what did rick santorum, self-proclaimed family values guy, what did rick santorum do with that information about a serving senator in a sex and ethics scandal after he was tipped off to that scandal? what did he do about it? oh. he tipped off john ensign. he tipped off his friend who had the sex scandal to let him know that he was about to be exposed. this exhaustive and damning report by the senate ethics committee into the ethics scandal around john ensign broke this down. "on june 15th, 2009, doug hampton forwarded a copy of the letter and e-mail to rick santorum and asked senator santorum for help with the matter. senator santorum forwarded mr. hampton's e-mail and letter to senator ensign at his g-mail address that evening at approximately 10:20 p.m. the very next day was when senator ensign realize he had to get he held a press conference admitting to the affair and explaining he was going to try to hold on to his senate seat. so you may recall us on the show talking about rick santorum's role in the john ensign sex scandal last summer. because last summer mr. santorum was busy doing

what did rick santorum, self-proclaimed family values guy, what did rick santorum do with that information about a serving senator in a sex and ethics scandal after he was tipped off to that scandal? what did he do about it? oh. he tipped off john ensign. he tipped off his friend who had the sex scandal to let him know that he was about to be exposed. this exhaustive and damning report by the senate ethics committee into the ethics scandal around john ensign broke this down. "on june 15th, 2009, doug hampton forwarded a copy of the letter and e-mail to rick santorum and asked senator santorum for help with the matter. senator santorum forwarded mr. hampton's e-mail and letter to senator ensign at his g-mail address that evening at approximately 10:20 p.m. the very next day was when senator ensign realize he had to get out ahead of this. he held a press conference admitting to the affair and explaining he was going to try to hold on to his senate seat. so you may recall us on the show talking about rick santorum's role in the john ensign sex scandal last summer. because last summer mr. sant

we begin with rick santorum. momentum is with the pennsylvania senator and he is sticking to his conservative guns. candidate santorum this afternoon. >> i would suggest if you look at the history of republican nominees, that moderate voters, moderate candidates who were there to appeal to more moderates ended up losing. >> but is that tough enough? listen to what congressman ron paul had to say about santorum earlier to cnn's dana bash. >> why would not he be a good republican nominee? >> he is very liberal. >> santorum is liberal? >> have you looked at his record? >> uh-huh. >> go look at his record. >> cnn political correspondent jim acosta is in boone, iowa. he spent the day with jim santorum. i understand he got some interesting last-minute help. >> reporter: that's right. don't tell jim bob dug per rick santorum is too liberal. the reality show tv show star, he is the star of the reality tv show 19 kids and counting. he backed mike huckabee. he's been in support of the former pennsylvania senator. you won't

>> mitt romney. >> i voted for mitt romney. >> tonight my choice is rick santorum. >> rick santorum. >> the biggest thing he is lektability. that is between santorum and mitt romney. i chose romney at the very end. >> what do you like about romney? >> i like the lektability. >> governor romney can raise $3 billion. i think he can match obama dollar for dollar. i believe he can definitely defeat mr. obama. >> what is it about mitt romney that attracted you? >> i think like his family values. i just feel like maybe he could be the one to beat obama. he might be the best at get along in washington. >> and he's the guy who can win? that seems to be the overarching argument tonight, right? >> right. >> if santorum come out and be the nominee, do you think he can beat president obama? >> i think. so. >> and santorum won in precinct two. >> i could live with rick santorum. >> do you believe he can defeat president obama? >> i hope he can. yes. yeah, i do. he is one of america's choices and his ideals and his beliefs. >> and is rick santorum a candidate you're happy with, somebody you can li

