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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

>> romney just won this thing. romney has just won the java joe's caucus. we'll be right back with morhardball. [ whistle blows ] oh! [ baby crying ] ben harper: ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. ♪ slowly turned into a scream ♪ there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. if you took the top down on a crossover? if there were buttons for this? wouldn't it be cool

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

romney's campaign thinks this television ad is an adequate response. >> this is the business mitt romney helped start. and this one. and this steel mill. mitt romney helped create and ran a company that invested in struggling businesses. grew new ones and rebuilt old ones. creating thousands of jobs. those are the facts. >> all right, if romney wants to talk about facts, we could talk about facts. let's start with the facts surrounding this company, steel dynamics. it was back in 1994 bain put more than $18 million in the company to become the largest us equity holder. five years later, bain sold the stake for $104 million. they made a cool profit of more than $85 million. the indiana company still employs more than 6,000 workers. now, here are someampaign is le out. according to the l.a. times, steele dynamics also received generous tax breaks and other subsidiesofndiana and the resid dekalb county. the raw numbers are this. the state and county ponied up $37 million in subsidies and grants for the project. county residents were hit with a new income tax to help pay for it all. bain cap

what's wrong with the romney campaign. >> there's a lot right with the romney campaign, but a couple things wrong. one is that the candidate himself failed in south carolina, especially, to spahn vigorously to challenges, the challenge to his role at bain capital mounted by gingrich and a lot of people thought that was an unprincipled attack. if he turned around arn needed to and still needs to he might have been able to do something like what newt gingrich did when he was challenged a couple of times in the debate. he turned those things around, you know, forcefully and made them work for him. and mitt romney need today do that and he failed to do it and that's point number one. and point number two, if you look back in iowa and what happened to newt gingrich in iowa and the courtesy of the romney team was, he was number one in the national polls, remember, and got cut down on the sharp attack in television ads. remember how he complained earlier about them. by the time new hampshire was over with, finished first, fourth and then fifth in new hampshire and the romney campaign felt t

>> i think it's quite impressive that he came in a few votes ahead. >> romney? >> romney. santorum essentially lived there for the last year and a half. he didn't spend as much money. i think this is great momentum going into new hampshire. i think all the things you're saying aren't exactly accurate. >> but megan, moneywise, santorum came in within eight votes of romney -- we have a stat spending under 22,000 dollars compared with millions -- >> my father did not become the nominee having anything to do with the iowa caucus. i find it completely irrelevant. rick santorum becomes the nominee of this party, i mean, it is going to be bedlam and hysteria like you have never seen. >> bedlam and hysteria. richard, you brought up an interesting point that was really telling watching the speeches of santorum and romney back-to-back. romney did start with the strange start of focus on iranian sanction, but i thought santorum was interesting because he did the blue collar working class, i'm a son of immigrants, he really played that point out. >> the human thing. >> he did the huma

if romney sees his shadow, six more weeks of campaigning. >> why is mitt romney so far ahead of you? >> he's been here for a whole lot of years. >> you're the first person who ever called mitt romney a home boy. >> the home boy with the freshly minted mba. joining me is melissa harris perry. soon to be crowned with her own show on msnbc. from washington, jonathan capehart along with republican strategyist tray harden. good afternoon to all of you. what will mitt need out of polls today to consider new hampshire a victory? what percentage will he sneneed? >> i think he just needs to win by 10%. >> he was 41 a few days ago. >> i think the campaign writes off ron paul. they sees whatever percent as not real. i think they see that as their vote. >> jonathan, melissa says just 10% more. what do you think? >> i think he needs to do as well but definitely better than he did inç 2008, which was 32%. otherwise, it will be iowa all over again. the same percentage he got in iowa last week is pretty much identical to the percentage he got in 2008. from the romney campaign perspective. i think

they're not hammering mitt romney at all. >> you are not hammering mitt romney at all. you're afraid of santorum. >> admit it. >> well, i think all of the candidates, the whole selection of them are doing a real great job destroying themselves. i mean mitt romney said today he likes firing people. he also tried to say that he somehow empathizes with people who have been fired because he worried about a pink slip at some point. he's claimed he has 100,000 jobs as head of bang capital. really what he did is outsource jobs to other countries, fired people, bankrupted companies deliberately. i mean this is the record that he's surmounted and we should put in the white house to get the economy turned around? >> chris, talk to us about rich guys running for president in the age of television starting with john kennedy forward. i don't remember any of them. trying to claim they experienced some kind of economic insecurity. >> back before the age of television in 1946 jack was running the primary in massachusetts. that was in summerville. he went to a candidate's night. one sai

six-point lead over mitt romney. gingrich's debate performance clearly appealed to republican voters in south carolina. conservative outlets like the weekly standard are giving the tea party credit for gingrich's turn around. today one of the tea party's favorite candidates got out of the race and supported newt gingrich. >> i've always believed the mission is greater than the man. as i've contemplated the future of this campaign, i have come to the conclusion that there is no viable path forward for me in this 2012 campaign. therefore, today, i am suspending my campaign and endorsing newt gingrich for president of the united states. >> i thought he said he'd never quit. perry's endorsement is a big deal for newt gingrich. newt already has a sugar daddy. he got a $5 million donation from a billionaire. sarah palin gave perry a thumb's up on her twitter page. she called rick perry a true american patriot for what he did. well, the news didn't get any better for mitt romney. one of his wins turned into a loss. rick san

i think george romney forms the central axis in mitt romney's life and when you see him follow his father's footsteps from business leader to governor to presidentialas prant. i was shocked, he had never seen the brainwashed interview. i showed it to him a few years ago when i was doing a profile of it and to watch his face sort of dissolve and kind of relax is as -- seeing this interview, that it really changed the course of his life. they -- the romney family never looked back. but in his mind, i think there is this idea that this is what he's supposed to do. to finish the job his father couldn't. chris: we've had a president like that. george w. who a lot of people, all psychobabble to some extent but a lot of people believe he tried to do a lot of things like go into iraq because his father didn't "finish the job." is it like that? is it that driven? >> more of the path that was set. his father was never a president so he doesn't have that sort of record to correct or to alter from. and i don't see the push and pull with george w. bush and his father, the kind of difference in them. alt

detailed lay-out of romney. romney >> outright attack on mitt romney alleged weaknesses. not a word about newt gingrich. what does it tell you? they are attacking newt gingrich. the question answers itself. >> what do i tell the viewers who e-mail in and say brit hume is in the tach for mitt romney? >> i call it as i see it. only one person the other night that said newt gingrich had a whopping victory. it was i. >> bret: thank you. arizona state legislature is investigating the gun smuggling probe known as operation fast and furious. they will try to determine if a state law was broken or they were coerced to helping. >> it's wrong. we will investigate it. >> mark kirk underwent surgery this morning to relieve swelling around his brain. after suffering a stroke. he checked in the hospital saturday. his surgeon said he is doing well but it's too soon to predict when he can return to the senate. >> gabrielle giffords met with other survivors from the last year shooting and gave a hug to intern hernandez credited with saving her life. giffords announced she is resigning fro

romney's lead is deep and wide, a breakdown shows romney cleaning up in just about every subgroup of voters. he beat speaker gingrich by 21 points among women, 9 points among men, 6 points among christians and he's within the margin of error also among tea partiers. romney holds a commanding lead among hispanics, a large florida voting bloc. 72% of registered republicans in miami-dade county are hispanic. romney leads gingrich by 24 points vong those voters. between campaign spending and superpac, romney is outspending gingrich by a ratio of four to one. romney spent $15.7 million overall. >>> rick santorum's daubl was hospitalized with pneumonia. his 3-year-old, bella who suffers from a rage genetic disorder is recovering and could be released from the philadelphia hospital soon. he planned to head to colorado and nevada for events tomorrow. he's putting all that on hold. we certainly wish bella a speedy recovery. >>> despite all those numbers we showed you here in the state of florida, newt gingrich says the republican presidential race is far from over. he insists the conservative

pac re romney super pac realizes that romney is threat, they have 12 days oafter them. >> romney has been going after santorum. last night telling new hampshire voters not to buy into the argument that romney's the most electable candidate. let's listen. >> i love this issue. that i hear all the time. oh, the certain candidate is the most electable. what would give you that impression? when has that candidate ever run as a conservative? gotten any votes? never. so why would you assume that he's the most electable? is it because he raises the most money? don't buy the media hype. don't buy the lie that you have to be a moderate -- >> so it's the media fault again. i love the way they turn this around. it's always the media's fault. the gingrich campaign is up with a new ad. this is gingrich going after romney's economic policy. here's gingrich going after romney. let's watch. >> romney's economic plan, timid. parts of it virtually identical to obama's failed policy. timid won't create jobs and timid certainly won't defeat barack obama. newt gingrich's bold leadership balanced the budg

if it is romney, so what. if it is rick santorum that wins and beats mitt romney, that's a big story. >> much more dramatic story for rick santorum to say. i'm paraphrasing here, i spent $1, you spent $10 million. >> if it is four votes, we can agree, he can still sing. >> i think rick santorum already has a moral victory. >> and the question is, who can sustain, who can rebuild. romney has fall back. in new hampshire he has a vacation home. former massachusetts governor. but also history. very strong four years ago. huckabee causing a collapse in new hampshire. this is a tie, a moral victory for rick santorum. what is the impact in our early poll showed little impact for romney. if that holds out, remember, one week. one week. an lot of time for other people to recover in a state where romney has infrastructure. no question about resources. fe wins new hampshire we move on. >> some have said that romney has evaded scrutiny until this point. now moving forward, you have jon huntsman who has been dedicated to n

what romney fears, what is nasty to mitt romney, is blanketing the airwaves with attacks showing mitt romney saying one thing and saying another, saying one thing, saying another, saying one thing, saying another. none of his competitors have had the money to do it to him. those who have had enough money to get on the have been attacking the anti-romney. newt gingrich, in addition to getting hammered by the super pacs got hammered. so for newt, for mitt romney, this has been the nicest, cleanest campaign one could possibly imagine. >> so is this going to be the campaign, nastiness coming from the super pacs. this was through december 30 p. ron paul ran almost 2600 ads, half attack ads. the pac that supports romney ran 1,746, all negative and most were aimed at gingrich. so, is that what we're looking at here? we're looking at the candidate who the nasty evidence thing he says is, you lied about something and let the pacs do the dirty work? >> absolutely. he gets down to a plausible deniable. he gets to say, pacs, i don't know those guys, i by law can't communicate with them. the super

you have the romney and the pro romney, restore our future. they've outspent, what is it, the pro gingrich super pac winning our future, outspending is four to one actually. are you getting deluged on the radio and as you look at television and are floridians having to suffer through all this negative ad fatigue? >> absolutely. i mean, i woke up this morning on sunday and said maybe they'll take a break since it's sunday and people are off to church. no such luck. they're being hammered. viewers and voters by these ads. almost all of the negative, negative against gingrich, talking about romney's campaign highlighting some of the ethics charges that the former speaker had while he was in the house. and then you have gingrich really calling out mitt romney for being a moderate, calls him a liberal, a governor, from massachuset massachusetts in a couple of the ads. and then newt gingrich on television this morning essentially calling mitt romney a liar. that is his strategy in the last days. really calling them out and saying he's not to be trus

that is romney's vulnerability. to go to mike's point, his opportunity is to say i made a lot of money because i'm a successful, ambitious person and now my life is committed to seeing that other people have the kind of opportunity that i had. he has to come up with some version of that narrative or otherwise he is mincemeat. >> ultimately, it's really the character issue that is behind all of this that matters. i think whether or not a candidate is rich is actually less relevant than how voters feel about that candidate in terms of can that person relate to me, is that person out of touch? romney is teetering on the out of touch narrative right now. which is a huge problem for him. chris: let's cut to the quick here. president obama thinks that people -- people make money by making things and don't like people to make money off money, manipulators, financial people, wall street people. how does he defend himself that he made money off money? he didn't build -- he says he built businesses. >> right. here's my theory

we're talking about going to romney event ts and talking to the romney voters. and some are the most -- you have people who are romney voters who want to see the birth certificate. >> like his son. >> right. but john huntsman, probably, in a world where you didn't have that mentality, probably has the best chance. >> once again, former governor of massachusetts, mitt romney, the apparent winner of the 2012 iowa gop caucuses by a whopping margin of 8 votes over former senator from pennsylvania rick santorum. we'll be back to take a look at what these numbers mean and draw some lesson frs the night after this. >>> mitt romney is the apparent winner of the 2012 iowa gop caucus in the first official voting of this already long campaign season. mitt romney with 30,015 votes to rick santorum's 30,007 votes. an eight-vote margin separating the two. rick santorum with a late surge in the voting. he was polling in third place in des moines register poll. but it looked like there was a lot of late movement in his direction. and we see that with ron paul in third place wit

about romney? >> i like thing electability? >> governor romney can raise $1 million and i think he can match obama dollar for dollar and he is a candidate who can defeat president obama. >> what is it about mitt romney that attracted you? >> i think i like his family values. i feel like maybe he could be the one to beat obama. >> he might be the best to get along in washington. >> and he's the guy who can win, that seems to be the overarching argument tonight, right? >> right. >> if santorum comes out to be the nominee, do you think he can beat barack obama in a general election? >> i think so. >> and is that a nominee you could live with? >> i could live with rick santorum. >> do you believe rick santorum can defeat president obama? >> i hope he can, yes. yeah, i do, he is one of america's choices in his ideals and his beliefs. >> and is rick santorum a candidate you're happy with? somebody you can live with to take on president obama? >> yes, mm-hmm, i can. >> what is it you like about him? >> he

>> my goal is not to raise mitt romney, it's everybody pay mitt romney's rate. i won't criticize romney, shouldn't we all have the option of a flat tax at the same rate he was paying? >> mitt romney stands to gain a lot from his tax policies. citizens for tax justice broke down the tax proposals of president obama and mitt romney. under the president's plan, romney would be taxed at 24%. but wait a minute, under his own plan, he would be taxed at less than 15%. good deal, huh? chris christie tried to run interference for him. he may have done more damage. >> the way i conducted myself i released all my tax return during the campaign, went back a number of years and released them and release them every year after i file them right after i file them to the public in new jersey so they can see everything. that is what i would tell governor romney to do. he said he will release them in april. that is what i would advise him to do. >> romney has said he will probably release his tax returns in april. christie wants romney to release them now and release them going ba

romney's tenure at bain capital. four years ago when you were running against mitt romney, he reminded you of a guy who fired your dad. you just heard david axelrod talk about bain capital. >> let me give you the quote exactly. i think a lot of people made the atricks and went there with it. my comment was on the jay leno, i said, people are looking to elect a president who reminds you of the person you worked with but not the guy you laid him off. but, you know, i think, here's the point, if mitt romney wants to defend bain capital, the way he should do it, did some jobs get lost in the process of what we did? of course. when we go washington, we know that there's some down siding that needses to be done with the budget. in our entire history. that may require some serious budget cutting in the government. i have experienced knit the private sector. i'm prepared to do it in the public sector. >> let's talk about rick santorum for a little bit. he's trying to strike some of the populism chords you did four years ago.

romney, up. the conservative anti-romney vote is divided and he's smelling victory. newt gingrich, down. but he's been there before. up, rick santorum. nobody's rising faster in iowa. rick perry, up. he's picking up gingrich defectors and still spending lots of cash. up, kelly clarkson. ♪ my life would suck without you ♪ >> reporter: she endorses ron paul and watch as her cd sales go up 200%. down, the ames straw poll. remember when bachmann won? now, she's hoping to avoid a last-place finish. for this new year's edition for this week in politics, i'm jonathan karl. jake? >> thank you to jon karl. >>> let's turn to congressman ron paul. many political observers say that he's on take to win. congressman, welcome and happy new year. >> thank you. nice to be with you. >> your rivals have started to unload on you in the home stretch given your prominent perch in the polls. newt gingrich said your views, are quote, totally out of the mainstream of every decent american. jon huntsman has a web ad calling you unelectable. and even the des moines register poll that shows

saying that mitt romney is a vulture capitolist? that governor romney is unethical? >> what i'm saying is that way they operated with those two particular companies and those two south carolina cities, it is, i think irresponsible. the truth is the truth. there is no use in trying to shy away. if we think barack obama is not going to attack this and talk about it we might as well discuss it now. is this the type of conservatives we want representing us? i happen to think south carolina voters want someone who. >> we know whoever gets this is going to be attacked. it's go tok a billion dollar campaign. there are areas you can have with the governor romney. he's positions on abortion or romney care. i think those are all legitimate debates here, but there tl is also, i just think to say those people willing to invest their money and they come in and try to get them profitible again tork say they're vultures and enethical is about a severe charge as you can may make. you're right. it's one boy expect from barack obama saying republicans want dirty air or dirty water. >>

this is all romney and romney supporters. the only candidate in a position to be moving two states ahead both in ad buys and the ground game. you can see this is really an awful lot of saturation overall for mitt romney. i'll tell you something from this morning brand new, paul steinhauser that the restore our future super pac just bought $3.4 million in a big ad there. that's to start wednesday to promote mitt romney and his a again darks fredricka. >> the super pacs, no limits. hence the word super. >> super-duper. watching how it will be very interesting to watch how it folds out. if i step back. super pacs on behalf of perry spent a lot of money but it didn't do any good, did it? >>> let's zoom in on south carolina. could it be the make or break place, particularly for newt gingrich's presidential bid? he is campaigning there right now, giving a speech. his staff calls it a defining moment. at least the south carolina they're calling as the defining moment. he's hoping to win over evangelical voters. a new ad is on televi