I just talked to Robert Speel, associate professor of political science at Penn State Behrend. He's following the action on MSNBC, CNN and ABC.

Speel, one of our go-to political commentators, said the early state results seemed to go according to plan.

But he said Mike Huckabee seemed to do better than expected in some of the Southern states. He said Mitt Romney is doing well in some of the western caucus states.

But Speel said if Romney only wins Massachussetts, Utah and a few other smaller states, he might want to re-evaluate whether he wants to spend millions of dollars of his own money to continue. It may depend on how he does in California, Speel said.

-- John Guerriero