the tourist attractions here in the nation's capitol. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> you certainly could say the general election campaign began this week when republican candidate rick santorum declared "the race is over for me." now that mitt romney's toughest challenger is out of the picture, romney and president obama are taking direct jabs at one another. let's bring in our senior correspondent, joe johns. romney, it's his race, he's the challenger. he moved to the right during this campaign, the primary season, but now presumably he's got to move a little closer to the center. >> it does sound that way certainly, wolf. it's been a very good week for mitt romney. now it's up to him and his staff to keep it going. we've essentially entered the general election phase of the 2012 campaign with lightning speed thanks to social nemedia d controversial remarks by romney's wife anne by political strategist hillary rosen. recent polls show mitt romney running behind president obama with women voters by double digits. the question is how can he close that gap? of course, wolf, that is a huge question and moving back to the middle presumably would be at least part of it. >> he's also got to make sure that the republican base, the republican establishment all are on the same page. he's got to have peace, if you will, with santorum and the others. >> absolutely right. the conservative base, keeping them energized is absolutely critical. whether he's going to try to make that move that's so traditional among candidates once they're assured the party's nomination is a question. but what i've been finding at least anecdotally talking with values voters and other conservatives, the national rifle association that after rick santorum announced he was suspending his campaign, the republicans were saying they realize now they have nowhere else to go and if the primaries showed us anything, they said again and again they are prepared to vote for anybody but president obama. >> one thing is clear, some of the conservative base, they may not necessarily love mitt romney but they certainly don't love president obama. >> that's absolutely right. and if -- the one thing that's clear is those people who are highly energized in this election are highly energized to vote against the president. >> joe johns reporting for us. joe, thanks very much. all of this happening as i spoke to one of the candidates still in the race, the former house speaker newt gingrich. we spoke about the future of his campaign. why do you think you still have a chance? >> it's fascinating to me, wolf. you say everyone else. i was in north carolina yesterday. not a single person asked me to drop out. many, many people asked me to stay in. we've had over 4,200 people go to newt.org and give money since 2:00 yesterday encouraging me to stay in. i was in philadelphia last night. not a single person asked me to drop out. a number said they're proud i was staying in. i was campaigning in delaware all day today. not a single person asked me to drop out. many said they're glad i'm staying in. it's fascinating in the states that haven't voted think it's good to have a contest and the only people who ask me about dropping out are the elite media. it's a fixation. i'm not dropping out then and i'm not dropping out now. listen to the leader of the republicans party. he said this, he said today senator santorum has made a commendable decision. he has decided to put his country, party and desire to defeat prom a ahead of any personal ambition. as you well known, that was seen as a direct reference to you. i guess he's suggesting maybe it would be wise if you put yourself, the country, the party ahead of everyone else in order to beat president obama in november. >> because it was mis interpretd misinterpreted, he called me to say it should not be interpreted except to say he's positive about rick santorum's decision. i think he's quite happy about my staying in and understands this brings new ideas and energy to the party. that's been my role for my entire career people going to continue to talk about things like $2.50 a gallon gasoline, creating a national debt retirement fund. i'm here tonight. i'm going to talk at wesley college about a personal savings account for young people, much like the chilean model. if we had adopted this model in 1983, we'd have $16 trillion in savings in those social security savings accounts today if we adopted it back in 1983. i'm going to continue to object about big solutions and big approaches and keep campaigning. as you self-admitted, governor romney does not yet have the nomination, despite every effort to get people to concede it and have i every right to continue to campaign until he gets a majority. >> you certainly have every right. i'm not suggesting you don't have a right to continue or ron paul for that matter. we were only assessing given the delegate count. what does it say about your campaign, which has some financial problems right now, i take it, that a $500 check in utah from your campaign bounced? >> nothing. that check was issued four months ago and the check it was written on was closed it was entire li an aaron on the banking system. >> to a lot of people it makes you look like you're in deep financial trouble. >> i know. >> you're going into debt