voters forget worry about headlines. sglooch will the north's new leader honor that agreement? i'll ask bill richardson. he as here. i'm wolf blitzer you're in "the situation room." the battle lines are drawn in the deep south. upcoming primaries in alabama and mississippi next tuesday may be the last chance for mitt romney's rivals to halt his momentum. rick santorum would love to go one on one with him, but night gingrich may have a different story. joe johns is watching all of this for us. >> reporter: wolf, rick santorum just finishing up an event, and he's expected to head to mobile, alabama later tonight. this is a situation where he has already proven he can win in the south by winning tennessee. the fact of the matter is newt gingrich is such a strong presence here. >> reporter: in this speech santorum is suggesting there's a third man in the race besides mitt romney, but doesn't go much further than that. >> if you go out and deliver a conservative victory for us on tuesday this race will become a two-person race, and when it becomes a two-person race for the republican nomination, the conservative will win that nomination. >> reporter: but if you ask santorum directly about whether he or anyone on his campaign staff is calling for gingrich to get out, he'll tell you no way. >> if they're doing so, they're not doing so at my knowledge. let's put it that way. i've been very clear on my position on this. are we asking people who are tea party folks to join us? you bet. do we want them not to support newt? yes, we want them to support me. i want romney voters, everyone to support us. that's what we're running for. if someone from my campaign is putting out that message, they're either misinterpreting it or certainly not coming from me and i don't support it. i mean, i've been very, very clear, unequivocal about this. >> reporter: still, the rick santorum super pac has flatly called for gingrich to leave the race. what is going on is santorum wants to be nice about it, because he and gingrich are going after some of the same voters. >> given how far behind he is with mitt romney, it looks like that path continues to dim every day, which is challenging for his campaign to overcome, because they need about 65% of the delegate still available, so the path probably doesn't exist. if it does exist, it needs to start with real wins and in a hurry. >> reporter: gingrich seems fairly unfazed, though it's plainly evident he needs to win in alabama and mississippi to remain credible in the race. >> we are staying in this race, as i believe it's going to be impossible for a moderate to win general election. what's interesting is how much buzz he's creating. our friends at twitter tell us the conversation on twitter about santorum spiked four higher than any of the other candidates on super tuesday, and just the hour between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. pacific time, there were nearly 40,000 tweets, referencing rick santorum, which is a new 2012 election. the previous highest spike, if you will, belonged to newt gingrich on the day of the south carolina primarily. >> thanks very much for that, joe. mitt romney concedes that campaigning in the deep south is like playing an away game to him, his words. our chief political analyst gloria borger is joining us. what is the main problem that mitt romney has in the south? >> he can't win. he really hasn't been able to have a win in the deep south. i think it really highlights the problem he has with what i call the base of the base of the party. in the deep south, you have voters who are evangelical, who self-identify as strongly conservative. they now comprise the real core of the republican party. so every time he doesn't win in the south. it only highlights the approximate. even if they don't win, they don't want -- smack in the middle of a republican -- >> and the santorum folks would like to see nothing better than see gingrich lose. >> they would like to see him drop out, as santorum said himself, we're not asking anybody to step out. i talked with a top adviser from the campaign who said the same thing, but he did point me in the direction of richard vigary, a real conservative who said newt leaving, quote, would be an act of patriotism, and also tony perkins, head of the family research council who said that newt gingrich could become, quote, a king maker if he were to drop out and support santorum. by the way, it wouldn't do any good. >> romney wants them both to stay in to they fight each other. >> if they're not both going to get out, it may help romney for both of them to day in. they will divide the conservative vote, but the romney campaign has been saying, look, the math is inevitable, we are going to win, but you know, they don't want to be seen crawling across the finish line, which is in fact what could occur, wolf. and really make it a hotly contested race. i think the romney folks are anxious for the illinois primary to come around. >> they have some other things. thanks very much. jack cafferty has "the cafferty file." >> indeed, thank you, wolf. politico reports that lawmakers young and old are leaving for the private sector because, quote, the thrill is gone. they say it's just too hard to get things done with the gridlock in washington. republican senator olympia snowe made a splash with news about her retirement, highlighting the dysfunction and political polarization in the senate. democratic congressman