second place. fox news projects newt gingrich will win the primary in georgia. >> fox news projecting that mitt romney has won the state of vermont. those are the standings as we know them. five seconds now to the next poll closing. >> bret: it's 8:00 on the east coast and polls just closing in massachusetts, tennessee, and oklahoma. fox news can now project that rick santorum will win oklahoma. that western state leaving mitt romney and newt gingrich to battle for second place there. ron paul will finish fourth in oklahoma. based on fox news exit polls and the raw data in. >> megyn: that's a significant win for senator santorum who battled hard in oklahoma. fox news is also projecting that mitt romney as expected will crush all competitors in his home state of massachusetts where he once served as governor. >> bret: in tennessee santorum is leading mitt romney but the race remains too close to call. romney and gingrich are battling for second place in

tennessee while ron paul will finish fourth there. this is a very close race in tennessee. this could be one we are watching for a long time and a big big result that we want to watch throughout the night. >> megyn: so to recap tonight's contests so far romney has won three states, virginia, vermont, and now massachusetts. rick santorum has won oklahoma and newt gingrich has won georgia, ohio, tennessee too close to call. >> bret: let's get to our fox news panel tonight. fox news senior political analyst brit hume, juan williams. steve haste senior writer for "the weekly standard." brit, give us the take so far, what you are seeing and what the night looks so far. >> brit: so far it is on forum. we expected romney -- santorum i think we more or less expected him to win oklahoma. so far we haven't had any real surprises. nor any real disappointments for anybody unless we begin to drill down and see that some

of this second place, third place finishes were disappointing. we have to do that as the night goes on. >> megyn: so far, juan, each candidate with exception of ron paul although i is faring pretty well in vermont. so far, each candidate has some bragging rights so far to go? >> i think they do. i think santorum's win in oklahoma is an example of that tennessee is whereas you guys were saying we will be watching carefully if santorum is able to hold on in tennessee, knowing as we do that newt gingrich won georgia, what does that say about the heart of the republic party in the south and mitt romney? is romney going to be able to go into those southern states and particularly states where people are protestants and have some questions about romney's mormon faith? is romney going to be able to go in there and be a persuasive candidate who can convey the message that it's time to get on board? romney is going to be the inevitable republic nominee? >> bret: steve, let's talk about the news this hour.

we called oklahoma for rick santorum. that is a big win for rick santorum. he spent time in that state. at one time newt gingrich was competing in oklahoma, a lot of social conservatives there. what about oklahoma? >> well, i think oklahoma is big roar rick santorum because it allows him to continue to make the argument that he is the conservative alternative to mitt romney. we don't know yet how the delegate breakdown will break out because of complicated delegate rules there because it's clear he dual well there and come away with the number of delegates. he looks like he will come away with a number of delegates in tennessee, ohio, some of these other places as well. rick santorum's goal tonight is to be able to continue to make the argument that he and not newt gingrich is the conservative alternative to mitt romney. >> megyn: we heard earlier some speck, brit, about the win for mitt romney and virginia. ron paul did rather well there and some were suggesting that could be an endorsement of ron paul maybe proving some momentum for ron paul. there is another theory as well. >> this is an interesting thing that happened. here we are at 7:00 and one

place everybody thought we would be immediately to call just based on the exit poll numbers was virginia for mitt romney. there was a in the last wave of exit poll data received by our decision desk and decision desks elsewhere it showed the race within low single digits. so everybody held off right thing to do under the circumstances. and then as the vote total began to come in and everybody had a chance to look at it the call was made 10 past 7:00. we will see how the vote turns out. what i do think is happening, megyn, in the state of virginia and perhaps elsewhere as well, vermont perhaps is that the non-romney vote is a protest vote. a protest in virginia against the fact that the other two weren't on the ballot. indeed some the other two were encouraging people to get out and vote for ron paul to try to deny romney all the delegates or as many delegates as possible. i think we may have seen the same thing in vermont as well. >> bret: getting word that newt gingrich will speak in 30 minutes. we will see that on fox news

