and the people of michigan looked into the hearts of the candidates, and all i have to say is, i love you back. >> moving ahead to super tuesday, the big kahuna one week from tonight and could change the race completely. with ten states voting, 416 delegates at stake. i'm back now with our cnn stellar a-team. led by the king himself, wolf blitzer, john king and gloria borger. welcome to you all. >> thank you. >> i've been watching, as always, the brilliant coverage all night, and my sort of gut feeling is -- i know a win's a win. mitt romney won arizona. we expected that. and he did sneak through to michigan. but to win only by 3% in your home state when rick santorum was outspent, what, five or six to one, it's bringing it's not exactly a ringing endorsement. >> as you know, and who knows better than you do, piers, in any kind of soccer or football match or baseball, a win is a win. you can't deny that he did win. it was only a week or ten days or so ago that santorum was ahead in michigan. i don't think that last debate necessarily helped rick santorum. mitt romney did come back and he did win. we'll see how that delegate split breaks down in michigan. for now, look, it's a big sigh of relief for him. he can go forward with some momentum to super tuesday. winning in arizona, michigan, he'll probably win in wyoming tomorrow and we'll see what happens a week from today. >> john king, talk me through -- >> go ahead. >> i was going to say, walk me through super tuesday and what we can confidently expect to happen. there are only ten states this time up for grabs. it's normally 16. it's a smaller super tuesday than normal. what do you think with your brain power for this kind of thing, what can we confidently predict? >> nothing. the one lesson we have learned is that we should confidently not predict anything because of the volatility and that's the fascinating drama. you mentioned, it's a small win for mitt romney in michigan, no question about it. consider the alternative. had he lost, there would be a trap door under the romney candidacy. he goes forward with some momentum. we will debate how much momen m momentum, but he has momentum. his other home state of massachusetts votes, vermont votes, put those in the romney column. virginia, only romney and ron paul are on the ballot. so let's assume a mitt romney win in michigan. that gives him three of the ten. >> virginia. >> virginia. newt gingrich should win in georgia. that's his home state. the biggest battle ground is ohio. ohio next week is the michigan of tonight. right in the industrial heartland. the economy, by far, is issue number one. then we'll fight it out in tennessee. santorum had the edge coming into tennessee. let's check the polling in 48 hours. oklahoma, the other big state they will all fight for. other states out in the west. ron paul might get one, mitt romney might get one. but the big battlegrounds will be ohio, tennessee, oklahoma and then the question mavg, whether with gingrich can come back for a fourth or fifth life whatever the count is now, by winning his home state of georgia. >> gloria, it seems to me there were three damaging hits on rick santorum. he went from this great position, he had a bad debate, i thought. he was very weak that night. secondly, this ridiculous statement that president kennedy made him puke. i mean, come on, that seems to be bad politics. >> i they he said throwup. >> we call it puke in britain. excretion of vomit. president jfk. i mean, come on. and then the last thing i really thought 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 capital he would get from such a state. >> well, look, it's clear what he was going for. he was going for some of the voters that he actually got, which are the most conservative voters, the evangelical voters. what he did in the process was turn off a lot of women voters. mitt romney won with women. he turned off some catholic voters who happen to like jfk. and he didn't do himself any favors with the republican favor at large who started worrying about his electability as a presidential candidate. you know, he had a very good populous economic message, but it kind of got overtaken by this emphasis on the cultural issues and the social issues. you know, i had one republican strategist say to me, the problem with rick santorum was, he kept going down these rabbit holes, instead of talking about his economic message. and that only served really to help mitt romney. and i think what we saw tonight is that he's trying to dig his way out of it and get back on his economic message, particularly as he tries to win the all important state of ohio on super tuesday. >> you know, wolf, where does president obama sit tonight, do you think? is he going to be vaguely disappointed that mitt romney didn't get beat in michigan? would that have been a good thing for the president? >> it probably would have been but they assumed from day one that mitt romney is going to be the republican presidential nominee. that's why they've been going after him almost exclusively, in all the democratic campaign commercials and their statements. they are are most worried about mitt romney. they didn't think newt gingrich or ron paul or anyone for that matter had much of a chance. they assume it's going to be a fight that mitt romney will be the nominee. they want to do whatever they can to weaken him as much as possible. they are getting ready for a tough fight and i can assure you and all of our viewers out there, piers, that no one in the barack obama campaign or at the white house or democrats are just sort of saying, you know, this is going to be a cake walk. this is going to be tough. this general election, assuming it will be mitt romney, we don't know it will be, it's going to be bitter, it's going to be fierce, it's going to be ugly. and all of the acrimony we've seen so far is child's play compared to what is about to take place in a general election campaign. i can assure you it's going to get very, very nasty. >> finally, john, if we work on the assumption this is virtually a two-horse race, or that newt gingrich would dispute that, where would you see newt gingrich's or ron paul's if he pulled out, it's unlikely that he might. if other of those pulled out, where would those votes go? >> ron paul isn't going anywhere. the gingrich question is a fascinating question. if rick santorum had won michigan tonight, it you'd hear the argument let's rally around one conservative. this will be a conversation we might be having at this time next week. newt gingrich has won georgia. the question is, can he win on super tuesday? if you look at the calendar down the road, you have mississippi, alabama, arkansas, louisiana. then you move into texas. these are the southern states. the bedrock of the republican party. if you have gingrich and santorum stay in, romney wins the delegates proportionately. and hanging in the race and winning. if one of them drops out, you have a different contest. newt gingrich has a lot to prove next tuesday, winning georgia alone likely not enough. does that mean he'll get out? maybe not. he says he wants to stay in to win, but he understands the math here. you have to win with, not own 8 at home, you have to prove you can win other places. essentially the gingrich challenge is different than the romney challenge. prove can you win outside of a place that's your backyard. >> piers, i think that's a huge challenge for mitt romney. he just can't give up on the south. he's got to prove he's a candidate with some breath and that means not only winning in the midwest, but winning in the south, which is very, very strong for republicans. he's got to prove that on super tuesday somewhere. >> fascinating stuff. another great night's coverage. thank you, wolf, john, gloria, much appreciated, as always. >> thank you. >> mitt romney picked up 29 delegates in arizona. jan brewer is a conservative governor of that state. she endorsed romney a few days ago, she joins me now. governor, welcome. >> thank you, piers, it's nice to be with you. >> it's my pleasure. how are you feeling tonight? it's not a thumping victory. it's not the kind of devastating onslaught that you would imagine would lead to a sensation of the race. so how are you feeling overall about it? >> well, i'm feeling like it was a big win in arizona and we're just really pleased that the people rallied around the man that we believed can move forward and beat president obama. >> i mean, look, he did well in arizona but not with much opposition. the others didn't try that hard. and in michigan it's been a pretty close race given it's his own state. what is the fundamental problem with mitt romney not being able to end this race, do you think? what would you be advising him to do? >> well, i think the bottom line is that he's leading in the race. he's -- you know, elections are long and hard. and sometimes they take a lot longer than what you think they should. but the bottom line is, it's no different than what happened in 2008 and we'll just keep moving on. i think as people see the difference in the candidates, that they will rally around mitt romney and they will understand that he's the man for the position at the right time in america when we are so in so desperate need for leadership. piers, our country is upside down and has not gotten any better. we've heard lots of promises the last election that haven't been delivered and now we need a change. i'm hoping that it's going to be my man, mitt romney. >> if your man mitt does win the nomination, he takes on barack obama. we've already seen you in spectacular fashion on the tarmac jabbing him in the chest and threatening all sorts of things. is that what you want to see from mitt romney when the battle starts? >> now, piers, you don't know what i was saying. the president knew what i was saying but you weren't there. i was not threatening him. i was talking to him and he was a little bit taken -- he took offense to the book that i wrote, which is a truth-telling book, by the way. i went there with a happy heart to welcome him to arizona and to tell him about the arizona turn around which i'm so very proud of, of what we've been able to accomplish here in arizona. you know, growing our unemployment and growing our job growth and everything that we've done with education has been marvelous and i asked him when he came down off the plane, i said, i welcomed him to arizona and i said to him, i would like the opportunity if we could to sit down and talk about the good things that we've done here and he said that the last time we sat down i