♪ you give love a bad name >> oh, the jersey's coming out this morning. newark mayor cory booker joins our panel. you know if you signed up the whole political thing you could coanchor the show. if you decide presidential bid is not that interesting, we would love to have you. >> you don't get love a bad name. >> thank you. see, he flatters me. you guys don't flatter me. you are back. we love having you. you've advised the buchman campaign and romney campaign. ron braun seownstein, you're so. that's happening. tim pawlenty, of course, the former minnesota governor and also former presidential candidate will be joining us this morning. and alice stewart, press secretary. she's going to talk to us. reince priebus, chairman of the rnc and kevin dewine is slated to talk to us as well. we're going start by looking right at the numbers. mitt romney landing six victories on super tuesday. it was a nail biter in ohio. 38% to santorum's 37%. ultimately like the difference of something like 12,000 votes. not very much. he also took idaho. he took alaska and massachusetts and vermont and virginia. there was no surprise there. rick santorum claimed oklahoma and tennessee. he had been leading in the poll there's a. while there. he also took north dakota. newt gingrich costed to a very easy win in the state of georgia. gingrich and santorum are vowing to fight on as romney is now turning his attention to president obama as we've said before. here. >> 24 million americans are still struggling for work, they are high fiving each other in the west wing. my friends, 8% unemployment is not the best america can do. it's just the best that this administration can do. >> we have won in the west, the midwest, and the south. and we're ready to win across this country. >> we are going on to alabama. we are going on to mississippi. we are going on to kansas. that's just this week. >> i love what he went on to talk about the bunny rabbits and the tortoise, nice and slow and controlled. delegate count, 404 for mitt romney. santorum, 165. gingrich, 106. ron paul, 66. no actual wins in any primary though. 1144 is the number to watch for. that's the number of delegates needed to clench a nomination. we begin with tim paw lentry. he's the national co-chairman of mitt romney's 2012 presidential campaign. thanks for talking with us. we appreciate your time. what did you think of last night? ten states, big picture? give me your assessment. >> soledad, when you're running in ten states against three other come presidenters and you win six out of the ten and do well on the other four, that's a pretty good night for mitt romney. he maintains the front-runner status. when you look at the delegate count, three times as next closest competitor. he's campaign is on a trajectory to the nomination. >> let's talk about the strategy. the words i was hearing at the beginning of the week is coalescing and coalescing and then he got big endorsements, cantor endorsed. when you look at the xexit polling you don't see those conservatives coalescing as voters. is that a problem? >> well, when you -- first of all, endorsements, of course, matter a little but they don't matter a ton. when you look at the big states that have had open primaries, florida, you look at michigan, ohio last night. mitt romney does very well. he wins those states. in fact, he's won in every region of the country for a number of reasons. one, he's most likely to beat barack obama. that's not just spin. that's what the numbers show. two, he's got the best message and experience on the private sector economy. not having spent his whole life in government. three, he's not washington, d.c. like newt gingrich or rick santorum. he's spent their whole life in washington, d.c. or in relationship with it. and if the problem is washington, d.c., then you need to send somebody from outside of washington, d.c. to fix it. that's mitt romney. i think those are some of the reasons he's doing well and is going to be the nominee. >> can i add a number four, he's got goo-gobs of money. that would bring me to the question then, why is he not further ahead? why is ohio just a squeaker? >> well, a few weeks ago he was double digits down in ohio. so the fact that he closed that gap in a few weeks and won, i think is a testament to the fact that he's got resilience and strength and momentum. i don't look at ohio and say what a disappointment. i look at ohio and say, my goodness, what a positive result. he was 14 points down three weeks ago according to one poll and to win it last night was remarkable. it's a four-way race. you've bot to go out and earn every vote. he's doing that. i think you look at those numbers in a reasonable person would conclude he's the best candidate and most likely to be the nominee. >> governor, good morning. ron brownstein. underscore soledad's point. consistently last night as we have seen throughout, governor struggling with evangelical christians, middle income republicans, with those who consider themselves the most conservative. do you say any way for him to breakdown that very entrenched division in the party? do you see any signs of that eroding or is your camp going to have to live with that throughout the primary season? >> well, ron, as william f. buckley used to say, we won't the most conservative candidate who can also get elected. and mitt romney is conservative. if you look at his record of cutting taxes, growing jobs, cutting spending and the like, it's a conservative record but he can also get elected. the other candidates are viewed as less elect i belieable. when this field narrows, the party will unite, coalesce. it's a coalition. mitt romney has the capability and the merits to coalesce and unite this party and he will. it's not going to happen until the field narrows more fully. >> governor, i want to ask you about the next ten days. the next ten days is scheduled just to follow along sort of what ron was getting at. the next ten days don't seem that favorable for the governor. what's the strategy heading into some of the southern states to try and get those conservatives to coalesce around him? >> sure. well, the next states coming up are more of a challenge for governor romney. i think that's clear. i think you look at the likelihood of various campaigns doing well in the states. these wouldn't be his strongest states but he does have momentum and he does have a great record. he's a great candidate. he's got that electability argument. there's no question about it, who is best is it waited to beat barack obama. that's the main octoberive for conservatives and republican, it's mitt romney. and you look at ohio as a bellwether of that, last night when women and other important grouches came to his campaign and supported him over the candidates that's another measure of his electability and his ability to beat president barack obama. >> governor, it's cory booker. you said it's fortunate he did well given a four-way race. reality, isn't he lucky it's a four-way race. if newt gingrich dropped out wouldn't people coalesce around the other conservative alternatives and having a four-way race benefits him going into the convention? >> mayor, i'm still a little mimy miffed at you at some of the cheap shots you took at me at the gridiron club last june. >> i could make jokes right now but they were kind of off color. >> you will have to tell us a cleaned up version later. look, live lost control of my show. >> i try to give him a honoree minority status. some people say he's too vanilla. >> you made him an honoree black man? congratulations sir. answer the question. >> governor booker, governor booker said i was too vanilla. and i asked him if he was playing the race card. >> if you keep calling me governor booker we have a very meek soft-spoken governor in our state. i think chris christie might be coming after you for that. >> good point. on your question, mayor, look, the -- it kind of cuts both ways. fi i think if you look at narrowing the field, some people say rick santorum and newt gingrich are a dividing part of the vote. but it's more complicated than that. if you look at the cross tabs of various religious groups, catholics, women, working women, single women, and how that all sorts out, actually you can make a case that if the field narrows, i think in many of the states coming up, not this next round but beyond that, mitt romney would don even better. >> governor pawlenty, nice to see you. we appreciate your time. if you want me to smack the mayor for you, just let me know. i'm that close to you. i can do it for you, sir. >> thank you. all right. let's check in with christine romans. she's got some of the exit polls we were talking about diving a little deeper for us. good morning. >> good morning. i'm diving into the tennessee. a lot of talk about ohio but tennessee really shows the two choices in the romney/santorum fight here, if you will. look at ideology. in tennessee for those who consider themselves conservative, they went for rick santorum. somewhat conservative or consider themselves a moderate or liberal republican, they went for mitt romney. opinion of the tea party, support it or neutral oint, santorum. they oppose it, went for mitt romney. anything that is middle of the road, quite frankly, people go for mitt romney. what about top candidate quality? really tells a story also of these two candidates in the south. it might be interesting as we go further into some more of these torn primaries. for those who want experience, mitt romney is their guy. we've seen that in other states. for those who want character, rick santorum is their guy. 65% of those who say top quality is character, went for santorum. true conservative, no real surprise, 63% went for santorum. gingrich is second at 22%. for those who say they want their candidate to beat the president, romney win thons count again. 40%. but gingrich comes in second at 32% there. so a little foreshadowing maybe of what some of the issues might be for the front-runner mitt rm and santorum who has been on his heels as they continue in the south. soledad? >> i find these exit polls so fascinating. talk about them all morning. thank you very much. we have a visitor today. carlos dirks az with our sister network, hln. i'm surrounded by handsome men. >> three out of four. all right. >> modesty, i like that even better. >> thank you. let's start with breaking news. six soldiers from the uk are missing and presumed dead after an explosion in the helmand province of afghanistan. defense official says the incident took place while the troops within were on a security patrol in an armed vehicle. it would represent the worst loss of life for british forces in afghanistan in six years. new this morning, violent raids in syria today. soldiers storming rebel held villages with tanks. government forces blasted a bridge that wounded refugees were using to escape to lebanon. 8500 people were reportedly killed in the year long crack down. mostly civilians. president obama is now reportedly working to give humanitarian assistance to syria's opposition. meantime, former u.n. secretary general kofi annan is in cairo today meeting with the arab league, adding as part of a special envoy heading to syria saturday to try to convince president bashar al-assad to end the violence. a major upset on super tuesday. democratic congressman dennis kucinich a two-time presidential candidate, was defeated for the first time in 16 years in his newly drawn district in ohio. about 90% reporting kept rif marcy kaptur tops kucinich 60% to 36% in the 9th congressional district. kaptur has been a frequent close ally of kucinich. kaptur is going to have to go on and face a familiar name for that district's congressional seat. remember joe the plumber from the 2008 campaign? well, last night he won his congressional primary in the 9th district. a narrow 51% to 48% victory over auctioneer steve kraus. wurzelbacher became popular for asking then senator obama about working class class rights. the new version of the ipad set to be announced today. and since apple of course won't confirm any details, here are some of the rumors that we have right now. a brighter, more clean retinal display and a higher resolution. also got faster graphics and faster chip. videos will air with better quality. it will run on 4g, via verizon's lte network. and apparently be called the ipad hd, not the ipad 3. the official announcement is happening today at 1:00 p.m. eastern in san francisco. sadly to report this morn for colts fans, plans to release peyton manning today. the announcement is expected at a news conference today at noon eastern. manning has played his entire career, 14 seasons with the colts, won the super bowl, he's meant a lot for the city. he's had three neck surgeries in the last year and a half. still about to become the most coveted free nfl agent ever. it's going to be a big day in minneapolis. >> hasn't he recovered from that neck surgery? >> there is like him at duke university actually throwing a football 50 yards. so the people are saying he looks better now. >> right. that's sad. that's sad. >> i don't see how they can do it. he's been there all that time and built that stadium. >> you have to move on. you cannot rest on the past. >> wow. >> andrew lock, who is the future in indianapolis. >> you're hard core on that. >> in modern sports, given the size of the contracts, learning how to cut the ties is as important as the original signings in the first place. >> i've seen andrew play. he's going to be an incredible addition. >> is he too vanilla? >> i can't believe you said that. and he said you're playing the race card. that's funny. still ahead this morning on "starting point," paying -- taking the blame for those bounties in the nfl for big hits. we'll tell you what they're saying this morning. ve we showed you, running into sarah palin at her hometown polling station. not only is she not ruling out a presidential bid in 2016, she also had something to say about rush limbaugh's critics. we'll tell you about that. our get real this morning. have you ever been hit by a paint ball? that hurts. it hurts. it like leaves a welt on your arm. there's an updated version of paint ballgames. it's players armed with stun guns. come on. that's our "get real" this morning. we leave you can carlos diaz' play list. prince, "let's go crazy." i like this. oh, we call it the bundler. let's say you need home and auto insurance. you give us your information once, online... [ whirring and beeping ] [ ding! ] and we give you a discount on both. sort of like two in one. how did you guys think of that? it just came to us. what? bundling and saving made easy. now, that's progressive. call or click today. quaker oats. in every way, a super grain. ♪ super for the fiber that helps fill us up. super for the energy it gives to get us going. super for the oats that are so good for our hearts. ♪ super for how it makes us... super. quaker oats. energy. fiber. heart health. super people eat super grains. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ wow, i would not pick this for ron brownstein. >> i just thought it was the question that republicans will be asking about mitt romney this afternoon. >> this is 3 doors down "kryptonite." i'm sort of surprised. we've known each other a long time. years and years and years. >> i think it's what they will be asking mitt romney, superman, just barely maybe? >> mild mannered man. >> you can see our play list every morning on our website, cnn.com/startingpoint. i also put my blog up there. it was written in like four minutes. be kind. we're going to talk about questions about whether this race, this long race, is good or bad for the jop. cnn spoke to sarah palin last night. she was voting in her hometown of wasilla, alaska. >> five men run for president and i think barack obama is the worst choice, the last choice. so the four in front of him, as they duke it out in the arena of ideas and solutions to propose, the more of that the better. >> so do you think that's true, the more the better? sometimes there's evidence, she's now said the more the better. we heard it before from reince priebus said it's a good thing, it vets the candidates, you get to see them. you're shaking your head no. >> absolutely. as polls show this week, romney at this point in the race has the weakest favorable/unfavorable ratio of any nominee w. with one exception, bill clinton in 1992 when hit with allegations about the draft and jenngenerajennife. it's been dropping among independents and conservative voters. it's a trick to manage both of those groups at the same time. in some cases 2008, obama/clinton probably did strengthen them and get them known many more states. but in this race it's hard to argue the way this has unfolded had benefitted the republican chances of beating president obama. >> you know a bit about nasty political races. >> anybody who says they would prefer to see a long tough campaign is trying to spin so much they might be getting nauseous. mitt will probably want everybody out and start campaigning against barack obama. >> i think each individual would. but for the party as a whole. >> it's not. it's hurting the brand of the republican party. i think that the debates are it getting ridiculous. i think the to see this kind of ongoing punishing campaign going on between people over issues that most americans aren't concerned about. the fact that we're talking about everything from birth control to other social issues takes away from the core issue of the day, which is the economy. it's hurting the republican brand. it's hurting the event chul nominee and i'm sure most republicans are thinking they wish it was over. >> i thought the tone of the speech. when you heard mitt romney give him -- i was almost going to say concession speech and that was a little -- well, we've got a long haul ahead of us and we're going to step by step and door -- it wasn't -- it wasn't the speech of a man who last night won six out of ten primaries. >> yeah. well, i mean, the one thing i will say is coming out of south carolina i did think that that battle actually sharpened mitt's message. i think along the way this would serve to sharpen his message. if we're talking about this in june, then i do think it's a problem. >> it is worth remembering. the one candidate favorable/unfavorable as weak at this point in the process is bill clinton in 1992. it can be overcome. romney has been pulled to the right in a number of issues. immigration and latinos, numbers are scary for republicanss. still ahead, we're going to talk to the rnc reince priebusen last ahead, we're going to talk about playing through the pain. talk about what we understand in sports. did you see this? this is our "get real" this morning. stun gun. basically paint ball with stun guns. insane. i'm going to leave you with my play list. h is my daughter's play list, 11. rolling stones "brown sugar". i thought, oh, you're a cool little girl. >> old school. >> for an 11-year-old. for fastidious librarian emily skinner, each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. ...which meant she continued to have the means to live on... ...even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. at toyota's #1 fo