>> and we need to you watch "countdown," next three hours, great super tuesday covering and after that, the war room with governor jennifer granholm. >> super tuesday. >> whether we end up with the most, we're in a great campaign. i need your help. i want you guys to come together. >> we're going to carry george. >> by a big margin tonight and do much better than people expect in a number of other states. >> and yet the republicans are partially overshadowed by a pitch man and a presidential news conference. >> just from a political perspective, do you know the president is going into election once that the gas prices go up even higher. is there anyone here that thinks that makes a lot of sense? >> when i slip up like i did and talk like a democratic, you know

that i don't really think like that. >> 419 delegates, polls closed already in ohio, in georgia, in vermont, in virginia, in massachusetts, in oklahoma, in tennessee, caucuses over in north dakota, idaho and alaska, this is "countdown"'s coverage of super tuesday with elliot spitzer in new york, at santorum headquarters, craig crawford on the south, representative carlin maloney on the limbaugh controversy, heather mcgee on the republicans. is anybody else as tired of this as i am? >> i think the worst campaign i've ever seen in my life. i just hate it. i think the rest of the world is looking at us and thinking what are you doing? >> i must confess, i didn't expect that!

good evening. this is tuesday, march 6th 246 days until the 2012 presidential election. and it's super tuesday. "super" is used here as a term of size, not quality. quantity not quality. for in this supposedly decisive or near-decisive primary night of the republican presidential campaign, the ex-senator who will either win, or finish second in, the key state of ohio. somehow neglected to get his delegates submitted in nine of the state's districts, which could cost him as many as 18 delegates, even if he wins the state. that same candidate, and the former speaker of the house who had once been the front-runner, didn't even manage to get on the ballot in virginia. which is especially startling for the former speaker, who now lives in virginia. this is not to leave out the former governor who could pad his delegate lead by 100 or 120 tonight, or fall crushingly on his face in ohio. in the last 48 hours he has, finally, focused almost entirely on the economy. just as the economy has perked up, three days in advance of

what could be even more startlingly good numbers on unemployment. all of this transpiring against a back-drop which might tell us more about the current state of the american political scene than any vote or speech or insight tonight. ordinarily a sitting president wouldn't get caught within a mile of a microphone on the other side's biggest primary night, one man must invariably suffer to some degree in comparison to an entire field of candidates, which despite all fractures and fissures, have supporters who amount to 100 percent of the opposition. yet today, the president not only did not make himself scarce, he held a news conference about everything from the price of a gallon of gas to the chance of a war. it was the kind of bravura performance that only a man confident at least in his belief that his chances of looking bigger than the rest of them combined, was a hundred percent.

>> we'll go to georgia first, where newt gingrich has been predicted at the winner. how big he wins will make a difference. at this point, he has a margin there of about three or 4%. in virginia, the first of them to be called, if mitt romney had not won virginia, it would have been time to pack up, go home and leave the country. only he and ron paul were eligible, so virginia is called in advance for romney and vermont, a hybrid delegate professional and state delegates has already been called, not a big surprise, romney almost in home turf handling that one clearly. 17 delegates in vermont. i'll be joined by the former governor of new york, elliot spitzer who is with me now, good to see you here. >> good to be here. >> i was wondering if barbara bush and i are the only ones

hitting a wall. is there primary weariness. >> no surprise you're we'rery of the republicans, but that statement by barbara bush because it captures for people that it's ugly, anti science, anti woman, nothing that would make you want to support them. it's been hoar rendous to watch. >> we had various exit polls from the various states. in ohio, 40% said electability was the first issue. that was as the polls closed at 730 too close to call. the key issue was the economy president intends, electability mattered to two thirds of the voters. in georgia, we don't have a number on electability as primary in other detail, but gingrich was the one who scored highest on who could defeat

obama. even in the cliches, romney about the economy, cantor rum about the ultra conservatives, gingrich has some sort of anger quality to him but romney is carrying that mantel of electability. these things don't seem to hold from region to region. >> there is to no cohesiveness. i've seen it through the prisonment of three different parties, libertarian, ron paul in la-la land, but the piece of the libertarian party is there and big. you have gingrich and santorum sharing space talking about values and religion and corporate piece of the party, mitt romney, he's looking for that larger base, hoping to bring the other two strands of the party together to weave it into one. argument hasn't happened yet. every week, we say now is the week that mitt romney becomes the nominee. hasn't happened and i think those three pieces don't go together and that's the romney problem. >> we get word massachusetts has been called by several networks

and news organizations for mitt romney, who was once the governor there. that would also had been a tremendous embarrassment if he had not one there and in a two-man race in virginia. is there something to be said as i said in the opening of the show that in ordinary circumstances if it was a represent president and democratic super tuesday or as now, the president hides, because he can't possibly, even if he looks better than every individual candidate, he can't look belter than all of them and the anger and dislike that they represent and president obama came out not only saw his shadow, but also knocked down everybody and several reporters are in the hospital tonight. >> i thought it was a great performance. i watched it. he was at ease, he was fluent. he gave the right answers, and the reason, that's why i think back in the white house, they must have said why cede another few days to the republicans? let us take back the mantel and

let people see the contrast. he was brilliant. >> but just to say i can take all of you on here with one hand tied behind my back and i'm going home to watch a basketball game. >> he was saying i'm in a different weight class, you guys are fighting up five weight classes when you step into the ring for me. you're playing double-a, i'm in the major leagues. >> also basketball worked in. >> right. >> to columbus ohio. david shuster in the key battleground state, in many views, this is the whole ball of wax as least for super tuesday. anything new, david. obviously it hasn't been cowed yet, but the polls are closed. >> the only thing new is the romney campaign is always spinning that this evening is all about math and they believe ohio wilbury rick santorum even if it's not the argument about momentum, but purely about the delegate counts and the reasons you mentioned earlier, rick

santorum having problems, 18 delegates that he will not get. he's been taking those off the tail. romney would not be entitled to those, but the romney campaign is very confident that they're going to win ohio. they like the exit polling information that has come out so far, they like the demographics, the turnout, the break down of catholic voters, the fact that more catholic voters preferred mitt romney than rick santorum and they even liked the fact that in terms of empathy, the empathy question that mitt romney did exceedingly high in terms of who best understands your typical american economic problem. rick santorum was ahead of them, but the fact that mitt romney was able to make it that close has the romney campaign extremely confident here in ohio, and again, too close to call, but they liked every indication that they're seeing. >> two things, number one, also in those exit polls, three out of 10 voters decided in the last few days as to who they were going to go for, principally that being the choice between

romney and santorum. it would seem to auger poorly for the general election which is obviously going to be a key state if there is a close election ahead of us or is a vote just a vote to them at this point. >> i think it's just a vote. there was some concern about him getting caught yesterday saying that he was not for the individual mandate on health care when he was governor of massachusetts when there's an op ad that made the papers here that said mitt romney supported that and yet leading conservatives calling mitt romney a liar, so to the extent that people walk into the polls today and weren't sure maybe that's determinative, but didn't get as much attention as it might have a couple of days ago. leading up to yesterday when rick santorum had this sudden conference call with reporters, tried to shift attention to mitt romney being inconsistent or misleading on his own record,

prior to that it was all moving romney's direction, all the internal polls headed his way. is this enough to turn it back? it may be too late. >> obviously it was pointed out in several places today that one of the reasons ohio is so important with 11 states voting or having caucuses tonight, the media con only digest one thing at a time, therefore takes the biggest of the moving objects and focuses on that so that there is a win in terms of what you're media attention is going to be like if you win ohio. practically speaking even if there's a big night for mitt romney, he's going to add to his lead 120 delegates. what does the romney campaign see happening even from here with the best case scenario for their candidate tonight? >> practically, they point to the missteps, rick santorum not getting his delegates, but also virginia turns out to be huge.

mitt romney's best case scenario -- worst case scenario tonight, that would be a bad night for them if that's all they got. if you ask the rick santorum campaign what's your best case scenario. they come up with a plus 135 delegates, in other words, rick santorum best night is still above what the romney campaign says would be the worst night. the romney campaign makes the point that they have the organization and money to grind this out and they're not going to call on rick santorum or newt gingrich to get out. they believe they can simply continue to grind this out, enter the states that are coming with the super pack money and out spend the opponents and go negative and churn out the vote that is they need. >> do you know, and i'm sorry to throw this at you like a math quiz, but do you have any idea what the final total was? we heard five times to six times

outspending on t.v. advertising by romney versus the rest of the field in ohio. >> that's a good question, keith. if you add in the romney campaign with the super pack and combine that number with the santorum campaign and santorum super pack, it's about four to one. depending on last minute spending, three and a half to $4 million on the romney sides, maybe a million on the romney side, but four to one. >> david shuster as columbus at the statehouse as the romney people look ahead toward what they figure is going to be a close but influential victory there. we'll get back to you as the hours continue. >> thanks, keith. >> governor, let me ask you about what we saw in michigan and may be seeing in ohio. within a fort night of each vote, rick santorum was significantly ahead. rick santorum has a lot of flaws as candidate. they came out with an interview from 1993 where he said government should have a

proactive role in coming up with a health care. he's been bought out of the game. some people call this had presidential election an auction. is that a fair term? >> let me put it this way. certainly it is going to go biggest spender. mitt romney has outspent, he has out organized and been better at negative campaigning than the rest of the field put together. now, is it clear that that is why he is necessarily winning? i think one of the reasons i would point to the other one that you alluded to, electability. maybe this is because of the ads, he has driven home the message through many different venues that he is the one who has a real shot in november, santorum, gingrich, paul, clearly more fringe in their appeal. rick santorum making the point himself with all of his focus on the social taillights, he

solidifies a base, but it's a narrow base. it's a combination of the money and persuasive case of that electability that co lesses to bring romney to the top. >> 40% in ohio say that was the most important issue and that was the lead of the issues in the exit polls, 40% in tennessee, where an issue such as religion totally different map and as we were discussing before, the various constituencies here that they're trying to stitch together, there is that one consideration that seems to be paramount and that is to rick santorum's deficit no mottier where you look, apparently. we're going to see how that plays in the santorum camp. first we're going to take a break. [ male announcer ] this is lawn ranger -- eden prairie, minnesota.

