mitt romney.started the day leading newt gingrich, scoring double-digit leads in most of them. it looks like that's how it is going to turn out. and now with just 43% according to the associated press, not just -- he is ahead of gingrich by 48%. last week's campaigning saw a brutal ad war. along with personal attacks from both men of course. gingrich accusing romney of being a proabortion, liar and liberal, and romney who seemed to enjoy unhinging gingrich attacked him as a washington insider with more baggage than the airlines who was forced to resign as speaker while in office. so in this hour together it will be a moving target. we'll discuss the outcome, look at the numbers, hear from some of the candidates hopefully. and determine where we go from here. david shuster in tampa florida. on set with me for the entire hour, governor elliott spitzer good to see you. >> good to be here. whoever wins the republican primary is the republican.com knee. >> i think this is the first of many dominos to f

they've come back to mitt romney. i think you'll see that happen again. >> how much are you concern about the potential back lash to all the negative campaigning? both from mitt romney's side and newt gingrich's. rick santorum hasn't gotten involved in that, certainly nowhere near the extent of the other two. people are beginning to say, look, he might be thriving with the co-conspirator vote. by the fact he is not beating up on his opponents. >> there may be some of that. now that he's entered the top tier of candidates, i'm sure he'll get more scrutiny himself from the press and the other candidates. for example, piers, if you look at his record, he is not the perfect conservative or pure conservative that he claim to be. he's been involved in all sorts of ear marging and pork barrel spending tactics, as you may know. he's voted many times tone crease the debt ceiling. more of those will come out as this race unfolds. and then also, keep in mine that the notion that he hasn't been involved in negatives really isn't

>> yes. >> most likely mitt romney. >> mitt romney. >> amy?boy, i predicted hillary clinton in 2008 so i'm not sure my prediction is worth much. p mitt romney. >> carol? >> i'm going to say do great next week and go on and be in the race to do it. he can't just -- >> you have to be in it to win it. panel thank you all very much, we will reconvene on super tuesday. it will be a fascinating evening. my guess,we'll end up none the wiser on super tuesday, but we shall see. >>> when we come back, did he lose his job? if i have any soreness, i'm not going to be able to do my job. but once i take advil, i'm able to finish out strong. it really works! [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] make the switch. take action. take advil. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one

mitt romney had about 37% of the vote. rick santorum over 40% and ron paul reporting 11% and newt gingrich around 14%. we'll have the number finals in a few moments. we appreciate everybody's attention. we appreciate everybody who has been a part of this important process. >> and can you tell me what this meant in terms of turnout and how this might have been a factor this the case? >> we saw a lot of enthusiasm among the colorado republicans to participate in the process. it has been very exciting tonight and i'll tell you, rick santorum surprised a lot of folks in terms of his turnout, his willingness to come to colorado and compete for the votes and the enthusiasm that we saw across the state is pretty exciting. >> exclusively on cnn, you heard it here first. santorum made a push right at the end. we know el paso county was not in colorado springs, a lot of the evangelical christians there. do you know what the percentage of victory was for santorum down in el paso county? >> his margin of victory was about 1,300 votes

cnn, fox and msnbc have all called the florida primary for mitt romney. no surprise there. e only surprise is they called did so early. romney started the day leading his arch rival newt gingrich scoring double digit leads, looks like that's how it's going to turn out. now with just 43% according to associate press, not just -- that's a big block of votes in. romney is ahead of gingrich 48 to 31%, seventeen point spread. rick santorum and ron paul trailing as expected. santorum with 13% of the vote at this point and ron paul with 7% of the vote. last week's campaigning saw a brutal ad war dominated by romney who out spent beginning rich nearly 5 to 1 along with volleys of personal attacks from both men. gingrich accusing romney of being pro-liberal. hard to tell which is worst, liar or liberal for some republicans and romney who seemed to enjoy unhinging gingrich attacked him as a desperate washington insider with more baggage than the airlines who was, of course, forced to resign as speaker in disgrace for ethics violations. in this hour it will be a moving target. we will

