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CNN John King USA April 10, 2012



>> we -- we made the decision to get into this race at our kitchen table. and against all the odds. and we made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting. >> joined now to break down this story, cnn political reporter peter ham british dana bash and jim acosta who is in gettysburg today for the big announcement. jim, let me start with you, you are in the room, family considerations, political considerations. in the end what were the decisive factors that had senator santorum say it is time to go? >> well, as you mentioned, john, those family considerations were obviously a critical factor in this decision for rick santorum, but there were also political considerations as well. you know, i talked to hogan giddily with the santorum campaign this afternoon and he sort of described a three-legged stool. one of those legs being the texas primary going to a winner-take-all format, where the delegates would all go to rick santorum if earn to win that race. once that became doubtful that texas would be a winner-take-all primary, that knocked out one of the legs. another one, newt gingrich dropping out of the race. they have been wanting that leg to kick for several weeks now and it just wouldn't happen. so, two of the legs on that three-legged stool would not fall for rick santorum. he did think that he would win the pennsylvania primary and that was the third leg. they thought that they would win the pennsylvania primary and have all of those delegates or at least many of those delegates come into his campaign a lot of people are speculating perhaps that was not going to happen for rick santorum and that was the reason yes got out of this race. he said -- hogan giddily said, no, that is not the case, they never thought for a moment they would lose pennsylvania, john. >> jim, stand by. let's continue the conversation. dana, you have covered the senator a long time, you know his wife, karen. the political reality has been clear for a long time. candidates are stubborn. candidates are proud. what about the family consideration, spending the weekend with your 3-year-old in the hospital yet again? how did that come to the conclusion and face the reality? >> there's no question big time it did. ied to several people close to senator santorum said being at home, first of all, letting the adrenaline sort of seep out of him, not being on the campaign trail, and also being in the hospital with your 3-year-old daughter for the second time in a campaign season, it crystallized everything for him. he realized, you know what, this is just not worth it. it is time to get out. the other side of it i'm told some of his old children, you saw staples on the campaign trail, they weren't so sure. they were really invested. they gave up their lives, temporarily, to help their father and i'm told by people close that they weren't so sure it was the right decision to get. they want him to keep fighting. >> we know, peter there is no love lost, people say that in campaigns. this campaign, we know it to be true, between senator santorum and governor romney. senator santorum has been particularly critical, saying he is the worst candidate to put forward on the health care issue. need phone call today n his public statement, he spoke for a long time, never even mentioned him. proof of the bad blood? >> i think so you are absolutely right. santorum basically portrayed governor romney as a trader to the conservative cause, this was his main rationale for staying in the race this entire time there is certainly a good amount of bad blood there and, you know, if they do speak, you know, maybe they will repair things but we heard from the santorum campaign today that an endorsement for mitt romney is actually not a sure thing. >> just add to that quickly, i know you reported earlier the two men did speak by phone. i'm told in that conversation, mitt romney specifically asked senator santorum to sit down for a face-to-face meeting. the two men agreed. the time and place suspect set yet. >> we wait for that meeting, as you listen to senator santorum, he said it was important to beat president obama this fall. he said it was important to keep the house and try to get the senate back. but in his words, especially in his body language, he seemed to be saying i'm not going anywhere. this is a man looking beyond 2012 and that's why it's so important, not necessarily to make friend with mitt romney but to show the party's republican. >> that's right, john. and at this point, rick santorum really saves himself for future things. had he lost pennsylvania, that probably would have killed any chance of running for president in the future. getting out now makes him sort of the mike huckabee of 2016, if mitt romney does not win this election, rick santorum is positioned now as somebody who has won a lot of pry markers somebody who was pretty successful during this campaign without a lot of money and somebody who will be talked about over the next several years, should mitt romney not win in the fall. that's pretty good position for rick santorum to be in. and had he gotten any closer to that pennsylvania primary, john, and those polls started tipping in mitt romney's direction. remember, restore our future that super pac, was going to come in here, like everybody calls it the death star, the death star starting to position itself over pennsylvania. rick santorum did not want that kind of situation to unfold. he was guy saying has to win michigan. mitt romney has to win michigan. had he not won pennsylvania that could have been the end of his political career. >> john, i'm told real quick, budget was also a factor in this. pennsylvania has five media markets, some of them are very expensive. he reported almost $1 million in debt at the end of february. money was also a factor in this i'm today. >> jim, dana, thank you a long-time adviser to senator santorum is here. john, i want to focus on what's next. senator santorum speaks to governor romney. i'm told he said he wanted to help, he understands that reality. his public statement never mentions him. why not? >> let me back up a little bit. i happened to talk with matt rhodes, the campaign manager for mitt romney last night. we'd great conversation. we expressed that the senator would be getting out and that we do want to help romney campaign. it was suggested we have the two candidates duke each other