rick santorum did call mitt romney. romney took the call. it's been described by santorum's eldest daughterrer as a cordial conversation but brief. it happens minutes before he took to the stage to make his remarks. he made it clear that although it didn't go his way, he's not backing down and super tuesday is an opportunity for him to rise again. mitt romney didn't mention any of thinks republican rivals tonight. there are only a few plays in the romney playbook, and he has been disciplined in sticking with them. tonight was a victory and he talk about barack obama, not about his republican rivals. that's likely to continue but in ohio and the states where it's close and romney has to do well next week, don't expect any let-up. mitt romney has made it clear he knows how to throw a punch and he knows how to take a punch. there will be plenty of those exchanged between mitt romney and rick santorum in the days ahead. >> thank you. >> bill is at the touch screen tonight. bill, mitt romney did win a greater share of the vote in michigan. some i

rick santorum did call mitt romney. romney took the call. it's been described by santorum's eldest daughterrer as a cordial conversation but brief. it happens minutes before he took to the stage to make his remarks. he made it clear that although it didn't go his way, he's not backing down and super tuesday is an opportunity for him to rise again. mitt romney didn't mention any of thinks republican rivals tonight. there are only a few plays in the romney playbook, and he has been disciplined in sticking with them. tonight was a victory and he talk about barack obama, not about his republican rivals. that's likely to continue but in ohio and the states where it's close and romney has to do well next week, don't expect any let-up. mitt romney has made it clear he knows how to throw a punch and he knows how to take a punch. there will be plenty of those exchanged between mitt romney and rick santorum in the days ahead. >> thank you. >> bill is at the touch screen tonight. bill, mitt romney did win a greater share of the vote in michigan. some i

mitt romney. romney started the day leading newt gingrich, scoring double-digit leads in most of them. it looks like that's how it is going to turn out. and now with just 43% according to the associated press, not just -- he is ahead of gingrich by 48%. last week's campaigning saw a brutal ad war. along with personal attacks from both men of course. gingrich accusing romney of being a proabortion, liar and liberal, and romney who seemed to enjoy unhinging gingrich attacked him as a washington insider with more baggage than the airlines who was forced to resign as speaker while in office. so in this hour together it will be a moving target. we'll discuss the outcome, look at the numbers, hear from some of the candidates hopefully. and determine where we go from here. david shuster in tampa florida. on set with me for the entire hour, governor elliott spitzer good to see you. >> good to be here. whoever wins the republican primary is the republican.com knee. >> i think this is the first of many domi

. >> and all of the romney ads all of the romney -- 99% of mitt romney's campaign ads, 99% were negative and all 5,000 all 4900 of the super pack ads, all of them, negative. not 99.9, 100%. >> no touchy feeley, here's mitt romney and look at his kids and dog, he wouldn't want you to see his dog, because he's on top of the car but it was all like newt gingrich. we have some of that for you later. gingrich's response was interesting, mad, going around giving speeches about this guy being for taxes, anti abortion, anti anything anybody cared about and then this robo call comes out. >> this governor of massachusetts mitt romney bill paying for seniors in our nursing homes. for the first time, we're forced to eat non-kosher because he thought it was too much for our grandfathers to seat non-kosher. >> did you hear that? he's saying that mitt romney took away kosher food from holocaust survivors. >> let's not let karl rove off the hook. lizard was worse. >> it was worse. some people say listen to this mitt romney sounds all right. [ laughter ] >> exactly. >> they're like wow, he's taking food

romney. 38% for rick santorum. he's up by almost 30,000 votes. ron paul, newt gingrich, way behind. 12% for ron paul. 7% for newt gingrich. let's take a look in arizona where we also project mitt romney is the winner with 48%, a significant win over rick santorum with only 26%. 16% for newt gingrich, only 8% for ron paul. arizona, very important, all 29 delegates, winner take all in arizona. romney. let's go to john king, and let's take a closer look at how mitt romney managed to pull off two important wins. >> we can look at both states. we'll start with the exit polling. here is one reason mitt romney won, a little more than half of the electorate in michigan were men tonight. governor romney winning narrowing over santorum, splittal the man vote, 39% to 37%. 48% of the electorate in michigan, women. governor romney with a six-point reg. the gender gap an important part of the win tonight. the most important issue in michigan, 55% of primary voters said economy was the big issue. 47% for ro

this was romney four years ago, this was romney four years ago. the romney campaign tonight would like to say we did not compete here. we didn't put money into the organization, not put money into turnout, into tv, because it doesn't matter, but it's a symbolic, moral boost for a guy arguing that the race would come his way. so senator santorum leads tonight. he's going to be able to make the argument that he is at least equal of speaker gingrich who is trying to fight to be the alt n alternative republican. >> a lot of people voted in the missouri primary than either of the caucuses in colorado or minnesota. so it may not be binding as far as delegates, but a lot of people in missouri are saying what they want to do. >> a point about the irony. this is how minnesota is filling in. we want to be careful, but santorum is leading right now. if you go back four years ago, when romney carried the state, what did he tell the people of minnesota four years ago? he campaigned as the conservative alternative to john mccain. now you have rick santorum sayi

romney won florida. you don't see him right now winning the deep south states, as you consider them, after that, who else is viable? santorum, gingrich, are they all still in, and what happens down here? after that, after march 13th, these are going to go to gingrich. after march 13th, missouri voted in a beauty contest, but has to vote delegates, you see arkansas, louisiana, super tuesday will say a lot about if this goes on deep into march, into april, conceivably into may, who is viable. >> play it out because this magic number of 1,144 is possible. you play it all out through the summer, nobody gets that magic number. >> watch me play this out again. this is based on earlier projections when gingrich was doing well. i'm going to leave the states right now, let's play it out, louisiana, if we have essentially a regional breakdown, santorum winning in the midwest, gingrich winning in the south, you keep playing it out, romney winning, this gave romney the sate of wisconsin, play out more, romney gets n

mitt romney had about 37% of the vote. rick santorum over 40% and ron paul reporting 11% and newt gingrich around 14%. we'll have the number finals in a few moments. we appreciate everybody's attention. we appreciate everybody who has been a part of this important process. >> and can you tell me what this meant in terms of turnout and how this might have been a factor this the case? >> we saw a lot of enthusiasm among the colorado republicans to participate in the process. it has been very exciting tonight and i'll tell you, rick santorum surprised a lot of folks in terms of his turnout, his willingness to come to colorado and compete for the votes and the enthusiasm that we saw across the state is pretty exciting. >> exclusively on cnn, you heard it here first. santorum made a push right at the end. we know el paso county was not in colorado springs, a lot of the evangelical christians there. do you know what the percentage of victory was for santorum down in el paso county? >> his margin of victory was about 1,300 votes

: romney and romney saw what happened in south carolina and romney went to work. romney prepared for those debates. he went after newt gingrich in very aggressive way, in a way he knew he had to step up. >>> he took gingrich off his game. up to that point he had not gone negative. gingrich was singing kumbayah and it all caged. >> one thing, it was compressed schedule between new hampshire and south carolina. so the debates which were right at the bookend two of them, they had much greater impact on much smaller state. had you two debates in smaller period of time. >> i don't think it had the kind of potential to be a game changer in florida which is really five states when you think about it. >> sean: here is what happened, we keep hearing the romney campaign spent a lot in debate prep. they hired a debate coach. newt gingrich i think he did the interview to michael barone he said his prep for debate show up he has a great debate. >>. >> sean: i want somebody to clobber obama in the debate. >> at the end of the day. that would be great. but you want someone who c

the people that voted for romney and higher education voted for romney. the rural people with a lot less money. but there's a passion deficit here. it's so apparent. and i wonder. am i right? are we watching a totally different race right now that we're going to see in november? the race now is who turns you on. the race in november is going to be how do we beat obama, if you're a republican. it doesn't matter who's running against him. how do we beat him? >> i think electability, absent passion, is a transaction. and i think that's what's occurring in the republican process right now. the voters are engaged in a transaction with mitt romney coming to accept him as the nominee, not necessarily being passionate about him. when you move into a general election, i don't think enthusiasm is going to drive the outcome. >> they've got enthusiasm. it's getting rid of obama. >> i think that republican voters will unify around the nominee on the question of getting rid of the president, denying him a second term. now, in a perfect world, you'd rather have passion

