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 is better at it. newt gingrich is much smarter than mitt romney. i don't think mitt romney can draw the blood needed the fight gingrich one-on-one. >> professor dyson, your view. >> he's snarkier. newt gingrich has descendsed into muck raking and slinging. now the vicious politics of that has come back to bite him. they beat up on the morals issues with progressives and liberals and here is a guy who his own former wife talks about open relationship and he uses that to get legitimate si about people that are concerned about the value of moral life. i just don't get it. i think newt gingrich is a guy that will get anything to get where he wants to get. >> if you don't get it, no many of the rest of us do either. thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >>> a preview of the president's state of the union address. a get real report card on the u.s. economy. stay with us. ♪ believe the more you know, the better you trade. so we have ongoing webinars and interactive learning, plus, in-branch seminars at over 500 locations, where our ded

gingrich is forced out of the house by his -- unsuccessful speaker. >> is this a problem for gingrich, in your opinion? >> it would be by any normal standard and will be, i think, in november. but gingrich has got behind them people who are so angry, that all they want is that you be angry, and some ways more outrageous the conduct the better they feel because that shows that your anger what is counts. and i believe these people, you tell them he can't be elect and romney can be, and they will say no, if we -- the right wingers said that about barry goldwater. some said it about george mcgovern. this is a test whether or not the people have the courage of their convictions. they honestly believe in their rejection of serious public governing, they are the majority. and if they believe that, they will nominate gingrich. >> congressman barney frank, gate to have you with us. >> thank you, ed. >> get your cell phones out. tonight's question about the congressman has barney frank lived a good enough life to see newt gingrich be the gop nominee? text a for yes, b for no, to 622639, and go

bad news for newt gingrich. most of the votes, it can be presumed, had he takes, he'll take from newt gingrich. and his presence in the race is a factor, that will make a difference here. >> bret: panel, we'll be back throughout the night, of course. >> megyn: the candidates kuwaiting for the results of the first in the south primary -- candidates are waiting for the results of the first in the south primary and we're close to the closing of the polls in south carolina. we're keeping an eye on the campaign headquarters for the candidates. >> bret: and our guests break down what to expect tonight, ed rollins and mike huckabee and we'll hear from sarah palin as well, this is fox news, america's election headquarters. ♪ at i am today. r science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three y we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learnin

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

newt gingrich trailing there. another florida conservative quality, tea party, the tea party movement boosted rick scott and marco rubio's wins. newt gingrich has been courting them. pundits caution a weakening tea party. one in two tea party voters embrace the tea party less taxes theme. finally, florida conservative is more northern. generally the more north, the more conservative. gingrich should do well in the north here, romney in the south. the fight, watch highway i-4 in orlando and tampa. the florida conservative, evangelical, minority, tea party, and northern. and by the way, looking at social security records, chris, he is most likely called james. >> all right. something i didn't know before for sure. thank you so much, appreciate it. richard. let me bring you in. you know this area so well. let's start with what we heard from ron. you know, ties into what richard said. newt gingrich's argument, you take me, you take santorum, we're outpolling mitt romney. his implication being if santorum would get out

mostly moving to newt gingrich. so, of course, the question is going to be is rick perry going to express a preference today at this press conference? what you are hearing on that? >> there are a lot of connections between the perry campaign and the gingrich campaign. rob johnson later moved on to be -- as well as carney, big advisors for perry, had moved to newt gingrich under the assumption that at the beginning of the summer that perry was not going to run. they joined gingrich's campaign and went back to perry. so there are a lot of connections. the two men are personally close to perry but they're more ideologically aligned especially than a peary and mitt romney. he what personally close to jon huntsman. maybe took a couple cues from seeing that and maybe looking for something new. >> we shall see. he wasn't actually garnering a lot of support if our most recent poll. stay on the story. we'll see you at 11:00. thanks for phoning in. this breaking news. rick perry dropping out of the presidential race. by happe

