it does not get closer or more exciting than this we're watching close races in mississippi and alabama right now. this could be a good 2340ig9 for santorum. >> another nail biter in the republican race for the white house. >> tonight, a new nigfight for deep south with jabs at romney's soft spot. >> i'm learning to say y'all. >> two rivals jump at another chance to trip up the front runner. >> unlike one of my competitors i have had grits before. >> and knock each other out. >> i would like everyone to drop out. >> will all four candidates still be standing after three new contests in alabama, mississippi, and hawaii? it's america's choice.

mitt romney is the clear leader in the delegate race, but he's still a long way from claiming the nomination. >> we're counting up the delegates for the convention, it looks good. and we're counting down the days november, and that looks even better. >> rick santorum is giving romney a run for his money after cutting into his super tuesday win. >> we have won in the west, the midwest, and the south, and we're ready to win across this country. >> newt gingrich with proven appeal in the south, thinks this could be his night. >> if we win alabama and mississippi on tuesday, for about the ninth time, the news media will suddenly be reporting a new race. >> the republicans competing in two red states and on president obama's home turf. when will they be able to focus on their goal. >> i don't think it's do or die. everybody is still in the race. >> the race keep s goelg, and te candidates charge into battle

again. >> and welcome to our primary night edition of "ac 360." if you're just joining us, two big races in alabama and mississippi tonight, and one tense night for the republican presidential candidates. rick santorum leading in alabama. santorum, romney, and gingrich locked in a close foyt in mississippi. earlier, romney told wolf bliltser, quote, santorum is at the desperate end of his campaign. it looks as though he may have spoken too soon. let's take a look at the numbers as they are now. first in alabama with 34% of the vote in, santorum ahead by 7,871 votes. it went up. 7,918 votes.

we got 35% of the vote. gingrich in second place with 30%. romney back with 28% in third. over in mississippi, 79% of the vote in. rick santorum, 33% of the vote. 1,813 votes ahead of newt gingrich, who has 32% of the vote, and mitt romney is back in third place with 30% of the vote. certainly not what candidate romney wanted to see tonight, but it could be a very good night for santorum, and we're watching the numbers closely. >> nobody is watching the numbers closer than john king. it looks like santorum is in much better shape in alabama than in miss mis, but he's ahead at least of now. >> this is the national map. mississippi and alabama. if they stay purple, you may want to call romney back tomorrow and see if he wants to talk about the desperate end. what it could be is the end of the gingrich campaign. he won south carolina, he won

georgia. he desperately needed to win to head across the south. >> second place in both of these states, i think, would probably keep him in the race. >> it would keep him in the race, but does it make him a viable candidate? he'll get delegates, but bragging rights are at stake. you look at alabama, a state that borders georgia. this is the one that gingrich needed to win. this is counting much more slowly mslow ly than mississippi. 35% of the vote in. with that much out, things could change, but this has held steady. santorum at 35%, gingrich at 30%, romney at 28%. if romney was to spring a surprise here, wolf, he's winning in all of the places he would need to win to spring a surprise in alabama. he's winning in the major population centers and in the suburbs. the difference between this state, we can look at ohio a week ago, he's winning, yes, and by a decent margin, but the turnout is so low, he's not getting a big enough vote cushion to offset what the other candidates are doing. that was birmingham, huntville,

same. 3 h00 votes. this is where he needs to rin up a margin of thousands of votes. mobile, just 1% of the vote in. he's winning by a decent percentage, but that's nothing. he's not getting a net to offset what is happening in the rural areas which is much more santorum and a little less gingri gingrich. that's in it state of alabama. in mississippi, a few hours ago, the romney campaign was say figure we're going to get one of these, this is it. and he's rubbing third. 75 pest of the vote in. 33% for santorum, 32% for gingrich. look at the population centers, jackson, hines county, lments 9% of the state population. the governor, this the capital, the governor was for romney. a big win with 83% of the vote in, but look how low the turnout is. if you move around the area, veteran miss misrepublicans said

