prestige of newt gingrich. prestige of the speakership of the house. that's what they're selling. it's the newt gingrich signed gavel and newt gingrich framed certificate and the party where you're allowed or guaranteed you'll be allowed to be near newt gingrich. it is the letter you get from the desk of speaker newt gingrich. and today we have learned that it's not just small businesses and doctors who've been suckered into the whole access to newt fund-raising spam scam. it's big companies, too. today "washington post" reports that the newt gingrich's health care think tank, the center for health transformation, collected $37 million over the past 8 years from some of the biggest health care companies in the country. companies like astrazeneca and blue cross blue shield and ge health care and wellpoint. all of these companies would pay newt's for h-profit health care thing, $200,000 a year in membership dues. what would they get for their membership dues money? in part, they'd get special access to the former

prestige of newt gingrich. prestige of the speakership of the house. that's what they're selling. it's the newt gingrich signed gavel and newt gingrich framed certificate and the party where you're allowed or guaranteed you'll be allowed to be near newt gingrich. it is the letter you get from the desk of speaker newt gingrich. and today we have learned that it's not just small businesses and doctors who've been suckered into the whole access to newt fund-raising spam scam. it's big companies, too. today "washington post" reports that the newt gingrich's health care think tank, the center for health transformation, collected $37 million over the past 8 years from some of the biggest health care companies in the country. companies like astrazeneca and blue cross blue shield and ge health care and wellpoint. all of these companies would pay newt's for-profit health care thing $200,000 a year in membership dues. what would they get for their membership dues money? in part, they'd get special access to the former ho

look at newt gingrich. newt gingrich is tied with mitt romney for second place in this poll. a new poll out today by marist and mcclatchyn, trailing romney by four points. newt gingrich's poll numbers started at nil but are pointing up. rick perry self-emulated and we're watching the art project known as herman cain self-emulate as well, it's not surprising that the beleaguered republican primary voters of this year will turn to yet another candidate begging them to please not be mitt romney. they've gone through this with donald trump now and michele bachmann, rick perry, herman cain and expect them to do this with everybody in the field except for rick santorum. nobody's going to vote for rick santorum, come on. the idea of a newt gingrich surge is almost as absurd as people googling rick santorum and saying, i like what i found here, i'm going to vote for this guy. if you know nothing else about newt gingrich, what is the other notable thing that's happened to newt gingrich since he's been running for president this year? what's the one other thing? back in june, remember,

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 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

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

but newt gingrich is different. newt gingrich is different from all the rest of these pachinko ball front-runners for five minutes. newt gingrich is fun to cover in his moment in the sun here. because newt gingrich has been around in 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. no, 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. not just peop

gingrich, i guarantee you, is taking a hit tomorrow morning when the polls come out. >> newt gingrich played its mark as far as immigration is concerned. >> not for the right. >> he's going to have to get the latino vote. there will have to be some kind of a play from the republicans for the latino vote. when he talked about family and said that people that have been here, you cannot up rig them when they have roots in the community and are contributing to society. jim moore, i find this to be very interesting because net romney did say that opening. we are talking about amnesty. he says i am not going down that road. would there be a political upside for not being pressed on this? >> and there is in the general election because it will help him with hispanic voters. here in texas people have been beating each other up in the republican party and on the right about immigration for years and years. to treat people humanely. i think it is presumptuous{ on the part of new to toss this out this early because it presumes that he is going to do well and is likely a nominee. >> he was kind o

newt gingrich did a fine job tonight. it was interesting to see michele bachmann is the one person who did take a swipe at him on the immigration issue and challenged him going down the same path that torpedoed rick perry's campaign a few months ago. newt took a body blow. i'm interesting to see if that makes movement in the polls. overall newt had a very grasp of the issues and he's going to probably stay solid in the polls at this point in time. >> ron, let me stay with you on this immigration question, because it seems to me that newt gingrich found a new way of talking about it. perry's way of talking about it was obviously disastrous within republican party politics. but you heard some new sounds and some new angles from gingrich on this. has he found a way to make this more open notion about what might be possible in immigration policy, acceptable to the republican primary audience? >> well, certainly he brought -- he packaged his position in a much more palatable mode. whether or not, there are a lot more republica