which they did this morning, a very good conversation. governor romney had suggest they had soon get together to talk in ways that rick santorum could help. i wouldn't read too much about rick santorum not mentioning mitt romney in the speech. i think rick felt it was very, very important for him to have a narrative that shares why he was suspending his campaign and all the good that the campaign did and i think also make it clear that rick santorum is still going to be a passionate fighter and a loud voice for conservative causes. so, right now, the great unifier is barack obama. rick santorum got into this race because he felt that barack obama had to be defeated. he feels -- still feels that strongly and will still be committed to that cause. >> so help me understand, how will he, i assume he will join forces with governor romney at some point. how will he convince voters that these statement and others like them are just politics? let's listen. >> you really believe this country wants to elect a wall street financier as the president of the united states? you think that's the kind of experience we need? someone -- someone who is gonna take and look after, as he did his friends on wall street and bail them out at the expense of main street america? pick any other republican in the country. he is the worst republican in the country, to put up against barack obama. the democrats will use those statement. john, how do you make them go away? >> well, first of all, let's be clear about this. rick santorum was saying there are disagreements that he and mitt romney have on critical issues and i believe that's one of the reasons that they are gonna silt down and to talk about those issues and main how they can join forces on them. but rick has been very clear from day one that he would unify behind whoever the candidate is, the republican nominee, they certainly are a much strong around better hope for america than barack obama. he will do that right now with mitt romney. emcertainly plan on helping mitt romney defeat barack obama and that will be a commitment that he makes. >> mitt romney might want and need your help, too a smart strategist, won a tough state, pennsylvania, several times. i want to ask you this. this is something tony perkins of the family research council told our dana bash today. he obviously was a santorum guy, social conservative, abortion opponent, same-sex marriage opponent. "it is difficult to back a candidate our constituents don't believe in and aren't excited about." he is talking about governor romney v senator santorum prepared to sit down with tony perkins, and more importantly, social conservative voters all around the country, look them in the eye and say be for romney? urge i think what's prepared to do is to share how america has blinked under this president, we have lost freedoms, he has moved it far to the left and the second term of barack obama, even move that much farther to the left so, a big part of the narrative going forward is how we have to stop barack obama and how is clearly the man who now can do that and how we have to unify in that process. >> rick santorum believe he should you can considered for the vice presidential nomination? >> you know, he got into this race because he felt that he should you can the nominee who could then go on and beat barack obama and bring and restore to america a lot of the conservative values that the republicans believe in bring some of the fiscal dislynn that washington needs and also have the experience to take on iran, which is a growing threat. i think he still believes that and i think that as he has said in the past, he is ready to help america whatever way he can do best. >> appreciate your insights tonight and throughout the campaign. you will hear from john tonight, emsit down with piers morgue ton discuss this big dramatic development in the presidential campaign. thanks, john. still ahead, look ahead to the general election matchup. our guest, the chairman of the republican national committee. jammed on the at breaking news from george zimmermann's attorneys, they have lost contact with their client. ♪ you are my sunshine, my only sunshine ♪ ♪ you make me happy [ female announcer ] choose the same brand your mom trusted for you. children's tylenol, the #1 brand of pain and fever relief recommended by pediatricians and used by moms decade after decade. i'm michael bazinet, president of creative digital imaging of bangor, maine. we have customers all over the united states. we rely on the postal service for everything that we do. the eastern maine processing facility is vital to our operation and our success. if we lose this processing facility we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times. we would have to consider layoffs as a result of that. closure of this plant will affect all of us. ♪ closure of this plant will affect all of us. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. 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[whoosh, clang] you need lifelock, the only identity theft protection company that now monitors bank accounts for takeover fraud. lifelock: relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today. let's start with car insurance x. this one does save people a lot of money and it's very affordable. it was very delicious. could you please taste car insurance y? this one is much more expensive. ugh. it's really bad. let's see what you picked. oh, geico! over their competitor. you are a magician right? no., oh. you're not?, no., oh, well, give it a shot. i am so, so sorry. it was this close. standing by live this hour, you see mitt romney speaking in wilmington, delaware, since rick santorum decided to exit the race and santorum's exit from the republican vase huge help from governor romney, comes on the very day that president obama hit the road to sharpen his general election focus on the economy, the taxes. the president went to florida promoting what he calls buff the fete rule. the proposal to make sure the millionaires pay the same percentage of their income in taxes as the middle class does and the president took issue with republicans who say he's wrong. >> a lot of the folks were peddling these same trickle down theories including members of congress and some people running for a certain office right nour who shall not be named. they are doubling down on these old broken down theories. instead of mod rating their views even slightly. >> let's frame