let's go to jim acosta. he's covering the campaign in ohio. night is heading for santorum in ohio. we heard from one of the senior advisers for the santorum campaign. he said the santorums are getting ready to leave their war om here in steubenville, ohio. it was the high school weight room, as the campaign told us earlier this evening. but they were in that war room earlier tonight, watching the returns come in. alice stewart, the press secretary tweeted out a picture of santorum watching the votes come in. earlier, not too long before the announcement, we were told by alice stewart, that santorum, there was a possibility he could come out here later tonight and talk about what is happening here in ohio. they advised us to keep the camera focused on the podium behind me just in case, but now they're telling me that's not going to happen. rick santorum will not be making another speech here. they're heading home to get some rests. >> jim acosta in steubenville, ohio. looks like the santorums are leaving the high school over there. let's go bac

jim acosta spoke with him awhile ago. jim, quite the news making interview. what did the senator tell you? >> well, you know, brooke, seems we have to ask him this question every three or four months because we have to, but his endorsement of mitt romney sort of brings the subject back up. obviously this is something talked about in republican circles that he would bring a lot to a republican ticket. he could potentially help mitt romney win the state of florida which would seriously hurt the president's reelection chances. we had a chance to catch up with mark rubio on the hill earlier today in between his meeting and votes and asked him what do you think? what's your latest response on this, senator? here is what he had to say. >> last year you said under no circumstances would you appear on the ticket this year. >> my answer hasn't changed. i know people keep asking. >> under no circumstances. >> i won't not vice president. >> i don't know if you noticed that, brooke. i asked him a couple of times about this interview that he gave to meet the press last ye

jim acosta, what was the celebration there? there was a little surprise.emed to have downplayed expectations. >> you are right about that. when ick santorum said we did it again, cheers went up and later on in the speech, we talked about how he did not see one poll showing him winning this contest and this results in the deep south even surprised the santorum campaign. i caught up with him for a few moments and if anyone noticed, he was hoarse tonight. he is recovering for a cold. the next big question is what happens to newt gingrich. if gingrich was not in the race tonight, santorum might have had him wire margins over mitt romney. i asked rick santorum do you think speaker gingrich should get out of the race? here's what he had to say. >> do you think newt gingrich should dropout, senator? do you think speaker gingrich should dropout of the race? >> it would be great if anybody dropped out. . >> clearly you would have won by a wider margin had the speaker not been in. >> you have to play with the cards you have. >> you hear rick santorum say you have to

our national political correspondent jim acosta is following mitt romney. jim, what are you hearing from the romney campaign? what's their realistic objective come tuesday? >> reporter: well, their realistic objective come tuesday is to win as many delegates as possible. and that is what this campaign is about right now. and it's about delegates, delegates, delegates. we're standing outside of a romney event in bellevue, washington, just outside of seattle where the romney campaign put out these flyers instructing caucusgoers in the state on how to participate in their caucuses on saturday and basically because it's all about winning as many delegates as possible. the romney campaign advisers were telling reporters over the last several days that they're not only focusing on individual states, they're looking at individual congressional districts inside those states because as we all know, a lot of these states that are going to be voting on super tuesday will be allocating their delegates on a proportional basis and on a basis that is driven largely by thes

jim acosta is watching it unfold for us in san juan. you had the opportunity to see both of these candidates, jim. >> reporter: that's right, candy, and it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out, because naturally mitt romney has been given sort of the advantage here in puerto rico. s' got the endorsement of this territory's governor, luis fortunio but the governor welcomed senator santorum to the island when he arrived earlier this beak. i have to tell you what everybody is talking about here on this island is this language controversy that flared up when rick santorum talked to a puerto rican newspaper and said that the territory's adoption of english as one of its main languages would be sort of a condition for statehood. that immediately created a backlash, one of santorum's delegates announced he was withdrawing his support for the former pennsylvania senator, and then on his way out of the island, rick santorum said, well, he really didn't mean that. what he really meant is he wants english and spanish to be the main l

