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tv   Huckabee  FOX News  January 9, 2012 12:00am-1:00am PST

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overtime. thank you for your time. >> welcome to manchester, new hampshire, a little over one day until the start of the 2012 new hampshire primary. i'm megyn kelly. >> bret: i'm bret baier, over the course of the next hour we'll show you why so much is still up in the air when the voting starts in the granite state. >> we'll hear from fox news correspondents and political experts about the state of the race tonight. >> bret: that and much more on this, america election headquarters special. >> at the stroke of 12 a.m.
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in the far northern part of new new hampshire, 20 minutes from canada will be the first to vote. and polls all over the place will open doors to voters in this the first of primary elek season and as massachusetts governor, mitt romney is a favorite here, he has a home in the state. more than half of voters have yet to settle on a favorite. and we have team coverage and carl cameron will tell us on the campaign trail and steve brown will talk about the undecided voters and molly brown for the ground operations for these campaigns e let's start things off with our main man in new hampshire, campaign carl cameron, in exete exeter. >> as bret mentioned. undecided or likely to change
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their mind and mitt romney grew a big crowd here to exeter high school and the only rival he bothered to take the time to mention was barack oba obama. >> this president has failed on the budget, failed on the economy, getting people back to work and failed internationally, his vision for america is wrong. our vision is right. we believe in america. >> but at this morning's debate. romney was the target of the g.o.p. rival. >> could we drop a little bit of the pious baloney? the fact is you ran in '94 and lost, just level with the american people. you've been running at least since the 1990's. >> and we want someone who is going to stand up and fight for the conservative principles, not ball out and not run to the left of ted kennedy. >> i don't see how we can do well against obama if we have any candidate that, you know, endorsed, you know, single payers systems and tarp bailouts and doesn't challenge the federal reserve, 15 trillion dollars of injection, bailing out their friends. >> they've got my record as
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governor, that's the great thing of people in nom, they see what i did as governor as massachusetts, principles i do as business and as governor and frankly may be nor conservative as time has gone on. >> in an interview with fox news, romney was at ease and steered clear of predictions. >> i hope the people in the granite state make it clear and that the course i've laid out to get america working again. that i'm the guy to carry that message and do that and i want them to vote and i don't know what to expect in south carolina. i have to be honest with you and we haven't spent anywhere near as much time in the coming states as i, and the other candidates and collectively have spent in the first two. but south carolina is going to have a big say in this process and florida after that. >> a candid admission from mitt romney saying he's taken nothing for granted in new hampshire. and the poll's always are in new hampshire ap the very
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possible last second. romney knows that no matter what the outcome, it's going to be tighter than the big lead a few weeks ago and the battle goes to south carolina where he knows it will be far rougher than anything he's faced so far. >> megyn. >> carl cameron, thank you. >> the great debate performances and ads don't mean much if you don't get your supporters to the polls on tuesday. and molly line tells us how campaigns are doing on the ground. at ron paul headquarters in concorde. good evening, molly. >> good evening. are' right. it's tradition to meet the candidates in person and voters in person, but it's also a place where organizational strength is tested. we're here at ron paul headquarters and they're doing exactly what campaigns across the state are doing, they're working hard to get out the vote in the phenal hours, simply put, organizational strength matters because if you have a strong organization a better chance to get your voters to the poll. weaker campaigns have less of a shot at victory and advertising matters, volunteers matter and it takes time to build that kind of
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support. >> romney, by far, has the best organization in the state. distant second is ron paul, beyond that, there's essentially, no other campaign in the state with any significant organization. >> former governor mitt romney has been courting the voters in the granite state since the 2008 campaign and political advisors. >> showing that we know how to run a campaign and how to organize the massive effort. it really is evidence of his ability to run the united states of america. >> former pennsylvania senator rick santorum and john huntsman are trying to overcome the cash advantage and experience of the romney camp and there's old fashioned retail politicking. but despite the time cement they've made to the granite state and professor smith says connecting one 0en one with the voters is one step of the process, but not a replacement
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for organizational strength, bret. >> bret: and they're working the phones. let's break down the voter trends and my colleague bill hemmer is back in new york at the touch screen. hey, bill. >> megan, good evening to you, we showed you the tool in iowa last tuesday night and we'll bring you back and give you an idea what we're looking at behind me. we can look at results and the economy and the state level as a look ahead which we will do continuously, as we move out of this process. tuesday night. remember, iowa had 99 counties and in the state of new hampshire, a much different story. new hampshire had ten counties in total. many did not hold a lot of votes, but what will be key on tuesday night, a few areas down here in the southern part of the state. this is hillsboro county. and this is the most populous county in new hampshire and borders massachusetts, mitt romney's former home, the former governor's home there, also, rockingham county to the east there, two critical areas that will come into play on tuesday night.
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and what's important about this, when it comes to new hampshire. if we go back to say, 2008 when john mckeane faced off. a terrific map here, all the red counties where john mccain won and look where romney won. down in the southern areas, he won hillsboro county and he also won rockingham county and part of the reason you could point to, his time as governor of massachusetts, and the popularity that he had back then, familiarity with a lot of folks there in neighboring new hampshire, who have moved out of middlesex county and up into new hampshire and mccain was the winner over romney four years ago and beat him by five points, okay? and so, what will romney do on tuesday night in these specific areas? will he increase his vote county from four years ago? will he add to it or will some of the others take away from romney? quickly, at the presidential level in 2008 when obama beat mccain by 9 points, it was deeply democratic, all ten
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counties went for obama and remember, red is republican and blue is democrat on our map here, but back in 2004 when george bush beat john kerry by a point look where bush won. the southern part of the state, those two counties will be critical come tuesday neat and it will show us a lot when we watch the return drive on tuesday evening. back to you guys, now, in new hampshire, bell, thank you. >> ed rollins is a republican strategist who has worked on several presidential campaigns, including his successful direction of ronald reagan's reelection bid in 1984. he's a fox news contributor. good evening, ed. >> how are you? >> i'm doing great. what about the state of this race right now as we head into tuesday and you hear that, that fact, that undecided voters are still factor here and traditionally, new hampshire voters decide late. >> well, they have. and they've moved in the last 24-48 hours, i still think that romney is going to win this and i think that romney worked very, very hard in this
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state to get the best organization and the money and the resources and he couldn't get beat up as badly as people anticipated in the debates, a little more this morning than last night and i think that most people are running for second place and i think that's not been, not necessarily a good strategy. i think if we could take mr. tebow who won the game against denver and connections in florida, and probably in the next 24 hours could make a race out of it, but obviously he's going to try to win the super bowl. and expect someone will emerge here, everybody wants a conservative alternative and nobody has really moved into that roll yet in a segue. >> megyn: ed, should rick santorum skipped new hampshire. and with the performance in iowa and sinking poll numbers in the state and peak and went back down? >> he dependent have any organization there, would have been smart, a test that mike huckabee had to do there, and we went to michigan and wasted time and should have gone to
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south carolina. you get caught up in the momentum and want to go where the media goes and it's the temptation and play out. and it's not played out for him and he's clearly not the second or third although a little bit of movement. south carolina, you have to win somewhere and obviously, florida is very, very hard. romney is it the only one with the kind of money you can buy ten media markets, ap millions of dollars to win in florida. south carolina is still about organization and a lot of born again christians down there who obviously are in the santorum camp and that's not what new hampshire is about. >> ed rollins, thank you. >> my pleasure. >> megyn: we'll get more analysis how the campaigns are doing here in new hampshire in a moment. >> chris wallace, and the strategist, karl rove and tripe. when we come back. capital one's new cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus! so you earn 50% more cash.
