in mississippi, 73% in alabama. it would seem to me there is also a higher percentage of evangelicals in all states than 2008. 48% this year, compared to 37% in 2008. is this going to be rough terrain for mitt romney? it would seem to me, chris, if mitt romney were to get one of these two states tonight, this would be a big win with these high number of evangelicals. >> i think religion matters. reverend al, ed, you and i know the way the people say they think the president is a muslim. the majority thinks he is, the other 30 some percent don't know, they don't know whether he's lie about his religion, so they are out to lunch for the president of the they won't vote for president obama. who will they get to beat him. they are weilling do outsource t to a mormon. like calling up india in the third world to get your computer fixed. you don't care who is fixing it, fix the damm computer. they are willing to vote for a guy they don't like or trust his religion. they have two roman catholics running and a mormon so the

the other seat we're watching in alabama was on the alabama supreme court. you may remember the name roy moore. alabama judge roy moore got himself nationally famous back in 2003 when as a state supreme court justice he refused to order by a federal judge to remove a ten commandments monument from the grounds of the state courthouse. moore was removed from office by a panel during that incident. tonight he's been trying to win back his seat trying to unseat the current supreme court justice, chuck malone. look at the results. chuck malone, 25%. roy moore, 51%. that's with three-quarters of the vote in in alabama. roy moore has made himself a national conservative political celebrity in his time since he was turfed out of office. this looks like his path back in. some fascinating races tonight. even if you ignore the issue of whether or not it's newt gingrich's last night in the race for the presidency. stay with us. >>> lots more news from mississippi, alabama, courtside seats in dayton, ohio, and american samoa. stay tuned. >>> welcome back to a big news ni

the other seat we're watching here in alabama was on the alabama supreme court. you may remember the name roy moore. alabama judge roy moore got himself nationally famous in 2003 when as a state supreme court justice he refused an order by a judge to remove a tenneco handmentless monument from the grounds of the courthouse. he was removed by a state judicial ethic's panel after that incident but tonight he's trying to unseat the current supreme court justice, chuck may lobe. look. results. chuck malone, 25% and roy moore, 51%. he's made himself a national conservative political celebrity during the time he was turfed out of office. fascinating races tonight, even if you adore the issue of whether or not it's newt gingrich's last night in the race for presidency. stay with us. >>> the latest results from alabama and mississippi coming right up. rick santorum was not in either state i want to. he was in louisiana delighting in his big wins tonight before his supporters. watch. >> the time is now to make sure that we have the best chance to win this election and the

the other seat we're watching here in alabama was on the alabama supreme court. you may remember the name roy moore. alabama judge roy moore got himself nationally famous in 2003 when as a state supreme court justice he refused an order by a judge to remove a tenneco handmentless monument from the grounds of the courthouse. he was removeds by a state judicial ethic's panel after that incident but tonight he's trying to unseat the kwurnts supreme court justice, chuck may lobe. look. results. chuck malone, 25% and roy moore, 51%. he's made himself a national conservative political celebrity during the time he was turfed out of office. fascinating races tonight, even if you adore the issue of whether or not it's newt gingrich's last night in the race for presidency. stay with us. >>> the latest results from alabama and mississippi coming right up. we should just want as many people as possible to vote, however it falls, whichever party benefits from it, the fact is when the american people are engaged they will make intelligent choices. rick santorum right now with

on to alabama, nbc news is declaring the alabama primary at this point too close to call. right now with only 1% of the vote in in alabama, rick santorum with 33%, mitt romney 32%, newt gingrich 27%, ron paul in fourth place with 6%. both of these races in alabama and mississippi not only too close to call but described as three-way races at this point. we're watching the numbers very closely as they come in, don't extrapolate too much from the very small percent of the vote that is in now. take those nbc characterizations of the race seriously but basically we'll watch throughout the night as the numbers come in. whether or not we are talking about the races at any moment right here at the bottom part of the screen you can watch as the percentage of the vote rises and more clarity about these races throughout the hour. >>> while we don't know the winners yet tonight, we do know from the exit polling who turned out today in alabama and mississippi, and what was motivating them as voters. overall the republican primaries this year have been much more heavily white evangelic

we have not called alabama. tell me your thoughts as the votes are being counted in alabama and mississippi? >> i just want to thank the folk who is were just tremendous results tonight. being the david and goliath figure, going up against the big guys with the big money. we have the best organization. we have the best volunteers. we have the best message to contrast with -- with barack obama. i think that's what people are looking at. they are looking for someone who can go out from and reflect the values that made this country great and take it to barack obama and his failed policies which are outside. they are top-down government run, not bottom-up, which is how america became the greatest country in the history of the world. >> do you find eye suppose there is significance that you are leading in both states. speaker gingrich, who is thought to split the vote with you, i noted that you have asked him to get out of the race, or made comments about it. tell me your thoughts for him, if he doesn't come in secon

