just focus in on the other side of the moon. some people would like to visit the moon once again fairly soon. we'll see if that happens. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. the news continues next on cnn. good evening. i'm john king in washington. tonight a morning after mistake for mitt romney. fresh from a huge florida win he tells cnn he's not concerned about the very poor. nevada is the next big campaign test and the place where ron paul might spring a surprise. plus dozens killed and hundreds injured as chaos erupts for the injured as chaos erupts for the soccer match in egypt. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com breaking news tonight as well about the u.s. military equipment in afghanistan. but we begin with a new month and a new map of the republican presidential race. five states, nevada, colorado, minnesota, missouri and maine all hold contests in the next week and a half. the candidates have a lot of

ground to cover and not much time. for mitt romney this day after his big victory in florida turned out to be pretty rock yichlt during an interview this morning, romney gave his opponents a new gift. yet another inelegant remark that's easy, very easy to take out of context. >> i'm in this race because i care about americans. i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it need repair i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich. they're doing just fine. i'm concerned about the very heart of america, the 90-95% of americans who right now are struggling. i'll continue to take that message across the nation. >> last question but i got to ask you. you just said i'm not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net. and i think there are lots of very poor americans who are struggling who would say that sounds odd. can you explain that? >> well, you had to finish the sentence, soledad. i said i'm not concerned about the very poor that have a safety net. but fit has holes in it i will repair them. >> well, you might guess it. in no time at all, "i'm not

concerned about the very poor" part of that interview caught fire on the internet. romney himself doing damage control aborder his campaign plane. >> you've got to take the whole sentence, all right? and then change it a little bit. because then it sounds very different. i've said throughout the campaign, my focus, my concern, my energy is going to be devoted to helping middle income people. we have a safety net for the poor of the country. and if there are holes in it i will work to repair that. and as far as people who are falling through the cracks i want to fix that. >> cnn chief political analyst gloria borger is here with us. on a day he should be saying i just won florida. i'm onto nevada. here's how i review the campaign for the republican nomination. >> have you heard the term unforced error? this is one of thoechlts you can have all the discipline in a campaign that you want. you can have great strategists, you can have great pollsters, goes on and on.

but when the candidate gets off message or makes a mistake or goes rogue or whatever, it's a problem. and i think the morning after this great victory. and you explained the context. the candidate explained the context there. but you know these things are so easy to take out of context. and he's had a series of them, john. from the $10,000 bet during the debate to saying corporations are people, i know what it's like to be afraid of getting a pink slip and i like to fire people which was also taken out of context. that was about your insurance company. but again, it starts to become a narrative particularly if you're the obama campaign sitting out there and saying, gee, these things might be good in some campaign zblads this one came after he showed a week, ten days of pretty great discipline. disciplined debater, disciplined on the stuff. people might say nif or not agree with it but he was a much better candidate. what do they need to do to turn the florida victory into

something that will last? >> this is a candidate now who has to be nuanced, who has to be on his game. he's got to have a two-prong strategy. one thing he's got to do, he's got to continue to press newt gingrich. because gingrich is going to continue pressing him. nobody in that campaign wants to it seem like their candidate is coasting, they believe they're inevitable. that's not a strategy for them. they've got to press gingrich. then they have to pivot and they have to take on barack obama. and so they have to do those two things at once. and convince what i call the base of their base, the most conservative, that he's also conservative. so a lot of jobs he's got to do. this kind of a gaffe just doesn't help. >> chalk this one up to a largely wasted day because of that. rick santorum has his eyes on next tuesday's caucuses in colorado. today the former senator from pennsylvania picked up endorsements from a host of colorado congressman including -- santorum pitching himself as the better alternative to mitt romney.

>> if you look at the voters who voted for me and where they would go if i was not in the race, it would be divided between romney and gingrich, more toward romney than gingrich. interestingly enough, if newt's out of the race almost all of his votes come to me. >> that's santorum in colorado. the next state on the republican's calendar is nevada. republican caucuses are just this saturday, and the state's voters getting a lot more attention from the candidates. our correspondent joe johns in nevada. this state not expected to be all that favorable to speaker gingrich. what are they saying they need to come back there? >> reporter: they're all saying they've got to focus on the state with proportional delegates as opposed to winner take all. and a lot of people, though, are going a little bit beyond that newt gingrich notion of just uniting the conservatives. they're looking back doing a little bit of monday morning quarterbacking and saying, what

