Mitt Romney said Wednesday that the primaries have shown his ability to connect with Republicans an independents alike, while Rick Santorum contended that the former Massachusetts governor faces mounting doubts within the GOP.

Santorum spent the day after winning the primaries in Mississippi and Alabama in Puerto Rico, which hosts its primary on Sunday. Romney, who heads to that U.S. territory later this week, spent Wednesday raising money in the New York area, and tried in a lone television interview to a general election campaign.

"This is ultimately a question about who can get the support of the Republican Party and independents to be able to win the White House," Romney said in an afternoon interview on FOX News. "And I'm very pleased with the fact that, over the last several contests, I got a million more votes than either Sen. Santorum or Speaker Gingrich from the Republicans in these contests."

While he won Hawaii's overnight caucuses, Romney nonetheless faced a withering media narrative after failing to carry either of the two conservative strongholds, stoking doubts about his core strength witthin the GOP. He still remains the odds-on favorite to accrue the needed 1,144 delegates to secure the nomination, though Santorum sought to take advantage of his competitor's difficulty in closing the deal.

"He looked like the odds-on favorite at the beginning of the campaign. We tend to do that as Republicans, sort of take the person next in line," Santorum said in an availability alongside Luis Fortuño, the Puerto Rican governor. "But I think what you've found is that Governor Romney is uniquely disqualified in making some of the most important arguments that we need to make in this country with the respect to the role of government in our lives."

Santorum still faced a challenge from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, with whom Santorum split the conservative vote in last night's primaries. Gingrich has vowed to continue with his campaign, and headed on Wednesday to Illinois, a major state which hosts a primary on Tuesday.

But Romney's fundraising on Wednesday presages a prolonged and more expensive primary, for which few Republicans seemed eager.

And for the former governor's part, he emphasized his success among conservatives who have shown up to the primaries and caucuses so far, and said the most conservative voters with whom he's struggled would end up rallying behind his candidacy in November.

"When you ask conservatives in these prior elections, 'Who, as conservatives, did you vote [for]?' I won the conservative vote," Romney explained. "Some who are very conservative may not be in my camp, but they will be when I become the nominee, when I face Barack Obama."

Dave Kaup / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks as he visits a Republican presidential caucus at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. March 13, 2012.

The race goes on after Santorum wins in Alabama and Mississippi… The storyline remains pretty much the same: math (which is benefiting Romney) vs. perception (which is hurting him)… Romney’s perception problem: He’s struggling against the under-financed and under-organized Santorum… Boston, we have a message problem -- and a narrative problem, too… Next up: Illinois, where there’s pressure on both Romney and Santorum… Newt’s “Sixth Sense” problem… NBC’s current delegate count: Romney 419, Santorum 184, Gingrich 136, Paul 34… And the reason why you take a foreign leader to Ohio for an NCAA basketball game: You get local front-page like this.

*** The race goes on: So much for the “y’alls,” the “cheesy grits,” and Jeff Foxworthy. Last night, Mitt Romney had the opportunity to shut the door on his GOP rivals by winning at least one of the primaries in Alabama or Mississippi with just a mere 34% or even 33.5% of the vote. And after the polling places closed, the early exit polls and the Drudge buzz suggested he was going to accomplish that. Then the actual results came in: Rick Santorum finished first in both states, while Romney finished third. And the biggest consequence from last night is that the race now moves on to next week’s Illinois primary -- and it likely will stretch into May or June. Romney did receive a boost after winning Hawaii and America Samoa; in fact, he won a plurality of delegates last night (42 so far to Santorum’s 38 and Newt Gingrich’s 24). But the storyline after last night remains the same one after Super Tuesday: math (which is benefiting Romney) vs. perception (which is hurting him). 

*** Can Romney fix his perception problem? And the perception that Romney is facing right now is that he can’t put away Rick Santorum -- despite all the money he has, the Restore Our Future Super PAC (which has spent $30 million in advertisements), his organizational advantage, and all the help he’s receiving from the GOP establishment. As Politico recently wrote, Romney is fighting the “loser” label; if he’s struggling against the under-financed and under-organized Santorum, the thinking goes, how will he fare going toe-to-toe with President Obama and a campaign organization that could be the most sophisticated in history? “Usually, once a politician takes on an aroma of hopelessness he keeps it. Bob Dole in 1996 limped to his nomination with few people expecting he would make a real race of it against Clinton, and he never did.” Yes, in 2008, John McCain lost several primary contests. And so did Obama. But the competition they faced was MUCH stronger than what Romney’s currently facing. As Romney limps toward the finish line, the question becomes: Can he heal, perception-wise, before the general? 

