wednesday. mitt romney racking up six super states, including that classic cliff hanger in ohio. he's kind of talking like it's over, but did he land that knockout blow? >> no. >> if your support really means everything to ann and me, and i'm not going to let you down. i'm going to get this nomination. >> while rick santorum wins three states because mitt romney still cannot convince conservatives that he's the man. we're taking a look at the exit polls. this is my favorite part actually. different numbers are revealing some big problems for the front-runner. christine romans is breaking it all down. she's going to talk about electability and the economy and what folks are saying about that. >> i'm not sure it's my favorite part because the information is so revealing or whether it's christine romans, who's my favorite person. we're going to get to her in a moment. but after taking the most states and the most delegates on super tuesday, mitt romney walking the walk and talking the talk, pretty much looking like the nominee, but all candidates are staying in the race. >> it was too close to call until very early into super wednesday, but romney was able to squeeze out the win over santorum. romney taking ohio, alaska, idaho, massachusetts, and virginia, where neither santorum nor newt gingrich on the ballot. rick santorum taking oklahoma, tennessee, and north dakota. and newt gingrich, as he predicted, won his home state of georgia. >> mitt romney pretty much dominating in two key voting blocs in ohio. dominating in women voters, dominating in catholic voters. those two blocs helping to pro hell him to the narrow victory in ohio. >> what's the updated delegate count? romney 396, santorum 158, gingrich, 153, ron paul, 60. >> all the people behind us who you can sometimes see behind us, they work very hard at us, and it's a very difficult job. the delegate formulas are crazy. it's a moving formula. this is a moving piece. you have to keep your eye on cnn to see how the delegate count changes. extremely long, incredibly close. that's pretty much how things played out in ohio. it's the biggest surprise, kind of. really the biggest psychological prize in the super tuesday conte contest. even before mitt romney won ohio, smiling, glad handing, this guy had already set his sights down the road to the nomination. >> i'm not going to let you down. i'm going to get this nomination. tonight we're doing some counting. we're counting up the delegates for the convention, and it looks good. and we're counting down the days until november, and that looks better. >> as for rick santorum, win or lose ohio, he didn't change his pitch as the outspent underdog overcoming the odds. >> i'm excited to win the race. i'm outspent 12-to-1, and it's great to be in the race. >> the question now becomes where do romney and santorum go from here? and the other two guys way, way back in line. mark preston is live in atlanta. mark preston, the fact you are in atlanta this morning is a problem because i brewed a triple espresso for you because of your very long night, and i'm holding it here for you in new york. so we'll just have to pretend that you're awake. here's my question. the guy wins six states. mitt romney pulls off ohio, and he pulls off six big states in super tuesday, and still we're having this conversation that he hasn't delivered the knockout punch. why? >> because rick santorum actually came out with three big wins. and rick santorum neither has the organization nor the money right now in this race for the republican nomination. although we shouldn't underestimate the fact that mitt romney did have six wins. he did win ohio last night. had he lost ohio -- or i should say had he lost ohio just a couple of hours ago, we would now be talking about how mitt romney would be in trouble for this republican nomination. however, we're talking about how mitt romney is going to try to go on and try to collect delegates and close out this very, very divisive fight for the republican nomination. >> divisive fight, but if you look at the delegate count, romney is a shade below 400. 396 delegate. rick santorum is a long way behind with 158, and then you've got newt and you've got ron paul. to the average guy who doesn't know the arcane and fine points of how the election works, that sort of looks like he's got all the momentum and he's on the move, and it's a fait accompli, but it isn't, is it? >> no. because you need 1,400 delegates to secure the nomination. while super tuesday is important, we're looking ahead to kansas, who is already holding caucuses, and on to next tuesday where mississippi and alabama will be holding primaries. as we talk now, we have the candidates setting up their days to look forward to the contest. we're going to see rick santorum in kansas for an event, and he's going to move over to mississippi to try to secure support in those two states. meanwhile, newt gingrich is going to be in four events in alabama. let's not forget while newt gingrich won georgia last night, he was unable to win tennessee. he's talked about a southern strategy for his path to the nomination. who's not on the campaign trail? mitt romney. he's going to be raising money in boston. and ron paul, who has yet to win a contest, is also on the cnot campaign trail. >> i feel like raising money is on the campaign trail because you have to put on a happy face for that too. i'm still waiting to find out who the southern son is, whether it's newt gingrich or rick santorum. >> it is six minutes past the hour. to the big prize, ohio goes to mitt romney but barely. >> a bit of a squeaker, folks. here's the final tally if you had to go to sleep before it was over. buckeye state, mitt romney with 38% of the vote. rick santorum edging in right next door with 37% of the vote. newt gingrich getting completely trounced at 15%. and ron paul was doing what ron paul does best, he comes in last a lot, but he comes in with really good statements about it and sounds real positive going forward. >> he's always fun. christine romans is breaking down the exit polling for us. how did ohio play out the way that it did? >> ladies, there's three numbers about ohio that are important. 63 delegate thes at risk. 7.9 unemployment rate. and one-quarter of all homes under water. these are the exit polls. we asked more than 20 questions of people in ohio as they were leaving. you can see from the faces on the screen who was winning what. you see a lot of romney and a lot of santorum. talk about top candidate quality and who's the best to beat the president. we'll start with electability. who can be the president? of those who said that was the top quality, who can beat the president, 52% chose mitt romney. 27% went for santorum. let's talk about the top issue. i'm actually a little surprised by this one. of those who said the economy is the top issue, 41% said romney. 33% went for santorum. a little more narrow of a distinction than i would have thought simply because mitt romney has such a long history in business, right i want to take a look at how it broke down depending on how much money you make. what your income was and how that affected how you are likely to vote. let's pull this out in a pie chart format. like we've seen in a lot of places, the more money you make, the more likely in ohio they were to go for mitt romney. as you go down the income ladder, rick santorum starts to appeal to people. they call these lunch bucket democrats. people who make right in the middle. now they call them sam's club republicans. this new breed of republican, middle or lower income republican who seems to be voting more for santorum. 37% for those who make less than $50,000 a year. a lot of states, ladies. sit tight. we're going to go through the numbers. >> lunch bucket. >> have you heard that? lunch bucket democrats, sam's club republicans. every election season, there's new labels, soccer moms, angry moms. >> why not costco? why sam's club? >> because the costco income is $90,000 on average. >> the things you learn. i love this, christine. >> it's sad these numbers come exploding out of my mouth like that. >> you are creepy. >> but so a costco republican would have a higher income probably. that's interesting. thanks. >> nine minutes past the hour here. this was not the outcome the romney camp was hoping for. rivals rick santorum and newt gingrich doing more than enough to extend this race. >> we survived the national elite's effort to kill us in the summer because of you, because people who said we are not going to allow the elite to decide who we are going to nominate. >> we have won the west, the midwest, and the south, and we're ready to win across this country. >> everybody still sounding the same. let's talk to our panelists live from chicago. we have conservative commendator lenny mcallister, and live from san diego cnn.com contributor ruben navarrete. thank you, gentlemen, for joining us this morning. lenny, i'm going to start with you because you're all atwitter over our conversations. we've been talking about your predictions. you just tweeted. romney got seven states. i'm off by one. will she give me hell about being off by one on national television? you betcha i'm going to. but i'm also going to deal with your predictions. before the election, you said, if romney won convincingly in virginia, this would be over. 60% of the vote to ron paul's 40%. this does not sound convincing, though. you say the republican establishment is biting their nails. explain. >> they're biting their nails because i feel he needed to be closer to the mid-60s in order to signal to the rest of the country that, listen, when there's two people on the ballot, the romney sentiment is a lot stronger than the non-romney send itiment. if you look at virginia, the weakest of the four got 40% over mitt romney. you still have a strong not mitt romney sentiment out there. you look at tennessee. mitt romney had the establishment behind him in tennessee. he needed that seventh state. he needed to win a southern state to be able to signal to folks i can win in a close race. i can win a southern state other than virginia where there's only two of us on the ballot. and it signaled to the rest of the states moving westward that i am the guy. start getting behind me. that didn't happen in virginia. he wasn't even close in tennessee. and you will now see that this race will extend. if he gets a big win, the republican establishment is very happy. if he gets a loss in ohio and loses in tennessee, the republican establishment is extremely nervous. instead, the republican establishment and many republicans are probably just shaking their head and saying, wow, more malaise as we continue through the spring. >> ruben, jump in on that. >> i agree. in the one sense, it was a great night for romney because of ohio. you can't stop talking about ohio. this is a very significant win because, let's not forget, ohio is probably one of the most important states in november. it's in that purple area. it's in play. it's an important state. but in the overall, if you look at the big picture, he won in virginia where he only faced ron paul on the ballot. romney won in vermont and his home state of massachusetts. so that's sort of the same neighborhood. this is not a very convincing performance by mitt romney. >> romney outspent santorum almost four-to-one in ohio. i know it's a win, but how do you call it a win? >> santorum can call it a wip because he came within a whisker of beating mitt romney of the that plays well with his supporters. but the argument is we're talking about electability. people are voting for mitt romney because they think he can beat barack obama. if that's the case, why don't they just nominate him and get it over with? he can't win the nomination, how can he beat barack obama? >> the jfk comment really bit him in the tail. if he doesn't make the comment about jfk, a fellow catholic, if he doesn't make the comment for president obama being a snob for wanting to go to college. that's what people do, they work blue collar to send their kids to college to get white collar jobs for the next generation. those two comments and without having the structure to be on the ballot throughout the state of ohio was the difference of 50,000 votes that he lost by. if you can not be on the ballot throughout the state and still make the front-runner sweat, that's not good for mitt romney. yes, it's a win, but it's not a convincing win, and it doesn't reassure mitt romney that he's a strong candidate going into november. >> it says that romney is losing in the areas that republicans are likely to win in the fall, which is the rural areas, and winning in the areas that democrats are likely to win, which is urban areas. how problematic is that, lenny, as we look into the long term? >> well, this is going to be the narrative from president obama. and other candidates on the republican side have already said this. you can have obama and obama light. if you're going to go with obama and obama light, why not keep the incumbent that's been there for four years and has four years of presidential experience. the economy is getting better. he's doing very well with foreign affairs. he's taken out osama bin laden. he's taken al qaeda and pushed them into the background a little bit. why vote for obama light? and that is becoming the narrative that a lot of conservatives are getting very nervous about, which is why you still see rick santorum without the structure, without the money winning tennessee. that's why you still see rick santorum winning oklahoma. that's why you see rick santorum winning north dakota. that's why you'll see this race continue on through march and through april and beyond. >> lenny, for a second there, i thought you were working for the other side. lenny and ruben, thanks for joining us this morning. we'll talk to you again shortly. >> at 15 minutes past 4:00 a.m. on the east coast. still ahead, why democrats say super tuesday was a great night for them. and also, we love hearing from sarah palin, especially when she's in wa sila. these are the pictures of her out on the stump, but when she goes to vote at her own polling station, will she admit who she's voting for? and will she still jump in this race? >> anything is possible. i don't close any doors that perhaps would be open out there. >> oh, it just got better, didn't it, folks? our cnn exclusive interview with the former vice presidential nominee. >> there are lots of bunny rabbits that run through. i'm the tortoise. i just take one step at a time. golly! that is deep snow! can you get me out of it? of course. travelocity? that's amazing. but i'm still stuck. come on, man. dig it! [ female announcer ] travelocity. get great deals on all kinds of beach vacations. president obama seems to believe he's unchecked by the constitution. he operates by