touting his big southern sweep and of course taking a shot at his competition, mitt romney. take a listen. >> people said you are being out spent and everybody is talking about all of the math and all of the things that this race is inevitable. well for someone who thinks this race is inevitable he spent a whole lot of money against me for being inevitable. (cheers) >> this is a grass-roots campaign for president. who would have ever thought in the age of media that we have in this country today, that ordinary folks and across this country can defy the odds day in, day out? >> newt gingrich also talking this morning. of course he is also sounding off on mitt romney's third place

finish. >> the elite mid yaw's effort to convince the nation that mitt romney is inevitable just collapsed. the fact is in both states the conservative candidates got nearly 70 percent of the vote. if you are the frontrunner and you keep coming in third, you are not much of a frontrunner. frankly, i do not believe that a massachusetts mod ratterate who created romney care as the fore runner of oboamney care is going to win any debates this fall. that is part of the reason i insisted on staying in this race. we need someone who can go d toe-to-toe with barack obama and win the debates decisively. >> what propelled rick santorum to a double victory? joining us from washington with

a look at brand new polls coming out. peter doocey is here to talk about that. what happened there? >> many people were wondering who would be a stronger conservative candidate in the primaries and eventually president obama in the general election. voters in alabama and mississippi think that candidate is senator santorum. they gave him victories in both states. listen. >> we will xooefrt ry where. the time is now for conservatives to pull together. the time is now to make sure, to make sure that we have the best chance to win this election and the best chance to win this election is to nominate a conservative. >> so let's look at alabama. santorum was strongest with the very conservative. 41 percent of them. women 38 percent of them. evangelicals 35 percent. about a third of all independents who were allowed to vote in the primary. 36 percent of voters in bam ma

say the most important thing a candidate to have is the ability to beat obama. more than half choose romney. only 15 percent went for senator santorum. having strong moral character came in 24 percent. experience 19 percent and being a true conservative even less 18 percent. that's an interesting one. that was alabama. talk about the state of mississippi what are we learning from those exit polls? >> santorum was strongest with married women. 41 percent of married women went for santorum. the very conservative 39 percent went for santorum. evangelicals 35 percent. in mississippi where 39 percent of voters think mostly he should be able to meet the president 46 percent rent for romney that is double for those who went for the winner santorum. 30 percent of voters say speaker gingrich had the best chance to beat the president in november. speaker gingrich did not win

either state neither did romney it was senator santorum. >> peter doocy in washington p. thanks. check in with you in the next hour. >> now it's time to brew on this. >> could a newt gingrich rick santorum ticket be on the horizon. if you linked to newt gingrich it almost seemed as if he was teaming up with santorum to knock mitt romney out of the race. take a look at this. >> every time we can jointly take votes away from him, the first goal has to be to get to a point where there's an alternative to romney, otherwise he becomes the nominee. >> did you hear that? he put we in the whole thing. our friends at special report took notice of that. listen to what steven hayes has to say about it? >> it is clear he wants to deny mitt romney 1144. that's his goal of the race. he will figure out the details

later. he basically said that. i am almost paraphrasing what he told you. he made several arguments on behalf of the strategy. by having two conservatives in the race he split. if they attack romney he couldn't focus his money on one of the two candidates. he talked about having one together two-thirds of the delegates from mississippi and alabama how that was enough to deny mitt romney a win. these are the kinds of arguments he makes. if you think that's the best bet staffer said it would be a powerful team if that were to be the case down the road. the santorum doesn't like it. >> we will talk about that one through out the morning. that leads us to the question of the day, whould a newt gingrich santorum ticket actually work? >> shoot us an e-mail at fox friends first.com. we have our twitter page up you can find that at fox friends first. we will read some of your

responses later in the show. >> later for your five 5@5:00. leon pineda landed in afghanistan on a surprise visit. an american soldier killed 16 civilians last weekend. he has denounced the killing. he will deliver a message to hamid karzai. he will speak to a group of about 200 troops. br brand new details about the u.s. soldier accused in if the shooting rampage in afghanistan. military forces are saying ariel surveillance cameras captured him crawling back to his military base and raising his hands in surrender. he was wearing his uniform with a afghan shawl that concealled his gun. they have shown that video in an effort to prove that gunman

