romney, up. the conservative anti-romney vote is divided and he's smelling victory. newt gingrich, down. but he's been there before. up, rick santorum. nobody's rising faster in iowa. rick perry, up. he's picking up gingrich defectors and still spending lots of cash. up, kelly clarkson. ♪ my life would suck without you ♪ >> reporter: she endorses ron paul and watch as her cd sales go up 200%. down, the ames straw poll. remember when bachmann won? now, she's hoping to avoid a last-place finish. for this new year's edition for this week in politics, i'm jonathan karl. jake? >> thank you to jon karl. >>> let's turn to congressman ron paul. many political observers say that he's on take to win. congressman, welcome and happy new year. >> thank you. nice to be with you. >> your rivals have started to unload on you in the home stretch given your prominent perch in the polls. newt gingrich said your views, are quote, totally out of the mainstream of every decent american. jon huntsman has a web ad calling you unelectable. and even the des moines register poll that shows

. >> i think mitt romney's biggest problem right now is mitt romney. >> there were a couple of times i wondered if i was going to get a pink slip. >> the great middle class, the 80 to 90% of us. >> he's got to reduce the line where he seems a little out of touch. >> poor george. he was born with a silver foot in his mouth! >> this is a real kamikaze mission to try to stop mitt romney. >> other campaigns were firing at me very aggressively. >> south carolina is the place where we'll make our stand. >> you're getting hit by newt gingrich on social issues already in south carolina. >> the down and dirty in south carolina. >> it's a good boost going into south carolina. >> newt gingrich, rick santorum, and jon huntsman have a single strategy. >> he's going to get just shellacked. >> south carolina as good a place to draw that line in the sand as any. >> this is going to be fun! ha-ha! >>> mitt romney is on the glide path to the most easily secured nomination a republican presidential candidate has ever had while being one of the weakest major candidates either party has ever seen. those

it was about a rejection of mitt romney. michele bachmann, a rejection of mitt romney. newt gingrich, a rejection of mitt romney. and now newt gingrich rejection two, and it's a rejection of mitt romney. we put him out in congress in 1988 because he sold us out in spending and taxes and he went to the floor and sided with democrats in his last speech, calling us the perfectionist caucus, and he is an opportunists. here is the problem, so is mitt romney. and the republican establishment in washington gave us $5 trillion of debt during the bush era, and took the surplus and turned it into a $1.5 trillion deficit. and george bush promising to end tyranny across the globe. and the conservative movement is saying stop. and newt gingrich will not be the final choice, but we are not handing this off to mitt romney for right now. >> what newt is doing and what is great at, is playing the music and piano of resentment, we have a lot of mad people. but the reason liquor sales have doubled, is because hard whisky is going to the republican office and champagne is going to the nanc

saying that mitt romney is a vulture capitolist? that governor romney is unethical? >> what i'm saying is that way they operated with those two particular companies and those two south carolina cities, it is, i think irresponsible. the truth is the truth. there is no use in trying to shy away. if we think barack obama is not going to attack this and talk about it we might as well discuss it now. is this the type of conservatives we want representing us? i happen to think south carolina voters want someone who. >> we know whoever gets this is going to be attacked. it's go tok a billion dollar campaign. there are areas you can have with the governor romney. he's positions on abortion or romney care. i think those are all legitimate debates here, but there tl is also, i just think to say those people willing to invest their money and they come in and try to get them profitible again tork say they're vultures and enethical is about a severe charge as you can may make. you're right. it's one boy expect from barack obama saying republicans want dirty air or dirty water. >>

that is romney's vulnerability. to go to mike's point, his opportunity is to say i made a lot of money because i'm a successful, ambitious person and now my life is committed to seeing that other people have the kind of opportunity that i had. he has to come up with some version of that narrative or otherwise he is mincemeat. >> ultimately, it's really the character issue that is behind all of this that matters. i think whether or not a candidate is rich is actually less relevant than how voters feel about that candidate in terms of can that person relate to me, is that person out of touch? romney is teetering on the out of touch narrative right now. which is a huge problem for him. chris: let's cut to the quick here. president obama thinks that people -- people make money by making things and don't like people to make money off money, manipulators, financial people, wall street people. how does he defend himself that he made money off money? he didn't build -- he says he built businesses. >> right. here's my theory