he needs to do is talk more about what newt gingrich is for. one thing i've heard from the gingrich circles is they want him to not get stuck down in the mud. i think that was the exact quote i heard with mitt romney. rather talk about what he was for, talk about what mitt romney is for, or get mitt romney to talk about that. so there's a lot of concern that down in florida he did too much of the negative stuff, and romney's very good at it and has a lot of money to do it in the television ads. i think that's probably the lesson they're taking away as they come to the caucus states, john. >> and joe, you had a chance to talk to ron paul. he likes the caucus states. listen to what he said in your interview. >> because we're rewarded for organization and determination and enthusiasm, people who believe in something. and i think it offers us a chance to compete with mitt romney. i mean, it was difficult to compete with his money in florida. i mean, money talks.

and we have a lot compared to some others, you know. our financial report isn't puny but it's still not enough to advertise across a big state. >> well, joe, does ron paul think he can pick up a few delegates or maybe he can win nevada? >> reporter: well, he's sounding pretty optimistic there. but you have to say, mitt romney won the nevada caucuses four years ago. he is trying to do what he can in picking up some proportional delegates, but at the same time i think talking to him you get the sense that he's pretty happy about the fact that for example texas congressman who could get into the race with less money than say the texas governor and see the texas governor come and go. so he's saying, anything can still happen. there are a bunch of other states to go. and he wants to ride this thing out to the convention with as many delegates as he can, john.

>> joe johns, thanks. rioting at an egyptian soccer game today left 73 dead, hundreds injured. fighting erupted between supporters of two teams at a stadium in fort sayed. is huligan gone awry? >> reporter: definitely it's a case of football fans really going over the top. but all indications are that the security was inadequate at the stadium. we're hearing from both sides, actually, that it wasn't the usual level of security. you go to normal egyptian football games there are a lot of riot police. and it's largely indicative of the gradual decline in law and order in egypt over the last year. what we've seen is since the revolution, john, the police simply don't have the sort of authority they used to as egyptians increasingly express

disrespect for the police, for the government, for the army. and they clearly simply didn't have control in this situation in port sayed. john? >> ben, were they there in sufficient numbers and didn't have the respect or control or were they just undermanned when chaos broke out? >> reporter: i think it's all the above, really. they simply don't have the authority. and you have to realize that some of these football fans have a long history of clashes with the police that goes back well before the revolution. and certainly if you recall those clashes that took place around tahrir square in cairo in november and december. many of the people in the front lines throwing rocks, fighting with the police, were football fans who have lots of experience of doing that. and there are some of these fans are suggesting that this evening was the revenge of the police. they essentially stood back and

let the fans from port said go after the fans from cairo. these cairo fans, of course, no friends of the men in uniform. john? >> great reporting, ben wedeman live in cairo. breaking news at the pentagon tonight. defense secretary leon panetta says the united states and nato will end their combat mission in afghanistan next year, in 2013. cnn's pentagon correspondent chris lawrence, is this about saving money or do they truly think mission accomplished? >> reporter: john, a senior defense official said no decision made by the pentagon in this economic climate can be made without considering the financial implications in the money that's involved. look, it costs about $1 million a year for every soldier we've got in afghanistan. the pentagon had expected to spend about $80 billion next year there. that doesn't even account for state department spending. look, even some of president obama's democratic allies like

senator claire makaskill have been mutualing to may money for afghanistan infrastructure programs back here to build roads here in the united states. you combine that with the fact that france announced that it was pulling out and the way european nations have slashed their defense budgets, there's just less money to go around. and that is reflected partly, partly, john, in this decision. >> so chris, does the taliban have reason to celebrate tonight? the other side of that question, the afghan force will they be ready by then to take over? >> reporter: well, right now there's about 300,000. they expect to get that up to about 350 afghan, 350,000 afghan troops by next year. it's a mixed bag. i was over there in afghanistan. and you see some of the troops high on drugs, others using their uniforms for different purposes other than what they're intended. just sloppy performance. on the other hand, you do see

some units that perform very capably in some ways. so again you've got a real mixed bag over there. but i think this is really illustrating something when the united nations just did a survey of the afghan people themselves. and 80% felt that the afghan police would not be able to handle security once the combat troops leave. >> an important development. chris lawrence live for us at the pentagon. chris, thank you. tomorrow night a talk with former defense secretary gates. up next the obama campaign, why romney won florida. >> i think he ran a very strong negative campaign down there. [ female announcer ] the best things in life are the real things.

