"for president, newt gingrich." now, it is not shocking that "the union leader" would endorse somebody other than mitt romney despite what you heard about this weekend and today. this newspaper, in fact, seems to dislike mitt romney. they spent the entire presidential primary season basically ripping mr. romney to shreds, running editorials like this one every few weeks. "the more mitt romney speaks, the less believable he becomes." ah. so the biggest new hampshire paper not endorsing mitt romney, given how we know they feel about him, that's not a big surprise. the big surprise is why this newspaper's publisher said that newt gingrich got the endorsement instead. listen. >> gingrich is going to have a better time in the general election than mitt romney. i think it's going to be obama's 99% versus the 1% and romney sort of represents the 1%. >> occupy the gop primary! i sort of think congratulations are in order here. anybody who doubted the effectiveness of the occupy wall street movement, doubted what they might

after a big new hampshire endorsement for newt gingrich. joining me the roundtable is here, doris kearns goodwin, jon meacham, michael beschloss, rick lowry and michael eric dyson. up next after this brief commercial break. wanted to visit us... in louisiana. they came to see us in florida... nice try, they came to hang out with us in alabama... once folks heard mississippi had the welcome sign out, they couldn't wait to get here. this year was great but next year's gonna be even better. and anyone who knows the gulf knows that winter is primetime fun time. the sun's out and the water's beautiful. you can go deep sea fishing for amberjack, grouper and mackerel. our golf courses are open. our bed and breakfast have special rates. and migrating waterfowl from all over make this a bird watcher's paradise. so if you missed it earlier this year, come on down. if you've already been here come on back... to mississippi... florida... louisiana... alabama. the gulf's america's get-a-way spot no matter where you go. so come on down and help make 2012

interesting thing, perry couldn't take on newt gingrich. newt gingrich is newt gingrich. he'll surprise you and you never know which newt gingrich will throw up. the unafraid or sour, nastier newt gingrich that is not likeable. i think the first knute bring ri ging /* gingrich was at your debate. >> all of a sudden, new polls show he's right in the thick of things. >> it's changing the way you run for president. >> we'll see if this last debate winds up helping or hurting them. don't go too far away much woo. we have lots to discuss. and the candidates calling for profiling of muslims? and a clash of military position in afghanistan. [ male announcer ] sometimes, a hint is all the wrapping a gift needs. is that what i think it is? ♪ [ male announcer ] the lexus december to remember sales event is here, but only for a limited time. see your lexus dealer for exclusive lease offers on the 2012 is 250 and, as a gift from lexus, we'll make your first month's payment. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire business

check out newt gingrich. his website has shiny, new explanations for why he's changed his positions on the health care mandate, on global warming, on t.a.r.p., on what he called paul ryan's right wing social engineering medicare plan and luckily for newt, all of his new positions line up nicely with the conservative republican primary voters. well, also the veto -- >>> the video that went viral this weekend. campus police pepper spraying peaceful occupy protesters out at uc dave this california. the university's police chief was placed on administrative leave today and many students are calling for the university's chancellor to step down. >>> and look who has decided to take a chance on iowa, mitt romney. he may be trying to win it all up front, but if he loses out there and loses big, it could be all over for mitt. >>> finally, let me finish tonight with why i think november 22nd, tomorrow, should never be a day to remember john f. kennedy. >>> we start with the super committee's failure to reach a deal tod

>> i'm newt gingrich. >> i, newt gingrich. >> do solemnly promise to continue to be a good speaker. i promise that my book will be way less boring than al gore's book. >> for republican committee roast in 1995, newt gingrich is back about me now. you have a sense of humor about yourself. >> you have to or else you'd go crazy. >> you have thick skin as well. you seem like the classic washington bruiser, able to deal with all the slings and arrows that get chucked at you. >> this is a free society. i'm allowed to have an opinion. other people are allowed to have an opinion. i relax and try to live it up. >> the key thing of the next election is going to almost certainly be not just the economy but jobs in particular. how to get americans back to work. that will be the battleground. where do you think you have the answers that barack obama doesn't have? and also, where do you think you differ, if you do, from the tea party and their aspirations in that area? >> well, first of all, i think with obama, he's the best, most effective food stamp president in history. more people are on food

