According to Google, with 98% of the precincts reporting, the results are as follows:

Mitt Romney—46.4%
Newt Gingrich—31.9%
Rick Santorum—13.4%
Ron Paul—7%
Other—1.3%

It's looking like turnout is way down from Florida's 2008 Republican primary, and far below the Republican Party's expectations. (That's been a trend so far.) The best speech was Newt Gingrich's, the weirdest was Ron Paul's, the most desperate was Rick Santorum's. Now let's all agree to stop thinking about Florida for a few months, okay?

Rick Santorum just took the stage and congratulated Mitt Romney, but promised a different result in Nevada this week. First Santorum thanks the audience for their prayers as he took a few days off from the campaign to care for his daughter, Bella, who had pneumonia. She's getting out of the hospital, Santorum says. The campaign just gave him a giant card for Bella. Santorum says that "Republicans can do better" than they did in Florida. He says the dialogue is "going downhill," and he didn't get involved in the "melee of negativism," which he calls a "mud-wrestling match where everyone gets away dirty." He praises Romney's private sector experience and Gingrich's "considerable knowledge." He's trying to play himself as a peacemaker. "Let's focus on the real issue, which is defeating Barack Obama." The crowd goes nuts. It sounds like a smallish, mostly empty room.

"We're not going to do that with mudslinging," Santorum says. "Tomorrow, we're gonna give a speech on Romneycare and Obamacare," he promises. He says they're going to go on to the next states—including Missouri, which he pronounces as "Mizzureah." "We need someone who can be a conservative nominee," Santorum says, and Gingrich had his chance in Florida, to present himself as the conservative non-Romney candidate. Gingrich tried, but "it didn't work," Santorum says. He tells Nevada, "If you want a conservative, please vote for me. Thank you, God bless. Thank you." And that's it. That's maybe the most overt plea to be the not-Romney I've seen in the 2012 campaign.

I'm picking up the Ron Paul speech partway through. He's swearing to fight on, but mostly only in the "caucus states." "Something big is happening in this country and it's something favorable," he says, adding, "We need more personal liberty." He says "the brush fires of liberty" are being lit all around the country. "We don't even know where they are, there are so many of them." "Don't you think it's time we had a new monetary policy?" The whole room goes nuts. (Ron Paul is speaking in Henderson, Nevada, because he'd basically given up on Florida, where he's currently getting just 7% of the vote.)

"I've gotten some advice on the internet," Ron Paul explains, saying that people on the internet told him to change his foreign policy, but he won't do it. He wants to "bring our troops home and end these unwinnable wars." He says "I'd like to see our troops spending money at home." He says he's angry at the way our troops come "wimping home." Ron Paul says "people will use their liberty in different manners," but that's okay, because they'll have to be aware "of the consequences of their actions." He just said we need our "peace and our pros-uh-perity." I'm hoping he'll rail against "revenuers" next. He says his followers need to "attend...the caucuses" to help win their country back, and then he's out.

Wow. Dude is getting nuttier. Seriously, you can't expect to become president just by focusing on caucus states. What's his strategy? Has Ron Paul broken enough from reality to think he can barter his way to Ending the Fed with a brokered convention? This plan is only slightly more viable than his 2008 rent-a-blimp strategy, frankly. What a fundamentally weird man he is.

No sign of Newt yet at his Orlando headquarters, but everyone's holding "46 States To Go" signs and "Hurts So Good" is playing over the PA, which is kind of hilarious. "Hurts So Good" is followed by "White Wedding." Um, wow? The DJ here has a pretty good sense of humor, I think. (Which of Newt's weddings was the white one?) I count two whole African-American people in the crowd, although one of them could be a paid security person. Now Mayor Richard Crotty is speaking. "46 states to go," he says. I wonder where he got the idea to say that? Applause lines include: Repealing Obamacare, achieving a Republican majority in Congress this November, and introducing Bill McCollum.

McCollum "was elected in 1980 with Ronald Reagan," he says. Those were dark days for Republicans: They didn't think they'd ever take back Congress. But then came Newt. McCollum has a really annoying, high-pitched voice. He sounds like the way I imagine Dennis the Menace would sound all grown up. He praises Newt for all of Bill Clinton's achievements, and says "Newt is a messenger and a leader," and "a true supply-side Ronald Reagan economic conservative." McCollum says Gingrich is the only candidate who can fight Obamacare, a thinly veiled dig at Romney. And here comes Newt, to "Only in America." Will we get pissed-off Newt, or polite Newt?

Gingrich is wearing a shiny tie. Callista is in black and pearls, and could be dressed for a funeral. "I want to thank Floridians," Gingrich says, citing their "positive" attitude. "Florida did something important...it is now clear that this will be a two-person race between the clear conservative and the Massachusetts Moderate. The voters of Florida made that clear." Gingrich rails about "the same people who said I was dead in June and July," saying "we are going to be the nominee in August." He quotes Abraham Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, for the people," saying "we are going to have people power defeat money power over the next few months. How are we going to do that?" Apparently, with "ideas" and "solutions" and "having a history of actually doing something in the past." "This is the most important election of your lifetime," Gingrich says. If Obama gets elected "you can't imagine how radical he'll be in his second term."

This, again, is standard Newt post-election stuff, but he's delivering for a Florida room, by being a little more relaxed than in Iowa. He's smiling, pointing at friends in the audience. Romney can't adjust the way Gingrich can. The two speeches side-by-side are really quite striking. Gingrich is recollecting the glory days of '94.

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Ann Romney is taking the stage with the Romney spawn. "Thank you Florida," she says. "This is a very wonderful reception...you know this experience of Mitt running for president has been an extraordinary experience." I guess she means this time Mitt ran for president, and not the last time. You can't have two identically extraordinary experiences, right? She suggests that Mitt can get a little silly on the campaign bus. He's human, guys! Now she's thanking a long list of folks, urging the audience to applaud only at the end. The audience, against Ann Romney's pleas, applaud after each name. "You're not listening," she chides them. She sounds angry. Then, when she gets to the end of the list, she tells them to applaud.

And here's Mitt. Gray suit, ugly tie. He looks pretty fucking smug. He praises his opponents, saying these "three gentlemen are serious and able competitors, and I want to thank them." "Our opponents have been watching...and they like to believe a competitive campaign will leave us divided and weak." Romney disagrees, saying "it will prepare us." When they get together in Florida in seven months for the Republican convention, Romney promises the Republicans will be "a united party." And now he's launching into his regular old stump speech, saying "we're here to collect" on Obama's suggestion that if he didn't improve the economy, he'd be a one-term president. Romney said he's met some Hispanic businessmen in real life. "Leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses." He quotes Tom Paine, telling Obama to "Get out of our way." Romney says he lived "outside Washington," and so "I know how government can kill jobs, and, yes, I know how it can help from time to time."

Romney is citing his work on the Olympics again, and his record as governor of Massachusetts. Remarkably (not really), he doesn't mention the crown jewel of his term as governor, health care reform. "Without raising taxes, I will finally get America to a balanced budget," he says, to roars of approval from the packed room. "President Obama's vision of a free economy is to send money to his friends," he says, adding he wants to return money to the American people. Then he hits "Obamacare's" bureaucracy, and says President Obama sits with his buddies "in the faculty lounge"—big laugh there from the audience—denigrating different parts of America. Romney says he'll stand for religious freedom, bigger military—"so powerful no one would ever think of challenging it," his standard line—and he'll quit with Obama's "policies of appeasement."

Whereas Obama wants to fundamentally transform America, Romney says he'll return hope to America. "Our blueprint is the Constitution of the United States." "Hope is a new job and a paycheck and not a word on a bumper sticker," Romney says, and he adds that he's against handing out "goodies" and helping people "from cradle to grave." And he again hits back at how Obama wants to make America into "the worst of what Europe has become." That's a pretty solid applause line for the fluent-in-French Mitt, all around the country. And he ends not with his "shining city on a hill" bit or his "speak-singing the words to 'America the Beautiful' bit," but with his campaign slogan: "Believe in America." As I said in my feature this week, Romney's only got one gear: Full-on Tom-Cruise-style enthusiastic. This speech was the same as his other speeches, in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina. You could not tell, if you heard each of them without the state identifiers, whether he won or lost the state he's speaking in. It's pretty clear from this speech that Romney hasn't changed his methodology or his delivery—basically, he won Florida because he fought dirty and he tossed a whole lot of money around. This is not a man who learns from his mistakes.