channel. he is live in atlanta, georgia and touting what looks like a very large margin in his adopted home state. he served congress representative from georgia and speaker of the house. what about newt gingrich his future and win tonight. it looks like tennessee he is factoring in as well. >> factoring, doesn't look like a winning margin. people again believing and i thought this was so telling in georgia that he is as electable as mitt romney, which has been mitt romney's calling card in states throughout the primary and caucus process. here gingrich getting an audience to say we believe you can beat obama. that is just so critical across the board in the republic primary process. >> megyn: go ahead, steve. >> i mean it's interesting. i talked to a gingrich advisor just before we came on. one thing is clear. he is setting himself up to make further arguments down the road. it would be helpful for newt gingrich for his argue. if he were to win or be very close to winning in one of these other states whether it's tennessee or oklahoma, or

elsewhere. people sort of expect him to win georgia. the fact that he is doing it by a big margin, that margin has increased over the last couple weeks given the polling that we had seen. i think he will make the argument that yes i won georgia but i won it decisively. is he planning them. talking about alabama and mississippi. talking about spending time in kansas. he wants to be able to make that argument. and his campaign is to stay in the race aren't necessarily indicative of whether he will, in fact, do it, right? i mean, after tonight, depending on what happens with newt gingrich in these states, will he have the funding? will he have the organization to sustain this planned effort?

>> got two more southern states next week. if he doesn't do well there then we might have another look at it. i think based on tonight that steve has got it right. he will want to stay in and talk about the future all the way to the end which is what you do. >> and they have said, excuse me, brit. they have said that their fundraising has picked up over the past 10 days as you have seen him. he has come up in these polls in oklahoma and tennessee. places where he was counted out. he is doing better. that's the argument they want to make. they are not at the point where they are saying yes we are going to mount the challenge to mitt romney next week. they want to say he was down. is he improving. >> bret: this is all about delegates tonight. this is all about adding it up. and at the end of the night we are going to be looking at ohio and tennessee to really tell us how this picture is looking for these candidates. >> juan: you are going to be looking, georgia actually has the most delegates at stake. yes, you are going to be looking at the other states that come in double digits over 50 in both of those states, ohio and tennessee. you are looking toward the 400 or more that's available tonight. who is going to come away with

the lion's share? and at this early hour, you would say well it looks like, given what we have seen so far, mitt romney is in position. but then you start to look at the question that you were addressing earlier, does mitt romney stay in the race? nobody is asking that. >> brit: mitt romney? >> juan: i'm sorry newt gingrich stay in the question. nobody is asking that question of rick santorum. >> bret: it's only 8:08. we have a long way to go. can we get some coffee for juan? >> brit: here you go, buddy. >> megyn: wow, you came prepared. >> juan: my point to you is right now if you are either rick santorum or newt gingrich, you are thinking oh my gosh, if i could just get mitt romney one on one, it's still the case that they would think i could beat him. >> bret: panel, thank you. stick around. >> megyn: there are 419 did he goes at stake tonight. let's take a look where things stand so far. right now romney has 237

delegates. rick santorum is right behind him with 92. newt gingrich and ron paul rounding out the 4. keep in mind these are fluid numbers right now because some of these guys have won some states tonight and some of the delegate awards are proportional. we have to figure it out district by district. 1144 delegates are needed to secure the republic nomination. >> bret: these are projections. this is the associated press projection as well. that's what we use. we will be changing throughout the night. team fox coverage now. our team of reporters are spread across the country. mike emanuel live in nashville at a primary party there. john roberts in atlanta with the gingrich campaign. steve brown in steubenville, ohio with the santorum campaign. and chief political correspondent carl cammeron is live in boston with the romney campaign. carl, everyone said ohio is going to be very close. it looks like it is. what can you tell us? >> well, the romney campaign is very confident tonight. they are in boston for the big celebration. the crowd has been here for a couple of hours and they are pretty pumped up. romney campaign is looking for perhaps winning four even five

states tonight. he has got three already won. one of the things romney aides say is quite possible is a victory out in idaho later in the evening and of course then there is ohio. they have worked very hard there. there was about $10 million worth of advertising spending in the last 10 days in all the super tuesday states. about half of it came from mitt romney's campaign in the super pac that supports him and a big chunk of it was spent in ohio. yes, they are confident. they have taken the unusual step tonight, bret, of actually releasing some of the excerpts from mitt romney's speech from later this evening. and just listen to what they say. tonight, we have taken one more step to restoring the promise of america. we will start again tomorrow and the next day and so we'll go day by day step-by-step and heart to heart. romney knows this is going to remain a very long battle. then it goes on to say there will be good days and bad days, always long hours and never enough time but on november 6th, we will stand united not only having won the election but having saved the future. those are the excerpt and remarks released early this