look at the rank of the county, yes, romney is winning, a couple hundred votes. he is winning in the counties he needed to win in. madison county, he's winning. maybe 400 votes there. yazoo county, the home of haley barbour, romney winning again, but by a small amount of votes. >> shannon travis is standing by. >> in jackson county. pascagoula is here, and it's another county, this is critical. romney needed to win along the gulf coast to have an opportunity to win the state, but he's winning in the county, but look at the margin. he's not getting enough of a vote condition so far, we have 35% of the vote in. maybe shannon can advance us, but that's not enough of a margin. >> keep the numbers up for a moment. shannon, are you getting new numbers in pascagoula? >> yeah, wolf, i actually have new numbers, but momentarily, i'll have fresher numbers. my good friend danny here, danny

glascox, is counting out new numbers. it couldn't be much closer than this. 39 votes separating mitt romney and santorum from the unofficial results we have reporting for 14 out of the 31 precincts. i'll read you the numbers. mitt romney, 2,871 votes. again, mitt romney, 2,871. rick santorum, 2,sa832. newt gingrich, 2,403. and ron paul at 406. and again, as i just told you a few moments ago, danny here was about to print me even fresher numbers. i'm not sure if you guys are getting these numbers because we're on the scene here, on the spot. i'm not quite sure how quickly others are getting these, but because we're here, we're getting them as fresh as he can give them to us. he's loading up the cards into the machines. the cards are pretty much read

by these machines, almost instantaneously and uploaded into the computer. how are you coming along? we have a fresh report coming out now? >> we have 157 cards loaded out of 235. >> how many precincts is that? >> i didn't count the precinct wheres grrb. >> and you're about to do a print out now? >> yes. >> if we stand by for just a few seconds, i can give you even fresher numbers than that. he's putting a title on the report just to make sure that everyone understands these are unofficial. and okay, we'll come back to you when we get fresher numbers. >> stand by, shannon. get me the numbers in as soon as you get them. we'll check back with you. if we look at the numbers right now, it's very, very close, obviously. not enough of a spread, though, for romney to be picking up a lot of votes. >> in this county, he's losing ground. if you see the difference between romney and santorum, this is a county where romney needs to pad, grow out. if you compare the numbers we had officially beforehand, he

had about a 200-vote lead. here, 47 votes. >> shannon has the new numbers. >>. >> i told you momentarily they would be coming out. they're right here. 18 of the 31 precincts in. mitt romney, 3,407. 3,407. rick santorum, 3,340. again, rick santorum, 3,340. newt gingrich, 2,852. 2,852. and ron paul at 539. wolf? >> so you see mitt romney still ahead in jackson county, but obviously, i don't think it's going to be enough to make a major difference state-wide. >> he's losing ground from a moment ago where he needs to be gaining ground. shannon is here in jackson county. this area along the gulf coast is critical to romney. as we're getting the numbers from having reporters on the

scene, i'm going to zoom out, turn this off, the numbers will shrink as i pull out. you need to have romney pad his totals here, pad them here, and we're stale witting for greenville. the question is in a low turnout election, santorum gaining here, even though romney is still ahead. santorum is closing the gap. what happens in places like this. this is hines county, a large county, with 90% of the vote is in. not enough. >> let's check out alabama right now because dana bash is standing by over there. and she is in birmingham. what have you got? >> about 60 perce%, a little mon 60% of the vote in in jefferson county. and mitt romney here is still ahead, but not by much. you see here, he's ahead by about 1,000 votes. 13,801 votes. santorum, behind him at 12,825. and up here, you'll see that newt gingrich, 12,322. you want to look at the percentages, mitt romney,

33.43%. santorum, 31.06%. and up here again, newt gingrich, 29.85%. it's still extremely close between the three of these. you know, this is changing every single second because this is amazing technology. it's updated as they get the numbers. and the numbers are pretty much, i think, all coming into the building here. so the computer is updating them quickly here. but mitt romney here, at least, is doing well. he may not have the pad, as john mentioned, about miss mis, the pad in this important county that he needs to take the state, but he is still winning. >> you know, it's interesting, dana, stand by. these numbers show that romney has won about 1,000 votes, but he was more than 1,000 votes ahead at 58%. but these are brand new numbers. >> romney is holding his lead in this county, but the lead is shrinking. alabama was a longer shot, but for romney to have a shot, that needs to be going in the