let's get back to alabama. reverend, you know, have just spent time in alabama.hese were the key voting groups for rick santorum. 49% of working women, 42% of under 40-year-olds. 41% who consider themselves very conservative. 40% with income under $30,000. what do you make of mitt romney not being able to connect with any of these voters down there? i mean, does this really exclude him in many republican circles? >> i think it does. i think that he was very, very badly wounded tonight. mitt romney. i think that newt gingrich was devastated. i think that what rick santorum did tonight was give anybody that had a doubt he should be the conservative against romney ammunition to just dismiss gingrich. gingrich is basically finished. romney has got a serious problem because the one thing that i think rachel referred to, the overreach by newt gingrich in saying he and santorum together has all these delegates, the fact is that overwhelming majority of people voted against romney. and if you combine that gingrich vote and most of it would fall into santorum, this spells

if we look at the republican primary in 2008 in alabama, that was excuse me -- we're now looking at alabama, it was mike huckabee with 41%, john mccain with 37% in 2008. so, i don't know if that's any indication of how things ends up going tonight, if romney ends up taking some of the mccain territory, but we're going to be watching it very closely. michael, i'm curious, you said you were hanging around today and you've been to a couple of precincts. in those, did you go to precincts that were largely republican? >> most of the voters that were coming out today were republican. the democratic primary, they weren't terribly exciting to the electorate here, so it was mostly republican voters that was talking with. one thing to remember in 2008 which is why i'm dubious of the polling, but in 2008, the four polls had john mccain up in alabama by eight points, three out of the four polls up by eight points the day before the election. those were the last polls to be taken, muck bewon by four points. the polling in alabama and mississippi has always been a little off, even from when you look at p

let's get back to alabama. reverend, you have just spent time in alabama.hese were the key voting groups for rick santorum. 49% of working women, 42% of under 40-year-olds. 41% who consider themselves very conservati conservative. 40% with income under $30,000. what do you make of mitt romney not being able to connect with any of these voters down there? i mean, does this really exclude him in many republican circles? >> i think it does. i think that he was very, very badly wounded tonight, mitt romney. i think that newt gingrich was devastated. i think that what rick santorum did tonight was give anybody that had a doubt he should be the conservative against romney ammunition to just dismiss gingrich. gingrich is basically finished. romney has a serious problem. because the one thing that i think rachel referred to, the overreach by newt gingrich in saying he and santorum together has all these delegates, the fact is that an overwhelming majority of people voted against romney, and if you combine that gingrich vote and most of it would fall into santorum,

mississippi and alabama. if they stay purple, you may want to call romney back tomorrow and see if he wants to talk about the desperate end. what it could be is the end of the gingrich campaign. he won south carolina, he won georgia. he desperately needed to win to head across the south. >> second place in both of these states, i think, would probably keep him in the race. >> it would keep him in the race, but does it make him a viable candidate? he'll get delegates, but bragging rights are at stake. you look at alabama, a state that borders georgia. this is the one that gingrich needed to win. this is counting much more slowly mslow ly than mississippi. 35% of the vote in. with that much out, things could change, but this has held steady. santorum at 35%, gingrich at 30%, romney at 28%. if romney was to spring a surprise here, wolf, he's winning in all of the places he would need to win to spring a surprise in alabama. he's winning in the major population centers and in the suburbs. the difference between th

is that enough to allow him to appeal to alabama or mississippi? as you said it's not a monolithic region anymore. its not enough to say i'm southern and i eat grits. but it's whether they think the candidate is really consistent with the right wing of the republican party, what they see as the evolution of the more -- >> we heard about the beef stake, what we heard about josh levs. you actually called the shot in 2008, saying sarah palin just might be a good vice presidential candidate. >> very early on. >> are there any guesses for this race? >> i guess it's not going to be bob mccdonalcdonald, because wh candidate with a woman problem going to do? i mean he's been -- he really has been a conservative standout and if his problem were that you were trying to bring back the conservative men, then you would bring back the vp. but republican women governors, perhaps, many times think of a carly fiorina or somebody like that, but something other than two white guys. >> all right, tom baxter, thanks very much, always good to see you. appreciate it. >>>

and on the gender question in alabama, it was 50-50. that is alabama and so how in mississippi? and 50% men and even split in the battle of the sexes today. and a further breakdown, vote by marital status and gender and 35% of those voting in alabama were married women. so that is a little bit more of one-third of the electorate and look at how they did. governor romney winning among married men in alabama, 40%, and 36% for rick santorum, and 1% for gingrich, and 6% for ron paul. that is a chunk. we have seen this gap in other places. rick santorum close to governor romney in alabama, and now checking t checking the same stat in mississippi. and now the split of 40% married and 40% of men married an 9% unmarried. speaker gingrich not as far behind in this question. and so many of the questions that we will ask,er r erin, bec when you have such a close rate, we will look at them. this is an interesting one this that governor romney in mississippi and alabama winning among the women. >> it is important statistic, because we all know that the women voters could be the swing vote to

, close third in alabama. it seems to me the spin from the romney camp if they can pull one out in this south, we can win in the south. seems to me you might say, newt gingrich, it's time to go. >> absolutely. being son of the south, you should be doing much better than this. the numbers indicate rick santorum is the consistent conservative. he resonates with the people and we will do well going down the primary calendar. for him to do as well as he's doing in the south goes to show he has the momentum and right message. mitt romney is out of touch with the money he has and as long as he's been doing this, he should be running away with this, the fact he's not in touch with what voters want, not in touch with them in terms of economic issues, social issues and, you know, a lot of the comments he makes in terms of my wife's got a couple of cars and i like to fire people, those things are turning off voters. >> let me ask you about what rick santorum had to say earlier today, he was on the glen beck program and

he'll be here in alabama. so i think they really are hoping -- they have high hopes for alabama and it may be really a decision or sort of a turning point of whether he has the rationale for this campaign to continue, whether or not he wins here tonight. >> you always learn a lot about where the candidates spend their election night. john, good stuff, sir, thank you. >>> up next, can romney pull off a surprise win in any of these states that he's not supposed to? we'll show you why romney is facing an uphill climb in alabama and mississippi today. >>> plus the massacre of afghan civilians by a u.s. soldier has a lot of people rethinking the longest war. what does the country's war weariness mean for our future involvement in other places, be it syria or iran? that's our deep dive later. >>> first a look ahead at the president's schedule. we'll hear from him in the rose garden today. he's going to be talking trade and china, but he also goes to dayton, ohio, tonight for the ncaa wants to claim as the first roun

less that way in alabama. >> where's haley? >> henry, the nephew who basically is the family's politics operationally, he's with romney. >> let's go to michael. these are white people, basically, white southerners, evangelicals, we know their views. not particularly in love with mormons. recently, accepted catholics as christians like them. i'm being brutal here. wait until you see these numbers. most don't believe in evolution. they have conservative views about our culture. what do you think is the situation down there? can romney win down there? >> i think romney can. i think mississippi could be a good playground for romney, quite frankly. it's a fairly new political environment for them in terms of, you know, the way their primary is set up. so you still have romney tied to the barbour clan. has the opportunity to use that network to get that vote out. but this is, you know, one of those situations where i think even if romney wins mississippi tonight and newt or santorum takes the other, it doesn't change really the dynam

rick santorum wins alabama. and republicans are having a three-way in mississippi. >> it is a deep pride primary day down in dixie. >> it's southern super tuesday. >> the battle for the deepest of the deep red southern states, mississippi and alabama. >> we thought super tuesday was going to give some finality to this race, and it didn't. >> this is a race that has been going on and on and on. >> this is going to go way, way, way into the spring. >> you can't win the nomination if you don't win the south. >> they can't get the folks going down there. >> mitt romney is still struggling with his blue-collar roots. >> my father never graduated from college. he apprenticed as a laugh-and-plaster carpenter. >> his blue-collar roots don't exist. >> he's been back and forth, back and forth. >> he flip-flops. >> he has been eating grits and saying y'all. >> i'm learning to say y'all. morning, y'all. i like grits. i got started right this morning with biscuits and cheesy grits. >> grits. >> cheesy grits strategy isn't wo

he wins the alabama and mississippi primaries. >> mitt romney walks out in third place in alabama andssissippi. >> it's very clear that none of the candidates can sew up in this nomination before tampa. >> it means a long, slow painful slog toç this nomination. >> stephen: long, slow and painful. thairchl you jesus. this is great. the democrats had the same situation when they won last time in 2008. now republicans get that hillary versus obama magic minus any women or black people or magic. [ laughter ] folks, i'll tell you, why romney is having trouble closing this deal. we conservatives don't trust him. rick santorum is resonating with voter because of his authenticity. he always speaks off the cuff which is why his sweeters don't have -- sweaters don't have sleeves. he believes authenticity should be legally mandated. >> i believe when you run for president of the united states, you should be illegal to read off a teleprompter because all you are doing is reading somebody else's words. >> stephen: yes, it should be illegal. voters cannot trust candidates who have somebody else's

in alabama.e're not in mississippi we're in lafayette, louisiana. contest here isn't for two weeks but people were enthusiastic here had they been in birmingham or jackson. >> bret: john roberts, thank you very much. up next our panel, charles krauthammer steve hays we'll analyze what these two big wins mean, here they are. we might as well show you while you're sitting there. we'll be back right afte today, we stand against the tyranny of meager travelards. battle speech right? may i? capital one is issuing a venture double miles challenge. sh us how much you spent last year and we'll give you 2 miles for every dollar spent on your travel reward card. up to 100,000 miles! hawaii, here we come. claim your miles at capitalone.com today! wh's in your wallet? cayou play games on that? not on the runway. no. >>> welcome back to america's election headquarters coverage tonight two, big southern primaries. alabama and mississippi big wins for rick santorum, those are surprises. taking a look at alabama

in alabama.e're not in mississippi we're in lafayette, louisiana. contest here isn't for two weeks but people were enthusiastic here had they been in birmingham or jackson. >> bret: john roberts, thank you very much. up next our panel, charles krauthammer steve hays we'll analyze what these two big wins mean, here they are. we might as well show you while you're sitting there. we'll be back right after this. this is an rc robotic cw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dlars into american education. that's thousands of ks learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool ♪ our machines help identify early stages of cancer and it's something that we're extremely proud of. you see someone who is saved because of this technology, you know that t

in alabama.e're not in mississippi we're in lafayette, louisiana. contest here isn't for two weeks but people were enthusiastic here had they been in birmingham or jackson. >> bret: john roberts, thank you very much. up next our panel, charles krauthammer steve hays we'll analyze what these two big wins mean, here they are. we might as well show you while you're sitting there. while you're sitting there. we'll be back right afte [ rosa ] i'm rosa and i quit smoking with chantix. when the doctor told me that i could smoke for the first wee.. i'm like...yeah, ok... little did i know that one week later i wasn't smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, 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 a

win in alabama, will end this process.en't generating enough volunteers in alabama and mississippi. >> yeah, i'm not surprised to hear that because the heart of the republican party in alabama and mississippi is composed of the cultural demographic groups most hostile to romney. in 2008, 77% of the republican primary electorate in alabama, evangelical christians. the num gher mississippi, 69%. those are two of the highest numbers you saw in that entire process. we've seen white southern evangelicals have been very resistant to romney throughout this entire process. he's certainly struggling there, although i will say this. they are writing that e-mail about the opportunity there. if mitt romney can win what he calls an away game in this process, that's what we've been waiting for. when he finally wins an away game, proves he can do that. that will ratchet up the pressure on santorum and gingrich to end this thing. you have newt gingrich kind of going gung ho there. and rick santorum. and they're both going for those same v

>> well, my dad found it an independent space party in alabama at the time than the regular party was dominated by a george wallace and the dixiecrats and despite being a dentist in the time valedictorian, he, his education put hundreds of thousands of dollars in his own money in the 60's mind you into this early political party so that alabama could vote for lyndon johnson rather than george wallace and the hundreds of thousands of new regularly black voters would have people to vote for, couldn't just folk but also run for office, so that plus his life work and he was committed to recapturing the greatness of african-americans and political participation because his grandfather had been a free construction legislator and he grew up hearing about his grandfather while he was coming of age in jim crow, and a radicalized him to be living under jim crow in alabama while hearing about the fact that black people used to have political power and be in office including his family. >> who was hershel cashin? >> my grandfather, he was the first black lawyer in the state of alabama and the arc

why alabama, not miss a beat? i want you to get to the question i asked earlier, take a behind-the-scenes, what it is like to be covering begich and what life is like a newt gingrich bubble? >> he is there today because they think he can do well. alabama is next door to his home state of georgia, he lived right on the border at one. when he was a child. they thought they were going to do well here. we are still hearing positive things, not the sadness we would expect coming out for the apprehension looking at the exit poll numbers that been floating around. it is an interesting right to be following gingrey cha. today they told us we were going to the zoo with the speaker. he is a huge fan of animals. the rain canceled that. we got to go to space can and see the rockets. long days, long hours, but a lot of fun. different things, when you get to the different places, and the food is one of all. we had eaten it very well the last few days in alabama and mississippi. >> fabulous, and ginger. we're getting exit pollin