evening from romney's speech later tonight here in boston. copley square where they are clearly looking for a victory and if they get their hopes realized, they could win five of the ten states tonight looking at ohio and idaho after the three they have already gotten tonight, brit. >> bret: carl cammeron. >> megyn: bill hemmer tracking the billboard. he will be looking at his home state native ohio, bill. >> the buckeyes. i could use that coffee by the way. [ laughter ] >> bill: i'm thinking 1:00 a.m. at this point. geographic to all of you. here is what we are looking at in the state of ohio. there has been so much attention on the state because it has been such a bellwether over the past several presidential cycles and you know if you are a republic you want to win the white house you have to win ohio. now, this is very early in the evening. about 2% reporting right now. we have romney in orange and santorum in the red color here. and we are going to see these colors start to fill in.

and predictably where rick santorum has to do well rural counties. really has to drive up the score in places like ross county. he is doing that right now but, again, just a couple hundred. say a thousand votes recorded right now for ross county. similar story in mickway county. just to give you a frame of reference four years ago these counties checked quick math, 3, 5, some 5500 votes. and in 2012 you have got less than a thousand. so you have got a long way to go and in a lot of these places. santorum wants to fill in the southern part of the state and eastern edge of the state where he is doing, this is mahoning county, the county seat is youngstown that bumps up against the border of his home state of pennsylvania. what is romney doing right now? come down to the southwest, the city of cincinnati and the hamilton county, this is a republic bass staggs. 2000 bastion. in 2008 it went for a democrat

for the first time since 1964. at the moment is he in decent shape. again, these numbers are still early in the night. this is warren county. what you find in southwestern, ohio, a lot of people living in the city of cincinnati and western edge of hamilton county they have moved up in the butler and warn and clermont counties. they too have been solid republic counties over the last republic -- election. mitt romney with a slight lead in warren county. dayton and romney just a bit of an edge there on santorum by 4 points at 3% to 34%. -- 39% to 34%. no votes in from franklin county in columbus. no votes up here in cuyahoga and cleveland. no votes over here in lucas county toledo. you see a little bit start to fill in there. this is real live data as it comes in right now. we can can see it as 3%. romney a three point lead over santorum.

again, still too close to call in the state of ohio. another critical state to watch is tennessee. there is no winner at the moment in this state either. about 3% reporting and again santorum' in red and romney in orange. we will watch the colors fill in and quickly i will just show from you four years ago mccain won the state. huckabee in purple did very well in the western part. this is where romney was strong right around the counties that surround nashville and we will see in 2012 whether he fills in or whether santorum has the edge there in tennessee. watching those two critical states as we roll on on super tuesday. back to you. >> megyn: thank you. from the billboard to election wall where we are keeping track of everything tonight. campaign headquarters the delegate count and how many days until the general election. look at it all. soak it in. got to sort of stop and look at it. if you are under the age of 25, you get it instantly. [ laughter ] otherwise, you have to stop, am i wrong? >> bret: 25 to 54 you get it very well. >> megyn: i don't know.

i need a moment. in any event, we will be checking in with the big board throughout the evening. >> bret: much more to come with an all-star lineup tonight. chris wallace, carl rove, joe trippi. we don't know about bandannas. later. >> megyn: look at carl cove, is he like i'm busy. i don't have time to look in the camera for the tease. coming up later, sarah palin, ed rollins and laura ingraham will join us live. plus jenna lee what you can find on live tonight. >> you have all that coffee on set. you should see the candy that the guys have at the decision desk. show what you kind of night it's going to be. an exciting one that's for sure. special coverage at foxnews.com/super tuesday. join the conversation through our live chat. all our interviews include your questions, realtime responses, realtime results. and real live streaming video as well. come join us, especially during commercial breaks like this one just ahead. thank you for being with fox tonight we are america's election headquarters. this is an rc robotic cw.