rick santorum also got a huge boost. he's in second place now down there with 19, followed very closely by newt gingrich in third. that one. we also have a poll from up here. romney is in the lead at 40%, followed by ron paul at 17. rick santorum is at 11. romney leads nationally at 29 b 21. so, joe klein, it looks like rick santorum is slowly edging up to be the number one challenger to romney. >> the south carolina number is interesting. i don't want to break any news here, but this new hampshire primary isn't all that interesting this time. you know, the next really big deal is south carolina. except for the two debates here this weekend, i might add. >> doesn't what happens this weekend set up what happens on tuesday? that sets up what happens in south carolina. it's dynamic. >> but in the past, you could see the dynamic asserting itself in the week between iowa and new hampshire. i don't see all that much happening out here and you can see that in the polls. >> it seems like such a short chasm between the two. i rem

rick santorum, 24,134. ron paul coming in third with 79% of the precincts reporting, 21%, he's got 21,000 votes. newt gingrich is a distant fourth, only 13%, only 13,000 votes. rick perry, about 10%, 10,000 votes. michele bachmann, 5%, about 5,000 votes. jon huntsman at 1% of the votes. let's go to erick and gloria. what's going on over here? you're looking closely at these numbers. santorum was ahead, now slightly, slightly, mitt romney ahead. >> we've been looking as it's flip-flopped around, and each of the leaders and why. now let's look at mitt romney and where his strength is coming from. two things we want to hone in on. we asked people, what's the most important candidate quality, can defeat obama. 31% of the caucusgoers told us that was the most important thing. true conservative, 25%. i'm going to tell you right now, those voters went overwhelmingly for ron paul. strong moral character, a quarter of voters said that was most important. and i'll tell you right now, that went overwhelmingly for rick

forgot rick perry. then we went to rick santorum. will they actually -- will rick santorum now stay on top or will he just be a fleeting moment at the top? >> right. when you go -- >> from the papers today in philadelphia, some of the people in the philadelphia daily news who don't like him on the editorial page already vetting him and that's something that hasn't really happened to rick santorum because he was the last person to surge. now, this morning, as people wake up and he's got 25% of the vote, they're going to go through his record and start talking and it will begin with how he lost his re-election by 18 points. >> right. let's talk about what the democrats are going. the president of the united states is being ignored because there's no one to fight against and therefore, yesterday, he did a web conference where he had some questions and talked about iowa and all his accomplishments and his -- and another one of his minions, you want to hear that right now? let's hear a little bit from the president. >> because of those ca

rick santorum, more than 100 days. so he did not put all of his time and all of his money into this state. whether he can get away with it, i don't know. because he made a huge push toward the end of this and they sounded very confident. but either way they look at it, they don't believe that rick santorum has the wherewithal to go the distance. that he just doesn't have the infrastructure out there and available to him to make this a winning race through 50 states. so they feel pretty good, regardless of who goes up or down in that first and second slot. >> candy, was gingrich's speech carried in that room ? and if so, i'm wondering what the reaction of it was? very clearly, there was a level of anger towards romney -- >> reporter: oh, a level of it? yeah. yeah lots of ohhs, things like that while they were listening. i thought it was pretty clear, listening very closely to newt gingrich that the strategy for him going forward is, he basically embraced rick santorum, we're friends, our families are friends. and he cal

we saw with rick santorum. what killed rick santorum the fact he got nailed from the right by michele bachmann right away. i think that was the first thing that really hurt the perry then, of course, the debate debacles but on the hpv vaccine and attacked right away. if you're working for romney right now you're pulling research that will go to santorum from the right. how vulnerable do you think he is and do you think that's the first thing we'll see the attack on him be in the next week? >> if you compare santorum to the earlier not romney candidates, on paper he has less positive, not been a successful governor like huntsman or perry. he can speak knowledgeably and fluently about the issues in a way that bachmann and cain and perry repeatedly failed to do. the chief obstacle people didn't think others would vote for him. once he started taking off in the polls they had permission to start voting for him. that dynamic is not over so i think it's going to be actually quite difficult for romney to attack santor

