Romney’s latest gaffe may not help Santorum’s thin chances

>> let's get right to our esteemed political panel now. krystal ball is an msnbc contributor and jonathan capehart is an msnbc contributor. as well as joe williams who covers the white house for politico. mitt romney says he likes firing people. he's not concerned about the very poor. he build as car elevator. we're beginning to realize where he gets it from. because it comes from his father. listen to this.

>> as the president of the company, he decided to close the factory in michigan and move all the production to wisconsin . later he decided to run for governor of michigan . his band did not know how to play the michigan fight song . it only knew how to play the wisconsin fight song . so every time they would start playing on wisconsin , on wisconsin , my dad's political people would jump up and down and try to get them to stop.

>> ha ha ha , my dad laid off 4300 people in 1954 .

>> this guy really knows how to spin a yarn, doesn't he? one time i hit a 6-year-old with my cadillac. it was hysterical. it's crazy. you couldn't make this stuff up. what i really love about the story is it is not only him being out of touch and wealthy and laying people off. but it also about him trying to pander to voters in the states that are having primaries, and one of which is having a primary this tuesday, by the way.

>> guess what, it's brilliant. we talk about gaffes and mistakes. but do you not think this is coming from the genuine psychology of the man? a man who is so wealthy and has lived such a wealthy life for such a long time. that these are the kinds of things he says. he has no feelings important people who are not perhaps wealthy.

>> i won't say he doesn't have feelings for people who are not wealthy but this is not just a man who hasn't just lived a privileged life for a long time of but he was born into a privileged life. his father was an auto executive. the three-time elected governor of michigan . this is a person, mitt romney is a person who is used to living in the upper echelons of the 1%. so for him to now have to campaign for votes and try to connect with people, it comes off like symbols. he doesn't understand why people cannot relate to the fact that ann has a couple of cadillacs and he is building a car elevator at his gigantic house in california. that he can say something like, i don't care about poor people .

>> and quickly, it is not that he's wealthy. it is that he is lacking in the imagination and the empathy to be able to understand what ordinary people would think of comments like that. you think of ted kennedy . you think of john kerry . some people would say he has no self-awareness. a short time from now, he will get the endorsement of george h.w. bush . also santorum manages to win wisconsin on tuesday, has romney in your view notwithstanding all of this horrific comments, locked down this nomination?

>> well, it is hard to figure out how anybody else can get it. quite frankly, you've got mitt romney who is stiffer than a girder but still ahead in the delegate down. you've got rick santorum who has gaffes of his own aplenty trailing badly. and the campaign is coming -- the reason why bush 41 came out and endorsed romney , they want this thing to enthemselves want it over with. they want to martial their forces them want to give romney time to get off the road and quit