director of national intelligence, dennis blair. then, the push toward november with former white house communications director anita dunn and former republican national committee chairman, ed gillespie. i'm candy crowley, and this is "state of the union." rick santorum understands he needs cochange the dynamic. >> the republicans are thinking about putting someone in the same positions as president obama up. if this election is about tweedle dee and tweedle dum, we will lose. >> as the focus changes to illinois where polls are close and romney is loaded for bear. >> santorum's real weakness is the economy. he's never run a business or a state. his plan, economic illiteracy, inexcusable, the worst idea of any gop candidate. >> joining me now, former senator rick santorum. thanks for being with us. i want to start out by asking about the new ad that mitt romney has up and running in illinois where you two will next meet after puerto rico. and in it he basically says, listen. you've never run a business, and you've never run a state. and so how can you possibly be an executive? and both of those things are true, are they not? >> well, i've never run a state, that's for sure. i have worked in business. i worked with a small technology company for three years after i left the united states senate. >> this is about running -- you know, sort of managing something. >> well, no, i was the number two guy at a small technology company and did, in fact, help manage and try and get this company off the ground and as a startup and it was a great experience and one that i learned a lot through that process. so that's not completely accurate. i served on the board of a public company. you know, i have some -- obviously was a lawyer and practiced law for a while. so i've had a fair amount of experience in the private sector. but the real issue is, you know, running -- running a business is not the same as being president of the united states. look at what governor romney did when he was governor of massachusetts. 47th out of 50 states in job creation. raising taxes by $750 million. imposing a huge government-run health care system on the people of massachusetts with taxes and fines and fees and mandates. that's a record that i understand he's running from. but it's the public record that really is at stake here and if governor romney thinks that he is the ceo of america and can run and manage the economy, he doesn't understand what conservatives believe in. we don't want someone in washington, d.c., to manage the economy. we want someone to get washington out of our lives, to reduce these mandates, get rid of things like romneycare at the federal level which we call obamacare and do things to get this economy going by believing in the private sector. >> let me ask it to you this way. because you do have to manage a very large executive branch. you are kind of the ceo of that. so when we look at illinois, you are ineligible for ten of the 69 delegates that are at stake on tuesday because you didn't file enough signatures. you're not going to be on the ballot in the district of columbia. you weren't on the ballot in virginia. not full slates in tennessee and ohio where you could have picked up some more delegates. what does that say about your ability to manage if you can't get these process things done to run for president? >> that's pretty funny, candy. governor romney spent about $70 million, had huge amounts of resources, huge staff. you know, during the time that these delegates had to be filed for these states, i was driving around in a truck with a guy named chuck in iowa breathing through a swizzle stick and running a marathon. the amazing thing is, we're on as many states as we are given the resources that we had and the lack of attention that we had from the media and yet we devoted resources in december. when i was sitting at 2 and 3% in the national polls, i decided not to spend money in iowa. i decided to get on the ballots in all of these states, use the very scarce resources we had, not to put television ads to invest in iowa but to invest in getting on the ballot. and we had to use volunteer efforts in a lot of states where they required a lot of petition signatures and we did an amazing job except for the small handful of states where we came up a little short in some delegates, we were able to get volunteers and organize a campaign. can you imagine -- think about what we've done in this campaign with the limited resources. we're now here. no one gave us a chance. we didn't have any of the resources that any of these other candidates had and yet because of our organizational ability, our ability to take limited resources and turn them into votes and winning ten states, that's amazing with the fact that we've been outspent 10 to 1 just in our campaign and with the super pac, more ten to one. and here we are. the real question you should ask is with governor romney, why hasn't he been able to do anything to get this nomination even close to cemented away. >> but that's a political question as opposed to a -- that's a political question -- >> no, it's not. it's not a political question at all. no, i disagree with that. when you have this amount of resources, this amount of advantage, you can't imagine and deliver the mail and win this nomination, that shows a real weakness in his ability to be able to govern. >> let me move you to this delegate race. we're now in the race for the nomination. if there comes a point that it is clear you cannot get 1,144 delegates before the end of the primary process, would you stay in to deny mitt romney that nomination? if he could still get it and you could not. >> first, candy, number one, our calculation of the delegate count is very different than what is out there. >> sure. sure. but this is just a hypothetical. >> we are undercounted. >> sure. i take it that you think the counting is different than his counting. just if you should get to a point where you no longer -- you look at it and your math says to you, i can't get enough delegates in this process, would you say, but i'm going to stay in and deny it to mitt romney and go for that brokered convention? >> well, obviously we are in this to win. we're in this because we think that we're the best candidate to take on president obama, and we believe that governor romney is not. in fact, he's uniquely disqualified on some of the biggest issues of the day such as obamacare and bailouts and cap and trade and government control of your lives that there's very little difference in some of the big issues of the day and that's a great vulnerability. and so i think -- what i'm hearing is from people across this country is we want a conservative nominee, that the establishment is trying to push a moderate like they did in 1976 against ronald reagan, like they did in 1996 with bob dole and what they did four years ago with john mccain. i think conservatives would like an opportunity to nominate a conservative and that's an opportunity. >> is that a yes, that you would stay in it to force a brokered convention, rather than your get out when your chances of winning through the primary process is over? >> well, i guess you have to -- the hypothetical also presumes this. that governor romney cannot get there. through running this entire process. if he can't get there with the huge advantages he has, i think it tells you something about his support within the republican base, which is vitally important to be energized, and his likelihood that he will be successful, with the overwhelming advantages he's had in this primary, for him not being able to be successful, he's not going to have those overwhelming advantages in the example. and if he can't win a state, that would tell you that would not object the strongest candidate. in fact, he tells you he would not be our strongest candidate. >> i'm not sure i got a totally direct answer to that so i want to move you to something that's been on