MT. HOLLY, N.C. -- President Obama took a subtle jab at his Republican opponents in November on Wednesday, continuing in a theme of the president drawing increased contrasts with his GOP rivals.

Speaking at a truck plant in this crucial swing state, the president made reference to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's recent campaign theme of promising $2.50/gallon gasoline prices as a result of less restrictive energy policies.

“The next time you hear some politician trotting out some 3-point plan for two-dollar gas, you let them know, we know better,” Obama told a cheering audience, many of whom were union members sporting “United Auto Workers” T-shirts, at the Daimler Mount Holly truck manufacturing plant, located right outside of Charlotte.

The quip appears to be part of an increased effort by the president to send jabs toward the Republicans jockeying for his job. He swiped last week at Rick Santorum's notion claim that Obama's efforts to encourage higher education made him a "snob." And on Tuesday, Obama tersely responded to the Republicans' criticism of his handling of foreign policy: "They're not commander-in-chief."

Obama was visiting Daimler, which produces trucks that run on natural gas, to announce a new initiative to spur investment in fuel-efficient cars. But North Carolina is also politically crucial, as Obama looks to repeat his narrow 2008 victory, when he became the first Democrat to win the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

But how many folks here will actually vote for him is still in question. Recent North Carolina polls suggest more voters approve of President Obama’s job now than a few months ago, although they still have serious misgivings about his stewardship of the economy.

A recent Elon University survey found his February job approval rating at 45 percent, up slightly from when the question was last asked in November (43 percent). But a higher percentage of voters -- 48 percent -- said they disapproved of his job overall.

And he is still underwater when it comes to the economy, with a 51 percent disapproval rating and 43 percent approval. But that’s an improvement from September, when his economic disapproval clocked in at 57 percent with only 37 percent approving.

Despite his warm words meant for swing state ears today, Obama spent most of his speech highlighting the work his administration has done to diversify domestic energy sources and decrease dependence on foreign oil, taking a lighthearted jab at his Republican challengers for not giving him enough credit on oil production.

“Since I took office, America’s dependence on foreign oil has gone down every single year,” he said. “You wouldn’t know it from listening to some of these folks out here. Some of these folks,” he repeated, grinning.

He also took another shot at Congress, his frequent foil, for not acting to repeal tax expenditures for oil companies.

“We should put every member of Congress on the record: They can stand up for the oil companies or they can stand up for the American people and this new energy future,” he said.

And while this event was billed as a strictly apolitical policy rollout, Obama hinted at the fact that he is seeking another four-year term, which the audience picked up on immediately.

“We may not get there in one term,” he said, before pausing -- just enough time for the audience to start chanting “Four more years! Four more years!”

But in a response to the president’s speech, Republican National Committee chairman said Reince Priebus said Obama does not deserve a second term because his efforts to drive down gas prices have failed.

“In the last three years, President Obama has spent valuable taxpayer dollars picking winners and losers and breaking his promises to keep gas prices low and to increase the number of electric cars on the road. There is no reason to believe that today’s promises will be any different and is just another reason why North Carolinians can’t afford a second term of Barack Obama,” Priebus said in a written statement.

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich said he's focused on serving out the remainder of his term following a Democratic primary loss against fellow Rep. Marcy Kaptur on Tuesday night.

After an occasionally contentious battle between the two veteran lawmakers in Ohio's redrawn 9th congressional district, Kucinich declined to speculate as to what his plans might be after leaving Congress.

“Up until yesterday, I was focused on the election and that was it,” Kucinich said. “When I get on that plane, this campaign is behind me. What's ahead of me is continued public service.”

“You're looking at someone with  zero regrets,” Kucinichcontinued. “I can stand here with the certitude that my service to this community has been impeccable.  And at the same time, I'm looking forward to continuing to serve.”

Kucinich, who was first elected to a Cleveland-area district in 1997, said that he and Kaptur, who was elected from a Toledo-based district in 1983, have been “friends for 30 years." But he decried the negative tone of his opponent's campaign. Kucinich said that his campaign had “integrity” and noted that in the areas of the redrawn district he had previously represented he beat Kaptur with 75 percent of the vote.

“What I do have a problem with is a candidate who openly distorted the truth,” Kucinich said.  “Don't come to this community with a bucket of mud on one day and then come back the next day with a bouquet of flowers. It's not fair to the people.”

He continued: “Our politics have to be lifted up. They don't belong in the gutter. And that's not where I come from.”

The two-time Democratic presidential candidate hinted that he will continue to serve his community after his term is up.

“Whenever I get involved in things, it changes the outcome,” Kucinich said. “I'm still around. You don't always need an office to do that by the way.”

MONTGOMERY, AL -- Wins in both Alabama and Mississippi next week are essential for Newt Gingrich to stay credible in the 2012 presidential race, his campaign spokesman acknowledged Wednesday.