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♪ >> welcome back to st. ansells college in beautiful manchester, new hampshire. what to expect tuesday with fox news sunday anchor chris wallace. i'd like to think that, roux with respect to the two of you, i have the best seat in the house with karl rove and joe tripe and this tuesday we'll do it all over again and let's hope, gentlemen we're not there until three in the morning again. karl, let me start with you, you both have run campaigns in new hampshire over the years and we've seen big swings coming out of iowa and this time not so much. romney held on to a strong lead, and paul has been a strong second and the rest have been fighting for third. karl, why do you think, at least so far, there's been so little movement in the last few days here in new
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hampshire? >> well, if you have a big swing, at least on the republican side coming out of iowa, it's because somebody has dug in in new hampshire like john mccain did in 1999 and new hampshire operates independently of iowa so it's not really affected a lot by iowa, it's affected some, but if you have a big shift it's because somebody has laid the groundwork as such a shift by literally calming out in 1999 and making the state his own. so the foundation was there, new hampshire likes to con found the front runner and the problem this time around for the challengers is that the front runner in new hampshire is that he's got a, you know, four years of the governor of adjoining states and the two largest counties with over half the vote, rockingham and hillsboro have a lot of people who commute to work in massachusetts. >> joe, if repeat, if romney should go on and win here in new hampshire by let's say at least ten points, how strong a
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position, after the very close race in iowa, how close, how strong a position does that put him in going forward for the nomination? >> well, it clearly puts him in a very strong position, i mean, having his performance in iowa, he wins new hampshire, no one ever won south carolina in the republican side without winning one of those states and in good stead coming down there. i think a lot of it will depend who comes in second. i mean, if rick santorum were to come in second and doesn't look like way and looks like he's falling right now, but if he were, there might be a fight going into south carolina. new hampshire can give us a surprise, may not be at the top. could be who comes in second for the chance for south carolina. >> yeah, let me pick up on that with you, karl. obviously, rick santorum was hoping for a bounce after the strong finish in iowa at least so far in the polls it doesn't seem to be happening and i'm
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not talking about beating romney, i'm talking about beating paul and gingrich, why not? >> well, again, new hampshire marches to the beat of its own drummer to begin with. the second thing is, they're distinctly different electorates, in hawaii six out of every ten voters are evangelicals, protestants, strong social conservatives. in new hampshire one of the most secular less than a quarter evangelical and born again. and marches to the tune of a different drummer. south carolina, however, pays attention to what happens in new hampshire. i can tell you this painfully. in 2000 we were way up, bush was way up in new hampshire and in south carolina before the new hampshire primary nearly 20 points ahead. within 48 hours after losing new hampshire by 19 points he had fallen 6 points behind in south carolina. now, we had 19 days to fight back into a majority position and this time around, only ten days. and let me make one other
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point if i could. we ought to be careful about this. after tuesday night, 12 delegates out of the 2,286 at the republican convention will be decided, only 1/2 of 1%, and even after south carolina, ten days after that, that's only 37 more delegates and we will be kcumulatively, only at the republican convention, and i agree with joe that romney will be in a strong position, having if he wins new hampshire. no republican in an open race has ever won iowa or new hampshire. we have a while to go before this thing gets-- >> let me bring in joe nor a final thing. if you look ahead in new hampshire, south carolina or down the road. which other candidates do you see having the best chance to make a real race of the nomination fight with mitt romney? >> i think that's anybody's game right now. i'm a little stunned frankly that santorum wasn't able to turn his win in iowa into more
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and i think he-- he somehow, he just didn't seem like he had the fire to, both from not going down that night, but also not then really counting in new hampshire, he was going to go there and again, not really shoeing any real fire until the day. it's unclear to me which is going to step up. it may be the surprise in new hampshire, if huntsman takes second or santorum. what fire does it give somebody to go into south carolina, where does newt gingrich end up in there, it's unclear and it's a fractured field. >> one point we make with everybody with those who haven't made up their minds. thank you very much. megan, i want to point out that the karl rove brought his white board to the battle and i didn't think he was in in iowa, but he's in. >> megyn: i thought graphics banned that. >> no, no, they love that. >> bret: and got his own department. he goes out to staples and
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gets his white board, costs $9. >> megyn: and himself? >> i don't know, that's fine. >> megyn: thanks, chris, looking forward to tuesday night. >> bret: we will hear some of those fiercely independent people in new hampshire when our america election headquarters special returns.
