Jew World Order

Long before Super Tuesday, the Republican Party had cemented itself on the
distant right of American politics, with a primary campaign that has been
relentlessly nasty, divisive and vapid. Barbara Bush, the former first lady,
was so repelled that on Tuesday she called it the worst she’d ever seen. We
feel the same way.

This country has serious economic problems and profound national security
challenges. But the Republican candidates are so deep in the trenches of
cultural and religious warfare that they aren’t offering any solutions.

The results Tuesday night did not settle the race. Republican voters will
have to go on for some time choosing between a candidate, Mitt Romney, who
stands for nothing except country-club capitalism, and a candidate, Rick
Santorum, so blinkered by his ideology that it’s hard to imagine him
considering any alternative ideas or listening to any dissenting voice.

06.39 (01.39) Rick Santorum looked like he was going to claim victory
for much of the evening but it
was snatched from him at the last moment, says Peter Foster.

In the end it came down to the difference of less than 12,000 votes from
nearly 1 million cast, but for two blissful hours last night the Rick
Santorum faithful believed everything and anything was possible.

No Republican has ever won the White House without winning the Rust Belt
state of Ohio and with 75 per cent of the votes counted, Mr Santorum was
still 14,000 votes clear of his rival Mitt Romney, a lead he’d held almost
since the first votes came in after the polls closed at 7pm.

“I think God has had a hand in this, that’s the only way that Rick could be
winning after so many people wrote him off,” said Brian Lee, a 52-year-old
painting contractor. “Everybody was saying he couldn’t do it, and yet here
he still is.”

06.09 (01.09) The Drudge Report seems to have made its mind up as to
who has won the nomination:

05.55 (12.55) Jon Swaine and Peter Foster file this
report from Boston, Massachusetts, and Steubenville, Ohio.

Mitt Romney edged closer to the Republican presidential nomination last
night, winning a narrow victory over Rick Santorum in the crucial Super
Tuesday battleground state of Ohio.

Mr Romney was on course to beat the former Pennsylvania senator by a single
percentage point, in a contest viewed as critical to efforts from the
party’s Right wing to halt his slow march to being Barack
Obama‘s opponent in November.

“Our campaign is on the move and real change is on the way,” Mr Romney told
supporters in Boston. He also won Massachusetts, the state he once led as
governor, as well as Idaho, Vermont and Virginia.

Yet as Mr Santorum racked up wins in North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee,
Mr Romney acknowledged that the contest was sure to drag on through spring
and that he would have “good days and bad days”.

“Tomorrow we wake up and we start again,” he told a hotel ballroom filled
with well-heeled backers. “And the next day we do the same. And so it will
go – day by day, step by step, door to door”.

Defeat in the rust-belt state, which no successful US presidential
candidate has ever lost, would have prompted fresh concerns that as the
nominee, Mr Romney would be incapable of ousting Mr Obama. Despite winning
by just 38 per cent to 37, his overall victory is increasingly being viewed
as inevitable.

05.30 (00.30) And with seven merciful words the Associated Press,
the gold standard of American journalism, puts the political world out of
its misery:

WASHINGTON (AP) – Romney wins Republican presidential primary in Ohio

Despite having been so close it looks like Romney has won with around 12,000
votes.

05.18 (00.18) Ari Fleischer, George W Bush’s former Press
Secretary, says it’s time for Ron Paul to drop out given that he still
hasn’t won anything. Dont count on it, Ari: Paul stayed in until June in
2008 despite McCain clearly having won months earlier.

05.10 (00.10) You can tell we’re having a long Super Tuesday (seeping
into Groggy Wednesday) when ABC has time to do a quite good musical
mash up:

04.55 (23.55) With 95 per cent of districts reporting, Romney
leads in Ohio by 7,500 votes.

04.50 (23.50) A side story: in Ohio primaries were also going
for the House of Representatives i.e. district by district voters were
choosing who they wanted their candidate to be in the November elections. It
looks like Dennis Kucinich, one of the Democrats’ most strident
Left-wingers has lost his primary and will not be running for the party in
November.

He ran in the 2008 presidential election against Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama but dropped out soon after Iowa. Britain mainly grew
interested in him when we learned his wife was three decades younger than
him, had a pierced tongue and was from East London:

–

04.36 (23.36) Romney ahead by around 6,000 votes in Ohio now.

04.26 (23.26) What to make of all of this? Romney looks like he’s going
to win the most states, the most delegates, the most votes and is probably
going to win the hugely symbolic Ohio. More than ever, he is the only
viable candidate to go on and win this thing. So why is there a nagging
sense that he’s had a bad night?

Because he should be doing better. Given his stature, given his establishment support
and given his enormous financial advantages he should be able to sweep his
rival aside but he just can’t seem to do it. Even in his Virginia
victory there’s a warning: 40 per cent of the state’s Republicans voted for
Ron Paul. That’s not a surge for the Texan, that’s a sign that the base are
prepared to die in the last ditch to stop Romney.

He may be grinding down the Republican party’s resistance but he is not
winning their love.

04.24 (23.24) NBC is projecting that Romney has won the Idaho caucuses.
It looks like his margin of victory is so big he’ll take all 32 delegates.

04.17 (23.17) CNN’s number crunchers are saying that they might not be
able to call the race until tomorrow morning. Yikes. Seems very, very likely
that Romney has won though.

04.15 (23.15) Alice Stewart, Santorum’s press secretary, tweets this
picture of her candidate getting the bad news via laptop.

