when you go state by state, you get the makings of what could be a competitive election. republicans are confident about ohio. no republican in modern times has not won the presidency without carrying ohio. then you see romney would be in striking distance. could he windows 95 there? president obama say thinks the auto bailout will put michigan in his column. three states on the map, new mexico, virginia and iowa. can president obama keep virginia in the democratic column? if he does, you could come down to a race that comes down to tiny iowa and tiny new hampshire. this is just a hypothetical. but you see this, 266 to 262. the winners of new hampshire, romney thinks that's his stake. i can give you 266 and an election night we're waiting maybe, we have to call carolyn in iowa to help us out. right now, the polls show president obama with a healthy lead.

however, if you go state by state, you could get a map that looks like that, which is a tough battle from now until november. >> nen who thinks, john, that this race is all sewn up in either direction, they are mistaken. it is wide open right now. it will be fierce. it will be intense. and it will be is ugly. i have no doubt about that. if you think some of the rhetoric was intense, if you think some of those negative ads were intense and ugly mopg the republicans, just wait. ashleigh, i'll get ready for "the situation room" in an hour, but i know you're getting ready to hear from the president of the united states this hour. >> but before i go there, i want to give you breaking news as well on this announcement. i just got off the phone with the national campaign spokesperson for rick santorum. he said they all had a conference call last night, all the senior visitor sors, and then just about 10 minutes before this news conference

where rick santorum announced themp stepping down, they had a conference call with the rest of the staff. they weren't even informed about the announcement until ten minutes before making the announcement at 1:50 this afternoon. and he told me they had a call from mitt romney about scheduling an official endor endorsement from senator santorum. that call happened this afternoon and they're trying to make some scheduling plans. mitt romney would like it to happen sooner rather than later. they have not scheduled that meeting to discuss the possibility of a santorum endorsement for mitt romney. but i said it's inevitable, isn't it? he said i wouldn't say it's inevitab inevitable. i said could you repeat that? he said i wouldn't say it's inevitable. we're in the discussion plans right now in terms of trying to schedule a meeting to discuss the possibility of that endorsement for mitt romney. some fascinating mechanics of

how this played out and how the staff was informed. by the way, i asked about the plans for the staff, what happens with all of rick santorum's staff members? have they been approached be i any of the other campaigns, they they just found out. it's so early, nobody knows anything at this point. but it is what it is, you close up a campaign and we'll go through the mechanics of that as well. time to reset. obviously some serious breaking news. rick santorum announcing officially he's suspending his campaign, dropping out of the race for the republican nomination. we'll suspend the campaign effective today. we are not done fighting. obviously very big news for the senator who picked up 275 delegates in this month's long bat pl .but could not come anywhere near at delegate number mitt romney has picked up, 659

delegates. and by the way, leading into the campaign, and the race in his home state of pennsylvania, he was leading in the polls there, the latest poll had him leading over mitt romney 41-35. so whether that would have ended up as an embarrassment some aid it might if there was a loss or not, ehe's out and it's all over by the crying at that point. i want to take you live to jim acosta. h he's been following the campaign and had this news very early on. my assumption is the mood is somewhat dismal and dim and certainly from the words of hogan giddly, a little confused for a lot of people who worked for the senator. >> we are under the impression that rick santorum will be going to a previously scheduled event later on this eej with dr. james

dobson. but here on forward, he's no longer essentially a presidential candidate at this point. he did say that he is ending his presidential race and he talked about -- and ashleigh and i were talking about this close to the top of the last hour, that the family considerations with his daughter bella, worn with a rare genetic disorder did play a part in this decision that was made over the weekend and then finally made last night by rick santorum. he talked at length during the speech about his daughter bella and how she was an inspiration out on the campaign trail. he talked about how he saw signs that said, we're voting for bella's dad. and that obviously you could tell meant a lot to the former pennsylvania senator. but keep in mind, there's pretty big political reasons he's getting out of the race right now. you mentioned one, he does live in northern virginia right now. had he lost the state, i think

that would have been a fatal blow to any kind of future presidential cam bigss for rich santorum. getting out now means that that doesn't happen, he doesn't have to worry about that. it preserves any future potential planning for presidential run. it's also a big favor he's doing for the republican party and mitt romney, even though there may be bad blood there, ashleigh. >> you mentioned future plans and plans down the road. that's chicago a lot of people are going to wonder about. by the way, i want to draw the alert down to our viewers. on the right hand side of the screen is president obama getting ready to address a crowd in boca raton. the people who he's probably reaching out so for fundraising he's also there to tell them he's supporting the buffet rule which means more taxes for the

