As we wait for the clock to strike 7 and have everybody call Virginia for Mitt Romney (and maybe Georgia for Newt Gingrich UPDATE 7 pm; yup CNN already has), here's some exit polling stuff from the NYT's Five Thirty Eight blog on Ohio exit polling:

From Micah Cohen:

According to very preliminary exit poll data in Ohio, 2 in 5 voters described themselves as "very conservative" on fiscal issues while just half that many described themselves as "very conservative" on social issues.

That would seem like unwelcome news for the Rick Santorum, who has focused more on social issues than the other candidates, even criticizing the Romney campaign for focusing only on economic concerns.

The Ohio economy fell into recession faster than the national economy, but has also recovered faster, driven by a reinvigorated manufacturing sector. Statewide, Ohio's unemployment rate is 7.9 percent, below the national rate of 8.5 percent.

From Nate Silver:

There have been various anecdotal accounts of low turnout in Ohio today, and a result from the exit polls may help to explain why.

In Ohio, just 43 percent of voters said they strongly favored their candidate. Another 41 percent said they liked their candidate but with reservations, while 13 percent said they voted for him solely because they disliked the other candidates.

The 43 percent "strongly favor" figure is the lowest in any state so far, although exit polls have not posed this question to voters in all states. The figure was 63 percent in Iowa, 51 percent in Arizona, and 45 percent in Michigan.

Here's what we're watching tonight, keeping one eye across the border in Ohio:

Google's tremendous live results page with data from the AP.

CNN's election night liveblog, which started dribbling out exit poll data around 5:30 like this:

5:32 p.m. ET - Forty-seven percent of Ohio voters said Romney's positions on the issues were "right," 37% said they were not conservative enough and 7% said they were too conservative.

5:30 p.m. ET - Forty-six percent of Ohio voters said Santorum's positions on the issues were "right," 24% said they were too conservative and 17% said they were not conservative enough.

An amazing guide from NBC listing Super Tuesday ad spending, total visits by candidate, past results and so on. Highly recommended.

A reminder on delegate allocation from Huffington Post. People use different numbers for a bunch of different reasons.

The NYT's live results page, which has some stuff on evangelical voting being up over 2008 in Ohio, Tenn. and Georgia, plus this handy guide on poll closings:

Through the downs and ups of Rick Santorum's presidential campaign there's always been one comforting voice singing his praises. WashPost blogger Jennifer Rubin saw his promise early in Iowa, paid attention to his debate performances when no one else was, and even kept cheerleading during the campaign pre-mortems around Florida. Going into today's Super Tuesday balloting he seems to have lost her though, which says as much about the drag on his campaign than results out of Michigan or Ohio do.

Rubin yesterday: "Santorum understandably is trying to pedal as furiously as he can, but in doing so he risks seeming even more wobbly and making matters worse. He continues to lack focus."And this afternoon: "Rick Santorum's strength was supposed to be his empathy for working-class and middle-class voters and his ability to connect social and economic issues. Unfortunately, his effort is frequently obscured by over-the-top rhetoric and a harshness that is decidedly unbecoming."

It's enough to turn you to drink, and sure enough Rick's getting as sentimental and nostalgic as the guy at the end of the bar talking about a long lost love (in this case, Iowa), or the rich guy who spent 4x his money to steal her heart. And it turns out, that's something that Santorum has long been pretty good at, going back to his beer-chugging college days at Penn State, when he was known as "The Rooster." From Huffington Post:

Before he lived in the fraternity house, Santorum lived in a dorm in the center of Penn State's University Park campus. During his junior year, he roomed with John Koury. "We literally rolled kegs down the dormitory floor," Koury recalled.

Their room became a party room. "On Fridays, when everyone got back from class, we'd go get a quarter-keg from the distributor," Koury told HuffPost. "There'd be 20 or 30 of us in the room. We'd drink it and go down to the dining hall."

Everybody called him "Rooster." And Rooster liked to chug.

But the Rooster ain't gonna die. He gave a fiery speech on Iran nukes (and Obama) to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee this morning and tomorrow it's on to Kansas and Mississippi. Full sked after the jump:

Early Returns is back in the house, putting on the foil and getting ready for game time tonight. Let's clear away some cobwebs first:

Doug Shields has been nominated to Pittsburgh's police review board, and fellow ex-councilperson Tonya Payne got a city sewer authority job (that wasn't posted).

Attorney Chuck Pascal got another Democrat -- George Schroeck -- thrown off the ballot in congressional District 3 by Commwealth Court Judge Bernard McGinley, leaving only preferred DCCC candidate Missa Eaton of Sharon to face incumbent Mike Kelly.

As we know, with the Democrats winning their battle for special elections in six vacant state House seats held up for redistricting, party officials will get to nominate their preferred candidates to fill out the remaining months on the terms. District 22 candidate Erin Molchany in the South Hills has sent a letter to the state committee asking for a full description of how that will be done -- while local committee people will vote tomorrow night in Castle Shannon, the state's executive committee has to ratify the choice, and Molchany is clearly hoping that Marty Schmotzer of Whitehall won't get the party nod again, as he did for the full term. (Schmotzer was accused of taking $50,000 from the county clerk's office while a deputy in 1997, though he paid it back and avoided prosecution. He has since served on the Baldwin-Whitehall school board.)

Her full letter to state Democratic chairman Jim Burn is after the jump: