken longer than i think anyone in romney world wanted it to go, but that's the way it goes. >> even after spending all that money, it's a good win? >> no, you don't want to spebd your money, but as long as you have money to spend, you can spend it. >> but look what he has coming up, alabama, arkansas, maryland, kentucky. those are not romney-friendly states right now unless he can kick his campaign up from just a campaign to that cause. >> he's already spending a lot of money, you're hearing, in mississippi. >> he's spend $3 million in

mississippi, alabama, and the only people who spentd money is gingrich. he's carpet bombing these states, but to little effect. >> under ohio law, i hate to bring up a recount -- >> please, feel free. >> but -- well, didn't i tell you. leave me alone. under ohio law, recount can commence one of two ways. by application or when the margin of victory is small. an automatic recount. this is florida. this is possibly florida again tonight. >> oh, my god. >> right now, i should say it's 5,601 votes. back up to 6,055 votes. >> the delegate count avide, but i think airy is right. when you look at romney's performance this entire evening, where would vito say he's underperformed. he won in virginia. but he beat -- he was only

running against ron paul. i would argue that beating ron paul by, what, however? he should have beat ron paul by more than he did in virginia. in tennessee, he lost to santorum by ten points. oklahoma, six points. i have been surroukrounding wit republican strategists who say when you look at tennessee, it's a good way to look at romney's weaknesses. it's a southern state but not the deep south. there's a lot of urban areas that consider themselves kind of moderate. they elect senators like bill frist and bob corker, and so therefore, therefore -- right, fred thompson. therefore, romney should have done better in the state of tennessee. they're not saying he should have won tennessee, but he shouldn't have lost it to santorum by ten points. it's less idealogical, less evangelical. although it is evangelical, i think. 7 of 10 voters maybe.

>> i think you're absolutely right. >> more establishment. if you look at that and say, okay, what is romney's problem? he's not connecting. he's not even connecting to the people he should be connecting to. >> donna, north dakota, you're saying. >> he lost north dakota in twoub 8. he beat john mccain with 38% of the vote, and tonight, santorum wynn in north dakota. surprising to me, a caucus state, but romney carried it four years ago. >> he still may win ohio. let's wait, but i do think there are two things going on. one is the weakness of the candidate because this is a weak field. who could have imagined you would have a hard time putting away rick santorum in ohio or newt gingrich at this stage of the campaign? so that speaks to the weakness of candidate. but there's one other thing. his party has changed a lot. 20 years ago, 10 years ago, mitt romney would have been a good candidate within the republican

establishment field. today, this is a much more conservative party than it was. and i think it's much, much harder for mitt romney to succeed in that kind of environment. >> we have talked so much about money and how important money is and we have demonized how money can win an election. money so far has not bought the easy wins you could expect them to beat. romney spent 5 times what gingrich and santorum spent combined. you're looking at more than four times. since all states combined, just the campaign to campaign, mitt romney to rick santorum, eight to one. and i think that's kind of incredible. it's this throw-away comment, you can buy an election. actually, at least so far, it has not been that easy. it's been a really expensive one. >> as i think alex was saying, people feel like they know the candidates. they have seen them in the debates. >> and that's only going to

increase. >> if you're rick santorum, he's got to be kicking himself. he's got to be saying, if i had said it differently, if i didn't go so far, i would have had a nicer win in ohio, and it would have been such a different race. he made a mistake, and he's still digging out. >> he should have fielded a full slate of delegates. all he needed was three delegates in each congressional district. he couldn't get on the ballot in virginia where he lived for a decade. santorum has performed as a person far better than romney. romney's campaign is far better than santorum's. >> there was a great romney speech tonight. unfortunately, it was given by ann romney. it was terrific. but you see the difference in these candidates. old school, new school. >> let's go to wolf. >> let's take a look at ohio because it's narrowed. that gap, that rick santorum gap has now closed. only 2,570 votes ahead of mitt romney. it's tied, 37% for santorum.

37% for mitt romney. 358,742 for santorum. 356,172 for romney. only 2500 votes separate the two. only a little while ago, santorum had a 15,000-vote advantage. it's narrowed now to 2,570. this race is not over with. 84% of the vote is now in. 16% still to go. anything is still possible. stay with us. you're watching our election coverage from the cnn election center. [ male announcer ] the cadillac cts sport sedan was designed with near-perfect weight balance

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hamilton county in cincinnati. dana bash is there. tell us what is going on in hamilton county, the latest tally. >> this is big news for mitt romney. we have amy here. and she's going to tell us what the numbers are again. >> yeah, so now with over 99% reporting from hamilton county, we now have mitt romney with 49% of the vote. and rick santorum with 29% of the vote. we're looking at 38,116 to romney. 22,788 for santorum. >> a big lead right now. >> big lead. >> and let me give you the number again. i know we're being asked to give it again. the total raw numbers here. mitt romney, 38,116. rick santorum, 22,785. so -- >> dana, let me interrupt. i'm here with john. john, if this holds, that puts

santorum second, romney ahead state-wide. >> that's just shy of 16,000 votes right there. and we had it at 10,000 votes. there's a net plus of 6,000 votes for romney right there. the gap was 2,700 coming into the conversation. that would put romney ahead. that would put romney ahead. i'm going to turn off the telestrator and come out. this is where we are in the official count right now. >> it would put him ahead by about 3,000 votes. >> and then you look, is there any place rick santorum can win. he is winning in fairfield county. santorum could pick up votes here. i'm going to tap some santorum votes. 100% of the vote in, 100% of the vote in, 100% of the vote in. in most of the places santorum is winning, we have 100% in or close to it. here is romney's extra bank, cuyahoga, a very big lead. if the numbers hold up, we'll

give romney the votes to come back. by our count, cnn's exclusive numbers from there, pay no attention. romney would be ahead. >> this is now 99% in hamilton county. >> hamilton county, our numbers at 78%, we'll update this when i close the wall down for a second, but by this exclusive new number, romney is winning in the state, and there are a few places where santorum is voting where you have votes out. i'm tapping random counties. here's a chance for santorum to pick up some of the votes here. in the big population centers, the big population centers, how many states have we seen where a lot of the map is purple for santorum, but romney in a place like summit county, 98% in. you see the lead. you drop down here, only 50% in stark county. romney ahead there. a chance for romney to pick up extra votes there. by our count, thanks to hamilton county, he's ahead and has a chance to build a bigger cushion.

>> in cuyahoga county, you look at the significant lead for romney, the cleveland area, we still have more than half of the vote in that area to come in. presumably, if it matches the first half, that would be very good news for mitt romney. >> we need to see these are some precincts, they're not the same, but outside the suburbs, to the east and west of cleveland are the kind of places where romney tends to perform better than santorum, and you see that if you pull out to the map. in the suburbs around cleveland, akron, cincinnati, romney is winning. toledo has been back and forth. looks county, santorum was ahead. in the areas, the dots, these are the cities, the major population centers. what about the map is unique? in all of the population centers, romney is ahead. this is where organization

matters. santorum wins in the rural areas, romney wins in the suburbs. as you look at this, franklin county, romney ahead there. more votes to come in, but that should help romney. hamilton county numbers help him, and we're waiting to see what happens in cuyahoga county. i'm going to come back. at the moment, this is still purple, but because of the new numbers, we have into cnn, this would now be red. this is a huge delegatewise, it won't make too much of a difference. romney is going to get more delegates, but he wants this to be romney red when we wake up tomorrow morning, and if the vote count continues, we might have it back that way in a bit. if you look at the map, you think santorum has to be winning the state, but look at the major population centers. and i'm wondering why the count is so slow in cuyahoga county.

only 41 persh of the vote in. we have a ways to go as we try to figure this out. hamilton county, our system hasn't updated with the numbers we just got. you watch this fill in, i want to see where we are for the night. that one still in play. santorum. santorum, santorum. idaho, 12%. governor romney is ahead there. he very much needs idaho. we're talking about the big state of ohio, but as this night goes on, one of the things we're learning in the race as it goes on and on and only, people say why is obama going to the dakotas, the smaller states, north dakota for santorum, idaho potentially for governor romney will matter in the delegate chase, and boy, oh, boy, we're almost to the finish line in ohio. >> almost to the finish line. bragging for cnn. we're the only network that has the latest numbers thanks to dana bash and hamilton county in cincinnati. let's update you on what we know and go to ohio first. let's bring it out where we're

take agclose look at ohio. ohio closed at 7:30 p.m. eastern. look how close it is now. 85% of the vote in in ohio. santorum, a slightly, slightly ahead right now. but that was before the numbers in hamilton county were reported. these do not incleed those numbers that dana bash just shared with us. take a look at this. see what is going on in ohio. let's go to oklahoma. oklahoma closed at 8:00 p.m. eastern. oklahoma, rick santorum wins in oklahoma. 91% of the vote is in. we projected oklahoma goes to rick santorum. let's take a look at tennessee as well. tennessee, another state at rick santorum won. they closed the polls at 8:00 p.m. eastern. 38% of the vote going for rick santorum. 28% for romney, 24% for gingrich, only 9% for paul. and idaho, let's take a look at idaho. they closed at 10:00 p.m. eastern. a little less than an hour ago.

take a look at this. romney significantly ahead. only 12% of the vote in. 78% for romney, 11% for paul, 8% for santorum, gingrich, only 3%. shannon travis is there in boise, idaho. we're going to go there. we're watching ohio, what is going on in ohio. this is very close. by our estimate, at least right now, mitt romney slightly ahead of santorum in ohio. but guess what? it's not over with yet. much more of the coverage right after this. [ male announcer ] this is lawn ranger -- eden prairie, minnesota.

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because you're a cnn viewer, you know this. you know that mitt romney right now is slightly ahead of rick santorum in ohio. we have the numbers no one else has these numbers. it's a knockdown, dragout fight in ohio between santorum and romney. >> still up for grabs, which candidate is going to add to his win column tonight? find out. >> romney scoring wins in vermont, virginia, massachusetts. >> we're going to take your vote and take that victory all the way to the white house. >> santorum, claiming victory in tennessee, oklahoma, and north dakota. >> this was a big night. we have won in the west, the

midwest, and the south. and we're ready to win across this country. >> republicans in ten states have their say. hundreds of delegates are being awarded tonight. will the gop field change in any big way once the super tuesday dust settles? this campaign isn't over. more than half of the states still haven't voted, and no one has the gop nomination locked up yet. welcome back to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from the cnn election center. ohio, ohio, ohio. we have been talking about it all night. the biggest prize so far tonight, ten states on this super tuesday. take a look at the official numbers. 86% of the vote in ohio in. you see santorum is ahead by

votes, but they don't have the official numbers we received from our own dana bash in hamilton county. that's cincinnati. it shows a 6,000 vote lead for romney right now. we haven't included those in the official numbers yet. they haven't been reported to the republican party headquarters. by our estimate, romney slightly ahead of santorum in ohio, but still, plenty of time for stuff to happen. we're watching ohio very, very closely. you can see how close it is right there, by our estimate, once again, mitt romney slightly ahead of rick santorum. let's take a look at idaho right now. we have not projected a winner in idaho even though romney is way ahead of everybody else with 12% of the vote in. romney with 78%, 11% for ron paul, 8% for rick santorum, 3% for newt gingrich. let's go to john king and talk ability ohio.

the numbers show santorum slightly ahead, but for viewers just tuning in, we say this, and we say it boldly, and we say it exclusively. romney is really slightly ahead of rick santorum. >> by about 3,000 votes by our count because we're going to show you the numbers here. this is the official count, 78% from hamilton county shows romney with a big lead. we have from dana bash more updated numbers that get us overrateover a 80% where romney got a huge jump. you see a 10,000 edge in the county. we all know that he has a bigger edge by our hamilton county numbers to give him a boost of about 3,000 state-wide. now the question is, are there places where santorum can make it up, and are there more places where romney can get votes. this was blank a bit earlier. medina county, romney with 6% of the vote in, with a slight lead. rough and tumble. he might add a little. that's not a comeback place for santorum. here is the hard one.

cuyahoga county, still at 41%. been there for a long time, but a big mitt romney lead. we need to clean this up. we're waiting for a lot of votes here. this is a place we would expect at 41%, romney to get more votes. you start looking at the map and say, is there anywhere elsewhere santorum can pick up? he could if things change up there, but it's unlikely. start looking at places where santorum is winning, 100% of the vote is in, 100% of the vote is in, across the state, if you look at this, 4% of the vote in this county, but a very tiny county. santorum, maybe a couple doesn't votes to add to the count. doesn't look like enough. more votes to come in here. might be 20, 50, 100 votes, but then you come back out to the map and you're looking at a state where without question, santorum will win more counties

in ohio, but where is romney winning? the population centers, columbus, cincinnati, akron, places where you have the major tv markets, and he very much t outspent on ads. those run across the state. but as you look through, 98% of the voting here, not a place where santorum is going to have a comeback. thas a romney county. why they're so slow? if you look around them -- >> what about youngstown. he grew up in pittsburgh, which is not far away. how does that look? >> tis has to be a disappointment for santorum. if you look at the youngstown, not a big margin like some of the other places, but romney winning in the youngstown area, 37% to 34%. if you pop up, romney winning in trumble county. another county, akron, summit county, where santorum wanted to do better. you see the edge here. one way to look at this.

if you go back in time, the republican race, forgive me, republicans, is playing out like the democratic race did back in time. go back to the democratic primary, hillary clinton won ohio last time. look where senator obama did well. in columbus and in the suburbs, in cincinnati down here, and up here. hillary clinton won everywhere else. here, here senator clinton, not obama did well in akron and youngstown. now look at 2012, the republican race. this is an area where rick santorum who is the blue collar candidate like clinton needed to do well, and he did not. otherwise, his votes are tracking obama's. this is the count, you see very narrow. actually, for romney, has passed into the lead in our count at 86%. and we know it's bigger than that. >> let's put it on the big

screen because for the first time in a while, this is official. let's go over here and take a look. take a look at these numbers now. and we're going to show our viewers what's going on. 86% of the vote is now in, and romney is ahead of santorum, 1,425 votes ahead of santorum. first time in a while we have seen the official count. we're not surprised. there nn viewersvi s should not surprised because we see what is going on. we saw the exclusive numbers coming in from dana bash in hamilton county. these don't include the numbers, the numbers in hamilton county. so it would presumably be at least another 3,000 or 4 thon vote advantage for romney over santorum, but romney taking the lead. it's growing. 1837 vote lead with 87% of the vote in. that's a significant development in ohio. we're watching it closely, and you're seeing it unfold as we do

ourselves. idaho, let's go to boise. shannon travis is standing by. tell our viewers what is going on. you have the huge taco bell arena. 10,000 folks that have gathered to participate in the caucuses. >> that's right, absolutely. just under 10,000. almost 10,000 there, wolf. it's packed. a lot of the people here, they have already voted, but let me show you what the next step in the process is. you see a lot of the volunteers lined up. they have on white shirts and dark pants. in those buckets right there are coins. coins for different candidates. you see on the top of that one, romney. you see the two other there, ron paul and newt gingrich. there's rick santorum over there. they have tape over the top of them now. basically, what the caucusgoers did was had a coin, and they dropped them into the buckets. now, those buckets will be called up to the stage, and there are some people upstage, up there who are counting all of

the tokens. this is not a paper ballot process. a little different from what we have seen in previous caucuses before. cnn has a camera trained on the counting of the coins exclusivi exclusivively. and one last thing, the person who wins the caucus has to get at least 50% plus one. if no one gets 50% plus one in the first counting of the tokens, the process starts again. the lowest vote getter is dropped off, or anyone who has 50%, and all of the people in here, 9,000 of them, have to vote again. >> shannon, thank you very much. boise state university, taco bell arena there. let's update you on the maps right now. show you what's going on there. you can see we're still awaiting ohio. but romney now, we say, has a slight lead over rick santorum in ohio. we're waiting for the final results to come in from idaho. we don't have those results in yet. in alaska, they closed the caucuses at midnight eastern, less than an hour from now. we'll go and see what is going

on in alaska at the right moment as well. let me pult up ohio right flow. show you what is going on. put it up on the screen. we'll show you what is going on in ohio. romney maintaining a slight lead. 86% of the vote is in. we estimate that lead is more significant, that does not include the votes, that does not include the votes from hamilton county, cincinnati, where dana bash reported to us based on republican party officials, that santorum is way behind in that county. there's a significant advantage for romney. we'll continue to watch what is going on in ohio. if romney manages to pull out a win in ohio, great news for him. he's going to certainly get more delegates in ohio because santorum couldn't get on the ballots in some of the congressional districts. stay with us.

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here's a picture of rick

santorum watching the returns coming in. it was tweeted by alice stewart, his press secretary over there, you can see santorum watching what is going on. if he's watching cnn, he knew this about a half hour ago or so, 87% of the vote is in. romney is ahead by 4,067 votes. 408,541 to 403,074 for santorum. these numbers finally do include hamilton county, the cincinnati area. dana b dana bash showed us the numbers a while ago. romney has a lead of 5,467 votes with 87% of the votes in. going to be difficult for santorum to make the number up given what is going on in some of the populated areas like the cleveland area, cincinnati, akron, some of the other areas as well. anderson cooper is going to take us inside the decision making

process. at what point will we be able to project a winner? >> that's always the question we want to ask at this time because we want to get out of here. let's talk to our political director, try to get a sense of when we may be able to finally make a call in ohio. how does it look? >> you know, right now, anderson, we don't know when we're going to call. we don't even know if we can call it tonight. the fact of the matter is the race is so close, i just got off the phone with the secretary of state's office, they had no problems, but they're waiting for the numbers to come in. >> they haven't gotten the numbers in? >> they have, but it's slow. the question is is that where romney would do better than santorum. this is less than 1%, perhaps we don't call it tonight. it could go to tomorrow. and there could be absentee ballots a s provisional ballots

could be in the mix. >> we're going to be on the air until 2:00 a.m. >> i think we are. >> we're on the air until 2:00 a.m., and we might not have an answer at the point. >> we'll keep following it. >> let's take a closer look. we're staying on the air. i want to go to cuyahoga county, the cleveland area. let's take a look at cuyahoga county. only 40% of the vote. >> 60%. >> 60% in. what's taking them so long? they closed at 7:30. >> let's say they're being kaflt, deliberate. part of the county is involved in a congressional election. romney winning in the population centers. when we were at 40%, romney was trailing. when they went to 60%, you see his lead. he's got more than a 10,000 vote lete. that's double his margin state-wide. what happened? when the vote came in, when they jumped from 40% to 60%, that

jumped romney up. and hamilton county is updated at 99%. this is the difference. hamilton county and cuyahoga county are going to make the difference in the state. mark preston said we cont call it because it's so close, but in the middle of the state, franklin county, still more votes to come in. in the cincinnati area, winning in the major population centers and the suburbs around it. cleveland, akron, youngstown, you find the suburban areas, he's winning. can santorum come back. 100% of the vote in, 100% of the vote in. in the counties he's carrying, 56% of the vote here. he could make up a couple hundred votes, but we're looking at almost a 4,000 vote margin for romney now. when it comes in, it will come up more. when this comes in, most likely, assuming the percentages stay the same, and it could go up

dramatically when the 40% comes in from the cleveland area. it's very hard, impossible looking at the places that are still out now, for in the vote count tonight, for me to see a path for santorum to coming ba. i understand very careful making the calls, but if you're looking county by county for a place to happen, but i can't find a mathematical road for santorum to get back. >> everybody wants to be coshing because it's 38% to 37%, but it's really only a half of 1% state-wide difference between the two candidates, romney and santorum. and i'm sure the santorum campaign is asking themselves, why didn't they spend more money in ohio. they got outspent enormously by romney. if they would have spend more money, the delegate count might not have made a difference, but the bragging rights, the political momentum, the ability to raise a lot more money, to say i won ohio, the most delegates, the most votes in

ohio, that would be critical because it's such a key battleground state. >> fgo back four years, eight years, 12 years, we say ohio, ohio, ohio, a big state in general elections. a big state in nominating contests. i want to pull over the c congressional map. some are awarded on the state-wide count unless they get 50%, nobody will. delegates are going to go state-wide. they're going to go the state-wide delegates to romney and santorum. then the congressional delegates. these are the congressional districts. all these exclamation points are places where even if he wins the congressional district, you see the counties in here, all for santorum, he won't get all of the delegates because he has no delegates or a full slate of delegates. where you see this exclamation point. the organizational shortcomings are going to count the delegates

in this race. this is a close race, i look at the map, where the vote is out, i see a narrow romney victory. that's john king speaking, we have to be careful, let the votes come in, before we can make a projection. if we end up tomorrow or whenever we have an official call with this romney red, the psychological difference in this race, people will say it's close, people will say romney outspent santorum by so much, he's weak. he'll say, i won. he will say, i won. if you look at the map right now, if thing said hold up like this, and romney gets idaho, santorum has won north dakota, tennessee, oklahoma. you have half the states will have voted when we wake up tomorrow. romney has 13 wins, santorum has seven, gingrich has two, alaska is ron paul's only hope left tonight to get on the win board as we wait for the votes to come in there. romney has more states than anybody else and will end up with significantly more delegates than anyone else.

when we wake up tomorrow, is it enough? he said he's staying in. we heard santorum tell jim acosta he's staying in. advantage romney, but we're early in march. i think we're going to say hello in april, order breakfast in may. >> gingrich sounded like he was a winner following his win in georgia. >> he was talking uchbt debating president obama. it's hard to look at that and say that. but one reason he's staying in is if you look at the regional impact of the race, he's doing well in the south. next tuesday, we'll talk about alabama and miss miss. if you're speaker gingrich, you think, okay, advantage romney, santorum, second place. >> and gingrich is looking ahead to texas. >> louisiana, arkansas to go, north carolina, the south is still in play as long as the south is in place, ginch rf

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and welcome back to our continuing coverage. an incredibly exciting night shaping up in ohio. exciting and close. take a look add the numbers. mitt romney in the lead by 5,119 votes. got 38% of the vote to rick santorum's 37%. 90% of the votes in. you heard from john king saying that he does not see a path by which santorum can win in ohio. although that's not an official call yet by cnn. ari fleischer, you have been talking to people on the phone. what have you heard? >> i got a phone call from the chairman of the ohio campaign

for mitt romney, senator rob portman who is from hamilton county, he said they feel good about things in ohio. they predicted they're going to win. he said we're going to win ohio. >> and all of our contributors on the left and right, eric erickson joining us, hillary rosen as well as donna brazile. as you watch, your first time at the table tonight. you thing it's going to be a win for romney, but a painful one. >> a painful win. when you spend 5.5 times as much money as rick santorum and eke out a win in ohio, a rust belt state that went overwhelmingly for the republicans in 2010, and they're not quite sold on you and across the board, you have lost evangelicals,self-described conservatives, the south, he could be the nominee, and since dukakis was the nominee in '88, dividing up the stuff, but is that the kind of candidate we want as a front runner? >> as far as the states coming up next, they don't look great

for romney. >> when you look at the states that are coming up, it's probably several weeks before romney pulls out another win, and you know, everybody is talking about ohio right now, and that's important, but sitting in the back room, i was focused on virginia for two reasons, when you look at ron paul getting over 40% in virginia, ron paul, that's an anti-romney vote. when you think, if there were only two candidates in there, romney and santorum, santorum would be taking more of the states. and that's such a critical issue right now for newt gingrich, for santorum, and for the republicans. >> virginia was an odd example because voter turnout was low and the other candidates weren't on the ballot. >> you only had one alternative to romney, and that alternative nobody thinks could be president, and he got 41% of the vote. if that was a santorum alte

alternative, you would have santorum as a competitive choice to romney. >> in virginia, virginia is an anomaly. the turnout is dramatically down. nobody showed up because virginiaens pertold there's no contest there, no campaign. mitt romney has not solidified things, he's got problems, but i don't think virginia is an indication of what the problems are. >> 41% of the people came out to vote against romney. there was energy against romney, ari. >> there may be energy against romney, but with this messy win in ohio, i think he largely becomes now in people's mind, the nominee. whether or not i like it or not, and i'm no fan of his, i think we're going to have several more weeks where he's going to have a difficult time with alabama, mississippi, louisiana. >> i worked on a lot of campa n campaigns in my day.

i never thought i would be sitting up at night waiting for cuyahoga, cleveland, urban cities in order to help the republicans figure out what the nominee is. that's the problem with romney. even his sporter e supporters a holding his nose. they have credibility problems, a enthusiasm gap, but at the end of the day, a win is a win. he'll likely pull it off, but he spent, what did you tell me? >> 5.5 to 1. >> that's lunch money for him, but that's still a lot of money to barely win a state that is a must-win in the fall. >> donna raises a really good point about ohio, which is a key state in nevada. and he's not going to win the cities in ohio. he's got to win rurally. those are the counties that went against him. >> it's a very different electorate coming up. >> to your points, romney is winning in the areas where republicans are likely to lose in the fall, and he's losing in the areas that republicans need

to win. and you know, john king, can you make me honest on this? because if you go back to 2008 -- >> how much money do you got? let's hear -- this is gloria's point. look down here. let me go around. romney in the southwest corner of the state, in the center of the state, romney up here, toledo, and romney up here along the lake, cleveland, the suburbs, down into youngstown. very impressive in winning the major population centers. this is your republican primary tonight. now, we're going to go back in time. go back in time here to the presidential contest here in 2008. barack obama, 52%. mccain, 47%. both senators at the time. down here, romney up here. but democrats counties, look at all this, and i understand if we go to hamilton county right now, we can get the latest results from dana bash. let me come back to 2012. bring up hamilton county.