wealthy. he's thanking the guests, i'll go to him in just a moment as soon as he gets into the heart of what he has to say this afternoon. but jim acosta, mending those fences. this is going to be a big issue. some of the last big santorum was that he was calling mitt romney the worst republican to put up against mitt romney, especially with regard to obamacare. those are strident comments and made a lot of headlines. so what now in terms of trying to bridge those ugly fences? >> it was a hard fought battle. i think it's safe to say that santorum was mitt romney's toughest candidate throughout this process. santorum went through a period where he wasn't doing well.

rick stan ror wum kwouf gone on and won the ohio primary. getting back to the question why this was so difficult for rick santorum, i would imagine he was tasting it during certain moments of this campaign, that he was very close to being on the verge of knocking mitt romney out of this race. and he came ever so close every time he got that opportunity and just never really got that point. i think that's part of the reason why this is so difficult. but to hear that long speech in this room here in gettysburg and to not hear the words i'm not getting behind mitt romney or i'll do whatever i can to see mitt romney elected president of the united states, you can't really emphasize that enough. that is a pretty big predicament for the romney campaign. they want santorum in their worner. they need rick santorum, maybe more than santorum needs romney at this point.

>> i just got off the phone as i said with the national campaign spokesman who said it is not an inevitability that this endorsement is going to happen. we're scheduling meetings. we have to have meetings and we're not scheduling it just yet. it's in progress. but it's not an inevitability. as we're waiting to dip into the president for a moment, we just had a reaction from ron paul, a statement about rick santorum getting out of the race. congratulations on santorum running such a spirited campaign. dr. paul is now the last and real conservative alternative to romney. we plan on continuing to run hard, secure delegates and press the fight for limited constitutional government.

quote from gingrich, i am committed to staying in this a is all the way to tampa so that the conservative movement has a real choice. i humbly ask senator santorum's supporters to visit newt.org to join us as we bring these values to tampa. we know well only a conservative can protect life, se defend the constitution, restore jobs and growth and return to a balanced budget. so the race is on for the heart of conservative voters. and of course, that endorsement, if it does come from rick santorum will be key for mitt romney who has sputtered along, trying to harness the interest of a lot of those supporters. let me get you down to the president who is speaking live, pushing nor what you see on the screen, the buffet rule. attacks, they called for the millionaires and billionaires. have a listen.

>> it needs to be fair and everybody needs to play by the same set of rules. that's what the debate in america is about right no uh. this is note just another run of the mill gab fest in washington. this is a defining issue of our time. this is a make or break moment for the middle class and everybody aspiring to get into the middle class. and we've got two very different visions of our future. and the choice between them could not be clear. now keep in mind, i start from the belief that government cannot and should not try to solve every single probable we've got. government is not the answer to everything. 34i first job in chicago when i wasn't much older than most of

you was working with a group of catholic churches on the south side of chicago in low income neighborhoods to try to featherweight you're out how could we improve the schools and how could we strengthen neighborhoods and strengthen families. i saw the work that some of these churches did did more for people in their communities than any government program could. i believe since government is funded by you that it has an obligation to be efficient and effective. that's why we eliminated dozens of programs that weren't work, announced hundreds of regulatory reforms to stave businesses and tax pairs billions of dollars.

weave put annual domestic spending op the path to become the smallest share of our kbhi since eisenhower was in our white house, which was before i was born much less you being born. i believe the free market is the greatest sfors for economic progress in human history. but here's the thing. i also agree with our first republican president, a guy from my home state, a guy with a beard named abraham lincoln. and what lincoln said, we should

do together what we cannot sdoo do as well for ourselves. that's the definition of a 1345r9 government. that's why we have a smart military, to keep us safe. i suppose we can grab whatever is around the house and try to defend our country, but we do better when we do it together. and we've got the best military in the history of the world, with the greatest men and women in uniform. we pay for that. that's why we public schools to educate our children. if we didn't have public schools, there would be some families who would do very well. they would i ford private schools, they would home school, but there's a lot of kids that would fall through the cracks. so we do that together. it's one of the reasons we laid down railroads and highways. we can't build a highway for ourselves. we've got to get our neighbors and our friends to say let's go build a road.

that's why we supported the research and the technology that saved lives and created entire industries. the internet, gps. all of those things were created by us together. not by ourselves. it's the reason why we contribute to programs like medicare and med skad and social security and unemployment insurance. because we understand no matter how response fwli we live our live, eventually, we're going get older. at in i point, one of us might face bad times or bad luck or a crippling illness or a layoff. the idea that together we build this safety net, this base of support, that allows all of us to take risks and to try new

things and maybe get a new job because we know that there's this base we can rely on. so these investments in education, research and health care, they haven't been made as some grand scheme to redistribute wealth from one group to another. this is not some socialist dream. they have been made by republicans and republicans for generations. because they benefit all of us. and they lead to strong growth. that's why we've made these investments. if you're here at fau because you got financial aid.

>> a student loan a scholarship, which by the way was how i was able to finance my college education pap that's how michelle got her college education. that doesn't just benefit you. it benefits whatever company that might end up hiring you and profiting from your skills. if one of you goes on to become the next steve jobs or mark zuckerberg or one of you discovers the next medical break through, think about all the people whose lives will be changed for the better. we made an investment for you. we'll get a return on the investment. when we guarantee security for the elderly or people out of work, that doesn't make us weak.

we're weak when fewer americans can buy the products that businesses are selling. when fewer people are willing to take risks and start the new business because if it doesn't work out, they worry about feeding that are families. what drags our entire economy down is when the benefits of economic growth and productivity only go to the few, which is what has been happens for over a decade now. and the gap between those at the very, very top and everybody else keeps growing wider and wider and wider. in this country, prosperity doesn't trickle down from the top few, it has always come from the bottom up, a grow, strong middle class. that's how a generation who went to college on the gi will, including my grandfather helped

build the most prosperous economy the world has ever known. that's why a ceo like henry ford maid a point to pay his workers enough money so they could buy the cars that they were building. because he understood, there's no point in me having all that and nobody buying my cars. i have to pay my workers enough to buy the cars. and that creates more business and more prosperity for everybody. this is not about a few people doing well. we want people to do well. that's great. but it's about everybody doing well. that's another essence of america. that's why immigrants come to our shores, the idea was it doesn't matter what your name is, what you look like. you can be named obama. you can still make it if you try.

and yet, we keep on having the same argument with folks who don't seem to understand how it is that america got built. flst a fundamental difference in how we think we move this country forward. those folks think if we remove the regulations that keep our air or water clean or protect or consumers, if we would just convert these investments that we're making through our government in education and research and health care, if we just turn those into tax cuts,

especially for the wealthy, then somehow the economy is going to grow stronger. that's the theory. and here's the news. we tried this for eight years before i took office. we tried it. out's not like we didn't try it. at the beginning of the last deck wade, americans got two huge tax cuts, 2001 and 2003. meanwhi meanwhile, insurance companies, financial institutions, they were all allowed to write their own rules or write around rules. we were told the same thing we're being told now. this is going to lead to greater job growth, greater prosperity for everybody. guess what? it didn't.

the rich got richer, corporations made big profits but we also had the slowest job growth in half a century. the typical american family actually saw their incomes fall by about 6%, even though the economy was growing. because more and more of that growth was just going to a few, and the average middle class american wasn't seeing it in their paychecks. health care premiums skyrocketed. financial institutions started making bets with other people's money that were reckless, and then our entire financial system almost collapsed. do you remember that? it wasn't that long ago. i know you guys are young, but it was pretty recent. now, some of you may be science majors in here. usually -- [ applause ] >> i like that. need more scientists, need more engineers.

i was not a science major myself, but i enjoyed science when i was young. as a scientist, if an experiment fails badly, you can learn from that. you can learn from data that teaches you stuff. you can expand your knowledge, but you don't keep on doing the same thing over and over again. you go back to the drawing board. you try something different. a lot of the folks peddling the trickle down theory ises is, according to members of congress and person running for a certain office right now who shall not

be named they're doubling down on these old broken down theories. instead of moderating their views even slightly, instead of saying you know what, we didn't really work and we almost had a second grade depression and maybe we should try something different, they have doubled down. they proposed a budget that showers the wealthiest americans with even more tax cuts. and then pays for these tax cuts by gutting investments in education, medical research and clean energy, in health care. if the cuts they're proposing are spread out evenly, then 10 million college students including some of you, would

sigh your financial aid cut by an average of more than $1,000 each. now, thousands of medical research grants for things like is alzheimer's and cancer and aids would be eliminated. tens of thousands of research es and students and teachers could lose their jobs. our investments in clean energy that are making us less dependent on imported oil would be cut by nearly 1/5. by the time you retire, instead of being enrolled in medicare like today's seniors are, you would get a voucher to pay for your health care plan. but here's the problem, if health care rises more than the amount of the vouch e, the rest of it comes out of your pockets. if the voucher isn't enough to buy a plan with a specific doctor or care that you need, you're out of luck.

and by the middle of the next century, by the middle of this century, excuse me, by about 2050 at a time when most of you will have families of your own, funding for most of the investments i talked about today would have been almost completely eliminated altogether. now,s in not an exaggeration. and when i said this about a week ago, the republicans objected. they said we didn't specify all these cuts. well, right, you didn't because you knew people wouldn't accept them. so you just gave a big number. so we've done is done the mooth. this is what it would mean. they said well, we didn't specifically propose to cut student loans. okay, if you don't cut student loans, then you have to cut basic research even more. the money has got to come from

somewhere. you can't give over $4 trillion of additional tax cuts including to folks like me who don't need them and weren't asking for them, and it just comes from some magic tree somewhere. fw they say the if the is making this stuff up. no, we're doing the math .if they want to dit put anything we said right now, they should show us specifically where they're going to make those cuts. they're not proposing to cut defense. it's not coming out of there. so show me.

it's a place where prosperity doesn't trickle down from the top. it grows from the bottom. it grows outwards from the heart of a vibrant middle class. we cannot stop investing in things that create the middle class. and we certainly shouldn't be going doing it just so the ri richest americans can get another tax cut. we should be strengthening those investments. we should making college more affordab affordable. we should be expanding our investment in clean energy.

people say we should be taking these cuts because our deficit is too high. our deficit is too high. and it might have a shred oof credibility if you didn't find out they wanted to spend $4.6 trillion in lower tax rates. i don't know how many of you are math majors, business majors. you can't pay down a deficit by pak taking in $4.6 trillion of less money, especially when you're denying that you're going to be making all these cuts. it doesn't add up. and $1 trillion of the tax cuts they propose would be going to people who make more than $150,000 a year. 245 that's an average of at least $150,000, again, we're just taking the numbers with the details they've given us, and you spread it out, that averages to at least $150,000 for every

millionaire, billionaire in the country. each millionaire and billionaire on average would get $150,000. some folks would get a lot more. this is a tax break that i might get that i really don't need. i got treated pretty well in this life. 50i78 doing all right. malia and sasha are going to be able to go to college. michelle is doing fine. so understand what this means. here's what $150,000 means. $150,000, this is what each millionaire and billionaire would get on average, this could pay for a tax credit that would

make a year of clenl more affordable for students like you. plus a year of financial aid for students like you. plus a year of prescription drug savings for wurn of your grandparents. plus a new computer lab for this school, plus a year of medical care for a veteran in your family who went to war and risked their lives fighting for this country. plus a medical research grant for a chronic disease. plus a year's salary for a firefighter or a police officer. $150,000 could play for all of these things combined. think about that.

so what's the best way to make the economy stronger? do we give $150,000 in tax breaks to every millionaire and billionaire in this koun friday? or do we make investments in research and education and health care and our veterans? i want folks to get rich in this country. i think it's wonderful that people are successful. that's part of the american dream. you know, it is great that you make a product you create a service, you do it better than anybody else, that's what our system is all about. but understand the share of our national income going to the top 1% has climbed to levels we haven't seen since the 1920s.

the folks who are benefitting from this are paying taxes at one of the lowest rates in 50 years. you might have heard of this, sbu warren buffett is paying a lower tax rate than his secretary. now that's wrong. do we want to keep giving those tax breaks to folks who don't need them. or give them to warren buffett who definitely doesn't need them. or bill gates who already said i don't need them. or do we want to invest in things that keeps our economy growing and keeps us secure? that's the choice.

in the next few weeks we're going to vote on something called the buft rule. if you make more than $1 million a year. i'm not saying you have $1 million. i'm not saying you saved up all of your money and you made smart vems and now you've got your nest egg, i'm saying you're bringing in $1 million or more a year, what the rule says is you should pay the same percentage of your income in taxes as middle class families do. you shouldn't get special tax break, you shouldn't be able to get special loopholes. and if we do that, then it makes it affordable for us to say, for those people who make under

