santorum. ezra klein. that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. listen to my radio show on sirius xm 127. follow me on twitter @edshow and @wegoted. you did a great job last night quarterbacking this whole thing. >> sitting next to you and thinking ahead this was going to the first night of the caucus fights the rest of the year, i had a great time. this is fun. >> we have a lot more entertainment on the way. >>> thanks to you at home for sticking with us the next hour. remember the john ensign sex scandal? every once in a while in the news business it pays to be a total dork and unabashedly obsessed with the story nobody else is talking about at the time. for example, the john ensign sex scandal. i confess, i found the john ensign sex scandal obsessively fascinating for a really long time even though it basically never made front page national news, at least until he resigned. sometimes, though, this i think is true in life as much as it is in the news. sometimes months and years later after you'v

rick santorum is 4%. mitt romney is over 40 -- >> he'll be well into the high double digits by the morning. but the question is: how much he gets there? and as i said, he will be challenged -- he doesn't have the resources. but he is a new face. three weeks ago, two -- three weeks ago, newt gingrich was at 38%. as i have said to you before, we have this huge group of very -- people looking for something and they keep landing somewhere. they just landed -- rick santorum's lucky, they landed on him last. but he will have a tough problem. this is a man who lost a senate race by more than almost any incumbent in history in a re-election. it's going to have a hard argument on the winning. he's very sincere. but the social issue problem, we'll see how it works. i don't think in a general election, he has a prayer. the question is whether voters will see that -- >> but he has pointed out several times. i asked him about this earlier this week on my afternoon show. he has pointed out that even though he is defini

rick santorum. >> reporter: santorum isn't running from those comments. in fact he boasts he's a full spectrum conservative in his new ad. he has tv star jim bob duggar who is driving this santorum bus across iowa. he backed huckabee in '08. he's urging evangelical voterers to get behind santorum now. >> he has a proven track record, a conservative that's always stood for what's right. >> reporter: t-- >> the chuck truck. >> reporter: santorum doesn't ride in the bus. he rides in pickup truck. better for his pitch. jim acosta, boon, iowa. >>> joining me is dana lash, st. louis tea party organizer, political contributor ari fleischer and democratic strategist paul begala who joins me here in des moines. the santorum surge, how surprising is it to you? >> it's stunning. seven front-runners in iowa. three are not even in the race any more. santorum seemed like the only guy who never did lead. i see him as the frank finkel of the race. >> who is frank finkel? >> the only guy who survived the battle of little big horn. he survived -- on the white guys side. he

we begin with rick santorum. momentum is with the pennsylvania senator and he is sticking to his conservative guns. candidate santorum this afternoon. >> i would suggest if you look at the history of republican nominees, that moderate voters, moderate candidates who were there to appeal to more moderates ended up losing. >> but is that tough enough? listen to what congressman ron paul had to say about santorum earlier to cnn's dana bash. >> why would not he be a good republican nominee? >> he is very liberal. >> santorum is liberal? >> have you looked at his record? >> uh-huh. >> go look at his record. >> cnn political correspondent jim acosta is in boone, iowa. he spent the day with jim santorum. i understand he got some interesting last-minute help. >> reporter: that's right. don't tell jim bob dug per rick santorum is too liberal. the reality show tv show star, he is the star of the reality tv show 19 kids and counting. he backed mike huckabee. he's been in support of the former pennsylvania senator. you won't

santorum. the letter said, "i am reaching out to you because i would like your help. i do know about you and your relationship with john ensign. i'm also aware of the man you profess to be and the positions you have taken publicly with regards to family, integrity and ethics. i am sending this note along to you because of your affiliation with fox news. what i have put in motion with the letter i have sent megyn kelly and fox news. i've tried for one year with john and others to resolve an unbelievable set of actions john initiated and perpetuated bringing great destruction to me and my family." doug hampton attached to the e-mail to rick santorum a letter he had sent to fox news to a host named megyn kelly at fox news. the letter explained senator ensign's affair. his pursuit of doug's wife, his affair with doug's wife, and it explained how senator ensign subsequently fired both doug and his wife. so all that is explained in this letter. and that letter is sent to rick santorum. rick santorum

