John Podhoretz has had just about enough of this Republican primary: “Maybe, just maybe, if Mitt Romney does well — by which I mean he wins or all but wins in Ohio and Tennessee, the two most important states to watch — we can get out of the political doldrums in which we have been trapped for months and months and months and . . . move on. This would come as a relief to me, and countless others like me, because, frankly, I can’t take much more of it.”

ALASKA: “For candidates, the state is also remote, difficult to travel to, and its delegate count is among the lowest of states with caucuses or primaries Tuesday,” the AP writes. “Still, Paul planned events in Fairbanks and Anchorage on Sunday. One of Romney's sons held several events in the state last month. Gingrich last week participated in an energy-centric conference call organized by the nonpartisan Consumer Energy Alliance-Alaska; the group also organized a call with Santorum Saturday. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that Santorum also has done radio appearances. Paul's national press secretary, Gary Howard, said the campaign is running an ad in the state and has been organizing. He said the campaign, which finished third here in 2008, is hoping for a ‘strong finish.’”

GEORGIA: “In a campaign season dominated by million-dollar infusions to Super PACs, carpet-bombing TV ads and wall-to-wall GOP debates, it finally comes down to this: A mom and her two daughters, knocking on the doors of strangers; a veteran of the days when Republicans were a rarity in Georgia, dialing, dialing and dialing some more; a Florida stalwart, driving here to impart lessons learned in that state’s primary; a bleary-eyed volunteer, fresh off a plane from India, where she got a campaign slogan inked on her hands,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. “Whether it’s the well-oiled machine of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or the do-it-yourself campaign of Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the faith-infused effort of former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, or the Georgia-inflected campaign of onetime Georgia Rep. Newt Gingrich, these are the days when the campaign rubber meets the road, when the ground game matters.”

OHIO: “Ohio's primary election tomorrow is still at a draw in the polls, but the latest poll, out this morning, suggests that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has gained momentum over the weekend,” the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

Romney’s up 34%-31% in a new Quinnipiac poll out Monday morning that polled through Sunday. That represents a 10-point shift from a week ago, when Santorum had a 36%-29% lead.

The Cincinnati Enquirer notes: “Women are backing Romney 38 to 29 percent; even self-described conservatives now split 35 percent for Santorum, 33 percent for Romney.”

The Enquirer sees a similarity in Santorum’s struggles with Reagan’s in 1976.

AP goes to a Republican section of the state and finds voters split between Romney and Santorum.

Santorum, who has seen his once-double-digit advantage in the Buckeye State evaporate, said on FOX Sunday: “It’s a tough state for us, only because of the fact of the money disadvantage. … We’re running a grass-roots campaign. We’re hanging in there, and we’re going to do very, very well. We have the anti-Romney vote, if you will.”

OKLAHOMA: The Oklahoman endorsed Romney.

TENNESSEE: The Nashville Tennessean noted last week that early voting was down sharply from four years ago, and also reported that “excitement” in the “primary is lacking.”

PAUL: Northern Exposure: “For a guy accused of being an isolationist, Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul found himself surrounded by plenty of friends Sunday in Alaska's two largest cities,” AP writes. “The U.S. representative from Texas spoke to about 1,000 people at a Fairbanks hotel ballroom and followed that with at least 1,200 more packed into an Anchorage convention center as he poured out the message that America must stop misusing its military while putting its financial house in order.”

Paul’s going to be in North Dakota Tuesday.

ROMNEY: “Mitt Romney came under fierce assault from his Republican primary opponents on Sunday as the campaign headed to the crucial 10-state slate of Super Tuesday contests, with Newt Gingrich accusing the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign of displaying a ‘breathtaking scale of dishonesty,’” the Boston Globe reports. “Romney, fresh from his Saturday night victory in the Washington caucuses - his fourth straight win - campaigned in several states and tried to cast his candidacy as being on a winning track. New polls show him virtually tied with Rick Santorum in Ohio and Tennessee, and the former Massachusetts governor rolled out more endorsements from leading conservatives as he sought to shore up support among those who most distrust him.”

“Mitt Romney rolled to a double-digit victory in Washington state's Republican presidential caucuses Saturday night, his fourth campaign triumph in a row and a fresh show of strength in the run-up to 10 Super Tuesday contests in all regions of the country,” AP writes.

Eric Cantor and Tom Coburn endorsed Romney.

SANTORUM: “Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum acknowledged [Sunday on Fox] that he may have misstated President Obama’s position on education when he called Obama a snob for saying he “wants everyone in America to go to college,” the Boston Globe notes.

Obama to AIPAC over the weekend: "Iran's leaders should know that I do not have a policy of containment. I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And as I've made clear time and again during the course of my presidency, I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests."

“For Mr. Obama, the speech, before some of Israel’s loudest and staunchest supporters in the United States, was a political high-wire act, an effort to demonstrate his commitment to Israel’s security without signaling American support for a pre-emptive strike against Iran. And it was an effort to confront the Republican presidential candidates who have turned the Iranian nuclear issue into the top item in their litmus test for demonstrating support for Israel,” the New York Times adds.

The New York Daily News: “The strongly worded speech before the pro-Israel lobby came on the eve of the commander-in-chief's tense White House head-to-head with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who fears a second Holocaust should Tehran get the bomb.”

The New York Post: “Israel will wait until after the US presidential election in November to bomb Iran’s nuclear plants, under a deal being hashed out by the two allies this past week. President Obama plans to reassure Benjamin Netanyahu tomorrow at the White House that the United States will make sure Iran doesn’t build a nuclear weapon, as long as the Israeli prime minister delays his attack plans, according to a report in The Sunday Times of London.”

‘A sense of his soul?’ Vladimir Putin was elected Russia’s president. The New York Daily News: “Czar-in-the-making Vladimir Putin will keep his stranglehold on the Kremlin for another six years. The 59-year-old autocrat was elected president of Russia on Sunday in an election that observers charge was riddled with fraud, intimidation and ballot-box stuffing.”

The Moscow Times: “Tearful Putin Declares Victory at Rally.”

A Catholic Cardinal continued to ramp up the rhetoric against Obama and birth control.

As another round of voting takes place this week in the Republican presidential race – with 11 states holding Super Tuesday contests – a new national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that the combative and heavily scrutinized primary season so far has damaged the party and its candidates.

Four in 10 of all adults say the GOP nominating process has given them a less favorable impression of the Republican Party, versus just slightly more than one in 10 with a more favorable opinion.

Additionally, when asked to describe the GOP nominating battle in a word or phrase, nearly 70 percent of respondents – including six in 10 independents and even more than half of Republicans – answered with a negative comment.

Some examples of these negative comments from Republicans: "Unenthusiastic," "discouraged," "lesser of two evils," "painful," "disappointed," "poor choices," "concerned," "underwhelmed,” “uninspiring” and “depressed.”

Read the full poll here (.pdf)

And perhaps most significantly, the GOP primary process has taken a toll on the Republican presidential candidates, including front-runner Mitt Romney, who is seen more unfavorably and whose standing with independents remains underwater.

“The primaries have not raised the stature of the party, nor enhanced the appeal of the candidates,” says Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff.

“The word you’d have to use at this stage is: ‘Corrosive,’” McInturff adds.

The damage from the Republican primary season – in addition to a rising job-approval rating for President Obama and more optimism about the U.S. economy – has given Democrats an early advantage for November’s general election.

Indeed, the president’s job-approval rating now stands at 50 percent; Obama leads Romney in a hypothetical general-election match up by six points; and Democrats hold a five-point edge on the generic congressional ballot.

If this poll’s outlook on the 2012 race were a cocktail, Hart says, it would be “one part Obama, one part the economy, and three parts the Republican Party’s destruction.”

Bad news and good news for Romney
How damaging has the primary season – with all of its debates, attack ads and scrutiny -- been for the Republican Party?

Forty percent of all adults say the GOP contest so far has made them feel less favorable about the party, while 12 percent say they now have a more favorable impression. Forty-seven percent say it’s had no impact.

Even among Republicans, 23 percent maintain the primary season has given them a less favorable opinion of the party, versus 16 percent who say it’s been positive.

In addition, 55 percent of respondents – including 35 percent of Republicans – believe the Democratic Party does a better job than the GOP in appealing to those who aren’t hard-core supporters. Just 26 percent say the Republican Party does a better job on this front.

And it’s been damaging for Romney, too. In January’s NBC/WSJ poll, Romney’s favorable/unfavorable rating stood at 31 percent to 36 percent among all respondents (and 22/42 percent among independents).

But in this latest survey, it’s now 28 percent favorable and 39 percent unfavorable (and 22/38 percent among independents).

In fact, Romney’s image right now is worse than almost all other recent candidates who went on to win their party’s presidential nomination: Obama’s favorable/unfavorable ratio was 51/28 percent and John McCain’s was 47/27, in the March 2008 NBC/WSJ poll; John Kerry was at 42/30 at this point in 2004; George W. Bush was 43/32 in 2000; and Bob Dole was 35/39 in March 1996.

The one exception: Bill Clinton, in April 1992, was at 32/43 percent.

But there is also some good news for Romney in the poll, especially as it relates to his bid to capture the GOP presidential nomination.

