but among the larger groups, gingrich, gingrich and gingrich. you just go across, he keeps winning. here's one more. men and woman, it was evenly split. some thought there would be a gender gap. there was no gender gap. gingrich 38%, romney, 29%. he won among women. he won even more convincingly among men. and the question, you can see here this is newt gingrich. that is a picture of a thumping. look at 2008 when john mccain barley carried the state. he won 33% to 30% over mike huckabee. you see a split, the conservatives up here, the more moderate to conservative voters in this part of the state. tonight, newt gingrich winning convincingly. the question is, can he take the demographic support among tea party voters, and evangelicals and bring it into a much more different state here. this is mccain the lighter red, romney is the darker red. mike huckabee the yellow. that's four years ago. romney got 31% last time but mccain won the state. that was it. much more diverse place. again, a lot of lessons. you can discount because of the size of the gingrich victory or say governor romne

but among the larger groups, gingrich, gingrich and gingrich. he keeps winning. here's one more. some thought there would be a gender gap. there was no gender gap. gingrich 38%, romney, 29%. he won among women. and the question, you can see here this is newt gingrich. that is a picture of a thumping. look at 2008 when john mccain barry carried the state. he won 33% to 30% over mike huckabee. tonight, newt gingrich winning convincingly. the question is, can he take the demographic support among tea party voters and evangelicals and bring it into a much more different state here. this is mccain the lighter red, mike huckabee the yellow. four years ago. romney got 31% last time but mccain won the state. again, a lot of lessons. you can discount because of the size of the gingrich victory or say governor romney has a problem as he moves on. >> we have ten days between now and january 31 when the florida primary takes place. you think how quickly things can change, only a week or so, not even a week or so ago, that cnn "time" magazine poll we did in florida showed mitt romney crushing

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 morning? you can thank me for it. that was kind of a flubbed opportunity. >> you know, gentlemen, we all cover the news differently, and we all have our habits of doing things. i have these msnbc cards i carry with me when i'm at a debate and write notes. the first note i wrote was "controversial when needed." that was one of the first things newt gingrich said tonight, and i thought that was somewhat a code to conser

to gingrich. it divides the vote. rick santorum dropped out before florida vote would go to gingrich. ron bad news for mitt romney is in florida, ron paul won't contest it. he will be telling us, the delegates are looking to nevada and colorado amend minnesota. other places and maine. he says in his he is looking to hang in until the end. it's a battle for delegates. he doesn't need the flash of winning florida. he is not the nominee. it does help romney on the debate stage. take votes from gingrich. that is not the case. >> on santorum a greater been if it to romney he is splitting the vote. not much more in the debate. they aren't going to be as many debate. not with the same frequency. they have done so effectively. the fact he is staying in and presenting himself as the real conservative alternative to romney. newt is not that con seventive. look at the things he has done. he is not really conservative. santorum calls himself consistent conservative alternative. >> bret: have you heard in ging

our person is gingrich. now there is real fight for these voters going on in south carolina, bill, that will intensify over the next couple of days. will they coalesce behind one candidate caroline gop leaders they thought it was in the wind monday when huntsman pulled out. they didn't see much reason for perry to stay in being in the low single digits there has been rumblings last couple days. the big how will those voters with perrigo. will their go with gingrich or go to santorum. bill: we'll find out saturday. talk to you nix hour. john roberts on the trail in charleston. martha: what a difference a day makes to be sure, right, folks? some of rick perry's most memorable moments were during debates. no doubt he thought back on those and wondered if he could do things differently. here is one of those as we head to break. we'll be right back. >> the state of texas is under assault by the federal government. i am saying also that south carolina, is at war with this federal government and with this administr

