[ crowd chanting ] >> i've said this before, and i'm going to say it again. this campaign is not just about a name on a ballot. it's about saving the soul of america. and it's driven by an unshakable optimism that lives within the heart of every american citizen. we know our future is brighter and better than these tough times. we've been knocked down, we've been tested. but we don't accept that an america has limits. we get up every morning and thank god that we're americans. and we know. [ crowd chanting ] we also know with hard work and

strong leadership, with the president that will tell the truth the president to live with integrity. thanks to the american people. and tonight we've taken one more step toward restoring the promise of tomorrow. tomorrow we wake up and we start again. and the next day we'll do the same. and so we'll go day by day, step by step, door by door heart to heart. there will be good days, there will be bad days. always long hours, never enough time to get everything done. but on november 6th, we're going to stand united. not only having won an election, but having saved a future. it's time to believe in ourselves. it's time to believe in ourselves, it's time to believe in america. and i'm asking you to join our cause. we need your energy and

conviction and your commitment i'm asking for you to pledge your support at mittromney.com. i'm asking you to join in the fight for our freedom, and ensure that tomorrow will be better than today. let's go forward together and restore the promise of america. together let's fight for the america we love. thank you, and god bless this great land. god bless the united states of america. thanks, you guys. >> former massachusetts governor mitt romney speaking in massachusetts tonight. addressing his supporters. we do not yet know the results in ohio. it's still too close to call in that race. as you saw, the numbers going by while mr. romney was speaking, the numbers on your screen. we've all been watching those numbers coming in in ohio, wondering what's going to happen. the difference between rick santorum and mitt romney is just

10,000 votes. a lot of that still to come in. that's just a fascinating race to be watching right now. rick santorum has won in oklahoma and tennessee. but ohio we knew was going to be the big prize tonight. to have that still undecided at this point is remarkable. >> it's an amazing night for people who care about this country. and it's politics, everything will turn on this. we've been watching the trend over the last week or so. it's been all in romney's favor. all the big money, he poured tremendous advertising this weekend. we saw there were a lot of people deciding for him. tonight we're learning the late deciders are going with santorum. it's an inspiring fact that the american people can surprise us all the time. i tell you, we have to talk about that romney speech tonight. that was the most -- is he the american candidate running against somebody else, running against the nonamerican candidate. it's brilliant apple pie. i'm not going to say the rest of it, it's playing home team

politics against a guy who he can play to his pace as somewhat exotic, somewhat foreign, right? >> different. he's the other. and i think that's the impressive campaign against the president, which is a very biassed campaign. and i think that he needs to be called out on that. >> america, america, america. who is the other team? >> he's the president of the united states he's running against. but he talks like he's talking about somebody other than -- >> an interhoper. >> right. >> nbc's tom brokaw is with us to give his perspective on these events. tom, it is always fun to cover a night like super tuesday, but to have ohio unresolved at this point is riveting. i'm fascinated by the republicans inability to gather around a single candidate. what's your thinking on this? >> it's going to be close enough, obviously, that if rick santorum finishes just a close

second it will give him more than enough reason to go on and take this probably all the way to tampa this summer. that's the great worry of a lot of republicans across the country. a lot of members in the republican establishment who have already endorsed governor romney. earlier today we were talking to voters obviously, and what were the big issues on their mind? electability by a factor of 2 to 1 over almost everything else. and yet romney could not close the deal definitively at least in ohio. no republican has ever won the presidency without winning ohio. so this is an important race going on here tonight. and all the indications are, that what has been a very long contentious primary season will go on a good deal longer and could continue all the way into tampa. that would be a nightmare for the party. everyone remembers what happened with bob dole and the republican

party in 1996 when they were getting ready to run against bill clinton who had already ensnared himself in a number of controversies, and yet it all came apart in san diego on the podium. >> in terms of mr. romney engaging with that concern. i think we heard him speaking to that a little bit tonight. speaking if not to the pundits to the establishment in his own party when he described himself as having become a stronger candidate by virtue of the length of the primary process. essentially saying, i haven't been weakened, i haven't been made stronger here. don't worry about my candidacy despite the fact i'm ready to close the deal. does he have to worry about elders of the party turning on him, or wondering why he can't close the deal? having to decide to weigh-in on his behalf to get the other candidates out or look toward a desperate hail mary at the very end of the nominating process in tampa? >> well, i think the trouble for people who may be tempted to do that is, who is that hail mary?

