denies romney victories. the whole strategy now for the gingrich campaign, for the huntsman campaign, is actually the same. deny romney victories. and if they can do that, maybe they can stretch it out. maybe they find out romney might have more of a glass jaw than maybe he does. i think we're going to find out in the next ten days whether he does have a glass jaw or not. but that's the strategy. stay in the race. and in huntsman's case, he's not looking at winning any of these states. he's simply looking at denying romney victories. so he hopes to be pulling votes from romney's left, rachel. >> it's interesting. we're starting to see that from a lot of the different candidates right now, the idea is to stick around in case romney face-plants. stick around in case something happens to mitt romney or something is done to mitt romney that takes him out. still be in the race when that happens. >> they're all "break glass in case candidate implodes" candidates. and the little elephants break the glass, here i am,

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

. >> romney is on a roll. when we come back, obama report card. >>> issue two, obama report card. >> i promise to do everything i can, every day, every minute, every second to make sure this is a country where hard work and responsibility mean something, and everybody can get ahead. not just those at the very top, not just those who know how to work the system, but everybody. >> trust me. with the economy. that was the message president obama brought to ohio this week. but what do the experts have to say about that? 36 selected economists from the nation's esteemed banks, financial firms, independent consultants, and academic institutions have rated the president's performance on the economy. here's the breakout. one, half of the group rated him fair, 18 out of 36. two, a third of the group rated him poor, 13 of 36. three, 15% of the group rated him good, 5 out of 36. four, not a single one of the 36 economists gave mr. obama a rating of excellent. which republican candidate would do the best job on the econom

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

it became an issue with romney taking strong exception to a spanish language ad by gingrich calling romney the most anti-immigrant candidate. >> is he still the most anti-immigrant? >> i think so. >> senator rubio came to my defense. i'm not anti-imgrnlt. my father was born in mexico. my wife's father was born in wales, they came to this country. i'm glak that marco rubio called you out on it, i think you should apologize for it. >> romney is running a spanish ad of his own accusing gingrich of calling spanish the language of the ghetto. he didn't mention spanish by nade name. romney said he wasn't aware of the ad, his own ad. a few minutes later, wolf set the record straight. >> we did double check, that governor we talked about where i quoted you as saying gingrich called spanish the language of the ghetto. it is one of your ads. it's running here on florida and in the radio, and at the end, you say i'm mitt romney and i approve this ad. >> let me ask a question. >> he asked whether or not gingrich in fact did say that and said we should check the record. we did. john, gloria, david, ari

mitt romney by far spending the most. this is mitt romney on television ads. $2.7 million. to buy 30 seconds of advertising in south carolina is $300. now, here are our four candidates, going on to florida. mitt romney's campaign has already spent $2.4 million on television ads in florida. when you d in the superpac, $4.9. that's going to buy him a lot of ads. some of his ads are already playing in florida. he's got an ad airing in spanish. the real question is, you go to newt.org tonight, what does it say? we want a million dollar money bomb, trying to get more money to buy advertising in florida. but right now, mitt romney is the only one with the television presence in that state and it's an expensive state. >> it's not cheap to buy those 30-second commercials. i want to go over to peter right now, one of our political reporters, doing an outstanding job for us. take us inside, peter, the romney camp right now. they must believe so upset, so frustrated. a few days ago they were poised to win in south carolina and didn't happen. >> reporter: that's right. i can tell you r

romney raised taxes, created romney care, appointed liberal judges. then ran to the left of teddy kennedy in 1994. this is not a conservative republican. he is not going to win the nomination. then became a moderate to run for governor. i think what's really striking about last night is that three out of four republicans once again repudiated mitt romney. then with romney care, for example, included state-funded abortions. it's pretty clear. he's not truthful about his record in massachusetts and his background. he's not truthful about his pac which has his staff running it. >> i have to ask you, are you calling mitt romney a liar? >> yes. >> you're calling mitt romney a liar? >> well, you seem shocked by it. yes. i mean, what else can you say? >> most of that was from the past 24 hours. gingrich is just warming up. if he can't get the nomination, he wants to make sure mitt romney, he ain't going to get it either. next weekend a group of conservative power brokers, i really love this story, including james dobson, tony perkins and gary bower are going

romney certainly knows how to save. here he is saving words. >> when he was on the today show after being nag rated, he said if i can't get this economy to turn around in three years, i will be looking at a one-term proposition. well, here to collect! [applause] >> present a fair rap on the part of romney? >> yes, it is. i think the president has made two huge mistakes amount the very beginning of his presidency, one is the stimulus program was not only an inadequate but half went to the states and municipalities, which is call the public service unions. and did not do what had had to do, which is become a multiplier in economic dynamism. secondly, he voted months and months and months to the health care program, which amongst other things created a tremendous amount of what they call regulatory insecurity. and stanford and the university of california berkeley did a survey of this and found as much as two million jobs were not created because of regulatory insecurity. and that's a serious study. and that's exactly what

if you want to be like the romneys, vote for the romneys. maybe that's a brilliant roll-out as i called it in our cold open tonight. >> chris, i would say part of all politics, president obama tapped into this, too. part of all politics is making people vote inspirational. that is, this is what we want out of our country. now the other part of it -- >> but they already have it. >> right. i agree. >> the romneys already have it. >> that's potentially the problem for mitt romney. there is clearly a strain, john touched on this. there's clearly a strain of economic pop limp that exists in both parties. but in the republican party, mike huckabee tapped into that. he was the populist messenger. it's why he beat romney in iowa. who is that messenger now? newt gingrich is not a populist. rick santorum, maybe, but his time in washington makes it hard. the best populist -- natural populist in the field is a guy from texas named rick perry who is at 1% in polls and largely irrelevant. and that's the problem. not that mitt romney isn't vulnerable to an

carter was saying nice thing about romney. mccain endorsed romney. carter said he was glad it see him win. so i don't know. >> republicans have been dismissing this whole ad by saying, we shouldn't do these type of things. i think it a powerful ad in a climate where you have blue collar workers who are not happy at all about companies coming in, using debt slashing and burning, firing people and then making off with lot of catch. p it is no shock republicans are saying, this is the last thing we want to see. even bill crystal is writing about this. when you say we soar happy about capitalism an tied to it, you you are writing about rich folks. i think gingrich messed up the argument but he could have been more effective, make the argument that we need to be concerned about the little guy laid of a by these jobs. i think the way he has done it is bad. but it is still current hurt president obama. >> reports of my death have been greatliage exaggerated. the enthuse yem is matching democrats about now. but that's about it. as ari points out, there is al

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

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

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

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

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

>> romney just won this thing. romney has just won the java joe's caucus. we'll be right back with more "hardball." >>> welcome back to "hardball." according to polls, on the eve of the iowa caucus, 25% support, kompb conservatives say the problem for that is they can't agree on who the alternative is. the result could be mitt romney sneaking through the pack and eking out a win. for some conservatives, that prospect reminds them of john mccain back in 2008, the moderate senator, who never won the love of the conservative base. could it happen two election cycles in a row? joe klein's a "time" magazine columnist and jonathan martin is senior political reporter for politico. john, you start here. usually parties correct themselves. they run a pragmatist, that doesn't work, the next time they run somebody with deep conviction. it looks like romney is still the favorite right now to follow john mccain, someone in the senator. >> that's why you see so many unhappy republicans these days. that's why the crowds are low this time, that's why the turnout may be low

>> romney just won this thing. romney has just won the java joe's caucus. we'll be right back with morhardball. [ whistle blows ] oh! [ baby crying ] ben harper: ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. ♪ slowly turned into a scream ♪ there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ 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 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™. if you took the top down on a crossover? if there were buttons for this? wouldn't it be cool

