Video: The positive factors from the Santorum campaign

>> in brian will, david gregory and chuck todd . you heard rick santorum say this was an improbable race. in the end, he won 11 states. he said miracle after miracle. obviously balancing the issue of his beautiful little girl and her health crisis i as well as the reality, the numbers, and the money needed to keep going. the only number more than 11 is 1144 . that's that elusive delegate toll that they are all for. so notably, tamron, the name you did not hear in those remarks, as emotional as they were at times, was mitt romney . and these things are tough. it is tough after beating each other up for so many months in this extended gop campaign that no one foresaw. tough to come together at the end. and that kind of thing takes time. the romney campaign badly wants unity behind him. but as i mentioned it, chuck todd , a few minutes ago, coming out of, this you have karen santorum with a new fan base of her own. this lawyer who has raised seven kids who really was an appealing and powerful media presence for the campaign in the latter half. and of course, as the senator mentioned, you have bella who has her own fan base and led to so many people, especially parents of special needs people showing up at his rallies. a voice, a constituency that hasn't had someone to look to since sarah palin on the bottom of the mccain ticket.

>> that's a fantastic point. santorum said that they didn't trash anybody. i couldn't help but to think about this ad, for example, that's up in pennsylvania . mitt romney 's folks suspended the ad but basically it said that pennsylvania didn't want rick santorum as the senator and they don't want him to be the president. he specifically noted that he didn't trash anyone. and we know that we heard it from newt gingrich as well. a lot of that language they direct at mitt romney .

>> i can't hem but think that that ad in particular may be the reason that rick santorum kept mitt romney 's name out of his concession speech. it is one of those, it felt like piling on. you remember the romney campaign. they announced that they pulled it monday morning. but it had gotten some airing and it certainly was getting some, not a lot, but it was getting some airing. and as brian pointed out, these things are harder to get over for the candidates themselves. what is amazing here. usually, candidates get out a primary too late. when they should, in this case, i would say for santorum 's own political future, he got out at about as good of a time for his own political rehabilitation and his own political future going forward as he could have done. he went through it. made his last stand in wisconsin. it didn't work. he gets out before the possibility of embarrassing himself and losing pennsylvania .

>> let me bring you back in. we know within the hour the president will speak from florida on the buffett rule. this conversation of fairness or class warfare , depending on as you say, your perspective here. but newt gingrich is saying he is staying in the race. as reality forms into a one-on-one battle between mitt romney and president obama with the campaign even having that phone conference yesterday, wanting romney 's tax returns. wapgt romney to be clear on why they believe he wants middle class americans to pay more money. so this santorum suspension comes with all of this going on as well.

>> the general election campaign has already started. whether newt gingrich is still in the race or not he will conceded over the weekend that romney is likely the nominee so gingrich has to make up his own mind. he is keeping his voice alive and his ideas alive. one point about what they both mentioned about rick santorum not mentioning mitt romney , part of this is that he wants to be able to choreograph a little of how that endorsement unravels. the message we wants to push on romney . he won't give up that recognition and encoursement without some validation for some of the things he was about. that he wants governor romney to talk about. this is where the choreography come in. that will take some time. particularly because it's been so hard fought. if you are rick santorum , you still recognize that mitt romney , even as he could not sol dates the party around him. the governor of iowa today endorsing him. still has work to do to consolidate the base of the party. and santorum represents a lot of that.

>> and what he also represents, as he stated in his remarks, voice to the voiceless. one of the things repeatedly noted about rick santorum is this connection. the pennsylvania roots that he is able to articulate without a teleprompter. and just adlib his past and wind it into what a lot of people are going through, particularly in that rust belt . we saw it again today. the way he is able to connect. whether you agree with his ideology or where he stands, that connection factor that mitt romney critics say he just does not possess at this point.

>> that's right. first my last comments, i'm aware i just made sarah palin sarah palin a u.s. senator . this irony, this plays off what chuck was saying. that pennsylvania argument worked in so many places but was not likely to work in pennsylvania coming off that 18-point loss that so badly damaged rick santorum in the first place. he did what he did, 11 states worth, despite what happened to him in his home state. his departure from elective office. those arguments against the wealth of the romney campaign and his wealthy image, being able to talk about his roots and coal might know and being a veteran. the son of a veteran having served. that was all doing very well for him in the power corridor of the campaign there briefly.

>> chuck todd , we know that congressman ryan said a few week ago that this race has gone on long enough and he was worried it would start to damage mitt romney here. again, timing is everything. we know the conversation the president plans to have before the cameras in florida within the hour. how much damage, for example, the comments about health care with rick santorum saying that what was sign by mitt romney as governor of massachusetts and what is before the supreme court as they call owncare is the same thing. how much damage did he cause to mitt romney that perhaps will linger with independents, especially.

>> i think the damage he did was just financially extending this campaign. forcing romney to spend down final resources. he is way behind in getting the general election campaign going. getting on par with the campaign. that that, it would have been more damaging to mitt romney had he stayed in this race. had he gone through may. had he possibly won primaries in may and sort of lengthened the. a time that the romney campaign could fully put together. let's remember that some of the santorum 's rise had to do with mitt romney 's campaign skills. and a lot of it had to do with the fact that he was the last remaining viable anti- romney alternative in the conservative movement . and i think that that is what we'll try to figure out over the next four or eight years of how much of santorum 's support was pro santorum and how many of it was anti- romney .

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