–

04.10 (23.10) Romney is ahead in Ohio for the first time
tonight, up by 1,800 votes and it looks like it’s only going to get better
for him. Apparently 5,000 people voted for Rick Perry, even though
he’s long gone. Could it have made a difference?

04.05 (23.05) Nate Silver of the New York Times points out that Gingrich
has done pretty miserably everywhere outside of Georgia, coming either third
or last in seven races. Months ago, before he first surged, I wrote that he
was a vanity candidate – a description I later regretted. Now I think it may
have been fairly apt.

04.00 (23.00) Erickson is editor RedState.com and a constant Romney
antagonist. I’m not sure I agree with this. If America wakes up to find Ohio
in the Romney column then all may be forgotten and we may finally begin the
coronation.

03.55 (22.55) Quick word on Idaho: Romney is on 77 per cent of
the vote with 15 per cent of districts reporting. It may be an unglamorous
place but it’s worth 32 delegates. Every little helps. In Alaska they
haven’t even begun counting votes.

03.52 (22.52) Palin has been unable to stay coy on her voting in Alaska.
Maybe shes’s contractually obliged to tell Fox News.

03.50 (22.50) It’s looking like Romney is going to scrape past in Ohio
with votes from Hamilton County and Cleveland.

03.40 (22.40) A lot of people are now raising the tantalising prospect
that Ohio could face a recount. 2,000 votes between Romney and
Santorum..

03.32 (22.32) Whatever happens tonight Romney owes a lot to the
discipline of his campaign. Think what might have happened if the other
candidates got onto the ballot in Virginia and if Santorum had a full
complement of delegates in Ohio. Santorum lead down to 6,000.

03.30 (22.30) And, perhaps, here comes the surge: Hamilton County
looks set to cut Sanoturm’s lead by 6,000 votes at a stroke.

03.26 (22.26) Wow, 65 per cent of the vote counted and Santorum
leads by around 15,000 votes. If Romney is going to surge he needs to do it
now. Like now.

03.23 (22.23) Peter Foster files from Santorum’s base in Ohio:

Rick Santorum has left the building, but the faithful here in Steubenville
are standing round looking at the televisions in the school canteen where
this event has been staged, biting their nails as the results come in. It’s
the kind of tension you get in the last minutes of a ball game – with 60 per
cent counted Santorum still leads by 2 per cent of the votes, which still
means it can still break either way.

That said, the mood here is ebullient. The people here really buy into the
idea, which is a mainstay of the Santorum campaign, that Romney spent all
this money and still can’t win convincingly. Remember, no Republican has
ever been elected president without winning Ohio.

There really is so much at stake. If Romney wins, it can all look okay in
the morning: a win’s a win and he has the ‘delegate math’ on his side. If he
loses, all the questions about his electability (that haven’t really ever
gone away) come racing back to the fore.

03.20 (22.20) Holly Bailey tweets from Boston, where there’s an absence
of Romney spin-men. Do they think the results speak for themselves or do
they having nothing to say? (Or are they just keen to get their favourite
Back Bay bars?)

03.15 (22.15) Worth saying that we’re still waiting for the more
densely-populated counties in Ohio, where Romney is expected to do
well.

03.10 (22.10) Santorum has won in North Dakota’s caucuses,
meaning the score is three all between him and Romney. This is getting very
worrying for Romney.

02.58 (21.58) A small number of protesters made it into Romney’s
speech, some holding ‘Veto Romney’ signs. Such is the danger of hosting a
Republican speech in Massachusetts, the beating heart of American
liberalism.

The crowd is the most fired-up I’ve seen at a Romney event, breaking into
chants of “All the way! All the way!” Romney takes an interesting
tack tonight: he speaks directly to struggling families and presents himself
as their champion – the only one who can come to their rescue at this
difficult time.

02.48 (21.48) Mitt describes Massachusetts as home, despite the
fact that he pours scorn on it from the trail. He congratulates all the
other three candidates, something neither Gingrich nor Santorum
managed.

To the millions of Americans who look around and can only see jobs they
can’t get and bills they can’t pay, I have a message: You have not failed.
This President has failed you.

Eight per cent unemployment is not the best that America can do, it’s just
the best that this administration can do. When I am President, the American
economy will not be lagging behind; it will be leading the world.

[To struggling families] You have not been forgotten, you have not been
left behind. Our campaign is on the move and real change is finally on the
way.

02.46 (21.46) Ann makes an interesting little riff about the importance
of women. Romney HQ clearly thinks they can use women to keep push Santorum
off a cliff.

02.43 (21.43) Ann Romney is introducing her husband in Boston
and running through a very long list of thank yous. My colleague Jon Swaine
took this picture of them together in Boston earlier today. Note the
discreet Secret Service agent in the background.

–

02.37 (21.37) The former Pennsylvania senator looks pleased and he has
reason to be: right now he’s four points up in Ohio. If Santorum lost the Buckeye
State many would question the point of his candidacy. But if he wins it
will be the biggest set back to Romney since losing so badly in South
Carolina.

02.35 (21.35) Santorum really tells quite a compelling story about
himself as a fighter and a product of the small towns of the Rust Belt. He’s
smartly saying this election is about freedom, that government tyranny is embodied
by Obamacare and that Romney was basically an Obamacare advocate.

02.25 (21.25) Santorum up in Ohio now, a state he hails as “our
roots”.

This campaign is about the towns that have been left behind by and the
families that made those towns the greatest towns across the country.

This was a big night tonight with a lot of states. We’re going to win a few
and we’re going to lose a few but we’re going to get a couple of gold medals
and a passel-full of silver medals.

[Obamacare] is the beginning of the end of freedom in America. Once the
government has control of your life then they’ve got you.