went out and told the press that it was cordial and i wrote in my book -- he didn't like the way i portrayed him. i indicated it was a truth-telling book, and he walked away from me. and i said, does you read my book? and he said, excerpts. the book is truthful. i was a little bit unnerved. i think he was a little bit thin skinned but he did help the economy. the book sales went up. so i'm grateful for that. >> just to be serious, if mitt romney does win and is the nominee and he gets to take on barack obama, should he be making some kind of advantage of the apparent thin skinned you've identified? >> oh, no. i don't think that would be nice. i don't think that it would be the right thing to do unless he exhibited thin skin. you know, you have to call them like you see them. you have to be a truth teller. >> well, i had to laugh when you said that mitt romney wouldn't play on this apparent vulnerability because it wouldn't be nice. mitt romney has done some of the most vicious, far from nice commercials we've ever seen in politics. so he's got it in him, doesn't he, to really stick the knife in? >> well, you know, i will be honest with you. i don't know if any of those, whatever commercials you're talking about have been played with. it would be hard for me to make some kind of judgment in that regard. but certainly, if you're thin-skinned, you're thin-skinned, but if somebody asks you about it, you're going to talk about, but to play on it? i don't think so. >> well, i suspect so. governor brewer, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you, piers. >> with michigan and arizona decided tonight, the next stop is super tuesday. ohio is a key state. joining me now is mike dewine, supporting mitt romney. and a few weeks ago he switched to rick santorum. welcome, mr. dewine, why did you switch? >> well, you know, i originally bought into the conventional wisdom that governor romney was the strongest candidate against barack obama. but we have elections and primaries and caucuses for a reason and it's become abundantly clear that he's not going to be the strongest candidate against barack obama. i think santorum is. what i'm seeing on the ground here in ohio is a great deal of enthusiasm for rick santorum and very little enthusiasm for governor romney. >> given that mitt romney has won both in arizona and michigan tonight, do you feel like the guy who put everything on red in vegas and came up black? >> well, i don't think governor romney can be very happy with his performance in michigan. this is his home state four years ago. he did very, very well there, overwhelming victory. he's eeking out a victory tonight after spending a massive amount of money to defend his home state. so i think it shows, quite candidly, the inherent weakness of governor romney. and when he gets to ohio, he's not going to have this home state advantage. and i think rick santorum is going to carry ohio. >> i suppose a problem for rick santorum is the infrastructure that he has and the financial firepower, he's dwarfed by mitt romney's battle group, if you'd like. what are you going to do about that? >> there's a great deal of enthusiasm. what i'm seeing is, people just like santorum. i started hearing this a few months ago when people would come up to me and say, they didn't really know him, but they would come up to me and say, hey, that santorum guy, i watched him on tv, i watched him on debate. i think he's telling me the truth. i think he's honest. i think he's straightforward. i like him. that's what i'm hearing all over the state of ohio. so romney's clearly going to come in with the big guns. he's already on tv. but i think in ohio santorum is going to win. >> did president kennedy's speech about the separation of church and state make you want to throw up and do you think it's snobbish for the president of the united states to want people to go to college? >> well, i think senator santorum is explaining what he meant. let's take the colleges. i think that what he has said is the same thing that you would agree with and almost every american would agree with. we want our children to live up to their greatest potential. my wife and i have eight children. they are all different. we want them to do the best that they can. that may mean college for some children. some kids it may mean going to an art school. it may mean doing things with their hands and any number of ways. i think that's what rick is saying. it was kind of misconstrued. it wasn't the anti-education. here's a guy that certainly has a lot of education as does his wife karen. so i don't think that was it. you know, as far as the whole question of church and state, i think rick's position is pretty simple and that is, when somebody walks into their office, it's the oval office, or senate office or mayor's office, they don't leave behind their beliefs. they don't leave behind their morals, their ethics, their religious beliefs. and their public positions are informed by what those beliefs are. i don't think that's a revolutionary thought. and i think that most americans would agree with that. i think governor romney's campaign, frankly, at least so far has been kind of stuck at -- can't really break much beyond 40% in any state despite how much money he spends. >> mike dewine, if we can turn to