governor christie has made it clear he's not inclined to run. we've got no indications that jeb bush in florida would be the national candidate, he's not inclined to run. mitt romney has this curious fault line running through his candidacy. just when he seems to be up on plain and headed for a victory, he makes a lot of these unforced errors, two cadillacs in the family, for example. he seems not to be able to connect with the american people. the average american people. and there was that devastating profile on saturday night live about the kind of elite status that he has whenever he appears. so this is an issue that he's going to have to get resolved. he's going to have to be a lot more consistent. i thought in his speech, it wasn't very triumphant. he ended by saying, we have to get up and work harder. he knows he has a long trail

ahead. he's honest about that at least. the difference between the public candidate mitt romney and the man who sat down at the table to do a deal, everyone who sat across from him said he was extremely well prepared. one said he came in with a game plan, and if there was some alteration of that, he was not nearly as impressive if it went the way he wanted it to. >> that's fascinating insight. one last question. mr. romney's wealth is considerable. his wealth is greater than the combined lifetime peak wealth of the last eight or nine presidents i think. does it make a difference when he's trying to raise money from regular human beings who get a paycheck every month or every couple weeks. does it make a difference to know he hasn't contributed any his own fortune to the race?

does that make a difference when he's trying to appeal for other people's money? >> i don't know about that. that's a hard question to answer. i think it's not so much that he's become a wealthy man, that's part of the american dream. it's kind of how you wear your money. and he seems to wear his money as a very wealthy man. as he stood there tonight in his blue suit and tie, and chris was talking -- saying he didn't look like a member of the tea party. the fact,he has a patina about him wherever he goes. i don't know him well enough personally to know what he's like when he's offstage. when he's on stage, he always does look like he's a very wealthy guy who's kind of separated from the rang and file. >> tom brokaw, thank you so much, sir, appreciate having you here. thank you. >> my pleasure. >> howard fineman is with us as well.

he's been talking to the santorum campaign specifically about ohio. we don't know who has won. how does the santorum campaign feel about what they're seeing so far in terms of results? >> well, rachel, i just got off the phone with rick santorum's campaign manage r who's in stubenville in the gymnasium and the candidate just got done speaking. they're upstairs looking at their computer screens. what he told me is that they are waiting for some of their strong votes to come in, especially from counties in the northwestern part of the state. i'm looking at a map of ohio, including williams county and fulton county in the northwest where they think they will do very well and are doing very well. they're also waiting for votes from southeastern ohio, including jefferson county and some those counties near stubenville along the ohio river. they know they're not getting delegates from there, rachel as

you've been explaining all night. they're going for a psychological win with here in a popular vote victory. those are his people in stubenville. they also concede looking at the map, that some of romney's key areas have not fully recorded yet. mike biendo told me a few minutes ago, i didn't think we could hold this thing, but we might be able to hold it. and as you're watching the same numbers i'm watching, santorum is clinging to a 10,000 to 13,000 vote lead there. mike said to me, somewhat surprised at himself. he said, you know, i just think we might able to hold on to this thing. it's fascinating and dramatic, and it's the kind of thing that really is fun for us that cover politics. because the whole shape of this race, the whole tenor of this race going-forward is going to be determined by the votes that