who is rick santorum? is he the guy conservatives can rally around to defeat mitt romney who again was rejected by three-quarters of iowa republicans or a one-hit wonder, this year's mike huckabee? romney hats money, the organization and the patience to outrun santorum, but does his side have the passion? also, the right wing empire is about to strike back. michele bachmann dropped out today. her voters are a lot more likely to stick a santorum sign on their yards than a romney one. jon huntsman is all about knocking off romney personally, and for newt gingrich, it's not business, it's strictly personal. get ready, mitt. the right's coming at you. plus, will the republicans sign an abm treaty, anybody but mitt? can a coalition of santorum, gingrich and perry voters be formed to stop romney? and is team obama happy right now, not as happy as would you think. they love that romney didn't win big out there in iowa, but worry that santorum will be just the latest anti-romney whose bubble is going to burst. and

we saw with rick santorum. what killed rick santorum the fact he got nailed from the right by michele bachmann right away. i think that was the first thing that really hurt the perry then, of course, the debate debacles but on the hpv vaccine and attacked right away. if you're working for romney right now you're pulling research that will go to santorum from the right. how vulnerable do you think he is and do you think that's the first thing we'll see the attack on him be in the next week? >> if you compare santorum to the earlier not romney candidates, on paper he has less positive, not been a successful governor like huntsman or perry. he can speak knowledgeably and fluently about the issues in a way that bachmann and cain and perry repeatedly failed to do. the chief obstacle people didn't think others would vote for him. once he started taking off in the polls they had permission to start voting for him. that dynamic is not over so i think it's going to be actually quite difficult for romney to attack santor

santorum? we're live in the nation's first primary state with new poll results and we're live from south carolina, which is also holding another early contest. >>> one of the most interesting moments in iowa. delayed results finally reported after a gop wake-up call. listen to this. >> i came to edith's home and pounded on the door and woke her up and got her up. >> cnn's exclusive interview with two gop officials who solved the mystery of the missing votes. thrilled. wait. we can have shakes? and boston cream pie. did you say pie? pie. she said pie. pie. [ male announcer ] get back on track with low prices on everything you need. backed by our ad match guarantee. walmart. >>> as you know the political battleground shifts from iowa to new hampshire. our dan lothian is already in manchester. dan, you've been there a few days now, what's the buzz? >> well, the buzz really is that mitt romney has really had a lock on this campaign season here with a large double-digit lead. overall his republican

they look to santorum. not saying he didn't deserve the victory, he worked for it but he was lucky with his timing. >> he had a loser label because he was an ex-senator that had disastrous last campaign. all of the others got a shot around they all were not of presidential stature. when they at last had a look at santorum, he was a guy with experience, and articulate, he knows the issues. unlike a couple of the other pretenders. he's a serious guy with a track record. i think that in the end, the system worked. yes, haphazardly but that is how america works. churchill once said america always ends up doing the right thing after it's tried everything else. well, that's how iowa worked. >> so then does south carolina become this real conservative battle with perry in the game and santorum? it looks like newt gingrich, that is his firewall. >> yeah, yet another southern politician. i think new hampshire is going to be discounted to a certain extent because it's romney's second home state. i think there is a hi

i picked santorum, didn't i? liberals, why are you chewing me out when it comes to stumping for santorum? you know who the big winner was last night? president obama. today he was in ohio making moves that congressional republicans have been blocking for months. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> you think we can get more than an eight-vote margin here in new hampshire, i'm going to try. >> romney squeaked by santorum. the big winner in iowa last night was the president. today the president is kicking off his campaign with a big speech and some bold moves. >> today i'm appointing richard as america's consumer watchdog. >> msnbc's richard wolffe and katrina vanden heuvel of "the nation" magazine on the fallout from iowa and how it helps the president. >>> if you take, you know, santorum and perry and bachmann and gingrich, you get some sense of what a small minority romney really represents. >> the republican plan to stop mitt romney is beginning to unfold. and it's gaining momentum. bill burton of prior

santorum. and he says that he and santorum are actually both winners. and both candidates are looking forward now to new hampshire, they say. >> but what's great about this is the story that comes out of such an incredibly close finish because you know what? it's about momentum. and it's about money. and it's about headlines. and those headlines tonight are bizarro. christine romans, you've been breaking down these headlines. we've been on the edge of our seats because we wasn't sure what the big story was going to be, and the big story is the story itself. the squeaker. >> the santorum surge that continued and also what voters were thinking. we have a better idea because of entrance polling. a lot of different questions they were asked on their way in to cast their vote. and one of the questions was asked was what's the most important quality for a candidate? you can see they said experience, a strong moral character. they were looking for a true conservative, these iowa republicans. and they

