lawrence. that s kind of contrary to what we have seen over time. we have seen so many campaigns that have been so tough and brutal and think of how can they get together but they always do. but this does feel different. really du. hard to imagine there could be a reconciliation between gingrich and romney. thank you both for joining me tonight. thank you, lawrence. coming up, something we didn t get to last night. we got interrupted by a victory speech by snoumpl. the romney family problem of saying things they shouldn t. this one is from mitt romney s son matt romney. and michael moore will be here tonight. he will be in the spotlight. and the last word tonight goes to sandra fluke the woman who rush limbaugh attacked so viciously that his biggest advertisers have given up on him. [ male announcer ] this is lawn ranger eden prairie, minnesota.
according to nbc mitt romney needs to win 48% of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination and rick santorum needs to win 63%. the only thing standing in rick santorum s way seems to be newt gingrich. the new york times nate silver analyzed public policy polling that ask canned republicans in five states who they would vote for if newt gingrich dropped out of the race. slightly more than half, 57% of mr. gingrich s supporters would two to rick santorum and about a quarter, 27% would go to mr. romney. the remainder 16% would actually go to ron paul. now, if we applied those percentages to last night s races, instead of winning alabama by 6%, without newt gingrich in the race, rick santorum would have won with 52% to mitt romney s 37%. and in mississippi, instead of narrowly winning by 2%, rick
welfare reform, debt paid off. these delegates know this. they know that rick santorum did not do that and certainly know that mitt romney is not only didn t do this he s not even one of us. erick erickson, red state s erick erickson has written something you are not going to like. i want you to listen to this word for word. par for the course. newt gingrich last night proved he is neither a regional candidate nor a spoiler. his influence is heading in to ron paul territory. doesn t get more insulting than that. gingrich s final act could be king maker by getting out and endorsing but pride cometh before the fall. gingrich is in mid fall. what a sad end to a brilliant legacy but his campaign is over. rick, is in the sad end to the brilliant legacy that you want to see for newt gingrich? look, everybody has counted out. newt gingrich has been wrong in the past.
mark was talking about earlier. what kind of leverage rick santorum, newt gingrich and ron paul have. the flip side is it will be their responsibility and it will be mitt romney s biggest diplomatic mission to get rick santorum and to get newt gingrich to work hard for him if he s the nominee to bring the con venge together, make the convention a reconciliation of all of the various factions and parts of the party that mitt romney didn t win on his own originally. if he can engineer that, then this will be useful to the extent that people like santorum and gingrich will have credibility with the conservative base that romney will have to hope they can help to transfer to the nominee. mark, it seems to me that things have been said in this campaign that cannot be taken back. i do not see how newt gingrich can go out there and campaign for nominee mitt romney. you know, you are right,
what kind of leverage rick santorum, newt gingrich and ron paul have. the flip side is it will be their responsibility and it will be mitt romney s biggest diplomatic mission to get rick santorum and to get newt gingrich to work hard for him if he s the nominee to bring the con venge together, make the convention a reconciliation of all of the various factions and parts of the party that mitt romney didn t win on his own originally. if he can engineer that, then this will be useful to the extent that people like santorum and gingrich will have credibility with the conservative base that romney will have to hope they can help to transfer to the nominee. mark, it seems to me that things have been said in this campaign that cannot be taken back. i do not see how newt gingrich can go out there and campaign for nominee mitt romney. you know, you are right, lawrence. that s kind of contrary to what we have seen over time.