romney. tell us what you think in instead of these throw lines. >> is that the problem that romney has, dan, he can't argue on his feet and looks inauthentic. >> gingrich is volatile, but on the other hand, as you say, he takes it right to the opposition. >> well, you know, we have the thing in politics, fire in the belly. romney has is in terms of wanting to win, but stage presence, he doesn't have the fire that newt brings to it. i must say the fire in the debate. santorum, this guy standing at the end of the depate for months and months and unable to talk and now we found out what he's able to do and now what, he's pretty good. >> it could be too late. >> could be too wait unless he does well in south carolina. >> primary voters in thought that mitt romney is the best man to beat barack obama. and is he? we'll take a closer look at the electability issue next. living with the pain of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis... could mean living with joint damage. help stop the damage before

this is all romney and romney supporters. the only candidate in a position to be moving two states ahead both in ad buys and the ground game. you can see this is really an awful lot of saturation overall for mitt romney. i'll tell you something from this morning brand new, paul steinhauser that the restore our future super pac just bought $3.4 million in a big ad there. that's to start wednesday to promote mitt romney and his a again darks fredricka. >> the super pacs, no limits. hence the word super. >> super-duper. watching how it will be very interesting to watch how it folds out. if i step back. super pacs on behalf of perry spent a lot of money but it didn't do any good, did it? >>> let's zoom in on south carolina. could it be the make or break place, particularly for newt gingrich's presidential bid? he is campaigning there right now, giving a speech. his staff calls it a defining moment. at least the south carolina they're calling as the defining moment. he's hoping to win over evangelical voters. a new ad is on televi

, that's the story romney himself, mitt romney, tells over and over again on the trail. like his way of connecting. obviously, he doesn't, didn't have the same backing that his father did, being brought up as the son of the michigan governor. you've seen him over the last few days with both the pink slip comment and yesterday his comments were misinterpreted but he's struggling with that very issue. >> jose, the issue of the economy and people struggling will come more into focus in south carolina and florida. new hampshire, pretty good unemployment rate. two states overperforming -- >> a unique way of determining who the candidate will be. >> whittling the field. understanding the plight of what happened in this great recession. when you're watching mitt romney, is this mitt romney, if he's still talking about these things when we get to florida on january 22nd? >> it's pretty bad. first of all, i don't think there's been a poor president for candidate in a long time. be clear on either party. >> a bad 48 hours but -- >> poor -- >> poor. >> dennis kucinich slept in his

a lot of people are talking about mitt romney -- florida being mitt romney country. newt gingrich could do very well down in florida. he's already cultivating ties with the cuban-american community and mitt romney will have a tough time explaining his opposition to the dream act, which is a bill that would lead to a path to citizenship for young latinos in this country. newt gingrich said he's in favor of portions of that bill. mitt romney said he would veto that act and newt gingrich would be very popular in the central part of the state. that's sarah palin country and sarah palin, she sort of endorsed newt gingrich here in south carolina. so buckle your seat belts. >> candy crowley is at romney headquarters. it was interesting to hear governor romney's speech tonight, talking a lot about obama, but he did throw a few references towards newt gingrich, though not using the candidate by name. we anticipate that is going to change in the next couple of days. he's squarely got to go after newt gingrich, right? >> reporter: and it's clearly one thing he told me and talki

he is not mitt romney! >> but the problem is that bad luck isn't ideologically convenient for republicans. >> no. this time he needs to make up ground and he's not making it up this day. thank you, howard fineman. thank you, joe klein. >>> coming up, my interview with newt gingrich. he's taken on mitt romney and it's getting personal. you're watching "hardball" from manchester, just four days before the new hampshire primary. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8. >>> welcome back to "hardball." newt gingrich is campaigning hard in new hampshire, following a dramatic fall in the polls, due in large part to a barrage of negative ads run by a pro-romney super pac called restore our future. i caught up with the former speaker in meredith, new hampshire, late last night and i got his criticism of his two chief rivals now, mitt romney and rick santorum

either romney or gingrich could win it. we've always talked about romney having a ceiling. just a few weeks ago, gingrich was way up in this state. he whiplashed back and forth. we have a lot of moving parts. romney has to figure out what he didn't know in the last south carolina debate, which is crowd matters in south carolina. they don't sit on their hands or hold applause. if romney has as weak a debate and gingrich has as strong, i think gingrich has a very good chance to win this primary and shake the race up. >> let's talk about the psychology and performance values tonight. john, i have had a hard time watching the debates to see any candidate put in a consistent streak of performance. is newt going to do it again? this is the first time somebody does it again. does it well monday and comes back and does it well thursday. will he be intimidated out of being just as tough? >> i don't think he will be intimidated. there's not a lot that intimidates newt gingrich. the greater risk is overreach. that debate for him on myrtle beach on monday night was as big a success as