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>> four down, seven to go in terms of forecast tonight. >> virginia to romney, massachusetts called for romney, which began, no surprise, only fox among news organizations making predictions at that point so far has taken oklahoma for santorum. we have three formally down, three possibly down and the split gingrich romney two santorum one. let's go to santorum headquarters in steubenville.

were you ever your washington post colleagues tweeted on body language and rhetoric, doesn't look like the santorum people are optimistic about ohio. >> i have seen just over the last 24 hours a change in tone in terms of this campaign and a lowering of expectations in terms of him thinking he can pull out a victory. the language has changed. they are highlighting that they were back spinning this race, looking a close second. they aren't thinking they are going to pull out a victory here, but at the same time, saying that they are going to continue in this race. they feel like the romney campaign is going to start making this about math and they say the if that's his message, it's certainly not an inspirational one. >> early on with 1% recorded, it was a 3% lead by romney over santorum. some of the other operations have gone out into the 7% reporting stage, and the lead

becoming more like 6%. what happen to say rick santorum if this is not a close second place, if there is no longer not only a chance for a victory, but no longer a close second in the cards? >> well, their campaign says they will continue on. they've got trips planned to kansas and mississippi over these next couple of days, but i think one of the things that it does do is they aren't a close second if they fall behind in this race, it really takes away one of their fundamental arguments about their campaign and that is that they are in the position to really win these big swing states, because of rick santorum's appeal to blue collar workers. if you have a situation where romney can beat santorum in what is in some ways a home state, a neighboring state to pennsylvania and a lot of reporters that are actually from pennsylvania, so you're going to see a real, i think dent to in a main argument he's been making.

it will make it difficult for him to continue the argument which is that health care makes romney unelectal. that's a message he's been honing in on over these last days. you'll see a campaign that has to retool rhetoric going forward. >> as i said particularly in light of this 1993 interview coming out, santorum running for congress saying government should be proactive, particularly the republican party shouldn't watch the mandate be shaped without its input. it seems as if the late deciders in ohio who constituted 30% of those who voted today in the republican primary according to exit polls probably against santorum. is there any indication of that no. >> i think in some ways, santorum has had a very tough couple of days. you even go back to last week, him making comments about president obama being a snob.

we saw some of the exit polls show here that a lot of the voters who turned out were conservative, but college educated voters and probably did break for romney. even early voters, looks like romney had a real lock on those, so santorum campaign really highlighting the disadvantage. they have a money disadvantage against romney, but also have an organizational disadvantage. ten states on the ballot super tuesday, his campaign has really been put to the test. >> listen to these numbers on the breakdowns, the financial breakdowns on who went what way in ohio, incomes of $30,000 or less, santorum, but only 35-34 over romney. $30,000 to $50,000, 50 for romney. santorum did take 43-33.

200 and up, romney, and i'm presuming they don't have the numbers but it would have gone worse the higher the incomes but he didn't kill in the lower numbers except in that 50 to one hundred-dollar range so the blue collar idea might be falling apart. >> that's right. that would be a real blow to his candidacy. that has been his argument that he has won in states like pennsylvania. in 2006, he lost that race by 18 points. he has yet to prove that in this presidential campaign he can actually win these blue collar states where auto industry and coal is heavy. we saw him lose in michigan. he came into this race ahead of romney, but again, you've got romney with a juggernaut of a campaign, a juggernaut of a super pack and they essentially did what they have done to every other candidate in this race, get to the right on some issues. they got to the right of appeary on immigration, to the right of newt gingrich on the mortgage

crisis, and to the right on santorum on a whole host of issues, raising the debt ceiling, no child left behind. you couldn't turn on a television set here in ohio without seeing ads from the romney super pack. >> can you explain, it might not make that much of a difference if he finishes second, but can you explain not getting your delegates in in nine different districts and the possibility, could it cost santorum up to 18 delegates even if he had done very well in the vote? >> running for president isn't like opening up a lemonade stand on a street corner. it's very difficult, and we thought santorum didn't have the organization. he didn't have a lot of infrastructure. he didn't have a lot of aides to do those things for him and that's the reason why he ended up not being on these ballot. he didn't have a real campaign

apparatus. that will cost him up to 18 delegates he just ceded right away. that's why romney has been able to do so well. he's been running for president for six years. he's done it before, knows what to do and he has a behemoth of on organization. he talking about himself as a david and romney as a goliath. tomorrow, we're going to see a strong romney and he's going to say that his candidacy is inevitable and santorum can't make up the difference. >> woody allen is the actual man who said the quote 90% of life is showing up. it certainly is when it comes to the issue of electability and you're not on the ballot in virginia and not in nine districts in the swing state of ohio. thanks, we'll check back with

you later. thank you. >> thank you, keith. >> all this of course tonight is playing out against other issues. we talked about the president's news conference before and of course we have the continuing rush limbaugh sandra fluke controversy. it is now a total of correct me if the number's changed, 33 advertisers who have bailed out, 35 -- it's up to 35. do i hear 36? 35 advertisers boiled on rush limbaugh's show. he was forced into a apology. two of his stations have cancelled, dropped in massachusetts and his affiliate in hawaii. this thing doesn't seem to be going away at any point in the near future and we're going to see if it has some impact on the republican primary, and on the entire view of the republican party and how the candidates

have not responded to what is going here. to discuss it now, congresswoman, thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you. good evening. >> what does it say in fact this whole controversy in terms of the whole gop primary field and in terms of how all the candidates responded or did not respond to what happened to ms. fluke. >> i think we could be looking at another year of the woman where women voters are going to be energized and come out to vote, that they don't want candidate who wants to turn around the 20th century. >> it's as if, i said this a couple of times. it looked to me that the susan j. komen planned parenthood funding disaster, it has to be viewed in those terms in view of the komen people, because they couldn't have staged something to benefit planned parenthood

than if they deliberately tied to, i thought that was the tipping point of awareness of women not politically charged up in terms of defending women's rights and particularly health care rights and particularly productive rights, but maybe that was simply the forerunner to this entire limbaugh controversy. is there a way to tell which is more influential. >> it's the combination, the susan g komen and the effort to defund planned parenthood completely and that passed the united states house of representatives. it would have cut off funding and health care for 3 million american women a day that get their primary health services from planned parent hood. you combine it with ballot initiatives and other initiatives that states are taking votes in the united states senate, trying to roll back women's access to

contraceptives, it's a combination of the war on women and women are listening, and like the sponsors of mr. rush limbaugh's programs, their voting with their feet and their disgust with this type of antthe i woman, anti respect, not only respect to sandra, but to women in general. >> if you are viewing this purely from a sorry to use the word amoral in connection with politics, purely listeria stoogic thing, at what point if it didn't matter to you would you abandon the attack on women's rights to defend sandra fluke who's clearly been viewed by a majority of this country as not just a victim but essentially in vent bystander swept into this set of circumstances by putting one little toe in the national dialogue pool and being yanked into the deep end of it. even if you were somehow running for president on a republican

campaign, at some point, wouldn't you punt on this when you saw just how no matter how fiercely your supportedders believed that it's time to roll this back and make this 1951 again, wouldn't it dawn an you that you could salvage something by not doing what all the other republicans are doing? >> i don't agree with them to begin with. i think women's rights should be respected and honored and certainly a woman's right to choose and certainly a woman's right to contraceptives. 99% of women use contraceptives at some type in their life to space and time their children, used for many other health benefits, it's part of women's health care. it's an attack not only on women's rights, but women's health, and women see this, and it's not only this attack, it's a combination of many attacks against women. i think it's wrong. they shouldn't try to do it in the first place, but they have

certainly shown their colors on this, denying a young woman who was a democratic choice to testify, usually who the democrats suggest, you know, is the witness. here they tried to say she was unqualified. i would venture to say that any woman is more qualified to talk about women's health care than any man. >> particularly the one we're talking about. let me ask you that last question in terms of a medic sense. so many things have been said about so many people in the political world and some people of louder than others and have larger platforms and some controversies involve people saying extraordinarily mean things about others. it's been true for 20 years. why has this one stuck to the point where it's caused 35 advertisers to run for the hills from the most successful radio

show going? >> because there was great clarity. number one, he did not apologize. he just said he used two inappropriate words. i did not hear him say i'm sorry. i did not hear him retract or apologize for all the whole host of other derogatory vile statements that he made. i'm not going to repeat them. people can go to the internet and see them. it's not just an attack on women's health, it's an attack on whether or not you respect women, so i applaud the 32 and growing sponsors that have voted with their feet, and showed with their steps and actions that they respect women, they find it inappropriate to have attacked sandra or any woman, and to have had this tirade that he put forward, attacking women. but then you combine it with everything else that's happening, steps to defund

planned parenthood, susan b komen cutting their aid for breast cancer screening for goodness sakes that saves lives, and all those ballot initiatives and other areas that they're trying to roll back the time clock to a different century, and women see this, and it is clear, and i think that they're responding not just to where are the women, not just to sandra's fine testimony that we finally had at a democratic sponsored hearing, but to the whole combination of efforts that they have put out there to really attack women, the so called war on women, and i keep on my website a list of all the actions that have passed the house of representatives chipping away at a woman's right to choose. i'm going to have to start a scorecard on how they're trying to chip away at a woman's right to access health care through

insurance and contraceptives and any other way a woman feels she can protect hear health for her health, her family and her children. >> congresswoman, thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you. thank you for speaking up for women. >> my pleasure and my duty. the expectation is now that newt gingrich having won georgia and perhaps not going to do anything else of note tonight is going to speak at some point to try to claim the stage. there's no longer any etiquette who is going to speak first, i won one and lost 10, which could be newt gingrichs claim at the end of the evening. we're going to take a break and continue after this. we've have no choice, we've lost our democracy here. just refreshing to hear.

no other television show does that. we're keeping it real. [[vo]]cenk uygur calls out ah, claim trouble. [ dennis ] you should just switch to allstate, and get their new claim satisfaction guarantee. hey, he's right man. unlike randy over there.

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>>the blood is in the water and the sharks are bipartisan.