gingrich? was it the debate performances or were there other things going on in the campaign that we couldn't see so clearly from a national lens? >> well absolutely. it was the debate performances and it was a clear understanding of the most port parn of politics, how do you activate the momentum. president bush used to call it the big mo, and there's an understanding that newt gingrich has, of the political process. the history of the political process. the applicability of it that really is understated by everyone. he, he knows what this country needs. he is a leader who knows how to think out of the box. and how to put it in historical context to make his leadership work. >> john, this is ed schultz. florida has been somewhat of a fickle state. we have seen rick perry lead in september. we have seen herman cain lead in october. we've seen newt gingrich lead in december and now we see mitt romney leading with a whole heck of a lot more money spent already in florida. how does this change thi

romney quickly took aim at gingrich. >> gingrich worked for freddie mac and fannie mae. by wait, wasn't he going to release information about that? let's see what report he wrote for freddie mac and fannie mae, what the conclusion were and what the contract looks like. let's have him describe his relationships in washington. >> for his part, gingrich wasted no time this morning either, meeting with voters at a spartanburg restaurant three hours ago, urging republicans to get to the polls. >> with your help today, if you'll make sure all of your friends and neighbors turn out, if you'll convince them that the only practical conservative vote is for newt gingrich, i think we'll have a very big success today. >> we've got team coverage for you, msnbc's craig melvin is in columbia, nbc's ron mott standing by at a restaurant in greenville. good morning to you both. ron, i'll ginl with you, both romney and gingrich stopping at that restaurant in the past hour. give us a scene setter. what's it like? >> reporter: well, hey there, alex. they're calling this already hamgate becau

he took it to newt gingrich on several occasions. he did it in a cool manner, showing a bit of an alpha dog manner. and newt didn't have the commanding night he had in south carolina. and that hurt him because for him to close the gap here in florida, a close race, he needed another big, good night. rick santorum was strong. you have to give credit to rick santorum, and ron paul was funny. he had the best lines of the night. >> john king is with former senator santorum. >> i'm with santorum and his mother who is now famous in social media. good to see you. you introduced your mom at the beginning of the meeting, all over twitterverse. no way you're 93 years young. >> ari fleischer was talking, senator, that you had a strong performance. the last couple debates, you got great revies. the question sometimes comes down to resources. in a state like florida, you decided not to run tv ads, you decided not to stay here friday night because you're looking ahead. is this a missed opportunity? >> i have been here, i was the first person down

gingrich has a story. all right? the story is, i'm newt gingrich and i'm going to go after barack obama. romney's story is all over the place. he hasn't quite locked in on anything that's emotional. when you think about mitt romney, there's no emotion, it's bloodless. okay? barack obama had emotion and that's why he won last time. barack obama, barack obama, black man, change, hope and change, going to sweep it, all going to be different. emotion, emotion, emotion. romney had no emotion and that's what's holding him back. >> well, maybe, but look, let's look alt what the romney campaign started to do now. they're up in the air all over florida now with a very sharp attack on newt gingrich's record which you heard me say before, bill, this is a target rich environment. you look at the national picture of all voters, highest negative by far of any candidate in the field, including ron paul and my sense is that newt gingrich can mott make it all the way to the republican nomination based on a campaign against the news m

south carolina, gingrich. what does that say, karl about the field of candidates and the way republican voters view them in >> we have a volatile year and probably the most volatile for the republican primary season. real quick since 1980. >> let me say he's dying to use it. >> since 1980, south carolina primary, average winning number is 45 percent and averagin is 17. by parison. >> right now gingrich has 41 percent and ahead by -a 15. >> let's be careful oh, my god it is the most historic thing that happened. the guy who came in fifth in new hampshire come in first in south carolina. the nature of the victory in carolina is very much in line historically. >> you are going to poign it out. dick >> iowa 24.6 percent was the winning number. >> that's rick santorum . less than one-10th of a percent. and new hampshire 39 percent for mitt romney and 16 points better than the next guy. and incidentally 30 points better than newt gingrich in the state. tonight we are roughly in the area. >> so you are saying nice wi

