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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. >>

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

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 is leaning into this. he's trying to say, do you guys really want to vote for the candidate who's the approved candidate of bob dole and john mccain? is that the kind of republican parrot that's the new republican party? that's not the party that we are anymore. his campaign is sending out a lot of press releases talking about the backing of the republican party. and the question is going to be, what is the republican party of florida -- >> just lost john. we're going to take a break here. john will be back. tom and chris will be back. stay with us. >>> coming up, more on tonight's debate with our panel and joining me later, the democratic senate candidate from massachusetts, elizabeth warren. we'll find out what she thinks about mitt romney, his taxes and how that's playing in massachusetts. that's coming up. my name is brad anderson and i'm a master roaster at starbucks coffee. brian hayes. i'm a master roaster at starbucks coffee. sitting right here we have 40 years of roast experience. how can we use t

here you go with gingrich in the race. senator lindsay graham saying gingrich is going to win this. polling showing that he may well pull off an upset. will he? >> well, i think of myself as a bob hope conservative. >> what does that mean? >> i'm here at nbc. it means middle america. middle america is not looking for an ideologue. middle america is looking for something that they can somehow relate to. it's my belief that santorum is that guy. the ranking democrats. >> even with his social views you believe rick santorum is middle america? >> it's infinitely more in keeping than the social views of the president or the people who work here at nbc or manhattan. our friends have social views that are very liberal. he's a solid man. he's a family man. >> why isn't he doing better in south carolina? >> first, it's almost funny how beginning rich, he gives the crowd, i mean, the fact that he opened up the debate attacking john king was hilarious. here was a perfectly -- >> but i don't think you're answering my question because before the debate with the hilarious opening, rick santorum w

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

gingrich and romney nationwide are basically tied. gingrich is actually up a point. it looks like gingrich has a very good case. no matter what happens here, he says look at the national numbers. i'm in this fight. >> as long as he can clothe it in the nobility of the ideological fight and the cause, then he can convince himself and some others to be -- to stay with him. and i think the key thing is going to raise money over the next month. then if he can make it out to super tuesday -- >> how does he get through february? >> i have no -- >> the caucuses will feed that energy with no doubt. that's all grassroots in many respects. nevada, problematic, michigan problematic. that's already factored in. >> even losing all these races, he can hang in until march. >> he's got to figure out some way to do that financially in terms of free media strategy. what the answer to that is i don't know. newt is a master at getting free media. >> does your party still have -- i used to call it the white boys club. the governors that used to get together. how about the boys club. is t

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

the gingrich people, obviously, not. you are the creator of the angry teddy bear comparison with newt gingrich. >> and for that i expect to be charging higher rates in the coming months. >> as you should -- >> they have libraries in florida. >> there's -- >> i bring my library with me everywhere i go. jon harwood, the angry teddy bear was missing. it was angry teddy bear for the win in south carolina the teddy bear was mia down here, now it's going to be are we looking at atb, rip. >> so many abbreviations, john harwood let's play sound to show audiences what we are talking about. romney attacking gingrich and they are going back and forth to fannie mae, freddie mac question. >> we discovered to our shock, governor romney owns shares of fannie mae and freddie mac. and made money on selling it. >> i do not own stocks in either company. but there are bonds that the investor holds through mutual funds, and i know that sounds like a big revelation, but have you checked your own investments, you have mutual funds that also in

gingrich is a joke. romney, mr. $57,000 a day man doesn't seem grateful, seems entitled. >> you wahe wants a tax break. we will be back, more from ron and patrick in a minute. you're watching "hardball" on msnbc. a shadow of your former ? c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey! the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. you can adjust it to whatever your needs are. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. and now, the company that r

gingrich win -- a sense that gingrich won't electability or suddenly that is potent that romney, not just the inevitability but the idea he might be capable of going toe-to-toe with obama has actually been punctured? >> it is hard to get in the minds of voters on that question of electability, chuck, i think part of the issue is when people saw gingrich in those debits, they saw somebody that they thought was very strong, very forceful and willing to take the attack to president obama and that's what they want and in the estimation obviously of many they feel that that's what would make him more electable, that he would be able to make a strong romney trying to show that he has got the aggressiveness, both aimed at newt gingrich but also aimed at the president. >> is he in fighting shape? four years ago, i just was struck, he would do this with mccain -- i felt like it was about four years ago in this moment, right, yes realized that this was it. he doesn't do anger well? >> he doesn't t is not his natural person eighth. it is difficult in a fight like this to change who you are. i t