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>> bret: welcome back to america's election headquarters. at this hour ohio too close to call. there you see the breakdown. mitt romney 42%, 7% of the expected vote in so it's very early. rick santorum 36%. but with the raw totals in and the exit polls too close to call. tennessee, the same way. still too close to call in tennessee and there you see rick santorum ahead but, again, only 7% of the expected vote in. but he is ahead a little bit more in the early voting. >> megyn: couple states that we can call for you. we telling you about this one earlier, georgia, newt gingrich winning his home state there rather easily. also take you to the state of vermont, right? where mitt romney has won. you can see the margin there

so far. ron paul with a pretty solid showing at 38% and 28%. in virginia, the commonwealth, mitt romney has won. ron paul taking 41% of the vote there. and in massachusetts, mitt romney winning his home state 73%, to 13% rick santorum in second place there. again, oklahoma, fox news called for rick santorum and we are waiting on tennessee and ohio. well, all night long martha maccallum is keeping an an eye n the exit polls for us and they can be telling how candidates won these states and what is likely to happen in other states, too martha? >> you are so right about this, megyn. you can bet there is nail biting going on at romney and santorum headquarters because no republic has won the presidency without winning this ohio primary first and it is tight out there right now. totally different picture than we have seen in the other states. it's an open primary.

sometimes it's independents, that can make all of the difference in this one. and tonight santorum is leading that group and then comes romney. take a look out these numbers are shaping up right now. romney at 31%. ron paul, of course, has done very well with independents throughout this whole primary season. is he in third with them though in ohio. let's take a look at the tea party vote. tea partiers are torn between these two. they are neck and neck right now 39% to 37%. between the top two. evangelical christians though this group has continued to shake out more towards rick santorum. 47% of the evangelical vote in ohio tonight looks to be going toward rick santorum at this point in the evening. we have spent so much time over the course of this week talking about women's issues and how women will vote in this republic primary and then in the general election as well. so, let's see how they are stacking up tonight in ohio. working women in ohio are choosing mitt romney tonight by double digits over rick santorum. perhaps not that surprising

given some of the conversation that has taken place over the course of this week. but married women split between the two in ohio right now. let's turn our attention for a moment now massachusetts. this one is very interesting to take a look at as well. mitt romney of course won 73% of the vote. you just showed that number, megyn. won it very easily. how about this? when the voters tonight were asked about romney care in the home state of romney care, a huge topic of debate, some say that it's too close, of course to president obama's health care plan, 69% of the folks that voted for mitt romney in his home state believe that romney care went too far. overall 38% of the massachusetts voters said romney care was just about right as far as they were concerned. we have a lot more coming up. there we are. and we will. [ laughter ] lights come on we have an epiphany. >> bret: always exciting. back to washington now where "fox news sunday" anchor chris wallace is with his guest.

people know who those guests are, chris. >> chris: they do, indeed. we are with our political insiders carl rove and joe trippi. we don't just sit here passively and wait for the all-powerful decision desk to tell us who has won states. we try to figure it out for ourselves, carl, what are you looking for or seeing in ohio right now. >> it's breaking out like you expected with santorum doing well in rural counties like hardin and with romney doing well in suburban counties like geauga up near cleveland. what's interesting to me is hamilton county, which is in the southwestern corner of the state. >> chris: near cincinnati. >> the city of cincinnati and its suburbs, in the southwestern part there are both social conservatives and party regulars and tonight thus far in these votes, in the vote in hamilton and the surrounding counties, romney is winning which i am a little bit surprised by. i thought santorum would do better in the southwest than is he doing. >> chris: way too early for you -- >> way to early. with interesting early trend

if it holds up we will see. >> chris: how important is it who wins ohio? in the end, they are not running against each other. whoever is the nominee is going to run against obama. how important is it, for instance, romney, if he were to win ohio and florida and virginia, he could make the case i can win the swing states that are going to come up against obama? >> right. and he is basically slamming starting to slam the door shut on the field. if santorum wins ohio, he is starting to really put some pain on romney and his rolling and is starting to make the case that he is the guy that can appeal to independents and appeal -- >> chris: make that case. if santorum wins ohio tonight, are we back to a premichigan situation where romney looks like a weak frontrunner. >> shows you how unfair the process is. these two guys are going to fight to a near draw tonight by all accounts. one of them is going to be

