focusing sharply on the general election. sten. >> three years ago this week, a newly elected president obama faced the american people and said if i can't turn this economy around in three years i'm looking at a one term proposition. and we're here to collect. >> did the hard numbers suggest he's also the likely in november? once again john king has some of the numbers at the wall. what are you seeing? >> let's start with this. let's remember about 46 states to go as the gingrich campaign said today. if he can pull this out, let's go to the map. this is the 2008 map. obama winning a lot. let's take tonight's state florida. north carolina, virginia will be a tossup. new hampshire will be a swing state. ohio will be a swing state. michigan could be in play this time. iowa will be a swing state. colorado will be a swing state. the democrats think they have a hope there. i took those states away. if you're a democrat, you'll say no we'll get those back. but let's just start with this scenario. anderson, let's assign them. for the

here is romney focusing sharply on the general election. >> three years ago this week, a newly electedresident obama faced thuamerican people and said if i can't turn the economy around in three years, i'll be looking at a one-term proposition, and we're here to collect. >> governor romney a big winner tonight. the question is do the hard numbers suggest he would be the likeliest republican winner in november. john king has some of the numbers at the wall. >> let's start with this. show the viewers at home so they don't say they're crazy. 46 states to go, as the gingrich campaign says, but romney has the lead. if he can pull this out, let's go to the map. this is the 20008 map, obama winning, but let's take tonight's state, florida. north carolina, virginia, a toss-up, new hampshire will be a swing state, indiana, michigan could be in play this time. iowa will be a swing state. colorado will be a swing state. maybe new mexico. the democratic think they may have a chance. and nevada, the highest unemployment rate in the country. if you're watching at home, you're democrat, you say give

that is going to be a very important state in the general election. 's a swing state in the general. he did the same thing in florida. that will be a very important state for us to win in the general. we appreciate that. but also this state is going to be an important state in the general -- (cheers) >> now that we have all of you excited and energized and volunteering we are going to need you again next november. we appreciate that. maybe some of you are all waking up to figure out that our country is in trouble. we are heading in if the wrong direction, and we are looking for a guy that can fix it and turn this economy around and create jobs. we are excited to introduce the next president of the united states, mitt romney. (cheers and applause) >> ann romney introducing her husband to the stage. josh and matt and two of the sons and some of the 16 grandchildren. we don't know how many. there you see the family. let's listen in. (cheers) >> wow. >> thank you. thank you, guys. wow. what a great showing. thank you, nevada. this is not the first time you

prime minister come before the general election you told made wise that you would make their lives easier and that you would recruit 3000 more midwives. since the general election, nurses and midwives, working harder for less, and midwives and training had been reduced by 3% a year. will the british people wrong to take you at your word? >> i'm very sorry for the honorable gentleman judgment on the ladies diggers are wrong. compared with election there over 620 midwives working in the nhs and there are record numbers in training. we want to do more but we will only be able to do more if we keep funding the nhs and her party is committed to cutting edge, saint nhs funding increases are irresponsible and we will only be able to do if we keep cutting back on the bureaucracy which we're doing this successfully with our reforms, and making sure the money goes into the front end. but there are more midwives. there are more infantry on a freighter figures are wrong.

that is going to be a very important state in the general election. 's a swing state in the general. he did the same thing in florida. that will be a very important state for us to win in the general. we appreciate that. but also this state is going to be an important state in the general -- (cheers) >> now that we have all of you excited and energized and volunteering we are going to need you again next november. we appreciate that. maybe some of you are all waking up to figure out that our country is in trouble. we are heading in if the wrong direction, and we are looking for a guy that can fix it and turn this economy around and create jobs. we are excited to introduce the next president of the united states, mitt romney. (cheers and applause) >> ann romney introducing her husband to the stage. josh and matt and two of the sons and some of the 16 grandchildren. we don't know how many. there you see the family. let's listen in. (cheers) >> wow. >> thank you. thank you, guys. wow. what a great showing. thank you, nevada. this is not the first time you