people in north florida that you mentioned everywhere else romney did well, ideologically, romney did well among almost a third of the voters who are self described moderates or liberals, he beat gingrich by 39 points among that group and while romney beat gingrich very narrowly among conservatives, and as i said, gingrich did very well among strong conservatives when you look at voters who said they were somewhat conservative, a little bit more than a third of the sample, 19-point victory for mitt romney, so romney is making some inroads among conservatives, not the most conservative voters, but people who said they were somewhat conservative, and on religion is a variable, 60 percent of florida voters here said they were not white born again christians or evangelicals and mitt romney won them by 26 points. gingrich won those who were evangelicals but just by three points, a narrow win and in terms of electability, the question was asked who is most likely to defeat barack obama, mitt romney won that by 26 points. and i think it is really interesting that when you look at i'd lodge,

but romney defended it. wrote a letter to the gao saying this is all entirely appropriate to promote peace was his words and he stepped up the acceleration of lobbying for federal funds, hired five lobbying firms, spent $3.5 million, and then boasted about how much more federal funds he was able to get for the olympics. >> let's be realistic. the taint was so bad. there was some talk that, you know, is it possible salt lake would have to give up the games where they were so embarrassed but it was more on an embarrassment scale and this is how -- this threat of having to lose the games it became sort of an american reputation protector. is that how they ended up -- >> absolutely. there is debate about whether the games were ever really in jeopardy and there are people saying no they weren't, you know. so i mean, it's hard to sort that out. what is clear is romney became the face of the games. in fact, so much so that there were official olympic pins bearing his image. >> let's talk about the pins. >> right. >

romney? >> i'm going to support the republican nominee, and i believe the republican nominee will win in november because it will be about jobs, and americans will know that the party that believes in the free market, that supports the free market, that defends the premarket is going to be the party that's going to turn this economy around. >> okay, governor. thank you very much indeed. coming up, why one candidate compared the race to mud wrestling. you have to get down and dirty to make it in politics these days. >>> the american public does not want to see two or three candidates get into a mud wrestling match where everybody walks away dirty and not in a position to represent our party proudly. what we saw in the last few weeks in the state of florida is not something that's going to help us win this election. >> rick santorum tonight. is he right? are americans tired of politics mud wrestling? joining me is blogger extraordinary andrew breitbart, catheri catherine cryer, who's fifth book

people like romney. you think they're going to get excited about a guy like romney who seems like he inherited the money, no matter how he got it. >> one of the important findings is you have 40% of the electorate. another candidate in the race. there was clearly a lack of enthusiasm among a wide section of republicans for both of the two candidates leading in the race. and i think there's a difference between rick santorum's rhetoric on the issues, who is really appealing to a blue collar audience. he really speaks the language in an effective way. ronald reagan was able to communicate to this group of americans. and i think it's important to take the message to blue collar communities. thus far mitt romney habit done that particularly effectively. this is going to be an issue all through the race. all candidates come in with assets. they come in with liabilities. this could be an asset for him. it could be a liability for him. this will be the central ground of his testing in the weeks ahead. you have

santorum's losses are romney's gains. romney is up three points, coming within one percentage point of santorum. newt gingrich and ron paul's numbers stay the same, far below the top two contenders. the other big development, arizona governor jan brewer is throwing her support behind romney, made that announcement this morning on "meet the press." let's listen. >> he has that pro business background and he has that political history that i think that he would serve america the best of all of the candidates. it was a difficult decision. but i think mitt is by far the person that can go in and win. >> and, of course, with the michigan and arizona primaries two days away, both gop front-runners appeared today on the sunday talk shows. for romney it was fox news sunday where he, again, blasted the auto industry bailout and the obama administration's support of it. >> the result of the president's plan was that we spent several billion dollars before -- at a time we didn't need to, number one. and number two, after the process

