this is a big defeat of newt gingrich by rick santorum. going down south, theying this is your strategy, your justification for staying in the race, you can win in places like this and i can't. look where i beat you, i beat you in the place you're supposed to be strongest. this makes it hard to understand how newt gingrich stays in the race. you saw that with his pitiful stretch in his speech talking about how him and rick stantoru won a big majority and together one two-thirds of the delegates.

with the let's start with rick santorum. down from hising choice for words. er gets into an unfavorable comment or question s they have been spoon fed by the romney camp. it's a long campaign. doingnow, both sides damage control. rick santorum insisted he, not romney, could repeal of -- obamacare. >> quit distorting my words. if i see it, it's [bleep]. >> today i asked him about the exchange. >> i do not regret it at all. he is the worst candidate to go in the mostck obama issue of the day. >> your profanity. do you regret that? >> it was in new york times was out of line. uri conservative than you are not worth your salt. >> there is no doubt that the the campaign can take made,ll and mistakes are like overnight when president a spoke to the russian leader about a missile defense shield. >> this is my last election. have more flexibility. and his opponents seized on that moment. he could be more flexible after the election? that is an alarming and troubling development. our is no time for to be pulling punches with the american people. >> the republican natio

rick santorum down 106789 the only place there's no change is newt gingrich. he hasn't moved anywhere over the past week. it's been awhile since he picked up a primary win and his time may be running out. >> thank you to everyone in south carolina who decided to be with us. >> reporter: january 21st, newt gingrich stormed past mitt romney. >>> the primary really matters. >> 10 states head to the polls including georgia. he's hoping a victory there can turn things around. >> governor romney can raise more money. he can go to wall street. >> reporter: gingrich's biggest challenge may not come from the front-runner. >> you know what? we're doing all right. >> reporter: rick santorum is having more success than newt gingrich. he fought romney to the end. >> i'm a conservativetive. >> reporter: gingrich has his work cut out for him. come super tuesday, it's all or nothing. >> thank you. >> reporter: right here is why we call it super tuesday. 437 delegates will be at stake just a few days from now. that's about two and a halftimes the number of delegates that mitt

that clip of rick santorum down in dixon illinois, which is ronald reagan's boyhood home, santorum isrying to establish an on need conservative credential. 's trying to say, look, i'm the conservative in this race. the establishment candidate is the big government take away your liberty type of a republican that is not who we need against president obama. and rick santorum, in order for him to do well tomorrow he has to do well south of interstate 80, the southern part of the state. and below chicago. mitt romney will roll it up in chicago and the suburbs. but again, it looks like just because of the amount of money that mitt romney has been spending that the numbers have been turning in his direction. >> the polls i saw today suggest first degree you look at this in terms of three groups, romney had a double digit lead with the urban and suburban voters and he's holding his own in the rural vote. is romney showing strength in the conservative republican party in the state of illinois. >> i would be careful in terms of the rural area because the polling has been bad. and also rick san

down. santorum laid down and said that's the etch catches but it's rivals are likely to take advantage of it into stock. romney did pick up the endorsement last night and that's not something they can arrest. in new orleans fox news. >> a man suspected of gunning down 7 people on the streets of southern france over the past 10-days remains in a stand off with police tonight. why police set up a series of explore suggestions near the apartment there you saw the orange flash from one of the explosions. when they were trying to intimidate police say he claims to be a member of alky d. they believe he gunned down 3 soldiers last week and rabbi and on monday and tuesday. the longest shipment ever into san francisco boy. the -- it's 1200 feet long and 157 feet wide. it can carry 12,000, 500 cargo containers. san francisco bay or pilots have been training 18 months for this arrival. >> yeah, there are companies that are building ships bigger and bigger all the time. >> we're getting bigger and bigger and bigger. >> the biggest challenge will come this evening as pilots turn to giant shift so it can

then we had rick santorum go down to puerto rico and talk about, well, if you want to become a state,going to need to have english as your official language and that kind of, you know, really -- >> canceled him out. >> caused some resentment down there. so i think it still looks pretty much like mitt romney territory. add to that he has done very well in the american territories. he did very well in american samoa, he did very well in guam. he's expected to do very well in puerto rico, but, remember, this is a portion. so folks are given delegates according to their percentage of the vote. mitt romney can do really well if he can be above 50%, then he gets to take them all home. and it is about -- it is 20 delegates and as you know, this is now less about the states or the territories, but it is more about the delegates yeah. >> so so far he has done well in the u.s. territories. i'm sure for mitt romney's camp, anything helps maintain the momentum. it is not necessarily a shoo-in for him come illinois in two days, right? >> not necessarily. and, but i would tell you the -- it would b