newt gingrich cashed in. gingrich was paid over 1$1.6 mlg mlgds by the agent that helped create it. he resigned from congress in disgrace and cashed in. >> the campaign ads, the super pac ads all seem far more aggressive than mitt romney may be capable of presenting. if his aggressive tone does not come off as genuine, he loses again. it seems like newt gingrich enjoys nasty language, hyper rhetoric. that seems to thrill him. >> yeah. that reaction toward john king came very naturally from newt. i argued last twheek i thought it did a favor for newt because he was lying in wait ready to bring the lumber. if you question, if the same circumstance had presented itself to mitt romney, no that i know it would, he would never answer in that way. if he did, you wouldn't believe that was the real mitt romney. even if he takes it up a couple of notches, it will not be perceived as genuine. he's not capable of saying those things and being convincing. >> thank you. we'll have you on tomorrow. you can watch the nbc news republican debate, a special edition of "rock center" tonight at 9:00. >>

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

perry can help gingrich. gingrich knows that. he knows how he can coalesce conservatives behind him. he has already asked santorum to get out. isn't it interested in then the next couple days later here is perry dropping out. we'll see. if santorum doesn't play well in south carolina, would you think he would move forward gingrich over mitt romney. i think the south is going to stick together for money and for politics, and i think in some strange ways this may draw out jim demint to make a decision. >> nikki haley is supporting mitt romney. she had tea party support that ushered her into power there. meanwhile -- >> nikki haley is in trouble. her approval rating in south carolina is 34%, with just republicans, it's at about 50%. so she's not putting any wind at the back of mitt romney right now. in fact she may be dragging him a bit. she hasn't helped him at all on this him explain anything about his offshore accounts or anything like that. this is something that romney is going to have to deal with and he's going to have to dea

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

gingrich. the romney campaign forwarding to the conservative magazine the "national review" today a statement from bob dole. bob dole says, "i have not been critical of newt gingrich, but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late. hardly anyone who served with newt in congress has endorsed him, and that fact speaks for itself. in my run for the presidency in 1996, the democrats greeted me with a number of negative tv ads and in every one of them, newt was in the ad." so, at this point, it's sort of the standard, newt would be a bad nominee, newt would lose the election thing, until you get to this final crank from bob dole. and i do mean crank. he says, "newt would show up at the campaign headquarters," says bob dole, "with an empty bucket in his hand. that was a symbol of some sort for him. and i never did know what he was doing or why he was doing it and i'm not certain he knew either." why was newt gingrich carrying a bucket in the 1996 presidential campaign? whacky! newt on the m

gingrich. now, last night the senator consistently went after the speaker. >> so, when he goes and says i can, you know, run rings around president obama and lincoln douglas debate. you can't run rings around the fact, newt that you supported the primary core basis of what president obama has put in place. >> bill: the truth is there is not much difference among rick santorum, newt gingrich and mitt romney on most policy matters. they are left with personalities rather than policy. mitt romney understands that and last night tried to convince the voters that he is like them. >> i didn't inherit money from my parents. what i have i earned. i worked hard in the american way. and. [ applause ] >> i'm going to be able to talk to president obama in a way no one else can that's in this race right now about how the free economy works, what it takes to put americans back to work and make sure he understands this divisiveness of dividing americans between 99 and 1 is dangerous. >> bill: by the way my ne

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, his second wife. rick perry exits this race with this speech with a lot of his supporters saying, if that speech and the last three debate performances had been the first speech and the first three debate performances this could be a much different race today. this is why he did it and he did it by all accounts very well. jenna: quick final thought on this. you mentioned a conservative philosophy, conservative leadership and of course that referenced to forgiveness for those who seek god which you're pointing out directly could be because of this interview that we're expecting from abc with maryann gingrich, newt gingrich's former wife. is that debate over the conservative candidates still alive and well in a place like south carolina where you you still have the strength of evangelicals? are folks still wondering who the conservative candidate is in this race? >> sure. and there's a battle between gingrich and santorum there is no doubt about it. it appears in south carolina gingrich has a head of st

