we'll go to ed lavandera shortly who's on the ground in one of the hardest-hit locations. we begin, though, with primary coverage. just seconds to go until the polls go in both maryland and washington, d.c. we're watching closely both of those contests. wisconsin closing in one hour, but in a few seconds let's see what we can do. in fact let's do it right now. cnn can now project that mitt romney, mitt romney is the winner in the state of maryland based on the exit poll information. we've been taking it throughout the day. voters coming out. we do project mitt romney will be the winner in maryland. we'll give you the exact numbers shortly. we are not able to make a projection in the district of columbia simply because we did not have exit poll information data in the district of columbia, but real numbers will be coming in shortly in the district of columbia. we'll share those numbers with

you shortly. let's put up on the screen right now the exit poll information for maryland. here is why we could make this projection that mitt romney is the winner in maryland. take a look at this. based on the exit polls, what people were telling us as they left the polling booths throughout the day, 49% in maryland said they were voting -- they already had voted in fact for mitt romney, 28% for rick santorum, 11% for newt gingrich, 10% for ron paul. based on those exit poll numbers, we are able to make the projection that mitt romney, the former governor of massachusetts, is the winner in maryland. not a huge surprise, but an important win for mitt romney. >> an important win also because of whom he won with, wolf. look at maryland over here, the state that tends to vote democratic. but look at what our exit polls showed in terms of how people responded to all of this. look at this. very conservative voters,

somewhat conservative, moderate or liberal. look what they did in maryland over here. rick santorum 40%, 40% for mitt romney too. very conservative voters lining up with mitt romney. we have not seen that to this point. as you move to the somewhat conservative, there you see mitt romney 59% to santorum's 25%. that's one of the crushing numbers out of this certainly for the santorum people. they can't be happy about this. born again or evangelical christian voters, 63% of the people said they were not that in maryland and look what happened with them, 55% for mitt romney instead of santorum. as we move down a little further, most important issue in maryland, like everywhere else it's the economy. on the economy vote, 56% for mitt romney. that's crushing to santorum's 22% on the economy. that's been the biggest issue all over this country, every state we go to. time and again people say that's the issue. that's a better than two to one

defeat on that. vote by income. this has dogged mitt romney. he has had trouble, trouble, trouble with lower-end voters. if you go to $100,000 or more, look at this, mitt romney wins 54% to 25%. there's no surprise on that. but now i want you to bring down to less than $50,000, less than $50,000 and mitt romney wins that 40% to rick santorum's 33%. that is something we really have almost not seen before. somehow he got traction with the lower end voters that santorum has been able to rely on. one last category because this is the one everybody keeps talking about on the republican side. the most important candidate quality. the number one thing people wanted in maryland who voted today was a candidate who could defeat barack obama. look at how they voted on that. 72% for mitt romney. only 12% thought that for rick

santorum. wolf, this is an overwhelming bundle of numbers for mitt romney right now and why we can so easily say this is the way maryland voters went today in the republican primary. >> good numbers for mitt romney indeed. thanks very much, tom. we'll check back with you throughout the night. one quick note. by the end of the night on the democratic side it looks official. president obama will have enough delegates to ensure his renomination. he had no opposition, so that's not much of a surprise, obviously, as well. but let's bring in our panel. joining us, our political pan list gloria and donna. also ari fleischer. i want to get a quick initial thought from all of you. not a huge surprise that he wins in maryland, but you know what, maryland is on the border with pennsylvania, his home state was a crushing win for mitt romney today. >> that's right. and what rick santorum will say

if he loses in wisconsin as well is that he's heading into pennsylvania. that's where he's going to be this evening. that's where his big win is going to be. it's his home state. then he believes he can carry on if he wins pennsylvania, take it through may to some states. >> may is a better month than april. >> states like texas, kentucky, arkansas. but i think you'd have to say, wolf, that after tonight mitt romney will have a commanding lead not only in delegates but also bragging rights saying, you know what, i have been able to beat rick santorum across a range of battleground states. i've proven myself as a candidate, let's get on with it. president obama attacked mitt romney today. republicans are thinking time to start getting in general election mode. >> rick santorum has won 11 states. that's nothing to sneeze at. >> he's won 11 more states than people thought he'd win. so you have to say he's run a very credible campaign and

