in the east and the race in ohio is over. mitt romney an apparent winner after a close race that has taken all night. that is the race that we will be tracking throughout the night. romney winning a slim victory over rick santorum in ohio. more results now. in tennessee, rick santorum is the projected winner of the tennessee republican primary, and rick santorum also the newt gingrich is the projected winner in his home state of georgia and the two man race by the way, romney is the projected winner over ron paul, and newt gingrich and rick santorum did not make it on to the ballot. and timely in the green mountain state, mitt romney is the projected winner. and howard fineman, i love to get this from you, because you are a bottom line guy, and reporting all night. in addition to the bottom line where it looks like santorum had a good night winning three of this coming in where it looked like impressive wins and close loss up there in ohio, what else happened tonight? >> well, what happened tonight, chris, is that the notion

santorum, gingrich is out of the race. , if he starts marching and wins all of these, okay, now look what's happening? he's getting closer. he's closing the gap. can he win all these? he would like the two-man race, but that's how you catch mitt romney. if santorum is not in the race, then you move on here. i'm going to give -- santorum can win nebraska, romney doing well out west, and gingrich is not in the race now, this is a two-way hypothetical scenario. he's winning in the south and the border states. kentucky and arkansas going to santorum. texas goes to santorum. uh-oh in team romney, flare starting to see something like that, and then you have a real race. this is why there's pressure on gingrich to get out. then you get here, and new jersey, let's leave it in the romney column, we come out here, i think that's feasible, right? that's how this becomes so important, because under this scenario, if california and new jersey stay romney, even with gingrich out of the race -- >> still not there. >> utah, just shy. just

>> yeah, and i think that if you look at the race right now, the spending advantage, it doesn't help -- it doesn't help rick santorum to be outspent for sure, but it's also not debilitating to him in terms of being able to win these races. and as you move now forward into what's really effectively going to become a two-person race, an ideological contest with rick santorum running as the conservative candidate, it pulls mitt romney into these situations, for example, where he's defining conservativism on issues like funding for planned parenthood which expose, in my view, romney's biggest vulnerability in the race, his lack of authenticity. so his winning this ideological contest has the ability to pull mitt romney into a weak position to make the argument that he needs to make. >> in terms of authenticity being the issue there, steve, from a republican's perspective -- from a professional republican's perspective, is it true -- i mean, it looks to me as a liberal that when romney tries to say santorum is too liberal for me on abortion rights, it's a laugh-out-loud moment. it makes ro

even with newt still in the race? >> well, yes, i think so. i think what it shows, chris, the modern republican party as you know was built out of the south. it is built on and out of the south. and mitt romney has very little if any connection to it. he won in virginia by default because the other guys weren't in the race. only ron paul was in the race. as you know, mitt romney did not win the northern part of florida. you know, he has got to show somewhere that he can touch that southern base but i don't necessarily see him doing it. by the way, one thing that rick santorum did in ohio that put romney on his heels a little bit was to get at the health care issue in a way that really hadn't gotten any traction before. the reason the health care issue is so deadly for mitt romney with the base is that it goes both at the tea party fear of big government, the secular fear of big government, and at the religious base of the party who is worried about the health care bill imposing values on religious people in terms of how they must behave. if ric

the immediate news. i want to reconfirm, we expect to have these races continue. we expect to draw an hour large people around the bay area to see this race. it continues to be a race that will blend of technology of how you view the race, how the votes are outfitted with information and technology coming from the race itself and welcoming in the new generation that will be able to see this for the first time from the shore, waterfront, in new ways that have yet to be announced. not getting ahead of ourselves. it will also involve a new generation of people that will appreciate the fast sailing sport, the youth that we think will be excited about this race and future races to come. this is where we wanted to be. this is where we want to confirm the excitement that this gives to our city, a city that is not only dependent but thrives on tourism and events of international stature, as the america's cup is all about. i look forward to getting on one of those ac-45's. i think you have convinced me. i need to feel the speed on that. that will happen shortly. i will make

in the east and the race in ohio is over. mitt romney an apparent winner after a close race that has taken all night. that is the race that we will be tracking throughout the night. romney winning a slim victory over rick santorum in ohio. in tennessee, rick santorum is the projected winner of the tennessee republican primary, and rick santorum also the projected winner oklahoma, and also the projected winner the north dakota caucuses. in the idaho caucuses, mitt romney won a decisive victory. in massachusetts, mitt romney is the winner. nbc news has allocated all of that state's delegates to romney, the former governor. newt gingrich is the projected winner in his home state of georgia and the two man race by the way, romney is the projected winner over ron paul, and newt gingrich and rick santorum did not make it on to the ballot. and timely in the green mountain state, mitt romney is the projected winner. and howard fineman, i love to get this from you, because you are a bottom line guy, and reporting all night. in additio