romney has won victories. santorum has won four. delegatewise it's still romney. santorum's next stop will likely be michigan february 28th primary and republican electorate there that is a little blue collar with social conservative mixed in. on "morning joe" this morning santorum says he plans on planting his flag in michigan. >> we're really excited about that, also headed to ohio. super tuesday will be a very, very big day for us. we have organizations developing in every one of those states, but we think michigan is a great place for us to plant our flag. >> one thing about arizona, winner is take all, michigan is not. the other guy last night was newt gingrich. in some ways he had a rough night, third in colorado fourth in minnesota and not on the ballot at all in missouri. awkwardly while the other candidates were responding to results, gingrich was talking about ohio. >> we have been crisscrossing the state, started in cincinnati, went to dayton later this evening we'll go to cleveland. >> still for them anything that stops mitt romney hats proven to be go

that is mitt romney. mitt romney. mitt romney. mitt romney. mitt romney. if you don't run chris christie, romney will be the nominee and we'll lose. >> america, what the hell? >>> with 266 days left before the presidential election, everything but everything seems to be breaking president obama's way. the job market is looking better, the stock market is up. congressional republicans have surrendered to the president today on extending the payroll tax cut. and at the very same time, congressional republicans have decided to offer american women yet another reason to vote for president obama. all of that is happening. all of that. while the republican candidates continue to savage each other, leaving the president to concentrate on the job of governing the united states of america. first tonight, there is suddenly a new front-runner for the republican presidential nomination in the national polls and so like clockwork, the romney super pac did this tonight. >> how did rick santorum actually vote? santorum voted to raise the debt limit five times and for bil

barack obama wasn't matched up against mitt romney there and i think mitt romney you know many of the you know the way in which he has been very hostile i think to the hispanic community perceived hostility towards them you know he has no real immigration reform plan that has that will play a role in the general election the republicans being against the dream act opposing sort of my or you know there are a large number of issues that are important to this man a community that when they're pitted when he's pitted against a living breathing human being you know those numbers will i think dissipate he may not do as well as he did in no way as long as they any republican is going to do to well. john you well as if we look back at two thousand and four george w. bush won forty four percent of hispanics now a lot of change since then but part of the problem for president obama it's not just enough to say well look at me compared to new look at me compared to romney. those people just might stay home and that's a key problem for him if the young people are disillusioned and they stay home a

going in romney had 87. tonight depending how the results shaped up proportionally it will be less than 10 percent the delegates decided. >> less than 20 percent by the end of this month. it is a longer battle. the expectations momentum contest has begun. we people have gone through the contest voters are making up their minds. romney one late breakers they decided he is a winner. he looks like a winner to that. this goes through february when the contest comes in the weeks to come. he makes up his mind in the last minute. other important findings were that true conservatives only 5 percent of them thought that he was a true conservative. true conservatives group with him. he is 21 percent gingrich 24. that says a lot about what they are looking for in a candidate. >> they are getting ready for governor romney to speak at some point this hour. we will bring it to you live. nevada, it is a state that seems to line up not only for ron paul there is a big libertarian streak there the tea party was active in 201

a lot of people remember george romney in this state and obviously, mitt romney is trying to tie into the family ties and connection to his early life here, but he's also making a pitch as he did here on the stump for his business experience. and why that's important in this country, particularly in this state right now. take a listen. >> i believe you want a president who can create jobs and get this economy going again. i believe that if you think about what america needs right now, you'll recognize that what we want is an economy that's strong, an economy so strong it will grow and balance our budget. so if for you, the question you want to have answers is who can best get this economy going? i hope you recognize that the best way to get an economy going is to have someone who has actually had a job in the real economy to get it going and i have. [applause] >> the song "born free" here playing loudly at this event. we tried to have another one-on-one pull aside with governor romney, but didn't work out for whatever reason. the campaign saying that the schedule is too tight. so we'l

