states. he says he's staying in. now the questions are can santorum find a path to challenge romney? it would be easier if gingrich gets out. the math, the rules, the history. everything tells you it's still romney over the long hall into may and june. but you know what? our politics have been outside the rules. we elected our first african-american president. the tea party movement came out of nowhere. so let's watch. santorum's going to puerto rico. then we have a big primary in illinois. back to the midwest where if you look at the demographics, should be a romney state. >> puerto rico is this coming sunday. >> huge. >> and then illinois is a week from now on tuesday. >> i think i need to go to cover it. >> in fairness to mitt romney, he's still away head in the delegate count. he's got more than all of the other candidates combined so far. >> and this isn't the way they wanted it to be right now. if they do go across the finish line, they're going to crawl across the finish line. let me read you something peter hamby wrote -- political reporter peter hamby. from a senior adviser to newt gingrich floated this. get this. newt gingrich and rick santorum would be a powerful team against barack obama. now, do i believe for a minute that's going to happen? no. but interesting. >> if senator santorum wins he's going to pick the guy who said he's not ready for primetime and nobody in congress? uh-huh. >> right. but this comes from a gingrich version because they're looking for alliances right now. they need some friends. >> what i like to do to scare my friends is refer to president gingrich and vice president palin. it scares them. >> santorum is the only one of these republican candidates that has won in virtually every major part of the country. >> he has, but he won non-binding states that didn't have delegates. about five weeks ago, no delegates up that night. it gave him the post and the good press to come out and do as well as he's done now. but rick santorum, one thing republicans have got to look to rick santorum and say can you solve this problem? is his problem with women. if he is to stand for republicans, he's going to have to address that. that gender gap is big. >> didn't he do well with married women in alabama? >> he did well with women women. not just married. singles alike. i'm talking about the general election. this is an issue rick santorum has got to prove -- >> how does he do that with the women voters? women ushlgly vote in these national elections than men. >> i think rick santorum has a problem because of the issue of contraception even though he's kind of back tracked a bit on that. i think mitt romney would have an easier time turning around a gender gap which is now a gender gulch. he does well with married women and with suburban republican women. so i think mitt romney would have a much easier time. >> it would help governor romney is there was public polling that showed romney competitive against obama and santorum tanking against obama. the problem for romney is the polls don't show that right now. president obama has come down a bit in all the polls. forget the republican candidates, just because of questions about the economy. he has come down some. santorum and romney equal in the national polls flight. romney has to get back to the electability. >> if you look at all the polls and john knows this well. the republicans by and large think that romney is much more electable in a general election. they also think that santorum is much more conservative. a lot of times they go with their heart instead of their electability brain. >> and i think it's one of the reasons this race keeps going on. republicans are shopping. they're not sure. they're changing their minds. so they're open to different ideas. over the months it's going to evolve. >> at some point you have to stop shopping. i never thought i would say that, but at some point. >> it does feel like republicans are not putting our best foot forward. the advantage we have is neither is the other party. the other party also has a weak foot going forward. that may be the shape of the 2012 election. >> for the obama campaign, they focused almost exclusively only on mitt romney. they assumed from day one it was his. they're working on the assumption it's still his. is that a smart strategy on the obama campaign? should they look at the possibility it might not be mitt romney? >> there have been a day or two where they focused on gingrich when he had a surge. a little bit on senator santorum. they still believe, and there's every reason for them to believe, it will be governor romney. they believe unlike their protracted democratic primary four years ago which helped the democrats -- at least there wasn't any blood or deep wounds, this is causing fissures in the republican party. we don't know if that's true. you can look at polling and evidence. we know they're going to vote republican. no matter who the nominee is. alabama and mississippi. >> realistically now, gloria, i think we can assume what happened four years ago on the democratic side with hillary clinton and barack obama going all the way through mid-june, they were waiting for primaries and caucuses in june. finally almost at the very end. barack obama won. hillary clinton conceded. is that likely to happen this time? >> it could. at least for a couple more months. it really seems to me that this is going to continue. it's the deja vu here. and now i'm starting to think about if you release your delegates, it doesn't mean your delegates have to go for the person you necessarily endorse. so suddenly i'm getting back in that cycle that i never thought i'd revisit. >> very important people. >> the delegate counters are important. every time i'm reminded -- when i was the junior white house correspondent. he would sing. i get knocked down, but i get up again. it was a way to lose energy at the white house. every time romney has been knocked down, he has rallied. >> he sings too. >> he faces a huge challenge. >> right. >> he faces a huge challenge. but they have the best money, they have the best organization. the question is do they have the best candidate? we're