it is now 8:00 p.m. in the east, polls are closed in tennessee and oklahoma and in massachusetts. and, no surprise here, but mitt romney is the projected winner of his home state of massachusetts, where he served as governor. mitt romney, the projected winner in massachusetts. in the great state of oklahoma, the race is at this hour too early to call, but nbc news can tell thank you rick santorum has a lead in oklahoma but too early to call there. in tennessee, the race is also too early to call. recapping the press of the state oh oat rest of the states, in ohio, too close to call. in georgia, newt gingrich won

the primary in his home state. in virginia, mitt romney won a two-man race over ron paul, mr. gingrich and mr. santorum were not on the ballot in virginia. in vermont, mitt romney is the projected winner of the vermont republican primary. and i should tell you the caucuses are underway in north dakota. we have no characterization from north dakota, we don't expect one for some time. here is where the race stands right now. mitt romney's win in massachusetts is his tenth victory of the campaign. you can see his wins marked in green. mr. santorums in purple, mr. gingrich's in orange. those are the states that mitt romney has won, massachusetts, vermont, virginia, washington state, arizona, michigan, maine, nevada, florida and new hampshire. chris, too close to call right now in tennessee, too close to call right now in oklahoma. >> those are two states -- >> too early. >> it will keep him in the race

if santorum wins. if he can't win in ohio he can't win the nomination but he can stay in it. >> a close race in ohio is not enough to keep rick santorum viable? >> it's close in ohio i'm guessing he'll win the other two states, that means he has had a good night. it's been a process of between, of romney search and destroy, finds the states he needs to win i'm looking at numbers, 96% of his spending on restore our future, his super pac has been negative. it is not to sell him it's to destroy opponents. this will carry in the general election, you will see the two giant campaigns, the president's billion dollar campaign, the republicans billion dollar campaign basically spending all their money on opposition attack and will i think unfortunately for the democrat, depress the voting and i think that is always helpful to the republicans when you get an entirely negative campaign because republicans are very insistent voters, they will show

up especially the right wing haters will show up and the president's challenge is to bring in moderate people as well as progressives, there may not be -- imagine if what we watched now for two months precedes from now to november. what it will be like and the atmosphere of the country. >> i don't know the same dynamics push the president campaign in negativity the way we have seen in the republican primary. the reason that all of the other republican candidates in 2008 expressed so much dislike for mitt romney was how negative a campaign it was in that year. >> i would like to think what you're thinking, i think the people around the president are thinking about doing to romney what he has done to his opponent gs, they can't wait. >> chuck todd is with us now, looking at the overall shape of the race heading in tonight, and looking at what we know so far about the result on super tuesday, we have too early to calls still, big question marks, what do you think is most

important, what are you watching for? look, i'm obsessed with the delegate math, we ought to keep going there. look at where we are in delegates. in massachusetts, we know that there were 38 delegates available, we have called it, it's likely we already awarded him 23, i can tell you this, he's likely to get up to at least 34 here, a fun little slider we can do. we won't give him all yet, will probably get to 34, at minimum. probably all of them. there is a chance that santorum would get 4, if he hits threshold. he has to hit at least 15% to get threshold, that's unclear right now. let's go to virginia, right now in virginia we're pretty confident that romney is going to get 43 of the 46 delegates. let me just show you why we're not yet ready to say he will get all of them. we only awarded him 19 but let me show you what is going on,

ron paul might win one congressional district and that congressional district is the third congressional district in richmond, blue area, largely an african american district, very democratic district, maybe it isn't a surprise the one time where paul overperforms are in democratic districts or when a lot of democrats show up in the polls. and vermont, turned out to be a little closer, not the large margin that we thought romney was going to get. he won't break 50, will get 9. santorum and paul will get 4. i've done back of the envelope math, just in the states we've called, rachel, i've got romney up to 86 delegates, that is almost halfway to that goal of at least getting 200 and i haven't factored what is going on in ohio, haven't factored in georgia. the magic number i'm watching happens to be 20%, obviously returns very slow coming in. but 20% is threshold and right