romney a winwer by just a hair. this is what we believe the count according to "the des moines register" we checked in a short time ago. santorum has the edge on romney by 34 votes. how is this possible? we'll go to the touch-screen on the bill board to show you what happens in iowa as they continue to tally different votes from various precincts in counties throughout the state. on the results board we show you the state of iowa based on the breakdown from 2012. it shows you 99 counties and what now is being considered. this is fayette, county. the margins are so small. they are perhaps 200, maybe 300, 400 votes in these three specific counties. this is not a lot when you consider 121 to 122,000 caucused two weeks ago. in fayette county, there were typos that changed the vote totals. romney was given 54 votes or he should have gotten five. or he picked up 45 votes when he should have been given four. that is the difference going in favor of santorum why some of these results are changing. down here in the apanose c

if the mission of anybody but the romney camp is to stop mitt romney, the best thing for romney is a fractured field of conservative alternatives to mitt romney. the more candidates stay in, the more that 75% is fractured is better for mitt romney. so someone that's going to come in last place is going to have to look in the mirror and say, is this happening for me or not? >> they shouldn't drop out. it's one state. you don't drop out after one state. look, i understand -- also, we have seen candidates fall by the wayside. >> let me interrupt you for a moment. four years ago on the democratic side, you're saying chris dodd, joe biden, bill richardson, after they lost in iowa they shouldn't have dropped back. >> herman cain went to the top, fell back. newt gingrich went to the top, fell back. bachmann won the straw poll, fell back. what i'm saying is, you do not know what's going on. tim pawlenty is at home right now going, what was i thinking? >> tim pawlenty definitely did it with a dumb move. >> he didn't have any money. >> he didn't have any money, but look. it was ridiculous to d

we're talking about going to romney event ts and talking to the romney voters. and some are the most -- you have people who are romney voters who want to see the birth certificate. >> like his son. >> right. but john huntsman, probably, in a world where you didn't have that mentality, probably has the best chance. >> once again, former governor of massachusetts, mitt romney, the apparent winner of the 2012 iowa gop caucuses by a whopping margin of 8 votes over former senator from pennsylvania rick santorum. we'll be back to take a look at what these numbers mean and draw some lesson frs the night after this. >>> mitt romney is the apparent winner of the 2012 iowa gop caucus in the first official voting of this already long campaign season. mitt romney with 30,015 votes to rick santorum's 30,007 votes. an eight-vote margin separating the two. rick santorum with a late surge in the voting. he was polling in third place in des moines register poll. but it looked like there was a lot of late movement in his direction. and we see that with ron paul in third place wit

santorum made a direct reference to romney and saying that mitt romney's job experience is great. america is not looking for a manager but commander in chief. >> we need someone who is going in there and provide that leadership. and take on the big tough issues and i don't think we'll see any record of that or vision in what governor romney is trying to promote himself as. he is trying to promote himself as the guy who wins. >> two wild cards to watch. newt gingrich. newt gingrich changed his tune and rather being relentlessly positive, he is now going straight at mitt romney and there will be newt gingrich scud missiles and put together a web page that calls not romney and will go after romney as a flip flopper. and newt gingrich's adwill say he passed health care proposals in massachusetts that had abortion. he could do serious damage to mr. romney . the other unknown quantity is ron paul. this is itate with a libitarian streak. he's been around the track and ran in 2008 and ron paul could come in second here. what that means with the republican party perhaps not much. there is

it raised more doubts for the establishment about mitt romney. what happens behind the scenes let's say that mitt romney wins here by double digits, what goes on behind the scenes in washington? >> this will be a great triumph for the establishment. the whole republican establishment that rallied around him after south carolina. from mccain, dole, is this part of the story in which the way the republican establishment rallied to romney and tried to quash the threat. the question going forward, there will be a backlash to that. and gingrich has not done well trying to drive this message, but people like rush limbaugh are out there doing this. there is a part of the base that not only fears romney, but is angry at the way the establishment has tried to kill gingrich and tried to force romney down their throats. so what the dynamic is over the next month between now and super tuesday is going to be interesting to watch. >> and the republican establishment always wins. the question was when. it just happened faster than people would think especially

if those ads succeed in doing to mitt romney in south carolina what the pro-mitt romney attack ads did to newt gingrich in iowa, who know what could happen. >> you in for a long night, do you think? >> i think we'll know pretty soon whether or not mitt romney, we'll be able to project that, i suspect, relatively early. but the question who comes in second, third, that could drag on and we'll see how long it goes. i'm hoping it goes on all night. i love that kind of stuff. >> and all year. we'll take it. wolf, thank you very much. we'll be tuning in tonight. be sure to join wolf blitzer, anderson cooper, erin burnett, and john king tonight for live coverage of the new hampshire primary, 7:00 eastern, only on cnn. >>> we'll get right back to politics in a moment. first, we want to tell you about some other stories making news right now. we're learning more about 26-year-old robert champion, the florida drum major who died in november. champion's friends have told the attorney that he was gay and that may have been one reason why he was treated more harshly than other band members. but ch

a 28 minute documentary called "when mitt romney came to town." >> romney netted 230% profit for romney and his investors. the deal left behind a trail of wreckage. >> i'm convinced if you want to create jobs, it helps to have a job. i've had jobs. i'll use that experience to help america. >> they never, no matter how much -- no matter how much they already had, they should never get enough money. >> mitt romney and bain saw 900% return on their investment. romney and bain's profits at the expense of 15,000 jobs was described by the boston herald as disgusting. >> i should mention the parent company is the co-owner of the weather capital with bain company. the movie is airing in south carolina in ads. the tea party senator jim demint said romney will probably win the state. but when he gets to south carolina he will be seeing more tv ads attacking him than he has ever seen before. billionaire casino owner sheldon adelson donated to the campaign, also attacking romney's stance on abortion. >> romney appointed a pro abortion judge, expanded access to abortion pills, failed to put the pro

he can erode romney's authenticity. when romney sundays super p.a.c. ads and looks like a snake for disowning them, huntsman is kay i'm not doing that. i'm doing the town hall meetings. we're also looking at the number of undecided voters now. they were up from 15%. i think it could be double that. i think we're going to see romney's vote erode. >> it will go to the hot guy. the new guy. >> the new guy. >> if huntsman wins here and comes in second, which we call a win at it this point, what i find refreshing approximate it, being in the business of political argument so much of my life. he was able to score with that wonderful retort to romney. the front-runner. saying romney scolded him for having taken a position as ambassador to china under a democratic president and said this nation is divided because of attitudes like that. it was chilling. it was a line almost right out of the mccarthy hearings. one of the great retorts. >> and true. and true. look, you know, i watch the debate as you did, chris. i'm always watching my e-mail as i'm looking at th

six-point lead over mitt romney. gingrich's debate performance clearly appealed to republican voters in south carolina. conservative outlets like the weekly standard are giving the tea party credit for gingrich's turn around. today one of the tea party's favorite candidates got out of the race and supported newt gingrich. >> i've always believed the mission is greater than the man. as i've contemplated the future of this campaign, i have come to the conclusion that there is no viable path forward for me in this 2012 campaign. therefore, today, i am suspending my campaign and endorsing newt gingrich for president of the united states. >> i thought he said he'd never quit. perry's endorsement is a big deal for newt gingrich. newt already has a sugar daddy. he got a $5 million donation from a billionaire. sarah palin gave perry a thumb's up on her twitter page. she called rick perry a true american patriot for what he did. well, the news didn't get any better for mitt romney. one of his wins turned into a loss. rick san

do you think mitt romney -- >> i say game on. i have to give it to romney. finally we saw fire from both of them. excellent debate last night. >> the consensus seems to be the one guy that didn't do well was newt gingrich. i thought he just didn't have the plan. >> the bar is always set high for him, because he's done well in previous debates. for him it was terrible, he really needed to do something with extra voom, he want able to rile the audience or take on the media. he did seem like he was phoning it in. >> you guys certainly have your sides on this, do you think this guy is getting to become a better debater? >> he's a pretty good debater and pretty good throughout this process. i do think the big question last night was whether newt gingrich would rise to the occasion, because he's phased 24 to 48 hours of really massive conservative assault. he didn't answer the questions that were posed to hem. in south carolina he was facing some challenge, and he really took it on. he doesn't take anything on yesterday. >> he seemed to mentally hold himself back,

the big fear of the romney campaign, i heard this when i was at an event with romney over the weekend is they're afraid some of their supporters think, oh, he's got such a big lead, we don't need to go out and vote and that would reduce their lead. what romney said to all the people at this event was, you know, please show up at the polls. we need you, because he understand understands what david webb was saying, that he needs to win by a very convincing margin, no matter who places number two. >> david webb, i'm curious, as a tea party supporter, how do you view all these attacks against romney for his tame at bain capital, this thing gingrich has put out or his super pac has put out. >> anderson, it's exactly what it is, an attack. it has very little merits when you look at the facts of bain capital. overall, it was 77% success percentage and on average, venture capitalism, about 60%. they're going to go after him, they're going to go after him in apples and oranges come pair son to president obama and solyndra. you have to look at the defensive. bain capital was a private company -

