Santorum's Sounding Board:

RICK SANTORUM ON FOX NEWS CHANNEL’S
“THE BIG STORY WITH JOHN GIBSON”
JANUARY 9, 2008

FOX NEWS CHANNEL’S HEATHER NAUERT: OK, the consensus seems to be that it was the tears that helped Hillary Clinton pulling a surprise win in New Hampshire. The Democratic candidate is taking a break at home today, after that surprise victory that surprised pollsters, pundits and even her own campaign. With the female vote now on her side in New Hampshire, Clinton is retooling her plan and gearing up for the upcoming primaries. Meanwhile: Clinton rival, Barack Obama has an Iowa win under his belt and of course, a second place finish in New Hampshire. And that means that the race is now wide open. Obama's campaigning in New Jersey today, but he's turning his focus to Nevada and South Carolina, the two major contests leading in to Super Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My voice is a little hoarse. My eyes are a little bleary, and my back is a little sore, but my spirit is strong! And I am ready to bring about change in America!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NAUERT: Here we go. That word change again. Polls in New Hampshire made Obama the clear-cut winner heading into the primary. So, what went so wrong? With us now is former Pennsylvania senator, Rick Santorum, a FOX News contributor. Rick, hi there. OK. The pollsters and the pundits, they certainly blew it. How did everyone get it so wrong?

SEN. RICK SANTORUM, (R) FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: First is that the bottom line is he didn't do well among independents and I think that probably was in part because of John McCain. I mean, McCain has been up there and living in New Hampshire, really drew the line in the sand in New Hampshire. He had to do well there. and he attracted I think probably a lot of the independent votes that may have otherwise gone to Barack Obama. And you know, look, Hillary had a great ground operation. She was able to turn out her vote, and one of the other things we found, and particularly in talking to some of the pollsters I have talked to is that you know, African-American candidates tend to over-poll particularly in more urban White areas and that's looks like what happened in New Hampshire as a lot of people said they were going to vote for him. When they won in into the polls, they just didn't pull the lever.

FOX NEWS CHANNEL’S JOHN GIBSON: You know, Rick, there's a lot being made of the women vote coming to Hillary, women of all ages. And is it possible that the polls were actually closer to right than we were giving them credit for, and the women saw that and said I better get out there and vote for Hillary?

SANTORUM: Well, they were certainly, the interesting is they were pretty much right on the Republican side. And it really would the only place they were off was on the Democratic side and you know, you have the factors with Obama. I think he may have had the factors with some of the more you know, experienced voters, the older voters just overwhelmingly went for Hillary. And I think you know, you heard Barack and when he talks. I mean, he talks - he's a very compelling charismatic speaker. He has a sort of a preacher, you know, African-American preacher kind of cadence that he's now developed. He's turn; it's a very compelling narrative style. It doesn't necessarily sell with a lot of older voters, particularly older White voters and I think they, particularly women, older women voters just really came home to roost for Hillary after maybe seeing more of him than just the hype that they were hearing from Iowa. Now, they got the chance to see him and say, you know, maybe, this guy isn't what we were looking for that you know, Iowans were suggesting for us.

NAUERT: And perhaps some of the women got tired of what they perceived to be attacks on Hillary Clinton. Maybe some of them saw (ph) it up a little bit. Let's shift gears because one of the things you talked about is the Republican field. You have said that none of the Republicans out there can beat a Democrat. Why is that?

SANTORUM: Well, I'm very, very concerned about our field. I mean, you know, I think we're looking at a situation where Michigan, who knows who's going to win Michigan? It looks like this two or three candidates can win but it looks like it's going to be very, very close. South Carolina again, it looks like a pretty jumbled field. None of our candidates seem to be able to break through. And if you look at the candidates, all have serious problems. I think, it's my prediction, I think we're headed for a brokered convention. I don't think we're going to get a nominee. I think we will have four viable candidates heading into Super Tuesday. And with a sport decision, we're going been for a long primary.

NAUERT: Wow. OK but we will certainly be watching. Former Pennsylvania senator, Rick Santorum, thanks so much.

SANTORUM: Thank you.