election. there they are. 49.4% for greg gianforte, and 44.8% for rob quist. greg gianforte, when we got this, was very close. let s discuss now. cnn political commentators, peter beinart, symone, sanders, jeff kingston, and kevin madden. jack, let s start with greg gianforte. although he lost three newspaper endorsements, rerosponse from t gop, far more per missive. where s the outrage in this for someone who s accused of committing a misdemeanor assault? well, don, let met say this. we weren t there, we don t know everything there is to know about it. i think the voters of montana have weighed out everything and decided he s the guy. you know, i do want to say, i hope symone won t get mad at me, but if i declare him you know i love you, jack, but the winner, would that be cnn being the first to declare his victory? i don t know. jack, in all seriousness, though, this is about he was expected to win.
republican leadership. many conservative republicans have had it. the mitch mcconnell/bob bennett world that they don t resonate with independents, hot gop desperately need because guy like rubio does, he could be a game changer. reporter: a game changer in a race for the soul of the republican party. former arkansas governor conservative mike huckabee calls rubio the cuban obama. i have never believed in behaving more like democrats is the way republicans were going to be successful. reporter: rubio s favorite attack on crist, the stimulus plan and the notion that crist would have voted for it, even as a republican, had he been in congress. it is hard to believe that it has been a year since the obama/crist stimulus package happened in this very building. [ crowd booing ] time flies when you re spending $787 billion. reporter: on rubio s website, the hug, crist embracing president obama during a stimulus rally. rubio preaches fiscal