jim acosta is at santorum's headquarters in lafayette, louisiana. the pressure is on for santorum to prove it is not the heartland of the country where he does well, but the deep south. how confident is the campaign feeling tonight? >> i would say that they are more cautious than confident tonight, erin. the santorum campaign is looking at two bad scenarios that could come into play later on this evening when the votes come in which is romney winning both of the states tonight or gingrich winning both of the states tonight which would be a huge momentum drag for rick santorum, and also deny him the opportunity to gain on mitt romney in the delegate count which is desperately what he needs to do this evening, and that is why earlier this evening when rick santorum was on a conservative talk radio program called for newt gingrich to get out of the race. one thing, erin, i am watching is how the evangelical vote plays out for rick santorum. keep in mind, he did better than expected in oklahoma and tennessee where the evangelical vote was a major factor

let's check in with jim acosta, he's following mitt romney. he's in cincinnati, ohio right now. d it go for romney on this day, jim? >> wolf, signs of confidence from the romney campaign. i can tell you that this evening. just a few moments before mitt romney addressed this crowd in cincinnati earlier this evening. he handed the microphone over to his wife ann who told his wife they were feeling confident about what's happening in washington state. that's not something the candidate's wife does when there might be a razor-thin margin. that is one sign that they're feeling pretty good about. then also, we saw mitt romney who sort of returned to a pattern that we've seen in the past when they've been feeling good before a big contest. he did not talk a lot about rick santorum today. he really went after president obama. at one point at an event earlier today, wolf, mitt romney asked how president obama can sleep at night with all of the turmoil that is now going on in afghanistan and a few moments ago, inside this room here in cincinnati, he talked about the president's economic re

jim acosta, the center is not in illinois. he's home in pennsylvania, that's the battleground next month. what is the expectation? just the other day if you give me an upset in illinois that changes everything. >> reporter: i think john that the fact that the santorum campaign is holding its primary night party in gettysburg, pennsylvania s a sign they don't feel particularly good about illinois. they probably would be in the state if they thought they would be doing well tonight and as we know illinois is sort of an upstate/downstate equation and it just doesn't seem like there's going to be enough support for senator santorum to put him over the top. there's another sign that things aren't going to be going well tonight for the santorum campaign. they held a conference call on the delegate math earlier today. we've seen the romney campaign do that when that particular primary day might not have been going in the direction and we're seeing the same thing from the santorum camp today and frankly, john, they said on the confere

jim acosta, more questions athe en. one question to try to clean it up. let's go back to the brighter part of governor romney's day, the jeb bush endorsement, one former governor. it sends a signal greater than that. >> an important former governor, very popular in the party. somebody who chose not to endorse around the florida primary, waited. so the question that you have to ask is, is this the beginning of other establishment figures to fall in line for mitt romney? how much it matters remains to be seen. is this the start of something? will that help mitt romney make the case that rick santorum, as you showed so well on the board, is he just a spoiler here, trying to keep romney from getting to that election? >> all these people that talk about an open election, they said, maybe jeb bush or chris christie would be our candidate? they are both for mitt romney. >> all on board. train is leaving the station. get on now. >> that's a personnel way to look ait. let's look at some math, mitt romney has about 562 of the 1144 delegates you need to clinch. sena

jim acosta is live at rick santorum's headquarters right now in lafayette. jim acosta, what was the -- i guess, the celebration there. there was a bit of surprise. they seemed to have down played expectations coming into this. >> you're right about that, erin. when rick santorum said we did it again. cheers went up in this room. then later on in his speech he talked about how he did not see one poll in mississippi that showed him winning this contest tonight. and so i think this results in the deep south even surprised the santorum campaign. hi a chance to catch up with the former pennsylvania senator after his speech here for just a few moments. if anybody noticed rick santorum sounding hoarse tonight, that's because he's recovering from a cold. the next question for this campaign is what happens to newt gingrich. if gingrich had not been in the race tonight, santorum might have had wider margins over romney. i asked rick santorum do you think speaker gingrich should get out of the race? here's what he had to say. >> do you think newt gingrich should drop o

jim acosta tried to ask him and he didn't take the question.rt and you don't get into the middle of it but on the other hand you have to say something. >> no, you don't. >> you disagree? there are a lot of conservative voters who might agree. >> the key here, rush has made this point, contraception is not an issue. it is cheap and available across the country and my 30 some, 40 years in politics i have never heard a woman say to me, i can't go to the right because they're going to take away my birth control pill. this is created out of thin cloth because the democrats know that if they go in the general election and the issues are what they are today, which is clearly the economy, jobs, outrageous spending, they will know that they have a failed candidate on their hands because he has failed the american people on these key issues. so they are coming up and have created another issue that they can throw out there and say, look, frighten women to think we are way right wipg, we actually even come into consider this. this issue has never been par