now, if you look, both santorum and romney meet threshold, what will be interesting, one of them falls below it, that is a windfall potentially of extra delegates that both santorum or romney, whichever is above 20, if the other one falls below, and gingrich. that will make the math kind of complicated as we watch to see the mendoza line in the state of georgia of 20%. >> that is the big phenomenon, seeing no knock-outs, everybody progressing according to plan and nothing final. this is like a paragraph that has only commas and no periods in it. >> although, rachel, i would argue this one point the fact tennessee hasn't been called, that is good news for mitt romney. that is an imprint potentially of him doing better in the south. he was the one that had a little momentum at the end. that is a big deal, ohio is one thing, if he can show some sort of ability to broaden his base

in the south, tennessee was always the one spot that would do it, last three major republican primaries there, the businessman establishment republican beat back a conservative, that is why lamar alexand alexander, bill corker and bill haslam are the governors. i heard harold ford talking about this. we should be watching tennessee results a lot. >> chuck todd, thank you very much. we will be back with you. david gregory is the moderator of "meet the press" david let me ask you to weigh in on the last point chuck was making about tennessee being too early to call, oklahoma being too early to call, that is not a definitive characterization of the race, it means we'll know more soon and tell you then, but is that in fact good news for mitt romney that this hasn't been called for one of the other candidates already? >> i think it is, because if you think about what romney has to do tonight it's not only try to begin to close the door here, can he lock up the nomination and i think as we have been

talking about ohio is being key to doing that can he expand the base of support not just geographically but within the coalition he will need to unite the party? lower income primary voters, more culturally conservative, classify themselves as very conservative, can he get those voters. expand support among tea party supporters. you were talking about the super pac a while ago, he looks like he's doing better at tea partiers based on exit polling in ohio. these are the things that ultimately matter. you just said it a paragraph with a lot of commas and no periods, yes. math may be the momentum, four years ago yesterday, john mccain was at the white house getting president bush's endorsement. he was on his way to uniting the party to face president obama. that was unsuccessful, but right now, romney is in a position where he has to get to a place where he can unite the party. what are the themes which he will run the campaign against president obama, if we looked how he campaigned in ohio it's

clear, one theme, the economy, running is a fiscal conservative, doesn't want to do it as a social conservative, he will be suspect on the right. so can he expand a little bit of the base and say to the rest of the party it's time to get on board. >> david, on that point, i think comparing this to 2008 is instructive, right now, what we've got is the big question over mitt romney, even for tonight, even for frankly the next hour is whether or not he can bring on evangelical tea party supporting core southern republican voters. this is the time in the race when you would have assumed that the republican already had those voters on board and was just a question of whether or not they could compete for independents. is the timing here actually pushing the general election to be a later and later contest in a way that might be hurtful no matter who the republican nominee snis? >> is it possible they don't show up to vote in the fall if they are not energized, that is poo possible. but the base will be there if

it's romney. there may be an enthusiasm gap. the reality is santorum is still in the race and if there weren't gingrich, santorum would be running closer to romney right now, that is how he would like to run as the strong social conservative who can go on to next tuesday in alabama and mississippi and continue to wrap-up more that evangelical support and take that farther in the calendar. i think romney is essentially going to make an argument to the party do you want to win the race if we are going to beat obama it will be about the economy, time for everybody to get on board. i don't know he's ever going to be the guy who has his cultural voice within the party. i think it's clear when we hear from romney later tonight, this was true last week as well, he's not going to go after santorum and gingrich. he'll talk about the president. he wants to talk as a fiscal conservative, he realizes that is not where his voice is. >> david thank you very much.

i want to go to steve schmidt, this is something you lived and articulated and what david was making there is a provocative point, this isn't the way he put it but doesn't matter who wins oklahoma, doesn't matter who wins the south, doesn't matter who wins in alabama and mississippi, republicans can assume they will be there for them, the states will be red, doesn't matter who the nominee is they have to complete in ohio and that is all that matters. >> you have to compete in a place like virginia which is a state the republicans have to get back and if you look at the demographics of virginia which is culturally may be a southern state but demographically more of a northeastern state and you look at the contraception issue for example in northern virginia, devastating when you consider the prospect of santorum nomination, but what people are worried about in the republican party is this fact: john mccain became the nominee of the party, his favorable-unfavorable ratio was 47-27. net positive 20 points. according to the nbc wall street