rick santorum. romney campaign says they're not waiting to talk to the santorum campaign they're just waiting for results like the rest of america. >>> welcome to america's election headquarters. it's too cross to -- close to you call. rick santorum over mitt romney. we're still waiting on votes, actual from story county. that is the university of iowa. sorry, iowa state. ing forrive me. and ames, don't e mail. associate td press just report that had quote, some guy is driving the vote tallies in his truck to the reporting centers and we're waiting on that guy from that guy n that truck. probably to determine this race as you look at the differential there, it's so close. you're talking about hundreds of votes from a place like story county. right now it's 113 separating rick santorum and rit mom knee. >> just comes down to that guy. and what about that guy? do they know that guy? are they waiting for that guy? is there any idea how fast that guy is driving? >> it's iowa. there are some highways wit

rick santorum. >> yes. >> this of course brings in a different element to the whole deal. >> what if they all decide newt gingrich is their guy, that newt gingrich now roused from his i'm going to only be the positive guy is now going to go after not only barack obama but also mitt romney and that newt gingrich can be the guy who can win why couldn't he be the guy who coalesced them? >> personally i don't think newt can win the south as well as santorum could because of the conservative base and his track record. i mean, these ads we were talking about earlier, i mean sooner or later newt is going to do a newt. a lot of that stuff that was in the super pac ads, it's baggage stuff. but moving forward for santorum, this is great news for him tonight. now will the capitulation of a couple other conservatives help? would the old conservatives who hold a lot of money embrace rick santorum? they can't stand romney. he told me not mitt now or ever. >> there will be a constituency of people out there that r

point. >> santorum -- look, i talked to santorum -- i talked to santorum's people yesterday and they're really, really excited about new hampshire. they say that they have the second most endorsements -- >> they've never been there before. >> forget new hampshire. that's not the game anymore. >> let me finish. they say they have the second most endorsements of any contender, second to romney in new hampshire. 82 county captains spread through all new hampshire counties. i don't believe he has a ground game in new hampshire. >> i don't either. >> he doesn't have a chance in new hampshire. but they're excited. >> john heilemann, unfortunately, we have to say good-bye to you. i know you were shaking your head. i'll let have you the last two seconds of the segment. thank you for joining us. take it away. >> rick santorum will not be the republican nominee. have a wonderful caucus day, you guys. it will be a lovely night. >> that's right. >> thank you. >>> when we come back, santorum's time in the spotlight. can he handle it? an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replace

is that person rick santorum? >> this idea of a conspiracy, meetings and all that, it is amusing and people feel self important. in the end, it will have no effect. >> are you going? >> no. [laughter] i stick to one conspiracy at a time. i'm with the washington masonic establishment, and that is it. that is my membership. [laughter] the point is this -- perry had his chance in iowa, had his chance in the debates. the most memorable thing he uttered was "oops." with the south carolina, i am not sure what is going other than that he has a lot of money and some hope. it looks as if there is going to be a consensus candidate who will oppose romney, then it would be santorum. it is hard to imagine anybody else imaging right now. >> we had take this week when santorum was talking by john f. kennedy, the meeting with baptist ministers, and he said that when he read, it made him want to throw up. that is the kind of tape that will not play well for santorum. >> colby? >> in addition to the "oops" line, there was his line

rick santorum did it. of course he lost in '06, but a lot of republicans in '06. >> they lost by 18 points in '06. one of the worst senate losses in the history -- >> and in 2006, after six years of iraq. listen, i am not -- i am not making a case for rick santorum's electability. all i'm saying is a lot of great republican candidates have tried to get reelected in pennsylvania and they have failed. i don't think you're going to find a lot of dirt in santorum's record because he represented a swing state like pennsylvania. >> and there are no signs of social issues are going to be decisive this time. >> he's extremely vocal about them and i think it is troubling. >> it wasn't last night, though, was it? >> his biggest problem with conservatives when people start to look at the spending record. that's what perry was hitting him on here. the earmarks, the pork, erick erickson's point. is that santorum has on spending and domestic policy, not social policy, but spending and economics has a very big government

rick santorum. >> reporter: santorum isn't running from those comments. he boasts he's a full spectrum conservative in his new ad. he also has the support of christian conservative reality tv star jim bob duggar who's driving the bus across iowa. he backed huckabee in '08. he's urging evangelical voters to back santorum now. >> a proven track record, a christian conservative that has always stood for what's right. >> the chuck truck! >> reporter: santorum doesn't ride in the bus. does he his campaigning in a pickup truck. a better fit for santorum's down to earth pitch. jim acosta, cnn, boone, iowa. >>> let's dig deeper into santorum's surge. joining me is dana lash, st. louis tea party organizer and editor and chief, ari fleischer and ball begala who joins me in des moines. the santorum surge, how surprising is it to? what do you make of? >> it's stunning. seven front-runners in iowa. three aren't in the race anymore. santorum seems like the guy who never did lead. i see him as franc finkle? . he's the only guy that survived the battle of little big horn