we're at 99%. dana, do you have us to 100%. >> 100%, that's what we've got. more exclusive information. phil is going to zoom in so we can give you the raw numbers. romney, 39,020. and santorum, 23,367. so we just crunched the numbers, and we'll give it to you. basically, this is a net gain of 222 votes in this county for mitt romney. overall, generally, that might not matter, but in this kind of raz razor thin margin, it could make a difference. >> 222 votes make a big difference when you're in this close of a race. those numbers are going to shrink as i go state-wide. add 222 votes. romney will take it when he's winning the race. you start adding the numbers. 100 there, 200 there, 222 out of hamilton county, it gets hard as

the map fills in and you look where the vote is still out, to see a rick santorum comeback. he'll call it a tie, but romney will be happy no matter how narrow to call it a victory if the numbers hold up. >> i want to go to boise, idaho, because we haven't been able to make a projection in idaho. the taco bell arena at boise state university. shannon travis is standing by. almost 10,000 people in that arena that have gathered. what a huge caucus in boise. tell us what's going on. >> yeah, it's a huge caucus gathering. the largest in the state. some people here are arguing it's possibly the largest of the season. we need to verify that, but however, we know -- we have been trying to ascertain the numbers of the vote county that has been going on so far. we talked to multiple people. they're keeping it a closely guarding secret right up on the stage. we have a camera up there that is actually monitoring the vote count, wolf. but they're not releasing numbers to us at all. again, we have tried several

times just to get a sense of where this 9,000 plus person crowd is moving, in what direction. they are saying, though, that they will start putting up numbers on the jumbotron up there, in about 10 to 15 minutes. so we're standing here, closely monitoring what that jumbotron will say. if you look at it now, they just have totals up there for some of the other states with some of the other primaries and contests. we're going to continue to monitor this, work our socs and see what numbers we can get out of them. >> shannon, as you were speaking, our experts here at cnn were crunching the numbers in idaho. get ready for this. >> all right, cnn can now make a projection in idaho. mitt romney, the former governor of massachusetts, we project he wins the idaho caucuses. that gives him another win tonight. that is his fourth win of the night. the earlier one, virginia,

massachusetts, vermont, now idaho. four wins for mitt romney. take a look at the votes. you can see the yellow in the middle to the right, that's ohio. we have not yet made a projection in ohio. ten states were voting today. ohio, we're waiting for. alaska, they closed their caucuses at the top of the hour, midnight eastern time. we'll see what is happening in alaska. but right now, we're waiting for ohio. we're getting very close to a determination on what is going on in ohio. it's close, but romney has a slight lead right now. you have been watching that lead expand exclusively. we're getting the numbers before anyone else here on cnn. stay with us. our coverage will resume in a moment.

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let me update you on what is

going on in ohio. we have nauot yet made a projection in ohio, but romney is ahead of santorum with 91% of the vote in. almost 6,000 votes ahead of santorum. 38% to 37%. newt gingrich and ron paul, way, way behind. 9% of the vote outstanding. it's going to be difficult for santorum based on the counties where the vote is outstanding. it's going to be difficult for santorum to make up the difference. right now, 5,882 votes. that's what romney is ahead of right now. let's go to jim acosta. he's covering the campaign in ohio. what's going on. >> it might be an indication of where the night is heading for santorum in ohio. we heard from one of the senior advisers for the santorum campaign. he said the santorums are getting ready to leave their war room here in steubenville, ohio. it was the high school weight room, as the campaign told us

earlier this evening. but they were in that war room earlier tonight, watching the returns come in. alice stewart, the press secretary tweeted out a picture of santorum watching the votes come in. earlier, not too long before the announcement, we were told by alice stewart, that santorum, there was a possibility he could come out here later tonight and talk about what is happening here in ohio. they advised us to keep the camera focused on the podium behind me just in case, but now they're telling me that's not going to happen. rick santorum will not be making another speech here. they're heading home to get some rests. >> jim acosta in steubenville, ohio. looks like the santorums are leaving the high school over there. let's go back to john king, talk more about ohio. let's talk also about the delegates because it's delegates, delegates, delegates. as important at the popular vote is, the delegates vote, getting to 1,144, getting the nomination

at the convention in tampa, that's key. >> to the point eric erickson was making, a lot of rnens don't like romney, at some point, the delegate map becomes obvious. let's look at the state of play. we have not officially called ohio, but romney is leading. we have not officially called idaho, but romney is leading. if this stays as it is, the only other super tuesday state is alaska. >> we did call idaho. >> romney wins idaho. alaska is the big one, and ohio we're waiting to call. it's 13 states for romney, assuming ohio stays this way, seven for santorum. a bit of an asterisk because missouri is a beauty contest. none for ron paul as we wait for alaska. what are the delegates? you're winning 13 states, you're ahead in the delegate math. this is roughly where we were a

wile ago. i want to say this was a santorum state. so we turn that over there, and this is a romney state. these are not exact numbers. this is based on a percentage. this is a rough estimate. if you're watching at home, you're going to find something you can take issue with. look at this. this puts romney in the ballpark of 313, gingrich, 90, santorum, 123, paul in the ballpark of 56. a long way to 1144, no question, but if this is the finish line, romney is a lot closer to it than anyone else. that's still a long way to go. what do we still have on the board tonight? if this were to go to romney, he would get at least that many. might get a little more out of ohio because of the problem santorum had. then what do you have? people will say romney is weak. then you have to say they're at the moment weaker. and if it's all about delegates in the end. so the question is how do you catch up?

how do you catch up? we can gain this out as you go forward. if you want to keep going through states. you keep going on this way. kansas, who will win kansas? not a lot of delegates. santorum makes up a little ground. but if you look at me as i switch this over, let's say gingrich wins. you're not changing the delegate math a whole lot. then you go down the road. i'm going to play it out. let's give these down here to gingrich. winning in the south. let's give them to speaker gingrich, come back in here. that would have him now jump over into passing santorum. that's a conversation a week from now. but again, remember, proportional states, romney still picking up delegates. then you go out here, missouri, we'll leave that in santorum's hands. that's a big question mark, but we'll leave it with santorum. illinois we think will go for romney. louisiana, will it be santorum. if it is, somewhere here. if it's gingrich, you have a southern issue.

something like that, you start clicking this through, the question is, can romney get to the finish line? this is our conversation with others earlier. i'm going to play this through, give santorum his home state of pennsylvania. romney has been winning in these areas, west virginia could go another way. that's for the sake of argument, say okay, we don't want to be too pro-romney. he's been winning out west, we'll leave those like that. come through, giving those states. this is a question, speaker gingrich still a viable candidate. arkansas and kentucky. we'll give them to arkansas. let's give them -- let's try to be fair to the other candidates and play it out. look what is happening. you're seeing a lot of pirm filling in the map. can he get to the finish line? if he keeps winning out west, california will be big. this is where we're getting ahead of ourselves. but to anyone saying we're going to have a broken convention, yes, it's possible.

it's certainly possible. when you get to the big states, you're getting ahead of yours f yourself. if you come back and fill in what has happened today, you get to a more reasonable big romney lead, we know that. big romney lead, long way to go. >> we assume, all of us assume these four candidates remain. one or two could potentially drop out at some point. we don't know what is happening. >> they're having fun, not going anywhere. >> stand by. ohio, are we going to be able to make a projection in ohio? romney slightly ahead of santorum right now. after santorum was leading for most of the night. the votes are still being counted. we'll update you on what we know right after this. people with a machine. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?!

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we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? and welcome back. 92% of the votes now in in the

state of ohio. mitt romney well ahead with 6,365. it has not -- we have not called the state yet for romney, although all indications right now seem to be looking good for the former governor. in terms of where the race goes next, what would you see down the road? mississippi, louisiana. >> we're getting cles to the cajun primary, and i'm excited. who knew at some point, i could take ari home and we could have a po'boy. newt gingg rf is going to alabama tomorrow, mississippi on thursday, heading to kansas. he's going to try to pick up more delegates. m mitt romney has the money and momentum and organization to continue and accumulate more delegate strength, but i think rick santorum tonight, i was surprised he won north dakota. there's no question that rick santorum will be able based on

the tie, i mean, mitt romney might win ohio, but and get most of the delegates, but rick santorum will have a lot of momentum coming out with three wins tonight. >> for democrats watching tonight, whether it's in the obama white house or elsewhere, is this a good night? >> well, it's a good night when mitt romney outspends the other candidates almost 5 to 1, and still loses half the states. and i think that that means two things, one, it's probably good for democrats that this primary is going to keep going. that rick santorum, if you're rick santorum tonight and you're newt gingrich, there's nothing that happened tonight thereat ts you to go home, and that's critical. and the other thing was what we were talking about earlier. the places that mitt romney is weak is places that a republican nominee are going to have to win come november. because barack obama is going to win those urban areas, he's going to win significant states,

and if you look at some of the states where romney is losing, that doesn't spell enthusiasm for a republican nominee in november. >> i'm going to bring in jessica yellin. from the white house perspective, they have to be happy. >> the longer this goes on, the happier they are they get to stay out of it. one of the, you know, developing storylines we see is that as much as romney remains the toughest challenger in the general election, they still expect romney to be the challenger, there is this emerging idea that if santorum, you know, were to ultimately challenge him, he has certain attributes that could cause more problems for the president because he does play better with low college -- less educated voters, white, working class voters. he plays well where the president is weak. it looks like that is less likely to be the case, so the white house, you know, is going

