can get above 28%. does that ceiling on mitt romney s ability to do well, his performance in the south allow santorum to still be both of them, both he and newt gingrich, if gingrich stays in in other words, is there still an opportunity next week for rick santorum to win in alabama and mississippi even with newt still in the race? well, yes, i think so. i think that what it shows, chris, look, the modern republican party as you know was built out of the south. it is built on and out of the south. sure. and, and mitt romney has very little if any connection to it. he won in virginia by default because the other guys weren t in the race, and only ron paul was in the race. and mitt romney did not win the northern part of florida and he has to show that he can touch the southern base, but i don t see him doing it. by the way, one thing that rick santorum did in ohio that put romney on the heels a little bit
and inspire people, and make people stand up on their chairs to clap, and he says things that does not help him, but he is more connected. i think that newt is a negative force. but he can be negative in a way that moves people. and he can move people negatively who hate the president. and he not only looks like the devil, but he does look like the devil, and he has a maniacal look, and diabolical look, and he is a menacing force in politics in america. in the time he came to congress, he created a environment of hostility in the congress that never have recovered from. and he would do evil things like say keep your spouse back in the district and come the washington alone to become a pure politician. just created a terrible environment. he gets all into the social life and everything. that is why the beltway and the establishment dislikes newt gingrich so much, and they will try to exploit him as a
out where he can pick off or pick up one of these states in the south to sort of stem the blood flow away from his campaign and put that energy back into it. and under the party rules can a candidate like newt gingrich who comes in third or a candidate like ron paul in the first ballot give their delegate his or her delegates to the front-runner, can they do that? no, because the delegates in the first wave is some 1,700, maybe 1,100 are bound delegates, and bound to the folks coming into the convention to that first ballot, and you can t come in and say, here are mine. that is a later stage in the process. what would happen if he tried? oh, you can t. i mean the rules just don t permit it. you can t do it. those delegates are bound. you have to vote the way you were, you lined up on primary might. and so how can you win if you don t get a majority?
selling that he is the american candidate against, guess who? and it is subtle and effective. and subtle as a train wreck. i was in stubenville over the weekend where rick santorum set up tonight tonight, and i talked to the voters and the parishioners at the st. peter s church with si right across the street from where santorum was, and they were all for rick santorum the people i spoke with, people with big families and traditional catholics and the old school. they said they were for santorum, and i said, yeah, but if santorum doesn t make it, will they support romney if he the nominee, and every one of the people in the parishioners in st. peter s said they will support him, because no way, and no way under the sun that any of those people would ever vote for president barack obama. and bob woodward said the same thing on my sunday show, and he said watch the 30% or 40%
and in a serious way in that moment where president obama went to joe the plumber and said, look, we have to spread the wealth around, and that in that one sense by his own hand, he advanced issue that we were trying to talk about unsuccessfully for a long time in the campaign. it was a little sign of life late in the campaign after the global economy had collapsed and we were being massively outspent, and in the middle of two of them. one won, one lost. and you know, in a losing campaign of a presidential side of the late stage where the waltz really begin to feel like they are collapsing on you. it was a little bit of an anecdote. could you have had more electoral traction on that if you had not pick up the mascot for that, for whom we will all be forever grateful. and the media age for all that comes with it, and this guy is there and everyone globs on