thunder well enough to keep going. if he squeaks it out, romney is the one. >> chris: karl, let me take to you other states, tennessee, georgia. not only who finishes first it's also who finishes second. explain that. >> how close they are. in georgia right now romney is running second, i believe. and the question is how close are they because we are talking about two things, bragging rights, you know, you came in first, i came in a close second and delegates because these southern primaries are all proportional. so if you have a narrow split in the vote, you have a narrow split in the delegates. and number two comes in one or two or three delegates behind number one. >> chris: let me pick up on that with you, joe. because i remember back to 2008 and the democrats and eventually in march hillary clinton started beating barack obama in ohio and pennsylvania and texas. but the delegate board

remained about 100 delegates in favor of obama. at a certain point do the states become less important than just the shear math of the delegate count take over? >> absolutely. this is all about delegates. even tonight. it's about delegates. in the end though, there are some other issues here. how is romney doing in the south? he he starts taking third in some of these southern states, you know, that's a -- that just shows weakness there i don't think it will matter much against obama in the fall, necessarily. but it does show that there may still be a schism in the party. >> on the other hand if gingrich takes third outside of georgia, then he is a home state candidate. home state favorite rather than a regional candidate. one other thing, you mentioned delegates. that's why virginia and ohio are so important. in virginia tonight, romney is likely to win of the 46 delegates who are up for grabs 41 of them and in ohio even if he has a narrow loss, in all likelihood because of santorum's failure to get on the ballot, get delegate slates on the ballot and three congressional districts in

full slates in a number of others, romney is likely to win a majority of delegates. >> chris: enough good news for all three of these guys? i know paul is -- all three of them to stay in the race. >> gingrich is going to win his home state and santorum is going to probably win one or two of the southern states. >> chris: he has already won oklahoma. >> and perform well in ohio and everybody is going to find something to go on. but the key is how many delegates at the end of the night and does romney win a majority and, if so, that begins to bear down on the future contests. >> chris: what we are looking at, bret, is a long night as precursor to a continued and long delegate fight, back to you. >> bret: juan got his coffee. chris, thank you. polls now closed in seven of the 10 super tuesday states. we are tracking results. laura ingraham will be live with us next. >> megyn: we are waiting for newt gingrich to come out and speak. suspects he starts, is he live in atlanta. he has won his home state of georgia. we will bring you there live. [ male announcer ] at scottrade,

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plegh! immerse yourself in all over relief with alka seltzer plus. it's specially formulated to speed relief to every inch of you. liquidate your flu symptoms with alka seltzer plus. >> megyn: welcome back, folks, 8:31 here in the east. the drama right now is in the state of ohio for one where it is neck and neck between mitt romney and rick santorum. still, too close to call in the state that all eyes are watching tonight on super tuesday.

>> bret: tennessee, same story, too close to call. right there you see the split. it's still early. 13% of the expected vote in tennessee and rick santorum with 43%. mitt romney 28%. still too close to call, newt gingrich also having a good night in tennessee. let's bring in now fox news contributor laura ingraham host of the laura ingraham show. laura, welcome. >> great to see you guys. >> bret: one of the story lines obviously in this election is mitt romney and if he can consolidate conservatives and convince them that he is a true conservative. two little exit poll results in tennessee very conservative 41% of the vote was very conservative. they characterized them themselves that way. santorum 47%. gingrich 26%. romney 19%. ohio support the tea party 60%. and that was an even split. santorum 39 %, romney 37%. two different results in those two different states. >> hard to impact that one other thing that jumps out at me, bret, in tennessee is

people making over $200,000 a year. right? well off people. overwomeningly turning out for mitt romney. split across the boards but romney has the highest percentage, 36%, 37%. look at someone like a santorum or a gingrich they get $30,000 or less. they show off much better in those categories. he still, mitt romney is garnering the support among the well off and the well-educated. what i think he needs to do turner wrote an interesting piece in the american spectacular territory today. romney care still seems to be hurdle for romney voters. he needs to do more especially as a new 2009 revelation came out in recent days. he needs to bridge that gap if he can. he needs to try to. at least look like is he willing to come to terms with romney care. >> rick santorum has talked about that a lot. on your show today and criticized romney openly. >> which he doesn't do all that often. indeed, megyn, i know you have been talking about, this rick

santorum, that he believes is still his opening with romney. how you can run against barack obama when you yourself advocated on behalf of a national mandate as he did pretty much in that "u.s.a. today" piece from 2009? nevertheless, you talk to folks and i have been speaking to listeners across the country last two weeks you do sense people are getting weary of this process. do you sense people are saying the perfect is the enemy of the good. we have got to kind of figure this out soon. >> megyn: what of that in the polls showing the folks who decided in the past few days are siding with mitt romney. >> a lot of that is because of the narrative that's been forming some the fault of republicans and i think some of the other fault goes to the media has been pushing this while republicans are at war against women and it's led by the religious zealots such as rick santorum and his ilk and so forth. that's obviously hurt santorum. he was on my show today and he basically admitted as much.

look, you know, some of this was our own doing but, you know, i'm trying to focus on manufacturing jobs and the economy. >> megyn: you talked to him about whether he regretted the remark about he wanted to throw up on himself? >> i did. >> megyn: when he saw jfk's speech separation of church and state. >> yes. also asked about potential alliance still with newt gingrich. we had talked about this a month and a half ago back in iowa. he was very interesting. when i asked him about that he kind of hesitate and he said well, we will wait and see. i said well, wait a second, would a romney rubio ticket be stronger than a santorum gingrich ticket? and, again, hesitation. he said u well, you know, the best person should get the nomination. the best candidate i'm convinced will win the nomination, which is very interesting. it didn't sound like someone was necessarily was thinking he was going to get the nomination. maybe a little reality setting in. >> bret: speaking of ging glitch looking the

headquarters. the singer there in the room was just singing georgia on my mind. georgia was definitely on newt gingrich's mind because he had a big win there. how big we don't know. but a wide margin. what do you think of his chances and his southern strategy and how that plays out? >> the southern strategy has to be more than georgia. and he did extremely well in georgia. obviously if he didn't carry georgia handedly he was pretty much finished and done. speaking of gingrich i spoke to him a few days ago on my show. he certainly doesn't seem like is he going to get out. hard to figure out the narrative for victory for gingrich. do you get the sense that some of those brutal attacks waged by the romney campaign very systematically from florida on out really stuck with gingrich. he hasn't forgotten that you get the sense is he going to stay in. >> megyn: is there an irony there because the presence of both gingrich and santorum in this race night now seems to be benefiting mitt romney? said from the beginning.

>> megyn: people were complaining about romney is not conservative enough. romney is not this. he is not dynamic enough. he is humming davy crockett in tennessee. when was the davy crockett show on? i certainly don't remember that. [ laughter ] you don't even remember that. [ laughter ] >> wore the coon skin cap that would have been a great moment. >> bret: singing the song. >> not in the front of people's minds except the one out there. the bottom line is, look, both of them are canceling each other out but we were talking about this on january 2nd. and they are still canceling each other out. but, you know, i don't know if it's pride or, you know, vanity or just worked hard and they want to go to the end. as long as it's santorum and gingrich in this, it's very hard to see how either of them is going to win this from the well-organized, well-financed and very motivated romney campaign. >> bret: we have been giving under two minutes to newt gingrich speaking down there

in atlanta. it's probably going to be a fiery speech. he has been talking a lot about energy. in fact he gave a radio interview on another radio station that he said he was going to buy a 30 minute national address to the nation on the issue of energy. >> ladies, please welcome jacque, jimmy, maggie, -- >> bret: they are inviting the family. the energy issue, how is that playing? >> the 30 minute commercials i never thought were necessarily a good investment. on the issue of energy we know it involved hundreds of thousands of potential jobs in the united states and people are kind of tired of the, you know, the money going down the rat hole with the green energy companies. those stories keep coming out every other day. and meanwhile, newt gingrich thinks he can get some traction on a substantive issue. we will see. >> bret: let's listen in to atlanta. ♪ ♪ i am a real american ♪ >> megyn: i want to interrupt this before we get to the candidate to bring you

