Julian E. Zelizer
Special to CNN

The first hundred days is barely over and the Republican primaries for 2012 have begun.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has announced he won't seek a third term, immediately stirring speculation that he is preparing to run for president.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has been delivering speeches on many key issues, ranging from national security to tax cuts, keeping himself in the public eye.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a "reverse racist." This is one of many statements that he has been making in recent months to define his agenda and position himself as a leading candidate in the Republican Party. He then backtracked from his original statement which had not played well in the press or politically.

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James Bennet
The Atlantic

Of President Obama’s stated goals for the taxpayers’ investment in General Motors—“To get G.M. back on its feet, take a hands-off approach and get out quickly”—the middle one is likely to work against those at either end. The government can’t hope to fix G.M. and sell it off without getting under the hood. Over decades now of restructuring plans at the company, two things have demonstrably not helped get much done: Money and time. The government can’t simply give more of each to the automaker. What’s needed is forceful, even ruthless, leadership to insist on the changes that everyone—the managers, the union leadership, the dealers, everyone—has known were necessary for about 20 years now.

Fritz Henderson, GM’s CEO, has earned a reputation as an able guy who understands the business and the company he grew up in. But without someone above him bringing the hammer down—repeatedly—he’s going to have the same problem busting through the culture that frustrated his worthy predecessors, like Jack Smith. And if the government is really going to attempt to stand back, rather than insist on a particular direction, it’s likely only to complicate Henderson’s job by allowing him to be buffeted by all sorts of political cross-pressures. Already, according to The Washington Post, John Dingell has written Henderson to complain about plans to close the Willow Run Transmission Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where roughly 1200 workers build four- and six-speed transmissions for rear-wheel-drive vehicles (half the workers will be transferred to a similar plant in Toledo).

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Program Note: Tune in tonight to hear more on the GOP on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Peter Hamby
CNN Producer

In an unusual move for the person tasked with being his party's top cheerleader, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele is shining a light on the political vulnerabilities of one of the GOP's top figures and a likely frontrunner for the 2012 Republican nomination — former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Now Romney's team is hitting back.

Steele, guest-hosting on Bill Bennett's radio show Friday, cast doubt on Romney's conservative bona fides and blamed the Republican base for rejecting Romney last year because "it had issues with Mormonism" and was unsure of Romney's commitment to opposing to abortion rights. Those comments aren't sitting too well with Romney's political team.

"Sometimes when you shoot from the hip, you miss the target," said Romney spokesman Eric Ferhnstrom. "This is one of those times."

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Mitt Romney
Former Governor of Masachusetts 

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course....

Click here to read more

Just when I thought covering Mike Huckabee's campaign couldn't be any more unpredictable, the press plane traveling from Little Rock to New York Thursday morning had to make an emergency landing.

The plane with Gov. Huckabee and his staff, including his daughter Sarah, arrived at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey without incident.

The press plane, a midsize (Hawker, I believe), traveling seven members of the press, landed early at Morristown Municipal Aiport in New Jersey, just south of Teterboro.  No one was injured.

It was a smooth flight from Little Rock, but as we flew over Philadelphia the plane suddenly dipped, losing a lot of altitude. Steve Coppin, CNN photojournalist, described the sensation as free-falling on a roller coaster and being lifted from your seat.  Everyone on the plane gasped loud enough for the pilots to hear.

I shook it off as bad turbulence or the consequence of being on a small plane.  At one point the sound of an alarm could be heard from the cock-pit. Newsweek reporter Matthew Philips looked at Coppin and said, "that didn't sound good."

Being veteran flyers, we shook it off as just another really bumpy flight.  We began descending earlier than we expected and the plane began swaying from side to side like a seesaw.  It was unsettling watching the pilots in the cock-pit quickly adjusting controls as they made the difficult landing. 

It wasn't until the plane came to a stop on the tarmac that the pilots told us there was a problem with the plane and they had to make an emergency landing. One of the pilots said it was "pretty serious" and explained that they lost flight controls and had trouble maintaining altitude.

The pilots said they both needed all their strength to land the plane manually.  A fire truck was on the tarmac as a precaution, and when the cabin door opened we were greeted by a firefighter in a protective silver fire suit.

Only hours later, this frightening experience became an afterthought, as former Gov. Mitt Romney suspended his campaign. 

- Shawna Shepherd, CNN Political Producer

Mitt Romney is a businessman. He likes to go through data and numbers. After Super Tuesday, the numbers suggested suspending his campaign was perhaps the best course.

If you look at the map, you can’t miss it: John McCain is two times ahead of him in the delegate race.

Last night we were told the former Massachusetts governor would stay in the race. That was the public face of the campaign.

