would like, we clearly were changing the national dialogue all week. if you're notice, the president has now made three speeches and a press conference on energy. the white house press secretary has attacked me twice on energy. and this afternoon, we were told that the secretary of anti-energy, dr. chue, announced this afternoon that he actually wasn't for european level prices of gasoline, that he had changed his mind. [ applause ] so i would say in the middle of a campaign in these two states, we are already impacting the national debate on a scale that all of romney's ad money hasn't achieved. and we're doing it because ideas matter. being able to make a principle case matters. the reagan tradition of

visionary conservatism was based on proverbs and the deep believe that without vision people perish. and i believe we need a visionary leader who is prepared to talk about a dramatically better future with dramatically more jobs, more energy, and a safer and stronger america. that's the key to winning this fall. not all this petty baloney, but the really big choices. and as i went around both states talking about $2.50 gasoline, having all sorts of folks in the elite media saying that's not possible, and finally on saturday in the "wall street journal" they wrote a piece that is entitled "newt gingrich is right about gasoline." and he walked through step by step why it's possible. and the fact is it's very possible. and then yesterday, steven moore reported in the "wall street

journal," numbers are so amaz g amazing, the fact i want to about substance is what makes this difference from other campaigns, we need in a time of great problems, great solutions, and great solutions require substance, and substance requires actually knowing something. it's a very important part of it. and unfortunately, virtually everything president obama knows is wrong. ronald reagan used to say, it isn't what they don't know that is so frightening. it's what they know is wrong. and he's right. here is a case study. we were told by the u.s. geologist study in the 1990s, there is uz 150 million barrels of recoverable oil in north dakota. and this was a period when the liberals told us we're about to run out. we have peak oil, we're not going to decay. we have no future.

new drilling technology came along. and we're now told that in fact, as of this last week, they believe there are 24 billion barrels of recoverable oil in north dakota alone. now, that made me feel like i had to change my speech because up until last week, i had been saying there was 25 times as much oil as they thought. now, turns out the current estimate is there are 160 times -- 16,000% more oil in north dakota than they thought there was in 1990s. and some experts believe that number is off by a huge margin, that future technology will ultimately lead us to find about 500 billion barrels of oil. now, yrm not trying to fill you up with numbers. i'm trying to make a point about a general direction. an american president who believed in energy and an american president who believed

in science and technology would drive the price of gasoline below $2.gift, would eliminate our dependence on the middle east, and we would never, ever again bow to a saudi king. [ applause ] so you have my promise at a time when i hope this evening we have ended any news media talk of the inevitability of their hand-picked candidate, at a time where we can forget ability trying to nominate a massachusetts moderate and start talking about when the primaries are over and it's clear no one person has won, who would do the best job of representing america, governing and winning the election against barack obama.

and let me just close this observation that something that senator wagner had said earlier, that is really, i hope all of you would take the heart, and i'm grateful in mississippi and alabama, we have had such wonderful relationships and relationships, and my daughters cathy and jackie have had a terrific time here. jimmy has already gotten a commitment to go bass fishing, and i think that ray has indicated he thought he could give jimmy a fairly good afternoon of bass. so from jimmy's standpoint, this already a great successful evening. but we have all been out campaigning. we have all had a wonderful response, and we're all very, very grateful. i want to tell you just a second what will become a challenge is we'll have three or four days of news media, and they'll say why

doesn't gingrich quit? these are the same people who say in june that i was dead. they'll recycle this, and the biggest challenge will be raising money because we came in second and we won't have gotten delegates. between santorum and myself, we'll get two thirds of the delegates, and the so-called front-runner will have one third of the delegates. but the person who gives me hope and who makes me stay in the race and makes me committed to carrying ideas all the way to tampa is samuel sanford. samuel samford is an unemployed person who decided after hearing my speech either on c-span or on the internet, that he really liked what i was trying to do on gasoline, and we talk about the fact that you can go to newt.org and give one gallon of newt gas, that's $2.50. he heard the speech the other day and went online, he gave