you heard santorum going down there to campaign for two days. e with this given this to romney. but santorum picks up some delegates. then we move back here. this is going to be the biggest battleground. watch the difference, with gingg rf in the race, if romney wins, he moves up to ballpark, 560. let's say santorum can upset. romney comes down a little bit. santorum comes up a little bit, but he's not closing the gap substantially. if you have a war of attrition that keeps going out, giving santorum louisiana, but gingrich is still in the race, this is more favorable to romney, let's for the sake of argument, say he keeps his midwest strength and wins wivlg whi s wisconsin, the pennsylvania, santorum's home state, i'll give santorum west virginia, indiana, santorum, north carolina. okay? romney campaign is arguing with me, i'm doing this for a hypothetical reason. santorum is closing the gap, but romney is still getting delegates, and if gingg rf is still in the race, he can't close the gap. if the senator things it's ungracious to say mr. speak

santorum down at 26. those numbers look a whole lot like the newest polling out of california. usc poll has romney up 19 points out there over santorum. 42-23. california votes in early june. fast forward to november to president obama with a 10-point lead over romney in a new suffolk poll of voters nationwide. obama at 47, romney at 37. that's a good lead for obama. we'll be right back. to your individual shape. wow! that feels really good. it's hugging my body. in less than a minute i can get more support. if you change your mind once you get home you can adjust it. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. at our semi-annual sleep sale, save $400 to $700 on our most popular bed sets. sale ends march 31st. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. >>> make no mistake, the hardball case this week is a political blockbuster that could shake up the american election. what would it mean for the president and his opponents if they decided this june, perhaps, that obamacare is simply unconstitutional. could obama

if i were rick santorum, i would put my head down, shut the hell up, talk about the economy and slug it through may. romney can keep doing what he's doing but it's going to be a big nasty mess. >> santorum today st. louis actually basically in front of a reagan statue in dixon, illinois, making the claim that he is the guy. he's the reagan conservative. he wants to take this through it the conservative races you're talking about and onto the convention. wendy, you have historical context here. >> this is the land of lincoln. abraham lincoln had his own problems. he didn't sail into the nomination. he had struggles. he said a house divided cannot stand. these are destructive politics. santorum has to decide if i don't get the nomination, what do i want in the. >> health and human services >> somebody, this is a party without elders. these are children without grown-up leadership. >> at the prom. >> you guys are fighting too much and you're destroying us. stop fighting. >> we're going to get right to that. enough of talking about the santorum candidacy. we are going to speak directly to

santorum down at 26. those numbers look a whole lot like the newest polling out of california. usc poll has romney up 19 points out there over santorum. 42-23. california votes in early june. fast forward to november to president obama with a 10-point lead over romney in a new suffolk poll of voters nationwide. obama at 47, romney at 37. that's a good lead for obama. we'll be right back. it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye-care experts at bausch + lomb. as you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. [ male announcer ] ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. now, that's a pill worth taking. [ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health. is moving backward. [ engine turns over, tires squeal ] introducing the lexus enform app suite -- available now on the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. see your lexus dealer. to those who say...ing back. [worker 1:] we need to produce our own energy. [announcer:] and, to those who say... [worke

i mean, just listen to how rick santorum breaks down global warming. >> the dangers of carbon dioxide, tell that to a plant how dangerous carbon dioxide is. >> stephen: yeah, yeah. tell that to a plant. like my house plant robert here. who for some reason is supporting obama. hey, hey, hey, bobby, do you want obama taking away carbon dioxide that you need for photo synthesist? everybody knows that before industry and cars earth had no vegetation. that's why factories are called plants. okay. read a book. they're made of you. [cheering and applause] stupid. stupid plant. of course, romney also knows how to make complex subjects simple. watch him punch holes in the president's so-called energy policy. >> look at his energy policy. what is his energy policy. you can't drive a car with a windmill on it. >> that's right. >> you can't drive a car with a windmill on it. because if you put a windmill on top of your car, then where does the dog go. [laughter and applause] but nobody but nobody is better at keeping it knowledge-free. than gingrich dprich. listen to newt describe one of obama's