about to find that out. >> do they? >> the calendar is going to benefit mitt romney is bit. you're shifting to northeastern states. also goes into a lull. you don't have a big multi-state night until april. you've got a couple two-state primaries. there are several one-state primaries coming up. >> the three biggest states are yet to speak out on this front. texas, california, and new york. who's better positioned in those three -- where most of the delegates are. those are the big prizes right there. new york, california, texas. who wins? >> well, new york, i believe is in april. california in may. texas in june. i'll answer that question depending on the dynamic between now and then. >> but you also have the sort of yankee primaries on the 24th which is also pennsylvania, new york, connecticut, delaware. and so, you know, one might think rick santorum might be positioned well and mitt romney would be positioned well. and not so much newt gingrich. >> given the proportional rules, you have winner take all when you get to new jersey and california. if gingrich stays in, it's very hard. you can see him closing -- santorum closing the gap. hard to catch governor romney. speaker gingrich is a proud man. he sees santorum and romney and says why not stay in longer.t os saying mr. speaker, nice run. you had your chance in the south. >> we'll see if the money dries up for newt gingrich right now. because that'll be a huge factor. not necessarily the super pac money but the day-to-day money which his campaign needs. thanks very much. when we come back, one of rick santorum's top men on why his candidate has earned a one-on-one race with mitt romney. and newt gingrich's daughters on why their dad is staying in the race. ♪ [ male announcer ] the 2012 m-class continually monitors blind spots, scans the road to reveal potential threats, even helps awaken its driver if he begins to doze. so in the blink of an eye it will have performed more active safety measures than most cars will in a lifetime. introducing the all-new 2012 m-class. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. without the stuff that we make here, you wouldn't be able to walk in your house and flip on your lights. 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[ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. take the privileged investing tools of wall street and make them simple, intuitive, and available to all. distill all that data. make information instinctual, visual. introducing trade architect, td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. take control of your portfolio today. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. senator santorum is at the desperate end of his campaign and is trying in some way to boost his prospects. frankly, misrepresenting the truth is not a good way of doing that. >> some harsh words from mitt romney. my interview with him earlier. words which proved to be less than rophetic. thanks very much for coming in. what's your response to governor romney, only a few hours ago he said that rick santorum in his words was at the desperate end of his campaign. >> evidently the voters in mississippi and in alabama somehow didn't get that memo from the governor and decided to speak their own mind. and these are pretty remarkable wins. i don't think anybody predicted it. especially with the amount of money that governor romney spent which was probably tenfold what we spent. this is a pretty remarkable american story. somebody going out there, rick santorum just speaking from their heart and people listening and it's resonating and they're vote for for him. >> what was your realistic expectation a few hours ago before the polls closed in mississippi and alabama? >> well, we actually felt really good about alabama. we were seeing a lot of energy there. a lot of web traffic. those type of things. we had heard that governor romney had the entire establishment behind him in mississippi and that they could deliver a win for him. and frankly, this is also newt gingrich's back yard for all practical purposes. he was expected to do extremely well. we were surprised winning both states. gratified. just as surprised as we were on saturday when not only did we win kansas, we got more votes than all the other candidates combined. >> your candidate has resisted the urge to ask speaker gingrich to step aside. is it time, do you believe, for gingrich to move on? >> i would answer that a bit differently. i think it's time that conservative and tea party supporters understand they've got to rally behind one candidate. and that's how you stop a moderate like mitt romney from ever getting the nomination. if we can get all those votes behind one candidate, we'll win in all these big states coming up that are going to be very, very important. >> so does that mean you would obviously like newt gingrich to step aside so that it would be effectively a one-on-one race between rick santorum and mitt romney. >> well, yeah, no. i think we've earned a one on one with mitt romney. we saw that tonight with the wins. last week with the wins where nobody expected us to. i think actually the american people deserve that too. where it's a consistent, clear decision of whether you want to vote for a moderate, mitt romney, or a conservative rick santorum. >> let's look ahead quickly to puerto rico which is sunday and illinois which is a week from today, next tuesday. what's your assessment? >> you know, again, i think they're a little bit hard. illinois is someplace i think will be close. there was a poll out by the "chicago tribune" that shows governor romney about four points ahead. it's a state where he's already spending a million dollars on tv and we'll have a little bit of catch-up. but then we get to go to a lot of states that we feel very good about. wisconsin, louisiana. we haven't even gone to pennsylvania, rick santorum's home state which today there was a poll released that showed him winning by 18 points. there's a lot of big states ahead. many of them favorable to rick santorum. >> having said all that, as far as delegates, by our cnn estimate you're way behind. mitt romney as of right now has twice as