Trying to be able to read the room at an event like this. i don t think either of them had a performance that s dramatically going to change the triple digit tree of where this race is i think headed towards michigan and arizona in a couple of weeks. santorum was very good. i thought he could have been better. romney was pretty good for this audience. he s not jazzy, he s never going to be. he has to take on his massachusetts record as a candidate for the nomination and the general election. think he was smart to do it today and i think he did it pretty well. and he does have a better story to tell there to conservatives than the general coverage of him would suggest. up next, what did michele bachmann learn from her campaign for president? that s ahead in the sideshow. she got a little funnier, actually. you re watching hardball. funny ha, ha. not funny crazy.
Obama. that s the easy part. believe me, november 6th will be the easiest day our next president is going to face. newt gingrich also gave a fiery speech just moments ago. there s a new poll out that shows santorum surging nationally. catch this. what kind of momentum does he have going into the next few weeks? mark halperin was in the middle of it all. he s msnbc s senior political analyst and a time magazine editor at large. david corn is the washington bureau chief for mother jeans and a political analyst here for msnbc as well. gentlemen, let s look at the polling. this is from fox news. it has some fascinating findings. the poll was conducted from monday through thursday of this week. that s through last night. in the first two days of this week, romney has a big lead. his closest opponent is gingrich. santorum, a distant third. look at the numbers for the last two days. wednesday and thursday of this week shows santorum surging, doubling his vote practically,
And romney s speech, they both used the word we a lot. we conservatives. when santorum said that it felt real. when romney said it, it felt defensive. he had to explain why he was a conservative. saying where his conservatism came from. well, santorum got out there and said, we re conserveties, we don t like the health care bill, we don t like the government. and it was authentic. it was integrated with the audience. it s two very different uses of the word we. romney after five years of campaigning, he still hasn t convinced this lot that he s one of them and that showed today. i guess despite the new orleans music out there, mark, he hasn t exactly built up the jazz aspect of his personality, has he? look, he has, although he talked in more personal terms today. this is a brand new speech for him. it was not his normal stump speed. we ll see if he uses it going forward. he took on directly his massachusetts record. first, we pride ourselves in
Forte. let s listen to santorum then romney. we hear those same voices today. that we should no that we need to compromise, do what s politically reasonable and go out and push someone forward who can win. i think we have learned our lesson. and the lesson we have learned is that we will no longer abandon and apologize for the policies and principles that made this country great for a hollow victory in november. this election is not just about getting more votes, defeating barack obama is only one step towards our ultimate goal of saving america. of course [ applause ] of course, we can defeat barack
And it s possible that going forward, unlike in the three states on tuesday, if he spends the money he did in florida, has the performance level he had in florida, last tuesday will just be like a bad dream for him. but it s also possible that santorum can keep this going and finally be at the right moment a musical chairs, the guy who sat down in the chair at the right time when the music stopped. here he is going after his nemesis romney, numerous times throughout his speech at cpac today. let s watch. santorum s argument for why romney would be bad for the party this year. here s his case. we re not going to win this election, ladies and gentlemen, because the republican candidate has the most money to beat up their opponent and win the election. we won in 2010 because conservatives rallied. they were excited about the contrast. we always talk about how to get the moderates. why would an undecided voter vote for a candidate of a party who the party s not excited about? here s romney by the way making a case, using an unusual