place positions. now, we are told we'll have all four of them for you and we are told that the results are decisive. you will learn them in four seconds. >> brett: all polls are now officially closed in florida. fox news can project that mitt romney will triumph in the sunshine state taking all 50 of florida's delegates. romney has won it all having won in new hampshire and nearly won in iowa he is poised to make the case that republicans have begun to close ranks behind the former massachusetts governor. >> kelly: fox news predicts that gingrich will finish second. he led romney in florida polls as recently as last week. gingrich was running ahead of romney for the entire month of december by upwards of 20 points

in a rear clear politics average of polls. gingrichs continues to enjoy a small lead in the national polls and has vowed to continue this invite fiet in the months to come. >> brett: at this time fox news can project rick santorum will place third in florida marking yet another disappointing finish for the pennsylvania senator. santorum was eventually ruled the winner in the narrow iowa caucus vote. first g.o.p. contest, yet never got much benefit from there. >> kelly: finally fox news projects ron paul will place fourth in this contest. paul has vowed to continue to stay in this race until the republican national convention set for the end of august in tampa. with florida's 50 delegates now pledged, romney will have 87 delegates nationally compared to 26 for gingrich, santorum will remain at 14 delegates and paul stands with four. it takes 1144 delegates to clinch the republican

nomination. >> brett: 95% of the delegates are still on the table. so there is a lot of road to go. martha has a look at exit polls. >> martha: we're taking a look at all these numbers. the florida electorate played to romney's strength, lots of high income voters a close race in florida. there were no independents in the mix. there could have been trouble for romney but it was not tonight. take a look at this. some of the groups have been big problems in the past. remember newt gingrich won married women in south carolina even after that controversy over his second wife. but he lost support with women in florida. romney gets 51% of married women vote tonight. gingrich gets 28% of that vote. 44% of single woman went from romney a much smaller margin went for gingrich.

he clearly lost the female vote in state of florida. the issue the economy continues to be front and center. those that care about finding that can fix the economy, 62% vote for romney among those that say the top issue is the economy. now what about the top candidate of quality that people were looking for tonight? once again, electability. somebody that can beat barack obama is the top quality. they think romney has that. he won 45% of that section of the electorate tonight. us a jus as we saw gingrich sweeping so many groups in the state of south carolina we are seeing a similar pattern tonight romney is sweeping those groups in the state of florida. gingrich says he could make an argument of going forward. he won tea party and very conservative voters, the evangelical vote is sticking

with newt gingrich but the problem in florida there weren't enough of those voters to put him over the top. that is clearly the argument he is going to continue to make. over the course of some of these races they hung with newt gingrich but there weren't enough of them to give him any sizable majority. >> brett: thank you. >> kelly: john roberts with the santorum campaign in las vegas and steve harrigan with the gingrich campaign but we begin with karl cameron following the romney campaign. >> reporter: mitt romney's victory is substantial and historic. no republican has ever, excuse me all republicans who have won florida have gone on to win the nomination. newt gingrich is the first republican to win south carolina and lose florida in the modern

history of races in the country. in addition, romney did particularly well tonight with late deciders. in the last week, they have gotten particularly toxic with the attacks in the ads. latest, 30% changed their minds in the last couple of days. romney carried them, as well. it's going to be a good night. biggest state to vote foe soe far and likely to be over quickly. romney campaign is making preparations for an early victory speech. gingrich eager to get out of dodge and head to nevada so his likely will be quite fast. he will paint sweeping national message to go to all the subsequent states. romney clearly going to address

some of the attacks that took place here and perhaps go forward and outline some of his ongoing criticism of newt gingrich. >> brett: we're hearing that romney may take the stage at 8:25. to the gingrich campaign. steve harrigan is in orlando. >> reporter: when you have the results out there. it was greeted by silence with the small number of gingrich supporters. they seemed to know it was coming. gingrich made it earlier today the fight will go on. he expected to continue at least five or six more months. also the tone of the fight is likely to be the same. gingrich claims he was carpet bombed by critical advertising from the on romney side. he intends to respond and we're likely to see more charges of romney being dishonest and being a liberal. finally some real problems overall in florida where

gingrich was on the spent by five to one where romney spent more than $17 million on advertisements. we saw newt gingrich narrate ought screen. details from general george washington valley forge, historian is seems parallels on the difficult situation. brett, back to you. >> kelly: let's head down to washington where chris wallace is live with his special guess. >> reporter: i'm here with karl rove the so call architect you don't like that phrase but i'm going to call it. >> i like it better when you drop the so-called. >> chris: and architect of election in 2003 and 2004 and joe trippi manager for many candidates. we've been talking a lot about these exit polls and see what we can make of them, it's pretty

straightforward top quality that voters were looking for was electability and romney beat gingrich by 25 points among those voters. top issue the economy 62% said romney beats gingrich by 20 points. how commanding a victory and how much of a boost going forward to romney. pretty commanding because the groups gingrich can be found can be counseled on the fingers of less than one hand. very conservative voters, white born again evangelicals that is smaller percentage in south carolina and barely carried those and strong supporters of tea party. but romney beats gingrich among conservatives. among tea party supporters, romney beats gingrich. it's a pretty widespread economically and demographicly, very showing tonight. >> it's a big win for him. he needed it. to give him momentum but second

thing, when you look at some of the exit polls and question about, are they happy with the field or not. there is a lot of people, 38% said they wanted someone else to enter the field and a lot of those, were romney supporters. >> chris: i'll get back to the question that want somebody else to get in. let's focus on newt gingrich. he basically got about his base third of the party. 30%, 35% they identify themselves as strong, not just tea party supporters, not just conservative but very conservative. that is his base. how does he build on that? they came out with the money on hand. gingrich has $2 million on hand but he has got million but less million cash on hand. romney has $19 million. given a huge money disparity and the sizable but still very much minority based, how do you build

on that? >> i don't think you do what he did last week, throwing the sink at gingrich, calling him a pro-abortion liberal. he ought to remember what brought him here. the difficulty is they are getting back where he is. angry at romney, throwing the kitchen sink at him. instead going to here is my vision is a difficult thing to do. his numbers he is bad shape on this. personal opinion of romney's 76-21. personal opinion of gingrich 55-40. today we've seen both people be very popular but very acceptable. >> chris: do you agree with that he should stop attacking romney but sell newt more? >> he has to do something that was working for him before. the problem is literally more

people in exit polls voted for him because they wanted somebody else in the race. the people want someone else in the race. more voted for that in that category than satisfied with the field. which means they are not satisfied with him. >> chris: so the message of discontent. if you want to vote for romney you vote for newt but not necessarily for newt. and it's sizable part of the electorate. >> chris: as we look it was a striking number. 39% of the people of the exit polls they would like to see somebody else get in the race. that is a function this has been a nasty personal campaign. there have been $20 million worth of negative advertising or do you think there is some underlying dissatisfaction? >> i think part of it this is the home of jeb bush and lots of people in florida, a lot of

people want him to run. i don't want to make too much of it in one state. but the attitude among republicans, both of these guys are going after each other. even if you vote for your choice you would hope that would stop. >> chris: john? >> i think that is whole thing right now. a lot of people say they are satisfied are voting for other candidates. they are voting for newt gingrich and voting for paul and santorum. what happens when it's romney. he has to start pulling this together. him running nuking newt isn't going to do that. >> chris: he has to make affirmative sale. >> absolutely. >> chris: we're all ready talking about what the romney and gingrich should say and shouldn't say. we'll have two drama critics and we'll talk about that later. >> kelly: i thought you would be

going for drama queens there. i'm glad you said critics. >> brett: just so you know the decision desk makes the call by using raw vote total and exit polls as totals that are in. mitt romney the big winner in florida. newt gingrich second, rick santorum and ron paul coming in fourth. coming up, all-star panel, bright human, kirsten powers and steve hayes and hear from ed rollins and charles krauthammer and sarah palin. >> kelly: live look at romney headquarters and gingrich headquarters, as well. we are expecting romney to speak. gingrich will soon be after that. don't forget more coverage at foxnews.com. >> come on down, a lot more to talk about. the decision desk and at foxnews.com. right now we have special live coverage at foxnews.com/sl.

we are anxious kerg playing hooky for a second. we have a great loan. join the conversation through live chat. we're taking your questions about florida and live video of the candidates and realtime results county by county. it's a place to be especially during a commercial break. foxnews.com, america's election headquarters. this is an rc robotic claw.