Read the full poll here (.pdf)

After his primary victories last Tuesday in Arizona and Michigan, the former Massachusetts governor leads the national Republican horserace, getting support from 38 percent of GOP voters, his highest-ever mark in the poll.

He’s followed by former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum at 32 percent and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul tied at 13 percent.

In a race reduced to just two candidates, Romney leads Santorum by five percentage points, 50 to 45 percent.

In particular, Romney has improved his standing with Tea Party supporters, getting support from 44 percent of them in a two-way contest against Santorum.

And what’s more, 72 percent of Republicans say they would be satisfied if Romney becomes their party’s presidential nominee.

Obama’s improved political standing
When it comes to President Obama, the poll contains mostly good news. Fifty percent approve of his job – his highest mark in the NBC/WSJ survey since Osama bin Laden’s death – and 45 percent disapprove.

In a hypothetical general-election contest, he leads Romney by six points, 50 to 44 percent, winning independents (46-39 percent), women (55-37 percent) and those in the Midwest (52-42 percent).

Obama enjoys bigger leads over Paul (50 to 42 percent), Santorum (53 to 39 percent) and Gingrich (54 to 37 percent).

Bolstering Obama’s standing is increased optimism about the state of the U.S. economy.

Read the full poll here (.pdf)

Forty percent believe the economy will improve during the next year, a three-point increase from January. And looking back at the economic recession, 57 percent say that the worst is behind us, while 36 percent say the worst is still to come.

Back in November, only 49 percent said the worst was behind us.

“President Obama is probably in the best political shape he’s been in since his initial year as president,” says Hart, the Democratic pollster.

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted from Feb. 29 through March 3 of 800 adults (including 200 by cellphone), and it has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.5 percentage points. The poll also contains an oversample of 185 interviews to achieve a total of 400 GOP primary voters, and that margin of error is plus-minus 4.9 percentage points.

KNOXVILLE, TN-- Mitt Romney took a daylong break from a marathon Ohio campaign swing to make two appearances in southern states his own campaign advisers admit he's unlikely to win, for one simple reason: He's hunting Super Tuesday delegates.

Romney made quick stops in an Atlanta suburb and in Knoxville, Tennessee today -- strategically selected locations in states Romney advisers say he is unlikely to carry, but where the campaign sees delegate pickup opportunities.

"I don't know if we have any realistic expectation of beating Newt Gingrich in his home state," Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told reporters traveling with the candidate today. "But we look to taking some delegates out. Same thing in Tennessee."

In Georgia, Romney's team has targeted downtown and suburban Atlanta districts, where Romney performed well four years ago, with one senior adviser comparing the demographics of suburban Atlanta to those of Oakland County -- Romney's home county in Michigan -- which he won with fully fifty percent of the vote last week.

Today in Snellville, east of Atlanta, Romney drew an overflow crowd for a pancake brunch that morphed into a town hall. He told voters in the overflow room he felt good about his fifth-straight victory in Washington state Saturday, and later gamely passed out breakfast to voters -- never serving up more than subtle criticism of his republican rivals, and focusing his ire on President Obama.

In Tennessee, Romney has relied on deep bench of establishment support, including a clutch of congressmen, Senator Lamar Alexander and Governor Bill Haslem, to buoy his campaign's efforts. Former Senator Rick Santorum, now widely considered to be Romney's chief rival for the nomination also failed to get on the ballot in some Tennessee districts, further opening the door for Romney to slip away with southern delegates.

Today's campaign event in Knoxville was his first public event in the state this cycle. Introduced by Haslem, Romney was in a confident mood, congratulating the state's famous basketball team, the Lady Vols, and reminiscing about the Davy Crockett theme song from his boyhood.

Romney's confidence pervaded campaign staff, with Fehrnstrom describing the candidate as "thrilled" by the Washington state victory, and brandishing statistics about the New Hampshire and Florida contests to fend off the narrative.

"If you look at New Hampshire, Mitt Romney won by a bigger percentage than Ronald Reagan, and I don’t remember anybody saying Ronald Reagan had a problem connecting with people," Fehrnstrom said. "You look at Florida; Mitt Romney got more votes than any Republican ever in a presidential primary."

But even as the campaign works to highlight the importance of winning delegates, Fehrnstrom told reporters that in the end, the way to silence Romney's critics who say he cannot connect would be simple: win.

"We’re just going to keep focusing on racking up wins, and I think that answers the question," Fehrnstrom said.

SNELLVILLE, GA – Just hours after President Obama described to a group of pro-Israel activists the steps he has taken and will take to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, Mitt Romney made a dire prediction about the consequences for that effort if the president is reelected.