mitt romney might get one. but the big battlegrounds are ohio, tennessee, oklahoma, and the question mark of whether gingrich can come back for a fourth or fifth life, whatever the count is right now, by winning his home state of georgia. >> gloria, how damaging -- it seemed to me there were three damaging hits on rick santorum. he went for this great position. he had a bad debate. i felt he was very weak that night. secondly, that ridiculous statement that president kennedy made him puke. come on, that seems to be bad politics. >> i think he needs to grow up. >> we call him puke in britain. it's the same thing. it's the excretion of vomit or something. president jfk. come on. and the last thing that i thought reamly was completely wrong, badly timed, inappropriate, and damaging, was this thing about the president being a snob for wanting people to go to college. i couldn't fathom what political damage he could do in the state. >> he was going for the voters he actually got, which were the most conservative vot

little as the us presidential campaign become a horse race incumbent barack obama against republican mitt romney if this is really the case what are romney's chances in november obama may not be a president of substance but few doubt his ability to campaign and maybe even when . you. cross out the u.s. presidential race i'm joined by john mchenry in washington he's a partner and vice president of ayres mchenry and associates also in washington we have doug there now is a senior vice president at s k d knickerbocker and in dallas recross the katrina pierson she is the executive director at watch the vote dot org and a board member at the dallas tea party all right crosstalk rules in effect folks that means you can jump in anytime you want between if i go to you first i mean after florida we have mitt romney again for the fourth time seen as the frontrunner for the republican nomination is going to stay that way. i don't think it's going to stay that way actually and what we are experiencing is this huge up and down rollercoaster. you know newt gingrich is receiving endorsements rick santorum is r

barack obama wasn't matched up against mitt romney there and i think mitt romney you know many of the you know the way in which he has been very hostile i think to the hispanic community perceived hostility towards them you know he has no real immigration reform plan that has that will play a role in the general election the republicans being against the dream act opposing sotomayor you know there are a lot number of issues that are important to this man a community that when they're pitted when he's pitted against a living breathing human being you know those numbers will i think dissipate he may not do as well as he did in no way as long as they any republican is going to do to well. john you well as if we look back at two thousand and four george w. bush won forty four percent of hispanics now a lot of change since then but part of the problem for president obama it's not just enough to say well look at me compared to new look at me compared to romney. those people just might stay home and that's a key problem for him for young people are disillusioned and they stay home a spanish

where they can say that mitt romney is out of touch with regular folks, and by giving that interview with soledad, no matter what the romney campaign wants to say about taking it out of context, it locks in this narrative that he is out of touch. and no matter what they say, they can at least replay those sound bites in a stream with, i like to fire people, and i'm not worth that much money or whatever he said in a campaign ad that will be played over and over you can bet, wolf. >> we're going to be coming back to you, jessica. we're standing by to hear from mitt romney. that's coming up fairly soon. the crowd is excited. we have projected that mitt romney is a winner of the nevada caucuses. you'll hear the questions from reporters, his answers. newt gingrich is about to unveil a new strategy to get the republican presidential nomination. i'll speak with rick santorum, and also there's a special caucus under way in las vegas. right now there's some surprise developments happening. this is live pictures from this caucus. we're going to go there and you're going to want to see this. our

he can say things that mitt romney would never say. mitt romney can have plausible deny blt.oesn't commit him to the regular norms. it's the best of all worlds possible for mitt romney and give gives donald trump another leg up on the epchilon. >> what does he bring? >> well -- >> you and i were saying a couple of days ago, mitt romney is well ahead in nevada. he doesn't need this. >> if you're looking state by state and nevada he doesn't need donald trump there, but i think it plays in a larger strategy of him taking support anywhere he can get it especially if the support is deep within the conservative base of the party. remember, mitt romney jumped on the endorsement that received from christine o' donnell. mitt romney, i don't think, would be taking this endorsement or doing an event. he didn't do an event with jon huntsman. if mitt romney had confidence that the conservative bah base was with him and if those in florida that voted for him, sizable chunk said they could maybe change their mind later, there's no way he would put himself throughout to align himself with so

mitt romney was dishonest. what does he think mitt romney will do. >> after the break. james rosen lays out the road ahead and the hunt for delegateless . final thoughts from the panel as we get toward midnight on the east coast. you name it. i've tried it. but nothing helped me beat my back pain. then i tried salonpas. it's powerl relief that works at the site of pain and lasts up to 12 hours. salonpas. taxing, so free file from the irs does the hard work for you, with brand-name tax software or online fillable forms and it's free. so give yourself a break at freefile.irs.gov. >> we can tell you that fox news projected mitt romney is the big winner. but we can't tell you who is second. there is a battle between speaker newt gingrich and ron paul. santorum will finish fourth. we'll look ahead in the race. super tuesday features sevenprimaris and three calk - caucuses. will most of the drama be gone by they offer thoughtos that. >> over the next month 202 delegates will be up for grabs in six states. after that gop candidates will compete for double of that in one day. t

i think who likes mitt romney? who thinks mitt romney.t's my guy. >> well you are talking about an enthusiasm gap. there's an enthuse am gap that i'm sure you haven't seen play out in the primaries. will he be able to mobile nice enthusiasm? >> you will see two of his sons were pretty enthusiastic. >> and like three hedge fund managers on wall street. so we have so much more to talk about here. what is going to happen in february as this thing unfolds. we'll hear the winner's speech. we'll get to rick santorum the loser's speech. a lot of telling moments right now, come right back. >> in the state of the union address the president said these words. let's remember how we got here. don't worry, mr. president, we know exactly how we got here, you won the election. a great tasting mint core, frosted in powerful cooling crystals. ice breakers frost. feel the frost. [[vo]]...we're the idea nobody wants to hear. ...until the truth reveals itself. boat-rockers. and above all... and there's only one place you'll find us. weeknights on current tv.

mitt romney 36%. within the margin of error there, what does that say to you? what's interesting is romney has only improved by about five percentage points from last time. he still has yet to convince the evangelical voters and social conservatives and the tea party voters that he's their candidate. he's getting much closer. florida is a big deal, important state but necessarily reflective of the other states that are coming down the line. >> what about your organization? who do you like? >> well, as an organization, we have not endorsed a candidate. i have not endorsed a candidate. will not be endorsing a candidate. >> you were part of that summit. >> i was a spokesman for that, when that group came out and 3/4 of them, almost 75% gave their support to rick santorum because of where he stands on the issues and that's really what our constituency looks at is where do these candidates stand on the issues? where do they stand on life, where do they stand on marriage and religious freedom and there's this tension in this election of who do we think can win this e

mitt romney is in trouble. mitt romney is in trouble. this is a crisis moment. the single best thing that could happen top mitt romney in michigan and therefore for his presidential campaign overall, the single best thing that could happen would be for something to come along to split the vote against mitt romney. to split the anti-mitt romney vote, to split the support that for these last couple weeks has been going all to rick santorum. the only thing that could save mitt romney right now is something like a $10 million injection in the newt gingrich campaign. tada, thank you sheldon adelson, casino guy. thank you for keeping alive the one guy that can split all the anti-romney vote that is out there. newt gingrich may have had a terrible, horrible no good bad couple of weeks. at this stage, newt gingrich is the single best thing mitt romney has going for him. steve schmidt, senior strategist for the mccain campaign and msnbc contributor, thank for being here, nice to sigh. >> great to be with you, rachel. >> you have played this game from the inside. you have

this time, mitt romney's firing at rick santorum. his super pac have spent a staggering $20 million attack i attacking fellow republicans. >> i thought that one was pretty -- >> got a lot of comments online. >> yes. it did get a lot of comments online. >> let's play this one, america is drowning by the mitt romney campaign at rick santorum. >> america is drowning in national debt yet rick santorum supported billions in earmarks. >> i have had a lot of earmarks. in fact, i'm very proud of all the earmarks i put in. >> so just as nasty as it has been everywhere else. the rombo one made me chuckle. >> thank you very much. santorum in the debate tried to point the earmark figure at mitt romney because he had asked for federal money for the olympics. alex, you have done a lot of ads over the years. what do you make of the ads you have seen in michigan? >> business as usual. romney has run a very effective negative ad campaign. he's proven to be more effective at burning down his opponents' house than building his own and ultimately, you h