the terrible shooting in your state at chardon high school, obviously more and more details are emerging about this. are you any clearer about what the motive may have been for this senseless killing? >> it's not clear at all what the motive is, what the motive was. i think it will come out slowly as the interviews continue with people who were close to the assailant, family members and others. and i think over time we may be able to piece something together. as of now i don't really -- can't tell anything really about the motive. you know, there was no real red flags that were going up to people. as people we talked to yesterday, you know, people weren't saying, oh, i knew this was going to happen. at least we haven't found people like that yet. >> mike dewine, thank you very much. >> thank you. when we come back, can mitt romney wrap up the nomination on super tuesday. will it be nult gingrich's last stand? ♪ ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network. but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. 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[whoosh, clang] you need lifelock, the only identity theft protection company that now monitors bank accounts for takeover fraud. lifelock: relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today. welcome to new nutritionpossible.com... from centrum. its unique assessment tool... helps you find the multivitamin and supplements... that are right for you. so visit nutritionpossible.com. better nutrition... is within reach. centrum. nutrition possible. it's clear that governor romney can raise more money because he can go to wall street and get more money from the people that got bailouts from the taxpayers. so in effect your money is coming back to you in the form of negative ads. i can't match that. but what i can do is match it with people. >> newt gingrich taking a shot at mitt romney over money. he says he's banking on super tuesday. kevin dewine is the chairman of that state's party and joins me now. i spoke to your colleague earlier who obviously defected. what do you think of that defection? is there a family rift about it? >> no. not at all, piers. in ohio, there's two dewines, one the attorney general, mike, does an outstanding job of taking care of the taxpayers of the state. he has endorsed senator santorum. my job is to make sure that we beat barack obama in the fall and let voters choose the nominee next week. no family rift at all. >> ohio is going to be crucial here on super tuesday. what is your sense about the way it's going? >> well, i think ohio is going to be a lot like we saw with michigan over the course of the last week. and i would suggest to your viewers that they just throw out any poll they have seen so far. any poll that they have looked at so far, before thursday or friday is probably worthless. have you the gingrich super pac is making a buy. romney's folks -- tv folks are up. santorum's up, santorum cease doing mail. there's a lot campaigning that's going to be unfurled on to the ohio gop family over the course of the next five or six days. so no telling what this thing's going to look like come next tuesday night. >> i mean, if you're rick santorum tonight, how disappointed would you really be? let me bring in rick allen here. yes, mitt romney won. but to scrape through in your own home state, when you've outspent your main opponent 5-1, rick santorum had a bit of a rough week. you've got to still be feeling reasonably confident that despite all that you're still really very close to beating him. >> oh, you're absolutely right. rick santorum essentially declared victory. tonight he even jumped out and spoke ahead of mitt romney. we're told from the romney folks that they weren't watching tv. he was with family and friends. they were kibitsing. rick santorum called to concede before it had been announced and before cnn and other networks had called it. he jumped out and spoke. and a story you'll see unfold in the next couple of hours, he may get as many delegates as mitt romney. they are split up by congressional districts. the math is still being done but the split in delegates may be even closer than the actual vote. >> how damaging do you think the triple whammy as i put it earlier, was to rick santorum's chances of winning in michigan? do people there care about his snob remark about the attack on president kennedy's speech about his poor debate? do those things really matter on the ground in places like michigan? >> they absolutely do. he was off his message. he looked like a winner. he looked like he had momentum. mitt romney all of a sudden got worried about michigan when he was down eight, nine points. they poured resources, poured money, time into michigan, which they didn't want to have to do, to come up with this, as you call it, scrape. but to answer the question that you asked on the bridge, can he close the deal on super tuesday? no. mitt romney's not getting a momentum effect out of these wins. and i can tell you the campaign is very frustrated and worried about it. they feel like the goal posts keep getting moved. they feel like they can't get on top of the story to have a clear win, and looking ahead to super tuesday, our reporters think it could kind of split. there's ten, twelve contests there that you just showed on the map. santorum and gingrich could win several of those. the romney campaign recognizes this could go on six weeks at least. >> all of that is palpably true, how damaging is this to the republican chances against barack obama if he just continues and continues and continues as he could given the geography all of this? this time around with, only ten states on super tuesday. how damaging is a prolonged race or could it be like the democrat race four years ago where actually it ends up being quite helpful? >> well, i think it could be helpful but there is a lot of the gop faithful that are ready for this to be over and ready to train their resources, and train on the target, and had a is defeating barack obama. when you you look at the president's record, 22 and a half million americans who are unemployed or underemployed. we've sent to washington 42 cents of dollars that we make is spent on a future that a generation has to pay. we're anxious to have the fight with the president, we're anxious to be able to carry that message to ohio voters. who candidly, piers, they're not happy with the president. he's got a 40% approval rating in the state. and republicans in the state don't believe he has a second term. we're kind of anxious to get to the real game and get this primary over and get to holding the president to task for the policies that he's put on the buckeye state and this great country. >> yeah, there's no indication -- >> after you, mike. >> i was going to say, there's no indication that this is helpful and, in fact, none of these other candidates show any indication of getting out. i agree with john king, who said earlier, ron paul will carry it all the way. i think newt gingrich might get out, if he loses his home state georgia on super tuesday. if he looks like a deadender, if he looks like he's helping barack obama by staying in, i can see him getting out. he's rehabilitated his image, he'll be a popular speaker, author, he doesn't want to have a bad end. but rick santorum, i can tell you this, is staffing up. he's not gearing down. he's looking ahead to a national campaign. that's why you heard him talking to reagan democrats in this race. he says to beat obama in the fall you need to get back those reagan democrats, catholics, blue collar workers. he's already looking at a national message. >> yep. and you can't blame him. mike ail ing, kevin dewine, thank you both very much. >> good night. >> you bet. when we come back, my super panel weighs in on what conservatives want from the gop. now my favorite part of any primary night when i bring in my super panel. conservative blogger and author of "new reagan beginning." welcome to you all. as bright and sparky as you were three hours earlier when we did this, so congratulations. you've got this smart image for me. >> cleaned up and got my hair into arrow dynamic passion for you. >> you're an hour early. >> let me start with you. fascinating night. i think it's a stretch for romney to say, i am the champion. this was an amazing night. it wasn't, was it? >> you may remember, newt did that once. and look where newt is now. when you do that it usually doesn't help you when you stand up and act like that. he won by 3%. he should have won going away. he did not do that. >> how much was rick santorum to blame for his not winning? i gave him a bit of a hammering earlier, perhaps a little unfairly, he had a poor debate. people didn't like the attack on kennedy's speech even though he clarified it later and sort of backtracked. the triple whammy wasn't helpful, was it? >> i would argue that he missed an opportunity -- newt gingrich is the candidate, who during his flurry there a while back was attacking the mainstream media. this week they came out to try to frame him just as herman cain was known as the 9-9-9 candidate, they made santorum the 6-6-6 candidate, the guy that is worried about satan and all that type of stuff. he could have used this moment to pivot to the religious liberties in this country. and where many conservatives feel barack obama is attacking the concept of the separation of church and state. but unfortunately he played instead to the form. >> amy holmes, is he positioning himself as the real conservative here. if you're going to do that, you're going to pound away on a clear, coherent message, don't you? >> i think you are going to do need to do that. arizona in particular, those voters who thought that the economy was the number one issue and a percentage that was by far the largest, they went for mitt romney. i think that rick santorum getting pulled off message with the social issues that it did muddy his appeal to those michigan voters. do remember that polls showed that mitt romney or santorum, rather, was up nine points. just over a week ago. mitt romney had to make up those points and he added another three. so he came from behind, got that twelve point close. i don't think it's -- obviously it's not a ringing victory this evening but it's no small thing. >> carol, michigan is a huge car industry place and a big debate raging. you and i debated about this the other night. i assume you now came around to my way of thinking. have you changed your mind? >> i have not changed my mind, piers. have you changed your mind? >> i have not. let me ask you one