“A big win in Georgia kept us in the race. Big wins in Alabama and Mississippi will add even more fuel to the tank,” Gingrich campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond told reporters.

The former House Speaker himself continued to raise expectations in the Yellowhammer State.

“I believe Alabama has a major role to play in setting the stage for the presidential nomination,” Gingrich told the crowd here during his first event post-Super Tuesday where he only placed higher than third in one of eleven states.

While Gingrich is still running second in delegate count as of this morning, according to NBC News, with 111 delegates [Mitt Romney 339; Santorum 107], many people, including his competitors, question how he can continue on much longer without actually winning more states. The Speaker has only won South Carolina and Georgia.

The campaign feels it is so essential to focus on these two states, where voters take to the polls on March 13, that they will skip campaigning in Kansas.

After sending out a press schedule just yesterday with the subject line: “Newt and Callista Gingrich Announce Campaign Stops in Kansas,” Hammond told reporters Wednesday morning there has been a change in schedule.

“Gingrich," he said, "will be here in Alabama and Mississippi."

The former Speaker’s attendance at the six scheduled campaign appearances in all four of Kansas’s congressional districts have been cancelled, including a Newt 2012 Big 12 Tournament Basketball Watch Party.

The move to not campaign in Kansas, although the campaign says it will still utilize resources there, is in line with Gingrich’s Southern strategy.

“Everything from Spartanburg all the way to Texas, they all need to go for Gingrich,” Hammond said. 

Gingrich placed third in both the Tennessee and Oklahoma primaries Tuesday but has high hopes next week in Alabama and Mississippi.

President Obama's re-election team argued that Mitt Romney had threatened to drive independent voters away the GOP in the general election by moving rightward to win primary contests.

The morning after Romney failed to clinch the Republican nod in Super Tuesday's slate of 11 contests, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina and senior adviser David Axelrod painted the not-quite-nominee as having "leveraged" the general election with "tactical" moves to the right.

A prime example of that "leveraging" in their eyes? Romney's reaction to Rush Limbaugh's flammably-controversial comments about women and birth
control.

Without prompting from reporters' questions, senior strategist David Axelrod mentioned the Limbaugh matter three times, calling Romney's response "timid" and accusing him of being "afraid to challenge the de facto boss of his party."

"If you don't have the strength to stand up to the most strident voices in the party how are you going to stand up to Ahmedinajad?" Axelrod said of his response. "How are you going to stand up to the challenges of the presidency?"

"The Limbaugh thing was a test of leadership, and you have them all the time. And Mitt Romney's failed those tests in the campaign," he added.

Messina said that the recent spate of primary results have not changed the campaign's five potential paths to 270 electoral votes as laid out last year -- a series of regional efforts that include pushes in the mountain west and the rust belt.

"If anything, our map has gotten more expansive and there's more opportunities," he added, citing the campaign's strong organizational infrastructure in swing states like Arizona and Florida.

The duo characterized Romney's apparent lurching towards the nomination as a sign of Democrats' strength in rebuilding the coalition that boosted them to victory four years ago.

"He continues to kind of grind out a kind of tactical victory, tactical victories in a kind of death march here," said Axelrod of Romney.

And both pointed out Romney's recent primary state losses among low-income workers and youth, saying that Romney's negative advertising has taken a toll on his appeal to wide swaths of the electorate.

"They appear to be appealing to the worst instincts and impulses. And I think there's a price to be paid for that," Axelrod said.

As for internal Democratic politics, Messina would only generally comment on Obama's record on gay rights in response to comments this morning by DNC convention chair Antonio Villaraigosa calling for making gay marriage is a part of the Democratic party platform.

"There's a process to go through this discussion and the DNC will go through that and we will have a platform," he said.

Villiaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles, said that fighting for same-sex marriage was essential to the Democratic Party's identity.

"I do, I think it's basic to who we are," he said at a breakfast sponsored by Politico.

The latest development in the race for Olympia Snowe's (R) Senate seat: After former Gov. Angus King (I) decided to make a bid for the seat, Dem Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D) now has decided NOT to run.

A Democratic operative with knowledge of the situation tells NBC News that Pingree saw polling showing that a three-way race -- involving Pingree (D), King (I), and a Republican -- could throw the race to the GOP candidate, allowing the Republican Party to hold on to the seat.

The Democratic operative stresses that Pingree made this decision on her own, and that Democratic leaders have not reached out to King to get an assurance that he would caucus with the Democrats.

However, the ASSUMPTION is that the popular King -- who supports abortion rights, who backed Obama in '08 but George W. Bush in 2000 -- would either caucus with the Democrats or be a strict independent, if elected.

And it appears Democrats are willing to bet on that assumption.