but the story is rick santorum. you think to where he was 2 weeks ago and where he was six months ago. i remember being in the fox green room with him, talking to him as he laid out to me his strategy for being a serious candidate. i will admit, i didn't take him very seriously. it was an awkward exchange where i was looking at him, thinking, you are crazy. that doesn't make any sense at all. and he looked at me in that reading my reaction and said, i am not crazy. that's not crazy. it turns out, he was right. that's not crazy. >> 2 1/2 weeks ago in the green room in washington. he was saying how he was upset that more news operations, including ours, didn't give him enough credit for what he was doing in iowa and despite the fact he was so low in the polls that he wasn't getting the time and the focus on what he was seeing anecdoteally on the ground. i said with time and performance, i am sure it's going to change. soon after that, the des moines register poll comes out, before this week, he outperforms that poll b

rick santorum. rick santorum. rick santorum. rick santorum. rick santorum. ron paul. rick santorum. michele bachmann. newt gingrich. rick perry. mitt romney. rick santorum. rick santorum. newt gingrich. mitt romney. mitt romney. rick santorum. rick santorum in one spot. mitt romney second, paul and newt gingrich tied in third. it appears that the first count. rick santorum, first, mitt romney, second, paul and newt gingrich tied for third. i will announce the total study audience and a make the official tabulation to des moines. just again so that we have the ascent of mr. freeman, the sheriff, the observers, our president secretary -- >> [inaudible] >> sure, that would be fine. rick santorum, 41, mitt romney, 32, ron paul and newt gingrich at 13, bachmann, seven, perry, six, huntsman, one. rick santorum winds, mitt romney, second, paul and newt gingrich third. i will have use i met with the secretary and announce the results to the caucus and we will make the call to des moines. we will go ahead and announce these. [inaudible] >> may be that we could do it this time, sheriff, why d

to rick santorum. this has been a great victory for him and his effort. he's worked very hard in iowa. we also feel it's been a great victory for us here. and ron paul as well. ron paul's had a great night. this has been terrific. i think it's great that here in the heartland of america, that a campaign begins, all three of us will be campaigning very hard to make sure we restore the heart and soul of the entire nation. and thank you, iowa, for the great send-off you're giving to us and to the others in this campaign. look, this is a -- this is a campaign night where america wins. we're going to change the white house and get america back on track. >> romney making it very clear he's looking forward now, moving on to new hampshire next, his own backyard. obviously former governor of massachusetts, he's got a summer home in new hampshire. there are going to be questions tomorrow about mitt romney, getting the number that he did here in iowa. not all that different from what you saw here four years ago a

rick santorum won, not mitt romney. i've got the best political team on television with me right now. we're going to start with wolf blitzer on the phone along with our peter hamby, who broke the story about rick perry, mark preston, paul steinhauser also on the ground in charleston. we'll talk more about our debate toght. then we've got shannon travis live in des moines talking about rick santorum actually winning iowa. all right, wolf, let's start with you. the biggest news, rick perry in about an hour going to step up to the mike and announce that he is out. are you surprised? >> i'm sort of surprised. i thought he would do it after -- he was almost certainly going to finish last on saturday. i thought he would drop out after that. but to save himself humiliation of coming in last, they took a lot of his terms. he'll have this news conference at 11:00, make a statement, i assume answer some questions. we'll see if he endorses anyone. he's following in the footsteps of jon huntsman, who did the same thing earlier this

ron paul is ahead with 24%. 148 votes ahead of rick santorum with 23%. 4,292 for rick santorum. also at 23%, just below rick santorum is mitt romney with 4,183 votes. newt gingrich is distant 13%. 2400 votes or so. rick perry only 10%, 1800 votes. michele bachmann a disappointing 6% withh1,000 votes. only 126 votes for jon huntsman. he didn't even campaign in iowa. 15% of the caucus precincts have reported right now. soledad o'brien is in clive outside of des moines. they're counting votes over there, soledad. >> yeah, there are two precincts that they're counting votes for here in clive. over here i'm looking at precinct two votes being counted. they're starting to sort them. so first they've got to divide them by candidate. after that they count those piles. once they count them for the first time, they'll switch, count those piles for the second time to make sure they're getting a consistent number. after that they'll start writing on a white board. they're going to write on the white board who has done, who has done well. there are speakers here talking as well. i'm going to

