[ slap! slap! slap! slap! ] ow, ow! [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum ta tum tum tums and welcome to a special edition of "ac 360." i'm anderson cooper. this is shaping up to be a big night for a presidential candidate who hasn't had a win since iowa. cnn is projecting rick santorum will win the missouri primary. he's leading in the other two states, in minnesota as well as in colorado. the numbers in colorado, very small percentage of the vote in, only 1 persh of the vote in. but in minnesota, there you see, 43% for santorum. ron paul at second. and gingrich, 13% of the votes

counted there. colorado, big lead, but only 1% of the votes in. santorum may be riding a wave in delivering a setback for front runner mitt romney. it's still very early. a lot of drama ahead. we'll check in with wolf. >> let's go out to colorado. paul is standing by in aroura, colorado. paul, tell us what is going on right now. >> they are just wrapping up, in fact, they announced the totals, 22 precincts in this room. that bell weather county, mitt romney, 78, 28 for santorum, and 20 for pule. so a great night for mitt romney in this room, and more shots of democracy at its best. you can see them collecting some of the money here. yeah, she says we're collecting instead of spending. she's a mitt romney supporter. tonight, they had to raise the money to hold this in here. 22 precincts in all in the

county. this county divided very evenly like much of colorado where you have a third republican, a third democrat, and a third independent. as i said, 78 votes here for romney tonight. more than doubled up the rest of the field, wolf. >> from aurora, colorado, to minnesota, what do we know there, chris? >> well, wolf, here in scots county, just 20 miles out of the state, it's a very conservative county. one of the three gathering sites with several precincts reporting have turned in their numbers. where we're standing is a computer library. these are official representatives from the county. they have given up the first numbers so far, and some from the neighboring town. they have a setup likes ours here. they had 289 people casting votes. santorum had 110. he's been doing well so far tonight.

mitt romney came in number two, 79. ron paul, 77, and gingrich at 22. where we were here, there were 14 more precincts. that's what they're tabulating right now. they'll have me a heads up when they do. >> thanks very much. i want to go to the magic wall, john king is standing by. i believe he's standing by. where is john king? he's coming, i'm told he's coming. john king, i was doing some major arrhyth mutic back there, you're working the magic behind the magic wall, right? >> we can't change the votes, but we have to update the programs every now and then. what are we going to call this, the sweater vest center, he won iowa, and he haasant won since. won missouri, we projected that. the state of minnesota, this would give santorum a victory. only 15% of the vote in. a comfortable lead at the moment. it would matter because it would give rick santorum two leads tonight. he has missouri.

no delegates at stake in missouri, but it's a state where he'll get momentum, be able to say, hey, let's raise money going on. minnesota matter? this is 2008. mitt romney won minnesota with 41% of the vote. mccain, who was the ultimate nominee, 22% of the vote. romney carried the state four years ago. you'll hear that without a doubt from santorum tonight if he can defeat romney in the state of minnesota. and if you go back to the map, this is the one we're going to watch carefully. this is very, very, very early. we don't want to jump to any conclusions, but santorum winning minnesota. leading in minnesota. we're starting to get the votes in colorado. 1% in right here. 50%, again, i want to go back in time to 2008, romney won colorado with 50% of the vote. whaument you're sieeing here isa scenario the romney campaign will try to explain away, what we're seeing is what happened to john mccain four years ago.

he clinched the nomination with his win in the state of florida, early, in february, and then if you look at the map, huckabee won a bunch of states, romney won a bunch of states. romney, the dark red, mccain, the lighter red. and john mccain lost 15 states after essentially wrapping up the nomination in florida. that will be the explanation from camp romney. but wolf, without a doubt, as you look at this, this goes in tonight, it will be a major boost for santorum. i would be interested to see what our panelists think. you'll have santorum going after romney and a santorum/gingrich campaign for the evangelical support and for money. as we move on, it gets more expensive. not a lot of money was spint in minnesota, missouri, and colorado. when you turn to the bigger states, 155 delegates at stake in march.

>> if santorum goes on and has a spectacular night tonight, wins in minnesota, does well in colorado, you have a huge fight under way. gingrich not necessarily going to have a good day today, but he's not going anywhere. he made that clear when we spoke with him earlier today. this battle, don't forget ron paul. he's had a decent night tonight as well. >> we're waiting to see. if he underperforms again, it would be an interesting challenge. interesting to watch. caucus states, ron paul, said are his advantage. as we watch in minnesota and colorado, ron paul's numbers are important. he believes he can win the state of maine. >> next saturday. >> next saturday, i'm going to flash through. this is what the romney campaign expected. guess what. we know that is gone and we suspect that might be gone tonight. we'll watch that come in. this is a different looking map that most people were projecting just a few days ago. and we'll watch what happens here. the question is, if rick santorum gets momentum, you spoke to speaker gingrich earlier.

he said get me to super tuesday, to march, i'll start winning. i'm going to make a guess and give that to gingrich, give that to ron paul for the sake of argument. now we're going to flash through and keep going. ron paul, and this is super tuesday. what happens if santorum is strong? gingrich needs ohio. >> that's where he is tonight. >> it counts on winning not just in the south. if santorum is strong and competing in states like this, it keeps the race going for a long period of time and forces the gingrich strategy of trying to end the month -- they're saying get through april in relative parity with romney. that won't do it. that state, again, this would be in play. very interesting. >> there's a lot of time between now and the end of the month come arizona and michigan have their contest. we have seen these fluctuations unfold even though you assume

romney, a lot of mormons in minnesota, his governor w fathes governor, was born there. but there's plenty of times to change. >> this will now become just as florida and nevada were firewalls at the end of january and into february for romney, these will be absolutely critical. santorum puts the wins on the board tonight, this assumes romney holds colorado. these two will become absolutely critical. another chance for romney to say, whoa, stop. and it does matter because santorum and gingrich, to compete in michigan and arizona, cost more money. hardly any -- >> they're going to have to start spending money. >> hardly any tv money was spend. most of the candidates backed off. if santorum gets momentum and money, he's had luck in the midwest. you can bet he's going to invest here, he'll come down to try to play here. that will take money and it will be interesting to see if we start jetting up the expenses of the race, romney has the most

money, and we move into march. >> anderson, a lot of dramatic developments. we're waiting to see what happens in minnesota and colorado. there could be huge upsets in the works. >> colorado will be in particularly really fascinating. how does a strong night for santorum change the race for gingrich? >> well, i think it makes it a little bit more difficult. i mean, newt gingrich presents himself as a conservative alternative to mitt romney. and newt gingrich has the southern strategy, which is super tuesday strategy, but you have to get to super tuesday on march 6th. and you know, if he does go zero for three here. >> in terms of key party votes and fund-raising, he's now a viable alternative to gingrich. >> he needs to beat romney, is on the alternative, i i beat him. if you can't beat him anywhere but south carolina, you start to

lose that argument. fundamentalists, still, romney is vulnerable if he gets taken into a one-on-one race with conservatives against him. that has to solidify if someone is going to beat romney. right now, newt and rick santorum are splitting up enough of it that it helps romney. >> you talk about money, and we talked so much about it when we didn't have ad spending. but look at the super pac, and romney outspent the super pac for santorum 41 times. money is about buying elections. it's interesting to take a step back. >> and it's going to go very negative. >> with what romney has on his side, he'll apply it to attack santorum, but santorum doesn't have the money of romney, but what he has is discipline.

he spent 22 days in the states while the other candidates spent 12 days combined. i think rick santorum is in the local news, at the bars, the bowli ing areas. >> he left to go there early. >> mitt romney, just a few days ago, seems invincible and seemed to be doing well as the electable candidate. now slipping behind obama in general election races, and just at least two hits tonight and possibly three. doesn't that sort of throw open the whole thing again? it does that, but it's unclear here. >> we have to be cautious about going too far. >> i agree with that. >> no delegates in missouri. >> and you're heading into arizona next. >> there's something here, but i wouldn't go too far. >> i agree with that, but i think there's makings of three candidates coming out of this, each with regional strength and

nobody with national strength, that gingrich could become the candidate of the south, santorum becomes the candidate of the midwest, and romney becomes the candidate of the northeast. >> we're getting reaction from the obama campaign. jessica yellin is following that. what are they saying? >> they're saying that this is a sign that mitt romney does not have the trust of the republican party, which is something you heard ari fleischer say earlier. and that he should be at a point where he can lock up the nomination now. i would add that candidate obama wasn't able to lock up the nomination at this stage himself in 2008, so it was a different dynamic, but we should keep that in mind. what is true is this entire dynamic is great for the white house. if mitt romney had swept tonight, intstead of having thi discussion, we would be turning our attention to president obama and talking instead of this about the fact he has done a 180

on his position on super pacs and his clash with the catholic church on birth control. so because we're having this fight inside the republican party instead, that keeps the focus off the president and the longer that continues, the better it is for the white house. >> you all agree with that? >> yeah. to ari's point about not overdoing this, and the white house can overdo this as well, is that we have big states coming up at the end of the month. arizona and michigan. both of those states are very good for mitt romney. >> he has to win michigan. >> right, and i would argue arizona. >> gloria, once again, they decided to violate the party's rules and go ahead of the winto, which is march 6th. >> that won't matter for the showdown in arizona. >> what matters is at the end of the day, in the middle of march, when 137 delegates are at stake,

we're going to look at the states and say, my god, this is a close race. romney doesn't have it. >> the other part of it, jessica yellin was saying the white house is happy to take the focus off some of the controversies for the president, it's also true that the negativity that romney is likely to resort to, that he goes after santorum, that negativity has been hurting him as a national candidate. and i think it will add to the burden he has to carry as a candidate winning a nomination. that's a dangerous. >> i want to break in because i want to go over to mark in the cube. our political director just to get a sense of when we may be able to project a winner in minnesota. we were already able to project a winner in missouri. let's check in with mark and also if we could find out about colorado. what are you seeing out there? >> this is unlike any election we have had so far. no entrance polls, no exit polls, we don't have any predata

to compare, so it's hard right now to make a decision when we can make the call. >> that's usually how we project things, the votes we're getting. >> that's right. so when we put it together, crush it together, go down to the quarantine room, and those guys down there are able to take that data and make a mathem mathematical projection, so we're working off the raw vote, and when we feel we have a decision, like we did in missouri, we are able to make that decision. >> is there a certain percentage of the vote you need, or is it not that clear cut? >> it's not that clear cut. a percentage of the vote, look, bigger counties mean a lot more. >> exactly, so you could get a large percentage of the vote out in a very major county and wait on that potentially to make a call in minnesota or colorado. >> but we should be able to get to minnesota before colorado? >> and again, we don't know that. what is interesting is we are really relying on volunteers to call in this information into

the central point in both of these places to make the call. this is not necessarily professional done in many ways. these are folks giving up their time to be part of the process. >> we're seeing a larger percentage of the votes in minnesota than colorado. we'll check in with mark, give you a sense of how quickly we can project a winner in either of the two states. >> thanks very much. as soon as we can, we'll project a winner in minnesota and colorado. they're counting votes in maple grove, minnesota and castle pines, colorado. when we come back, we'll check out what's going on on the ground. this is a night where so many of the pundits didn't think was important, but a hung upset in the works. rick santorum doing remarkably well. we'll see what happens in minnesota. and in colorado. we have projected he's aurlz the winner in missouri. [ male announcer ] this...is the network.

a living, breathing intelligence that is helping business rethink how to do business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ in here, machines have a voice... ♪

[ male announcer ] in here, medical history follows you... even when you're away from home. it's the at&t network -- a network of possibilities, creating and integrating solutions, helping business, and the world...work. rethink possible. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want.

ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪

very, very impressive night for santorum so far. let's take a look at missouri. we projected that santorum, the former pennsylvania senator, is the winner in miz mi. more than 100,000 votes with 55%. romney, second place, only 25%. 46,195. rick santorum has more than doubled what mitt romney has in missouri. ron paul in third. only 12% uncommitted. 4%, newt gingrich wasn't even on the ballot in missouri. impressive for santorum in missouri. in minnesota, 23%, a quarter of the vote is in. once again, look at this. rick santorum, 44%. ron paul coming in second with 27%. mitt romney, 17%.

newt gingrich, 11%. minnesota, already shaping up to be a big night for rick santorum, if rick santorum wins in minnesota, winning in missouri, that's going to be huge. let's take a look at colorado, see what is happening in colorado. early, very early numbers. rick santorum with only 1% of the vote in, got 50%. gingrich, 21%, romney, 19%, and 10% for paul. we'll get an update from colorado, more numbers coming in. this was very, very early in the process. i want to go to shannon. he's joining us from minnesota. what's the latest there? >> it's taking longer here. there are 23 precincts here. in the envelopes you see right here are the different results from the different precincts that caucused here tonight. what is happening is one of the people here, we have this woman right here, pulls out a pink sheet from the envelope. that basically shows the results, how many votes romney

got, how many ron paul got, and so on. she reads it to this person here who is entering that information into the person. we spoke with her a moment ago to try to see where the vote is kind of going. she isn't keeping tally yet. we'll stand by for that, but i want to turn over here to chuck and rob, the two people running this caucus site. gentlemen, how have things big going tonight? >> they have been going fantastic. we weren't sure how many people would show up, and it has far exceeded our expectations so far. everything has been efficient, well run. hit all our marks and we're ready for good results. >> some of the other areas of minnesota have gotten results actually in. why is it taking longer here? >> part of it is the turnout. we have higher than usual turnout in this area and we are one of the highest delegate totals in the state of minnesota, so we have a lot more votes, lot more delegates, and it takes it longer to cycle

through. >> any idea how things are going so far, where the numbers stand? >> not yet. as you can see, we're busy putti putting everything together. we'll have results fairly quick, but the reminder with the delegates, we'll get those over the next couple days. >> these two gentlemen, as i was talking to them earlier, were going to take the vote results and the envelopes and head over to a local eatery and have a little something to drink and actually hand count them themselves, but the plan changed. they started to count them here. >> thank them and all of the voters in minnesota. let's walk over to john king and take a look at the magic wall at what is going on. what is shaping up to be, who would have known, a big night for rick santorum. >> we have called the state of missouri. santorum leading in minnesota. colorado, 1%. romney, ahead, but just bearically, two votes. 11% of the votes in there. a long way to go.

the point is in colorado, a long way to go. if you come back to the midwest, santorum has won iowa, we project him the winner in missouri. in iowa, a state romney won big in 2008, can santorum hold on big. with 28% of the state in, why can't we call minnesota and romney coming in third place at the moment, why can't we call the state? we're extra cautious here, and we have good reason. you see the big cities, rochester, st. paul, minneapolis. only 21% of the vote in so far. we want to get more than that. that's where the people are. >> 22% of the population. >> a largely democratic area. 21% of the vote, not a lot of the votes. this is 21% of the precincts. we want to wait. so we want to wait to see. let's move over to st. paul right here. st. paul is here, you come here, washington county, 4.1% of the population. again, 16% of the vote, right down here, the suburban areas

between the two. we're getting more, but we want to wait until this plays out. the rochester area, 70% of the vote, so much more of the vote down there. we want to wait to be safe. also a lot of the small, rural areas, 1% of the state population. not a huge amount of the vote, but if you look at the map, 24% of the presinks. we have three quarters of the vote still out. we want to be extra cautious. if some presink comes in big, they can swing it, still a little bit, we prefer caution. >> let's go back to missouri. if you take a look at missouri, 108,000 votes already for santorum. almost 80% of the vote in. how purple is missouri right now? >> the other campaigns will say, we didn't campaign here. because it's meaningless, and we have to stretch that point. it is absolutely meaningless in terms of the allocation of the

52 republican delegates. that will be decided down the road. there's a caucus down the road and everybody is competing in that. the santorum campaign would say no, it's a bellwether state. we proved we can get the votes. and let's go back in time to show you the difference. 2008 when john mccain barely won. and romney ran a competitive third place back then. then you see this is a very important point you make about evangelical votes. this is the birth place of the anti-abortion movement in the united states of america, down here in southern missouri. >> huckabee did well. >> he did very well. the bible belt, if you will. also huckabee doing well in the smaller, rural, today we might call them tea party communities. governor romney, i want you to remember this, he did well in kansas city, in the center of the state. mccain carried the st. louis suburbs, st. charles, romney did okay in the urban areas. watch this as we go back in time. i want to take this off because here, this was romney four years

ago. 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 saying i'm the conservative alternative to romney. so the tables have turned on romney in four years. >> santorum wins in missouri. minnesota important. chris is in minnesota watching what is going on. you have new numbers? >> wolf, i am here in minnesota where about 20 miles south of the twin cities. very conservative, socially conservative. we just got some numbers here from the 12th precincts in two townsh townships. rick santorum came out on top. what do we have for rick santorum. >> he received 125. >> and this is brad johnson, the county gop chair. give me more insight, you have six of the seven sites here in the county reporting. all of them in fact for rick santorum. what does that tell you? ? it tells me that rick santorum's

message resonated well with the residents of scott county, or he's doing well. >> ron paul coming in at two. he had a lot of supporters coming out. what does that say? >> a lot of the younger voters coming out for the congressman, and then again, his message works well, but he's got a very well organized ground game and has for years in the state. >> we're waiting on one more site here in scott county. as soon as we get those, we'll have a full tally for you. >> chris, thanks very much. standing by, anderson, to get more results in minnesota. perhaps fairly soon we can make a projection. >> looking good for rick santorum. what would it mean for santorum to win minnesota tonight? >> if he wins minnesota and he's won missouri, whether or not he wins colorado, he can argue,

john king said, he would at least be equal. i would say, look, newt gingrich is increasingly damaged goods. i had a chance to go one-on-one against mitt romney. now, help me do this. and i do want to say, i think all of are in the last two weeks, santorum seemed to be really improving as a candidate. he was better in the debates than he had been. his talks afterwards, his interviews with cnn, all of them seemed to suggest he was ripening, maturing as a candidate, more attractive, and there's a certain justice to winning. after he was denied the publicity that came with the iowa win because of a bad call, there's a certain justice tonight for him to have a night out and get it restarted. >> and now f he gets more coverage and focus, the main stream media will have a

relentless focus for him, that he's outside the extreme, that's he's anti-gay, homophobic, try to paint him as an extremist. he's going to have to show the people that's not the case, that he can carry a state like pennsylvania. >> but you know, mitt romney has already been attacking santorum. in a way that has a lot of resonance with tea party voters and the conservative base, calling him an earmarker, a big spender. somebody who voted to race the debt ceiling and all that. >> the ultimate washington insider. >> and that hasn't had a lot of impact. >> pays attention. >> so far. >> but mick romney cannot afford to attack another conservative candidate. look -- >> but he will. >> he has the money, trust me, he bakes it on trees, he can

afford it, but at what price. >> interesting today, the story is playing out there. global warming dpaesh. >> a hoax? >> we already know who won in missouri. rick santorum, and now cnn is ready to make another projection. once again, rick santorum, the former pennsylvania senator, cnn now projects, will be the winner in minnesota. in the minnesota caucus, cnn projects santorum wins. 2 for 2, he wins in the missouri primary, he wins in minnesota. we're still waiting to see what happens in colorado. dana bash is standing by. she's over at rick santorum headquarters in colorado. he's -- excuse me, in missouri. he's going to be speaking fairly soonering rig soon, right, dana? >> any minute.

we just got word he's going to come down and address the supporters here. you're not hearing them cheer because they have turned off cnn's monitors in anticipation of the senator coming down, but this is huge. winning here in missouri, that was big, but winning in minnesota is a real, real win because of the fact that the other candidates also competed there, and more importantly because of the fact there are going to be delegates who will be awarded or at least estimated to be awarded tonight in that state. and it's also a state that mitt romney did quite well in four years ago. not tonight. so this is not just a moral victory. it's a victory he can really take to the bank, so to speak, when it comes to delegates and gobbling them up as he intends to do to stay in the race. and his came pain was really banking on doing quite well for that reason, to make clear as several advisers have said to me tonight. that february is the time for them to really get on the books and show that they can be the

conservative alternative to mitt romney. newt gingrich, they're going to point out, i'm sure, santorum will do it or his advisers will do it later, gingrich has done it only once in south carolina, so now rick santorum has done it more than that because he won iowa and now he's won minnesota not to mention the state where be are, missouri. >> in missouri, in st. charles, missouri. i want to tell the viewers what the vote total is we have in minnesota right now. we project santorum is the winner. 28% of the vote is in. 46% for santorum. 26% so far for ron paul. coming in second at least so far. mitt romney third with 16%. newt gingrich, fourth with 11%. there are four candidates, but rick santorum, we project, is the winner in minnesota. we'll be hearing from rick santorum shortly. at some point, we'll hear from romney. he's in colorado. we don't yet know who is the winner in colorado.

looks like it's shaking up to be a close race there as well. there's drama unfolding in this republican race for the white house. stay with us. today my journey continues across the golden state,

where everyone has been unbelievably nice. mornin'. i guess i'm helping them save hundreds on car insurance. it probably also doesn't hurt that i'm a world-famous advertising icon. cheers! i mean, who wouldn't want a piece of that? geico. ah... fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent oh dear... or more on car insurance.

very big night from santorum, former pennsylvania senator. cnn has projected he's the winner in minnesota. he's also the winner in misso i missouri. standing by for colorado. the fight continue s in colorad. let's take a look at the voits in colorado where it stands right now. look how close it is between romney and santorum. right now, with 11 persh of the vote in, 359 for romney, 357 for santorum. 37% apiece. couldn't be closer. newt gingrich with 17%, ron paul with 9%. still very, very early in

colorado right now. we're standing by to hear from the two front-runners on this night, rick santorum, you see his headquarters, they're getting ready to hear from the former pennsylvania senator, and at romney headquarters, they're getting ready to hear from him as well. we'll hear from santorum, i believe, first. let's go to romney headquarters right now, jim acosta is standing by. wlauts twhat's the mood over there, jim? looks like 2 for 2 so far for santorum. >> that's right. wolf, i have to tell you, what happened in vegas has stayed in vegas. just to give you a visual image of what the room looks like. this is a small fraction of the crowd we saw in las vegas on saturday night for mitt romney after the nevada caucuses. there were about 800 to 1,000 people in the room in las vegas. roughly 80 people in this room right now. i'm walking across this room and not having to bump past any of the romney supporters. this appears to be at least for now a tough night for romney. i had a chance to e-mail a

spokesman for the romney campaign to get a raekz to what they're seeing unfold in minnesota and missouri and colorado so far. the responaunonse i got was shot to the point. no delegates. >> delegates at some point. these are important bellwethers if you will, but they're going to have to spin it some way. i'm sure they would have preferred to win in missouri and minnesota and colorado. they didn't win in missouri and minnesota. let's see how they do in colorado. they fully expected to win in colorado. that's why mitt romney is there in colorado on this evening, right? >> that's exactly right, wolf. keep in mind, earlier this week, there was talk that romney would go to minnesota. that was scrapped at the last second and they sent tim pawlenty, his top surrogate in the state, that has not worked. it didn't help mitt romney in the state. he got 41% of the caucus vote back in 2008. he's going to pull off perhaps a

fraction of that tonight. only -- if there's a silver lining for romney in any of this tonight, it's this, that not only is there some uncertainty about the gop front-runner, there's uncertainty as to who the un-romney is, it was gingrich, now it appears to be santorum. that appears to be a good thing for romney. they haven't decided on an un-romney now. >> we're waiting to hear from romney and santorum as well. anderson, earlier, we spoke with newt gingrich and ron paul. they have moved on, basically, but the two candidates, they should be speaking soon. we'll take their remarks. >> if you're mitt romney tonight, how do you spin this? >> that you didn't spend money in these places, no dell gets were given tonight. you are having a great campaign. >> they spun it before. today, when they released a memo because they knew they were not

going to do well. and there's a headline that says the reality of february and it's difficult to see what governor romney's opponents can do to change the dynamics of the race in february. no delegates will be awarded. et cetera, et cetera. right, well, there you go. there it is. >> leave all of the arguments to his surrogates, to his press secretary. he needs to be generous, take the high road. say let's move on. heard the message. i'm going to do a better job of communicating my message and appeal to people. >> he's already tried -- >> that feeds into the fodder of things, but he has to go high road. >> say congratulations. >> absolutely. >> speaking any moment now. we'll bring that to you live. you heard that rick santorum is

going to try to focus on obama. >> he's going to give a little bit of a different speech. he's not going to fire away at mitt romney. he'll talk about him a little bit, but the focus will be obomb. he chided gingrich and romney for going after each other, and what we need to do is go after barack obama. >> another big story tonight, the enthusiasm that we talked about earlier. republican turnout tonight in minnesota -- it's a bellwether state, perhaps the president and his team have decided not to compete this fall. they lost by less than 4,000 votes in 2008, but still, the republican s are having a hard time trying to get their people to turn out. >> gloria, you heard from romney people about turnout and how turnouts reflect general elections. >> the romney people make the case that you can go back to the democrats in 2008, that democrats and republicans both

had high turnouts, one had to lose in 2008. you can go back over the years and look at turnouts in primaries and they're not necessarily a predictor of turnouts or winning in the general election. >> they could demoralize them, though. >> when you're trying to put together a campaign in the fall, it's going to be a very competitive race, and your people aren't turning out, they're not feeling the love, they don't trust the candidate, it is a problem in the fall. >> the biggest thing that will be the turnout in the fall, people go to the polls and say this is a 50/50 race, i'm showing up, this could be close. >> and one thing romney might say about tonight is the turnout, as it turns out, is low in some of the places, and that that's why rick santorum was able to sort of pick off the most conservative voters. >> they're making excuses. he has the party apparatus, former gop officials, current

gop officials. tim pawlenty in minnesota. he had everything going for him, he ran in 2008. he didn't have a quote/unquote name problem. he had money. and money is the mother of all. those things, he should say what the truth is, he didn't campaign in these states, didn't spend all his money there. therefore he's moving on to the next state. >> and ironically, now mitt romney needs newt gingrich to stay in the race. >> i do think the two speeches we're going to hear are more important than what we have been hearing. and that's that rick santorum for the first time is going to take people listening and this is a chance to see whether he can appear to be a plausible candidate for president. people will say can he be in the oval office or not? people dismissed him before. >> the first time he's making a speech saying i won tonight because in iowa, he never got to

make that speech. >> and romney, he needs to avoid going negative. he has to -- which one is more presidential, which one would be a better candidate. after all the negativity, romney has to go on the higher road. >> i got a tweet that said why are you afraid to talk about ron paul? he really has faded from iowa. coming in third and fourth over there tonight. >> he came in second place in mip min. >> i believe so. >> he didn't have a great night. i don't think he had a great night. >> he really has put a lot of hope on caucus states. >> romney had an organization in place. >> you talk about people being motivated and who is going to care about voting for someone as opposed to voting against barack

obama. that's what you see with rick santorum. you see some of the turnout because they want to vote for him. you look at the faveerability. 60-plus percent for santorum, 40% for romney and gingrich. a lot of that is because of the negative advertising and the fighting going on, but there's something about the person to person likability of the candidates. >> another factor that plays in that you have been covering, even though no delegates were selected tonight, money is going to flow into santorum tomorrow. it helps with the grass roots. >> and on super pacs as well. >> the people behind the super pacs, they're going to keep it going. >> and bragging rights. you can't put enough money behind that. >> these become important in the next few weeks given there's not another debate for another few weeks, i believe. >> february 27th.

arizona. >> right, two weeks. >> newt gingrich, of course, could have trouble raising money, and he wants more debates, as you heard him tell wolf blitzer. >> the next debate is at the mardi gras, anderson. >> i'm well aware of that. >> rick santorum, let's listen in. >> wow! conservatism is alive and well in missouri and minnesota. thank you all so very, very much. it'sigate to be here. i can't thank the people of missouri. we doubled them up here and in minnesota. i want to also thank, i have to

always thank, first off, let me thank god for giving us the grace to be able to purse very through the dog days, and blessing us and blessing our family. my wife karen here, what a rock. i mean, what a rock through the last few weeks. we have had -- we have had more drama than any family really needs. and she's been an amazing rock and a great blessing to me. i want to thank you in particular, my sweet, for all you have done. thank you. i want to thank my kids, the two who are here, elizabeth and john, and all of the kids listening at home, i'll be home in a couple days. it's been a while, and i just want a particular little note to my bella, who i know is watching me, looking at her daddy. i love you, sweetie. get healthy.

your votes today were not just heard loud and wide across the states of missouri and minnesota, but they were heard loud and louder all across the country. and particularly in a place that i suspect may be in massachusetts. they were heard particularly loud tonight. tonight was not just a victory for us. tonight was a victory for the voices of our party, conservatives and tea party people, who are out there every single day in the vineyards building the conservative movement in the country, building the base of the republican party, and building a voice for freedom in this land. thank you. [ applause ]

there's probably another person who maybe is listening to your cheers here also, and that might be at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. you better start listening to the voice of the people. but then again, i wouldn't be surprised if he isn't listening. why do you think he would be listening now? has he ever listened to the voice of america before? why, because he thinks he knows better. he thinks he's smarter than you. he thinks he's someone who is a privileged person who should be able to rule over all of you. but we have a different message for him. he's someone who, well, let's just go look at the records. if you look at what it came to the wall street bailouts, did

the president of the united states listen to you when it came to bailing out the big banks? why? because he thought he knew better. he and his friends on wall street knew better than what was good for the country. when it came to the problems that were being confront ed on obamacare, when the health care system in the country, did president obama when he was pushing forward his radical health care ideas, listen to the american people? why? because he thinks he knows better how to run your lives and manage your health care. when it comes to the environment, does the president of the united states listen to the american people or did he push a radical cap and trade agenda that would crush the energy and manufacturing structure of the economy? did he listen to you? no, because he thinks he knows better. ladies and gentlemen, we need a president who listens to the

american people. when the the majority of the american people oppose these ideas and speak against them, we need a president who listens to them. here's the problem. the problem is in this republican field, you have been listening. tonight, the voters of america, the voters here in missouri, the voters in minnesota, and i'm hopeful the voters in colorado, right? i hope you have been listening to our message because if you listen to our message, and you found out that on those issues health care, the environment, cap and trade, and on the wall street bailouts, mitt romney has the same positions as barack obama. and in fact, would not be the best person to come up and fight for your voices for freedom in america.

[ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, i don't stand here to claim to be the conservative alternative to mitt romney. i stand here to be the conservative alternative to barack obama. ♪ we pick rick, we pick rick, we pick rick! >> tonight, we had an opportunity to see what a campaign looks like when one candidate isn't outspent 5 or 10

to 1 with negative ads imputing their integrity. this is a more accurate representation of what the fall campaign will look like. romney's greatest abrupute is i have the most money and the best organization. he's not going to have the best organization in the fall. we're going to have someone who has other attributes to commend themselves to the united states of america. someone who can get up and make sharp contrasts with president obama. someone who can point to the failed record of thestrati administration and say that barack obama needs to be replaced in the oval office. people have asked me, you know,

what is the secret? why are you doing so well? is it your jobs message? and yes, we have a great jobs message, talking about everywhere we go and particularly here in the industrial heartland of missouri where they still make things in missouri, by the way. it's a message of a wall street journal called our economic plan, supply side economics for the working man is resonating here in missouri and across the country. and you see that when you have a republican out there talking about growth, talking about growth for everybody, right? [ applause ] that americans respond. because i do care about not 99% or 95%. i care about the very rich and the very poor. i care about 100% of america.

the real message, the message that we've been taking across this country and here in missouri is a message of what's at stake in this election. this is the most important election in your lifetime. this is an election we have seen it so evident just here in the last week. this is an election fundamentally about the kind of country you're going to hand off to your children and grandchildren. whether they're going to have the level of freedom and opportunity you have. and we have a president of the united states, as i mentioned, who is someone who believes he knows better. that we need to accumulate more power in washington, d.c. for the elite in our country. to be able to govern you because

you are encapable of liberty, that you are incapable of freedom. that what this president believes, and americans understand that there is a great, great deal at stake. if this president is re-elected and we don't have a nominee that can make this case and not be compromised on the biggest issues of the day, but can make the case to the american public that this is about the founder's freedom, about a country that believes in god-given rights and constitution that is limited to protect those rights. the president does not believe that. the president over the last few

years has tried to tell you that he in fact, the government can give you rights. the government can take care of you and provide for you. they can give you the right to health care, like an obama care. but look what happens when the government gives you rights. when the government give said you rights, unlike when god gives you rights, the government can take them away. when government gives you rights, the government can tell you how to exercise those rights. and we saw that just in the last week. with a group of people, a small group of people just catholics in the united states of america. who were told, you have a right to health care but you will have the health care that we tell you you have to give your people, whether it'sai