journal poll, mitt romney is now 28% favorable, 39% unfavorable. the primary process has had a horrible effect and so republicans are looking to start the general election, there needs to be a recovery period to get those numbers back up where mitt romney if he's the nominee, if he wins ohio, he wins tennessee, has a claim on it, that he is inevitable at that point, where he can begin the healing process. >> do you get the numbers back up by not talking about social issues, by not going for alabama and mississippi, for seeding the south to someone like gingrich or santorum assuming they won't get the nomination and leave the base alone? >> you get the numbers up by talking about issues relevant to the people, mainly the economy. talking about economic growth. offering a positive vision. all of the things that have been lacking so far in the primary is the ability to go out and to get a reset here and it's going to be important if republicans will be successful, the good news after a horrible six weeks for republicans is this.

i think the structure of this race is that the floor for republicans is 46 to 47% of the vote. i think the floor for the president is more solid, more solid 46, 47 but a structurally very close race. >> back to nbc's peter alexander at romney headquarters in boston. peter, we have a number of races that are still too early to call, including oklahoma oklaho tennessee, all eyes on ohio where it's too close to call, what is the romney campaign focusing on right now, what message are they trying to get out? >> well, they just gave us an x excerp excerpts, david gregory hit the nail on the head. sharpening rhetoric not against newt gingrich but rick santorum but the president, referring to this as a faltering economy and failed presidency, language he used before. the new portions, he will say

tonight to the millions of americans who look around and can only see jobs they can't get and bills they can't pay, i have a message, you have not failed, the president has failed you. he will go on in this speech to be delivered later tonight, they say it could be a late night as they watch the returns come in, he will be here with members of his family including his oldest son who cooked him chicken marsala, he will continue by saying president obama seems to believe he's unchecked by our constitution. he is unresponsive to the will of our people, he operates by command instead of by consensus. rachel, we have been traveling with mitt romney over the course of two months, he is well aware that each of these speeches is significant, this one more than ever the largest primary day means the largest audience for him to deliver the message to americans, not just republicans will be watching what he has to say. >> david alexander, thank you for the competition with the singer behind you, very well

done. ron is with us from santorum headquarters. part of ohio near mrmr. santorum's home state of pennsylvania. ron, i see you're there with santorum supporters. what is on their mind tonight, how are they feeling about the results thus far? >> hey there, rachel, started about whether rick santorum should fold up the card table if he can win ohio tonight, not everyone is in that particular school of thought. mark resnick is a supporter, if he does not win here in iowa, how do you see the path forward for him to get the nomination? >> i think he will win other states teenlt and going forward, if he remains competitive and continues to pick up states and delegates, then he and the delegates that are pledged to gingrich can prevent romney from getting a first ballot nomination at the convention. if romney can't get the first ballot nomination, i don't think he will be the nominee for the republican party. >> there are a lot of voters we talked to here in ohio who

wanted the message to get back to the economy. do you think that mr. santorum's focus on some of those social issues that are critical and important to the faith community that is largely supporting his candidacy, do you think he should abandon those going forward? >> no, i don't think he should. he does have an economic program and he's a very strong supporter of poll and responsible approach to environmental protection. he does have a very good plan for getting the economy moving forward. and another thing i think that's important is he opposes the obama health care plan, which is not going to be implemented fully for several years yet. >> lastly, are social conservatives at some point in the future willing and able to throw your support behind mitt romney if it appears that he is the inevitable nominee? >> i think that whoever the nominee is will get the support

of people like myself, absolutely. >> you will be there to vote in the fall. >> i will, yes. i will. >> there you have it rachel, still hoping they will be able to pull it out here, we know that the chances of rick santorum winning the delegate battle in ohio is pretty much over because of the filing issue over some of the delegates. back up to you. >> ron mott, thank you very much. reporting from santorum headquarters. on the issue he was asking the supporter about whether or not the social issues should continue to be a factor in this, whether or not republicans should talk about it, obviously all the expert advice is that republicans should stop talking about those issues, but the republican candidates and campaigns seem to want to. mitt romney tonight passing up another opportunity to put the rush limbaugh thing behind him, mr. romney was asked paraphrasing the question, rush limbaugh criticized sandra fluke, you have said that was not the language you would have used, was it appropriate for him