barney frank said he's frustrated because the public no longer tolerates deal-making. retiring congressman dan warren tells politico, quote, i'm used to being a player, you want to get things done for your constituents. why are you doing this? for some lifers, the job just isn't as prestigious as it used to be. plus these days, nobody likes them very much. they can't earmark money for constituents. they need to maintain residences in two cities. fund-raising is a headache, and a lot of perks have disappeared, thanks to those pesky ethics laws. ah. and their pay has frozen for three years at $174,000 a year. they work about half a year. not quite a hardship for millions of other americans who deal with extended high unemployment, soaring gas prices, plummeting house prices, you want more? others cite the constant media presence. they worry about having any little thing they say or do splashed 09 internet. would you want to be a member of congress? some of them say the job sucks. go to cnn.com/caffertyfile and post a comment on my blog, or go to our post on "the situation room's" facebook page. tough to gin up much sympathy for them. sympathy -- by the way, i can't tell you where sympathy is found. >> i know, jack. thank you. a lot of folks probably agree with you. they're voting on the floor on the keystone oil and gas pipeline the vote is under way. if they vote for the construction, it would be a major political embarrassment for the united states, who wants further study of the keystone pipeline about of it gets the construction go ahead. we'll watch this. dana bash is up on the hill. we'll let you know what's going on, a significant vote. meanwhile, the obama campaign recruits some of the biggest names in hollywood for a new documentary campaign film. also new threats from north korea are raising serious questions about the problem to freeze nuclear activity. we'll talk about that with bill richardson. he's been to north korea on several occasions. stand by. out. sweet. 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joining us is the former new mexico governor, many former ambassador to the united nations, the diplomatic troubleshiiter, bill richardson. >> they say they will. today there was an announcement we're resuming the recoveries programs of our resgloolts because they were isolating them. now they're engaging. there's no preconditions. >> you're always one of those that's talking better than talking. >> you and i went there. i believe our trip helped stop them from 'gressively going after them. you saw the cover of the "time" magazine, a picture of the new leader. what do we know about this. is he really in control? is he just the son that took over, but there really are other powers there? but he is still the -- and i think they're grooming him. the good news is -- the once that you and i met are still there. there's a track to diplomacy so there's more engagement, a good talk between the american negotiator and the north koreans and beijing. >> when they did they exercises last week what was a that all about? >> it's bluster. i'm not apologizing. what i'm saying is the bluster tends, but the dialogue seems to be churning in a positive way. they did commit to freezing -- >> how much is that commitment, that new agreement related to this anniversary. how many do you think is related to that? they want to invite all sorts of people. >> it's sort of the anniversary of the a lot of it is pr, but at the same time they're engaging, they'll be taking to the south koreans, i they very soon. now, iran is another story, but north korea engaging them is working. >> if you go bark to north korea it's one thing but if the administration sends an official, it's something else. what would you recommend? >> i would recommend that they -- i would proceed with food aid. i would watch them on whether they were going to continue to put a moratorium on the nuclear activities on the i don't think pyong reactor. watch them, but at the same time engage. then get south korea involved get russia, china and japan and the understand to reengage. that's what i would do. >> the new governor susanna martinez, you think she's potential a vice presidential? what do you think about her? do you think that's realistic, that she could be the running mate for, let's say, a mitt romney? >> i'm not going to engage too much on that. i am concerned if romney puts a hispanic on the ticket. i think it probably will be marco rubio, but i think the administration and president obama has very strong hispanic support, what he's doing on the appointments on civil rights and immigration, i think the republicans are too boxed in, too looked at as antiimmigrant, but i worry about rubio. >> i want you to stay around for a move. stick around for this. >> i want to go right to our dana bash, a very significant vote on the floor of the united states senate the pipeline on the line right now. tell our viewer what's going on. >> reporter: the senate defeated a republican measure to defeat despite what the president -- the vote was 56-42. they needed 60 votes to pass this, but what is also significant is that republicans got, by my count, 11 senate democrats to defy the president across party lines and vote for this. if you look at the list of the democrats, many of them are in tough elections this year, many of them are in oil-producing states, some of them are in states where this pipeline could come through, and have been hearing from people back home this is, as republicans say over and over again, a jobs bill. this was not clear-cut. pretty tough policies for democrats, at the end of the day -- >> it's an embarrassment to the president of the united states. 