romney campaigning live this hour in wilmington, delaware it is his first public event since rival rick santorum folded his campaign today, cementing the former massachusetts governor as the republican presidential nominee. just this past hour, a bizarre twist in the tray von martin investigation. the lawyers who had been representing the admitted gunman, george zimmerman, said they have lost contact with their client and they say he has, against their advice, placed phone calls to reporters and the special prosecutor. >> i still believe that he was acting in self-defense that night. nothing i have said about him or his case has changed in any way. i just can't proceed to represent a client who doesn't stay in contact with me. >> more on how this dramatic announcement will impact the martin investigation in a few moments. back now to a defining day in the race for the white house. tonight, the only candidate to emerge as a long-term threat to governor romney is out of the race. in pennsylvania this afternoon, just a few hours after bringing his 3-year-old daughter home from the hospital, rick santorum called it quits.

>> we -- we made the decision to get into this race at our kitchen table. and against all the odds. and we made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting. >> joined now to break down this story, cnn political reporter peter ham british dana bash and jim acosta who is in gettysburg today for the big announcement. jim, let me start with you, you are in the room, family considerations, political considerations. in the end what were the decisive factors that had senator santorum say it is time to go? >> well, as you mentioned, john, those family considerations were obviously a critical factor in this decision for rick santorum, but there were also political considerations as well. you know, i talked to hogan giddily with the santorum campaign this afternoon and he sort of described a three-legged

stool. one of those legs being the texas primary going to a winner-take-all format, where the delegates would all go to rick santorum if earn to win that race. once that became doubtful that texas would be a winner-take-all primary, that knocked out one of the legs. another one, newt gingrich dropping out of the race. they have been wanting that leg to kick for several weeks now and it just wouldn't happen. so, two of the legs on that three-legged stool would not fall for rick santorum. he did think that he would win the pennsylvania primary and that was the third leg. they thought that they would win the pennsylvania primary and have all of those delegates or at least many of those delegates come into his campaign a lot of people are speculating perhaps that was not going to happen for rick santorum and that was the reason yes got out of this race. he said -- hogan giddily said, no, that is not the case, they never thought for a moment they would lose pennsylvania, john. >> jim, stand by. let's continue the conversation. dana, you have covered the senator a long time, you know his wife, karen. the political reality has been

clear for a long time. candidates are stubborn. candidates are proud. what about the family consideration, spending the weekend with your 3-year-old in the hospital yet again? how did that come to the conclusion and face the reality? >> there's no question big time it did. ied to several people close to senator santorum said being at home, first of all, letting the adrenaline sort of seep out of him, not being on the campaign trail, and also being in the hospital with your 3-year-old daughter for the second time in a campaign season, it crystallized everything for him. he realized, you know what, this is just not worth it. it is time to get out. the other side of it i'm told some of his old children, you saw staples on the campaign trail, they weren't so sure. they were really invested. they gave up their lives, temporarily, to help their father and i'm told by people close that they weren't so sure it was the right decision to get. they want him to keep fighting. >> we know, peter there is no love lost, people say that in campaigns. this campaign, we know it to be true, between senator santorum and governor romney. senator santorum has been

particularly critical, saying he is the worst candidate to put forward on the health care issue. need phone call today n his public statement, he spoke for a long time, never even mentioned him. proof of the bad blood? >> i think so you are absolutely right. santorum basically portrayed governor romney as a trader to the conservative cause, this was his main rationale for staying in the race this entire time there is certainly a good amount of bad blood there and, you know, if they do speak, you know, maybe they will repair things but we heard from the santorum campaign today that an endorsement for mitt romney is actually not a sure thing. >> just add to that quickly, i know you reported earlier the two men did speak by phone. i'm told in that conversation, mitt romney specifically asked senator santorum to sit down for a face-to-face meeting. the two men agreed. the time and place suspect set yet. >> we wait for that meeting, as you listen to senator santorum, he said it was important to beat president obama this fall. he said it was important to keep the house and try to get the senate back. but in his words, especially in