to criticize her and what language would you have used? mr. romney's response, my campaign is about jobs and economy and scaling back government and i won't weigh in on that particular controversy. i know you want to make it about jobs and economy and scaling back the size of government as long us a don't weigh in on that particular controversy, that controversy lives in the campaign. >> no comment. no comment. that is a courtageous stand. no comment. i think i know why mitt romney doesn't say anything, because he keeps talking, i see his notes, speech tonight, he's concerned about the debt. two ways to reduce the debt. he hasn't explained how he will do it. won't raise taxes, lower taxes by three trillion dollars on the rich. that is not reducing the debt in the long term. two, what will he cut? please tell us, if you're going to -- >> waste, fraud and abuse.

>> the old reagan dodge. how will do you what you say you want to do. central pain rt is reduce the d. tells us how. >> the obama campaign will tell you he embraced the paul ryan plan which changes meld i care to voucher, paul ryan, paul ryan, paul ryan. >> we'll follow the race in ohio, that is too close to call, too early to call in tennessee and in oklahoma, msnbc's coverage of super tuesday continues in a moment.

the republican primary in ohio is too close to call.

that is one of the key races we're following tonight. in oklahoma the race is too early to call, but former pennsylvania senator rick santorum is in the lead in oklahoma. and in tennessee, again it's too early to call. in his first news conference of the year, deciding to do that on super tuesday, president obama took on his republican rivals who have been doing sabre rattling over iran. listen. >> now what is said on the campaign trail, those folks don't have a lot of responsibilities. they are not commander in chief. when i see some of the folks who have lot of bluster and big talk but when you ask them specifically what they would do, it turns out they repeat the things that we have been doing over the last three years. it indicates to me that's more about politics than actually trying to solve a difficult problem. >> president speaking today in a

press conference, andrea mitchell is with us from washington. andrea, when the president made those remarks, those were in response to a question, those were not prepared remarks, but sounds like those were very deliberately directed toward the republican candidates for president and the they have been talking about iran. >> rachel, they were directed at mitt romney. white house officials were annoyed at the speech at apac where president obama has not been tough enough, he would send not one, not two, but more carriers in the gulf and take on iran, all that saber rattling, the president said i am the commander in chief, let's not be so casual about this talk of war. there was more than a little bit of echo of aaron sorkin and the american president sitting against the same back drop in the movie "the american president" you had your 15 minutes, i'm the command near chief i know what it's like to talk to the troops in walter reed.

let's not be casual about things very, very serious. >> andrea, the president it struck me when i was listening to the press conference when he said if some of these folks think it's time to launch a war they should say so and explain to the american people exactly why they would do that and what the consequences would be. everything else is just talk. almost angry but mostly sort of strong-sounding comments from the president. i wonder if you're hearing from the white house that is connected to the way the president has been talking about ending the iraq war as one of his accomplishments when he has been on the campaign trail, a blunt, anti-war message. >> yes, and also talking about the fact that syria for all of the horrendous things that have evolved there, the mass murders, genocide, many people say clearly war crimes, that for all of that, syria is not libya, that the same kind of opportunities are not there for joint action for un action, arab support, he will not yield to

john mccain and lindsey graham and others calling for more robust action, military action getting weapons to the opposition, as well as also hints today, he didn't say so but i heard hints of taking another hard look at afghanistan in light of the protests, the deaths of the american troops, especially going toward the nato meeting that will be here in the united states in may. >> andrea, in terms on that last point about syria and john mccain's remarks calling directly for air strikes on syria, are you hearing from the white house or are you hearing broadly from democrats in washington that they expect that to become the republican line on that part of foreign policy, that they expect republicans broadly the candidates to be calling for an american war on syria? >> i'm not sure they expect that yet because as you know, john mccain and lindsey graham and others have been taking a harder line on that. and there are plenty of people in the republican as well as democratic party who know that this would be a very, very big