acted line. the suspect's identity is still being kept under wraps. a military court is looking into the possibility alcohol was involved. the two 9-11 terror suspects are now starving themselves. they are protesting the conditions at guantanamo bay. the suspects along with 14 high level officers being contained at gitmo f. they started the hunger strike in january. they want a new policy that monitoring of visits with their attorneys. a bus crashes 22 children were killed as well as 6 adults. a bus hit a curve and crashed into the wall of a tunnel. they are from two different schools. they believe all of the victims are belgian living in slander. >> hard to believe it has been 16 years sinceon bonet rjonboney

was murdered. he says shows like toddlers and tiaras are disturbing he calls them bizarre and says his wife kathy who died in 2006 never approached pageants that way. she and john bonet did them for fun. it is something he regrets because it likely drew too much attention to his family. that is your 5@5:00. >> let's get to your weather with maria molina. looks like things across the country pretty nice for the most part today. >> relatively quiet along areas east of the rockies. if you head west where we have some very unsettled weather with a series of storm systems that continue to impact that region. you can see 3 feet of snow over some of the mountains and northern rockies. that's something else aside from the quiet weather further off to the east.

we are looking at record warmth east of the rockies. some of the temperatures we are going to be seeing across the midwest are up to 35 degrees above average. we are seeing improving conditions across new england. we have a storm system across the northeast. otherwise later on today we are seeing showers and thunderstorms. a lot of humidity and warmth along the coastline. to give you an idea of how warm it is take a look at the locations. coming up on thursday many locations see the warm temperatures well off to the north. that is allowing all of the warm air to flow on northward. as far as the participation we are not looking at a lot of that across the eastern half of the country. not really expecting anything from boston, new york city or even the city of memphis as far

as travel goes with the weather. lingering showers across northern maine. 80 degrees in atlanta, georgia. >> 80 degrees already and flowers blocking here. 10 mints after t-- 10 minutr the hour. the federal government is letting americans hunt and kill the american bald eeing: some say it's for religious reasons. >> a car chase unlike any other. >> how the candidates bid in arizona, mississippi and hawaii. we will have more on this through out the morning. rick santorum doing well last night. we will be right back.

>> it is 14 minutes after the top of the hour. here's what happened while you were sleeping. mahmoud ahmadinejad had an unprecedented grilling.

he misused government resources and his withdrawal of fuel and fuel subsidies resulted in out of control inflation rates. this is the first time in iranian history that a president has ever been summoned like this. a miss chase in los angeles came to a wild finish at 2:00 a.m. eastern. rammed into the back forcing it to stop and arresting a man and a woman. guess what they found inside? an infant in a baby seat. the child's condition not known. the driver initially expected of drunk driving before taking off. >> 15 minutes after the hour. we take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly. first let's start with the good. a would be robber at a burger king in florida finding out the hard way he couldn't have it his way. you see the man dive right through the drive through window attempting to steal cash from the register. edwin walker launched himself in by jumping on to the hood of a

customer's car. what he wasn't expecting plies fighting back for that cash. a cashier grabbing on to his shirt another employee tackled him to the ground. walker now in jail facing robbery charges. next the bad. obama care is going to cost you even more money than expected. the congressional budget office says the controversial national healthcare law will now cost a whopping $1.76 trillion. it is up from the initial estimate of $940 billion. finally the ugly. might be the worst get away attempt in the book. robert thomas harper juched off a bridge. he darted for the bridge when he was asked to perform a sobriety test. he did survive a jump off the bridge. police arrested him and hauled him off to jail. this is his 8th dwi. it is now 5:17 after the hour.

four banking firms failing one or more stress tests. that was determined whether they could survive a worst case scenario in the economy. so much for the bailout helping. mitt romney may be ahead in the delegate count, but after last night is he losing in the court of public opinion? we will analyze that one come up. ♪