in the east and the race in ohio is over. mitt romney an apparent winner after a close race that has taken all night. that is the race that we will be tracking throughout the night. romney winning a slim victory over rick santorum in ohio. in tennessee, rick santorum is the projected winner of the tennessee republican primary, and rick santorum also the projected winner oklahoma, and also the projected winner the north dakota caucuses. in the idaho caucuses, mitt romney won a decisive victory. in massachusetts, mitt romney is the winner. nbc news has allocated all of that state's delegates to romney, the former governor. newt gingrich is the projected winner in his home state of georgia and the two man race by the way, romney is the projected winner over ron paul, and newt gingrich and rick santorum did not make it on to the ballot. and timely in the green mountain state, mitt romney is the projected winner. and howard fineman, i love to get this from you, because you are a bottom line guy, and reporting all night. in additio

and check the points. three races through the nascar sprint cup season with tony stewart pulling in to victory lane. >>> promotional considerations provided by -- >> chris: live in las vegas, and nascar's defending champion. the three-time champ holding up one of the kobalt tools from the kobalt tools 400 victory, as we check the sprint cup point standings. three races through. biffle is your leader now for the first time since 2005. that he is leading the points championship.as had three third place finishes. maybe should go to the roulette table and put something down on three. >> what about tony stewart? already won, he has never been this hot this early in the season. other guys might want to watch out. >> chris: dale earnhardt jr. fourth in points currently. let's check in with him. he is with steve byrnes. >> steve: dale earnhardt jr., led a lot of laps out front. how would you describe your afternoon? >> well, when we were fast, leading the race, the car was

on the east coast, and the race we have been watching in ohio is too close to call. it is former pennsylvania senator rick santorum with a one-point lead over mitt romney right now with 86% of the vote in. it is very, very close. a difference of just over 3,000 votes with 86% of the vote in. in idaho, the caucuses are under w way, and no characterization of the race in idaho yet. now, to some of the races we have already called. in north dakota, rick santorum is the projected winner of the caucuses in north dakota, and mr. santorum is the projected winner tennessee and the projected winner in oklahoma. mitt romney the projected winner of his home state of massachusetts and nbc news has allocated all of the massachusettsegates to mitt romney who is the former governor of massachusetts. and the strange two-man race where the virginia republican party set such strict rules to get on the ballot that in the strange, strange decision by virginians that effectively took them off of the primary map this year, mitt romney is the projected winner the two-man race over ron paul.

that's how we get back in the race. if we can get a one-on-one, we have seen in the states where we have had one-on-ones, we have done well. >> why not come out and say what your super pac said, and that's that you want gingrich out? >> i am not going to tell people to get in or out of the race. i did not ask gingrich to get in and i will not ask him to get out. >> certainly an advantage for the president who is making the case of the economic recovery, and this is how the ap put it. the united states added 227,000 jobs in february again surprising economists with the breath and braun of the economic recovery, the country put together the strongest three months of pure job growth since the great recession, and those numbers, if you take a look since december of job creation, the pure number of jobs, it's at 734,000 jobs. is your point in this campaign to say, i can do a better job of accelerating that recovery, and if so how? >> absolutely. just look at the energy sector alone, and the jobs that can allow for exploration

it was radical to win the race. ey went to australia, because they had the right to select where they had the race. the place was called fremantle. i was in fremantle in 1969. it was a backwater port where the ships would pull in, both cargo and passenger, to refuel and replenish supplies. i went back again after the race a few years ago with my daughter. let me tell you, that town, that city is a gorgeous city now. it has got beautiful shops, parks, bars, entertainment places, just everything. this was only because the america's cup was held there. i urge you to vote in support of this event. thank you very much. president chiu: thank you very much. next speaker. >> david, founder and president of a business related service. i have had the business and privilege of touring oracle racing with a few of my disabled sailors, thanks to a presentation by mr. stephen barkley. i have also perform a lot of work with the united states air force at one of them strategic air force bases in the world. i have seen raptors and bom