$2.50. and he became number 175,000. now, romney has all of these wall street millionaires. many of who are using the money you sent them as a taxpayer to buy ads to attack people. but we have 175,000 donors. over 90% of them, 95% of them have given less than $25. i called samuel samford, and it was a humbleing call. i got him in the afternoon, after he had come home from his cancer treatment. he's currently unemployed. he took out of his savings the $2.50 because he wants to be part of helping save america. now, that, to me, was such a humbling conversation. the dedication he had to america, his commitment to a people's campaign, his unwillingness to give up and let the millionaires roll over him,

meant just an immense amount to callista and me, with your help, if you're going to talk to your friends and neighbors, if you twitter, use e-mail, we'll continue to run a people's campanl. i believe after the primaries are over, it will be obvious that the so-called front-runner in fact didn't get there, and we'll be in a whole different conversati conversation. thank you, good luck, and god bless you. >> we have just been listening to newt gingrich give his speech tonight, and i'm erin burnett. special edition of "outfront." a big night for santorum. a huge flight, and a huge victory for him. obviously, cnn has called mississippi for the former pennsylvania senator, alabama as well. all right, let's talk about newt gingrich, though. that was far from a concession, i might be getting out sort of speech, or was it just me. >> what we have is the fact that mitt romney didn't win makes him

say, why not me? i now can say it's me and rick santorum and i'm better than santorum. i under if romney would have won t one or two states, if it would have been different for mitt. the real impact tonight for newt, is for republicans who thought maybe mitt romney could come south and nak the race start to look like it's coming toen end. this race is going on and on and on. there is no end in sight. >> i think if you look objectively at this, you would say it's time for newt gingrich to get out. he's not even a regional candidate. he can't win the south. he can win just jougeorgia and south cakacarolina. at the same time, the argument for him is he's a spoiler. he's not even a spoiler for santorum or romney. he was able to win in the deep south against romney even with gingrich there. he's having as much impact now as ron paul. >> he's a spoiler in terms of delegates. he's still out there collecting delegates, then it, you know, gets back to the two narratives john king talks about.

yes, we have momentum for santorum, but we have a delegate lead for romney that is hard to make up. if gingrich stays in there collecting a significant amount of dell gtsz, that hampers santorum. >> and it could allow newt to be the king maker. he's had not a very close personal relationship with reality. he could hang on to them and become the broker. if gingrich or santorum, i'm be the first to call on romney to get out of the race. he spends more than anybody, has a better organization, terrific endorsement from the popular governor of mississippi and loses, and he loses in alabama, outspending santorum 5-1 there. maybe somebody ought to strap him to the roof of one of the cadillacs and drive him back to one of the mansions. >> we would see if the santorum campaign would make such a comment. a big night for santorum. it's fair to say that's the

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sgloof welcome back to our special election coverage tonight. it's a very big night for rick santorum. as you can see, mississippi, 97% of the votes in, and rick santorum is the projected winner with 33% of the vote. a solid lead in alabama. also in the lead, 35%. 80% reporting, and of course, we have made that call as well. so very big night for rick santorum. no matter how you cut that cookie, that is the headline tonight, and not a great night for mitt romney. hope joins us now. he's the communications director for santorum. let me start off by asking you this question. we just listened to newt gingrich. he's unapologetic, heetzler staying in the race.

how does it make you feel? >> he has every right to do so. we would never call on anyone to get out of any race. we didn't call for gingrich to get in the race. we're sure not going to call on him to get out of the race. the fact of the matter is if he wasn't in the race right now, not only would we be beating romney in the states, we would be beating his badly, but this is a democracy, he has every right to be in the race, but it's a good night for us and it shows rick santorum is not just a regional candidate. he can win in the south, in the midwest, in the west. and that's what he has been able to do so far. >> hogan, john and i want to walk through the math. i set this up with saying it would look like santorum would need to win 50%, 60% of the remaining delegates. that's not what he is going to achieve. >> he will get more than a third, more out of mississippi and alabama than anyone else. we have to wait for hawaii and