remains a credible candidate, but i think it's all but over. and if mitt romney wins all three tonight, then i think you'd have to say, wolf, that he's finally got his bandwagon rolling again. he was in the ditch for a while but i think he's got it rolling again and it will be very, very hard to stop. i don't care if it's may, june or august, he'll be very hard to stop. >> i listened to the president's speech today and he mentioned mitt romney by name, first time he's really done so in the course of this campaign. i didn't hear him say much about rick santorum. >> well, he understands that mitt romney has, you know, technically won the nomination, although we still have to go through a number of states before he will get to that magic number of 1,144. i voted for president obama today, so i guess three electoral votes in the fall, i'm proud of my vote and i can take this off now. but look, mitt romney is ready to pivot. he's ready to pivot to the gem election. he knows president obama is

waiting for him. we've been waiting in the wings, we've known this for weeks. my thought right now is that mitt romney will at some point claim victory. the establishment want the race over with and we're ready to take on mitt romney. >> my own sense, ari, tell me if you agree, every time the president of the united states or one of his advisers mentions mitt romney by name, that helps mitt romney among republicans. >> well, it sends a signal to everybody that he is the one that the democrats are running against, creates inevitability. but let me step back and make a broader point about something interesting in my party. primaries draw you to the right if you're a republican and draw you to the left if you're a democrat except for republicans recently. mitt romney, who isn't the most conservative, john mccain isn't the most conservative and he won. george w. bush was not the most conservative in 2000 and he won. the fact is the party keeps nominating somebody other than the most conservative. you're going to make the point it pulled him to the right, et cetera.

>> dragged him to the right. >> my point is somehow, the candidate who is not the most far right candidate keeps winning primaries. >> but in the process, mitt romney -- this process has not been great for him and dragged him to the right, particularly on the issue of immigration reform. that's why marco rubio in the senate wants to propose some kind of revision of the dream act so he can get some republicans to vote for it because he understands that this has been damaging. >> that's all true. remember, barack obama his first three years of president got drawn to the left as he governed. they both have done that and both have made mistakes. >> that's true. and president obama may have some real problems in the fall because of that, you and i agree with that. but i don't think mitt romney got dragged to the right, he got dragged to the far right. ari, just in the last few days republicans have been scrambling to figure out how do they appeal to women. how do we bring the women back. how do we appeal to hispanics.

what do we do about the ryan plan? the president obviously saw the ryan plan being a vulnerability. >> how do you govern from the left if your policy is to bring the country back from the brink of a recession, to expand health care coverage for children, to restore equal pay for women with the lillie ledbetter act. how do you govern from one side. >> hold those thoughts. we have reporters at the romney and santorum headquarters. candy crowley is over at romney central, joe johns is over at the santorum campaign outside of pittsburgh. let's go to candy first. candy, give us a little sense of what's going on over there. >> reporter: not much at the moment, but i can tell you that for a couple of days now they do believe in the romney campaign that he's going to win wisconsin. it will then be a clean sweep for tonight.

romney said during his campaigning here if i pull out a win here in wisconsin, i believe i will then go on to grab enough delegates, the 1,144 delegates i need before the convention, sort of trying to put an end to all that talk about a brokered convention or going there without having enough. so it is full steam ahead. you're still seeing mitt romney going after the president, responding to the president today and what the president had to say, so this is very much a general campaign wrapped inside the primary campaign. and the mitt romney folks certainly believe that he is now back on track, as david said, and moving along. so they'll gather here in wisconsin. they think they will look back at wisconsin, if not the day that he gets the actual number that he needs, but a day when there has been a big psychological pivot and they expect to see more people coming on board after tonight, should the win come in as they're hoping. >> i'll be curious to hear what

he has to say, mitt romney, when he speaks to that crowd behind you later tonight. candy, thanks very much. joe johns is over at santorum's headquarters in mars, pennsylvania, not far from his hometown over there. set the scene for us, joe, over there. >> reporter: wolf, quite frankly, i think the santorum campaign is feeling just a little besieged these days with questions about the candidate's future. got on the phone with one top aide with the santorum campaign today. three times prefaced the conversation with we're not getting out, we're not getting out, we're not getting out. so the question, of course, is what is santorum up to right now. of course as far as his campaign is concerned, this event here in this room in mars, pennsylvania, as well as the candidate's travels across the state, starting tomorrow are considered to be the kickoff, if you will, of santorum's race for the state of pennsylvania, the primary of course on april 24th. he sees that as critical to him