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

mitt romney is weak. ron paul is out of the mainstream, almost a freak show in the republican party. how can you claim you're stronger if you keep losing to the candidate you call "weak" or "glooirk?" it's hard to make that argument. >> we had a spirited debate about whether it was to the party's advantage, the republicans, to have an extended battle. i remember when barack obama and hillary clinton went for months on end and they were the only story in town. obama appeared to get better as a campaigner as the months went on and that seemed to play well for him against john mccain. couldn't we see the same thing happen here? it goes on and could romney not become a more formidable opponent? >> there are those that believe that. that he'll hone his skills. he was much better in his speech tonight than we've seen him in the past. i think that was the best speech he's given this year so there is that argument but with barack obama and hillary clinton, then largely, the same things. they believe largely the s

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

today, romney at 37. 37 in south carolina is a good number for romney. if he builds that out, if he does well in south carolina and florida, i think the ceiling may disappear and you'll see romney rise above it. >> thank you very much. that's "hardball" for now. up next, "your business" with j.j. ram berg. whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! pure adrenaline. whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! everything you love about geico, now mobile. download the new geico app today. whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee! ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

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

romney? how is he going to deal with the communities across this country, having taken a posture that many feel is biased and borders on racial profiling? >> well, you know it is interesting, tend of the day on the party that tried to do anything about immigration is the republican party, or has done anything in a serious way. i have noticed, i say this reverend sharpton, as a proud immigrant, that the rhetoric has toned down, i don't hear these words that lacerating when a hispanic person hears them. let's talk about a strategic immigration policy for the country that will make us more competitive, it is a very different tone than has been here there in the past and i'm pleased to see that as a cuban-american, as a hispanic-american, they may not be there, but i'm pleased to see that all candidates have toned down some of the words and some of the rhetoric. mr. secretary, ed schultz. earlier, a moment ago, you said that the voters of florida know where mitt romney stands. 38% of the voters i

governor romney? >> in the long run, do you think ads like this do more harm than good for the republican party? i mean, is this slug fest only lay the republican field bruised and bloodied? >> no. no. look. we have a long history coming together with the nominee. what i'm trying to point with the nominees we don't neat to march off the clip with the establishments candidate like candidate like bob dole and mccain and now march off the cliff with romney. i'm trying to get us away from the cliff and choose a conservative. elections are about contrast and what that ad in an entertaining way points out. no real contrast between mitt romney as governor and barack obama as president. unfortunately, mitt romney is now trying to claim he is something he is not. newt is the real deal. he ran as a republican in 1974 when you couldn't get your trash picked up in georgia as a republican. as i said he led the republican revolution. he has a stellar record of conservative achievement and mitt romney doesn't. i thi

romney is ahead here. if he keeps that margin when the rest of this comes in, it is one of the larger population centers in the state. he could make up the votes in places like this. but, wolf, we're up to 54%. the pace is starting to pick up. we'll keep up with the math. >> let me go back to the wall and take a closer look at these numbers right now. more than half of the precincts reporting, 54%. and rick santorum, the former senator from pennsylvania maintaining a slight lead over mitt romney by 401 votes, 14,606 to 14,205. ron paul third, not that far behind, 13,145. newt gingrich, a distant fourth, only 13%, 8,081. let's take a look at the bottom three right now. still in the bottom three, rick perry, only 10%. 6,200 votes. michele bachmann, very disappointing, 6%. 3,359, and jon huntsman, 1%, 324 votes. 54% of the actual vote is now in in iowa and rick santorum, anderson, is still ahead. so it's a pretty good night for rick santorum. no matter what happens, when the 46% of the precincts, that still h

matt romney is not the romney doctor son. it's ben romney who is the doctor romney. struck by the rare romney confusion bug. i'm feeling much better now, but i'm sorry to have made that romney son confusion mistake. and last night my colleague ed schultz asked john sununu a question about mr. romney's tax policies. >> according to the tax policy center that went through his tax policy and they came out and said that romney's tax plan would increase taxes for families making less than $40,000, and a millionaire will see his taxes drop by almost 5%. do you think that that fits with the populist tone? >> well, that's kind of strange -- i'm sorry, go ahead. >> go ahead, sir. >> look, i think that's kind of strange when the governor has made it clear he's not cutting taxes on the upper bureaucrats that he is cutting taxes on the hard-earning taxpayers in the middle, and that he's committed to flattening and lowering taxes across the board. so with all due respect to that organization, there's a technical term for that, it's a crock of crap. >> so true or false, stat crock