"The best outcome for Senate Democrats is for King to quickly coalesce support among independents and Democrats, and eliminate any chance Republicans have to even be competitive in this race," the Democratic operative tells NBC News.

Republicans also seem to be be assuming King will caucus with the Democrats. "The decision by national Democrats to throw Chellie Pingree and other proud Democratic leaders in Maine aside, in favor of an 'independent' who supported President Bush in 2000, makes clear they are more concerned with holding onto power in Washington, than trying to advance their own party's principles," National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director Rob Jesmer said in a statement. "This is just the latest backroom deal we've seen from national Democrats and it adds to the cynicism that voters in Maine and around the country rightfully feel towards those running Washington these days."

Interestingly, liberals who had cheered a Pingree candidacy aren't upset by the news.

Said Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee: "Chellie Pingree would have been a bold progressive fighter in the Senate, and we are confident that she will be when Susan Collins retires. Angus King was willing to create a three-way race that handed this Senate seat to a far-right Republican -- a precise repeat of what happened in Maine's 2010 three-way gubernatorial race. Chellie Pingree's decision was based on what is best for the people of Maine and the future of progressive causes, not based on what was best for herself, and we look forward to continuing our work with her around progressive fights in Congress."

BOSTON -- Mitt Romney's campaign gathered the national press corps in their campaign war room this morning to deliver a simple message: It would take an "act of God" for any candidate not named Mitt Romney to win the Republican nomination.

The Boston-based campaign projected confidence in Romney's ability to win the nomination given the emerging delegate math in the campaign following last night's Super Tuesday contests.

"We will get to 1,144 whether it's on someone else’s timeline, or on our timeline," said one top Romney aide. "We will get to 1,144 and be the Republican nominee."

The background briefing with several members of the campaign's senior staff was emblematic of Romney's campaign: no grand flourishes, just business, math and message, with aides asserting the calendar was ill-suited to any candidate looking to eat into Romney's delegate lead.

Looking ahead to a primary calendar where the only remaining true winner-take-all states appear to favor Romney -- Delaware, Utah, New Jersey and the District of Columbia (where Rick Santorum is not on the ballot) -- the advisers tried to slowly close the door on Santorum and Newt Gingrich, who they said had little to no opportunity left to close the delegate gap.

Other delegate-heavy states like California and Texas (the latter thought to be less friendly to Romney) are winner-take-all by congressional district, which all but guarantees their large delegate hauls' being split among candidates, rather than awarding a large haul to a single GOP hopeful. One Romney aide said one would have to "bend the laws of reality" to see Gingrich or Santorum making a significant dent in Romney's lead in those states.

"There’s not a lot of Floridas left out there, no more Arizonas, no more Virginias. There’s just no more big chunks of delegates to go get. So whether it's a one-, two-, three- or four-way race, you’re still going to have people bunched up there," said one Romney aide, dismissing a question about whether a smaller field might make Romney's path more difficult.

Romney captured 65 percent of the available delegates on Super Tuesday, pushing his total to 339 pledged delegates, according to NBC News projections, out of the 1,144 needed to secure the nomination. A campaign spokesperson also said the campaign had raised $11.5 million in February, yet again outpacing every other Republican candidate. They did not, however, disclose the amount of cash left on hand after bruising and expensive contests in Michigan and Ohio.

Taken together, the campaign hopes math, if not ideology, will help their candidate consolidate a Republican base still resistant to his nomination in some quarters. Romney has thus far failed to win a culturally Southern state (Virginia and Florida notwithstanding) or to convince the self-identified "very conservative" Republican voters that he is the man best suited to challenge President Obama in the fall.

One aide argued that even if Romney never fully wins over rural conservatives, he would end up with their support in November, in part because such voters are the most likely to be strongly opposed to the president's re-election.

Romney aides dismissed the persistent narrative of their candidate as a weak front-runner, unable to connect and failing to garner the support of independent voters -- noting that he won states as diverse as Vermont, Alaska and Ohio last night, and pointing to polling from 1992, which showed then-Gov. Bill Clinton's favorability ratings upside down.

"If I remember correctly, he served two terms," said one aide.

Asked directly when they would begin working behind the scenes to convince the Gingrich and Santorum campaigns to see the math their way, one Romney adviser responded bluntly: "Now."

Despite winning just one state last night, Newt Gingrich is vowing to stay in the race.

"We are staying in this race, because I believe it is going to be impossible for a moderate to win the general election," Gingrich said.

He dismissed Rick Santorum as a "good team member," but one who can't change the game.

"With all respect to my friend from Pennsylvania, Sen. Santorum," Gingrich said, "there is a big difference between being a good team member and changing the game."

The comments are similar to what Gingrich said this morning on Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" radio show.

"If I thought he was a slam dunk to beat Romney and to beat Obama, I would really consider getting out," Gingrich said of Santorum on the show. "I don’t ... I think each of the three candidates has strengths and weaknesses and that this is a very healthy vetting process.”

Gingrich refused to set the bar of when he might drop out.

"If you asked Rick Santorum that question immediately after Nevada, what would we have said?" Gingrich retorted. "He had been running fourth for a month and -- including me -- people were saying maybe he should drop out. He ignored all those. He now has had a terrific month. I think you have to wait and see how the race goes on.”

After Super Tuesday, here are the delegate standings, as of 11:30 am ET, according to the NBC News Elections Desk:

Romney 339
Gingrich 111
Santorum 107        
Paul 30

The score out of just last night's contests:

Romney 220
Santorum 90
Gingrich 81
Paul 22

The means Romney got 65% of his delegate total out of last night's races. But he's still only 29% of the way to the magic number of 1,144 to become the Republican nominee.

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks to supporters at his "Super Tuesday" primary election night rally in Boston, March 6, 2012.

Romney wins the most delegates, the most states, and the big prize of Ohio… But he’s still unable to pull away from his GOP competition… Why? Look no further than ideology… The good news for Romney: He increases his delegate lead… Question for Gingrich: Does he stay or does he go?... What’s next: the non-Romney-friendly states of Kansas (March 10), Alabama (March 13), and Mississippi (March 13)… Team Romney continues to enjoy an ad-spending advantage in these upcoming states, but do note that the Romney camp hasn’t spent a DIME in them… Obama lectures GOP rivals on their Iran rhetoric… And Kucinich and Schmidt lose.

*** Unable to pull away: It’s hard to imagine that someone could win the most delegates (and a MAJORITY of all available) on Super Tuesday, the most states, and -- after midnight -- the big prize of Ohio, but still come out of it bloodier and more bruised than when the day began. But that’s exactly what seemed to happen to Mitt Romney last night. Yesterday, we wrote that Super Tuesday could come down to math vs. perception. And the perception from Super Tuesday was that Romney continues to win when it matters, but that he also continues to be unable to put the GOP race away, despite enjoying almost every advantage (the money, the organization, the pro-Romney Super PAC, the fact that this is his second presidential bid, the divided Santorum-Newt vote). It was one thing for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to duke it out in ’08, trading victories and splitting up the delegates; it was a clash of political titans. But it’s another thing for Romney -- the always-assumed GOP front-runner -- to be unable to pull away from Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. The story on Romney remains the same as it was six months ago: It’s difficult to see how he’s denied the nomination, but it’s also difficult how he gets there, at least as soon as he wants to. How does he land this nomination plane? How does the Romney campaign gently start bringing conservatives aboard without using the "you have no choice”/”Santorum/Gingrich can't make the math work" sledgehammer?

*** Why is Romney unable to pull away? The answer to that question continues to come down to ideology. According to the exit polls in Ohio, Santorum easily won among very conservatives (48%-30%) and overall conservatives (41%-35%), while Romney won the other ideological subgroups (somewhat conservatives, moderates/liberals). Santorum won Tea Party supporters (39%-36%), while Romney won Tea Party detractors (45%-30%). And Santorum ran up the score with evangelicals (47%-30%). Given that kind of very conservative resistance we’ve seen in other contests -- Iowa, South Carolina, Michigan, and Ohio -- it’s a tribute to Romney that he remains on track to winning the GOP presidential nomination. But it also explains why he’s unable to pull away from his under-funded and less-organized opposition.

*** The good news for Romney: He increases his delegate lead: So that’s the bad news for Romney. The good news for him is the delegate score from last night. Here are our projections how the delegates will split: Romney 219, Santorum 97, Gingrich 82, Paul 22. And overall (with those projections), it’s Romney 338, Santorum 114, Gingrich 112, and Paul 30. But if it’s only about delegates, then consider this: It’s likely that Romney won’t be able to get the necessary 1,144 needed to capture the nomination until late May or even afterwards, if Santorum and Gingrich stay in the race. And that race would continue 1) as the battleground moves next week to the non-Romney-friendly states of Alabama and Mississippi, and 2) as Santorum has begun to ramp up his criticism of Romney’s health-care law. But to demonstrate the math advantage Romney has, consider this: To get to 1,144, Santorum would need to win 62% of all REMAINING delegates; if you assume that Romney wins in his regional strongholds (New York, Connecticut etc), then Santorum needs to win in all other places at a 67% clip; and if you assume that party insider delegates (the RNC version of super delegates) break for Romney 65%-35%, then Santorum would need 71% of the remaining delegates in primaries, caucuses and conventions to get the nomination. Bottom line: The math for Santorum isn’t TECHNICALLY impossible, but it’s HIGHLY improbable.

*** Does Gingrich stay or does he go? Then there’s the question about Gingrich: Does he stay or does he go? Last night, NBC’s Andrew Rafferty notes, Santorum chief strategist John Brabender said the campaign wants the race to become a one-on-one contest, though Brabender maintained it won’t call for Gingrich to drop out. "We're never going to call on anybody to get out, but what we are calling is on Tea Party supporters and conservatives is to rally behind the only candidate that has demonstrated over and over again that he's the one who can compete against Mitt Romney," Brabender said. But a senior Gingrich aide replied, per NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell: "In turn we can make the same argument. The worst part of Santorum's analysis is he doesn't realize he is splitting the moderate vote with Romney." Yet consider this: Outside of Georgia (the one state he won), Gingrich finished third or fourth in every primary where he was on the ballot. Not a single SECOND place anywhere else -- not in Tennessee, not in Oklahoma.

*** What’s next: The GOP race now moves to Kansas (March 10); Alabama, Hawaii, and Mississippi (March 13); Illinois (March 20); and Louisiana (March 24). Based on past races, the only safe ground for Romney might be Illinois (and maybe Hawaii, too). Then again, Romney continues to have the ad-spending advantage in all of these states, except for Hawaii and Kansas. .

Alabama: Restore Our Future (pro-Romney $840,000), Winning Our Future (pro-Gingrich) $290,000
Hawaii: Paul $39,000
Illinois: Restore Our Future $660,000, Gingrich $16,000
Kansas: Winning Our Future $144,000
Louisiana: Restore Our Future $460,000, Winning Our Future $3,000, Gingrich $1,000
Mississippi: Restore Our Future $750,000, Winning Our Future $240,000, Santorum $4,000

*** Three notes on this ad spending: One, notice that the pro-Romney Super PAC -- but NOT the Romney campaign -- is advertising in these states. It’s yet another sign that the Romney campaign doesn’t have much money left (the FEC report on March 20 will be interesting to see. Two, where would Gingrich be without Sheldon Adelson and the Adelson-funded Super PAC. And three, no one has gotten more bang for his campaign-spending buck than Santorum.

*** On the trail, per NBC’s Adam Perez: Gingrich holds four events in Alabama… And Santorum spends his day in Mississippi.

*** Obama lectures GOP rivals, especially Romney, about their bellicose rhetoric: In addition to Super Tuesday, the other big political event yesterday was President Obama’s White House news conference. And what struck us the most was when he lectured his GOP rivals on their rhetoric toward Iran. “Those folks don’t have a lot of responsibilities,” he said. “They’re not commander-in-chief. And when I see the casualness with which some of these folks talk about war, I’m reminded of the costs involved in war.  I’m reminded that the decision that I have to make in terms of sending our young men and women into battle, and the impacts that has on their lives, the impact it has on our national security, the impact it has on our economy. This is not a game. There’s nothing casual about it.” When can tell you that Obama was, in particular, referring to Romney and his speech at AIPAC. Here’s what Romney said, via satellite:”I will station multiple carriers and warships at Iran’s door.” The Obama White House gets particularly animated over these criticisms about Iran, and believes Romney should be held more accountable for his rhetoric. It was quite striking that Romney decided to sound not just hawkish but almost as if he'd overrule his military commanders about where to move American battleships.

*** Kucinich, Schmidt lose: Finally, it’s worth pointing out that we saw two congressional incumbents go down to defeat in Ohio last night. First, in a race due to redistricting, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) lost a primary race to Rep. (D) Marcy Kaptur (D). And get this: “Kaptur moves on to the November general election where she likely will face Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, better known as ‘Joe the Plumber.’” And also in Ohio, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R) lost her GOP primary against Brad Wenstrup, “a doctor who has never held political office,” the Cincy Enquirer says. We know that there will be other member-vs.-member contests as a results of redistricting, but you have to ask yourself: Is this the start of another anti-Washington year? 

Countdown to Alabama, Hawaii, and Mississippi: 6 days
Countdown to Election Day: 244 days

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*** Wednesday’s “Daily Rundown” line-up: Breaking down last night’s results and looking at the road ahead with McCain 2008 senior strategist Steve Schmidt and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell… The Atlantic’s Steve Clemons on the recent Republican rhetoric on Iran and the president’s reaction to it… A deep dive into the delegate count… More 2012 news with msnbc’s Alex Wagner, New York Daily News’ S.E. Cupp and the New York Times’ Nick Confessore.

*** Wednesday's "Jansing & Co." line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing interviews Romney adviser Charlie Black, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I), the NYTimes’ Michael Shear, Yahoo News’ David Chalian, iVillage’s Kelly Wallace, and journalist Karen Hunter.

*** Wednesday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks with Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, GOP Strategist Rich Galen, AP editor Liz Sidoti, former. Rep. Bob McEwen (R-OH & Gingrich Supporter), the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza and Earl Ofari Hutchinson.

*** Wednesday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include New York Magazine’s John Heilemann, former RNC Chair Michael Steele, Politico’s Maggie Haberman, “Studio 360” radio host Kurt Andersen, Democratic strategist Karen Finney, and pro-Gingrich Super PAC adviser Rick Tyler.

*** Wednesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, Romney surrogate Eric Ferhnstrom, BuzzFeed's Ben Smith, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Politico’s Maggie Haberman, and political strategist Mark McKinnon. The show also continues its Women in the World series in partnership with Newsweek/Daily Beast.

*** Wednesday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall interviews The Hill’s AB Stoddard, Democratic strategist Jimmy Williams, radio talk show host Steve Deace, msnbc contributor Michael Smerconish, and Progress Ohio’s Jeff Rusnak

A roundup of front pages:

The New York Times: “Romney appears the Ohio winner; Santorum strong.”
The Washington Post: “Drawn-out battle goes on.”
The Wall Street Journal: “Romney extends his lead.”
USA Today: “Romney ekes out Ohio win.”
The Boston Globe: “Romney wins big, but rivals hang in.”
The Cincinnati Enquirer: “Romney takes Ohio – barely.”
The Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Advantage Romney.”
The Columbus Dispatch: “Romney snags Ohio.”
The Anchorage Daily News: “Alaska Republicans pick Romney again.”
The Idaho Statesman: “Romney wins Idaho, 4 others.”
The Oklahoman: “Santorum wins Oklahoma GOP primary; Romney gains victories in several states.”
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Santorum keeps hopes alive."
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Romney claims Ohio; GOP race still muddled.”
The Bismarck (N.D.) Tribune: “GOP splits on Super Tuesday.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Split decision: Romney wins Ohio; Santorum takes Tenn.” (By the way, notice Gingrich, who won Georgia handily, doesn’t get the top headline.)
The Burlington Free Press: “In Vt., Romney supporters unhappy with half a loaf.”

The New York Times’ Zeleny on Super Tuesday: Romney won the delegates, but not necessarily the argument.

The AP headline: “Romney, Santorum share Super Tuesday momentum.” Story: “Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are trying to make the most of a mixed Super Tuesday, each claiming a measure of victory but unable to settle the most tumultuous race for the GOP presidential nomination in decades.”

Another AP story: “Mitt Romney squeezed out a win in pivotal Ohio, captured four other states with ease and padded his delegate lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination but was forced to share the Super Tuesday spotlight with a resurgent Rick Santorum.”

AP’s Elliott on the GOP field: “It's almost like a bad version of Goldilocks. Nobody is just right. Listen to voters -- in person and in exit polls -- and it's pretty clear Republicans aren't all that hot on any of the candidates.”

We pointed out last night, it’s very possible Romney doesn’t amass the 1,144 delegates needed, a majority of all at stake, before convention or at least until mid-May through June. Per Political Wire, “John Avlon notes that if Mitt Romney ‘only musters 40% of the proportional delegates going forward -- equivalent to his average share of the popular vote total to date -- it would mean the first Republican race undecided when the convention opened in a generation.’”

ROMNEY: “Mitt Romney got to sleep in his own bed and will have a rare day off today, and those are both good things because the Super Tuesday election results failed to change the dynamic of the Republican presidential nominating contest,” the Boston Globe’s Johnson writes, adding, “The immediate electoral terrain is not particularly favorable to Romney, with contests in the South and Midwest. The calendar also doesn’t offer another big ticket day until April 24, when there is voting in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island - some places where Romney could do well. Going forward, Romney must continue doing what he has been doing: counting on his superior organization and financing to outlast his three remaining nomination rivals.”

“Romney did not manage to drive his opponents from the field,” the Boston Globe writes. “His campaign had hoped to win in Tennessee, but Santorum benefited there from strong support among conservatives, according to exit polls. … In an era where super PACs can flood the contest with new money from a single donor - and where each time it has appeared Romney could lock up the nomination, the race only became more fluid - the mixed results on Tuesday brought more uncertainty to the nomination.”

Arguing over eight delegates… “Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won more votes in Vermont than his Republican rivals in Tuesday’s presidential primary, but apparently failed to win enough to snare all 17 delegates,” The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press writes. “The outcome so incensed the Romney campaign that it is calling for an investigation of the results, said Vermont Republican Party Chairman Jack Lindley, a Romney supporter.”

Vermont was using a new reporting system for the first time, which the campaigns were aware of. With 99% in, Romney got 40% of the vote to Ron Paul’s 25%. Because of how Vermont allocates delegates, unless Romney got 50% (plus one vote) he would not get all of the state’s delegates. Secretary of State Jim Condos said “the Romney campaign’s complaints were out of line,” per the Free Press. He said, "I think it’s sour grapes for their part because the guy didn’t get the 50 percent they were looking for.” There were some errors, Condos said in reporting, but “said clerks will still submit official tallies that will be certified next Tuesday as they have been for many years.” If Romney won a majority, he’d get all 17 delegates; with 40%, he’d get nine.

President Obama heads to North Carolina “the morning after Super Tuesday,” AP writes. “He's talking about the economy and jobs at a Daimler truck manufacturing plant in Mount Holly, near Charlotte. It's his first visit to a foreign automaker, but bears a familiar theme. The White House says the president will highlight the government's fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks.”

Obama was the first Democrat to carry the Tarheel state since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

“In the Oklahoma Democratic presidential primary, President Obama won 57% of the vote but four other candidates combined for 43% of the vote, including anti-abortion activist Randall Terry who received 18%, the AP reports,” Political Wire notes. “‘According to Democratic Party rules, Terry is eligible for a delegate since he won more than 15% of the statewide vote.’”

OHIO: In maybe the surprise of the night, GOP incumbent Rep. Jean Schmidt lost in her primary race last night in OH-2, 49%-43%. Say hello most likely to Rep. Brad Wenstrup, an Iraq vet.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich lost handily to Rep. Marcy Kaptur, 56%-40%. The two Democrats were thrown into a primary because of redistricting. That makes Kucinich and Schmidt the first incumbents to lose of the 2012 cycle.

Kaptur, by the way, will face off this fall in OH-9 with none other than Samuel Wurzelbacher. That’s right, Joe the Plumber is an official party nominee for a seat to the U.S. Congress.

Speaking of incumbents, former Rep. Charlie Wilson’s back. After being ousted from Congress, he’s vying again. He won his Democratic primary in OH-6 handily, 82%-13%. He’ll face Republican Bill Johnson. But another former Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy wasn’t as lucky. The Democrat who more underperformed President Obama in winning reelection in 2008 than any other member of Congress in the country was edged in her quest to get back to Congress, 38%-35% by Joyce Beatty.

STEUBENVILLE, OH -- Rick Santorum's campaign is calling on conservatives to pressure Newt Gingrich to abandon his bid for the White House, a senior adviser told reporters tonight.

Senior campaign strategist John Brabender said the key for the campaign going forward will be creating an opportunity to challenge Mitt Romney one-on-one, though Brabender maintained the Santorum campaign would not directly call on Gingrich to drop out of the race.

Slideshow: Voters head to polls on Super Tuesday

Mark Humphrey / AP

See pictures from around America as 11 states hold contests that will award a combined 424 delegates in the Republican primary.

Launch slideshow

"We're never going to call on anybody to get out, but what we are calling is on Tea Party supporters and conservatives is to rally behind the only candidate that has demonstrated over and over again that he's the one who can compete against Mitt Romney," Brabender said.

"The real key right now is, can we get an opportunity to get a one-on-one shot with Mitt Romney," he said. "What we found is, Gingrich did a nice job in his home state, but I don't even think he had a second place anywhere else ... It's time for conservatives to say 'Look, we're going to rally behind one candidate, Rick Santorum."

Speaking to reporters in the high school gym where Santorum spoke just moments earlier, Brabender declared that no matter what the final result in Ohio, it already has been a bad night for Mitt Romney's campaign.

"All I know is after spending nearly $10 million here in Ohio, right now its neck and neck and it's going to be close to a tie, and somebody will win, but not by much.  I don't know how they declare that anything but a disappointment," he said.

NBC News projects the Idaho caucuses for Mitt Romney.

Idaho has the second largest Mormon population in the country outside of Utah, with about a quarter of the population belonging to the LDS Church.

In the first surprise of the night - aside from what's happening in Ohio -- NBC News projects Rick Santorum has won North Dakota.

Expectations were that either Mitt Romney or Ron Paul would fare best.

In one of the more closely watched contests of the night, NBC News has called Tennessee for Rick Santorum.

At 8:00 pm ET, NBC News projects that Mitt Romney, as expected, is the winner of his home state of Massachusetts.

NBC is also declaring that Oklahoma and Tennessee – which also closed their polling places at 8:00 pm ET – are “too early to call.”

NBC News has confirmed from a source close to the campaign that Newt Gingrich will start receiving Secret Service protection tomorrow.

Gingrich has events tomorrow starting in Montgomery, Ala.

NBC News projects Mitt Romney the winning of Vermont.

NBC's Chuck Todd said on the 7:30 broadcast of NBC Nightly News that, by his math, with Romney's wins so far, he's already gotten about a quarter of his target delegates. NBC's John Bailey notes that's assuming he gets all of Virginia's delegates, which looks likely.