of course the endorsement of newt gingrich. they say gingrich is by no means the perfect candidate but we would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what we think they want to hear. that is clearly a slap to mitt romney. >> we're proud of the strong endorsements we have in new hampshire. we have governor and a lot of strong conservative support in new hampshire. >> you know, governor romney knows this is an important election and he wants to take his message directly to each voter. >> i want to ask you about a bloom berg article. >> is -- with that history, is that similar to what we are seeing now in the match up between newt and mitt romney on immigration? >> governor romney discussed his position on immigration and illegal immigration extensively in the last campaign. that's nothing new. he proved that he does not support amnesty or illegal immigrants cutting in line between those who are trying to come to this country lawfully. if you look at his record, he vetoed for illegal immigra

you look at newt gingrich, you wouldn't say that about newt gingrich. he wouldn't say that about others, but, again, here you have the only guy supporting, supporting paul ryan's plan. the only guy that is rock solid, prolife, prosecond amendment gun. it's a joke. these people don't -- >> they don't want to win. >> it becomes all about symbolism. >> when it comes to the endorsement of manchester union leader. >> by the way, we will continue to call it manchester union leader. it is the manchester union leader. >> it does not have the one caveat that the publisher of that paper looks for. the ability to truly annoy the left. that's what he looks for. >> is that it? >> newt gingrich has the ability to truly annoy the left as well as to really touch up mitt romney. >> he also, though, he cannot win. newt gingrich can't win a general election. >> that's the thing, on top of it. >> he can't win the new hampshire primary. >> he won't win the new hampshire primary. this is the uother amazing thin. he has the conservative record on nine out of ten issues. newt

can newt gingrich survive hthis? >> the good and bad thing for gingrich is that he has a long record. he's well-known to a lot of people. people know a lot of the foyables that he has and know about his marriages. there's a lot that will come back up and back up. i think the real issue is whether as people are reminded of that again and the question of can he then run a general election race, whether he'll be able to hold up. >> now as he's a national candidate, he's weighing in on national issues. this is what newt gingrich said about the "occupy wall street" movement? >> it starts with the premise that we all owe them everything. they take over a public park they didn't pay for to go nearby to use bathrooms they didn't pay for to beg for food from places that don't want to pay for it, to obstruct those going to work to sustain the bathrooms and park to pay tax. that's a symptom of how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country and why you need to reassert something as simple to them saying go get

it could be the current gop poster boy, newt gingrich. but with so many republicans saying anyone but mitt, isn't newt the logical choice? so the obama campaign right now is focusing its energy and charges at mitt romney. it's a win-win strategy for them. help newt knock him out now or finish him off yourself in november. the dnc has put out a second anti-mitt video in two days. this one taking romney to task for his dishonest ad last week, and wait until you see stephen colbert's takedown of that romney ad. it's in the sideshow. finally, let me finish tonight with this exit of barney frank and this rise of newt. talk about bad tidings of the season. >>> we start with the possible end to the herman cain campaign. dana milbank is a "washington post" columnist and satirist, and jim vandehei is editor in chief for politico. it's very hard -- let me go to the hard news reporter now for the entire organ of politico. jim, thank you for joining us. you've got the entire resources of politico working this story, i assume. yesterday cain said he w

newt gingrich campaign. newt gingrich still doing more than a third of his upcoming events as book signings and dvd screenings. running for president it turns out is a great way to sell your stuff. the whole idea behind newt's stuff, the whole idea behind newt incorporated is that you should want to buy newt gingrich books and should want to buy newt gingrich dvds and want to pay thousands of dollars to get fake awards from newt gingrich enterprises because newt gingrich is such an important and very serious man. that is the whole marketing concept behind newt gingrich incorporated. and that dovetails really nicely with running for president because if you're newt gingrich, running for president sort of givings you a justification to talk about yourself in rather grandiose terms. for example, late last week at an event in michigan, mr. gingrich was asked about judges. dave wiegel at slate.com was at the event and quotes mr. gingrich as responding this way. "if you go to newt.org, you'll see an entire paper o

but newt gingrich is different. newt gingrich is different from all the rest of these pachinko ball candidates for five minutes. newt gingrich is fun to cover in his moment in the sun here. he's been around politics in one incarnation or another basically forever. to trace the origins of the eyebrow raising stuff that newt gingrich is promoting now that he's the presidential front-runner, go back to newt gingrich's old cassette tapes. remember cassette tapes? for all viewers younger than me, this is a cassette tape. used to have boom boxes and machines in our cars that would play these things and sometimes your car would mess it up and the tape could get tied like this. one of the things newt gingrich did when he was on his way to becoming speaker of the house newt gingrich -- look, i broke it. there it goes. he took over a republican organization called go-pac and he would send republican coaching cassette tapes to republican candidates for office all around the country. people running for dogcatcher. if you were a