>> it's about 21 minutes after the hour on wednesday morning. now stories you can bank on today. joining us from the fox business

network lauren sim nonetti. >> largest group of unions officially endorsing president obama for reelection even though there is dwindling support for him. announced the endorsement at the labor meeting. they are abandoning the president in droves. the union plans to spend $400 million that's what it spent in 2008. they hope to register 400 thu union member -- 400 thousand union members. >> the support for him is more tap pid than 2008. the economy is better. >> let's talk about the banks and the stress test. this is put in place after the economic down fall. 15 national banks failed the stress test. what does that mean for us? >> 19 banks put to the test.

this is like a massive fire drill. let's give you a hypothetical situation. do you have enough money? they are not bad they didn't pass with flying colors. it means they can't reward their shareholders no dividends no share buy backs until they can prove to the feds we are strong enough. >> this could hurt their stock. >> met life and so trust bank those are the four that did not pass this time around. >> nevertheless a bunch of the money is fdic insured. they don't have to get too stressed out about that one. >> last thing, quickly american workers are not saving enough for retirement. average person having 25,000 dollars. >> 25,000 set to retire. 16 percent out there i know you love your job but do you want to work until you are 70 years old?

that's what's happening. in another poll by the employee benefit research institute. they said that 37 percent of respondents now expect to retire after the age of 65. >> lauren simonetti thank you so much. always a pleasure to talk to you. >> mitt romney may be leading in the delegate count but when it comes to consistently winning over voters he is falling short. a romney win is certainly not inevitable. >> in the elite media effort to convince the nation the mitt romney is inevitable just collapsed f. you are the front runner you keep coming in third you are not much of ap frontrunner. >> mitt romney losing his momentum. author finance expert monica mota and strategist noel. noel, why don't we start with

you? what does this mean for mitt romney now? >> it doesn't mean a thing. he has the delegate count. he is going to be the frontrunner. he is going to pass through this. he has a lot of the big donors. newt has something personal against mitt romney anyway. we all know this. santorum's wins in the south that is where he is strong. it's socially conservative. they are paying attention to the social issues and he is their candidate. it wasn't a real surprise that santorum did so well in the south. >> when you look at some of the exit polls we have been breaking those down through out the morning. it is interesting. majority of voters say the most important thing to them is beating barack obama. you would think mitt romney might have won just based on that alone. give us your take on that? >> it doesn't appear to be how the voters are behaving at the polls. the best chance we have for a

referendum on obama is mitt romneyment we are finding people are turned off by his lack of passion and the fact that his views seem a little mal usually. one day he is this and one day he is that. he's the one that will unite the independent voters. they are 40 percent of voters out there according to a recent gallup poll. >> can mitt romney hold out until potentially he can grab a bunch more independent voters? >> i think when people start thinking you are falling behind it is going to happen in real life. you need to show that passion, you need to show that bigger. he really is our best bet for having something different in the white house next year. so it is really important he energizes other folks just like santorum. >> noel let's talk about this. we heard newt gingrich talking about we, we, we. sounds like he's trying to put together an alliance putting together himself and rick santorum. rick santorum isn't going to have any of that? >> not at all.

trying to sell a moderate in the south is very, very hard anyway. used to work for rudy giuliani trying to sell him in the southern states. it is no surprise about santorum. as far as mitt romney, as gas prices rise obama's numbers go down. mitt romney is the candidate that really appears to know something about fixing the economy. after all he's a very business background. i pick him even though he is taking a bump in the south. he is weakness is connectable with some of the voters. this election will be determined the moderate and independent voters. that is who go to going to take away. >> he has a long way to go for that one. thank you for coming in this morning. the time now is 26 past the top of the hour. coming p governor chris christie called him an idiot. >> after you graduate from wall

street you conduct yourself like that in the courtroom your rear end will get thrown in jail, idiot. >> ywe will hear from that guy. here's the question. why is the federal government ready to hunt and kill the bald eagle, the american bald eagle? this is no joke. >> this day in history john f. kennedy is buried at his permanent resting place in arlington national cemetery. ♪ 