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

>> why did gingrich not compete? he came out of south carolina with momentum. you would think you'd make an invent >> well, the super pacs are actually spending all their money but a, it takes time to produce the ads and get on the air. they're spending an awful lot of money on radio also which is a cheaper way of getting out your message. when you look at those numbers, it's a big problem for newt gingrich. >> and not spending quickly out of south carolina would cost him in the state of florida. >> planning, that takes organization and planning. >> be sure to tune in tomorrow night. our coverage will begin this hour, 6:00 eastern with a special edition of john king usa. moving overseas, secretary of state hillary clinton condemned the latest increase in violence against anti-government demonstrators in syria. one group reporting at least 100 deaths today. the demonstrations have spread to damascus. some protesters recently allowed arwa damon in. >> material hidden in a safehouse along with tiny printed leaflets read

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

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

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

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

calista gingrich, third wife of newt gingrich, he openly admitted to having a extra-marital affair with calista while married to his second wife. that second wife told her side of the story to "nightline" last night. >> it was occurring in my bedroom in our apartment in washington. he always called me at night. he always ended with "i love you" while she was there listening. in my home. he did tell me once that she was going to help him become president. >> and what was your reaction to that? >> it didn't look like help to me. >> joining us notice nia malika henderson, reporter for "the washington post." obviously this is not at flattering portrayal of calista by gingrich's second wife or flattering portrayal of newt. do you see her coming under much more scrutiny in the wake of this interview? >> you're right, it may be an inconvenient interview for gingrich, but i think one of the things that's also true is this has been out here for a really long time. people have gotten used to the fact that newt gingrich has been married three times, that he has been unfaithful to his wives. that's

they know who gingrich is. they are smart and they know that the woman is not there to set the record straight. she is there to turn the knife. the whole thing stinks. 48 hour away from south carolina. it's pretty transparent. a lot of south carolina voters know who gingrich is and their minds are made up. i don't think it will sway them. it's extremely dirty to not only air this 48 hours away but very dirty for marianne gingrich who said in 1994 if newt ran for office i could destroy him with a single television interview. that is what she is doing. don't buy it. >> dana: well, i don't know -- does anyone disagree with that? >> bob: first, i agree that south carolina has an i amazing history of coming up with this kind of stuff in the last week before the primary. it's amazing to me. i fault abc news for running this, this close. it does not give gingrich a fair chance to respond to all of it. we know his daughter by her, marianne has defended gingric gingrich. this is not new news. gingrich said on the networ

on leadership and character, gingrich is no ronald reagan. >> last night, gingrich returned fire on the attack. >> governor romney was against ronald reagan. governor romney 1994 senate race he was opposed to going back to the reagan/bush policies. governor romney was giving money to democrats to suggest that governor romney is more reagan-like than i am is an act of total fantasy. >> the candidates were doing their best to play to the hometown florida crowd. some other remarks. >> could you be the first hispanic president? >> i would love to be able to convince people of that particular any a florida primary. i don't think people would think i was being honest with them if i said i was mexican-american but i appreciate it you would get that word out. >> by the end of my second term -- [ cheers and applausechai [ cheers and applause ] >> we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be a american. >> a little context there the univision event, the host asked about romney's mexican roots, his father's mexican roots. and that was on the space coast there newt gingrich maki

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

so the consulting work that newt gingrich was doing was for the freddie mac top lobbyist, but gingrich insists it did not consist of lobbying. actually, if you read closely the lobbying disclosure law and how it defines lobbying activities, it does say lobbying activity consists of work in preparation for lobbying or work as background material that's intended to help lobbying. so i think, again, the fact that he was reporting to a freddie mac lobbyist does raise further questions of what he was actually doing. >> nbc news active investigate or isikoff. i feel better about it. thank you. >>> $1.2 million for lobbying. how close to lobbying is that? >>> big news out of washington state and indiana. the super bowl is there in two weeks. that's all ahead. -good morning, dave. -good morning, dave. dave. -hey, dave. -hey, dave. hey. -hey, dave. -mr. dave. -dave. -what's up, dave? -dave. -dave. dave. dave. dave? hi, dave. oh, dave's looking for you. hey, dave. yo, dave! [ male announcer ] in a small business, it's all you. that's why you have us. at staples, we have low prices on everything

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

>> 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