and newshour political editor christina bellantoni. we have so much to talk about. let's start with ohio. the prize of the night, christina. what is romney's strength there? what is santorum's strength? it's neck and neck. >> it is. this is where you've seen both candidates sort of making their core message. romney has been talking quite a bit about the economy. he would be the better steward of it. making these pointed jabs. i didn't study the economy. i didn't hold a conference sub committees about the economy. i actually did something about the economy. and then santorum is out there saying, actually it's not just about managing the economy. it's about all these core values. he's really trying to win that evangelical vote. he's appealing to aate low of the working class voters that particularly are in the area of the state that is close to his home state of pennsylvania. romney is trying to win the suburbs and big cities. >> ifill: why is ohio so key? 63 delegates but it's not the most delegates of the night. >> that's right. georgia has more delegates. for a num

and "newshour" political editor christina bellantoni. christina, after last night, after seeing what romney did in arizona and michigan, is it safe to call him the front-runner again. >> i think so, yeah. particularly when you look at the map. it's very difficult for any of these other candidates to really forge a path forward because he can collect in this slow build toward having that magic number, even though it could take months and months. >> ifill: but winning delegates doesn't... winning elections, as he did yesterday, doesn't necessarily equal winning delegates. there's a disconnect there somewhere. >> yeah, there is. and i think that's what supertuesday is really going to take a look at that. it's how many states, what types of states is he able to win? can he win in ohio, which is a very similar electorate to michigan, which he was able to pull out this very small win. or is he able to win any of these southern states? will he even compete in the southern stphaeuts what point is he trying to prove about his strategy other the ne

and "newshour" political editor christina bellantoni. >> thank you both for being here. christina, there was thinking ahead of alabama and mississippi that mitt romney was in the hunt he had a good chance of winning what happened. >> the campaign felt they had a good chance of winning. they devoted a lot of time there, and santorum didn't lead a single poll heading into these two races. and they thought okay, if romney can win in the south overly suggests this is done and done. however, what ended up happening was the voters in mississippi and alabama basically said that they wanted two things in a candidate. strong moral character and true conservative. we've seen that pattern play out in all these states where santorum wins those two things according to exit polls but romney wins the people who want to beat barack obama. there were just fewer of those type of people that showed up. >> woodruff: mill mil mitt md superior organizions and endorsers. >> he had surrogates about him. the romney super pack, the super pack that's backing him is not aligned with the campaign, r

with hari sreenivasan and christina bellantoni having a live chat and taking your questions. you can participate in the conversation using your facebook or twitter account. find all this on our front door at newshour.pbs.org. be sure to check out the baran new pbs political web page at pbs.org where you will find our work and the work of our pbs program partners. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour, minority students facing harsher discipline; cultural awareness training for marines; cash incentives for rough play; plus, mark shields and michael gerson. but first, with the other news of the day, here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: president obama took on his republican opponents today, on foreign policy, gas prices and other issues. he spoke a white house news conference called to coincide with super tuesday. newshour correspondent kwame holman has our report. >> reporter: at times the president took a tongue in cheek approach to his challengers on their big day. >> today is super tuesday. i wonder if you might weigh in on some of our potential republican opponents.

on the political checklist, gwen and i speak with political editor christina bellantoni about the types of republican voters that mitt romney and rick santorum are courting in ohio. viewers' guide to our special viewers' guide to our special super tuesday coverage, on air and online. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. >. i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.w