leaning towards someone 26%, still trying to decide, 37%. this is new hampshire. this is basically what new hampshire looks like. right. like iowa, that can make things very interesting. where rick santorum had the surge among the late deciders. if you look at exit polls in 2008, john mccain won nearly 50% of the people who decided over the course of the last week. mitt romney won a little less than a third. people broke away from mitt romney in 2008. we don t know whether that is going to happen now. i think some of these candidates who are getting a first look in new hampshire like santorum, maybe getting a second look or 150th like like john huntsman people may decide romney likely to win i m going to send my vote to somebody else so it doesn t feel like a coronation. bret: the fight for the number two spot and the back and forth in the debate today between santorum and paul on
leaning towards someone 26%, still trying to decide, 37%. this is new hampshire. this is basically what new hampshire looks like. right. like iowa, that can make things very interesting. where rick santorum had the surge among the late deciders. if you look at exit polls in 2008, john mccain won nearly 50% of the people who decided over the course of the last week. mitt romney won a little less than a third. people broke away from mitt romney in 2008. we don t know whether that is going to happen now. i think some of these candidates who are getting a first look in new hampshire like santorum, maybe getting a second look or 150th like like john huntsman people may decide romney likely to win i m going to send my vote to somebody else so it doesn t feel like a coronation. bret: the fight for the number two spot and the back and forth in the debate today between santorum and paul on the issue of cutting spending
it s only if you frankly ignore ron paul and you ignore his issues and pretend all the other candidates are kind of like santorum and gingrich and perry and bachmann and all the rest of them. it s only if you ignore what ron paul stands for that you can see a non-romney consensus candidate emerging. wish ron paul away in order to do that. joining us, michael steele, former chairman of the republican party. it s great to see you. good to be back. happy new year. i see you re a fire brand as ever. i would take exception to a few of the things you re saying. tell me. just on two points very broadly. number one, with respect to the abortion question in particular. both ron paul and rick santorum, their objection, where they agree, is at the federal level. they don t want to grow government to get involved in that. they would actually like to move it back to the states and have the states decide these issues on a state-by-state basis which is more consistent with what republicans have