$250,000 a year, like 98% of american families do, then your taxes don't go up. and we can still make those investments in things like student loans and college and science and infrastructure and things that make this country going forward great. this this is where you come in. this is why i came to see you. i mean, it's nice to see you. the weather has been nice. you guys have been a wonderful audience. i learned about the burrowing owl. so there were all kinds of reasons for me to want to come down here. but one of the reasons i came is i want you to call your members of congress, i want you to write them an e-mail, i want you to tweet them. tell them, don't give tax breaks to folks like me who don't need them. tell them to start investing in

things that will help the economy grow. tell them if we want to bring down the deficit, let's do it in a fair way. remind them who they work for. tell them to do the right thing. >> we're listening to the president. he's talking about the warren buffett rule and it is a big one, what some people are calling the cam pane-ready tax proposal. i want to talk, we've got poppy h harlow standing by and jessica yellin. this rule seems to be doing pretty well for them in the polls, if is anything else. i think a lot of people still have a lot to find out about it, but it sounds to be in their favor, doesn't it? >> the pooling shows that the majority of americans do like the concept of this, as it shows 64% of americans are in favor of the idea of this.

even 49% of republicans say theylike the basic concept, ashleigh is that anybody who makes $1 million or more should pay a 30% tax a it. it's unusual to see anyone campaign on a tax increase for anyone. it show what is an unusual environment we are in because of the wobbly state of the economy. >> especially at a time when he's not only in boca raton to talk about the warren buffett rule but also to try to raise some money. who is it exactly he's targeting in his fundraising today? it kngt be the millionaires and billionaires can it? >> no. he's trying to fundraise from people who have no money. he is in some of the wealthiest parts oof the america right now. he was in a part of west palm beach. he niece flood, florida, golden beach, which i hadn't heard of before. but these are some of the wealthier pockets of florida to try to get big checks. i would point out that while we've paid a lot of attention to

the republican race, the obama campaign has spent more than $1 million already on its efforts in organizing across the country. they're raising big bucks. >> just fascinating. stand by if you will because cnn's poppy harlow is here. these are some of the well this iest constituents of his and yet he has absolutely no problem hopscotching from one event where he's calling millionaires and billionaire, not saying fat cats. he reserves that for wall street. but he's suggesting they need to pay more. he's able to do the fundraising. >> he's able to do it. case in point with warren buffe buffett, right? who this tax proposal is named after is one of his biggest sup poerts both in spirit and financially. i talked to him about the buffet rule, asked him why this rule, why does this country need this right now? of course, the white house did

call wor ren buffet after name this proposal after him. >> at a time when we're going to be asking 300 million people to tighten their belts and maybe give up some promises they've heard from their government, maybe pay a little bit more in some way, to not have ultra rich pay rates similar to what they play i think is just wrong and we can solve it by a minimum tax. >> this is the minimum tax he's talking about. if you make $1 million plus, this is anything, your salary, did i have did he understand, capital gain, rental income this proposal means that is you would pay a minimum, at least 30% in taxes across the board. what the tax policy center is saying this would mean about 35% of the rich americans would may higher taxes than they currently do today. here's the issue, how much money does this actually raise? how much does this reduce the deficit in this country? not that much. $47 billion over the next 10 years. less than $5 billion a year.

let's talk about the big picture where $15.6 trillion as a nation in the hole right now, and over the next decade we're expected to add somewhere between $3 trillion and $11 trillion in deficits on top of the $15 trillion now. this is pennies on the dollar when you talk about it. but it is so political. >> that's exactly it. maybe pennies on the dollar, but it is a pound up in congress. they're going to vote on this proposal in the senate? >> on monday. >> those who vote against it? >> yes, jay carney said they are going to have on record people who voted ghens this. and jessica yellin pointed out, interesting if we would see campaign commercials. you heard the president in his address just saying this is a make or break moment for the middle class. it's important to note that if this were to pass, if there's no expectation that it would get nearly the support it needs to pass, but it doesn't change the situation for the middle class, it changes the situation for the richest americans, but it doesn't change big picture, the

