DAVID SHUSTER: Some surprising news from the Republican presidential candidates: none of them have dropped out.
In our fourth story — unlike after Romney's razor-thin victory in Iowa, none of the other candidates seemed to even consider dropping out after his decisive win in New Hampshire.
Ron Paul and his supporters appeared to take a second-place finish as a victory, drawing chants of "President Paul." His campaign chairman went as far as to call in the other not-Romney candidates to drop out and get behind Ron Paul. "It's been our goal to consolidate this into a two-man race and we are there now."
After skipping Iowa and moving his campaign headquarters to New Hampshire, Jon Huntsman finished a disappointing third. With the exception of his super PAC funded by his billionaire father, the Huntsman campaign lacks the money that other candidates have at their disposal. All of this would have an ordinary candidate reconsidering his run. But not Jon Huntsman.
(Excerpt from video clip) HUNTSMAN: Third place is a ticket to ride, ladies and gentlemen. Hello, South Carolina.
SHUSTER: Finishing fourth, Newt Gingrich vowed to push forward, not for his own benefit but the good of the Republican Party.
(Excerpt from video clip) GINGRICH: The last thing Republicans ought to do is nominate somebody who has not been thoroughly vetted.
SHUSTER: He did, however, leave the door open for his departure after South Carolina.
(Excerpt from video clip) GINGRICH: If Romney can win South Carolina, he is probably going to be the nominee.
SHUSTER: After his near-victory in Iowa, Rick Santorum's fortune changed drastically in New Hampshire. Of the candidates actively running in the Granite State, he finished last. But Santorum somehow saw last night's outcome as a decree to — move forward.
(Excerpt from video clip) SANTORUM: We came where the campaign was and we delivered a message — not just for New Hampshire — but we delivered a message for America, that we have a campaign here.
SHUSTER: As for Rick Perry, after spending $4.5 million in Iowa, the Texas governor skipped New Hampshire all together. Instead, he focused energy on South Carolina, seeming to make that his make-or-break primary. That is, unless Rick Perry goes jogging again.
Let's bring in Rolling Stone contributing editor and "Countdown" contributor, Matt Taibbi. Matt, thanks for your time tonight.
MATT TAIBBI: How are you doing?
SHUSTER: Good. Mitt Romney kind of wins in Iowa — Bachmann drops out and Perry considers dropping out, until a inspirational jog. Romney wins big in New Hampshire. Why didn't anyone even think about leaving?
TAIBBI: Well, not to lapse into sporting metaphors, which are all, you know, all-too-common in campaign seasons, but I think everybody feels like they have a puncher's chance in this race, just because Romney is such an uninspiring candidate.
And the general field is just so wacky and unpredictable this year that you just never know when Republican voters might decide to coalesce around an anti-Romney candidate who could be anybody — it could be Huntsman this week, it could be Perry next week. Nobody really knows.
SHUSTER: The Ron Paul supporters, though, will privately acknowledge — away from the cameras, as you know — that they don't really believe that Ron Paul's got a great chance. Even Ron Paul, when he was asked, "Do you envision yourself in the Oval Office?" He said, "Not really."
What does Ron Paul want?
TAIBBI: Well, you know, I wouldn't take Ron Paul too lightly. I think, you know, the polls show that he actually does better against Barack Obama than any of the Republican candidates. If you think about it, if he were to be the Republican nominee, he would probably do better than Mitt Romney, because he has much more appeal among independents and young people than a Mitt Romney would.
The problem is that the Republican Party will never coalesce around Mitt Romney. The money people in the party will never get behind a guy who, you know, advocates the dissolution of the Federal Reserve system. That's just not going to happen.
So, his problem is — he can't capture a major party on either side, but he would be a very plausible candidate, I think, if he were somehow to manage, to hornswoggle the nomination.
SHUSTER: Do you sense that Ron Paul has any interest or desire in a third-party campaign?
TAIBBI: I think it's possible. I think he has got to be thinking about it, he's got to be looking at the field, he's got to be looking at the weakness of both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and thinking, you know, "There is an opportunity here."
But meanwhile, he's sort of like, you know, it's sort of like the movie, "How to Get Ahead in Advertising." He's sort of like a boil on the shoulder of the Republican Party who just won't go away. He is growing but it's a malignant growth and nobody really knows what to do with him.
SHUSTER: Nice image there. Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, they have not been much of a factor in either of these early events. What do you make of their altruistic claims that their continued campaigning and the attacks on Romney will actually help the GOP in the general election?
TAIBBI: Well, obviously, it's self-serving. I don't think that that's true. I also think it doesn't matter. I think both of those candidates are irrelevant at this point.
You know, Newt Gingrich has had, you know, not just a second and third chance to be an impact politician at the national level but, you know, he has to be on his 9th or 10th life at this point. And clearly, voters have rejected him overwhelmingly and he is not going to be a factor in this race, no matter what he does in South Carolina. Despite his claims that there is an "Armageddon" of negative attacks coming.
SHUSTER: Is there something to be said, though, that putting the negative attacks out there now essentially takes some of the gas out of them, if the Obama campaign decides to focus on Bain Capital in the fall?
TAIBBI: Yeah. I don't recall believe that. I think those attacks are going to come now. They are going to come later. They are going to come constantly throughout this campaign. Mitt Romney, for all intents and purposes now, is the Republican nominee, and, you know, it starts now. He is going to be taking all of that heat from now until November. So, it doesn't really matter whether it comes now or later. It's going to come.
SHUSTER: As for Jon Huntsman, he put everything he had into New Hampshire, skipped Iowa and he still came in third last night, and now a recent poll has him even behind Steven Colbert in South Carolina. What does Huntsman see that is keeping him in this race? 2016? An opportunity just to raise his profile?
TAIBBI: You know, I don't know. I mean, when I saw that Jon Huntsman today was defending Mitt Romney and saying people shouldn't — other candidates shouldn't gang up on him for his work at Bain Capital, my immediate thought was that he was campaigning for the running mate slot by warming up — cozying up — to Romney at least a little bit. But who knows?
But he's not going to do well in South Carolina. He has zero name recognition anywhere outside of New Hampshire, unless the media decides for some reason to put him forward as a prominent candidate, the way they did with Herman Cain earlier this year.
SHUSTER: Rick Santorum has also backed up a little bit on the criticism of Mitt Romney over Bain Capital, although there has been some jabs. What do you make of Rick Santorum and his possibility of, perhaps, being the conservative representative on the ticket if, in fact, Mitt Romney is the nominee?
TAIBBI: I just don't see it happening. Rick Santorum is a completely incompetent candidate at the national level. He had a brief, flash-in-the-pan showing in Iowa that was driven almost entirely by evangelicals in that state. He doesn't really have any broad-based appeal, despite his attempts to portray himself as the working-class candidate of the Republican Party. I just don't think that's going to happen. And he's just not a plausible candidate at that level.
SHUSTER: Matt Taibbi, contributing editor for Rolling Stone and a "Countdown" contributor. Matt, thanks as always, we appreciate it.
TAIBBI: Thanks very much.