important news, fox news can now project that rick santorum will win tennessee. leaving newt gingrich and mid romney to slug it out for second place. this is a significant victory for rick santorum in the state of tennessee. we can also project that ron paul will come in fourth in tennessee. based on the fox news exit polls. >> bret: that means santorum has now won two super tuesday states so far. tennessee and oklahoma. giving him the foundation really for a good night after losing to romney in michigan and arizona a week ago. fox news can also project that mitt romney will finish second in georgia where we earlier called newt gingrich the winner. rick santorum will come in third ahead of ron paul who we reported finished fourth as you look live there in atlanta. newt gingrich getting ready to speak. >> megyn: massachusetts where we previously projected romney the winner, we can now report newt gingrich will finish in fourth place. santorum and ron paul continue to battle out for second place. and just to recap as we will go to calista gingrich in a

minute. fox news has projected winners now in six of the 10 super tuesday states. mitt romney has won three states, virginia, vermont and massachusetts. rick santorum has won two, oklahoma and tennessee. newt gingrich has won one state, georgia. he is live in atlanta. right now. >> bret: one of the biggest prizes, of course, ohio remains too close to call. romney and santorum battle for first place in the buckeye state. a huge win for rick santorum in tennessee. let's listen in to calista gingrich as she introduces the former house speaker. >> newt and i are engaged in this race because we believe america is at a crossroads and cares 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. [cheers] and we are committed to removing him from the white

house. [cheers and applause] this campaign is far from over. and tomorrow we will bring another chapter in the race for the nomination. [cheers and 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] [chanting] >> you know, this is amazing.

[ laughter ] i hope the analysts in washington and new york who spent june and july explaining our campaign was dead will watch this tonight and learn a little bit from this crowd and from this place. [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 no, nominate and so with your help thousands and thousands of people came to newt.org and

with your help we survived the two most difficult months of a career which goes back to august of 1958. and june and july were really hard and it was precisely because the national elite, especially in the republic party had decided that gaining gingrich presidency was so had to -- you wouldn't let them do it. [ applause ] so, with your help, and the power of large solutions, and pig ideas, and clear communications in the debates, by december, according to gallup, i was the frontrunner by 15 points and according to rasmussen i was the frontrunner 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 money decided that only a relentlessly negative 5-million-dollar campaign in iowa would work and they did reduce my support from 36% to 14% in three weeks of one negativity. once again the media said oh, i guess this over finally. but, y'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 historic victory carried 43 out of 46

counties and it was -- [cheers and applause] and i'm pretty sure that tonight we have a number of the south carry lynnians here who came over to help celebrate this great victory. [cheers and applause] and 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 on sunday morning after a saturday night primary and they said we have to destroy gingrich. one of them was even quoted in the "new york times" we have to eviscerate them which i felt was a very strong word in a republic primary. i would expect obama's people to do that i thought it was a tad much having spent my entire career having built the republic party. they piled on $20 billion in three weeks of negativity in

florida we were still standing. interestingly, everywhere we were, when we won the vote went up. when wall street won, the vote went down. which i think is a pretty bad sign for this fall if we end up with a wall street candidate. at that point once again they began to say maybe is he gone. and then frankly, senator santorum did something very clever. he went to three states nobody else was in and he won them. [ laughter ] and the news media once again desperate to prove gingrich is gone suddenly said now we have the person who is going to be the non-romney. calista and i looked at each other and jacque and jimmy and cathy and paul and my two debate coaches maggie and robert. [ laughter ] [cheers and applause] by the way, i would say for the performance they get out

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

i have always tried to be very can did candid. sometimes it gets me in trouble. on balance it's how i want to live and do things. so i said, at the very peek of, you know, the santorum surge and all this stuff, if i can't carry my home state where people know me, i would have no credibility. and i knew the basic wall street technique which was to come in and spend -- how many of you have noticed negative ads? how many of you have noticed the reagan negative ad that is a total lie? that's what we're up against. it's one thing to have lots of money. it's another thing to lie with the money. i looked around and thought you know, let's go home and test it out. i will go home, calista and i crisscrossed the state. cathy and jackie were a great help. i have to say governor deal did a tremendous job and worked very hard.

[ applause ] rememberman cain stepped up to the plate and worked very very hard. todd palin made phone calls and really helped communicate that there was a candidate who ought to be helped the fact is in tennessee fred thompson was tremendously helpful and in oklahoma j.c. watts was extraordinary. [ applause ] so we basically put people power up against money power. as you saw, the very first race they called tonight about 15 seconds after the polls closed lail r. [ laughter ] >> and so i'm here first of all to say thank you to each and every one of you because you are the reason we survived every effort of the establishment to stop us.