lead to a 4 santorum lead. iowa is very -- they do politic there is in a very polite fashion. if they came to a disagreement like this tonight, where they can't find the guy with the official piece of paper, they apparently have rounded up the representatives of the camps who have agreed, yes, we were there, we know exactly what the total was and we both agree to what it was. >> so there you have it, bret and we should point out hathis source inside the republican national committee is the one who told karl early they're the two presimpghts were keokuk and clinton. that's exactly right -- >> confirmed that. we identified that -- >> excuse me. but they also told but the fact that story had been undercounted and that was also correct. and they are now saying that all sides of agreed that when the final precinct is counted that mitt romney is going to win the iowa caucus by 14 votes. back to you. >> wow. that is big news because officially, rick santorum is up by 4. so we will wait to hear that officially at the c

the trouble is he wants to be the next santorum. but santorum is going to be the next santorum. what the rasmussen poll shows me is santorum will surge in new hampshire and compete for paul for second place and i suspect huntsman will not make it in new hampshire. >> do you worry about that with huntsman? >> i don't see it. i see motion in the polls but, you know, given the amount of time he spent there, given he has put everything there, you would think there would be more. >> bret: we didn't see polls in iowa for santorum until the last several days. >> but we did see something big was coming. the last few day he is had a sudden surge. >> bret: that was saturday before tuesday. that would be. >> two days before. >> bret: if t "des moines register poll" and. >> tomorrow is friday. >> okay. >> next up, president obama defense cuts, what do you think of them? vote in the online question of the day. at the home page, foxnews.com/specialreport. results after the break. we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful slee

and santorum in fourth. the question is this momentum that santorum has, does it pass newt gingrich, it will be damaging to the gingrich candidacy if it does. does it get to and pass ron paul? if it does, then santorum is going to have a really good night next tuesday. even if it doesn't reach his goal of keeping mitt romney under 30. >> sean: what about this power grab of barack obama's as it relates to recess appointments? interesting, you were there in the bush white house. something that george bush, in other words, if the senate is in session, constitution is very clear on this, that you cannot have recess appointments. the democrats use that a number of times so that president bush could not recess appoint people. >> right. >> sean: as a matter of fact, then senator obama said it was the wrong thing to do. in other words doing it even the right way. he now went ahead with the power grab. i dent think a lot of people in the immediate -- i don't think a lot of people in the media are looking closely at i

santorum at 11%. now the average of the most recent polls, this includes a few from before the debate and the ones that popped in the past couple of days, as romney and gingrich neck this neck. put in perspective, the gingrich day. the good side, bad side, and the impact. just this close to the primary. charles? >> well, i think number one, iowa will have no effect on romney or santorum. it's result of a tie. everybody assumed. and he has eight precincts missing and you absolutely announce you have no idea how it ended up. it has no effect. the endorsement by perry was important. you think from numbers it wouldn't be. perry is down to about 4%. people, they have actually been polled, perry supporters in the past. the second choice is evenly split among santorum and gingrich and romney. so it would have no effect mathematically on gingrich, romney race. second, the gingrich numbers as we saw in the polls, are rising rapidly. at the same time in the days, the perry numbers were collapsing, which would i

jim mentioned rick santorum. he lost by eight votes in eye but declare that a huge, moral victory for a candidate who had little money, written off in the polls for months, as a long shot who wouldn't last past iowa. rick santorum, from the strong performance in iowa joins us manchest manchester, new hampshire. good to see you. first, congratulations. welcome to the fray in new hampshire. >> thank you very much. it's great to be here. in fact, back here. this is trip number 31 for me to new hampshire. i've done over 100 town hall meetings here. we're excited to get back on the ground here and surprise a few people, just like we did last time around. >> well, let's go through that. you now emerge, you are at least for this week, the conservative alternative,ed leading conservative al teternative to t romney. when you were way down in the polls, you started to surge in iowa, you say you can make the case you are the most consistent conservative in this race. i want you to listen here. texas rick perry will see you

