boehner. romney and boehner, only on "fox news sunday." plus, with south carolina now in the rearview mirror and florida coming fast, how much longer will the republicans battle it out? we'll ask our sunday panel to break down the gop contest. and after the wildest week yet, we will bring you the remarkable ups and downs on the trail. all right now on "fox news sunday." and hello again from fox news in washington. a week of dramatic swings in south carolina has scrambled the republican race for president. here are the final results of the primary. newt gingrich scored a big victory winning 40% of the vote. mitt romney was a distant second at 28%. rick santorum finished third with 17%. and ron paul was last. we'll have an exclusive interview with governor romney in a moment. first, for more on the results and reaction from last night, we turn to fox news senior national correspondent john roberts in charleston. john? >> chris, good morning to you. for nearly half of south carolina voters the number one issue was electability and the man they chose as best able to beat president barack obama in november was newt gingrich. this primary season has been all about momentum and newt gingrich caught it at the perfect moment, surging to a decisive win over once frontrunner mitt romney. >> it is very humbling and very sobering to have so many people who so deeply want their country to get back on the right track. >> many voters said it was gingrich's debate performances that sealed the deal as late deciders broke heavily for the former speaker. romney was left to lick his wounds and wonder what might have been. hurt according to exit polls by his religion and lingering questions about his record at bain capital. >> when my opponents attack success and free enterprise they are are not only attacking me, they are attacking every person that dreams of a better future. >> rick santorum came in third. a showing that might have ended some campaigns but with the newly proclaimed iowa win under his belt he set his sights on the next contest in florida. >> we will take it a state at a time. there is no one state that is decisive here. >> for ron paul, a last place finish but south carolina was never his state. others more to his liking lie ahead. >> we will be going to the caucus states and we will be promoting the more idea of getting more delegates because that is the name of the game and we will pursue it. >> south carolina has correctly chosen the republican nominee in every election contest since 1980. will the street remain unbroke -- will the streak remain unbroken? with three winners in three states it may be awhile before we find out. >> chris: john, thanks for that. joining us from the state capital of columbia is governor mitt romney. thanks for joining us on "fox news sunday." >> great to be with you. >> chris: i want to put up the dramatic change in south carolina the past week. on monday before the fox news debate you were leading gingrich 29.7% to 22. last night, gingrich beat you 40% to 28. that is a swing of 20 points in just five days. question, governor, what happened? >> well, speaker gingrich had a good week. i think his debate sparring with one william juan williamst opportunity for him to show strength. was not a great week for me. we talked about the tax returns and changing vote in iowa and a time when we faced a setback. in my experience a lot of people face setbacks and you come back from them and that is the only way to be successful is to come back from the inevitable downturns. we are hoping and expecting to do that down the road. >> chris: let's look at the exit polls because they may have raised worries or questions for your campaign. voters conservative went for gingrich over you 45% to 24 and among voters who said it matters that a candidate shares their religion beliefs gingrich beat you 46% to 20. you seem to be hurt by the idea that you are moderate and the fact that you are a mormon. >> you know, i realize that south carolina is in newt's neighborhood. this is a state very close to his home state and he had a good strong starting place here. i indicated from the beginning we thought it would be an uphill climb here in south carolina. we did a lot better this time than we did four years ago. but there are a lot of states across the country and the great majority of people choose the candidate who they think should be the next president as opposed to someone who may be in the same faith they are in. i am looking forward to a long campaign. this is a tough process, you know that and that is the way it ought to be. we are selecting the president of the united states. someone who is going to face ups and downs and real challenges and i hope that i can demonstrate that i can take a setback and come back strong. >> chris: how do you deal with this notion and you know that gingrich is going to play it, massachusetts moderate and also the fact that you are a mormon and at least in south carolina some people seem to have some concerns about that? >> well, i don't think in the final analysis that religion is going to play a big factor in selecting our nominee. i do think that conservative values do play an enor enormoue and speaker has explaining to do for sitting under the sofa with nancy pelosi and arguing for climate change regulation. you will say he is not so conservative as a reliable conservative leader as people might have imagined but we will get a chance to frame up the issues as time goes on. he had a good week going after me on taxes and bain and so forth and a great confrontation in juan williams. that is hard to match in every single state. >> chris: you give us a couple of ideas but generally speaking how will you go after newt gingrich now? >> the key for me is not so much going after newt gingrich as it is pointing out my capacity, my background, my strengths. i don't think that the people of this country are going to choose at the next president of the united states a person who spent 40 years in washington as a congressman and lobbyist. that is not going to in my opinion be the most effective way to replace the current president who also spent his career in politics. i think that in order to replace a president who has never had the experience leading a business, leading a state, leading a community, that it it makes sense to have someone who actually has done those things, who has led a state. who has also led an olympic os. who has led businesses. i think that background is critical and i think speaker gingrich having not done any one of those things is not ideally suited to face off against the president. >> chris: aides are quoted overnight assaying that you are also going to make newt gingrich's character an issue. how so? >> well, there is no question but that leadership is the key attribute any one should look for in considering the president. we have differences on issues but in the final analysis those issues are important but leadership, the capacity to move others and to accomplish various ideals is something which you look for in the person who will guide the nation and character is a big part of leadership as is vision, sobriety, steadiness. these are attributes which i think people want to see this their candidate. that is one reason we go through the grueling process of selection of our nominees. we get a good chance to really see them under fire and see how they respond and i hope that i am be seen as being strong in that kind of a setting. >> chris: having said, that i want to play a clip from speaker gingrich's victory speech last night. take a look. >> it one of the key issues and i'm prepared to take this straight at the president and frankly straight at the elite media, one of the key issues is the growing antireligion bigotry of our elites. >> chris: governor, is and you have heard this kind of argument from newt gingrich before. is he tapping into the anger that many voters feel these days more effectively than you are? >> you know, i don't know whether anger is the source of his campaign win here in south carolina. i think he has had a campaign that has gone across a whole series of issues. there is no question but that if you look back at those last couple of debates he was angry and there may have been some people who liked that. and look, i remember mike huckabee once said. he said look i'm proud to be conservative but i don't have to be mad at anybody about that. and i'm not somebody who is angry at and mad but i'm upset about the direction this country is headed and if i'm president of the united states i'm going to take america back. >> chris: you know, you talked about the fact that he had a good week and you said quite frankly that you didn't have such a good week and i want to talk to you about some much the mistakes you made. ing gingrich and rick perry demanded that you release your tax returns. here is how you handled it this last week. >> if i become our nominee and what has happened in history is people released them about april of the coming year and that is probably what i would do. >> what is the effective rate i have been been paying. probably closer to the 15% rate than anything. >> when you release yours, will you follow your father's example? >> maybe. >> for give me, sir, but who says maybe in a presidential debate? why were you -- and i think this is a question a lot of political pundits are asking, why were you and your campaign so unprepared for what seemed to be such an obvious line attack? >> what we said was i was planning on releasing them in april when they have been released by other candidates in the past. given all of the attention focused on tax returns, given the distraction that i think they became in the last couple of weeks, look, i am going to make it clear to you right now, chris, i will release my tax returns for 2010 which is the last returns that were completed, i will do that on tuesday of this week. i will also release at the same time an estimate for 2011 tax returns so you will have two years. people can take a good look at it. we will put them on the website and you can go through the pages. this i think we just made a mistake in holding off as long as we did. it just was a distraction and we want to get back to the real issues in the campaign -- leadership, character, a vision for america. how to get jobs again in america. and how to rein in the excessive scale of the federal government. >> chris: not to quibble but the issue came up about your dad. not saying it has to be 12 years but not not release more years rather than just 2010 and than an estimate for this year. >> thatle be more than any other republican candidate and i'm not going to go back to my dad's years. that was even before the internet. we will be putting our returns on the internet and people can look through them and provide i think plenty of information for people to understand that the sources of my income are exactly as described in the financial disclosure statements that we put out several months ago. >> chris: in the last debate you said that one of the reasons you wanted to release them all at one time is because you knew the democrats were going to go after them and you didn't want to have a drip drip process of that. are there more political problems in these tax returns like the 15%, like the investments in offshore accounts in the cayman islands? >> well, one of the -- one of the reasons that we are putting together the 2011 estimate as well as the 2010 return is so there is not a drip, drip, drip. we put out both returns, both numbers at the same time so that there is not a second release down the road. and i'm sure the democrats will do their very best to see if they can't find something that stirs up interest. look, the income i have is derived from the investments which are described in the financial disclosure report. the cayman island account, so to speak is apparently an investment that was made in an entity that invests in the united states. the taxes paid on that are full u.s. taxes. they will try and drum that up to be something. but by the way, it was the same issue four years ago. it was responded to four years ago and nothing has changed since then. i know people will try and find something but we pay full fair taxes and you will see it as pretty substantial amount. >> chris: i want to ask you you one last question about the taxes. you have been very open about the fact that like a lot of other devout mormons you tithe to your church. given the results that we saw in south carolina do you think it might be any kind of a political problem the fact that being as wealthy as you are you have given millions, millions dollars to the church of latter day saints? >> gee, i hope not. if people want to discriminate against someone based upon their commitment to tithe i would be surprised. this is a country that believes n. the bible. the bible speaks about providing tithes and offerings. i made a commitment to my church a long, long time ago that i would give 10% of my income to the church and i followed through on that commitment. hopefully as people look at the various individuals running for president they would be pleased with someone who made a promise, a promise to god and kept that promise. so, if i had given less than 10% then i think people would have to look at me and say hey, what is wrong with you, fellow, don't you follow through on your promises? >> chris: finally, sir,, i want to talk about the debates. again, this is just my perception you seem particularly this last week to have shown a tendency to get irritated when you are challenged. let me put up some of the clips from the debates. >> answer the question first. >> we have plenty of time. i will get there. i will do it in the order i want to do. >> governor romney questions whether you are genuinely prolife. >> i'm not questioned on character integrity very often and i don't feel like standing here for that. >> chris: are you letting these guys get under your skin, governor, and is that a problem for you? >> not in the slightest. no one is under my skin but i can tell you this i'm going to make it very clear. when there are things i care about deeply and my character is one of those things when that is going to be challenged i'm not going to sit there and smile and act like it is something of no significance. i have emotion and passion. i'm concerned about the great challenges that america faces and i'm going to show the passion that i have when it comes naturally. there is a process where i'm proud to be pretty steady. no one says to me that i'm someone that flies off the handle or i'm erratic or incape incapable of dealing with stressful situations. i'm calm under fire. tested time and time again. had success. had some losses. i learned from those losses and i will show passion and from time to time perhaps a little energy as i think it is appropriate and as i feel it in my heart. but i'm a person of sobriety, capacity, steadiness and i think that is what you need in the white house. >> chris: finally, sir,, you hesitated before agreeing to participate in the two more debates that are going to take place this week, i guess one on monday, one on thursday in florida. and i wonder have you made a mistake agreeing to all these debates? you are the one candidate who has a real national campaign, huge organization, lots of money. you are on the ballot in every state. have you made a mistake by agreeing to these debates with a bunch of candidates who are relying, have to rely on national tv time in effect playing on their field and giving away a lot of your advantages? >> well, perhaps. but i think the american people want a chance to see the candidates and understand something about their character. i hope that i wear well in that process. i hope that over time as people see more of me and more of the other guys i will come out ahead. if not that is the way it going to be. i'm going to do what is best to have the american people know who i am and hear my views on issues. this is a critical time in america. we are choosing someone who will lead our nation at a critical time. people are suffering in this country right now and i spent my life in the private sector and understand how to create jobs and get america strong again and running against in the case of speaker gingrich someone who has never worked in the private sector. he spent his life in washington and has been working as a lobbyist. he doesn't call it officially a lobbyist but that is what it is. i cannot imagine america being led by a person whose sole experience is not inside the private sector but is inside washington. i just don't think washington