with rick santorum and this conversation about his clout, we've watched these speeches from rick santorum where he talks about his grandfather. talks about that background. when you look at the latest polling regarding mitt romney, it is the very connection that rick santorum was able to make on this genuine likable level with those who might be willing to vote that is still greatly lacking with mitt romney at a time where we are about to start discussing what is tax fairness or what the republicans call, if you will, this war on the el wealthy or class warfare. >> i think we will look back on this and say, was it santorum's ability to connect or was it romney's inability to connect? and i think how much of santorum's success has really been about romney's shortcomings? and i think this is not, i just don't see the parallel, for instance, between santorum now and reagan '76. i think he homes that parallel exists for his own political future. >> all right, chuck. thank you. let me bring in andrea mitchell. this is all peculiar timing for you. you have a big guest scheduled tomorrow with th

rick santorum thought he won the state. steve and richard wolf on the strong arming of the delegates, romney style. >>> an arrest is made in the connection to the wisconsin planned parenthood bombing. mitt romney thinks he knows,000 fix the republican problem with women. >> the way we're going to get women voters is talking about how we will get this economy going again. >>> devastating tornadoes slam through nox. >> this is something i've never seen before. >> entire neighborhoods in dallas-ft. worth are destroyed. >>> good to have you with us. thanks for watching. we'll have full election results as we get them. president obama was the big winner today. he laid out two starkly different visions for america. in a speech to the associated press, the president said we can choose the vision to definded by paul ryan's budget or choose the path provided by president obama and the democrats. >> i believe this is a make or break moment for the middle class. i can't remember a time when the choice between competing visions of our

against rick santorum even more. if i were to advise romney in pennsylvania, and also wisconsin as part of this too, wisconsin a swing state. he wants to spend not to crush rick santorum, but he wants to spend to push his own favorables up and drive his own unfavorables down. that's what he needs to do to defeat barack obama in a blue leaning, purple state like pennsylvania and wisconsin. >> do we have an idea where romney is going to be the next few weeks leading up to april 24th in pennsylvania. >> reporter: he's going to raise some money, but pennsylvania will be the first stop and many stops in between because, again, that's the big state here. one of the things i think they are counting on now is they really do believe they can rightfully claim the momentum. we saw through the whole first part of this primary season, if mitt romney wins new hampshire and immediately loses south carolina, newt gingrich wins south carolina and immediately loses florida. mitt romney wins florida and immediately loses in that sweep

rick santorum said yesterday he guarantees he will win. mr. santorum did not bother campaigning in maryland before today for even a single day of campaigning. mr. romney won maryland today without even much having to try. rick santorum does not want to be thought of as out of this race. he's been priming the pump for days now trying to your his supporters to tonight's losses. >> we knew that april would billibe a very tough month for us. this is a series of state, rhode island, new york and connecticut and d.c. and maryland, these are not conservative states. we have some states that we know we can run well in. wisconsin is one. pennsylvania we know we can win. we know that the month of may is rich with delegates and strong states for us. states like texas and arkansas and kentucky and indiana and west virginia and north carolina. those are the states we know we can get this right back to where it was now, which is a lot closer to what mitt romney and the pundits are spending. by the end of may we expect this race to be close to even. >> t

go ahead and respond to rick santorum. >> well, with all due respect to rick santorum, there couldn't be a brighter line between the vision that mitt romney has for the country which is getting the economy moving and having been an executive, not having a governmencentric view of the world and government's role in people's life like president obama does. it's wrong for rick santorum to say that. he's lashing out in the final stages of his campaign. this race for the nomination as a practical matter is over. it's not mathematically over. there's more processes amongst certain parts. but let's face it, mitt romney is going to be the nominee. he'll be a great nominee and a great president. he's been a executive leader in the private sector. he doesn't have the governmencentric view of the world like barack obama does. >> santorum as you heard him say he said it's halftime in the process right now. he says if he can win pennsylvania, may is going to be potentially a good month, texas, kentucky, arkansas, states where he can do well. you relish that thought this is going to continue well i