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during a victory speech in florida last night, mitt romney offered his own version of an obama campaign theme from 2008, hope. >> together, we will build an america where hope is the new job with a paycheck, not a faded word on an o bumper sticker. >> david axelrod is the

president and senior campaign strategist from 2008 and now in 2012 he joins us from chicago. david governor romney last night, you've called him a weak frontrunner. would you concede this point that the mitt romney in florida was a much better, much sharper, much more focused and disciplined candidate than the mitt romney in south carolina? >> well, i think he ran a very strong negative campaign down there. he outspent speaker gingrich by 5 to 1. and every single dollar he spent was on negative ad. i think he had one positive radio ad in the hispanic community, and 99% of his ads were negative. almost all of his rhetoric was negative. and he executed very well. his aides all boasted about that in the newspaper about what a great negative campaign they ran against gingrich down there in florida. and he ground out a victory for himself. so it was a tactical victory. i'm not sure it added to his luster as a potential leader of the country.

>> you mentioned potential leader of the country. if you look at the national tracking polls right now, latest gallup poll, obama 48, romney 48. dead heat. your friend are spending a lot of money. $2.5 million spent by democratic groups, most labor unions attacking governor romney. on the air in florida and nevada. i want you to listen to a little sample. >> while romney was a director of the damon corporation, the company was defrauding medicare of millions. the company was fined $100 million. but romney himself made a fortune. corporate greed. medicare fraud. sound familiar? >> in that ad there he morphed into a picture of the florida governor rick scott. if democrats think he's weak and unions aren't worried about mitt romney why are they spending so much money against him, david? >> well, i said he was a weak frontrunner. on obviously he's spending a fortune so that enhances his chances of winning. i can't speak for those who ran

that ad. that was an independent expenditure. but look, i've been very candid about it. i've said that he was a weak frontrunner and that he likely would be the nominee because of the nature of the field in which he was running. nothing has changed my view of that. it's been a little surprising about how much difficulty he's had in closing the deal. and relative to the polling that you mentioned, will polling that interests me is watching what's happened to governor romney's standing over the course of this primary campaign. it's hardly elevated him in the eye office the american people. the "washington post" poll had him at 31 positive, 49 negative. what was really stunning about it was among independent voters just 23% favorable rating among independent voters. because they've watched this debacle of a republican primary campaign and they've watched him tack to the right, change his positions, do all the things

that irritate voters about our politics today. and he's run into problems there. so i think there's some residual issues he's going to have to deal with if and when he ever ends this process. >> you obviously have to defendant president's record in this campaign. listen to a promise he made early on. he'd been in lovoffice about a month when he promised this. >> today i'm promising to cut the deficit we inherited by half in my first term in office. this will not be easy. it will require us to make difficult decisions and face challenges we've long neglected. >> david, the congressional budget office this week projected the deficit would be 1.1 this will with a t dollars this year. the fourth consecutive year of trillion-dollar deficits. how's the president going to explain that one to the american people? >> look, i think you have to just be honest about it. we've been through a terribly difficult time as a country. and much of what has happened with our debt has to do with the

recession that we went through, the depression of receipts for the government. i would point out to people that the president has signed off on and promoted $2 trillion in cuts and savings, and is eager to do more. the big debate we have is how we do this in a balanced way. he believes we have to do it -- it can't just be a cuts only approach. because if you do that you're going to cut into the the very things we need to grow our economy. education, research and development, some fundamental things. so we need to get some revenues. and his proposal has been that we get it from the top, that we can't afford these tax cuts from the last decade, these bush tax cuts at the top. this is a big difference between us and governor romney who says we can achieve all of this and we can get our budget back on course without asking any more from anyone, particularly people like him, like the president, who are in upper income

brackets. and that's a fundamental issue we have to work through. >> david, we'll be in touch. thanks very much. >> good to be with you, john. up next, ominous new developments in what's turning into one of the bloodiest weeks of the anti-government uprisings in syria. also government officials say a teenager who lost her family in the chain reaction car crash won't face deportation. if there was a pill to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye-care experts at bausch + lomb. as you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. [ male announcer ] ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. now, that's a pill worth taking. [ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron,

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kate bolduan is here with the news we need to know. >> things are back to normal. good evening, everyone. catch you up on some other news. reports from syria today tell of security forces shelling villages and homes at random and army defectors battling security forces near damascus. opposition activists say at least 70 people have died. so far mechs of the u.n. security council can't agree on a resolution calling for syrian president bashar all assad to step down. in florida authorities -- another body in one of the wrecks from last week's multivehicle pileup along interstate 75 near gainesville, florida, raising the overall death toll to 11. three of the dead are members of an atlanta-area family that was in the country illegally. the only surviving family member a 15-year-old girl faces an uncertain future, although an immigration and customs official says there's zero chance she'll be deported.

something we'll be following closely. the veterans of foreign wars obtained a cease and desist court order to force an organization called the veterans for weed to stop using the initials vfw. stars and stripes also reports a milwaukee-based group is catching flack for using a doctored version of the pow-mia silhouette in the words semper high. they say their mission is dedicated to war veterans who smoke weed and fight to legalize its use. and a now form bus line owner is being hailed as australia's most generous boss. he just sold the business which has been in his family since 1924 and gave all the employees bonuses ranges from about $9,000 to almost $32,000. i know we wanted to do that story just to show more bonuses the better. just give it all away. >> you want sell us off and give you a bonus? >> no.

we just love bonuses. >> i love got it. we got to stay clear on that one. >> perfect. i need this job. still ahead here, what the four presidential candidates still left need to do now that the cam paper moves from florida out west. also we'll ask our chief business correspondent who would qualify for president obama's new program to refinance your home, and if you do qualify you'd save up to $3,000 a year.

life after florida. candy crowley is here to talk about what the republican candidates need to do to keep their campaigns alive. a tragic day in the music industry. the creator of "soul train" is dead. president obama's proposed a new program to help homeowners refinance their mortgages and take advantage of current historically low interest rates. the president says his plan could save you about $3,000 a year. the announcement included a jab at mitt romney. >> and government certainly can't fix the entire problem on its own. but it is wrong for anybody to suggest that the only option for struggling, responsible homeowners is to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom. i refuse to accept that and so do the american people. >> let's set presidential politics aside for a moment.

ali velshi how would this work? >> reporter: the president can't admit these things out of whole cloth. it has to go through congress. here's how it works. in the past the programs to refinance your mortgage have depended on you having a mortgage through fannie or freddie, one that is backed by fannie or freddie. a lot of americans have mortgages that are just with a private bank. this now allows them if they are underwater, meaning if your mortgage is bigger than -- if your mortgage is bigger than the value of your home, to refinance from rates that might be well in excess of 6% to prevailing rates which are around 4.25%. that is going to save the average household the administration says about $3,000 a year. and here's the point of this, john. if you save them 3,000 a dopp$3 they spend that money. it's going to cost them 5 or $10

billion. the question where the money will come from, a bit of a levy on the banks because they were responsible for this whole thing the president said. we have to figure out where the money comes from. if it does happen, the other thing that the legislation the president would like to it do would compel the banks to take a bit of a haircut. if somebody is underwater so much in their house, the house is worth so much less than the mortgage, the bank should write off a certain amount of that debt and let that mortgage be a more controllable amount. so that's the issue. you will recall, john, that there have been a couple of programs in the past. one of them is this one, hamp, home affordable modification program. 2009 february. its was designed to help 4 million member. helped less than 1 million people. a month later we got this other program that was supposed to help 5 million people refinance. also helped fewer than 1 million people. the administration's response to this is that they force the banks to do things to set up systems that would help people and that the banks did a lot of these remodifications on their own.

so the numbers don't indicate the success of the programs. but in fact they were more successful says the administration than the numbers will prove, john. >> says the administration, ali. a lot of democrats, not just republicans, complain and say these programs were miserable and didn't work. are the rules of what the president poe poses now different enough that there's reason for optimism or do we not now? >> they think it applies to a broader group of people, so they should be able to get more people into the program. again, they always think that's going to happen. whether it actually happens or not is a problem. we have to remember, john, that this wasn't a problem that the administration or any government got us into. these were banking problems largely the banks have been dragging their heels in this whole thing. so the government is hoping this is palatable enough to homeowners underwater and banks who think that by doing this they'll get more of their money bank but the banks will be more cooperative. >> we'll watch for see if the congress goes along. ali velshi, thanks for that. for the four republican