his body language, he seemed to be saying i'm not going anywhere. this is a man looking beyond 2012 and that's why it's so important, not necessarily to make friend with mitt romney but to show the party's republican. >> that's right, john. and at this point, rick santorum really saves himself for future things. had he lost pennsylvania, that probably would have killed any chance of running for president in the future. getting out now makes him sort of the mike huckabee of 2016, if mitt romney does not win this election, rick santorum is positioned now as somebody who has won a lot of pry markers somebody who was pretty successful during this campaign without a lot of money and somebody who will be talked about over the next several years, should mitt romney not win in the fall. that's pretty good position for rick santorum to be in. and had he gotten any closer to that pennsylvania primary, john, and those polls started tipping in mitt romney's direction. remember, restore our future that super pac, was going to come in here, like everybody calls it the death star, the

death star starting to position itself over pennsylvania. rick santorum did not want that kind of situation to unfold. he was guy saying has to win michigan. mitt romney has to win michigan. had he not won pennsylvania that could have been the end of his political career. >> john, i'm told real quick, budget was also a factor in this. pennsylvania has five media markets, some of them are very expensive. he reported almost $1 million in debt at the end of february. money was also a factor in this i'm today. >> jim, dana, thank you a long-time adviser to senator santorum is here. john, i want to focus on what's next. senator santorum speaks to governor romney. i'm told he said he wanted to help, he understands that reality. his public statement never mentions him. why not? >> let me back up a little bit. i happened to talk with matt rhodes, the campaign manager for mitt romney last night. we'd great conversation. we expressed that the senator

would be getting out and that we do want to help romney campaign. it was suggested we have the two candidates duke each other which they did this morning, a very good conversation. governor romney had suggest they had soon get together to talk in ways that rick santorum could help. i wouldn't read too much about rick santorum not mentioning mitt romney in the speech. i think rick felt it was very, very important for him to have a narrative that shares why he was suspending his campaign and all the good that the campaign did and i think also make it clear that rick santorum is still going to be a passionate fighter and a loud voice for conservative causes. so, right now, the great unifier is barack obama. rick santorum got into this race because he felt that barack obama had to be defeated. he feels -- still feels that strongly and will still be committed to that cause. >> so help me understand, how will he, i assume he will join forces with governor romney at some point. how will he convince voters that these statement and others like them are just politics?

let's listen. >> you really believe this country wants to elect a wall street financier as the president of the united states? you think that's the kind of experience we need? someone -- someone who is gonna take and look after, as he did his friends on wall street and bail them out at the expense of main street america? pick any other republican in the country. he is the worst republican in the country, to put up against barack obama. the democrats will use those statement. john, how do you make them go away? >> well, first of all, let's be clear about this. rick santorum was saying there are disagreements that he and mitt romney have on critical issues and i believe that's one of the reasons that they are gonna silt down and to talk about those issues and main how they can join forces on them. but rick has been very clear from day one that he would unify behind whoever the candidate is, the republican nominee, they certainly are a much strong around better hope for america than barack obama. he will do that right now with

mitt romney. emcertainly plan on helping mitt romney defeat barack obama and that will be a commitment that he makes. >> mitt romney might want and need your help, too a smart strategist, won a tough state, pennsylvania, several times. i want to ask you this. this is something tony perkins of the family research council told our dana bash today. he obviously was a santorum guy, social conservative, abortion opponent, same-sex marriage opponent. "it is difficult to back a candidate our constituents don't believe in and aren't excited about." he is talking about governor romney v senator santorum prepared to sit down with tony perkins, and more importantly, social conservative voters all around the country, look them in the eye and say be for romney? urge i think what's prepared to do is to share how america has blinked under this president, we have lost freedoms, he has moved it far to the left and the second term of barack obama, even move that much farther to the left so, a big part of the narrative going forward is how we have to stop barack obama and how is clearly the man who now

can do that and how we have to unify in that process. >> rick santorum believe he should you can considered for the vice presidential nomination? >> you know, he got into this race because he felt that he should you can the nominee who could then go on and beat barack obama and bring and restore to america a lot of the conservative values that the republicans believe in bring some of the fiscal dislynn that washington needs and also have the experience to take on iran, which is a growing threat. i think he still believes that and i think that as he has said in the past, he is ready to help america whatever way he can do best. >> appreciate your insights tonight and throughout the campaign. you will hear from john tonight, emsit down with piers morgue ton discuss this big dramatic development in the presidential campaign. thanks, john. still ahead, look ahead to the general election matchup. our guest, the chairman of the republican national committee. jammed on the at breaking news from george zimmermann's attorneys, they have lost contact with their client. ♪ you are my sunshine, my only sunshine ♪ ♪ you make me happy

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and it's very affordable. it was very delicious. could you please taste car insurance y? this one is much more expensive. ugh. it's really bad. let's see what you picked. oh, geico! over their competitor. you are a magician right? no., oh. you're not?, no., oh, well, give it a shot. i am so, so sorry. it was this close. standing by live this hour, you see mitt romney speaking in wilmington, delaware, since rick santorum decided to exit the race and santorum's exit from the republican vase huge help

from governor romney, comes on the very day that president obama hit the road to sharpen his general election focus on the economy, the taxes. the president went to florida promoting what he calls buff the fete rule. the proposal to make sure the millionaires pay the same percentage of their income in taxes as the middle class does and the president took issue with republicans who say he's wrong. >> a lot of the folks were peddling these same trickle down theories including members of congress and some people running for a certain office right nour who shall not be named. they are doubling down on these old broken down theories. instead of mod rating their views even slightly. >> let's frame the fall rates onning biggest issue, the economy, taxes, jobs, the leading republican strategist fred davis and cnn contributor, james carville, a democrat among the men who helped bill clinton win the white house with the slogan "its it's the economy, stupid." governor romney got a big boost today, fred. he was about to speak in wilmington, delaware. if you were advising him, needs

to heat wound us in the republican party but has problems to his left with women, with hispanic voters what is challenge number one for this candidate on this night? >> oh, i remember another line of james' that went very well, something like i feel your pain i think what romney has to do is convince america that it's not enough to feel their pain, i'm not sure people are going to feel their pain but that he can fix the pain and i think maybe it's time for competence and actually fix the problem. >> an interesting point. if you look at the "washington post" -- abc news poll, on personal authorities, president obama thumps romney, more likeable and friendly, more inspiring, understands people's economic problems, which is critical because of the climate in this election year, 49 to 37. why? why? what is romney doing wrong?

>> first of all, a terrible name these primaries. said one thing after another that reinforced the image of him. i think fred is a very smart guy, kind of agree with what he says. he can't pull off empathy. that's just not in his skillset. he is just going to have to jump to the next thing and convince people he is a turnaround artist or a competent guy. i mean, that's his avenue to the white house. anything short of that every time he tries to come across as somebody who understands people, feels people, sort of part of mainstream america, he falls flat and probably not going to be able to pull that off. so i actually agree with what fred said, a smart piece of advice that romney did. >> if the romney campaign can figure it out, fred, if you looked at the polling, i just showed numbers fright damning if you are the romney campaign, advantage obama on those things, but look at these numbers here is governor romney speaking, is that what i'm being hold? governor romney is beginning to speak. stand by. >> decided not proceed with his campaign and i had a chance to

speak with him this morning, we exchanged our thoughts about going forward and we both have a were great deal of interest in seeing the country taken in a very different path. he has made an important contribution to the political process, has brought forward issues this he cares very deeply about and able to gather a great deal of public support and interest in those issues and himself. he will continue to have a major role in the republican party and i luke forward to his work inning him a sure victories for republicans across the country in november. we got to get that job done. [ applause ] now you can the reason that i wanted to meet with these business leaders was to ask them about their enterprises, what the prospects are for them, what they are seeing in the marketplace, but also getting a sense of the administration's policies and the government's policies as they relate to small

