Mitt Romney wins Illinois primary: live reaction Mitt Romney with his wife, Ann, in Schaumburg after winning the Illinois primary. Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA 10.51am: Breaking news: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has endorsed Mitt Romney for president. Huge news for Romney. One of the Republican party's leading generals who until this point has sat overlooking the field, watching the skirmish below without committing his troops. Now he sees which way the battle is definitively breaking - and he sends in the whole garrison. The Republican party has spoken. Like it or not, this year it's Mitt. Now let's beat the president. 10.33am: You know you're a candidate for national office if... - you've slept in your own bed once since Christmas - there's one speech you know so well you could give it while completing a crossword and cooking an omelette - your wife's anniversary love letter to you takes the form of a highly produced video posted to YouTube Be advised that this video has not been tested on animals. 10.23am: It's tough to spin this: 9.49am: Here's a sample of the campaigner Mitt Romney will be up against, should he win the nomination and choose to accept it. President Barack Obama is good at making people feel like he understands them. He's known for dropping a few words of Spanish or Bahasa when the occasion calls for it. He also wowed Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg recently by dropping a reference to the Maxwell House Haggadah. Now he's been spotted using sign language. So the 26-year-old Prince George's Community College student took his cue and spoke to President Obama in his first language: American Sign Language. "I am proud of you," Stephon signed. The president, almost involuntary, instinctively, immediately signed back. "Thank you," Obama replied. h/t: @thegarance 9.28am: Look what BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski has found. 9.21am: As much as Illinois strengthened Mitt Romney's grip on the nomination, what insights does the election hold for the candidate's appeal with different groups of voters? There seem to have been no surprises here. The voters in Illinois skewed moderate, non-evangelical and wealthy, according to exit polls. Romney won the way he usually wins, and not through some new popularity among evangelicals or strongly conservative voters. After Illinois, Romney has won all 10 primaries where evangelicals make up less than half the vote, @FixAaron points out. And he's lost all seven where they make up more than half. 9.21am: The Mitt Romney necktie watch. Here's the Romney victory speech. Mitt! Mitt Romney's victory speech after the Illinois primary 9.10am: What swayed the race? You might argue that nothing swayed it; the fact is, Illinois breeds moderate Republicans, particularly around Chicago, and Rick Santorum's brand of fervid, social-issues based conservatism just doesn't play with most folks. Then there was the money: about 80% of voters in exit polls said economic issues were their main concern. And more money: Romney and his Super Pac outspent Santorum and his Super Pac by a staggering 18-1 on advertising, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group. Now for the question we have to ask: Among friends, it's safe to say this thing is over, right? The answer we're inclined to: Yes. But wait: if this is all it took to effectively end the nominating race, one state throwing its votes to Romney, then what was all that talk a week ago about a months-long battle? Was that empty hype? The analogy might be to an airplane, with Rick Santorum in the cockpit. A week ago pilot Santorum had a path to cruising altitude if he was able to execute an improbably clean takeoff starting with an upset win in Illinois. Instead what has happened is Rick Santorum's plane is sitting on the runway with a broken wing and he is there next to it kicking the tire and using very un-Christian words on it. Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, greets supporters after speaking at his primary election night rally in Gettysburg, Pa., Tuesday, March 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) Photograph: Charles Dharapak/AP 9.00am: Good morning and welcome to our live blog politics coverage on the morning after one of the most... the most... the most not-even-close races so far, in Illinois, where Mitt Romney played Rick Santorum like a fiddle and then smashed the fiddle. Tom McCarthy here in New York, and here's what happened: In an easy Illinois win, Mitt Romney widened his delegate lead on Rick Santorum by more than 30 delegates. Romney got 47% of the raw vote while Santorum got 35%, Ron Paul got 9% and Newt got 8%. Our new estimated delegate tally is Romney 546, Santorum 261. Does this mean the Republican party is finally embracing Romney? One key group has: FreedomWorks, the organization that launched the Tea Party, somewhat grudgingly endorsed the frontrunner late yesterday. They cited math. "It is a statistical fact that the numbers favor Mitt Romney," FreedomWorks official Russ Walker told The Washington Times. We are dedicated to defeating Obama and electing a conservative Senate that will help Romney repeal Obamacare and address the nation's economic and spending challenges. Is Santorum finished? He didn't exactly give a withdrawal speech last night. Instead he called the race the most important presidential contest since 1860. Statistics have shown that it is impossible to spend a week campaigning in the Land of Lincoln without comparing yourself to Abraham Lincoln. It looks like Santorum will win Louisiana on Saturday, give Romney a run in Wisconsin and then lose a slew of east coast states, including 95-delegate-awarding New York. By then it will be the end of April and we may all be sharing the sentiment of those 30% of voters who told exit pollsters last night that they would prefer to see the race over - even if it meant their candidate did not win.