command instead of by consensus. in a second term, he'd be unrestrained by the demands of re-election, and if there's one thing we cannot afford, it's four years of barack obama with no one to answer to. >> that looks like one very confident candidate. mitt romney picking up six wins on super tuesday. why is it then that the democrats say that's just a great night for them? >> joining us now, hillary rosen, democratic strategist and cnn contributor. thank you. we know that you have been working way overtime. we really appreciate having you here. >> no problem. hi, ladies. >> what is your overall reaction to the super tuesday results? did anything there surprise you? >> i guess i was surprised that mitt romney outspending the other republicans four and five to one. didn't get in bigger margins in more states. but overall, i think it was kind of a mixed bag night for all of the candidates. >> but mitt romney still sounding very presidential. he's setting himself up as a contrast to barack obama. listen to this. >> president obama raised the national debt. i will cut, cap, and balance the budget. finally. he passed obama care. i will repeal obama care. he lost our aaa credit rating. i will restore our aaa credit rating. >> it may not have been a decisive win for him, right? but in the ohio exit polls, romney is really trusted on the economy. are you worried about that in a battle with president obama? >> no, i guess i'm not because everything mitt romney said in that speech is wrong. actually, it's mitt romney's plan that adds $5 trillion to the deficit, and president obama's budget cuts $4 trillion. we've had 23 straight months of job growth, and when mitt romney was governor of massachusetts, they were 47 out of 50 in job creation in the state of massachusetts. >> but you really can't blame the governor for that. >> well, he said he knows how to create jobs. that's what he did when he was running a state. so, yeah, you've got to go on your record. but you know, i think that this is kind of the democrats' dilemma right now. it's great that the republicans are all fighting with each other and this is going to go on for quite some time. the thing that might not be so great -- and some of my democratic friends disagree with me on -- is that going head to head with mitt romney for the next several months would actually be fairly good for president obama because mitt romney is going to talk down this economy. he's a pessimist about it. he doesn't really have any answers that are new, and i think that the american people wouldn't like that the longer it went on. i think that president obama could handle that conversation and debate really well. >> there's something that you said last night -- and i want to be clear again -- you're a democratic strategist. last night you were saying that democrats have a tough battle ahead of them because romney keeps having these ugly wins. could you explain that. >> the one thing about mitt romney. democrats love to talk about how weak mitt romney is as a candidate, and he is in my view. but every time he gets counted out. santorum is raging ahead in ohio, gingrich is going to surge from south carolina. every time he's been down, he has a good organization, he has a smart campaign team. he gets up, he recovers, and he chalks up some wins. there's nothing better in a long-term campaign than somebody who can recover and win. you know, that's going to make november -- we're going to take this right down to the end. >> it's going to be a long haul. another thing you said last night that you wanted to talk about. you said internal democratic polling asked women about the race. you said that women were not paying attention before and now they are paying attention. why and what effect is that having? >> that's a really great question because not a lot of discussion about women in this campaign. virtually nothing about women from the republican candidates until we had -- >> except for the contraception issue. >> until all of a sudden we find ways to discriminate against women in their health care coverage yet again. do you ever notice how, when men have medical issues, they're medical. but when women have medical issues, they're somehow political. >> i think i may agree with you this morning on that one. >> so what's happened, though, is women historically over the last year have paid much less attention to this election, but the republicans have actually woken women up with this crazy conversation about contraception. >> i know that mitt romney did well with women and catholics in some of the exit polls. we're going to get to that later. i appreciate your time. thank you for being with us. i think we're going to chat with you again. >> it is 24 minutes past 4:00 in the morning on the east coast. still ahead on the early, early version of "early start," super tuesday not as super as mitt romney hoped. he may look happy, but if you look behind the numbers, another story brewing. also,