like that. >> wolf, the nature of the media is if jerry ford, who was a great athlete decided he was a bunkler and "saturday night live" made him a bunkler, therefore every time he slipped, he was a bungler. had they called our office and anybody asked to verify, it we would have told them the facts. it's purely a technical mistake. and it wasn't on our part. we issued the check in december. >> your think tank and i know you've spoken about it often, the center for health transformation, that, too, has filed for bankruptcy. you must be sad about that. what happened here? >> well, i am sad about it. these are good people. it turned out that one side left over a year ago, it was very, very hard for them to sustain it. it's very unfortunate. particularly if obamacare is repealed, the ideas of the center, the books they'd written, the network they had would have been very valuable. this was a very bad economy. because hi been gone for over a year, they were not able to sustain the membership or member tum i had going while i was there. they're a great network, great people and i feel very sad it didn't work out. >> trayvon martin's shooter could get out of jail on bond by next friday. and why tony blair says he doesn't trust the syrian regime at all. and look who's taking up residence here in washington. we have details of the surprise rise of the u.s. coyote population. [ camera clicks ] ♪ it's hard to resist the craveable nature of a nature valley sweet & salty nut bar. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪ mitt romney doesn't have rick santorum to worry about anymore. would it matter one way or another can newt gingrich actually dropped out of the race? let's talk more about this dramatic race in the presidential race for the white house. joining us, our chief political correspondent candy crowley and ron bronstein of the national journal. why is newt gingrich still in this race? >> i think there are probably personal reasons. i'd rather not try to analyze him. i think it's tough for everyone to get out, particularly if they're in the twilight of their career. i think there's that. i think he would like some delegates. he has said he wants to change the platform. there's that practical reason. the more delegates, the more likely he can create the florm and there's probably some animus with mitt romney as well. >> he's going deeper and deeper into debt and a lot of people are raising questions about his legacy. >> he's still in the race. i'm sorry. >> we were going to discuss this. >> i think candy is exactly right. we saw when rick santorum got out of the race this week. breaking up is hard to do. running for president is really hard, really draining. it's a difficult moment for candidates to conclude they've hit the end of the line. newt gingrich has like to have his ideas heard. the fact he's running for president makes it likely he'll appear on shows like this and that is enough in his case to keep him going when there's no hope of any meaningful influence. >> for all practical purposes, this general election campaign is full scale under way right now? >> yes. and actually has been periodically off and on while we did this during the primary season. >> the only question i have is if santorum would have won in pennsylvania. there are states where he could get some delegates. >> states where he could have embarrassed romney. getting him out is actually a good thing for romney. may could have been an odd month where the media consensus could have been correctly romney is the nominee -- >> that's what's happened so far and that's what hurt him all along was he couldn't get the traction he needed to look like the strong frun persont-runner. >> you have a column in the "washington journal." explain. >> san drum offered a vision of a different republican agenda aimed at blue collar workers. i don't think that's likely to sustain in the romney campaign. romney is not a credible messenger for that empathy that santorum expressed for declining upward mobility. on the other hand the cultural conservatism that he espoused and that redirected the republican race toward issues like contraception and abortion, that is having an impact. if you look at the polling in the last few weeks, the group where the republicans have lost the most ground, college educated white women and that's created a lasting imprint that may be difficult for romney to erase. >> will he pivot dramatically, not so dramatically from the right toward the center? >> probably not so dramatically. it's a pretty deep hole here that he's in. he has sort of a balancing act here because what's the rap on mitt romney? oh, he's a flip flopper. every time he sort of moves one direction, you can be sure he's going to be hit from the white house, well, what does he really stand for? he isn't the first person to be in position. have i argued for some time the reason that george h.w. bush lost his reelection bid was that he was so pushed so far in the right in his first primary about taxes that he had no place to go. this is not the first time it's happened. mitt romney knows he has to sort of pivot back but the pivot can't be so obvious, as you put it. >> a lot of the problems that romney has had in the primary, i they they get a reset in presenting him as historic. there are three areas where they may