and he thinks he has to do well, of course, here in his home state of pennsylvania, the state that he represented in the united states congress for so many years. beyond that, they are looking forward to the state of texas and some of the other state primaries that occur in the month of may. so santorum showing no signs of getting out, even though this doesn't look like it's going to be a very good night for him. wolf. >> all right, joe, thanks very much. we'll be anxious to hear what he has to say. he'll be speaking behind you as well. let's show you the actual numbers coming in from the state of maryland. we've projected mitt romney is the winner in maryland, but right now they have only started coming in, 1% or so of the vote is in. romney way ahead. you can see 50%, 30% for santorum, 10% for gingrich, 8% for ron paul. similar to the exit poll numbers that we had, but these are the official numbers that are just coming in. let us know what you think about

what's going on. remember, we're on facebook, we're on twitter, @ac360. follow me on twitter. as we mentioned at the top, there's other news we're following here on "ac 360" including the devastation, true devastation in the dallas-ft. worth area. we'll have the latest from ed lavandera. he's on the ground in texas. that's next. all energy development comes with some risk, but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives...

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two breaking stories tonight, primary night and major tornado damage in the dallas-ft. worth area. some of the video is almost surreal. you can see a man standing in the doorway of what appears to be a totally intact bedroom but one thing is missing, the roof. or images of a funnel cloud cutting through a trucking depot, picking up trailers and cabs and tossing them hundreds of feet into the air. we've enhanced the video so we can better see what's going on. look at this, two massive trailers being swept up into the storm and a sea of sheet metal, lumber and other debris swirling all around it. tornados like this one forcing love field and dallas-ft. worth international airport to shut

down for a time. scores of aircraft damaged, hundreds of flights cancelled. especially hard hit the cities of lancaster, kendale and arlington. so far no reported fatalities. just in today amateur video taken by someone named vincent tang, directly in harm's way as the storm touched down. >> look at the debris fly. oh, my god! please! oh, shoot! my god, look at that. holy, holy -- it's about a block or two away from my house. look at that. oh, shoot! oh, shoot! oh, holy shoot! look at that! oh, my god! holy moly.

debris is flying. holy moly. oh, my god. oh, my god, rain coming. holy moly. oh, my god! >> the voice and the pictures of vincent tang. he probably should have taken cover. instead we went up on the roof to get a better shot. he's okay. we spoke with him earlier. let's go to ed lavandera. he's joining us as well. ed, what kind of damage are you seeing where you are? >> well, you know, wolf, today has been just simply an amazing day considering this is a part of the country used to seeing these types of storms, especially this time of year. but the video images you've been showing have really stunned people around here. the kind of damage we're seeing around here, wolf, is very similar to this. this is a neighborhood in lancaster. very hard hit. almost looks like a direct hit

here in this area where the city of -- the mayor of the city of lancaster says some 300 homes and builds were destroyed or damaged because of the storm that ripped through here. this is a sight that caught my attention here, wolf. this is a ladder that takes people into their attics in their home. this ladder just strewn out here on the lawn, sucked out of these homes. that's what a lot of people who described who were inside their homes when this tornado struck is that force and that feeling that people got that the storm was essentially going to suck you and rip you right out of their home. we spoke with a woman by the name of gwen dabb. we talked to her. she wasn't able to make it to an interior room in her house in time before the tornado struck. she had to jump into the corner and cover herself with blankets and a small little ottoman to protect herself. as the tornado hit, all of those windows right there began to shatter and she described just how terrifying that whole experience was. >> oh, so scary.

