Is pessimism guiding the GOP contest?

>> i think anyone other than romney might be the nominee. i think the fallacy we hear, they are in denial, as a minister i want to give them an intervention, they keep looking at the fact that he's weak. when they compare the '08 obama - clinton primaries, it was either obama or clinton that was up or down. it wasn't obama , clinton , biden, richardson, everybody had their turn against romney here. they won't accept the fact that romney has a real problem in terms of connecting with their voters and energizing their base. if it was just one or another, like it was obama - clinton it would be an appropriate comparison. the other thing i think they are really telling is when howard fineman says they don't have a message, they are not rallying around him. they are circling the wagons against the opponents. someone has the nerve to say and newt gingrich doesn't like him, he called him the biggest crooks since jesse james . look at the negative ads he put on him. gingrich can't go back to washington and be a lobbyist now, his career is over because of mr. romney . you expect him to throw a banquet for him? i think this is ludicrous they are in denial.

>> you look at the top three candidates all of them that won states, ron paul collecting delegates, gingrich and santorum and romney and the one thing you can be sure of there is no pair in that three-some. there is no running mate pair between them the way they have described one another as the anti-christ and worse. it's -- steve schmitt it's always -- it is always tough and always nasty and the stakes are very high but is the acrimony hurtful?

>> michigan is a state that has gone democrat nick recent years but is a state with the republican governor that is always on the border of if it's a good republican year can this be put in place and expanding map type of state and i think the chances of republicans being able to compete in a general election against the president in michigan have gotten much, much longer after this primary contest number one and number two, four years ago with democrats, the tension in that race was which of two historic candidates the democratic party voters all liked. who were they going to put forward in the general election contest? they liked both of them. they would have been happy with both of them. the longer this goes on, republican voters are saying we don't like any of them. we want somebody new in the race, and that new person isn't going to appear in the race. so i think if you look at the republican contest right now, there is a lot of pessimism in washington and particularly if you consider the scenario that santorum becomes the nominee and the 33 house freshmen in districts that the president won, there is a lot of worry about chances for the senate which republicans began the year in a good position to compete for the majority, maintaining the majority in the house, that all the stuff starts to come into play in a way that will make republicans nervous.

>> but rick santorum has alienated himself to women in the country.

>> no doubt.

>> you can see that, so that is his downfall right now. he allowed the social issues to become the extremist conversation has hurt him. and i think that there might be a recovery opportunity here for mitt romney . i mean if they are in it for the long slog, sooner or later they have to say well look it will be a brokered convention or this guy will get it done. i just think that santorum has left himself so wide open and has hurt himself on the social issues so much there is an opening this for recovery for