to derail romney. are you buying that? >> you know, being one of the callers of the meeting i don't buy it. are you going to be in texas on friday. >> i will, indeed. if the meeting starts turning into a bash session of one of the republic candidates, i will stand up and fight that and if that doesn't work, i will leave the meeting. look, there will be a lot of people there. we have these meetings fairly regularly. we will be sharing ideas. people will say why they endorse various candidates. there will be newt gingrich fans, perry fans since we are in texas. people like me supporting santorum. there will be people there that have endorsed mitt romney. >> bill: free exchange of ideas not a cabal to derail romney. have you got to let us know if you walk out of the meeting right away. we have got to report that. the mainstream media, i'm not running down the "the washington post" here because somebody probably told them yeah we don't like this guy romney and going to try to do something. i'm not running

he's now, i have beaten mitt romney. newt gingrich has beaten mitt romney. the idea that conservatives have to coalesce to beat romney. they have a choice. we don't have to rush to judgement. we can look at the candidates. the longer this campaign goes on, the better it is for conservatives and our party. we stay focus on the issues. which is going out and taking on barack obama. the republicans are the focus. i know why the media would love to have this race over. they like to spend and obama administration, they would like to take aim at the nominee as soon as they can. i don't think that's going to happen. i don't think it's a good thing that it does happen. >> well, it looks like it's going to be a long one. senator santorum, thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you. >>> and with that, let's get straight to our roundtable. i'm joined by george will, katrina vanden heuvel, matthew dowd, amy walter and ron brownstein. mitt romney looking to do something that has never been done. this week, something else we haven't seen before, three primaries an

remember george romney, the former governor, mitt romney has

what plank is romney going to be able to give if romney is the nominee? is he going to be able to give to ron paul to make the ron paul people happy? >> it's not going to be in international affairs for sure. but it could be on the margins abolishing a department here and there. some extra cuts. some of the libertarian issues on civil libertys. i'm sure there is stuff he can offer that would not be a contradiction of romney's position. the fact that a libertarian, paul has been in the wilderness for a quarter of a century. he could end up in tampa as the guy that gets all the attention on day one and two, like jackson in '88 and buchanan in '92. >> bret: this race is hardly over. this race goes to south carolina, chuck, where this is an interesting point for the anti-romneys if you want to call them that. if they can solidify any support against governor romney. >> it doesn't look like they are going to, though, because you still have so many of them coming out of new hampshire, all competing for this title of alternative to romney. even jon huntsman, fra

they can't stand romney. he told me not mitt now or ever. >> there will be a constituency of people out there that rally around the alternative to mitt romney. you saw it absolutely in 2008 with senator mccain. ironically a lot of those people were rallying to mitt romney and endorsed him as the conservative. didn't make a lick of difference. rush limbaugh was on the radio every day lamb basting senator mccain and still wound up winning south carolina. he wound up winning florida. people don't turn over their voting franchise to talk radio hosts and to the activist leaders of the base. i think that you will see if rick santorum does as well as we're all talking about here tonight we'll see how long he's able to continue the momentum. how will he do in new hampshire? is it like lamar alexander in '96 who had a strong showing in iowa and very quickly ran out of steam against senator dole in new hampshire. will he have more staying power? how will he hold up in south carolina? what does rick perry do? he in or i

i chose romney at the very end. >> what do you like about romney? >> i like the lektability. >> governor romney can raise $3 billion. i think he can match obama dollar for dollar. i believe he can definitely defeat mr. obama. >> what is it about mitt romney that attracted you? >> i think like his family values. i just feel like maybe he could be the one to beat obama. he might be the best at get along in washington. >> and he's the guy who can win? that seems to be the overarching argument tonight, right? >> right. >> if santorum come out and be the nominee, do you think he can beat president obama? >> i think. so. >> and santorum won in precinct two. >> i could live with rick santorum. >> do you believe he can defeat president obama? >> i hope he can. yes. yeah, i do. he is one of america's choices and his ideals and his beliefs. >> and is rick santorum a candidate you're happy with, somebody you can live with to take on president obama? >> yes. i can. i can. >> what is about it him that you like? >> i think he's got christian conservative values.