The Republican Party has to nominate someone who can talk about what the
broad vision of America is. I’ve never passed a state-wide government health
system but Governor Romney did. Not only did he pass it in Massachusetts but
he advocated for it to be passed in Washington DC. We need someone running
against President Obama who was right on the issues and truthful with the
American public.

02.16 (21.16) Back in the time machine: here’s McCain claiming
his stonking 2008 victory:

02.10 (21.10) With 11 per cent of the vote counted, Santorum is leading
Romney in Ohio by less than 1 per cent. I’m wading through the exit
polls again and just noticed that Santorum has beaten Romney by 22
per cent among Democrats, possibly indicating some ‘raiding’ by
Obama’s party. Self-identified Dems made up only five per cent of the
electorate but if it’s close they could perhaps tip Rick over the edge to
victory.

02.00 (21.00) Gingrich is still going in Georgia but CNN is cutting
away to formally call Oklahoma for Santorum. Newt says he’s going on
to Missippi, Alabama and Kansas – no indication that he’s going to be able
to break out into the Midwest, or either coast.

01.52 (20.52) I’m going to spare you any more Gingrich for a moment and
cut to Ohio, where Peter Foster is among Santourm’s supporters.

Huge cheers here in Steubenville, Ohio as the announcer declares that
Santorum has won Tennessee. It was looking a bit iffy for him there a few
days back after previously holding a 20 point lead, but it’s a solid win
over Romney on the back of support from Evangelical Christians that made up
73 per cent of voters – Rick carried them by 16 per cent. Add that to
Oklahoma and that’s minimum requirement for Santorum. Total disaster
averted.

Mike DeWine, the Ohio attorney general who switched to Santorum is also on
stage, reminding the crowd that Ohio is still too close to call even though
Mitt Romney spent “12 million dollars” on the campaign in Ohio. He says
that’s more money, pro-rata, than has ever been spent in the history of Ohio
politics, but even so “our fighter Rick Santorum” is still locked in a
battle with Romney. “I was a Romney dog once, but please forgive me,” he
adds, to cheers, “I’ve seen the light.”

Talking of seeing the light, there are three nuns in the audience who’ve
come down the hill from a local Franciscan convent. As you’d expect they’re
keen supporters of Rick on the abortion issue. “If we don’t uphold the
dignity of life at all stages of life,” sister Maria Pio tells me, “society
will continue to go down. The family is the key to everything.”

The sisters don’t have a TV in their convent and they’ve already broken
their 8.30pm curfew, even though there will be no dispensations for matins
(the first office, or prayers of the day) which start at 5.30am. “We’ll be
okay, just a little bit crusty eyed,” says the sister with a throaty
chuckle. They look like they’re having the time of their lives, but with
Ohio results still dribbling in, I don’t back them to get much sleep
tonight.

^{Sister Maria Clare and Sister Maria Pio}

01.42 (20.42) Gingrich is on stage in Atlanta, where is bright
red tie matches Callista’s dress. The third Mrs Gingrich is giving
him a pretty flat and lifeless introduction. He begins with his usual attack
on the “national elite”.

I hope the analysts in Washington and New York, who spent June and July,
explaining our campaign was dead, will learn a little from this crowd and
this place.

This isn’t very good: he’s talking about how polls had him in the lead in the
summer and how nasty Mitt was to him in Iowa. Describing how frontrunners
come and go he says: “There are lots of bunny rabbits but I’m the
tortoise, I just keep going.” Gingrich must be among the most
navel-gazing candidates in American history.

01.35 (20.35) Santorum has won in Tennessee, CNN projects. It’s
a frustrating result for Romney, who would have loved to win there as proof
that he could win in the South.

01.30 (20.30) Shall we indulge in some nostalgia? Here’s Romney’s 2008
speech from Boston after getting hammered by John McCain.

–

01.22 (20.22) Sarah Palin is refusing to say who she voted for in the
Alaska caucuses but in every TV appearance so far she’s expressed a soft
spot for Newt. “Anything is possible,” she inevitably says when
she’s inevitably asked about running for president in 2016.

01.20 (20.20) Interesting take from David
Frum, George W Bush’s former speech writer and a reasonably good
barometer of Establishment Republican thinking. The Santorum wins in the
South seems to have him worried:

This is not looking like the Romney blow-out it needs to be.

01.15 (20.15) Gingrich has won the biggest prize of the night: the Secret
Service are finally going to give him an entourage beginning tomorrow,
according to Fox. He’s going to be chuffed.

01.00 (20.00) And Romney has won Massachusetts the state he once
governed and now seems to despise. He looks set to take 70 per cent of the
vote – the largest margin we’ve seen yet in this race.

But more interestingly, Santorum seems well ahead in both Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Oklahoma always looked safe for Rick but Tennessee looked like it could
be a three way fight. Here are the figures:

Santorum: 35

Romney: 28

Gingrich: 23

Paul: 11

It looks everyone is going to win somewhere tonight with the possible
exception of Ron Paul, who has yet to take a single state.

00.45 (19.45) I’m digging into the Ohio
exit poll now but one thing is immediately evident: Santorum
has a problem with women and it may have cost him the primary. He’s level
with Romney among men on 36 per cent but three points down among women. If
those figures are borne out by the results then it will be the XXs wot won
it for Mitt.

Interestingly, Catholics went big Romney 43 to 30. The same thing happened in
Michigan. Why are Santorum’s co-religionists rejecting him?

00.42 (19.42) Ron Paul is speaking at a caucus station in North
Dakota. You will be amazed to learn that he’s talking about the Federal
Reserve.