But I’m told Governor Romney started down this course yesterday. He left his headquarters after a private meeting with his staff and said nothing to reporters. This morning he told them that he had reached the calculation that he would suspend his campaign.

Finally, in a race with so many dramatic twists, consider this moment: Mitt Romney standing in a hall full of conservative activists at the Conservative Political Action Committee (or CPAC) conference in Washington, many of whom have outright said they wouldn’t vote for John McCain under any circumstances.

This was supposed to be a day on which conservatives stood up and said, Mitt, hang in there. And McCain was coming in later for a potential confrontation of sorts.

Instead, like it or not, the conservatives in that room were part of the coronation of John McCain.

Yes, Ron Paul is still in the race.  And Mike Huckabee has proven he can get votes and win contests. Yet if you look at the map and where the race goes, Huckabee is way behind.

So John McCain is now the putative Republican nominee. And that deal was sealed in a room full of his most vocal skeptics in the party.

What a moment.

-John King, Chief National Correspondent

Editor’s note: With Anderson off, John anchors 360° tonight. Watch 10p ET for insights on the presidential race, and where it goes from here.

Morning Folks....IT was a late night out on the campaign trail. McCain appears to be the clear Super Tuesday winner on the GOP side, but do NOT count Huckabee out...He still seems to be the choice for conservatives.  On the Democratic side, Hillary clearly won the most delegates, but Obama won more states.... GO FIGURE!!!

Mother Nature took no mercy on Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee...and now there are Tornado warnings in Alabama...the death toll continues to climb.  And another day of Britney dominating the headlines...poor girl!! PLUS, the toxicology report is due out in the Heath Ledger death... SOO grab your coffee and take a look at today's headlines...

Top Stories
Deadly Tornadoes....
Tornadoes that roared through parts of Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee killed at least 27 people and injured nearly 100 more Tuesday night, authorities said.

Three were waterboarded...
CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said publicly for the first time Tuesday that his agency had used the harsh interrogation technique known as waterboarding on three Al Qaeda suspects, and he testified that depriving the agency of coercive methods would "increase the danger to America."

Al Qaeda strengthening?
Al Qaeda is gaining in strength from its refuge in Pakistan and is steadily improving its ability to recruit, train and position operatives capable of carrying out attacks inside the United States, the director of national intelligence told a Senate panel on Tuesday.

Military stressed?
The military's top uniformed officer says U.S. forces are "significantly stressed" by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan while simultaneously trying to stem the tide of violent extremism elsewhere.

Raw Politics
Super Tuesday results...
Sen. John McCain cemented his front-runner status Tuesday, piling up big wins coast-to-coast, according to CNN projections. Democratic voters remain evenly split over which of their candidates they would rather see get the nomination.

Super Tuesday FULL state by state results....
Twenty four states held primaries or caucuses....

No real losers...The fight goes on...
Not long ago, political strategists viewed Super Tuesday as a day that would likely crown the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, a 24-state extravaganza that would bring the long primary campaign to an orderly conclusion.

Huckabee still alive...
Sen. John McCain of Arizona won the most states and appeared poised to win the most delegates on Tuesday with impressive primary victories in the delegate-rich states of California, New York and Illinois. Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, revived his candidacy with victories across the South.

Youth vote...
Interviews across the country on Tuesday produced anecdotal evidence that some younger people did carry their enthusiasm into the polling place.

Crime & Punishment
Female remains identified...
A severed head and other dismembered remains found stuffed in trashed bags and scattered along Pocono Mountain highways have been identified as those of a missing woman, state police said Monday.

Keeping Them Honest
Steroids...
Roger Clemens emerged from nearly five hours of questioning by congressional investigators Tuesday repeating his denials that he never used steroids or human growth hormone and thanking them for the chance to say so under oath.

Deficient Kevlar in Military Helmets...
A North Dakota manufacturer has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a suit saying it had repeatedly shortchanged the armor in up to 2.2 million helmets for the military, including those for the first troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
Cartoons getting serious?
You could call it a sit-in, of sorts. Perhaps a sketch-in would be more appropriate, a comic call to arms, with cartoonists of color protesting for greater presence in newspaper pages. Protesting in the best way they know: drawing about it, en masse, all on the same day.

Britney...
A restraining order against the man who's been at Britney Spears' side during her downward spiral portrays him as a Svengali figure who held her a virtual hostage in her home, drugged her, took over her finances and controlled the ravenous paparazzi "like a general."

Good Morning!!! It is SUPER TUESDAY...and the candidates are stumping coast to coast for last minute votes!!! Will McCain clinch it? Will Romney pull off an upset? Will the Obama-Clinton dead-heat be decided? Oh, the drama of it all!!! Take a look at Raw Politics for everything Super Tuesday you'll ever want to know....

AND you must check out Crime & Punishment today...the Joran van der Sloot tape is just chilling...PLUS, do you get migraines? Well folks, there is a new cure and I think you are going to like it!!! SOOO grab your coffee and check out today's headlines...

Top Stories
New Budget...
President Bush sent Congress a $3.1 trillion budget on Monday that would increase military spending

U.S. Raid in Iraq...
At least three Iraqis were killed and one child was injured after American soldiers stormed a tiny one-room house north of Baghdad and opened fire, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Tuesday.

A new beginning...
A new Iraqi flag flew for the first time in Baghdad Tuesday morning.

Suicide attack in Israel...
Dr. Baruch Mandelzweig ran to the scene of the blast, ready to save lives. A suicide bomber's ravaged body lay on the ground. A man, badly injured, lay nearby, moving his head. The Israeli doctor raced into action, clearing the victim's airway.

Americans start to pay as they go...
For more than half a century, Americans have proved staggeringly resourceful at finding new ways to spend money.

Raw Politics
Obama wins first battle...
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won the first battle of the Super Tuesday showdown when Democratic Party voters in Indonesia - where Obama spent four years of his childhood - picked him over Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Super Tuesday showdown...
The drama of the most intensive presidential nominating campaign in memory will play out on the largest stage ever Tuesday when millions of Americans, from Connecticut to California with American Samoa thrown in, cast ballots in the closest thing to a national primary that the country has seen.

Conservative backlash?
GOP front-runner John McCain is cruising into Super Tuesday with a hefty lead in the polls, but he's drawing a backlash from some top conservatives who say he is too liberal to carry the Republican nomination

Young voters...
College senior Brian Schreiber works as a janitor until 1 a.m. most nights, cleaning day-care centers so he can send home money to pay his father's hospital bills.

Candidates blitz states...
The presidential candidates from both parties campaigned frenetically on Monday, making their final pushes with a series of rallies and blitzes of television commercials for a last bout of November-style campaigning before more than 20 states vote in Tuesday’s virtual national primary.

8 Questions Super Tuesday could answer...
Democratic strategist Bill Carrick put it best: "To paraphrase Churchill," he wrote in an e-mail, "the Democrats are at the end of the beginning and the Republicans are at the beginning of the end."

Crime & Punishment
Van der Sloot on tape...
On video, Joran van der Sloot says he "didn't lose a minute of sleep" over knowing Natalee Holloway's motionless body had been taken out to sea and dumped.

Body found...
A body found in western North Carolina is a missing hiker believed to be a victim of the man who pleaded guilty in a Georgia slaying, a sheriff said Monday.

Keeping Them Honest
Tracking spy satellites...
When the government announced last month that a top-secret spy satellite would, in the next few months, come falling out of the sky, American officials said there was little risk to people because satellites fall out of orbit fairly frequently and much of the planet is covered by oceans.

Increase in Florida rates...
Facing accusations that they have been gouging customers, executives from one of Florida's largest homeowners' insurance companies told a special State Senate committee on Monday that they had been forced to raise rates to offset losses and prepare for the possibility of more frequent hurricanes in the future.

AC360 Follow
Processing of Iraqi refugees is slow...
Last year the Bush administration vowed to find a way to accelerate the processing of immigrant visas and the granting of refugee status so that Iraqis who worked for the American Embassy in Baghdad could immigrate to the United States.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
Britney...Britney...Britney...
Britney Spears' father will remain temporarily in control of the pop star's personal and financial affairs while she is evaluated in a hospital psychiatric ward, a court commissioner ruled Monday.

Church of Sientology dispute...
A long-simmering dispute over digital copyrights between the Church of Scientology and its critics has boiled over in recent weeks after video clips turned up on the Internet from a 2004 interview by the church's most famous member, actor Tom Cruise.

SEX and migraines...
Popular culture always sends us mixed messages about sex. First there was the old cliche of "not tonight dear, I have a headache," implying sex makes pain worse.

Usually, operating behind enemy lines is a sign of strength. John McCain sure hopes so.
"I believe we have every good shot at carrying the state of Massachusetts tomorrow and winning this state and sweeping the East," the Arizona senator said Monday as he campaigned in Mitt Romney's backyard – at a rally at Boston's historic Faneuil Hall.

McCain sees a big Super Tuesday in the offing. But even some allies are a little nervous at a schedule that had McCain spending most of his day in three moderate GOP states: Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. McCain has a big lead in the latter two, and even his own top aides concede Massachusetts is a long shot.

So why not more in the South. Or in the Mountain West.

We put the question to McCain in Boston: "Senator, where is the line between confident and cocky?"

