governor. the south is always supposed to be where he would do well and he might as well get there, even if he ends up getting out after that. you don t want to get out after iowa, after a disappointing finish there. you want to go to a place where you can do well. i think this race wants to become a two-man race. it appears that it s a santorum-romney race. and who would have thought that rick perry would be one of mitt romney s allies? in other words, now rick perry staying in, splits the anti-romney vote, stops santorum from consolidating that. and helps romney in south carolina. bret: there is still the chance, however, jonah, that there is coalescing with michele bachmann dropping out, the supporter goes somewhere. if some prominent conservatives cannot get alongside rick santorum, that could make a difference. i could. but you and charles think it vindicates rick santorum retail politicking in iowa. of all the things that charles
he is. i think he made a decision that he is a southern governor. the south is always supposed to be where he would do well and he might as well get there, even if he ends up getting out after that. you don t want to get out after iowa, after a disappointing finish there. you want to go to a place where you can do well. i think this race wants to become a two-man race. it appears that it s a santorum-romney race. and who would have thought that rick perry would be one of mitt romney s allies? in other words, now rick perry staying in, splits the anti-romney vote, stops santorum from consolidating that. and helps romney in south carolina. bret: there is still the chance, however, jonah, that there is coalescing with michele bachmann dropping out, the supporter goes somewhere. if some prominent conservatives cannot get alongside rick santorum, that could make a difference. i could. but you and charles think it
votes. he s not getting any steam. he s stalled at the same point we ve been talking about. he s not looking lycra strong candidate. it doesn t really matter that much who the non-romney candidate who s ascending at any given time. now it s rick son tomorrow. maybe they ll give him a run for his money, but with rick perry staying in, he still has four or five people in his debates that will come up this weekend. they ll take lots of pot shots at him. it seems to be newt gingrich s mission in life now to prove, to prove beyond doubt that mitt romney is not a conservative republican. how does mitt romney respond to that? exactly the way you just described, that your producers described. you know, i think there s a couple ways they could pull him to the right, joan and david. he s refused so far, i believe i may be wrong on
positioned himself very much as the grown-up in the room, the reasonable one, something that the president s advisors thought would help him appeal to the independent voters that he needs if he s going to win relection next year. we re seeing a very different tact now. a very aggressive tact, especially after the president saw dismal approval ratings following that bruising debt ceiling battle. we ve seen the president taking his message to the home turf, as you mentioned, of his rivals and calling them out by name. we saw that this past week when he went to the brent spence bridge which is the bridge spanning the home states of house speaker john boehner and senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. here s what he said. the bridge behind us just happens to connect the state that s home to the speaker of the house with with the home state of the republican leader in the senate. now that s just a coincidence. it s purely accidental that that happened. but part of the reason
because she was loose and easy with her answers and i didn t think she would get it. not only did i not have the story that she had gotten it, i was the one saying would not get it what a reporter s nightmare . finally, the mondale people called me in the we hours of the night and said she s it and this is where she is . she s in minnesota and flew in from pran fran and this is how she got there and the bedroom she is staying in, in mondale s house and by morning i had recovered a bit. but i will never forget that night. i am sure you will . susan pointed out the level of excitement that her can dasy brought to the campaign whether or not you supported her. she was the first woman on a national presidential ticket created excitement from people all over the board. and i think of that.