situation for the middle class. the white house is arguing, yes, it does. it goes towards closing that gap. but when you actually look at the numbers, this ast small step. this is not reducing taxes or adding benefits for the middle class or those struggling right now. >> if you ask conservative, they say sthst class warfair. the dough was down 78 points. i think it was down 200. >> a lot has to do with the wobbly global economy. this isn't a reaction to what president obama is talking about. this is not expecting to get any in the 123459 on monday. this isn't a reaction, but of course, we're watching the market very closely. we've seen steep losses four days in a row now. >> as we see the president wrapping up, thanks to you. always good to see you. my thanks to jessica yellin. you've been watching, i've been watching, wolf blitzer, john king, jessica yellin and everyone else in washington watching the major news. rick santorum bowing out of the

race today 37 making the news to not only us but just ten minutes prior to us, telling h iz entire staff, he's out, he's done. the race is over for me. coming up, a little more color and what this means for mitt romney and oh, yeah, the other two candidates also vying for the republican nomination. do they have a chance now? meripl 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. ♪ do about medicare and social security... security. that's what matters to me... me? i've been paying in all these years... years washington's been talking at us, but they never really listen...

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>> well come back.

rick santorum has told his staff, hold the public, told the world that he's out of the race for the republican nomination. ehis staff speaking about a possible romney endorsement said it's not an inevitability yet. have a listen to how it played out just earlier this afternoon. we made the decision to get into this race at kitchen table against all the odds. and we made the decision over the kitchen table while this campaign is over for me, we are not done fighting. we are going to skont 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 allows us to

accomplish things that no political expert would have ever expected. >> it was an emotional announcement and an emotional hour in gettysburg, pennsylvania, at what was supposed to be a campaign event, but soon turned into a news conference. and there you saw it, officially pow bowing out of the race. this as wolf blitzer put it effectively seals the deal for mitt romney as the new campaign begins, the campaign for president instead of the campaign for the delegates. but you know what, 11 primaries. he won 11 primaries, pulled in 275 delegates. so not half bad for the former senator from pennsylvania. i want to bring in jim o'toole, the politics editors for the "pittsburgh post gazette." he's followed rick santorum since the start of his political career. were you surprised that this happened now? and say the race didn't get at least to pennsylvania because he was polling well in his home start.

>> aside from his family issues, which are genuine, the political argument was going against him staying here. he was clearly in danger of losing pennsylvania, which would have put a sour end to a truly remarkable political story of how he revived his career after his 2006 defeat in the senate race. >> i want to bring in -- sorry, go ahead, go ahead jim. >> sorry, just to say that there was some suspense over when this was going to happen. not on whether it was going to happen. >> as woft blitzer put it, this

is the official bet gining to the presidential race and this seals the deal for mitt romney. i can't imagine that anyone disagrees and yet, dafd gergen, we're not hearing from his campaign that an endorsement is an inevitability. >> it's a surprise and otherwise a wise departure from the race. this is to avoid an embarrassment and to put a period at the end of the a remarkable rise in his career, a revival of his career. i do believe he will embrace romney before this is over. but i'm surprisehood edidn't do it today. some people when they leave think i need my day, then he'll get his day. >> newt gingrich is still going into florida, asking the advi supporters of rick santorum to

go to h iz website. what are the odds that gipg going is going to get a conservative boost from santorum's voters? or do you think his supporters will coalesce behind the leader? >> i don't think so. i think this is basically over because many people are starting to coalesce behind mitt romney. i tell you, i talked to a very senior person who advises governor romney. and from my perspective, romney wrapped this up, but he is now an underdog to president obama. the senior adviser to is romney feels just the opposite way. he thinks romney is not only going to win but win big. the economy is much worse than people understand and that they're very, very in a very bullish mood. >> and is this going to be -- since wolf said it, i'll bring it in, is this going to be the republican campaign that brings us gas prices on every stump, as well as the current job situation and the current state of the economy? is that really message number

one? >> no, i don't think that gas prices per say is a message number one, just as the buffet rule wasn't message number one with the obama people but those are important pieces of their overall message. he's going he'll argue three years of economic failure that leave us with fewer jobs that are a long, long way from our goals and president obama essentially is going to argue, you know, we have two paths here. one that supports people who are blue collar and ensure fairness even as we regain our footing and mitt romney will argue that mitt romney is a radical proposal and a radical path that is meant to hurt the rich and working people. so that's going to be the essential -- the two arguments and they're now shaken up. >> just quickly, david, just to wrap this up. >> sure. >> i say this in every campaign as it is buttoning up and the

candidates that clearly don't look like they get along ask suddenly do. how quickly do you think these two candidates will take to mend fences and it's inevitable that at some point the other two candidates will join the force as well, but these two in particular? >> i think fairly quickly. rick santorum did have the grace to call mitt romney today before he made the statement and did agree to get together at another time and that's probably where the endorsement will come, and i think they'll button it up pretty quickly because there's a general agreement among republicans that the main campaign is about trying to find a new president. >> you do see rick santorum as a potential running mate for mitt romney? >> very, very doubtful. mitt romney will be looking for someone who can carry a key state and with santorum bowing out now from pennsylvania suggests he thought there was a good chance he will lose his own state. so i don't see a santorum

delivers pennsylvania for romney whereas portman mike deliver ohio or marco rubio might make the difference in florida. >> last quinnipiac poll had santorum leading over mitt romney. >> he was closing rapidly. >> it was prep inus to, to say the least. >> thank you so much. >> we appreciate it. you, too. up next, former president george w. bush rarely has spoken out since leaving the white house, but guess what? he did so today. he was in fine form and he stepped in a big-time fight, too. back in just a moment.

>> we'll give you a rare glimpse right now of president obama's predecessor in office george w. bush, bush 43, you might know him as, and he was talking today. he was doing in new york and talked about life as a private citizen. have a look. >> when you get out of office it's kind of a daunting feeling and you're given it your all and all of a sudden you've got some years ahead of you and i've decided to stay out of the limelight. i had plenty of the limelight. i don't think it's good, frankly, for our country to undermine our president, and i don't intend to do so, but i do intend to remain involved in

areas that i'm interested in. i -- i'm often asked if i miss the presidency, and i really don't. i enjoyed it, and it was an unbelievable experience and it's inconvenient having to stop at stop lights coming over here, but i guess i miss that. this july the bush institute is publishing a book, it's got to be a staggering thing for some of the cynics there, and i publish a book and the institute is publishing a book and they didn't think i could read, much less publish a book. >> that's why he's in fine form. he stepped in saying i wish it were aren't called the bush tax cuts and he stumbled and he said i wish they were called the everyone tax cuts and he had a lot to say about the current president, president obama who is in boca ratton, boosting the taxes for the millionaires and

billionaires. actress ashley judd with the media making a big deal about her appearance. one recent experience really crossed the line. we'll speak live with model and actress emmy. here she is, beautiful girl. we're back in 60 seconds.

not sure if you saw this. it's considered to be ashley judd's puffy face. kind of a silly headline, but it sure got a lot of people talking and in a new opinion piece ashley judd wrote for "the daily beast," she's firing back of those people that are critical of her appearance. we have the before and after picture when ashley judd was photographed with what appeared to be a slightly puffy face. well, that was the beginning and people began to speculate that she'd had work done or that she'd gained a whole bunch of weight and judd said it was the

result of steroids that she'd been taking to treat an illness and she was steaming mad that media reports came to conclusions about her looks and i am joined by actress and model emmy. >> this is not the first time that we have seen this critique when someone looks different than they maybe did a year or five or eight years ago. >> that's right. >> why are actresses and models and anybody else, for that matter, mostly women, such fair game for this kind of criticism? >> absolutely women. it seems that the ones that are most physical are the best targets and it's not exactly fair. >> i wouldn't say that ashley judd has made her money based on her looks. she's a serious actress and has done some great work in regard to the united nations and she's not on "swimsuit illustrated" flaunting her body. >> but even if she was, we shouldn't even do that as well. she's been involved in makeup campaigns and all of that and her point in "the daily beast"

is we've got to stop picking women apart. it's not good for girls and it's not goed for our self-esteem and absolutely abhorrent to know what's going on and to know that she's going through an illness and the speculation about her having cosmetic surgery. >> how about the doctors showing up, and say i've never treated her, but she's had work done here and work done there. >> it is an injustice because she is a major, major voice for women and children beyond her boundaries. what a wonderful ambassador for the united states for the work she does and it's unfortunate. >> what about the criticism coming most heavily from other women? >> i just wish that we could bridge that gap. >> it's getting worse. >> it is getting worse and we don't have to have it be as bad as it is. women want to get along with each other and forget about this competition for the men and everything. every pot has its cover in my belief and we have to take good care of ourselves and stop