objectives. whatever you did, it worked. and it was a fine rant. thank you very much. david goodfriend, we'll see you next time. thank you for spending this afternoon with us. "hardball" with chris matthews kicks off right now. santorum surges. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. looeding off tonight, deliver us from mitt. first came donald trump, then rick perry, herman cain and newt gingrich twice. now it's rick santorum. anyone but mitt. is santorum the flavor of the month or a threat to mitt romney? three polls out in the last two days suggest santorum is for real. this time mitt has reason to be worried. for the first time now,

president obama's campaign team has to consider the possibility that santorum could be the gop nominee facing him. would a race against a candidate who questions women, not just at the war front but also in the workplace, be an easy target for team obama? plus andrew sullivan writes that the birth control fight could end up as a big winner for president obama. he says the further the right wing, the farther is identified on birth control, the better it is for the president. andrew sullivan joins us tonight. when house republicans caved on allowing an extension of the payroll tax cut, it was an admission this was a loser issue for the rs. finally why rick santorum is real and romney ain't. we begin with how serious a threat is rick santorum is to mitt romney. steve smith with the mccain/pale incampaign in 2008. and howard fineman is "the

huffington post" editorial director. both are msnbc political analysts. steve, imagine you're sitting right there, right now working with romney. and you're looking at the following. santorum surging in the new national polls. in the new york times poll, santorum leads the field with 30%. that's a 14-point bounce from last month. romney is behind him at 27%. in the pew poll, santorum again leads with 30 points. 30%. he's more than doubled his standing from a month ago. romney is in second with 28%. again in second. and in the gallop poll, 32% for romney. santorum is right behind him at 30%. look at that. you have three things going on now, steve. santorum seems to be moving ahead in the polls. he's quickly getting the momentum here. so romney is not only falling behind, but he's beginning to

fall behind significantly and he has to win february 28th in michigan or arizona. he better win in michigan. if he loses there and continues to fall in the polls, he may be dead meat. how do you turn that around if you're him now? >> one of the things, chris, when you look inside those numbers, he's losing ground with conservatives. he's losing ground with evangelicals and independent voters. if you're the romney campaign, you're looking at data that says you have to disqualify rick santorum, which i think is easier said than done as you look ahead to michigan. they are in a tough spot. the three losses had a huge impact in this race. i think the race is more wide open at this moment na than it is at any time since the beginning of the race. rick santorum is a threat to the nomination, particularly if rick santorum is able to win in michigan. >> howard, is rick santorum the

barack obama on the republican side? the guy who is the true believer and anti-war guy running against the centerist? >> he definitely has a shot. and rick santorum impresses people. having been out on the campaign trail for months, he's the guy who voters know believes what he says and says what he believes. you may not necessarily agree with him, but when you look at rick santorum, you know that here's a guy that is saying what he believes. >> isn't that great? i mean, i'm not saying he's perfect. because he's not perfect. he's not middle of the road. but i can't think of a politician who you never get the sense is spinning. >> the characteristic body lang of rick santorum is a shrug that says no, i'm not going along with that. you've seen it. you see it on tv. he goes, no, and he shakes his

head. no i'm not going to support gay marriage. i'm going to be down the line pro-life. on the social issues in particular. his campaign would like to stop talking about the social issues. they want to sell him as a blue collar, pennsylvania, manufacturing guy. not one of the 1%. and that's another threat to mitt romney. mitt romney, late in the game but smartly, is talking about his dad selling aluminum paint. it's part of his background. but if mitt romney gets into a blue collar off with rick santorum, he's going to lose. >> let's look at this poll. the poll in michigan has santorum on top at 39% to romney's 24%. look at that difference. i go back to this. the way we're watching this election is like the hillary clinton fight against barack

obama. every couple weeks, there seems to be a major event. the one who wins that seems to be in the driver's seat. a new ad in michigan, here's romney playing up his home state heritage. this is the tip o'neill all politics is local. he has five states he claims is home. he has as many positions as he has states. let's watch here. >> i grew up in michigan. it was exciting to be here. i remember going to the detroit auto show with my dad. that was a big deal. how did an industry in its leaders and unions get in such a fix that they it lost jobs and their future? president obama did all these things but the fact you have millions of americans out of work. home values are collapsing. people are stressed. i want to make michigan stronger and better. michigan has been my home and this is personal. i'm mitt romney and i aproof this message. >> he's from michigan, massachusetts, new hampshire,