*** Boston, we have a message problem… : Yet Romney might be facing an even bigger problem: What is his campaign about? He says he wants to “restore America’s greatness,” but what does that mean? (Go back to the ‘50s? The ‘60s? The ‘80s? The Bush years?)  He says he’ll be able to turn around the economy, but what if it’s already slowly improving as the evidence currently suggests? And the campaign makes it clear that Romney is the inevitable nominee, but what happens if that inevitable nominee loses? Team Romney has had a message problem since this campaign began, and when you make your candidacy about electability and process, you’re going to pay a BIG price for losing to candidates. Why does Romney want to be president, an office he’s been running for the past six years? Has he really answered this basic question? 

*** … and a narrative problem: Let’s take this a step further. Even John McCain had a strong personal narrative at this stage in ’08. After all, he was a war hero and a “maverick” who was unafraid to buck his party. But ever since Gingrich blew up Romney’s Bain narrative -- remember the movie and the ads from two months ago (plus the tax returns and Swiss bank account business) -- Romney never replaced it with another narrative. And what does he replace it with? Being a successful governor? (That’s problematic because it will remind folks of his Massachusetts health-care law.) Being a man grounded in faith? (That’s problematic, too.) Who is Mitt Romney? What’s the story he wants to tell? 

*** Tough terrain for Romney: In fairness to Team Romney, Alabama and Mississippi weren't friendly terrain for the former Massachusetts governor. As we wrote earlier, those two states -- geographically and ideologically -- looked more like the states he had previously lost (SC, GA, TN, even OK) than the states he's won (NH, FL, NV, AZ, MI, OH, etc.). Indeed, a whopping 83% of primary voters in Mississippi and 80% of primary voters in Alabama described themselves as evangelical Christians. But Team Romney also has itself to blame for raising the stakes of last night's contests: They vastly outspent their rivals, they campaigned aggressively in the state, and they potentially stood to benefit from a split Santorum-Gingrich vote. Just like in South Carolina two months ago, they allowed expectations to exceed what Romney was capable of in a state with those kinds of demographics.  By the way, for those wondering why McCain was able to get some benefit of the doubt from Southerners while Romney has not: It’s more than just faith, it’s narrative and the military. McCain’s military credentials allowed him to overcome the ideological doubts that Southerners and evangelicals had about him. Romney doesn’t have something like that.

*** The pressure is on Santorum, too: Now we move on to Illinois, which holds its primary next Tuesday. And Illinois is going to be an important race. Once again, the pressure is on Romney. And once again, Team Romney has a HUGE advertising advantage, with the campaign and Super PAC spending nearly a combined $3 million so far (versus $16,000 for Gingrich and zero for Santorum). But the pressure is on Santorum, too. Can he defeat Romney in a state that isn’t dominated by conservatives and evangelicals? Can he pull off what he was unable to do in Michigan and Ohio? Romney hasn’t won an “away game,” but neither has Santorum. And the delegate match is NOT kind to Santorum in Illinois either. He didn’t file full delegate slates in the congressional districts; he’s 10 short. And Illinois is not an allocation system, it’s DIRECT ELECTION of the delegates INDIVIDUALLY in the congressional districts. A total nightmare, to be honest, for those tracking delegates. But it almost guarantees Romney will likely win a majority of the state’s delegates even if he loses the statewide vote, which has ZERO delegates connected to it. 

*** Newt’s “Sixth Sense” problem: As for Gingrich, he’s now facing a “The Sixth Sense” problem: Everyone knows his candidacy is dead, except for the candidate. Yes, he finished second to Santorum in Alabama and Mississippi, but it’s hard to imagine how he makes a claim that he’s the conservative alternative to Romney in this race. After all, we’ve now had 25-plus contests, and Gingrich has won just two of them (in South Carolina and Georgia). And he’s now lost three states that border Georgia (Florida, Alabama and Tennessee). So if he can’t even win in the Deep South, where else can he win? A big storyline over the next week will be pressure -- from the right and the media -- to get out of the race.