presidential candidates left is there life beyond florida? despite mitt romney's convincing win last night nobody has dropped out today. candy crowley, let's start with mitt romney. i want to read crowley's rules here. he broke one of them today you said do not get in your own way. keep courting the tea party types. don't let up on newt. he got in his own way today. >> yes, he has to stop doing that. i mean, because look, it's a sound bite world. the democrats are going to take so many mitt romneyisms and put those into a commercial should he become the nominee. he needs to think before executing. because he just -- he's a corporate guy. he's used to sitting around the table sort of hashing things out. just doesn't work in politics. i think he does have to keep on newt. and yet he has to sort of still get back that inevitability, that presidential look. so it has to be a pretty careful balance. i thought it was interesting that last night was all about

the president. but trust me, he went after newt today. he'll go after him again. time and place. time and place. >> coming soon to a nevada tv station near you. and for speaker gingrich who went to nevada today even though most people say not a great state for him. you say it's critical. get on tv and emphasis don't overheat. >> yes. first of all the one way to get on tv is to overheat so they kind of go together. this is a long, dry spell between now and the next debate, february 22nd. and the debates have fueled newt gingrich. free media. he has to use it because he can't outspend mitt romney because mitt romney has a lot more money. so he needs to use that free tv, but in a way that doesn't -- he doesn't just sort of drop that -- become nuclear as we say and sort of drop a bomb. because that plays into how both santorum and paul and mitt romney have tried to portray him, which is he's a little unpredictable. >> for ron paul and rick santorum you essentially have the same bottom line.

win somewhere. >> win somewhere, exactly. for rick santorum win somewhere where we know you did the night you did it. needs to be big. and ron paul said to me, i think maine looks good for me. we'll see. but he needs to win somewhere to be -- people already know he can collect delegates, he can get to the convention, and he'll have a say so in something. the question is if he's going to have a serious chance of winning the nomination which i'm not even sure in his heart of hearts he believes. he's going to have to win someplace. for rick santorum even if it's as meaningly as missouri is, it's a headline. if you have rick santorum wins missouri that keeps money coming in and can sustain himself essentially waiting for newt to come. >> candy you crowley, good tips. we'll see if they listen. tonight one of the big money heavyweights in american politics is spending some of its money on new ads target president obama. jessica yellin, some of these republican groups are vastly outraising the democrats at this

moment, anyway. why this attack now? >> reporter: first it's because the gop primary is ongoing. you see these republicans clobbering each other. and these republican outside spending groups are sitting here with all this money on their hands. they figure they may as well use it to imprint voters with the message early that president obama in 2012 isn't the same man who promised to change washington when he ran in 2008. take a look at some of these ads and mitt romney's response. >> a big government fiasco infused with politics at every level. 500 million to sill solyndra now bankrupt. >> the government gives solyndra half a billion. >> his view of a free economy is to send your money to his friends. >> reporter: so romney's picking up on the attack and repeating it frequently now, john. >> romney is repeating it. how does the obama campaign respond? >> reporter: ads prompted the obama campaign to do something a little surprising.

their first ad of the election season was a reaction to one of the solyndra spots. here's a clip. >> ads fact checkers say are not tethered to the facts, while independent watch dogs called this president's record on ethics unprecedented. >> reporter: you know, john thakts president's team considers his record on ethics one of his greatest strengths so they want to stand by that. >> we'll see how the numbers turn out when we get deeper into the year. if you look at the matchup, the left is right now $19 million for democratic groups, about $100 million for the biggest gop groups. is the left having trouble matching this? or are they just saving their power until we get deeper into the election year because the president is unchallenged? >> reporter: they are not saving their powder. they are having trouble matching it. but when i talk to democratic fundraisers they say a few things. one, they need an opponent and that people will start ponying

up money once a republican nominee is selected. my favorite defense of all this is that democrats as a type want to get credit for what they do. and they're not as a type more inclined to give anonymously. but again, democrats are confident they'll start raising more money down the line. and remember, president obama has raised more than any of these groups. >> chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. the money money money. we're going to be tracking this one down for a long time. thanks, jess. still ahead here tonight's truth. mitt romney's back in front. we'll take a look at his campaign road map and show you where he might face some challenges. plus two senators make a friendly way on the super bowl. but the loser, get this, has to buy the entire senate beer. what's this? [ male announcer ] quaker oatmeal squares

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tonight's truth is a page turner. mitt romney ends january back where he began the campaign. the definitive frontrunner and a man with a friendly map in the month ahead. february is not without mine fields. the smartest among the romney high command see a surprise or two as inevitable. we get a little closer here, florida was last night. now we go out to the state of nevada. it's a caucus state. remember that. in these caucus states governor romney is favored. but watch ron paul. watch for other surprises. caucuses are unpredictable and hard to organize. team romney says we should win but they have a case of the jitters. where does the calendar go from there? more caucus states, minnesota and colorado. again an unpredictable

environment. maybe ron paul comes in here. missouri is non-binding primary. why is newt gingrich there? he didn't make the ballot. as speaker gingrich looks for a place ahead that might have been an opportunity, a conservative state there. watch for rick santorum in the state of missouri. beauty contest, no delegates in the first round but perhaps someone other than governor romney to make a statement. then we move up to the main caucuses. this is a place where ron paul says i can win. see that right here? ron paul says i can win in maine. now new england, governor romney is favored. has most of the republican establishment. but in a quirky environment sometimes passion can defeat organization. then from there the calendar moves on. these are the big prizes. michigan, mitt romney was born here. his dad ran an auto company here. should be a romney state in michigan primary. arizona primary as well. there's a debate scheduled before that primary at the end of the month. debates have been a gingrich strength but we'll watch and see. these should be at end of the month a chance for governor romney to have an exclamation point. then you watch for other states

to watch for ron paul up there. could be a big win for ron paul up there. and then this gets interesting. march 6th is super tuesday. this is why speaker gingrich says he's going to stay in the race even if he has a bad february. he thinks in oklahoma, in tennessee, in his home state of georgia he can do some business. but again you see speaker gingrich on here. he didn't make the ballot in virginia. that could be a huge problem for any gingrich comeback strategy. he is on the ballot in tennessee but he didn't file complete delegate slates. he might not come out with as many delegates as he might have because of poor organization early on. these caucuses environments a chance for romney. a big state of ohio here if rick santorum is going to make a point anywhere in the comeback trail it would have to be here on supertuesday. one of the other points we want to make is this. this is the beginning of the year. as of the first of the year. look at this advantage. nearly $20 million. nobody even close, $2 million. since then, yes, campaigns say they've raised a little money.

he raised money after south carolina. ron paul constantly raises some money. santorum raised some money. they're also spending some money. with the big florida win governor romney is going to raise more money, too. you can't underestimate it as we move noaa a more crowded map. former bush speech writer -- senior romney adviser and republican strategy as well. kevin on team romney, are they spinning us or do they have genuine concerns that nevada, sure, should be a romney state but it's a quirky caucus? maine as well. caucus states make you a little nervous, right? >> i think what we have seen, and this has happened all the way throughout this early primary process, the electorate is very volatile. so we have seen 20-point swings. we've seen 20-point swings on some issues. we've seen 20-point swings on some candidates. so i think we're very cognizant of that. it's also a campaign that is very focused on making sure that we're determined and focused on the task at hand and not resting on our laurels.

so i think when you send a message up and down the organization, that you can't take anything for granted you have to do the hard work organizing that's always of benefit to the campaign. >> david you see some conversations among conservatives saying let's forget newt gingrich and turn to rick santorum as our conservative alternative. when you look at the map and think of his very limited resources is that a viable alternative? >> especially because in nevada you are ground zero of the economic apocalypse. you have to have an economic message in order to be competitive there. if you get a message that rests too heavily on social values, nevada not the world's most soigsly conservative place. >> what does your state tell us, florida a state you know very well. diverse electorate. governor romney came out with a very convincing win. some people say it's proof the middle of the party, center of the party is coalescing around him. is that fair? >> i think the two things you touched on in the intro, money and organization, really matter in florida and matter in the rest of the country. he also has some terrific debate performances. the expectations had been lowered for romney and had been increased for gingrich and he

did not do what he needed to do whereas romney did. that made all the difference. >> then the guy who had a fabulously disciplined ten days coming out of getting thumped in south carolina he did have good debate performance. much more aggressive and assertive. he was tough on speaker gingrich. then he went on television this morning with my colleague soledad o'brien and said this. >> i'm in this race because i care about americans. i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it needs repair i'll fix it. >> if you listen to everything he said it went on and he explained himself later. there's nothing wrong with what he said. it's a safety net we'll fix it. i want to fight for the middle class. the rich have what they need, poor have a safety net. i want to fight for the middle. but you coach candidates. you tell them 100 ways to make a point. that's not the way to make that point. because on the internet now "i'm not concerned about the very poor" has been edited and is spin everywhere. >> and the bulk of what governor romney has done is about how his

economic plan and focus on the economy will help grow prosperity and create jobs for everybody up and down the income scale. that's where his focus has to be. i think in putting an emphasis on a very pro-middle class message, i think he had a little bit of a slip up. up and i thine to remember is going tor ward when talking about his economic plan, we have to be more careful and more precise. yes, we're very much pro middle class. but it's not at the benefit of any other income level. >> i have very little patience with the criticism of mitt romney at this point. my twitter feed has been alive with wow, he made an incredible gaffe. meanwhile, the candidates being backed by more conservative bloggers want to do much worse things to the poor. refrain from making the gaffe. just take away your food stamps and medicaid. the good that may come out of this, if it jolts mitt romney into saying i am the candidate who is not as aggressively

docket nar than some f the others and i think having food stamps in the worst crisis since the 1930s is not an atrocity. if people need them, nothing wrong with delivering them. this is a message that could recorrect him. >> president obama sometimes has the same problem. he can seem detached, distance. whether it's real or perceived, the use of language. listen to president obama today when talking about his new, and this is his fourth or fifth time fixing the housing mess. listen to how he takes a direct shot at governor romney. >> it is wrong for anybody to suggest that the only option for struggling responsible homeowners is to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom. >> the market's going to have to run its course and it's going to be painful for people, but it's a way back. in a state like nevada, like

florida, where foreclosures have been such a problem. if we're in a competitive lex and you're fighting for the independent vote, who's going to win the foreclosure argument? >> we're sick of the obama talk. in florida, our headlines were saying our home prices are falling even more. so while he's giving these speeches, the problem's gets worse. as far as romney, i think he needs to get the same debate coach to help him get every day speeches because he just keeps doing these things and cannot afford that kind of mistake. >> remember, there's only one person on stage. the candidate. >> the guy they don't want to give credit to and i think -- >> the candidate gets candidate. >> david, kevin, ann, thanks for coming in. an interesting month just passed an another ahead. you're looking at the mysterious donors behind the super pacs.

>> we're getting some names and i had a chance to talk to a few of these. why they chose to put a million dollars in some cases. and one interesting thing, john, as i was doing this that i thought you'd really enjoy. we've heard so much about sheldon adelson and you think, wow, that's an insane amount of money, right? it is, except for my sheldon adels adelson. $10 million for him, worth $10.5 billion. if the average american gave amount of their income, $45. so, $10 million to sheldon adelson is like $45 to you and me. >> be a conflict of interest. apply for a grant right now. we'll see you in a few minutes. sounds like fascinating reporting. airline announces huge layoffs today to save more than

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will be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. sad news to watch these images. from california today. kate bolduan has the latest. >> good memories, but very sad news. we'll catch you up on this.

i'm sure you know this, everyone. a man who made a huge impact is dead tonight apparently by his own hand. in 1971, don cornelius created and hosted "soul train" which helped african-american musicians go mainstream. he died of a gun shot that appeared to be self-inflicted. he was 75 years old. american airlines told unions wednesday it plans to cut 13,000 jobs at the nation's number three airline. the cuts will fall most heavily on airline's maintenance operations, but pilots, flight attendants and management will also see layoffs. the company says it needs to save more than $1.25 billion annually. at long last, the holy grail of the internet ipos is here. facebook filed to raise $5

billion in an initial public offering. the company now has to field questions from regulators and court investors for its sale and make sure they pun intended, like it. john, you'll appreciate the pair of u.s. senators have on this weekend's senators. they're betting beer. senators of new hampshire and chuck schumer of new york announced a bet on twirt. the loser buys every senator a round of beer from that person's state. >> nothing against, they are the new england patriots. where our kerry and scott brown in this? >> probably staying far. hello. >> all right. finally, congressman ron paul explaining why his wife, carol, not with him on the campaign trail this morning. >> we've been on a pretty extensive tour and my wife's been with me. she didn't make it this morning because this was her