After polls closed in the state, NBC News is projecting that Ohio is "too close to call" between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

Ohio is the prize of Super Tuesday, given that Romney, Santorum, and Newt Gingrich all campaigned there -- and Romney and Santorum did so heavily in the past week.

NBC News has projected Mitt Romney the winner in Virginia, where just he and Ron Paul were on the ballot.

NBC's John Bailey notes that Romney may very well get all of Virginia's 46 delegates at stake tonight, because of how the delegates are allocated -- 33 are winner take all by congressional district; the 13 at-large delegates are proportional by statewide vote, provided a candidate gets at least 15% of the vote. But a candidate can take all of those delegates if they win a majority in the state.

To play along at home and when to expect calls and characterizations from the NBC News Elections desk, here are the final poll closing times in each state:

7:00 pm ET: Georgia, Virginia, Vermont
7:30 pm ET: North Dakota, Ohio
8:00 pm ET: Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee
9:00 pm ET: Wyoming
10:00 pm ET: Idaho
Midnight ET: Alaska

Newt Gingrich has won Georgia, NBC News projects. Gingrich, the former speaker of the House who represented Georgia in Congress, said Georgia was a must win for him to remain credible as a candidate.

Vermont and Virginia are "too early to call" at this point, but Mitt Romney leads in both.

To play along at home and when to expect calls and characterizations from the NBC News Elections desk, here are the final poll closing times in each state:

7:00 pm ET: Georgia, Virginia, Vermont
7:30 pm ET: North Dakota, Ohio
8:00 pm ET: Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee
9:00 pm ET: Wyoming
10:00 pm ET: Idaho
Midnight ET: Alaska

More and more, Team Obama is beginning to flex its general-election muscles.

The latest sign: Vice President Joe Biden is set to deliver four speeches to frame the general election, an senior Obama campaign official tells First Read.

The first speech will take place next week in Ohio, and the other three will occur in battleground states.

This news comes after President Obama engaged his GOP rivals -- though not by name -- on Iran at his news conference today, which just happened to be scheduled on Super Tuesday.

The White House has given Congress its blessing to pass a package of bills introduced by House Republicans designed to help small businesses, hinting that the package could pass overwhelmingly in the House when it's brought up for a vote on Wednesday.

A statement from the White House Office of Management and Budget said says that President Obama is "encouraged to see that there is common ground" between the bill, called the JOBS Act, and some of the proposed policies the president mentioned in his State of the Union speech earlier this year.

"The administration looks forward to continuing to work with the House and the Senate to craft legislation that facilitates capital formation and job growth for small businesses and provides appropriate investor protections," the statement says.

But House Democrats are taking issue with the branding of the bill, which they say has taken Democratic ideas and turned them Republican for the sake of politics. 

In one instance, according to House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Republicans took a bill introduced by a Democrat in 2011 (and which passed overwhelmingly) and simply slapped Rep. Ben Quayle's (R-AZ) name on it for the purposes of the JOBS act. Hoyer refers to the package as the "Just Old Bills" act, a play on the "JOBS" act acronym.

"These [bills] all try to deal with small businesses that are trying to expand," Hoyer said, "Good pieces of legislation but not a jobs bill."

It's clear that Democrats are working to soften the blow of what could be a legislative win for Republicans if the JOBS act does, in fact, pass and get signed into law.  Democrats fear that if they pass a Republican bill named the "JOBS Act" they will no longer be able to use one of their favorite hit line: "400 days without a jobs bill in the Republican House".

"Just because you regurgitate a few bills and package them together, even though we've already passed them out doesn't mean you have a jobs agenda," Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-CA) told reporters today before his caucus's weekly meeting. 

"I think most Americans have been waiting quite some time, over 450 days now, for the Republicans in the Congress, using their leadership capacity, to give us a jobs agenda -- a true jobs agenda," Becerra said.

But the JOBS Act has an uncertain fate in the Senate, where a number of the bills included in the package have been waiting for a vote for -- at times -- months. Incorporated into the JOBS Act are six bills, four of which have already passed through the House with over 400 votes each, but have failed to be introduced in the Democratic-held Senate.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who acts as the lead vote-counter for House Republicans, hopes Obama's support will push the Senate to bring up the package once it's made it through the House. 

"I think the climate is a little different," McCarthy told reporters, "Hopefully, attitudes are a little different. And I believe maybe the attention has been based upon the Senate not doing anything doesn't bode well for those in the Senate."

It's a line that House Republicans have repeated over and again, but this time it might just work. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has alluded to the idea that Senate Democrats may introduce their own version of the JOBS Act soon, but also has not foreclosed on the option of passing the House bill, possibly with a tweak or two. 

"The president, I've met with him," Reid told reporters today, "He said he'd likely work to get something done on a bipartisan basis. We're gonna see what we can do in that regard."