but the story is rick santorum. you think to where he was 2 weeks ago and where he was six months ago. i remember being in the fox green room with him, talking to him as he laid out to me his strategy for being a serious candidate. i will admit, i didn't take him very seriously. it was an awkward exchange where i was looking at him, thinking, you are crazy. that doesn't make any sense at all. and he looked at me in that reading my reaction and said, i am not crazy. that's not crazy. it turns out, he was right. that's not crazy. >> 2 1/2 weeks ago in the green room in washington. he was saying how he was upset that more news operations, including ours, didn't give him enough credit for what he was doing in iowa and despite the fact he was so low in the polls that he wasn't getting the time and the focus on what he was seeing anecdoteally on the ground. i said with time and performance, i am sure it's going to change. soon after that, the des moines register poll comes out, before this week, he outperforms that poll b

rick santorum doesn't. can he perform well in new hampshire, come up a little bit, then go to south carolina, go to florida? he's going to have to make a lot of decisions very quickly if he comes out on top of this tonight but he's going to have to scale up very quickly and have the challenge. he is going to have to be drinking water out of a fire hydra hydrant. >> are there enough people that can help him scale up? everybody is sort of committed aren't they? >> i think he's done it with a skeleton staff, a lot of his kids are working on the campaign. they don't have a lot of people who have done this professionally. so i think that he is going to have a lot of challenges over the days ahead. but he may well emerge after tonight as the chief alternative to governor romney. if you look back four years ago, in south carolina, the single most important thing that happened to john mccain in terms of winning the nomination was the fact that fred thompson didn't get out of the race after a disappointing finnish i

rick santorum did it. of course he lost in '06, but a lot of republicans in '06. >> they lost by 18 points in '06. one of the worst senate losses in the history -- >> and in 2006, after six years of iraq. listen, i am not -- i am not making a case for rick santorum's electability. all i'm saying is a lot of great republican candidates have tried to get reelected in pennsylvania and they have failed. i don't think you're going to find a lot of dirt in santorum's record because he represented a swing state like pennsylvania. >> and there are no signs of social issues are going to be decisive this time. >> he's extremely vocal about them and i think it is troubling. >> it wasn't last night, though, was it? >> his biggest problem with conservatives when people start to look at the spending record. that's what perry was hitting him on here. the earmarks, the pork, erick erickson's point. is that santorum has on spending and domestic policy, not social policy, but spending and economics has a very big government

whatever you think of rick santorum, he gives you rick santorum. he is not mitt romney! >> but the problem is that bad luck isn't ideologically convenient for republicans. >> no. this time he needs to make up ground and he's not making it up this day. thank you, howard fineman. thank you, joe klein. >>> coming up, my interview with newt gingrich. he's taken on mitt romney and it's getting personal. you're watching "hardball" from manchester, just four days before the new hampshire primary. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8. >>> welcome back to "hardball." newt gingrich is campaigning hard in new hampshire, following a dramatic fall in the polls, due in large part to a barrage of negative ads run by a pro-romney super pac called restore our future. i caught up with the former speaker in meredith, new hampshire, late last night and i got his criticism of his two chief rivals now, mitt romney and rick santorum

rick santorum. >> yes. >> this of course brings in a different element to the whole deal. >> what if they all decide newt gingrich is their guy, that newt gingrich now roused from his i'm going to only be the positive guy is now going to go after not only barack obama but also mitt romney and that newt gingrich can be the guy who can win why couldn't he be the guy who coalesced them? >> personally i don't think newt can win the south as well as santorum could because of the conservative base and his track record. i mean, these ads we were talking about earlier, i mean sooner or later newt is going to do a newt. a lot of that stuff that was in the super pac ads, it's baggage stuff. but moving forward for santorum, this is great news for him tonight. now will the capitulation of a couple other conservatives help? would the old conservatives who hold a lot of money embrace rick santorum? they can't stand romney. he told me not mitt now or ever. >> there will be a constituency of people out there that r