that's pretty good position for rick santorum to be in. and had he gotten any closer to that pennsylvania primary, john, and those polls started tipping in mitt romney's direction. remember, restore our future that super pac, was going to come in here, like everybody calls it the death star, the death star starting to position itself over pennsylvania. rick santorum did not want that kind of situation to unfold. he was guy saying has to win michigan. mitt romney has to win michigan. had he not won pennsylvania that could have been the end of his political career. >> john, i'm told real quick, budget was also a factor in this. pennsylvania has five media markets, some of them are very expensive. he reported almost $1 million in debt at the end of february. money was also a factor in this i'm today. >> jim, dana, thank you a long-time adviser to senator santorum is here. john, i want to focus on what's next. senator santorum speaks to governor romney. i'm told he said he wanted to help, he understands that reality. his public statement never

rick santorum not giving up at least not yet. the former pennsylvania senator told cnn last night and we quote. >> we knew april would be a very tough month for us. but we also knew the month of may is rich in delegates and are strong states for us. >> but before santorum can get to may, he has to get through tonight. and then he faces five more primaries on april 24th including one in his home state of pennsylvania, which he admits he absolutely has to win. and that is no gimme. the latest quinnipiac poll has him leading by just six points. for more on tonight's republican primaries i'm joined by current correspondent david shuster. thanks so much for joining us. out in wisconsin at least we have been hearing that there is virtually no emotion behind this. are people turning out in wisconsin even to vote in this primary? >> if there's no emotion it's because they are so depressed over the negative ads. the romney campaign has spent nearly $3.5 million in advertisement. so they believe this is an important state. so there are a l

on social issue s. >> when you vote tomorrow vote for social sanity in rick santorum. >> rick santorum is the only candidate that can be trusted to uphold traditional marriage and the rights to have a mother and a father. >> there's been one mayor player missing from the campaign events in wisconsin, governor scott walker. romney and santorum are more than happy to run on walker's anti-union agenda but they don't want to be seen with him on the campaign trial. he could become the biggest loser if he loses the recall election in june. he's the first governor to set up a criminal defense fund and no candidate wants to risk having his or her photo taken next to a guy who could turn out to be a felon. let's turn to washington correspondent. i got a sense in wisconsin they want to get this out of way and get with the the recall. i want to talk about this story about what happened with the subway sandwich today. mitt romney and paul ryan handed out free subs at a campaign event today. the wisconsin democratic party is filing a complaint tonight against them for violating state election law.

thank you. >> rick santorum talking in pennsylvania just moments ago. the fat lady certainly hasn't sung yet in this race. when we come back, more from team santorum. great shot. how did the nba become the hottest league on the planet? by building on the cisco intelligent network they're able to serve up live video, and instant replays, creating fans from berlin to beijing. what can we help you build? nice shot kid. the nba around the world built by the only company that could. cisco. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader. the heart of a one-to-one relationship. together for your future. ♪ together for your future. according to the signs, ford is having some sort of big tire event. i just want to confirm a w things with fiona. how would you describe the event? it's big. no,i mean in terms of savin

tomorrow on the show, rick santorum's senior adviser, john brabender. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> a lot going on and news this hour. any minute from now, rick santorum is expected as andrea mentioned, to speak in pennsylvania. there is a lot of speculation over what mr. santorum will say. we'll bring you his important comments. will he drop out of the race? that is the big one. and we're following news regarding the president. mr. obama due to speak in the coming hour about the buffett rule. all is fair in love and war but what about taxes? congressman paul ryan also the rounds. we'll have both sides and what the president will say in the next hour. >>> and developing news in the trayvon martin case. meanwhile, we are hearing from george zimmerman via the internet. what he is saying now online. ar. with hertz gold plus rewards, you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest way to get you into your car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. tdd# 1-800-345-2550

rick santorum decided to drop out of the race before he got clobbered again. he lost his 2006 re-election bid by 18 points in pennsylvania. who would have thought when this campaign began that santorum, ignored by moderators in early debates, would have won all those caucuses? did he make mitt romney a better candidate, or to put him in a box, as "washington post" columnist e.j. dionne suggest it? roger? >> i think rick santorum appealed to voters who like his ideology -- did not care if he was going to win or not, but like him talking about social issues, when the party structure wanted a candidate who would talk about economic issues, mitt romney. he forced mitt romney a little farther to the right and mitt romney wanted to go, and now in the general, which has sort of begun already, mitt romney has to do a harder turned back towards the middle trying to pick up moderate an independent voters. that was sent from's lasting contribution to the race. >> we know that college-educated white males like him a bit who else like him, mark? >> i think that probably co

