so even if you're a republican with serious doubts about barry goldwater, you're in good company. >> at's just one of the many ads that sunk goldwater in the '64 campaign. a chapter in gop history that today's republicans on one hand want to avoid repeating with their eventual nominee and yet there's many conservatives that look back on goeldwater's run that wouldn't have had ronald reagan that was another star at that '64 convention. one of the lessons here. i know a lot of republicans and romney campaign want to talk about 2008 and democratic primary campaign. the bottom line is when you have ideological fights inside a nominating process, you are dooming yourself for the general election. it is hard to look at '76, look at '80 and democrats and look at '64 and republicans. you have these ideological fights like this. look at '92 to a lesser extent. it's hard to imagine how you unite the party and not give opposing party the opportunity to run against that dysfunction. up next, our monday political panel breaks down ann romney's pitch to voters. we have the delegate math and why ric

let's watch this. >> governor rockefeller, before the convention, he said barry goldwater's positions can, and i quote, spell disaster for the party and for the country. or this man, governor romney, in june he said goldwater's nomination would lead to the, quote, suicidal destruction of the republican party. so even if you're a republican with serious doubts about barry goldwater, you're in good company. >> you can write that one right now. >> first of all, people had long attention spans back then. i tend to think that quotes from your opponents in the primaries, they don't have that much impact in the general election because you have the video of hillary clinton attacking barack obama. sure, you can use that. but then you have hillary clinton standing right next to barack obama. you have the opponents endorsing them and going out there and saying new, positive things. usually overwhelms all the mean things they said about each other during the primaries. >> thank you both very much for joining me tonight. >>> coming up, if your teen a snack, you probably have nothing to worry abou

a great year to win and they are going to lose by barry goldwater dimensions, a wipeout. is this rush limbaugh the kind of thing giving them a since of forbidding in a year they should be winning? >> we just don't know if you go back to other presidential contests, events could occur, and this is the thinking in the white house, not just iran on the international front. iraq is not settled, afghanistan is not settled. there are still worries about north korea and worries about al qaeda. they're worried about the seismic event that will be there and be the hinge of history and you just can't predict. chris: this republican forbidding, this sense out there, the smart people like will and haley barber and jeb bush, they're holding back from this thing it seems. >> they don't like the way the contest has been framed. we were talking about this earlier. all of those votes for santorum in michigan are actually going to be romney votes if romney gets the nomination. so it's not over and to say in the fall. chris: what could be a new jump ball. this unemployment rate. it's down t

>> he is channelling barry goldwater there. >> except that the actual production value of that ad wasautiful. but it really looked like a movie script. do you think it will have some impact in the primaries or general election. >> it may? >> it was just so over the top though -- >> it was a bit much. but, again i don't think it is going to make much difference in the general -- in the primaries, so again -- i'm kind of a mitt fan i think he'll take the cake. >> i think the more candidates whether they are going to win or not, the actual -- the bid, that they are drawing our attention and foe meanting the fear-based politics that has driven a lot of the elections over the last 30 years. even losers when they activate this deep anxiety and fear, it helps, so we want to be thoughtful about the residual affects. >> that is true on the candidate side, let me jump back to the media side of thing. because this past week there has been a huge amount of focus on the trayvon martin case. which the president did step into that. how do you think the media has been playing that, tricia? >> i think

where similar things have happened like 1976 between gerald ford and ronald reagan or 1964 and barry goldwater and nelson rockefeller, those have been hard races to win. when the fight goes on for a long time and deep divisions represented in the party it ends up often, if history tells us anything, kind of -- you ended up with a disunited party. a debilitated nominee. i think it's going to be a challenge for whoever gets the republican nominee to overcome that in the face of the difficulty that always obtains when you have an incumbent in office. very difficult to beat an incumbent. especially one if the economy is improving. in a measurable way, even if it's a small way. it's going to be hard. not impossible, but it's going to be hard and everything that barack obama was in a very bad place politically six months ago. when his approval rating was down to 39% and the economy still looked -- he's improved tick by tick in terms of the -- his approval rating, the right track/wrong track numbers are moving a little bit in his direction and the economy still seems to be getting a little bit better

and that was barry goldwater as well? >> the answer to my question from my colleague at the "washington post." [laughter] not before he was involved when christian masters should not be involved in politics but he has a ready developed into the social communism their rationale for the american way and you have an irony fundamentalism creation are genesis in response to the dominance of but they embrace these ideas we get to from people like ayn rand with their views but they back into it. there is a great moment they had where he criticizes pierre trudeau. people say what are you talking about? just to see the word socialist assume there was an error against that we see today with the affordable care act. his relationship with billy graham was evangelical but not fundamentalist. gramm is burned by his involvement and felt burned but you would never mistake in a falwell seven from agrium seven. says '02 comeback to the catholic question, i will say the left does a very bad job to reach out to bishops and the catholic left.

it was an ad that never even mentioned barry goldwater's name. >> it was definitely designed to scareray goldwater as a warmonger, someone who is given to rash statements. you have to keep in mind the context of this ad, 1964, the middle of the cold war it was a very real threat of a nuclear exchange between the united states and the soviet union. johnson very much played on those fears. that's the hallmark of a successful attack ad. playing on fears that already exist out there among the general public. >> we're going to look at the evolution of television advertising in this class. let me turn to bob from george mason university who has written on this subject extensively. bob? >> yes, you know, in campaigns, there's always kind of a pulling and tugging match as to who controls the campaign dialogue. who gets the message out to the american public? and it's basically a fight between campaign staffs and journalists. campaign staffers saying, you know, we have a responsibility to get to the american public our candidate's message and let them choose whether it's better than our oppone

we went back and found in 1994 barry goldwater saying this amazing thing referring to conservatives ink i've turned liberal because i believe a woman has a right to an abortion. that's a decision that's up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders on the religious right. this is our friend barry goldwater suggesting that perhaps women's right, in this case not domestic violence, in this case the right to choose, is fundamental. >> this shows us how far to the right this country has strayed. if you go back and watch the old debates of reagan and george bush the first it's unsane if they're debating immigration. if it they tried to say this now during a gop debate, they would be shot on stage. >> maybe not actually, but yes i get it. >> literally. figuratively, too. yeah, it is depressing when you go back not that many years and look what republicans were saying. they were saying actually what we would call progressive stuff now about gay people, about immigrants, undocumented citizens and stuff like that, undocumented immigrants. >> i think it's also a question of who

bush and barry goldwater that's very interesting and jeff. today senator lisa murkowski. said. that she regretted having voted on the well what's the point they're going to thank you. and she's in no she's like talking about rush limbaugh and all this but in the context of the republican war on women you know that she she feels really bad that she did this she said the wind shifted republicans didn't have enough sense to get off of it you think that this that that limbaugh is damaging the republicans and i just think this is a distraction i think i will get to the general campaign season we won't we will remember now in my view why should the obama camp jeremiah wright after the first idea came around we might be wise for the obama campaign to keep us alive you know these social issues alive but i i don't think the rush limbaugh thing it takes you know where we have every right should keep it alive and it should be kept alive this is the kingmaker of a. republican party this is a man who took credit for electing george w. bush george h.w. bush in one thousand eight hundred eigh

so, even if you're a republican with serious doubts about barry goldwater, you're in good company. n november 3rd. the stakes are too high for you to stay home. >> boy, that was gothic. that was so direct. there's something wrong with goldwater, mark. it didn't have to say too much about it because everybody sort of knew there was something wrong with goldwater. >> they had a study where they had 2,000 psychiatrists polled and they came out 1,500 or 1,300 said goldwater is not fit. i say go back to 1964 and check out the johnson campaign. >> they just got a bunch of liberal psychiatrist to trash the guy and everybody said that's true. that many thought it. dan rather, your memories, i know you're reporting nationally by then. your memories of this dramatic campaign and gothic, i'm calling it. it's about that guy is no good for the job. >> first of all, not all that well known, it was president kennedy and his staff looking forward to the 1964 election that in the summer of 1963 said we need to get a marriage with wall street and it was they that came to the decision to bring in doyl

since 1964, not inconceivable if the economy gets better that mitt romney may set the record that barry goldwater set for how many states he gets. >> bob, one of the things on the mind of a lot of people and the president is taking heat for it is gas prices. we know it's not the president's doing, but this does have a political drip to it of sorts. what do you make of it? >> the polls are a little contradictory on this, i think it's a two-sided equation. people have been so traumatized what they have been through in the last several years as a result of the bush economic collapse, that any bad news i think tends to register immediately. but in this two-sided equation as and if the job numbers keep getting better, i think the president and governor dean is completely right about this, will get in a stronger and stronger situation. more than that, mitt romney is going to lose his argument. his argument is i'm a ceo, might have been a job destroying ceo, i can fix the economy. well if the economy is being fixed, he needs some other message. right now, his only message in these republican primaries,

it has been around certainly from the days of barry goldwater and moving on through the 1980s.'m not sure if ronald reagan would be considered a conservative candidate if he were running today. >> let me ask you then. these are not my wards. words. folk. those are people on the campaign trail. >> the moderates need to say time out i'm just aspirinned if not more than you. what we also bring to the table is the ability to win in the middle. 40% of americans these days consider themselves to be in depep dent. you can't win elections unless you win independents. even barack obama understood that. in 2008 he understood -- he he campaigned as a moderate but governed as a liberal. saying listen the extremes that keep popping up here and they are everywhere, she says it is bringing up too much vitreal and gridlock. i asked you you is that the winning combination to be extreme like this? so be so divided. >> first let me start by thanking senator snow for her service and her role as an important moderate voice in the senate and incredible pieces of legislation that would not have moved

since world war ii, truman, ike, jack kennedy, barry goldwater, that takes us in the 60s. in the 70s, carter briefly, ronald reagan, clinton, then okay, total of eight since world war ii. name more stars. heros that grabbed us with the mag notice i am. in this century the 21st obama and hillary clinton. ten possible heros to lead the country in over 60 years. scarce. that is the word, scarce. the real problem i think is the few young people willing to enter the derby, to put their souls out there for our inspection, our approval and excitement. this, ladies and gentlemen, why we're forced to watch and me to cover this sparse arena, one life time want to be who decided he wanted to be president after his father failed, a couple ideologues and opportunist. the spirit of 2012 fluting itself across parade ground, hardly anybody today wanted to be president.

barry goldwater is a socialist compared to republicans now.sive views in some ways that this batch of republicans would just run away from. i was shocked by that. >> you know, i was really struck by something in this morning's paper by my colleague kit sealy. we do this series called "the long run" about the lives of the presidential candidates. there's something that happened that just a few years ago i had completely forgotten. rick santorum lost his race in pennsylvania by 17.4 percentage points. that is the largest margin -- i'm reading here -- at least since the civil war. you know, it's not an unknown fact, but it was so startling to me that i just wanted to bring it up this morning. >> i heard it was since 1980 or something. but, yes, he lost huge. i mean, it's a funny thing it that rick santorum, he was not a dominant republican politician. he also was not liked in the senate by his colleagues. he was quite disliked, considered prickly. one other thing, if you go look at elizabeth drew's piece from the new york review of books in 2005,

i've had a consistent, conservative policy going all the way back to barry goldwater in 1964 when i was a college student. i have been actively involved in the conservative movement. i stand for the same things year after year. i think the most recent comments by governor romney's communications director should worry every conservative in the country if they think you can shake the etch-a-sketch and end up with a brand new general election campaign which could be a total disaster in my judgment. second, we have 176,000 donors. people walk up to me every single day and beg me to stay in the race. every single event we go to, people thank me for having the courage to stay in the race. and third, there may be a morning governor romney has a majority of the delegates. that morning isn't here. given mistakes like this week, given the fact that when he did win illinois with less than a majority of the vote it was the lowest turnout in 70 years, i mean every republican who wants to beat obama should be worried by the fact the romney victories come by drowning them out with negative advertising

wonder if he could speak to that pension and of course phyllis schlafly who is very involved with barry goldwater as well. >> my answer to your question is not: in the "washington post." it's a partial answer. >> i'm going to start with goldwater because i do think this is fine it was not politically involved. as the year before the minister's speech where he says christian master should not be involved in politics. but what he is our deep and 184 developed and largely in response to the social cost poetry fear of communism as godless as a rationale for the american way, for a free enterprise, capitalism. you have this irony that fundamentalism come apart as it is creation or genesis was in response to darwinism and get the end up embracing the social darwinistic ideas that we get from rand and their economic views. but they back into it from communism. and very ham-handed play. it was a great moment in 1881 or 82 where he criticizes to kadir trio, people like what are you talking about? is enough to see the word socialist to assume there is a narrative dared that i think you see in our own david

i served with your dad's running mate, barry goldwater. my father did as well.uy and a very smart guy. my dad was friends with him too. of course, president kennedy was prepared to have debates all over the country with senator goldwater. >> stephanie: they liked each other very much. i liked him very much as a person. he was a very kind and smart guy. he would not recognize today's republican party. and let me be quick to add that there are many, many rank and file republicans who are upset over the direction of today's republican party. up until now many of them have been reluctant to speak out and offer some encouragement to get back into sort of a mainstream conservatism instead of this radical version that they have now. >> stephanie: well, and mr. vice president they have moved so far to the right. not only what you refer to. that continued through reagan. that's what i mean, politics has been a nasty business. this is like really -- almost seems like -- the gridlock and the obstructionism, it really is unprecedented, isn't it? they have outsourced its pol

barry goldwater. that takes us into the '60s.ronald reagan and finally clinton, then, okay, that's a total of eight since world war ii. name some more stars. some heroes that have grabbed us with their magnetism. in this 21st century, obama and hillary clinton. ten possible heros to lead the country in over 60 years. scarce. and that's the word for it. scarce. so the real problem today, i think is the few young people willing to enter the derby to put their souls out there for our inspection and approval, for our excitement. and this, ladies and gentlemen is why we are forced to watch. for me, people like me to cover this sparse arena we see before us today. one lifetime wannabe who decided he wanted to be president after his father had failed. a couple of ideologues and an opportunist. not much of a field. the horror is no

barry goldwater didn't get the nomination in 68.are perric defeats as well as victories. >> right, but rick santorum says i'm losing but winning. anyone in politics knows you can lose a race but win. rick santorum might be feeling he's losing, he feels it. getting out will be difficult. >> ohio is too close to call. our coverage continues with governor granholm in the war high school at the top of the hour. thank you, eliot spitzer, for your insights. that's our coverage. we leave you with that information that it is too close to call in ohio. basically, romney and santorum split the evening, but ohio is going to come right down to twier. thanks for being with us. it's the tastiest, the sweetest, the freshest. nobody can ever get enough. [ male announcer ] it's lobsterfest at red lobster, the one time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees like lobster lover's dream or new maine lobster and shrimp trio. [ laura ] hot, right out of the shell. i love lobster. i'm laura mclennan from spruce head, maine, and i sea food differ

this is lyndon johnson's resounding landslide in 1964 election is the self-declared conservative barry goldwater. he gets 66 percent of the vote. he gets 44 states. all the pundits are declaring that unless the republican party purges the conservatives from their ranks not only will the republican party be threatened by extinction, but the entire two-party system will be threatened by extinction. why would someone want to vote or join the party that was interested in taking american backward? so -- [laughter] this is a rush check test. i mean, of course conservatives believe that they are taking america forward. conservative liberal. but the important political context for this is that liberals have always been blindsided by the endurance of the appeal of right wing ideology in american life and especially in this timeframe. and of course that sense of so we sit political cultural entitlement does create a certain arrogance. it makes people giggle at the thought of conservatives being backward. as we just saw. and that is sort of a root cause of this division. the idea that liberals are arroganc

and it was very easily, of course, for richard nixon and barry goldwater to go into my southern statesand take over because of this individual emphasizing on that. get the -- get them out of our lives, and "them" meant the government. >> i think -- >> they didn't have, excuse me. they didn't have the length of memory, and those who did didn't have the power to say, well, "them" helped us. "them" saved us. fdr, he saved our asses. i'm sorry. [laughter] and the so-called free enterprise bs that we hear today, that's not free enterprise at all. [laughter] it's corporate bullshit. [laughter] [applause] >> i'll have to say that -- >> you note that i'm retired. [laughter] >> you had tenure, didn't you? >> yes, he did. i have to say, i learned a lot of vivid language from all of these books, including yours, jimmy. frankfurters happy hot dogs and black blizzards and honey fugling, you've got to check that out. everyone from the hog whisperer, uncle charlie hillman, to the wandering, bam white, to the prim and practical, um, frances perkins to the vibrant new dealer, tommy corcoran. oh, they'r

candidates included barry goldwater and mike huckabee. describes a southern strategy as a recipe for disaster. howard kurtz also writing in "the daily beast" suggests the media drumbeat for gingrich's exit is growing louder, because we want the race to go on longer. senator lindsey graham says the race is already about over. it's romney's to lose. cnn estimates that romney has 459 delegates, compared to 203 for santorum, just a paltry 118 for newt gingrich. back to newt. he says even if he doesn't have a good day today, he'll stick around. maybe not. if gingrich loses in one or both of these states, money might be harder to come by. without money, he goes nowhere. so here's the question. do mississippi and alabama represent newt gingrich's last stand in go to cnn.com/caffertyfile, post a comment on my blog or go to our post on "the situation room's" facebook page. >>> allegedly carried out by u.s. army sergeant. the president deplored the killings today in some of his strongest language yet. >> over the weekend, as many of you know, there