santorum down in atlanta. what's his growth plan, john? ell, tyler, rick santorum's trying to grow his vote going into super tuesday. ten states are on the ballot. he lost two states to mitt romney the other day. i sat down with him here at the atlanta airport where he had a rally. he went after mitt romney saying he practices class warfare in his economic plan, but he also defended his own economic plan, which is to give a zero tax rate for manufacturers. i asked him about the comments from a republican comment that said this is a terrible idea because you can't define what's a manufacture. he said not at all. >> i think markets work. but you have to understand there are different competitive marketplaces out there. and manufacturing is unique in that we have to compete against direct international competition. so it's not like you're creating a level playing field for, you know, for the airline industry. yeah, they have to compete, but they have to compete under the same rules here if they want to fly here or not fly here. so everybody's

santorum. even bigger when you go down here to the under 30,000. look at that. santorum, 64%. romney tied with ron paul at 12%. the only area in which mitt romney won was in people who made $200,000 or more. and look at this. even in that area he has a substantial lead, but only 45% to 31%. that's simply not enough to overcome what santorum did in all the other categories, especially if you look at the state over here in terms of median income. i'm going to pull this out. the darker parishes here are the ones where people make more money. and here's the problem. even if mitt romney's winning there, look at the size of these. here's assumption parish. less than half a percent. this is the biggest one. 2.3% of the population. right next to it st. helena parish, less than .2%. you can find another big one. monroe, less than .3%. this is the reason we're able to make this projection, don, but not just this factor but many others. when you lk at the economy alone, you can see the numbers simply stack up very badly in one of the states with the lowest income in the country, you simp

down the road. it looks like this is shaping up as a two-man race. rick santorum, mitt romney. able to hopefully get a better sense of where we're going down the road. not only louisiana next weekend, but eventually in wisconsin, maryland. we've got big states. new york, california, texas. we've got a lot of states coming up. >> john king, this is as close to a two-man competition that rick santorum has been able to have. newt gingrich and ron paul not competitive in the state of illinois. >> so a big romney win would undermine the santorum argument say give me a one-on-one shot and i'll win. if he goes after

rick santorum's down at 4% of the vote, not a factor tonight. ain, rick santorum, the winner, sweeping alabama and mississippi tonight. joining me now, "washington post" political columnist dana mi millbank and salon.com writer steve pornacky. steve, tell us what this means. this was not the outcome people were looking for tonight. >> no. the interesting thing is we can look at these results, and we say obviously it's moment us for santorum that he wins both of these, but imagine if newt gingrich hadn't been in this race tonight. not only would santorum have won these two states, he would have won them in runaways. i think now you're going to have obviously an enormous amount of pressure from the santorum campaign on newt gingrich to get out. i think that pressure's going to extend to conservative leaders. and i think that's going to sort of rub off on republican voters from this point forward. i think even if newt doesn't get out of the race in response to these results tonight, i think his standing in subsequent states is going to drop markedly

population here, maybe slight edge santorum. down the population center in this district is here for gingrich, here for romney. have to count the votes. that looks like a competitive district, and this district on the top northeast corner of the state looks pretty much like a safe santorum dwiblth for me. again, the argument from santorum is i just won two southern states. where are you, speaker gingrich? you were supposed to be the southern candidate. where are you romney? the flipside, let me flip the map, is this was the contest coming into the night. this is where we were coming into the night. the race for 1,144. romney had a big lead. what happens tonight? something like this, santorum wins both of these, i'm assuming, we're going give for this hypothetical, romney hawaii. even though santorum wins two states, romney is still comfortably ahead. the argument for santorum is i'll see you in puerta rico, and everywhere else. >> he was outspend by the pro mitt romney super pac and others. a huge, huge night for rick santorum. >> no