>>you got a bone to pick with that? tennessee has now been called. an important victory for rick santorum tonight, especially the way things seemed to be going in ohio against him. it's proportional to the bigger you win, the more you're going to get. georgia to gingrich, newt surprise. virginia to romney, also not a surprise, given that gingrich and santorum were not eligible, because they didn't get their forms in on time. newt gingrich is now making his way toward his headquarters in

atlanta. we raised the possibility that he's choosing to speak now because the news for the rest of the night is not going to go that well for him. as indicated, oklahoma has gone for santorum, 40 delegates there. santorum claims two states and obviously not every state is created equal in terms of its delegates, santorum claims two, romney claims two and is apparently leading fairly substantially in ohio in the big one of the night, but georgia is newt gingrich's and he had said if he did not win in perhaps the only blunt statement of the campaign said if he did not win georgia his credibility would be shot as a candidate. he did not say he would drop out, but it was all but certain that he would do so and would have to do so, because no matter how much money sheldon adelson had, even a man financing such a campaign with a history as a

gambling house operator is not willing to bet on a losing proposition. no segue intended here, let's listen. will the latest mrs. gingrich sign in, please. >> thank you from the bottom of our hearts. you have made this evening possible and we are very grateful. [ applause ] >> 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 for 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. [ cheers and 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. [ cheers and applause ] >> i believe that leader is my husband. [ cheers and applause ] please

welcome former speaker of the house and the next president of the united states, newt gingrich! [ cheers and applause ] [ cheers and applause ] >> newt! >> newt!

>> you know, this is amazing. i hope the analysts in washington and new york who spent june and july explaining our campaign was dead. [ laughter ] >> will watch this tonight and learn a little bit from crowd and from this place. [ cheers and applause ] >> we survived the national elite's effort to kill us in the summer because of you, because people who said we are not going to allow the elite to decide who we are allowed to nominate, and so with your help. [ cheers and applause ] >> thousand us 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 and it was precisely hard because the national elite especially in the republican party had decided that a gingrich presidency was so frightening that they had to kill it early, but you, you wouldn't let them do it. [ cheers and applause ] >> so, with your help and the power of large solutions and big ideas and clear communications in the debates, by december, according to gallup, i was the front runner by 15 points and according to rasmus, i was the front runner by 21 points, because you believed in the

power of ideas. you believed that people can make a difference, that in fact, wall street money can be beaten by main street work. [ cheers and applause ] >> and of course, at that point, wall street decided that 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 negative activity and the media said oh, i guess this is over finally, but you all said no. and at the very depths of the establishment rejecting it, thousands of more people came to newt.org and signed up, and the result was by south carolina, we won a historic victory, carried

43 out of 46 counties. that was extraordinary. [ cheers and applause ] >> and i'm pretty sure that tonight, we have a number of the people of south carolina who helped win come over to help celebrate this great victory. at that point, the forces of wall street figured out they were in real trouble and as "the new york times" reported later, they held a meeting after a saturday night primary and said we have to destroy gingrich. one was quoted in the new york times saying we have a viscerate him, which i thought was a fairly strong word in a republican primary. i would have expected obama's people to do that, but i thought it was a tad much. they piled on $20 million of

negative activity in florida and we carried all of northwest florida. 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, once again, they began to say well, maybe he's going. and then frankly, senator santorum did something very clever. he went to three states nobody else was in, and he won them. and the news media desperate to prove gingrich is gone said now we have the person that is going to 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. [ cheers and applause ] >> by the way, i would say for the performance they get out of

me, the most underpaid debate coaches in america. >> any other network would be happy to kill off a lot of time, but this seems to get a little circular. he's explaining that he did really well until he stopped doing really well. understood gingrich is going to win georgia. let's look where he stands elsewhere in the races that can be considered closed. he's third in tennessee at the moment, fourth in vermont, didn't make the ballot in virginia, third in oklahoma, ohio, and tennessee, with the others not gingrich strongholds. the night would finish with a record of one win, nine third's or fourth's and a no decision. we need to remind you where he stood in terms of where that elite means.

people who live in apartment buildings and take the subway to work, not elite. people who have revolving lines of credit at tiffanies. back here with elliot spitzer. as you said, governor, we needed to learn from the crowd and the place, what did we learn from that crowd and that place. >> i never heard such self pity. i never have seen a candidate try to claim victory and shrouded himself into the world is against me. there's nothing upbeat, it's everything against the media. where super pack money the likes of which we've never seen in your home state you can still generate a crowd with no enenthusiasm, no plows. no--applause. newt can deliver a speech with big ideas but failed to do that which may be why his campaign is going down in flames. >> as much advantage as that

money provided him, in his native state, 30% of voters decided in the last few days whether to go with him or not. >> he has not touched a nerve for the past two months in this campaign. the ideas of newt gingrich do emerge and that appeals to somebody then the angry understood gingrich comes back and they say we don't like that guy. tonight, we are seeing the angry newt gingrich. >> the warm up speaker didn't make the crowd sing. you never want to say president obama followed by applause and cheers and she set that up unfortunately from their point of view. five states called, two for santorum, two for romney, that one for gingrich. we're going to take a break as our coverage of super tuesday continues.

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>>jennifer granholm joins current tv. a former two term governor. >>people like somebody who's got a spine. >>determined to find solutions... >>we need government to ensure that people have freedom. >>driven to find the truth... >>what's really going on? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct. >> romney in massachusetts, vermont and gingrich looking like his only triumph will be his victory in georgia. let's talk about this primary thing of mitt romney's campaign

where he's thrown everything out and focused on the economy, just when it looks like the economy has turned a real corner and there could be some game-deciding if not game-changing numbers coming out later this week. >> really, i think generally speaking, we've got a number of factors leading into the spring that is going to change the economic news, what i like to think of as the weather report news, people sitting on their couch and they look at the nightly news, they're not going to hear the gloom and doom numbers. they're going to hear unemployment clicking down, robust new job numbers. we've seen that consumer confidence is up, investor confidence up, stock market i go booming. that really does sort of lead to people to think maybe the economy is improving. that said, people are still going to know that the streets are dotted with foreclosures, they're still going to know that

college costs are too high, gas prices are rising. it's up to the president to make a strong economic case and really to just continue to work that newt gingrich did for us that we were so grateful for on the left in tarring mitt romney as part of the 1%. >> the number in ohio in terms of what was most important to them in terms of issues rather than the electability, moral character thing, economy, 50%, budget deficits 30%. it's a different, even though some of the possession arrow is the indicator nationally, is the economy improving, disapproving. does that still matter in ohio, another managing centric place like michigan. >> i think ohio is a really interesting tale. it's the state that actually

more than any other state has seen the biggest drop in the typical income at the middle over the past 10 years. this is a state that has lost over half a million jobs over the past 10 years. it's also a state with a high union density and sophistication about the economy because of that, because of the sort of strong role that manufacturing and unions and the sort of popular education that was done. i think ohio voters are a lot more sophisticated because they're a swing state, used to getting attention and being more critical of candidates. they're not going to just go for the sound bytes and they are not going to be feeling the same kind of economic winds moving in that voters in other places are going to, certainly not with their governor, who's trying to cut jobs as much as he can. it's not going to be a good state for the economy in ohio for the president. >> what does governor kasich

suggest in terms of republican lean that it's had off and on since the late 1980's, because they've been looking hell and back several times when the economy was strong, wasn't that strong in ohio. what does that miss adventure suggest, are the republicans assuming too much about what they'll get in ohio in the fall? >> two numbers are fortunate, one is early vote be and absentee voting going into this republican primary in 2012 with an incredibly unpopular president among republicans, it's about half as many early and absentee ballots in 2008, coming out of george bush an unpopular president even among republicans, lower than 2010. i think they're having an enthusiasm issue in ohio among republicans. the other thing that is important to note in ohio, workers are still going to be

smarting from the attack on collective bargaining that reached sort of awakened something that is going to be i think a popular survival that people in ohio are going to be really resonate with a 1.99% message if in fact the president is able to take it up. you're going to see a popular prairie fire in ohio that may reach into republicans. >> great thanks, it's obviously a swing state of critical importance and the critical issue there. thanks for helping us elaborate on it. >> as we said, we have six down and five to go. i've suddenly, i feel like a game show host saying that. we're going to take another break and go out to ohio for the latest from the romney camp. it is seemingly leaning toward romney. super tuesday continues after this.

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ranked. is ohio going to be decided or is newt gingrich going to be talking first? toptop new newt gingrich is still talking and blaming. i think he's blaming us in alphabetical order and just about to mention me. enough of that. let's go back to columbus, ohio, and the state house to check in and see where things stand with correspondents dave shuster. >> good evening to your. the romney campaign is confident as the numbers are coming in as they had the organization and turnout they wanted. an interesting report by the columbus dispatch in columbus. for several days, we heard a lot of people saying franklin county, which represents greater columbus, the university and some of the excerpts is the best representative of the state as a whole in terms of republican voters, and the club dispatch is told by republican activists in this particular county the turnout was extremely low for the sort of election that they had today. keep in mind, it's not just the

presidential primary, but there are also state and local primaries as well. so because of that, they figure, you know, there are hot races even in franklin county, that that would get turnout. the fact turnout is low, the longer the primary goes on, the more sick republicans are of this whole thing. >> as heather mcgee said just before the top of the hour, the absentee advance ballots were way down in comparison to the last two, the last three, i guess she said, primaries in ohio, correct? >> yeah, the absentee ballots down and, again, the number of people showing up at the polls. everything is much sort of farther down than they thought. the reason that's still sort of significant and perhaps helpful for the romney campaign, when they look at a race where there is a lot of negatives, they feel if people are depressed from turning out -- in other words the negative ads keep people home from the polls -- they feel it benefits them. the rick santorum supporters are the more emotional go with the

heart kind of voters. the romney campaign feels they are much more the machine. to the extent the votes come in and you get the anecdotal votes of the turnout, that's a good sign for the romney campaign. >> the exits say if only one of six ohio voters said who the conservative was, presumably, mitt romney would do well, if that number means anything. >> yeah, that number, and, keith, the other number the romney campaign will draw attention to, rick santorum needed to one-up blue collar voters to win ohio. for days he heard rick santorum manufacturing and restoring of the steel belt. according to the exit polls, rick santorum beat romney among blue collar voters but the margin was very tight. romney exceeded expectations within that category just as he exceeded them among the economic empathy. romney did better than even the san antonio sapt thought he would. so romney exceeding expectations

in a couple of areas where rick santorum needed to roll up the numbers would suggest to your point romney is and should feel confident about the way ohio will go. >> the numbers deserve mentioning again. there is a lot of numbers, but it underscores things that one of the things rick santorum thought he would get in large dmurms did not come through. the income range, $50,000 to $100,000, won clearly over rick santorum according to exit polls -- over romney, excuse me. but in the $30,000 to $50,000 incomes, it's santorum 38, romney 34. and in incomes under $30,000, san antonio 35, romney 34. where did romney's support among the very blue-collar worker come from? >> it's not clear, keith. in part, maybe the romney campaign will tell you that's part of the organization where they were able to put ads up.

romney is where thought santorum would win but if they can keep it close in the congressional districts, maybe the romney campaign can peel off a couple of delegates. but the other numbers the vote campaigns point to is the issue of economic empathy. when voters were asked who was in touch more with your economic problems, santorum was expected to widely win that. he got only one out of three, romney got to one out of four. the margin between them was a lot closer than a lot expected in ohio. the fact that mitt romney, with all the mistakes he made, talking about his wife and the cadillacs, the amount of money he's got and the sort of perception that romney is out of touch, for him to get one out of four republican voters saying mitt romney is the one i see who cares about t most about my economic problems is a pretty astounding figure. >> from our friend countdown contributor malia henderson says santorum is sect to speak in four or five minutes.

read the fact he's choosing to speak now. that's unusual. >> the santorum campaign wants to try to shape it up tonight and make it clear, because of his wins in oklahoma and tennessee and because it's so close in ohio, santorum will be the first to say he got out and spoke 4-1. as far as the republican establishment were not left behind, mitt romney, and if newt gingrich were not in this race, ricky gervais might be beating mitt romney. rick santorum was in stephenville tonight and reporters saying we're not call on newt gingrich to get out of the race but you can imagine the 7% gingrich got in michigan, if we had gotten some of that, we would win, and to the extent gingrich is drawing votes in other states, if they can make this a two-man race, they say they can win. that's the message they want to get out. the media says, wait a second, if mitt romney wins ohio, the delegate map gets incredibly difficult for santorum, so

before this happens, let's try to bolster the media that this has not been a great night for mitt romney. >> david shuster, we'll check back with you later. >> thanks, keith. >> jill santorum takes the podium in ohio. newt gingrich has finally left the podium in atlanta after his filibuster. >> oh. >> his speech ended about -- there was about a 30e minute speech for a guy who won state and finished third or fourth in at least seven tonight, analyze the south, particularly why it was not better, let's say, in tennessee for newt gingrich. >> that's the same run-on sentence he started in 1994. [laughter] you know, gingrich, i think, is just up against it anywhere

else. his home state is actually virginia, where he not only was not on the ballot but didn't even vote today. but at least he won this and it's enough for him to keep going and scarfing up delegates. what's important tonight to me, other than ohio, is we already know, i believe, if the projections are right, romney, when you look at the conservative voters, evangelical voters in the south going back to south carolina, he cannot get the dog food to the dogs, and their strategy has been to starve the dogs, mike, by driving the conservatives out of the race and it's just not happening. and where that matters, keith, going forward, 67% of the delegates have not been picked yet after tonight, even, and that means that romney will have to get 55% of the remaining delegates to get to the magic number, and with these two guys still in the race, scarfing up delegates here, there, everywhere, they can't get the nomination, but they can deny him that majority.

and that's what's really starting to frighten a lot of republican leads that this thing goes all the way to june and, already, sarah palin is saying tonight she would be open to a convention draft, again. >> she's saying that tonight the premier of game change on hbo is saturday night and she wants to say it before people start not remembering how to spell her last night, as a result of saturday night. but that's the implication. we knew newt gingrich would probably bail out if for some reason he lost georgia, which he did not, he'll win it handily. but going forward, is the manager of the casinos in vegas going to pour money in to keep him in the race even as we suggested in the scoreboard for newt, everything will be third, fourth or did not play coach's decision. >> we have deep south states again next week, so he'll want

to play there. but the murmurs here are louder and louder among republican leads and the party in the media that they are seeing the scenario becoming more and more likely where romney is the runaway frontrunner but does not get the imagining number needed for the nomination and suddenly they have a meltdown in june where they try to negotiate something out and it would just be a mess. and, so what i think is going to happen is -- and i don't know if it will work -- is they're going to put a lot of pressure on georgia -- on gingrich and his sugar daddy and santorum for that matter, probably, to get them to just shut this down for the sake of the party. but, you know, these guys dislike romney so much, obviously, that's going to be a very difficult case to make. >> what on earth could you offer the one you could not offer the other? i mean, the only thing you could offer one what rick santorum, secretary of state, newt gingrich, secretary of defense, one of them the vice presidency,

what would that argument be from the romney people? one, you're hurting the republican party, doesn't seem to be registering with either of them right now. >> i think what i see happening, the romney people are actually talking up the scenario, interestingly enough, them not getting the majority and trying to scare a lot of elected officials and congressional leaders and media folks on the conservative republican side to -- for them to start putting the pressure on the pencer movement, on santorum and gingrich to get out. i think they know they don't have relations with any of these guys to make any deals at this point. that might be part of the back room stuff. but i think these elites i'm talking about had been hoping to see romney do better tonight, maybe win tennessee. there was a lot of expectation he had a shot at tennessee. tennessee has a record of establishment republicans, moderate, beating social conservatives in the primaries,

alexander in the senate, the current governor, and they thought that would be a chance for him. he'll probably win 200 delegates tonight, be the runaway there, and that would be the signal to put the pressure on gingrich and santorum. but it's not as good a night for romney for that to happen. >> if this is the indianapolis 500, romney is doing about 60 miles an hour and only winning because the racers behind him are operating on three wheels? >> yeah, one thing we've learned in this campaign is if an organized, well-run, disciplined campaign with a conservative -- clear, conservative candidate who doesn't frighten the center and the center-right, would have stomped all over romney in this campaign. that's what rick perry was supposed to be until we learned about his word retrieval problems. he was the one who was supposed to be that and it just didn't happen.

now you have what the national review headline today i thought was pretty funny, they're sort of throwing in the towel. their headline was "the acceptable man." how's that for a bumper sticker on the race car? mitt romney -- >> wasn't that the joke this week where they had the character playing mitt romney saying, you will come around to me and you will go, eh, why not, or something to that effect? >> the republicans have this name, republicans in name only, rhinos. >> can't spell rhino without romney. senator santorum is on the podium in steubenville, and we don't know if he'll follow the gingrich method of being introduced with the crowd being warmed down by the missus. that's probably not going to

happen. he does his own introduction, probably. he's not wearing a sweater vest but there is a sweater vest on the stage. i see it right here. rick santorum who will win tennessee for all the projections, will take advantage of that opportunity to speak in triumphant mode. we're not sure what will happen in ohio but clearly he's not counting on ohio being a victory or wouldn't be speaking at this point. here is former senator rick santorum. >> thank you! well, thank you for coming out, steubenville, ohio. god bless you, thank you for being here. [ applause ] >> for the folks listening at home, we're in steubenville, ohio. [ cheering ] not too many presidential candidates come to steubenville, ohio, much less hold their victory party here in

steubenville, ohio. [ cheering ] [ applause ] >> we're at a high school gymnasium. i just came from our war room which doubles as the white room for the high school. was pumping a little iron to get myself psyched for coming out here. and we just prepared our talk where many talks are prepared for this gym floor, in the coach's room. this is our roots. you stand here behind me as, well, a part of our family. because this is where we're from. we're from down here in areas of southeastern ohio, west virginia and southwestern pennsylvania, where the folks who worked hard and built this country lived and worked for many, many decades. [ cheers and applause ]

i'm particularly excited to be here with my family. when i say my family, i mean not just my family or our immediate family, but my mom, who is right here, and it's my mom, kay, 93! [ cheers and applause ] and karen's mother and farther, ken and betty lee garver right there. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] i got my brother here and his family and karen has, well, several -- karen is one of 11 children, so you can imagine, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, we've got 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. [ cheers and 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 passel full of silver medals. [ cheers and applause ] >> we can add to iowa, missouri, minnesota, colorado, now oklahoma and tennessee. [ cheers and applause ]

we have won in the west, the midwest and the south and we're ready to win across this country! [ cheers and applause ] i want to thank, again, my wife. i know that, you know, 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 important, most honest critic and someone who has kept our family together and continues to do remarkable and incredible things every day for me and all of us. thank you very much, my love.

we have almost all the kids here. teff john, sarah maria -- where are you -- patrick, elizabeth, peter and daniel, and they're all wearing buttons for our little bela. so we've got everybody here. >> before senator santorum begins to introduce every member of the audience, we give the man the national time and this is how he spends it. we'll take a commercial break. when we come back, let's find out if he's turned to anything of substance other than the names and addresses of everyone in the building. ed