. >> jim acosta is over at the santorum head quart es and rick santorum is calling for newt gingrich to get out, jim. >> basically that is right, anderson. the santorum campaign is saying the opposite of what joe was talking about a moment ago. and joe braybender, a senior strategist came out to brief the supporters and saying if newt gingrich got out of the race, we could go one-on-one with mitt romney and beat him in a lot of the contests and if newt gingrich were not in michigan, they could have won michigan and when they took out mitt romney one-on-one, they won like in the state of missouri. they feel they can win in different parts of the country. colorado out west, and minnesota, and iowa in the midwest, and they feel like because oft record, they should stay in and newt gingrich should drop out, but not surprisingly, but that is the spin from the santorum campaign tonight. one other thing is that the campaign aide said they had organizational difficulties, but starting to rectify them, because he said that they are the macgyver campaign and by the end of night, they don't want

>> jim acosta in san juan. >>> more politics back here on the mainland. a sharper higher profile campaign mode for both president obama and vice-president joe biden. tonight the obama re-election campaign premieres a new 17-minute video pointing to what his people, the obama team, as the biggest accomplishments of the president's first term. today in ohio vice-president biden went after the top republican contenders by name. >> economic theories of gingrich, santorum and romney. they are bankrupt. if you give any one of these guys the keys to the white house, they will bankrupt the middle class again. >> let's check in with our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. jess, why name names now? >> reporter: i've talked to multiple senior democratic sources on this one, john. the answer's pretty simple. they thought that there would be a republican nominee by now. the folks i've talked to say that in addition to that they planned this a few weeks ago. not only did they think there would be a nominee but they ultimately decide the they can't wait unti

>> jim acosta at santorum headquarters in ohio right now. joe johns is covering newt gingrich's campaign in atlanta. joe, he's likely to win all the polls show he's doing really well in his home state of georgia. but what's his strategy beyond tonight? >> reporter: well for the first thing i think you have to say, wolf, they see a path to the nomination still. that path runs through the south. it goes through states like mississippi, through alabama, onto texas. of course, georgia is certainly critical in that strategy. newt gingrich saying he expects to win the majority of the delegates and do very well here tonight. listen to him from earlier today. >> we're going to carry georgia by a big margin tonight. we're going to do much better than people expected in a number of states. [ cheers and applause ] >> it turns out the american people like positive ideas and positive solutions. and the american people like proposals that give them a better future, that create jobs and help create a better future. and so i think for the third time we're g

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let me get to jim acosta standing in the location where we just saw rick santorum repeat those words, barack obama is mitt romney. he is not backing down from this, jim acosta, and it sounds like he's not backing down from what he said to "the new york times" either. he's looking at that as an advantage, that you take out a "new york times" reporter. >> reporter: that's right, ashleigh. unlike those previous gaffes your guests just mentioned, rick santorum is now fund-raising off of those comments that he made to "the new york times." it goes to show you the santorum campaign isn't shrinking from what happened out on the campaign trail yesterday. they're quite proud of it. and getting back to this argument against mitt romney. this is something that santorum has been saying throughout the combine. that because mitt romney brought about health care reform in massachusetts that included an individual mandate, that mandate that is people buy health insurance as a -- basically as a requirement for being in that state and the fact that that was brought into the president's health care law

cnn's national political correspondent jim acosta is joining us now from georgetown university wherea speech. what's the latest? >> reporter: wolf, that's right. newt gingrich is getting ready to talk to students here at orangetown university within the hour. it is a sign that his campaign is not over, but it is different. his campaign advisers say the campaign is getting leaner, but not meaner. newt gingrich, who once welcomed the tag grandiose is downsizing his staff, but he insists he's not shrinking away. >> it's exactly why we're downsizin downsizing. and it's for the same reason gingrich is charging his supporters $50 to have his picture taken with them? >> it's part of the reality and the tax flow is lower than we'd like it to be, and we're doing appropriate things to be able to campaign. >> hours to cut back on his staff, he told reporters he was staying in the race. should mitt romney fall short of the 844 delegates needed to clench the nomination. >> that's why you voted for people other than romney. >> the former speaker softened his rhetoric on his one-time nemesis. >> i

