about newt gingrich's personal life. what they did care about was a candidate taking it to the establishment, taking it to the republican establishment, not only around the country but here in social. it was the governor of this state who was on the mitt romney team, not on the newt gingrich team. he was going after the media, which we talked about again and again, and conservatives like that, as well. but it was interesting to listen to newt gingrich's victory speech here tonight, because it wasn't so much about his rival. we heard him go on and on about mitt romney on the campaign trail. this one was about president obama and what he considers to be a food stamp president, something that he's said time and again. here's just a little bit of what he had to say with respect to that line of attack. >> president obama has been historically the most effective food stamp president in american history. [ applause ] i worked with ronald reagan to create jobs and 16 million jobs were created. i worked with bill clinton and 11 million jobs were created by the american people during the

the race for the white house. >> newt gingrich seizes the lead as the campaign heads for florida. >> newt gingrich is south carolina's choice. it's a major blow to mitt romney's campaign. >> this is a hard fight because there's so much worth fighting for. >> four republicans went into this southern brawl. who will be left standing as the contest moves to florida? the votes are in. south carolina has spoken. and the biggest battleground yet is still ahead. rick santorum at 17%. ron paul at 13%. all the candidates say they are moving forward to florida. we have reporters stationed throughout south carolina as we have for the last several weeks. let's start off with gingrich headquarters. there are still a lot of folks there, romney headquarters looks like a ghostown. does the candidate move to florida tomorrow? >> reporter: you know, we're still waiting to hear about his travel plans. it's been on interesting day watching the gingrich campaign. this is a candidate who tends to shoot from the hip. i did catch up with somebody a few moments ago and they were watching the returns come

poll results. let's put those up right now. take a look at this. exit polls show that newt gingrich is on top with 38%. mitt romney 29%, rick santorum, 17%. 15% going to ron paul. these are the exit poll results. we asked individuals as they were leaving the polling stations across the state of south carolina who they voted for and these were the results we got, strategically located. this is no doubt the most reliable poll so far. but take a look at this. newt gingrich, 38%. 29% for mitt romney. let's go over to newt gingrich headquarters. jim acosta is standing by. these exit poll numbers, jim, must be very encouraging for the newt gingrich folks, even though we haven't projected a winner yet. >> reporter: that's right. keep in mind where newt gingrich was just a week ago, wolf, when mitt romney was being talked about as the inevitable nominee for the republican party. newt gingrich just finished in a disappointing finish in new hampshire. he come off sort of a tough night there in new hampshire, came in here in south carolina, behind by double digits and he turned in those two perfo

is no doubt the most reliable poll so far. but take a look at this. newt gingrich, 38%. 29% for mitt romney. let's go over to newt gingrich headquarters. jim acosta is standing by. these exit poll numbers, jim, must be very encouraging for the newt gingrich folks, even though we haven't projected a winner yet. >> reporter: that's right. keep in mind where newt gingrich was just a week ago, wolf, when mitt romney was being talked about as the inevitable nominee for the republican party. newt gingrich just finished in a disappointing finish in new hampshire. he come off sort of a tough night there in new hampshire, came in here in south carolina, behind by double digits and he turned in those two performances at the debates. every republican voter i talked to has said it's those debates that really turned things for newt gingrich. things are starting to get animated in this crowd here. trying to figure out what is happening here. it just looks like some gingrich supporters are starting to get excited. my sense is they're going to get really excited not too long from now. >> once again,

the race for the white house. >> newt gingrich seizes the lead as the campaign heads for florida. >> newt gingrich is south carolina's choice. it's a major blow to mitt romney's campaign. >> this is a hard fight because there's so much worth fighting for. >> four republicans went into this southern brawl. who will be left standing as the contest moves to florida? the votes are in. south carolina has spoken. and the biggest battleground yet is still ahead. rick santorum at 17%. ron paul at 13%. all the candidates say they are moving forward to florida. we have reporters stationed throughout south carolina as we have for the last several weeks. let's start off with gingrich headquarters. there are still a lot of folks there, romney headquarters looks like a ghostown. does the candidate move to florida tomorrow? >> reporter: you know, we're still waiting to hear about his travel plans. it's been on interesting day watching the gingrich campaign. this is a candidate who tends to shoot from the hip. i did catch up with somebody a few moments ago and they were watching the returns come