Young people want a better deal. That better deal can be found in less
government and only sending people to Washington who have read the
Constitution and will obey the Constitution and take their Oath of Office
seriously.

00.40 (19.40) The networks have now called Vermont for
Romney. It’s the smallest state of the night with only 17 delegates but a
tasty victory none the less.

00.30 (19.30) It’s very close in Ohio but Romney is ahead. CNN
exit polls goes thus:

Romney: 40

Santorum: 36

Gingrich: 12

Paul: 11

Santorum’s guys have begun spinning already: second place would be a victory
given how badly outspent we were blah blah blah. It’s Good news if you’re at
the Romney party in Boston (Picture by Ari
Shapiro of NPR).

–

00.25 (19.25) CNN has now called Virginia for Romney and it
looks like he will win all 49 delegates there. How different it might have
been there if Gingrich’s camp had got its act together and got itself on the
ballot.

00.20 (19.20) Vermont is looking pretty comfortable for Romney, and he
should win about 37 per cent, around 10 points clear of Santorum. No
surprise really: Vermont is a New England state and and 54 per cent of
Republican voters there define themselves as moderate/liberal.

00.15 (19.15) We might see some ugliness tonight between Santorum
and Gingrich’s staffs, with both lamenting that if only the other
would drop out of the race then the conservatives would have a real shot at
stopping Romney. Santorum’s aides are already carping that Gingrich’s
lingering presence cost them Michigan.

00.07 (19.07) They haven’t called it yet but it’s clear Romney has
beaten Paul emphatically in Virginia, a state where they were the
only two on the ballot. Mitt looks like he’s going to win about 65 per cent
of the vote to Paul’s 35.

00.00 (19.00) And we have the first results of the night: Newt
Gingrich has won his home state of Georgia, to no one’s surprise. CNN
can’t formally call Virginia or Vermont but Romney looks well
ahad in both. Here’s the exit poll for Georgia:

Gingrich: 46

Romney: 26

Santorum: 20

Paul: 8

Interestingly, Gingrich’s other win – South Carolina – was also so emphatic
that the networks called it immediately.

23.58 (18.58) Stuart
Millar tweets a nice picture of Noor Mosque in Dublin, Ohio. Being
used as a polling station today.

–

23.50 (18.50) We are 10 minutes away from close of polls in Virginia,
Georgia and Vermont. Expect Romney to win everywhere that begins
with the letter V, and Gingrich to take Georgia for his first win since
South Carolina back in January.

23.45 (18.45) Perhaps sensing that they need a “game change”,
Santorum’s camp today put up his wife Karen for her first network
interview.

23.35 (18.35) The New York Times‘ FiveThirtyEight
blog says there is 64 per cent chance that Romney will win in Ohio
but it has him beating Santorum by just two points 36.5 to 34.4. In that
scenario Romney is likely to take the lion share of the 66 delegates because
the Santorum campaign failed to get itself registered in all of Ohio’s 16
districts.

23.30 (18.30) With a sly grin, the President wished Romney good
luck night.

23.22 (18.22) Speak of the devil: Ron Paul has just popped up on
CNN saying that his focus tonight will be on the three caucus states: Idaho,
North Dakota and Alaska. He also commits Republican heresy by saying that
Obama’s position on Iran is “certainly closer to my position than the
other three candidates”.

The others are very reckless. The last thing this country needs is another
war. Ultimately, we can beat anybody militarily but these foreign wars are
bankrupting us.

23.18 (18.18) In the last there’s been murmurings of a possible
Romney-Paul alliance, aimed at getting the Texan’s son, Senator Rand Paul,
onto the ticket as Mitt’s running mate. As the theory came under closer
scrutiny analysts found that Paul had not attacked Romney once during the
20+ debates the Republicans have had.

And suddenty, as if by magic, Paul’s camp has turned its fire on Romney (but
also Rick and Newt).

–

23.10 (18.10) Romney did a brief press appearance in Boston just
now, where he was asked about Obama wishing him good luck. “Do you
think that’s an endorsement?” Romney asked in that rictus way he does
when he’s trying to make a spontaneous joke. “I hope so, but I don’t
think it is.”

23.03 (18.03) There’s a growing feeling that tonight could be Santorum’s
last stand. He has fewer than half of Romney’s delegates, a fraction of his
money and none of his sense of inevitability. If he can’t beat Romney in
Ohio many will ask: what is the point?

22.25 (17.25) There are 419 delegates up for grabs, more than
the entire race to date so far. Here’s the current state of things:

–

22.16 (17.16) Rush Limbaugh advertiser exodus reaches 30 companies, up
nine in the last couple of hours.

21.35 (16.35) We’re getting closer to some real news with the first
polls closing in about two and a half hours. In the meantime here’s a
rundown of the 10 states, the 419 delegates and the likely winners.

Virginia – 49 delegates: Very likely Romney

Massachusetts – 41 delegates: Very likely Romney

Ohio – 66 delegates: Romney vs Santorum

Georgia – 76 delegates: Very likely Gingrich

Vermont – 17 delegates: Very likely Romney

Alaska (caucus) – 27 delegates: No reliable polling

Idaho (caucus) – 32 delegates: No reliable polling

North Dakota (caucus) – 28 delegates: No reliable polling

Oklahoma – 43 delegates: Likely Santorum

Tennessee – 58 delegates: Gingrich v Santorum v Romney

21.18 (16.18) An interesting picture from Jews for Sarah, a
pro-Palin Jewish group. On the left you have a 22-year-old Binyamin
Netanyahu, wearing his uniform as an Israeli commando. On the right is a
22-year-old Barack Obama.