*** The current delegate count: According to NBC’s Decision Desk, the delegate count currently stands at Romney 419, Santorum 184, Gingrich 136, and Paul 34. By our math, this means that Romney needs to win just 48% of the remaining delegates to get to 1,114, while Santorum needs to get 63% of the remaining delegates.

*** On the trail: Santorum travels to Puerto Rico, campaigning in San Juan… Gingrich stumps in Illinois, making stops in Rosemont and Palatine… And Paul visits the University of Illinois for a town hall event.

*** Exhibit A why you take a foreign leader to Ohio: You get this above-the-fold, centerpiece front-page treatment from the Dayton Daily News with this headline: “The heartland is what it’s all about.” From the story: “President Barack Obama discussed energy policy with Ohio Gov. John Kasich and gave British Prime Minister David Cameron basketball tips Tuesday at an NCAA tournament game at UD Arena, during a brief election-year trip to a crucial swing state.” And the first quote of the story: “Sometimes when we have foreign visitors, they’re only visiting the coasts,” Obama said during a halftime interview. “They go to New York, they go to Washington, they go to Los Angeles, but the heartland is what it’s all about.” Today, Obama is back in DC, where he and Cameron hold a joint press conference at 12:05 pm ET and where the White House throws a state dinner for the British leader later tonight. 

Countdown to Illinois primary: 6 days (March 20)
Countdown to Louisiana primary: 10 days (March 24)
Countdown to Election Day: 237 days

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Big stakes on Tuesday for Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich… Could Romney have written off Alabama and Mississippi (and focused instead on, say, Illinois)?... NBC’s updated delegate count: Romney 377, Santorum 146, Gingrich 112, and Paul 31… Paul admits his crowds haven’t translated at the ballot box… Is Obama’s good luck beginning to change?... New WaPo/ABC poll shows that gas prices have had an effect on his standing, while the killing of civilians in Afghanistan doesn’t help the mission there, either.

*** Big stakes on Tuesday: After the weekend contests where Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum fought to a delegate draw -- with Santorum winning Kansas, and with Romney winning Guam, the Northern Marianas Islands, and more delegates out of Wyoming -- we now turn to Tuesday's primaries in Alabama and Mississippi. And the stakes, once again, are pretty high for the candidates. Romney sneaking out a win in either of the contests would prove that he can win in the South and that conservative GOP voters are beginning to coalesce around his candidacy. But losses in them would confirm that Romney continues to have problems with these voters and -- more importantly -- that the primary season will last through April if not longer. For Santorum, wins in both Alabama and Mississippi would prove that he's the chief conservative alternative to Romney, and that he has the momentum to keep this race going. But losing them would suggest his campaign is running out of gas. And for Gingrich, winning both states would keep his candidacy alive, but losses in these southern states would reveal that he’s become a political zombie, propped up solely by Sheldon Adelson and the pro-Gingrich Super PAC. Those are the stakes for tomorrow.

Don Emmert / AFP - Getty Images

Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich now turn to Tuesday's primaries in Alabama and Mississippi.

*** Could Romney have written off Alabama and Mississippi? And right now, we have no idea how tomorrow’s races will play out. The polling has been all over the place, while last week’s Super Tuesday contests in Tennessee and Oklahoma suggest that Santorum should be the favorite and Romney and Gingrich the underdogs. If Romney ends up losing both primaries, it will raise this question: Did he make a mistake by campaigning too much -- and thus raising the stakes -- in a region where he’s struggled. After all, he’s campaigned aggressively in both Mississippi and Alabama (with comedian Jeff Foxworthy today), and he and the pro-Romney Super PAC have dropped nearly $2 million in advertising in these two states, vastly outspending the competition. Yes, win or lose, Romney is likely to pick up delegates in these states. But he also could have written them off and campaigned instead in Illinois, where a new Chicago Tribune/WGN poll shows him narrowly leading Santorum, 35%-31%. It appears Romney’s over-performance in both public and private polls in Tennessee convinced the campaign that it had a shot in the Volunteer State only to lose it by a bigger margin than any late poll had predicted. Just something to keep in mind.

*** Updated delegate count: Over the weekend, according to NBC News, Rick Santorum won 36 delegates (33 in Kansas and three in Wyoming), while Mitt Romney won 35 (25 in the island territories, seven in Kansas, and three additional delegates in Wyoming). That brings the NBC delegate to Romney 377, Santorum 146, Gingrich 112, and Paul 31. Remember, our delegate count is based on what the local and state parties are doing -- not simply allocating blindly if the process between the caucus and the state convention is vastly different, which in many cases it is.

*** Paul’s crowds haven’t translated at the ballot box: By the way, Paul has still yet to win a contest. And he addressed this on Saturday while in Missouri. “Some days I wished I could understand exactly why these crowds of three and four and sometimes five thousand people coming out doesn’t translate into more votes,” he said, per NBC’s Anthony Terrell. “I’m just wondering, why that happens. The one thing I know is the revolution is alive and well and they will not stop us!” The words of a candidate who is starting to have doubts as to why he’s still running…

*** On the trail: On his 65^th birthday today, Romney is in Alabama, where he campaigns with comedian Jeff Foxworthy in Mobile… And Gingrich and Santorum both stump in both Mississippi and Alabama, where they both attend a Gulf Coast Energy Summit in Biloxi, MS and a state GOP event in Birmingham, AL.

*** Is Obama’s luck beginning to change? President Obama has been a pretty lucky man these first few months of 2012. The U.S. economy and the labor market have been picking up steam; Republicans appeared to have overplayed their hands on social issues (like contraception and abortion); and the GOP primary race has damaged the party’s brand. But in the past 24 hours, we’ve received a couple of reminders that luck -- especially regarding things outside your control -- can change. The first: a new Washington Post/ABC poll showing that the rising gas prices seemed to have dented Obama’s standing. “Disapproval of President Obama’s handling of the economy is heading higher — alongside gasoline prices — as a record number of Americans now give the president “strongly” negative reviews on the 2012 presidential campaign’s most important issue,” the Washington Post writes of its poll, which has Obama’s approval rating now at 46% and has Romney up by two points in a head to head. Although gas prices do change (and the price of oil today has fallen), they do impact a president’s approval rating. And let’s not forget the GOP’s message discipline on this issue; does an hour go by without Republicans putting out a hit on Obama and gas prices? *** UPDATE *** Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz emails First Read to argue that, per his observations, high gas prices really don't impact a president's approval rating.

*** Less and less support for the war in Afghanistan? And then there are the issues overseas, which can change a president’s fortunes overnight. Keep a close eye on how the news that a U.S. Army sergeant killed at least 16 civilians (nine of them children) in Afghanistan could change opinion on that issue. And this comes after some in the U.S. military mistakenly burned the Koran, and it comes as the Obama administration is hoping to make an orderly exit from Afghanistan. The political reaction we’ve heard from both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum on these civilian killings suggests that there is less and less American support for the war there. What little appetite the public had for Afghanistan might get even smaller.

Countdown to Alabama, Hawaii, and Mississippi: 1 day
Countdown to Election Day: 239 days

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BRANDON, Miss. -- Speaking before a congregation just outside the capital of Mississippi, Newt Gingrich shared his story of seeking God’s forgiveness Sunday

“There were things in my life that I have been very public about saying were, in fact, well short of the glory of God and I had to go to God to seek forgiveness,” Gingrich said to the several hundred people in attendance at First Baptist Church. “I never went to God to seek understanding. And I was never confused. That is, there are periods of my life where I have sinned.”

The former House Speaker, who had marital indiscretions in the 1990s, says he now has a strong relationship with his family, including his third wife, Callista, whom he married shortly after leaving Congress.

“I have been very, very fortunate that I have a very, very close relationship with Callista. We are very close to my two daughters who have been campaigning with us. We are extremely close to my two grandchildren who are 10 and 12,” Gingrich stated during some of his most in-depth remarks on his family life. “But I had to earn being a 68 year-old grandfather by living through things that I would never want my grandchildren to repeat.”

Gingrich is campaigning down in Alabama and Mississippi in the lead up to the two state’s primaries. He frequently visits churches on Sundays and today was no different. Gingrich attended three different services in the South while his wife was back in Washington, D.C. singing in the choir at the Basilica of the National Shrine.

Concluding his brief remarks at the church Brandon, Gingrich acknowledged he is not a “perfect” person.

“I come to you as a citizen who has sought redemption and has sought God's love and recognizes that you have to shelter under the cross to have any hope of living a full life and I'm very grateful of having the chance to be with you this evening,” he said.

The former speaker held a rally across town at City Hall following the church service.

GULFPORT, Miss. – Despite calls to withdraw from the presidential race, Newt Gingrich says no matter the outcome of the primaries next week, his campaign will go on.

"We'll clearly do well enough to move on, and I think there's a fair chance we'll win” in Mississippi and Alabama, Gingrich told The Associated Press in an interview Friday. “But I just want to set this to rest once and for all, we're going to Tampa."

The former House speaker appears to be lowering expectations in the two Southern states after his press secretary told reporters that the elections on Tuesday were crucial.

Campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond had told reporters on Wednesday that Gingrich needed to win both Mississippi and Alabama to remain a credible candidate. “From Spartanburg to Texas, those all need to go for Gingrich,” Hammond said.

Gingrich barely mentioned his two leading Republican competitors – Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum – at all on the stump Friday despite running neck-and-neck with them, according to new polls.

The Speaker is continuing to campaign like it’s business as usual, focusing his criticism on President Barack Obama’s energy policies.

Friday afternoon, the Gingrich campaign stopped at an oil drilling training facility in Laurel, Miss., to jab Obama’s recent speeches on energy, while touting his own $2.50 a gallon gas price plan.

“I just wanted to point out, Mr. President, that this is how they get natural gas. This is drilling. They don't get natural gas from algae,” Gingrich said as he stood in front of an oil rig.

Speaking at Gulfport High School – his last event in Mississippi Friday – Gingrich also called for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to resign.

“I have been told that the secretary of defense has suggested that international agreements override the Congress,” Gingrich said, referring to comments that Panetta made Thursday about Syria as he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “If he believes that, he should resign tonight … Leon Panetta needs to learn we do not have a United Nations secretary of defense, we have a United States secretary of defense.”

 Gingrich campaigns in Alabama Saturday.

Jewel Samad / AFP - Getty Images

President Obama walks to the stage to speaks at the Rolls-Royce Crosspointe in Prince George, Virginia, on March 9, 2012.

President Obama hailed news on Friday that the economy added jobs in February, while also previewing his case for re-election at a stop this afternoon in central Virginia.

"Day by day, we're restoring this economy from crisis," Obama told workers at the Rolls Royce Crosspointe manufacturing plant in Virginia, a key swing state. "But we can't stop there. We've got to make this economy ready for tomorrow."

The economy added 227,000 jobs in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its monthly report released this morning. The unemployment rate held steady at 8.3 percent, which was partly attributable to jobless workers re-entering the workforce.

The report builds on a streak of generally positive economic news, reports which have helped improve the president's approval rating heading into the height of the election season.

Obama's Republican opponents were put in the somewhat awkward position of having to criticize a generally positive jobs report as insufficiently robust.

"Any new job is a welcome paycheck for the American worker, but as past recoveries show, the current rate of growth will leave the American economy sputtering for years to come," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in a written statement.

And former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum told Bloomberg Television: "[C]ertainly a quarter of a million jobs, roughly, being added is a positive step forward ... Again, you have an administration that has consistently seen bad job reports because of bad policies that have led to those job reports. And eventually the economy does recover, in spite of the headwinds that this administration has put in its place."

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, had not issued a written statement by early afternoon, but addressed the numbers more broadly at an event this morning.

"Don't forget, by the way, that this president ... told us that if he could borrow $787 billion -- almost $1 trillion -- he would keep unemployment below 8 percent," Romney said. "It has not been below 8 percent since. This president has not succeeded, this president has failed, and that's the reason we're going to get rid of him in 2012."

Romney has made his economic expertise versus Obama a cornerstone of his campaign, and increased economic momentum would threaten to undercut a central narrative of the Romney campaign.