>> good morning everyone. welcome back to "fox & friends first". >> thank you for staying with us

on this march 14th. 30 minutes past the top of the hour. here's the latest from last night's primary results. a clean sweep in the south in alabama. 35 percent of the vote he wins with. followed by gingrich and romney both with 29 percent each and ron fapaul with 5 hers. in mississippi santorum garnered 33 percent of the vote followed by newt gingrich with 31 percent and mitt romney with 30 percent. ron paul taking 4 percent. from the caucus in hawaii mitt romney taking 45 percent of the vote followed by rick santorum with 25 percent ron paul with 19 and newt gingrich with 11 percent. let's take a look at the latest delegate counts. the primary in alabama and mississippi and american samoa, 29 percent of the delegates, mitt romney 422. ron paul coming up empty handed

romney 22. but that doesn't include hawaii. let's go now to the total delegate count. wrer the magic number to lock up the delegation is 1144. mitt romney is leading with 476 delegates. rick santorum 246 gingrich 131 and ron paul stays with 47. take a look at who is talking besides us bright and early. newt gingrich and rick santorum switching their energy over to president obama. >> almost put this town under with moratoriums and delays in permitting that is getting worse and worse and worse. as a result the ability for the men and women to go out and drill these wells and service these wells to go out and earn an income and more importantly for them to get that oil and gas

into the stores so we can use it here in this country. we are seeing gas prices that what are projected to be historic high. yet this president almost puts this whole region out of business because of the extreme environmental policies of this administration. >> if you think that was tough newt gingrich wasn't even as soft as he was in that approach. listen to this. >> we need at a time of great problems, great solutions and great solutions require substance. substance requires actually knowing something. it's a very important part of it. (applause) >> unfortunately virtually everything president obama knows is wrong. >> the republican candidate says the most important issue isama the white house. it is the most important issue among voters polled, too.

in alabama when asked what the most important candidate quality was 30 percent sadie feeting obama was the number one issue. >> 51 percent of the voters say mitt romney was the man for the job. over in mississippi voters agreed. 39 percent said the most important quality was to defeat obama. and of that 39 percent again they thought mitt romney was the best choice to unseat the president. despite the exit poll numbers mitt romney wasn't able to squeeze out a victory. rick santorum the winner in alabama and mississippi. exit polls show which issues are around are not on the mind of voters. peter doocy is live with us with more on the polls. good morning peter. >> good morning heather. newt gingrich was banking on wins in alabama and mississippi to jolt his candidacy.

santorum says he is the only one with a shot against governor romney. >> the time is now to make sure, to make sure we have the best chance to win this election and the best chance to win this election is to nominate a conservative to go up against barack obama whoshg take h can n on every issue. >> looking at those issues very interesting. santorum has been telling himself as the one with the best shot to win because of his conservative position on social issues. in alabama the most important issue to voters that isn't related to the economy is abortion and it's in third place with 9 percent. in mississippi abortion was only the most important issue to 11 percent of voters. speaker gingrich congratulated santorum on his big wins down there but gave no hints on an early exit continued to direct his fire at governor romney. >> the fact is in both states the conservative candidates got nearly 70 percent of the vote. if you are the frontrunner and

you keep coming in third, you are not much of a frontrunner. >> speaker gingrich and congressman paul will be campaigning in illinois today. senator santorum fresh off his big wins will head further south to puerto rico for a town hall meeting. romney will be in new york but he doesn't have any public events planned. >> thank you so much, peter. appreciate it. >> now back to our big question today. we asked you to brew on this. our question of the day newt gingrich hinting at a possible santorum gingrich alliance. >> this is an interesting one. we want to get your take on this. wh would a rick santorum newt gingrich ticket actually work? austin tweeting us he thinks it is unlikely but not out of the question. it's a team that can take on obama and win. it may work but a romney

palin ticket would be way hotter. >> jessica phelps says i think all of them rick santorum mitt romney would have the best chance of pairing up but they are too different and wouldn't work together. >> you can find us at facebook.com/foxandfriendsfirst. >> we begin with a fox news alert. magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck japan's coast prompting a tsunami. >> he is denying them as a christian pastor to death for leading islam into christianity. this comes after the human rights council stepping up pressure to release the pastor. he has been in an iranian jail for three years. iranian officials say he