that is the real general election message, but right now he is hitting the more ideological, he is a socialist and a european. >> yes. i mean, when he uses the president's name and sol lewinsky in the same paragraph it is a good indication that he is talking not to the nation, he is talking to republican primary voters and the particular sub set -- >> not that anybody who knows who sol louie ski, lewinsky is. >> and the president and the white house and the obama campaign have never taken their eyes off of mitt romney, they have never even tried to launch and attack on newt gingrich so it will be interesting to see that after night. mark shields, david brooks, thank you, gentlemen, very much. >> thank you. >> back to you, judy. >> thank you, gwen. >> and with that we do end this special edition of the pbs news hour on the florida republican primary. i am judy woodruff in tampa, and i am gwen ifill on the news hours. >> we will see you on line tonight where you can check our interactive map all night for totals. plus video of the campaign speeches. all of that on our web site. thank y

that being said, when you look at the structure of the general election contest and there are some polls out it this week that show the contact prospectively between governor romney and president obama opening up a little bit in president obama's favor. as a general proposition over to last month, you see an even race between the president and between governor romney. i think, lawrence, that one of the good things if you're on the romney team is that the structure of the general election is that i think both sides start with essentially a floor of about 47% of the vote. they're going to be competing for about 4% to 6% of the electorate. it's a very narrow slice. now governor romney has work to do. one of the things he has to do is offer a positive vision for moving the country forward, not just the criticism of the president. >> steve schmidt and howard fineman, thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. >> coming up, if you can't beat them, join them. president obama signs off on super-pacs backing his election. later, mark sheels will join me on the controversy an

chance for the republican nomination, but is he too conservative to beat president obama in a general electionht pening rods. it's generated excitement in the republican base, but has that made him too narrow casted to win a general election? >> it puts him in a difficult position in a general election. some of what you have to say if you look at the full context, it's not as out there if you take a piece of it, as it sounds. but there's a lot for him to explain. his campaign recognizes that he is in a different phase in the campaign and all of these will come back at him and he will have to provide a better explanation. his notion is he is the right kind of republican to go against the president. he can energize the conservative base and because of his blue collar roots and he has learned to work in a difficult state for republicans at some times that he can run the kind of campaign that can win, if you talk to republican strategists privately, they think he has a difficult time particular lly i the suburbs. >> in fact, he has a much better grasp of retail campaigning and politics in the stat

they ended up narrowly winning general elections. colorado very much still a swing state. a large independent vote. but the republican party there is very conservative. so, again, if santorum is going to try to get back into relevancy, i think colorado is made for him. if he doesn't pull it off there, i don't see where he comes, where he doesn't have the field organization to pick and choose somewhere else and then i think he runs out of time. gingrich thinks at this point that he is trying to gloss over the tuesday caucuses. >> interesting. we'll watch them both, guys. chuck todd, thank you. we'll be back with you later. >>> coming up here, more reporting from the ground in nevada. what we'll learn from this race. we're going to have an interview with ron paul who is hoping for a strong finish. he's hoping to get 25%. you're watching msnbc's live coverage from the nevada caucuses. >>> welcome back to msnbc's coverage of the nevada caucus tonight. we have a first look at the entrance polls. that's what we call it on a caucus night. let's go to tamron hall with some numbers

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. they think it's going to a close election. the second thing is, there's no doubt the kind of campaign the white house and the barack obama re-election 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, independent women, that would be a big focus and they do would that. 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 populist, white, working class part of the electorate. and that part of 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 by 18 points? >> you remember, chris, the 2006, i don't want to make rick santorum's talking points for him. 2006 was a big democratic wave

it -- winning general election you've got to get the nomination first. if you don't organization money and money to clobber the other person in ads. we've seen this negative ads work. so you need money you and need to win nomination before focusing on the general. >> well, greta, that is true but look at this, if the case for mitt romney is i've got the most money and i can beat up anyone who comes along to get in my way that is not a particularly strong argument to make because guess what? barack obama is going to have way more money than mitt romney and national media on his side. beat the living day lights out of him f the answer is whoever has most money wins republican nomination that isn't going to be. you need who is going to have the best record and the best message to be able to go out and take on barack obama knowing that you're going to be outspent and be beat up. but being able to discuss that mitt romney does not provide that. that is the problem here. he's not going to be able to bully and beat up obama sense res. he's not going to have tha