business. and as you might expect, those policies have by and large been devastating to small business. and so we spoke about the president's failure to actually encourage small business and also, i would note, to be able to encourage enterprises that are owned by women and to encourage job creation for women more generally. the other day, there's been some talk about a war on women. the real war on women has been waged by the obama administration's failure on the economy. [ applause ] >> that is governor mitt romney, the former governor of massachusetts, campaigning live in wilmington, dell wear. this is the first romney event since senator santorum dropped out. let's bring back in fred davis the running republican strategist, james carville, the democratic strategist. fred, he said thank you, applauded the santorum campaign, then he shifted to the economy,

again it is more of a programmatic criticism president obama. is that enough? it is not going to be enough. and i think james will agree are he is going to have to be something different than he has been in the republican primary. he needs to -- i think his new campaign starts tomorrow. he should have a -- i told somebody earlier today, he should have a nice bottle of wine tonight and then they told me he doesn't drink. so he won't be having that, but he can have one last nice night, then he starts running as the economic savior of america tomorrow against barack obama. and of course, doesn't really have to worry that much about ron paul and newt gingrich. >> james, for all the criticism of governor romney and those earlier poll numbers quite favorable to the president, if you look deeper at the "washington post"/abc news poll, governor romney wins, on handling the economy, governor romney wins, on creating jobs, a tie with the president having a slight advantage a long way between april and november. you are looking at those numbers, the key issue in the

campaign, governor romney is in a competitive position, right? >> yeah, we are at a tough economic time, but these numbers are actually improving for the president if we looked at those numbers six months ago they would have been much worse. so it is going to be a very, very competitive general election there is no doubt about it. i have to kind of smile when he was praising rick santorum after he dumped tense of millions of dollars of negative and unleashing 3 million in negative in pennsylvania that is part of politics, but somewhat humorous, the tear that he is shedding for rick santorum today. it can be a funny business. james carville, fred davey, appreciate your time. sorry interrupted by the live event, we will bring you back and continue this conversation, the competitive general election, as james said. fred notes it begins tonight or tomorrow. still ahead here, the truth about this fall's election race between governor romney and president obama, likely to be a lot closer than you might think. the chairman of the republican party joins us next with a look ahead.

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mitt romney, ron paul, newt gingrich, all went out of their way to praise rick santorum. but gingrich and paul made it clear they are staying in the race until the convention in tampa. reince priebus is with us, the republican national committee chairman.

when senator santorum bough -- bowed out, he said, today, senator santorum has made a commendable decision. he has decided to put his country, party and desire to defeat president obama ahead of any personal ambition. i applaud his decision and congratulate him on the campaign he has run. if it is commendable to get out is it harmful to stay in? >> i think you have to look at the math. i think rick santorum did that. >> he was well ahead of speaker gingrich and well ahead of congressman paul. should they look at the math? >> i think they should all look at the math. but i also think what compounded rick santorum's decision, which was another piece to this, john, which i think is a very fair piece, but not to da we will on it, but i think, you know, his family situation and his daughter being ill at the same time that he is looking at the math, i think the combination of those two things fueled this. but that all aside, i think the

reality though is that all americans i think respect a person who, in his pickup truck, started in iowa and really showed the american people that if you work hard and roll up your sleeves, you can do some pretty great things in this country. i think that's commendable. >> and so -- >> i think that's what he did. >> and so what is the flip side in the leader of the party, we have spoken several times, i have tried get to you play referee. you said no, not my job. are we at that point? speaker gingrich said do i have to tattoo it on the forehead? i'm going all the way to tampa. helpful? harmful? >> i think we have to wait and see, john. i think as a technical matter, at the party, obviously, declaring presumptive no, ma'am think? a different issue. so, i think you have to let the dust settle here a little bit, john, and we will see what happens in the next couple of weeks. i think certainly, this was a big day, not only for rick santorum, but it was last very big day for governor romney. and so, certainly, we are getting there, john.