while he is ahead by a wide margin but newt gingrich whistles a different tune. >> six months. unless romney drops out. >> the polls are closed and the results are rolling in with analysis from elliott spitse and live from florida with craig crawford, countdown's david shuster, coverage of the 2012 florida primary begins now! ♪ from sea to shining sea ♪ >> good evening. it's an exciting night. good to have you with us. thanks for joining us tuesday january 31st 281 days until the 2012 presidential election. i am bill press sitting in for keith olbermann. this is our "countdown" coverage of the 2012 g.o.p. florida primary and what you want to know at this hour. cnn, fox and msnbc have all called the florida primary for mitt romney. no surprise there. maybe the only surprise is they called did so early. romney started the day leading his arch rival newt gingrich scoring double digit leads, looks like that's how it's going to turn out. now with just 43% according to associate press, not just -- that's a big block of votes in. romney is ahead of gingrich 48 to 31%, seventeen point spr

called the florida primary for mitt romney. romney started the day leading newt gingrich, scoring double-digit leads in most of them. it looks like that's how it is going to turn out. and now with just 43% according to the associated press, not just -- he is ahead of gingrich by 48%. last week's campaigning saw a brutal ad war. along with personal attacks from both men of course. gingrich accusing romney of being a proabortion, liar and liberal, and romney who seemed to enjoy unhinging gingrich attacked him as a washington insider with more baggage than the airlines who was forced to resign as speaker while in office. so in this hour together it will be a moving target. we'll discuss the outcome, look at the numbers, hear from some of the candidates hopefully. and determine where we go from here. david shuster in tampa florida. on set with me for the entire hour, governor elliott spitzer good to see you. >> good to be here. whoever wins the republican primary is the republican.com knee. >> i think this is the first of many dominos to fall in the next couple of days. those outside

weekend. up for grabs. final weekend before the florida primary. rom newt gingrich are dualing for latino votes . message not approved. super pack stepped up the attack on romney. and we'll ask for their take on this campaign trick. and right now, senior united nations inspectors are on the way to iran. former homeland security chief will join us . a student battling cancer cane make home come so they brought home coming to here. i am uma, with america's news headquarters live from the nation's capitol starts right now. okay, so who will come out on top? three days to go before the win or take all primary . at stake 50 delegates and newt gingrich and mitt romney are taking swipes. and newt gingrich is stepping out of the ring . mitt romney came in the weekend with momentum. what can newt gingrich do to reverse that. >> work hard and make every moment on the campaign trail. there is a organizational component in a state this week. who drops the most mail and get people to the poils. and in the case of mitt romney and newt gingrich. he is trailing now . came roaring out and over the

he'll put his political weight behind newt gingrich. >>> let's get inside how this would impact the race. mark halperin, editor at large for "time," and wayne slater, for "the dallas morning news." we do have a lot of moving parts, will you let's start with the breaking news. mark, why are we seeing it happen now, what does it ultimately mean as we ramp up to another debate? >> he did poorly in iowa, came straight here, has been showing up in polls well below 10%. he had are a choice to see things through through saturday, do very poorly, or try to control his departure more effectively. we saw jon huntsman do the same thing. sources of suggesting he's going to endorse newt gingrich. he got in in part by the notion of stopping mitt romney from being the republican nominee. he has a chance to help newt gingrich do what he could not do himself. >>> moments like this really hurt him. these are some of the gaffes. take a look. >> commerce, education, and what's the third one there? let's see. >> you can't name the third one? >> education, commerce and -- let's see. i can't. the third one i c

uptight about. newt gingrich just released it, we'll go through it. the freddie mac deal. kind of a sweet deal. sheldon sheldon adelson cut a check. mitt romney is sinking in the polls, not only florida but nationally. guess what the republican party is doing? i think they are drinking tonight. this is "the ed show," let's get to work. >> he was a failed leader. he had to resign in disgrace. >> we moved from romney's baloney to desperate baloney. he will open up a delli. >>> the fight for florida is exploding on the campaign trial. newt gingrich is now in front. >> i did not think i had lived a good enough life to be rewarded by newt gingrich being the republican nominee. >> tonight, massachusetts congressman barney frank and "hardball'"''s" chris matthews l bedate. >> we do our laundry, we will be on the road for 30 days, who else will do the laundry? >> we're hanging mitt's gla glamorous life out to dry with martin bashir, joan walsh. >> if that is what the president will talk about tuesday night it's pathetic. >> john boehner is giving his opinion on tomorrow night's state of the