challenge and a lot harder than what they accomplished in libya. libya, by the way, people don't pay attention it's falling apart it's not coming together. >> andrea mitchell, thank you, appreciate it. congress woman debbie wasserman-schultz is the chair of the democratic national committee, joins us now from washington. madam chair, thank you for being with us. >> thanks, rachel, great to be with you. >> the results are as yet undecided in some of the most important places, too early to call in tennessee, too earl throw call in oklahoma, too close to call in ohio, seems like the only thing we know for sure the republican race goes on after tonight, from the perspective of somebody who leads the democratic party is a longer race on the republican side a good thing or a bad thing for democratic prospects in the fall? >> well, for us, we used their primary nominating season as an organizing tool and so we continue to build our neighborhood teams and recruit volunteers and do door knocks and phone calls, and i was in

virginia for a women to women phone bank organizing effort this morning, because we're in the process of standing up while the republicans are busy outright-winging each other and embracing extremism an running the most negative campaign i've seen we are making sure that we can stand up the most robust, grass roots dynamic campaign in american history. so the longer that goes on, the more opportunity we'll have to get ready for the fall campaign. >> on the issues of the contraception fight and abortion rights, other issues specific to women's health, my colleague steve schmidt, senior strategist for the mccain-palin campaign described that being a focus for republicans as disaster and lunacy. he's distressed by the turn as someone who wants republicans to do well in the election. as the chair of the democratic party, what is the democratic

strategy to capitalize on what the republicans have done here, if even republicans are seeing what they've done as a mistake? >> well, we're continuing to focus on the number one, number two, number three priority for all americans, that is job creation and moving the economy forward. steve says they are on the moon, i call it the paleosoic area, where we're dealing with every day americans facing in the 21st century. president obama has been fighting hard from where we were bleeding 750,000 jobs a month, now we've had 23 straight months of job growth. he's continue to fight that everybody has a chance to be successful, our tax code makes sense and you, if you are making a whole lot of money, that you're not paying a lower tax rate than people who made far less than you, basic common sense principles of fairness, everybody having an opportunity to get a fair shot and play by the same rules and so our

strategy is to continue to press forward on those basic concepts, while the republicans refight cultural wars that were settled i thought long before i was born. >> aren't the democrats and the president in particular forcing the republicans to stay on the issue? when the president weighed in at the press conference, weighed in to the rush limbaugh controversy by calling the georgetown law student who had been attacked by mr. limbaugh, he opened it up for all the republican candidates to be asked what they thought about that issue, whether they distanced themselves from rush limbaugh. everybody wants to be seen as the economic candidate but haven't democrats been trying to box republicans in to keep them talking about this? >> no, the republicans kept this issue front and center and seem obsessed with battling over a woman should have affordable access to contraception. look at the news and activity around the issue. last week the blunt-rubio

amendment was pushed to the floor of the senate which would have gone further than denying contraceptives to women it would have said a boss gets to decide with their own moral conviction what kind of access to health care that their female employees can have. republicans have made this front and center issue, while i'll tell you when i'm in my district in south florida rachel or traveling the country, the people that i meet and the ones i represent at home, they don't ever bring this issue up. what they bring up is they want us to continue to fight to create jobs and improve the economy forward, help them stay in their homes, because there are so many people far too many people still upside down in their mortgages. mitt romney would allow that process to hit rock bottom and leave people twisting in the wind. barack obama helps people to remain in their home. it's a dramatic contrast they are proving over and over. >> congressman debbie

wasserman-schultz, thank you for being here. important they called it the blunt-rubio amendment, people talk about marco rubio being untainted savior as a vice presidential choice for the republicans because of his latino heritage, his amendment and blunt, the blunt-rubio amendment was the an try contraception amendment that republicans voted for that moderate republican senators are already saying they wish they had not voted for. and marco rubio will dragging that baggage through the vice presidential selection process. we're awaiting newt gingrich speaking to supporters in atlanta, we're expecting that shortly. mr. gingrich has one the georgia primary. we'll have new numbers from the exiting polling. msnbc's coverage of super tuesday continues in a moment.