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>> kelly: it is 8:18 in the east and fox news has projected mitt rom will prevail in the florida primary. newt gingrich will come in second. and we are also projecting that rick santorum will come in third and ron paul will come in fourth in this state. again the results insofar. there is based on a combination of the raw vote plus the exit polling based on that fox, fox news predicting will 49ers, romney, gingrich, santorum and paul. >> brett: people are filing in romney headquarters. we're told that governor romney will speak sometime around 8:30. campaign workers are adjusting the teleprompter so we can

expect a speech from the former governor of massachusetts. an excited crowd. they handed out american flags. they are now seeing themselves on fox news. >> kelly: and let's go over to bill hemmer. you can tell us how th the race came down. >> bill: red white and blue you can throw in the color orange, what you are about to see on this map is nothing short of domination in florida. this is realtime voting here. 66% of the voting in today, all 67 counties spread out. two colors so far on the screen, romney in orange and gingrich i guess you would call it a lime. romney right now is taking part of the state where he wanted to capture where mccain did so well four years ago. down in the southeast part,

connecting to collier county and look here in the middle of the state. it is almost all original, that is the i-4 corridor, where swing voters and independent voters live and work in. many analysts may conclude this portends well for romney in the general election but this is a republican primary in florida and not open to all voters but watch that part of the state. for gingrich his argument will come right in here. tal that has si and leon county over in the west and jacksonville, this is part of the state where these are evangelicals southern voters and bumping up against his home state of georgia. that will give him the argument to continue on in places like georgia or oklahoma weeks down the road. quickly from 2008, mccain and red and, this is where mccain

and this is it is orange and it is romney country in the state of florida. >> kelly: did you see that. is that like brangelina. >> brett: okay. brit hume, senior political analyst and kirsten powers and steve hayes. first, an overview of tonight. >> i think everybody has gone before from karl and joe, this is a sweeping victory for romney. he that has carried nearly every group and gives him a leg going forward. however, he has an interesting choice to make. what lesson to take. he beat gingrich in this primary by basically bombing him back into the stone age by negative advertising. the this was not a positive

campaign. you can see he spent something like $17 million. that is what most of the people heard was over the air. he has to decide whether it's now the time to move to a more positive message in these states going forward or keep his boots on gingrich's neck going forward. he let a little after new hampshire but it turned out to be a mistake. i think romney has work to do. more conservative elements of the republican electorate doesn't trust him still. that is persistent problem. i think he has to worry about that going forward. he needs to bring that up front. 40% of the country over as conservatives, fewer than 30% identify themselves as republicans. there is a lot of opportunity for romney for voters he will need in the general election in addition to the moderates. >> what it means for romney and gingrich? >> i think it's extremely bad

for gingrich because he was ahead not too long ago. he has to look at the campaign, where did he go wrong. i think this is hitting on something important. if you look at the polling that came out this week, independents and polling, on 20 points among independents or another 7. the reason for this is the xain negative campaign. it turns off independents which are different. if you look at other voters they are getting turned off. >> brett: if the gingrich points to the race ahead and race of delegates as you take a look data. 2286 delegates in 2012, you need 1144 to win the nomination. after tonight, 95% of the delegates are still up for grabs. if you take a look at count, romney has 87, gingrich 26,

santorum 14, paul 4. 50 delegates, it was winner take all. what about that? >> i think they are making that argument for two reasons. one, because it's true and it is the case the race is basically in the infancy. two, you have nothing else to point to. nothing they can point to as good news aside for the fact that conservative voters seem to stay with gingrich. if you combine all the conservatives he would be doing better but that is a tough argument to make after romney has such a decisive victory here tonight. one thing that jumped out at me in the exit polls is the number of voters who said that the base was important or very important or someone sma important. actually chose mitt romney. those numbers are interesting. 17% who said it was most important for nearly one in five

gave romney the advantage, 44-38 over gingrich. 50% of florida voters said it was one of several very important factors. they chose romney 42-32. gingrich has made an argument that the debates matter very much. that is very difficult number i think for newt gingrich on to swallow tonight. >> two minutes of hearing from mitt romney. we will await to hear from him. i want to ask you, in ten days, in newt gingrich win disease live in south carolina and now romney in florida. they are thinking one and one. isn't that how it is? is it's more significant than that? >> it's a bigger state. it's a diverse state. its stated that looks more like america than south carolina did. it's one of important states. it's a bellwether state for the

republican party. it tells you about the acceleration of the news cycle. there used to be news cycles will slower, ten days was no time at all. now ten days is a long stretch between events. it was ten days from new hampshire with gingrich finished fifth in georgia and ten days between south carolina an florida in which a lot happened. as steve just noted and exit polls show it. mitt romney raised his game in the debates. newt gingrich was not able to raise his game. as we move forward in this primary season, sure there are lot of debates before it's all said and done. their future, not very many. that not good news for newt gingrich. >> i remember sitting here ten days when you raised this question, can newt gingrich sustain the momentum he has derived out of south carolina. it was a legitimate question,

it's a decisive no. you have seen such a turnaround from the numbers from south carolina to florida. but in part was not able to sustain the momentum over ten days. >> brett: if you were going to make the argument that you were going to be best against barack obama in the debates and you have couple last luster debates, going forward -- lackluster debates. what do you do going forward? >> you paint yourself into a corner. i actually, fundamentally flat arguments to start with. the idea when gingrich does in the primary, he gets people excited. they are conservatives. you do have a general election you are going to alienate people. so it's kind of a flat argument this entire time. romney has taken that away. >> kelly: we believe the candidate will emerge shortly.

we have given the two-minute warning. >> kelly: they will make their way through the crowd. they are welcoming for mitt romney and his wife. [ cheers and applause ] >> kelly: we talked about the debate, we'll go to the candidate when he comes out. newt gingrich, he tailed i would to have a moment at the debate. you compare the performances, if you watch the debate he failed to have a breakout moment like he did the week before.

>> the debates in south carolina there is some luck involved. he got a couple questions from the media people and republican voters of south carolina could be suggested and he went after them, it worked. >>. >> brett: point out romney campaign, let's listen to her. >> what it means for a wife and mother to sees kids like this and on the stage. i will tell you mitt doesn't take himself very seriously because we have the five boys along on the bus. [ laughter ] >> only four of them. my son dan is in residency but we're sorry he is not here. we have made friendships from here all across this country but here in florida it's been wonderful.

there are so many people we need to thank. list is long. i'm going to ask you to do something and not clap until we've gone through the list. but i'm going mention a few people. that have made such a difference. so please hold your applause until the end. commissioner adam putnam our chairman. chief financial officer, jeff atwater. attorney general, ambassador john ruse. ambassador -- you are not listening to me. senator, i give up. and the members of congress who endorsed mitt. connie mack. jeff miller, john mica. maria march -- andrew crenshaw.

sandy adams. senator john francis. our friends celebrating in tal that has si and across florida. brett foster and anna, all the people throughout the state and finally thank you all, thank you all so much. now.... [ cheers and applause ] >> now, let me introduce you to my husband, the father of my five sons, grandfather of my 16 grandchildren and the next president of the united

states.... [ applause ] thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you so much. thank you and the people of this room and people all over florida. thank you tonight for this great victory. [ cheers and applause ] >> there are fewer candidates

tonight than when the race begin but three gentlemen are serious and able competitors and i want to congratulate them on a hard fought contest in this campaign. primary contests are not easy, they are not supposed to be. as the primary unfolds the opponents of the other party have been watching and they like to comp for the themselves that a competitive campaign will leave us divided and weak. i've got news for them. a competitive primary does not divide us, it prepares us and we will win. [ applause ] >> when we gather back here in tampa seven months from now for our convention.... [ cheers and applause ] >> ours will be a united party with a winning ticket for america.

three years ago this week, a newly elected president obama faced the american people, look, if i can't turn this economy in three years, i'll be looking at one-term proposition and we're here to collect. [ applause ] >> you know the results. it's been 35 months of unemployment above 8% and more americans have lost their jobs and more hoems home foreclosures than under the administration than any other president in history. in the last ten days, i met with a father who was terrified that this would be the last night his family would be able to sleep in the only home they had known. i've met seniors who thought these would be the best years of their life and they are worried day to day how to make day to

day. i met hispanic entrepreneurs and they thought they in h their dream but now it's something else. president, let's remember how we got here. don't worry mr. president, we know exactly how we got here -- you won the election! leadership is about to taking responsibility, not making excuses. another crisis, thomas payne is reported to have said, lead, follow or get out of the way. mr. president, you were elected to lead. you chose to follow, now it's time for you to get out of the way. [ cheers and applause ] >> i stand ready to lead this

party and lead our nation. as a man who spent his life outside washington, i know what it's like to run a business, i know how extraordinarily difficult it is to build something from nothing, i know how government kills jobs and yes, i know how it can help from time to time. my leadership helped build businesses from scratch. my leadership helped save the olympics from scandal and give our american athletes to make it all proud as they did. [ cheers and applause ] >> my leadership 19 times and cashed over 800. we balanced the budget every single year and we kept on our schools first in the nation. my leadership will end the obama era and begin a new era of american prosperity. [ cheers and applause ]

>> this campaign is about more than the replacing a president. it's about saving the soul of america. president obama and i have very different vision of america. president obama wants to grow government and amass trillion dollar deficits. i will not just slow the growth of government. i will cut the spending of government. i will reduce it and without raising taxes i will finally get america to a balanced budget! [ applause ]

>> president obama's view of a free economy is to send your money to his friend. my vision for a free enterprise economy is to return entrepreneurship and the genius and creativity to the american people. [ cheers and applause ] >> one of the most personal matters of our lives, our healthcare, president obama would turn decision-making over to government bureau accuracy. i through forced obamacare and i will repeal it. [ cheers and applause ] >> you know like his colleagues in the faculty lounge who think they know better. president obama demonizes almost over sector of the american

country. other than other people running for president. i know how to make it one of the most attractive segments in the economy. >> president obama orders religious organizations to violate their conscience. i will defend religious liberty and overturn regulations that trample on our first freedoms. [ applause ] >> president obama believes that our role as leadership leader in the world is thing of past. he is intent on shrinking our military capacity at a time when the world is facing rising threats. i will insist on a military so powerful no one would ever think

of challenging it. [ applause ] >> president obama has adopted a policy of appeasement and apology. i will speak out for those seeking freedom and i will stand shoulder to shoulder with our friends around the world. [ applause ] >> if president obama wants to fundamentally transform america, and make it something you wouldn't recognize, i wanted to restore to america the values and principles that made us the hope of the earth and i'll do it! [ applause ] >> our plan is to protect freedom and opportunity.

our blueprint is the constitution of the united states. together we will build an america where hope is a new job with a paycheck, not word on a bumper sticker. [ applause ] >> i want to be clear. the path i lay out is not one paid with ever increasing government checks and cradle to grave assurance that government will always be the solution. if this election is a bidding war, for hope and promise the most benefit than i'm not your president. you have that president today. but if you want to make this election about restoring american greatness, i hope you'll join us. if you believe the disappointments for the last three years are a detour and not our destiny, i'm asking for your vote. [ applause ]

>> i'm asking each of you to remember how special it is to be an american. i want you to remember what it was like to be hopeful and excited about the future and not to dread each new headline. i want you to remember dreaming about sent your kids to college. i want you to remember when you weren't afraid to look at your retirement savings or the price at the gas pump. i want you to remember when our white house reflected the best of who we are, not the worst of what europe is to come. [ applause ] >> that america is still out there. we believe in that america. we still believe in the america that is the land of opportunity and a beacon of freedom. we believe in the america that challenges each of us to be

bigger and better than ourselves. this election, let's fight for the america we love. we believe in america. thank you so much! florida, you're the best. god bless the united states of america! thank you. >> brett: clearly elated, governor romney after a big win in florida saying the competitive primary process does not divide us, it prepares us and we will win. seemingly addressing concerns within win and he is not touching all the voters he needs to touch. i stand ready to lead in party and nation. but he spent much of his speech talking about president obama saying he is romney presidency would usual her a new era of american prosperity. he wants people to remember better times when the white house reflected the best of who we are, not 9 worst of what

europe has become. governor romney and his family relishing this big win in florida and now goes on to nevada where it's believed he'll have an upper hand. >> kelly: more than any of the other g.o.p. candidates that has had his wife at his side at campaign events. >> kelly: vocally introducing him and we see a lot from anne romney. coming up, we'll hear from sarah palin who will join us live. live look at gingrich headquarters here in orlando and hearing from the former speaker shortly. keep it right here on fox news. what makes scottrade your smartphone's most powerful trading app ? total access - to everything. from idea to research to trade. including financials, indicators

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their sights on further contests. but mitt romney is the winner in florida tonight. >> brett: live look at newt gingrich campaign headquarters in orlando. you see the folks waiting for the former speaker. he is about 15-20 minutes out. when he arrives you'll see it. >> kelly: we want to bring in sarah palin. governor palin is fox news contributor. governor palin, your reaction to the news tonight. >> hi, megyn and brett. these are pretty large numbers for governor romney, that is a big win for him. $17 million spent in one state. that purchased a lot of darts and arrows that was flown in one direction and lots of darts and arrows was thrown back. a lot of that negativity didn't

appease the party and cause in very attractive colors. it diminishes the energy to head into a general. hopefully everybody will start to focus on what is important as we go for the. >> kelly: you talked about how you believe the establishment was attacking newt gingrich, truig to crucify him. do you feel it led to his second finish and do you think it happened also to mitt romney? >> i think again with $17 million purchasing ads in some respects in false narratives it was very difficult for the other candidates to counter that bombardment of advertisements and the typical campaigning that seems to be going on in this primary. when a bell is running it's tough to unring the bell. so, yeah i think that added to a

process that thus far it hasn't been very attracting active to the electorate. it's unfortunately what keeps good people from running from office and being engaged in the government process of electing our leaders. >> brett: i wanted to ask you, romney said, quote, i stand ready to lead this party and this nation. do you believe that to be true? >> i believe that is what his mission is. that is every candidate's mission, brett. what governor romney needs to do is discussing and debating against these other candidates is talking about important things, why are we facing $1.1 trillion deficit. why are we facing these enormous costs of obamacare once they get implemented how that is going to affect our economy and our small businesses. i want governor romney and

others to start really debating solutions to problems that we face when we hear rumors about for the first time in history perhaps our oil trade is going to be used with u.s. dollars and how it devalues and rehe lied on more on foreign energy sources. now the newly waged war on religious freedoms that president obama has engaged in, how that reroads our foundation and does adversely affect our religious liberties. all these important things. the average americans are affected by, we want to hear that. we don't want to hear the nitpicking. >> brett: you said i wo resident in florida i would vote for newt gingrich. if you lifz in las vegas had who would you vote for? >> whom it is to route process

to continue. as it stands, obviously it's romney and newt who are closest to the front running candidate. so i would continue to vote for whomever it is. at this point it looks like newt. to continue to even the playing field with your vote and even the playing field allows additional vetting that additional information about candidates and ideals and their goals for this nation and how they are going to reach these goals for our nation. it allows it to continue. >> brett: governor palin, thanks for your time tonight. >> kelly: plenty more to come. we are awaiting comments from newt gingrich. we'll take you there live as soon as he comes to the stage. [ kyle ] my b.

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dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. >> brett: speaker gingrich, we're waiting for speaker gingrich to arrive. once he does and delivers his speech we'll bring it to you live. we're joined by juan williams, columnist for the hill. juan, i want to take you even though we're looking back at gingrich headquarters to the romney speech. he spent a lot of that time targeted at president obama saying you were lblgd to lead you chose to follow now it's time for you to get out of the way. what did you think of the speech did you think it was effective? >> no, but what struck me right from the start he was adamant about the idea, republican party

is not divided and weak. he said that obamas of the world democrats might have taken that lesson from the highly en tense campaign. what struck me, the exit polls indicate that people were strongly identified as conservatives preferred his opponent. you start to look at the numbers. you can see a division there is a wi tin pararty. i think you picked up some of that or megyn did with sarah palin. you see this division as some consequences in terms of the swing vote. we recently had a poll that indicated that governor romney and president obama would be tied in some of the critical states, especially in the industrial midwest. you look down south towards states like virginia to carolina where romney and obama are head

to head. but romney favors have climbed because of attacks on gingrich. >> brett: we are seeing that rick santorum is speaking. we'll listen to what he has to say. >> he ran a very spirited race. he needs to be congratulated for his resounding victory in the state of florida. let me make one side comment but it's not a side comment it's very important comment to me. i want to say to everyone on behalf of karen and all of all our family, when we judged off the campaign trail to care for our daughter it was very trying time. this has been pretty tough campaign. campaigns and things and politics have gotten pretty nasty on both sides of aisle and certainly across the aisle. i just have to say for on behalf

of our family and seeing the outpouring of support from folks frankly on both sides of the aisle, from across the country toward me and karen and particularly to our daughter bella, i want to say everyone, thank you for that support and for those prayers. bella had a tough couple days but she has turned around. she is recovering and going to go home tomorrow. [ applause ] volunteers and factor in nevada, thank you very much. thank you very much, i appreciate that. >> well, thank you very much for that. it's great to be back here on the campaign trail. talking about the importance of the day. one message i think we got from the campaign in florida is that republicans can do better.

we can do better. we can do better with the dialogue and accusations that we're going on in the state of florida. really this campaign went downhill. i went to florida and participated in the debates. i thought we did a pretty good job in those gas. [ cheers and applause ] >> while we didn't get to the melee of the negativism but the american public doesn't want to see two or three candidates get into a mud wrestling match where everybody walks away dirty and not being able to represent our party proudly. we're going to have differences and we need to talk about the differences on the issues but what we saw in the last few weeks in the state of florida is not something that is going to help us win this election. i'll say it again.

governor romney has every right to go out to the private sector and use the gifts that god has given you and for your hard work and make all the money you can and do it in a way that helps our economy and certainly helps you and your family. i'm not going to criticize you for doing that because that is how capitalism works. i'm all for it. [ applause ] 6. >> the tal echbts you have and they are consider abld and put the effort and hard work and knowledge and experience you got from working at the highest levels of government and government was trying to run over them. there is nothing wrong with that. i congratulate for you the work you did in support of companies as entitled under the first amendment of our constitution and i'm not going to criticize you for that. [ applause ]

>> put those issues behind us and let's focus on the real issue which is dweekt barack obama. [ cheers and applause ] >> we're not going to do it by should slinging. we need to talk about the issues that people are talking about. they are talking about homes being foreclosed on, jobs not available or promotions not available or the opportunities to be able to start a business without the government breathing down their neck. that is what people want to hear about. they want to know how you contrast yourself with president obama when it comes to that. that is what the campaign is going to be to me. tomorrow we're going to give a speech on romney care and obamacare. [ cheers and applause ] >> we're going to talk about the issues that are important to the people of nevada and important

to the people of colorado and minnesota and missouri. the states that are up next in this next go around in the next week. that is what the issues that again, we need a candidate who can get out on the issues of healer and draw clear contrasts with obesity president obama and cap and trade and environmentalism and draw clear contrast with president obama. we need someone on the issue of wall street and bailouts. here in nevada they suffered while the folks in wall street, the people here who have the loans underwater suffer while buying or selling for profit bad paper continued to get bailed out and approved of by newt gingrich and mitt romney. we need someone that can draw

that contrast. someone that can be a conservative nominee. you know what in florida, newt gingrich had his opportunity. he came out of the state of south carolina, he came out with a big win and a lot of money. he said i'm going to be conservative alternative. i'm going to the anti-mitt. it didn't work. he became the issue. we can't allow our nominee to be the issue in the campaign. [ applause ] >> i say to the people of nevada and people across this country, if you want a strong principled conservative that won't be an issue in the campaign, make barack obama the issue in the campaign. [ cheers and applause ] thank you and god bless. thank you. >> kelly: rick santorum speaking in las vegas, nevada where he has moved on to in proposition for the nevada caucuses. he abandoned florida over the past few days. he said he wanted to go home and

do his tax returns. number three he wanted to move on. john roberts, let's take a listen -- can we take a listen to this? >> reporter: we're here with former senator santorum, how are things with bella? >> she is doing remarkably well. the doctors say they'll be out of the hospital tomorrow. we're feeling very blessed and thank everybody for their prayers. i know they helped bella a lot. >> reporter: now, on stage a moment ago, you appealed to the candidates to stick to the issues. you said i didn't want the nominee to be the issue in the campaign. do you fear there is a growing describes am in the republican party in the way the campaign has been waged? >> the problem sometimes republican primaries we get away from the issues and all primaries, we get away from the

issues and make it personal. if you make it just about personal attacks, it's hard to bring things back together. that is why we've run a campaign very different. tomorrow we're going to talk about romney care. >> reporter: do you feel the campaign the way it's been waged could damage the republican nominee in the general election? >> i would say nominate rick santorum that won't be the case. we haven't been part of that. we don't have the personal baggage that the other two folks have. we have the better track record of winning swing states that are necessary. i think you'll see conservatives start to coalesce around them. >> reporter: draw me a scenario in which rick santorum because the nominee? where do you have to pick up delegates? >> i would say just wait until next week. gingrich is going to be nominee.

now it's romney, this race has long way. poll out of missouri that has up 11 points over governor romney. one in ohio that has us 7 points above romney. we're in good shape. we're starting to build slowly. i said from the very beginning, slow and steady. people will take a look at this race now they exposed the dark underbelly of these candidates. they are going to look making obama the issue. >> reporter: senator santorum, thanks for joining us. >> kelly: it's so interesting. before we went to john roberts. santorum's daughter three-year-old has been suffering with a genetic disorder and he went home to be with her. we have been following that. thankfully you heard the candidate she is doing much better. as we look live at a different part of the campaign.

live in orlando, florida where newt gingrich flanked by his wife and daughter will now speak about his finish in florida. >> brett: he is the first g.o.p. candidate to.... >> thank you all up here. i thank bill mccallum who has been a great statewide leader and has done so much to help us. i want to thank the mayor and a adam levine that helped us put together. it was remarkly short time. we're grateful to all of you. i want to introduce my daughter, kathy and her husband paul. they live down in key business cane. i'm very proud of kathy she did a lot of spanish media helping us in the miami area and reaching out across all of the hispanic community. also my daughter jackie and her husband jimmy who are here.

[ applause ] jackie has been doing television and radio and as many of you know, she and jimmy are the mother and father of the two major debate coaches, maggie and robert. [ laughter ] >> i want to thank floridians. everybody here has been so positive in every part of the state. i want to thank all of you for the 40s pi talt and kindness. thank well over 1.5 million that voted for us. i think florida is very important coming on top of south carolina. it is now clear that this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader newt gingrich and the massachusetts moderate. [ cheers and applause ] >> the voters of florida really made that clear.

you'll notice the number of folks are holding up a sign about 46 states to go. [ applause ] >> we did it in part for the media, same people said i was dead in june and july, that way is gone after iowa, now going to back, what is he going to do. i want to reassure them tonight. we are going to contest every place and we are going to win and we'll be in tampa as the nominee in august. [ cheers and applause ] >> you might ask, how can that be true? i'll give you the answer. it was stated that a historic

moment in 18363 and dedicating our first national military cemetery by the president of the united states, abraham lincoln. who said we have government of the people, by the people, for the people. now, we're going to have people power defeat money power in the next six months. [ cheers and applause ] >> you might say how are we going to that is in the same way we came back in june and july by december we're ahead by 12 points with no money. you it turned out if you have ideas and you have solutions, and you are positive and you can communicate a better future, and you have a history of actually doing something in the past, that the combination begins to reach the american people.

let me talk briefly about what this is going to be about. this is most important election of your lifetime. [ cheers and applause ] >> if barack obama gets re-elected it will be a disaster for the united states of america. if he is going to have a record this bad, unemployment this bad, deficits this bad, policies this bad, gasoline prices this high and still get re-elected, you can't imagine how radical he'll be in his second term. so designing and putting together a people's campaign, not a republican campaign, not an establishment campaign, not a wall street funded campaign, a people's xianl and saying to every american of every background and every ethnic group in every community, we have a better future for you and your family. it's the future of jobs, it's a future of lower gasoline prices.

it's a future of a balanced budget. its future of smaller washington. it's a future of more power back home to you and your family and your neighborhood. this is a future we ask you to join us in imposing on the establishment in washington and imposing it on both parties. [ cheers and applause ] let's talk briefly about the power of ideas. in 1980 i put together the first capital and they came together with governor regulate and david wrote about it courageous decision by reagan. he didn't have to run as part of the team. he did something nobody had done before. we won six u.s. senate seats by a combined margin by 75,000

votes and picked up 33 house seats. >> in 1994 building on that experience, we got 350 candidates to come and to be part of a contract with for america to stand on the capital steps. we offered a positive program and we had the largest one party increase in american history, 9 million additional americans voted and we kept our word and every item in the contract is voted in the first 93 days. [ cheers and applause ] there is a core question both in the primaries and in the general election. it's a simple question -- if you are comfortable with the way america is decaying, we don't have to change much. we can just manages the decay. if you think that is a terrible thing to do to your children and grandchildren, it's a terrible

thing to do to your country and if you are prepared to do what it takes to make sure that we change direction, not just the presidency but the congress, the bureaucracy, the judges, the policies so that the entire system gets on the right track, so that america can give our children and grandchildren a more prosperous and safer and better future, this is how big the gap is. the folks in both parties are quite comfortable managing the decay. our children joined us in that decision because we believe it's cheating our grandchildren to not insist on fundamental basic change in washington even if the establishment doesn't like it. [ cheers and applause ]

in the next few days, we're going to develop the equivalent of the contract from 1994, except this is going to be a personal one between me and you. i'm asking you to make me president. i have a personal contract. it's going to come in two parts, part one is conditional and requires your help. part two i can do if i win the election. part one: only works if you help me and we run a team campaign which means by the way, we have to replace bill nelson with a conservative. [ cheers and applause ] >> if you help us in addition to winning the presidency, we elect republican senate and republican house, i will ask them on january 3rd to stay in office. i will ask them to immediately pass the repeal of obamacare.

[ cheers and applause ] >> i will ask them to immediately pass the appeal of the dodd-frank bill which is killing housing, killing small business and killing independent banks. [ cheers and applause ] >> i will ask them to pass an appeal of the bill that is crippling american businesses with no net profit. [ applause ] >> my goal is to have all three bills sitting there waiting so the minute i am sworn in, i can sign all three and have a pretty good morning. [ applause ] >> those three promises are conditional. we have to win the senate by big enough margin and we have to increase our strength in the house.

let me tell you some things and we're going to put this together in a way you'll be able to see in writing a with my signature and you will be able to hold me accountable. there is a series of executive orders that i can issue that the congress can't stop as long as they are within the law. very first executive order will abolish all of the white house czars of as of that moment. [ cheers and applause ] >> we will issue immediately on the same day, all this is going to happen two hours after the inaugural address, no point hanging out and having fun. before we get to go to the various balls that night. we are going to have a work period, this isn't going to be working presidency. i may not get in as much golf as obama but i'll get in a lot more job creation.

[ cheers and applause ] >> i'll tell you up front, i'm not going to compete with obama in singing because i'm not running for that. i'm running for president kheergs cheers >> i will say now, mr. president you can't sing your way past the disaster of your presidency. [ laughter ] >> now, we will immediately, i'm having to wing this because of failures. we're going to sign on that day the authorization for the immediate deployment for the ski stone pipeline, keystone pipeline of that day.

my message to canada don't cut a deal with the chinese, by january you will build the pipeline to the right place. we're going to put the other package together. this is going what a serious conservative president is like who is bold and is prepared to change washington despite the establishment of both parties. we will on that day sign an executive order that will instruct the state department that day to open the embassy in jerusalem and recognize it. [ cheers and applause ] >> two more examples. i will sign that day exclusive order reeven steitd go mexico

policy, no u.s. money will go anywhere in the world to pay for abortions, period. [ applause ] >> finally, many of you may have noticed that the obama administration has declared war on the catholic church and other religious institutions. i want you to know that on the very first day i will sign an executive order repealing every anti-religious act of the obama administration as of that moment. [ cheers and applause ] >> the reason i am comfortable telling you all this. i have been studying what america needs to do sense the fall of 1958 when my dad was stationed in europe in the army. i have been working on what we

need to do as congressman, speaker of the house, in the private sector. i believe it is possible to get this country back on track. my commitment is to unleash the spirit of the american people to find new and innovative and positive things to do them seven days a week, to do them relentlessly, to do them without stop to make sure we fundamentally got america back on the right track. i pledge to each and every one of you personally, if you will reach out across the country, if you will use facebook, twitter and visits, tell all your friends in the other 46 states there is a chance to nominate a conservative who knows what he is doing, who has done it before and who has the courage and determination to get it done, i promise you if i become your president i pledge to you my life, my fortune and my sacred

honor. this is about america. thank you, good luck and god bless you! >> brett: newt gingrich, his speech which he said this is most important election of your lifetime. he'll finish second behind mitt romney. he said this is a two-person race between a conservative leader newt gingrich versus the massachusetts moderate mitt romney. he has been using massachusetts liberal. he said the next six months he'll use people power to defeat money power and contest every place. he has 46 states to go. we should point out the gingrich campaign did not qualify in virginia. he is going to fight on. he says he is going to tampa and he'll win the nomination. >> kelly: we're going to head back to washington. chris? >> chris: you know it is very interesting for all the negative

comments made by romney and gingrich in the last week in this campaign, in romney's speech he never once said the name gingrich and in gingrich's speech he never referred to a massachusetts moderate but never once said the name mitt romney. we were surprised that he was positive he was focused solely on obama and none of the attacks with the exception conservative versus moderate. >> he was angry about the beginning. he got that out of his system and went straight after obama. this is what got him in to contention last october and november when he moved into first place. in the debates he had a big vision and program of activity that has made him look like a robust conservative executive. that is what it looked like tonight. >> chris: one of the reasons you were surprised is at the point

we were coming on the air, gingrich issued a money bomb over twitter and over the internet he was asking supporters for over million dollars and making pointed attacks on romney but he didn't do it on the speech? >> two things clear, 46 states but it would help us defeat obamacare. if you are online, he is being much more aggressive. his speech, i think it was the best election night speech he has given so far. it was really on and money bomb, this was directed at people versus money and literally to the strong tea party people, most active out there to send him some money and to get excited and get around all 46 states. >> chris: he talked about a

people's campaign. he has really tried to work that idea he is the insurgent candidate. how credible is the former speaker of the house, a guy who worked and made a lot of money on k-street the lobby haven, how credible is the outside anti-establishment candidate? >> he isn't. what works is, i've got an activist and here is what i'm going to as soon as i take office. don't you like it? that is heck a lot more powerful than i'm raging against the machine. that is what in our theme, look, he wants money. he is in this thing. he got a big infusion of ten million dollars from a couple in las vegas. he's only got a million and a half in the bank. he can't fight this without

having finances. he has a website and all aimed tonight at raising money. he would like to have money. he doesn't have it and he is trying to make the best of a bad situation. >> chris: candidates don't stop running because vision or ego shrinks they son because they don't have the money to run. just a practical matter, does the money dry up? >> not with this kind of message. he sent the message on twitter message out there, 1.4 million followers. people are following him. not all are supporters. he raised millions of dollars right after that. the real thing he stays in, is this the phone he uses or the ugliness we saw in florida.

with him, you are starting to look at tough, ugly race the rest of the way. >> chris: he has to make contact with romney? >> so far it's good for romney. it's made him a better candidate but carter and kennedy kept going on with no real end in site. it hurt him. >> chris: one last question to you, if you were advising to gingrich how do you strike the balance presenting a positive message, this is why people like me. this is why i have the best vision for the country but on the other hand making the contrast to mitt romney? >> a lot more on the first and lot less on the second. and i don't think the money bomb is going to work. million dollars but he is a million dollars to the good and he has certain amount of burn rate. the question is going to be, is his outside been factors going

to give money. they have roughly. $4.5 million unspent from the $10 million. >> chris: $4.5 million in the bank this is super pac. so he can go on for a while. >> he can go on for a while. i think at some point when you start to persistently win, this changes. by early march, you may see a persistent winner. >> chris: ron paul is about to take the stage. >> kelly: ron paul is live in henderson, nevada. went straight ahead to the next caucus state that will take place on february 4th, let's take for the man that has come in fourth, coming man ron paul.

[ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you very much. thank you. >> well if enthusiasm wins elections, we win hands down. this is great. this is very nice. thank you very much for coming out. just a little while ago, i called governor romney and congratulated him. no, we had a friendly conversation. i congratulated him he ran a good campaign but also said i would see him soon in the caucus

state. [ cheers and applause ] >> we've been having a fantastic trip. not too long ago we were up in maine. fantastic reception up in maine. today we had three visits in colorado and they were fantastic. we visited with and probably had attendance well over 5,000 today in enclose. [ cheers and applause ] >> in colorado. >> it looks like we have a few hundred here at least, a thousand people. >> a few months ago, there were nine, we're down to four. tonight we're in third place when it comes to delegates that is what really counts.

[ applause ] >> we've only gotten started. now, the -- and we will spend in the caucus states. if you have an irate minority you do very well in the caucus states. there is something else as they lend themselves to, if you have an energized group of people that are working in a campaign and actual reply believe in something, it's better to work in the caucus state. >> this is what has been so fantastic with the campaign. i've been doing campaigning for liberty for a long time. let me tell you something big is happening in this country and it's all very favorable. [ cheers and applause ]

>> the mess up in washington they have created a mess that has given a lousy foreign policy. they have given a lousy budget and lousy recession. wonderful thing that is happening in the grassroots. people are beginning to realize that the problem is too much government. we need more personal liberty! [ cheers and applause ] >> this is where we're winning the hearts and minds of people. the numbers are growing. i tell you what. there is many brush fires of freedom being lit tonight. we don't even know where they are there are so many. it's bean translated to great enthusiasm and change. the change that we need. we don't need to have more government. we need to get rid of some of

the process of government. for instance, don't you think it's about time we have a new monetary policy. [ applause ] [ cheers and applause ] and all we have to do is read the constitution, they tell us exactly what we're suppose today have. [ cheers and applause ] >> what about a foreign policy? we need a foreign policy, but do we have to inconvenient it? no, all we have to do is read the constitution wooflt need a strong national defense. we don't need to be the policemen of the world. very simply we should not engage

any wars that are not declared properly and not support by the people. i've gotten some advice on the internet every once in a while. advice, ron, if you would just change your foreign policy you would get a few supporters. if they only knew that the support for the freedom movement comes with a sound economic and a sound foreign policy that makes sense. [ cheers and applause ] >> very simply, it means bringing our troops home and stopping all these undeclared, unwinnable wars. what would it do for our economy? i would like to see troops spending their money at home.

in the last ten years, fighting these unwinnable and undeclared wars we have spent over $4 trillion. so at a cost of life and limb but there is a economic cost, as well. the american people are tired of it. they are ready because they know this country is bankrupt. all great nations go down because they overextend themselves overseas. it's time for us to wake up, don't wait for an economic crisis to hit when we have to come limping home. we ought to rise up, spend our money wisely and defend this country and don't present fend to tell other people how to live. [ cheers and applause ] >> the greatest danger when we accept the notion that the government is suppose today take

care of us and we're supposed to policemen of the world all is done at expense of personal liberty. the purpose of the government is the protection of individual liberty for each and every one of us. [ cheers and applause ] >> we need to reverse this trend on the attack on our civil liberties, we need to repeal the patriot act. [ cheers and applause ] >> we need to repeal the provision that the president has the authority to assassinate american citizens without trial. we need repeal the provision that says the president can use the military to arrest and deny them a trial. very simply, send only people to washington, send only people to the white house that know and understand and read the constitution and enforce the

constitution. [ applause ] >> then there would be, then you would have an understanding how wo you would have a peaceful nation and enforce liberty equally. people will use their liberty in different manners but we don't have to fight over how they use their liberty as long as they assume responsibility for themselves and consequences of all their actions. [ applause ] >> it also very simply suggests the fact if we have a right to life and liberty we should have a right to keep the fruits of our labor as well. [ cheers and applause ] >> so we don't have to reinvent something, we can improve on our

past but we had a great constitution and a great middle-class, biggest middle-class ever, we've undermined it with excessive taxation and a monetary system is flawed and foreign policy is flawed. all we have to do is return to our roots and in a shooter time we could have our peace and prosperity and our reliance on ourselves for our personal liberty. >> not only has this been a great day for campaign for liberty and that process but a great week for the campaign. believe me it's been a great past four years. five or six or seven years ago, they really didn't know exactly what was happening but with the crisis that that hit, both the economic crisis we had four years ago, the realization of the significance of our federal

reserve system as well as flawed foreign policy, the people know about it. they are awakening to this. they are listening to this message. it's up to us to do something about it. [ cheers and applause ] >> the message is loud and clear the enthusiasm is here, but it has to be translated to proper political action. attending the caucuses send a powerful message to this country that we want our freedoms back. we don't want more government! thank you very much! [ cheers and applause ] >> kelly: fired up ron paul who took a fourth place finish in the florida primary. nonetheless, congressman paul speaking to what appears to be a large crowd in henderson, nevada. right now he has four delegates but pledges to go on. as he said he'll go all the way

to the convention. that is his hope. he looks forward to february 4th where he'll deliver his message of liberty and limited government as he has from the beginning and fervent supporters including his family. >> brett: they have some crowds at those events. >> kelly: he has thousands. >> brett: coming up, marco rubio and mike hubz, we'll hear from him. >> kelly: find up to the minute results at foxnews.com, online home for politics. keep it right here. i love that my daughter's part fish.

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>> brett: welcome back to the florida primary. you see the big winner, mitt romney. we don't know how big, 82% of the predict vote is in. gingrich will come in second. in third, rick santorum and ron paul, you just heard from him in nevada. he comes in fourth. >> kelly: joining us now is florida senator marco rubio.

you did not endorse anybody in this race but you did call gingrich to pull down a radio ad that you thought was misleading. when it comes to advertisements in florida, 71% said it was a factor for them, 55% went for mitt romney, 28% went for newt gingrich. do you think those ads have played an important part in florida and negative advertising in general will end up damaging the republican candidate? >> first let me clarify, i didn't ask him to pull down any of the ads. he made the right decision and congratulate him for that. i do think they could have an impact especially in florida. this is not one of the states in november it's automatically in the republican column. our nominees has to come back to florida and has to win the vote. some of these things that are being said now in january are going to be on their minds in october when they are making up their minds about the next president of the united states.

part of the reason went into the comment about the ad, ultimately i do think it could be factor and we should be concerned about that. >> brett: governor palin she would continue this race moving on, good things for the party and good thing for the nominee. do you agree with that or this whole process and negativity is hurting the party? >> i had a special experience when i ran for office. a lot of people said i needed to get out and obviously it didn't work out that way. certainly we've even seen in this race, speaker gingrich thought he wasn't going to be competitive and he became competitive again. that being said i'm impatient. i want us to get to the case important replacing barack obama. obviously i would like to unify behind a candidate as soon as possible. i think the choice is so important for our country. that doesn't mean we can ignore

the process. they have a right to continue to run. look, i stand by what i said earlier today. at the end of the day, however long the process will take, if you win in florida, i think it's a good indication, even the republican primary how you are going to do in the general election. >> brett: will you endorse before the process is over? >> i don't intend to and i don't intend to make that decision tonight. but i will tell you i am looking forward to working for our nominee. i do think the sooner the better but not in artificial way. i'm not asking for to race to be rushed. if other people want to take their message. congressman paul wants to have a say, as well. but ultimately i stand by what i said earlier, i believe when all is said and done, if you win florida decisively it will be a good indication of what you'll

do in the general election. >> kelly: there is a lot of buzz about you? >> i think all of us will work hard for the nominee. travel the country and florida is going to be a battleground state. i know florida well having lived here all my life. i think it's not going to be hard case to make for floridians. we understand president obama, unemployment it was too high. since he took over everything has got worse. he could have anything he wanted. he got what he wanted and it didn't work, it made things worse. florida knows that as well as any state in the country. >> kelly: senator rubio, thanks so much. >> coming up mike huckabee joins us with his reaction tonight. [ male announcer ] how can power consumption in china,

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>> brett: let's talk to former arkansas governor mike huckabee, great to see you. your thoughts on the status of this race. >> i think the blowout quality of it is the biggest surprise. a lot of people thought the race was tightening up. big night for mitt romney. i tell you having been in newt gingrich's position, it's a tough thing to walk out on the stage and put on a stiff upper lip and make everything is like it's fine and you could hear in his voice a lot of frustration. >> brett: governor, what about folks that are saying the race should continue and this is just beginning. 95% of the delegates are still out there.

you were in a position where toud make a call. either you continue or you don't. to the candidates who are trailing, what do you say? >> you say there is a lot at stake. it's gone one state, all the candidates have won at least one state. it's ridiculous who should get out at this point. my position was someone gets 1144 delegates they are the nominee. until then, it's still a race. the only way i know the outcome if you quit. i don't think someone should vote for someone to keep the race to keep going. you vote for somebody you like and shares your convictions. as long as that person is getting votes and nobody has cinched the nomination they should stay in the race. >> brett: thank you very much

mr. huckabee, you look very comfortable with that fire there. >> kelly: brit? >> it seems to me each of two candidates have decisions to make. romney's, he is making a stronger case for positive side for agenda or does he keep pounding away on his leading opponent. that is his call. newt gingrich has decided he is going on whether he can but decision may be well out of his hands. it will be depend on money because you can't campaign without it. you can't campaign effectively if you are massively out spent. i think mitt romney raised his game and did well in the debates newt gingrich got definitely something and romney going out of florida with a lot of momentum and going into nevada

where he won it last time with a similar population to florida, a lot of hispanics and lots of seniors. he will continue to attack gingrich on the freddie mac stuff that probably worked against him. it will be hard for gingrich to stop him. >> i think mitt romney resolved two questions past two weeks, he is tough to take on barack obama. second, is he able to answer questions about his wealth, about his business experience in a way that convinces voters? he seems to have answered that question. the remaining question how can we win over conservatives? how can he convince them he will not only be the leader of the republican party but a leader that speaks for conservatives. that remains a challenge. >> kelly: thank you so much panel. i think i prefer reagan to mitt. [ laughter ]

>> brett: that is it for us tonight. >> i'm megyn kelly. be sure and stay with us. we'll be back for the main caucuses on super the tuesday. here comes hannity. americans are always ready to work hard for a better future. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader.

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ew. seriously? dude that is so totally gross. so gross...i know. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. is. >> shep: welcome to hannity tonight. we are monitoring all the news coming out of florida. but first, on the special edition from hannity. you'll hear from supporters of romney and gingrich campaigns and much more and alan west and short time ago, former massachusetts governor mitt romney was declared the winner of the tonight's primary. he has addressed his supporters in tampa. newt gingrich came in secondly. rick santorum followed in third place trailed by congressman ron paul in fourth. joining me in studio with analysis. pat kadel and ed rollins. what is fascinate becoming.

go to south carolina, gingrich is losing and double digits and then he turns it around. same thing for romney. debates a big factor? >> debates a big factor. romney spent a huge amount of money. gingrich wasn't in the resource game. the debates matter. we're having huge swings even inside the republican party that i don't even remember. >> shep: you can go back throughout history. kennedy, carter. >> one big difference, romney has put together a great campaign. two elements in the campaign, one is a great candidate and one a great organization. newt has not yet put the organization together. he has good people but not functioning on all cylinders, i think you saw that this week. romney campaign went out executed, tremendous resources,

financial resources but they made it work. >> shep: let me put the question differently. >> sean: in gingrich had the same resources? >> there are two elements that broke the back tonight. one he did very badly among women. he didn't do well among hispanic voters and senior citizens, those three groups was big difference. >> sean: what we were talking about, the amount of money, the money well spent but this is defining state. how much momentum does it carry for romney? >> the next contest he would lose by double-digits. we're going to be the down period and few romney states. what is interesting to me is that this change in the electorate partly was newt became the issue here. i think he lot traction in these debates with big message which is big ideas, big message that

carried him. he got into the negative contest with romney and their money and it didn't work. >> sean: governor pa eleven says she wants the vetting process to continue. one thing that is really clear. you have to give credit to romney and santorum tonight. after the great debate performances by newt, they stepped up and they had to step up. >> at their game. >> sean: they brought their "a" game to the debates. i thought that was a key moment here in florida. you know what, they didn't step up. what i'm suggesting that was a key moment for both of them. >> newt tried to be presidential. his daughters and wife. you got to look presidential. truth of the matter what benefited him in south carolina he was mean and tough. people said this is kind of guy we want to take on obama. having two debates affected him and not having the campaign to follow. >> expectations were so high because of the south carolina debates, the lobbyist guys

really hurt him. >> sean: and line by romney in a speech. >> a lot of democrats are looking at this, you are a democrat. this competitive battle is going to make us weak. it's not dividing us, it is preparing us. in that sense, this is what whoever the nominee certainly mitt romney is looking good tonight, he is going to be need prepare for a billion dollar ad negative campaign coming his way. >> they started it. i heard jim clyburn talking about cayman islands and swiss bank accounts. by the way, i think the next month is a critical month because romney has to face the attacks from obama. he has to solve the problem which he is not doing well with people who feel economically depressed or challenged. he needs to do that.

>> he said in the speech, he was in his game. he basically felt good about going. >> gingrich is going to get back in the game he has to redefine himself. >> sean: he went after obama hard in this speech. if you didn't turn things around one term proposition and we're here to collect? >> i think that is good point. that energized all republicans. electability was important part of the game tonight. people want to see who is going to be tough against obama. >> his personal negatives, the level has reached so early has been harmful. in florida bad state for obama, suddenly romney is winning big, he has fallen 8 points behind president obama. >> there was a poll out, one-point race.

good to see you. for more reaction to tonight's primary results we go to charles krauthammer, good to see you. >> let's get your broad overview of the results tonight. >> it is what we expected. it's not that different from what we expected. it tells us how important debates but the moment that determine these elections. look at south carolina and florida results. it's almost like a controlled experiment. in both, romney hugely out spends gingrich. in both gingrich gets the need first endorsement from mr. and mrs. adelsorn. they have two debates primary on the week in thursday. what happened in south carolina?

gingrich had the moment and those two debates, juan williams moment and john king. then he had a 30-point swing from 20 behind to 10 ahead. in the florida debates he was flat. he was on the defensive. romney was on attack, santorum was strong and that swung him all the way back. it's remarkable how much the debates are a factor and the money advantage had the same advantage in south carolina, it had to do with the moments the gingrich campaign, it was revived on the debate and now it's on debate. but because he doesn't have the debate until the 22nd of february, he is going to be out there for a while. >> sean: i totally agree with that natural si. you add the money, money was a factor and advantage for romney in south carolina. what is fascinating, too, you have been following politics for a long time.

what is amazing is the turnaround, south carolina, a double-digit deficit into a double deficit win. same thing for romney in florida. he was back against the wall that gingrich had and newt had coming out of south carolina. he was able to turn. that it was the moments, defining moments these debates. in one sense you got to give them all credit because thought they rose to the occasion. >> i thought was interesting was the speeches of the top three tonight. they were all perfectly in character. i thought romney was santorum was pell put together and newt was most interesting. romney i thought was uninspired. he had a few good lines but was slow and steady, hammering on obama. wife's introduction was always the best. she is best asset.

santorum had a well explained rationale. he was out there in nevada. he basically says i am the guy to rise above the gingrich too food fight. i am true conservative. i am one that is not going to end up to be the issue in the campaign implying that, of course, gingrich and romney were. he has an opening in missouri in a week. it doesn't have any delegates but gingrich is not on the ballot. that is one chance to go up against romney in an important state. the state that most representatives of the whole country, missouri. he is now ahead. if he beats romney one on one essentially in missouri, i think he stakes a claim that could be the anti-romney. then you've got gingrich who i thought gave the most interesting and best speech of the night. he was so good on his feet. he had two parts.