we reiterated our excitement about the race. it is on for this year for the smaller boats, next year for the larger ones, and we do expect hundreds of thousands of people to come to our city. we have figured out, through the work of the event authority and host committees, all the different plans we have to use properly our open space, transportation lines, making sure we create positive then use. i want to let you know about the change in investment and topic this course is a very key reminder of how sensitive we have to be to this whole dialogue about investment. it can go different ways. the thing that i need to make sure we do at the board of supervisors, mayor's office, keep a strong foundation for economic growth in this city, keep talking to audiences like you and others who can help us, talking to neighborhoods, making sure the dialogue understands and job creation is still in the misdirection. this whole theme today, prosperity together, sharing it, is consistent with what i have been saying throughout the city. we are t

because the whole shape of this race, the whole tenor of this race going-forward is going to be determinedtes 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

it seems to be the strangest race in the world. no matter how many races we have it doesn't seem to seem like anything we've had before. they just can't put their face into this guy and kiss him. they just can't do it. >> i hear you except, you know, you got to give him his due. we said he had to win ohio. he won ohio. we said he had to win a majority of the delegates. he won a majority of the delegates. he does have a delegate lead that if somehow santorum pulled this off, he would do something that no presidential candidate in the modern history of how we do this process over the last 40 years has been able to do. so he is a commanding front-runner now. now all that said, i think that what you are seeing here and the conservative press, what you are seeing among other republicans is they can't believe that a guy who is this sort of -- has this sort of lack of a core base conservative enthusiasm, which clearly that is there. i mean, you know, even in ohio, we saw that. how he's going to be the standard bearer for 2012. i think that

of course, the race is sold out, but because the race is now open to everybody, if you prepare, take your time, do their training, you can come out and have good time with 22,000 of your closest friends. >> reporter: i love it because i've been at the back of the pack, so i salute that as well. again we'll have our coverage on wusa9 live saturday morning 8:00 to 11 a.m. with mike hydek and andrea roane bringing you the rock and roll marathon. back to you guys. >> kneel have a great time with lots of pa -- they'll have a great time with lots of great folks. is the weather going to cooperate? >> it's going to be dry and mainly in the 60s when you run. >> would it have been a little warm if folks tried to run earlier today? >> a little bit. we broke some records. we might as well. we write the record book, right? 82 at national, breaking the old record high of 81 and 84 at dulles breaking the old record of 82, both records set in 1990. that was the week we had four consecutive records in the 80s and when the cherry blossoms actually blossomed on this day back in 1990. we've had three co

he vows to stay in the race. ters of santorum's super pac say it's time for gingrich to get out. in a statement today to the red, white, and blue fund the santorum fund says, quote, based on his electoral performance last night and his out of step record it is time for newt gingrich to exit the nominating process. but the gingrich campaign comes right back at them. a gingrich aide says, quote, in turn, we can make the same argument. the worst part of santorum's analysis is he doesn't realize he is splitting the moderate vote with romney. i have no idea what that means. i'm taking sides now. with neither santorum nor gingrich backing down neither will get a chance to go one-on-one against mitt romney. our guest is a chief strategist for the santorum campaign and deedee meyers former clinton white house press secretary. you're in this fight. this newt gingrich obnoxiousness of saying you're a moderate, what twinkie on his campaign thinks he gets away with calling your guy a moderate? a single person watching this sh

the second group is hispanics. this race has been defined by some very harsh rhetoric about immigration. the future of the republican party, if it is to grow in the coming decades, their base of older white shirt voters is not growing. -- whiter voters is not growing. the future for them like in the latino vote. the poll numbers right now for republicans among the latino vote, a very weak. on a couple of key demographics that the republican party needs, this primary has not been good for them. >> it will be interesting to see if they can win those voters back. back from here in washington in just a while but more on super tuesday. for the moment, let's go back to london. >> we are live from washington and london. still to come, prince harry on the world's fastest man. let's take a brief look at some of the stories making headlines. we begin with the financial times and its headline -- the u.s. and five other world powers have agreed to reopen negotiations with iran over its nuclear program. cathay pacific will hire 400 groun

rick santorum has a chance to reset the race. see what happens in the next week or ten days. the underdog given the tea party and the obama campaign. i one, two, three inning we may get another prize. >> any change in strategy from mitt romney? >> he has been steady eddie and they believed in their strategy from the get go and that was like five years ago. they haven't changed much. they are convinced that they are going to get this. and they believe the kind of standoffish from the media most of the team or at least controlled media events and believe he has been doing fine. i think it's a recipe for june. >> thank you for cheering us up. you can argue math all you want. the romney campaign is arguing. presidential campaigns are not just about math. they are about passion and what you believe. they are about who you believe in. mitt romney has yet to find a way to make that base believe in him. >> still have fun to go. next sunday is puerto rico and next tuesday is illinois and it goes on and on and on. >> i love it when territor