utah, and he's got a house where he lives most of the time in california. is that a problem? to claim so many places as home or is that a positive? >> it could be a problem, but i think romney's family's roots go deep in michigan. what jumps out at me is how different it is from the strategy in florida, which was entirely negative. negative all the time to take out gingrich. i think the romney campaign has settled on the fact they need to communicate positive virtues about mitt romney in michigan. although, i suspect you're going to see an aggressive cam pain there as well. >> we got the word they are going after gingrich. what's that about? they are going to use the super pac money and the stuff without his name on it to go after gingrich. what's that about, steve? isn't his problem santorum and not gingrich? >> i think his problem is santorum. santorum is ahead in the race. he's ahead in the race with gingrich. and i do think if newt gingrich

were to drop out of the race tomorrow, all of the polling data suggests that most of that e vote share would move over to santorum. i'm not entirely sure what the benefit of going after newt gingrich is at this point in the race. i think that it as you look ahead to tuesday the 28th in michigan, this is a pux tnxsutay phil election. if rick santorum is able to hold on and win there, this nomination contest is going to be a two-person race. it's going to go forward for a long time. if mitt romney comes back, he's able to win in michigan, he'll win in arizona. he'll have momentum going into super tuesday. he does well there. he becomes the de facto nominee. but the fact that rick santorum is a tougher opponent to run the negative ads against and take him down the way gingrich collapsed in florida. >> let's look at santorum's campaign. take a look at a santorum rally last night with the horror film

lighting as he tries to speak over the occupy protesters who crashed his event. >> one in three americans don't graduate from high school. almost all of them, over three quarters of them will end up impoverished. we have to provide an opportunity for them instead of standing here unemployed yelling at somebody to go out and get a job. >> you know, it's like you used to hold a flashlight under his face. that kind of thing. there he is saying something very intelligent. >> rick santorum's events rarely have been well crafted or well advanced. but he prospered in iowa. he's done well elsewhere by selling himself as the guy in the sleeveless sweater who is all about substance and not

about show biz. that was probably taking it one step too far. but it's helped him. it's very interesting with mitt romney. in florida, everybody kept repeating the statistic and it was true that 99% of mitt romney's ads on behalf of mitt romney were negative. >> okay. >> and it took down his approval numbers. that's why he's doing what he's doing now. >> steve, you talked to republicans. are they aware the media is rooting for santorum out of sheer fear of the boredom that will set in if it looks like romney locks this thing up? we face a long, dull, summer of mitt romney if he locks this up. >> i think it's pretty obvious when you look at the coverage of the race where most of the reporters are and where they are rooting interests are so far in the race. i do think when you talk to republicans, the one thing that

everybody understood is that mitt romney had to avoid a situation where he faced off against a plausible candidate. and i don't think michele bachmann was plausible. but a plausible candidate, a plausible commander in chief in an ideological contest, which is where mitt romney is now, it's very difficult for him to be in an ideological contest. it will be interesting to watch. >> you are a guy i trust completely about this. your assessment is it's finally the gunfight. he's finally faced a candidate in rick santorum who is credible as a presidential candidate. that's what you're saying? >> absolutely. >> mitt romney said it was going to come down to a two-person race. because he nor the people around him are conservatives, they assume if it came down to a two-person race, romney would win. they don't understand their own party. mitt romney was saying a year

ago when he was raising money, it's going to come down to a two-person race. me against a conservative. he assumed it was a winning combination. >> i love your vision. i think you understand it more than he does as a reporter. the basics. he doesn't get why they are angry. because he's not angry. he hasn't had it rough enough. thank you, steve smith. howard fineman, thank you. the republican campaign is turning into a two-man race. is the president ready for this? would he rather take on santorum or romney? you never know about the wild candidate. he he might be a tougher one. this is a great one. can they turn their weaponry in the direction of santorum. you're watching "hardball" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] the draw of the past is a powerful thing.

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welcome back to "hardball." one of mitt romney's strongest selling points has been he's the most electable candidate. he says. but what if that selling point was ripped out from under him? rick santorum is in a dead heat and may be passing him. romney, who had been polling well among independents has seen support drop. in his latest ads in michigan, rick santorum rejected the idea that romney is the most electable. let's watch. >> who has the best chance to beat obama?

rick santorum. a conservative, rick santorum is rock solid on values issues, a favorite in the tea party for fighting corruption and taxpayer abuse, more foreign policy credentials than any candidate, and the jobs plan will make an economic super power again. rick santorum, a trusted conservative who gives us the best chance to take back america. >> great ad. how big a threat is santorum to romney and how big of a threat would he be to barack obama? we have the experts. mark halperin, a political analyst for msnbc, and john heilemann, also an analyst. let me start with a question for both of you. is the white house believing now they might have to face santorum? >> they still think there's a better chance to face romney, but they see weakness in romney. they are fully prepared to face

santorum. i heard earlier about shifting their focus to santorum. they are well prepared. they are sitting on a bunch of stuff about santorum i'm certain that will be tough for him to handle. they are prepared to deal with him. they think he may be a stronger opponent than romney. >> one of my favorite movies, but my list changes a bit. lawrence of a rab ya. can santorum be the arabs coming in from the desert? would he do it? >> i don't know if he would be able to beat barack obama, i don't think he'd be in a better position, but i don't think he'd be in a worse position. the national polls are meaningless because it's fair to say the obama campaign has been attacking romney steadily for months. but that said, the national polls show them basically running about the same place. 10 points behind. i think rick santorum and mitt

romney would be very different kinds of general election candidates. they would appeal to different swing voters. they both would have appeal to different sets of voters and both would be able to give obama a real battle. especially if the economy stays bad or turns back bad over the course of the next few months. >> it seems like romney would be better if the economy went south. i'm not sure rick santorum would be good as a candidate to exploit an economic down fal. joe skthis morning had thoughts. >> too many crazy things. he's too this and that. i'm surprised that activists a month or two ago saying i thought rick santorum would match up better in the general election than any of these other candidates because he does have the blue collar background.

i think a santorum/obama matchup would be fascinating. you certainly couldn't call him the 1%. >> joe has his valentine's collar on today. mark, the question there, again, a smart guy like joe who is smart on politics thinks santorum has strength. he's the genuine article, as we say in politics. he would pass any lie detector test. he says what he believes. that's been a romney shortfall. >> romney and santorum match up about the same in the electoral college with one exception. santorum, right now, based on public and private polling, is stronger in the midwest states. neither of them would be particularly strong with hispanic voters. santorum is strong where romney is weak. the reason there's confidence in chicago that romney could be beaten is all the thing its you

listed. he's a member of the 1%. he has a personality that a lot of people go to. santorum would excite the base. he's a genuine guy. also the blue collar credit. on the other hand, he would have to get through the nomination and then withstand $500 million of negative ads. so a snap of today is different. >> let's look at these guys. let's look at the latest poll numbers here. obama versus romney. and santorum ver vus gingrich. let's look at those numbers in the latest poll this week. in a general election matchup, the president tops mitt romney. that's a big upswing. winning by 10 points compare that to how he would do against newt gingrich, who he would beat by 18 points in a head to head. i don't believe that. as our old friend around watching this show, i'm sure,

i'm hoping he is. john heilemann, these numbers are so out. anybody that thinks the general election come november 8th is going to be these spreads i think is looney tunes. i don't see the president being able to wipe out romney, but he could wipe out santorum because you could nail him on so many cultural positions it would kill him among gay people. that's a small percentage. but if you get him on women and wo working women who work outside the home, he's said strange things about why they work outside the home. women who work very hard and another 30 or 40 hours at home would find offensive. >> i mean, chris, on your first point, i don't think anybody certainly in the white house thinks they are going to end up winning the general election by 8 or 10 points. it's going to a close election. the second thing is, there's no doubt the kind of campaign the white house and the reelection committee would run against rick

santorum and it's the kind of campaign you're suggesting. they would be focusing, more than they are, on trying to bring over swing voters n, independent women, that would be a big focus. to go back to the earlier part of the conversation, rick santorum has that blue collar appeal we have talked about. if there's an economic downturn, he's going to be appealing to a pop list, white, working class part of the electorate. that part of the the electorate delivered for republicans in 2010. that was how republicans won back the house in 2010. >> okay. i know that vote. it's where i come from. why did that vote reject him for senate? >> you remember, chris, the 2006, i don't want to make rick santorum's talking points. it was a wave year. there's no doubt that santorum's positions on things like terry schiavo got him in trouble with women voters.

but i do think there's an interesting thing. mitt romney appeals to swing voters who are kind of economically conservative, but socially liberal. rick santorum would be appealing to the opposite swing voter. he would be appealing to cult churl conservatives who are economic liberal. you would see a campaign based on trade. a down scale economic appeal. those are some voting groups the president hasn't been super strong with. i'm not trying to say rick santorum would have the advantage, but there would be a different dynamic in the race if rick santorum were the nominee. >> good case. let me try another case with mark. he lost to bobby casey because he took $35,000 a year from penn hills county to pay for his kids' home schooling. that would haunt him again. that may be a local issue, but it it killed him last time. >> there's a million things. the romney campaign is sitting on things about santorum as well but not all that would play as

well in the general fight. but he won in pennsylvania too. casey is a great sent ris candidate and a great name and a great democratic year. i'm not hung up on his loss that year as i am on just the general performance questions of could he withstand. it's a psychology matter. he's better able to handle an onslaught than gingrich was. if he wins the nomination, he would have beaten a front runner. he will get tons of opportunity to reintroduce himself to the country and to those people not paying attention now. if he takes advantage of that, the things of his past boent as important as how he emerged from this campaign beating romney and heading into the general election if he pulls it off. >> the fact he has a lot of kids is interesting. that's probably a plus because mitt romney, rather newt gingrich has half as many wives as rick santorum has kids.

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back to "hardball." now for the sideshow. first up, go all the way. when president obama took to the podium earlier today to discuss the payroll tax cut, there was another order of business that took priority. it was the male listeners. let's listen. >> let me start with a quick public service announcement for all the gentlemen out there. today is valentine's day. do not forget. i speak from experience here.

it is important that you remember this and go big. that's my advice. >> smart man. time is running out. the first lady recently said the ball was in the president's court when it comes to organizing valentine's day. next up, was that just a rehears rehearsal? by the time rick perry bowed out, he had embarrassing debate performances. you'd think he'd had enough. think again. here he is with johnathan carl. >> have you had some time to reflect on this experience? >> oh yeah. i tell people it was by far the most exhilarating thing i have ever done. >> you may run again? >> absolutely. it was great practice. >> well before you run for president again, i would recommend you take a solid american history course at the university of texas. we have had enough of secession.

and over rick santorum's rise, newt gingrich's campaign has taken note of valentine's day day by launching with the title of liberals love romney. let's look at some of the liberals that ging features on that site accompanied by a fab ri indicated quotation. first up, saul alinsky. desperate candidates require desperate measures. then there's al gore. remember him? romney was for climate change before he was against it. and of course, president obama himself whose health care plan is modelled on the one romney championed. what may be closer to the truth, and i think is that moderates and some liberals out there don't fear romney as a presidential candidate because they suspect he's just pretending to be conservative. up next, is the birth control insurance issue a big winner politically for president obama?

andrew sullivan says it's a big one. he'll join us when we return. you're watching "hardball" on msnbc. and it's something that we're extremely proud of. you see someone who is saved because of this technology, you know that the things that you do in your life, matter. if i did have an opportunity to meet a cancer survivor, i'm sure i could take something positive away from that. [ jocelyn ] my name is jocelyn, and i'm a cancer survivor. [ mimi ] i had cancer. i have no evidence of disease now. [ erica ] i would love to meet the people that made the machines. i had such an amazing group of doctors and nurses, it would just make such a complete picture of why i'm sitting here today. ♪ [ herb ] from the moment we walked in the front door, just to see me -- not as a cancer patient, but as a person that had been helped by their work. i was just blown away. life's been good to me. i feel like one of the luckiest guys in the world.

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i'm milissa with your market wrap. stocks ended off session lows. greece's debt woes were a factor. january retail sales were weaker than expected rising only .4%. and a big day for apple. shares rose 1% on news the ipad 3 will use the 4 g networks. that's it from cnbc. now back to "hardball."

i understand some folks in washington may want to treat this as another political edge issue. but it shouldn't be. i certainly never saw it that way. this is an issue where people of good will on both sides of the debate have been sorting through some very complicated questions to find a solution that works for everyone. with today's announcement, we have done that. religious liberty will be protected and a law that requires free preventive care will not discriminate against women. >> that was last friday. welcome to "hardball." president obama says he never saw the contraception debate as a wedge issue, but it's turned out to be a wedge issue in a whole new way by making an accommodation to the catholic church. he solidified his base among liberal catholics. but has this changed the

political game? andrew sullivan is brilliant and breaks it down in "the politics of sex." e.j. jeb also joins us. andrew, i guess that's the key question out there. you got to it in your essay. so did the president go in this siding with the women, like secretary sa bailhouse and the people at the white house, the committed people, knowing he was going to go up against conservative catholics? did he want this fight? >> no, he didn't want this fight. who would want this fight? obama spent his entire administration trying to avoid this kind of fight. he couldn't avoid the choice. he had to make a choice. the get out was he would have a year to figure it out. when push comes to shove, he decided to back catholic women who used birth control and the vast majority of catholics who

support birth control and take on the benedict bishops for whom no issue seems to be more important than controlling the sex lives of other people. >> e.j., we may agree on this. but you pointed out at the front of this thing taking what we might call liberal catholics and others and saying this can be resolve resolved. you don't have to have this fight with us at least. >> right. i still think he pays some price for not coming to the compromise right out of the box. i agree as a narrow, looking at it narrowly now if this is a fight about contraception and not about religious freedom, obviously, obama wins that fight. the bishops are making a mistake. those bishops who really want to fight him all the way down the line on this. >> they want to take contraception out of health care period. not just out of the church. >> there they start losing a lot of support including in the

church. where others who basically said we have a religious liberty interest which we want to protect, and we also understand that the notion of providing contraception is part of a health plan. it's not alien. there are a lot of catholic institutions that provide it. >> i said it on friday. i like the way the president handled this. he recognized he had gone too far in intruding the place of the church in defending their own believes. and he fixed it and said the insurance companies will pay the cost for birth control coverage. you agreed with me, i think, on that. i read your article, and you didn't like the first way. the initial take he he took on this. >> no. and i think because inevitably, someone would have raised the question of religious liberty. this question of contraception is controversial. if you remember in the council, the commission set up by pope

john the 23rd approved the pill only to be overruled. so the idea this is a crucial and critical doctrine was forced in the first place. but if you can avoid a fight with religious people, you should. and i think it's a complicated issue. i might add, also, in california and new york, this was already the rule. this was already the law. in 2000 the employment e equality opportunity commission ruled it had had to be mandated in every health care plan because otherwise it would violate sex discrimination laws. so i think a lot of this was gender by the bishops. they were the one that set a for obama. they are like wyomiiley coyote trying to blow up the road runner, only it blew up on them. >> let me go to e.j. on this. politically speaking, as well as being a catholic like i am, this whole issue. do you think the president handled this overall pretty well

in the way he corrected himself along the way? >> i wouldn't put it that way. i think he blew it at the beginning. they considered this compromise. it was proposed a long time ago back in the fall. and so i think that if he had started with this right off the bat, the first time around, i think some of this fighting simply wouldn't have happened and he could have said right out of the box i understand religious liberty. having said that, i think he's a lot better to have corrected it. >> could he have gotten the liberal catholics if he had done it from the beginning? >> same question to you, andrew. overall, take a moment. how would you say the president's political skills and good conscious came together here? >> i think he's a conscientious person who tried to make the right call. but he's also a politician. what does this really do? it puts contraception in the center. it riles up the base. who does it benefit?