offended islam. he offered a chance to recant his christian faith but he refused. sources close to the pastor say he was given a death sentence. he is married with two children. the former nave knee seal who was called an idiot for interrupting chris christie now apologizing. here's what happened? >> i can go back and forth with you as much as you want. let me tell you something. after you condugraduate and con yourself like that you are an idiot. >> i am not too thrilled about being called an idiot or jerk. i apologize for coming across as disrespectful. that's not what i men. >> he no longer has political ambition. he is planning to return to the seals or join the fbi. >> billionaire george sorrows falling short in an attempt to get his ex-girlfriend to drop his lawsuit against him.

the 81-year-old offered a 28-year-old ex-girlfriend 1 million bucks. she is suing him for 50 million saying he backed out of his promise to buy a $2 million apart: she will settle for 35 million plus a new apartment. problem is his new girlfriend already lives there. >> killing a bald eagle is against federal law, u.s. fish and wildlife service issued a permit for allowing an indian tribe in wyoming to do just that. they say it is for religious purposes. they sued for the right to kill the eagle arguing the religious freedoms are being violated. those are your headlines at 5:30. >> before you head out of the house let's get your first degree weather with maria

molina. >> good morning to you heather. good to see you. i want to update you on the earthquake that occurred off the coast of jew pan. no tsunami warnings for the coast of japan or hawaii or a threat for the west coast of the u.s. that is something we want to update you on. something scary when we hear an earthquake occurring especially after last year. no tsunami threat for the coast of hawaii or the west coast of u.s. or even japan. in the u.s., we have unsettled weather across the west coast. half of the country will be looking at a jet stream producing storm systems pupilbling this area with heavy rain and mountain snow. snow for the sierras and cass kids. it is likely we will see road closures. further out to the east no problems. across the center of the country a few lingering showers across parts of maine and snow showers for the northern portions of the state of maine. not a huge concern.

we will see showers and thunderstorms along the southeast coast. the big story heather is how warm it will be out there. 70 degrees expected in new york city. another warm one. >> beautiful day. maria thank you so much. >> the gentle giant is not so gentle after all. jermaine jones is getting a boot from idol. he lied about his criminal past. listen to this. ♪ >> nice voice but not a good idea. people are always going to figure that one out. this might have been his last performance. tmz.com reporting jones has already been kicked off ahead of tonight's live performance. producers reporting him on camera after learning he was arrested twice on two outstanding warrants. that confrontation expected to air during tonight's show. this is sad news after

nearly 11 years of marriage 90210 actress jennie garth and peter of twilight fame are splitting. they remain dedicated to raising their daughters together. aside from confirming the separation reps for the couple are not commenting on details surrounding their breakup. it is now 22 minutes past the top of the hour. how much did the economy effect the polls. >> attorney general eric holder is investigating the nypd. we are keeping an eye on muslims. a new report out suggests he should find something better to do with his time. first if you are just waking up with us here is another look at how the candidates did in alabama, mississippi and hawaii. ♪

nauert, nauert, nauert, heather nauert @?

peter facinellipeter facinelli. >> 15 minutes before the top. hour. the big story rick san rotorusa southern sweep. what role did the economy play in voter's decision? for more on that we go to rich edison live for us in birmingham, alabama this morning. good morning, rich. tell us about the economic impact on voters there. >> good morning, heather. it does have a significant impact here in alabama and mississippi. there are plenty of folks here evangelical christian voters. if you look at the exit poll the economy played a major role. a quarter said the federal judge et deficit. abortion at 9 percent and illegal immigration at 3 percent. over in mississippi the economy about the same numbers.