to be able to breathe a sigh of relief, they think. but there is, you know, a growing awareness that if santorum were the candidate, they can't just shrug that off as something that would be an insignificant concern. >> democrats want this to go on and on. >> i get the feeling there's a real disconnect between the political class paying attention to all of this and what the public thinks. it feels to so many of us that it's hurting republicans rrk but a gallup poll shows that republicans are more inthooent e enthusiastic about the election than democrats. and as for if romney's performance is a sign of things to come. hillary won in three states, and barack obama won. it's not an indication of what is going to hap in in the general, and the final point i make is where romney is running

well in ohio and where he's running weak. the assumption is he's not going to do well in the fall. >> look, first of all, eric knows better than i know in terms of whether republicans will land in the conservative base, but given the turnout across the board, and airy and i have different numbers, but the republicans are not turning out. they're not enthusiastic about the choices they see on the ballot. they're not participating in the preprimary or pree caucus activities that normally indicate that there's some enthusiasm in the party. i think this is a weak field, and once again tonight, we see ohio. voters are basically holding their nose. >> turnout has been up in ohio this year versus 2008. >> it was down in georgia. >> about 100,000. >> ohio is the only state it's

up. >> south carolina, iowa. >> gung rch won sauth carolina and georgia. he couldn't break 50% in his home state of georgia. what does he do now? does sheldon aidalson stop giving him money. you're going to hear him referrroughe referred to as the spoiler. there are going to be a lot of people wondering, should he do this for santorum. i got alabama, i got mississippi. two weeks ago, he thought he had tennessee and oklahoma. >> there doesn't seem to be any indication he's going to bow out to give something to santorum. >> no, no, he's not bowing out and he's not bowing to santorum, and he's not bowing to mitt romney, and i was just e-mailing with somebody in the santorum campaign, and they're about to dump $1 million in ads, in ad money in kansas, mississippi, and alabama.

so they've got that cash on hand. they're pouring it in there. i think they might be wondering, why didn't they spend more of their own money in ohio since ohio was so close and maybe they think it wasn't such a great decision. so we've got the kansas caucuses coming up. mississippi and alabama, which are certainly ripe ground for santorum, as well as for gingrich. but neither one of them is going away. >> does anybody know if the obama administration is counting all of the jobs created or saved by the republican primary. we could employ sizable numbers of people in these states. >> in the objective measure, if we knew romney would win five states, you would say he had a decent night. it's the way it's played out. this long, drawn-out county in ohio. looked like he was going to lose it. i think psychologically and the way the media is interpreting it

as, he dodged a bullet. he should have had a decisive win and close this down. and the bad new said for romney is this is going to play out and play out. and there are people around the country who agree with barbara bush, who made the argument, this is the worst campaign she has ever seen, and she thinks it's derning people off. that's what i think he's got to compat. >> she's critical that the word compromise is a dirty word. >> she has been through six presidential campaigns as a wife or as a mother. think of that. she's been deeply engaged in six of these campaigns and said, this is the worst. >> how do you square that with what gallup found when they said republicans are more enthusiastic than democrats. >> but they say the republicans are going down like this. i think different polls tell you different things. >> it's a snapshot in time. in the general election, barack obama could get republicans

enthusiastic again. >> i want to go to wolf and john. >> thanks very much. you know, john, if you take a look at what's going on in ohio right now, the margin that romney is ahead of santorum is actually growing. it's 7,549 votes. 7,500 margin vote. it's going to be by my account and yours as well, hard for santorum to make up 7,500 votes. >> why did it happen? santorum was ahead early on. hamilton county, here's your big difference. 16,000 votes right there in that county. that's a big cushion. where else? cuyahoga county. this could be impossible for santorum to come brark romney is winning by a huge margin here, and we still have roughly 20% of

the vote to come in from the one county. assuming romney still wins, even if he doesn't keep the margin. it's hard to see the math. and that the bulk of the vote that is still out. remember how big of an area that is. 12% of the state population. that's the bulk of the population. that county sin, guess what, when the rest of the county comes in, it's going to push you close to 100%. summit county, large area. stark county, romney winning again. the story of the night is santorum winning in the small, rural counties. governor romney with the narrow state-wide lead in the urban areas and the areas around them. >> columbus, akron, cleveland, youngstown, that's where they spend all of the money on the ads. and guess who is winning those markets. stand by. i want to take a quick break. we're going to get more information. they're closing in alaska in a few moments, too. we'll tell you what's going on there. stay with us.

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welcome back. we're watching the tense battle for ohio right now. mitt romney is leading santorum, but the dramatic race could keep going for a while. right now, voting is winding down in alaska. all right. this is what we know right now. let me update our viewers on what's going on. i'm wolf blitzer at the cnn election center. you can see ten states were voting tonight and we have the results in most of these states right now. but let's go to ohio first. in ohio right now, 93% of the vote is now in. mitt romney slightly ahead of rick santorum. but it's going to be difficult for rick santorum to catch up by all accounts. 38% for romney.

37% for santorum. it's a significant lead right now. we'll see what's going on. let's take a look and see what happened in oklahoma. earlier in the night 99% of the vote is in. rick santorum wins in oklahoma with 34%. romney coming in second, 28%. gingrich, third. ron paul with only 10%. tennessee, another important win for rick santorum tonight. 37% going for santorum, 28% for romney. 24% for gingrich. only 9% for ron paul. let's take a look at alaska though. within the past few seconds the caucuses were winding down in alaska. there's no votes officially counted yet in alaska. we're going to be updating you right now -- we'll be uprighting you on what's going on in alaska. 24 delegates at stake in alaska. you get a sense of what's happening, the winners and the losers. look at this.

ten states, romney so far has won four. in virginia, vermont, massachusetts and idaho. those are all romney wins. rick santorum's having a pretty good night as well. he's got three major wins. tennessee, north dakota and oklahoma. newt gingrich won his home state of georgia. the largest delegate state of the night. 76. but we still have three states that are outstanding right now. ohio right now, alaska. we're waiting for two states i should say. idaho we projected a win for mitt romney as well. we're still waiting for ohio and for alaska. we have been following all of this what's going on and you know what? a lot of folks are saying there could be some sort of deadlock, open convention in tampa at the end of the summer when the republican party meets. remember, you need 1,044 delegates to secure the nomination. tom forman is taking us on a virtual convention tour right

now. >> reporter: all evening as we have watched the trends from voting right here on our virtual convention floor, we have been tracking what that will mean to the array of delegates at the actual convention to mitt romney, rick santorum and newt gingrich and ron paul. let's take a look at the latest and we'll take our camera up high so you can see what's happening here. as we said calculating the exact allocation of delegates is difficult so soon with the complex formulas the states use, but newt gingrich had a good start to the night winning georgia. we're showing his new delegates over on the left. ron paul grabbing a few on the right. the war however is happening in the two middle sections. rick santorum with his wins in tennessee, oklahoma, north dakota has been trying to close the gap on mitt romney. he'll get more before the

counting is is done, but here is the problem. mitt romney by taking massachusetts, vermont, idaho and virginia, santorum and gingrich were not even on the ballot is still expanding his lead. we said he grabbed a whole block of seats earlier. now he has some more. so the picture of the convention floor is growing clearer but it's far from conclusive and let's not for get there's whopping prizes coming up, including california and texas with well over 300 delegates between them. that means even though each one of these candidates would love to have the balloons dropping for him on nomination night, even with these super tuesday results they will have to keep waiting and watching to see if someone can truly break free and become the prohibitive favorite. >> tom forman, with the virtual balloons. let's show you what's going on in ohio right now. this is the very latest

information that we're getting. 93% of the vote is in. romney's lead growing a little bit. 7,264 votes ahead of rick santorum. let's be specific. 436,278 votes for romney. 429,014 vote for santorum. right now 7% of the vote is still outstanding. it will be difficult for santorum, john king, to make up that 7,400 vote difference. if you look at where the outstanding votes remained. >> again, 93% statewide as you said. you have the lead out there. you look a lot of purple filled in on the map. here's one of the urban areas lucas county and santorum is winning that just barely. the big dots and where the big cities are, the biggest thing for governor romney he'll be thanking the voters at hamilton

county. and a huge, huge 20 point win in hamilton county. those votes more than the statewide cushion right now. you move up given into the central part of the state. franklin county. again, a win for romney and the suburbs around column bus. smaller margin there, but key votes for governor romney there. this is -- where there's a vote outstanding. impossible for santorum to make up the math. k cuyahoga county, it's huge there. we don't expect senator santorum to make it up there. romney winning in the blue collar areas of youngstown and akron. senator santorum is winning big in smaller rural areas but a smaller percentage of voters there and all the counties are in. if you go through here. 100% of the vote in. 100% of the vote in. 100% of the vote in. i can go on and on. so a sweeping win for santorum