. >> jim acosta is over at the santorum head quart es and rick santorum is calling for newt gingrich to get out, jim. >> basically that is right, anderson. the santorum campaign is saying the opposite of what joe was talking about a moment ago. and joe braybender, a senior strategist came out to brief the supporters and saying if newt gingrich got out of the race, we could go one-on-one with mitt romney and beat him in a lot of the contests and if newt gingrich were not in michigan, they could have won michigan and when they took out mitt romney one-on-one, they won like in the state of missouri. they feel they can win in different parts of the country. colorado out west, and minnesota, and iowa in the midwest, and they feel like because oft record, they should stay in and newt gingrich should drop out, but not surprisingly, but that is the spin from the santorum campaign tonight. one other thing is that the campaign aide said they had organizational difficulties, but starting to rectify them, because he said that they are the macgyver campaign and by the end of night, they don't want

here's our national political correspondent jim acosta. remlin knows how to listen, wolf. with this open mic episode, they thought they caught the president in its own etch a sketch moment until the contender created a whole new controversy. >> after my election i have more flexibility. >> in frz's open mic moment with russian president dmitry medvedev, mitt romney saw an opening and the question is whether the gop front-runner missed it. >> this is to rush a it is without question, our number one geopolitical foe. the idea that our president is planning on doing something with them that he's not willing to tell the american people before the election is something they find very, very alarming. >> reporter: alarm bells also rang on capitol hill where house speaker sounded as if romney needed a lesson in washington protocol. >> i think it's appropriate that people not be critical of him or of our country. >> as for romney's number one geopolitical foe comment, it didn't take long for that to transmit back to the russian president. >> it is v

i want to check in with jim acosta. jim, what are you hearing from the campaign tonight? >> well, john brabender came in here a few moments ago and was talking to reporters. it's interesting to hear the conversation that you're talking about. i think -- i have a feeling what the santorum campaign could say. they're looking at the returns come in from chicago and the rest of illinois. they're looking at the exit polls. and brabender said we expected to have mitt romney do well on the counties around chicago. just as he did well, the santorum campaign says in massachusetts. the words moderate and massachusetts came up when brabender were talking to reporters a moment ago. i think you'll hear more of that. this banner over my shoulder we have not seen much in this campaign. it's sort of a new banner tonight. it reads in one word freedom. yesterday we heard rick santorum going after mitt romney accusing him of abandoned freedom and going after health care reform with that individual mandate in massachusetts. we're hearing from the santorum campaign tonight that rick santorum

jim acosta is traveling with romney right now. o about the senate rejecting bush -- romney spoke about that earlier today. what's the latest? >> just to set up why he's coming out west, mitt romney needs to win as much as possible out west. he was in north dakota and idaho earlier today. he's coming to washington state right 2340u. this state has its caucuses on saturday, but getting back to that amendment, mitt romney was asked about that issue every step along the way, and just to refresh our viewers on all of this he was asked about the amendment which would have basically -- and. >> to put it simply, he wasn't very blunt. >> i'm in favorite of the blunt amendment. >> reporter: what happened to -- >> yeah, absolutely. >> he said he could elaborate, but opted not to, perhaps because perhaps because the campaign wants to get back on message. >> i think -- listen to how mitt romney talked about how important it is to win the state of idaho, to win the state of i just to pick up states or delegates in idaho when he was at an event i

jim acosta on the scene for us, as he always is. let's dig deeper right now with our chief political analyst. are you seeing any evident that mitt romney after two setbacks is now changing a bit of the strategy? i want there is some evidence, clearly evidence his campaign wants him to. take a listen to this interview, and you'll see a change. >> my message of jobs and the economy is what's winning for me. i've got a million more votes from citizens than anyone else in this race. the reason for that is i'm talking about my expertise in the economy and how i'm going to get the economy growing, put people back to work, help people trying to pay for gasoline be able to afford it again. >> so, wolf, while he couldn't resist talking about the math a bit, you see a lot less process in that, you know, he's not saying vote for me, i'm ahead. he's talking about people, and what his campaign is saying to him, stop with the math, start talking about why you got in this race to be president, how you can fix the economy. don't talk about yourself