gingrich again. gingrich started yesterday's bashing taking aim at romney's campaign tactics and his personal wealth. romney then followed comparing gingrich to a well known democrat. >> i fully expect the romney campaign to be unendingly dirty and dishonest for the next four days because they're desperate, they thought they could buy this, they're discovering they can't buy this, i think they're now going to have -- i think they have internal polls that show them losing and i think they will do anything at any level and i need your help, people power will beat money power and i need your help to beat romney. >> the speaker the other day at the debate was talking about how he created millions of jobs when he was working with the reagan administration. well, he had been in congress two years when ronald reagan came to office. that would be like saying 435 congressmen were all responsible for those jobs. government doesn't create jobs. it is the private sector that creates jobs. congressmen taking resp

gingrich and romney keep making one mistake after another. seem to be tone deaf to what american people really are interested in and are deeply flawed. >> by the way, all those ed rendells were actually ed rendell. he says this is a god send for the obama campaign. there's been no shortage of people weighing in on the state of the union. how about the verdict from someone less political? a body language expert. according to a piece in forbes magazine, three things were going for the president that night in terms of body language. one, his smile. according to the piece, a smile like that is an invitation. a sign of welcome. it says i'm friendly and approachable. two, his fluid motions. in the article, he walked with ease and stood erect but not stiffly so. and his gestures were fluid and flowing. lastly, verbal and nonverbal alignment. what does that mean? apparently, the president's body language matched perfectly with the speech itself. "president obama has a model of congruent communication. his body language totally supported his message."

, 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

can you actually attack gingrich. he is like the blob from a movie, is there anything left that could discredit this man. let hear what mitt romney had to say earlier today. >> we responded to the attacks. if you are attacked i'm not going to sit back, i'm going to fight back and fight back hard. >> john, you are this miami, you have a lot of time that you logged with the romney campaign. has mitt romney learned to be a better candidate in this last weekend, do you think he takes the lessons with him going forward into nevada? >> well, alex, first of all, my connection is not that great, i'm pretty sure you referred to me as the blob. that is not a very nice thing to say. >> never, a lean mean fighting machine. >> no question, mitt romney was not a good negative campaigner in 2008 and it turned voters off. in this campaign, no question in florida, what we have seen is that mitt romney and his team are very skillful and brutal in the act of beheading newt fwini gingrich, i don't know that he has learned to sunday out a

that's gingrich's rationale. if they're saying i am not for santorum, i want to beat obama. >> stick around. i want to talk about a cold month that could be february for newt gingrich. what percentage of florida's population is 65 an older? answer, 17.3%. i am going to be looking for the exact figure. i know you guys googled this. perhaps it is surprisingly only four points higher than the national average of 13%. so take that. not as old a state as people think. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. nyqui

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

i think the negatives building up for speaker gingrich the pol recently. >> what do you think newt gingrich is going to do walking out of here tomorrow. he walks out of here badly wounded, his character assaulted if not decimated now in two states, the personal attitude he must have towards governor romney. where does that lead from there -- from here. >> this is not bean ball. certainly -- bean bag. that certainly is the truth. but the kind of comments that have gone between the two candidates have been unusually costic, i think. and so there's going to be bad blood as a result of that. but what's important for the republican party, just as it was for the democrats four years ago is to heal quickly, be able to get your act together because the president is going to be formidable in florida. and i think formidable in his re-elect across the country. >> here's gingrich, the candidate who will probably lose tomorrow. however, howard fineman thinks it's going to be really close. here is gingrich on "gma" this morning securing romney. >> he can bury me for a very short amount of time with four

does newt gingrich defy the elite on this? >> i don't think newt gingrich particularly cares. but i was struck listening to chuck todd's report earlier today about this fact. that all of these campaigns have lost control of their destiny, except for mitt romney. and it's a sign of your fundamental weakness when your strategic calculus changes from this is how we're going to win the election as to this is how we're going to try and impact the race, so that guy loses the election. and that's one step away from being out of the race. so i think we come out of tonight with mitt romney in command of the race, but i also think that howard fineman, you know, asked the most important political question of the race. what is ron paul going to do looking ahead? will he leave the republican party? will he mount a third party challenge? howard thinks he will. i think he won't, because i think it destroys the future of his republican senator son. but this is the biggest and most important question when you give consideration to the general election ahead. and who knows the answer. >> and 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

we don't want to go to -- >> wouldn't you say that newt gingrich -- wouldn't you say newt gingrich's personal life is more european than obama's? i would say it's more european. anyway, thank you, bill mccollum. i don't mean to disgrace him. thank you congressman mica. i am so glad -- you are great members of congress. i've seen you guys over the years. i think you are great. i love this debate. >>> up next, newt gingrich is a professional basher of us, the media. he's pretty good at it. he's going to do it again in the debate tonight? let's ask david gregory. he's had some of these debates to moderate. you're watching "hardball" on msnbc. ♪ he was a 21st century global nomad ♪ ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from