[chanting newt] now, being here at the waverly brings back many memories. in 1994, this is where we learned that for the first time in 40 years there would be a republic speaker of the house. [cheers and applause] and you know, for that entire campaign, all of the elites thought we were crazy. first of all, we ran a positive campaign. we had a contract with america. they just thought that was weird. why would you go to all that trouble? have all these ideas.

[ laughter ] we didn't spend our time on lots and lots of negative ads. we spent our time communicating hope to the american people. the result was the largest one-party increase in an off year in american history because the american people want a chance to have hope again. [cheers and applause] so, as calista said, tomorrow will bring another chapter in the race for the nomination. but it's more than a chapter in the race for the nomination. it's a chapter in a fight for the soul of the republic party. it's a chapter in the fight for the very nature of america. it's a chapter in defining who we are as a people. and let me be very clear. i believe that i am the one candidate who has the ability

to debate barack obama decisively. [cheers and applause] [chanting newt] let me be straight, i don't believe the romney technique of outspending your opponent four or five to one with negative ads will work against barack obama because there is no possibility that any republic is going to outraise the incumbent president of the united states. therefore, you can't follow that strategy. what you have to have is somebody who knows what they believe, understands how to articulate it so it cuts through all the media, off sets the bias of the elise media who are desperate to reelect the president and has

the guts to take the president head on every single time he is wrong. [cheers and applause] [inaudible] >> we run a very frugal campaign and we couldn't afford one. [ laughter ] [cheers and applause] but i have already promised that if the president will agree to seven three hour debates in the lincoln douglas tradition he is use a teleprompter if he wants to. [ laughter ] and i will get to that in just a second. but i want you to know that in the morning we are going on to

alabama, we're going on to mississippi, we're going on to kansas, and that's just this week. i was actually in huntsville this afternoon starting off our alabama effort. and i want to say to all of you, any of you have friends anywhere in the country if you can email them, if you can post on facebook something as simple as newt equals 2.50 a gallon gasoline. if you can go to twitter and put in hash tag 2.50 gas. we run a very inexpensive straightforward reach every person campaign. i just want to give you one example of how profoundly different we are both from the other candidates and from the president. one that i would love to debate this president about. and that's the one that a number of you are holding

signs for. i want us to have an american energy policy so no president will ever again bow to a saudi king. [cheers and applause] [chanting newt] i want you to imagine the debate this fall. the president was right the other day. he is so nervous about gasoline prices and energy that he has done two major speeches. i thoughtayrving comments by a presidentt ve heard in a longime he was candid in his press conference. he said, you know, i'm really worried about higher gas

prices because it will make it harder for me to get reelected. [boos] >> i did not make this up. it was just nice to know that the president once again has managed to take the pain of the american people and turn it into his own personal problem. [ laughter ] now, the fact is i would love to debate this president because when you read these speeches they are so deliciously incoherent. they are the perfect case study of liberalism run amuck. the president says the republics have three strategies. strategy number one is drilling. strategy number two is drilling. strategy number three is drilling. i want to say to him, mr. president, this is one of the rare occasions where i can say you are right.

[cheers and applause] but the president has an alternative to drilling. this is why debating him would be just one of those moments where you could almost sell tickets for charity. [ laughter ] [cheers and applause] the president said we have to be practical, drilling won't solve it. then he offered his practical solution. anybody here remember what it was? algae. algae. [ laughter ] i mean, i think this summer as gas prices keep going up, one of our campaign techniques should be have people go to gas stations with a jar of algae. [ laughter ] and say to people would you rather have the gingrich solution of drilling and having more oil or would you like to try to put this in your gas tank?

[ laughter ] i mean, you can't -- i'm amazed that "saturday night live" hasn't taken that speech and turned it into a skit. you can't make this stuff up. but what made it really intellectually incoherent was the president literally two places after he explains that drilling doesn't work the president explains had this great break through in natural gas. that we now have, thanks to new technology over 100 year supply of natural gas. that in fact we are going to create 600,000 new jobs in the next decade out of natural gas. and i'm still waiting for one of the reporters at the white house to come out of their comatose reelect obama stance and ask the following question: how does the president think we discovered the natural gas? [ laughter ] because, of course, the answer is. >> drill.