39% for mitt romney here. we talked about getting to 40%. 39 is a strong number. >> it's a really strong number. think back to 2008. you had john mccain had about 37% of the vote. john mccain, a favorite in new hampshire, mitt romney exceeded his vote total and percentage of the vote. barack obama had 35% or 36% in 2008. in some ways mitt romney did better than that. it's an apples to apples comparison. it was a six-race in 2008 for the republicans, six-way race this time. it's a strong day. i think the over/under was probably about 5 or 36. romney back in 2008 got 31% of vote, so he's 8 points higher than last time around. you know, i think there's not an expectation that he did not meet or exceed. that's as much part of the game here as collecting the win itself. he had so many people expected him to win here, posting a strong win, 17 points, 16 points over ron paul, also very strong. he walks out of here with his head very high. >> what to do about ron paul. he's over 20% again as he was in iowa, 23% last n

not because mitt romney is the front-runner, because mitt romney was ahead or mitt romney had a good campaign. mitt romney winning new hampshire was a foregone conclusion because historically speaking, new hampshire couldn't have been won by anybody other than him. because he's the guy from massachusetts. the guy from massachusetts, whether a republican or democrat, always wins new hampshire. in 2004, john kerry, in 1992, paul songas, 1998 michael dukakis, henry cabot lodge, john f. kennedy. when a massachusetts politician is running for president it's a safe bet they will wine in new hampshire. they will win. there are two exemptions to the rule. two exceptions to the massachusetts guy winning in new hampshire in modern political history. 1980, jimmy carter got a primary challenge from the left from inside the democratic party from ted kennedy, ted kennedy was from massachusetts, he did not beat the incumbent president in that new hampshire primary. that is kind of an exception but it wasn't incumbent president, so not really. the only other exception to the massachusetts guy not wi

be romney, right? evangelical leaders give rick santorum their vote. will it make a difference at this point? i'll ask joy-ann reid. psycho talk, rick perry make excuses for marines filmed urinating on a dead taliban story. the reaction is unbelievable. >>> in public education, you want a real good lefty story in america? under attack in pennsylvania, there is a school district that is running out of money because of massive education cuts from the state. you will hear from a teacher from the school district later on in the show and i'll give you my commentary. share your thoughts on twiter #edshow. we're right back. stay with us. ttd# 1-800-345-2550 when companies try to sell you something off their menu ttd# 1-800-345-2550 instead of trying to understand what you really need. ttd# 1-800-345-2550 ttd# 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we provide ttd# 1-800-345-2550 a full range of financial products, ttd# 1-800-345-2550 even if they're not ours. ttd# 1-800-345-2550 and we listen before making our reco

here's the pro-romney super pac. he's putting this out today in south carolina and florida attacking gingrich. let's watch. >> newt gingrich's attacks are called foolish, out of bounds, and disgusting. newt attacks because he has more baggage than the airlines. newt was fined $300,000 for ethics violations. took $1.6 million from freddie mac and co-sponsored a bill with nancy pelosi that would have given $60 million a year to a u.n. program supporting china's brutal one child policy. don't be fooled by newt's desperate attacks. restore our future is responsible for the content of this message. >> they are as nasty as ever, fair enough. but it seems to me what happens in these situations, i call upon your expertise, when you trash each other, somebody else gets the vote. >> that's absolutely right. >> if i were rick santorum, i would say, please, don't do this anymore. can't we have a positive campaign? this is how newt gingrich rose to the top. he attacked the media and attacked the republicans for attacking other re

his own party, romney. is he hiding from the truth? america deserves answers. >> i think any time a job is lost is a tragedy. for the family, for the individual that loses a job, it's just devastating. >> the bigger tragedy for romney is when your investors don't get paid. john mccain is coming to romney's defense. his old running mate is twisting the knife. >> governor romney has claimed too have created 100,000 jobs at bain. people are wanting to know, is there proof? >> tonight my commentary on the mother at failings of middle class men. >>> don't look now, but we have a tight race in south carolina. and it's getting uglier by the minute. >> phony cronyism is not free enterprise and raising questions about that is not wrong. >> crystal ball, e.j. dion and ari melber of the nation magazine on the chaos in carolina. >>> jim demint goes rogue with his white house pick and lands in "psycho talk." and so far, mitt romney has stayed under the radar on the issue of race. tonight that's all over. mitt romney and