romney is in second with 28%. again in second. and in the gallup poll, 32% for romney. santorum is right behind him at 30%. look at that. you have three things going on now, steve. santorum seems to be moving ahead in the polls. he's quickly getting the momentum here. so romney is not only falling behind, but he's beginning to fall behind significantly and he has to win february 28th in michigan or arizona. he best well win in michigan. if he loses there and continues to fall in the polls, he may be dead meat. how do you do to turn that around if you're him now? >> one of the things, chris, when you look inside those numbers, he's losing ground with conservatives. he's losing ground with evangelicals and he's losing ground with independent voters. if you're the romney campaign, you're looking at data that says you have to disqualify rick santorum, which i think is easier said than done as you look ahead to michigan. but they are in a tough spot. the three losses had a huge impact in this race. i think the race is more wide open at this moment than it is at any time sinc

romney has been missing in action. he hasn't done a damn thing. >> as recently as last week, he was still lying about the possibility that he would actually run for president. >> maybe i should listen, what does that mean? >> a lot of people want me to run. i'm getting it all the time. you saw the poll that came out recently where it said i was the number one independent candidate. i am concerned if i run as an independent, that i'll take a lot of votes away from the republicans and obama will walk in. that does concern me a lot. >> that is now greta's submission segment for best actress in a primetime cable news show, keeping a straight face while donald was talking about running for president, last week, last week, is something no other woman in cable news could do. but there's a guy who could do it -- >> you said yesterday on your twitter account that ivanka, your daughter, would want you to run for president. >> she actually said on her account -- i have a daughter that loves me, a beautiful daughter and a wonderfu

it is a mitt romney campaign event. this is not like the jon huntsman endorsement with no official mitt romney connection. this is built as a romney event. >> star power to nevada for what's taking place today. you have been traveling with the governor as he makes it through nevada. how have the events been otherwise? >> we had two stops yesterday. one in minnesota and then a rally late last evening here in las vegas. it was sort of a three time zone day. a couple hundred people in attendance. this is a strong state for romney four years ago. they expect it to be strong again this year. they are well organized here. the lieutenant governor endorsed him. now that rick perry is out, romney has some of the big names on his docket here. this is potentially another strong state for them. >> again, the news that donald trump going to be endorsing mitt romney this afternoon. nbc campaign embed garrett haake. always great to talk to you. thank you. >>> an emotional moment for marriage equality last night in washington state. la

there was a connection that romney doesn't have. >> mitt romney's comments about the poor turned into a big campaign gaffe. let's listen. >> i'm in this race because i care about americans. i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it needs repair, i'll fix it. >> i care about americans, not the very poor. that's an interesting comment. let's listen to charles. >> it's not just that it strengthens the stereotype of romney who is only aware of people of poor who clean the streets and wash his car. the real problem is it shows he doesn't have a fluency with conservative ideas. >> i find it hard to believe that guy of his education, harvard business and harvard law and all that stuff to talk -- to be so unfamiliar with our language. use words like severely conservative and let me go over to jeremy on that. just as a journalist, it must seem odd covering a guy who seems so unfamiliar with our american idiom. >> it's political idiom. he's not comfortable speaking political language. he was not a career politician. they're happy to help translate for him. you kno

this time, rick santorum did call mitt romney. romney took the call. it has been described by santorum's eldest daughter as a cordial conservation but brief. it was literally seconds before santorum took the stage to make his remarks. he made it very clear that santorum is not backing down at all. super tuesday for him is an opportunity for him to rise again. mitt romney didn't mention any of his rivals tonight. there are only a few plays in the romney playbook. >> he has been incessantly disciplined disciplined in sticking with them. tonight was a victory, and he talked about barack obama, not his republican rivals. that's likely to continue, but where it is close and romney has to do well next week, don't expect any letup. mitt romney has made it very clear, he knows how to throw a punch and take a punch there. will be plenty between mitt romney and rick santorum in the days ahead. >> over at the touch screen tonight, bill, mitt romney did win a greater hair of the vote in michigan, interesting ruths in michigan and arizona. >> certainly is. to carl'

and if romney can't confront donald trump -- what do that say -- >> i think trump is -- >> romney campaigned to put a big trump -- >> but the fact that mitt romney çwent ahead and said, yes, tells you that their campaign is -- and it does bring something -- >> you bet. >> i think it brings something. >> the nation of panama and central america p trump has put up a brand-new building there that's incredible. >> he's big in panama. >> he owns it! >> where you get this -- kind of -- when i'm telling him on the air because the two-lane highway, and if it gets jammed up you can't get to where this place is. [everyone talking at once] >> politically incorrect! >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it's need repair, i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich. they're doing just fine. i'm concerned about the very heart of america, the 90, 95% of learns who right now are struggling and are continue to take that message across the nation. >> did the democrats distort romney's words about the very poor? >> is this hard bowel politics or foul ball politics. >