i'm not ready to tell you right as i sit here with you that that's where we're at with governor romney but certainly, a big day for him and rick santorum as well. >> and when you hear from voices in your party and in the conservative movement, like tony perkins of the family research council, other evangelical christians saying we don't know if we can support romney, we are not excited about him we don't know if we can trust him, how do you think -- what does governor romney have to do and what is the role of reince priebus and others in the partying ortion to try to heat obvious wounds? >> well, i think that our party is going to be absolutely 100% unified behind our nominee. you look at the drexz barack obama has take than country, i don't think the referendum on this president, the jobs he

made, anybody end the conservative movement in the republican party wolf check that box with that we need to re-elect barack obama as the answer to the problems facing this party. to re-elect barack answer to the problems facing this party. i'm not there right now to tell you where we are at officially but i think we will have an absolutely unified party behind our republican nominee in helping save this country and defeating barack obama. >> well, we will continue the conversation. they don't -- not have to necessarily check the barack obama box, sir, if they stay home they could impact the election just as much. >> they are not going to stay home. nobody is staying home, john. >> we will continue the conversation and see if that healing happens, mr. chairman. appreciate your time on this important day. we will keep it touch. still to come this hour's other breaking news in the tray von martin investigation are the lawyers representing the admitted gunman, george zimmermann, say they have lost contact with their client and they say he has, against their

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this half hour of "john king, usa," the bizarre twist in the tray von marten case. the attorneys for george zimmermann, the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old say their client has cut off contact with them so they are dropping out of the case. tonight's truth is about this

fall's general election race between president obama and mitt romney. guess what? it will be a lot closer than 2008. and look who's back in the public spotlight and telling jokes about his time in the white house. breaking news in the trayvon martin investigation. lawyers for the florida neighborhood watchman who admitted he shot and killed trayvon martin have quit the case. just a short time ago, they revealed they have not been in contact with george zimmermann since sunday. zimmermann apparently is picking up the phone for some people, like reporters, and the prosecutor. >> announce today, as of now, we are withdrawing as counsel for mr. zimmermann. we have lost contact with him. up to this point, we have had contact every day. he has gone on his own. i'm not sure what he is doing or who he's talking to, but the -- at this point, we are withdrawing as counsel. >> we heard today that george had contacted the prosecutor's

office directly, one thing every defense attorney tells his client is don't talk to the prosecutors, don't talk to the cops. frankly, don't talk to anybody until we get control of the situation and do it through counsel. we were a bit astonished. >> i still believe that he was acting in self-defense that night. nothing that i've said about him or this case has changed in any way. i just can't proceed to represent a client who doesn't stay in contact with me. >> george can't go down to the 7-11 and buy a diet coke. there's a bounty out on his head. whether it's believed to be a real threat or not, it is out there he probably watches more of this every day than he should. he is largely alone. whether that means he is absolutely alone or not, he is at least emotionally alone. and you might even say emotionally crippled by virtue of the pressure of this case. >> because i'm still concerned about his safety, i'm not going to give too much detail. he is in the united states. >> sunny hostin is a legal contributor for in session on true tv. sunny this this unusual, i don't

think the word bizarre does it justice. what does it mean? >> i think you are right. this is bizarre. bottom line is look, attorneys are fired every day by their clients. it is a client's absolute right. attorneys often times with draw from cases, but they never do it this publicly, john. i don't think i've ever seen this before and i've been doing this a long time. and so it's very odd that they would do this publicly, that they would withdraw publicly, and give us so much information about their client. i mean, they are telling the media and telling the world that their client is emotionally unstable, that he has lost a lot of weight that he may be suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, that he is emotionally crippled. that tells me that this may, in fact, work against george zimmermann. if i'm prosecutor in this case and i'm thinking about bringing charges, now i'm concerned. i'm thinking that perhaps this person is a flight risk and so they didn't do their former client any favors, in my view,

from this very public press conference. >> and if you are the prosecutor and they walk in and say george zimmermann on line three and he is calling and does have his attorneys on the line, what do you do? >> you certainly don't speak to him. you know, prosecutors do often want to interview targets of investigations. they do want to get a potential defendant's take, statement, but never, ever without an attorney because all sorts of legal problems arise from that, whether or not the statement was voluntary that sort of thing. and so my understanding is this very smart, capable, seasoned prosecutor did not speak to george zimmermann, but it is bizarre that he would directly call the special prosecutor that's investigating his actions. >> and they say that he stopped returning their phone calls, he stopped answering their texts. they were careful, saying that they had not even met with him, in part, because they say he is not in that florida. where is he?

this is as close as they would go. listen. >> i will not tell you where george zimmermann is i don't know. those engaged in the late easter egg hunt looking for his, you can stop looking in florida. look much further away than that, which is also a reason why we didn't meet with him. >> you mentioned the prosecutor perhaps thinking's flight risk what are the rules? he is not charged with anything. if he wants to, maybe he is with family, he has family here in the washington area, for example. if he wants to can he leave the country? >> well, he can. he is not charged with anything t is his right to come and go as any of us do but again, if you're the prosecutor in this case, you are now very concerned, not only about whether or not he is a flight risk but also about his well being. is this someone whose safety is at issue you whose physical well being is at issue? so? a very, very trouble turn of events here, john. i don't think i've ever seen anything like t. >> a case that keeps taking dramatic and confusing turns. we will stay on top of it as

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tonight's trust is about a big transition day in 2012 this map showing the republican primary contest, in the west, rick santorum in the middle, look at that, 11 states, romney up here, newt gingrich, two. this map now going to give way to this map, as senator santorum

bows out. we know governor romney is the prohibitive favorite, the all but certain republican nominee, we will focus on november and not the republican race. this is how it played out in 2008, the blue states for president obama, the red states for john mccain. all the campaigns in will tell you can the likely battlegrounds this fall, small states like new hampshire, pennsylvania, virginia and north carolina, states or 'bama turned from red to blue. florida is always a presidential battleground, ohio, indiana. let's put michigan in there for a minute. let's come over this way, iowa will be one. i'm going to leave those ones for that now. colorado, new mexico, nevada, focus right there you look at those state there is, these are bat grounds what will happen? we don't know, a long time between now and then. president obama has a double-digit lead in all the national polls right now, forget about them. we know, november 2012 will be more competitive than november 2008. let's just assign some, for the sake of argument. mitt romney thinks he can win in michigan, say prove it the auto bailout should benefit president obama. let's leave that one red for now. santorum bows out in

pennsylvania, can romney win that? tried twice, let's for now, romney campaign might not like it, say that one says in team obama. these ones get interesting, president obama won in virginia and north carolina, for the sake of hypotheticals say romney takes north carolina and obama, this is part of the latino problem, part of the young voter problem to the republicans, i will leave virginia in the obama column right now. republicans feel confident about ohio, could be a vice presidential pick from that state, we will see and again, for the sake of argument, president obama was here today for a reason, let's say florida goes republican, the latino vote to could change that the sake of this hypothetical, let's do that where are we? states on the board, 255-242. indiana, hard to get an argument that one won't go back into the republican column. now we come out here, nevada, highest unemployment by state in the country. here is why, if you look at this map and you think off very competitive race, right, this is why one of come nor romney's biggest challenge, the greatest length, is to work on women and

latinos. you look at nevada, state he should win in the economy, the latino vote that stays there, it is on the cusp. colorado, republicans were very comfortable, polling there now shows the president could win it. if it goes blue, obama might win re-election based on that alonger the republicans have to win this one, new mexico, another state, a wing state of presidential politics if the latino vote stays democratic there, is an owe? what re-election, the small states, put them back to yellow, very small states that could decide the election, like colorado, electoral college-wise, new mexico, even high wa or new hampshire could be the swing states in the end. you look at this again, change that, the map is a little different, even if you change that you are in a much more competitive environment than you were four years ago, despite what you see in the national polls today. so let's size up the big development and talk truth. "new york times" national political correspondent jeff zeleny is with us, contributor donna brazile and torre clark, i want to sa start with the republican, a gift day for mitt romney. senator santorum gets out, yes, gingrich and paul are still in,

