george w. bush. are you having burritos for lunch? is it wednesday? i think it is. it should be friday, but it s just wednesday. mark halperin still with us. joining the table, editor-in-chief of newsweek magazine tina brown. and in washington, nbc news chief white house correspondent, political director and host of the daily rundown chuck todd. good to have you onboard this morning. let s start with wisconsin. mitt romney did last night what most people expected him to do, capture three primaries. romney won the closest of the three races in wisconsin, where rick santorum had devoted significant time and energy. romney took 43% of the vote there, adding to his already wide lead in delegates, and cruised to victory in maryland, beating santorum by 20 points. and in the district of columbia, where santorum wasn t even on the ballot, romney wiped out the field with 70% of the vote. exit polling from wisconsin
to frame a choice between the ryan budget and president obama. republicans are going to have to do a better job than they did today at communicating around these issues. if you look at the damage done to mitt romney in the republican primary, you understand why the president is trying to seize ground in the middle of the electorate, today. you also understand why people want rick santorum out of the race so mitt romney is start to merge his operation with the rnc, begin to off load a number of overhead cash expenses and get on into the general election. really a santorum candidacy doesn t serve more purpose except to conflict damage on mitt romney in the context of a general election. he doesn t have a chance to be the nominee any longer. it will be interesting to see how long he stays in and continues to attack the guy that will be the nominee. richard, what s happened to this talk about brokered convention. our exit polling shows in
convention. our exit polling shows in maryland and the district of columbia, that white evangelicals, tea partiers and conservatives are starting to converge and recognize it s going to be mitt romney and he wins in both of those places tonight. what about the brokered convention? what happened to all that hot talk? it does require the other candidates to get enough delegates to make it difficult, if not impossible, for mitt romney to meet the magic number. they just failed to do that. there are going to be surprises down the road. i m sure rick santorum will pick up a couple of states going down the track. it s not going to be enough to get him to the point where the math works for him at the convention. by the time, the party will come together. the debate will be engaged with the president, with the white house, with the chicago campaign, and that contrast between the two sides is going to lead to people converging on mitt romney, but still, it will
are not yet able to make a projection, piers. let s give it a little time for some more official numbers to come in. once they come in based on those numbers and these exit poll numbers, we ll be in a better position to make a projection. wolf acti, you re making thi sound as exciting as you always do but you are a master of this process. are we at the end game? if mitt romney was to win all three tonight, this is pretty much game over, isn t it? not necessarily. it s almost game over. pennsylvania april 23rd, if santorum loses his home state, then it s game over. if he wins in pennsylvania, you know, mitt romney still won t be at that 1,144 delegate number that he needs to officially sew up the nomination. and in may there are some states like texas, for example, kentucky, arkansas, where santorum presumably has an advantage, so he ll continue. a lot of the establishment republicans, a lot of the pundits think it s game over. let s see what the voters have to say. i don
feel better? yeah.thanks for the tip! shepard: so far on this primary evening exit polls indicate mitt romney is getting more support from the republic base in maryland and wisconsin. he is leading among very conservative voters. evangelicals and strong tea party supporters. in wisconsin, our exit polling indicates rick santorum is doing well among those voters who say they want a candidate with strong moral character. fox news channel will have updates throughout the evening. before we go, our team s top five things of the day. number five, the nfl commissioner roger goodell set to hear an appeal later this week over the new orleans saints bounty program. number four, folks can now stream movies and television shows from amazon s instant video service to playstation 3s. number three, the syrian government reports its troops have begun pulling out from some cities. activists say that is not true. number two, california police