Based on some back of the envelope math and with the Election Day California numbers still mostly out, I came up with this Super Tuesday popular vote total:

McCain 3,016,739
Romney 2,369,027
Huckabee 1,610,951

Given that these states leaned blue, what is clear that Mitt Romney battled to within a single digit deficit nationally of the frontrunner, making this the closest nomination contest since 1976. For a campaign that started at 3% in the polls, it came a long way. But it's confronting a harsh reality tonight, with an inability to break out of the low thirties in any primary state Mitt Romney has not called home.

The "big winner" of the night finished third, racking up delegates thanks to his concentrated strength in the South.

On the Democratic side, Clinton and Obama were within 25,000 votes of one another by my count. The NBC delegate tracker had it at 841 for Obama, 837 for Clinton. We now move on to the Maryland and DC contests, which lean Obama, and the Virginia primary, which is open to Republicans and independents.