McCain noted that he had campaigned in Missouri the other day, as well as Alabama and some other Super Tuesday battlegrounds. But the did note his superstitions, and did repeated his assertion from last week that he believed he would all but mathematically clinch the nomination Tuesday night.

"You hop around the country. You try to get to as many places as you can," McCain said. "But I am trying to be very careful about ...I've seen more than one election go against what the polls show before. And we are guardedly confident we think we can win but that is why we are campaigning hard right up literally until the polls close."

Up to the end includes a hastily scheduled final day trip to California, where Romney also was adding last-minute stops to court voters in Tuesday's most delegate-rich state.

Morning Folks....The Morning Buzz is baaaack!!! AND soooo are the GIANTS! WOW!!! What a game last night!! What a win!! What an upset!!! Ok..Ok.. There is other news out there today, too...

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday...voters coast to coast will cast their vote and maybe, just maybe, we will have a clear front runner on both sides of this election... So check out Raw Politics for the latest... AND keep scrolling down to Crime & Punishment, there is new info in the Natalee Holloway murder.... PLUS folks aren't just talking about the Giant WIN this morning, but those crazy commercials, too....

SOOO grab your coffee and let's get started... 

Top Stories
Giants upset Patriots to win Super Bowl XLII...
The New York Giants won Super Bowl XLII with a last-minute touchdown, upsetting the New England Patriots' hopes of becoming the first team since 1972 to complete a National Football League season undefeated.

Stunning Victory...
Plaxico Burress had caught what became the winning touchdown pass, but all the anticipation born of improbability had to remain corked for 35 more seconds.

Explosion at Israeli Shopping Center...
A suicide bomber detonated explosives in a shopping mall in the southern Israeli town of Dimona on Monday morning, killing at least one person and wounding 11 others, police said.

Coalition forces killed nine...
Coalition forces killed nine Iraqi civilians and wounded three others near the town of Iskandariya, a U.S. military spokeswoman told CNN Monday.

Bhutto autobiography...
In an autobiography being published after her assassination, Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said she was warned that four suicide bomber squads would try to kill her, one led by Osama bin Laden's 16-year-old son.

One survivor...
The police confirmed Sunday that one woman survived an apparent robbery gone wrong at a suburban Chicago shopping center that left five others dead.

Raw Politics
Super Tuesday stumping begins....
The remaining contenders for the presidency kicked off their final maneuvers for Super Tuesday, fine-tuning their closing messages in appearances on the Sunday talk shows and fanning out across the nation for an exhaustive list of last-minute campaign stops.

All tied up...
The Democratic presidential race has become a cliffhanger as a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll on Sunday showed Barack Obama wiping out Hillary Rodham Clinton's double-digit national lead just before coast-to-coast contests on Tuesday.

Another Kennedy enforces Obama...
California first lady Maria Shriver on Sunday endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for president, becoming the latest member of the Kennedy clan to line up behind the senator from Illinois.

Candidates scrambling from coast to coast...
Republican presidential candidates jousted over conservative purity Sunday as they raced across the South, the Midwest and New England in a late scramble before the Super Tuesday contests that could settle the party nomination.

It's the economy stupid, again...
An economic downturn at election time almost always spells disaster for the political party that holds the White House. But the slowdown this year could add an especially cruel twist for the Republican presidential nominee.

Oprah is back...
Offering women a permission slip to desert the candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton in favor of Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey said Sunday they should not feel guilty if they preferred him over her.

Crime & Punishment
Holloway body dumped...
An investigative judge said Sunday that sufficient reason exists to reopen the inquiry against Joran van der Sloot, a suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway from the island of Aruba

Keeping Them Honest
Landmark military spending...
As Congress and the public focus on more than $600 billion already approved in supplemental budgets to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for counterterrorism operations, the Bush administration has with little notice approached a landmark in military spending.

Clemens talks, again...
Roger Clemens arrives here for his own Super Tuesday this week, a showdown with his former trainer in closed-door testimony to Congressional lawyers.

AC360 follow
Fugitive caught...
A high school dropout who stole the identity of a missing South Carolina woman and used it to gain admission to two Ivy League colleges has been arrested, police said Sunday.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
Super Bowl Ads...
The Patriots' streak was broken, but Anheuser-Busch's was not.In the high-stakes world of Super Bowl advertising, it aired the best-liked Super Bowl ad for a record 10th-consecutive year, according to results of USA TODAY'S exclusive Super Bowl Ad Meter real-time consumer focus group testing.

Mayor kidnaps dog?
A small-town mayor accused of secretly keeping her neighbors' dog after telling them the pet died has resigned, and a judge is set to decide custody of the Shih Tzu.