other places. obam obama/clinton, the little places mattered for obama. if romney can pick up american simao samoa, it would make up a difference. that's ungracious, right? do other conservative leaders around the country do that? if you look at what happened this is a projection, projecting that romney wins hawaii. that's based on our reporting in the state. romney is going to end up shy of 500. santorum is second, and with gingg rf in trace, let's go forward, let's assume santorum carries missouri, he picks up some, but so does romney. then you move on from here. you come up to the puerto rico primary. you heard santorum going down there to campaign for two days. hogan would argue with this

given this to romney. but santorum picks up some delegates. then we move back here. this is going to be the biggest battleground. watch the difference, with gingg rf in the race, if romney wins, he moves up to ballpark, 560. let's say santorum can upset. romney comes down a little bit. santorum comes up a little bit, but he's not closing the gap substantially. if you have a war of attrition that keeps going out, giving santorum louisiana, but gingrich is still in the race, this is more favorable to romney, let's for the sake of argument, say he keeps his midwest strength and wins wivlg whi s wisconsin, the pennsylvania, santorum's home state, i'll give santorum west virginia, indiana, santorum, north carolina. okay? romney campaign is arguing with me, i'm doing this for a hypothetical reason. santorum is closing the gap, but romney is still getting delegates, and if gingg rf is

still in the race, he can't close the gap. if the senator things it's ungracious to say mr. speaker, please get out, would you encourage other politicians to ask that? >> i appreciate that demonstration. i never heard the word if used so many times in a five-minute time span. >> i was giving all the states to your candidate. >> that's right, but you know, after tonight, i think it's going to be very interesting. the drum beat has begun, talking to newt gingrich, trying to get him out of the race, but like i said, we would flefrb do that. you know that, rick santorum would never do that. he's not that kind of guy. and it depends. wi have been calling on the conservative voters to unite behind us. this is another indication that proves we're not just a regional candidate. that's very important, and you know, if newt gingrich stays in,

a lot of your math might be correct. if he gets out, it's not. and we'll see what happens after that. but right now, we're going to enjoy the two victories tonight. continue to move forward, and see what we can do and try to get the momentum and keep that momentum moving into the other states. >> hogan, just one final question for you. some people have talked about the campaign as sort of a guerilla campaign. incredibly successful with not a lot of resources. are you going to make changes in the campaign, big changes to try to compete with the money machine and organizational machine of romney that is really going to matter when it comes down to the delegate chase? >> that stuff matters, and we have been adding staff as needed throughout the campaign, but we're never going to be the, you know, d.c. bureaucratic behemoth that romney is because that's not who santorum is. absolutely, we'll need to hire people, continue to hire people, and with nights like this, we see huge boosts in front raising

and we're able to dethat. that's good news for us. we'll need to build out staff, and we have been doing that slowly and surely along the way. it's gotten us this far. we'll continue on and add staff, but we're never going to be the big, big bureaucratic behemoth the rest of the campaigns were. >> hogan, thanks very much. the communications director for santorum's campaign. a big night, fair and square for people like hogan to be celebrating tonight. all right, so what is the takeaway here, gloria? now we'reerto rico. >> and illinois, where the polls in illinois have shown it's a neck and neck race. that's going oo be exciting next tuesday, and i think what you have got is a question of how do you measure this? talk to the romney people, the romney people say this is about delegates. it's all about the delegates. and they have a point. it is all about the delegates. the problem is that mitt romney hasn't been able to seal the deal. with his own republican base.

and that's a problem for him. >> i'm curious, david gergen, at this question that keeps coming up. that is, does the mormon thing matter? when it comes to evangelicals, you see the highest portion of evangelical volt voters we have seen so far, and their continued hes tnlsy to vote for romney, but could religion play a bigger role? >> i think it did. a month ago or six weeks uz go, you could say of course this is good santorum regions. santorum goes in as the guy who says he's anti-climate size, doesn't believe it's a hoax, and he goes into two states where about half of the republican side in the poll said they didn't believe in evolution. this is santorum territory in many ways, but the way the expectations got built up and the kind of money that romney

poured into it, and also the fact that it was gingrich's home territory, all of that led the expectations that romney was probably going to punch through one state, gingrich would probably get one, and santorum getting both magnified this. even though romney is going to have a good night in delegates and might wind up at the end of the night with hawaii, i think it's psychologically a damaging night for romney and a very positive night for santorum. >> what romney has -- you can talk all you want about the math. math is just not going to win you the passion of the republican party. i think mitt romney has to switch something up here. i can't tell you exact lane what it is, but i think they need to see more of who mitt romney is. i mean, without the grits. i thought he was being a little sarcastic about the grilths in all of that. none the less, he has to open that door a little more. here is what i am. here is what i'm about. here's what i'll fight for passionately. here is what where believe. i don't think people yet have

this kind of idea about him, go, yeah, that's my guy. >> races come down to enthusiasm. they come down to, are your people going to turn out? and i want to correct myself, i was wrong earlier. the turnout was higher in mississippi this time than it was in 2008 by 50,000 and counting. the problem for mitt romney was the turnout didn't happen where his supporters are. and that -- >> his turnout was lower. >> but the point -- the passion in this race has been with the cultural conservatives, the value conservatives, tea party voters, the people who identify themselves as evangelicals and strongly conservative. and they have questions about mitt romney. so can he get to the finish line? is it still more likely that he is going to get to the finish line than anybody else? yes, but will he crawl across it? probably. >> i also think coming out of tonight, given the psychological

boost that santorum has, i would assume eric could respond better, but a lot of conservatives would rally around santorum. they can't get newt out, but they'll rally around santorum. this could get newt out in illinois. >> chicago tribune has it 35%, romney. >> this is before the news of the two states. and that gives him -- if conservatives rally around, money comes in. illinois could be very competitive. >> we have seen the momentum, whoever wins gets the momentum going into the next state. >> and then he loses it. >> i want to bring in john avlon. a quick question looking at the polls today. romney loses to barack obama by two percentage points. 49%/47%, but santorum only loses by three. that's a lot closer than an obama/santorum matchup was not too long ago. >> that's right, and it helps undercut the romney campaign argument about electability.

that poll is very much in the santorum narrative of not only this isn't over, but hold on, wait, maybe our guy, more conservative, according to the base, has a better shot or at least as good a shot as going against barack obama. but the big picture to take away tonight, for all of the folks saying this was all but over, we should end the talk now. this is going to go on. it's going to go on beyond reasons before. this is different. because of proportional delegates and super pacs. it matters who can get to 1,144. if nobody hits that threshold, this goes to the convention. that's the long game we're seeing play out. >> i'm curious what mitt romney is going to say if polls continue to show that a obama/santorum matchup isn't a complete wipeout. >> he's going to get help from his friends at this point. the idea of santorum at the top of the ticket is not being taken well by folks who are going to

run down ticket. i think you will see folks gather around him, but again, i think this is a mitt romney time to go, what do i need to do here? >> it's a gut check, right? a gut check, he has to say what do i need to do to make people feel a little more passionate? >> i have a suggestion, don't talk about your tummy. >> i totally agree with that. the danger -- >> i'm joking but i'm being s r serio serious. >> rick santorum will draw him into the conservative side, and it will hurt him in the election but help him in the general. >> more on the coverage of the special night for santorum, tonight goes down as rick santorum's night. mississippi and alabama, big victories. we'll be right back. all energy development comes with some risk,

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call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today. a special edition of "outfront." breaking news, a huge night for rick santorum. no other way to describe it. cnn moments ago calling mississippi for the former pennsylvania senator, and that's after we calling alabama for santorum earlier. the candidate spoke moments ago. he's taking his momentum into the next state. >> we'll compete everywhere. we will compete everywhere. the time is now for conservatives to pull together. the time is now to make sure, to make sure that we have the best chance to win this election, 1k3 the best chance to win this election is to nominate a conservative to go up against

barack obama, who can take him on on every issue. >> let's take a closer look at the numbers in both states. you can see for yourself how tight this race was. it took us here at cnn a while to make the calls because it was running as oo three-man race for most of the evening. alabama, rick santorum, the one we were able to call first. 35% lead there, as you can see, and more votes coming in, but 98% reporting. mississippi later calling for santorum with 33% of the vote. there is no mistaking it, it is santorum's night. the candidate who began the race as a virtual unknown to many americans and was counted out by many can say his appeal stretches from middle america to the deep south. that's a very important for him and a big part of what we heard from his communications director earlier tonight. they're trying to make that case. jim is live at rick santorum's headquarters right now in lafayette, and jim, what was the -- i guess the celebration there?