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>> all you need to know about the independent streak of people here in new hampshire is the official state motto. live free or die. let's talk about how the independent and undecided voters will affect tuesday's primary correspondent steve brown is in portsmouth tonight. >> mitt romney may have landed support in saturday night's debate. >> and mitt's stance-- they sell us this much stuff and we sell them this much stuff. >> something that hadn't been talked a whole lot about at least what i'd heard. >> and only suggests three out of four independents here
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spent some or a lot of time watching the g.o.p. debate. and independents tell us it's debates and research that drives their decision. >> and because we get online, you know, we get access for this all the time. and there's two things new hampshire independents say they're looking for now. >> and in new hampshire, issues one and two are economies and jobs, by a long shot. >> i worked two jobs the first time ever. i have a master's degree and i have to do catering tore make extra money. >> one other things about independents, their debate driven decision who to vote for come tuesday, it will come late. >> and i'm usually always set by the time it gets this close, but i really, really have not decided. >> even after being impressed by romney in the weekend debates and attending today's campaign event in rochester, ethan is still not ready to commit. >> essentially, last night was the-- a step in the right direction
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in terms of me making my decision. >> now, while other independents be influenced by this weekend's debate? because of the timing of the debates, saturday night and sunday morning, tracking polls probably won't catch up with the tracking for independents until sometime tomorrow, but when the numbers are out we may have a better picture if the independents are breaking in a particular direction, megyn. >> steve brown, thank you. >> bret: if anyone could tell us what the people are new hampshire are thinking ahead of the primaries, maybe andy smith. the director of university of new hampshire survey center. welcome, andy. >> thank you. >> there are so many, as we just saw, undecideds. your poll had 63% leaning towards someone still trying to decide. and that is very new hampshire. >> that's typical because primaries are typical than general elections, none of the party cues we have in general elections and largely not that much difference. voters here wait until the end and see the last minute things that happen in the debates and the commercials and the
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campaign activities over the weekend and make up their mind at the end because there's no reason for them to make up their minds early. >> bret: now, in iowa we saw the des moines register poll where there was a clear shift toward senator santorum. are you seeing a clear trend in your polling ahead of tuesday? >> romney is still stable way out in front of everybody else. a little bit of movement for john huntsman, i think the ads are paying off for him. a movement in the wrong direction for ron paul and the other candidates seem to be stable. that doesn't mean that things aren't going to change. we see over and over again, 30 to 40 percent of people make up their minds in the last three days and 15 to 20% on election day, what happens the next two days could definitely change the order from second place to fifth place. >> bret: you've seen a lot of new hampshire primaries, does it feel different to you? >> it does feel different, i think because mitt romney has been out front in our polls since february of 2009 i think the other campaigns have
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largely conceded new hampshire to romney or haven't had the resources to compete here and in south carolina. they picked their battles and usually the socially conservative candidates go to iowa and more moderate, two, three years, moderate candidate and only recently has john huntsman tried to fight him on that part. >> bret: and you talk about hundreds of people out of the woodwork and he came here with money and no time to buy on tv stations and he had a bit of a battle it seems for a day or so, but are you seeing that hold, that bounce? >> really not too much. probably stabilize, typically conservative candidates who do well in iowa don't do well in new hampshire. mike huckabee in 2008 distant third place. it's not fertile grounds.
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both gingrich and santorum, a brutal thing to happen and-- >> just so we're clear, there are no ads on tv promoting-- >> i hope that's it. >> bret: and quickly explain to people at home, the independents and how they factor into this state? >> i should say it's bad to call them independents because most of them are either republicans or democrats and the way we look at the electorate on tuesday, we think about 60% are going to be registered republicans and 20% are those people who are undeclared, but really republicans and 10% democrats, 10% true independents. >> bret: andy, thanks so much for being here. >> thank you. >> bret: we'll try not to go naked the rest. >> megyn: i'm glad you got that in. i think i speak for a lot of our viewers. coming up, martha mccallum tells us what we'll look for in polling. after a quick break. we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping.
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♪ >> welcome back to manchester. we will be able to tell you what new hampshire voters were saying about the candidates and the issues during our election special tuesday night. my colleague martha mccallum will handle the exit polling again. >> good to see you.
