exhibition games, but i was struck by santorum, he was really good in that speech. i felt like it was a speech after iowa. very accessible. he s kind of a natural. the closest thing the republican party has to a pop you list. he has a good story to tell, a nice sharp contrast. if he could get the money in the organization, he is more disciplined messagewise and a better fit than newt is. how about with the hit, too? how about where we re what issues we re talking about right now? i mean if we re talking about social conservative the issues right now, the catholic church is mitt romney? no, it s all santorum. even if you do have candidates picking their battles newt will still get, what, 15%, 18%. if you re santorum, how do you win michigan if you re trying to be the home state boy
governor s statement is consistent with catholic practice. you ll find the catholic hospitals do provide information on where rape victims can get emergency contraception, so there s nothing unusual about the governor s statement in that regard. final question, eric. if this is a campaign over the next month or two that s about social issues, not about the economy, does that hurt your candidate? well, i don t think it s going to become a campaign about social issues. if you look at the polling that s been done, chuck, what is foremost on the minds of voters is jobs and the economy. even though we had some job growth in january, if beer still above 8% unemployment, we have many millions of people who have grown so discouraged that they have left the workforce entirely, that will remain the focus of our campaign. but look, we re happy to talk about social issues as well. as i said, mitt romney was a conservative in the toughest
you, because we dislike barack obama more than we believe in your conservative t or rick santorum s problem is he had a good night last night, now what? no one else has a now what when you say in march he ll probably win here, here and here. it doesn t mean they can t. you just there s no way of knowing. there s two story lines in this race. one is, jonathan, mitt romney, he takes two steps forward and 1 1/2 back, as chris has pointed out, the alternatives can never catch fire. they never can sort of rally the conservatives to their side. we re at this fascinating moment where romney has never seemed stronger. it s hard to see when you gain out the next couple months at how-day-old gates are
apportioned and come to any conclusion beside romney is in a strong place. on the other hand last night was so revealing in the sense of yes, there s no del gates in play, but there s also clearly very little organic support for mitt romney among the most conservative limits. unless he s on television bashing someone else. there is not a big mitt romney base in any state. by the way, you know, in a weird we re not saying they re coordinated, but i find it fascinating that santorum basically has signaled to newt gingrich. i m going to go fight in michigan. you can have arizona. it s a bit of a two-front war. that s go where you can beat him. and santorum is betting, even though michigan is another one of these romney home states, that these blue collar social conservatism can play there. i agree 100% with jonathan s
but surpassed romney, and with me to break it down. chris cillizza and jonathan martin. here s my favorite tweet from overnight. so i far mitt romney has won every day that hillary clinton has won and he s lost every state that hillary clinton laos. i know it s an apples to oranges comparison, but there is some, shall we say apples to pears in that statement? florida didn t matter in 2008. hillary won there, and barack obama smartly didn t go there. for whatever reason, mitt romney campaigned in minnesota and campaigned in colorado he raised their importance. dropped mailed in minnesota, was doing radio interviews and tried to say yesterday there s no delegates these don t count. i think there s a lot of merit to that argument. this is like having in the middle of the baseball season an