he can start focusing on november. if you look at the polling and you go state by state, women, latinos, biggest problem, what do you do tomorrow? >> boy, you start looking at your travel schedule and head exactly to-to-those states and i think you work really hard, give santorum a couple of days off and say to santorum, look, the greater good more important. i need your help on bringing those hard-core conservatives back under my fold. you can't lose any of those. the overwhelming majority of republicans will rally around and they will support romney but they need as many as they possibly can get. i think santorum could be very helpful. >> you have had this problem on the flip side, you have democratic nominees who need to repair with the base but then have to reach out to the middle, the more conner is vat voters in the middle, the flip side romney faces now, wounds on his right, mistrust on his right, he has to get, i will call it the middle, voters to the left of his party, some of them late teen know, some women. how do you deal with the challenge? i know you are not a romney fan, how do you deal with conflicting

goals? >> first of all, i am a romney fan and i'm glad he is securing the nomination because i think romney is a weak nominee. he is someone that we have seen over the past few months has moved farther to the right in order to appeal to very narrow segment of the electorate and now he must try to, you know, pivot back to the middle to get to the larger pool of voters. so, in that regard, i do believe that mitt romney will have to keep an eye on his conservative base, because after all they want a champion, they want a leader. yes, they want to defeat president obama, remember a couple monthsal, mitt romney said he will not set his hair on fire just to appeal to the base, he is going to have to dye it rode give them a little bit more red meat the next couple of days so they can come on board his campaign. >> if you look, jeff, at the challenges, his weaknesses, full, he has got the rifts within his own party he has to heal. he has a gender gap, a huge gender gap. democrats traditionally win the women's vote exrepublican traditionally win the men, out of whack in favor of the democrats, the gender gap. latino voters, the fastest

growing segment of the population, the swing vote, a half dozen, maybe a few more state, do they understand do they have a strategic plan to deal with again, challenges that are sometimes in conflict with each other? >> i think they next actually what the challenges are and the problems r without having to focus on pennsylvania, the primary april 24th that gives governor romney a lot of latitude the coming weeks. we are going to see him in florida. we are going to see him try to begin to repair some of these challenges with the latino voters. guessing woe love to be at the side of jeb bush who endorsed him a couple weeks ago. i think this gives him more room to move here, but going forward, i mean this is going to be a close election. you look at it on the board right there the fact of the matters is the economy is slowing down a little bit more. that worried the chicago re-election headquarters of the president, the job numbers out last week, so this is going to be a close race. it is clear governor romney's challenges r we have not yet seen him in general election mode. we are going to. >> everybody stand by.

good. >> look at the poll that came out today that said, yeah, people may like obama better but trust romney more on the economy. it is going to be about the economy, going to be jobs. >> and his record as governor of massachusetts, we have a long way before november 6th. >> a long way to go everything today, you guys stay right put. we will continue the conversation. a long way to go but everything we know today tells us it will be a competitive nomination. erin burnett "outfront." brooke baldwin in for her. stunning developments, bizarre developments, i don't know what to call it in the tray von marten case. >> the best word from jeff toobin is whacky, whackiest news cons conn friends we have seen n case folks are just getting home from work, if you missed this news conference today, the big news is that george zimmermann's attorneys are bou s ars are bow haven't heard from him since sunday, we will replay the sound. how does this affect the case going forward? where is george zimmermann? also, a story we were "outfront" on friday, talking

about house majority leader eric cantor and $25,000 donation to the super pac, the super pac who by the way, their mission is to oust incumbents, including incouple bonnets of the house majority leader's own party. now they are saying, oops, it was a staff mistake. really? what are republicans saying on the hill? we are all over those stories and more at the top of the hour. mr. king, back to you. >> say a little more than oops. looking forward to that one, brooke. see you in a few minutes. here, we will continue the political conversation and a school bus driver goes limp at the wheel and a middle schooler sprints into action. you will see what happens next. the former president george w. bush cracks jokes about everything from his reading skills to traffic. his best one liners, after this. [ male announcer ] this is corporate caterers, miami, florida.