this is what we've been talking about since the beginning of the race. i can remember polls in the start of 2011 where you'd start adding up whether it was trump or huckabee or palin. we'd add up the conservative tea party evangelical vote and look at romney and say, wow, if they could ever coalesce around one candidate, maybe that would do mitt romney. they've never been able to do that. here we're seeing for the first time, illinois will be the test of this i think, the opportunity for conservatives to coalesce around one alternative, rick santorum, to have one clear shot at romney in illinois. i wonder in adelson looks at that and says, maybe i don't want my guy in the sideline. >> sure, i don't want to call to question in exactly this way. it's fascinating. steve kornacki, senior writer with salon.com and msnbc political analyst. yay. we're all very excited about. steve, thank you. >> sure. >>> not a lot of talk among alabama and mississippi republicans tonight about voter fraud in these primaries. that's funny because voter fraud has been freaking re

despite calls for him to get out of the race he says he's in the race. and he'll stay in the race. nior national correspondent john roberts is in louisiana site of the rick santorum celebration, on the way to puerto rico. good evening, john. >> yes. the party is over here, but this was really a big night for rick santorum. he'd been trailing in all poll goesing into this primary and didn't think he was going to do well. he was circumspect. then, he is going to get a lot of delegates out of this. so will newt gingrich. i managed to speak to him on his way to catching that plane to puerto rico. and i said to him, in you're speech tonight you said it's time now for conservatives to unite to get behind one conservative candidate, propel that person to nomination. i said is it time for newt gingrich to get out? he told me that he doesn't, he's not calling on newt gingrich to do anything but calling on voters and the rest of the primary states to get behind conservative candidate. his contention, bret if newt gingrich would not a factor woe get the majority of newt gingrich's supporters a

we called it, two men on the race, not under 50. the question does he win one congressional district? the other thing is in georgia, 20% is threshold to get a delegate. so, as you're watching returns come in, worth watching to see, can santorum or romney, can they make threshold then that's when they can start racking up delegates. let's have a delegate conversation. ohio, as we have told you, 63 delegates. why have we already projected mitt romney to win the delegates no matter what happens tonight? because look at these districts in red here. these are those three districts, the 6th, 9th and xiiiixth and - 13th are rick santorum didn't file rates. you had to vote for your statewide preference for the statewide delegates and then you voted a second time for the group of delegates in your congressional district. there was no second time to vote. if i had the rest of the country here connected, what's interesting about the sixth congressional district, rachel,s's what connects to western pennsylvania. this district is almost a sure be

here is where the race stands right now. mitt romney's win in massachusetts is his tenth victory of the campaign. you can see his wins marked in green. mr. santorums in purple, mr. gingrich's in orange. those are the states that mitt romney has won, massachusetts, vermont, virginia, washington state, arizona, michigan, maine, nevada, florida and new hampshire. chris, too close to call right now in tennessee, too close to call right now in oklahoma. >> those are two states -- >> too early. >> it will keep him in the race if santorum wins. if he can't win in ohio he can't win the nomination but he can stay in it. >> a close race in ohio is not enough to keep rick santorum viable? >> it's close in ohio i'm guessing he'll win the other two states, that means he has had a good night. it's been a process of between, of romney search and destroy, finds the states he needs to win i'm looking at numbers, 96% of his spending on restore our future, his super pac has been negative. it is not to sell him it's to destroy opponents. this wi

the big ties to the gop race for the white house. after michigan, can mitt romney build on the lead and solidify himself as the presome thattive nominee. >>> can santorum win ohio and chart a course to the nomination. can newt gingrich win his home state of georgia as he tries to emerge as the romney alternative? with us, newt gingrich, and eric cantor will weigh into the nomination fight, and with the view from the democrats, debbie wasserman schultz. and plus our political roundtable this morning, what to look for on tuesday, and the president's emerging campaign. on the road, looking under the hood, and fighting f middle class votes. >> i place my bet on the american worker! and i will make that bet any day of the week. with us, republican strategist, mike murphy, and a political analysts for "time" magazine, al paw rins, and savannah guthrie. >>> the republican race is coming down to a battle for delegates, and mitt romney is in the lead winning his fifth straight contest last night in washington state. final results show mom reb