11 democrats defied the president or 12? >> reporter: by my count i have 11, but we were listening as they go along. we'll wait until we can see the final roll call. it depends on who was here. by the math it could have been 12. we'll let you no el in a bit. >> quickly to bill richardson, that's an embarrass innocent to the president, even though they had didn't get the necessary 60 votes, still an embarrassment so many democrats defied the president? >> nonetheless i think the president's in the right position. what he's saying is you have to go through the environmental studies, nebraska doesn't w57bd this. the congress or the senate republicans have been trying to jam the president, saying make the decision. what the president is saying, i'll make the decision after the environmental studies. i think the fact that the president temperaturically won the vote is good, but the republicans will keep using this issue. vinchts governor, thanks for coming in. >> thank you. we'll talk to you before you head back to north korea. maybe i'll go with you. it has the look and feel of a blockbuster, but really an obama campaign film. >> as he walked out of room, it dawned on me, he's all alone. this is his decision. nobody is standing there with him. >> we're going to get a first look at the trailer, what the republicans are saying about it as well. stay with us. this is lawn range- eden prairie, minnesota. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. 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[ female announcer ] california pacific medical center and sutter health. our story is you. an important vote on the floor of the united states senate just occurred, a vote designed to create the construction of a new pipeline from canada to texas. the keystone pipeline that will carry oil from canada through the united states. dana bash is our chief congressional correspondent. the measure failed, didn't get the necessary 60 votes for passage, but a whole bunch of democrats defied the president and voted with the republican. >> reporter: by our count, still 11 democrats still voted with the republicans. we're still trying to get an official count, but the bottom line is they did that even though the president himself made calls, trying to lobby for the democrats not to vote for this. the politics are very interesting. democrats decided that the white house made a political stake in this. they decided this is a political issue that's important to stand up on. that's why they said if you want this political fight, the president himself has to make the calls. that's exactly what happened. the republicans saw that, and they jumped big time. they accused the president of making calls and lobbying against jobs. >> personally lobbying against the keystone pipeline, that means lobbying for sending north american energy to china and lobbying against american jobs. >> that line right there is why it's different -- they're not necessarily against the keystone pipeline. they just don't want to approve anything until the actual route is designed. when that's done, maybe they'll decide to do it. the senate requires 60, even if the republicans got a dozen or so democrats to join them, didn't have enough to get to that 60 threshold. thanks, dana. we're also getting a first look at a trailer of an upcoming campaign film, called "the road we've had traveled." it's a 17-minute film of the -- it's narrated by tom hanks. take a look. >> how do we understand this president and his time in office? do we look at the day's headlines? or do we remember what we, as a country, have been through? >> the president elect is here in chicago and he's named the members of the economic team. they all fly in for the first big briefing on the economy. >> what was described in that meeting was an economic crisis beyond anything anybody had imagined. >> in our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions, that time has surely passed. >> his advisers would ask where to begin, which urgent need would he put first. >> which is one, which is two, three, four, five? where do you start? >> if we don't do this now, we'll be a generation before 30 million people have health insurance. >> if the auto industry goes down, what happens to america's manufacturing base? what happens to jobs in america? what happens to the whole midwest? >> entire national security apparatus was in that room. now we had to make a decision, go or not go. as he walked out of the room, it dawned on me, he's all alone. it's his decision. nobody is standing there with him. ♪ all right. that's a little bit of the documentary, a little bit of the obama campaign documentary. let's discuss it with our cnn white house correspondent brianna keilar. what jumps out at me in this trailer is the opening line by tom hanks -- do we look at the day's headlines? or do we remember what we as a country have been through? is the campaign really worried that all the day-to-day headlines are really going to drag down the prospects of the president getting himself reelected? >> reporter: i think, wolf, if the campaign had his way, that would not be the metric by which they would want voters to judge president obama, they see hi