question, i'm fascinated by this. those that argue that it should have been some sort of managed -- >> bankruptcy. >> -- way of saving, it wasn't a bail jut. yeah, managed bankruptcy. they can't produce any evidence that there was any private equity available to do that. and if you didn't have that, then you can't do a managed bankruptcy. so are you in possession of information that i'm not in possession of? >> well, look, if you think about what being bankrupt is, it's not going out of business. it's going through a process, which these companies ultimately did. right now american airlines is in bankruptcy. just because you go through a bankruptcy does not mean that you are out of business. i do not know all the private equity firms, but we have some empirical efrtds that there are other companies that have gone through this. and i don't think, piers, that you want the government to be a hedge fund, which is what happened here. they ended up putting taxpayers' money not only into the debt but ended up investing in the stock of the company and "the wall street journal" basically said, you know what, from the $30 billion we invested in the stock, the stock needs to get to 53 for the shareholders to break even. so we don't know if that's going to happen. >> hang on. imagine mitt romney wins ohio and he has to fight against barack obama. is it sustainable to keep this position going, the whole bailout was a total failure, when by then, i suspect tens of thousands more people will have got jobs in the auto industry? and the general chatter about it will be, it's been a success. it's not a winning proposition for any candidate in a presidential election, is it? >> it's not a success. we don't know what the outcome is because we don't know how much the taxpayers are going to end up losing on this, piers. and i think that's the challenge here. we don't have the empirical evidence to know what is going to happen. what we do know that has happened is that the government has taken the money and put it into the stock market. they are basically gambling with the taxpayer's money. they are not creating wealth. they are transferring wealth. i think that's the mind set that mitt romney needs to go after. is that we have a government that likes to shift wealth from one place to the other. they want to have one pie and slice it up in different ways, instead of growing the pie or teaching everybody to make pie. i think that's the way mitt romney needs to go. >> piers, if i could just talk about the politics of it, mitt romney did write an op ed in the michigan newspaper there saying why he opposed the auto bailout. it was a risky move. it was a gamble and tonight he won michigan. so we can see at least in the primary politics mitt romney took this chance and michigan voters still gave him the gop primary. whether or not it will work in the general, i have no idea. but it worked tonight. okay. let's take a break. let's come back and talk about super tuesday. or could it be fatal tuesday for one of the candidates? 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[ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health. mitt romney has super pacs. i have a super panel. amy holmes, carol roth, michael breitba breitbart. welcome to you all. newt gingrich has been pretty quiet, didn't really compete in arizona and michigan. we've written him off so many times. >> the professor always has a way back in. it seems to be through the south. georgia is as important to him as michigan was to mitt romney tonight. >> would it be enough even if he wins in georgia? >> newt will think it's enough but he should try to win one or two more. there's a lot of states up for grabs that night. at least he has an area that he can say, i can win there. super tuesday is going to be a make or break for someone. >> it might be, andrew, or it might just be a real mish-mash where they all pick up victories. no one has moved forward. maybe romney wins the most, but everybody has little victories. they are all making victory speeches and we end up after super tuesday thinking, well, that was a waste of time. >> we'll save the big victory if that happens just as this week as barack obama who allows for the republican party to be fighting each other, what i find interesting about next week, there is the possibility of a brokered convention based upon what we're finding. >> is there a real possibility? >> well, now, in real clear politics, it's up to 20%. when it was in single digits before. it will be interesting to see how they interpret tonight's numbers and look at the polls for next week. because if there is a genuine sense that mitt romney can't close the deal people are going to start getting nervous. >> and if you have santorum not splitting it down with mitt romney. >> so many could possibly do that no, he's not going to do it. jeb bush is not sure if he has anything in common with the republican party anymore. in terms of a brokered convention, so much can happen between now and then. and i think that's so down the road, it's not even worth making predictions. but as far as super tuesday goes, of course a lot of eyes are going to be on ohio. ohio being a swing state, it's a state that was red, it's blue for barack obama. this is going to be a real testing ground for the republicans in the gop primary, the contenders to see -- between santorum and romney are considered the front-runners, which one of those two are going to be able to take ohio. >> carol, a ticket of romney and santorum would be interesting wouldn't it? it could be a formidable act. >> i don't know, that doesn't sound very good to me. i think jeremy lin of the knicks would be the obvious choice for momentum. anyone to harvard. but chris christie and marco rubio are the front-runners. santorum is not a good idea in any way, shape, or form. >> michael, you're jumping in here. >> i've been down this road more than anybody else in the building. nobody ever votes for the vice president of the united states, they vote for the top of the ticket every single time. everyone comes up and says i'll take this person, take that person, put that person out there. no. who's at the top of the ticket. that's what drives it. >> but sarah palin changed everything in the last election cycle. there was a morabund campaign, and when mccain picked somebody that was -- i just don't think there is anybody that could be that magical person. >> i know sarah palin. she's a friend of mine. >> conversely, isn't she really the reason why nobody won't be jumping in, because the problem, she came out of know where then all of the vetting started and the media scrutiny and by the time they -- >> what media scrutiny? >> well, there was enough to cause -- >> but you don't choose a vice president that gets more media attention than you do. you're at the top of the ticket. >> you also don't chose somebody who hasn't been thoroughly vetted for a while by the media. >> one of the other hundred people that he in fact asked should not have turned him down. there should have been more available. >> i'm going to put you on the spot now. i want to have one name for who you think will be the nominee. michael? >> who? >> yes. >> most likely mitt romney. >> mitt romney. >> amy? >> oh, 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! 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"i'm with scottrade." ♪ [music] will be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. romney won tonight but he's still struggling because of the comment about his extreme wealth. romney's former debate coach, welcome, mr. o'donnell. why did you and romney part ways? by popular consensus, you got him back on track? >> well, i'm not going to comment on the details on what happened with the romney campaign but i was very honored to be able to work with him. and, you know, sometimes the role of advisers is way overblown. at the end of the day it's the candidates that have to go out there and perform, do the debates, do the speech. i think mitt romney has proved he's more than capable in debates. he had a great debate last week against rick and newt and ron paul and i think he's proved that is why he is the victor this evening. he won that debate and the florida debates. those have propelled him to victory. six in ten voters said the debate mattered to them in making their mind up. >> these debates have been making up lots of voters minds as we go. but it wasn't a massive victory for mitt romney, even in michigan, his own state. why is he struggling to submit this front-runner position? >> this race has been all about momentum and a lag between some of the contests that you saw rick santorum won four states before these two contests and he wasn't able to sustain that moment momentum. in fact, if you look at this evening in context, really arizona has been discounted but mitt romney won 29 delegates there. by the end of the evening, he will have won 45 of the delegates that were at stake this evening. and he made a pretty amazing comeback in misch mirks by turning a race that he he was nine or ten points down about a week and a half ago into a three victory. so i don't think that that's anything to underestimate. whether or not that momentum will carry into next week remains to be seen but he's in a better position now. the more and more he keeps winning, the more inevitable his candidacy and nomination will become and i think that will sustain him over the long haul. i mean, your panel proved it, really 37 >> yeah. knowing mitt romney as you do, what is it he's struggling to get out there about his character, his personality, that perhaps he isn't selling well enough yet? >> well, i think it's the personal side. i mean, i think that governor romney, when he talks about the economy, there is no doubt, there's no one in the race that i think is better able to handle the economy. andty think that he has convinced a lot of voters that. if you look at the race the way the exit polls broke down this evening, he certainly was winning on the economy. but in terms of the personal side, i think he's got to do more to just show voters and have a conversation with them about who he is and i think he's been doing that over the last week and doing a better job at it. i think that sometimes is he definitely talking too much and parsing words a little too much and when he starts telling stories about himself, i think it's a lot better. >> well, i hope he comes on this show and tells some stories to me. thank you very much, mr. o'donnell. >> thanks. we'll be right back. 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