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. >> then cnn's dana bash and ron brownstein on which washington leader had the worst week in politics. >> as president of the united states i have kept my commitmentses to the state of israel. >> and analysis of president obama's speech to a pro-israeli lobbying group with house intelligence committee members. i'm candy crowley. and this is "state of the union." in a mitt romney and rick santorum battled it out in michigan, newt gingrich went south to his old so stomping grounds in georgia. he was the congressman from the 6th district there for more than 20 years. 76 convention delegates up for grabs in georgia, more than any other super tuesday state. looking to jump-start a campaign that hasn't won a state since mid-january, gingrich is pressing hard with a plan for $2.50 a gallon gasoline, double barrel blasts at republican rivals and the president and superlative predictions. >> i believe we have a chance, a very real chance to win a historic election of landslide proportions carrying control of the senate, increased votes in the house and decisively defeating the left for the fir

we leave with you ron brownstein's play list.with the bruce springsteen. >> great album. >> you say that every time. >> "land of hopes and dreams." you're watching "starting point." we're back after this break. ♪ and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. battle speech right? may i? capital one is issuing a venture double miles challenge. show us h

ron brownstein. underscore soledad's point.onsistently last night as we have seen throughout, governor struggling with evangelical christians, middle income republicans, with those who consider themselves the most conservative. do you say any way for him to breakdown that very entrenched division in the party? do you see any signs of that eroding or is your camp going to have to live with that throughout the primary season? >> well, ron, as william f. buckley used to say, we won't the most conservative candidate who can also get elected. and mitt romney is conservative. if you look at his record of cutting taxes, growing jobs, cutting spending and the like, it's a conservative record but he can also get elected. the other candidates are viewed as less elect i belieable. when this field narrows, the party will unite, coalesce. it's a coalition. mitt romney has the capability and the merits to coalesce and unite this party and he will. it's not going to happen until the field narrows more fully. >> governor, i want to ask you abo

ron brownstein back with us now from washington.ow will what happened in louisiana potentially influence the races coming up? wisconsin, maryland, d.c.? >> one thing we have clearly learned over the last two months of this republican race is the d demography trumps numbers. it's whether they are tilt to the sort of voters consistently preferring mitt romney or those consistently preferring rick an sor um. santorum, the core of his support have been evangelical christian voters and other social conservatives. if we look at the calendar over the next few weeks, april is shaping up as a very good month for mitt romney. because it is tilted heavily towards states with the kinds of voters that have favored him. the one exception might be pennsylvania. santorum's home state. if santorum can keep his campaign viable when he gets to may, he's got a very good calendar with states where evangelical christians in most of them are a majority of the electorate. you saw again in louisiana how strongly they preferred santorum over romney. you'll h

i bring in senior political analyst ron brownstein into the discussion. let's take this one thing at a tile. first of all i didn't think of puerto rico as saner to uhm territory. i thought of it as romney territory. this whole language things seems to be an odd place to be dropping that. >> it has been mitt romney territory and as jim said we're worrying whose territory puerto rico is a statement about where we are. yes, i think it is unusual place for santorum to find himself in that water but not unusual in another sense. this has been an extraordinarily, increasingly diversifying country, extraordinarily white republican primary. 14 of the 16 states with exit polls, 90% of the vote has been white and a lot of that white republican vote are the elements of the white community most concerned about immigration, most concerned about assimilation, most concerned about issues like english as an official language and you've seen almost the magnetic pull of that, that constituency on both romney and santorum, and it gets a little more complicated when they get

i also want to just mention norm brownstein. been great friends over the years. and to recognize aipac current president and chairman lee rosenberg. and of course howard core. thank you for this service -- for your service to this vital organization which has helped me and my staff immensely over the years. finally, i want to acknowledge all the kentucky ians who are here. we may not have a large jewish population in the bluegrass state, but i'd like to think we make up for it in heart. in fact, one aipac supporter i worked with years ago in louisville summed up the attitude most jewish kentucky yans pretty well. he said, mitch, there's only one race better than the jews and that's the kentucky derby. now, as we all know the u.s. and israel have a lot in common. in addition to the strategic interests that bind us, both were born of conflict and built by immigrants and pioneers. and both of all has been firmly committed to the democratic ideals that enabled their people to flourish. because of these things, israel has always enjoyed strong bipartisan support here

ron brownstein is the editorial director of national journal., are important because they could portend bad things for the gop. are you talking bad things this election cycle or really down the road? >> right. right. you have to look at both. near term and long term. as you point out, overwhelmingly white primaries and predominantly older. soledad, we are look living through the most profound demographic change. when bill clinton was first elected only 12% was nonwhite. when barack obama was elected it was 26% in 2008. he won 80% combined of all of those minority voters. that allowed him to win the presidency even while winning only 43% of whites. he is the first person ever to win the white house and he won it comfortably by losing whites by double digits. fast forward two years later. republicans had a very big election. best mid term election since 1938 by winning 60% of whites. the most they had ever won. in a mid term election it tends to be older and whiter, the electorate. it is still possible in the near term, yes, to squeeze out a victo