who is rick santorum? is he the guy conservatives can rally around to defeat mitt romney, who again last night was rejected by three quarters of iowa republicans or a one-hit wonder, you see this year's mike huckabee? romney has money, the organization and the patience to outrun santorum, but does his side have the passion? also, the right-wing empire is about to strike back. michele bachmann dropped out today. her voters are a lot more likely to stick a santorum sign on their yards than a romney one. jon huntsman is all about knocking off romney personally, and for newt gingrich, it's not business, it's strictly personal. get ready, mitt. the right's coming at you. plus, will the republicans sign an abm treaty, anybody but mitt? can a coalition of santorum, gingrich and perry voters be formed to stop romney? and is team obama happy right now? not as happy as you would think. they love that romney didn't win big out there in iowa, but worry that santorum will be just the latest anti-romney whose bubble is

rick santorum is 4%. mitt romney is over 40 -- >> he'll be well into the high double digits by the morning. but the question is: how much he gets there? and as i said, he will be challenged -- he doesn't have the resources. but he is a new face. three weeks ago, two -- three weeks ago, newt gingrich was at 38%. as i have said to you before, we have this huge group of very -- people looking for something and they keep landing somewhere. they just landed -- rick santorum's lucky, they landed on him last. but he will have a tough problem. this is a man who lost a senate race by more than almost any incumbent in history in a re-election. it's going to have a hard argument on the winning. he's very sincere. but the social issue problem, we'll see how it works. i don't think in a general election, he has a prayer. the question is whether voters will see that -- >> but he has pointed out several times. i asked him about this earlier this week on my afternoon show. he has pointed out that even though he is defini

rick santorum also got a huge boost. he's in second place now down there with 19, followed very closely by newt gingrich in third. so we have that one. we also have the latest suffolk university tracking poll from up here. it shows romney remains in the lead at 40% in new hampshire. he's followed by ron paul at 17. rick santorum is in double digits at 11, and moving up, but slowly. the latest national gallup tracking poll out today, mitt romney leads nationally at 29, but followed by rick santorum with 21. so joe klein, it looks like rick santorum is slowly edging up to be the number one challenger to romney. >> the south carolina number is really interesting. i mean, i don't want to break any news here, but this new hampshire primary isn't all that interesting this time. you know, the next really big deal is south carolina. except for the two debates here this weekend, i might add. >> doesn't what happens this weekend set up what happens on tuesday? that sets up what's happens in south carolina. it's dynamic. >> but in

could it be a rick santorum? >> well, i mean, it's going to be whoever wins the republican nomination and you know, to sell rick santorum short now would be committing the same error twice. here are a couple of things. first is, it looks like two candidates are about to get out. rick perry and michele bachmann. if you take their 15 points and put them on either rick santorum or newt gingrich, they become the front-runner in this thing again. i don't know if those 15 points go to one place, but that's the play here for both newt gingrich and rick santorum. they both want to become the single, lone alternative to mitt romney. that's how mitt romney gets defeated. and it's probably the only way he gets defeated. the field needs to get winnowed, the fracturing needs to stop, conservatives need to unite behind one candidate or mitt romney will be the nominee. 3 out of 4 voters in iowa last night went in to vote for somebody other than mitt romney in every single alternative was flawed in some way. so the conservatives