>> ohio is too close to call. there's no indication mitt romney will win there, or setting himself to come back after the great upset victory that's foreseeable, if not indicated by any of the numbers at this point which are too close to call. when we left the senator, he was still introducing members of his family, some two and three times apiece. let's rejoin senator santorum already in progress. >> not to their business or employer or to the community or nonprofit organization in their community. we'll 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 beginning of the end of freedom in america. once the government has control

of your life, then they gotcha. that's why we decided to step out. as you look at me, karen and i have seven children ages 20 -- [ cheers and applause ] -- ages 20 to 3, not exactly the best time to be out running for president of the united states. we've given up our jobs. we're living off our savings. yeah, we're making a little sacrifice for a very, very big goal. and that is replacing this president on november of this year! [ cheers and 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 that we remember who we are. ronde rangenan his fairwell address -- ronald reagan in his fairwell address to the american people worried about if america would remember what made us great. that we're 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. [ cheers and applause ] the government's job in 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, states and country. that's what made america great. we built a great country from the bottom up, and we need people to go up against president obama and his vision of a top-down government

control, of not just healthcare, but of energy and of manufacturing and of financial services and who knows what else is next. but this is a president who believes -- who believes he is simply better able to do this than you are, that he will be fairer than you are with your fellow man. ladies and gentlemen, this is 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. >> we're going to interrupt the former senator santorum's speech

in steubenville because this ties in perfectly to a must-read piece that our friend andy cole has at mother jones which describes a newly-found piece of material on candidate santorum in 1993 on a pittsburgh television program, the editors, public affairs program back when there were such things. post-ed by the pittsburgh gazette in which he describes himself compatteddable with arlen specter and the late john heinz, moderate republicans, senators from pennsylvania. on the subject of healthcare, senator or would be then congressman santorum was calling for more government involvement and republican proactivity on the subject of government involvement in healthcare. i even said it to president bush, he said, on this program, when he came to pittsburgh to campaign for dick thornburgh running for the senate in 1991 that healthcare

would be the big issue and we had to take responsibility for solving the problem. santorum, 1993, we can't continue to ignore it and say, oh, well, you know, it will work itself out in the marketplace. that's wrong. i'm back with former new york governor eliot spitzer and we have been marveling about this speech. >> the entire spectrum of the political debate has been gone so far right that richard nixon but for water gate and vietnam would have been remembered as a liberal president. he created the epa. he created the government provisions to right the wrong rick santorum was talking about. >> healthcare. >> there was an understanding of how the markets worked before this crazy infusion of chicago-school libertarian rhetoric that completely warped the political debate and now you get a ricky gervais who has an

a-- a rick santorum who has an apocalyptic vision of where the nation is going and then he says leave to it the marketplace it will work. you wonder if they've forgotten recent history. >> "oh, well, it will work out in the marketplace, that's wrong." obviously, people can evolve politically. there is a certain opportunism in the republicans, there is kind of a feedback loop going on where where they say more and more outlandishly conservative things never reflected in american politics except on the fringes and the fringes get louder because they want to hear it because it evokes an america they wished had existed 30 years ago and never did. >> he evokes the language of norman rockwell, the sweater vest, being in steubenville,

addressing everyone there, feels good till you listen to the words. you see romney, gingrich, santorum, when they had to govern and look at real data and solve real problems, they said things completely different than what they say when they're speaking to the tea party and the fringes. such internal consistency, wants to make you pull your hair out. you say, stop, but this is how they're talking. >> or you want to put a gentle arm on the shoulder and say let me explain to you where medicare comes from. back to ohio. richard nixon imposed price controls. what would happen if a democratic president introduced price controls during the period of high inflation? it's extraordinary how much it's changed, a great point to make about not just santorum but the entire political scene. let's focus back on the ohio political scene for more on the g.o.p. race in ohio. going to former democratic governor of the state, ted

strickland, national co-chair with president obama's 2011 reelection campaign. thanks for your time. >> great to be with you. >> great to have you. what do you think is the key coming out of ohio tonight whether romney or santorum wins or whether some of the numbers we're hearing about lower turnout and these late decisions that seem to be less than enthusiastic on the part of republican voters? >> well, i think they're both losers as far as tonight is concerned in ohio. i mean, the ohioans just don't simply like these guys very much. even the republicans don't seem to like them very much. regardless of who emerges as the ultimate winner by a few hundred or a couple thousand votes, this election in ohio today has demonstrated that the republicans are not enthuse entc about either one of these guys and that bodes well for president obama going into the fall. mitt romney opposed the auto bailout as did santorum.

that's really important for ohio. a lot of people are working in ohio today because of what the president did in toledo, cleveland, and youngstown. also, keith, as you know, we had this anti-worker legislation introduced in ohio which romney supported, and ohioans turned it back by massive numbers, and we're not going to forget that. we may not have had a permanent realignment in ohio, but i can tell you that ohio is a very different state than it was a year and a haling a and we've got teachers and police officers and firefighters fired up because they know who's on their side and neither romney nor santorum are on the side of working people and ohioans know that. >> do you think that the idea that the sort of establishment republican candidate, room any, in a vote in ohio in which 40%

of the republicans voted today said electability in the presidential election came first in terms of their priorities and the issue that met the most of them was by a margin of 50% was the economy and 30% said the budget deficit. these are people who would presumably looking for a solution that would be represented by the guy who was the main stream choice among republicans, that mitt romney is in a close race with somebody who's on sort of the fringes socially and culturally like rick santorum, does that suggest that the backlash against your successor in the governor's chair is playing something of a role in this race? >> well, it may be because i have been telling people in ohio that if you like governor john casey, you're going to love mitt romney. they're very similar. they have wall street financial backgrounds and neither one of them want to release their income tax returns over multiple years. they both are very anti-worker,

anti-union in their orientation, they both want to give tax breaks to really rich people while putting greater tax burden on the working families, and, so the people of ohio have had an experience with governor casey. they know what that kind of leadership is and what it does, and i think that's going to be a factor come november. >> governor strickland, i can't let you go without asking one question that sort of fills in your other capacity as one of the co-chairs for the president's reelection campaign, i thought it extraordinary and suggested a couple of times tonight that a president normally gets out of the way of the biggest one night event on the opposing party's primary schedule. not out of any sort of deference, but because of how many people and how fractured the thing may be, there are four candidates with thundershower con stitc -- with four con

constituentsy. the president thought he could handle all four at the same time if need be. >> it says he's not afraid of any of these guys. i think the president's doing well. this is a good night for president obama. i think ohioans are demonstrating that they don't really care for the republican candidates and i'm looking forward to november. >> ohio too close to call. former governor ted strickland one of the national co-chairs of the obama campaign, thank you kindly for your time, sir. >> thank you, keith. >> my pleasure. we're continuing to watch the undecided race principally in ohio, which mr. santorum has a

slight numerical lead over former governor romney. we're going to continue to update you on that and the other night's issues on super tuesday as today's countdown coverage continues after this. well, online dating services can get kind of expensive.

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speak, our governor, eliot spitzer is back with me here and your conclusion is the same as mine that what we're seeing is they don't know how ohio is going to turn out. they want to get in and speak and each one says i won over here and here and maybe i'll come back at 4:00 in the morning when we've won ohio. >> best to get your speech while the nation is watching, claim the victories, project the image you want. no one will know till tomorrow to affect the headlines. >> i imagine this is going through his mind -- he has got to prevent the idea that no matter what the outcome here, it was a wellington level near-run thing. this was waterloo that he won or lost. either way, he's in big trouble if he wins by 1% at 2:00 in the

morning. >> exactly. if he loses ohio, the entire dynamic shifts because, as was discussed earlier tonight, the reality begins to emerge that even if he has a numerical advantage going towards the convention, he go won't get the 50% and there could be a brokered convention likely where his candidacy is doomed. >> and as we discussed at the exit polls, all the exit polls line up neatly behind the romney candidacy. 50% of the ohioans thought the economy was an issue and 30% thought the budget deficit was the number one issue. 40% more than any other individual characteristic said electability was first. one in six said they want a true conservative. that adds up to romney but the numbers don't add up to romney. >> if the arguments apply to him as a stick figure they can more regularly apply to jeb bush, sarah palin, or you can imagine somebody else parachuting in and all of the allegiance based upon

electability witches over in a heart beat because it swechs to romney. >> romney has to offer something to get the other two to drop out. can't have two vice presidents. would newt gingrich want to be vice president for mitt romney? >> newt gingrich isn't dropping out and rick santorum is saying, without the money, i'm managing to worm my way back into this. he's going nowhere. the big loser, i think, if ohio goes for santorum or close for romney, romney ends up becoming an emotional loser. >> how can he negotiate with santorum in the near future? the full race has to go another month. there is no pre-convention brokering because, obviously, none of these candidates have any viability once you get to a convention. >> how does romney or santorum win a brokered convention. >> i don't know see how any of them.

that's why jeb bush or mitch daniels might come back. i don't know who the probable possibly candidates might be. you don't have the negotiation with the candidates. it's the funders, the people we all know really speak for the elite voice in the republican party that is saying we must win. parenthetically, they could decide, you know what, if the economic news continues to be good, we don't care so much about the white house. george wil was saying it the other day, the argument could be hold the house, try for the senate, let president obama hold on. that isn't our priority. >> friday could be the most important at date in the repubn primary campaign. >> the unemployment numbers come out monthly between now and october, i have been saying this two years, that determines november 12's presidential race. that's why this friday is a huge day. >> so you could have a republican establishment that on the one hand is backing mitt mt. and on the other hand, we're looking for the lead sacrificial lamb here. we don't have to break our backs to get him that nomination. it could be somebody at the

brokered convention because doesn't make any difference if we start may 1 or august 13. >> they're thinking how does this triple down to the house and senate races and the senate, obviously olympia snow's departure starts to crimp into their plans because the democrats capacity to hold it increases significantly and the house is the fundamental imaginenary line to the republican party, the senate is what they want to grab, the white house number three on the list, certainly likely based on the trends at the moment. >> someone else who's about to win ohio is about to speak, the former governor of massachusetts, mitt romney. >> she the best and that was my son with her and his wife and their children with her. great to have my family to be back in our home of massachusetts. it's wonderful to be able to go home tonight for the first time in two months. [ cheers and applause ] what an -- ann said it right,

what a great night. there are three states now under our belt and counting. we're going to 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 just tirelessly on this campaign. and, of course, it's such an honor to 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. [ cheers and applause ] >> tonight, we're doing some counting. we're counting up the delegates for convention and looks good and we're counting down the days till november and that looks even better. even better. we're going to take your vote, a huge vote tonight in massachusetts and take that victory all the way to the white

house. [ chanting "all the way" ] >> now it's been a long vote 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 has good followers. thanks, you guys. nice races. [ cheers and applause ] >> now, we officially started our campaign about nine months ago, not very far from here at a farmhouse in new mexico. new mexico -- new hampshire, a beautiful spring day full of promise, a day once again who helped us recognize how lucky we are to be

americans. we launched an effort not to just win more votes or delegates, it was the start of an effort to restore the promise of america, a promise we know has been frayed by these difficult times. we sounded our 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 letter candidate, by the way, for having done all that. [ cheers and applause ] i'm going to forever be grateful to you for the help you've given me and grateful also to all those people who helped me through this process and taught me along the way. i met extraordinary folks. i met someone named norm burn who signifies the spirit, who

really built the country. norm didn't go to college or get an engineering degree, but he has 100 patents in his name and turned a small shop in his basement into a very successful company that employs a lot of people. it's entrepreneurs like norm burn who are going to get america's as a country back on track if we can get the government out of the way. [ cheers and applause ] i've met parents like david mcarthur. maybe you saw him on the huckabee show. his children 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 that, to those who put everything on the line for us, we owe everything to them that they need.