56 percent the federal budget deficit 26 percent, abortion 11 percent and illegal immigration 3 percent. there is a breakout discussion on that with gas prices nearing $4 a gallon. there have been republicans criticizing the president's approach. newt gingrich made it a significant portion of his campaign. >> i will always remember campaigning in mississippi and alabama because it was here in the last week. that the issue was crystalli crystallized. the president made three speeches on energy. the white house attacked me twice on energy. i would say in the middle of a campaign in these two states we are impacting the national debate on a scale where all of romney's ad money hasn't achieved. >> he promises his energy plan will bring gas down to 2.50 a

gallon. the white house having to walk back their earlier comments essentially calling newt gingrich a liar. now tempering that which they have done before had to walk back. it is now 48 minutes past the top of the hour. coming up one of the biggest concerns for couples. will the passion die in your relationship? is that thought normal or not? doctor tab low is about to put the viewer on the psychiatric couch. >> but first eric bowling is here to tell us what's coming up on fox and friends. >> what's going on this morning? >> we have 2012 coverage. start with dick morris then we add larry sabadeau giving us a ginned el will be here and we breakdown. have ellen landry and debbie ryan. >> nice. >> victoria secret model. >> which brings me to my next

point. >> we would have had to call hr on you. >> a very difficult scramble, okay. don't let him get it. >> you didn't even let us play yesterday, though. >> thanks a lot. talk with you later. fox and friends will be right back. >> just kidding. we will be right back.

>> face it. we all have our unique work sets. may not feel like a big deal until they cross the line. crazy to concerning. are these nutty behaviors normal or not? here to answer is fox news contributor and psychiatrist dr. keith ablow. these are interesting. these are e-mails sent in to us.

64-year-old mom doesn't act like it, though. she stays out late parties and dresses like a 20-year-old in a bad 80s movie. she has been that way since my dad died 14 years ago. sometimes i am embarrassed for her. does she need help? >> is she partying to the extent she is being intoxicated she needs help. there are a lot of 65-year-old men dating 30-year-old women think being i will start another familiar rfamiliar li. tell her listen life is too short if you are having fun go have fun. >> stuck in the members only jacket. it is about to get -- i am about to get married and worried the passion will die after we

are living together. any ideas? don't be worried. be terrified. why because familiarity co has been tating is the enemy of passion. if you are intent on bringing the bawled up kleenex on the night stand every time there's a cold in the coupling cold affecting the other one, you are going to have passion wayne. a little distance can be the way to stay close. believe it or not. don't share laundry baskets and brush your teeth together. >> don't stay attached toe hip. >> this e-mail i have a few different lives and scenarios in my head. i play out their dialogue nonstop. i have been doing this for ten

years and can't image not doing it? am i nuts? >> here's the good news. this person knows that these folks aren't real. are you nuts? no, you are not nuts. what you are is distracted. you are distracted from your real life. >> why? the question has to be always if you want to get to the bottom ask the question why. why are you running in real life. >> thank you for joining us. >> it's a pleasure. >> i don't think any of us are normal. >> be sure to go to the web site fox and friends.com and e-mail dr. ablo whether you are normal or not. coming up next here is today's word of the day all scrambled up. can you guess what it is? stick around for the answer.

ork. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantiis proven to help people quit smoking. it reduthe urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking orood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reactioto it. if you develop these, stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. if you have a history of heart orlood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. my inspiration for quitting were my sons. they were my little cheering squad. [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you.

on december 21st, polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space, which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd and you still need to retire, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans?

>> a 6.8 magnitude earthquake hitting japan. this is the same region that was hit by a tsunami that killed 18,000 people. a new poll offering strong support for the nypd

surveillance of muslim in order to fight terrorism. is finds 58% of people approve of the way the police deal with the muslims and 82% say the nypd is effective in fighting terrorism. that poll conducted by quinnipiac. and now it's time to get scrambled up. brian kilmeade is here today to help us out. and brian, i'm told that your buddy bolling teed this one up for you but he's not helping you out, right? >> what happened is he knows what it is. he's really good at english. so i'm going to use my option of phoning a friend. 1-800-bolling, please. can you tell me what that scramble is? what is that? >> think of a shrink. think of ablow. >> last four letters give it away. >> psychiatrist. >> thank you, eric. 50% of all my earnings. >> you got it. >> "fox & friends" starts right now. >> thanks so much for joining us. bye!