The two men, both a little older and wearing ties, met
in the Oval Office yesterday to discuss Iran.

21.05 (16.05) It’s a very old problem but it’s not going away. Every
few weeks there seems to emerge some new evidence of the similarities
between Obamacare and Romney’s own health reforms in Massachusetts. Buzzfeed
has just dug up this interview Romney gave with a student newspaper in
Georgia in 2010:

There are similarities. And some of the best features of his health-care
plan are like ours — such as, we do not allow insurance companies to drop
people who develop illnesses, our insurance is entirely portable, virtually
all of our citizens are insured and there is an individual responsibility
for getting insurance.

The big differences are that he raised taxes; we did not. He cut Medicare;
we did not. He put in place price controls; we did not. And his is a federal
program — a one-size-fits-all solution — and in our view — in my view, the
best approach is a state-by-state creation of programs designed to fit the
needs of citizens of each state.

20.40 (15.40) Monsieur Sarkozy, who is fighting his own presidential
battle this year, has said he hopes Obama is re-elected so the two
can help bring peace in the Middle East. That’s sure to clinch swing voters
in Ohio.

–

20.22 (15.22) Touching briefly on Rush Limbaugh’s “Slutgate”
woes: 21 companies have now pulled their advertising from his radio
programme, which goes on air every weekday at noon. It still may not be
enough to do real financial damage to a man who makes $50m but it can’t be
comfortable place for him to be in.

19.31 (14.31) One more Newt note and then I’ll leave him alone:
neither he nor his his wife Callista are voting today. The Gingriches are
registered in Virginia where, unfortunately, Newt 2012 wasn’t organised
enough to get on the ballot (along with Santorum and most other candidates).
Voters’ only options are Romney or Ron Paul.

“In this Republican primary, when given a choice between Ron Paul and Mitt
Romney, they could not pick either one,” a Gingrich spokesman told NBC.

19.12 (14.12) While Obama has been talking Syria and Iran, Newt
is back on the Moon. Fascinating to know whether his political aides
genuinely think that a Moon colony is a vote-winning policy or if it’s just
something they can’t dissuade Newt from talking about. (Picture by Sarah
Huisenga of CBS)

–

19.07 (14.07) In a sign of how quickly political fortunes turn there
wasn’t a single question about the economy whereas previously Obama was
dogged by the flagging recovery and the high unemployment rate. By my count
all the questions had some foreign policy angle to them, an area of strength
for the White House.

18.52 (13.52) Big laughs in the press briefing room as Obama is asked
what he would like to say to Mitt Romney on Super Tuesday. “Good
luck,” he grins. “No really”.

–

18.45 (13.45) The president is asked about Rush
Limbaugh’s comments on “slutgate”. He won’t comment on the
decision of advertisers to leave the show but says:

The reason I called Miss Fluke is that I thought about [his daughters]
Malia and Sasha and one of the things I wanted them to do is to engage in
issues they care about. I want them to be able to speak their minds in an
civil and thoughtful way and I don’t want them attacked or called horrible
names because they’re being good citizens.

18.30 (13.30) Obama is playing the sober commander-in-chief, repeatedly
reminding that it is “our incredible men and women in uniform” who
bear the costs of war and not the politicians who are often so keen for
fighting. He says that the “notion that we have a choice [on striking
Iran] to make in the next week… or two months.. is not borne out by the
facts.”

18.22 (13.22) Obama trots through the Buffett Rule and new relief for
home foreclosures, noting that he’s not someone who thinks the market should
just be allowed to take its course (ie like Romney).

First question is on the Republican criticism of his policy on Iran.
The President obviously expected it:

These folks don’t have a lot of responsibility. They’re not
commander-in-chief and when I see the casualness with which some of these
folks talk about war I’m reminided of the costs that come with war. It’s
more about politics than trying to solve a difficult problem.

The one thing we haven’t done is launch a war if these folks think it’s
time to launch a war they should say so and explain clearly to the American
people why.

18.15 (13.15) Poor Newt Gingrich is tweeting that his rally in
Alabama is going to be on livestreamed on CNN’s website in 20 minutes
(subtext: the network is not going to cover it live on actual TV).

18.10 (13.10) In a bid to steal some of the limelight from the
Republicans, Obama is today holding his first press conference since
November. He’s there to announce new measures to help homeowners who have
suffered foreclosures (no coincidence that key battlegrounds like Florida
and Nevada have been ravaged by foreclosures) but is likely to have a swipe
at the Republicans ready for when he is inevitably asked about them.

The issue of home ownership is part of his broader platform as “champion
of the middle class” and will draw comparisons with Mitt Romney‘s
somewhat disastrous comments on the issue:

–

17.42 Frontrunner Mitt Romney suggested he would be more willing
than Obama to consider using military force over Iran, while Newt Gingrich,
a long-shot for president, told the Washington gathering he would back
everything short of war to “undermine and replace” the government
of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

16.50 Rick Santorum has criticised President Barack Obama on
Iran and called for an ultimatum demanding it stop nuclear production now or
the US will “tear down” its facilities:

I have seen a president who has been reticent. He says he has Israel’s
back…From everything I’ve seen he has turned his back on (Israelis).

We need to do more than talk.

We need to say to the Iranian government, the time is now. You will stop
your nuclear production now.

_{Rick Santorum and his wife Karen}

16.09 Jon Swaine, The Daily Telegraph’s Washington correspondent, on
the emergence of Karen Santorum:

While Ann Romney has been at the forefront of her husband’s campaign for some
time now, and Callista Gingrich a ubiquitous presence at Newt’s side, Karen
Santorum remains something of a mystery. The wife of Rick – a lawyer, nurse
and mother of seven – has barely spoken in public during the former
Pennsylvania senator’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

Now – bizarrely late in the day – Mrs Santorum has emerged. She appeared in
a fairly
charming web advertisement with her husband and gave an interview to
Politico in which she disclosed that she effectively urged Mr Santorum to
tone down the fire-and-brimstone rhetoric on abortion and contraception that
may have cost him the Michigan primary last week.

Today she has given her first
network television interview to CBS News’s Jan Crawford. She says of
her husband: “When he walks through the door, he is not a senator. He’s
not a guy running for president. He’s a husband and a father. And he
immediately shifts gears. He’s in the kitchen, making a great meal.”

Mrs Santorum’s silence until recently was presumably part of an attempt to
avoid questions over her past relationship with with a doctor 40 years her
senior, who performed abortions. She tells CBS: I went through a phase, it
was a phase, and made some stupid decisions”.

Perhaps the attention on this phase brought by her being more forthcoming
could, indeed, have damaged her husband’s campaign. However with time
running out for him to stop Mitt Romney, it looks as though it might have
been worth the risk.

15.46 A new Washington
Post-ABC News poll further hammers home the fight that Romney and
the other candidates are facing even after the marathon that is Super
Tuesday.

Nearly half of all political independents questioned in the poll had
unfavourable views of Romney (48 per cent). That’s among the worst he’s
received among this bloc of voters. Just 32 per cent view him favourably.

As ever, Ron Paul is drawing the most even ratings from the independents, who
are split pretty evenly in their views on him – 38 per cent favourable, 35
per cent unfavourable.

15.40 We said earlier that Romney will most likely take Virginia.
Here’s why:

Never fear, this isn’t some kind of electoral fraud scandal. AP explains:

(Romney is) poised to win the Virginia primary where Santorum and Gingrich did
not collect enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.

One (hopefully) easy victory then.

15.07 Rick Santorum’s wife Karen has revealed
her husband’s private side in an interview to CBS News.

Some of the choice revelations include that Santorum’s specialties in the
kitchen include Chicken Marsala, Pasta Arrabiata and “pancakes with the
kids”.

Mrs Santorum also claims that the night she met her husband, she went home “and
I wrote in my diary, ‘I met the guy I am going to marry’.”

Perhaps in an effort to repair some of the damage caused by the contraception
debate, she also declared her husband would have been ok with her working
full-time. He supports career-women, you see.

From the interview:

The Santorums are devout Catholics. Rick Santorum’s strongly conservative
views on social issues – he’s anti-abortion and is morally opposed to birth
control – have led critics to question his views on women.

“Number one,” Karen says, “he’s been surrounded by strong
women his whole life. He continues to be surrounded by strong women in his
daily life, and the best, some of the best staffers he has ever had, from
press secretaries to scheduler and the issues people, have all been women.

“He completely supports well-educated career women. If I wanted to
work full-time as a lawyer, he would have been 100 percent behind me.”

One hundred percent? “Absolutely. If I told him tomorrow, ‘Rick, you
know what? I want to go out and work full-time, he would have been 100
percent behind me.”

14.52 The Daily Telegraph’s Washington correspondent Jon
Swaine is in Boston with the Romney campaign today. He writes in:

However well he does today, Mitt Romney is not going to be near the 1,144
delegates he needs to technically clinch the Republican presidential
nomination. However, Josh Putnam, the political scientist who runs the
Frontloading HQ blog, has a bucket of cold water for the Santorum and
Gingrich campaigns this morning. He says they can’t win, basically.

Putnam has crunched the numbers and says that stopping Mr Romney would mean
Messrs Santorum or Gingrich “over-performing their established level of
support in the contests already in the history books to such an extent that
it is all but mathematically impossible”. Their only hope after today
will be to keep Mr Romney’s total below that magic number and take the
contest to the floor of the party convention in Tampa.

His
post is well worth a read.

14.17 Twitter has published
a graph showing the levels of chatter over the last few months about the GOP
candidates. Gingrich hit the highest level of tweets per day when he
took the South Carolina primary back in January, closely followed by the
amount of chatter over Santorum and Romney in Iowa. Ron Paul, continuing his
slow and steady pace, was mentioned the least over the past few months – but
he usually hovered around third place, only rarely being spotted at the very
bottom.

The chart is below, but a
larger version is on the Twitter blog.

13.55 The Telegraph’s US editor Peter
Foster’s latest blog notes that Romney
could put Republicans out of their misery – for now, at least.

Romney will win the nomination, he argues, leaving “pretty well where
everyone said we’d be back in January: Mitt’s the only viable candidate”.
When he does, Republicans need to rally around him and begin a process of
healing a la Clinton v Obama in 2008. It can be done, he said: “It
feels bad now, but those wounds can heal quickly”.

The bigger problem is Romney himself – because, in the end, he is weak.

If you read accounts of his first Senate campaign in 1994, what is striking
is how, nearly two decades on, so many of the same flaws remain with the
Romney package.

He’s a rotten stumper and he can’t shrug the “1 per cent” elite tag
because, in truth, that’s who he is…. Management consultancy is also not a
particularly endearing trade where the public is concerned…

And to make matters worse, Rick Santorum is right about one thing: Romney
won’t enjoy the financial and organisational advantages against Obama that
he’s relied on to undo three pretty implausible opponents in this nomination
race. All of which would seem to leave Romney needing either to find another
gear – unlikely, you’d have thought, after 20 years in the game – or a big
slice of luck (war in Iran, anyone?) to have a chance of winning in November.

13.44 Fox News contributor Byron York is talking to Ohio voters,
who are reflecting what the AP observed (see 12.16) about the effect
that the Republican “detour” into certain issues has had on the
campaign.

He tweets:

And:

13.39 Bad news for Republicans in general. A
new Fox News poll shows that Latino voters – one of the most
significant demographics in this election – favour Obama by six-to-one over
any of the Republican hopefuls.

13.03 Also from the Washington
Post’s The Fix blog: a new poll shows that Americans don’t like any
of the GOP candidates. Ron Paul – the candidate who is currently in last
place – is the most liked, apparently. Maybe slow but steady really does win
the race?

12.58 Romney has come out in the Washington
Post declaring that if he were president he would combine diplomacy
with a “military option” to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.

This doesn’t seem to differ too much from what Obama has said in recent days
regarding all options still being on the table. Nevertheless, Romney’s
specific citing of the “military option” is what many are
listening for.

He is due to speak at the America Israel Public Affairs Committee today – the
same convention that has been addressed by Mr
Obama and Israeli
PM Benjamin Netanyahu over the last few days.

From AP:

Romney says his plan would include returning U.S. aircraft carrier groups to
the eastern Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf. He also says he would
increase military assistance to Israel.

Romney writes in Tuesday’s edition of The Washington Post that if Iran gets
nuclear weapons, “the consequences will be as uncontrollable as they
are horrendous.”

The former Massachusetts governor is scheduled to speak Tuesday to the
annual convention of the America Israel Public Affairs Committee. Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the pro-Israel lobby on Monday that
his country “cannot afford to wait much longer” for diplomacy to
work with Iran.

PJ Crowley, the former US assistant secretary of state, has dismissed Romney’s
defence rehetoric as “irrelevant”.

^{Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum cheer as
he arives for a campaign rally in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio (EPA)}

12.38 Harry, our Ohio voter, raises a significant point: the role of
morals and religion in the Ohio vote. Peter Foster notes that despite the
poll showing Santorum and Romney are running neck and neck, Santorum might
have an edge:

This is a very Catholic state and if you look at voting patterns in 2008,
it suggests they will vote tribally, and not for Mr Romney, a Mormon – even
though Santorum has actually lost the Catholic vote in previous contests.

John Russo, the head of the Centre for Working Class Studies at Youngstown
University, Ohio is among those who thinks Santorum will edge it, when I
spoke him a day or so ago.

“I think Santorum will win, and I don’t think it’s just the class vote, but
also the question of religious identity,” he said, “If you look back at how
religious voters Catholic or Protestant voted in 2008 they were very much
for McCain, which suggests Santorum is preaching to the church choir.”

That would also tally with my anecdotal experience on the campaign trail
this week, speaking to many Republican voters at a series of rallies and
Lincoln Day dinners. I was surprised by just how many were prepared to
admit, with a shrug or a wink, that Romney’s Mormon religion would play
against him.

^{A woman casts her vote on an electronic voting machine in the Georgia
presidential primary at Midvale Elementary in Tucker, Georgia (EPA)}

12.37 Some of the Ohio early bird voters have been speaking to AFP.

Harry Young, a 60-year-old engineer, voted moments after polls opened at 6:30
am (1130 GMT) in Dublin, Ohio, outside the capital Columbus.

He told AFP he pulled the lever for Rick Santorum, a Christian
conservative, “basically because of values.”

But he wasn’t entirely confident that either Santorum or Romney would be
able to carry the day against President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in
November’s general election.

“I’m not sure either of them can do it at this point, they’ve been
beating each other up so much,” he said.

12.16 So where is Barack Obama in all this? It’s a big day for him too
– if one of the candidates finally seals the Republican nomination
(doubtful, but there’s a chance) he will know who he will be facing in
November.

Disregarding
all the other problems he is facing, from his point of view as a
presidential candidate, Mr Obama seems to be doing ok. His poll numbers are
up, and the Republican field does not look overly threatening right now. He
also seems to be feeling a bit mischeivious, picking today to hold his first
news conference of the year – a move described on Twitter as him basically “photobombing”
Super Tuesday.

From AP:

(Obama) is seeing his poll numbers rise in tandem with signs that the
struggling U.S. economy may finally be on a course toward sustained
recovery. A new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll released Monday shows him
defeating all of the Republican candidates in hypothetical head-to-head
matchups.

He also has been helped considerably by the Republicans having been driven
badly off their economic message by a detour into a rancorous and nasty
debate over whether religious-affiliated institutions such as hospitals and
universities – not churches – should be required to offer health insurance
coverage for contraceptives.

And the issue seemed certain to deepen the concerns of many women voters,
who – along with the broad spectrum of all independents – will likely
determine the ultimate outcome in the November election. Polls show women
are already turning back to Obama.

Obama picked Tuesday to hold his first news conference of the year, a
chance to steal a bit of thunder from the Republicans on their big day and
defend a record of economic stewardship that is under daily assault in the
Republican campaign.

^{Mr Obama pictured with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
yesterday (EPA)}

12.10 It’s “almost
inconceivable” that Ron Paul could do serious damage to Mitt Romney at
this point, Tim Stanley blogs – but, he says, the effort is just as
important as the results.

This year, Paul has gained a national platform for his ideas that
guarantees him a lasting influence within the Republican Party. One CNN exit
poll from the Michigan primary found that the candidate won the votes of
citizens aged 18-29. You can call these voters Ron Paul babies, and they
prove just as important to the future of Republicanism as the McGovern kids
were for the Democrats.

12.00 Polls have now opened in Ohio. Let the games begin.

11.56 Following on with the general theme of frustration in the
Republican race, party grand dame Barbara Bush – wife of George HW and
mother of George W – has
blasted the campaign as “the worst campaign I’ve ever seen in my life”.

Yet even she was still refusing to throw all her energy behind a particular
candidate. She’s been campaigning for Romney – but still insisted to Fox
News that she has not endorsed him, before contradicting herself by adding: “I’m
very much for Mitt Romney, as I guess is my husband — I’m endorsing him for
George”.

If even the former First Lady isn’t willing to commit herself fully to any one
candidate, Peter Foster’s defeatists may well be right.

11.48 Now that you’ve got some of the facts, let’s see who’d sweep the
Super Tuesday polls if Telegraph readers were allowed to vote:

Who would you vote for on Super Tuesday?

11.38 The Telegraph’s US editor Peter
Foster has also blogged on the
malaise affecting the Republican race, and why this Super Tuesday is
unusual in that the party itself seems to be losing heart.

When it comes to making predictions about who will win the US presidential
election in November, Republicans seem to fall into two categories. The
first are the “gung ho-ers”. They throw back their heads and
guffaw at the suggestion that neither Romney nor Santorum is capable of
beating Obama…

The second, more thoughtful, category scratch their heads and, while
pledging to vote for whichever candidate wins the nomination, question
whether President Obama, the incumbent with a billion-dollar war chest, can
really be beaten… I have to report that the second, defeatist, category
seems to be growing.

^{Rick Santorum is Mitt Romney’s biggest challenger – but is he electable?}

11.23 Now, for a little background on the candidates and why Super
Tuesday is so important. John
Avlon has broken it down quite well in a Telegraph piece.

The vote is traditionally “D-Day for presidential campaigns”, he
says, offering up more delegates in a single night than all the other
contests to date.

Not this year, however. He declares that none of the four remaining Republican
candidates – Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich or Ron Paul – will
emerge with a coronation.

So the GOP fight to the death for the nomination will continue. And the
longer it occurs, the more bloodied and bruised the candidates will become,
while the majority of Americans look on with a mixture of horror and
amusement at the ugly internecine squabbles. The only clear winner in the
fight so far is President Barack Obama.

Avlon says the smart money is still on Romney – but adds:

The problem, of course, is that the base of the Republican Party now
resides in the former states of the Confederacy, and Romney has yet to win a
state in the Deep South, while even the Midwest has also been slow to rally
behind him. Which brings us to the other corner in the GOP fight, comprised
of the rest of the Republican field.

Santorum is currently the biggest challenger – but his particular brand of
social conservatism, while igniting the Republican base, is seen by many as
making him unelectable.

Gingrich has staked his campaign on winning Georgia, his home state, while
Paul is continuing his “tortoise and hare” strategy.

Avlon also explains why Ohio itself is so important:

The biggest prize of the night is Ohio, the Buckeye State, where Rick
Santorum and Mitt Romney are now neck and neck in the polls. No Republican
in more than a century has been elected president without winning Ohio, and
its primary is considered a pivotal test of electability.

11.16 The Associated Press has done a tally of where the candidates are
so far. By their count, Romney is well in the lead with 203 delegates from
previous contests. Santorum has 92, Gingrich has 33 and Paul, 25. A
candidate must win at least 1,144 to win the nomination.

11.02 A little breakdown of just what is happening today – what states
are going to the polls, which ones to keep your eye on, and a few
predictions for who will triumph:

Virginia – 49 delegates, believed to be going to Romney

Massachusettes – 41 delegates, Romney

Ohio – the biggest one to watch, due to the number of delegates
and how far it could swing things in favour of either Romney or Santorum. It
has 66 delegates, Romney and Santorum are neck and neck

Georgia – 76 delegates, likely to be Gingrich – his best
chance at reigniting his flailing campaign

Vermont – 17 delegates, likely to be Romney

Alaska (caucus) – 27 delegates

Idaho (caucus) – 32 delegates

North Dakota (caucus) – 28 delegates

Oklahoma (caucus) – 43 delegates, likely to be Santorum

Tennessee (caucus) – 58 delegates – could go to anyone except
Ron Paul

^{This is Mitt Romney’s big chance}

11.00 GMT (06.00 Dayton, Ohio) It’s the day we’ve all been waiting for:
Super Tuesday, on which ten American states will simultaneously go to the
polls to vote for their favourite candidate in one of the most fractured
Republican presidential races in years. We’ll be live blogging as voters go
to the polls this morning and as the results come in through the night. And
yes, it will be super.

Catch up on previous primaries with our live coverage archive:

• Michigan and Arizona Republican primary:
February 28
• Florida
Republican primary: January 30
• Florida
Republican primary debate: January 26
• Barack Obama’s State of the Union address:
January 24
• Florida Republican debate: January 23

• South Carolina Republican primary: January 21

• South Carolina Republican primary: January 20

• South Carolina Republican debate: January 19

• South Carolina primary buildup: January 19
• South
Carolina Republican debate: January 16
• New Hampshire Republican primary: January 11

• New
Hampshire Republican primary: January 10
• New
Hampshire Republican primary: January 9
• New Hampshire primary debate: January 8

• New Hampshire primary debate: January 7
• Iowa Republican primary: January 4
• Iowa
Republican primary: January 3
• Iowa
Republican primary: January 2

Meet our team covering the US elections: