it may turn out to be newt and not newt. >> today, perry passed gingrich and romney as insider. and promised strong criticism before the primary but perry called at it caucus. awkward flubb in new hampshire where voters are proud of holding the first primary for the last century. >> bret: any other indicators that herman cain is staying in the race? >> a few moments ago we got word from the iowa campaign officials he will put out a new ad. putting up an ad. bioadd that talks about the job and economic message he is touting. no mention of 9-9-9 but it does suggest he is staying in the race. >> evangelist billy graham is in a north carolina hospital tonight. reverend graham was admitted to mission hospital inaville for evaluation and treatment of his lungs. pulmonologist says he may have pneumonia. don't forget, tonight's "special report" online show begins at the top of the hour. log on now and join the chat. coming up, britain fights back after tuesday's attack on the embassy in iran. applicatio smany great pioneers before me, guided only by a dream. i'm embarking on a journey o

mitt romney and newt gingrich are facing off and it's getting ugly. newt landed the first punch to mitt romney as an unconservative flip-flopper. >> i wouldn't lie to the american people. i wouldn't switch my position for political reasons. >> but mit swung right back. >> speaker gingrich is a good man. he and i have very different background. he's spent his last 30 or 40 years in washington. 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 why i'm in this race. >> ew, lifelong politician. and newt wasted no time responding telling reporters, quote, i'm now being attacked by the former front-runner. former front-runner? wow. that one stings. joining me now, the author of revival, the struggle for survival inside the obama white house and dana millbank, political reporter for the washington post. thank you both for being here tonight. richard, how does an extended romney-gingrich fight affect the race and a race against president obama also believed to be between

could it really be newt gingrich? jon stewart captured the iron of that news on "the daily show" last night. let's watch. >> the scandal has taken its toll on the cain campaign. reports are now emerging that he might be considering withdrawing from the race which i strongly discourage him from doing. i've already lost trump. i can't lose you, too. if these allegations of sexual improprietary derail cain, who will benefit. >> herman cain was already losing altitude in this race. where do his votes go? >> they go to newt gingrich i think. >> what? so voters leave cain because they don't like that he had an affair and go to the guy who had two of them. i guess newt gingrich becomes the candidate for people who like herman cain but think he was too monogamous. [ laughter ] >> well, look, the only candidate saddened by cain's downfall besides cain is mitt romney. here's junts man speaking for the happy survivors. quote, we've got real issues to talk about, not the latest bimbo eruption. well, this whole shebang has been li

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

. >>> coming up on "hardball," mitt romney taking a shot at the new front-runner, newt gingrich. is romney getting testing or a first sign of desperation but first ari melber risks the tourists and tree lighters downstairs. he's here for the daily rant. [ sniffs ] i have a cold. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't treat that. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ deep breath] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth! >>> we are back. ari melber, as you know, is here and he's ready to rant >> thanks, dylan. today i want to talk about the absurdity of this campaign for the republican presidential nomination. tomorrow is december 1st which marks the final one-month home stretch of this primary process. and yet the campaign, as you may have noticed, is pretty much in the same place it was a year ago. so if you believe the hype, and i don't, that means the same narrative. it's all about that unpopular front-runner, mitt romney,

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

you see newt gingrich get a job get a bath. herman cain, this is all a front for obama. eric kantor calling them mobs. the republican mood on this is reminiscent on this. >> charlie: is that what you mean when you say it could consume the obama campaign. >>t could grow or dissipate. it could hurt him in two different directions in the same way it hurt humphrey. he had his base shattered by the anti-war protesters and then he had the republicans ex exploitig against the backlash coalition. >> charlie: did they think they could split the difference here? >> i don't think they think they have much of a choice but to try. >> yes. it's hard for me to image the situation from their position, you know. the word anarchist is a nuclear word. you can't be with the anarchist and n for president. if he wants to channel, you know, if he wants to channel the movement, that's what the president would have to do. at the same time if you compare these like quote/unquote self identified anarchists to like labor activists in the 20's, 30's and 40's, they're much more plight. they talk in t