i think at this point it is romney and gingrich but who knows what might happen if, in fact, gingrich does implode and then there's a question within the republican party of do we really want romney? gwen: john, you agree with that? >> i do. we talk about the reversal of florida versus issues south carolina. going into the vote in south carolina, gingrich had all the momentum. he had the strong debate performances. the roll any folks feel like -- romney folks now feel like they have the momentum. the problem with gingrich's debate performances and he -- is he needed to continue to build his momentum and it's basically stalled. at this point with a few days to go before the voting, there's a feeling inside the roll any example that they're going to do very well in florida and that sets them up going forward because romney has the organization and money to compete in these other states and gingrich can't match that. gwen: hold on. there's a washington bully poll that all these guys are competing for. somebody is stealing the chair and president obama made the most of it this state of th

that is newt gingrich's campaign for florida and gingrich's comments on the sunshine state trail have gotten quite a bit of attention over the last 24 hours. especially this one. >> we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be american. >> joining us this morning is dnc communications director brad woodhouse and gingrich's campaign senior adviser. great to have you with me this morning. david, i want to start with you because we have more from newt gingrich furthering explain his goal for his base on the moon that i want to share with everybody. >> because it is within our interest to acquire so much experience in space that we clearly have the capacity that chinese and russians will never come close to matching. >> david, right now being in nasa country is this campaign promise a giant leap for gingrich or going to be giving his opponents for fodder for criticism? >> clearly the science that you learn from space exploration and going to the moon is huge, what it does in terms of enhancing your defense capabilities from what you learn, basic things like the in term

gingrich supporter j.c. watt says it's frustrating. >> we match, you know, defeat out of the jaws of victory. we have been known to do that as well. i do think this election, i think it's going to be much, much different. >> how different remains to be seen. last weekend meeting of even gel call and conservative leaders voted to support santorum. that endorsement quickly broke down to bickering over how the vote was conducted. family research council president tony perkins was spokesman for the group. >> it will be up to the voters to decide if they will follow what happened in houston and coalesce around one candidate. >> so far, there is no indication that will happen. while gingrich is surging in the polls, could enough support go to santorum to deny conservative victory? >> do you think it could happen in 2012? >> that is what i'm afraid of. that is the big question. do you go with the one who looks like he can beat romney or go with your heart? >> that anyone but romney attitude could provoke a shift be

gingrich spokesman r.c. hammond says the only people the campaign offered to abc were the speaker's two daughters from his first marriage." proof tonight speaker gingrich perhaps should worry more about mitt romney and florida. our new times cnnorc poll shows a statistical dead heat here. mitt romney has 36% of potential voters, speaker gingrich 34% support. close but the momentum is clearly with governor romney at the moment. speaker gingrich was leading in the first day of our polling, but romney significantly up in the final two days. our debate here tomorrow night is the last face-to-face showdown before tuesday's voting. our chief political analyst gloria borger is here. gloria clearly the nbc debate helped governor romney stop the momentum. he now has it. the interesting thing there at the polling look at the gender gap. if you look at our polling among men, beginning rich 35, romney 31 slight advantage gingrich. among women, romney 40, gingrich 42. in a bigger, more diverse moderate state looks at the

of gingrich. also in all this, obama's approval rating in the mid 40s. yet he's better whether people will vote for obama or one of the republicans. that's reflecting just this conservative trend within the republican dialog, people don't like the tone. independents have been scared away from the republican candidates. let's say romney ultimately gets the nomination, oh, he's got to pivot immediately and start appealing to independents. that's not his group right now. they've been watching his debates and saying this isn't for me. they're going with obama. that's where the race is going to be. who can ultimately control. >> is there any independent that you're seeing this goes to the gop anywhere. or just obama. >> the independent voters are moving obamas way. the tone has been towards tea party, evangelical christians. conservative voters. ultimately that's where the votes are to determine the presidential election. >> lee miringoff with that. >>> the herman cain endorsement. i'm joined by the co

when newt gingrich became speaker, they turned earmarks into an art form. >> gingrich is fighting back, though, against what he calls the washington establishment. defending his candidacy and noting helpfully those two romney supporters didn't actually do so well in presidential races. >> i think the republican establishment believes it's okay to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order. we tried a moderate in 1996 for president. he lost. we tried a moderate in 2008 for president. he lost. it's very hard to take romney care and obama care and have a debate and have the republican win that debate. you need to have a conservative who's a big distance away from obama because you've got to have the space so that in fact you can communicate with the american people. >> injoing us now to help make sense, the chief white house kpon for politico, mike gallen and john heilemann, co-author of "game change." the dresses they were wearing before they changed into their tv clothes, inappropriate is probab

