they say they are raising a lot of money in the past 20 days. yeah. i mean, he could twin nomination. maybe the presidency. still favors romney slightly but only slightly over santorum in the race. people in washington has v to get used to the notion we will likely have a two-man race. i hate to even count out gingrich. but the dynamic of the race is pointing toward romney, santorum showdown. i don t know that newt can get back in the fight despite the money spent on his behalf. super pac. bret: adding another $10 million to the super pack today. don t know who the ad is going to attack. they will attack romney or rick santorum? this is serious. santorum has run a heck of a campaign. we re going to have to give him a lot of credit. i was in ohio myself wednesday. i didn t know that mike dewine would make the announcement but i met with the various senior republican officials and say the business leaders,
he stands for and he never seems willing to take an unpopular stand. santorum for all of his flaws is very willing to take an unpopular stand. that is helping him to some extent. bret: from the romney campaign perspective, first, they a lot of money. the campaign and the super pac. number one. number two, they help set up the system where it s proportional. if he comes in second in the number of places in the long run you could still get to 1144. and be the nomineele in the end. despite the hiccup of momentum along the way. for romney supporters and romney campaign, they say listen, we will just keep on trucking. sure. it s foolish to say if romney loses michigan by five points santorum finishes. that is foolish to say today. as a month ago it was foolish to say it s inevitable. he won it. let this thing will go on for a long time. likely a two man race. i think that romney will have to make the case for himself. he can do some damage to
talk, very struck by the shallowness of support for mitt romney. this is a crowd i thought would be pro-alum rock, the local establish in the state capital in ohio. not many were. they were open to santorum. the romney campaign is turned off. turned people in the state, as with dewine who told mike warner my colleague he never met mitt romney. switched to romney and then said i d like to get together with governor romney and talk to them a little bit. they went to a staffer and the staffer told him i don t know. maybe next time. i don t think that is why he did it. i think dewine is a principled man and he thinks that santorum has a better chance to beat obama. bret: many people are saying a bit of a stumble for the santorum campaign in that the foster freeze, the backer of the santorum super pac had this to say about contraception, and then the candidate responded. the contraceptive thing, my gosh it s such inexpensive.
the vatican. i go by the constitution and not talk about these issues on which he is not in the mainstream. liz, conventional wisdom is the issue, itself. back and forth in washington has helped rick santorum. but charles is suggesting that there is a point where it hurts. there is primary and sgren. if you think ahead. if you think santorum might get there. yes. in terms of the general election, fight of the merit of contraception is not something that the republican party wants to be having. i do think in a weird way, santorum has been elevated by this in part because it allows him to appeal to conservatives who agree with him on this. i think there is a certain amount of he is getting credit for his authenticity and his willingness to put this out there that he knows isn t necessarily popular with everybody. and stick with it. i think that contrasted romney served santorum well in some ways. romney s biggest problem in this race is nobody knows what
governor romney was the best candidate, had the best chance to beat barack obama. i was wrong. today, i am withdrawing as a romney delegate. i am endorsing rick santorum for president of the united states. the size of the federal government doubled in his time in office. he voted to raise the debt ceiling five different times without compensating cuts. if you want a fiscal conservative, you can t vote for rick santorum, because he is not. bret: well, there are the two front runners in michigan. rick santorum and mitt romney. mike dewine, the current attorney general in ohio, and former u.s. senator endorsing santorum. he a romney supporter. what about the state of the race right now? let s bring in the panel. bill kristol, liz marlantez,