many delegates on the road to 1,444, than you do. >> well, the problem that mitt romney has and everybody has is right now it doesn't look like anybody's going to easily get to the amount that you need before getting to a convention. that works very much in our favor, we believe, because there's uncommitted delegates who we believe will ultimate come with rick santorum. plus you have some big states like texas that are winner take all states that can shift what that count is yet. we think time is on our side. we think that ultimately rick santorum can get to the magic number before the convention. we also think we have a big advantage going into the convention with all the santorum momentum we have going on. >> so you basically think that mitt romney was wrong when he told me today that santorum is at the desperate end of his campaign. you obviously disagree. >> well, yeah, no. if you look at their math figures, they're counting a lot of votes they don't have right now. second of all, there's only been roughly a third of the delegates even voted on. so i think, frankly, there's probably a lot of states that are starting to get very offended by governor romney saying that those states shouldn't even have a chance to vote. and i'm hoping people in illinois, louisiana, and wisconsin are some of those states who say this is arrogant and we're not going to have the establishment and mitt romney tell us how to vote. >> thanks very much for coming in. >> thank you very much. i really appreciated being here. newt gingrich says he's going all the way and will compete for the nomination no matter what despite his disappointing finish in alabama and mississippi. he also took a shot at mitt romney. listen to this. >> one of the things tonight proved is that the elite media's effort to convince the nation that mitt romney is inevitable just collapsed. if you're the front runner and you keep coming in third, you're not much of a front runner. >> knocking romney on what turned out to be a bad night for newt gingrich himself. joining us now, two of newt gingrich's staunch and supporters. they happen to be his daughters. jackie gingrich kushman. thanks very much for coming in. how disappointed is your dad that he didn't win both of these southern states? >> well, you know, he's not disappointed at all. he's very happy to be here in alabama and mississippi. it was a photo finish. it was not a very big gap at all. so i think of course he would have liked to have won. the reality is he's going to walk away from tonight with more delegates that he had before tonight. i think he's got a great point. for months we have been hearing that mitt romney is the inevitable candidate. clearly he is not inevitable because it hasn't happened yet. so we're really focusing on the race for the long haul. the delegates needed to secure the nomination. and the reality is nobody is there yet. and we're going all the way to tampa. >> so kathy, the notion of him dropping out even though he didn't win both of these states, that notion we should forget about because he came close, but it wasn't close enough? >> well, we can't listen to what the elite media says about our father dropping out. he's good for his word. and as you've heard him say, this is going to be a dialogue with the american people. and he's the one that can actually beat barack obama. the president is actually already responding to his messaging about $2.50 a gallon gasoline. there were five different instances this week where the president or white house was responding, commenting, making press comments. there's a reason for that. our father has already taken the dialogue to president barack obama. he's going to be the best to debate him and lead the conservative republicans through this race. so we're in this for the long haul with our father. we think he's going to take it to tampa and beyond. >> kathy, you have to admit that rick santorum really has a lot of that political momentum right now, much more than your dad. >> well, if you look at senator santorum, obviously he did very well tonight in alabama and mississippi. dad congratulated him on his good night. i'd like to do the same thing, congratulate him on his good night. part of what's going to happen during this process, people are going to get to know santorum and his report better and better. in the end, what they're going to find it is under my dad's leadership as speaker, the deficit went down $20 million. when santorum was in, they increased the deficit. that's a huge difference. i think when you look at their records and even governor romney said this week that senator santorum wasn't as fiscally conservative as he was. i'm not going to compare the two, but i think as time goes on, the voters will go out and look at their records and realize that my father who balanced the budget for four years, who reformed welfare as speaker, who cut taxes and spending, he stood up and governed with president clinton, that's he's the only to step up and get it done. >> let me interrupt for a second. we're almost out of time. the notion he's only won two states out of what? 20 contests so far, what does that say? >> well, the reality is even as we get through this process, louisiana is where the halfway point of this football game if you want to use an analogy that the deep south does resonate with. there are a lot of delegates yet to be determined. the inevitable candidate definitely is no longer inevitable. and i think our father is going to continue the pace and the duration is going to be well for him over the duration of this race. he's going to continue to do better and better and the people will get to know his political perspectives, his solutions for america, and if you need more information go to newt.org. there is plenty of information there for all of your viewers. >> thanks so much for joining us. i'm sure we'll continue this conversation now we know your dad is staying in the race. thanks very much. and coming up, a look at the next primary contest. sunday's vote. that's coming up in puerto rico. this is delicious okay... is this where we're at now? we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey