from now. has nothing, nothing good to say to conservatives who have been betrayed by the republican establishment over the past 25 years. and let me just say, if newt gingrich won, like romney, i fear he would betray the conservative, the conservative base as well. because he has before. that s really good. that s really good. i think both of you have summed up where republicans find themselves right now. and it s very, very interesting on your program, way too early, the line that summed it up for me was the establishment always wins. and that s what the base hears right now, that s what they feel the establishment always wins. so you ve got that narrative developing. to your point, you hear this frustration about well, okay, i get it. you ve torn down newt. we ve seen you rip him a new one in iowa, you ripped him a new one in florida. what are you going to do? how do we know come january 13th how are you going to balance the budget? where is the plan, show us, lay
he s not, but the way somebody put it to me is this race will last only as long as sheldon aidleson, casino guy putting money into newt wants to waste his money. romney campaign thinks that the general election starts tomorrow. he s got a big win here. they re going to have do what they re calling the straddle. they re going to keep an eye on the republicans, ron paul and newt gingrich. but they re start really going after obama. they know there s little chance now they can fall. so they re saying that if romney goes on to become president, it was in florida that he found his voice and the campaign found its spine. we talked about how south carolina wanted a fighter. in florida, people finally saw mitt romney as a fighter. we saw it in the beginning of the debate. is the romney campaign expecting newt gingrich along for the ride the next two months into the summer? they could. but i think there s going to be a lot of pressure for people to stop giving him money and i think they r
trying to heal with the people that you ve talked about and how we were talking about have rallied to him. that s harder than healing with newt. but what they say is as they get the contrast with romney, that the healing will take place automatically. so the base is going to say, we feel much better? i mean what are they going to do that they haven t done in the last six years? you guys just had running for president for six years and he is yet to get the base to coalesce behind him. and by the way, he s now reduced now i m with you. he s now reduced to singing america the beautiful after six years. you are not going to like this. no, i m not. but the vacuous message is deliberate. it s their clear view that the campaign is about mitt romney. he loses, they don t want it to be about obama. he has plans for all of these issues you talk about, but we re not going to hear him talking a lot more about it. he wants it to be about obama. wow. let me know how that
little less regulation than obama would. obama would do a little more. but we re talking on the margins. and you judge his record by what he did in massachusetts. and he is a big government republican. well, yes. yes. so how is a big government republican going to be that much different from a big government democrat? i just don t know. well, that would be newt s argument. and that s one interesting thing that happened in south carolina and looks like it s going to happen here again. where ron paul was the big loser in south carolina, his numbers have really gone down and it doesn t look like he s going to do well here. i m wondering if he s going to be a nonfactor. back to mitt romney, john heilemann, you ve covered a number of his speeches as a reporter. tell us what basically, the kbuts of hguts of his speeches are b. are we missing something? we re the fickle media. we just want the moments that
taking down newt. also, former new mexico governor gary johnson is dropping out of the presidential race to run as a libertarian. now you might have forgotten that johnson was running, but this year a third party, run by a more serious candidate, could make a huge difference in the election results, and tonight we have new poll numbers to show who might benefit. and barney frank s advice to the colleagues he s leaving behind. that s in the sideshow. finally, let me finish tonight with how the republican party s obsession with opposing president obama at any cost may be costing them way too much. we start with senator charles schumer, a democrat from the great state of new york. senator schumer, thanks for being here. what s the exit strategy? how might this flap over the payroll tax end? house blinks, senate blinks, or does it expire? well, i don t think it will expire. i think that basically there is so much pressure on speaker boehner. he s basically standing alone, that the house