that's what jonah goldberg and the others are saying. laur inggram, she said is he hopeless? she said, no, he's not hopeless, but he's not there yet. >> look at the rap sheet. i should tell my story. i'm also unemployed. we could raise taxes on people. corporations are people, my friend. >> my friend, i like that. >> let's look at it on tape. here is some of his chain of infamy here. >> i should tell my story. i'm also unemployed. we could raise taxes on people. corporations are people, my friend. rick, i'll tell you what. $10,000? $10,000 bet. >> i'm not in the betting business. >> i know what it's like to worry whether you're going to get fired. there were a couple of times i worried whether i was going to get a pink slip. it also means if you don't like what they, do you can fire them. i like to fire people who provide services to me. >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. i'm not concerned about the rich. the rich are doing just fine. >> a good ad for obama. >> that's terrible string of things. but rick perry is a really good politician. whe

it's rush limbaugh, it's jonah goldberg. a great piece saying, what's wrong with this guy?ntial conservative saying, mitt romney is really making our job a lot harder. >> yeah, conservatives got an opening too with the content of what he said. they weren't worried about him saying i'm not concerned about the poor, they were worried about him saying we need to strengthen the social net, they went no, no, no -- that's not the answer. so chuck, what happens? i think a lot of republicans have come to the point where they say, okay, this is mitt romney, this is the guy at some point there's a pattern. maybe it was out of context when he said i like firing people, maybe they think this was out of context when he said i'm not very concerned about poor people. he's going to make some of these mistakes. the fact of the matter is, he can't pretend he's in touch with the middle class, the problems, because he isn't. so how do they change him? how do they deal with this guy going forward? >> well, i think the lesson you've seen in past -- in the past is don't try to change a candidate.

the panel, jonah goldberg from national review online. a.b. stoddard from the hill. st charles krauthammer. jonah, now looking forward, we've got washington state on saturday. and then super tuesday coming up. what about this race and where we stand? >> i think going forward, the path for romney is clearer than it's been in a while. but at the same time, not t he l take fire the entire way. i think his victory over michigan was huge -- the victory in michigan was huge. insofar if he lost it would have been disastrous. not a big a deal on the positive side he won. hammer and tongs in ohio where the media and candidates will set up a significant contest. romney is the only one you can see the path to the nomination. it doesn't mean it's easy for him. >> bret: a.b., he seemed relieved last night and on the stump today anecdotally from the reporters covering him looser. >> yeah. >> bret: the romney campaign has a spring in their step. >> that's because when you cheat death, there is a rush of relief. as for people who were nervous about him losing michigan, they're not so

in an article, jonah goldberg wrote "the underemphasized dynamic in this race isn't that romney isn'trvative enough. it's that he's not a good enough politician. every time he seems to get into his groove and pull away, he says things that make people think he doesn't know how to play the game.". "the wall street journal" wrote "like twain said of wagner's music, mr. romney is better than it sounds." >> this doesn't surprise me for a minute. he's pretty far o out. >> here's the thinking among those people. they are thinking, we don't love mitt romney. okay. he's a massachusetts moderate. he's trying to make himself a conservative. but if we're going to take him, let's at least have a good politician. let's have a guy who is good at being a politician. if he's not with him idea logically, what grounds are they going to accept him? laura ingram, i said is he hopeless? she said, no, he's not hopeless, but he's not there yet. >> look at the rap sheet. i'm also unemployed. we could raise taxes on people, corporations are people, my friend. let's look at it on tape. here it is some of his c

jonah goldberg writes, what is wrong with this guy? these are republicans.ndents. how does he -- how do you become the nominee, which most people feel he will be, and you have this kind of open guess youfg and your statements and your strategy, steve. >> what erin is saying is true. he's got the republicans upset because they like to play -- they like to bash the democrats for class warfare. the reason romney got himself into this this week and why this has been an ongoing problem. he's been aware and his campaign has been aware, running as the nominee of the republican party, which no matter who the republicans nominate, the democrats will paint the republicans as the servants of the top 1%. for romney to have that roll, his campaign has been aware for some time. he's so closely associated with the top 1%. he exudes top 1 percentness. he's come up with this platform. he's broken with the republicans where he feels he can on a lot of these economic issues. gingrich wants to eliminate the capital gains tax. romney says don't cut it for the rich. he's irked th

i think it was jonah goldberg who said, he is not fit to run for president. he cannot get his words right. he keeps saying these things that paint him as wildly out of touch, this guy is not a good politician. and then there are conservatives who attack him on the message itself. let the democrats handle the poor, they have their entitlement programs, when being a true conservative is trying to lift people in poverty out of poverty. >> and also what you're talking about, the two issues, the style and the substance is right on. stylistically, there has got to be a more artful way to discuss the idea of being a middle class candidate, okay? he fails there. substantively, what you're talking about is, it's not exactly a conservative idea or a conservative impulse to go out and divide up the country based on economic demographics, racial demographics, ethnic demographics. this is something the right, in fact, excoriates the left for doing. so on both counts, i think people who are supporting mitt romney and who are just conservatives watching this race are saying

erick erickson has weighed in and jonah goldberg they say when it shows to them he can't make a conservativet. is that true. >> we know what the attack on romney will consist of. he will be parented at heartless rich guy by the obama campaign. as a matter of tactics or strategy you probably ought not to play into that. romney can defend it on the merits. it is very true that the poor have more disposable income and time than the working poor. the real frustration for conservatives is he is having trouble making it and explaining the basic precepts of conservative. that is why they like newt in a lot of cases even though newt is not a consistent tent conservatism but he can explain ideas behind conserve tim and romney can't. martha: adding to that criticism, what tucker is getting that, is he not nimble and can't talk off-the-cuff and find himself going into these sort of difficult waters at tiles when he does. alan, he says this comment was taken out of context that it does not mean that he is not sensitive to the needs of the very poor. what is your end -- >> how about trying to fix the poo