are yet to come in. it's down to the wire and biendo at least thinks they have a chance to win it. when i talked to mitt romney's people earlier tonight they were cautious. as i told you earlier, as we were the first to report. they were lowering their expectations and spinning in advance and saying, maybe we won't get 1144 delegates, maybe we'll have to go to the party elders. we're going to have the largest number of delegates, the most wins in states, et cetera, et cetera. i think they felt in their bones this was going to be a good night, but not as great a night as they had hoped for. >> howard fineman, thank you. it's a great reminder actually, that momentum is directly related and directly proportional to expectations. when you hear howard reporting on the surprise delight by the santorum campaign manager, that they may be winning ohio, it tells you so much more about why

ohio is so important. when someone wins some place that was thought to be a hard place for them to win, it matters more. a win is a win, but expectations and momentum are very closely linked. we're joined now by mike dewine, he supports santorum. thanks for being with us, it's good to have you back. >> thank you very much. >> what are you hearing in your home state, in terms of the way the overall results are coming in? >> we can't tell yet frankly. it's very, very close. this is, i think close to a miracle because of the money that was spent by romney, you know, $12 million to rick's $1 million in the last couple weeks. i don't know how anyone survives that. the phone calls and the radio and the tv. and once again, governor romney has underperformed as far as what expectations were.

and i think it's going to start dawning on people at some point, he's not connecting to the average voter, and he's a fundamentally flawed candidate because he can't appeal to those voters. you were mentioning a moment ago, rick is doing very well in areas that he absolutely has to do well in the fall or any republican has to do. it's along the ohio river, right here in stubenville, these democrat areases these historically reagan democrat areas where republicans, if they win in ohio, they have to do very well here. this is where rick santorum is doing well in primary night. i think it gives you a pretty good indication where his streak is, and why he is the strongest candidate against barack obama. >> senator, attorney general, general, you have so many titles. >> i can't keep a job, my wife says. >> you know the old story

abouted dog food. we've all heard it a million times, the advertisement's great, the cans are great, the dogs won't eat it, because they don't like it. this romney's problem? >> it is his problem. yes, chris, he has the establishment behind him in ohio, 100%. he has got all the money in the world that anybody could spend. i think they're trying to figure out, how could we spend this money, they had so much of it, literally. when you get five or six phone calls in a five hour period time asty did on sunday. they got so much moneyny don't know what to do with it, and yet they can't pull these things off. people aren't buying it. even the people today who voted for romney, when you talk to them, i talked to some of them. they say, well, gee, i'd like to get this race over with. i thought if i voted for romney, would get the race over with. he's a candidate that's not selling. if we think we can beat barack obama with a guy who can't sell in the republican primary, i think we're dead wrong. >> long ago i was a political

adviser, so to surprise everybody, i'm going to give rick santorum some advice. stick with the grandfather's big hands, the ones in the coffin. get off of women. get off of women's reproductive cycles or whatever, stick to the grandfather's hands, if you have to get into particular organs and extremitities, focus on the hands of the grandfather, okay? will you tell him that? we'll all enjoy covering this campaign a lot more. would you do that? >> i think i will, i'll tell him you said that, but i think when you listen to him tonight, he was talking about that, talking about things that really resonate with blue collar workers -- >> no, he went back to the contraception. >> he's like dr. strange love. he can't hold the hand down. he has to talk about contraception. will he get off of that? >> he's pro-life, guys, he's going to be pro-life, that's the

way it,i think that works very well in ohio and it works well in this part of the state. >> i think anti-contraception doesn't work anywhere in the country. >> it's lawrence o'donnell. you said you've been getting bombed with romney robo calls at your home, was donald trump one of those calls and was it wise for mitt romney to have donald trump robo calls going into ohio? >> it wouldn't have been my pick. he had so many it's hard to keep track of after a while. i got one from romney today telling me to show up for a caucus tonight. they got so much money they hardly know what to do with with, but they don't have a candidate. they really don't, who can sell. whatever you think about rick, whether you agree with him or not, keselj on the stump, he has real passion. i think passion is what's going

to beat barack obama in the fall. >> thank you for being with us. >> good to be with you. >> let me tell you what's going on right now in ohio. we're 67% in, between rick santorum and mitt romney, look at the margin here. 14,000 votes. just under two thirds of the vote in, this is an incredibly close race in ohio. mitt romney has won vermont and massachusetts and virginia, where it was just him and ron paul on the ballot tonight. rick santorum has won oklahoma and tennessee. but all eyes on ohio tonight as we try to figure this out. we will also be having some results later on from north dakota, from the great state of alaska, it is super tuesday, and msnbc's coverage of super tuesday continues in a moment.