, who is going to be potential your nominee, he's having to spend time pivoting back to taking santorum downlook, mitt romney has been underestimated throughout this thing. if there's one attribute he has, it's going negative effectively. he's had five different competitors who were supposed to be the alternative and each time he's come at them hard and negative. oh, he sounds awkward or uncomfortable, guess what? he doesn't sound as uncomfort able the person with the pile of negative advertising who keeps getting crushed. >> let's bring in ken blackwell for family empowerment at the family research institute. good morning. >> good morning, always good to be with you. >> i think you probably heard mitt romney say he's the far right economic conservative. do you buy that? >> well, look, here is the challenge, what voters are looking for are a solid, well-rounded portfolio conservative, and each of the candidates have their own individual weaknesses or soft areas. so what they are trying to do is harden up the soft areas right now. romney's challenge is to distance himself from a big governmen

bill: with rick santorum down there he argues if you get gingrich out it becomes a two-man race and theneen these two men. i don't know what santorum's strength is down there, but does he have that kind of support you're seeing in alabama? >> santorum is a very socially conservative candidate, and i think he has a lot of support in alabama simply because he's very conservative on social issues. bill: with the republican race overall then, do you think it's good or bad that this contest lingers? >> i think it's good. i think it's good for all candidates, even though it makes it very difficult on the ones who are in the race, it really strengthens the candidate. if they can get through a very difficult primary, which they are doing at the present time it will make them stronger candidates. bill: if that's the case then how much longer do you think it's okay to go, is it april, may or august? >> we go through this almost every four years, and, you know, people last time were asking the candidates to get out and, you know, i think having a long primary is fine. i know that -- it tough ens th

romney, campaigning in tupelo, mississippi he responded to claims about the romney camp that santorum can't nail down the delegates he needs during the remaining primaries. >> establishment is trying to force a moderate republican from massachusetts down the throats of the american people, and if we have to go to a convention, we'll win the convention. i have no doubt about that. >> reporter: romney, who has no events scheduled today, has more than twice the delegates santorum has at this point in the race. for gingrich, who won south carolina and his home state of georgia, the two upcoming southern primaries could be crucial, and gingrich turned his fire on mitt romney. >> yes, he's the front-runner. he's not a strong front runner. i think after the last primary in june, likely to see a 60-day conversation about what's going to happen as we are to see romney dominating. >> reporter: he says romney is the weakest front-runner in a republican primary -- >>> we are tracking gas prices. d.c. is just pennies away from four dollars at $3.96 a gallon on average. the average price is $3.77 a gallon in maryl

speaking to supporters in texas today, santorum doubled down in his attacks against romney. suggesting republicans might be better off with president obama. >> you one by giving people a choice. you win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who is just going to be a little different than the person in there. if they're going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have, instead of taking a risk of what may be the etch a sketch candidate for the future. >> in a statement, romney responded, quote, i was disappointed to hear that rick santorum would rather have barack obama as president than a republican. this election is more important than any one person. it is about the future of america. any of the republicans running would be better than president obama and his record of failure, unquote. newt gingrich also weighed in on santorum's remarks. >> i may have very substantial disagreements with governor romney. there is no doubt in my mind, that if the choice was governor romney or barack obama, we would hav

santorum down.he possibility heads we end super tuesday with romney above 400 and no one else even close to 200. that is the big strategy. they hope to come out and be far from the finish but they think ahead of everybody else. >> john, thanks very much. >>> now the raw politics with pollster cornell belcher and gloria borger. cornell, john mentioned ohio. not the most delegates in terms of a bellweather how critical for mitt romney to pull off a win there? >> i think he needs to pull off a win there and big. the problem is he's not able to pull off a big win in any of the states looking inside the cnn polling. you know, the same sort of story seeing state is also in ohio where he is doing better with upscale voters. santorum better with blue collar voters and with evangelical and very conservative voters. which makes you understand why, you know, the mitt romney campaign won't allow an ounce or inch of light between santorum or gingrich in the issues because it opens them up to a contrast, a conser

down. >> as the primary vote comes in, romney agrees with santorum on the freedom thing. >> i'm wondering where you suggest that the millions of women who receive their health services such as mammograms, the h.p.v. vaccines go? >> they can go wherever they'd like to go. this is a free society. >> here is the dumbest idea from newt gingrich. we ought to debate on pay per view and charge $10 and it should go to a charity of choice. >> yeah, maybe lincoln will coffer the primary in his land. and the republicans hell bent to phase out medicare and fed cade in their new budget for mini america. >> the penalty's budget is putting us on a path of a debt crisis, of decline, and these are the deficits that are in store for america if we stay with the status quo. >> including the debt limits deal the republicans agreed to last year on which they are now reneging. >> people have limits on credit cards. that doesn't mean that you're required to spend up to the limit. >> the killing of treyvon martin by a was want to be cop. >> are you following him? >> yes. >> ok, we don't need you to i had that. >>