four months ago, if we were on talking about the renaissance of newt gingrich, newt gingrich as the hot, young thing in the republican presidential race, we would have laughed a lot more than a republican convention. this is an unpredictable electorate in an unpredictable election cycle. i would agree 100% with susan. it's not going to happen because the republican party poobahs won't let it happen. >> this is the scariest vision i've come across since ebenezer scrooge spotted jacob marley on his doorknob. thank you, chris and susan. >>> up next, mitt romney's campaign released an ad last week which clearly took the president's words out of context, in fact, i think totally distorted them. and now susan -- susan? now stephen colbert has taken his revenge. that's coming up in the sideshow. colbert to destroy romney. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. [ knock on door ] cool. you found it. wow. nice place. yeah. [ chuckles ] the family thinks i'm out shipping these. smooth move. you used priority mail flat rate boxes. if it fits, it ships for a low, flat rate. paid for postage onli

four months ago, if we were on talking about the renaissance of newt gingrich, newt gingrich as the hot, young thing in the republican presidential race, we would have laughed a lot more than a republican convention. this is an unpredictable electorate in an unpredictable election cycle. i would agree 100% with susan. it's not going to happen because the republican party poobahs won't let it happen. >> this is the scariest vision i've come across since ebenezer scrooge spotted jacob marley on his doorknob. thank you, chris and susan. >>> up next, mitt romney's campaign released an ad last week which clearly took the president's words out of context, in fact, i think totally distorted them. and now susan -- susan? now stephen colbert has taken his revenge. that's coming up in the sideshow. colbert to destroy romney. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. @ápápáp:@:02 " introducing the perfect situp. invented by the u.s. navy seal who brought you the perfect pushup, the perfect situp re-invents the situp by combining the upper ab crunch with the lower ab leg lift. then the perfect

newt gingrich." now, it is not shocking that "the union leader" would endorse somebody other than mitt romney despite what you may have heard about this this weekend and today. this newspaper, in fact, really seems to dislike mitt romney. they not only didn't endorse mr. romney the last time he ran for president, they spent the entire presidential primary season basically ripping mr. romney to shreds, running editorials like this one every few weeks. "the more mitt romney speaks, the less believable he becomes." ah. so the biggest new hampshire paper not endorsing mitt romney, given how we know they feel about him, that's not a big surprise. the big surprise is why this newspaper's publisher said that newt gingrich got the endorsement instead. listen. >> gingrich is going to have a better time in the general election than mitt romney. i think it's going to be obama's 99% versus the 1% and romney sort of represents the 1%. >> occupy the gop primary! i sort of think congratulations are in order here.

after a big new hampshire endorsement for newt gingrich. joining me the roundtable is here, doris kearns goodwin, jon meacham, michael beschloss, rick lowry and michael eric dyson. up next after this brief commercial break. >>> we're back with >>> we're back with our political roundtable. joining me editor of the national review rich lowry. author and professor at georgetown university michael eric dyson. presidential historian doris kearns goodwin. executive editor of random house jon meacham and presidential historian michael beschloss. welcome everybody. hope you had a good thanksgiving. the great thing about thanksgiving is you get everybody around the table, and unless you talk about food, you might get into politics and the big issues that were discussed. let's get into it. this race is getting very, very interesting. we mentioned it all morning, the "union-leader" of new hampshire endorsing newt gingrich in new hampshire. america's at i crucial crossroads. we're in a critical need of innovative forward-looking strategy and positive l

he gives us jack abramoff on newt gingrich next. breathe robert, out of your mouth. [ male announcer ] that onion after taste after you again? new crest complete with scope dual blast technology blasts away bad breath germs and food after tastes. new crest complete with scope dual blast. blast your way to fresh breath. >>> for the second day in a row a poll shows that newt gingrich is the leader of the republican presidential field. the economist ugov poll has him at 23% and cain 21%, romney at 19% and ron paul 7%. rick perry at 6%. michele bachmann is at 5%. as newt gingrich knows, a surge in the polls means more scrutiny. he acknowledged as much in a warning to a tea party crowd in jacksonville this afternoon. >> in the next three weeks, i predict you will have all sorts of questions about me, and it's fine. i will cheerfully answer every single question they ask, and at the end of it you will be relatively convinced, i believe that i did no lobbying of any kind. i did no influence pedaling of any kind but the truth is if you have