have had lasting issues that go on to the general. one is the social issues and positions like funding planned parenthood or denying contraceptive coverage. that is an issue with college educated white women. the second is with hispanics, related to immigration and the third one is the vehements of the oughtio bailout, particularly michigan, wisconsin, ohio. i think those three are different and it's going to be very challenging, i think, for him to completely undo the images he created. >> those are also three very big ieshs to the core of the conservatives. >> and to the core of this new krakt coalition as well. >> how much of a setback was it for the democrats this week? hillary rosen, our cnn contributor, the democratic strategist, what she said about anne romney, the wave of the republican candidate? >> lasting setback, i don't think this is going to be the time it all turned and suddenly women came rushing to mitt romney. he has work to do. i'm not saying this is some big thing in that. it did put everything on pause for a while while the democrats went to clean everything up. they didn't want it to have lasting damage. >> they threw her under the bus quickly. >> it's not the cultural line they want to draw. they want to draw the line around social issues like contraception and abortion. the movement has been among college educated white women, who are more liberal and feeling better about the economy. mitt romney is still ahead among white women without an education. >> in the end if people in general are feeling the economy is doing well that, is going to bode very well for president obama. and women, you're right, it's not monolithic and women also we've seen in the polling in recent years have not been likely to change something without a good reason. so if there is no good economic reason for women to change, then, you know, president obama is sitting pretty well. but we've got some time to go. >> we'll see you sunday at the state of the union. we'll see you, ron brownstein and read you in "the national journal." >> i go one-on-one with the former british prime minister coming up. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." all energy development comes with some risk, but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. you know, typical alarm clock. i am so glad to get rid of it. just to be able to wake up in the morning on your own. that's a big accomplishment to me. i don't know how much money i need. but i know that whatever i have that's what i'm going to live within. ♪ ♪ a bond hearing is set for this coming friday for jordan zimmermann. he face as second degree murder charge for the shooting of trayvon martin. he made his first appearance in court this week. martin savage is following the case for us. martin, it's really been an amazing week. walk us through what we can expect in the coming days. >> well, it has been an amazing week, no doubt about it. this is clearly the turning point in the whole investigation. you've gone from where george zimmermann was a man not charged with anything, allowed to be out and free and then came down the charges and it was second degree murder, charges that surprising to a lot of people. we thought it was going to be a manslaughter case. it appears the state attorney thinks it's more serious than that. if it goes to a trial, george zimmermann could face from 30 years to maybe a life sentence as a result of this tragic incident that took place at the end of february. the next step is that bond hearing. is he going to get bond? it's a good question. his attorney will argue he turned himself in and that he is not a flight risk. so all of those are good things. he will be in court when he's told to be in court. others say this is a very serious crime he's charged with and the other factor to weigh in here wolf is how safe will he be when they're out on the street? there's still a lot of people who are not happy with george zimmermann. he could be in danger. >> the prosecutor is setting up what the strategy might be. a lot of people are wondering what he might have overcharged hoping if it's manslaughter in the end, he'll spend a lot of time in jail and this is a bargaining position. >> a lot of people said it has to be a heavy charge that comes down, otherwise the supporters of trayvon martin will think zimmermann is still getting preference treatment. second degree murder, that would be difficult. we saw the probable cause affidavit and that read lying everything we've already heard about. there was no real shocking revelation there. it's a very one-sided telling of the story and it's a story that trayvon martin's family has been saying from the very beginning, that is george zimmermann is the man that instigated this tragedy when he began by profiling 17-year-old trayvon martin. mark o'meara is the new defense attorney. he's said to be quite sharp and very much in control. he's trying to prevent any further leaks coming out of the public. two very different strategies. he's going to say it was self-defense. the prosecutor says it was nothing like that. >> martin savidge on the scene for us. we'll be staying in very close touch with you in the coming weeks. >> many don't trust bashar al assad. and are the changes in washington, d.c. too dramatic? 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