in the rural counties of ohio, but the big victories by governor romney in the cities and the suburbs have him ahead. not a huge win. but romney will get the most dell gatds out of ohio, because senator santorum didn't qualify for all of them. this is what it's all about. looking at the map going forward, governor romney desperately wants this to be romney red coming out of super tuesday. if it is the case, he will have 13 wins on his side. seven for santorum, two for speaker gingrich. a lot of conversations why isn't it bigger, why can't you win in tennessee? prove yourself in the south. there will be a lot of question marks. a lot of question marks, a lot of talk about money, money. however, winning. winning. winning matters in politics. it gets you some momentum. the probably going forward, you mentioned alabama, mississippi among the contest next week. you don't see -- don't consider florida a deep southern state and speaker gingrich, senator santorum tend to be favored

there. if you look at this part of the country, you can see, look at the colors. this is more romney country. out here is where santorum has been doing well. the west is romney county. as we go forward a lot of question marks but again, the delegate math starts to add up in governor romney's favor. if he can hold ohio both from the delegate and the psychological perspective. it's a narrow lead tonight, but winning counts. >> you think santorum would have spent more money in ohio because romney spent a ton of money in ohio. obviously paying off for him. if santorum would have spent some significant money there, it would have made a difference in the big media markets. >> i want to come back -- i want to show you the tv count ads. bringing us back to state of ohio. you see the pie charts. this is the romney color right here. the romney color is the darker red. overwhelmingly outspent everybody. the purple is santorum or the

pro santorum super pac. there's no question the money matters. let me close this down. again, major tv market. major tv market. the only place where you have the tv market that santorum is carrying toledo. in the central areas where people are being inundated would it have made a difference? that's one of the big question marks for santorum. they were late to organize and raise money. why not spend more in ohio? their answer most likely would be we still have much less resources. a lot of states to fight on that they have to be more careful with the resources. these states are expensive. if you're going to start getting competitive on television here, some money doesn't do it for you. if you have to get in, you have to get in. that gets expensive. >> reminds me of ohio 2004 when john kerry lost ohio barely. he had millions of dollars left

over, didn't use it in ohio. he might have been president of the united states pack in 2004 if he had spent more in ohio. he left the election with cash on hand. look at how close it was in ohio in 2004. he didn't spend the millions that he had -- you remember that, john. >> oh, they pulled the money out. a huge debate within the kerry campaign about pulling out in the final weeks. they spent a lot in florida. didn't work out. they spent it in some other places as well. but yeah, ohio, in a close election, ohio is always a central battleground. and a lot of people go back to 2004. i know our democrats on the other side of the room would look at 51/49 and think if we left money in there things might have been different. >> i don't know why he needed all those millions after the election. but that's historians can reassess what's going on at that point. all right, we'll take a much closer look at ohio. we're standing by. new information coming in. what happens if romney wins

ohio, gets the delegate vote there, where do we go from here? a lot more coming up. we're waiting for the results from alaska. ron paul so far has not won one state. can he win in alaska? we're also learning sarah palin has now disclosed who she voted for in alaska. we'll share that information with you as well. stand by. our coverage from the cnn election center will continue. [ todd ] hello? hello todd. just calling to let you know i'm giving you the silent treatment. so you're calling to tell me you're giving me the silent treatment? ummm, yeah. jen, this is like the eighth time you've called... no, it's fine, my family has free unlimited mobile-to-any-mobile minutes -- i can call all i want. i don't think you understand how the silent treatment works. hello?

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in addition to the republican race for the nomination for the white house, there's a key congressional election in ohio as well. in the cleveland area. take a look at this. congressman dennis kucinich the long-time democrat from the ninth congressional district loses in a runoff election. they were redirecting that

district. as a result, kucinich loses his seat in congress. you can see the results here. 56% going for marcy captor to 40% for kucinich. himself a former candidate. 85% of the vote is in. but we projected now that marcy kaptur will win that key congressional district race. dennis kucinich no longer a member of the house of representatives. we are watching all the news for you here at the cnn election center. let's go to anderson for more. >> talk to the contributors a little bit. if you look at the vote in ohio, i mean, can you call newt gingrich a spoiler for rick santorum? >> i think if you look at the exit poll and the way it's shaped up there's an argument to be made there. i find it fascinating that 6,900 people people that cast votes for rick perry. you have a 7,000 vote gap between romney and santorum now. between santorum and gingrich, the santorum people have been saying that gingrich held them

back. they could have gotten some of gingrich's votes. i think yes -- >> i suppose the gingrich people say that santorum is a spoiler. >> exactly. gingrich shows no signs of getting out. as long as this super pac money holds up i guess he can stay in. i don't see a path to victory for newt gingrich at all winning just two states. >> also for ron paul, it really is time for him to drop out. i understand he's leading a movement, leading a cause. but after 20 states and no victories and even if he takes alaska he's a canadidate for president. >> why wouldn't you say about that newt? >> on march 13, alabama and mississippi primaries. next tuesday. i think if he doesn't win those, he's going to have to face that same question. it's time. >> you thought ron paul had a chance in north dakota. >> i did. that was the big surprise to me. north dakota and alaska i thought he had a chance. but let's say he even took those two. he can't win the presidency. he's running for president.

i understand about wanting to get exposure for his ideas. he's had that. i don't know why he's staying in other than exposure. >> you know, i guess my question on the ron paul strategy, why not make a go at it for virginia. and he wrote off virginia. he could have won a sizable state in virginia, capitalizing on the non-romney vote. i have no idea what his campaign strategy is. i don't know that his campaign really knows what his campaign strategy is at this point. he's winning no states. the sound and fury of the ron paul supporters has gotten him nothing. >> remember, it's not about states anymore, but winning delegates. you know, if you're not getting the threshold, 15%, 25%, then you're not picking up delegates so ron paul's problem if he's not winning states and he's not winning delegates then the next question is what is he doing in the race? >> you know -- >> go ahead. >> -- the thing about this race is it's being sustained on super pac money.

not on voter's money. and that is something that is terribly frightening when you think about the next eight months and what that means for a general election. because, you know, you look at newt gingrich. he's in there because of super pac money. rick santorum the same thing. mitt romney, spending, you know, four to one. actually mitt romney is raising some individual contributions. i'm frightened literally for the future of elections in this country when you can have primaries and campaigns completely funded by super pacs that have nothing to do with voter intent. >> i want to go back to something about hillary and eric interestingly you picked up. a protest vote against romney in virginia. i saw in oklahoma which has a democratic primary today, barack obama got 57% of the vote, 43% of democrats in oklahoma voted for other candidates for president in the democratic primary. so that's why i think virginia really isn't the factor when you say anti-romney vote and neither

is oklahoma. these things happen when nobody turns out to vote. >> get ready i'm going to saying in nice about mitt romney. the thing about romney is, as ugly as the wins have been and every time somebody else comes on, he does keep wins. democrats would do well to remember that in the fall. that this is a guy who you don't think is running a very good campaign because intuitively he doesn't seem to have the smoothness of a political candidate, but he's got a good organization, a lot of heat behind it. this is a very tough election. >> gloria or david, do you think romney is getting better as a candidate? >> in the last week maybe because he hasn't made so many gaffes. but the problem for mitt romney and it's reflected in these exit polls tonight is that well, people think he might be electable against barack obama. when you ask him who best understands my problems which is really important question that

you ask in a presidential campaign, he's beaten by rick santorum in ohio and in tennessee, for example. so mitt romney has a problem. now, the good thing for mitt romney if he becomes the nominee is that barack obama is not considered the warmest candidate either and so, you know, they could both have that same kind of a deficit. and also, you know -- yeah, i said barack obama, right? all right. barack obama is not considered the warmest candidate. and to hillary's point on super pacs, the beneficiary of super pacs could be barack obama. >> we've got to go to a quick break. we're still awaiting results in ohio. we'll be right back. i love that my daughter's part fish.

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we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? mitt romney's lead in ohio over rick santorum guess what? it's expanding right now.

