2012 Republican Presidential Candidate | featured news

Edward Morrissey says none of the candidates hit their targets for moving ahead on Super Tuesday, but hung on just enough to keep the crown out of Romney's reach

Mitt Romney apparently pulled off a narrow victory over Rick Santorum in Ohio on Super Tuesday. But Mr. Santorum scored victories elsewhere, competing with Mr. Romney’s achievement of collecting the most delegates and all but ensuring another round of intense infighting on the road to the Republican presidential nomination. Far from bringing new clarity to the race as some in the party had hoped, Tuesday’s results gave every candidate cause to keep driving forward —including Newt Gingrich, who won a definitive victory in Georgia. They also dashed Mr. Romney’s hope of using the night to assert himself as the inevitable nominee.

NBC News projects that Rick Santorum has won in Tennessee; Mitt Romney seen capturing Massachusetts, Vermont and Virginia while Newt Gingrich takes Georgia; Ohio is too close to call and Oklahoma is too early to call.

It is the temptation of the columnist to universalize the moment — to present transient trends as exceptional, predictive and permanent. A direction is presented as a destiny. A snapshot is expanded into an epic. But history — driven by decisive contingencies — pays little mind.

The big day has arrived. Ten states hold their voting contests today in the mega-primary day known as "super Tuesday." Four-hundred and thirty-seven delegates are at stake tonight. The candidate who carries the bulk of states will gain a solid lead in delegates, not to mention some serious momentum to carry them through the rest of the month.

Ann Romney said today she doesn't consider herself wealthy in an interview that is getting circulated by Democrats, which drew a rebuke from the Romney campaign. "We can be poor in spirit, and I don't even consider myself wealthy, which is an interesting thing. It can be here today and gone tomorrow," Ann Romney said in the interview.

With hours remaining until the polls open in this crucial state, Rick Santorum said Monday no one expected him to last this long into the Republican presidential contest, but that a combination of hard work and a consistent conservative message has allowed him to compete despite being massively outspent by rival Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney picks up another conservative endorsement and a new poll shows him pulling ahead in Ohio, as the biggest day of the GOP presidential campaign nears.

As Super Tuesday looms, the contest in the Buckeye State appears extremely competitive.

Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, threw his support behind Mitt Romney just days before the marquee day of the GOP presidential nominating race -- Super Tuesday.