bill, romney's win was certainly expected. combined with a big win earlier in the week in florida and what looks like a string of strong states for him in february, how commanding is his position right now? >> it is pretty commanding. but i think the key question is what you just said. the string of the apparently strong states coming ahead. i think tuesday night is important. you asked rick santorum is this make or break for you. he said it is a long campaign plenty of time. but tuesday night for santorum will be an important moment to try to surpass gingrich and take on romney especially in missouri. romney if he could win all three on tuesday night then suddenly five in a row and that would be impressive strength. >> chris: in fairness, liz marlantes, in 2008 barack obama won a string of victories in caucuses in february and it didn't stop hillary clinton and she was able to come back strong in march. even if you do well in one month it doesn't exclude the others from staying in and prospering. >> if they can survive financ

having said that, i guarantee you we will see some serious attacks from the romney campaign and the romney super pac, targeting rick santorum. i think that their they're going to try to make him look like a consummate d.c. insider, much the way they tried with newt gingrich. they will try to wear away the idea that he is in principled conservative who can take on barack obama, he being rick santorum. i think they will try to make him look like the inventer of earmarks. they are going on hang that around his neck and try to make him look like he himself is an earmark. [laughter] >> i remember when santorum was here a couple of months ago, he defended, to us, his role in earmarking. he said, i was a prodigious earmarker and i am not ashamed of it. he owns the earmarking argument and makes what i think is a reasonable case -- i don't like earmarks, but he goes on to make a reasonable case diswlaiz what matters more is entitlement reform in the big questions. but the earmark comments can be taken. they are not popular with the conservative base. he has already said he is not a fan of the liber

romney looked like the front runner. eventually, romney is going to win this thing. you ask can everybody who is going to be the nominee. no matter who you asked, they all say after all the excitement and everything else that goes wrong, it's going to be romney. is that still true? >> that conventional wisdom is teetering on the edge of extinction at this point. it will go away for good if he loses michigan. >> okay. that's true. >> it will no longer be the default assumption. >> if he kwesqueaks it by a cou points, how is he e still the front runner? he doesn't know the -- >> we're in mitt cur fufl here. that's what my grandmother called michigan. >> i'm the ham between the rye between you two guys here. go ahead. in more ways than one. >> or the aspirin between the knees. who knows. >> that will not be forgotten. we'll go back to that in a minute. >> the thing is i don't know if a couple points are enough. you look at the polling in the super tuesday states, and tan tomorrow is clobbering romney in ohio. gingrich is going to do well in the south. i think that the r

rick santorum did call mitt romney. romney took the call. it's been described by santorum's eldest daughterrer as a cordial conversation but brief. it happens minutes before he took to the stage to make his remarks. he made it clear that although it didn't go his way, he's not backing down and super tuesday is an opportunity for him to rise again. mitt romney didn't mention any of thinks republican rivals tonight. there are only a few plays in the romney playbook, and he has been disciplined in sticking with them. tonight was a victory and he talk about barack obama, not about his republican rivals. that's likely to continue but in ohio and the states where it's close and romney has to do well next week, don't expect any let-up. mitt romney has made it clear he knows how to throw a punch and he knows how to take a punch. there will be plenty of those exchanged between mitt romney and rick santorum in the days ahead. >> thank you. >> bill is at the touch screen tonight. bill, mitt romney did win a greater share of the vote in michigan. some i

that was mitt romney. i want to play president obama earlier in the day in front of the uaw in washington, d.c., and according to jay carney, it was not a campaign speech, but anyway, listen to the president and i want to do a little side-by-side comparison. >> the other option was to do absolutely nothing. and let these companies fail. and you will recall there were some politicians who said we should do that. some even said we should let detroit go bankrupt. you remember that. >> it's interesting those two bites show you that's the debate, one says use washington to help business, one says washington's getting in the way. it's a legitimate -- frankly, it's a debate that does make the two parties what they are today. >> well, it's true. in fact, it's a debate that's been going on for three quarters of a century now. what do you do when you've got radical economic disaster of depression-era dimensions, what do you do? does the government stand aside? does the government tweak? does the government jump in w