Shocker. Romney is the first Republican candidate to win two states in the 2012 election cycle, with Gingrich in second, Santorum slopping into third, and Ron Paul in last place.

UPDATE: Here's Romney's Official Victory Tweet. I prefer the Unofficial Romney Victory Tweet, myself.

Now we're just waiting on the speeches. I expect Romney might be first. Will he sing again*? Will he gloat**? Will he even mention Gingrich's name***? All the answers will be revealed very soon.

UPDATE AGAIN: Exit polls are indicating Romney could be up by 14 percent. MSNBC has some granular information about the turnout. Romney is dominating in just about every demographic except those voters who consider themselves to be "very conservative." Gingrich owns those voters. The teabaggers still haven't embraced Romney. Gingrich also leads in evangelicals and social-issue voters. These are not good numbers for Romney as he heads into the general election; he needs to convince the teabaggers—those who are obsessed with small government, unless it's controlling the genitals of Americans—that he's their guy.

* I hope not.
** I hope so.
*** I doubt it.

Because Florida always does elections wrong, some 40% of the state is already reporting their results before the polls close everywhere in the state. Nate Silver says Romney's got 50% of the vote, so far, though that early lead isn't likely to hold as the more traditional conservative northwestern part of Florida starts reporting. Regardless of how the rest of the state votes, I expect Romney will be declared the winner at about fifteen seconds after 8 pm.

Meanwhile, this screenshot of the CNN live video from Gingrich's Orlando headquarters seems to suggest that Gingrich isn't quitting tonight:

Yes, dear God, yes. 46 more states to go!

Thanks to the pesky dual time zones in Florida, the polls are still open until five pm Seattle time. We'll start reporting on results then, but here's something to chew on: While a few pundits are suggesting that the race will be all tied up by the time the night is over, Public Policy Polling would like to remind you that there are more states in the Republican primary besides Florida.

In Ohio Gingrich is at 26% to 25% for Romney, 22% for Santorum, and 11% for Paul.

What might be most interesting in both states is what happens in a head to head between Romney and either Gingrich or Santorum:

-In Missouri Santorum leads Romney 50-37 and in Ohio Santorum leads 45-38.

-In Missouri Gingrich leads Romney 43-42 and in Ohio Gingrich leads 42-39.

Two takeaways from those numbers: if this ever came down to Romney, Paul, and just one out of Gingrich and Santorum, Romney would be in a lot of trouble. And he'd be in more trouble if the single conservative alternative ended up being Santorum.

Romney is the likely nominee. But if either Santorum or Gingrich drop out sometime soon, the race becomes a race again. And that's a bad sign for Romney in the general election.

I'm willing to bet that you—yes, you, right there—would find better use for twenty million dollars than whatever the fuck the Rick Perry campaign did with it:

Though he raised more than $20 million overall during 2011, Perry raised less than $2.9 million of that amount between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, federal records indicate, as disastrous debate performances and plummeting poll numbers crippled his fundraising efforts.

Perry’s campaign had more than $15 million cash on hand in early October. By the year’s end, that dwindled to less than $3.77 million.

Basically, they could have given around $50 to everyone who voted in New Hampshire and Iowa. I bet they would have had much better results if they did just that. It's hard to overstate what a colossal, magnificent failure the Rick Perry campaign turned out to be.

Newt Gingrich is wildly optimistic about his chances:

“I’m not going to lose big here,” Gingrich told reporters about the election today. He added this campaign has a long road ahead: “I would say probably six months — probably June or July — unless Mitt Romney drops out earlier.”

Meanwhile, Romney thinks Gingrich has been a big baby about all this negative campaigning:

Romney: "When attacked, you have to respond....It would be wonderful if campaigns were nothing but positive but that's certainly not the reality."

But all the negative campaigning is hurting Romney's likability:

Mr. Romney’s favorability rating was unchanged, on average, over the seven polls, some of which showed it increasing and others decreasing.

His unfavorable rating was up, however, in 6 of the 7 polls, and by an average of 3 percentage points.

Will Gingrich get stomped? Will Romney find his own pulse? Will he continue to trash Gingrich—and his own reputation—in his acceptance speech? Voting ceases in America's Wang* at 5 pm Seattle time. We'll be bringing you all the Florida results live right here on Slog.

* "America's Wang" is ™ David Schmader. All rights reserved.