joining me now, john braverman and kelly ann conway. >> we start with you john.ken a good old kicking tonight, a shellacking. how do you come back from this? >> two weeks ago i was here with you, and you were talking about our big wins and we went on to win louisiana. we won already 11 stateses there's two we've tied in the delegates and we're not going to win them all. we get to move on to much friendlier territory, one being pennsylvania. there's about half the states left to go. you look forward to those and realize you can kick his butt right back. that's what we intend to do quite frankly. >> if mitt romney kicks rick santorum's butt in pennsylvania in his own backyard isn't it game over? >> rick santorum is an italian kid from a steel town. in pittsburgh, we know a little bit about winning. frankly, i think we're going to do well in pennsylvania. i will say this, i have always said that whoever wins pennsylvania is probably going to be the nominee. it's critical to us as well as mitt romney that we win the nominee. if rick santorum wins pennsylvania and tex

. >> let me turn to kelly ann conway. no one was talking about newt gingrich.was the forgotten man. how many times can he come last and retain credibility as a candidate? >> barack obama himself called out newt by name. and mitt romney stands in an awful light like newt gingrich and he stealing his best lines like government-centric society that comes right from newt. mitt romney in his quasi-general election speech sounded like a hybrid. our campaigns are running off on him. he realizes front-runner or not he will have to be a little less allergic to conservatism to be a convincing nominee. i learned two things. one is mathematical. we have the big states coming up and texas can be a winner take all state. that's a big enchilada in one day. we have a lot ahead of us. the second thing is that mitt romney can no longer whine and complain he doesn't have a free shot at barack obama. he never mentioned gingrich, paul, or santorum. he took it right to obama. he got the clear shot. i think he said a lot of great things that conservatives and people like me would lov

kelly ann conway, back, senior adviser for the 2012 gingrich campaign.im of the american enterprise institute. mark penn, pleasure to have you back. i know you don't agree with me, but foremost, this is an election on obama's economy. a referendum. >> i think virtually every election since 1932, about the economy. this is not owe b obama's economy. it's the american economy. the thing about yesterday. it's no longer obama shadowboxing. it's a choice. a choice between some of his policies that are beginning work and some who are a big question mark. >> when you look at the very slow growth, okay? you there is fwroet, you look at the real unemployment rate. close to 5%. housing problems, gasoline problems and look at a lot of issues, do you really believe obama has a record to run on. he never seems to talk about his record. >> well, he's got some forward looking policies that have begun to work. remember, the calamity, when he took office, was one of the worst calamities in american history. this could well have been not a recession, but a depression. >>

joining me kelly ann conway and margie o'mara, a democratic pollster.argie, i want to ask you first, because there are a lot of democrats that would say privately that there was a fight over the women's vote anyway. the conversation about the gender gap and then hilary rosen goes on television and says ann romney hasn't worked a day in her life. a lot of democrats are cringing. you have seen the reaction from the president's team. big opportunity, big opening for the romney campaign. are they right? >> publicly, it was a misstep. ann romney is very likeable and spouses are off limits. first of all, there is going to be a million more of these issue of the day outrage over a quote that's going to happen between now and november. i think it is a mistake to say this about a war of words about women as opposed to a war on women when it comes to real policies. when it comes to policies, republicans have shown repeatedly they are not on the side of women. >> kelly ann, if the democrats have the advantage and they do if you look at polling, a huge gender gap.

according to independent women's forum and i believe kelly ann conway's polling firm, they just did aissues but scott brown was slightly ahead. there's a number of issues there, but it's not only that this war on women rhetoric has backfired on the progressive left. but in the case of scott brown, all of that didn't work in 2008 and it's not working now apparently. >> steve: wouldn't you say, michelle, the whole war on women really was invented to take people's eyes off of the prize, which is the economy and gas prices and when you look at those things, the president not doing so well. >> yes. that's absolutely right, steve. it was contrived and manufactured from the get go. we know that from the young woman's past political history. and as is the case with obama and his chicago team, it is always about the distraction. i think the gop, before that happened, of course, had been gaining a lot of ground and traction in trying to zero back in on jobs and gas prices. i think as we head into november, we're going to see more and more of this ratcheting up of the politics of personal destru