there was a surprise. they seemed to have downplayed expectations coming into this. >> you're right about that, erin. when rick santorum said we did it again, you know, cheers went up in the room, and later on, he talked about how he didn't see one poll in mississippi that showed him winning the contest tonight. i think this result in the deep south, even surprised the santorum campaign. i had a chance to catch up with the former pennsylvania senator after his speech for a few moments. if anybody noticed santorum sounding hoarse, he's recovering from a cold, but the next question for the campaign is what happens to newt gingrich. if he had not been in the race tonight, santorum might have had wider margins over romney in mississippi and alabama. i asked santorum, you know, do you think gingrich should get out of the race? >> do you think gingrich should drop out, senator?

do you think speaker gingrich should drop out? >> not going to give an answer to that. >> it would be great if everyone dropped out. >> clearly, you would have won by a wider margin. >> i appreciate it. you have to play with the cards you got. >> so there you go, you hear rick santorum say you have to play with the cards you're dealt. but clearly, this is a delegate situation for the santorum campaign. earlier, he was on the glenn beck radio show. that was a moment where he said it would beat great for speaking gingrich to get out of the race, and i asked one of his spokes pm people, do you think gingrich should get out of the race, shenentially said absolutely and said later on this evening, you know, we're not formally calling on gingrich to get out of the race. no question about it, head nothing to the next contests, it

would be a big help to the campaign, and you know, just to tell you how they're not taking anything for granted from this point forward, they're getting on a plane at 1:00 in the morning to head to puerto rico in advance of the primary on sunday in the u.s. teary. they got creamed in territories. helped to offset the gains he had when romney got the places like guam last weekend. >> thank you very much. they get electoral votes, but the popular vote doesn't count. that's for another time. let's talk about the big scenario. if gingrich gets out, let's just say, takes five. what happens? >> they're backtracking, saying we're not calling on him to get out. if they call on him to, he's much less likely to. let's do the scenario. here is the national math. this is a blow to gingrich.

it's obvious. let's go to the delegate map. i'm going to give you two scenarios. here is roughly where we are tonight. romney is still comfortably ahead with a long way to 1,144. i'm going to touch the button. what where you doing in may and june inhaving this race. >> taking a long vacation. >> i'm going to go to august 30th. watch this, bang, i have been very generous to santorum. i give him north carolina, i give him west virginia, i give him kentucky, illinois, and indiana, wisconsin, the romney campaign supporters are saying no way, but i'm giving those states to santorum with gingrich still in the race and proportional, watch what happens. even under this scenario, romney wins. let's say he wins new jersey, and the big within, california. winner take all states, i'm being generous and hypothetical. this is a dream scenario for santorum, but even then, yes, he

stops romney, he would go to the convention well behind him. this is with gingrich in. >> what happens with tampa in this scenario? gingrich is a popular man. >> he's a powerful man. ron paul would be a powerful man even at 150, 125 delegates in this scenario, and there would be other people from jeb bush to sarah palin to chris christie, people walking around watching him with their every move. but here is the point. this is unlikely. this is a big money state. there is a big conservative base in california, but it's a big money state. let's give this back to romney. he's close to the finish line. that's giving santorum california. first, let's bring it back to today. if gingrich gets out, if he gets out -- >> okay, this is fun. >> if gingrich gets out, these went to santorum tonight, all right, we need to make these purple.