but to me that's a good general election issue for florida isn't it?ting in r&d and national resources, you don't hear any plan of how we rebuild that intellectual capital and become the leader in the world for research and development. all i heard was freddie mac, and all i heard was you were a failed speaker of the house. i didn't hear any policies that would move floridians or the country forward. >> are you a member of the mayor's -- the national [ inaudible ] of mayors. >> yeah, conference of mayors i sure am. >> the national conference of mayors has been very strong about advocating for federal policy that would allow for a partnership with mayors with cities across the country for those investments, knowing the cities alone don't have the resources to be able to do it themselves. that partnership in order to invest in our country is critical. to me mayor, you are going to have the convention there and if they don't talk about our future, i hope you rally up your picketers. >> mayors are boots on the ground. they see us in the grocery stores, and

the appeal measure would have to primaries in the general election.hows having spring and fall primaries results in a 5% decrease in november turnout. if -- is that what you want to discourage people from voting? if you have other -- look at other cities they have abysmally low turnout. in new york city, when they have a september primary, they have 11% turnout in 2009, 2010, the september had turned out of 12%. november 2007, for poor and 9%. boston also low turnout. besides low turnout in september and november schedule is eight weeks before -- between elections. it puts you in violation of the move back. absentee ballots should be sent six and a half weeks before the election. since the election department has for weeks to certify that only gives four weeks to get absentee ballots. why does -- it does not apply to the city, not being able to meet the 45-requirement risks of disenfranchising overseas and military voters and means more work and more cost for - he musst send a ballot and mail them separate ballots for the municipal election. that will

now these same issues could though be a problem in a general election. >> schieffer: i'll tell you one thing. nobody has accused rick santorum of not being a conservative. romney is having such a hard time making the case that he really is a conservative, whether he is or not. they don't make that case about rick santorum. i know, norah, the white house took particular offense at what santorum said yesterday about the president on the religion thing. i think robert gibbs who is the senior advisor said it was a new low, i believe, he said. >> right. once again that's because rick santorum was questioning his theology. of course theology is the study of religion so it suggests that santorum was talking and suggesting that the president is not a christian. he disavowed that today. rick santorum has won four states. mitt romney has won three states. rick santorum is arguably the frontrunner at this point. but the obama campaign is not switching their focus. there would be political malpractice in their words not to look at rick santorum and study his record but they still think at end of t

general election candidate.learned in the last few weeks to use to their advantage? >> what haven't they learned? mitt romney has no real positions on issues. this is something beginning to resonate with republican voters. you see in the pew poll, 50% of republican voters saying that mitt romney's inconsistency on positions, that's something team obama will be able to use in the general election. you also have grover norcross making a funny case for mitt romney saying, well, you know, the important thing is that mitt romney can be told what to do. he'll sign whatever i tell him to sign. you think that's going to make him look impotent going into a general. >> they are expecting romney to follow the successful blueprint in florida, going negative on newt gingrich, now he'll go negative on rick santorum in michigan. is michigan the do or die? he has to take michigan because that's where he grew up, and if the hometown boy doesn't do well in michigan, how will he do well nationally? >> i think you are right. psycho

what we see is that this will probably hurt him in the general election. marist and nbc had a poll this week that showed in a general election mitt romney would lose to barack obama. it hurts him here. obama can sort of credibly claim he helped turn around the economy dr-- the auto industry. in the primary, a tougher argument to make for republicans. both santorum and romney have taken positions here. he's running a tv ad making that case, but that's sort of misleading because rick santorum also opposed the federal auto bailout. that's sort of the dynamic playing out in terms of auto industry here, richelle. >> okay, peter hanby, good wrap-up. thank you very much. talk to you again soon. >>> coming up in a few moments, we'll talk about why gay marriage and abortion trump the economy with some gop primary voters. don't go anywhere. 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

in the past month among general election volares his standing with voters has fallen 20 points. it's not just so much the damage is happening now, there's a recipe here that's been exposed. >> his unfavorable's have doubled since the primaries began. in this case, is newt gingrich doing some serious damage that maybe even president obama couldn't have done to mitt romney. >> well, i think the entire republican party is doing enough damage for the entire republican party. i mean, i don't think going through this tough primary is going to make them stronger. i think it's shows them to be schizophrenic, pro business, but also pro offshore banking. i feel they're suffering from a multiple personality disorder. they don't know who the base is. is it the tea party or sci-fi in other words, who is the base? i feel we're watching the republican party trying to depine the republican party. >> newt gingrich with that moon landing stuff lost that county. i know who their base is, the top 1%. it's their donors they are trying to appeal to. as we were having this conversation, i think i came

