Republican race turns to Mississippi and Alabama – live:
Live coverage as Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and the other candidates turn their attention to the southern states
10.10am: MSNBC's Chuck Todd has another explanation for why Mitt Romney is underwhelming:
9.48am: Exciting political fact of the day:
That's an interesting way of looking at the Republican nomination and is a strong argument for the notion that Mitt Romney failed to live up to his front-runner status on Super Tuesday, despite massive wins in Massachusetts and Virginia, two big states.
9.30am: Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Republican presidential race, which takes a turn for the south ahead of polls in Mississippi and Alabama next week. Here's Ryan Devereaux's summary of where we're at today:
The Republican presidential hopefuls are turning their attention to the south with primaries in Mississippi and Alabama coming up next week. Pressure has mounted to push Newt Gingrich out of the race and make room for Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney to duke it out. Santorum, for his part, has denied any involvement in any such efforts but has says he wouldn't mind if it happened. Speaking in Mississippi yesterday, Santorum said, ""If you deliver a victory for us on Tuesday, you will make this a two-person race."
Newt Gingrich is also refusing to back down, though he has scrapped plans to campaign in Kansas, which is holding caucuses on Saturday. Following a victory in his home state of Georgia Tuesday, Gingrich has chosen to focus exclusively on Alabama and Mississippi.
Mitt Romney has won the support of Alabama's largest newspaper. On Wednesday the Birmingham News endorsed the former Massachusetts governor as "the best bet" for defeating President Obama. Recent polling by Alabama State University's Center for Leadership and Public Policy has Rick Santorum leading Romney with the support of 22.7% of likely voters, to 18.7% for Romney. Gingrich, meanwhile, trails with 13.8%.
The Obama campaign plans to release a 17-minute documentary detailing the president's first term in office. The film is directed by David Guggenheim, the man behind Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth.
GOP strategist Karl Rove has predicted the battle for the Republican nomination will take "months, not weeks". Writing in his Wall Street Journal column on Wednesday, Rove said "Every Republican running for president got something on Super Tuesday. Not all they wanted, but enough to convince themselves to carry on, making it likely the GOP race goes on for months, not weeks."
10.10am: MSNBC's Chuck Todd has another explanation for why Mitt Romney is underwhelming:
It would be one thing if Romney were eking out narrow victories against Rick Perry or Tim Pawlenty, candidates with (at the time they were running) a serious campaign infrastructure and money or the potential for it. But it's another thing to narrowly win against candidates who don't have a true organization, who aren't well funded, and who don't have a bustling campaign headquarters.How, for example, did Rick Santorum win North Dakota? That remains a mystery, since it seems unlikely that he had much of a political operation there.
9.48am: Exciting political fact of the day:
That's an interesting way of looking at the Republican nomination and is a strong argument for the notion that Mitt Romney failed to live up to his front-runner status on Super Tuesday, despite massive wins in Massachusetts and Virginia, two big states.
9.30am: Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Republican presidential race, which takes a turn for the south ahead of polls in Mississippi and Alabama next week. Here's Ryan Devereaux's summary of where we're at today:
The Republican presidential hopefuls are turning their attention to the south with primaries in Mississippi and Alabama coming up next week. Pressure has mounted to push Newt Gingrich out of the race and make room for Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney to duke it out. Santorum, for his part, has denied any involvement in any such efforts but has says he wouldn't mind if it happened. Speaking in Mississippi yesterday, Santorum said, ""If you deliver a victory for us on Tuesday, you will make this a two-person race."
Newt Gingrich is also refusing to back down, though he has scrapped plans to campaign in Kansas, which is holding caucuses on Saturday. Following a victory in his home state of Georgia Tuesday, Gingrich has chosen to focus exclusively on Alabama and Mississippi.
Mitt Romney has won the support of Alabama's largest newspaper. On Wednesday the Birmingham News endorsed the former Massachusetts governor as "the best bet" for defeating President Obama. Recent polling by Alabama State University's Center for Leadership and Public Policy has Rick Santorum leading Romney with the support of 22.7% of likely voters, to 18.7% for Romney. Gingrich, meanwhile, trails with 13.8%.
The Obama campaign plans to release a 17-minute documentary detailing the president's first term in office. The film is directed by David Guggenheim, the man behind Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth.
GOP strategist Karl Rove has predicted the battle for the Republican nomination will take "months, not weeks". Writing in his Wall Street Journal column on Wednesday, Rove said "Every Republican running for president got something on Super Tuesday. Not all they wanted, but enough to convince themselves to carry on, making it likely the GOP race goes on for months, not weeks."
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