well, this is exciting, the race in ohio still too close to call. we now have 70% of the vote in, between rick santorum and mitt romney, the difference in votes is just over 15,000 votes. 70% in, too close to call in the buckeye state. joining us now is john harwood from cnbc and the new york times, mr. harwood has been talking from the romney campaign tonight. when you talk with with the romney folks, how are they addressing the tennessee issue and the oklahoma issue tonight? rick santorum winning both those states? >> they're acknowledging they have to get ahead of them to get the delegates they need. it's going to be difficult. they think they can still win the state ohio. i just got off the phone with a romney strategist who said big vote in cuyahoga county.

about half the vote in cuyahoga is in, romney leads by almost 9,000 votes in that county. he's got to do better if they're counting on cuyahoga to do it. this race is clearly going to go on, even if mitt romney manages to win ohio. i also talked to the santorum strategist tonight. they said they have a million dollars cash on hand, they're beginning to buy tv time tomorrow in kansas, alabama and mississippi. having won in the south, having competed on near even terms in ohio. maybe even winning ohio. they have an argument to keep this thing going. and one of the questions is going to be, does newt gingrich stay in having won georgia. he's hoping rick santorum may be able to beat romney. >> in terms of how it's better for romney when it's three or four people in the race, rather than just him and one other person. is the romney campaign going to

make a bigger deal out of this thing that the candidate mentioned in the speech tonight, which is that this long process, it being drawn out is making him stronger. is it implicitly rebutting the allegation that the primary campaign is making for a weaker general election? but also sort of making the case that have a lot of candidates banging around in this primary, it's a good thing for republicans. are they sticking with that? is that part of their central message right now because they don't want somebody like newt gingrich skip out. >> he's trying to make chicken salad out of the situation he's in. you say i'm getting stronger, even though you look at our poll this week, he and the republican party are both getting weaker in this. on the idea of candidates staying in, the republican media strategist for mitch daniels of indiana told me tonight if i were mitt romney i would be

sending flowers to newt gingrich and say, please stay in, because you're going to prevent rick santorum from knocking me off. >> if you get any word of any communication between rick santorum and mitt romney, call us first. i feel like we all have eyes on that dynamic. >> what i'm hearing from the santorum campaign is trying to -- in their own way, ratchet up pressure on gingrich to get out, just in the way that the romney campaign would like santorum to get out. basically saying, newt gingrich needed to win second almost every place, and he's not going to do that, in addition to winning georgia. there isn't a path for newt gingrich to win the nomination, but newt gingrich is operating on his own clock, his own decision making, ego, ambition, his long term goal as a politician and as somebody in the private sector. not easy to see exactly what is going to make or who is going to

make newt gingrich get out and make it easier for rick santorum. >> john harwood, thank you very much. joining us now is michael moore, mr. moore is a famous michiganer and also an enthusiastic observer of republican politics with which he disagrees with every word. michael, thank you for being with us. >> well, thanks. i think this is the first time i've been on with the entire prime time, msnbc crew all us together at once. i was just sitting here thinking, someone's going to take this tape for our military tribunal in 2018. >> let's just hope it's a tribunal and not a drone strike. >> yes, please. >> you and i spoke recently about the michigan primary. and the prospect of democrats getting involved and sort of operation chaos. operation hilarity there. democrats wanting to vote for rick santorum in michigan because a prolonged process