best of all, he was able to discombobulate gingrich. his campaign over the last few days has besieged gingrich in the news media, conference calls, sending people to gingrich's events to kind of heckle him, former members of congress, members of congress, romney took the environment in which gingrich found himself already a little bit on edge and angry. he just got under his skin and frustrated him. and gave a great performance both on offense and defense. >> he was really strong last night and aggressive deciding not to play anymore four corners, i guess. can mitt romney make hay out of those nbc news/"wall street journal" poll numbers we showed where the race is tight nationally, tight in florida but if you show head-to-head matchups, president obama beats newt gingrich by 18%. can romney go back to this electability argument? >> there's a double whammy there. one is the electability argument from the polls. where a lot of republicans who want to win behavior all else will look at that and say if we nominate gingrich he doesn't have a

newt gingrich wins and wins big. a double digit victory over governor romney in the first southern primary. >>> we proved here in south carolina that people power with the right ideas beats big money, and with your help we will prove it again in florida. thank you. good luck and god bless you. >> we will talk to the winner himself live this morning. also, how does the romney campaign now respond? >> this is a hard fight, because there is so much worth fighting for. >> the florida the next big test, how does governor romney connect with conservatives and make the case that he alone can beat president obama? we'll ask top romney supporter, the republican governor of new jersey, chris christie. then our special political roundtable as we wrap up the results from south carolina and analyze where this wild race goes from here, plus the president's standing two days before his state of the union address. how will he use this election year to advance his and dane. joining me the host of msnbc's morning joe, joe scarborough.

gingrich upset the crowd was too quiet. gingrich is upset the audience was too quiet. important thing to note as they hit on the team of grandiosity. mitt romney speaking to tin cap canaveral. mitt romney said clearly to the audience there i know you want me to tell you that i'm going to give you the moon but i can't promise you those things if we are going to try to balance our budget. >> that was an interesting exchange right there. peter, we will check in with you again because things are happening. thanks so much. >>> a new poll shows mitt romney has a lead among hispanic republicans there in florida. a new poll shows 35% of them would vote for romney. 21% say gingrich is their choice. rick santorum got 7% and ron paul received 6%. voters who describe thelmselves as likely to vote in tuesday' primary. rick santorum taking the day off and returning to pennsylvania. before leaving florida he spoke friday at the latin builders association in miami taking aim at president obama. >> this is the most important election in your lifetime. if we don't repeal obama care and

ad buy of attack ads on gingrich by the romney super pac and it turned it around and dropped gingrich's numbers. gingrich came back with the adelson-funded super pac ads by him, and now the romney super pac has roared back. >> indeed. michael isikoff, thank you for joining us. >> a final note. i'd like to thank bill mahir for having me on this weekend. >> he hosts the martin bashir show. you weren't on today. i said where's martin bashir? oh right he's coming to see me. this is an rc robotic claw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our 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 years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ at liberty mutual, we know how much you count on your car, and how much the people in your life count on you. that's why we offer accident forgiveness, where your price won't increase due

and when perry would get out of the race and endorse gingrich, and also that gingrich has been really courting him over the past several days. he's been not only in touch with rick perry himself, but also his campaign manager. you'll remember rick perry did this once before, he was going to reconsider and decided not to get out of the race, but in the latest polls he only had four percentage points. but it comes at a critical time. we're seeing in a series of polls that are out, including this news nbc/maris poll is that mitt romney is dropping, newt gingrich is gaining, there are ten percentage points left before the vote this weekend and the momentum is clearly in newt gingrich's favor. let's going tos in nbc's embed carrie -- >> reporter: i am told the 11:00 a.m. conference will be for him dropping out of the race. it was -- as we were asking them tomorrow, what campaign aide told me rick perry would rather lose than quit. he wanted a chance to make go to another debate and see how that performance went. yesterday he -- an endorser, general livingston, the head of his veterans coal

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

but then, the stinger from the gingrich camp. anonymous pro-gingrich d.c. person said governor romney isn't strengthening his case to on conservatives by touting endorsements by two moderate republican presidential nominees who both lost their elections. senator mccain and senator dole. ow! that hurts. it's true. i mean, right. bob dole and john mccain both lost. and they are both big touted endorsements by mitt romney right now. there are two main things going on in the republican press shall nominating process. there is a question of when rick santorum will get out of the race, the question of why ron paul is amassing all these delegates and what he wants to do with those delegates once he gets them. there are sideline issues. but the main two things going on are these. the republican establishment is pulling out all the stops to kill the gingrich candidacy and the gingrich candidacy keeps exposing new and very real weaknesses in mitt romney as a candidate. pick a conservative establishment news outlet, pick one, any one, they were all busy absolutely sla