more than that, it was a mitt romney kind of place and then rick santorum went down there that did notelp him down there. so i think that we would be surprised if mitt romney did not win in purt roek key. >> og okay. go going into tuesday, by the way, we should have results somewhere in that 4:00 either hour. you'll join us. >> hopefully, yeah. >> hopefully once those polls close at 4:00. so then most candidates might want the result of one race to bett better poise them than he would have in puerto rico. >> well, you know, maybe. listen, this is a fairly sizeable contingent evangelical voters but i think the state is looking better for mitt romney. we look back at the exit polls from the last primary with john mccain and found that something like 46% of republican voters in that primary identified themselves as evangelicals. what was interesting to me was that more voted for mitt romney and john mccain, who are not considered favorite of christian conservatives than did mike huckabee running at the time and was the favorite of the christian conservative. so it might be a different kin

. >>> rick santorum is down playing his seconds place finish in illinois.s focusing instead on saturday's primary in louisiana where the latest poll numbers show him holding a 13 point advantage over romney. on april 3rd voters here in d. c. maryland and in wisconsin will go to the polls. now it is a big gap from there to april 24th when five states including new york and pennsylvania will hold their primary. >>> talk about one for the ages. today some of the country's top political leaders honored u. s. senator barbara mikulski for being the longest serving woman ever in congress. she was first elected to the house of representatives in 1975, the senate in 1986. the 75-year-old broke the record for the longest serving woman in congress last weekend when she bypassed he death rogers of massachusetts kudos to her. >>> we hit 70 today despite the clouds. we have more fog developing. here's your wake up weather. temperatures mild though still in the 50s at ash and 7:00. we'll talk about warmer air and increased chance of thunderstorms. >>> still ahead 9 wants

. >> rick santorum doubles down afterraising some eyebrows when he tells puerto rico, if you want to become a state, you have to speak english. >>> hbo is cancelling luck after a third horse has died during filming. what is going on? join our conversation on twitter. i'm walt gale, i worked at the colorado springs mail processing plant for 22 years. we processed on a given day about a million pieces of mail. checks, newspapers, bills. a lot of people get their medications only through the mail. small businesses depend on this processing plant. they want to shut down 3000 post offices, cut 100,000 jobs. they're gonna be putting people out of work everywhere. the american people depend on the postal service. then don't get nickle and dimed by high cost investments and annoying account fees. at e-trade, our free easy-to-use online tools and experienced retirement specialists can help you build a personalized plan. and with our no annual fee iras and a wide range of low cost investments, you can execute the plan you want at a low cost. so meet with us, or go to etrade.com for a great ret

brings me to santorum, is there any way for santorum or gingrich to close the gap tonight? it's downe math but the way it looks right now. >> at best i could envision a scenario santorum doing a little bit better, if he could net a few more delegates and close the gap a little bit. but i tell you, if romney does as well in hawaii as he has been doing in the other non-contiguous territories and states and areas, virgin eisla s islands, guam, romney could end up with the most delegates, he could lose two states and have the most delegates at the finishes second in both. we talked about mitt romney must win a southern state, there is truth to that. rick santorum has to beat romney somewhere not in the south, right? he has to beat him somewhere in a primary where there is not a dominating evangelical base, he has to beat him in illinois in order to keep this viable and going. >> i want your take on this, where does the gingrich camp go from here tonight if they are 0-for-2? >> what it's 0-for-2, third place in both, a trickle of delegates. it's the glen gary, glen ross rule in alabama. f

santorum believe he is not going to win in illinois? >> bill, they do seem to believe that they are going to lose illinois. his chief strategist was down here a few minutes ago talking about essentially comparing how they feel like santorum is running better in key battleground states against president obama compared to mitt romney saying that romney is winning in places that he will not win in the general election. and so clearly coming home to pennsylvania to try to pivot from illinois to try to get back on their message in the past week or so we have seen rick santorum get bogged down talking about whether english should be the official language in puerto rico there was a snippet of him saying "i don't care about the unemployment rate. they want to get back on message which is freed. see the banner behind me. president from illinois gave a big speech here, gettysburg address which was all about freedom. this is about shoring up his home state. he obviously have a packed house in his home state. pivot from illinois and saying there is a long race ahead, bill. >> bill: i want to be very clear, mike. the santorum people are not putting