would be bad for the republicans. we are getting a prolonged process. do you still think it will be bad for republicans and great for liberals such as yourself. >> i said my friends were doing that. i actually didn't vote, because i'm prohibited biologically from voting for a republican, i was unable to vote that day. i think what's happening tonight, you know, everybody keeps saying, romney's going to be it, romney's going to be it, every time we have a night like this -- and if he loses ohio, i think this is going to quickly go from dog on car to man on dog. santorum -- listen, i would -- i mean, what does it say about romney, that he can't beat the guy who forgot to file the papers? i mean, the guy, he forgets to file the papers in virginia, and

he wants to be president of the united states. in high school, i got kicked out of french club, i was the secretary of the club, i lost the minutes after one minute, that was it, i was out of -- i was run out of office. i don't understand how -- this is just -- why are we here talking about this, this is the biggest clown show. it's just -- isn't the election over already? i mean, haven't the republicans spent the last couple of weeks sinking their own ship? isn't this? haven't they -- after these last two weeks with whatever strategy they come up with -- who sat down and told them that, hey, what we got to do is, we have to come out against birth control? we have to come out against something that 99% of the population uses? they would have been better off coming out against meat. there's like 3% of the country is vegetarian. they would have only ticked off 97% of the country. i don't know, i don't get it.

war on women, maybe next week there will be a war on men. they'll go against everybody. honestly i don't get it, and -- but listen, as i said to you last time, i take this very seriously. santorum somehow -- you know, if he pulls this off. i would not -- the country that elected george w. bush can elect a rick santorum, and everybody should treat that seriously. santorum will have -- he'll lead a religious crusade, tens of thousands will come out of the woodwork for him. he's a hard worker, he came from nowhere. he came from being a joke on google to the position he's in tonight where he may beat mitt romney in ohio. >> i tell you, michael, it's chris. let's be a little serious for one second. is there an anti-elite movement within the republican party where people just don't like

guys -- let's be honest about this, there are a lot of cloth coat republican families. do you think they may be rejecting the romney stuff? >> i have to interrupt for one second. but i only do this when i have something very important to say. in this case we have a call to make. the republican caucuses in north dakota have been won by rick santorum. rick santorum winning in north dakota in addition to winning in tennessee and oklahoma. ohio still too close to call? >> could there be an anti-1% feeling among blue collar -- when he focuses on being an immigrant's kid, blue collar workers in industrial part of southeastern pennsylvania. when he says stuff that's true about our country. when he gets into truth land about the economy, and who's getting the money and who isn't? >> of course. >> is there something on the republican side we haven't caught on to? >> we keep talking about, why can't mitt romney connect. is it possible mitt romney has

connected very clearly and these voters don't like him? >> yes, that is it exactly. people don't dislike him because he looks like he belongs to the country club. actually, americans like people who succeed. they don't want to vote for someone in bib overalls. i don't think that's really the problem, i think the republican party has become the christian conservative bartender, they booted out their moderates and turned their back on liberal republicans. and they're going to -- look, who's the christian conservative on the ballot? it isn't mitt romney. >> yeah, i hope that's not it. it's probably a lot of it. i hope that's not all of it. >> i don't know why people in the country keeps thinking romney is going to pull this off. santorum has surprised everybody from the first time in iowa. i would take it a little more seriously. but again, like you said, chris, if he keeps coming back to sex like he can't get his mind off

sex and contraception and -- i just heard just before i came on here, that rush limbaugh now, 35 advertisers have pulled out of limbaugh -- >> 36. >> i don't mean pulled out of him. that's another form contraception. but -- i think -- i don't know what the strategy is here, but the last time i checked most americans believe in birth control. they tend to like sex. and i just -- i don't want to get too -- that's why i'm trying to be serious about the santorum thing. there's a tendency to get giddy about how this is going to be a cake walk for obama. there's eight months to go. and did i just say there's eight months? no! no! no! we have to do this for eight more months? >> well, we have to do something