rick santorum hopes to be the guy to stop him, but santorum is learning that old ef hutton motto holds for presidential candidates too. when front-runners talk, people listen. and santorum is having a sticky time scoring points after his first-place tie in iowa. newt takes on mitt. in just a few weeks, newt gingrich has gone from undisputed front-runner to also ran. and he has mitt romney and his stealth ad campaign to thank for that. i sat down with newt last night after the program and he did not hold back. >> he ought to take those ads home and show them to his grandsons and said, grandpa did this, what do you think about this kind of trash on television? >> newt vows to be the last man in the fight with mitt. >>> plus, politico called it mitt's weekend from hell. the big debate weekend coming up with everyone looking down -- looking to take down romney. "meet the press" anchor and debate host david gregory looks ahead to what could be a make-or-break battle this sunday. >>> and speaking of republican debates, there was one today, a phony funny or die debate on yahoo!. in fact, some

rick santorum hopes to be the guy to stop him, but santorum is learning that old ef hutton motto holds for presidential candidates too. when front-runners talk, people listen. and santorum is having a sticky time scoring points after his first-place tie in iowa. newt takes on mitt. in just a few weeks, newt gingrich has gone from undisputed front-runner to also ran. and he has mitt romney and his stealth ad campaign to thank for that. i sat down with newt last night after the program and he did not hold back. >> he ought to take those ads home and show them to his grandsons and said, grandpa did this, what do you think about this kind of trash on television? >> newt vows to be the last man in the fight with mitt. >>> plus, politico called it mitt's weekend from hell. the big debate weekend coming up with everyone looking down -- looking to take down romney. "meet the press" anchor and debate host david gregory looks ahead to what could be a make-or-break battle this sunday. >>> and speaking of republican debates, there was one today, a phony funny or die debate on yahoo!. in fact, some

question, santorum is roman catholic. given two-thirds of iowa voters are christian, why didn't santorum easily defeat romney? i ask you, james. >> hi wasn't the only christian in the race. most are evangelicals. you had rick perry who had transformed himself into being the texas job creator, into being a social conservative. michele bachmann went for the social conservative vote. even newt gingrich talked about his conversion to catholicism so it's split among the candidates. >> here's santorum on the issues. >> climate change. "a beautifully concocted scheme. just an excuse for more government control of your life." gay marriage. wants a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, saying "it destroys the basic unit of our society because it condones waiver that is antithetical to strong, healthy families." stem cell research. opposees such research, thus breaking with then-president gw bush. partial-birth abortion, led the charge in congress against partial-birth abortion. question, will santorum win new hampshi

rick santorum, 24,134. ron paul coming in third with 79% of the precincts reporting, 21%, he's got 21,000 votes. newt gingrich is a distant fourth, only 13%, only 13,000 votes. rick perry, about 10%, 10,000 votes. michele bachmann, 5%, about 5,000 votes. jon huntsman at 1% of the votes. let's go to erick and gloria. what's going on over here? you're looking closely at these numbers. santorum was ahead, now slightly, slightly, mitt romney ahead. >> we've been looking as it's flip-flopped around, and each of the leaders and why. now let's look at mitt romney and where his strength is coming from. two things we want to hone in on. we asked people, what's the most important candidate quality, can defeat obama. 31% of the caucusgoers told us that was the most important thing. true conservative, 25%. i'm going to tell you right now, those voters went overwhelmingly for ron paul. strong moral character, a quarter of voters said that was most important. and i'll tell you right now, that went overwhelmingly for rick

mitt romney over rick santorum. good news for rick santorum. you can't deny, as rick santorum comes out of this vote, those last two days of polling last week proved to be true. he was getting incredible momentum. and both romney and santorum had this to say before the final numbers even came in. >> thank you, iowa, for the great send-off you're giving to us and to the others in this campaign. look, this is -- this is a campaign night where america wins. we're going to change the white house and get america back on track. >> you know that new hampshire's all about grass-roots politics, and we feel very good that we're going to climb that ladder just like we did here. >> so that was romney once he was declared the winner and santorum actually talking to wolf blitzer after he found out that he came in number two. so we were sitting here waiting and waiting and waiting, as all of the precincts and the counties were reporting. and christine romans has a breakdown county by county of how people voted. >> absolutely. let's look at iowa and the john k