it benefits rick santorum. it allows rick santorum to say, look, romney care was just the same as obama care on this. he signed the same rule. it's going to empower rick santorum to win and do well in the south, which long-term, is going to be a fantastic advantage for obama. so what this did accidentally, and i called it an improvised switch, he gave rick santorum the gift that could win him the nomination of the republican party which will be a catastrophe for the republican party. >> and obama doesn't macvail yan. but rick santorum is happy tonight. >> i agree. this president, what's the religious word for luck? >> i think from the beginning of his career, he's always been

lucky. although i don't think they should get airing about this. i think there are women who care about contraception. but i think there's still more trouble to be had here. >> i have heard from the white house from a good source that the president knows the church had a good case in this first round and had he thinks he dealt with the concern he had. but it was a legitimate concern. so there is peace in the land. thank you andrew sullivan. coming from london. you're always brilliant. i don't have to tell you that. up next, house republicans caved on the payroll tax cut. it's a lose-lose because they would have lost if they won. this is "hardball" on msnbc. so, how was school today ? i have to be a tree in the school play. good. you like trees. well, i like climbing them, but i've never been one. good point. ( captain ) this is your captain speaking. annie gets to be the princess. oh... but she has to kiss a boy. and he's dressed up like a big green frog !

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new polling from the massachusetts senate race. it will be one of the hottest fights this year. let's check the score board. according to a new poll from boston, it's a three-point race right now. elizabeth warren is up. and brown has 43. we'll be watching this one all the way to november. we'll be right back.

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we're back. democrats and republicans have spent much of the last 24 hours jockeying for position. agreeing to an extension of the p payroll tax holiday. now it it looks as though president obama will get everything he wants in this area of the extension and an extension of unemployment benefits, which he also wants for those out of work and protects the medicare reimbursement to doctors. joining us is donna edwards a democrat from maryland. and congressman mick mul va knee. lady and gentleman, it seems the president is sky high now. he's up 8 points. he's way ahead.

he's not looking around for deals to cut. he's looking for victories. congressman, it looks like the president was a tough guy to negotiate with here. >> chris, i have heard that all day on your network. i have yet to understand why the republicans getting what we wanted in december, which is a year extension on the payroll tax cut and allowing people to keep their money is a cave on our part. maybe it's possible that in this circumstance, we both wanted the same thing. >> you wanted a deal. you wanted him to cut other stuff to pay for it. he said no. and he got away with it. >> it was a large group of us who were not focusing on the pay for on this particular portion of the bill. republicans have said for many years that it's peoples' money to begin with. when we cut taxes, that's not the same as spending. what you're talking about was the pay for for the dock fix. >> i respect you a lot, but here's the problem. why has this been held up all

these months if it was that easy? >> i think what you're seeing is there's still disagreement on unemployment insurance. i think what we did was take th take the stuff we can agree on and move on the stuff we are arguing about. >> that is called a bailout. congresswoman, what happened? >> even on "hardball," you can't rewrite history. >> never on "hardball." >> that's right. democrats and the president -- excuse me, have been fighting for -- >> take a minute. that's all right. >> excuse me. democrats and the president have been fighting for an extension of unemployment for the payroll tax cut and for the doc fix and republicans have been fighting him all the way and what we see here is that the president, not did he just get what he want but the american people got what they want and what they needed. >> let me ask you about the mood up on the hill now, congressman mulvaneny. the -- south carolina is probably going to vote republican no matter how run against, probably count on that state as long as you are down there as a member.

i can't see the democrats carrying south carolina. nor can i see the democrats losing new york, for example, or d.c. but this election now, i thought until a couple of weeks ago that the president had real problems. i saw the growth rate looking pretty small this year. now it looks like it may climb to three points this year, three points real growth, unemployment may drop below eight. your candidacies are very mixed. romney who looks solid now looks weak, looks like he may lose even the battle to santorum what is going wrong in the wind direction? is it simply a question about an economic recovery coming faster than a lot of people thought it would a couple of weeks ago even? >> chris, first of all, i think you will see this change over the course of nine months. you know is a short-term business. we are three election cycles away from going to november. but i think hur overstating the point. i live very close to the north carolina border and the president is really struggling there. need very unpopular democrat governor, actually say she is not going to run for re-election. now they are struggling to find

someone to run on the democrat tick wet the president in north carolina this is a state that he needs to win in 2012. >> he does? >> he is really struggling, really struggling there i think you are overstating the point. >> okay. >> again it is state by state, not a national poll. >> bag carolinian, i can see your perspective you not sure he needs north carolina, he got it last time by a tad. congresswoman, let's go back to you about the liberals in your caucus. is everybody pretty cool with this guy now? he stood up for women's rights on the issue we just talked about, even though it seems like an archaic discussion about birth control he definitely stood with the women who care most about it, people like boxer and secretary sebelius, but it seems like he has got the high hand right now. he has got the rope in his hand, if you will, whatever the phrase is he seems to be on top. >> well, i think all along, chris, the president has understood where the american people are and of course, he stood with women because the overwhelming majority of women believe in contra accepts in this country and he did get it right on straightening things out with the church and the

separation between church and state but also gotten it right on the economy. the american people can see that our economy has been growing for 23 straight months. we have been creating jobs and opportunity. we need to extend unemployment insurance for those who are still struggling. the tax cut is a big win, not just for democrats, it is a big win for the american people. 160 million people who will have the assurity of a tax cut through the end of the year till we can get this economy really back on track. the american people see the difference and for all the shenanigans that are going on on the other side of the aisle, the fact is the president is really leading here. we are standing with him and standing with the american people and we are gonna make sure that we keep this economy going, that we continue to create jobs and that anybody who wants to get in the way can do that but they do it at their own peril because this is not about playing politics anymore. it is really about what we are all willing to do on behalf of the american people and people can see the difference. >> who's your strongest candidate at this point, congressman? >> i don't know. it is not determined yet.

what i do know -- >> who do you think it is? >> i honestly don't know. you know that i was with rick perry. i have not endorsed anybody else. i think that the same thing will happen to the republicans that happened to the democrats four years ago, tend of a very difficult primary, the very best candidate for that party will step forward. >> okay. good news 4, because rick perry said today he is going to run again next time, you got another shot at president perry, if that is good for the country, i don't know. anyway, congresswoman donna edwards, thank you. congressman mick mulvaneny, thanks for being on tonight. and let me finish with why rick is doing so well, and that is rick santorum and mitt suspect. that is the real deal. you are watching "hardball," only on msnbc. tylenol: sure. don't you? tylenol (another bottle): hmmm...no... nyquil (stuffy): dude! anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. laces? really? slip-on's the way to go. more people do that, security would be like -- there's no charge for the bag. thanks.

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we love to ride. perfect hair every time. leading the pack in motorcycle insurance. now, that's progressive. call or click today. lit let me finish tonight with this mitt romney makes moderation look meek. he shouldn't, because it shouldn't. this country has been let for much of its history by presidents who strode the middle road. somesuch as ronald reagan walked the right lane. somesuch as barack obama the left. but generally they stuck to the main highway and that is even if they won election tilting hard in either direction, 'cause once they got into government, they tended to be centrist. but mitt is a tremor. that is what the old politicians called the guy who says he is with you, except when he is with your enemies, then he is not quite with you. nobody likes a trimmer. you heard the joke the santorum guy told at c pac last week, a conservative, a liberal and a moderate walk into the bar, the

bartender says, "hi mitt." used to say up in massachusetts that romney wasn't pro-choice or pro-life, he was multiple choice. enough of romney. how can you follow a guy into battle when you are not even sure what side he is going to be taking in the battle? the soldier can't respond to the bugle call if he can't figure out which army the bugler is in. that's why santorum is surging t is the same reason why starting way back early last year, some other candidate was always surging. some candidate was always there, except for romney. some candidate other than romney t is because romney ain't got it. he lacks the central trait of the winning candidate, a sense of purpose beyond personal career ambition that is. it is hard to focus even today on what the man's purpose is in national politics. again, apart from personal advancement. so, here we go again, another set of primaries this time in michigan and arizona, another opportunity to test purpose. and that would be santorum's strength against well-purchased organization and negative advertising. those assets most precious to