very specific about ohio results right now. but we have to talk about this for eight more months with the help of people like you. i want to go now to chuck todd, who's nbc's political director. he's back with us and has more on the vote out ohio. what is outstanding and what should we expect? >> quite the segue, that may take eight months before we know who won ohio. let me tell you the biggest counties that are out. i have hamilton and clairemont. that's a lot votes sitting out. we have montgomery, dayton, cincinnati, dayton markets still out. we have two areas in the cleveland market, cuyahoga and medinah county. let me tell you about cuyahoga. it takes them forever. we have franklin county over here, columbus, the capital. that's where the most vote is out, and some here in stark. as you can see, in the way these counties go. that's a lot of green counties, there's a lot of romney vote

left. that said, let me give you the good news or the bad news. ohio has a history of having 3% to 12% its vote uncounted on election night. what does that mean? if the margin is less than 2 percentage points tonight. nbc's not calling this race, nobody will be calling this race. there's every chance we can't call this race tonight. we have a couple models that indicate the margin between romney and santorum could be less than a quarter of 1%. what does that mean? automatic recount, believe it or not, because this is a state run election. you really don't need it because of the delegate issue. we know how the delegates are going to go, because we know about this whole delegate problem that santorum had. there may have to be a mandatory recount if it's as close as two of the models indicate it could be. if they recall ohio tonight maybe it will be eight months before we find out which republican won the ohio primary.

there's a lot of green counties where there's vote to be counted. in every instance so far, every time i think we're going to see a romney uptick, santorum overperforms. these exit polls, all undercounted santorum all across the country ton. >> the what does that typically mean? if people come out of the polling place, an exit poll you're supposed to be telling someone what you just did. in this case people who voted for santorum are not talking to pollsters or not telling them what they good? >> i'm going to throw a phrase, silent majority. we've seen this before where conservatives, particularly conservative republicans -- don't forget what the exit poll says, it knows they're talking to the media, and when you look at this pattern, and this has been a pattern in the last couple months where i noticed santorum just a couple points, everywhere seems to be a little underreported in these initial ex exits. it could be the conservative

base of the party, they're going to keep it to themselves, doesn't like to tell a poll taker or a member of the media who they're supporting. it's a bit that conservative, not talking to the elite, not going to tell them what they're doing. >> i know what you're talking about. frank rizzo never won a poll in philadelphia, just kept winning mayor. my fear about the general election, you're going to get a misconception about the polling in november. nobody's bragging about going for the first african-american, they just did. this time i think it's going to go the other way. i sense it as a negativity from the president. i think we're going to see this tonight -- >> hey, guys. >> the exit poll analyst number crunchers have been worried prior to tonight. that the santorum exit polling could be overstated because he has more enthusiasm. so enthusiasm tends to drive

exit polls, and that's one of the funny things we're seeing tonight. if santorum turns out to be underreported. >> i want to show our map here, this is all the winning states from everything we've had so far. there's a little bit of a problem here for mitt romney if he doesn't get ohio. look at where his power -- he can win in new england, he can win by default in virginia, he can win where there's large mormon populations and in a state he grew up in. what if he can't win anywhere else? this is an issue, basically, his two bases that are unique to him, being a new england republican and being of mormon background which helps in the west, that's how he's overperforming in the west. we expect him to do well in idaho. you're stargt to wonder, that's an awful lot santorum purple here sitting in the heartland from the midwest to the rockies, if ohio's colored purple, it feeds that perception that romney's got a lot of work to do to close the deal with sort of

the heartland conservative republic republican. >> which candidate would you like to have? >> i didn't talk about the south. green, florida, which is the nonsouthern state. sixth borrow of new york i always say i grew up in in miami. >> cincinnati, ohio is a very conservative area. it's right wing talk radio, it makes sense they would be supporting rick santorum there. if there's a lot that hasn't been reported yet, it's going to be interesting. >> let me ask you to weigh-in on one last thing. that is, the overall issue whether or not a republican nominee needs the south? obviously there's no path to the presidency for a republican in a general election that does not include win withing the south. if we think that republican voters are largely going to be motivated by animouse against