it has mitt romney in the lead with 39%, santorum is at 35%. wt gingrich, ron paul are trailing far behind at 11% and 9% respectively. let's listen to what santorum and romney are promising voters in arizona. >> if i become president of the united states, i will curb the practice we have in this country of giving union bosses an unfair advantage in contracting. one of the first things i'll do, actually on day one, is i will end the government's favoritism toward unions and contracting on federal projects and end project labor agreements and i will fight to repeal -- >> you have my pledge that we will secure this border, we will deal with the issue of the drug violence and the cartels, we will work with the mexican government to make sure that we do -- we have relationships there that can help strengthen their economy, deal with the national security threats to our country at the border, and secure the border so the people in arizona can live in peace and prosperity, just like every other state in the country. >> arizona is a winner take all stat

clearly, you've had the kitchen sink thrown at your father by mitt romney. he's been spending millions and millions of dollars pounding your dad into submission. 99% of romney's ads in florida were negative. 95% of your father's were negative. it's getting very nasty and very personal. on a human level, how do you as his daughters feel about the bombardment that's coming his way? >> it's never actually fun to experience that. it's not a pleasant place to be. it does keep other people who would be good in public service out of the opportunity because they don't want to endure it. it also means we're not addressing the important issues about what we need from an american leader. what we need is someone like our father who has governed, who has done the things that even president barack obama has done. he's reached across the aisle. while he was speaker, he was able to cut taxes, cut spending, deal with the budget four times, deal with entitlement reform. they helped create 11 million jobs, and we were at 4.2% unemployment. that's the message you're going to be

going back to wolf because mitt romney is going to the microphone. wolf. >> thanks very much. nn romney is going to introduce her husband. i want all our viewers to listen. >> thank you, nevada. once again, i'm here to make sure that you listen to me this take and obey when i tell you don't clap until i'm finished. nobody listened to me last time. i have to give special thanks to all the people that made this happen. by the way, the most people i need to thank are the volunteers. a big thank you to all the people that volunteered. our nevada co-chairs, lieutenant-governor and congressman joe heck. i want to thank congressman mark amaday, our nevada finance chair steve fellows and mark hutchinson. and the many nevada elected officials throughout the state who have been so crucial to our success here. we're so appreciative. of course, nevada state director sarah nelson, nevada senior advisory ryan irwin, nevada state finance director cory christians christiansen. i want to give a special shout-out to dema gwynn. she and i served together as first ladies together, and she became a

let's look at positive signs for mitt romney. winning big among very conservative voters. here's a weakness. speaker gingrich, 43%, governor romney, 29%. this is a bit of a warning to governor romney. florida, more diverse and moderate and somewhat conservative voters. even as he gives a big speech tonight and talks about unifying the republican party and that's why he was talking about repealing the obama health care plan and cutting spending. one of his strengths, florida voters think by far mitt romney is the best candidate, florida republicans who live in a big battleground state think he is by far the best candidate to beat president obama. newt gingrich just walked on the stage and we will look at the exit polls in a few minutes. >> they're just beginning the process. it will take a few minutes, i assume for him to shake hands with some of his loyal supporters there. he's over in orlando, florida. you cecal list sta, his wife, always with him by his side, always there. after he receives some of the support from former congr

he is not a mitt romney surrogate any more. ently had been a leading surrogate for mr. romney in arizona. republican stud until he turned up as just stud boy 1 on a dating web site with a secret mexican boyfriend who threatened to deport him if he told anybody about their closet relationship. so they ended up in the discard pile from mitt romney. but it also helps if these people you rely on to bring the voters your message actually agree with your message. romney said the foreclosure crisis, the answer was to let the whole thing run its course until it hit bottom. congressman joe hecht was trying to be a leading surrogate for the romney campaign. how do you feel, mr. hecht, on mr. romney's position on letting housing hit the bottom? >> mitt romney and i don't agree on every issue and certainly housing is it one of them. when you look at what's on in here in southern nevada, you can't say you got to let the housing market hit bottom. we have been bouncing along the bottom for years. and the fact is we've got to do rg possible to

college grads, 45% went the way of mitt romney. there is still some lukewarm feelings toward romney even among those who voted for him. about have strongly favor the candidate they picked tonight. 42% have reservations. we talk a lot about that. the% said that describe their vote mainly as against the other candidates. that is a look at some of the reasons why mitt romney won tonight. >> well said. thank you so much. the guy joining us right now, steve schmidt, has been through this race before it. what i like is when we see all that data and it matches up with what we think. the people with the big money voted for rummy. the people that won electability, older people with higher education voted for romney. there is a passion deficit here. i wonder, am i right? are we watching a totally different races right now than what we will see in november? barrise right now is who turns you on. the race in november will be, how do you the obama? it does not matter, but how you beat him? >> electability, absent absent passion is a transaction.

mitt romney did not win iowa. had the iowa result been clear the night of the caucus, had the iowa republican party not screwed it up, had rick santorum been declared the winner that night i'm not sure that would have had a huge effect on the overall race anyway. iowa republicans are seen as having kind of a mike huckabee problem. iowa republicans pick guys like mike huckabee and rick santorum, has no effect on the overall race it's iowa, kind of irrelevant, another case for iowa not going first at least on the republican side. in iowa, historical terms it was amazing that iowa republicans screwed up their caucuses so badly they wrongly reported the results and had to flip them after the fact. historically amazing. but in terms of the impact of the race, not so much. now though, if another state pulls an iowa, that would have a huge impact on the narrative of the race. therefore, it would have a big impact on who is likely to get the republican nomination for president. i think that is where we are right now. head

mitt romney, the campaign has two, a good headline, which is, wins the cpac stroll poll, wins in maine day for romney, back on track. >> absolutely. i think we've seen that the media has this amazing influence over the race. good story lines in the week before a contest can lead to a 10-point surge as we saw for santorum in iowa. we saw for huntsman, went from 7 to 17 in new hampshire in about two days. we saw it from newt in south carolina. so momentum is really i think even more important than the votes sometimes or the preelection polls. so it's very good for mitt romney. i think this is also very bad for ron paul. i think it shows that he, his campaign made a big mistake not investing more in the get out the vote efforts in south carolina and florida. and it went from, beating expectations in iowa and new hampshire, to underperforming and i think it's hard for his supporters to get this sort of secretly we're collecting delegates, strategy. when it could have been a big headline tonight, that hey, ron paul won a state. >> actually won a state. >> is ron paul actually running for pr

>> reporter: wolf, mitt romney is sounding very confident. he will score a victory here in colorado. team romney is not predicting a trifecta. instead, talk of a long haul to the nomination. >> joe johns at newt gingrich headquarters on this night in ohio. doesn't have a contest there until super tuesday, march 6th. but what's your sense? how are people in ohio republicans assessing the former speaker? >> reporter: honestly, wolf, much smaller crowds. we're seeing with the speaker, former speaker of the house here in ohio, certainly than just about three weeks ago when he was in south carolina, where he won it all. very interesting today, though, up in dayton, ohio, we got to see the former speaker being the historian and giving a history lesson to the crowd that was well received. >> we'll check back with you. i'll be speaking live with the speaker, the former speaker, in columbus, ohio. that's coming up very, very soon. as always, aren't son cooper is with us throughout the night. >> yeah, there's a lot happening in the next few hours. at 8

women favored mitt romney by 5. beating obama in the fall is their number-1 issue and romney is their guy with 61% of that group. the top issue continues to be the economy. those who care the most about fixing the economy more than anything else in that race, they went for romney in a big way. those who had the top issue as the deficit, romney bested santor num that group. so how about experience? and what better prepares somebody to become president? most voters think the business experience has given mitt romney the better preparation to serve as president. they picked him. santorum's last-ditch effort to win michigan, over the course of this week. that was to woo the democrat and it is independents to show up and to vote for him in the republican primary. that effort pretty much failed. he won half of the democrats. they made up 9% of the vote. and as for the independents, he flipped them with mitt romney and ron paul, victory looked elusive heading into the early going and he closed the deal tonight in a very bro

mitt romney didn't mention any of thinks republican rivals tonight. there are only a few plays in the romney playbook, and he has been disciplined in sticking with them. tonight was a victory and he talk about barack obama, not about his republican rivals. that's likely to continue but in ohio and the states where it's close and romney has to do well next week, don't expect any let-up. mitt romney has made it clear he knows how to throw a punch and he knows how to take a punch. there will be plenty of those exchanged between mitt romney and rick santorum in the days ahead. >> thank you. >> bill is at the touch screen tonight. bill, mitt romney did win a greater share of the vote in michigan. some interesting results both in michigan and arizona. >> certainly is. yet good evening to you again. and to carl's point on the results map here on the touch screen billboard, if you exam michigan for the results we are getting so far in 2012 and compare it with 2008, it goes exactly to the point that carl was just making there. here is santorum in red and romney

mitt romney, mitt romney, mitt romney, newt gingrich, ron paul, ron paul, mitt romney, ron paul, ron paul, ron paul, ron paul, newt gingrich, ron paul, mitt romney, ron paul, ron paul, newt gingrich, ron paul, ron paul, mitt romney, mitt romney, ron paul, newt gingrich, ron paul, ron paul, mitt romney, mitt romney, mitt romney, mitt romney, ron paul, ron paul, ron paul, ron paul, ron paul, newt gingrich, mitt romney. >> they're counting votes at a romney, mitt romney, mitt romney, ron paul, ron paul, ron paul, ron paul, ron paul, newt gingrich, mitt romney. >> they're counting votes at a late caucus in clark county, nevada and that's for observant jews that couldn't vote earlier and they voted later. paul is standing by and will take us through in a moechlt. brianna i so rudely interrupted you. you were saying. pardon me. >> caller: oh, no. don, that is definitely okay. we've been talking about how we'd been hearing from some sources that newt gingrich was going to make a pivot and try to have a more positive message. i'll let you be the judge. one of the things he said about mitt ro

he has won four, mitt romney has three, newt has one. if you don't count missouri, they will vote next month, when it will count, then mr. santorum and mr. romney are tied with three each. mitt romney has all the money in the world, tim pawlenty, that doesn't seem to be buying him love including in minnesota. right now the main dynamic in the race is mitt romney is losing states everybody expects him to winning, and rick santorum is winning states people don't think he has a chance in. it's not impossible rick santorum could end up being the republican nominee for president. here is rick santorum speaking about one of the issues which he has staked his political career, speaking in october. >> one of the things i will talk about that no president has talked about before is i think the dangers of contraception in this country and the whole sexual liber tine idea, many said contraception's okay. it's not okay. >> it's not okay. that is rick santorum explaining how if elected he would use power of the presidency against birth control in amer

what is the big challenge for mitt romney do you think? >>. >> i think for mitt it's just to continue to put himself out there, continue to show he's got a plan to get america moving forward. that he understands how jobs are created. that it's not government. but it is the individual -- the risk takers. the people sitting at home right now who are watching who are willing to take risks every day to create jobs. he knows how that works. america is looking for work. and he knows how to deliver that. >> well connie mark and mary bono mack, thank you for your time. my bark is worse than my bite i assure you. >> thank you very much. >>> tonight newt gingrich lost big in florida but he vowed to stay in the race. fighting for the gop nomination to the bitter end. i spoke to two gingrich supporters. his daughters jackie gingrich and kathy gingrich. it was a bit more cheerful last time i talked to you. you came off a thumping victory. it was a huge party erupting around you. it looks a little bit quieter there tonight. >> well, piers, it's a little

and just today, another national poll shows him leading mitt romney 35 to 26%. in the two states voting on tuesday, arizona and michigan, romney has seen his commanding leads whittled down just over the past couple of weeks. and wasting no time, rick santorum has seized the moment, carpe diem, going after romney today with some stinging shots. >> look at the record and then look at -- versus the rhetoric of what you see of, in this cases, of johnny come lately to the conservative cause. that's the decision you have to make here in arizona. who do you trust? who's authentic? who's believable? is it the guy reading from the teleprompter or the guy -- or the guy out here on a high-wire line telling you what's in his heart and what's in his gut. >> also on the attack, newt gingrich, known for his strong debate skills, and ron paul, who as we know, has incredibly passionate support among young voters, but has lost some steam for broadly in recent weeks. now, they are both making the case they should be challenging president obama in november. "outfront" tonight, the f