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't think santorum, even if he loses in wisconsin, will drop out tomorrow. i think he will continue a few more weeks, at least until pennsylvania. but if he loses in pennsylvania, then i think it is game over. >> wolf, is one of the reasons this has gone on as long as it has so far the fact that states like new york, california and others have gone later than normal and so it's slightly skewed this time around compared to last time so no one can be 100% sure? >> new york and california almost certainly when they have their contests will go for mitt romney. those are huge states. texas may go for santorum. so there's still some ways -- look, there's no doubt that mitt romney has a tremendous advantage over rick santorum right now. a tremendous advantage. he is in the driver's seat. a lot of people think he's the presumpive nominee. let's see what happens in pennsylvania. but there's no doubting that as you correctly point out that california and new york state, the two largest states, they have a clear advantage for mitt romney. texas may have a little bit of an advantage for rick santorum. so the game will continue. let's see what happens. >> let's go to tom foreman. tom, take me to your magic wall. it's all about the delegates, as always. how significant will tonight be in terms of delegate count? >> well, you know, piers, it's been this incremental process we've been through quite some time. you get 42 delegates here. as you move through these other states, you'll get more and more people to add into the equation and it will make some difference. i do want to point out something about the delegate count that i think is important consider in all of this. if you look at a state like maryland here, for example, where rick santorum seems to be doing okay out here in garrett county, here's the problem. if i bring in a look at -- the way it's broken down by congressional district, which is partially how you decide this, here's the problem. even if you did well in this county but it spanned as this one is by a congressional district that goes further, you may not even get a share of the delegates. if you could have won the sdrin district, you would have. but winning a county, if you're trumped by this one and this one, and this one has considerably more people in it that this one, if that happens, you don't even get a share of the delegates. one of the secrets to staying in the game is getting a share. you have to have a part of what's out there if you want to stay in the game. >> i want to bring back wolf here along with the rest of the cnn political team, david, gloria and ari. how are you looking at this race now? it's been thrilling,s been up and down, roller coaster, but right now if i was in vegas, every dollar i've got is going on romney, isn't it? >> absolutely, absolutely. i think we've reached a turning point in this race actually a few weeks ago, but we're going to play it out, piers. look, there's a mathematical chance, there's a theoretical chance rick santorum could catch fire. but after the big primaries that are coming up in a couple of weeks, even if he wins pennsylvania, romney will sweep everything else. at that point santorum would have to win maybe 70% of the delegates remaining in order to do it. that's not going to happen. >> you can't really blame santorum, can you, because -- i'll stop there. we'll go straight to wolf. breaking news. i think we can now call d.c. >> piers, stand by. we've got news to report to our viewers in the united states and around the world. and you are absolutely correct. we now project that mitt romney is the winner in the district of columbia. he wins the republican presidential primary in washington, d.c. earlier we projected he is the winner in the state of maryland as well. still waiting for the official numbers to start coming in from the state of wisconsin. so far two for two for mitt romney. both expected maryland and d.c. important delegates now going to the mitt romney camp. we'll see what happens in wisconsin. we're getting the official numbers coming in and, pierpiers you saw, the exit polls giving a slight advantage to mitt romney in with it ssconsin but we'll s official numbers and be in a better position to make a projection. but mitt romney, the former governor of massachusetts, can add two more contests to his win column, maryland and washington, d.c. >> wolf, thanks very much. back to david gergen. what i was about to say to you was i can't blame rick santorum. he's come from nowhere. he was the guy nobody gave a chance to. he's fought a fantastic battle from iowa onwards. he's really put the hard yards in. there is an argument that says having him snapping at mitt romney's heels for a little longer will toughen up mitt romney for the real battle ahead for barack obama. at what point, though, does rick santorum staying in the race along with the others start to damage the party? >> well, he has won 11 contests, you have to give him credit for that. it's 11 more than anybody thought he would win. ari fleischer has said he's earned his way to compete in his home state and i think that's right. if he wins back pennsylvania, he will win back his dignity in his home state. rather than going on to texas and going on and on, to let this gracefully come to a close. but let the republicans get themselves in battle gear for the election, because president obama is coming straight at them. he gave a rip-roaring speech today and clearly he knows where he's going. and he's got a lead right now and he wants to keep mitt romney pinned down. mitt romney has got to take it up against president obama, not against rick santorum. >> let's go to ari fleischer. if you're barack obama here -- >> i'm not. >> today he came out and for the first time addressed mitt romney. obviously you're not barack obama, your massively more handsome and intelligent. >> a lot more air too, right? >> however --. you're looking at this race. do you want this over? the fact that he flirted with mitt romney's name today in his speech means he pretty well is sure that romney is the guy. do you want it over or is it to your advantage they carry on squabbling for another month or so. >> if you're the democrats and the obama campaign, you're loving this. the longer it goes on, the less republicans are unified and saying return to the corner. our focus is on defeating president obama. republicans are overwhelmingly motivated to defeat president obama. they want to stretch this out. republicans have not put their best foot forward in this primary. i will make the case. in 2008 the democratic primary lifted up both hillary clinton and president obama. their favorables rose throughout the primary. that is not happening this year. the other big issue republicans have got to address is the decline and support among women. this is a vexing problem for republicans. i think mitt romney, who didn't play a significant role in it, some of the issues rick santorum introduced, have got to figure out how to get that back. it's going to be a fight for the agenda. if the agenda is about contraception and issues like that, republicans are in big trouble. if the agenda is deficits, and debt and jobs and energy, republicans have a very good chance. mitt romney has a very good chance to defeat barack obama. >> let me go to gloria. >> let's talk about women. >> you're a woman. >> yeah, let's talk about women with the woman of the panel. how does mitt romney get back the female vote? there's no doubt that him having to squabble it out on social issues and appear to be antiall these female issues has damaged him with women. how does he turn that tide back in his favor? >> first of all, as we've all said before, he needs to use ann romney an awful lot more because she's his greatest character witness. aside from that, when you look at the polling of women, women are economic voters. women care an awful lot about health care. also being caretakers largely in their families. so for example, if the supreme court were to overturn health care reform, then i think it would be incumbent upon mitt romney, presuming he's the nominee, to come out with his own specific plan for now he would reform the health care system and make sure, for example, the people with pre-existing conditions are covered, that older children can stay on their parents' policies without a health care mandate. women will listen to the arguments about health care. they will listen to arguments about how he's going to make the economy better, how he's going to reduce unemployment, how he's going to help minimum wage earners, because women are minimum wage earners, so i think he has to take a turn to that economic argument and take the president on directly on the health care issue. i think that could be very lucrative for him. >> gloria, thank you. we're going to take a short break and be back to the panel afterwards, although we are awaiting speeches from mitt romney and rick santorum, so we may be going straight to them. we'll be back in a few moments. 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[ male announcer ] buy unlimited messaging and get free unlimited calling to any mobile phone on any network. at&t. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. we're going straight live to rick santorum who's about to make his speech after losing two so far of the states tonight. >> it is great to be home. thank you. here with karen and the kids and the people behind us, that's just -- that's not all of karen's family, but most of it. karen and karen's parents had 11 children and umpteen nieces and nephews that we have and it's just great to be here with friends and family. we have now reached the point where it's halftime. half the delegates in this process have been selected and who's ready to charge out of the locker room in pennsylvania for a strong second half? it is great to be here in southwestern pennsylvania, where i grewup in a steel town about 20 miles northeast of here in this same county, butler, pennsylvania. how about a shoutout for butler. and this area, this area, like that town and like the people in it, forged steel to build this country, to help win world wars and not just have we built the country and forged steel to win wars, we forged people with strong values and a strong commitment to what made america great. okay, you can applaud that too if you want. [ applause ] i can always be interrupted for applause, don't worry about that. this is why we came here. this is why we wanted to come back to southwestern pennsylvania, to kick off the second half. this is a part of the country, pennsylvania, that, well, it's where america started. not only did we forge steel in this state, we forged liberty in this state. [ applause ] the symbol of the liberty bell in philadelphia, where that document that those of you who have been following me around on the campaign trail have been seeing. this document, both the u.s. constitution and the declaration of independence, forged right here in pennsylvania. and there's no place where those values are more instilled than in this great commonwealth. ladies and gentlemen -- [ applause ] -- this great commonwealth has given a tremendous amount to our count country. if you look at the history of our great state, not only the declaration and the constitution created here, but we won key battles. washington's crossing, washington crossing the delaware to save the revolution. that plan was hatched up here in pennsylvania. some in the other camps in this race have said that all of the significant people have spoken in this race so far. see, general washington knew that in fact not all the significant people are those elites in society, those who are the generals and the ranked officers, but in fact what general washington understood, some of the best ideas and some of the best plans, in fact what has made this country great, is that we have listened to real significant voices of everyday americans, and he did. and that's why he crossed the delaware, surprised the hessians and turned the tide of the