Page 35 - Mark Haleprin News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> and of course, the reason why is, mika, as we get past iowa. you spend two years focused on iowa and an intense week focused on new hampshire, but then you move south. and guess which states are going to decide this nomination or at least the outline of it as you move south. you're going to have south carolina. and then florida and then you've got super tuesday with alabama, mississippi, georgia, louisiana, texas, oklahoma, all of these states that are custom made for a southern candidate. so that's why if rick perry can do well in south carolina, he could catch fire. i don't see that happe...

It's almost a guarantee he's going to see a huge bump in the polls and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. so yes, it's happening. it's happening. >> well -- >> you know -- >> go ahead, mark. >> sorry, i was going to say, you showed santorum before saying it was a tie, what's the big deal whether i won or not? i totally disagree. if he would've won by a single vote, more of that earned media would have been a bigger slingshot out of iowa. there is a bit of an unfairness in the sense of we don't really know who won iowa. >> newt gingrich continues to make good on his promise to hammer m...

No be close behind on that endorsement. >> i think to mark's point, i do think it's important how big electability is. even those social conservatives who think we'd like to see a strong alternative or something. there's a question of they want to beat president obama and ultimately do they think mitt romney's the one to do that? even moike huckabee appeared stronger at this point. if you thought he would be the alternative. he's going to be hit. everybody thinks it's being too conservative. that's not really the case. he's going to be hit as all the -- for everything he did in washington to m...

Correct? >> oh, yeah. i think anybody who would really give romney a hard time. and at one point when white house officials i talked to actually feared perry because of his immigration stance and the potential to do well among minority voters particularly in the southwest. that was a long time ago. >> let me go to mark haleprin. there's news up in new hampshire that mitt romney has been endorsed by buchanan. >> go, bay, go. you've got to pick through the endorsements, we've had a lot and there'll be a lot more. find the ones of importance. bay buchanan is a long time prominent leader. it's a b...

Better rally around one of their strongest candidates or face the very real prospect of having barack obama walk all over former massachusetts governor romney. the last squishy moderate republican to come to new hampshire claiming to have momentum from iowa was george h.w. bush. he and his mainstream supporters made fun of ronald reagan as too old and too conservative. reagan beat bush, but he might have lost had new hampshire conservatives not coalesced around him instead of splitting their support among several candidates. this time they need to get behind former house speaker newt gingrich....