"If Barack Obama gets re-elected, Iran will have a nuclear weapon and the world will change if that’s the case," Romney told a crowd of more than 1,500 in this suburb east of Atlanta.

Romney has stepped up his criticism of President Obama on foreign affairs, hitting the president for mission muddle in Afghanistan yesterday and continuing to label the president as weak regarding Iran, as he did today in response to a question from an eleven year-old boy.

Romney: Lack of Afghan mission clarity ‘disturbing’  

"This president failed to speak out when the dissidents took the streets in Tehran, he had nothing to say,” Romney said. “This is a president who has failed to put in place crippling sanctions against Iran. He's also failed to communicate that military options are on the table and in fact in our hand. And that it's unacceptable to America for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I will have those military options, I will take those crippling sanctions and put them in place, and I will speak out to the Iranian people about the peril of them becoming nuclear."

This morning at the annual meeting of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), President Obama defended the steps his administration has taken to isolate the Iranian regime and derail its nuclear ambition, and he pushed back against critics like Romney who say he has not taken every action possible against Iran, or taken options like military strikes off the table.

"I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table,” President Obama said. “A political effort aimed at isolating Iran; a diplomatic effort to sustain our coalition and ensure that the Iranian program is monitored; an economic effort to impose crippling sanctions; and, yes, a military effort to be prepared for any contingency.”

"Iran's leaders should know that I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," the president continued.

Romney and Obama both mentioned Iran's Arab ally, Syria, in their remarks today, with the President Obama describing the Assad regime as "crumbling." Responding to a question, Romney said he did not support direct United States military intervention in Syria, but that otherwise the U.S. should be doing "everything in our power to encourage those looking for freedom in Syria."

Updated 11:22 a.m. — Eric Cantor, the second-ranking House Republican, endorsed Mitt Romney for president on Sunday, saying he is the candidate best suited to handle the issue of the economy.

Cantor, the House Majority Leader, announced his support on "Meet the Press," just two days before the primary on Tuesday in Virginia. 

"What I have seen is a very hard-fought primary. And we have seen now that the central issue about the campaign now is the economy," Cantor told moderator David Gregory. "I just think there's one candidate in the case who can do that, and it's Mitt Romney."

Cantor is the highest-ranking Republian member of Congress to make an endorsement in the primary. Moreover, Cantor has emerged as a national political figurehead for conservatives on Capitol Hill; he's generally seen as the informal leader of the faction of anti-establishment conservatives to have been elected in 2010. To that end, he is one of three House Republicans considered the party's "Young Guns," along with Reps. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Paul Ryan (Wis.), neither of whom have endorsed in the presidential race.

Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told reporters traveling with Romney on Sunday that Cantor called the former Massachusetts governor on Wednesday to inform him of the endorsement. 

The Virginia lawmaker's support adds to a collection of endorsements Romney has collected from elected officials. Eighty-one Republican members of Congress have voiced public support for Romney, according to Roll Call's count of endorsements. Just 11 members of Congress have endorsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, by comparison. Romney has additionally won endorsements from other national Republican figures like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Fehrnstrom suggested Cantor's support stems from an interest in riding Romney's coattails — coattails which, by implication, Fehrnstrom meant that Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum wouldn't have for Republicans downballot. 

"I gotta believe in the back of his mind he’s also thinking about maintaining a Republican majority in the house and elected republicans are looking for someone who has coattails, not concrete shoes," the Romney adviser said of Cantor.

Some of the other members of the House Republican leadership team have made endorsements; the No. 3 member of the GOP, Conference Chairman and Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, had endorsed Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Republican Policy Committee Chairman and Georgia Rep. Tom Price has endorsed Newt Gingrich. 

Two members of the House GOP leadership have endorsed Romney, including Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the Republican conference vice chairwoman, and Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, the chairman of the House Republican Leadership. 

The top House Republican, Speaker John Boehner, has doggedly refused to make an endorsement in the Republican primary. A political spokesman for the speaker confirmed Saturday that Boehner won't endorse before the primary on Tuesday in his native Ohio, arguably the crown jewel of the Super Tuesday contests.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has also declined, to date, to make an endorsement in the Republican race. 

Cantor's endorsement comes at a point in Romney's campaign at which he's railed against opponent Rick Santorum's extensive experience in Congress. Romney has made his lack of time spent in Washington a cornerstone of his campaign. 

The former Massachusetts governor has also broken, though, from congressional Republicans at points throughout the campaign. Most notably, Romney came out in opposition to a deal GOP leaders on Capitol Hill had struck with President Obama to raise the nation's debt ceiling last August after maintaining his silence for much of the debate.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum hopes to make a strong showing on Super Tuesday to prove he has staying power in the Republican nominating race, but his campaign’s failure to meet filing requirements in Ohio and Virginia means Santorum will not compete for at least 55 of the delegates at stake Super Tuesday.