opposite direction. in the areas with urban areas where romney tends to do well, he needs the numbers to go the other way. lee was hoping for santorum and gingrich to have a split of the conservative vote, and he picks up the establishment republican vote and some republicans in the su. s. that's not enough. his advantage is narrowing when he needs to stretch it out. if you pull this out and go out more broadly, he's winning where he needs to win with the exception of huntsville in the top of the state, santorum, tiny margin, but winning here. the romney formula has been win in the urban and suburban areas. the margins aren't big enough, and very low turnout. at the moment, if you come out to the full map, if we end the night like this, we have a very different republican race. >> santorum winning both of the states, that would be huge for santorum. a lot of the vote is already in, but a lot more is still out. we're watching very, very closely what is going on. we'll take a wrik.

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it's been an extremely close race in mississippi and alabama. three-man race, but right now, cnn is ready to make a projection. cnn projects rick santorum will win the state of alabama. take a look at this. the former pennsylvania senator, going ahead and winning in alabama. the exit polls earlier had said he was ahead. the numbers are now coming in. he's building up the lead. a significant, mablger, major development for santorum. he's also ahead right now in mississippi. if santorum wins both of the states, that dramatically shakes up this republican race for the presidential nomination. let's take a look at the numbers. what we have right now, take a look at this. a look at alabama and mississippi. the official numbers are in. alabama first. we projected santorum as the winner with more than half of the vote already in. 53%, santorum is ahead by 12,443

votes. 35%, to gingrich, so far, in second place with 30%. romney in third place with 28%. ron paul way behind with only 5%. santorum, we project the winner in alabama. look at this, though, in mississippi, 79% of the vote is in. and santorum is also ahead. in mississippi right now, 2,416 votes to be precise, ahead of newt gingrich. 33% for santorum, 32% right now for gingrich. right now, mitt romney in third place with 30%. only 4% for ron paul. take a look at this, dramatic development. if santorum goes ahead, and we have not made a projection in mississippi, but if he were to win in miss mis, he would win both of the southern states r it would be a dramatic might and it would certainly shake up this race for the white house. >> there's no doubt about it. let's go to the senior adviser to the obama campaign, former white house press secretary

robert gibbs is joining us now. as you look at what looks to be a very good night for rick santorum, what do you make of the numbers? >> well, first of all, anderson, i want to say i'm from alabama and i like grits. i wanted to get that off my chest. look, i think this is shaping up to be a remarkable night for rick santorum. i think it's a pretty bad night for mitt romney. and certainly, not a great night by any means for newt gingrich. if you're going to be a regional candidate, you better win the states in your region, but i think rick santorum is on the verge of a pretty remarkable night in the race. >> as far as your campaign is concerned, do you want to see both gingrich and santorum stay in this as long as possible? >> well, look, i think those are decisions that each of the candidates is going to make. like ydz, i think gingrich has a tougher time waking up tomorrow and not having won in a state that touches his home state and

the next state over. those are certainly decisions that he's going to make. i think there are certain political realities he has to look at, but i think if you look at all three of the candidates, they represent largely the same philosophy, an economic policy that would take us back to a huge tax cut for the wealthy, adding trillions and trillions of dollars to our deficits and to our debts. mane of the same policies that got us into the mess we're trying to get out of right now. i don't think there's a great distinguishing characteristic between all three of these. >> yet in the most recent "new york times"/cbs poll, your candidate, president obama, his job approval numbers have dropped significantly in the last month, 51% last month, 41% of the people polled in the latest poll approve of the job he's doing. 47% disapprove. >> and anderson, still beating all three of those candidates.

look, we have been at this for five years. there's going to be a poll taken tomorrow. a poll every day between now and election day, and these numbers are saerm going to bounce around, given different me methodologies. if we got too exuberant, we wouldn't last long. the american people understand what we had to claw our way out of. there isn't a day i wouldn't rather be our campaign than the other campaigns. romney vastly outspent rick santorum 5-1 in alabama. 3-1 in mississippi. almost all negative ads, and still very little to show for it at the end of the night. >> mitt romney earlier in the day said to wolf plitser, he thinks santorum is at what he said, the desperate end of his came pain. >> i think it sounds like romney

thought he was going to do a whole lot better in alabama and mississippi than the results reflect right now. i don't think -- look, mitt romney has said, his campaign has said that it would take an act of god for him not to be the nominee. usually a campaign with divinity on its side would be doing wetter than they are tonight. >> i appreciate your time. >> i want to bring in our analysts, gloer yauria, david, . a huge win for santorum in b alabamaic and looking like a good night in mississippi as well. >> i was e-mailing with an adviser to santorum, and i asked him to respond to what romney said, and he said, no it's just the beginning of a campaign. so it's very clear that their buoyed by this, as they should be, if they end up winning, and there's going to be more pressure, i think, from the santorum camp, to gets gingrich

out, because it's in their interest to get gingrich out. >> although if you're gingrich and you come in second, if the numbers hold up, come in second in alabama and miss isz, it's not a win, but is it enough to keep you in? >> you get delegates. >> mano a mano with santorum in your own backyard. he's the southern candidate, rick santorum is not the southern candidate. rick santorum wins, he has a strong argument, this should be a one-on-one with romney. what is surprising all of us is none of the exit polls, but all of the expectations that were built up coming into this by the romney people in part and that comment about rick santorum being at the desperate end of his campaign, i think set the evening up as romney was going to win one of these, and the early exit polls said he was about five points ahead in mississippi. now we have a shift and we're look saying whoa. yet again. >> let me put in what may be

happening. we heard haley barbour through one of our reporters talking about the turnout. he's the nephew and also involved in politics, tweeted out and was talking about metro jackson, mississippi. 100% into madison county. nice percentage for romney, but turnout is killing us. 7,658 voter turnout, and we should get 12,000 to 14,000. romney got 42% in jackson, but the turnout, what john has been talking ability, so lousy, not enough to boost him into second. >> we have been talking about this throughout the primary process, which is the turnout has been low. in these primaries. the question is, whether that is really an indicator of what turnout would be in a general election. romney campaign people say no, it is not. that the democrats had the second highest turnout in history in 1988, and they lost. >> also -- >> we don't know.

>> eric erickson, aren't schools in mississippi closed so a lot of folks -- >> public schools in mississippi are on spring break, a lot of people are out of town. my sister works in ridgeland, the more affluent end of the country, and she was the only person in the office that voted today. >> i want to bring in peter who had the interview that candy was talking about. what are you hearing on the ground? >> candy mentioned i talked to henry bar boru, who was a supporter who came over to romney lately, but he's longtime political operative in mississippi and is skeptical of the trends right now. he said it's discouraging. it's hard to see the math. he's disappointed in the turnout. look at a county like rankin county that john has been referencing all night. this is one of the biggest republican counties. typically he said republican turnout is around 39,000. tonight, they're only seeing a

few thousand votes. the bottom line from a prominent romney surrogate is that romney is underperforming and santorum is overperforming. typically a surrogate is not going to go on the record with a reporter about that if they don't see a bad night ahead. another sign of bad news coming out of mississippi. >> it speaks to your passion for a candidate if you're willing to go out and vote in a primary, and rick santorum's supporters clearly are more passionate about him because their arguments are more about cultural issues, what they feel their values -- >> i have to bring in eric burns, the senior adviser from the romney campaign. he's joining us now. thanks very much for being with us. as you look at this, we have called alabama for rick santorum, and it peers as if santorum is doing well in mississippi. not a good night in either state for your candidate. what happened? >> well, i think it's important to keep in mind, anderson, our goal tonight, going into the contest, and there are four

because we have pacific island contests we won't know the results on until early, early in the morning, but our goal was to take out one third of the delegates and possibly do slightly better than that. i think we will exceed that goal. it's important -- >> your goal wasn't to win one of these states? >> i don't think anybody expected mitt to win alabama or mississippi, as mitt said early on in the campaign, this was an away game for him. and i think that's true. this is a delegate contest. and like i said, our goal was to come in, take a third of the delegates. we'll do that, and once the dust clears, you'll be able to look and see that the really will be no ground that our opponents have made up against mitt romney, and as you look at the upcoming contest on the calendar, there are no opportunities for them to have significant wins that allow them to accumulate large numbers of delegateses so they can close the gap with mitt romney. >> earlier in the day, governor

romney said to wolf blitzer on cnn he thought santorum was at the desperate end of his campaign. would you still say tonight that he's at the desperate end of his campaign? >> unless you can explain to me mau he gets to 1,144 delegates, we're vastly approaching the point where there are going oo be fewer delegates remaining than santorum and gingrich needs to get to that magic number. if somebody can explain to me their pathway to 1,144, i'm all ears, but mathematically, we're fast approaching the point where it's going to be a virtual impossibility. >> i want to bring in gloria and david. >> eric, it's gloria. can you explain what people are calling really low turnout in the state of mississippi? and actually throughout the entire primary process, we have seen really low republican turnout? >> look, i can't explain the turnout. i haven't seen the numbers,

gloria. i can tell you mitt visited mississippi and alabama, and the response he got was very encouraging. folks there, of course, are suffering under this bad economy that president obama has given us. they're dealing with high gas prices, high food prices, high health care costs. of course, their incomes are declining or they don't have a job at all or they're looking to trade up from a part-sometime job to a full-time job with better benefits. so these people are hurting. they're hurting all around the country. that's what we've encountered from one end of the united states to the other. >> eric, i have to ask, earlier, your candidate was quoted as saying he wants to, i want to get the quote right, planned parenthood, we're going to get rid of that. does mitt romney really want to get rid of planned parenthood. >> he singled out some areas of the budget he would eliminate or

curtail. all in the name of achieving a balanced budget. and the test that he said he would be applying is is this program so valuable that we're willing to go borrow money from china to pay for it? there's going to be a lot of programs that don't meet that romney test, let's call it, but that is not a new proposal from the governor. that was part of the deficit reduction plan he produced months ago. >> he meant defunding it, not trying to get rid of the organizati organization? >> no, it would not be getting rid of the organization. they have other sources of funding besides government oproeperations, but in order to acheesk balance, we have to make some tough decisions about spending, anderson, and as i said, the test that romney will apply is, is this program so worthwhile and so valuable that we're willing to borrow money from the chinese to pay for it. >> i appreciate your time

tonight. thank you very much. david and gloria, we're back with candy crowley. we're waiting to hear from rick santorum, his family, you see them behind the door. they're waiting. they're going to be making a speech. we're not expecting to hear from governor romney tonight. does that surprise you that romney is not going to be speaking tonight? >> well, candy has been covering him, but to me, if you think you're going to win, you come out. if you don't think you're going to win, you don't. >> they had planned this a couple days ago when i would argue a couple days ago, it looked like it would be the night it turned out to be. in some ways, listening to eric, i think they're right. four, five days ago, romney in the south, it's not going to work out, but like he tends to do in these races, he pulls ahead in some of the polls and you think, holy cow, he could pull it off. then when he doesn't, it looks worse. so they did kind of -- they get the expectations built in the last two days, but they didn't

plan on him coming out. he's on his way to new york to do a couple fund-raisers. >> a last-minute stop in alabama. >> but he's clearly caught by the expectations. magnified the santorum victory or victories tonight. >> santorum being introduced. as soon as he comes to the podium, we'll -- well, let's listen in. >> he talked kind of funny. so when i heard that, now, he thinks we talk funny, but that's how it works in south louisiana. because of that, i think he deserves the right to be an h n honorary cajun. tonight -- [ applause ] >> thank you. >> thank you. >> we did it again.

thank you all very much. first and foremost, as we continue this campaign and continue to work hard, i just want to thank everybody. i want to thank everybody. i get this question all the time, what do people say to you when you get around and meet all of the people we have been meeting as we crisscross the country? and the most common thing i hear from people, and i know i'm not alone, is people come up and say, i'm praying for you. [ applause ] i just want to thank you for that. i want to thank god for giving us the strength to go out there and be clear in our vision and message for the country. and that's what this race has been about. people say you're being outspent, and everybody is talking about all of the math and all of the things that this