the president, how important do you think it is for a republican candidate to win the nomination without winning the south? >> this would be the second time in a row they didn't go with a southern republican. with mccain, and that was unusual. you had the bushes able to do that. so i think it's tough, and i think it may mean more pressure on romney to have to have a running mate that is of the south, a son of the south in some form or another. the perfect person may be bob mcdon amd. he's a catholic, evangelical catholic, if you will. would play well -- this has been chris's theory for some time, that if there's this perception that romney's got a southern problem with some evangelicals, he's going to have to have somebody who will speak to them, who will speak to them directly and say, no, no, no, don't worry about mitt romney, i got him, can you trust -- one of the

things if you'll recall, sarah palin did that for john mccain. john mccain had this problem, there was a a lot of talk that the evangelical vote wouldn't turn out. i think what put them over the top was sarah palin. >> chuck todd, thank you very much. we will continue to follow the numbers from ohio. the big important story out there is that it's still too close to call. right now we have 81% of the vote in, the difference of 6,000 votes between these two candidates. rick santorum ahead, but by a slim margin. with four out of the five votes in the state counting already.

84% of the vote in now,

358,742 for santorum, 356,172 for romney. the difference of about 3,000 votes. both of these men joining me have been speaking with the respective campaigns that are battling it out in ohio right now. john harwood, let me start with you, i understand you've been talking to the rick santorum campaign. what are they hearing and how are they feel something. >> i ran through the santorum campaign. the view of team romney that the outstanding vote in cuyahoga county is ultimately going to carry mitt romney over the top. the response that i got was, they may be right. it doesn't sound like the santorum campaign is terribly confident right now that this lead is going to hold. we've been surprised multiple times in this campaign. >> in terms of what the romney campaign is saying now, is the pessimism on the santorum side

matched by optimism on the romney side? >> it is. they're a pretty cautious group in such situations. this is one of those crazy situations, you treat this like campaign a and campaign b. the romney campaign, compared to the santorum campaign, they have delegate counters and know where the vote is at. the santorum campaign is like a medium sized senate race, they don't have as good a whoeld on it, their view is not necessarily as informative as the promny campaign, which again for hours has been supremely confident looking at where the vote is at. >> it's interesting to think that the santorum campaign could be a little mack developian here and trying to reduce expectations so if they win it seems like more of a knockout blow than if they don't. is it your sense that the santorum campaign doesn't know as mark is inta mating there? >> no, i totally agree with mark, this is a very much a rag tag campaign compared to the very professional operation that

mitt romney has. they're flying by the seat of their pants. they have smart people who have worked in politics. they just don't have the ammunition behind them. i think they don't know for sure. but i do think that they feel they've gotten enough out tonight, north dakota to go with tennessee and oklahoma that they can go fight in the south next week, go to alabama and mississippi, get on television and try to make mitt romney prove that he deserves the nomination of a party that is founded on conservative ideology and rick santor sum doing better among very conservative people. and that's -- the hallmark is the south right now. the base is the south, and rick santorum, if he can prove he can win in the south and mitt romney can't. that makes it more difficult for romney to go forward and wrap up the nomination in anything approaching a rapid fashion. >> i think it seems quite likely if i were the santorum campaign, i would be trying to dampen

expectations right now i was going to win ohio, so i could say, fighting you to a draw in ohio when you're the man and i'm the upstart, that's enough of a win, particularly given all of the places i won tonight. is there any sense that the romney campaign has a response for that or a rejoinder to that in terms of what rick santorum's triumphant narrative is likely to be? >> it's not as binary as michigan would have been. it is the case that if romney loses ohio it won't be as bad as if he lost michigan. it will be a wave of things. santorum fund-raising, gingrich getting out or being deflated. questions about romney, the calendar coming up for the next ten days not just those two southern states. caucuses in kansas and missouri, we're talking about. there's a period of hurt for romney unless he can win ohio, and the symbolism is such that