newt gingrich said that he is not a lobbyist despite this new york times article and some of what people would see as evidence to prove otherwise. but he is kind of i guess in his words, a celebrity of sorts. what do you make of that? >> yeah. i thought that was a poor word choice. although i think that the bit about how much he was paid for speeches frankly although it may cost him with blue collar folks we've been about, conservatives love that. in that they see someone who is financially successful. so that's not a problem. one thought for me on this. in pennsylvania, republicans, they are confident now that they can win this state. and tamron, the way they know that, they are no longer pushing the case to get rid of winner take all. remember that whole debate where they thought they could change the rules in time for 2012. now they're saying maybe we win the state and we would be penalizing ourselves. >> and herman cain spoke earlier. he was supposed to talk about recessing his campaign means. he did not. so we'll wait to see what he has to say. i want to go back to romney. he gave a

a young woman was saying she liked newt gingrich. i asked, you didn't mind all the stuff that didn't happen during clinton? she said i was in fifth grade. so that's a reminder that a lot of time has passed, but there will be a huge focus on it. the magic of e-books, it was just two weeks ago we were able to do an interview with the former speaker. he said there he was the only person that didn't recognize he wasn't dead. he said he was happy for the staffers who left that we saw covered on the show. he said they were running a compare from 25 years ago worried about things like dirty tricks in south carolina, based on the fact that he has a much younger wife. >> that's a great point. this is one of the lessons of this cycle. you don't need a big campaign. if tim pawlenty were driving around in an suv somewhere, we might be the front-runner. yet he was at the front of the pack. he says he hayes focusing on social media. you know the former speaker is never shy. he said watching his campaign is like watching ray crock build pluck donal

gingrich! (laughter) nation, they say every time god closes a door he opens a window. that's why heaven has such huge air conditioning bills. (laughter) this is yahweh or no way. (cheers and applause) folks, everybody knows i'm the most famous catholic on television. i am the only one in late night with his own chaplain. i am basically the pope of basic cable. so when something happens in the catholic church, everyone is waiting for my imprimatur, my nihil obstat, my my doggo doggare pupsi bite'em. (laughter) well, on sunday the holy roman catholic church, the one true bride of christ turned into a girl gone wild. >> catholics probably noticed changes during mass. the church is now using a new english translation of the ritual text used for celebrating mass. >> stephen: yes. they changed the words to the mass. they put the new words on this little card right here. caught me by total surprise. the catholic church is not known for changing its position-- missionary, by the way. (laughter) so the

if it's newt gingrich, i welcome that. if it's mitt romfully, i can't think of anybody on the republican side in the presidential run that i would not love to have running against barack obama in 2012. i think they're all fabulous. [ laughter ] >> robert hates that. >> we talk about his support among the minority community, and i think that's a mean that's out there. if you look closely at the numbers, it's not a lock. if you look at the latino population, it's 60% of the latino community supports a president, but really only onee 1 in 3 support him. this is something beef talked about, and i would love your thoughts on it. occasionally you here about a divide between those who feel the president has not spoken loudly and forcefully enough, especially given the high unemployment rate. >> when you look at those sort of opinion leaders, the people that the media looks at, wait a minute there's a divide, you're look at the elites one the black political community who have had a problem with barack obama since he was in the se

>> to newt gingrich, i think. i think right now that anti-romney vote has coalesced arm around the former speaker. >> jon: voters leaf cain because they don't like he had an affair and go to the guy who had two of them! i guess newt gingrich becomes the candidate for people who like herman cain but think he was too monogamous. jason jones is sanding by. jason, where are you? >> i'm at rick santorum's campaign headquarters. >> jonquick note, if you're looking to directions for his headquarters do not-- and i cannot stress this enough-- search google ma maps. >> jon: i'm sorry, i'm just waiting for people do that and come back to the program. what's going on at santorum headquarters? >> he's what i can only describe as frothing mad. (laughter) about cain voters going to gingrich. >> jon: what why is he mad? >> what does he have to do to get respect? his credentials are unmatched. he's pro-life, anti-immigrant, strict creationist, he equates same-sex marriage with get to gt (bleep)ing. he blamed the catholic church's

newt gingrich's record. if they don't, he's going to continue to move up and move up and maybe steal this nomination. but i don't think it's necessarily mitt romney. rick perry is still out there with herman cain collapsing, if rick perry can do something to bring newt gingrich down, he has a chance to fill that vacuum, after all he's been through. i still think he has a chance. he has a lot of money. fy were rick perry, that's who i'd be focusing. there's a heck of a lot to focus on. >> we want to go ahead and check in with mike vie cara and take a turn to the governor's home state, pennsylvania, where president obama will be this afternoon. pushing his message to extend the payroll tax cut in front of a key swing state crowd. nbc's mike live at the white house. republicans did well in pa in 2010 but the president really needs it come 2012 and is he can tenning the tax cut, that is a big issue right now. is it going to work there? >> reporter: you said it, thomas. it is a key swing state, the former governo

they want mitt romney. >> more than newt gingrich? >> they want mitt romney more than newt gingrich because mitt has flip-flopped like a fish in hot grease. this man is all over the place. >> a fish in hot grease. >> any issue, he's been on both sides. >> that's a louisiana analogy if -- >> absolutely. >> playbook is to run against mitt romney. as candidate of wall street fits into this argument, are you playing to the blue collar middle classing, wall street, flip-flop on immigration, right to life, a number of issues. i don't think they'd be terribly sad to run against newt gingrich. he has a little baggage, a history in house of representatives that they could have a field day on. you'll hear the word loathsome thrown around -- >> some people said his baggage is -- >> newt is a bit better as a debater than romney is because newt has a way of talking in circles until he makes you dizzy. you can't follow what newt's talking about by the time he finishes the conversation. >> charles, ben, we're out of time. thank you, guys. >>> we to

newt gingrich, mitt romney, and what is your definition of amnesty? >> well, first of all, mitt used a word there that i think newt has specifically ruled out, and that is citizenship. what i understood newt to say everybody who's watching your tv show today or everybody who is here at this governors conference knows is true, we're not going to risk 11 million or 12 million people, put them in jail or deport them or put them back to wherever they came from. i was in the reagan white house when we passed it, and president reagan were he here today, would say to you what he said many times after that, the deal was we were supposed to have a secure border. and if we don't have a secure border now, we'll never pass immigration reform again. we need to pass it. but it's not going to happen until there's a secure border because of the fact that it didn't get secured after 1986. i think that's exactly what gingrich has said. you know, we are in a global battle and race for capital and labor. and as we get older and go forward, we're going to continue, despit

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

this time mitt romney and newt gingrich. the latest american research group poll shows gingrich topping the field in the state of south carolina with 33% support. impressive enough on its own. he's up 25 points as gingrich just as last month. romney in second place in that state with 22%. he's down three points since last month. gingrich rises in the polls. there is growing scrutiny into his bowork after he left congre. he maintains he wasn't a lobbyist even as a new report digs into his dealings. the "times" reporting that through his health care consultants, he made millions of dollars helping companies promote services while gaining access to government officials. the article points to meetings gingrich arranged between clients and officials noting the executives paid as much as 200,000 a year just to belong to gingrich's group. the center for health trance formation. speaking at a campaign event in south carolina yesterday, gingrich said he did not need the money bad enough to become a lobbyist. >> i did no lobbying of a

gingrich now taking him seriously. gingrich is flying up the polls from iowa to south carolinament we'll have the latest on the two-man race at the top. that's coming up at the top of the hour. >>> and when we come back here, we'll huddle around the water cooler to watch brian williams soldier through an on going fire alarm during "nightly news." congratulations. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bottom line... whoa ! ... as the people inside them. congratulations. because when you add verizon to your company, you don't just add, you multiply. ♪ discover something new... verizon. >>> news that amr filed for bankruptcy is leaving customers wondering if all the miles they racked up will now be voided. good news. the nation's third largest carrier says the ground breaking program to honor passengers will stay intact through

gingrich, whose conservative support might go to newt. people who think, look, i just want a candidate who can beat barak obama and win next year, they might go to mitt romney. a core conservative base of people who supported cain might turn to michelle bachmann who has been struggling over the last couple of months. but they might take a fresh look. >> why michelle bachmann? >> because she's a solid contender. >> bill: the caucus goers are conservative. michelle bachmann is certainly plays to that field. why wouldn't they go to her? >> because she's not been -- she's made a lot of misstatements, doesn't know a lot. maybe the people who went for herman cain would go for michelle bachmann because he didn't know a lot. it's 'cause he doesn't know anything. >> bill: i don't want to get into the sense that, but i will put up two men and you the audience can side how the media treated both of them. john edwards and herman cain. if you think that john edwards got the same scrutiny that herman cain got, then you live in the line -- >> when the s

. >>> newt gingrich on the polls from iowa to south carolina has mitt romney squirming and comparing the candidates' records in an intense interview last night. is newt the latest and greatest challenger to romney or is he here to stay? we're about to find out. >>> great britain evacuates diplomats after the embassy was stormed. the question is, what does the attack mean for the relationship between iran and the united states? we'll have a report. >>> and rick perry, encourages those 21 and older to get out and vote on november 12th of next year. there are a number of problems with that encouragement. the question is when did voting in elections become 21 to bridr, 18 to

herman cain's loss in the polls is newt gingrich's gain. since the last insider advantage iowa poll three weeks ago today, herman cain dropped 13 points and newt gingrich gained 13 points. that poll has newt gingrich way out ahead of the field in iowa. similarly in the latest rasmussen poll in iowa, again, three weeks ago, to last week, herman cain dropped 15 points and newt gingrich gained 23 points. looking at the overall national polls is sort of interesting for the atmospherics of the race. maybe it's helpful for fund-raising. you have to look state by state in order to get a true sense of who might win the nomination because we choose the nominees state by state and state by state the same principle for now seems to be holding. when cain drops, gingrich gains. in new hampshire, a rasmussen poll, a conservative leaning poll, we've seen over the last month herman cain dropping by 12 points, newt gingrich rising by 16 points. public policy polling which is a left leaning firm, they took a really interesting approach to this question. they

gingrich, oh, newt gingrich is a washington police station, been around washington a long time, i'm a businessman, i'm not about politics, i'm not a politician. the guy first ran for the senate in 1994. he's been running for president for about a decade. more over, somewhat unfair to him, he physically, personality-wise, comes across as if he was designed by east german scientists to be the perfect android politician. and his answers come across that way. so in his interview he seems much more political than a lot of more political people. >> i want to play another clip, talking about the mandate, massachusetts healthcare law, and then we'll have a follow-up. >> this is not a federal plan. it's a state plan. and under the constitution states should be able to craft their own plan. >> so governor, you did say on camera, and other places, that at times you thought it would be a model for the nation. >> you're wrong, bret. >> no, no. i mean, there's -- >> no. the plan we did in massachusetts had many features that i thought should be adopted by other states. i thought there were good i

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

gingrich. let me tell you something, i think it would be a real tragedy for our country if we have a new standard for minority conservatives or for women conservatives whose characters get shredded by the establishment media, who the character assassination is relentless, and now you have a new standard. there's no dna on a blue dress here. there's no love child out of wedlock here. all right? there's no charge of sexual assault that's in the books here. >> let me jump in, niger! let me put to you one thing. you know herman cain better than i do, better than a lot of people. >> i saw him in weekend. >> okay. and i've interviewed him once. so you're ahead of the game on me. on his character and the kind of man he is. this woman says they had a 13-year affair. are you 100% confident, you, his close friend, his adviser, are you 100% confident that she's simply inventing a 13-year affair? >> pier, i'm not 100% confident that when i walk out of this building that i'm not going to get struck by light

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

gingrich is, newt gingrich probably does know who the president of uzbekistan is. at least newt gingrich read his briefing books and we know when he sits at the table, he is ready to play. >> thanks to all three. we appreciate you taking the time. >>> "outfront" next, american airlines files for bankruptcy. they don't have showers on their planes. i'll explain. >>> a crowd of protesters storms the embassy in tehran. after iran's parliament voted to expel the british ambassador. >>> and the latest from the syracuse molestation scandal. the police chief admits his force failed to follow up on tips of abuse they got nine years ago. [ 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 online and arranged a free pickup. and i'm gonna track them online, too. nice. between those boxes and this place, i'm totally staying sane this year. do i smell snickerdoodles? maybe. [ timer dings ] got to go. pri

>>> 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?

>>> 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

herman cain facing controversy and both mitt romney and newt gingrich facing attacks. congratulations. congratulations. congralations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire binesses to conserve energy and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bottom line... whoa ! ... as the people inside them. congratulations. because when you add verizon to your company, you don't just add, you multiply. ♪ discover something new... verizon. [ whooping ] ♪ it was the best day ♪ it was the best day ♪ ♪ it was the best day ♪ 'cause of you we make a great pair. huh? progressive and the great outdoors! we make a great pair. right, tally. that's what i was thinking. all kinds vehicles, all kinds of savings. multi-policy discounts from progressive. call or click today. and last chance at medicare open enrollment, too. what do yean? it ends december 7th. if you haven't reviewed your medicare plan oices yet, well, it's getting late. medicare gives you free cancer screenings and wellness visit