Rick Santorum wins Mississippi and Alabama primaries Photograph: Jonathan Bachman/REUTERS 10.45am: Two other strands we're following this morning. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a hearing on the security situation in Sudan and the nascent nation of South Sudan. The hearing is streaming on C-Span. Sen. John Kerry is chairing. The hearing room appears to be full. Which may possibly be attributable to the fact that the list of those to testify includes George Clooney. The actor also appeared this morning on "Good Morning America" and touched on Uganda: Also, this is important: 10.23am: Where from here? There are two competing versions of the state of the Republican fight. Rick Santorum tells it like this: First of all, let's stop all this hogwash about the math. Fewer than half of the 2,286 total delegates are spoken for. My opponent is less than halfway to the total he needs. Sure, he'll beat me in California (172 delgates) in June, but I'll wallop him in Texas (155 delegates) at the end of May. Enough about the math. Have you noticed that I've been fighting this thing with one hand tied behind my back? America, my rival has dramatically outspent me at every turn. And then I beat him, even though I have repeatedly failed to qualify for all the districts in each state and the third guy, Gingrich, has been stealing tens of thousands of votes from me race to race. I didn't even contest Virginia! Now Gingrich will be out and the race will clarify. Evangelical voters and conservative voters will continue to run away from my opponent, whom they see for the hypocrite he is. He was for abortion! A candidate who can't win the party's base can't win the nomination. Mitt Romney tells it like this: My rival has fought a spirited campaign. The math does, however, make my victory a fait accompli. With five contests in northeastern states next month, plus Maryland and Washington, D.C., I am about to go on a delegate-gobbling feast. I may not do well in Texas, but Texas awards its delegates proportionally, so I'll get some. California is winner-take-all. And I might even swipe my rival's home state of Pennsylvania out from under his nose. Voters who know my opponent don't like him. Which brings me to another point: I may not be Mr. Popularity. But at least people will hold their nose and vote for me. My opponent inspires actual hatred in people, and that includes Republicans - a lot of Republicans. He's too divisive, too sanctimonious, too nasty to be our nominee. And his crossover appeal is nonexistent. The GOP might be crazy, but it isn't suicidal. 9.52am: In case anyone wonders whether team Obama sees the Republicans' recent difficulties as carrying over to the general election: 9.43am: Before taking a broader survey of how the political waves are breaking this morning we want to direct you to our live blog coverage of the joint White House appearance happening now between President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron. To entice you: the president, trying out his British English, just said "David, we are chuffed to bits that you are here." It was funny! 9.30am: Top of the morning to you. Tom McCarthy here with live blog politics coverage after last night's races in Mississippi and Alabama. Here's a summary of what happened: Mitt Romney lost, and Mitt Romney won. In the two southern races everyone was watching, Rick Santorum came in first and Romney came in third. The headlines show a Santorum victory. But with wins in Hawaii and American Samoa, Romney won the night's delegate race 42-38. The race just got simpler (finally). Newt Gingrich didn't exactly stake his candidacy on a pair of wins down South last night. But as the poet once said, you can't win the nomination without winning primaries. Now the question is whether and how soon Gingrich will throw his possibly decisive support behind Santorum. For a man whose career has been marked by violent clashes with the party establishment and on whom the pleasures of revenge are not lost, the idea of potentially sinking the GOP front runner must be fun. Women boosted Santorum. More to the point: Female Republican primary voters ruined it for Gingrich in the South. If it were up to the men, Gingrich would have won both primaries. But the thrice-married former speaker lost women to Santorum by 13 points in Alabama and 6 points in Ole Miss. Speaking of revenge.