the fall rates onning biggest issue, the economy, taxes, jobs, the leading republican strategist fred davis and cnn contributor, james carville, a democrat among the men who helped bill clinton win the white house with the slogan "its it's the economy, stupid." governor romney got a big boost today, fred. he was about to speak in wilmington, delaware. if you were advising him, needs to heat wound us in the republican party but has problems to his left with women, with hispanic voters what is challenge number one for this candidate on this night? >> oh, i remember another line of james' that went very well, something like i feel your pain i think what romney has to do is convince america that it's not enough to feel their pain, i'm not sure people are going to feel their pain but that he can fix the pain and i think maybe it's time for competence and actually fix the problem. >> an interesting point. if you look at the "washington post" -- abc news poll, on personal authorities, president obama thumps romney, more likeable and friendly, more inspiring, understands people's economic problems, which is critical because of the climate in this election year, 49 to 37. why? why? what is romney doing wrong? >> first of all, a terrible name these primaries. said one thing after another that reinforced the image of him. i think fred is a very smart guy, kind of agree with what he says. he can't pull off empathy. that's just not in his skillset. he is just going to have to jump to the next thing and convince people he is a turnaround artist or a competent guy. i mean, that's his avenue to the white house. anything short of that every time he tries to come across as somebody who understands people, feels people, sort of part of mainstream america, he falls flat and probably not going to be able to pull that off. so i actually agree with what fred said, a smart piece of advice that romney did. >> if the romney campaign can figure it out, fred, if you looked at the polling, i just showed numbers fright damning if you are the romney campaign, advantage obama on those things, but look at these numbers here is governor romney speaking, is that what i'm being hold? governor romney is beginning to speak. stand by. >> decided not proceed with his campaign and i had a chance to speak with him this morning, we exchanged our thoughts about going forward and we both have a were great deal of interest in seeing the country taken in a very different path. he has made an important contribution to the political process, has brought forward issues this he cares very deeply about and able to gather a great deal of public support and interest in those issues and himself. he will continue to have a major role in the republican party and i luke forward to his work inning him a sure victories for republicans across the country in november. we got to get that job done. [ applause ] now you can the reason that i wanted to meet with these business leaders was to ask them about their enterprises, what the prospects are for them, what they are seeing in the marketplace, but also getting a sense of the administration's policies and the government's policies as they relate to small business. and as you might expect, those policies have by and large been devastating to small business. and so we spoke about the president's failure to actually encourage small business and also, i would note, to be able to encourage enterprises that are owned by women and to encourage job creation for women more generally. the other day, there's been some talk about a war on women. the real war on women has been waged by the obama administration's failure on the economy. [ applause ] >> that is governor mitt romney, the former governor of massachusetts, campaigning live in wilmington, dell wear. this is the first romney event since senator santorum dropped out. let's bring back in fred davis the running republican strategist, james carville, the democratic strategist. fred, he said thank you, applauded the santorum campaign, then he shifted to the economy, again it is more of a programmatic criticism president obama. is that enough? it is not going to be enough. and i think james will agree are he is going to have to be something different than he has been in the republican primary. he needs to -- i think his new campaign starts tomorrow. he should have a -- i told somebody earlier today, he should have a nice bottle of wine tonight and then they told me he doesn't drink. so he won't be having that, but he can have one last nice night, then he starts running as the economic savior of america tomorrow against barack obama. and of course, doesn't really have to worry that much about ron paul and newt gingrich. >> james, for all the criticism of governor romney and those earlier poll numbers quite favorable to the president, if you look deeper at the "washington post"/abc news poll, governor romney wins, on handling the economy, governor romney wins, on creating jobs, a tie with the president having a slight advantage a long way between april and november. you are looking at those numbers, the key issue in the campaign, governor romney is in a competitive position, right? >> yeah, we are at a tough economic time, but these numbers are actually improving for the president if we looked at those numbers six months ago they would have been much worse. so it is going to be a very, very competitive general election there is no doubt about it. i have to kind of smile when he was praising rick santorum after he dumped tense of millions of dollars of negative and unleashing 3 million in negative in pennsylvania that is part of politics, but somewhat humorous, the tear that he is shedding for rick santorum today. it can be a funny business. james carville, fred davey, appreciate your time. sorry interrupted by the live event, we will bring you back and continue this conversation, the competitive general election, as james said. fred notes it begins tonight or tomorrow. still ahead here, the truth about this fall's election race between governor romney and president obama, likely to be a lot closer than you might think. the chairman of the republican party joins us next with a look ahead. every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business, it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $6.4 billion in new credit to small businesses across the country last year. because the more we help them, th

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