lead to a 4 santorum lead. iowa is very -- they do politic there is in a very polite fashion. if they came to a disagreement like this tonight, where they can't find the guy with the official piece of paper, they apparently have rounded up the representatives of the camps who have agreed, yes, we were there, we know exactly what the total was and we both agree to what it was. >> so there you have it, bret and we should point out hathis source inside the republican national committee is the one who told karl early they're the two presimpghts were keokuk and clinton. that's exactly right -- >> confirmed that. we identified that -- >> excuse me. but they also told but the fact that story had been undercounted and that was also correct. and they are now saying that all sides of agreed that when the final precinct is counted that mitt romney is going to win the iowa caucus by 14 votes. back to you. >> wow. that is big news because officially, rick santorum is up by 4. so we will wait to hear that officially at the c

for santorum? gwen: no signs of that yet but i wonder if there are any signs of santorum taking a bead on romney? he really hasn't been that critical of him so far. >> no, indirectly critical. in fact in one of the events in wyndham earlier this week, santorum, he made reference to romney's support for the wall street bailout saying a certain massachusetts governor, you can go look up who that was. but they may also be waiting for romney to inflict the damage unto himself. remember, this was the debate four years ago that was the you're likable enough moment. if they can get under romney's skin enough for him to get angry or to come off more on the attack, then that could also be beneficial to a santorum or a paul. >> the problem for santorum, of course, is the romney campaign and super pac supporting him have shown if they take somebody seriously, they will go after him. they did it with rick perry when he first got in the race. they did it obviously with newt gingrich. i think if you get to a mom

santorum said. listen to this clip. >> with respect to the issue about -- i get a kick thoifts with governor romney. newt said this at the bede bait. governor romney is not like he's tried to be a career politician. he's just not been successful. >> still pretty polite the exchanges between romney and santorum. >> if he comes out of iowa and, you know, given the sampling of evangelicals, he can do even better. if he bounces into new hampshire, it's going to be on romney has to do well in new hampshire. they haven't managed expectations well. the polling has shown he doesn't need to manage expectations. if that changes, there's going to be a thrott come after -- there hasn't been a lot of time to do the opposition research on santorum. >> we haven't seen rick santor num the hot seat at a debate yet. there hasn't been one. we haven't really seen ron paul as front-runner in the hot seat at a debate. we'll be able to do that in new hampshire. and we'll see how they perform and we'll see how the dynamic

santorum for the moment. that is a force to be tapped, and nobody has really found a way to do it. >> if you listen to santorum's speech, he talks about this appeal, how hard work paid off for him, how his grandfather and father taught him the value of eight. -- of it. >> but you have to think about santorum also in sioux city, iowa last sunday, when he talked about entitlements, that "i don't want black people's -- i don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them someone else's money," the suggestion that black people just shiftless and lazy and the hard-working people or white people. you look at the statistics, of course, blowing his thesis out of the water as to who is getting entitlements and he was 9. the pending he did in sioux city is something that is going to haunt him. >> well, except that the pandering works, and there are a lot of angry, white middle-class males out there. >> we go back to our friend mark shields in new hampshire. >> we know that new hampshire can turn on a dime an

santorum 28% of the vote. in 2008, romney received 34% of vote in plymouth county and huckabee got 25%. santorum out per forming huckabee back then and romney under performing romney in 2008. as you look county by county, what are you seeing about the romney performance tonight compared to where he was in 2008. >> brit: let's bear in mind about the romney performance. except for the past week he did have good organizational efforts he didn't campaign that hard. none of us would have been surprised up to am in about week or temp days if romney was lower 18, 20%. so i think romney coming through this everything to have the breakout performance that creates the momentum where everybody says okay, it's going to be romney and everybody flocks towards him. he didn't get that tonight. i think he coming through where he was. in reasonably good shape. santorum i think is your story. >> brett: brit, as always, thank you very much. seven counties remain and nobody is over 33%. the one county that is really big is sioux c

could it be a rick santorum? >> well, i mean, it's going to be whoever wins the republican nomination and you know, to sell rick santorum short now would be committing the same error twice. here are a couple of things. first is, it looks like two candidates are about to get out. rick perry and michele bachmann. if you take their 15 points and put them on either rick santorum or newt gingrich, they become the front-runner in this thing again. i don't know if those 15 points go to one place, but that's the play here for both newt gingrich and rick santorum. they both want to become the single, lone alternative to mitt romney. that's how mitt romney gets defeated. and it's probably the only way he gets defeated. the field needs to get winnowed, the fracturing needs to stop, conservatives need to unite behind one candidate or mitt romney will be the nominee. 3 out of 4 voters in iowa last night went in to vote for somebody other than mitt romney in every single alternative was flawed in some way. so the conservatives