rick santorum is at 11. romney leads nationally at 29 followed by rick santorum with 21. so, joe klein, it looks like rick santorum is slowly edging up to be the number one challenger to romney. >> the south carolina number is interesting. i don't want to break any news here, but this new hampshire primary isn't all that interesting this time. you know, the next really big deal is south carolina. except for the two debates here this weekend, i might add. >> doesn't what happens this weekend set up what happens on tuesday? that sets up what happens in south carolina. it's dynamic. >> but in the past, you could see the dynamic asserting itself in the week between iowa and new hampshire. i don't see all that much happening out here and you can see that in the polls. >> it seems like such a short chasm between the two. i remember that ronald reagan had, what, 36 days to make up for what he lost in '80? >> this is one week. there are a couple reasons. one is, as joe says, the debates. everything's kind of stalled, waiting for the weekend -- >> this saturday night -- >> from th

who is rick santorum? is he the guy conservatives can rally around to defeat mitt romney who again was rejected by three-quarters of iowa republicans or a one-hit wonder, this year's mike huckabee? romney hats money, the organization and the patience to outrun santorum, but does his side have the passion? also, the right wing empire is about to strike back. michele bachmann dropped out today. her voters are a lot more likely to stick a santorum sign on their yards than a romney one. jon huntsman is all about knocking off romney personally, and for newt gingrich, it's not business, it's strictly personal. get ready, mitt. the right's coming at you. plus, will the republicans sign an abm treaty, anybody but mitt? can a coalition of santorum, gingrich and perry voters be formed to stop romney? and is team obama happy right now, not as happy as would you think. they love that romney didn't win big out there in iowa, but worry that santorum will be just the latest anti-romney whose bubble is going to burst. and

>> he hasn't been anticipating a rick santorum victory. and jon huntsman, as you are correct in pointing out, is playing to a more libertarian, more moderate republican electorate in new hampshire where in a contest as you know, independents will be able to vote. that is a contest that rick santorum is not well positioned for. he is well positioned for south carolina. jon huntsman is conservative on several issues. he has an unquestionable pro-life and pro gun record. and he touts himself as a fiscal conservative in his time as governor in utah with balanced budgets, et cetera. he will have to take that case to the voters of new hampshire and south carolina and say that he is as conservative fiscally at least, and on a life and gun issue as rick santorum. i don't think he was ready for the victory last night but he'll be his speeches in the days to come. >> politico is reporting exclusively that there has been an invitation sent out to conservatives to meet in texas, a part of it says you and your spouse are cordially inslighted to a priva

senator rick santorum. piers anderson and all the guys, when you think about this, when you think where he was, it is really amazing, anderson, how quickly within a matter of two, three weeks, this has turned around in iowa. >> so how does the race change if in fact per i have dropping out. which it seems like, he is talking about going back it texas, praying on it, thinking about it, talking to advisors about it. how does this change for rick santorum? >> a little bit. but if you look the at polls in new hampshire, south carolina and florida, rick perry was only getting five, six percent. so it is an big change. and he got 10% here in iowa. >> and in terms of money, rick perry was a money draw -- >> it may be easier for him -- >> i was talking to someone from the santorum campaign today who said that they raised more money on-line in this past week than they had raised throughout the entire campaign. so clearly, you know, success will certainly help them and maybe they can get some of those perry voters. i

rick santorum has a shot. he needs to do well in new hampshire to keep some momentum going for south carolina and some of the polls show him moving up in south carolina. that's where he's putting all of his money, token buy up here in new hampshire and doesn't have enough to go heavily in both places. but a shot that isn't all that promising for him because it's a long road. mitt romney's prepared for those other states. >> does mitt romney's victory, i guess eight votes is still a victory if we're not still counting in iowa. is that translated at all in new hampshire or do they go, iowa's nothing to us? >> no republican has won both iowa and new hampshire in a contested nomination race. so he's in a position thrullly make history by doing this. you would say for almost any other kind of candidate there might be that kind of reverse backlash or reverse bounce that new hampshire's julianna said likes to go in a different direction. he's planted a lot of roots in this state and has worked have i diligently to ho