Along with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Santorum failed to meet filing requirements to get on Virginia’s primary ballot. He will forego competing for all of Virginia’s 46 delegates at stake on Super Tuesday.

In Ohio, Santorum did not file slates of delegates in three of the state’s 16 congressional districts. Two of the districts are the sixth and 13th districts, both close Santorum’s home region of western Pennsylvania.

The way Ohio’s delegate allocation system works, its 66 delegates are split into three categories: 48 congressional district delegates, 15 at-large delegates, and three Republican National Committee delegates who remain unpledged. The 15 At-Large delegates are awarded proportionally based on the statewide vote, with candidates needing a minimum of 20% of the vote to be eligible for delegates. The 48 congressional district delegates are split up among the state’s 16 districts, with three delegates per district. For those delegates, all three of a district’s delegates are awarded to the winner of that district’s vote. With Santorum ineligible for congressional district delegates in three districts, he will not compete for a combined nine delegates.

In addition, Santorum did not file full slates of delegates in a handful of other districts. In the third, fourth, eighth, 10th, 12th, and 16th districts, Santorum is missing a combined total of nine delegates. But if Santorum wins those districts, he will not necessarily automatically be ineligible for the delegates he is missing.

According to an Ohio GOP source, if Santorum wins the district-wide vote in congressional districts, where he submitted fewer than three delegates, he will get however many delegates he submitted. The leftover delegates will remain unallocated until one of the campaigns brings a contest. The campaigns will make their case for the delegates to a three-person Contest Committee appointed by state Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine. Ultimately, the Contest Committee will make a recommendation to the state’s 66 person Central Committee, which will vote to determine the final allocation of the unallocated delegates.

The prospect of a contested group of delegates comes amidst an acrimonious fight over Michigan’s two at-large delegates. In a meeting after last week’s primary, the Michigan Republican Party determined that the state’s two at-large delegates would both go to Mitt Romney, despite previous statements by the party that the two delegates would be split proportionally.

Santorum also failed to file a full slate of delegates in Tennessee, but Adam Nickas, a spokesman for the state GOP, says Santorum will still get all the delegates he earns on primary night. If Santorum does not have enough names on his slate for the number of delegates he wins, says Nickas, the state party will fill the slots afterward in consultation with the Santorum campaign.

Today the Romney campaign seized on the failures in an attempt to paint the Santorum campaign as unfit for the organizational rigors of a long campaign. In a series of memos and conference calls, the Romney campaign highlighted not only Santorum’s setbacks in Virginia and Ohio, but a failure to get on the ballot in the District of Columbia, an incomplete delegate slate in Illinois, and the lack of a full delegate slate in Tennessee, another Super Tuesday state.

In a conference call with reporters, Romney National Counsel Ben Ginsberg said the ballot failures show Santorum is not organizationally equipped to face President Obama in the fall.

“Getting on the ballot … is a true test, especially for Republican primary voters to look at, whether a candidate’s ready for primetime,” Ginsberg said. “What’s evident from what’s going to happen on Super Tuesday and beyond, is that Rick Santorum flunks that test.”

Today the Santorum campaign responded, saying the campaign is more about message than organization and infrastructure.

"The Romney campaign is just throwing another temper tantrum, because they're a little confused and frustrated as to why they can’t buy this election,” Santorum Communications Director Hogan Gidley said in an email to NBC News today. “This election is not about who has the most money -- or who has the most infrastructure. It’s about electing a president who inspires and believes in the American people instead of the government control.”

NBC’s Andrew Rafferty contributed to reporting.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is out with a new Georgia poll showing Newt Gingrich with a 14-point lead over Mitt Romney just three days before that state's primary.

Gingrich, who represented the Peach state as a member of Congress, is at 38%, followed by Romney at 24% and Rick Santorum right behind him at 22%.

The poll was conducted Wednesday through Friday by Mason-Dixon.

Georgia has the most delegates at stake Tuesday, Super Tuesday, with 76. Gingrich has called it a must-win for him.

PUYALLUP, Wash. -- Ron Paul visited a caucus site about 45 minutes south of Seattle that had lines wrapped outside and across the parking lot here on the day of Washington state's caucus. Organizers said this year there were four times as many people attending the caucus.

When Paul arrived he was asked by a local reporter what he would tell the people who came out to caucus, Paul wryly responded, “Vote for Ron Paul.”

Paul went inside and greeted caucus goers who were waiting in line and walked into the caucus room where Republicans were seated by precinct. The Texas congressman posed for pictures, shook hands and discussed his foreign policy with two different men in the audience, one of them a veteran, who seemed receptive to his ideas. Some caucusgoers could be heard saying, even though they weren’t voting for Paul, it was nice that he visited their community.

When he asked an event organizer how long he had to speak, the man replied, typically it’s 3 minutes for surrogates, but they would give him 5 minutes, since he was a presidential candidate. Paul responded that his staff would let him know when to wrap up and that his speech was, “more or less to say hello.”

“I understand the crowd is very large today compared to before,” Paul opened his speech by saying. “I hope that is good news for our campaign!”

He emphasized the importance of the caucuses and what he believed the ultimate results should be.

“This is an important day," Paul said. "It’s an important day for our country; it’s an important day for your community; it’s an important day for next year’s election; it’s an important day to start the process to make sure that we no longer have Obama [as] president next year.”

Paul went on to say Republican candidates have some disagreements, but could all agree that “it’s a good idea to get rid of our current president and put in a Republican.”

Describing how the Republican Party strayed from its stated goals of limited government and deficit reduction, Paul told the crowd that has caused voters to be “frustrated.”

The Air Force veteran said the country is failing in it’s responsibility of national defense and of taking care of veterans. He also detailed his support from active duty military personnel and stated the reasons he believes they support his candidacy.

“The military knows exactly the fruitlessness of some of these wars that are going on," he said.

Paul closed his speech by acknowledging how the Republican Party is looking for a candidate that can beat President Obama and told them about a recent poll showing him beating Obama in a hypothetical race (though he didn't specify which that is. Most polling has him losing to President Obama and handily).

“I hope you remember that and I’d like to have your support. Thank you very much.”

As he walked to his vehicle in the parking lot, Paul responded to a question by NBC News on how he felt about the reception he received.

“I felt very good about it," he said. "A lot of enthusiasm there, delighted to have a large crowd, delighted they had a lot of Ron Paul stickers, too.”

Paul will hold a caucus results party at 7:00 pm ET at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center at Pier 66 in downtown Seattle, where he hopes to celebrate his first victory of the GOP nominating process.

By NBC's Garrett Haake and Jamie Novogrod

DAYTON, Ohio -- The Romney campaign opened a new front in its battle against Rick Santorum on Saturday, labeling the former Pennsylvania senator "not ready for prime time" and as having "flunked" a major presidential competency exam for his failure to file complete slates of delegates in several Super Tuesday primary states.

On a conference call with reporters meant to highlight the wide disparity in organizational prowess between the two Republican frontrunners, Romney national counsel Ben Ginsberg described Santorum's inability to file complete slates of delegates or get on the ballot in Ohio, Virginia, Tennessee, Illinois and the District of Columbia "almost unprecedented," in Republican presidential politics.

All told, according to the Romney campaign, Santorum's lack of ballot access will make him ineligible for fully 16 percent of the 391 bound delegates allocated on Super Tuesday alone.

Santorum's failures, Ginsberg said, “should give Republican voters great pause as we get ready to face President Obama.” Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, piled on, telling reporters, "This goes right to the heart of [Santorum's] own inability to run a campaign"

While one senior Romney adviser said this week he did not expect the field of candidates to shrink immediately following Super Tuesday, a memo to reporters from the campaign's political director, Rich Beeson, summarized the plight Santorum may find himself in should he fall much further behind in the delegate count come Wednesday. 

"Rick Santorum can point to states in April and beyond that are permitted to award delegates 'winner take all' – but many of these states are not friendly territory for him – Delaware, New Jersey, and Utah are just a few examples," Beeson wrote. "The bottom line is the Santorum campaign goes into Super Tuesday severely hobbled by his lack of organization and planning and systemic problem will only continue to plague him through the rest of the primary calendar."

Updated at 3:45 p.m. ET: Saturday, Santorum suggested the glitch is the result of a decision made months ago, when his campaign had little money and much less exposure.

“This was back in November and December,” Santorum told reporters of the filing deadlines. “Things were a little different than they are now.”

Still, it leaves questions about his organization heading into key contests next week.

But the former senator looked beyond Super Tuesday, saying he hoped to pick up states and perform strongly in upcoming Southern contests, which will likely be less friendly to Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.

"And I think we're going to come out of these states in good shape with a lot of delegates and I'm hopeful that we can go into Alabama and Mississippi with a strong head of steam -- and hopefully you know pick up those states and go from there."

This morning, NBC News confirmed that Deputy Chief of Staff to Eric Cantor, Brad Dayspring, has resigned. Steve Stombres, Cantor's chief of staff released the following statement:

"Deputy Chief of Staff Brad Dayspring has resigned to pursue other opportunities. Brad will be missed and we wish Brad all the best luck in his future endeavors.  He was a valued employee and did an outstanding job defining and defending our Republican Majority." 