[ cheers and applause ] 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. [ cheers and applause ] so, in running for office, i've had the chance of meeting people like norm and david and their stories, are of course, inspiring. but i've also met some people who are hurting under this stagnant obama economy and their stories are heartbreaking. some people 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 healthcare keep going up but their paychecks stay the same if they're lucky. president obama keeps telling these americans that the recovery is here, but for them the recession is not over,

that's for sure. [ booing ] >> from generation to generation in this country, americans have always known 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 today that promise is being 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 that they can't pay, i have a message -- you have not failed. you have a president that's failed you and that's going to change. [ cheers and applause ] [ chanting ]

[ chanting "usa" ] >> 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 also said he would cut the deficit in half and he's doubled it. as you know, the debts today are too high, the opportunities are too few, and we've seen enough of this president over the last three years to know that we don't need another five of this president. that's for sure. look, i said -- [ chanting "we need mitt" ] this president's run out of ideas, excuses and in 2012, we're going to get him out of the out -- out of the white house! [ cheers and applause ]

now, president obama seems to believe he's unchecked by the constitution. he's unresponsive to the will of our people. he operates by command instead of by consensus. in a second term, he would be unrestrained by the demands of reelection, and if there is one thing we cannot afford is four years of brac barack obama witho one to answer to. so 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 8% unemployment isn't the best america can do, it's just the best this administration can do. [ cheers and applause ] 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. [ cheers and applause ] for this -- [ crowd chanting "mitt" ] you know -- >> we're going to interrupt as has been the tradition tonight, we're going to interrupt governor romney's speech because former governor eliot spitzer has some, i think, extraordinary, valuable observations. this is the first speech that has been a speech, per se. >> right. >> put he doesn't seem happy. >> he is so incredibly uncomfortable at that podium, he has bungled every one of the lines, reading off the teleprompter, still getting them wrong. i believe he knows he's losing

ohio, trying to process it and trying to do all he needs to as a candidate but it's not working. he is extremely uncomfortable. this is a terrible delivery. >> well, when he stumbled over the phrase "american economy" which is his only chance of getting elected, dr. freud would have a comment about that as well. >> we can't permit barack obama to have another five years in the white house. how's he going to get rid of this term? he's gotten not a single line properly delivered and the crowd is not resuscitating him the way it ordinarily would. >> this goes back to the point before mitt romney made this speech is even a close victory at this point is going to look like a santorum victory unless romney claims the last 25,000 votes cast, all 25,000. >> exactly. who knows where those last votes in ohio are going to come from. still only that 37% in, though i can tell you, having been through this many times, once

37% is in, it usually doesn't change a whole lot. if it is very close in ohio, the drum beat about brokered conventions will get louder and louder. the next states coming up are southern states. not going to be good for romney. a tough period of romney. >> taking a break and coming back at the top of the hour for the latest on how the romney campaign views this extraordinary evening. too close to call in ohio but santorum is leading romney. stand by.

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republican primary goes around the 50% mark of votes counted. rick santorum is leading mitt romney by about 2%. it's not a lot but a lot more than mitt romney's people expected in the wrong direction and perhaps more than the rick santorum people expected. no matter what happens, looks like it will be a moral victory for santorum and very possibly a numerical one. as we continue on the super tuesday coverage on countdown, keith oberman in new york with dave shuster in new york. romney is still speaking at his headquarters in boston. david is at the state house in columbus, ohio, where we might say there's heartburn for the romney people at 10:00 eastern time, david. >> yeah, keith, that's right, and the reason why is that some of the key precinct, the actual

numbers as they have come in from across the state did not sync up with the exit polls today. so rick santorum who seemed to do better in the actual than the exit poll seems to be the case again. in the key precincts where the romney campaign had a lot of confidence on the exit rolls, the numbers are not adding up. that's the first problem. the second problem, keith, when you look at some of the counties still out -- hamilton county up 75 north of cincinnati -- hamilton county is an area, again, where rick santorum expects to do exceedingly well for all sorts of demographic information i can't get into but the romney campaign says maybe we'll pick up some votes in hamilton county but they won't make up 16,000 votes in a county like that. northeast ohio, that's anybody's ball game. that's the problem the romney campaign has at this hour, keith. they're going around looking

county by county trying to spin reporters and say we might pick up voters here and here, maybe this precinct -- that's not the position they wanted to be in. they wanted a clear, concise victory tonight to stop this media narrative that mitt romney is being rejected north, south, east and west. even though the map favors mitt romney regardless of how ohio goes in part because of santorum and his inability to get on in some of the nine congressional districts, this is not shaping up to be the night mitt romney's campaign thought it would be nor is it the kind of story line they wanted. >> do we have an indication romney's people who didn't turn out or was there a shift in likely voters from romney to santorum. can you tell at this point? >> the people voting today, the late deciders were going in

santorum's direction in the last couple of minutes. there's a couple of reasons why the romney might add mitt romney got hammered yesterday because romney made a comment about what he believed about healthcare and he was called out on that, and concern today, some were calling mitt romney a liar on this issue. so heard serious accusations against mitt romney. on the other hand, if it is low turnout, again, the santorum campaign was thinking if it is low turnout, our people are energized. the question is would mitt romney's people be as energized and that hasn't proven to be the case in previous states. again, who knows how it will go at the end of the night. the romney campaign is highly dissatisfied because so much of the media coverage now, we're here at 10:00 and the networks are going off the air, and that's santorum was leading and that's not the story romney's

campaign wanted. >> what's the story line they can sell in at the vent santorum wins, whereas, numerically it would be three firsts for romney and three seconds for romney and one-third in the seven we know about, already, plus north dakota and the other western states and alaska, and rick santorum would have three firsts and a second -- or a second and two thirds and one not participating in, would seem they were in the death grip struggle still. but ohio is as much psychological as it is an actual vote or delegate count. is that the gist of it? >> that's exactly right. the romney campaign is right about this. in order for rick santorum to get the 1,144 delegates to get the nomination, he would have to win majorities over 50% in every contest that remains and in every congressional district. that's not going to happen. the romney campaign has a much easier path. but what the romney campaign

will acknowledge is that rick santorum and newt gingrich can continue to prolong the process and the longer it plays out the higher the unfavor rabilities go for mitt romney, which is not only the reason they wanted the numerical victory, they will get more delegates, no matter how you slice it, but the psychological that mitt romney is not going well, gives driver's license better chance in november because mitt romney is having tack to the right state after state. >> romney spoke now because of the fear that having to speak later would be after an ohio defeat? >> i think that's fair to say and i think, keith, eliot spitzer was right in the last segment. they have a lot of key people on the ground in ohio and they know

where the votes are and not. i have a feeling mitt romney's campaign has been told this is going to be a swee and if we're able to pull this out, wow, that may be why mitt romney was a little off his game in the sweep. >> david shuster doing a wonderful job for us. thank you, david. >> thanks, keith. >> amanda becker, staff writer with roll call who knows her ohio, has been kind enough to spend some time tonight. thanks for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> david was saying, according to people in the santorum camp, one of the counties that they're hoping to get something out of is hamilton. that's chevy out, deer park, harrison, milford, normal, all the big metropolises in the very left-hand lower corner of ohio, that's almost kentucky, right?

>> yes, i actually grew up in hamilton county. i'm familiar with the area. >> you know it backwards and forwards. is mitt romney going to be able to pull a victory from the proverbial jaws of defeat out of that county? >> if i was going to choose a county in ohio he would pull off probably wouldn't be hamilton. it's a conservative, very well read reid county and didn't go for obama in 2008 even though he won the state. >> so they're obviously a little perturbed about what is happening in ohio. do you have a sense that mirrors what david shuster was saying from columbus or your own estimations and familiarity as to what happened within the margin of error lead in the poll going in but still a lead which had been growing and accelerating in the past few weeks after he had been behind santorum? >> there were dueling narratives in ohio and tennessee, ohio

being the crown jewel of super tuesday. in the last couple of weeks and especially the last few days you saw that change as romney gained on santorum in the polls. you saw less emphasis to them winning in ohio to them talking about it being a delegate count. so it was going from winning to picking up delegates. i think romney will still up a significant number of delegates in ohio but now it's a perception problem. even in their speeches, santorum talked about gold and silver medals, romney was talking about counting. that turned into a numbers game. that's not good for him. less than half of ohio voters are unhappy with the people on the ballot i read earlier today. nearly 50% would prefer to have other options so does not bode well for him. >> nate silver from "the new york times" who took his sports and abilities based solely on how the analysis of how statistics change and

started applying it to the presidential race, analyzed the results in ohio and concluded, if you weight the 2012 margins between romney and santorum, by the 2008 turnout, suggests mr. santorum's margin night narrow slightly but he is perhaps the slight favorite to hold on. that method would have him winning statewide by 1.2 percentage points. what kind of holy hell erupts if rick santorum wins ohio by 1.2 percentage points? >> it will be a good night for santorum if he wins ohio. that gives him in terms of perception great momentum going forward. there are a couple of states in the south coming up next week. romney does not do well in the south. like you were just discussing a few minutes ago in terms of numbers, romney's really the de facto candidate. it's just kind of getting those,

picking them up here and there, the rest along the way, but will make the race more difficult. >> amanda becker of roll call helping us analyze what's going on in ohio which is obviously the headline for the night. thank you kindly. >> thank you. >> a call on one of the 7:30 caulks, the only 7:30 caulks, several reporting dakota is in the santorum camp. rick santorum, the second of the candidates to speak in the evening, may have been premature in doing so, he can obviously come back and declare victory in ohio. who knows what hour that might occur. that will go late before this is called. we'll continue on the countdown coverage of republican's super tuesday.

anna talked to a conservative and it got a little contentious.

lots of data, and lots of trending. [[vo]] get the final analysis from election central. >>that's smart politics. ?ñññ

is on the new news network. >>welcome to the war room. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. a former two-term governor. >>make your voice heard. >>detremined to find solutions. >>that partnership in order to invest in our country is critical. >>driven to find the truth. >>how did romney get his groove back? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct.