>> no, ruling gingrich out, can't rule gingrich out, but santorum could rise again and gingrich is seen as faltering bad youly here, so. >> bret: what about ron paul, rich? he's spent time in maine and he's organized in the caucus states and's not going anywhere. >> yeah, well, he made a shrewd calculation in florida and wasn't going to get delegates and why waste money there and there are people in maine who think that ron paul could pull out a surprise there and they're working hard and finished close third. and in '08, so, while we're all distracted by florida, watch maine, bret. they use today say as maine goes. >> and steve, with 95% of the delegates still up for grabs, we forget this whole map to getting 1144. >> no, it's a long process, if these guys are genuinely commit today staying in the race and seems that they are, and newt's people were telling me this, and santorum's people i talked to said we're going to the convention and ron paul had a plan to go to the convention from the very beginning so i think if they want to drag this out. they can drag it out and it can go to th

either romney or gingrich could win it. gingrich was way up in the state. he whiplashed back and forth. he has a lot of moving parts to be seen. 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 a weak debate, i think gingrich has a very good chance to win this primary and shake the race up. >> let's talk about the performance values tonight. john, i have had a hard time watching the debates to see any candidate put in a consistent streak on performance. is newt going to do it again? this is the first time somebody does it again. 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 any republican candidate has had so far. gingrich was perfectly well suited to the crowd. romney had one of the worst debates. lst no question newt gingri

even if gingrich wins south carolina, it's going to be very steep hill for gingrich to climb. romney's got so much money, so much organization in florida which is a big state with a lot of media markets. you can't do that on the cheap. romney is well positioned to win florida. in that case, winning south carolina and florida, he's still then on a glide path to the nomination. if he loses here on saturday, if gingrich wins on saturday, it not only sets up a dog fight in florida where gingrich might get a lot of money that floods in and allows him to take the fight down there, but also it instills a lot of doubt in the republican establishment. they look at romney and say he's 1-2 and also in the course of the last week, he's committed so many unforced errors on the question of his money, on taxes, on the question of his net worth, the cayman islands, all that stuff. people are starting to wonder, is this really a guy we want to have as our standard bearer going forward that's going to be this damaged? can he really take the fight to barack obama in the fall? >> i wonder if that

newt gingrich had huge momentum after monday the polling shifted dramatically for newt gingrich. last night locked it in. there is another key detail. this is also a proxy fight between the governor who endorsed mitt romney and the speaker of the house who endorsed newt gingrich. the speaker has fired it up for newt gingrich to get grassroots activists for the polls tomorrow. we'll see it as a proxy fight and between newt and mitt. i think newt will win. >> what do you think that means moving forward if he does win? >> this is going to be a fight to the end over a period of months. far too many national journalists kept saying he wins two, three, four and it's over. absolutely not. you look at what happened. perry drops out this week. happens if santorum comes in fourth. will he stay in? ron paul's not going anywhere. this will go to april or may. >> you mean paul isn't leaving. >> he's not leaving the race. this is a race for delegates. not about how many states you win. can you get to 1445. mitt romney should be focused on the long haul. >> do you think santorum will place four

gingrich is not the match for that. newt gingrich? i mean, mike huckabee has that sort of southern appeal, yes, newt gingrich has southern background, but it's not -- he feels d.c., he doesn't feel georgia. and the way he's playing what this sort of conservative narrative is is brand new. in the sense that this form of conservatism has been exactly what he's been battled on and he's been insufficiently conservative on in much of his career. >> what newt gingrich was picking up on and this was not an issue in this primary, and this is not what mike huckabee is, honestly or not to the extent that gingrich is. this is all about strength. this primary is about nominating someone who can take the fight to barack obama. think about the times we heard that and think about why donald trump was a factor early on. he's somewhat -- well, going back -- >> there's so much to say. >> the problem that mitt romney has had in the past week has undermined his own discomfort with talking about his wealth. donald trump never had an issue with this. he em

this is newt gingrich's strength. it's where he has pulled from and what has propelled him throughout most of this primary season. it has been his debate performances. i think there was a lot of pressure on mitt romney to put in a, quote, presidential kind of performance as well as a really strong performance because he didn't get that great a grade last time. it matters now. this is the last one before the south carolina primary. >> paul steinhauser, i'm hearing you might know when rick perry's announcement is going to happen, is that right? >> reporter: yeah. the perry campaign, which is still around for now, just put out a press release moments ago while you were talking to wolf, candy, roland. it's going to be at 11:00 eastern. only a few miles from here. just a few miles from here. steve rusk, he's making the move. we'll have the cameras there. >> once again, if you're just tuning in, here's the latest news. paul telling us 11:00 a.m. eastern time right here on cnn we are going to hear rick perry step up to the m

can gingrich catch you up? we'll fill you in tonight on a special palmetto state edition. >> i think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to attract decent people to run for offers. gwen: to almost everyone's surprise, south carolina has become a race to the finish. two candidates out in four days. >> i believe it is now time for our party to unit around the candidate best equipped to defeat barack obama. i believe that candidate is governor mitt romney. >> today i am suspending my campaign and endorsing 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

newt gingrich is being outspent. the funding has not materialized. >> bill: i thought he they another check into florida. >> that's what they said. >> bill: like the godfather, remember that scene in the money never got to the island. the money never got to florida? >> 6 through rick tyler's pac. a very small media buy from the gingrich campaign and about 8 to $10 million from the romney campaign i think gingrich feels beaten up and battered. the guy has lost 18 points in six days. that will make you tired. >> that's how crazy this whole thing is because everybody goes up, down, in, and out, all of that stuff. bottom line you think romney is going to prevail on tuesday, i concur. i will get another dinner. >> if he revales on tuesday he will sweep the table in february. >> bill: okay. dick morris, everybody. he is down in florida. i wish i was. it's terrible weather up here in new york. next on the run down, geraldo will predict how hispanic republic voters in florida will cast their ballots. then, bernie goldberg on

gingrich, of course. he said that in almost these blunt terms he said he wants rick santorum to get out of the race. he said after tonight, it is hard to see rick santorum going forward. do you think rick santorum should drop out? >> i think rick obviously has to make that decision for himself. i do believe that rick and newt gingrich are splitting a conservative vote and if those votes were bound together, we would have a clear distinct choice between a conservative southern georgian legislator, newt gingrich, against a massachusetts, i'll use moderate, mitt romney. i think that would be a much clearer distinction. i think the mistake that was made here in florida is we allowed ourselves to get -- mitt romney to drag us into the swamp. i'm hopeful we'll head toward the high ground and once again show newt's record -- or legislative conservative record of achievement, when he was speaker, balanced budgets, $500 billion of debt paid off, 11 million jobs created, stock market up 130%, and we will pound away

the gingrich answer. it was so interesting because it was a venue i think determined how it turned out. if youd a done last night's debate without an audience, it would have been different and probably the verdict would have been santorum had come out ahead on points. he scored heavily against gingrich and romney presenting himself as a guy reliable, implying that, actually saying gingrich erratic, romney is unreliable. what you have is semily a studio audience it has a -- essentially a studio audience has a huge effect. gingrich won the room by the end of the first round. after that, he had sort of psycholog call advantage. all the way through. >> bret: there is a sense on the ground when you talk to people in south carolina that this is shifting newt gingrich's way. do you buy that? >> absolutely. i think it's entirely possible he wins in south carolina. someone won in new hampshire. gingrich fared poorly in both. it looks now if he could with this late momentum, eclipse mitt romney and win in south car

smart by newt gingrich. if you are a undecided conservative, if you think you'll not be romney, that performance probably made you with gingrich. >> santorum zeroed in on one of the key issues that troubled a lot of republican party leaders around the country is that newt, you do not know where he is going. do you see him winning and then going to the florida and then having the organizational capacity to go the distance? >> the answer is not yet and newt was asked what one thing would he do differently in his campaign today and he said he would never have run a traditional campaign that let to the first problem when all his staff members left. a lot of people would cheer that, i would say it's a worry, the traditional campaigns tend to work, barack obama ran a traditional campaign and it worked. newt cannot just go to debates and give speeches. he has to run money and have real debates. he just doesn't have that right now. >> chris, thank you so much for our daily fix, see you later and how can romney go th

then gingrich sturnlged in the polls. joining me to talk about what happened, a man who knows south carolina very well, spokesman for former governor mark sanford, currently the longer serving spokesman at the u.n. thanks for joining me. a big night in many ways. maybe not, though, the end of it the story for a long way because florida is looming large in every sense, isn't it? >> yeah. i think the beauty is that we have 50 state that's are very different. south carolina is a very interesting state. they usually go with the eventual gop nominee, but i think they got it wrong this time. i think for some reason there was a lot of pressure to support newt from the media. he did a great job in the debates. he gave to the media. people like that. south carolinians like that. there are a lot of retired folks and snowbirds in south carolina. >> my sense was this, don't americans just like a politician standing up going, no! and taking on his critics, his enemies, his ex-wives, whoever it may be? they like this pugnacious style t

big boost for gingrich. a new reaction after newt gingrich claimed a victory. finished with 40% of the vote at top. gingrich's win throws yet another wild twist into the republican race for presidential nominee. here is what the candidate said last night. >> this is the most important election of our lifetime. if barack obama can get re-elected after this disast disaster -- all right. just think how radical he would be in a second term. >> the consequences are clear. the stakes have never been higher. i said this before. and i firmly believe that this election is a battle for the soul of america. >> nbc's ron mott is in south carolina. there's new reaction from gingrich and romney today. >> reporter: absolutely. good day to you, alex. the campaigns today are assessing what went right and wrong here in south carolina. obviously for speaker gingrich a whole lot of things went right and not too many things went wrong for him this past week. the opposite is true for the mitt romney campaign. both of these candidates hit the sunday morning talk show circuit to talk

he and gingrich go back to gingrich's speakership. they became close over the issue of israel. adelson found a very powerful ally in newt gingrich and been a loyalist ever since. i don't think it's an issue where adelson like some donors have a particular problem with mitt romney, but newt's his guy, so newt is reaping the benefits of that. without it, he would have been dead in the water after iowa. >> as far as we know just to make clear, what he is doing is perfectly legal under citizens united, correct or under current campaign law. >> exactly. >> is there any reason people should think if this guy gives so much money now during the campaign that he would have an impact on god forbid, a newt gingrich in the wide house presidential policy. >> for the one issue that adelson seems really passionate about, it's hard to imagine, he and newt are sort of of the same mind frame. it's not like he's buying newt's views on this. you can imagine a megabillionaire who found a candidate who didn't necessarily share his views, gave him the money he needed to win the presidency and that ca

, three polls have gingrich winning. 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

and i actually think that having fred thompson at newt gingrich's side is going to help newt gingrich in the big super tuesday primary that will be coming up. might even help him here in florida. if fred thompson gets interested in it, interested in the project, he could be a very good salesman for newt gingrich, because he appeals to the same kind of disaffected, middle class, resentful voters in the south that newt gingrich won running away in south carolina. >> wendy, it seemed to me that newt gingrich made a conscious decision to not do what everybody was expecting him to do. you know, where's that right out of the gate, shot at brian williams. just take a real hard whack at the moderator and at that horrible elite media that is always setting up republicans to, you know, fight with each other. he seemed to really do a change-up. he wanted to show he could be, i think, maybe his notion of presidential. because he stayed very calm and steady throughout this thing. >> he did. and almost dismissive sometimes when they were attacking him. and i think it's a testament to brian williams