can fix, washington. >> chris: finally, sir, and we have less than a minute left. just on a personal level i know you have said and your campaign has said look we are are in this for the long haul and we never expected this to be easy. there was really a possibility if you won in south carolina that that race might be over. on a personal level when you and mrs. romney went to bed last night, what did you say to each other? it has got to have hurt? >> no, hurt is not what comes to mind. we look at this as a long process. clearly we wanted to win in south carolina. from the very beginning we understood this would be an uphill battle for us. i came in fourth here four years ago. this time i came in second. that didn't feel that good, by the way, i wanted to come in first. we looked at the numbers. you saw in the early part of the week i was at 29% in the polls. i got 28 when finished. the undecideds virtually all broke for newt. i understand that, he had a good week. this is a long process. we are looking ahead to a number of other races. three he states in now, 47 more to go. we are looking forward to being successful and we have confidence in the american people. i think in the final analysis they will do the right thing. >> chris: governor romney, we want to thank you for talking with us today and we will be tracking what happens now in florida, sir. >> great, chris. see you there. >> chris: up next, the speaker of the house, john boehner on president obama's state of the union address tuesday and the republican agenda. will, washington, get anything done this year? 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>> chris, 30 jobs bills passed over the last year in the republican house of representatives that are sitting in the united states senate. 30. our focus over the last 12 months has been on jobs. our focus over the course of the next 12 months is going to be on jobs. the president asked us to extend the payroll tax credit. make sure that we extended unemployment insurance with reforms. and make sure that doctors that dealt with medicare patients were adequately reimbursed. and he asked us to do that for a year. we did that for a year. it was the united states senate who decided we are just going to do it for two months we can't agree on how to off set the costs and so we will kick the can down the road. we have done our job for the american people and the fact is this, chris -- the president's policies have failed to get our economy moving again. and, as a matter of fact, it is the president's policies that have actually made our economy worse. >> chris: okay. >> it is time for a new direction. >> chris: here is the problem. several studies found that the congress this last year, 2011, has been one of of the least productive ever. let's take a look. you passed and i say you i mean the congress, the house and the senate 80 laws last year and 20% of them were to name a federal building or other house keeping measure. here are the latest polls. the president's job approval at 46%. congressional republicans, 19%. isn't mr. obama rightly or wrongly isn't he winning the battle for public opinion? >> is the measure of the job that congress does the number of laws that we passed? >> chris: it as measure. >> no, it isn't. most americans think we have too many laws already. >> chris: what did congress do this year that was significant? none of those got passed. >> 30 bills that will help our economy grow again. >> chris: but none of those got through. >> look at the united states senate. we are doing what the american people are asking us to do. i made a commitment a year ago when i was important in as speaker that -- when i was sworn in as speaker our job was to listen to the american people and follow their will. that is exactly what we are doing. the real facts are that the president's policies have failed to get our economy moving again and the fact is they made them worse. >> chris: the fact is also and i'm not saying you are right and the senate is wrong or vice versa but the fact is i don't have tolyl yo to tell you the f legislating is the art of compromise and nothing got done on any of those jobs bills and the question people are asking, sir,, is particularly in an election year when you are already saying obama's policies make things worse will anything get done in washington this year? >> if the president will listen to his own jobs council and the report that they issued this week many of the ideas in the president's own jobs council are bills that have already passed in the house? >> chris: such as? >> take the issue of infrastructure. we need big -- we have big problems with the highways and roads. we need to get those things done. you you look at -- >> chris: but he supported infrastructure as part of his jobs bill. >> look at regulatory bills that have passed the house. same kind of suggestions coming from the president's own jobs council. let's slow down the regulatory onslaught coming out of august. talked about fundamental reform of the tax code. absolutely critical if america is going to be competitive and we will have jobs for hard working american taxpayers. >> chris: big ehe vent tuesday night the state of the union and we know some of the broad outlines of what the president is going to say at the state of the union. more help for the middle class such as aid for people going to college or having problems financing their homes. income inequality. he will demand the wealthy pay more taxes and a grand bargain to cut the deficit and avoid that $1.2 trillion in