about 12,000 votes in the actual votes cast and suddenly a bit of banner between o'donnell of cbs news and the president of the united states at the president's news conference this afternoon rings particularly interesting. let's listen to that. >> mitt romney has criticized you on iran and said hope is not a foreign policy. he also said that you are america's most tactless president since carter. what would you you like to say to mr. romney? >> good luck tonight. >> no, really. >> really. ed. >> it is now after the laugh line of the president's news conference this afternoon, and with mr. romney in second place with only a third of the votes yet to be counted, ryan grim,

washington bureau chief stsz of the huffington post. good evening. >> good evening, keith. >> i don't think the president's comment actually decided ohio but loomed as particularly interesting given what's happening there tonight. >> what's amazing about that moment is mitt romney is -- well, first of all, he's using the idea of going to war as a political chip, but he's using it to make the president look weak, and in responding to mitt romney that way, it just -- it put -- it set romney back. it makes him look like such a clown, you know. good luck. look, you're going to need it, buddy, i have been watching the last few months. what he's saying is you're a weak campaigner. you can't even get past this former pa senator who lost in a landslide in 2006, and then that night, he's behind in ohio by the time that most people go to bed. it's a good day for obama. that's probably the one thing

that we can take away from this. >> are there any negatives from the president's point of view to a republican frontrunner who cannot -- who, as we suggested before, is in the middle of a racy he's the car winning indianapolis 500 add 70 miles an hour and right on his tail is a guy with only three wheels? >> right. it's really hard to see one. the guy on his tail has one wheel, if that. he fell asleep. you know, gingrich fell asleep at aipac today. so, no, it's really hard to see a down side to this for the president and it's something all the republican elite commentators are talking about, this slug fest is just making what should have been and easy victory for them seem much less attainable at this point. who knows, maybe some white knight, some mitch daniels type figure comes out of the convention or something and then, you know, storms into the white house as a result of all this chaos.

that's a real long shot, and i think the president would take his chances on that happening and just enjoy himself for the next few months. you know, as amanda said, this is just going to continue to go santorum's way for a while. it's not to say he's going to be the eventual nominee but he has alabama coming up, mississippi coming up and a couple of other southern states in the next couple of weeks where he will be particularly strong and people will start looking at mitt romney and say i guess he's the frontrunner because we keep calling him that and he has a ton of money, but, man, he can't win. >> i go to the two favorite numbers out of the exit polls in ohio, 41% of the people there, the number one vote total in the area, which issue is most important in terms of the nature of the candidate. 40%, more thanig else, said electability was the first and most important issue compared to one in five who said moral character, 20% who said moral

character and less than that said i want the true conservative, wanted the electable one. and the ohio issues, one and two, 50% said economy, 30% said budget deficit. abortion and women's rights is at 10%. cultural issues almost nonexistent in ohio. how does mitt romney not win a primary in which it would seem to be -- the electorate there would seem to be tailormade for his campaign? >> his problem is his entire campaign was built on inevitability and electability, and that's really been dented by his inability to win elections. he's saying i can beat obama. really? but you can't beat these guys. when it became clear that was his only argument, once that's gone, people start thinking, well, hey, maybe santorum can beat obama. they don't really believe it, but they convince themselves of

it because romney has persuaded a lot of people that he cannot beat obama. so if you're only voting for a guy because you think he can win and then you think, well, maybe this guy can't win, then you have no reason to vote for him. voters don't have a good history of playing it strategically like this. think about democrats in 2004. they said what we're going to do is put this war hero up because she's clearly on paper the guy that's going to beat george bush, and we saw how that worked out. and, you know, so these kind of factless guys from massachusetts seem attractive to primary voters who want to beat presidents that they hate, but it doesn't always work out. >> so ultimately, what would they be saying in the committee to reelect this president based on not necessarily that the winner of ohio will be the nominee, but that the result in ohio was as close as it was, no matter how it turns out, does it tell them anything about the president's ability to take ohio in the fall? >> oh, absolutely.

it shows them that this key state is very much winnable for them, and it also, tonight, showed them virginia is very much winnable and most of the roads to the white house for the president as his team has been mapping out the electoral college go through virginia. it's hard to win without winning that. and romney running against only ron paul in that state couldn't even hit 60%. so 41% of republicans wanted to vote against romney bad enough that they cast a vote for paul. you can guess that about 15 to 20% or so of those were actually paula supporters as he's had across the other states and the other 25 points of that were people who didn't like romney so that bodes well for the president in ohio and virginia which are critical. >> thanks, rhine. >> thanks for having me. >> romney wins have the,

virginia and massachusetts, finishes second in georgia and tennessee, finishes third in north dakota in the caucus. santorum wins north dakota, oklahoma, tennessee, second in massachusetts, third in georgia and hav vermont, and wasn't elie for the ballot in virginia and may, in fact, win ohio. so an extraordinary night developing among the republicans that continues this race going and what the former first lady barbara bush said was the worst political race she had ever witnessed and thought the world must think we're a bunch of idiots in this country. i'm paraphrasing but not exaggerating to any great degree. as promised, craig crawford joins us as hoe sho countdown ce of republican's super tuesday resumes after this. [ laura ] maine is known for its lighthouses, rocky shore,

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it happenedly 2% more of the vote. oklahoma is rick santorum's according to the projections and about 5 percentage points with romney finishing now in second place having pulled back ahead of gingrich and that will be important as to who finishes second in oklahoma. tennessee, rick santorum is the projected winner in tennessee handily over mitt romney in a race that mom any's people thought they might win or at least finish a close second. they will not finish a close second in tennessee. in have the neighboring to the state he was once governor of, romney winning obviously a very small turnout but romney handling that easily with ron paul in second place and santorum there and virginia romney, and santorum and gingrich just watching.

north dakota has not been called except by one news organization, a caucus, called it for santorum, those numbers would suggest he's winning that caucus pretty handily. and the big one, ohio to be determined, but with more than two-thirds of the vote and rick santorum clinging to a margin of just about 2 percentage points. continuing with craig crawford after this. the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me.

anybody refer media means themselves. turns out ohio is the story tonight. rick santorum with a 2% margin with two-thirds of the vote in, no projections on him winning but seems unlikely that he's not going to win because the counties seem to be leaning toward santorum and not romney. joining us for nor analysis on

this one, craig crawford of craigcrawford.com the author of the politics of life. >> looks like the trees were not the right height for romney tonight. >> better keep him out of the taller ones in ohio or massachusetts because he may jump. this is bad, bad news for this campaign. >> it is. i hate to be the eat your vegetables guy, though, and talk about delegates, but i think he will still win the delegates tonight, but that's largely because his opponents are so incompetent by not getting on the ballot in virginia and santorum not getting on slates of delegates in i think three congressional districts in ohio. >> nine. >> oh, yeah. so i think we're talking -- >> yeah, three he got none and six he didn't get full slates in place. >> yeah, and i think he's, like, 18 out of the 63 delegates or something like that he's not even eligible for, so he may win

the popular vote but lose the delegate count in ohio. the romney people will be telling us about that tomorrow a lot. >> if you're mitt romney or any other politician in the history of politics and you have to explain that you actually won when the scoreboard says otherwise, i mean, there is -- nobody's going to pull this one out of the fire for him as they did in michigan where they either changed the rules afterwards or the polite version was there was a misunderstanding about how those remaining two statewide delegates would be assigned. that doesn't happen in ohio, correct? >> right. keith, what we're looking at now going forward, i believe, is a race not for romney to win in nomination but for santorum and gingrich to stop him from getting the majority. i think that becomes more probable now. what is not probable is santorum or gingrich winning this nomination, winning enough delegates if both of them stay in the race. i look alt the numbers on santorum, the likely delegate count he'll have tonight, he is going to need almost 65% of the

remaining delegates up for grabs after tonight to win the nomination. gingrich closer to 70%. neither of them are going to do that if both of them are still in the race. the only way it happens is if one of them drops out and throws his support to the other. but both of them staying in the race can keep romney from getting the majority. >> it can can keep him for how long? >> i think all the way -- you know, we've got these big states coming -- you know, this thing is back-ended. we've talked a lot about the front-loaded. but there are huge states -- california, pennsylvania, new york, indiana -- coming late, so they could stay in and we could be looking at the end of the contest in june where romney's the runaway leader in delegates but doesn't have enough to win and then the republican party and these candidates are all going to have to hash it out all summer long to go to a convention with an actual nominee. >> now, obviously, we've changed

american politics, presidential politics in the last 40 years since the last brokered convention or even the hint of a brokered convention. we've rewritten the rules about when the campaign starts. suddenly the idea that you'd only have a campaign that lasted three or four months would be an insufficient time to unseat an incumbent president when, again, you know, it's 100 years ago, but teddy rood svelte didn't start running as a third party candidate till august or september and he finished late and won. but how serious is it to the republicans to unseat a personally popular and increasingly individual poll numbers popular president with perhaps a strengthening economy if they don't officially get their campaign started until june, july, august? >> and we're seeing two things happening with this race in all between the republican

candidates is this plummeting support among independent voters, but republican voters just less and less enthusiastic about that. you talked earlier about the early voting and ohio indicates about behalf what it was in 2008, indicates low turnout in this. another thing pollster are telling me is something they have not seen before is when they try to identify likely voters in primary, they have -- when they try to identify -- have double digit increases in the number people who self identify as not being likely voters. >> wow. >> so pollsters have never seen that before in either party that big a difference from past campaigns. >> so who's the grownup in the republican equation who steps in and tries to avert this mess you have so articulated tonight? >> well, it's more like an orphanage with no grownups, i think, in this party. there are no political bosses out there to come in and say, okay, this is what what's going to happen.

the power is more behind the scenes, the money people, the fundraisers, the people who fuel the republican party who are going to start making noises to, okay, coalesce around romney, gingrich, santorum, saying, okay, you're out of here. they may not listen. who will listen are the sugar daddies who fund them in their super packs who are the only ones keeping them going. the imlon guys that we talked about so much, they're big players in the republican party, want to continue to be big players in the republican party. they do not want to become pariahs, despite all their money. that's one thing over them the republican congressional leaders might have over them is, hearings if you want to play in our pool much longer, you need to swim with us. >> but is that, perhaps, we just narrowed in on something that was another unintended and unpredictable result of citizens united and that extraordinary

supreme court decision that now that threat of becoming a pariah inside a party let alone unduly influencing an election by an analyst's supply of money, just somebody telling you you will be a pariah in the republican party and sheldon addison says i bet you $100 million i don't become a pariah and you never get elected again to anything. >> that's the reversal there, yeah. but this is a club these people are in. you know, they're friends. you know, they fly around in their jets together and so on and, you know, it's almost like a country club, it really is. so they don't want to be looked at as the guy that screwed everything up for beating obama. that's the other thing. these are men who, foremost, aidleson and freeze and for santorum, foremost, they want to beat obama. they have to realize their

candidate won't get the nomination and continuing to fund them will only make it more difficult for republicans to beat obama. >> one will recall that, four years ago, when what we thought was a contention nomination for the democratic -- process for the d. j. nomination extended into june because the now secretary of state believed she needed and was obligated to continue to run when, in retrospect, that at it's worse, she said "shame on you, barack obama," once, that's about one-thirtieth of what goes on each week in the republican primary. we played the pieces of tape from barbara bush earlier and her amazement this is actually going on. why would there be an assumption that common sense would prevail at any point and the republicans wouldn't simple rideliberately just all jump off this cliff? >> well, clr a couple of differences. i don't buy the comparisons people make to 2008 with this race because there were a couple

of differences. one, it was after super tuesday when there was a lot of pushing on hillary to get out, but there was a lot of pushback from her side at the grassroots level, pushing back on that notion, and that kept her going. the other big difference from then that we're seeing now is, as that race continued between obama and clinton through those primaries, participation, turnout was growing. >> exactly. >> democrats were so into that campaign, they were actually drawing more voters. they had some huge turnout increases, even toward june in that race. so it actually grew the base of the democratic party. once you get people voting in your primary, it's a lot easier to get them to the general election even if their candidate doesn't win sometimes and we're not seeing that. we're seeing the opposite effect in the republican party. >> and true to your point, the number of issues that were being discussed at least did not

decrease over the course of the clinton-obama race and may have increased from the february-march end of it to the may-june, but that is not the republican campaign. craig crawford has seen most of this coming and i think we need to do the proverbable hat tip to you on how this is turning out, particularly in ohio. congratulations, craig. >> well, i put my tinfoil hat on in the south carolina primary when i talked about it but i think now i can wear a regular hat. >> i think tinfoil is in, my friend. craig crawford of craigcrawford.com. thank you, craig. >> good to be here. >> we'll continue with sam seeder and governor eliot spitzer as we wrap up the countdown coverage of republican's super tuesday.

>> ohio still too close to call. mitt romney looks like he's winning. idaho is not ohio. sam seder, from ring of fire and the program report, joins us this evening. >> good evening. >> not a good evening for mitt romney. there are many other different

ways to say that. what does this mean going forward? how do you see this further handicapping in the other sense of the word the republican race? >> well, you know, i think actually we had an insight into in this weekend. this weekend, george will came out and grover norquist both came out and said we should focused on the house and senate races. tonight, i was struck in mitt romney's speech, early on, he said, i'm going to win this nomination. it's a weird thing to say when you're running for president, because this is not about winning the nomination, it's supposed to be about winning the presidency, and i had a real sense tonight that mitt romney was, like, i don't know if i'm going to get out of this thing alive. he'll come out with more delegates, but i think he realizes by the time this is over, even if he comes out of the convention as the nominee, he will be so wounded, he will have no shot at the presidency. i think you will see a lot more of republicans start to talk about focusing on the house and

senate races. >> the republicans would never come out and say, all right, we're punting, but clearly in 1996 there came a point after particularly some of bob dole's inability to place himself in the race where they did punch, would there be that kind of trying to convince people they weren't punting when they just said, okay, you're on your own, mitt, we'll concentrate on the other two races? >> it's hard to say. i think santorum and gingrich will stay in the race to the bitter end. gingrich has more books to sell and santorum's building email lists. the interesting thing is even if the establishment at this point wants romney strongly, who do they ask to jump out of the race? if gingrich or santorum lead the race, i think romney's got even bigger robs. he needs both of them to stay in at this point and they certainly have no reason to leave as long

as they've got billionaires giving them money to run. so i think romney's got a real problem and i think, you know, i think you're just going to start to see this drip, drip, drip, trickle, trickle, trickle of different republicans coming out and saying, you know, let's just focus on these other races, let's punt, let's save our money for something that's within reach, and i think that's probably trying to take over the senate. >> the prescription, though, for it being anyout ware for mitt romney as republican nominee would have to start with serious economic problems, would it not? i mean, beginning with some huge spike in the unemployment numbers on friday? >> yeah, i mean, you know, all this analysis is based on sort of the economy stays more or less on the same trajectory as now, that we don't have any sort of big event. now, of course, if those do happen, it's tough to say. but, you know, i have to say, at this point, it's very hard to imagine a circumstance where people are suddenly going to have confidence in mitt romney

to take care of something. you know, he's sort of destroyed his capacity to be not obama in some ways. he's now, i think, unfortunately for him, his own man. he's had to tack so far to the right. he's had to show he's flip-flopping around. he's had to show he's completely out of touch with what the average american is going through. so in some ways, he's actually worse off than he was when he was more generic and, so, you know, in the event that there is some type of event that otherwise might hurt president obama, you know, i just think that romney has failed to sort of gain the confidence of even his own party at this point, that he could actually handle any type of crisis or unexpected event. >> all right. what do you think of the thing craig crawford has been pushing kind of gently for at least six weeks and may now no longer be in tinfoil hat territory, which is that it goes to a convention

and somebody else not currently running gets the nomination and tries to run a three-month campaign, some superstar appears out of nowhere, and i mentioned this because of a quote given to news organizations tonight in a far corner of our nation -- i don't close any doors that perhaps would be open there, so, no, i wouldn't close that door and my plan is to be at that convention. sarah palin asked if he would have her name put on the floor for no, ma'am regulation of the republican for president. >> well, i've got to say, i think sarah palin is literally the only person in the republican party who would be crazy enough to do that. i mean, i frankly think all this talk that a jeb bush or mitch daniels or chris christie would jump in is more to soothe the republicans. i mean, i think that's a way of them maintaining this fiction they're not going to punt because there is no reason in the world that chris christie would look at this situation or that mitch daniels would look at the situation or jeb bush for that matter and say this is a

good idea for me. they'll just wait till 2016. in the meantime, if the republicans had the notion maybe somebody will jump in at the convention, that forestalled the notion they might have to come out publicly and punt. >> i don't think sarah palin knows who alf landon was. sam seder of the ring of fire and majority report for the countdown. we'll wrap this up. governor eliot spitzer rejoins me after the break. this is countdown coverage of republican super tuesday.

here. >> this number you see here is like looking back in time. the ap assessment at 77% of the vote with a three-tenths of 1-point lead for santorum. nbc has it on their official count as a virtual tie. cnn placed romney ahead in ohio

by a couple thousand votes as we're nearing 85% country. again, the last thing we heard was hamilton county, the lowest left-hand corn of if state of ohio had not yet been counted and would in all likelihood be in rick santorum's favor as we wrap up the hour with eliot spitzer. no matter how it turns out, would be next week, for all we know, this is santorum's night. >> rick santorum showed mitt romney is not inevitable. mitt romney has no passion, no energy. the fact they thought he is going to be inevitable, they'll begin to look around immediately. the unemployment rate and the price of gas will dictate the race for the next month or two. if the economy gets better, the fight between santorum and romney almost becomes irrelevant. neither one will be able to get the independent votes in the

middle to unseat the president. if the unemployment rate begins to spike back up for some reason, i think romney begins to have a little bit of an economic argument but then the republican leader says we need a new candidate, he's not the guy. >> the george wil comment from the other day, the grover norquist comment from the other day at at some point the republicans will have to look at punting. what's the point? if romney wins this, is this his last near-death experience when he should have won by 4 or 5 points the way all the exit polls broke his way? >> i think it depends on friday as much as tonight which is the unemployment numbers. we keep coming back to this but there are a lot of senate and house of representative candidates tonight saying is this guy going to help or hurt me in my district. if they begin to conclude they cannot win the senate with mitt romney at the top, they change tack. because george wills and others are right, they being republican can afford to have barack obama

four more years if they have the house and the senate and that becomes their primary objective as the economy gets better. >> what does that look like in the age of the citizens united decision with people like sheldon adleson and foster freeze. by the way, there is a california chain called foster's freeze, if you ever get out there. with those people throwing money around like water, does it look like bob dole 1996, the candidates down to 200 people rather than those that started out with them, what does it look like? >> we weren't in the room, but it was palpable how little energy and enthusiasm. it was though he had the first read through in a bad rehearsal of a speech he had never seen before. what was going on here? so lacking in the passion that has to come from the candidate himself or herself to lead a winning campaign. so something is tailing off

there. >> what does santorum do? is there a way to get him out of this campaign or does he go to romney and say you get out, i'll take the banner. >> no, he's thinking about 2016. if somebody is here saying i'm laying a foundation, i'm either barry goldwater redefining the party, intellectually or logically, i'm not getting out, or i'm leading the party in a direction. this guy romney clearly isn't going to win, i'll be here and establish myself and campaign day in and day out. rick santorum is feeling great, he isn't going anywhere. barry goldwater didn't get the nomination in 68. there are perric defeats as well as victories. >> right, but rick santorum says i'm losing but winning. anyone in politics knows you can lose a race but win. rick santorum might be feeling he's losing, he feels it. getting out will be difficult.

>> ohio is too close to call. our coverage continues with governor granholm in the war high school at the top of the hour. thank you, eliot spitzer, for your insights. that's our coverage. we leave you with that information that it is too close to call in ohio. basically, romney and santorum split the evening, but ohio is going to come right down to twier. thanks for being with us. it's the tastiest, the sweetest, the freshest. nobody can ever get enough. [ male announcer ] it's lobsterfest at red lobster, the one time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees like lobster lover's dream or new maine lobster and shrimp trio. [ laura ] hot, right out of the shell.

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