race is inevitable. well, for someone who thinks this race is inevitable, he's spending a whole lot of money against me for being inevitable. this is a grassroots campaign for president. who would have ever thought in the age of media that we have in this country today, that ordinary folks from across this country can defy the odds day in, day out? i want to thank the people of kansas over the weekend. we would not be here today, i said when i was in wichita, and i know i did really well in wichita because my wife karen spoke at that caucus, but -- [ applause ] the first couple times i got

this from some reporters who were doing interviews with me and karen, it was funny. now it's becoming a little bit annoying. they keep telling me after the interview, you should speak less and let her speak more. you would do better. she's been an amazing asset to this campaign. but more importantly, she is an amazing gift to me and to these children. john, daniel, sarah, maria, peter, and patrick behind me. this team up here on this stage has just delivered time and time again. for me in my life, and i just want to thank them again publicly for all they're do for us. god bless you. my daughter elizabeth is in hawaii. tough duty, i know. but she's in hawaii, so we're counting on elizabeth to

surprise them all out there with the results tonight when you wake up in the morning and we'll see how well my daughter did. thank you, sweetie, for the sacrifice. and of course, i always have to say hello to my sweetheart, i know she's watching me at home, 3 1/2-year-old bella. thank you, sweetie. bless you, i love you. this campaign is about ordinary folks doing extraordinary things. sort of like america. sort of like america, going out there and exceeding expectations. going out there and defying the odds because we believe in something that is bigger than ourselves. that's what america has always been about. it's not been about self. it's been about serving. it's been about giving and trying to do something for someone who needs help more than you do yourself. and i looked around and at the

crowds we had in alabama and mississippi, and i just have to tell you, i was so encouraged. all of the polls were showing us trailing, and they kept coming out, and they kept saying we believe in you. we're going to go out and work hard and make the difference. so i just want to say first to the people of alabama, you made a great difference tonight. thank you very, very much for your support. i don't think there was a single poll that had me anywhere close to winning mississippi. not one, and yet i knew when i was traveling around on whether it was all the way up in tupelo or gulfport, the folks i met and the passion in their heart, they understood how important this race is for themselves and thire families and for the future of our country. and i end all my speeches by talking about the declaration of

independence and how we have to pledge to each other our lives, our fortune, our sacred honor. every generation does. in order to maintain the great freedom, the great torch that has been given every generation of americans. [ applause ] and the people of this country, the folks who were out there who are affected when gas prices go up, the quality of their life is affect affected with a government that is irresponsible and iresponsive to the needs of average people, particularly when it comes to gas prices in the country. i'm here in lafayette, louisiana, tonight. [ applause ]

and i wanted to be here because of them. this is the heart of the oil and gas industry on the gulf coast. and this administration almost put this town under with the moratoriums, the delays in permitting that are getting worse and worse and worse. and as a result, the ability for the men and women who go out and drill these wells and service these wells to go out and earn an income and more importantly for them to get that oil and gas into the shore so we can use it here in this country. we're seeing gas prices at what are projected to be historic highs. and yet this president almost put this whole region out of business. by -- because of the extreme environmental policies of this administration. and we wanted to be here in lafayette to say to average folks who are struggling right now because of those energy

prices, we will put this town and this region back to work so you can go back to work and have a better quality of life. i finally just want to say to the people of mississippi, i just can't thank you enough. i don't know, we have been out here a few minutes. i don't know whether the race is called or not, but i can tell you this, what the folks did down there in spite of all of the odds, the money being spent, all of the establishment, all of the establishment on the other side of this race, you stood with a guy who comes from the grandson of a coal miner from a steel town in western pennsylvania, but you knew, shared your values, and was going to go out and work for you to make sure that this country was free and safe and prosperous

based on believing in free people and free markets and free economy, and of course, the integrity of the family and the centrality of faith in our lives. [ applause ] bless you. now -- now, missouri is next.

we did well in the primary. we hope to do even better in the caucuses this weekend and of course next week, next week, we'll come back here and we expect a huge win. here in this county. we will compete everywhere. we will compete everywhere. the time is now for conservatives to pull together. the time is now to make sure, to make sure that we have the best chance to win this election and the best chance to win this election is to nominate a conservative to go up against barack obama, who is take him on on every issue.

