political analyst. let s see how long we agree. there are several possible outcomes. there s two states. how many outcomes can there be from the votes tonight in mississippi and alabama. first, let s say santorum wins both tonight. if that happens, that means newt gets blown out of the race, i think. and santorum secures the position of clearly number-one challenger to mitt romney. let s stop. here s another possibility. gingrich could win both tonight. he s from that area. he s from georgia. that could hit santorum, which helps romney. it keeps him in the race. third, you could have a gingrich/santorum split tonight. each one winning a state. if that happens, no big changes. finally, romney could take one of the states, say mississippi. that s big for romney because if he wins mississippi and newt wins alabama, that s very bad for santorum and very good for romney. that s my view. let s go through your thinking.
they are very successfully making santorum look like the washington guy that played with the liberals. they have been told you should be more angry at this guy than me and they flood that so the anger is just guided another way, only because of money. no matter how much you would question him or chris would question him he would not attack citizens united because that is who is winning the race for mitt romney outspending everyone he can tell you i know you re mad you should be mad at santorum because he s in bed with the guys you re angry at which may or may not be true b if you hear it enough and he can t rebut it because he doesn t have the money the anger is misplaced. the romney super pac hit santorum on raising the debt ceiling. that is tea party anger stuff. ear marks, and so you can see with that kind of money he could drive some anger, angry voters
gifts with their hands. some people have incredible gifts and want to work out that making things. got to have to it santorum. mitt romney just can t talk like that and that s why santorum is making this a race in michigan. santorum made a hard plea for wage earners, a group mitt romney can t seem to connect with. santorum followed it up by saying president obama thinks he s better than them. president obama once said he wants everybody in america to go to college. what a snob. good decent men and women put their skills to test that aren t taught by a liberal college professor to indoctrinate them. president obama has a condescending view of the working class and rick santorum just knows all about their needs and cares so much more about
arguably self-inflicted. rick santorum has, of course, made some controversial comments about women and homosexuals and his critics say santorum tends to weigh in on people s values, sexual practices, personal choices about anything from contraception to religion to lifestyle. but look, at a time when people and the polls bear this out, are deeply worried about jobs and the economy, it santorum s message off key or is it resonating? well, i think it is ultimately offkey, greg, because it isn t what the broader mass of voters want to hear. resonating in a certain sense because there is about 50% or more of the republican primary electorate that wants some alternative to mitt romney and the bulk of those people are social conservatives but you that being said the premise of your question is exactly right. rick santorum does not have a focused economic message that is uniting republican
candidates, no, we re going to have maybe six or eight debates, et cetera, and it would have avoided the the problems you re referring to. but alex, i thought some of what romney did was brilliant. how about his exchange with santorum on romney care? when he essentially made it santorum s fault that obama care got passed into law. i think ed is absolutely right on that. and you have to give mitt enormous credit, because he was ready. and he had a clear mission. and that was to discredit his number one opponent, rick santorum. and i think he did an excellent job on that. on earmarks, on obama care, and on just the idea of a washington insider. but tell me why he wasn t ready to answer a question about his taxes. you know, i can t answer that. because i think what it is stunning. he s been focused and prepared, but you can t anticipate everything that s going to happen. his answer on no child left behind was just i understand, but let me just defend him a little bit her