nbc news can project rick

santorum won the primary in tennessee. this had previously been too early to call but rick santorum winning in tennessee, we had seen close polling in the state. mr. romney appeared to have the late momentum here but right now rick santorum the projected winner in the state of tennessee. this was not a foregone conclusion. this is big news tonight. chris, when you look at that, that changes the narrative. >> we'll look at this for a couple hours, this is the lds problem? the mormon problem in the south? he lost the panhandle of florida this is another example where he may have a serious problem we haven't talked about lately out of decency, may have a problem with his religious background, we will see this more in mississippi and places like that. if he can't win in the south, they will get the votes, does it matter if he can't plunge in the deep south but may be the religion problem or they are looking for someone more

culturally conservative down there. that is the most moderate of the southern state, that has people like lamar alex sander and bob ko corker. >> harold ford from tennessee began the evening confident that mitt romney was going to win tennessee. his confidence surprised me because i didn't see where in the polls the evidence of that was but he had a feel for tennessee that indicated it would go that way, this is a -- this is the win that santorum needed more than anything. just imagine if this went the other way. if he lost this -- >> santorum gets oklahoma too it will be a different night than it looked like earlier. >> i think when you look at fred thompson, this is a state that has a history of supporting, we said 15 minutes ago wealthy businessmen. romney did not continue that tradition. so this is not just he didn't pull off tennessee, fred thompson pulled it off, these others that have been profiled

like him, the 1% republicans pulled it off. he didn't. so now he'll try to act like well, we didn't expect it, he did. this is going to be his big entre in the south that will keep santorum in the fight for another day. >> i wonder if this is another piece of the data how much the republican establishment endorsing you ends up being like getting on the cover of sports illustrated, it doesn't help. you have the republican support lined up for romney in tennessee, it does not translate in him winning tennessee we've seen that over and over again, south carolina and all the other places r nominee has everybody at the top of the mast head in terms of power in the state but doesn't win. >> an old fashioned tradition, endorsing, hard to make any modern case for it whatsoever. back when they had vote delivery processes that was one thing, but the idea anyone in america would look to their governor and

say how should i vote? >> i think you endorse down, the governor can endorse an assemblymen. governors can't endorse up you're above your pay grade. >> if you're in an electorate rebelling against the establishment it hurts you. if i'm santorum you fight the t establishment and say see, they are for that guy. >> ed, we have newt gingrich on deck, talking within a minute or two. we have rick santorum having just won tennessee. do you see the contours of the night shaping from what you were saying earlier? >> i think romney is in good shape. he did win virginia that is a southern state. they sell more pick up trucks in virginia than anywhere in the country. >> no one will count virginia in their win column. >> i know there is not enough people on the ballot, i get. that but he is the winner of virginia tonight. >> unfortunately he might have been able to win it with everybody on the ballot.

that is the unfortunate outcome for him in that situation. >> the asterisk works against him had he been able to pull it off. >> i won the fight in the phone booth, i was the only one in there. >> virginia and tennessee were the two great measures of the south tonight, but instead we are talking about newt gingrich's home state in georgia where he is right now and tennessee having not gone to mitt romney but gone to rick santorum. just remarkable. let's go right now to newt gingrich atlanta headquarters in his home state of georgia where he's about to address the crowd. you see him there with his wife. >> newt gingrich. thank you for the warm welcome it's freight to be back in atlanta, what an exciting

evening! [ cheering ] >> we are so proud of our many volunteers who have worked diligently here and throughout the state of georgia. 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 far from over and tomorrow we'll bring another chapter in the race for the nomination. newt is the only candidate with the experience and knowledge necessary to rebuild the america we love. [ applause ] he has a successful national record of creating jobs, balancing the budget and reforming the government. today, we need a leader with bold solutions to create a better future for all americans. [ applause ] i believe that leader is my husband.

[ applause ] >> please welcome former speaker of the house and the next president of the united states, newt gingrich! [ applause ] ♪ i'm a real american [ applause ] newt, newt, newt, newt, newt, newt, newt, newt, newt, newt, newt, newt!

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. [ applause ] we survived the national 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 -- [ applause ] -- 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. in june and july were really hard and was precisely 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. ms. ms. [ applause ] fur 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 rasmussen 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. [ applause ] at that time a $5 million campaign would work. they reduced my support from 36 to 14% of three weeks of unrelenting negativity. the media states i guess this is over, finally. but you all said no. 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. [ applause ] and i'm pretty sure that tonight, we have a number of the south carolinans came over to help celebrate this great victory. [ applause ] and at that point the forces of wall street figured out they were in real trouble. and as the new york times -- >> sorry to interrupt mr. gingrich's speech but we have to interrupt when we have a call, we have a call to make in oklahoma. rick santorum has won in oklahoma. just the last few minutes we announced he has won in tennessee, and in oklahoma, we'll go back now to georgia where mr. gingrich has been projected to be the winner and where he's addressing his supporters. and so piled on $20 million in three weeks of negativity in