The administration was eager, though, to trumpet the trajectory of the economy as evidence of the president's success. White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted a graphic showing the monthly jobs reports over the last few years, divided in colors by administration (red for George W. Bush, blue for Obama). That graph reflected the monthly reports over the last two years -- some more anemic than others -- reflecting job growth in the economy.

In that vein, Obama made the implicit case for why voters should entrust him -- versus his Republican challengers -- to manage the economy over the next four years.

"Our job now is to keep this economic engine churning. We can't go back to the policies that got us in this mess," he said in Prince George, VA, "we've got to have an economy that's built to last, and that starts with American manufacturing."

The president in particularly highlighted a new manufacturing initiative, and went after lawmakers Capitol Hill for holding up its implementation.

"We need Congress to act,” he said before pausing.“ “Hmm,” he continued, as the audience began to laugh, crescendoing into full cheering and applause.

Like North Carolina, which Obama visited earlier this week to make a speech on oil prices, Virginia is a key state for the president’s re-election campaign. He won it in 2008 with 53 percent, becoming the first Democrat in four decades to carry the state in a general election.

Recent polling shows Obama would be strong in a general election matchup against any of his Republican rivals in Virginia, which Mitt Romney won on Super Tuesday.

In an NBC/Marist poll released earlier this month, Obama lead the former Massachusetts governor by 17 points (50 to 38 percent) and held even bigger leads against the other three remaining candidates: Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.

And a small majority of Virginia voters -- 51 percent -- approved of the president’s job in the NBC/Marist poll.

NBC's Garrett Haake contributed to this post.

227,000 jobs created in February, unemployment rate remains unchanged at 8.3%... Santorum’s goal next week: to knock out Gingrich… Breaking down Romney’s cash-flow situation (and the problems he could have later this spring/summer)… But Romney will have cavalry that could ride to his help… Keep an eye on the Republicans standing on the sidelines in the GOP race… Rock chalk, Jayhawk: Kansas caucuses take place on Saturday… And Santorum to appear on “Meet.”

*** 227,000 jobs created last month: Another month, another positive jobs report. The breaking news from the AP: “U.S. employers added 227,000 jobs in January to complete three of the best months of hiring since the recession began. The unemployment rate was unchanged, largely because more people streamed into the work force… And hiring in January and December was better than first thought. The government revised those figures to show 61,000 an additional jobs. The economy has now generated an average of 245,000 jobs in the past three months. The only stretch better was since the recession began was in early 2010, when temporary Census jobs lifted payrolls.” The current trajectory for the economy and the labor market is pretty unmistakable. Then again, we still have eight more jobs reports until the November presidential election. President Obama speaks on the economy in Prince George, VA at 12:30 pm ET, while the RNC holds a conference call to pre-but it.

Eric Gay / AP

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rick Santorum speaks during the Alabama Policy Institute 2012 Presidential Candidate Forum, Thursday, March 8, 2012, in Mobile, Alabama.

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*** Santorum’s goal: to knock out Gingrich: As the GOP primary campaign has moved to the South -- to Alabama and Mississippi -- Rick Santorum has excellent chance to win both contests this Tuesday, as well as Saturday’s caucuses in Kansas (more on that Kansas race below). But as msnbc.com’s Mike O’Brien pointed out yesterday, Santorum has a more immediate goal with these contests: push Newt Gingrich out of the race. So campaigning in Alabama yesterday, per NBC’s Jay Rankin, Santorum made a pitch for a two-man race: “If you go out and deliver a conservative victory for us on Tuesday, this race will become a two-person race. And when it becomes a two-person race for the Republican nomination, the conservative will win that nomination.” And the pro-Santorum Super PAC, Red White and Blue Fund, released a new TV ad (in Alabama and Mississippi) that hits BOTH Mitt Romney and Gingrich.