not for romney. but for the conservative movement that wants to stop romney, if they can't one of their guys to beat him in south carolina, the race is over. chris: my experience tells me that the phenomenon is always waiting around the corner. at some point, romney may make a mistake. he's not perfect. he may do something or something in his past will erupt. >> the key fact is that i'm guessing, maybe not 75% of republican voters are against him, but, you know, at least 2/3 really don't want to vote for him. they may have to because they may have no choice. chris: the meter is going to clear this up. 12 of our regulars. will republicans get more enthusiastic for romney as he gets closer to clinching it or will he get there without ever exciting republicans? eight say he gets it without enthusiastic voters. four say that enthusiasm will rise as he gets closer. andrea, you're with the eight who says this guy is going to cruise into port and no excitement. >> he's got babe buchanan now on his side. alv

will the gingrich tax on romney have an effect? romney has had a charmed life here. romney has a little bit of incidental fire, but not much compared to gingrich or some of the others. what happens on the debate saturday night? does romney pull out more endorsems? apparently senator mccain will endorse him and stomp on whatever rick santorum gets. but the story of the week is, what -- can rick santorum make the most of this moment in a way that perry, bachmann and gingrich couldn't make the most of their moments over the last few months. >> stand by, we are checking in with carl cam -- carl cameron. any reaction to the late-breaking news? >> reporter: not exactly. they have been striking the room for the better part of the last hour. it's over. we learned that the polling in iowa was fairly accurate. [no audio]. >> sorry, carl. >> reporter: sorry, i have a lot of noise in my ear. and i can't hear you. >> the polling in iowa was fairly accurate. what is the romney game plan? i don't think he expected to be a run-away winner in the state of iowa. he has a lot of eggs i

romney tried to attack. romney drew a little bit of blood but gingrich didn't have to go to the hospital in any of those jabs. he evaded any question asked of him. >> i think romney came at him with a kind of jewel and gold encrusted letter opener. it was kind of sad. you could see him practicing his lines in his hotel room. i have to question gingrich a little bit, because he did seem tired and older, but i think he showed up in this debate wanting to be grandfather. florida is a state known to be at least a third senior citizens. gingrich positioned himself for florida. you've seen him attack a little on immigration. i think it was a pretty smart strategy. >> romney gained some openings tonight. he played presidential demeanor, is what he did. here's mitt romney's answer to immigration. it's another new one. here we go. >> governor romney, there's one thing i'm confused about. you say you don't want to go and round up people and deport them, but you also say they would have to go back to their home countri

romney. >>> plus, former homeland security secretary tom ridge, backing john huntsman that is on the way. msnbc's coverage of the new hampshire primary continues in just a moment. >>> welcome back to msnbc's live coverage of the new hampshire primary. i'm rachel maddow out of new york city and this hour, we will talk to the surrogates from new ñ including former presidential candidate tim pawlenty, now supporting mitt romney and jon huntsman and tom ridge. back to chris. >> we got to remind ourselves tonight, we will be on a long time, all these candidates are coming out of the starting gate tonight this is the first primary. gingri gingrich ain't going nowhere except south, so is paul, romney, perry, santorum. ask but ron paul. arguing whether he is important or not. may not be important in terms of actually whipping this, but you have got some reporting on this >> the old terms, follow the money, ron paul raised $13 million the last quarter, the only person to raise more money was mitt rom

this year, romney in the east. strong for romney but not as strong. and piers made an interesting point earlier. again, governor romney is way ahead in new hampshire. 25% tonight, right? just about 30,000 votes. little shy. 25% tonight. we go back in time four years ago, 25%, 30,000 votes. >> you think mike huckabee is sitting out there, saying to himself, i wonder if, if he had decided to run this time, he might have done okay. >> mike huckabee, daniels, barber, a lot of them thinking woulda coulda shoulda. >> let's look at the poll data coming in. we are learning a lot about what happened, erin, inside iowa. >> that's right. we have been showing you our wall here, we have been turning this the flicking wall. now obviously that we know who the top players are of this virtual dead heat we can talk to you a little bit about what this means for the next step. so born again evangelical christians, as can you see, rick santorum winning that vote. those who didn't identified themselves going to mitt romney. in terms of the most important issue though, and

think of mitt romney. he presents himself in the new clothes of a conservative, a figure who has no faith in government, a hard-nose man of the right who has great fondness for the tea party, great distaste for other countries, who assumes trappings of the american angry enemies of the state. oh yes, the other endorsement, a man who never and he wears this coat well, never wanted to serve a life in politics. he ran for the senate but never wanted to serve a career there. helped that he lost the race to ted kennedy. ran for governor was elected but never intended to run for reelection, that would have made it about him. mitt romney isn't one of those politicians who runs for office with the idea of serving there. he is a private citizen, conservative businessman on some occasions offers for public service, of course all this is nonsense, the new clothes he's adorned himself with are not real. he has been a moderate governor of massachusetts who started the mandate. he is in fact a fellow running for office

gingrich is really angry at romney. romney is fighting now. he sees there's a real contest in south carolina. rick santorum wants to weigh in. ron paul, you know, he's always outspoken. it's going to be a lively debate. i expect fireworks tonight here in charleston. >> what do you think, candy? fireworks and where are those fireworks going to come from? >> reporter: listen, the fireworks always get louder and bigger the closer you get to election day so, absolutely. listen, i think there's a lot of pressure tonight on mitt romney because it was sort of widely perceived that the last debate was not his best. so he needs to be on his game, particularly when we see these polls moving toward newt gingrich after a debate earlier this week. 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 bec

obviously romney is. but there's a tendency in the press, and it's over and it's done, and it's just beginning, and there will be a candidate before this process is over. i think it's likely to be santorum. if he doesn't show talent for organization and fund-raising, he won't be able to go the distance. but if he gets votes particularly from the north country where there are a little more blue color, and he has appeal with them in new hampshire, and then if he can get perry and gingrich to fade-in south carolina so he gets a cleaner shot at romney, he will be a factor throughout this process. i think he did badly on the ground by getting into an argument a couple days ago with a college student hair in nere hampshire. he looks plausible as a nominee, and he had not before iowa. don't count rick santorum out. >> we won't, because you said so and we shouldn't because the voters have not decided. >>> there's more evidence that rick santorum could be the top voice of conservatives. and then like father like s

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

but he's giving mitt romney a moment, could this be the bid for the 2016 run if romney doesn't end up in office? in the 2008 exit polls, 60% of voters in south carolina's republican party identified themselves as evangelicals. 64% said abortion should be illegal. on sunday santorum brcelebrated the endorsement. >> it was a very divided group at the beginning, but as they worked through it, they came to a consensus, over 75% of the people there decided to support me and i think they did that because they know i am the consistent devastate. i beat gingrich and perry in iowa, i beat them again in new hampshire. we certainly accept anything they'll be able to do to help. we'll be happy to take it. >> newt gingrich had a glass is half full spin. >> i think that report was very highly exaggerated, we basically split that group, i got a very good number of votes. the one consensus was that virtually no one was for mitt romney. >> rick perry didn't even make it past the first ballot. >>> when the five remaining candidates face off in myrtle beach tonight, will we see another pile on romney de

they went for romney. now, is it going to be 21% this time that shows up thinking about electability first and experience, or is it going to be say 35%, 40% in the more people that show up tonight thinking about the general election, the better mitt romney does. the more it looks like four years, shares my values, core beliefs, that's a rick can strum electorate tonight, so that's a question we have on our entrance poll. we'll know that in 90 minutes we hope, and that will tell us sort of the makeup tonight, are these republican activists focused on their conservative beliefs or simply thinking about november and beating the president? >> chuck, the iowa caucus goer is such an experienced political animal. it's a minority of republican voters. >> yeah. >> in iowa, and it's folks who know what they are doing and are willing to spend several hours doing when almost nobody in the state is. do you find in general that they are thinking more strategically about the race, that they are thinking in terms of how i

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