he doesn't have to win it by more than a vote. whoever wins this is going to have a big leg going forward in the next ten days. >> that's excellent information for both of you. thanks for sharing that with us. it's an important point that mark is making about the calendar going-forward. alabama, mississippi and kansas and missouri. wait, didn't missouri just vote? yes, missouri had a fake vote. they had a vote they couldn't get off the state statutes that they were required to hold a primary, the republicans in the state said, don't hold any attention to what the results are here, when rick santorum won it anyway. he said pay a lot of attention to what the votes are. they're going to have to hold their caucus. you have to think rick santorum has some wind in his sales heading into missouri, if only because he won the fake vote there not long ago. martin bashir from msnbc is with us. he's been watching the results come in through the night. if rick santorum wins in ohio or doesn't, what's the bottom line for the mitt romney candidacy.

>> watching people as brilliant as chris matthews, befuddled to what's happening to mitt romney, leads me to think that mitt romney could well be the prince charles of the republican nomination for this reason, prince charles is expected to succeed his mother queen elizabeth ii, everybody said that mitt romney was the inevitable candidate. guess what, both those men are about 64 or 65 years of age, and prince charles can never make the step up, if you look at polling now in the u.k., any public polling suggests that most people would rather prince william succeeded his grandmother than prince charles who's been waiting all his life to succeed to the thrown. that's exactly what you're seeing, i think there is a parallel here with mitt romney who just can't convince anybody, because he's emass cue lated by his past, he's embarrassed by his poor performance in the present. there are problems connection,

and all the time, the longer this goes on, people become less interested in liking him, and his favor eeblt rate drops. so mitt romney is the prince charles of the republican nomination. >> martin, that is a gob smacking analogy. are there lessons from prince charles for what mitt romney should do so he can be queen some day? >> the prince of wales ended up being divorced and tragically princess diana died and he's remarried and invested his life in charities, he's one of the wealthiest people in the united kingdom. another similarity. if this goes on, and becomes more and more difficult, you're not sure if he'll give up. prince charles is not giving up. there's now the prospect that prince charles will be the oldest monarch ever to succeed to the thrown of the united kingdom. and there's a possibility here

that in romney's cases as chris and lawrence have been saying and the reverend al. this guy's battered and bruised and he's going to fall over the finish line, and end up fighting the president in november. >> or in 2016 in this analogy. >> exactly. >> martin bashir, thank you so much, that was fascinating and stunning. ohio is still too close to call, we're watching the numbers come in. 85% in right now, a difference less than 2500 votes, holy mackerel. msnbc's coverage of super tuesday continues in a moment.

5 minutes to 11:00 p.m. on the east coast, the ohio republican primary is too close to call. 86% in. less than 2500 votes between the two candidates. as we were hearing moments ago, the places where a lot of the vote is still out are mitt romney areas in the state ohio. look, once again the results map from the state looks like a population density map. not exactly, but the more populated areas are going for mitt romney. the less populated areas going for rick santorum. this is tight as a tick right now. it could not get any tighter than this. do you feel this is looking good for mitt romney? >> well, he's clearly closed the

gap from about 15,000 down. i'm interested to hear the candidates talk about the silver medal analogy. i'm making that up. you win or you lose, i think coming down to this couple thousand votes is if rick santorum prevails here, it really resets the race in a fundamental way. if mitt romney prevails, i think it's a close race, but at the end of the day, i think he's got a head of steam -- >> is that true even if it ends up being a draw, very close in ohio? or does the win make a difference? >> norgs i think the win makes a difference at this stage in the race. >> i think they still continue to -- >> i think president obama is clearly the winner in this most important swing state where no republican could make a compelling case to this electorate with this economy, that this president has to carry into this election. right now as it stands this is

an obama win tonight and it can't be taken away from him. >> romney cannot connect with working people. even when he did the washing machine thing, we all thought he was talking to anne about buying a washing machine. >> our coverage continues right after this.