Did Rick Santorum's Sweep Matter?
BALDWIN: What should we talk about? Should we talk about what a great night it was for Republican Rick Santorum, or what an awful night it was for the GOP's presidential front-runner, Mitt Romney? Santorum swept the caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado and won the primary held in Missouri, thus stopping Romney's momentum dead in its tracks. And by the way, I'm sure you were watching with us, but if you weren't, CNN was the first to call the race in Colorado. We were right there when it happened.</s>RYAN CALL, CHAIRMAN, COLORADO REPUBLICAN PARTY: Hold on a second.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But can you characterize for us -- I believe you have 99 percent of the numbers in.</s>CALL: We've got about 98 percent of our precincts reporting tonight. The Colorado Republican Party is prepared to announce that Rick Santorum has won Colorado's Republican preference poll.</s>BALDWIN: Let me bring in the guy who really ran the show last night, Wolf Blitzer. Let's start with Mitt Romney, because looking at the stats here, he's 0-3 last night, 0-3 in contests held in the Midwest, 1-4 in caucuses that tend to attract the most loyal Republicans. How big is this problem for Mitt Romney?</s>WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S THE SITUATION ROOM: It's a very serious problem he has, because if he would have done well last night, he would have been well on his way, a little bit further along. He wouldn't have had it wrapped up by any means, but now he has got to really struggle. This coming Saturday in Maine there are caucuses. I suspect Ron Paul will do fairly well in Maine. Then, at the end of the month, two major contests, one in Arizona and one in Michigan. And he's got to do well in both. Arizona has a large Mormon population. Michigan, his father used to be the governor there, he was born there. I assume he'll do well, but he's going to have to work harder, he's going to have to spend more money now. Instead of saving some of that money for Super Tuesday, March 6th, when there'll be about a dozen contests, he's going to have to work harder right now, because he can't afford to have any major surprises like he did last night. He thought he was going to win Colorado for sure. He did great there four years ago, not so great this time around. You have got to give a lot of credit to Rick Santorum.</s>BALDWIN: I mean, it's not often that you see on an election night all the different panelists sitting at this table saying we're surprised. Donna Brazile, David Gergen, et cetera, Ari Fleischer, no one anticipated this entire sweep.</s>BLITZER: No.</s>BALDWIN: So, Santorum here, given the sweep, does he have staying power, Wolf?</s>BLITZER: Yes. He does have some staying power. He's got a voice out there that's resonating with a lot of Republicans, a lot of conservatives. Look at how well he did in Iowa. Remember, originally, he didn't win, he lost by a couple dozen votes, but then they recounted and he won by eight votes in a state where he was outspent. But he worked the hardest in Iowa. He visited all 99 counties. He spent days and days, weeks and weeks there. Didn't have the resources that Mitt Romney had and some of the other candidates, but he did really well. And now he's done well yesterday, so I suspect he has got some staying power. My own gut tells me right now that all four of these candidates, Brooke, they're going to stay in this race for the time being. They're not going anywhere. Ron Paul has said to me on a few occasions, if he were to drop out, he'd have a rebellion, because so many of his supporters would be so angry. They're so devoted and strong supporters of his. Last night, Newt Gingrich said to me, point blank, he thinks this could go all the way to the convention at the end of August in Tampa. Santorum is coming on the heels of a big win like this. Mitt Romney is not going anywhere. This thing could go on for several more months.</s>BALDWIN: Also, though, whether or not it fully goes on or not all the way until the end of August, there's a lot of talk about this enthusiasm gap and the GOP turnout. It's down 10 percent from the 2008 primary season. What does your gut say about that to you?</s>BLITZER: That's a huge problem potentially for the Republicans because they're really not showing up in the kind of numbers in some of these states that they did four years ago. And if they want to really get out of that base, that Republican conservative base -- they got them out in 2010 when they took control of the House, had major gains in the Senate, it was a big win for the Republicans, in part thanks to the Tea Party movement -- they've really got to energize that base. So far, these four candidates, the four finalists, they're not totally energizing that Republican base right now. We'll see what they can do in the coming weeks and months. But that's potentially a serious problem for the Republicans.</s>BALDWIN: All right, Wolf Blitzer. Thank you, sir. We'll chat next hour.</s>BLITZER: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Now this --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He sent several e-mails saying stuff about how to handle his property or something, how to cancel utilities. I don't know.</s>BALDWIN: That voice, that's the sister of Jason Powell in a 911 call. He's the father accused of using a hatchet on his own two young boys and setting his home on fire. Up next, we're going to hear more from that harrowing 911 call and another from the social worker involved in the case. Be right back.