Late last night, rumors of Dayspring's departure began circulating around Capitol Hill. At this point, the circumstances surrounding his departure are unknown and sources close to the situation have been uncharacteristically tight lipped citing a respect for office privacy.

Dayspring, well known in Washington for his hard-charging and sometimes combative demeanor with the press, had achieved a reputation as a "ferocious pit bull," according to a GOP aide.

Deeply loyal to his former boss, perhaps more than anybody else, Dayspring had been involved in the cultivation of Cantor's political image as, an aide described, a "consistent conservative" over the last two-and-a-half years.

While Dayspring will leave the confines of his second floor office at the Capitol, he won't be straying too far from the Cantor operation, as he'll take a job with Cantor's Super PAC the "Young Gun Action Fund."

John Murray, the group's president and Cantor's former deputy chief of staff, wrote:

"It is with great enthusiasm that we're adding Brad Dayspring as a Senior Advisor to our team. When Young Guns was formed it was designed to help leaders like Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy chart a new course for the center-right movement and the House majority. Brad's years of work both on capitol hill and in the campaign world are a perfect blend to help take us to the next level."

Frank Thorp contributed to this report.

CHILLICOTHE, OH -- Speaking to several hundred people inside a high school gym Friday, Rick Santorum declared he is running an “insurgent” campaign against a Washington establishment he described as “old boy.”

“We’re running a grassroots, insurgent campaign,” Santorum said, before adding that his own supporters “don’t want what Washington and the old boy network is going to give us again.”

The remarks, an apparent swipe at Mitt Romney, were the latest development in a back-and-forth between the two candidates days before the Super Tuesday contest in Ohio and other key states.

Santorum went to great lengths to paint a picture of his once-long shot candidacy as a populist but viable alternative to Romney’s, telling the crowd his campaign raised about $9 million during February.

“Two thirds of that money came from small-dollar donors,” Santorum said, adding, “two thirds of Governor Romney’s money comes from people who max out at 25-hundred dollars.”

(Per federal elections law, the limit on individual contributions to a national political campaign is $2,500.)

But nowhere was the tension between the two men more evident than in Santorum’s attack on the Michigan Republican Party for awarding a delegate Thursday to Romney, tilting what the Santorum team had assumed was a tied delegate count in Tuesday’s primary in Michigan to a 16-14 haul in Romney’s favor.

“They were so embarrassed yesterday they decided to change the rules after the fact,” said Santorum of the state's Republican Party, which he said “felt bad” that Romney hadn’t won the delegate count outright.

“You know, my feeling on that is conservatives – Americans – play by the rules,” Santorum added.  “We don’t change the rules afterward.”

In a measure of the tightening race here in Ohio, a Romney aide circulated among reporters at the event Friday, offering responses to Santorum’s attacks. 

“He’s sour that he’s just lost three straight states,” said Ryan Williams, a Romney campaign spokesman, of Santorum and the result of contests in Arizona, Michigan and Wyoming this week.  (The Wyoming caucuses straw poll was non-binding.)

Williams added that a rule awarding two “at-large” Republican delegates to the winner of the popular vote in Michigan had been decided by the state GOP prior to the Feb. 28th primary.

The sniping didn’t end there.

In remarks to reporters following his speech, Santorum also commented on a video first reported by ABC News, showing Romney vowing in 2002 to pursue federal money for in-state projects in Massachusetts.

“Hypocrisy, plain and simple,” Santorum said of the video, which was shot during the Massachusetts governor’s race. Romney has made attacking Santorum for the practice of “earmarking” central in his effort to ward off the former Pennsylvania senator.

But among voters Friday, the candidates' attacks on each other didn’t seem to register.

Patty Null, a retired teacher living on social security, said her main concern is Ohio’s flagging economy.

“Our taxes are too high, our utilities are too high,” she said. “We just can’t make it anymore.”

WILLOUGHBY, OH -- Rick Santorum says President Barack Obama has failed to support the U.S. troops and has weakened the military.

"This president has got to stop apologizing for America," Santorum said during an address to 600 Ohio Republicans at a Lincoln Day Dinner here Friday night.  "His gut reaction is always to blame us, to blame our men and women in uniform.  Stop it, Mr. President.  Stand up for our troops.  Stand up for this country."

The former Pennsylvania senator argued that Obama has slashed defense spending while creating new entitlement programs like the health care legislation passed in 2010. He said the president is striving to create an America dependent on the government.

Many have attributed Santorum's second-place finish in the Michigan primary to his fiery rhetoric on the campaign trail. He called the president "a snob" for calling on all Americans to seek higher education, and questioned the president's religious beliefs.

On CNN on Friday, Santorum seemed to acknowledge that the snob comment was over the line, saying "It was a strong term, probably not the smartest thing."

But Friday night, he again went into territory that had drawn criticism from the left and head scratching from some on the right.

"I've gotten some grief in the media lately because, well, I'm a little bit too passionate; I say things that sometimes offend people -- that I talk about government dictating to us and suggested that might not be, you know, a little snobbish for people to do that," Santorum said. "Or I talk about how we have to have traditional values in this country and respect for the dignity of human life and the respect for freedom of religion in this country."

Santorum will spend plenty of time in the Buckeye State leading up to Super Tuesday. Holding the most delegates of all the states voting on March 6, it is largely seen as the state that Santorum needs to win in order to still be considered a top contender for the GOP nomination

"When Ohio whispers, people listen.  When Ohio shouts 'We want a conservative,' this country will stand up and join you," he said.

Pentagon and Air Force officials confirm that the supervisor at the center of the Dover mortuary scandal has resigned. 

Quinton Keel was the division director at the Dover mortuary when allegations of the mishandling of America's war dead were first reported. Keel himself was accused of lying to federal investigators and retaliation against three whistleblowers.  he government's Office of Special Counsel accused him of "negligence, misconduct and dishonesty." He was also accused of ordering the mutilated arm of a dead Marine sawed off so the body would fit into his uniform for burial.

The latest investigations had found that partial remains of victims killed in the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, along with those of service members killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, had been incinerated and dumped in a Virginia landfill.

Two other supervisors remain under investigation for alleged attempts to retaliate against the whistleblowers who first brought the issues at Dover to the attention of federal investigators.

The Air Force and Pentagon had resisted repeated calls from members of Congress and veterans groups that someone be fired over the scandal. That appeared to change earlier this week, when the White House announced the president was "deeply concerned" over the growing scandal and reports that unidentified remains of 9/11 victims had been dumped in a landfill.

As for Quinton Keel, one senior defense officials told NBC News today that "If he hadn't quit, he would have been fired."

Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA), who has served 18 terms in Congress and is the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, today announced he won't seek re-election.

"I am announcing today my intention to complete my service in the House of Representatives at the end of the current session but not to be a candidate for re-election to the 113th Congress," he said. "After 18 terms representing the people of the 6th Congressional District of Washington, preceded by eight years on the Staff of Senator Warren G. Magnuson, Suzie and I have made the decision to change gears and enjoy life at a different pace."

Democrats are expected to hold on to Dicks' seat. Barack Obama won 57% of the vote in the district in 2008.

The first legal challenge to President Obama's controversial recess appointments flopped today, when a federal judge tossed it out on procedural grounds.

A business group, the National Association of Manufacturers, tried to slip the challenge into an existing lawsuit contesting decisions by the National Labor Relations Board.

It was an apt place to challenge the move, the group said, because the the president made three recess appointments to the NLRB during a Senate break. 

The White House said the appointments were within a president's executive power. But many Republicans claimed they was unconstitutional, because the Senate was called briefly into session each day during the recess.

On Friday, Judge Amy Berman Jackson said the legal challenge came too late in a place where it didn't belong. The group "attempted to shoehorn a challenge" in to a pending case about an entirely different issue involving the validity of a recent NLRB rule.

"The court declines this invitation to take up a political dispute that is not before it," she wrote in a brief decision.

This won't be the last word, however. Other groups have said they will go to court to challenge the most recent appointments.

The Gingrich campaign today released a new advertisement outlining Newt’s "$2.50 plan" to lower gas prices.

“Since Barack Obama’s inauguration, gas prices have doubled,” the narrator says in it.

 
As an image of a gas pump appears with a price ticker hitting $4, the narrator adds, “They didn’t go down when Obama bowed to Saudi oil princes. But they can go down under the Newt Gingrich two-fifty-per-gallon plan."
 
According to the ad, Gingrich's plan lowers gas prices by “increasing domestic production, opening up off-shore drilling, building the Keystone Pipeline, cutting red-tape regulation."
 
At the end, an image appears of a gas pump nozzle pushed up against a man’s back like a weapon. “The Gingrich two-fifty plan stops the great gas hold up and puts money back in your pocket,” the narrator says.

The biggest day of the GOP race is Tuesday when 424 delegates are at stake in 11 states. Can Romney wrap up the nomination? Or will the fight extend into the Spring? Plus, new jobs numbers, Gingrich on Meet the Press and new NBC polls nationally and in Ohio and Virginia ahead of Super Tuesday.

Video edited by Domenico Montanaro

Edited by NBC's Jay Rankin