jim acosta is traveling with the former pennsylvania senator. what's going on in puerto rico, jim?this week's prime yaerp. every delegate counts in this race for the gop nomination. rick santorum was defeated pretty soundly in some of the other territories that have weighed in so that explains weyrich santorum is here. i had a chance to catch up with him to talk about how he's feeling after the big victories in mississippi and alabama, and also about this romney campaign memo that came out earlier today, talking about how rick santorum is basically mathematically out of the race for the gop nomination. he laughed that off. here's what he had to say. >> reporter: hey, senator, how are you doing? i wanted to ask you, the fact that you're in puerto rico, does that sort of underline the performance of how every delegate counts now? >> well, delegates do count. as i said we're campaigning in every state. the only two states we didn't physically campaign in are hawaii and alaska, and i sent my daughter to hawaii. we did pretty well. we were up until 4:00 this morning watching them. we we

our national political correspondent jim acosta is with romney who is holding a town hall meeting outside baltimore. jim, what happened? >> reporter: wolf, as you just mentioned mitt romney is about to hold a town hall meeting just outside of baltimore. the maryland primary is coming up in about a week and a half, but mitt romney can take comfort in the fact that rick santorum's path to the nomination looks sketchy today, but as the romney campaign knows, this race for the gop nomination is not etched in stone. >> thank you. >> reporter: it was as if one of the biggest names in republican party politics was listening to mitt romney's call for unity after the illinois primary. >> join us. join us. >> about 12 hours later former florida governor jeb bush released a statement announcing his endorsement of romney. now is the time for republicans to unite behind governor romney, bush said, and take conservatism and job creation to all voters this fall, but bush's endorsement comes less than a month after he warned a crowd in texas the current republican field was alienating centrist voters. he

>> jim acosta, thank you. what have we learned from the super tuesday results? let's discuss with gloria borger. he won the most states, got the most delegates, but still has certain problems with certain segments of the republican base. >> when you talk to folks on the romney campaign last night, they were feeling great about their win in ohio, even though at the jeffs bi1%, but the win also continued to raise a lot of nagging questions about mitt romney's appeal. let's take -- take a look at the income, 50,000 to 100,000, blue collar republican voters. look at the margin, 11 points between rick santorum and mitt romney. that's a problem for mitt romney. also, let's take a look at very conservative voters in the state of ohio. here you have an even larger 18-point margin. is the problem with mitt romney is that the republican party has changed. it's not even the party he ran on in 2008. it's a more pop you list party, a more insurgent population. and the establishment republican candidates is not the person they were really looking for this time around. >> romn

joining us now are jessica yellin and jim acosta. stake for the president of the united states in this supreme court decision that will come probably sometime in june? >> well, the fate of his signature domestic policy achievement and big krog achievement for the republican nominee if it should be struck down in part or in whole, wolf. it could challenge the president's credibility as a leader and his ability to make good judgments which is what they would no doubt challenge him on. but wolf, i want to, if it were struck down, i want to tell you what administration sources are saying to me in response to some of the reporting that's come out of the court. including from our jeff toobin saying that this has gone badly today for the administration. sources are saying to me that they still believe that this will be upheld because they make the case that when they presented this same case about the individual mandate to lower court very conservative lower court judges, silverman and sutton that they received similar difficult questions,

that's now become a symbol of romney's campaign problems and our national political correspondent jim acostavering the romney campaign for us. the etch a sketch issue not going away so quickly. no surprise that mitt romney's rivals were playing with their etch a sketches today, but the gop front-runner is shaking things up again and lining up key support for his campaign on capitol hill. >> i carry -- i carry one of these around now. >> reporter: it's the gaffe that keeps on giving. rick santorum and newt genning rich can't leave home without one. >> if you're serious about changing washington, d. krchc., can't use an etch a sketch. you can't have a child's toy. >> the issues i'm running on will be exactly the same. >> reporter: romney appeared to be finished wednesday with answering questions about his aide's descriptions about the jenn campaign about everyone a skefrp. >> one question, governor, if you don't mind me sailing. >> it was a chance to respond to the question that i didn't get a chance to respond to. >> the democrats are still toying around. one party activist created the etch a