*** Romney’s cash-flow situation: Yesterday, the Romney campaign revealed it raised $11.5 million in February and had $7.3 million in the bank as of Feb. 29. But when you consider that the campaign spent nearly $1.3 million on TV ads from March 1-6, per the ad-tracking firm Smart Media, it really has $6 million in the bank -- or even less when you consider payroll and travel expenses. Of course, that doesn’t count whatever the campaign has raised in March, but it does raise a cash-flow question for Team Romney: It has money (and more than its GOP rivals), yet is it enough to withstand another two more months of this primary race? And more importantly, will it be enough to withstand a potential offensive from the Obama camp and Democrats whenever Romney wraps up the primary? Remember, a presidential candidate CAN’T use general-election funds until after his party’s convention. So for the folks who have already maxed out to Romney with primary funds -- representing about two-thirds of his money to date -- the $2,500 they might be able to donate for the general couldn’t be spent until late August.

*** Send the cavalry! Buy if Romney essentially wraps up the nomination later this spring, there would be plenty of cavalry that could ride to his help -- the Republican National Committee (which last night reported having $26.5 million in the bank), the Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads groups, the Koch Brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, and the pro-Romney Super PAC (which has spent a whopping $28 million on ads so far). And, of course, you’d imagine that Romney would be able to raise A LOT more money from Republican donors once he becomes the presumptive nominee. But at the moment he does, Team Obama would start with a clear money advantage. The question is: How quickly would Team Romney (and its allies) be able to reach parity?  

*** Republicans standing on the sidelines: Here’s another question we have: When will we see more prominent figures of the GOP establishment -- like Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham, Paul Ryan, Haley Barbour, and Mitch Daniels -- step up and endorse the former Massachusetts governor? In the past few days, we’ve seen more and more members of the establishment (Eric Cantor over the weekend, and Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant last night) back Romney. But the others have stayed on the sidelines for now. It will be interesting to see if/when they get on the field. 

*** Rock chalk, Jayhawk: By the way, we have another contest this weekend: Saturday’s Kansas caucuses. According to NBC’s John Bailey, caucusing begins in the Sunflower State at 11:00 am ET (10:00 am local) and wraps up at 2:00 pm ET (1:00 pm local). Ballots will be counted at each caucus sit, and then results will be called in to party headquarters. The Kansas GOP expects the first results to come in around 2:30 pm ET and hopes to have all results in between 5:00 pm ET and 6:00 pm ET. Bailey adds that 40 delegates are at stake: 12 are congressional-district delegates awarded on a winner-take-all basis within each district; 25 are at-large delegates awarded proportionally based on the statewide vote (but a candidate must get at least 20% support to qualify); and all three national committee delegates go to the statewide winner. In 2008, Mike Huckabee won the caucuses with 60% of the vote, besting runner-up John McCain by 36 points. Mitt Romney had already left the race at that point and got negligible support. Also on Saturday, we'll find out the preference of seven more Wyoming delegates.

*** On the trail: Romney campaigns in Jackson, MS then heads to Birmingham, AL…Gingrich makes three stops in Mississippi (Meridian, Ellisville, and Gulfport) then hosts a rally in Mobile, AL… Santorum campaigns in Alabama and then heads to Kansas, where he holds two events… And Paul -- back on the trail -- also campaigns in Kansas. 

*** On “Meet the Press” this Sunday: NBC’s David Gregory interviews Santorum, as well as Govs. Martin O’Malley (D) and Bob McDonnell (R). 

Countdown to Alabama, Hawaii, and Mississippi: 4 days
Countdown to Election Day: 242 days

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Jim Young / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum addresses supporters at his "Super Tuesday" primary election night rally in Steubenville, Ohio, March 6, 2012.

Rick Santorum's long-term campaign strategy is to upend the trajectory of the GOP primary, and snatch the Republican presidential nomination away from Mitt Romney.

But his more pressing, immediate concern involves winning on Saturday in Kansas, and on Tuesday in Alabama and Mississippi, by which he could finally push Newt Gingrich out of the race.

Santorum would still face long odds to become the Republican nominee, but any march to Tampa would be less impeded if Newt Gingrich were to exit. But the former speaker has suggested he won’t voluntarily drop out of the race before Tuesday, but by describing both contests as “must-win” affairs, he opened the door to being forced out by virtue of a loss in either state.

"The ability for conservatives to win the Republican nomination is greatly diminished by Gingrich in the race," said Stuart Roy, an adviser to the Red, White and Blue Fund, a pro-Santorum super PAC. "That's why we're investing in Mississippi and Alabama. We can win, and a win in either state would show the need for Gingrich to leave."