ok katrina let's talk about the general election here let's assume on this program for the time being and i agree with you we've seen a roller coaster with this this campaign is with the republicans but let's assume that romney is the nominee ok number one will the demo or the republicans come out in droves to go vote for him even if they don't like him too much for your taste he's not conservative enough and if he's strong enough to beat barack obama what do you think. well i'm not sure right now if the election were today it's possible but i think with mitt's recent behavior and the debates towards conservatives it's probably going to turn some people off we do have contended senate and congressional races out there it's been the chatter that i hear that people if mitt romney becomes the nominee they will go and support those other races so i'm not so sure he would get help in that side and if he did become the nominee we have to look at one of the differences between mitt romney and barack obama with the exception of brock wants to reform wall street and mitt romney wants to prop u

that is going to be a very important state in the general election. did the same thing in florida. that's going to be a very important state for us to win in the general. we appreciate that. but also this state is going to be an important state in the general, and you guys -- [ applause ] now that we have all of you excited and energized and volunteering, we're going to need you again next november. so we appreciate that. maybe some of you are all waking up to figure out that our country is in trouble. we're heading in the wrong direction, and we're looking for a guy that can fix it and turn this economy around and create jobs. so we're excited to introduce the next president of the united states, mitt romney. [ applause ] ♪ >> thank you. ♪ >> thank you. thanks, you guys. wow, what a great showing. thank you, nevada. you know, this is not the first time you gave me your vote of confidence, and this time i'm going to take it to the white house. four years ago, candidate obama came to nevada, promising to help. but after he was elected, his help was tel

what you said about nominating process is their general election strategy. last man standing on election day, november 6. the people will reject the president because they think he doesn't have the right ideas about the economy. therefore they will go to romney. its that the basic strategy? >> yes, process of elimination candidacy. and it has been the process of elimination candidacy from the very beginning. not to take anything away from mitt romney. got to run the way you got to run. that's how he is running. i defy you to tell me in stirring terms what his vision is. what his new idea is. what his brand of conservatism is. what his personal calling card is. it isn't about any of that. it is about he is not anybody else that you don't like. he is the guy who you will accept, even if you don't really luke h like him that much. >> he is the hope for restoration. thank you. not just deliverance. hope for restoration. the great irony is restoration to most republicans when they say that. it is back to the clintons of the 90s. not back to w. what a great irony.

if he thinks that he'll do this well, with this rhetoric in a general election, i think you and i wouldot going to work. you can't offend three-quarters of the country and expect to be elected president. in a republican primary against a candidate who the party doesn't like. because remember, not mitt romney beats mitt romney in just about every primary. this is kind of a special case. rick santorum. not himny. you're exactly right. we've said it for a year and a half. this is not about santorum any more than it was about bachmann or trump, any more than it was about herman cain or sarah palin or rick perry or newt gingrich. this is about mitt romney. republicans do not want to nominate mitt romney. >> they've been screaming it from the mountaintops for fully a year now. there's not enthusiasm for him, just not there. >> not mitt romney. >> a bunch of democrats who wonder why, who have looked at all the battleground state polling, saying you know what, if we were them, we'd be looking for another candidate. >> you cannot move him out unless he quits. >> he's not going anywhere. >> no, h

general election same thing.eople he is trying to win over love this message. >> the general election is actually covered by the media they are trying to eliminate. the national disisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisisis jerry springer on the latest numbers. speaking of faking it the florida legislature, taking one of those one size fits all koch brothers alec is on the new news network. >>welcome to the war room. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. she's a political trail-blazer. >>make your voice heard. >>detremined to find solutions. >>that partnership in order to invest in our country is critical. >>driven to find the truth. >>how did romney get his groove back? >>fearless, independent and above all, politically direct. the newest voice in cable news is on the new news network. >>it is an independent progressive voice and i love that. >>jennifer granholm joins current tv. she's a political trail-blazer. >>people like somebody who's got a spine. >>determined to find solutions... >>we need