it was too scary. it just came so fast, quick. i couldn't move fast enough. i went to get my purse and my medicine to take in the bathroom and it hit before i could get it. and it's just right there. >> you ducked into the corner of the room over there. >> by the window. >> covered yourself in blankets? >> blankets and pillows and ottoman. the wind has pulling that cover back and i was trying to hold on to it. i just saw debris, debris, debris. glass flying, glass breaking, it was scary. it was so scary. it reminds you of the wizard of oz when the tornado hit and everything was going around and round. >> it was like the wizard of oz, wolf. she also went on to tell us that she thought at that very moment about to die. >> ed lavandera on the scene for us as he always is. let's get more from chad myers. what is the latest?

what's happening right now, chad? >> wolf, the weather has moved off to the east rather significantly. kind of like a big broom that pushed all of the weather away. it's taking the humidity with it and taking the potential and pushing it into northeastern texas and northwestern louisiana and parts of arkansas. but let me back you up about, oh, i'll go five hours probably from now as we had two rotating supercell tornados, one in dallas county, one in tarrant county, one moving up i-35 and one -- w, and one moving up i-35 east. we had two tornados on the ground simultaneously about 30 miles, 40 miles away from each other. as they moved on up, the tornados were causing damage in here from cleburne back into burleson and even up toward arlington. pretty significant damage with this storm. the helicopters haven't got that far to the west because the weather was just bad most of the day but all the damage you've been seeing here is in the dallas county storm. i'll go ahead and move that out

of the way. the storms did travel up to the north and northeast and they put down damage all the way through. now, wolf, as we move you ahead, the weather has come through. the line of weather has moved through dallas and about 60 miles to the east of dallas pushing all of that weather and all of that potential damage away, well off to the east, wolf. >> so is it fair to say texas is now in the clear? >> it is fair to say dallas-ft. worth metro is in the clear, but if you're anywhere from texarkana to just eat st of wac you still have some of these bigger cells to come, although we haven't seen anything rotating significantly in at last the past hour. i haven't seen a tornado on the ground. you can still get hail and still get wind. some of these storms today put down tennis ball-size hail. that will do damage even if it's not blowing around. >> chad, i want you to listen to this next interview. vincent tang is now joining us on the phone. he's the individual who shot that remarkable video from his

rooftop. we showed it just a few moments ago. v vincent, can you take us through what it was like to be so close to the tornado? >> i don't know what to tell you, sir. it's kind of exciting or it's kind of scary. but at that moment when i was looking at tv -- i was watching tv and my xbox calling me from california, sacramento, california, he said vinny, you know that touchdown is going to touch down in your area. i said yeah. he's asking are you okay? yeah, i'm prepared. i've got a camera with me. and then he said are you okay? i said yeah. i don't see any tornado yet but the tornado warning, the weather alert, everybody -- i don't know any tornado hit down on the ground yet. then me and him, we hang up the phone probably about two minutes

later and the light went out. no more light. it's black out. and then i ran out to the outside of my backyard. i saw the debris flying. i ran back inside the house, i grabbed my video camera, i climbed up to my rooftop and recorded. and then in like probably about a minute or less than a minute, i saw the big debris fly so quick, fast and really high towards me. so climbed back down and fell from the ladder about three or four steps. i ran back into the house and i'm thinking, no, i've got to go back out and record it. >> you know, vincent, when a tornado is coming, they say get to the ground level or below. get into a bathtub, hide out, get into a shelter. what made you stay up on that roof and risk your life? >> i don't know.

i feel like it's not going to come towards me, to my house area at all. i saw it, the actual tornado is going probably, i would say, west-northwest. i think to myself i will be safe if i keep recording and it turned and is going west-northwest so i'm safe but i'm okay. >> well, vin sent, we're happy you're okay, but next time be careful. go down to the ground level, go into a secure area and as much as this video is very impressive, it's much more important for you to be okay. thank god you're okay right now, vincent tang shot that video and we showed it to our viewers. as you can imagine, the mayor of dallas has a lot to deal with tonight. we'll talk with him just ahead. as we wait for the results in washington, d.c., the district of columbia's republican primary, we could be

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damage the system did, but we've got nobody that's dead and no significant injuries. and so that's -- it really is a miracle that we dodged this. >> no significant injuries. that's really amazing when you see some of the destruction that we've been showing our viewers. what's the status of the search and rescue effort, because i assume people are going house to house making sure that there's no one stuck inside. >> we have. we have been. i was out this evening checking each of the houses. the neighbors are out in the front yards. i talked to families that saw those trailers coming towards their house and landing in the back of their house. at the same time the next door neighbor is alive. the amazing story of a couple that had just left their house going to work at the children's medical center there, and just five minutes later the house is

destroyed by one of those trailers. a couple retired ladies that have lived there since the '60s were in their house. the whole back of their house is destroyed but they're okay. >> when you say there's no fatalities, fortunately, and no significant injuries, i assume that you're referring to the city of dallas. you're the mayor of dallas. is that true all in the entire dallas-ft. worth greater area? >> we've been reaching out to the whole area, and we're not hearing of any fatalities at this point. >> really? that's really great to hear. >> everybody is still assessing and getting all the information back in, but the information we've got is that while there's been major damage done, that people are walking away with their lives. >> that's good to hear. mayor mike rawlings, the mayor of dallas. we'll stay in close touch with you. thanks very much. >> thank you. we're following some other stories on this busy news night as well. susan hendricks is joining us with a 360 news and business bulletin.

>> reporter: hi, wolf. forensic investigators are back on the scene of yesterday's deadly rampage at oikos university in oakland, california. police say a 43-year-old killed seven people, wounded three others and is showing no signs of remorse. we are getting our first listen to dispatch tapes recorded during the police response. >> there's a female bleeding down on the ground, face down on the concrete and bleeding. shots coming from inside the building. people are running out screaming. >> it looks like he's got a gunshot to the head. non-responsive. >> the shooter is going to be a male korean, about 40 years old, 5'5", heavy build. he's wearing a blue jacket and a baseball cap. >> reporter: again, chilling to hear, seven people died. an update on the health of former vice president dick cheney. he left a virginia hospital today, ten days after undergoing a successful heart transplant. dick cheney has a history of heart trouble and suffered at least five heart attacks since 1978.

how about this, u.s. automakers revved up sales in march. the big three saw a nearly 13% jump last month, capping off the best sales quarter since 2008. and donald trump will allow a canadian transgender beauty contestant to compete for the miss universe title. the 23-year-old underwent sexual resa i knowment surgery four years ago but organizers initially disqualified her for not being a natural-born female. trump's decision came just after she addressed reporters alongside her attorney, gloria allred. trump owns the pageant, by the way. president obama and his team are sending clear signals about who they expect to face in november's election. we'll have more on what's going on. they have been trading verbal shots with mitt romney as well. i'll talk to president obama's deputy campaign manager. that's just ahead.

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in wisconsin, voters are still casting ballots. they'll close the polls at the top of the hour. it's considered the race to watch tonight. meantime, president obama is being pretty clear about who he expects to clinch the republican nomination. in a speech today, he blasted a house republican budget proposal that mitt romney has endorsed and he mentioned the former governor of massachusetts by name. that's a first. >> this isn't a budget supported by some small group in the republican party. this is now the party's governing platform. this is what they're running on. one of my potential opponents, governor romney, has said that he hoped a similar version of this plan from last year would be introduced as a bill on day

one of hi presidency. he said that he's very supportive of this new budget. and he even called it marvelous. >> president obama and mitt romney spent the better part of the day trading some verbal punches. president obama's deputy campaign manager, stephanie cutter, is joining us now. stephanie, thanks very much for coming in. we heard the president today point to mitt romney by name, the first time this year at least. can we expect to see a lot more of this moving forward? >> well, i think it was appropriate to mention mitt romney today in a speech about, you know, specifically the ryan budget and the unbalanced approach it takes to reducing our deficit and the burden that it puts on the middle class and seniors, because mitt romney wholly embraced that budget. he's been traveling around wisconsin all week with ryan telling, as you said in your opening, that this is what he was going to do on day one of his presidency. so i think it was absolutely appropriate that this is the

republican orthodoxy. this is the mainstream thought of the republican party, the kinds of things that they want to do to medicare, to middle class programs, to investments in the things that we need to grow this economy. they say to decimate all of that so that they can protect tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. it was a very well-laid out speech, thoughtful approach with facts and figures to back it up, and, you know, it's interesting to see the response from both mitt romney and ryan. >> romney certainly has been calling the president by name for a long time on a daily basis if not an hourly basis sometimes. he's raised the volume himself recently. let's show our viewers some of what we're talking about. listen to this. >> the president put an ad out yesterday talking about gasoline prices. and how high they are. and guess who he blamed? me. what he has done has made it