. >> i am appalled you would begin a presidential debate with a topic like that. newt gingrich -- >> his second wife weighs in. >> he wanted an open manage. >> that i accept the fact he has somebody else. >> a rough week for mitt romney. the issue, taxes. >> i have been paying probably closer to the 15% rate. >> to root assault on the wound, iowa bank slips away. >> we defeated mitt romney in my or. >> president obama rejects the keystone pipeline project. >> no other way to put it. the president is selling out american jobs for politics. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> ok, first, housekeeping. full disclosure for our pbs audiences. we are putting this together friday, we have to get it out to our pbs stations that day but the primary is saturday. so if you are watching this program on sunday and it appears data -- dated, it is. but we soldier on. the field of candidates for the republican presidential nomination is narrowed to four. jon huntsman, rick perry got the message this week. huntsman endorses and romney, perry endorses gingrich. thursday nig

to the nomination with little in our mind to derail him. then monday night newt gingrich puts up a huge performance in the debate that a lot of people have said energized his supporters and conservatives on the ground in south carolina. now with these results coming out of iowa which shows rick santorum winning with an asterisk, but still winning it is now possible to believe that after saturday in south carolina you could have mitt romney having won one of three contests. it looked on monday if he were likely to win three of the first three contests. now he may actually have one of the first three contests. bill: this is whether it hurts romney or hurts santorum more because he did not have the headline? >> yeah, i don't think it doesn't help santorum. i think the damage to santorum has already been done unfortunately for his campaign. he would have gotten a much bigger bounce. he got a lot of attention coming out of iowa overperforming this guy was in single digits. but, how many times again did we hear mitt romney won iowa by the slimmest of margins. that is the way it was chara

hours from tonight's nbc debate in tampa with the surging swinger, newt gingrich on the collision course with mitt romney. gingrich lashed out hitting mitt with his favorite lunch meat attack. >> it's such bologna. >> that after mitt made it clear his gloves are off going after gingrich this morning as the cay street candidate. >> if you're working for a company, getting paid for a company through one of your many entities and speaking with congressmen in way that would help that company, that's lobbying. >> absolutely, mr. romney. not to be stopped there, romney hit harder against gingrich's infamous instability. >> question see an october surprise today from newt gingrich. look at the speaker's record over time. it's been highly erratic. he's gone from pillar to post almost like a pinball machine. >> one begins to wonder if there's signs of instability within the faltering romney campaign. mr. gingrich is out in force taking it to his number one rival, the media. nbc's own david gregory on "meet the press" this sunday. >> people are sick and told of being allowed what they are a

newt gingrich. bob dole decided to weigh in, obviously, on behalf of the guy playing him in this year's remake. he's on mitt romney's side of course. he's against newt gingrich. now the context here is weird but you have to know this in order to understand what is so strange about what bob dole is doing right now. in 1996 when he was running against bill clinton, newt gingrich was speaker of the house. republicans won the big term election against bill clinton and democrats in 1994. by the time he's running for president in 96, newt gingrich was really the most famous republican in the country. he was speaker of the house. and he used to carry a bucket around with him everywhere. heres with why. apparently there had been a long standing practice in congress for whatever reason that the office of every member of congress every day got a bucket of ice delivered in the morning. they always had done this in congress and still did it in the 1990's. i find it charming. newt gingrich found it wasteful which it was. newt gingrich as speaker put a stop to the ice delivery tradition while

get aload of newt gingrich's speech. "young turks"'s florida primary coverage continues. we have ben, michael, and david, and eleanor cliff from "new week" as well. but first let me give you the numbers as we stand. romney at 47. gingrich -- sorry 46 -- gingrich at 31. >> wow. >> 32. it's changing as we speak! it's minute by minute. or i could just read it off there. santorum at 13. and paul at 7%. >> it helps when you do the dramatic reading if you do it right. >> and if you do it before you do santorum. [ laughter ] >> to be fair to me i have more numbers. mitt romney at 27 delegates now. ron paul has more delegates than rick santorum but any way the numbers so far have been fantastic. we started out really strong with the numbers. all right. now i want to show you what happened tonight. obviously mitt romney with the decisive victory but getting smaller and smaller as we go. the tweet of the night belongs to david shuster. i'll save that for a little later. and i want to give you romney's speech and gingriches speeches, because they were very interesting. let's watch a piece of ro

listen in to newt gingrich. >> and this afternoon, we were told that the secretary of anti- energy -- [laughter] >> dr. chu, announced this afternoon that he actually wasn't for european level prices of gasoline, that he had changed his mind. so i would say, in the middle of a campaign of the states we're already impacting the so i would say, we are already impacting the national debate on a scale that mitt romney's money hasn't been able to achieve because ideas matter. [cheers and applause] the reagan tradition of visionary conserveatism was based on proverb and it is very deep belief that without vision, the people perish. and i believe teawe need a visionary leader who is prepared to talk about a dramatically better future with dramatically more job, dramatically more energy and a much safer and stronger america. i think that's the key to winning this fall, want all this petty baloney, but the really big choices. as i went around both states talking about $2.50 gasoline, having the elite media saying, no, that's not possible. on saturday, "the wall street journal," there is a p

martha mccallum monitoring our exit polls. >> good evening, you guys. we knew newt gingrich would make a strong run at mitt romney and that is what we are seeing in the polls. polls in south carolina, still open, but we can start to tell folks exactly how people are responding on their way out of the polls, we have seen a huge upheaval in the race in recent days, boy the mud-slinging, ex-wife tories astories and tax and the question is what do viewers think? how did it factor in? just over half say they decided the vote in the last few days, nearly half decided before that and gingrich seems to be doing well this evening among late decide,and romney is doing better with those who made up their minds over the course of the last month and you had a couple debates over the course of the week and they got a lot of attention and no surprise, newt gingrich is having an advantage with those who say the debates were influential in helping them decide. romney is winning big among those who said they were not all that important and he was not noted for having great performances over the course o

, florida. there was a concern that romney felt he was overdoing it and newt gingrich was bettering him in the debate and why push it. he's going to do that. he might need an extra one if early indications that newt gingrich could have a good day today. the battle for south carolina is costly. tv advertisement is 10 million and much over the last two weeks. ron paul telling me that south carolina is important. it is not do or die for him. 20 percent of the south carolina voters are said to be undecided. >> you have probably watched the battle back and forth for the heart and soul of the comment . what a former wife's comments made of newt gingrich and the team he may or may not be getting. herman cain knows that personal issues come up and change the race quick leap. yours were unprove exten did drive you from the race because they were such a distraction . and so far no indication that the prior comments from the second wife of mr. gingrich are reg mr. #2: ering. do you think they will? >> i don't think they will. the timing of the attack on newt with the interview from the previous wi

. i'm gary tuchman. newt gingrich is celebrating a big win in south carolina. >> the biggest thing i take from the campaign in south carolina is that it is very humbling and very sobering to have so many people who so deeply want their country to get back on the right track. >> speaking of the right track, mitt romney is hoping to find it in florida. we'll get voter reactions from the next big campaign contest about what happened in south carolina. >>> despite some immediate ra reports to the contrary, joe paterno is alive but in serious condition this morning. we'll get an update from state college, pennsylvania. >>> we start with what was a runaway victory for newt gingrich in the south carolina republican presidential primary. look at these numbers. it was a double digit win. 12 percentage points for the former house speaker. easily beating mitt romney. rick santorum came in third place. ron paul in fourth. now, check out this cnn exit poll. there were many that thought newt gingrich's past would hurt him with women voters. especially after his second wife came out last week talki

newt gingrich for president of the united states. gwen: newt gingrich coming on strong, while ron paul and rick santorum still attract big crowds. >> this idea of the inevitability of mitt romney as the candidate is going to look so inevitable. >> the campaign has been doing very well but that doesn't mean things can't change. gwen: forcing frontrunner mitt romney to fight to hold on to his lead. >> this campaign is about taking back america and restoring american values and i'll do that. gwen: it may all end here or it may not. covering the week in south carolina, charts charles babington of the associated press, karen tumulty of the "washington post," sam youngman of reuters and jeff zeleny of "the new york times." >> award winning reporting and analysis, covering history at it happens. this is a special campaign 2012 edition of "washington week with gwen ifill & national journal". corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> we know why we're here. to connect our forces to what they need when they need it. >> to help troops see danger before it sees them. >> to answe

at newt gingrich's headquarters. instead of a cheering crowd, it was a quiet room and a q and a with reporters. very unusual. brianna keeler was there. she asked one question. i heard you. newt gingrich is still defiant, still vowing to fight on, and the question is, he said, oh, you know i wanted to be a more positive sort of campaign, but he had negative things to say about his opponent. >> reporter: that was the interesting distinction, don, because we've been hearing from some sources familiar with staff meetings that newt gingrich had been having here in the last couple can of days as they talked about a strategy moving forward here for the next month. they were saying it was going to be a pivot to a more positive message, which certainly made a lot of people's eyebrows raise because it's not been a positive message lately. he has, as mitt romney has certainly heard on tv ad and mailings. >> can i jump in a second? we want to go to clark county where they're counting the late votes in this late caucus. let's listen in and get back to brianna. >> mitt romney, newt gingrich,

wolf, and rick tyler from the newt gingrich pack and a lot more. now he's on attack. romney tried to land the latest attack on gingrich for his association with freddie mac. romney hammered him with his pay in the debate. >> you said you were paid $1.6 million as a historian. they weren't hiring you as a historian, and this contract proves you weren't a hiss tore yal. it doesn't say you provided historical experience, you were hired as a consultant. you were making over a million dollars at the same time people in florida were being hurt by millions of dollars. >> this is a good example. as a businessman, you know that the gross revenue wasn't your personal income. we had three offices, the company was being paid. my share annually was about $35,000 a year, and the fact is i offered strategic advice largely based on history, including my history in washington. >> just one of the many exchanges we'll bring in tonight. let's bring in pulitzer prize-winning columnist for the "washington post," and also richard wolf. richard, did romney lay any hands on gingrich tonight? i think that was

look at the demeanor of tonight's debate, this was a time where i thought that maybe newt gingrich could have put some icing on the cake, but he was -- i don't know if this is the correct word or not -- almost subdued tonight compared to what we've seen in the last two debates where he took real command. what did you think? >> he was subdued. it was odd, because neither candidate seemed to be in his comfort zone tonight. newt gingrich wasn't the fiery newt gingrich who had so riled up the folks in south carolina and who, frankly, i expected to try to do the same with the folks of north florida tonight. he didn't do that. he decided to play the front runner and be above it all. oh, i won't bother myself with these petty attacks from mitt romney. whereas romney, who i think is better suited for that sort of patrician front runner role, tried to be the attack dog and that's not his comfort zone. he's not great at it. at one point he gave gingrich the opportunity to take credit for medicare part b in florida, telling -- part d in florida, telling retirees, you know that lipitor you took this

. final weekend before the florida primary. rom newt gingrich are dualing for latino votes . message not approved. super pack stepped up the attack on romney. and we'll ask for their take on this campaign trick. and right now, senior united nations inspectors are on the way to iran. former homeland security chief will join us . a student battling cancer cane make home come so they brought home coming to here. i am uma, with america's news headquarters live from the nation's capitol starts right now. okay, so who will come out on top? three days to go before the ont newt gingrich. he is trailing now . came roaring out and over the course of the last two days. newt gingrich finds himself playing catch up . he's been complaining about the last two debates and said the first one was too quiet and the one that took place had too much audience participation. he is complaining that they have too much attack stage. and in the case of mitt romney. mitt romney is trying to take the high road and project the wehner and the idea of both campaigns above water can looks smooth and underneath the surfa

night for former house speaker newt gingrich, south carolina, could turn this race upside-down, once again. >> megyn: we have complete coverage of tonight's primary with our panel, here in new york. in washington, chris wallace, karl rove and joe trippi, bill hemmer will break down the results throughout the state and the fox news decision team crunching the numbers will make the call when we have a winner. >> bret: we start with martha mccallum monitoring our exit polls. >> good evening, you guys. we knew newt gingrich would make a strong run at mitt romney and that is what we are seeing in the polls. polls in south carolina, still open, but we can start to tell folks exactly how people are responding on their way out of the polls, we have seen a huge upheaval in the race in recent days, boy the mud-slinging, ex-wife tories astories and tax and the question is what do viewers think? how did it factor in? just over half say they decided the vote in the last few days, nearly half decided before that and gingrich seems to be doing well this evening among late decide,and romney is doing

, targeted on his taxes, romney is in danger of being defeated by newt gingrich, a man with more political lives than wives. the numbers on this race right now are nothing short ofs a sounding. in a clemson university poll released less than 24 hours before the vote, gingrich with a six-point lead, 32% to romney 22%. last night updating the south carolina projection now gives gingrich an 82% chance of winning the state by more than seven points. there's even one brand new poll, not one of our favorites, t. did we mention that romney and his iowa victory snatched away from him this week? the win to santorum with a recount. ouch. joining us from columbia, south carolina, i believe you just saw him, curtis loftus is the south carolina state treasurer and the state chairman for the romney campaign. sir, good afternoon. it's a delight to have you with us. >> thank you for having me back, martin. >> before we start, mr. loftus, i just want to play for our viewers a little clip of you on this network monday talking about the upcoming vote. here it is. >> every day we get closer to the election is

stories we're watching. first, newt gingrich says he is in it for the long haul. also the senate today taking up insider trading and occupy protesters scanned their ground. time to play reporter roulette. we want to go to joe johns who is not too far from me in tampa covering the newt gingrich campaign. as i understand, you just caught up with the candidate and one of his major supporters. what did they say? >> well, interesting, i just talked to him a little while ago, newt gingrich, and i got to tell you, brooke, the big question for the former speaker of the house is, what are you going to do once you get out of florida? there's been a lot of talk here on this day about how he didn't seem to have an answer as all the attacks of the romney campaign came from just a variety of sources, from television ads, from sort of a lackluster appearance in the debate, from a newspaper ad, from surrogates of mitt romney just showing up at media events. so when i spoke to newt gingrich a little while ago in tampa, i asked him, what do you do going forward? let's listen. if you didn't have an answe

. i'm chris matthews in florida. i'm leading off tonight with trading places. if newt gingrich loses the republican nomination, we're going to look back at last night's debate as the reason why. romney was the adegreeser from the start. mitt floored newt with this one. >> mr. speaker, i know that sounds like an enormous revolution, but have you checked your own investments? you also have investments in fannie mae and freddie mac. >> right. >> have you checked own investments? newt had no answer. mitt's performance makes him the favorite to win florida next tuesday. for now, the favorite to win the nomination. but it wasn't all good news for romney. he seems to have trouble with telling the truth. basic stuff like when he said investments are held by a blind trust. not necessarily. or when he defended his vote for paul with this changing answer. mitt romney meets the truth squad. you have doubt? newt gingrich made this absurd claim about president obama last night. >> if you're for radicalism, you're with barack obama. >> saul alinsky radicalism. i'm talking about newt gingrich here.

in momentum for newt gingrich, being driven by a ton of super pac money and by those debates. >> more people have been put on food stamps by barack obama than any president in american history. >> she says you asked her, sir, to enter into an open marriage. would you like to take some time to respond to that? >> no, but i will. >> 16 days after the iowa caucuses, mitt romney, it turns out, did not win there. >> we actually won the iowa caucuses yesterday. >> people of south carolina, have a job to do. >> in 2008, john mccain won south carolina, when fred thompson split the right flank with mike huckabee. will a santorum/gingrich split on the right tonight resurrect mitt romney's chances. >> if you think china's better or rash's better or cuba's better or north korea's better, i'm glad to hear all about it. america's right and you're wrong. >> two x factors in the race, the long-shot, long-haul candidacy of ron paul. and the independent vote. >> i want you to vote for herman cain. because herman cain is me. >> what will be the roam of independents and even democrats turning ou

newt gingrich. this is a fascinating year in which gingrich owns the stage and mitt romney owns everything else. what a night. we're going to see tonight. >> you're exactly right, i mean the thing that, the thing that is inevitable after tonight, is no matter what happens tonight, florida is about to start filling up with money. in terms of what happens in the next race. thank you, chris, i want to bring in our panel here tonight, guys. i have to say, a week ago, i was not all that psyched for covering the south carolina primary. now i feel like i wish i could do it twice. >> i would like to get the night off. i begged, please, you don't need me, come on, it's predictable. >> south carolina is often amazing, what happened in 2008, steve you were there. was that john mccain won narrowly in south carolina. i find it very interesting that john mccain, that night, in south carolina, four years ago, did not win among registered republican voters. he won because he had this very large margin against independents and the few democrats who turned out, it was less than one in five of the

vastly diminished. >> ok. can anything stop mitt romney? >> yes, newt gingrich, i guess. if he doesn't win on saturday or he only ekes out the narrowest victory, we will have a very fun next few months. >> colby? >> romney hit the wall, so to speak, and i think even if he gets by in south carolina, he has a fight on his hands in florida and the states to come. >> what is your take? >> i remember in 1984 when walter mondale, the democratic front runner, was considered the inevitable choice and ran into the sand storm, the hurricane of gary hart. mondale gave a speech at that time in florida and said this is why i am in the race. it was just a statement of his political beliefs and principles. that is what mitt romney has to do. the question about him is core to the man and beyond that, inevitability is not a campaign argument. i am not going to vote for somebody because of the inevitable. what is it that makes mitt romney want to be president in a public sense, not private vindication sense? >> what we heard in new hampshire and iowa was i am going to vote for this guy -- i am not crazy

, finally on saturday, in the "wall street journal" there is a piece entitled newt gingrich is right about gasoline. you walk through step by step why it was possible. and then, the fact is that it is very possible. and then, yesterday steven moore reported numbers are so amazing and the fact that i want to talk about substance is what makes this different from other campaign skptz reason we're going to go to tampa. we need at a time of great problems great solutions and great solutions require substance. and substance requires actually knowing something. so that is a very important part of it. and unfortunately everything president obama knows is wrong. ronald reagan used to say it isn't what they don't know that is so frightening it's what they know that is wrong and he's right. here is a case study. we're told by the u.s. geological survey in 1990s there is 150 million barrels of recoverable oil in north dakota. and this is the liberals told us we're about to run out we're going to decay, we have no future, new drilling technology came along. and we're now told that in fact as of

. let's listen in to newt gingrich. >> we're told the secretary of anti-energy, dr. chu announced this afternoon he actually wasn't for european-level prices of gasoline, that he changed his mind. now... so i would say, in the middle of a campaign of the states we're already impacting the national debate on a scale all of romney's ad money hasn't achieved because ideas matter. and the threat to principles matter. the reagan tradition of visionary conservatism is based on proverb skptz deep belief that without vision, the people perish. i believe we need a visionary leader prepared to talk about a dramatic better future with dramatically more jobs, dramatically more energy and a safer, stronger america. i think that is the key to winning this fall. not all of this pet petty bologna but big choices. and as i went around both states talking about $2.50 gasoline and having folks saying that that is not possible, then, finally on saturday, in the "wall street journal" there is a piece entitled newt gingrich is right about gasoline. you walk through step by step why it was possible. and

gingrich surging. last night i predicted newt would win by five points and i still think newt is going to win. the question, is that surge going to continue, stop, go more than five? we'll have to wait and see what the finals are but you get the feeling that newt had a great week. >> particularly because of the two debates, playing such a critical role. >> we've said for the past year this election is not about hope and strength. it is about strength and certainty. people feel the country is in decline, want a strong leader to do something about that. mitt romney was attacked this week. kind of weakened response, confused on several issues. newt gingrich was attacked this week, very strong. so we're going to see i think tonight is, who is emerging as the alpha dog out of south carolina. gingrich has been dead three times in this campaign and you just can't, you know, the guy keeps coming back. >> the difference is rasputin would probably get more votes in the general election than newt would. any of y'all see a bigger day in presidential politics than last thursday, more news and more dif

no polls show him leading over gingrich, but newt strikes back. >> the message we should give mitt romney is you know, we aren't that stupid and you aren't that clever. >> at least he got half right. >> the senate speaks out on the two year anniversary of citizen's united, what it's meant for this election and future ones. chris christy threaten to say veto same-sex marriage in new jersey. >> let's let the people decide. >> as other states move toward legalization. >> bang, boom, straight to the moon. >> we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be americans. >> how long until we can send him there? >> "countdown" contributor on newt's lunar fantasy. all this and more on "countdown." >> good evening this is thursday january 26, 286 days until the 2012 presidential election. i'm sitting in tonight for keith olbermann. mitt romney getting help from one time gop leaders as he looks to crush newt gingrich while president obama's shot at reelection gets a boost from the economy. panic over the fact that newt might actually win and economic numbers that could mean goo