. >> elizabeth brownstein, retired historian writer. i spent a lot of my life researching for accuracy. do you people have a staff? do you have a morgue? do you use the internet? how many candidates do you work on at once? i'm just intrigued, the two of you might be doing all of this stuff. it seems incredible. >> we do mainly do it ourselves. and we've enjoyed doing that. because it allows us to go to these places where people are from. in general, we start off on the internet and we build a foundation. and it gives us a road map. but as you know, the internet is notoriously unreliable. so, we have to go to where these people are from. and we go into their towns and we get the information we need and we're out before anybody really knows that we're there. however, the name of the book is "we're with nobody." and that came from two different, for two different reasons. number one, every time we go into a courthouse, we are raising red flags with a clerk or somebody who -- we're going to ask for tax records on an incumbent congressman. t

cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein is with me.sk you, ron, about newt gingrich. so -- >> newt gingrich. >> newt gingrich. he wins georgia but he did lousy in every other state but still he insists he can win. let's listen. >> remember when it was tim pawlenty who was going to crowd me out? and remember then when it was michele bachmann? and then it was our good friend, herman cain the first time. and then for a brief moment it was donald trump almost. and then it was our good friend rick perry. then it was herman cain the second time. and now it's santorum. and you just can't quite get across to them. it's all right. there are lots of bunny rabbits that run through. i am the tortoise. i just take one step at a time. >> okay. so we all like the story of the tortoise and the hare. really? >> rabbits underfoot. there are really two reasons, i think, newt gingrich is staying in the race at this point. one is the broad reason. the forces that used to drive candidates out of campaigns are no longer as powerful as they once were. the thi

. >> ron brownstein, thank you. candy, we'll see you sunday morning. >> next week, the united states supreme court will hear the challenge to the health care reform law. it's a huge issue. it's certainly going to dominate a lot of the headlines next week as the supreme court justices consider various arguments. our congressional correspondent kate baldwin is here in the situation room. you've been doing a lot of work on this, kate. this is going to cause quite a little buzz, not only next week but in june or whenever there's a final decision. >> in short, this is going to be huge. this is an historic, precedent making case. it's something everyone needs to pay attention to. the health care law, it's about 2,700 pages, more than 450 approa provisions. it impacts every american. it's hard to overstate just how high the stakes are in this upcoming supreme court fight. >> we are done. >> march 23rd, 2010, president obama signs into law the signature achievement of his presidency, the affordable care act, the landmark an

the battle with our chief political analyst glorn gloria borger and senior political analyst ron brownsteinhere's mitt romney in pascagoula, mississippi. >> i'm learning to say y'all and i like grits and things are -- strange things are happening to me. >> also says alabama and mississippi are away games for him. what do you make of what's going to happen? let's look ahead to tuesday. >> i think just watching mitt romney there, you understand that he knows that he's not going to do well in those states, that he's saying it's an away game as in okay, newt gingrich from georgia, he's got the home field advantage but it's clear, lowering expectations, trying to warm up the crowd saying i'm becoming one of you, but these two states coming are a bit of an issue for him particularly if newt gingrich does well and resurrects himself and puts himself right back in the middle of the race. >> it's do or die for newt gingrich. he did really in south carolina and his home state of georgia but got to do well in the two states >> if newt gingrich resurrects himself i'm not sure if that's bad for romney.

let's bring in gloria borger and ron brownstein.supreme court rules the mandates unconstitutional, politically how does that play out looking into november? >> it's very hard to say at this point, wolf, because there's lots of ways the courts could rule. could you say the mandates are unconstitutional. you could keep other parts of the law which people like, for example, requiring that insurance companies keep your preexisting conditions covered. and that would be a very different political impact than in you threw the whole thing out. to me the democrats could then rally their base, it would be a blow to barack obama, no doubt about it, huge embarrassment. democrats could rally their base. and by the way, then, republicans would be forced to come up with a plan for health insurance, which they haven't done. >> i completely agree. i think if they do throw out the mandate, it would have the effect of probably rallying both parties' bases. >> james carville says it would be great for the democrats. >> you'd have five republican appoin

political correspondent, candy crowley, host of "state of the union" and political analyst ron brownsteinming in. candy, we look at these numbers. if santorum wins in ohio, that's a pretty significant setback, once again, to mitt romney, i would say. >> it is but i think anytime mitt romney loses something big as we go forward, probably into june, we're going to say that. i mean, he has never been a steady front-runner. he's always been the weak front-runner. there's always going to be a state we're going to look at it and say he needs to win the state. >> i say that because no republican has ever won the white house without winning ohio in a general election. >> in november, no question. the republican nominee has to win ohio to win. not necessarily for romney in the primary. look, the reason he's been a weak front-runner is because there's been a very clear demographic and ideological divide. romney has done well consistently with what i call the managerial class of the republican party, somewhat more moderate and secular. he struggles on the populist side of the party with blue-collar

. >>> i talked about all of this just a short time ago, with ron brownstein. >> the question of how much impact it would have in ig noise, is up to question. the grooves are cut pretty deep at this point. mitt romney has won nonevangelical voters in every state there's been an exit poll except for georgia. santorum has beaten him among evangelical voters in nine different states. you can look down the contract at evan yell cal, college versus noncollege, affluent versus more working class, and you can have an educated guess. illinois is at the tipping point. it leans a bit in the romney direction, but not as decisively as the coastal states. it's enough to keep santorum in the game. >> it's interesting. the other thing i think we're learning from these entrance and exit polls is that the turnout really has mattered, but specification turnout. so if romney can't turn out his folks upstate, which i'm assuming is where he'll plant himself, and then santorum goes down to the rural and farm areas. this could be a toss-up place. >> it's closely balanced enough. states like maryland, 35% of the

i also want to just mention norm brownstein. great friends over the years.ause] recognize aipac president and the immediate past president and current chairman, lee rosenberg and, of course, of course, howard corporation -- howard kohr. [applause] thank-you for this service, for your service to this vital organization which has helped me and my staff immensely over the years. finally, i want to acknowledge all the kentucky is who are here . we may not have a large jewish population, but i would like to think we make up for in hard. [applause] in fact, one aipac supporter that the work could years ago in louisville some of the attitude of most u.s. kentucky is pretty well, i think. here is what he said. he said permits, there is only one race that is better than the jews, and that is the kentucky derby. in addition to the strategic interest that binds us, we were born and conflict and built by immigrants and pioneers, and both have always been firmly committed to democratic ideals that have enabled the people to flourish. because of these things israel has al

when you look at ron brownstein at our show at the top of the hour, he's going to say the problem isll among the people they do really well among. meaning if you don't expand the base there's no way you can actually fight your way quickly to a big victory. >> however, if, you know, the question is, will newt gingrich stay in the race, right? any lasting? >> yeah. i was going to say, he did. >> yeah. >> no. >> the elitist, right? >> he just thought it was a rid class question. like why should i get out of the race? he basically pointed to rick santorum, he was told to get out of the race too and then he surged. >> he only got that one state. >> he has southern strategy. i think he's looking forward to alabama. he's looking forward to mississippi. on saturday, here's what he said last night about bunnies. >> remember when it was tim pawlenty who was going to crowd me out? and remember then when it was michele bachmann? and then it was our good friend herman cain the first time. then it was herman cain the second time. and now it's santorum. and you just can't quite get across to them,

cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein is here.. >> romney and gingrich are shown to be neck and neck. >> you've got kind of a three-way mash-up, the worse nightmare of conservatives coming out to play in the two southern states. you see romney is still around 30% which is basically been his ceiling in the south because he struggles with evangelical christian voters more plentiful there than anywhere else in the country. but santorum and gingrich dividing the vote, you have three converging right about, you know, 30% each and that puts it within reach for romney. i think if he wins either or both, there's howls on the right for either gingrich or santorum, more likely gingrich to get out of the race. >> but gingrich is holding steady saying he's in it to the convention. could this be his last stand? >> well, look. i think if newt gingrich loses both states, it's hard to win an argument of winning the nomination and what we have seen over the weekend is an important shift in the language certainly of santorum and probably from gingr

we get to our panelist, john fugelsang joins us, comedian and personality, ron brownstein, senior cnnal analyst, and editorial director for "the national journal" and will cain is a cnn contributor and contributor for theblaze.com. breaking news story in france, 300 police officers are surrounding the home of a suspect who is wanted in the shooting of that jewish school that happened on monday, killed a rabbi, two young sons and a young girl that was killed in the shooting. france says two officers were wounded in a shoot-out overnight and roeuters is reporting sayin he wanted revenge for the killing of palestinian children. in toulouse diana magnay, we heard about this time they were expecting the suspect inside the house would be coming out, turning himself over to police. where does that stand? >> reporter: absolutely. that's what the suspect said that he would do. he's been talking to police. they said he was extremely determined, extremely stubborn not exactly a negotiating position really but apparently he said he would come out at midday. it's midday now and we haven't heard an