among male voters, romney won 41-36. romney is struggling with the conservative wing, 41% believe he is not conservative enough to be the republican nominee for president. 41%. 38% of voters would still like to see somebody else get in the race. >>> mark halperin will look in the number and tell us how much longer newt gingrich will stick around. for now, mitt romney is headed west kicking off the campaign push in nevada and minnesota after the decisive win over newt gingrich in the florida primary. with 50 more delegates in his column, the former massachusetts governor cemented his status as the front-runner. 30 minutes after the polls closed, he thanked the crowd in tampa before turning his attention toward the general election. >> in a state of the union address the president actually said these words, he says let's remember now how we got here. don't worry, mr. press ent, we remember exactly how we got here, you won the election. leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses. another era of american c

mitt romney won overwhelmingly. he has to hope that argument wins out because he may never convince the people on the right he's one of them. >> chris cillizza, you're one of us. and mitt romney says his decisive win in florida proves he can win over those conservative voters and that he's ready to go toe to toe with president obama. >> i think the back and forth and even the attacks have been helpful because what's going to come from barack obama will be the same, just a heck of a lot more of it and having people have a chance to see what the trurkt is, i think is a positive thing. any questions by support of the conservatives was cleared up last night in florida. people who call themselves conservative and very conservative overwhelmingly supported my campaign. tea partiers supported my campaign. so i'm hoping i can convince people in minnesota, nevada, arizona, colorado, i've got to get a lot of support from many in my parties. >> kevin is an adviser to the romney campaign. first of all, congratulations. it was a

but if you don't discrimination mitt romney . i think that romney is so focused on i am a ceo turn around the economy environment that he hasn't painted a broader picture of the choices. >> i think santorum did a good job on that. >> chris: let me bring you into one of the things i admired about obama was ability to hut a big speech and the speech on race over the controversy about reverend wright. does mitt romney need it make a speech addressing the wealth and gaffes and his can daysy. >> one . problems and issues that bill just cited. he is badly positioned on. obama care is a potent issue for republicans and a motivating factor for tea party supporters and romney is the worst candidate to be out front. the case that santorum is making is strong and ironically even though romney came in first in nevada and florida and had these little gaffes. santorum had sort of a good week . we'll see what happens for him in missouri and colorado. we have seen the issues that the economy has gotten better and a candidate like santorum is str

this is a floor romney won. and i think what is really important about santorum is that he is always the one that never got respect from the beginning of the race and on all of us are confessing to sins here, he's a guy who lost his senate race by 18 points in 2006. he wasn't on the scene. coming out of nowhere and is standing on the wings on the side alt the ends of the line in the debates because he was low in national polls. and at times complaining he wasn't getting enough air time and attention. but once he shed the loser label, his senate races and shows he can win i think it changes a lot for him. because the perception is that he is sort of he may win here or there. and this is a hat trick but a huge margin. >> well, up to a point. and that is these tapes these are straw polls occurring on the first day. it's a three, four part process. sanltor yum energy nized -- energized the face of the republican party. he's doing it more main stream basis what ron paul has done before and what mitt romney has done i

and he in effect reminded people of that romney gem, the romney strategy for the housing market. the romney idea, to let the housing market simply hit bottom. >> it is wrong for anybody toing suggest that the only option for struggling responsible homeowners is to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom. i refuse to accept that, and so do the american people. >> in ft. worth texas, last night, joe biden raised two points in president obama's favor in his re-election, that will be impossible for mitt romney to counter, especially since mitt romney opposed the action president obama took to save general motors. the vice president quoted a line he had heard elsewhere. osama bin ladin is dead and general motors is alive. joining me now is former vermont governor howard dean and howard fineman. thank you both, howards, for joining me tonight. governor dean, very to say, i don't think every one of the 279 campaign days left is going to be fun for the obama campaign. but i don't see what they couldn't -- what they didn't take pleasure in today in the republican campaign. every