95% of the vote in, and romney is ahead by 10,761 votes. with 95% of the vote in, 38% to 37%. gingrich and paul way, way behind. only 5% of the vote left outstanding. it's going to be really difficult if not impossible for rick santorum to come back and overtake that 10,661 vote lead that romney has right now. john king is here to explain what's going on. we have not made a projection, cnn. but it's looking like it will be hard for santorum to make up the 10,000 votes. >> let's show you why. we told you why we were counting in hamilton county, we had numbers from dana bash that had governor romney come back and take the lead. a huge cushion for governor romney. let's go up to the northeast corner of the state, cuyahoga county where cleveland is. at 95%, now the numbers have meshed up.

they hadn't been updated on the board yet before the break. the earlier numbers before the break, romney was leading in cuyahoga county because 11,609 votes. this math right here the new numbers 16,029 votes. a net gain of 4,400 votes in cuyahoga county. 99% of the vote now in there. if you pull this out, go back to statewide map at 96% now, wolf, this is where you see this lead, it is now -- that's 12,040 votes. i'm going to blank the other numbers. 12,040 vote lead for governor romney. look at the map at 96%. you say what's left, what's out there? some of the votes are going to come from cuyahoga where romney has the big lead. if you look around the area, 100%, 100%. so most of the vote count is in there. >> take a look, because we got a little bit more vote right now as we say 96% of the vote is in. you say 12,000 votes. 12,040 votes. where is the 4% outstanding where potentially there could be

a change. it doesn't look like that 4% is going to be able to overcome that significant 12,000 vote advantage for romney over santorum. >> i say impossible. we're being very careful at cnn. if you click around you'll find a small county where you're below 100. so sometimes you're -- we do know this. we know there are some provisional ballots, we need to count those. are there enough to make up the gap? the argument is unlikely. but if you look around the state right now and you're trying to find places, remember how big this is. so 1% of this county is a big chunk of the vote that's still yet to be entered in this state. otherwise, you find the tiny counties it's not enough. >> i'm wondering if they refer to early ballot, absentee ballots. i assume they count those right away. >> there's the first votes with egot. remember when we had a tiny

percentage here and there. those are the absentee ballots. if you go into the heart of the states, maybe a thousand people have voted and they're harder to find as the night goes on. and they have done a good job of filling in the vote. so it's very, very hard. again, 96% statewide. when the rest of this vote comes in, that could gin that right up to 99% statewide because this is up is a big chunk of the state. if you keep coming around, 100% just about everywhere. again, i say i cannot see a mathematical way for rick santorum to come back in this win. narrow win for romney. the state looks like that and if it looks like that, romney will have a hefty night. that was the heavily contested battleground. the only state we're awaiting for, alaska. >> we'll go up to alaska shortly. there's no doubt that romney even if he wins the popular vote he'll win the delegate vote because santorum didn't get on the ballot in some of the congressional districts. all right, we're checking

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most of the voting in ohio is done with. there's still a few precincts remaining outstanding. here's what we know right now with 96% of the vote in. mitt romney seems to have a relatively comfortable lead. 12,040 votes ahead of rick santorum. 38% to 37%. 12,040 votes. newt gingrich, ron paul way behind as i have been saying it's going to very, very difficult for rick santorum with the outstanding vote in ohio to make up that 12,040 vote advantage that romney currently has.

let's go over to john king. we have been looking and looking where that 4%, john, is the outstanding vote that hasn't been counted in ohio. where is it and could it potentially make a difference? >> since we're about to go to alaska after we figure out ohio, i'm going rogue on you. as you see this math at 96%, you can't get senator santorum back into this. again, john king going rogue here. 96% in cuyahoga county, big lead for romney. we assume where that will go. to summit county, here's more of the missing vote. stark county, suburban and exurban area. 89% of the vote. that's most of the missing vote in the state of ohio right now. romney winning in the county. not enough votes there for santorum to come back. >> all right, john, stand by for a moment because we have got some news. we're going to report right now.

all right, cnn you makes the projection in ohio. look at this, mitt romney wins the ohio republican presidential primary. we have just made this projection based on all the voting that's coming in, where the outstanding voting remains, based on everything we have seen. mitt romney the former massachusetts governor wins ohio. it's a big, big win for mitt romney. if he would have lost ohio, would have been a disaster for him. it would have raised questions about his electability. there's no doubt this is a real, real important win for mitt romney. rick santorum to his credit he got very, very close. a lot of people are go to be second guessing should he have spent more money or more time in ohio today and in recent days fighting to get this win? presumably he didn't because he wasn't even on the ballot in some congressional districts and he wasn't eligible for some of the delegates.

maybe that's why he didn't spend the money or time in ohio. let's show you what we know. nine of the ten contests so far on this super tuesday have now been resolved. the big win in ohio for mitt romney. we're waiting for alaska. we're waiting for alaska to come in. we presumably will get some results from alaska very, very soon. but let's go to cnn's anderson cooper right now. he's in the cube. he's going to explain to us how we finally were able to make this projection in ohio the romney win. >> that's right. i'm with political director mark preston. how were we able to do it now? >> it came down to simple mathematics. and we're looking at right now about 30,000 outstanding ballots that won't be counted tonight. in order for rick santorum to come back and overcome mitt romney, we would probably need double that number. so that's why our decision team as we have talked about in every election night when they sit down and take the models and crunch them together.

they're looking at the real vote. bottom line they don't think rick santorum could come back. >> that includes absentee ballots? >> and provisional ballots. >> do we know know anything about alaska when we can call that? >> no, but let's hope it's not at 4:00 a.m. >> mark, i appreciate the hard work on that. continue to watch alaska, wolf. >> alaska, we'll stand for that. paul vercammen is there. now we know what has happened in ohio. why we were delaying our formal projection, you heard mark preston our political director say there's 30,000 votes outstanding. it would have to be lopsided for santorum to make up that difference. >> they're cautious, i'm extra cautious. go back in history and time, not here at this network, but some get called the wrong way. how did governor romney do it? if you -- look at the map here, wow, a lot of purple. you'd think that santorum won

ohio, however, most of the places what's winning are tiny rural areas. the capital of columbus, a decent margin there, five percentage point lead. but the biggest success comes in the corners. hamilton county, and a whopping 20-point win for governor romney there. 16,000 votes almost his margin of victory up there. then come up to the top, look at this, in the bigger areas, cleveland, akron, the suburbs around them. romney winning big including cuyahoga county. this vote came in relatively slowly, but nearly a 20-point win. hamilton county, 20 points. in cuyahoga county, 19 points that's huge. that's where the biggest vote cocounts came in for governor romney. and the evangelical voters, a lot of tea party voters out here for santorum.

and gloria borjs was saying earlier, these are the places that republicans have to win. just because romney didn't win them tonight doesn't mean he won't win in november. and you look again, summit county at almost a ten-point lead there. so it took a while. santorum was leading early on. but the big margins of victory in cincinnati and the cleveland area, wolf, giving mitt romney what he needed tonight. the psychological boost not only the delegates but the psychological boost of winning what was the biggest contested super tuesday battleground. >> fair to say, it would have been a disaster for the romney campaign if he would have lost ohio. would have raised all sorts of questions. he narrowly beats stoantorum. by 12,000. still a win. let's bring in our correspondents to assess where we go from here. candy crowley is over at romney headquarters. where does romney go from here? we know a week from today, mississippi and alabama, two important races.

>> but it's interesting when you talk to the romney campaign. what are they looking at, move and illinois? they did not mention southern state to me when i said where do you go next? this is earlier in the evening before, but nothing has changed between then and now. their intent is to go to some of the states that's proven friendlier to mitt romney. they see that the south is a tough row for them to hoe. and obviously are going to play there. but the fact of the matter is they're looking at some of those mega states, missouri and illinois. and that's where they're headed after this. maybe not geographically the candidate, but that's what they'll concentrate on. for them it's still a delegate count. romney wins ohio. that's a great head line for them. but at this point, they are counting just like everybody else how do you get to 1144. >> when you say romney is going to play in mississippi and alabama, are they going to spend

money there advertising? do we know if they'll spend a lot of time there? >> i don't know that at this point, wolf. there's money there to spend. he has a pac that can -- that can help him out in that score if he needs helping out and has been in all of these states. i just know that these states that they bring up are not the southern ones that are coming up next tuesday. >> jim acosta, he's in ohio, covering the santorum campaign. they were outspent an enormous amount. they came close in ohio. didn't come close enough as we now know, we know that it will go to mitt romney. where does santorum focus his attention tomorrow? >> well, not a moment's rest for the santorum campaign, wolf. they're heading to kansas tomorrow. and then mississippi and alabama over the next 24 to 48 hours. so they're hitting the next states. kansas and mississippi and alabama which have primaries coming up on tuesday.

and they see all of those contests as being very favorable to rick santorum. you know, we heard sort of a pugnacious santorum campaign earlier this evening. they were emboldened by sort of this conventional wisdom busting night they had on super tuesday. john braybender for the santorum campaign and he was talking to reporters and he said, look, if we had a one-on-one shot at mitt romney, if conservatives out there could somehow pressure newt gingrich to get out of this race, look what happened in ohio end to. look at the margin of victory for mitt romney in ohio. they feel with newt gingrich of the race, they would have won ohio. looking back to michigan look at that margin of victory in michigan. they would have won michigan. they also point out look at the map in terms of their victories tonight. yes, they won in the south. in tennessee. yes, they won out west in oklahoma, but they won out in north dakota. mitt romney played very heavily for north dakota. made a stop in just the last

week up there. was sending his son josh romney up there a couple of times over the last week or so. so they feel like they have mitt romney on the ropes right now. you heard rick santorum earlier in the night going after mitt romney on healthcare reform and the individual plan date. they're going after that over and over again. in the campaign stops coming up in kansas, mississippi and alabama. >> a week from today. let's go over to peter hamby. you have spent a lot of time in the south looking at these various races. does romney have a significant opportunity in either mississippi or alabama or should he just forget about those southern states? >> a troubling trend emerged tonight. it's not just about the south. tonight was mitt romney's first test in appalachia of this whole cycle. look at the ohio river. look at the first district of tennessee. look at north georgia, southwest

virginia. mitt romney won in southern virginia just against ron paul. he did not do well among those kind of culturally conservative voters, economically down scale. the kind of folks who cling to guns and religion as barack obama inartfully said in 2008. these are the kind of voters that mitt romney needs in november. he lost them tonight in the appalachian counties. this is reminiscent on the democratic side, a different context of course. but remember if you look at a red/blue map in the general election there was a long red strip that cut down from pennsylvania all the way into northern alabama and that was appalachia. barack obama could not connect them with those people. and mitt romney might have problems connecting with them. if you look ahead to some of the states in the south he'll have problems. but speaking specifically of the appalachian counties look ahead

to west virginia, western pennsylvania, wolf for mitt romney as he moves forward in the race. >> western pennsylvania should be a good material for rick santorum since he's from western pennsylvania. peter, stand by. we'll get back to you. we're still waiting for the results from the tenth state that had elections tonight. the caucuses in alaska. we know the nine other results. alaska. we're going there. we'll check in and see what's going on in alaska. see what's happening up there. stand by. we're here at the cnn election center for you. ♪

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[ malwill be giving awayl. passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. all right. welcome back. we have projected the big win in ohio for mitt romney. we're watching what's going on. he's won five states tonight. rick santorum has won three. newt gingrich won his home state of georgia. we're still waiting for alaska

to see what's going on. you've got the big map of the united states. what do you want to show us? >> number one, romney is winning and lot of questions about weakness, but if you start looking at the states filling in. 13 of them have now for mitt romney. seven for rick santorum again. missouri gets an asterisk because it was a beauty contest. go back to missouri. two for newt gingrich. i want to make a point quickly. peter hamby talked about appalachian. as the more states vote, we're getting results. the states that are all filled in we don't get county results. caucus states we don't get county results, but peter was talking about along the ohio river and appalachia. these are areas where republicans need to win in november. we don't have west virginia yet. yes, romney won in appalachia and the mountains. ron paul only on the ballot. let's go back to the 2008 race. the race in november. those are republican areas.

those are all republican areas. if you're going to win those states, that's very important for the republicans. is it a weakness for mitt romney? yes. does it sustain itself? that would be an interesting question. and if he is the general election nominee. so let's go to the electoral projection. a bit early for this. let's say hypothetically that mitt romney is your nominee. this is the map from 2008 based on the census results, barack obama with today's electoral votes than he would have won in the last election. most people believe that new hampshire will be a swing state this time. we'll take it away. republicans hope to put pennsylvania in play. for the sake of the hypothetical we'll take it away. let's make these swing states. florida swing state. ohio a swing state. most people think indiana will go back to republicans. you have some republicans who say we can play here and here. i'll do it for the sake of

argument. ohio is a swing state. nevada the highest unemployment in the country, you have to make that a swing state. arizona could be a swing state. new mexico i'm going to leave that in president obama's now. some republicans will argue with me. let's start right here. 13. right? there will be more. there will be more people at home might think so that gets obama down to 207. i think our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is listening to us as we go. prove it to me, republicans. keep these in the democratic column until you can prove otherwise. we were in florida for a debate. even the democrats think this is tough for president obama. let's give it to the republicans. let's for the sake of argument split the difference. let obama keep virginia. and give north carolina to the republicans. where are we now? the president is getting close. that was a pickup for the

president. i'm convinced just now. prove it to me republicans, look at this, you have nevada, indiana most go back to the republican fold. watch this. that hasn't voted republican for president for a long time. prove it to me. ohio does swing. you could have a scenario, wolf, look at that. right. >> you need 270. >> nevada let's say the latino vote right now convinces me that one favors the democrats. where did we start this campaign? that would be iowa and new hampshire. is it going to come down to this? probably not. it comes down to ohio or florida, but you have can a scenario where you fight state by state and you come down to the tiny state if the president wins iowa he gets to 268. then we fight it out. does mitt romney or president obama get new hampshire? this has taken a toll on the

republicans. president obama has the advantage right now. but when you go state by state which is how you do presidential politics you could have a dozen swing states and could have the scenario go anyway. these stories -- the bigger states, tend to be the big states. but some of the tiny states could make all the difference. >> here's a scenario that is potentially. 269-269. neither gets the 270. it goes to the house of the representatives where the republicans have the majority. it's a possibility. >> i went through all the states. i know democrats at home and republicans a at home are arguing with my hypothetical. but when team obama looks at the map, they have to assume ohio is a swing state. they have to assume florida is a swing state. they have to put new hampshire in places like that in the swing state category. do think they think can surprise us? nine bush 2004 states red and do

they see surprises in this map? >> well, the biggest surprise is arizona where they think that they argue they that they can pick up arizona because of the latino vote. what i find interesting tonight, conventional wisdom has been that the obama team believes that they can win the presidency and while losing ohio. that they have made no secret of the fact that they're mapping out alternative routes to 270 without ohio. which as you pointed out is not something that's frequently done. >> and without florida. >> and without florida. they probably -- they say that both can be done, but would like to get one or the other. more scenarios include florida wom winning florida and losing ohio. what's shifting now is that because of romney's weaknesses during the primary, there's -- noticing among democrats

increasing optimism that maybe the president can compete more aggressively in ohio than they thought before because romney seems to have equal problems with these disaffected, noncollege white working class voters as you have been pointing out all night. they cancel each other in some ways and vice president biden is headed to ohio next week. he's the president's best surrogate in that state. >> i think that's an excellent calculation. and as you go for it, jess, we have a couple of big question marks. does anything unexpected in the world, with energy prices and where's the economic data? some bright spots for the president, but we're in early march. is the economic data in a place, can he fight and play in ohio? florida as well? i always consider iowa a swing state and wolf, i do think the latino vote makes an interesting calculation out here in the hypotheticals early on. might default is prove it for a

state that's voted for one way or another. this is a hypothetical, this is a narrow victory for the president. and we do know this, the map will be more competitive than last time. how much more? we can't answer that yet. >> all right. john, thanks very much. you know what, nine states have now made up their minds. one state to be determined. that would be alaska. i want to go to alaska right now. paul vercammen is standing by. are you in anchorage right now and tell us the vote count as we know it. >> well, let me set the scene for you. we are at gop headquarters here in anchorage. they will get the numbers by any means possible. some via e-mails, some faxes, some phone calls. if you look over the left shoulder, you will see randy reedrick, the state gop chairman. romney is off to a good start with just 2 1/2 districts in.

he has 300 some votes. i know randy has some numbers in his hands right now. step in here if you could please. in alaska they'll receive their votes in all sorts of means. tell me who's reporting. i guess kodiak. >> from the city of kodiak. the island down south. gingrich 36, paul 68, romney 67, santorum 61 and one undecided. >> we have got a very even split here in some ways. i mean, everybody is getting votes tonight. >> everybody got votes. the three leaders are separated by one vote. and gingrich has roughly one-seventh of the vote where the other two have each two-sevenths. >> we are talking about the three leaders in kodiak, not overall in alaska. >> that's right. >> if you were to guess when you'd have the numbers in, when

would that be? >> hopefully 10:00 alaskan time, 2:00 a.m. eastern time. we had those who had to finish voting people on the premises. they will probably not start counting ballots until 8:15. and we'll have more results coming in. >> give me the kodiak numbers. >> 36 again griffin, 67 santorum. >> and ron paul stopped by the other night. >> it motivated some people to participate who probably wouldn't have shown up. i had one gal say to me today that the only reason she voted for ron paul is he cared enough to come to the state. >> we'll see how that plays out. he just edged out mitt romney. >> by one vote. >> he's got to go back to work. as we speak, you can see also

over my right shoulder if you have any numbers, please let us know. the numbers are starting to trickle in just barely, wolf, and stay with us. we could be here for a while. back to you now in the studio. >> paul vercammen, we'll watch closely together with you. we saw a tweet earlier, sarah palin the former governor of alaska said she voted for newt gingrich in alaska. her husband formally endorsed newt gingrich. much more of our coverage after this. because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one.

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