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

hold on. >> newt gingrich. and i think tonight we saw the first newt gingrich, the more positive newt gingrich who sort of had a vision and took on ron paul, and the patriot act debate, it was very, very interesting. the intellectual newt, but he was appealing which is something i don't think he's really been before. i think it's probably because he's more relaxed and he's doing better in the polls and people like him. i think he was more likable this evening. >> i think speaker gingrich came into the debate with the most to lose. i want to see how the immigration debate plays out. herman cain was asked a question about syria and started talking about the u.s. economy that to me is a sign of his weakness when it comes to commander in chief test. thanks to our panel. that does it for this edition of "360." you can see the debate in its you can see the debate in its entirety, next. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ♪ here's where we deliver steady income - month after month. what's it going to be this month

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

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

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,

that candidate is newt gingrich." new hampshire, as you know, holds the first in the nation primary. that's happening a week after the iowa caucus. so gingrich who has seen his campaign surge over the past several weeks actually is now picking up an influential endorsement. he has moved up in the polls in new hampshire as we know, going up to the double digits but still it has been mitt romney who has been surging and had at least 40% in a number of the polls so he's way ahead in polls but now gingrich who has become a front-runner could now really start to surge after this influential endorsement. our rachel vikville covers all things new hampshire for us. she is on the line now. raichel -- these newspaper endorsements come and go. this one carries some weight. >> sure, you are right, t.j. this is the biggest newspaper in new hampshire. it is closely watched both locally and on a national scale obviously. the paper says newt gingrich is not the perfect candidate, but as you said, they said that he is the best candida

will it be the intellectual newt gingrich unafraid or the sour, nastier newt gingrich that is not likeable? i think the first newt gingrich was at your debate last night. >> certainly he surprised all of us, given where he was over the summer. everyone thought his campaign as it was beginning was already over. all of a sudden, the new polls show he's right in the thick of things. >> what a testament to the power of the debates and the way it changes the way they run for president. >> we'll see if this last debate winds up helping or hurting him. don't go too far away. we have a lot to discuss. the candidates were united in slamming the tsa. some calling for profiling of muslims. also, a sharp clash over the u.s. military mission in afghanistan. act my age? -why? -why? -why? [ female announcer ] we all age differently. roc® multi-correxion 4 zone moisturizer with roc®retinol and antioxidants. lines, wrinkles, and sun damage will fade. roc multi-correxion. correct what ages you. the sleep number bed. with the sleep number bed, it's not about soft or firm. it's about support where you find

hold on. >> newt gingrich. and i think tonight we saw the first newt gingrich, the more positive newt gingrich who sort of had a vision and took on ron paul, and the patriot act debate, it was very, very interesting. the intellectual newt, but he was appealing which is something i don't think he's really been before. i think it's probably because he's more relaxed and he's doing better in the polls and people like him. i think he was more likable this evening. >> i think speaker gingrich came into the debate with the most to lose. i want to see how the immigration debate plays out. herman cain was asked a question about syria and started talking about the u.s. economy that to me is a sign of his weakness when it comes to commander in chief test. thanks to our panel. that does it for this edition of "360." you can see the debate in its entirety, next. [ male announcer ] tom's discovering that living healthy can be fun. see? he's taking his vitamins. new one a day vitacraves plus omega-3 dha is a complete multivi

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

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 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. member 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 r

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

. >>> 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

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

it could propel newt gingrich. the more problematic thing is that this paper could decide, pages as well as of things, to go after mitt romney and make it to campaign. him it did that in 2008 when it mccain and went on mitt romney. >> and made a difference there. three weeks that newt gingrich top of the national polls. how much longer do we see this going on? it is tough to predict. this guy is a guy who was out by everyone only ago. months but to be totally collapsed. charge the steady course. well in the very debate. he remained consistent on policy saytions and did not anything that was controversial. now it is going to be tough. there is a lot of attention on him. of chancesng a lot to talk. he talks, the more gets into. >> his stance on immigration, great, that is bold, from a conservative standpoint, it is not aligned with what the republicans want. >> that was looked to as test.ing that was a his ability to be the leader himself to be. he said he would not seek the support of illegal aliens. rather, he woul

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

newt gingrich, 27%. romney, 20%. paul, 16%. on down the line in single digits, cain, bachmann and santorum. moving to new hampshire, romney 33%, gingrich 22%. paul 12%. single digits again, cain, undecided and huntsman. okay. couple questions. is newt gingrich a serious contender at this point? >> i think the endorsement of "the union leader" makes him a serious threat to mitt romney potentially in new hampshire in ways that he might not have anticipated and we'll see what happens in the polls in the next few weeks. i think in iowa it is easy to say newt's on top but that contest comes first. he has a lot of explaining to do on the immigration question. he has a lot of explaining to do on other issues. support for t.a.r.p. which he then took back. his position on climate change. his position on the ryan medicare plan. a mandate for health care. advanced directives for health care. he has a lot of answering to do in iowa before those caucuses are counted -- the votes are counted on a cold january 3rd night and i think that ultim

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

newt gingrich? you don't know. >> other thing that came up at the debate which was interesting and fish you are we see here is aid to pakistan. michele bachmann and governor perry of texas got into it. >> michele bachmann who serves on the intelligence committee showed her credentials mattered when she talked about pakistan in the debate and made the case that pakistan was, quote, too nuclear to fail. that perry made the case that we were giving pakistan a blank check and ought to stop doing that because we weren't getting anything in return. and she turned to perry and said that that was naive. that, in fact, of course you have to deal with pakistan and of course you have to support pakistan to a certain agree, and by the way, you may not know this, governor, we are getting intelligence in return and i would know that because i serve on the intelligence committee and you don't. [laughter] >> it was a telling exchange and speaks to the larger political question about foreign aid, because rick perry

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

>> i'm newt gingrich. >> i, newt gingrich. >> do solemnly promise to continue to be a good speaker. i promise that my book will be way less boring than al gore's book. >> for republican committee roast in 1995, newt gingrich is back about me now. you have a sense of humor about yourself. >> you have to or else you'd go crazy. >> you have thick skin as well. you seem like the classic just economy but jobs in particular. how get americans back to work. that will be the battleground. where do you think you have the answers that barack obama doesn't have? and also, where do you think you differ, if you do, from the tea party and their aspirations in that area? >> well, first of all, i think with obama, he's the best, most effective food stamp president in history. more people are on food stamps thanks to his policies than any other time. i'd like to be the best paycheck president. the contrast is dramatic. >> it is harder with an entrenched and republican trying to steal our every move. >> we second. first of all, bill clinton was president. and republican speaker who had to figure out

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

i think a lot of newt gingrich. but mitt romney was in atlanta and gave the great speech i ever heard. he sounded like ronald reagan. i m 200% behind mitt romney. i think he will be elected and the the the greatest president in history. host: why do you think the numbers are going up for newt gingrich, and the concern among mitt romney's people that the former speaker may overtake him? caller: i cannot think so. we're so fired at, i cannot even sleep a night. i think mitt romney will move out ahead in the next two weeks and stay ahead. if think a lot of newt gingrich but i think mitt romney will be elected. he will be the greatest president. once he starts advertising, i think he will move up and definitely be the next president of the united states. and i love c-span. host: next up is adam on a line for independents. adam is not there. project onto on a airline for democrats. andrea. caller: good morning. i think they should fight it out in the polls as dirty as they want to. yes, they should run against each other