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February 29, 2012 | | NOT SO FAST Does Mitt have his mojo back? Romney scored wins in two important states in last night’s primaries, winning his boyhood home of Michigan by about 3 points and scooping up Arizona, where he led second-place Rick Santorum by 20 points. But Mitt Romney barely winning a primary in his home state is like Charlie Sheen barely winning a primary in a Hooters, writes The Daily Beast’s Paul Begala. Sure, it’s a win, but the fact that it was close is more than embarrassing—it’s mortifying. Plus, Howard Kurtz, Patricia Murphy, and more Daily Beast contributors weigh in on the results. STUMPING As the election returns rolled in from Arizona and Michigan, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich were in Virginia and Georgia, respectively, trying to garner votes ahead of the Super Tuesday primaries, which will take place next week. Speaking to supporters in Virginia, Paul said he was amassing delegates despite coming in on the bottom half in both primaries tonight. Paul also railed against government spending and sending our troops overseas. Gingrich, who has plunged in the polls recently, delivered a long-winded concession speech before the polls closed, assailing President Obama’s energy policy and his apology for the burning of the Quran. HELP Officials in Chardon, Ohio, the site of a school shooting Monday that left three students dead and two wounded, released 911 tapes Tuesday night that recorded the panicked appeals for help of the students and staff inside Chardon High School. “We just had a shooting at our school,” one girl said to a police dispatcher. When asked if she had seen the shooter, the girl replied, “No … I just saw the gun.” In the tapes, the high school’s principal can be heard ordering that the school enter lockdown. At a hearing Tuesday, 17-year-old T.J. Lane confessed to firing 10 rounds with a .22-caliber pistol in the school. A prosecutor at the hearing described Lane as “not well,” and Geauga County prosecutor David Joyce told reporters that Lane will likely be tried as an adult. OUTRAGE While delegates at a United Nations meeting on Tuesday were told that more than 7,500 people have died in Syria since the uprising began in the country 11 months ago, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton told a Senate subcommittee that President Bashar al-Assad fits the definition of a war criminal. But, Clinton said, an official designation by the international community may make it more difficult for Assad to step down from power. As pro-Assad forces continued to rain shells down on the city of Homs, a new resolution to send humanitarian aid to Syria gained life in the U.N. as China, which had vetoed similar previous measures, said it favored “creating conditions” for aid. ENFORCERS We’re watching you: the Securities and Exchange Commission has issued notices to Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, the two banks disclosed in their annual reports Tuesday. The SEC is not obligated to issue the notices, but the move usually indicates that the regulatory agency intends to take action against the company. Both banks said they received the notices in regard to offering documents used in mortgage-backed investment deals. Disclosure is a top priority for the SEC, the agency’s enforcement director said at a conference in January. This month, Wells Fargo was one of five mortgage providers that reached a multibillion dollar settlement on government probes. | | 
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