and we do that. and then now we're going to move on. i'm going to go quickly through these, if gingrich gets out, santorum gets that. we're going to be generous to santorum, that's our sunar you, let's keep going, move quickly. he gets louisiana, let's say, santorum is doing well in the midwest, we'll give him wisconsin. all right. let's keep coming through. he wins pennsylvania. i'm going to be hypergenerous. santorum, gingrich is out of the race. you watch the math, if he starts marching and wins all of these, okay, now look what's happening? he's getting closer. he's closing the gap. can he win all these? he would like the two-man race, but that's how you catch mitt romney. if santorum is not in the race, then you move on here. i'm going to give -- santorum can win nebraska, romney doing well out west, and gingrich is not in the race now, this is a two-way hypothetical scenario. he's winning in the south and

the border states. kentucky and arkansas going to santorum. texas goes to santorum. uh-oh in team romney, flare starting to see something like that, and then you have a real race. this is why there's pressure on gingrich to get out. then you get here, and new jersey, let's leave it in the romney column, we come out here, i think that's feasible, right? that's how this becomes so important, because under this scenario, if california and new jersey stay romney, even with gingrich out of the race -- >> still not there. >> utah, just shy. just shy. you want to broker a convention with two guys fighting, that's your scenario, and then, again, if this is going on, and you play like this, you're getting closer there. >> this is amazing. >> just for fun, you do this. that's a very different race. if gingrich gets out, santorum has a chance to get close, to get close. >> close, but not there. >> very hard to see him beating romney. but he can get close if gingrich is out. if gingg rf stays in, almost

impossible. >> this is my favorite part of the night, john king math, touching through, changing the color rotation. we'll take a break but we'll be back to talk more with our special election coverage and this big night for rick santorum. we always hear about jobs leaving america.

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we're back now. a huge night for rick santorum. winning both alabama and mississippi. breathing new life into his race for the gop nomination. let's talk about wahl john king was going through the math, i love every time he does that. all these fantasies of -- the numbers. but what i found fascinating about it, in a two-man race, neither one of them really would get there, but santorum wouldn't get there, romney, even in a three-man race, it's a scenario where romney can't get it done. >> let me make a point about tonight and then talk about tampa. there are four contests. we heard from two of them. you still have to wait to see who wins the most delegates tonight. you can't rule out because of the contests, includesing the

state of hawaii, that romney -- >> or samoa. people in samoa, if you're watching, your vote matters. >> go to the polls. tampa could be a mess. i'm saying romney could win the nine delegates. if you work for the presidential campaign, that's what you pay a lot of attention to. but tampa could be a real mess for republicans. that's going to be the real issue. romney is probably 100% right where it's hard to see a path for gingrich or santorum to get the 50% required, but it might also be hard for romney to get to the 50%. if that happens, especially if you have a three-way race, it could be a mess for tampa. >> if that happens, whoever comes out of that is sort of the gimp. they're limping with their legs tied together, their arms tied together. >> presumably at some point, the party gets together, and i believe it will, but the longer it goes on, the longer the hurt feelings come and the less

people feel excited, and frankly, the less money they're raising, and that's a potential issue. you know, this air of inevitability that romney has been projecting has been an abject failure. so you know, gloria and candy made the point, he's got togo back, stop talking about process, start talking about people. from my perspective, he's got to get rid of the stupid blue jeans that look so fake it's ridiculous. this guy just has not connected -- >> how do you know that? >> he wears blue jeans every single event. >> some men just don't know how to wear jeans. >> mitt romney doesn't. does anyone believe -- like, can he wear -- >> these are issues. >> this is a true statement. >> i think says anything about him, that he tries too hard. it doesn't feel connected and authentic. as a practical matter, the delegate side, the farther rick santorum can get, either one of

them, the one thing we haven't talked about, there is a group of super delegates that is not in the bunch, and superdelegates actually, you know, with a couple hundred votes, can make a difference. >> mary? >> there's momentum. >> they're not superdelegates. no, they're not superdelegates. >> they're uncommitted. and they're state by state. >> we don't have superdelegates like you do, and some of them are committed. i'm just saying it's a different process. there is a pool of uncommitt uncommitted -- that's right. there is a dynamic that we can't quantify at this point, which is before we have a meltdown in tampa, we will get orderly because that's what republicans do. the republican national committee right now is preparing -- hoping for the best, preparing for the worst. they know how to do a w.h.i.p. operation at the convention. nobody else will have the capacity. no other candidates will have the capacity that the rnc will

to get in front of what could be ugly. but i don't think it's going to get that far. what has to happen, hillary makes a great point, the army saying be all you can be, just be a littleless than you can be. quit trying. i like the cheesy grits. do what you do well, which is be kind of a sort of a bad candidates, but a good leader, and just stay on message. that's it. >> he doesn't have a message that is authentic. >> he's awkward, it's not as if he's faking. >> he's not faking. deep down inside, he's fake. >> it's not how hard he's trying. it's who he's trying to reach. if this was algebra, he's saevling for c, conservatives, instead of i, independents. but he's so weak among conservatives, i understand that, but i'm certain republicans will coalesce around even mitt romney who they don't like, republican conservatives will because they strongly

dislike the pred. he's their best organizer. they really don't want the president to win. the price he's paying for the obvious and even coalescence of the right is alienating the independents in the middle. >> which i 40% of the electorate. >> it undermines his sense of inevitable. >> we're going to get the view right after this. our special coverage continues.

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all right, so what does the obama campaign think about tonight's primaries and santorum's victory. jessica jeyellin in at the whit house tonight. you got a sense of what he thought. >> the president himself was away at a basketball game, which we'll get to in a minute, erin. the obama campaign in general, as you might guess, is pleased the longer this goes on because they ultimately expect that mitt romney will be the nominee despite what we're watching tonight, and the longer this takes the more money and it drains from romney's coffers, the more attention it takes from his veneventual, what they expe to be fight with the president. jim messina, who is the manager

of the obama campaign, sent out an e-mail today to obama supporters saying if the general election were held today, president obama would lose to mitt romney, that was based on a washington post poll. he's trying to fund raise off that. so they're not even looking at santorum right now with any great attention. but i see you're playing the video, so i should talk about this. president obama took prime minister cameron of the uk to his very first basketball game. and they went, not coincidentally, to a swing state of ohio. and the president talked about why they went there. listen. >> first of all, i thought it was going to be wonderful for the prime minister to have a chance not only to see a basketball game for the first time, but also to come to the great state of ohio. because sometimes when we have foreign visitors, they're only visiting the coast, they go to new york, to washington, they go to los angeles. but you know, the heartland is

what it's all about. >> and vice president biden will be in ohio as well, erin, later this week on thursday, he's going to toledo to unleash what all sources are saying will be a very fierce real election-themed speech, and we're expecting him to take it to the republican candidates then. >> there was something about the image, as the republican party, all hell breaks lose, the president is stuffing a hotdog into his mouth at a basketball game. well, you know, so this is good for him, right? >> well, he's at a basketball gape in ohio. you know, you need ohio, almost certainly, to win the presidency in november. he's going there, scoring points, forgive the pun, and having a good time. >> his brackets were heavy in swing states. >> that's a swing county in a swing state. he's doubling down in the dayton area. look, i think as we end tonight, if you go to the math, you go to

the math, go to the logic, go to the history, romney is still the front runner. forget about it. i think rick santorum has a chance to reset the race. he gets a big bounce. let's see what happens in the next week or ten days. forget the rules. an interesting two years in polit politics. >> any change in strategy, anything from romney, candy? >> i don't know. he's been steady eddy. they have believed in their strategy from the get-go, and that was like five years ago. so they really haven't changed much. i don't know, i mean, they are convinced that they're going to get this. and so, they believe the kind of standoffish from the media, most of the time, it was very controlled media events. they believe he's doing just fine. so i just think, cruknow, it's a recipe for june. >> you know -- oh, thank you for cheering us up. you can argue math all you want.

>> yes, the romney campaign is arguing, but presidential campaigns are not just about math. they're about passion, what you believe, who you believe in. and mitt romney has yet to find a way to make that base believe in him. >> we still have fun to go. next sunday, puerto rico. next tuesday, illinois. >> i love it. and of course, rick santorum spending two days there. thanks so much to all of you. and our special coverage continues right out of this with wolf blitzer. all energy development comes with some risk,

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