your website that's gotten a lot of buzz and your position on pornography and one of the things you say in promising a tougher crackdown on pornography is, quote, the obama department of justice seems to favor pornographers over children and family. i just need to ask you to back that up, do you honestly believe there are people in the department of justice who favor pore noth pornographers over children and families? >> you have to look at the proof is in the prosecution. under the bush administration, pornographers were prosecuted much more rigorously than the obama administration. you draw your conclusion. >> what's your conclusion? >> the administration has not put a -- my conclusion is they have not put a priority on prosecuting these cases. and in doing so, they are exposing children to a tremendous amount of harm. and that, to me, says that they are putting -- they're putting the unenforcement of this law and putting children at risk as a result of that. >> i want to play for our listeners something that you said at a rally last night. this was in mt. vernon, illinois, talking about the president. >> we need a president that's going to go out and -- presidential nominee is going to go out and draw a clear contrast between president obama and his failed policies here at home and, of course, his failed policies where he's been the weak horse, the appeaser in chief around the world with evil. >> appeaser in chief around the world with evil. where is, for instance, for that, for our listeners, where do you think that the president has been an appeaser with evil? >> iran. is the principal place. that is the principal problem that we're facing on the national security front right now. a nuclear iran. and he has repeatedly sided with the government of iran. in the green revolution in 2009 when people were pleading on the streets, holding signs up, asking president obama to help overthrow this theocracy, a nuclear weapon that is killing our men and women in uniforms with improvised explosive devices, american troops through the surrogates and terrorist organizations and yet we have an opportunity to overthrow and side with the persian people. >> there's new sanctions coming up, he's gathered world opinion. isn't that better than going in with troops or whatever, what is it you're suggesting he should have been doing? >> well, first off, he should have been aligning himself with the persian people and the pro-democracy noouch pro-democracy movement to topple this regime, the weapon that is spreading terror around the world and did not do that and here he says i'm going impose tough sanctions after he denied that and tried to stop those sanctions from going into place. only his own party got him in the senate and house got him kicking and screaming to impose the sanctions. what has he done since then? there will be no negotiations with the iranian until they stop processing nuclear material. what did the president do? he overstepped those things. he ignored that precondition and has been negotiating directly with iran as iran is continuing to develop their nuclear weapons. boying time. this is exactly what the iranians want him to do. this is the weak horse in this region and the israeli people, benjamin netanyahu came here and said, time is up. we need your help. the very next day he started negotiating with iran without precondition and allowing them the opportunity to continue to develop their nuclear weapons. that is weakness. >> senator santorum, i always wish there was more time. but thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you, candy. afghan president hamid karzai says there are two demons in his country right now. the u.s. and the taliban. but his words aren't doing any thing to ease an angry public. his ambassador to the united states is next. ating them. how'd you do it? 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[ humming ] joining me now is afghan's ambassador to the united states, eklil hakimi. welcome, mr. ambassador. we appreciate your time. >> thank you very much. >> let me ask you first just a broad question. do you believe, does the president of afghanistan believe, that afghanistan is a better place now than before the u.s. came? >> well, if you compare afghanistan today to the afghanistan ten years ago, a lot of things happened. from the support that we receive from our international allies, including the united states of america and the taxpayers' money that was invested in afghanistan. whatever you name it, from economic growth to education, health, participation of women in different walks of our society, the free press, our national security forces, our police forces and infrastructure projects, infractions that afghanistan has within the region, within our neighbors and also the role that we play as an active member within the international community, all that happened within ten years' time. having said that, we have been suffering for the last 30 years after the invasion of the soviet union. so a lot of things happened but i'm not saying everything happened perfectly but we have a lot of challenges and we have a long way ahead of us. >> so i ask you that question because this morning "the new york times" had a story in which they kind of synthesized everything that has been said by president karzai over the past couple of days in response to the koran burnings. and they said, "the americans and afghanistans are demons," a direct quote. "they claimed they burned korans by mistake, but really those were satanic acts that will never be forgiven by apologies. the massacre of 16 afghan women, children and men by an american soldier was, quote, not the first incident. indeed it was the 250 and the 500th incident." you know that -- i know many afghans have died, and these civilians, and this is heartbreaking what happened. but americans have died as well. i think with very good intentions. and so we are looking at over 2,000 -- about 2,500 coalition deaths over the course of ten years. the u.s., at the end of this year, about $550 billion. can you see how americans would read this this morning and think, they don't even like us. why are we there? >> well, of course, these recent very tragic incidents, especially this massacre of 16 civilians killed and also burning of the koran, those are very tragic incidents. but meanwhile, we do understand the sacrifices that our allies, especially our main allies of the united states, they have suffered quite a lot. those men in uniform and women in uniform, those are the things that we are grateful for and we are appreciating that. but let's not forget the bigger picture. we are an ally in war against terror. and we are an ally to make afghanistan a safe place to not allow terrorist groups to use afghanistan as a base for the security of other countries from there. so having said that, we have a strategic partnership and now we are working on another partnership to define our relationship for the years to come. so this is the bigger picture. we should not forget that. down the road, it's a bumpy road. >> it is. and you mentioned that afghanistan is grateful for some of the help that the u.s. has done and that it's an ally. and yet when you see the president of afghanistan talking about the u.s. in the same breath as the taliban, as a demon, there's a disconnect. why is there a disconnect? is this something -- i understand the anger in afghanistan about these women and children and men, innocent people that were killed. but is the president of the country in those words, i would think undermine american support which was very much there at the beginning of this war. >> well, our president is doing whatever any legitimate president would do. he's reflecting somehow, whatever our people are saying, the situation there, especially with this very tragic incident is not that easy. so mean whale, he understands very well the relationship and also the partnership that we have with the inte