megyn: there is senator santorum. we'll take a listen. rick santorum. [applause] >> thank you very much it, always an honor to be here in this beautiful town of gettysburg. such an historic town. i want to thank everybody for the outpouring of prayers the past weekend. we had a difficult weekend. -- good friday was a little bit of a passion play for us with our daughter bella who is the joy our lives, getting unfortunately very sick. we ended up in the hospital over the weekend. but i'm here to report to start out things that she is a fighter and she is doing exceptionally well and is back with us and the family and we are looking forward to spending a lot of great time with her. but it did cause us to think and as the role that we have as parents in her life and with the rest of our family, this was a time for prayer and thought over this past weekend. just like it was frankly when we decided to get into this race. karen and i and the kids sat at kitchen table and talked about our hopes and fears and our concerns. we were very concerned about our role

let us consider what rick santorum has wrought. did he make mitt romney a better candidate, or did he put him in a box, as "washington post" columnist e.j. dionne has suggested? >> i think rick santorum, who appealed to voters who like his ideology -- did not care if he was going to win or not, but like him talking about social issues. the candidate was one to talk about economic issues -- mitt romney. he forced mitt romney in a little farther to the right and mitt romney wanted to go. now in the general, which is sort of begun already, mitt romney is having a harder time going back towards the middle and trying to pick up independent and moderate voters. that was santorum foster lasting contribution to the race -- santorum's lasting contribution to the race. >> college-educated males like him. who else, mark? >> conservatives like him, evangelicals, high income voters. his profile is that of most republican nominees. about rick santorum, let it be said, he vindicated and validated what i think is the nominating process. he was dav

santorum, not for homosexuality and mitt romney. >> rick santorum is the only candidate who can be trusts to uphold traditional marriage, a straight military and the rights of american children to have both a mother and father. >> there's been one major player missing in wisconsin, governor scott walker. romney and santorum are more than happy to run on walker's anti-union agenda, but they don't want to be seen with him on the campaign trail. scott walker could become the republican party's biggest loser if he loses his recall election in june. plus, he's the first governor to set up a criminal defense fund, and no candidate wants to risk having his or her photo taken next to a guy who could turn out to be a felon. >>> let's turn to john nichols, washington correspondent of "the nation" magazine and author of "uprising." john, i've got a sense in wisconsin yesterday that they just want to get all this republican shenanigans owl of the way and get with the recall. but i want to talk about this story first about what happened with the subway sandwich today. apparently mitt romney and paul r

her answer to him is basically rick santorum is pro life. rick santorum is pro life. rick santorum is pro life. i can't hear you. watch. >> i have to ask you about something you said about holland and euthanasia. i don't know if you read about that on the blogs. he said that people wear bracelets that say do not euthanize me and people are involuntarily euthanized. do you remember that. >> a lot of this is what he is saying that is in his heart. that is life until natural death. the issues that are important to the people of america and that come out to vote forim and that is strong pro life from conception to natural death. >> not asking what is in his heart or what he believes. your candidate said all of these things about a country country called the netherlands, which is a real place full of real people called dutch people. he said things that are not true. will he correct these things? he's pro life. the dutch reporter goes back and asks the spokesperson again and her answer is again rick santorum is pro life, did i mention he is pro life. watch. >> the governmen

for rick santorum. i've been telling my liberal friends, there's a lot of populism in the republican party. your guy spoke it. it isn't all 1%. it wouldn't be in general election if it was 1% party. 49 of that 50% republicans get in general elections like 2010 are not 1 percenters. why did he stay on that line and run on that line and knock romney's block off? why did he stick on my grandfather's big hands out of the coffin. i grew up, a joe bag of doughnuts, kind of guy, why didn't he stay there? why did he get into contraception and all this stupid stuff we fought about 50 years ago. >> you guys did. oh, come on, chris. >> so i hope we bring up contraception under this campaign? >> that's fine. that's one sentence out of a whole 45-minute speech. most of his speech was, look, my grandfather was a coal miner. >> how come everyone thinks santorum is a cultural, like pat buchanan. >> he is. >> i think santorum got off track in michigan. if he stuck with the theme you are talking about, rerentlessly, and

santorum even if rick santorum wins wisconsin. so the math is not looking good for rick santorum. and then one of his spokes people -- they just crack me up -- said rick may not pick up a single vote in d.c. because of the visceral of someone like rick santorum who wants to shake things up. >> or perhaps it's because he is not on the ballot. again, disorganization by rick santorum. so what is the total delegate count so far? mitt romney is at exactly the halfway point, 572. that's literally 50% of the amount of delegates that you need to wrap it up. and rick santorum is we behind. gingrich, and run, run paul at 51%. to give you a sense of how disastrous this is for rick santorum, he would have to win 74% of the delegates going forward including tonight. so obviously he can't do it in that way. he is going to have to go to at best a contested convention which of course other republicans are very worried about. >> the longer it goes the better it is for the party. people said go to the convention it will be dangerous. i think it wou

because rick santorum doesn't want somebody whispering in his ear what he said. he said i want to do this without a net. i want to talk from the heart. we don't use teleprompter. so there will be occasions where he may say something that isn't always accurate. you give thousands and thousands of speeches, that's not unusual. however, in some sense, it's a good thing that we have somebody who's willing to go out there, just speak from the heart, say what they really believe. the one thing i will say, rick santorum is not going to be your cup of tea. we both know that. but you know he has convictions. >> but because of that, that's the thing -- it's not that he made the error. that's not what troubles me. people make errors. i make them all the time. what troubles me is he's been called out on it. he should know it will take you five minutes to verify what he said about the university of california is not true. same thing with the dutch. then there's no correction. so because i think he is running as a man of conviction, even though they may be things people disagr

peter alexander, romney wants to meet with rick santorum. is that going to go forward? we had a communication with the director with santorum and he said romney's folks reached out to us. romney specifically to the former senator and saying we'd like to meet and want to talk about a possible endorsement and at this point it sort of dangles and romney folks would rather not say santorum except to say he's standing by our side like he did four years ago, but right now we have no specifics on when that will take place. ? you saw tony perkins withhold active, enthusiastic support for mitt romney. from your knowledge of the campaign, now that they can go after rick santorum voters because he's no longer representing them, do you have that? >> we're not worried about evangelicals and social conservatives. we're the republican party right now. we will be the guy going for the support. they'll tell you they're focused on women and independents in these states that will be the decisive states come this fall. specifically this attack on the war on women. the romney folks recogniz

and is it possible that the only person in maeshg who doesn't know that rick santorum is done is rick santorum? does he really think that he can win or is this about erasing the legacy of his big loss in 2006? and why should this surprise anyone? americans are divided between black and white, democrat and republican, when it comes to the trayvon martin shooting. and which republican senator is san diego as close to president obama and as far away as mitt romney as possible? check out the "sideshow." we begin with the race to define mitt romney. michael steele was chair of the republican party. david corn is here, author of "showdown." both are msnbc political analysts. let's begin with the attempts to define romney and what's at stake in the campaign. speaking today where obama launched the general election with a stem winder of a teach, romney set about defining himself and why he should believe president. let's listen. >> this november, we'll face a defining decision. this election will be about principle, freedom, and opportunity will be on the ballot. i'm offering a real choice, a

only 12% thought that for rick santorum. wolf, this is an overwhelming bundle of numbers for mitt romney right now and why we can so easily say this is the way maryland voters went today in the republican primary. >> good numbers for mitt romney indeed. thanks very much, tom. we'll check back with you throughout the night. one quick note. by the end of the night on the democratic side it looks official. president obama will have enough delegates to ensure his renomination. he had no opposition, so that's not much of a surprise, obviously, as well. but let's bring in our panel. joining us, our political pan list gloria and donna. also ari fleischer. i want to get a quick initial thought from all of you. not a huge surprise that he wins in maryland, but you know what, maryland is on the border with pennsylvania, his home state was a crushing win for mitt romney today. >> that's right. and what rick santorum will say if he loses in wisconsin as well is that he's heading into pennsylvania. that's where he's going to be this even

put a nail in the coffin of rick santorum. the campaign adviser said to me, we won in massachusetts with 70% of the vote, romney's home state. gingrich won in georgia. santorum should win in pennsylvania. in many ways, they're trying to build up expectations for that april 24th date, hoping that really is the end of the road for santorum before may, where he could find success in north carolina and texas. they're hoping to defeat him, adding new staff and opening an office even in the state of pennsylvania. kris? >> all right, peter alexander. thanks. mitt romney has been on the campaign trail answering questions, and sometimes he gets questions like this. take a listen from yesterday's town hall. >> are you worried about women voters? >> i'm worried about all voters. i want to make sure we win them all. >> if his poll numbers are right here and his poll numbers have been that he is losing women voters, how does he win them back? talking about ann romney as his secret weapon. >> ann romney is not a secret anymore. she is a ver

if they stay behind rick santorum, that's good news for him there. if, however, they listen to paul ryan and other people the tea party like who have endorsed mitt romney, that could be bad news for him. look at this other number that came out today of who came out to vote. very conservative 31, somewhat conservative 31 wkt, moderate to liberal, 38%. the other thing that was interesting is the degree to which people said they were evangelical or born-again christians. that was a small percentage compared to what rick santorum has enjoyed in other states so that kind of takes it out of his wheelhouse. this is the one that interests me the most. you ask people what's the most important candidate quality today. of all the people we talked to, look at this, right experience, strong moral character, this matters. these are the two that rick santorum has played with, true conservative, strong moral character. but you're right, almost as many people just care can they defeat president obama in the fall. that's a very telling and very important number. >> an

her answer is rick santorum is pro-life. rick santorum is pro-life. i can't hear you. >> i have to ask you about something he said about holland and euthanize ya. i don't know if you read about that on the blogs. he stated that people wear bracelets saying do not euthanize me and people are involuntarily ueuthanized. do you remember him saying that? >> a lot of these things are what's in his life. he's a strong pro-life person. that comes from life to natural death. those are the issues that are important to the people of me america and that have come out to look for him. >> not asking about what h in his heart. your candidate said all of these things about ta country called the netherlandss which is a full place full of real people called dutch people. he said things that are not true. will recorrehe correct these th? he's pro-life. her answer again is rick santorum is pro-life. he's pro-life. did i mention he's pro-life? >> the government says the em bass si says the figures are not correct. he gave a wrong picture of the dutch euthanasia rules. >>

rick santorum is out. here's what he said, your candidate, in leaving the campaign, announcing it this afternoon. let's watch. >> ladies and gentlemen, we made the decision getting into this race that our kitchen table, that while this presidential race for us is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign, we are not done fighting. we are going to continue to fight for those voices, we're going to continue to fight for the americans who stood up and gave us that air under our wings that no political expert would have ever expected. >> no one would have expected it. we all. nobody believe. that's pretty far right, because i think it is. >> i think he was the second to last campaign that really mattered. why did he quit? i think that in order to secure the amount of delegates we needed to, and a few things had to happen. we had to do well in pennsylvania and push all those delegates and say. z and then in third was texas. it looked like it was going to happen last week, a big movement was afoot -- >> he d

the party will not turn to rick santorum. he got out now so he didn't get the rest of the republicans angry at them, the republicans sort of the brass of the republican party angry at him. but the truth of the matter is that he is not the bob dole. he was not country the country country the country country country country this was his chance. his chance was to be the opposition to an otherwise very unpopular candidate. there is no space tore country for that after a certain point. there is not going to be in this country country any space. >> the reason texas is so relevant, i want to let everybody know because if he can't get all of the delegates in texas, he stands almost no chance of being able to catch mitt romney. if he has no mathematical chance of that and he might lose his home state, that combines for what you saw today. now that he is out of the race we put together a little homage to his campaign. >> game on! join the fight. >> i believe in good and evil. >> we always need a jesus candidate. >> this is a very hosti

right now, this is the chance, rick santorum. hopefully, we will show that here in wisconsin. >> we are all committed to defeating barack obama. >> whoever wins the republican contest has to reset for a challenging general election with president obama and vice-president biden. this mornings vice-president biden said he is not so sure that his team will win, but if the voters listen to what both sides are saying, they will let him keep his job. >> they are just saying straightup, straightup hathey believe. so in that sense, i think this is going to be an incredibly stark choice that the american people are going to have. not just on the economy, but social policy, as well as educational policy. i think across the board, they have been very straight forward about where they are. so in that sense, god love them, they are want hiding the ball. >> the republicans have been dedicating campaign resources to wisconsin this week. one of their senators, ron johnson, endorsed governor romney this morning, on top of endorsements from senato