rick santorum, 25%. mitt romney, 25%. ron paul, 21%, newt gingrich, 13%, rick perry at 10% who again we just heard is reassessing his campaign and heading home to texas and michele bachmann placing sixth at 5%, michele bachmann not announcing tonight that she would be suspending or reassessing or doing anything else with her campaign except heading on to the next contest. listening to rick perry there tonight, i'm not sure 50s a foregone conclusion that he would be reassessing his campaign and heading back to texas if he -- if he placed at this -- placed this far down in the standings, but it was not a surprise. the question is what the implications are of this with rick perry out does anything else move. >> well, something has to move. he has votes that have to move but i think more interestingly, the money, there is a lot of rick perry money out there and he has the capacity to raise a lot. a lot of fund-raiser interest. where do those people go, those that wanted to pump money into rick perry go. >> it's an open questi

rick santorum versus mitt romney. when the spotlight shines on rick santorum, you'll understand he's been a proponent of things like equal list popularity. that is not the definition of a conservative for me. if it's about gay marriage and that is the main thing, i guess that is what this battle is. conservative versus moderate. >> pete, bring us home. >> first of all, kyra, describe being mitt romney as a centrist. in what america does he become a centrist? maybe personally but he hasn't advocated for policies. is the gop a house divided? put it this way. if the republicans build a house a third of it would be a church, a third would be condemned because it's violated regulations and the last third, kir ra, would be bought by mitt romney and he'd add an addition to it. >> happy day after iowa. all right. appreciate it. newt gingrich actually holding a town hall right now in concord. >> radical statement 1776. though we are endowed by our creator. this is the heart of the american system. it means the following, every

you hear over and over that i like rick rick santorum but i'm not sure he's big enough to run for president. and that's what newt gingrich argued last night. he embraced the santorum suggestion that he has grandiose views. he said i do have grandiose views and he basically called him too small to be president. gwen: i don't think santorum saw that coming. >> but i wouldn't count santorum out. he got the big boost from the evangelical leaders in the weekend meeting in texas. james dobson, that's a big deal. >> i heard he did get that endorsement from that group in texas, but there's no real obvious surge that he got from it. some people said he needed a stronger infrastructure. if he had a greater organization within south carolina churches on short notice he might have been able to do more. >> actually, there was some brushback on that. in part because of some of gingrich's top supporters who remember at the meeting came back the next day and at least in an interview with me, told me that the organizer of the evangelical meeting said that should not be construed as an endorsement. >> why is

what is rick santorum's appeal? >> what -- we literally sang in the choir together, after church services rick would knock on doors after church and be at it seven days a week. all along rick's approach was talk policy and bring people together. he talked about freedom but tied that with personal responsibility. the district that he ran in, which is now the district i have, the 18th district appealed to blue color voters, reagan democrats, and he had to do that by pulling people together. i expect that he has the same tenacity and relentless necessary in iowa. going everywhere and talking to as many people as he could about the issues and being positive about america and that's where you see his message coming through. bill: this is a guy who ran for the senate in pennsylvania and lost in his home state. how did he come back from that? >> pennsylvania lost five congressional seats that year, lost the governor's race that year by record proportions. it really was a year that was a low point for republicans really acr

he rick santorum. >> a message, rachel. none of them have come out with any message that will resonate against president obama. >> rick perry a great message, but then let it go his message was going to be job, js, jobs, jobs. >> he forgot it. >> he forgot it. oops. >> you need to talk about somebody defeating an incumbent president, i have got to say this is my plan to america. they make it look like occupy 99% that never happened. they are running in an alternate universe. they are not running in the united states of america in 2012 and as long as they keep this horse race going and not deal with the real needs of people it won't even be a contest. >> rick santorum anticipated your question yesterday, i will true i do get this word for word. rick santorum said, the best isn't always great, but it's the best. we will get his words, it is word for word something like that. and he was describing himself. >> wow. there was a moment like that in "16 candles" with anthony michael hall, hoe was king of. we will talk about that l