this volatile republican nominating contest. since the last debate nearly a month ago, rick santorum has surged into the lead in the national polls. but it s a mitt romney-santorum dead heat in one of the states that votes next, that s michigan. and the polls here in arizona suggest a late shift here perhaps in governor romney s favor. our chief political analyst gloria borger is here to get us started. gloria let s focus on the poll here today. we had a poll out yesterday that showed a relatively close rates here. but if you look at the nbc marist poll they show governor romney with a pretty big lead, a healthy lead here. a lot of debates within the campaigns about the number. but why arizona apparently shifting in romney s favor? well, first of all, very very fluid as you know. and there s been a lot of changes in the last four or five days. and the shift has been to romney. you can t say it s because he s got a lot of ads on the air. you could also say perhaps and this
romney or santorum. i think that romney would be stronger in some ways, in is same way, i think of 2004. john kerry was the perfect opponent, because his weaknesses reflected george bush s strengths, what people liked about bush they liked about dean, he was strong and consistent and bold. we know that president obama and his team are getting traction on their strategy with a middle class message about income inequality. and if that is where they are strong, that is where santorum is strong. that is where romney is weak. so, i think that if that is where obama s strength is, that is also where santorum s strength is. there s an argument that santorum could be a stronger general election candidate. just to make your point, i wanted to play a bit of mitt romney in farmington hills, michigan.
you re right. it is a little bit like the food fight and we haven t figured out who is blue toe, the john belushi character. i know he gets out unscathed. who knows? this is an ebb and flow thing. primaries are never pretty. rick santorum has all the momentum right now going into a lot of delegate-rich states over the next two weeks. i think there s something like 400 or 530 some odd delegates between now and after super tuesday and a lot of proportional states in there and a lot of states that look good for santorum except maybe virginia. i m pretty sure romney will win virginia, but romney has to make this stand. i think you re right in one of his home states which is michigan. if michigan goes down if santorum wins michigan he probably won t have a great super tuesday. let me go to my friend joan on this. looking across the aisle, across the middle politically, it is enjoyable isn t it, to watch this? it is very yes, it is very enjoyable. all of these candidates are doing pres
let s listen to the president. you know we have a republican national convention coming to tampa. chance of seeing you in the neighborhood any time? i suspect there will be a lot of signs with my face on it from some of those republicans but it may not always be flattering. santorum, romney? i m not going to pick it. gingrich? i tell you what though. i hope they spend a lot of money in tampa while they re there and create some good business for folks. do i detect an upbeat tone in the president s voice? i think so. finally, still having doubts? over the weekend sarah palin said she wasn t convinced that mitt romney is conservative enough for either her or the republican voters out there. here is romney responding to what palin said and then listen to what palin said about romney which romney said. we should probably spend time with sarah palin although she is hard to find. i m not quite sure what she would be preferring to. i m pro life, pro traditional marriage, i beli
i mean, it takes a very negative environment we ve been in for the past couple weeks and makes fun of it. it s kind of a very relaxed ad, kind of sneaks up on you and at the end of the day you re like hey, governor romney is trying to throw mud and against my guy rick santorum or against the candidate rick santorum and i think it is a very effective ad for santorum. and i think on the romney side, you see what they re trying to do. they re trying to paint him as rick santorum another washington insider and that is where the lines are drawn as we move forward for the next two weeks. joan, i don t watch television the way most regular people do. a lot of most people get home, they re tired. they go in the living room and they watch tv while their wife in some cases is making dinner or the husband in some weirder cases is making dinner and they watch television throughout the night. if you re a normal person like that in this season and you re living in say detroit or somewhere in michi