to roger s point, maybe it s a negative. lawrence, if i can just say, last night as i was driving home from iowa i heard on the radio that john mccain was going to be endorsing mitt romney. and i thought, that is the best thing that could happen in the long run for rick santorum because it really does define this race as a moderate versus conservative and that s what we as conservatives want to get down to a two-person race because 75, 85% of the republican base voting in the primaries are conservatives who want a true blue candidate. if this will help mitt romney in new hampshire blunt any charge by santorum, in the long run it s going to make it him who is already fighting to establish his conservative credentials. it s really going to be an uphill battle with john mccain s help. that really could end up being a problem around his neck. howard dean, tell us what an underfunded insurgent candidacy like rick santorum needs coming out of what is essentially a win
a myth. but at the same time we have all heard the tape he said it in a radio interview. how do you explain that? how do you explain a lot of things? you know, we have the undercover folks saying this clinic has tried to do this reparation therapy that turns gay folks straight. we had cnn track down a client that contradicts the account. now he says the tape is doctored. i don t know how to explain this. we heard what he said, he did call gay people barbarians. he was saying it was in the context of children. that doesn t make any sense either. is this a political negative, a political wash or political plus with her base? what s interesting about this with the base you re totally right in the iowa caucuses and south carolina with an extraordinarily conservative base voting i think it will actually help her. i think the issue that s really interesting here. you remember the farm subsidy issue with bachmann s family
in the long run, it doesn t make much of a difference. to roger s point, maybe it s a negative. lawrence, if i can just say, last night as i was driving home from iowa i heard on the radio that john mccain was going to be endorsing mitt romney. and i thought, that is the best thing that could happen in the long run for rick santorum because it really does define this race as a moderate versus conservative and that s what we as conservatives want to get down to a two-person race because 75, 85% of the republican base voting in the primaries are conservatives who want a true blue candidate. if this will help mitt romney in new hampshire blunt any charge by santorum, in the long run it s going to make it him who is already fighting to establish his conservative credentials. it s really going to be an uphill battle with john mccain s help. that really could end up being a problem around his neck. howard dean, tell us what an underfunded insurgent candidacy