[ applause ] if louisiana, missouri, illinois, and yes, puerto rico, which we are headed to tonight, i might add, and we're going to spend two days campaigning in puerto rico because we want to make sure that everybody knows we're campaigning everywhere there are delegates because we're going to win this nomination before that convention. those states do their part, starting right here in louisiana, if you folks do your part and you help us like the folks in alabama and hopefully the folks in mississippi did, we did?

[ applause ] >> you do your job, you do your job next week, we will nominate a conservative, and if we nominate a conservative, we will defealt barack obama and set this country back on the right track. thank you, god bless. >> and rick santorum just making a statement. some have called the state of mississippi for rick santorum. we have not yet. 96% of the vote in. santorum well in the lead. 3500 votes ahead with 33% of the votes. 31% for gingrich, who is in second, and romney at 31%. we have to take a quick break. our poll coverage continues. we're expecting comments from gingrich. we'll bring those to you live as well.

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huge night shaping up for rick santorum here. the latest results right now. 96% of the votes in mississippi. we have not yet made a projection, but it's looking very, very good for santorum. he's 3,500 votes ahead of gingrich. romney in third place. it's looking good for rick santorum. we're getting ready to hear from gingrich at some point. it's looking like santorum has a significant lead in mississippi. we have already projected he wins in alabama. you know what, i want to bring in shannon, shannon travis pascagoula, miss mis, with new numbers. what are you picking up? i think we're getting very close to a projection. >> these are the freshest numbers i have so far with 96.ate% of the vote in here in jackson county, here is what i have. a 180-vote difference separating romney and sarsantorum. >> romney, 4,969. romney, 4,969.

santorum, 4,789. again, santorum, 4,789. newt gingrich, 3,993. 3,993. ron paul, 780. wolf? >> those are the numbers you're getting right now. i think we're getting ready for major news. let's pause right now. >> all right, look at this, rin santorum, we now project, is the winner in mississippi. earlier, we projected he winsdo. he wins both of the southern states tonight. rick santorum, a huge, huge development. a lot of people thought romney could win in mississippi. some thought newt gingrich would win in one of the two states. it's rick santorum who captures the popular vote in both states. now, having said all that, john, the key thing is delegates right now. it's proportional. in both of the states, not winner take all, and we're getting some estimates. there are two running narratives

and two running conversations that is the competition. one is winning in momentum. santorum will make the argument, i'm winning. the other is, you're winering but, but being new rules, what happened with the delegates. romney had a big lead in delegates. let's take the state of alabama. sta statewide, if someone gets 50%, they get all of the delegates. so the state-wide delegates will be proportions. 35% for santorum, 30% for gingrich, 28% for romney, paul will get no if it stays like that. the state-wide vote is roughly proportional. the rest are congressional district delegates. let's pull over the transparency. the congressional delegates. seven districts in alabama. romney will win this district. why do i say this? santorum is winning these counties, romney here. in birmingham, it looks like romney will probably win this district, although these rural

counties are for santorum. this could be closer. i'm making a guess. then you go through each of the seven districts. up top, santorum carrying the congressional district. this district here, santorum is carrying that. this district looks more competitive. we'll have to count the votes there. down here, this could either be if the population center is big enough, and sometimes it happens that way, could be romney. we'll have tocount them. that's what we have to do. you apportion the state-wide delegates. that's 79%, and then you go through the congressional district. so the romney campaign is correct when it says even when it's not going to win the states, it's going to come away with a third or more of the delegates. let's go to the state of mississippi. the same thing, state-wide, nobody wins 50% you have to get over 50% to win all of the delegates. ron paul will not meet the threshold, so he'll get no

state-wide delegates. this is 96% of the vote, so assuming this is raufly what you get, romney will get 30%, so on and so forth, and you come over to the congressional map. a big one right here, i nunled it off here, let me bring it back. i can tell you by looking at that, romney will most likely win this congressional district. this one looks more competitive. some romney, some santorum, some gingrich. population here, maybe slight edge santorum. down here, the population center in this district is here for gingrich, here for romney. have to count the votes. that looks like a competitive district, and this district on the top northeast corner of the state looks pretty much like a safe santorum dwiblth for me. again, the argument from santorum is i just won two southern states. where are you, speaker gingrich? you were supposed to be the southern candidate. where are you romney? the flipside, let me flip the

map, is this was the contest coming into the night. this is where we were coming into the night. the race for 1,144. romney had a big lead. what happens tonight? something like this, santorum wins both of these, i'm assuming, we're going give for this hypothetical, romney hawaii. even though santorum wins two states, romney is still comfortably ahead. the argument for santorum is i'll see you in puerta rico, and everywhere else. >> he was outspend by the pro mitt romney super pac and others. a huge, huge night for rick santorum. >> no doubt about it. we're waiting to hear from gingrich. joining us now is the deputy campaign manager for the gingrich campaign. thanks very much for being with us. last week, your campaign said that your candidate had to have a win tonight. he does not have a win tonight. you said, his campaign said he had to have a win to remain viable. by your own logic, is he no

longer viable? >> newt gingrich has said he's going to go on to tampa no matter what happens tonight. tonight, we worked hard to win. rick san tomorrow had a good night. congratulations to him, but it doesn't change the underlying dynamic of the race. this is a three-candidate dynamic. this is not ford/reagan. this is a three-way dynamic. this is going all the way to the convention. no one can wrap up the delegates before the convention, and the person who finishes strongest is likely to be the nom2345e. >> i don't understand why last week your campaign was saying unless he wins tonight, he isn't viable. why has changed to say he should continue on to the convention? >> he has said he's going on with the campaign and moving to illinois tomorrow. you had a three-way race tonight. it looks like we're coming in a close second. there are big differences on the conservative wing of this

campaign between santorum and gingrich. we benefit from a long campaign because you can't do delegate math by day in and day out. you have to focus again on the big issues and who is going to be the most effective at changing washington. in that equation, newt does great against santorum. >> your candidate's wife is speaking. let's listen in. >> newt and i are engaged in this race because we believe america is at a crossroads and care deeply about the future of this country. in a few months, we will face the most important election of our lifetime. our only opponent is barack obama. and we are committed to removing him from the white house. over the last week, president obama and the white house seem to have gotten that message. they have stepped up the

rhetoric against newt, and his plan to maximize american energy production. yet it's clear americans are eager to develop our abundant energy resources. [ applause ] >> that's right. 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 our government. today, we need a leader with bold solutions to create a better future for all americans. i believe that leader is my husband. please welcome former speaker of the house and the next president of the united states, newt gingrich. [ applause ] ♪ only in america

♪ dreaming red white and blue ♪ only in america >> let me thank all of you for your very, very hard work and all of the work you did. i particularly want to thank governor wagner who has been tireless in crisscrossing the state, and i'm delighting he and marilyn are with us tonight, and we congratulate them on their 54th anniversary. it's wonderful to have them here with us. i also want to thank michael ciamora who helped us put together a campaign in alabama. we would have like today come in first, but i congratulate rick santorum on a great campaign. he has won a victory in both states and worked very hard to achieve it. can know how much he's put into the campaign, he and his family over the last year, and i congratulate him on a positive evening and a positive result. and also because this is proportional representation,

we're going to leave alabama and mississippi with a substantial amount of delegates, increasing our total going towards tampa, and we're grateful to you because you made that out skm possible. with your help, we're going to take a much bigger delegation than we had yesterday. thank you very much for that. [ applause ] i emphasis going to tampa because one of the things tonight proved is that the elite media's effort to convince the nation that mitt romney is inevitable just collapsed. the fact is -- [ applause ] >> the fact is in both states, the conservative candidates got nearly 70% of the vote. if you're the front -runner and you keep coming in third, you're not much of a front-runner.

and frankly, i do not believe that a massachusetts moderate who created romney care as the forerunner of obamacare is going to be in a position to win any debates this fall, and that's part of the reason i have insisted on staying in this race. we need someone who can go toe to toe with barack obama and debate him and win the debates decisively. now, i will always remember -- that's exactly right. anywhere, anytime. i will always remember campaigning in mississippi and alabama because it was here in the last week that the issue of gasoline and energy was crystallized. and while we're having -- we haven't always gotten our message across in terms of getting as manyot