To that end, the super PAC went on air with ad buys in both Mississippi and Alabama totaling more than a combined $1 million. Their spot goes after both Gingrich and Romney, whose numbers with Republicans in both states are judged to be, at a minimum, positive enough that he might be able to squeak by in one of the contests if his campaign were to compete aggressively.

Santorum seems to understand the importance of these states, which fall in the immediate wake of Super Tuesday.

"We have to do well in Kansas -- no, we have to win in Kansas, and win big," he said during a speech on Wednesday afternoon in Lenexa.

And he alluded to the need to dispatch Gingrich in a speech last night in Mississippi.  "If we win Mississippi, this will be a two-person race," Santorum told supporters in Jackson. "And if it is a two-person race, we will nominate a conservative as president of the United States."

In many ways, Romney has been the beneficiary of a not having had to face a single opponent during the primary who managed to rally conservatives. Gingrich and Santorum each traded opportunities as the chief conservative candidate, a fight which has allowed Romney to accrue a sizable enough delegate advantage that his campaign is now beginning to argue that he’s Romney is the inevitable Republican nominee.

Polls of two of the most competitive Super Tuesday states belie the argument that, if Gingrich were out of the race, Santorum might have enough support to beat Romney. The former Massachusetts governor won 43 "somewhat conservative" voters in the Ohio primary, but if Santorum's 33 percent share and Gingrich's 16 percent share were combined, Santorum would have the advantage. If Santorum and Gingrich were to add even together their share of the "moderate" vote in Ohio, they would have only trailed Romney by 2 percent in Ohio among moderates, who made up 1 in 5 Ohio primary voters.

And in Tennessee, a state which Santorum won but all three major candidates contested, just 43 percent of primary voters saw Romney as the candidate best suited to beat President Barack Obama in November. The voters apparently unconvinced of Romney's electability split between Santorum (25 percent) and Gingrich (21 percent).

That's all to assume, though, that Santorum would automatically inherit Gingrich voters if the former speaker were to leave the race. And it isn't clear, either, that Gingrich would necessarily offer his endorsement to Santorum -- a gesture that would presumably goad supporters of Gingrich to filter their energy his way.

Of course, any focus by Santorum to knock out Gingrich on Tuesday would be scuttled if both of them lose to Romney. A poll of likely voters in Tuesday's primary found Santorum leading, at 22.7 percent, followed by Romney at 18.7 percent and Gingrich at 13.8 percent. The Alabama State University poll was conducted, though, before Super Tuesday, and has a 4.4 percent margin of error.

Adding to that is the strategy pursued by a pro-Romney super PAC, which has not let up in its attacks against Santorum in advertising for Tuesday's two primaries.

That may be because Romney supporters view a divided conservative base as beneficial, at least until they can manage a stranglehold on the nomination.

"If he wins both states, he may well stay around," Roy said of Gingrich and the Tuesday states, highlighting the importance for Santorum in drawing the race into a one-on-one showdown against Romney come next Wednesday.

JACKSON, MS -- After a long day of events and travel following Super Tuesday, Newt and Callista Gingrich took to the dance floor here in Mississippi, showing off their personal side on their first night in the state.

When the traveling national press entered the lobby of the Hilton Hotel after midnight Wednesday, no one expected who would be sitting in the bar -- the former House Speaker (sitting sans jacket and tie) and his wife Callista, along with members of their staff and scattered Secret Service agents.

They were all enjoying drinks and the cover band after another 18-hour day. It was a rare moment on the campaign as the Gingriches let loose with staff and a handful of members of the media to the tunes of the Beach Boys’ “California Girl,” Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean,” and yes, even T-Pain’s “Apple Bottom Jeans.”

NBC's Alex Moe

Newt and Callista Gingrich cut loose in Jackson, MS.

Gingrich joked that his wife, who is very musically inclined, has much better dance moves than he does.

When Elton John’s “Rocket Man” came on, the Gingriches moved in front of the band while the rest of the group looked on -- and the Speaker turned Callista around the dance floor.

“We had a long day, we did a lot of things,” Mr. Gingrich told one reporter at the hotel bar. “My first interview is at 6:30 in the morning….You’ve got to take a few minutes off.”