automatic triggers. do you see a compromise on any of those issues. >> i read a lot about what is the president is going talk about tuesday night and sounds like the same policies we seen. more spending, higher taxes, more regulations. the same policies that haven't helped our economy, they made it worse. and if that is what the president is going to talk about tuesday night i think it is pathetic. i think it is time for the president to listen to his own jobs council. time to go in a new direction. we need to end the regulatory nightmare that is coming out of august serving as a wet blanket over our economy. we need to work to fundamentally change our tax code. >> chris: you are saying no grand bargain on the deficit? >> chris, i have tried. ain't nobody in this town tried harder to come to an agreement with the president over solving our long-term deficit problem. and the facts are this -- the president would never say yes to fundamental reform of our tax code. he asked for more revenue. i told the president i will put revenues on the table but only if we are going to have fundamental reform of the entitlement programs. he would never say yes and then wanted a trillion dollars worth of new taxes. the problem is washington is there is too much spending and we have to get our arms around it. the republicans in the house and senate are committed to real reform of our entitlement programs and real controls on spending here in washington. >> chris: what about to talk about an immediate measure what about extending the payroll tax cut holiday for a full year, not just the two months. it runs out at the end of february and are you as part of that going to attach the keystone pipeline approval of the keystone keepline approval to a deal? >> i have already passed the bill -- the house already passed the bill that would extend the unemployment program and payroll tax credit for a year and it was offset with reasonable reductions in spending most coming from the president's own budget. i'm hopeful that we will get this finished as soon as possible. the keystone pipeline is the prime sam exampl example of a y process here in washington. every option is on the table. we will do everything we can to try to make sure that the keystone pipeline is in fact approved. it is 20,000 direct jobs. it is over 100,000 indirect jobs. and as more energy independence -- and is more energy independence for america as opposed to forcing the friends across the boarder in canada to run a pipeline out to the pacific ocean and sell it to the chinese. >> are you saying you may link the keystone pipeline to extending the payroll tax holiday? >> we may. all options are on the table. >> chris: here is an interesting question. what you did this last time is just said you have to disapprove it again in two months and he disapproved it again as he had before. why not demand that if he wants the payroll tax cut he has to approve it? in other words. comes with it. you want the payroll tax cut the pipeline goes with it. >> all options are on the table. >> chris: quite frankly, seems like just a political statement. you know, he can disapprove it it and his measure goes through. you are saying that you might demand approval as a price for -- >> the keystone pipeline is a bipartisan issue in the congress. democrats and republicans in the house and senate, a lot of people want this pipeline built and the president is just saying hey, i will take care of this but i will do it after the election. i don't want to irritate anybody who might think about voting for me. listen, the president knows that the number one issue in america is jobs. and here is an example, 20,000 direct jobs. over 100,000 indirect jobs. time for the president to say yes and as i said all options are on the table. >> chris: will the house pass a budget this year and will it have serious entitlement reform in it again such as last year's proposal by paul ryan for premium supports as a way to change and reform medicare? >> that was one option on how we could save medicare. there are other ideas paul ryan and ron widen, democratic senator from oregon came up with a bipartisan proposal. the idea is we have to make changes to medicare otherwise it will not be there for seniors who count on it. we will do a serious budget but also remember this. on tuesday, it will be one thousand days since the united states senate passed a budget. 1,000 days and they have yet to pass a budget. how do you deal with a long-term fiscal problems that we have if you refuse to come to an agreement on a budget? >> chris: i want to make clear because there had been some thought that maybe because of the hits that you guys took last year you were goen weren'o pass a budget. you going to pass a budget this year. >> of course, we. >> chris: and how do you keep democrats from turning things like entitlement reform into a punching bag like they did last me. >> if you do the right things for the right reasons the right things will happen. don't worry about it. >> chris: you personally kept talking about oversight, holding this president accountable and making this next year a referendum on barack obama's policies. it sounds to me and i'm sure like to a lot of people like you are basically saying this whole year is going to be politics. >> no, not at all. i think that it is part of our job in the congress to hold the administration accountable. his policies have in fact made our economy worse. our job is to in order to change those policies is to help people understand what the policies are and how they have made the economy worse. that is our job and we are going to do our job. but in addition to that we do believe the fundamental reform of the tax code is important. the american energy and infrastructure jobs act will be on the floor here in the next months that will open up american energy production, use those royalties to fund our aging roads and bridges. there is a lot of work that is going to be done and if the president will listen to his own jobs council there will be an awful lot of unanimity between the bills that we are passing and what his own jobs council is calling for. >> chris: president obama said this week in an interview that you two get along fine, he likes playing golf with you but then added this. put it up. no matter how much we yucked it up, he, boehner had trouble getting his caucus to go along with doing the responsible thing on a whole bunch of issues over the past year and there is, mr. speaker, a perception out there, excuse me that you would like to make a deal but you are being held captive by the 87 freshmen in your house caucus. >> first thing, it is not our freshmen. the fact is that we have -- >> chris: being held captive by other people? >> we have some members that want to do more. and god bless them, i want to do more are too. that is not really an accurate statement. the problem is gelting the president to say, yes. if the president and i could come to an agreement on something i don't think i would have any problem selling it in the congress. no, he wants to shove off his own responsibility for the lack of an agreement on me and my ability to deliver. if the president and i could come to an agreement i have no doubt that we can get unanimity and bipartisan support in the u.s. house of representatives and for that matter the senate. >> chris: a number of members of your caucus including a lot of the tea party freshmen no news to you were very unhappy with you for what they said was shoving the two month payroll tax cut extension down their throats. have they agreed to go slower, have you agreed to go faster? >> listen, we have had a lot of talks last year about how the year ended. our focus this year coming out of our retreat is on jobs. as you mentioned earlier, legislating is about the art of the possible. and the art of the possible is to try to find some common ground with this white house. the american people don't care about democrats or republicans, they don't care about the squalls they won, they don't scare about the idea logical corners that we fit in. they expect us to find enough common ground to move forward. my job is to work with the president and colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do what the american people want to us do, create more jobs. >> chris: are you convinced that your caucus goes along with that as the art of the possible and not the art of the ideal? >> i sure am. >> chris: house majority leader eric cantor suggested he would like to see the presidential race end sooner rather than later because he said that it is important that the republicans put up a clear choice against barack obama. does newt gingrich's victory yesterday and i'm not singling him out, he just happened to win, but the fact that there is probably going to be a longer rougher tougher primary does that hurt republicans? >> i think the fact that we have had three primaries, one caucus and two primary elections and we have three different winners. i think it shows the vibrancy of the republican party and well, yeah, everybody would rather have it over sooner rather than late irthe fact is that those who show up in republican primaries around the country going to choose our candidate. not going to be chosen by a handful of people in washington. not going to be chosen by me. chosen by the republican voters. and i trust the judgment of republican voters and i'm as anxious as anybody it else to see who our nominee is going to be. >> chris: speaker boehner, thank you so much for coming in today. we will be watching you sitting right behind the president on tuesday night. >> i will be right in my chair. >> chris: i mean do you have any problems about possibly falling asleep? is that a -- >> no. >> chris: do you do something? pinch yourself? bite the inside of your seat? >> do i not want to be the issue so i can tell you all about the back of the president's head. >> chris: you just sit there and -- >> look right at him. >> chris: mr. speaker thank you very much as always. >> thank you. >> chris: coming up, newt gingrich wins big in south carolina. we will ask our sunday panel what it means as the republican race rolls on. what's withou? trouble with a car insurance claim. 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[ foreman ] so i can trust 'em. unlike rdy. dolr for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. we proved here in south carolina that people power with the right ideas beats big money and with your help we are going to prove it again in florida. thank you, good luck and god bless you. >> chris: that was newt gingrich saturday night fresh off a crucial and decisive victory in the south carolina primary. and it is time for our sunday group. fox news contributor liz cheney. karl rove who served as senior advisor to president bush. former democratic campaign manager joe trippi and list marlantes of the christian science monitor. welcome request all. karl, we were here late last night. just before gingrich speech you said among other things he should go after the news media because it played like gang busters in south carolina and it helped down the road. as we discussed with romney he did even more. he went after washington and new york elites who he said and let me get the quote right here are trying to force us to quit being america. effective for over the top? >> i suggestd that he do it because i knew he was going to do it. he can't help himself. >> chris: but you also think it was a a good idea. >> works in a republican primary. creates a bit of problem with the independent voters for the the general election. this is not the center piece of their concerns. they are concerned about economy, jobs, spendinged a healthcare. and some talk about wall and the new york elites and lame stream media as some people call it is not the center of their concerns. >> chris: joe, i gather that you have stolen karl's whiteboard. >> i would never steal his whiteboard. >> chris: i don't know. this is news to me, folks. you want to have takeaways from last night? >> the interesting thing about the exit polls last night is when people talked about what mattered to them the most there was low scores. the wig bi big problem is pauld santorum scoreless on electability. here is the big problem. on moral characteristicker that matters most to people newt is dead last at 6% and who is the true conservative mitt romney dead last. it is a big. how is that going to get answered as you go into florida? that is a fascinating problem for the gop right now. >> chris: liz? >> the interesting thing was the extent to which the debates matter and not just because newt was eloquent or skilled as a debater. people are so frustrated and concerned about a second term for president obama both republicans and independents that they want somebody who is going to stand and fight and what you saw with newt was the ability not just to lay out policy prescriptions but a willingness to stand and fight and i think that clearly paid off for him. i would watch santorum closely, though. i think he comes out of this in an interesting position. all of the focus is going to go to florida and i think you will see santorum look beyond that. florida is winner take all. not much for him to gain from spending a lot of time and effort there. he will look beyond it towards the states proportional where he can pick up delegates and he represents the kind of concern the voters have for finding somebody who is going to stand up for true conservative principles chris liz marlantes, how big a setback was that for mitt romney. you might as well get on board and we saw this last week more and more republican officials getting onboard the romney train. how big a setback for him the puncturing of the aura of ineastbound visitablity. >> i think the most important thing is his hit on electability. he has been able to say i'm the candidate who will stand up best against president obama. all along everyone assumed this will be an election about the economy correctly and then there has been an assumption that a candidate with business experience who understands the candidate like romney would be the strongest candidate to go up against obama and i think what we saw in south carolina was something a little different which was the suggestion that do we really want a candidate who is going to come forward and say i'm an economic expert or a candidate to come forward and say i understand your pain and i feel your pain. that is something that romney has been particularly bad at. when people are feeling economic pain they might actually want that. newt gingrich performed well with voters who by their own admission were struggling last night. mitt romney won voters who earned $2 million or more. newt gingrich won voters who earned $50,000 or less. >> chris: put yourself in the case of chief strategist for mitt romney. what would you advise him to do and he made some news today he is going to release his tax returns. not wait until april. going to get 2010 out and a summary for 2011 out on tuesday. >> right. first of all, i thought that was a smart move. get it behind and acknowledge it was a mistake. it is important that romney going forward needs to say to the republican primary voters i get the message. secondly to play off with the l 2 said, liz and liz, i think he needs to show feistiness. his best moment on thursday night he said i didn't inherit this money i made it myself and i'm not going to apologize for it and anybody who attacks me is attacking the free enterprise system. i thought that was a strong moment for him. going forward he needs to do that. you saw it in the interview. he took on gingrich on the question of character but not on the question of the marriage but on the question of you were working for fredd freddie mack. you attacked the republican house members by bying for the ryan budget. he has to use attacks to distinguish him as being more conservative or as conservative on certain issues. >> chris: and conversely what would your advice be to newt gingrich? >> newt gingrich has had two things working for him. one is the attacks on the media. first thing is do what he did with juan williams and john king and in the next week's debate arrange for someone to ask him a question of stupid fashion to allow him to pound it out of the park. >> chris: personally i will not be there so he has to get his own devices. >> the question is can he we repeat that. he has to broaden the appeal out from being imthe guy able to beat obama in the debates. we will have no seven three hour debates. he has to be able to say i'm capable of carrying the battle to obama on a wider range of issues and not just my debating skill but i have a concrete specific position. >> chris: joe, you were saying that you thought this could turn into a long bitter personal fight that really divides the republican party and you even had a historical analogy. >> could become obama clinton where you have two titans going at it if gingrich keeps going and i think he will or have what they had in 1980 with ted kennedy and jimmy carter where it got ugly, bitter they didn't like each other and it started to show. and both romney and newt don't appear to like each other and. >> chris: what is the danger? good for us but what is the danger for the republican party if it becomes a carter kennedy? >> that is a disaster. i think there have been a few of those kind of donebrook kind of fights and the other side has always won. i think it is a dangerous time and i think newt's personality in particular makes it possible for this thing to generate into sort of an ugly fight. >> chris: i'm not going to say liz one and liz two. they are both liz one to me. but liz cheney, for the first time, three different candidates winning the three first contests if there is such a thing as three firsts. the first three contests, iowa, south carolina and new hampshire, what does that say about the way voters regard this field and does it raise the possibility that if things go on and get split you can get a late entry, chris christie or rubio or paul or one of those guys. >> i think this is good this is going on the way that it is going on. i think that each of the candidates gets stronger. i think it was rick santorum but i heard sarah palin as well, this is like steel on steel. sharpen each other and get ready to deal with the attacks that are going to come in the general election. you hear talks about the possibility of a latentry. i think it is unlikely and the guys that are in, all four deserve just tremendous respect. this is absolutely grueling and they get up every single day and go back in the fight. they put their families through it, you know, it is a firing squad in a lot of ways and they have been out there fighting it and i think it is making them better candidates and i think it will make it an interesting four or five months. >> chris: liz marlantes, less than a minute left. your thoughts about the idea that the race is so wide open and what does it say that three different races, three different contests, three different winners? >> the other interesting thing to look at after florida we will look at the period that everybody thinks favors romney. all the caucuses. a whole bunch of states. there is not going to be debates. on the other hand i think we see that the news media has had a huge impact and newt gingrich can use the benchmarks. from florida probably straight to ohio and we'll see if that kind of momentum can carry him. >> chris: thank you so much. see you all next week. check out panel plus where the group picks right up on this discussion on our website fox news sunday .com. we will take a look at the most intense week on the trail for president. [ male announcer ] you love the taste of 2% milk. but think about your heart. 2% has over half the saturated fat of whole milk. want to cut back on fat and not compromisen taste? try smart balance fat free milk. it's what you'd expect from the folks at smart balance. day my journey continues across the golden state, where everyone has been unbelievably nice. mornin'. i guess i'm helping them save hundreds on car insurance. it probably also doesn't hurt that i'm a world-famous advertising icon. cheers! i mean, who wouldn't want a piece of that? geico. ah... fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent oh dear... or more on car insurance. >> chris: what a week it was in the 2012 republican presidential campaign. there were two debates. two candidates dropped out. and two others on the hot seat. here we go on the trail. today i am suspending my campaign for the presidency. >> i'm going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job and learn some day to own the job! >> mitt, we need for you to release your income tax. >> if that has been the tradition and i'm not opposed to doing that, time will tell but i anticipate that most likely i'm going get asked to do that around the april time period. >> could have today released his tax records so the voters of south carolina could discover something. >> good to see you. stop by this morning. >> just a little lunch. >> you come here and -- >> these are local traditions. >> we have had our differences will campaigns will have and newt is not perfect but who among us is. >> he was is asking to have an open marriage and i refused. >> i i'm appalled that you would begin a presidential debate when on a topic like that. >> newt is a friend and i love him but at times he just has sort of that worrisome moment that something is going to pop. >> this is our grandson. robert is -- you are playing hooky. this is his mother. this is an educational field trip for robert. >> you know, in washington when i give a speech i never get applause so i'm always glad to get out of washington. >> thank you to everyone in south carolina who decided to be with us in changing washington. >> chris: what a week. and now the candidates head to florida where the next primary is just nine days away. we'll be right back with a special program note. 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[ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. >> chris: next week, we'll have an exclusive interview