gingrich organizationally just could not do that so on election day today, gingrich already starts out in the hole because of the early votes. >> it's amazing, it's my understanding rick scott sent direct mails to snowbirds in cincinnati. anyway, that's how much he was trying to win that back in that september primary. jeff zeleny, jonathan martin, our now regular super tuesday duo. thank you both. >> thanks, chuck. >> we'll be more. wall street is feeling optimistic. we'll tell you why. "the market rundown" is next. plus, the democratic strike. they're not waiting for the race to shake out in florida. they're in miami today. we'll get the story on their action and their plans to hold on to the critically important hispanic vote in that state. question, who was the only governor of florida to become president? the winner will get a follow-up super tuesday for us. more is coming up on "the daily rundown." we'll be right back. for fastidin emily skinner, each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see,

gingrich. >> while florida families lost everything in the housing crisis, newt gingrich cashed in. gingrich was paid over $1.6 million by the agency that helped create the crisis. >> i offered advice, my advice as a historian. >> a historian? really? >> the micro context of this release tonight is that mr. gingrich seems to be attempting to nip this criticism in the bud by having his former consulting company release these freddie mac contracts right away. basically as soon as he was asked for them. the slightly larger context of this is that the demand that mitt romney release his tax returns is still an outstanding demand. after changing his position on the tax returns a lot, mr. romney now says he will release the 2010 tax returns and estimate of the numbers of his 2011 returns tomorrow. but for the moment, tonight, that request about mitt romney's tax returns is outstanding. we don't know at the will release any other years. so gingrich trying to shut up criticism of his freddie mac deal, a. also trying to make mitt romney look like the only guy hiding anything, b. but the wide

gingrich seems at least somewhat competitive financially. what kind of organization does gingrich have, in your opinion, compared to mitt romney. >> of course, romney ran four years ago, and a lot of the family he put together four years ago remain with him. so immediately before the attention was on florida, he had amassed a rather large fund-raising organization, had early a nounced his leadership team, early a nounced a -- most of the other candidates didn't show up here until after south carolina. you can't do that. you have to come in early. it's a huge state, you have to organize. to raise money you have to come in much, much earlier, so i think candidates in the future may have to understand they can't wait until the week of the primary in florida to move in and do any good. all right. well, i know you haven't backed anybody yet. will you back somebody before tuesday publicly? >> no, i'm going to stay neutral publicly. i'm an early voter. i show up there early in the morning, but i'm not going to get engaged with a candidate this time

and we -- those of us that came for newt gingrich left still for newt gingrich. there was nothing rigged or unfair about it. it was done fairly. it was done appropriately. i was appointed to watch the ballot counting process representing newt gingrich. we came close. we came within nine votes. it was a great day. we left still supporting him. there's no truth to it being rigged. >> no one was encouraged to leave before the final ballot? >> no. i can tell you exactly on that. the meeting was to go till 1:00. a number of us had to catch planes at 10:45. we all happened to be newt gingrich supporters. i didn't know all the others were going. we had to leave. that wasn't the fault of the meeting. that was the fault of our schedules. nobody did us wrong. >> because you work on sundays. i understand, ministers have -- >> i had a saturday night service. >> you definitely had to be home. >> let me get back to tony. here's newt gingrich yesterday conceding romney may be the biggest beneficiary of the evangelical endorsement. this is a little nasty here. let's listen. >> t

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

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

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

gingrich? >> reporter: it's hard to believe they are so far down in the polls based on how the speaker is purporting himself. he was here this morning visiting with some of his campaign team in lakeland. they were trying to get people out today. he was not content to mail it in. he's got those four events today. he knows he will have some work to do coming out of florida, win or lose. we go three weeks without a debate. because they are so far in terms of money and advertising, he'll have to get out to nevada and try to build up support out there. he said he's going all the way to the convention. i think he's getting a little irritate. he said the race will go five or six more months, maybe sooner if mitt romney gets out of the r e race. he's still keeping a little humor. >>> joining me debby wasserman schultz. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> let me start off with the feud between yourself and priebus. he compared the president to the captain of that cruise liner. you took issue with

this is not the end of newt gingrich, and this is not the beginning of the end of newt gingrich. this battle is going well into the summer, and that's really bad news for mitt romney and bad news for the republican party. >> looks like you have been reporting on this all week. look at the numbers in our own poll that shows gingrich is a national favorite. i think to joe's point, if he can hold on and get to super tuesday, and get the revenge of a southern candidate. >> that's all he is. when you really look deep in our poll, he had a monster lead among southerners, very conservative. and the tea partier. and the heart of all three of those, the way the calendar sets up in march, it could be a good month for gingrich. february was a horrible period for hillary clinton, and she was counting on march because march had ohio, and that's where she was going to come back, and now it looks like february is a bad time for gingrich. where is he going to win? those caucuses, ron paul will do well and they are set up for mitt romney, and then michigan is one of romney's home states. arizona,