and he said a lot of things four years ago about romney being unprincipaled, about romney being a phony. i mean the clips line up at some length here. but bigones. that's all gone. they have a new enemy, which is barack obama. this was a good way to kick off romneyment he's got a big league in new hampshire. they had this plan and very quiet, only romney and the campaign manager and mccain knew about it for a while. they dropped it. it was a great way for the romney campaign to kind of steal the 36 hours after what was a great night for rick santorum in iowa. but the romney campaign had this ready to go, grabbed the news cycle. rick santorum, who has a thread bear campaign wasn't on tv. he was kind of a ghost for a while until later that evening. it was great stage managing except when he got to new hampshire, kind of lackluster event. nevertheless, mccain has now gone out with him and he's helping romney attack santorum on the question of earmarks, which is helpful. so former enemies but now an ally who's by his side. >> julianna, seriously, the two things mitt romney has going for him

but i think that newt has the capacity here to hurt romney more than romney thinks he can be hurt. i do not think, i disagree with mark, i don't think he has the capacity to be the mom knee. because once -- >> rose: you don't think newt does. >> i don't think newt does, because once you start going off into this anger and negativity mode, it becomes very much harder for you to sell yourself as a positive politician. i think mark once said -- >> it is a major paradox there, when the positive candidate wants to riphe face-off of mitt romney, and this is one of the problems, he has had the last two weeks, he made his message about ads, right? that is what he snt the top of his remarks talking about. then he pot to his message which actually might sell but he is obsessed with this attack against him and he also really can't get out of this mode of being a pundit, we saw it a day or two ago and he commented on his own campaign. i don't think i am going to win. that is something you say when you are an analyst, it is not something you say wh you are a candidate and of course of course he

at the thursday debate, romney and gingrich were at each other's throats. >> maybe romney should tell us how much money he has made after how many households that been foreclosed by his investments. >> have you checked your own investments? you also invested in mutual funds that invested in fannie mae and freddie mac. >> romney makes it a point to remind us that he has never lived in washington, d.c. still, if he wants to move here pretty badly. gingrich says that by the end of his second term as president we will have a permanent base thon the moon. jeanne? >> we saw something in the final days of the week wore momentum was moving. romney was very strong in that debate did many were frustrated that he did not defend and soft, seemed apologetic about his money. all that was gone on thursday night did double influence how the primary it closes. >> charles? >> i think the moon base was newt jumping at the shark, or to use another analogy, it could have been his dukakis in the tank moment, because it was a caricature of him. romney used it cleverly to say that newt was going out around e

, the conservative a terptive to romney at precisely a moment where people are forgetting today romney has had a bad week. i don't think he had a good debate. the fox debate was not a good debate for romney and he has had the gaffes. tax things and the rest. people are unsure with romney. he just lost the iowa caucuses. and gingrich is getting the surge as the alternative to him. it helps, even in perverse way, the marianne gingrich stuff fuels that everybody is talking about gingrich right now. >> bret: i was going to take the second panel and deal with the iowa caucuses but gets to the moment of the craziness of the day in the rick santorum, the g.o.p. in iowa, comes to the end and they are missing eight precincts. the votes there. but the vote counting shows him up 34. rick santorum. there was a back and forth. what about this day? put it in perspective? >> first, are you angry that you stayed up all night waiting for results? >> bret: one more hour. maybe we could have gotten there. i don't know. >> gosh, i don't think it's great news for the iowa g.o.p. it looks terrible. but it s

we start with chasing mitt romney. howard fineman, msnbc political analyst, and "the huffington post" media group editorial director, and the great joe klein. he's a columnist for "time" magazine. because he is the great, as you are, howard. let's take a look at these poll numbers. basically, the poll numbers out, let's take a look at the latest poll numbers out of both south carolina -- well, south carolina, let's start with that. mitt romney has jumped into a first down there with a dominant lead at 37%. that's up 17 points from early december. rick santorum also got a huge boost. he's in second place now down there with 19, followed very closely by newt gingrich in third. so we have that one. we also have the latest suffolk university tracking poll from up here. it shows romney remains in the lead at 40% in new hampshire. he's followed by ron paul at 17. rick santorum is in double digits at 11, and moving up, but slowly. the latest national gallup tracking poll out today, mitt romney leads nationally at 29, but foll