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continue your conversation. rick santorum bows out. what does it mean for the presumptive republican nominee, mitt romney. one of the first problems he has is he has deep wounds. tony perkens with the family research council says it is difficult for us to back a candidate our constituents don't believe in and aren't excited about. in the pieces of the republican party this one is always a hard one. if they have a nominee they don't believe, how much time can romney spend there? >> they don't trust candidates with names like bush. the overwhelming majority of them will vote for romney assuming he is the nominee. obama has problems on the far

left, people are very disappointed he didn't do the things he said he was going to do. the overwhelming majority will vote for obama. it will come back to the middle. the overwhelming majority of the middle will say what is happening with the economy. >> how difficult is it for the incumbent? because he is running against the other guy and has to defend the three years. here is what his campaign manager says the more people see of romney the less they like him and the less they trust him. while calling himself the ideal candidate -- both from his right and from his left the same question. don't trust you. >> you know, i think both candidates will have challenges with their base. with president obama it was really many people on the left felt he was continuing many of george w. bush politics whether a bailout, the war, of course,

the doubling down in afghanistan and now that the troops are home -- and this willingness to sit down with republicans and try to meet them half way on the deficit reduction that irritated a lot liberals. mitt romney as an authenticity problem. is he the mitt romney that supported planned parenthood or the one who ran as a social conservative. that's something he will have to sort out within his republican family. >> as they work on this assuming they are smart candidates and smart campaigns a close race could come down to how good they are structurally. the obama campaign was far superior. have the republicans at large, have they done that work? are they ready to compete with barack obama? the new fashion and the old

fashioned way? >> the answer is no they are not. it is one of the reasons that the obama campaign opened doors for business exactly a year ago because they had work to do to reenergize that army. republicans concede they have to start rebuilding specifically the state parties. we heard about the health of the rnc but the state parties. ohio has had a massive civil war inside their republican party. at the end of the day one outside influence or one different influence this year is superpacs going to do a lot of that stuff on television. i remain skeptical that it has to be the state parties organizing. right now democrats have an advantage. >> a close race that old fashioned stuff. the hard work of politics matters. >> lisa sylvestor is with us now with the latest news you need to know. >> north korea says it is nearly finished preparations to launch

apsatellite using a long range rocket. tells cnn he doesn't have high confidence that he is not preparing to test a nuclear device. >> i think be able to make a good determination if it is a nuclear test that the rocket could give them the ability to strike as far away as the united states and other places. that is why this test is so concerning. certainly japan is concerned. the united states is concerned and everybody in that peninsula is certainly concerned. >> and in syria today we saw no letup in the killing even though government forces were supposed to begin withdrawing. opposition groups report at least 70 deaths. demanded syrian leaders keep their promise to implement a cease fire and says he is gravely concerned at the course of events. back here in the united states a

13-year-old boy literally took the wheel yesterday saving a bus load of his schoolmates when their driver lost consciousness. take a look at this security camera video. jeremy pulls the bus to the side of the road. oh, my gosh. >> all 12 students are safe. we are happy to report and the bus driver was taken to the hospital for reports of a possible heart attack. >> that is one calm, cool, collected smart hero kid. god bless jeremy. stay with us. tonight's moment you miss. we don't hear from george w. bush often but when we do we are reminded he is a funny guy. . i wish they weren't called the bush tax cuts. they were called somebody else's

tax cuts they are less likely to be raised. i publish a book and now the bush institute. they didn't think i could read much less publish a book. do i miss the presidency? i really don't. i enjoyed it. it was an interesting experience. it was inconvenient to have to stop at stop lights coming over here. i guess i miss that. >> good to see the former president. he also said though he is going to be careful he doesn't think it is helpful for him to undermine the current president. >> the first thing off the bat is we haven't seen him in a while or seen much of him at least. he is looking very well. those jokes were pretty funny, the self afacing humor. he still has that charm. >> leave the stress of the white