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

this is the best day of newt gingrich's life. for newt gingrich this is a 13-point surge just since june when his entire senior staff quit en masse saying he wanted to sell books and dvds, and the staffers didn't think they were to help hulk ster his products and they walked. these poll results are a slap in the face, right? mr. gingrich celebrating his new top position in the polls tonight by doing a dvd screening in iowa. quote, newt and calista screen nine days that changed the world in carroll, iowa, at 7:00 tonight. this is newt's dvd about the pope. if you look at the events tab, you see lots of things like that. tomorrow night calista gingrich will hold a book signing at webster city, iowa. later that day both newt and calista screen a documentary in massachusetts, because that's such an important republican swing state, massachusetts is. on saturday calista will be signing books at the hooray for kids book sfor and they sign books at books amillion in naples florida. this is what newt gingrich lists as hi campaign events.

you get that sense with newt gingrich. i hesitate to say this one's going to last when it comes to this search for the anti-romney. but i thought you put it very well. i think the conservatives that are not sold on romney, that are basically looking for anybody but romney won't be embarrassed by gingrich. there was a sense that, well, cain may embarrass me by supporting him. maybe rick perry embarrasses me because i don't like the fact that he's not coming across as bright as he should be. newt's not going to embarrass me if i support him. i think that does matter to a republican electorate that's paying very close attention to this race and really wants to win but wants to do so on a set of princeles. >> john, you're a deep south southern, evangelical by your religion. you can answern't go with herman cain anymore. he's getting more embarrassing every day. he keeps changing his story about him. you've got romney who's certainly not acceptable to you because he's a rhino who keeps swapping back and forth. and then you have

newt gingrich did a fine job tonight. it was interesting to see michele bachmann is the one person who did take a swipe at him on the immigration issue and challenged him going down the same path that torpedoed rick per perry's campaign a few months ago. newt took a body blow. i'm interesting to see if that makes movement in the polls. overall newt had a very grasp of the issues and he's going to probably stay solid in the polls at this point in time. >> ron, let me stay with you on this immigration question, because it seems to me that newt gingrich found a new way of talking about it. perry's way of talking about it was obviously disastrous within republican party politics. but you heard some new sounds and some new angles from gingrich on this. has he found a way to make this more open notion about what might be possible in immigration policy, acceptable to the republican primary audience? >> well, certainly he brought -- he packaged his position in a much more palatable mode. whether or not, there are a lot more repub

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

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 davis in 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 toda

we start with newt gingrich. howard fineman is an msnbc political analyst and the "huffington post" media group editorial director. and melissa donohue is now a fellow with the eisenhower institute. the new hampshire leader endorsement had a subtle slap at romney. "gingrich is by no means the perfect candidate. we would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what he thinks we want to hear." boy, that is a shot. howard, tell me about this. this is an endorsement that doesn't mean you win, but it means what? >> well, you don't want to get in the gun sights of the union leader. and it's clear that mitt romney is right there. sure, joe mcquaid, the publisher and president, who i spoke to just a couple of hours ago to ask him about the endorsement is thinking behind the endorsement. and the first thing joe mcquaid said to me was, did you see "saturday night live" last week, in the skit that they did about mitt romney? that's the one where the comedian plays mitt romney and mitt r

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

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

. >> newt gingrich, who has had a history of infidelity? i mean, this is the question. >> look, here's the unfortunate truth. the unfortunate truth is that there's many politicians out there that are survived sex scandals. go back to bill clinton and so forth. that's not the real issue. the real issue is whether or not the american people are comfortable with a candidate that has some of these issues. when you take a look at herman cain, there was an interesting phenomenon, the 9-9-9 plan, very simplistic, overly simplistic but the american people, according to the polls said, this is something here because for the first time throughout this presidential campaign so far, someone is talking directly to me. so you can't dismiss that. >> right. but let's be honest about herman cain, i actually think -- i think what we do in this business more and more is confuse what happens on cable in a 24-hour cycle with something that's of lasting interest to the american public. i don't think it is. i think we occasionally show something that has legs. bu

"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

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

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

"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

we start with the apparent gop front-runner right now, newt gingrich. david gregory is the moderator of nbc's "meet the press." and howard fineman is an msnbc political analyst and "the huffington post" media group editorial director. david gregory, great to have you on. we'll talk about "meet the press" coming up this weekend. but let me ask you about this whole thing. don't you think just in a psychological way, what do you think it does to mitt romney, who's been running for president since the last time to realize that newt gingrich is now the preferred candidate of the republican party, with all newt's baggage. i mean, totally, objectively, he's carrying so much baggage, serial marriages, moved out by his own caucus for the speakership. and here he is back as if none of that happened. >> i think it's troubling for romney. at the same time, i think there's a level of resignation in the romney campaign, that their campaign was not predicated on setting the electorate on fire. by being this charming historical figure. this was going to be a different

and that's what newt gingrich's contention is. how can you be the party that's pro family and dividing the family? but the iowa governor, branstad, came out and tweeted this. newt did himself considerable harm in that caucus state. >> you know what? he did himself considerable harm maybe. and maybe he didn't. but i will tell you, with the overall electorate, he did himself considerable good. >> right. and overall, he probably did himself wonders with the hispanic community if he's looking to get them. >> i think so that's right. with a very strong conservative group of people, he did himself harm. with the overall electorate, he did himself a lot of good. of course, he has to get there first. >> let's talk a little bit about a third party, a third wave for voters out there. this topic continues to come up and i know that you have been very profound in saying that look, if you do not like who the republicans nominee is, you will consider a third party run as well. let's take a look at this latest poll or history that shows what hap

newt gingrich said he was for it. and even as recently as a year ago before the latinos in the united states. he came out with the policy that said he stands for amnesty for illegal aliens. >> bachmann pointed out no mention of the 25 years and law-abiding and the other qualifiers that newt gingrich is putting on it now. what about that? >> first thing, i think you have to acknowledge that speaker newt gingrich is the only presidential candidate in all of the years that i have followed politicings who will affirm that the united states has a sovereign right to define and protect its border. you never hear anybody else talk about that. and the other thing you hear speaker newt gingrich talk about. yen 20 13. he will have provided operational controls of the u.s.-mexico border. currently, you have the secretary and department of homeland security say we have 40 percent control. i am sorry, that is a failing grade . speaker newt gingrich is talking about operational control in one year's time. if you have operational con

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

we start with the apparent gop front-runner right now, newt gingrich. david gregory is the moderator of nbc's "meet the press." and howard fineman is an msnbc political analyst and "the huffington post" media group editorial director. david gregory, great to have you on. we'll talk about "meet the press" coming up this weekend. but let me ask you about this whole thing. don't you think just in a psychological way, what do you think it can does to mitt romney, who's been running for president since the last time to realize that newt gingrich is now the preferred candidate of the republican party, with all newt's baggage. i mean, totally, objectively, he's carrying so much baggage, serial marriages, reprimanded from the house of representativess, basically moved out from his own party caucus from the speakership. and here he is back as if none of that happened. >> i think it's troubling for romney. at the same time, i think there's a level of resignation in the romney campaign, that their campaign was not predicated on setting the electorate on fire. by b

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

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

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

voters and newt gingrich. 21%, 14% to newt gingrich. >> clayton: 41%. so newt gingrich and ron paul tied for second place that that poll. >> dave: that's a lot of distance. newt gingrich is the 6th person to lead the polls if you include donald trump going all the way back and seems a little reactionary. i can't imagine mitt romney isn't just furious this morning over how hard he's worked in that state. >> clayton: possibly, but isn't it like lobbying to get class cuty. >> alisyn: which i did. >> clayton: but you did. who is going to make the decision on school council. would you mind-- a they sat down with candidates and discussed things with them. and they may have agreed to news gingrich's position. and herman cain in the wake of everything with milwaukee, sitting down that with that editorial board. he close to cancel the meeting with the union ap canceled it and back on again. no more editorial boards for a little while until i figure out what's going on with libya. >> alisyn: speaking who is praising gingrich's strengths. strange politics makes st

. >>> newt gingrich gets a big nod. what's the political fallout after one newspaper endorses the former house speaker? 2012 strategy talk. a look at how the math shapes up for the reelection for obama and how it fares in key state. >>> big news on black friday, the latest numbers show what some people call a surprise. the holidays at the white house, a new book looks at how past families celebrated there. we'll show you never before seen pictures. >>> good morning everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." it's 10 a.m. in the east, 7 a.m. in the west. let's get to one of the most coveted endorsements in the presidential election. the new hampshire union leader is endorsing newt gingrich for president. the paper calls him an innovative and forward looking leader. we'll go there in a minute. >>> michele bachmann is taking on newt gingrich and his immigration policy. at a book signing in iowa saturday, the congresswoman cited a letter signed in 2004 by several republicans, including gingrich. supporting george w. bus

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

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.

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

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

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

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

>>> 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

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

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 and i have known for newt gingrich for over 20 years. you walk around with newt gingrich, and he always has a live hand grenade in his pocket. you never know when it's going explode. >> you want that in a president, steve? do you want a president with a live hand grenade in his pocket? >> i'm not so for sure, but for the last couple months it's not det take it. he's looked good. i've gone through his economic program, and i think it's excellent. he sounds very much like a modern-day jack kemp. it's an appealing message. >> a pro-growth message with substantial tax cutting as part of it. is that what you like? >> tax cuts, personal accounts for social security. one of the things i love, he wants to get rid of the congressional budget office, the bane of existence. he has innovative ideas, very attractive to conservative republican voters. >> joe, do you share this enthusiasm? >> no, i don't think so. i think gingrich has his schtick. >> schtick? >> real fundamental change, paul, dramatic change. this is the most important election since 1

and newt gingrich up to now has had the advantage of low expectations. the media hasn't gone and looked at the 17 organizations he's running -- he's run. one good example, the other night at the debate, on cnbc, they asked about $300,000 he was paid by, what was it, freddie or fannie. and you know, when they were trying to get political influence in washington to keep the regulators off their back. he said that they turned to him because he was a historian and he would give them historical lectures. i spoke to someone at fannie mae about this and they were laughing about this. he wasn't telling the truth. no one's dug into a lot of these things, in 30 years of political controversies. so he may come up for a while, but he's going to fall down like everybody else, like we say herman cain now. you may be left with mitt romney because there's nobody else in the barrel of apples. >> david, i agree with you. but i would just add one little component, a twist on what you said. i think the candidate has to be trustworthy. people have to trust them, in that what

newt gingrich so far doesn't have either one. he has a chance over the next month to try to convert the poll numbers he has and the momentum he has into money and some boots on the ground in iowa and new hampshire and south carolina. he has a long way to go for so much of this year. it's just newt gingrich and his wife and a couple of people. he has to ramp up quickly and mitt romney has been running for five years. >> i read that mitt romney's folks were saying newt who? are we supposed to believe they are not worriyed? i say this because we have seen the flavor of the month and we know the story line. timing is so significant here that newt gingrich is peaking at this point against mitt romney. >> if you are going to get hot in the political campaign, you want to get hot late. however, mitt romney's campaign has every reason to feel good about their positioning. many are resistant to mitt romney. his poll numbers have a ceiling, but he does have money and organization. he has an opening in iowa if he can seize it. he could end

they damage romney, or if not they get newt gingrich. your phrasing of the question is much better than romney's interpretation. they would be less excited about these candidates. don't fear mitt romney. fear is way too strong and dramatic for approaching romney right now. there's a lot of frustration among senior democrats in the chicago headquarters of the obama campaign that the republicans have not picked the low-ringing fruit that is romney's record so they do it for them. >> john huntsman is the one republican not afraid of going after romney. i think it's because he knows there is absolutely no chance of him to be chosen on the ticket with romney, because romney is going to practice religious discrimination in his choice and he will not under any circumstances xhooz another mormon on that ticket. let's listen to huntsman on this. >> you should be wary of any candidate who carries all the endorsement of the members of congress because there's a status quo president. anyone in the hip pocket of wall street because of all the donatio