romney, what mr. romney said when the shoe was on the other foot. >> yeah, a couple of points. number one it does prove that both willard if you will, and newt are coordinate with their pacs. they are asking them to pull their ads down. secondly, newt gingrich puts up his own super pac ad which "the washington post" said merits four pinocchios because it's so full of lies. and final point. you know, reverend al, what i think newt gingrich is in this race, he's the suicide bomber of the republican party. he knows he's not going to win. he knows he's not -- he's not in it to win it anymore. he's in it to take down as many people as he can, as he goes down. and he has that same silly grin on his faceç when he pulls the plug as a suicide bomber. >> but i think -- >> why can't he win? there's no way you think newt gingrich could do this? >> no, absolutely not. i don't think the republican party will -- they know who he is. he's been nothing but a destructive, negative force as bob pointed out his entire career. they're not going to let him become the nominee. >> but there's an imp

romney. we start with gingrich vs. romney. mark halperin is an msnbc senior political analyst and "time" magazine editor at large and david corn is bureau chief for "mother jones." let's look at the new numbers just out from "time" magazine and cnn. the opinion research shows a new rise for newt gingrich in south carolina. this poll was taken from last friday through tuesday of this week but he has gained five points from early this month while romney has dropped four points. gingrich has a decent edge over conservative rival rick santorum. mark, you are a student of these numbers. i'm just wondering if you can see a projection from here until saturday morning that could allow for newt to overtake romney and win the all-important south carolina primary. >> i think he could. i think he could also come close enough that if his team is deft enough in spinning it, he could go into florida with an effective one-on-one matchup with romney for 85% of the vote. the trajectory is good for him. as you

she's at romney headquarters. they are obviously watching this very, very closely, candy. >> reporter: they are. and the room is packed, as i think you can probably see behind me. they are every time romney went up a little and got 40 votes ahead, there were big cheers. then the next screen would come and he'd go back down to boos. nonetheless, i can tell you, anderson, these folks and mitt romney are going to consider whatever happens tonight, first or second, a victory. why? because they will point out to you, at least privately, this wasn't a big play for iowa. they all but ignored it, basically. i think mitt romney spent less than three weeks in the state during this election cycle. rick santorum, more than 100 days. so he did not put all of his time and all of his money into this state. whether he can get away with it, i don't know. because he made a huge push toward the end of this and they sounded very confident. but either way they look at it, they don't believe that rick santorum has the wherewithal to go

santorum, romney and paul. and although iowa doesn't necessarily pick winners, it does often tell us what the agenda will be in terms of the issues going forward and so i look at those three and see the libertarian strain, the kind of small government train that we saw as part of the initial impetus of the tea party. i see this very traditional evangelical christian strain that kept trying to find its place and ended up on santorum and orderly republican establishment. that is what will be fought out. it may not be the personals. one great thing about the santorum birth control stance, of course, there's really only one kind of sexual contact that almost never leads to reproduction and that is same-sex contact so there should be a kind of obvious support for the rights of gay and lesbian individuals who after all will not need to use birth control. >> i'm getting in my ear from my executive producer -- >> to stop saying that. >> he would like you to describe in graphic detail what kind of -- what you're saying

romney. it was pretty split. they are very engaged and they know that every vote counts. >> you're going to be doing your show there at 2:00 eastern. what do you have coming up? >> yeah, rough life, getting sent to florida to have to cover this primary. we have a number of guests coming up at the top of the hour. we're going to talk to andrea solis. campaigning in florida, a much more aggressive mitt romney. the words people are using is infiltrating. we're going to talk about why that is, the strategy there. also, the mayor of tampa there and not only for us here at cnn but for the rnc at the end of august. what that means for his city. keep in mind, i-4 corridor is very key. and finally, if i may lean over and grab some of my problems, if you know cam pa, you know pirates, right? tampa bay bucs. this past weekend, right when we got into town, think mardi gras with props. we're talking pirates and politics. >> are you going to put on that pirate hat at some point in because i'll tune in for

mitt romney pace 13.9%. how will that play in peoria? >> not well for mitt romney. he will be docked by this through the campaign -- dogged by this through the campaign. he is a poster boy it's what people say is wrong with the system, the income inequality. he is going to be -- republicans are going to come up with a nominee that they will have a lot of hard work to do to keep -- >> everybody aspires to be where mitt romney is. >> yes, and at other cycles, this may not be as much of and liability if it becomes one. in this environment, when you have in public opinion polls a sense from the public that they don't think their kids are going to make it, that is not a good place. the other thing is that a is not the number that is the problem, but these guys play by totally different rules than the rest of us. >> one thing populists are right about, the game is big in congress in favor of rich people. carried interest, which allows big money guys to pay capital gains instead of income, is outrageous, it needs to be changed. scrutiny on this may bring about that change.