florida and we were still standing, we carried all of north florida. interestingly, every where we were, whether we won, the vote went up. whether wa when wall street won, the vote went down. which i think is a bad sign for the fall if we end up with a wall street candidate. at that point once again they said maybe he's gone. and then frankly, senator santorum did something clever, he went to three states nobody else was in and won them. and the news media once against desperate to prove gingrich was gone, now we have the person that will be the non-romney. now, calista and i looked at each other and jackie and jimmy and kathy and paul, my two debate coaches, maggie and robert -- [ applause ] -- by the way, i would say for

the performance they get out of me, the most under-paid debate coaches in america. [ laughter ] although they will talk to me later on, i shouldn't have said that. but in any event, we looked at each other and thought you know, remember when it was tim pawlenty that was going to crowd me out? and remember then 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. and then it was our good friend rick perry. 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. [ applause ]

>> newt, newt, newt. >> i've always tried to be very candid, sometimes it gets me on trouble. but on balance it's how i want to live and do things. and so i said at the very peak of 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 -- home of you noticed negative ads? the reagan negative ad that is a total lie, okay? that is what we're up against. one thing to have lots of money, another thing to lie with the money. so i looked around and thought let's go home an test it out. i'll go home, calista and i chr crossed the state, governor diehl did a tremendous job and

worked very hard. [ applause ] >> herman cain stepped up to the plate and worked very, very hard. [ applause ] >> todd palin made phone calls and 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 ] and so we basically put people power up against money power. and as you saw the very first race they called tonight, a15 seconds after the polls closed, 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. ms. ms. [ applause ] >> 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 republican speaker of the house. [ applause ] you know, for that entire campaign all the elites thought we were crazy. first of all we ran a positive campaign, we had a contract with america. they 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 of the american people want a chance to have hope again. [ applause ] so as calista said tomorrow will bring another chapter in the race for the nomination. more than a chapter in the race for the nomination. it's a chapter in a fight for the soul of the republican party, 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. [ applause ] >> newt, newt, newt, newt, newt, newt. >> and 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 republican 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, offsets the bias of the elite media desperate to

reelect the president and has the guts to take the president head-on every single time he's wrong. [ applause ] >> no teleprompter. >> we run a very frugal campaign, we couldn't afford one. [ laughter ] [ applause ] >> but i've already promised that if the president will agree to seven three-hour debates in the lincoln-douglas tradition, he can use a teleprompter if he wants to. and i'll get to that in a second. but i want you to know that in the morning we are going on to

alabama. [ applause ] >> 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 who have friends anywhere in the country if you can e-mail them, if you can post on facebook something as simple as "newt equals 2.50 a gallon gasoline" go to twitter and put i in #2.50gas. we run a very inexpensive campaign. i 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.

that is the one 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. [ applause ] >> newt, newt, newt, newt, newt, newt, newt. >> i want you to imagine the debate this fall, the president was right the other day. he's so nervous about gasoline prices and energy that he's done two major speeches and i thought today in one of the most shallow and self-serving comments by a president i've heard in a long time, 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. i did not make this up. it was just nice to know the president once again has managed to take the pain of the american people and turn it in his own personal problem. now, the fact is i'd love to debate this president because when you read these speeches, they are so deliciously incohere incoherent, they are the perfect case study of liberalism run amuck. the president says republicans 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 i can say you are

right! [ applause ] but the president had an alternative to drilling this is why debating him would be one of those moments where you could almost sell tickets for charity. [ laughter ] the president said -- >> algae, i mean i think this summer as gas prices keep going up, one of our campaign techniques should have people go to gas stations with a jar of algae, 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? i mean you can't -- i'm amazed "saturday night live" hasn't taken that speech and turned it in a skit. you can't make this stuff up. what made it really incoherent, the president two paiges why drilling doesn't work, we had this great breakthrough in natural gas. we now have thanks to new technology over 100 years supply of natural gas. that in fact we'll create 600,000 new jobs in the next decade out of natural gas. and i am 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? because of course the answer is --