first part was positioning himself. he went after elite media washington establishment, wall street. he is the guy, he is the insurgent. then he has very effective on substance, when he pushed all of the keystone and obama and the s implying obama executive overreach the arrogance of this administration. he talked about the war on -- i think it's an issue that is going to be extremely important. these do with regulations of obamacare. then as always he had one sour note. that was i thought at the end where he said i pledge my life, my fortune and my sense of honor. of course, last line is last line of declaration of independence but the people that signed that document, had they not succeeded they would have

been hanged. if newt doesn't succeed he returns to k-street. there is a little bit of difference. but i think each spoke in character very interesting speeches tonight. >> sean: let me go through a few of the lines. when gingrich defined himself as clear conservative versus a massachusetts moderate, 46 states to go, people power, defeating money power. he talked about extending over six months. there is comparison. romney tried to unite the party and then he went after obama. we're here to collect. this is a one-term proposition. talks about jobs lost, housing market. he talked about we need someone to take responsibility and not excuses. lead and follow and get out of the way. really challenging obama and trying to set him apart as the candidate. does he get momentum from that

and gingrich could make the case that there are 46 states to go? >> considering the job that gingrich had to do, he was speaking after historic thumping i thought it was better one and he put it together rather well. by going after obama and going after elites but it works really well. romney had some good lines. i think he sort of said, look, i'm the winner here. i won in florida. i'm really going to speak as the guy who doesn't even have to so much acknowledge my internal opposition. he tried to speak as the guy who was already the nominee. i thought what was wrong with his speech, his basic argument, if you are listening to the argument, i'm a businessman. i know how to create jobs. trust me. i know how to start a business. i'll strengthen the american

economy. that is not a terribly strong argument. in the absence -- he didn't make a conservative case. he didn't have an argument on exactly what he is going to do. you aren't going to have that happen in a victory speech but he has to give a people out there somehow. >> if he gave one like mitch daniels which is concise and smart and i thought elegant the defense of the conservative critique of obama. conservative agenda for fixing america, if romney could memorize that speech, he would be president of the united states. he just hasn't been able to do that. he is basically selling himself. gingrich i thought is capable of giving a speech with contours and giving on a night where he got really whacked, he spoke

well of him. he has to show that he can win between now and march 6th. i'm not sure he has a place he could do that. >> sean: thanks for being with us. >> and ahead, oklahoma congressman j.c. wat sts with us. >> thank you. >> sean: you were supporting newt gingrich. your analysis of the night? >> we knew that florida would not be easy. we thought going in we had a pretty good ground game which i think we did. i think we outspent? 13 to one. you need you need air attack with your ground attack. i think the speaker's position is extremely well. i think he probably becomes the

target of the homicidal folks and the santorum folks. dr. krauthammer mentioned that santorum had not been in the food fight. he has not had a win since iowa. i suspect he'll get in the food fight. i suspect it again but the speaker has a good record to run on. as the old saying goes, they can lie louder but we can tell the truth longer. i think he'll continue to do that. we're ready for the balance of the battle. >> sean: what about the carpet bombing issue. it's been pretty contentious down there. at moments you are wondering if we're going to put somebody in and put everybody in neutral corners for a while? >> you don't like to see that. again, i think we saw in iowa that works when newt had about 50% of the negative ads running against him. we saw it in south carolina but

we had very good ground game. we saw it again in florida. so he is kind of the focus of these attacks. again, i recite what my dad used to say is, dogs don't bark at parked cars. the speaker is a threat and speaker to santorum and has been to governor romney. he will continue to be under attack. i think he has a balanced budget entitlement reform pay down the public debt, helped create 11 million jobs as a speaker. only time in my lifetime we had a balanced budget is when newt gingrich was speaker of the house. >> sean: what do you make of the demographic shift. i went back to south carolina, looked at demographics. he won married women by ten points. a lot can happen obviously in this race in a ten-day period of

time. what do you think the shift is and can you apply it to other states coming up? >> i haven't seen the demographics or the numbers of the demographics from the florida election, but i think people saw through the negative ads in south carolina. we felt like the clock started in iowa but the game would begin for us for the speaker there in south carolina. it proved to be accurate. we'll look at the game film, as they say, and see what is there and see how it all unfolded tonight. again, we think going into super tuesday we're going to be pretty good. we think there is some shots in nevada and arizona. we think we can be competitive there. that will give us a boost going

into super tuesday. we feel pretty good about that. oklahoma is in that super tuesday race. >> sean: you could carry anybody over the goal line in oklahoma? >> it might get a little heavy. [ laughter ] >> but the speaker is looking forward to it. >> sean: watch me throw out and give me report on my arm and my throw. j.c., great to see you. >> coming up romney campaign supporter florida congressman, connie mack will join us and later, alan west he sparked a controversy this week when he told top democrats to take their left leaning agenda and get the hell out of the united states. we'll check in with him as the special florida primary edition of hannity continues straight ahead. this is an rc robotic claw.

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as this primary unfolding the other party has been watching. and they like to comfort themselves that a competitive campaign will leave us divided and weak. but i got news for them. a competitive primary doesn't divide us, it prepares us and we will win. >> when we gather back in tampa seven months for our convention. [ cheers and applause ]

>> ours will be united party with a winning ticket for america! [ cheers and applause ] >> sean: that was the winner of the florida primary speaking a shorts time ago. joining me a supporter of the romney campaign, florida congressman, he is running for the senate. connie mack, how are you? >> how are you doing tonight. >> sean: i like that line. its competitive line it got pretty contentious down there? >> i think mitt is right. if you look back at the beginning of this week, he went out on the first debate in florida, and he stood his ground. he talked to the people of the state of florida and said look it's time we create jobs in america. it's time we respect individuals and got government bureaucrats.

he took his case very strongly to the people of the state of florida and they responded very well to that. >> sean: i would agree, but i would also argue that there was a lot of negative ads that were run down there. a lot of robo calls, upwards $17 million, term was used by newt gingrich carpet bombing by the romney campaign. i agree with you, debate performance he had two good debates down there but there is a lot of negativity. how does he unite the party at the end of the process. >> in a campaign that is very difficult because a lot of times you are talking about friends. this is kind of in the family. newt in a lot of times came unhinged and really went after mitt romney. two of them, some people was steel on steel.

that is what happens in a primary. i can tell you this. as republicans we will be united behind our candidates. i hope will be mitt romney. we'll be united behind our candidate because we can't afford of four more years of barack obama. >> sean: i agree with the last line. newt was clear, 46 states to go. people power will defeat money power in the next six months. newt was unhinged. let me give a moment of one of ads, a romney ad against newt gingrich. >> newt gingrich was ronald reagan's vice president. >> i worked with ronald reagan. >> gingrich exaggerated dropping reagan's name 50 times but in his diary he mentioned gingrich only once. he said it would triple our defense patrol program. reagan rejected his idea on leadership and character, newt

gingrich is no ronald reagan. >> sean: oakland the romney pac there. pretty harsh criticisms that he resigned in disgrace. said all these things that were said throughout the campaign. you are not going to deny that mitt romney was very aggressive against newt, are you? >> no. i think both campaigns were very aggressive. i wouldn't say that is not true. to say it was just mitt romney is false. newt ran around the state -- okay. >> sean: go ahead. >> i said newt ran around the state saying all kinds of things about mitt romney. first debate it was too quiet. second debate it was too loud. he attacks on romney character. this is a man who has been very open, very ethical. someone who is honest we can

look up toned to and be proud of. newt spent a lot of time i think kind of flailing on the different attacks he was on. >> sean: it was interesting to me in governor romney's speech i liked a lot of lines he used. leadership is about taking responsibility, it's not about excuses. lead and follow and get out of the way and time for obama to get out of away. we're here to collect but if he didn't fix the economy this is a one term proposition. clearly governor romney's mind he was laying out the foundation for a general election campaign against barack obama -- no? >> absolutely. i think governor romney understands that we have to get america off the road to greece band back to the road to prosperity. he knows how do it. he did it in his personal life. he has done it in his business life. he did it as a governor. he has been successful whether

it's the olympics. this is a guy who is a winner. he knows that jobs are created in the private sector. jobs aren't created by government. i think he can bring a voice and a direction to america that will put us back on the road to prosperity. >> sean: how is your senate race going, congressman? >> things are looking great, sean. things are unfolding and we've got great poll numbers. we raised a good amount of money. things are changing all the time. we're very happy with the direction that things are going right now. >> sean: congressman connie mack thanks for being with us. >> still ahead, bob beckel and great american panel. but first, alan west had very strong words over the weekend for the president and his democratic allies. he will be my special guest as the special edition of hannity continues and much more straight ahead. has never been hacked.

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>> sean: welcome back to specialigs of hannity as we analyze the results out of florida in the primary tonight. first, retired colonel on until adam west has come under sharp criticism for comments he made about president obama and democratic allies. >> take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneur will and spirit of the american people somewhere else. you can take it to europe, you can take it to the bottom of sea you can take it to the north pole but get the hell out of the united states of america. >> sean: here to explain, florida congressman, alan west, good to see you? >> good to see you. >> sean: some clarification, take your message and get the hell out of here. were you talking about them getting out of here or the message getting out of here?

>> the message. it's the message, sean. i think what you see is the liberals understanding that someone called them out. when you look what is happening in this country with the debt, the deficit, the cbo coming out and saying once again we're going to have a triple dollar deficit in 2012, fourth straight year, unemployment may be going back up to 8.9% by the end of the year. these are serious situations that are going and last week, state of the union address you heard the president say nothing about the debt, nothing about deficit or dodd-frank or the failed stimulus package. nee we need to call the people out who we are. we are now 1007 days without a budget in the united states of america. >> sean: what is amazing to me, i remember the bush years. we followed a lot of comments by top democrats, al gore saying george bush betrayed his country

candidate obama calling bush patriotic and all this. here you make these comments, you would think the world never heard a controversial statement from many democrat ever. what do you make of the double standard? >> it's a double standard. it's hypocrisy that is truly laughable. it's amazing to me that i think liberals and democrats expect conservatives to just be punching bags. that day is over. we're going to stand up and let our voices be heard. we're going to fight for this constitutional republic. >> sean: where do you stand with your seat and some people, i know you said earlier you are going to run for a different district? >> for whatever reason, florida legislature was controlled by the super, we went to dsms plus

district you have given 5-6% registration advantage to democrats of them drew in more democrats into the district i represent. you are talking about 57% democratic district. so the district that was newly drawn north of us which encompasses about 20% of the current district i represent. we made the decision to move to that district. it's a good plus one district and very fair district. i can't understand for the life of me the legislature of the state of florida would have done what they did. >> sean: was it done for political pay back? >> i have no idea. i think you would have to ask the people up there in the house and the senate why they drew the map as such. they were constituents that drew maps for them that met all the legal guidelines that would have been a competitive district. >> sean: what do you make the results of the florida tonight? what was happening on the ground.

a lot of negativity. read my twitter account and it seems like this particular moment in time, this is a process, romney spo supporters hate newt and newt supporters hate romney. >> i think during the florida primary, we're going to have a chinese oil rig put in place about 60 miles off of florida. we had a hearing yesterday transportation hearing, no one is going to talk about that the economic if we were to have a deepwater horizon right off the coast. they need to do contrast and president obama and failures and especially in florida we would have higher unemployment, higher than the average. we need to allow the people to make decisions who they think will be best to go into the arena against president obama.

>> sean: adam west, i know you have a lot of supporters out there. i don't think you'll have that much trouble in the district. we'll be watching the race very closely. time to check in with greta van susteren. she has sneak peek of what is coming up. how are you? i am stealing your time slot. you pushed everything back an hour. my time slot was stolen. >> greta: we got a big show. what we did on the record. but senator santorum and speaker's daughter and rick cline tipped me off to the news. so i'm going to let rick talk about that today. >> sean: are you going to make me watch. >> greta: it belongs to rick cline. i didn't get it. >> sean: you can tell me. send me an e-mail. >> greta: here it is.

here. >> sean: i can't even see myself my eyes are so bad. greta, we'll be watching. 21 short minutes. beckel, pulling on his, what do you call those things, suspenders, dying to get back on here. our great american panel is next.

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gretchen hamil is here. >> i think it's really interesting. this the most diverse state yet. fourth largest state in the nation. tonight's election was important and romney had a good showing. that sends signals. he won big counties and the counties that are going to matter in november. >> big win for romney i don't think it's the end of the world for gingrich, it's two-man race but like he says, 46 to go. a lot of delegates. nobody has a hundred delegates yet. not even one-tenth of the way. >> sean: that was interesting. they moved up florida. was winner take all. which they lost half of their delegates. what about the case that senator santorum was making, it's got to be about the issues on the -- i'm the conservative alternative? >> i think santorum is doing one

of two things. he is either trying to position himself as, hey, there is no mud on me and i'm a bona fide conservative and that is going to propel him in the race. the other thing that crossed my mind, he was really talking about newt criticizing romney. the thought occurred to me, is he trying to position for a vice presidential candidacy there. >> it's got to be roub yeo. >> roub yeo is not eligible. >> 10% of the republican vote because he is not a natural born citizen. we bev through that with obama. >> sean: i don't believe that. >> i don't think that is going to work. >> you republicans worry about that. what struck me, first of all the amount of money spent in this primary was probably more record setting than not. romney was in early. he spent a lot of money.

half million people voted and got to them and gingrich was in no position to do that. newt found out that florida is not south carolina. northern part of the florida but the rest is diverse like ohio, most diverse state in the country. the thing i walked away, hop of the people voted didn't like their choices. >> sean: it was 39 to be exact but who is counting. >> but romney performed well with the people he needed to. he performed well with women and in other areas. that speaks a lot to his ability as a candidate. >> sean: ten days ago it was the opposite. >> you take him out of south carolina and he wasn't bruised. he came out and stronger and he.... >> sean: south carolina newt was down double digits and came back and won by double digits.

romney is down by double digits at the start of ten day period and he turns it around with two good debated performances. >> $17 million. >> sean: i would agree with that certainly i think if newt had the same debate performances i am not sure the results would have been the same. >> it would have been closer but you can't turn on the television in florida without seeing some of it. ten days prior to south carolina coming in fourth place, he wins south carolina, ten days exactly later he comes in second by a big margin to romney. what does that say? >> it's still up in the air. >> sean: it's always been historically one by will win new hampshire and iowa and one will win south carolina and the race is over. not the same anymore. >> when you took florida, it put mccain over the top after he won

south carolina. what newt's problem is with all presidential candidates, it's not the ego that drives people out of the race. the problem with newt's ego is cashing checks in his bank account that he doesn't have. maybe he raised a lot of money but it's money that drives you out of race. candidates are personally responsible for their money. >> you can go for 46 states and you have to have the money and operation to do that but right now newt doesn't have it. >> there is something about florida that i haven't heard anybody mention, there is two floridas and there the rural and urban florida. newt won all the rural counties and these won them substantially but there is not enough people in their areas. it does suggest he is going to do well in other southern states, in rural america. >> sean: we have governor palin

on last night. she said this is about g.o.p. establishment versus the tea party manifest foe, independent americans who don't like the politics of personal destruction. we can sit here all day long and armchair quarterback and say the negative ads have to stop. the reason is they are running, they work? >> exactly. they work. >> it was money well spent. >> is in establishment versus tea party? >> i think romney is clearly the establishment candidate. look at the people who are supporting mitt romney. it's karl rove and people that are supporting newt gingrich, it's sarah palin. >> also the tea party, one of your biggest elected officials in south carolina is senator demint stayed out of the race.

i'm wondering, you have to tell me, how united is the tea party behind newt. >> tea party is not united around any candidate. think newt got help late from tea party activists. the leadership of the tea party movement can't tell the grassroots what to do. >> sean: how dangerous is this divide? it's palpable. somebody supports romney. they are not liking gingrich or they don't like romney supporters. it was bad when obama and clinton, they played the race card. >> but not like this. it was strung out a long time and they were very close in delegate counts. you have two titanic campaigns running each other, you have one that is clearly well funded. he has to walk into caucus states and then got to go to

michigan. >> sean: nevada and michigan, romney. >> in any caucus states and it takes organization and that costs money. >> michigan has romney history. >> but in the rural states, small towns, everybody is big on newt. that will make a difference. >> newt could sustain stai in, it's a beauty confess in missouri. there is good microcosm of republican america. if newt can do well. >> one big opportunity and he is not on the ballot. >> i just like to stir it up. >> sean: we have to take a quick break. more analysis with our great, great, great american panel right after the break. sweet, nutty crunchy nut.

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>> sean: great american panel. to be fair earlier in the show i brought up one of mitt romney's ads that was run in florida talking about the tone of the debate. let's take a look that newt

gingrich ran in there. >> what kind of man would mislead and deceive just to win an election? this man would. mitt romney. romney's ad has always voted republican we had the opportunity but in 1992 massachusetts primary, he had the chance to vote for george h.w. bush or pat buchanan but he voted for a liberal democrat instead. his investments in fannie mae and freddie mac were in a blind trust but as reported romney earns tens of thousands of dollars not in a blind trust. >> sean: so he ran one of romney adds and gingrich ads, romney had more money. >> obviously this ad didn't work. look at the results tonight. that speaks for itself. >> sean: i'll be honest. one thing i said. i thought that newt's debate appearances in south carolina were so powerful was such a game

changer. romney out spent gingrich in south carolina but the difference was debate. same thing in florida. if newt showed up the way he did in south carolina in florida debates this might have been a difference race. >> but he was softball in south carolina and he was taking what was going to be very damaging interview to his campaign and he turned it on the media. in south carolina, he was red meat. he comes to florida and he didn't have the softball opportunity and romney came out swinging. >> sean: romney and romney saw what happened in south carolina and romney went to work. romney prepared for those debates. he went after newt gingrich in very aggressive way, in a way he knew he had to step up. he took gingrich off his game. up to that point he had not gone

negative. gingrich was singing kumbayah and it all caged. >> one thing, it was compressed schedule between new hampshire and south carolina. so the debates which were right at the bookend two of them, they had much greater impact on much smaller state. had you two debates in smaller period of time. >> i don't think it had the kind of potential to be a game changer in florida which is really five states when you think about it. >> sean: here is what happened, we keep hearing the romney campaign spent a lot in debate prep. they hired a debate coach. newt gingrich i think he did the interview to michael barone he said his prep for debate show up he has a great debate.

>>. >> sean: i want somebody to clobber obama in the debate. >> at the end of the day. that would be great. but you want someone who can govern, provide real solutions and can lead the state. i agree. >> bob: i'm sorry. as democrat looking into the republicans looking how debates can dominate the process. it has changed. two things that changed. super pacs we haven't seen before. >> sean: one other debate. i'm not going to let my youth, age and inexperience. >> bob: i could give it to you exactly. i voted for that 20 years. reagan says i'm not going to make my opponents