we believe as two lower courts, conservative done, both on the sixth circuit and d.c. circuit, very conservative judges. >> when will we see a democratic plan for the future? when will we know what the president plans to do after the election in the lame duck session when so many of these laws expire and there's a taxegg eddon as people are calling it. >> well, david, the president put out a budget and that is out there for everybody to see. $4 trillion in deficit reduction. a balanced approach to putting our deficits on a track to get them below 3% of gdp. and to continue making the investments that we need in the middle class and seniors and innovation and education. all of the things that we need to do to grow this economy and make sure that we're competitive in the 21st century. so that budget is out there for everybody to see.

we believe it's a balanced approach. it's a pretty stark comparison to the ryan budget. two very different visions for this country. we're eager to have that debate. >> all right, stephanie cutter, we've got to leave it right there. thanks very much. we need to get back to our panel in a few moments. we are also going to take you to santorum headquarters and talk to a spokeswoman over there about the results tonight and whether the candidate is still planning to stay in the race until the convention. i'm doing my own sleep study. advil pm® or tylenol pm.

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interviewer: you were there the day the priceline negotiator went down in that fiery bus crash. sister kathleen: we lost a beautiful man that day but we gained the knowledge that priceline has thousands and thousands of hotels on sale everyday so i can choose the perfect one for me without bidding. ooh, my. this one has an infinity pool. i love those. they just...and then drop off... ...kind of like the negotiator. narrator: save right now on thousands and thousands of hotels during the spring sale at priceline. update you on the official vote tally coming in from maryland. we've projected mitt romney is the winner. 8% of the vote is now in. 53% for mitt romney, 27% for rick santorum, 10% for newt

gingrich, 8% for ron paul. washington, d.c., district of columbia, the polls have closed there as well but we did not have exit polls. we have not yet made a projection. we're awaiting for official results to come in. the next polls close in about 12 minutes or so at the top of the hour. wisconsin. we'll see what happens in wisconsin and see if we can project a winner at that time. heading into today's primaries, mitt romney had twice as many delegates as rick santorum. santorum has not blinked. he maintains he can still make the math work. alice stewart, his spokeswoman iss is joining us right now. it looks like santorum could lose all three races tonight. how big of a setback would that be for him? >> well, wolf, every primary night you're going to have some winners and you're going to have some losers. one night we'll have an up and the next night we'll have a

down. but we're looking ahead. we're looking at the calendar ahead of us and not behind us. april 24th will be a great night for us. we have pennsylvania and some other key states further down the primary calendar with north carolina, arkansas and texas. so we're looking at that. we're planning to put our flag here in pennsylvania tonight and launch our full-scale campaign effort here in pennsylvania and rick is looking forward to it. >> according to our exit polls in wisconsin, alice, governor romney is doing surprisingly well in some demographics where normally senator santorum has the edge, for example voters in the lower to middle income ranges, those who identify themselves as very conservative, voters who say they are evangelicals or born-again christians. romney also holds a wide lead with catholics. do those who say this indicates the entire republican party is c coalescing around governor

romney, what do you say to them? >> we're not seeing that. we expect to see coalescing around rick santorum. you know, wolf, we've been faced with a tremendous financial advantage by mitt romney, tremendous name i.d. and been running for president for six years. for rick to even have him up against the ropes like he is just goes to show that rick that has the message that is resonating with people in this party. what we're hearing more and more and more, we spent the past several days throughout wisconsin talking face to face with people, not with fancy ads on tv, and what we're hearing from people is they want someone who can really be a contrast with president obama. they want someone who can go toe to toe with him on the key issue of obama care, on cap in trade and wall street bailouts. mitt romney was the godfather of obama care and advocated for it on the national level. he supported wall street bailouts, he supported cap in trade and these issues are important to the people across