mitt romney and newt gingrich. listen to what romney is now saying about newt gingrich. >> he and i have very different backgrounds. he spent his last 30 or 40 years in washington. i spent my career in the private sector. he's a lifelong politician. i think you have to have the credibility of understanding how the economy works. and i do and that's one reason i'm in this race. >> he spent 30 or 40 years in washington. he's a lifelong politician. on the other hand, mitt romney's a business person. the gloves are a little bit beginning to come off. >> it's about time. look, this is supposed to be a change election. all the issues will boil down to the economy and so, mitt romney has to offer that contrast and it is an absolute joke for newt gingrich to stand here and talk about he's an outsider when he is an ultimate insider. this whole deal with all his institutes and these organizations, he's trading on the level of influence in the nation's capitol, so it's smart for romney to go after him aggressively. >> you use

but talk about newt gingrich. for those of us who have worked alongside him like me and for someone like you that's worked with him, he can at times be inspiring, but more often than not can just be maddening. >> it's really true. i just finished reading isaacson's biography of steve jobs. and he describes the reality distortion field that jobs had around him. that if you were talking to him, no matter what you came in thinking, by the time you finished, you agreed with jobs no matter how weird it sounded at the time he was saying it. and newt had the same thing around him. when you're in the room with him -- we've seen him give a speech. his comedic timing is great, he knows a lot of stuff, he cites not only the author of a book but the page it's on. and so he does -- like jobs he creates this reality distortion field. i think the difference is th that -- that with newt it doesn't -- there's no ipod at the other end of it. >> but if he does create the ipod, he holds it up and you think, this is the most remarkabl

well, check out newt gingrich. his website has shiny new explanations for why he's changed his positions on the health care mandate, global warming, t.a.r.p., and what he called paul ryan's, quote, right-wing social engineering medicare plan. and luckily for newt, all of his new position line, it lines up nicely with the conservative republican primary voters. big surprise. >>> also, the video that went viral this weekend. campus police pepper spraying peaceful occupy protesters at unc davis, that's out in california. university's police chief was placed on administrative leave today and many students are calling for the university's chancellor to step down. >>> and look who's decided to take a chance on iowa! give iowa a try. mitt romney. he may be trying to win it all up there in that first big event next year, but if he loses big, it could be all over for mitt. >>> finally, let me finish tonight why i think november 22nd, tomorrow, should never be a day to remember john f. kennedy. >>> we start with the super co

in this incredibly important election, that candidate is newt gingrich. that endorsement should help gingrich narrow romney's lead in new hampshire but today gingrich was doing his endorsement victory lap in south carolina where he now has a strong chance of actually beating romney. in an interview with a south carolina radio station, gingrich was asked about the union leader's statement that he is by no means the perfect candidate. >> anybody who is knot honest about it knows that no person except christ has ever been perfect. so i don't claim to be the per effect candidate. i just claim to be a lot more conservative than mitt romney and a lot more electable than anybody else. newt gingrich is now actually being considered for a possible endorsement from the iowa-based conservative group "family leader" a group that ruled out the possibility of endorsing former liberal mitt romney. asked about gingrich's several marriages and the affairs he's conducted during those mam marriages the family leaders director of development said i have heard him speak candi

there's no question that newt gingrich benefitses from this. because he's been straightforward about his own peccadillos and downfalls, he accrues a kind of moral authority in inverse proportion because he's not trying to diss anybody but at the same time his own funkiness is out there. >> he's saying i've been there, done that, i know not to comment on. michael eric diszen, sam stein, good to have you on. >>> answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts on twitter with #edshow. we'll be featuring your tweets throughout the show tonight. got a lot of response on that last night. >>> coming up, newt gingrich could be the new republican front-runner, so republicans, well, they're going to have to forgive him for things like global warming. that ad he did with speaker nancy pelosi. who's going to forget that? not me. >>> later, republicans are hedging on a tax cut that would put $1,500 in the pockets of middle class americans because the richest 2% of this country is really what the republicans are protecting. ohio

after a big new hampshire endorsement for newt gingrich. joining me the roundtable is here, doris kearns goodwin, jon meacham, michael >>> we're back with our political roundtable. joining me editor of the national review rich lowry. author and professor at georgetown university michael eric dyson. presidential historian doris kearns goodwin. executive editor of random house jon meacham and presidential historian michael beschloss. welcome everybody. hope you had a good thanksgiving. the great thing about thanksgiving get everybody around the table, and unless you talk about food, you might get into politics and the big issues. this race is getting very, very interesting. we mentioned it all morning, the union leader of new hampshire endorsing newt gingrich in new hampshire. america's at i crucial crossroads. we're in a critical need of innovative forward-looking strategy and positive leadership that gingrich has shown he's capable of providing. deso with the contract with america. he did it in bringing in the first republican house in 40 y

>>> bill o'reilly tried to help newt gingrich. newt used to be a liberal on climate change, and bill o'reilly took on the job last night of helping him deal with that anyway forthright fox news kind of way so newt could put it behind him and become the first person to go from the fox news payroll to the republican presidential nomination. >> first of all, nancy pelosi, you, sitting there talking about global warming on tv. what was that all about? >> what was that all about is the standard fox news question to republican presidential candidates who have a problem they need to deal with publicly. it's not a pointed question. it's just a way of saying there's this issue i have to contend to confront you with, so i'm going to throw it out there and let you deal with it any way you want to. when you watch newt's answer, notice he's developed the fakest candidate smile of the entire republican field now that he's the front-runner. his handlers have explained to him that the newt scowl can only get him so far. >> what was that all about

"for president, newt gingrich." now, it is not shocking that "the union leader" would endorse somebody other than mitt romney despite what you heard about this weekend and today. this newspaper, in fact, seems to dislike mitt romney. they spent the entire presidential primary season basically ripping mr. romney to shreds, running editorials like this one every few weeks. "the more mitt romney speaks, the less believable he becomes." ah. so the biggest new hampshire paper not endorsing mitt romney, given how we know they feel about him, tha listen. >> gingrich is going to have a better time in the general election than mitt romney. i think it's going to be obama's 99% versus the 1% and romney sort of represents the 1%. >> occupy the gop primary! i sort of think congratulations are in order here. anybody who doubted the effectiveness of the occupy wall street movement, doubted what they might accomplish, without a manifesto of demands, let the record show appealing to the 99% of americans and not the 1% is the stated

and so now, we have newt gingrich. compared to the other candidates, he may be more intelligent, less prone to mistakes, but can he, with all of his heavy baggage, lift up americans in need of inspiration? that will be a challenge for him, but if i were you, i wouldn't hold your breath. thanks so much for watching. dylan ratigan is back and ready to move forward. dylan? how are you? >> very well. yourself? >> good. >> should we leave it at that for today? >> it's in your hands. you're in control. >> it seems adequate. >> thank you. >> the show starts right now. >>> el

barney frank said newt gingrich is capable of imploding. given the fact as you said earlier they happened in the not so distant past, do you think newt gingrich may have learned? >> he has learned some things, but he is fundamentally undisciplined and politics be successful at the highest levels. you have to have a great sense of discipline. the issue is not going to be what happened to him in the past. we know that the republican primary voters are willing to overlook a lot of that. it's whether he will be able to hold up to the swings and errors of the current campaign or melt down as barney frank indicated. he is -- which newt will show up? the policy or the scholar or the snappish undisciplined self defeating candidate. they probably will before time. >> anything but mitt romney. they show gingrich leading or in a tie. blowing him away in south carolina. will voters forget about newt's adultery and the poison onnous behavior of the past and be able to pull it off or are ow john's side of the pages where you think that newt will probably

>>> bill o'reilly tried to help newt gingrich. newt used to be a liberal on climate change, and bill o'reilly took on the job last night of helping him deal with that anyway forthright fox news kind of way so newt could put it behind him and become the first person to go from the fox news payroll to the republican presidential nomination. >> first of all, nancy pelosi, you, sitting there talking about global warming on tv. what was that all about? >> what was that all about is the standard fox news question to republican presidential candidates who have a problem they need to deal with publicly. it's not a pointed question. it's just a way of saying there's this issue i have to contend to confront you with, so i'm going to throw it out there and let you deal with it any way you want to. when you watch newt's answer, notice hs developed the fakest candidate smile of the entire republican field now that he's the front-runner. his handlers have explained to him that the newt scowl can only get him so far. >> what was that all about?

it was all newt gingrich. it was newt gingrich. we didn't want america to get engaged in bosnia, newt gingrich shoved that down our throats. we didn't want to get engaged in kosovo, he's the one that broke boehner's arms and everyone else's arm -- newt gingrich, one more example of how newt will say whatever it takes at the moment to get an applause line. and by the way, this is not my opinion. this is, as you say, documented fact. go back and see what this man did when he was speaker of the house from '95 to '98. he was the internationalist's internationalist. so for him to talk about zeroing out budget, it's a joke, it's laughable. and it doesn't stand up. >> and it has nothing to do with what he did as the most public figure and the leader of the republican party as speaker. nothing to do with that record he established. >> we were very surprised that we get up there and we're going to balance the budgets and we're going to end all of these foreign entanglements. and he comes to us and says, we need to bail out mexico. it wasn't

>> that is newt gingrich. >> that is newt gingrich. now he's a conservative candidate. >> isn't the real conclusion from the quiz that there are socialist, moderate, left winger in the group is jon huntsman? because the answer was yes for him on nothing. >> actually wait. >> he was not the answer on any of those. i thought he was moderate -- the moderate right? >> he's the liberal. >> read my politico article. here's another one. you've led me into this. the american conservative wrote this about which gop candidate? for the past two decades a moderate republican who didn't side with his party on taxes, guns, and abortions, but this candidate's record on those issues isn't just to the right of moderates but to the right of most conservatives. who would that be? >> governor huntsman of utah. >> which candidate was praised for reforming health care with no employer mandate, no individual mandate, no provision for subsidized care unlike obama care or romney care? >> rick santorum. no. wait. huntsman. >> final question. jon huntsman. i mea

newt gingrich picks that up. you see, whenever a conservative candidate gets into a little bit of trouble and does poorly. then a little portion of their support goes to another conservative candidate. we have been seeing that since the rise of michele bachmann last summer. tonight, greta van susteren has an interview with mrs. cain. and i'm looking forward to seeing that. who is going to stick up for her husband and going to say, listen, this is all politics and there is nothing to it. not the man i know. that kind of a thing. if herman cain with ride out the next week without these people harpooning him in a way that matters. they can't keep saying the same stuff over and over. they have to advance the story. he can come back. does that impact on newt gingrich? mitt romney stays the same in all polls. >> i disagree. mitt romney has moved ahead slightly. newt gingrich has moved up some. in fact, i think it was nbc "wall street journal" each of them had moved up a points. i do think this about mr. cain if can rid

newt gingrich, 27%. romney, 20%. paul, 16%. on down the line in single digits, cain, bachmann and santorum. moving to new hampshire, romney 33%, gingrich 22%. paul 12%. single digits again, cain, undecided, and huntsman. okay. couple questions. is newt gingrich a serious contender at this point? >> i think the endorsement of "the union leader" makes him a serious threat to mitt romney potentially in new hampshire in ways that he might not have anticipated and we'll see what happens in the polls in the next few weeks. i think in iowa it is easy to say newt's on top but that contest comes first. he has a lot of explaining to do on the immigration question. he has a lot of explaining to do on other issues. support for t.a.r.p. which he then took back. his position on climate change. his position on the ryan medicare plan. a mandate for health care, advanced directives for health care. he has a lot of answering to do in iowa before the counts on the cold january night. iowa could be a muddled picture where there's an anti-mitt romn

newt gingrich is serving in the polls. newt gingrich. to sit in lincoln's chair, and perhaps sleep in lincoln's bed. well, fact is, with cain fanning and perry paring, it's newt positioned to become the next anti-romney, and the gingrich that could steal christmas. will newt become the first republican to self-destruct, or the first one to put a real scare into mitt? he scares me. also, the spooky 1987 television interview with penn state's jerry sandusky talking about how much he loves children. we've got the ghastly video and the latest on this story. >>> and how about the law on reporting crimes against children? does it need to be strengthened? >>> plus, a new wrinkle in the herman cain alleged sexual predator story. sharon bialek's then-boyfriend backs her story that the two met cain in the late 1990s and that she told him that cain grabbed her during an evening together. we'll ask the cain strategist whether cain can survive. >>> and the anybody but mitt contest, which has become. i bet he does. and we'll ask p.j. o'roarke what he

he gives us jack abramoff on newt gingrich next. i've seen this before -- the old "impromptu in-law visit." dad's a real cleaning machine. and look at mom whipping up some kraft homestyle mac & cheese. sure it's easy to make, but it looks like she's been busting her hump in the kitchen. [ doorbell rings ] ♪ let the fireworks begin. hi, it's so nice to see you. something smells good. [ male announcer ] kraft homestyle macaroni & cheese. cheesy noodles topped with golden-brown, breadcrumbs. you know you love it. >>> for the second day in a row a poll shows that newt gingrich is the leader of the republican presidential field. the economist ugov poll has him at 23% and cain 21%, romney at 19% and ron paul 7%. rick perry at 6%. michele bachmann is at 5%. as newt gingrich knows, a surge in the polls means more scrutiny. he acknowledged as much in a warning to a tea party crowd in jacksonville this afternoon. >> in the next three weeks, i predict you will have all sorts of questions about me, and it's fine. i will cheerfully answer ever

how can newt gingrich capitalize on this? >> well, he needs to invest a lot of time in the state and that's going to be hard. he should focus solely on iowa and new hampshire now. the one thing about new hampshire is, independents can vote in the primary. i think romney has an edge with under pent voters because he's a centrist republican than gingrich is. but gingrich has the ability to appeal to the movement republicans, conservatives who don't trust mitt romney, who romney just can't seem to move into his camp. gingrich really has potential with that part of the base. and i think that gingrich can speak their language. the contract with america, bringing in the republican leadership in 1994, those are things that the republican party is very proud of and would like to get back to. gingrich offers the hope of that kind of thing. >> well the former speaker also got good words from his nemesis from 1990s. take a listen to this. >> he's articulate and he tries to think of a conservative version of an idea that will solve a leg

newt gingrich is selling loads of books and dvds. is the republican race better understood as a book tour? >> i'd better think about this. may be should i run for president for my next book. >> i'm telling you, you'll get some sales. i don't want to be absurd claiming their only reason that these noble servants would get into the race is to promote themselves. but at the same time, it takes a great degree of hubris and self-assertion and confidence to run for the president anyhow. so to say that you're going to run for the president or promote your own book is six of one, half dozen of the other. what is interesting is that all of these noble claims to service are really subordinated to their ego send trick narcissist tick preoccupations on the one hand and their way of easily dismissing human beings on the other. especially for herman cain. i think all three of these candidates have to take another look at what public service is about. it is not about self-promotion. it is about the promotion of the public good. not about signing yo

but if anyone's dirty, it's newt gingrich. a man whose personal morality has been drawn from the sewer. a man who pontificates about his catholic faith and morality, but repeatedly commits adultery. a man who spreads poison through the political process and is eventually forced to resign from congress. a man who accuses other politicians of being in cahoots with freddie mac, knowing full well that he mself received millions of dollars from the same organization. and mr. gingrich has the audacity to suggest that the occupy protesters need a

and so now, we have newt gingrich. compared to the other candidates, he may be more intelligent, less prone to mistakes, but can he, with all of his heavy baggage, lift up americans in need of inspiration? that will be a challenge for him, but if i were you, i wouldn't hold your breath. thanks so much for watching. dylan ratigan is back and ready to move forward. dylan? how are you? >> very well. yourself? >> good. >> should we leave it at that for today? >> it's in your hands. you're in control. >> it seems adequate. >> thank you. >> the show starts right now. >>> well, good monday afternoon to you. i am dylan ratigan.

we have a lot of newt gingrich news. i think the word hypocrisy plays perfectly to share with everybody. maybe you can explain it to me, maybe i'm skewed. we'll get there. but i want to talk about ron paul. a new national poll by the pew research center showing mitt romney and herman cain in a dead heat with 23% and 22% support. we'll be talking about herman cain and the interview he canceled. they're following by newt gingrich with 16%, ron paul and rick perry are tied for fourth with 8% support each. let's look at iowa, which i think we're about 50 days away. a new iowa state university poll shows herman cain leading the pack with 24.5%, and ron paul coming in second at 20.4%. mitt romney, rick perry round out the top four with 16.3% and 7.9% respectively. ron paul's success in iowa in this poll coupled with his strong standing in the latest bloomberg news poll has analysts taking note. iowa state university political science professor david peterson said this. he's more of a front-runner than i think he gets credit fo