revolution. ladies and gentlemen, pennsylvania and half the other people in this country have yet to be heard, and we're going to go out and campaign here and across this nation to make sure that their voices are heard in the next few months. [ applause ] we know who we are here in pennsylvania. we know who we are. we know the stock we're made of. we have contributed a lot. great deeds have occurred here, great pennsylvanians have contributed. i know. i had the privilege of representing this state in the senate for 12 years and this community in southwestern pennsylvania for four. went to every one of those counties every year, all 67, and i understand the greatness of the people of this state and i understand how important this race is here in pennsylvania. this is called the keystone state for a reason. we are in fact the keystone. we're the place upon which our country was built and great things continue to happen here. great things like in manufacturing and oil and gas production here in pennsylvania that is turning our economy around and creating opportunities for us to grow our economy, not just here in pennsylvania, but because of lower natural gas prices. we're seeing manufacturing and other businesses come back in spite of the crushing burden that barack obama and his administration has put on our economy. we need someone who understands who liberty is all about. someone who's going to go out and fight to make sure that the biggest and most crushing burden that this administration has put on us, one that was debated just last week in the united states supreme court, about government taking control of your health and of course as a result of your very life and dictating to you, dictating to you what you will do, how much you will pay, what insurance you will get, and even what the practice of your faith will be dictated by the federal government. we need someone in this race who can go out and make the clarion call for liberty. someone who as opposed any government health care state or federal, who can go out and make the case that what president obama is doing, which is what his agenda of health care and his attempt at cap in trade where he's going to dictate how much energy you're going to use, that this is a fundamental change in the relationship between the people and their government. ladies and gentlemen, if we're going to win this race, we can't have little differences between our nominee and president obama. we have to have clear contrasting colors. in the last 120 years -- [ applause ] in the last 120 years, we've had one time where the republican party has defeated an incumbent democrat for president. one time. time and time again the republican establishment have shoved down the throats of the republican party and people across this country, moderate republicans, because of course we have to win by getting people in the middle. there's one person who used. we don't win by moving to the middle. we win by getting people in the middle to move to us and move this country forward. not only do we know who we are here in pennsylvania and what we stand for, but you know who i am. you're going to hear a lot of things being thrown as happened in all the other states, where we've seen a whole bunch of negative campaigning. we've gone out across this country and with the most improbable of odds and with limited resources, exempt one in which we've had incredible resources, and that's human resources, the people of this country have stood up and followed because they have seen someone who has a clear, positive vision. someone whose convictions are also forged in steel, not on an etch-a-sketch. [ applause ] and so you'll be seeing the negative ads and getting the robo calls and all of the other things thrown at us, but you know me. you know how hard i work. you know how strongly i believe in the things that -- the values that southwestern pennsylvania has instilled in me. you know that i come from a steel town from immigrant parents. grandfather worked in the mines. someone who lived in government housing on a va grounds and saw the great sacrifice of our men and women in uniform serving them as they served our country. you know me. they'll say all the things, that i'm someone who doesn't stand up for what i believe in. you know me. [ applause ] and so i ask you over the next three weeks, this isn't halftime, no marching bands. we're hitting the field. the clock starts tonight. we've got three weeks to go out here in pennsylvania. and win this state. and after winning this state, the field looks a little different in may. i remind everybody the one time we did win in the last 120 years, the republican party had the courage to go out and nominate someone who all the experts and all the pundits and all the media -- all the republican establishment said couldn't win, it was too conservative. he lost almost every early primary. he only won one until may. one primary until may. everybody told him to get out of the race. this was back in 1976. they said get out of the race, we need a moderate. in 1976, ronald reagan didn't get out of the race. he was able to stand tall in may, win the state of texas, which we have every intention of doing. [ applause ] go rick, go. go rick, go. go rick, go. go rick, go. >> he took that race the entire way to the convention. he fell short. and in the fall, republicans fell short because we nominated another moderate who couldn't galvanize our party and bring those votes to our side to get the kind of change that we need in america. and then four years later they fought him again. we need another moderate. we have to defeat this democratic incumbent. and this time the republican establishment lost. let's not make the mistake of 1976 again. let's bypass that era and move straight to 1980 andincumbent, and you can help me here in pennsylvania. thank you very much. god bless you. god bless you. thank you. thank you. >> rick santorum talking in pennsylvania just moments ago. the fat lady certainly hasn't sung yet in this race. when we come back, more from tea