this country and they say rick santorum as the person who can debate president obama on this most important issue. we're hearing more and more people don't want obama care and certainly don't want the person that wrote the model for it. >> i just want to be precise. if in fact rick santorum loses his home state of pennsylvania, does he drop out then? >> what we're looking at is we're expecting to do very well in pennsylvania. we're going to launch a full-scale attack across this state. mark my word, wolf, texas will be a critical state in this primary process. keep an eye on texas, that's going to be important. we have a three-week break between now and pennsylvania. pennsylvania will be important, but also texas. we expect to do well also in north carolina and arkansas. but we're looking to the future and expect the things ahead, wolf. >> alice stewart, thanks very much. let's bring back our panel, gloria, david, donna, ari. ari, rhett me stalet me start w. what do you think of the case

she made? >> i don't think much of it. voters do think about the things she said but they go ahead and vote for mitt romney. what she says saying is not being proven out by the voters. rick santorum needs to get hot, stay hot. he got hot and then fell backwards and hasn't recovered. that's the fund mental dynamic of the race. it's hard to see it stopping. at a certain point every candidate needs to say at what point am i doing damage to the party and the chances of winning the presidency. i think rick santorum has the right to fight through pennsylvania. i don't think he has much beyond that if he decides to go that far. >> there's no doubt president obama became a better candidate because of the stiff competition he got from hillary clinton four years ago in the democratic primaries. is mitt romney a better candidate thanks to rick santorum? >> i don't think so. i think mitt romney is on his game when he's negative, when he's attacking his opponent, when he's attacking the president. he really hasn't given us a message for the fall.

he hasn't told us what he would do differently. in the beginning he said i'm going to fix all of president obama's problem. i'm going to fix the economy. but lately we don't know what exactly he's going to change. >> do you agree that he's not a better candidate because of all the practice dealing with these republican challengers? >> i think he's better, more effective on the stump. he's easier and more relaxed. but rick santorum did draw him into the fight over women's contraception and health care for women and that is clearly going to come back. olympia snowe, republican senator today, just on the record today saying, you know, i'm so unhappy. we have a retro debate going on. i thought these issues were settled way back when. >> quickly. >> president obama does very well with web, but president obama does not do so well with men and white men in particular. so there can be a large gender gap, but president obama has to get his numbers up on the other side of that ledger.

so we'll have to see. >> we've got a good night ahead of us. don't go too far away. we're moments away from the polls closing in wisconsin. up next, tom foreman takes a special look at what we'll be watching for as the votes are counted. [ male announcer ] the cadillac cts sport sedan was designed with near-perfect weight balance from front to back... and back to front. ♪ giving you exceptional control from left to right... and right to left. ♪ the cadillac cts. ♪ we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs.

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the polls in wisconsin close in just a few moments, 9:00 p.m. eastern. let's check in with tom foreman once again. what are you looking for right now? i'm anxious to know will we be able to make a projection at the top of the hour? i don't know the answer and you don't either, but what are you looking for? >> it's tricky. well, you know what the romney people are looking for, they want to see what just happened over in maryland happen for them

up there. look at that, romney, romney, romney, romney. one county out here that seems to be leaning santorum's way. when you get up here to this state with rural areas and little cities. look at who showed up today. it's an open primary. 12% of the voters were democratic. see who they chose. 30% independent. it will be interesting to see what happened with them. look at this, the biggest group were the moderates or the liberals in terms of who showed up by ideology and how they see themselves. ief u lo if you look at born-again evangelical christians, we know rick santorum has done very well all over the country but 64% of people do not put themselves in that category. that's very different from louisiana where he had a big sweep so we'll have to see if that works against him and whether or not these people who are not born-again evangelical christians then get on board with mitt romney. 57% of the people support that,

and that should work in favor of rick santorum. again, we'll have to see if it does because there has been some endorsements that could change things. the size of the place they voted in, 23% rural, 27% urban, suburban, 50%. wolf. >> tom, don't go too far away, we have a lot still coming up. hoe polls about to close in wisconsin. another edition of 360, 10:00 p.m. eastern. thanks, wolf. good evening, welcome to a special primary of edition of "piers morgan tonight." there may finally be a turning point in this epic and some might a eternal republican race. the polls are close in wisconsin with 42 delegates in stake. i want to bring back wolf blitzer with breaking news. bring us up to speed on where we are right now. >> the polls in wisconsin, piers, have now closed but we are not, repeat not able to make a p