having said that, i guarantee you we will see some serious attacks from the romney campaign and the romney super pac, targeting rick santorum. i think that their they're going to try to make him look like a consummate d.c. insider, much the way they tried with newt gingrich. they will try to wear away the idea that he is in principled conservative who can take on barack obama, he being rick santorum. i think they will try to make him look like the inventer of earmarks. they are going on hang that around his neck and try to make him look like he himself is an earmark. [laughter] >> i remember when santorum was here a couple of months ago, he defended, to us, his role in earmarking. he said, i was a prodigious earmarker and i am not ashamed of it. he owns the earmarking argument and makes what i think is a reasonable case -- i don't like earmarks, but he goes on to make a reasonable case diswlaiz what matters more is entitlement reform in the big questions. but the earmark comments can be taken. they are not popular with the conservative base. he has already said he is not a fan of the liber

establishment has always been for romney. that's who is backing them. it's certainly funny that governor romney sort of attacked us as the insider. we're going to be out here talking about the issues instead of, you know, what seems to be this reinvention of the candidate every couple of weeks. >> a little breaking news here, santorum's super pac, which is known as red, white, and blue, the one funded by foster frese, they are apparently about to purchase a large buy in michigan. >>> now, the hits on santorum, so to speak, aren't just coming from the romney campaign. last night, again, santorum was glittered, this time in michigan. we can assure you that the secret service never is denied to a major presidential candidate. santorum is expected to hammer home that blue collar -- to make the contrast clear between himself and mitt romney, santorum released four years of tax returns from 2007 through 2010, his private sector years, that santorum who filed jointly reported their highest income in 2009 when the couple made more th

we got mitt romney on the show today! >> sounds like -->> we got al capone's niece. >> we've never had both of those on the same show before. >> i don't recall. it's a birthday one little girl will never, ever forget. >> dad! how did you make it? >> more on this heartwarming father and daughter reunion straight ahead. >> the head of the national intelligence says iran is ready to attack on our soil? that's new. details of that coming up next. [♪...] >> announcer: bank robbery certainly is a frightening crime. after all, bank robbers stole $43 million in one year. but identity thieves? try 37 billion! and guess how identity thieves are getting some of that money. by taking over our bank accounts. they may not even need your social security number anymore. all an identity thief may need are a couple of simple pieces of information, like your mother's maiden name or the city you were born in, and they could add their name onto your bank accounts in order to make your money their money. you need help. [whoosh, clang] you ne

mitt romney did not win iowa. had the iowa result been clear the night of the caucus, had the iowa republican party not screwed it up, had rick santorum been declared the winner that night i'm not sure that would have had a huge effect on the overall race anyway. iowa republicans are seen as having kind of a mike huckabee problem. iowa republicans pick guys like mike huckabee and rick santorum, has no effect on the overall race it's iowa, kind of irrelevant, another case for iowa not going first at least on the republican side. in iowa, historical terms it was amazing that iowa republicans screwed up their caucuses so badly they wrongly reported the results and had to flip them after the fact. historically amazing. but in terms of the impact of the race, not so much. now though, if another state pulls an iowa, that would have a huge impact on the narrative of the race. therefore, it would have a big impact on who is likely to get the republican nomination for president. i think that is where we are right now. head

romney. every time he gets endorsed by a state's republican governor or the most recent republican governor of that state he loses. but tomorrow there is a chance for that curse to be broken. tomorrow republicans in michigan and arizona will get their chance to vote in the republican primary and in both those states and in both those state he has again gotten the endorse mens of the state's republican governors. michigan's governor rick snyder endorsed him earlier. in michigan he has erased rick santorum's lead. the republican governor of arizona, jan brewer, she withheld endorsement until the very, very last minute, governor brewer waiting until yesterday, two days before the primary, to announce she, too, is endorsing mr. romney. government brewer's last minute endorsement i hope you won't mind me noting is not exactly a profile in courage given so much the state has voted it looks like mitt romney is going to run away with the state of arizona. so governor brewer waited long enough to figu