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and our exit poll team is going to get important feedback from the voters on the ground tuesday night in new hampshire and the earthquake network, including fox will talk to the voters, asking them for whom they voted on tuesday and importantly, when they made that decision since as you and karl noted, bret, as many as six in ten say they have not decided on who they'll vote for and we will factor how important independents are and why people voted the way they did. let's look at some questions we'll be asking hem that involved this. what is the most important issue in your vote. is it abortion? the federal budget deficit. is the economy the most important. steve brown and independents seem to care the most about the economy and certainly we've seen that trend in iowa as well and those independents send to be in that large group of late deciders, that we're going to be watching closely and that all the candidates hope to garner the attention of in the coming 48 hours, how
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about this, this is the first presidential primary since the birth of the tea party. ask people, do you support or oppose this movement? we'll find out how much of a factor that is. it could play a significant role there because they have a tea party backed braened new g.o.p. head of the legislature and a tea party backed head of the party in new hampshire as well and that could be a factor. we'll try to get at the big issue, what is more important for voters, someone they believe is electable, somebody who could beat president obama or a candidate that they consider to be a true conservative? these two categories were huge for romney and santorum and we'll see how people respond to that question. also, up like in iowa for the first time we'll hear what they think of the obama administration. we'll learn the intensity of their thoughts on that matter as well and we'll bring that to you and all that and lots more, too, coming up on
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tuesday night. back to you guys in new hampshire. >> sounds good, a lot of data once the polls close, martha, thanks. >> let's get some perspective on new hampshire from the other side. and a political strategist for the democrats, he joins us from new york. welcome, pat. so let's talk about this state. new hampshire and in particular, how it affect the next state, south carolina, since we seem to have a clear front runner here, and put it in perspective for us, what the candidates are looking at in terms of setting themselves up for success down the line? >> well, it's really important, you know, that romney will win new hampshire, the question is how big and what kind of momentum. kind of a good news, bad news situation. the other candidates are competing to see who comes out of there second or third, but from romney, if he comes out of there with a huge landslide, and able to go to south carolina, presumably somewhat as a favorite and south carolina is a given state than it was in the past and i think that people misunderstand now the
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demographic changes therement, but what happened to romney is ifs' a front runner and people believes he runs south carolina, he may be running against himself. just as we saw in '08 in new hampshire. we saw, you know, when obama went to iowa, now, there was no favorite person in new hampshire. everyone said if he won new hampshire it was the last minute which i frankly predicted i thought would happen and happened before. new hampshire voters said no, it's too soon to wrap this up. romney could have that problem with south carolina, if he comes out of new hampshire with less than expected with a strong second place, it may be more of a candidate to candidate race. but then who fills that vacuum if that happens to romney. >> whoever finishes second because i want to tell you, whoever drops out or how the mechanics, someone could be the protests. and you have several candidates and i think that santorum as i said a week ago
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on the night of the iowa caucus made the huckabee mistake and a disastrous one instead of going right to south carolina he went to a state that was not favorable to him. i think that ron paul will do well, and remember, that new hampshire because of unaffiliate voting, almost 40% of the voters will be moderates or liberals and that's a huge number and tea party supporters are a minority, not the majority there. so, it is, i think, his chances of coming in south carolina, if perry, gingrich and paul and santorum, how they sort out in new hampshire. some may coalesce, as i said the real test for romney, if he wins big, can he advance, can he engage the romney problem? do you want romney for sure to be the nominee now and end the process now? and i think he needs to speak, as all of these candidates do,
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to the bigger issues, the turnout was so low in iowa relative to the passion that republicans feel about president obama, we're not hearing a lot of enthusiasm about new hampshire and i think that's because the three corner stool, what i call dominating the atmosphere of this election and the country in decline, children's futures will not have the american dream, and then vast three quarters of the american people who feel the government doesn't answer to them, that this is framing election and none of these republicans candidates have really spoken to that and for romney, it's critical. >> it's interesting, the election in iowa was a record turpout, but only by a couple thousand, thank you, sir. >> and 23% of the vote was independent, the highest ever e thank you. >> bret: a special edition of the fox allstars awaits us on the other side of the break. ♪
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>> this election is about the soul of america. the question is what is america going to be and we have in washington today a president who has put america on a road to decline. i took my state to the best managed state in america. i look that economy to the number one position, number one in job creation, as compared and contrasted with massachusetts which was number 47. doing pretty well, you know, third wasn't too bad. i wasn't too far behind and doing pretty well. catching up on mitt every single day. well, time to break down what we know, what we can expect about the promissory. >> megyn: and joining us tonight, steve hayes, senior writer for t.
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krist kristen. >> bret: we've seen polls the latest from suffolk, mitt romney at 35% and ron paul at 20%. huntsman surging to 11% and there you see the rest of the candidates. just to put up the average, real politics average of polls changed a bit. and this is the recent polls. and what do you see here and from your experience on the ground what are you seeing. >> the thing you see, you look back and mitt romney has consistently had between 15, 20, 25 point lead and as you look forward to tuesday, you want to see if you can maintain that lead and andy smith said he thought that it was stable. and some slippage, sips they started tracking three or four days ago. is that to the benefit of one other candidate or evenly
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among the candidates and how big will mitt romney's victory be on tuesday? >> kirsten, it seems a battle for third, maybe second, could be had a ron paul has second place locked up. hows do it play up? >> to a certain extent, it's almost baked in the cake that new hampshire goes to romney. not a huge surprise when that happens. after that huntsman is obviously making a serious play for it, could end up doing very well. but can he do well anywhere else? that's the real question and then i think you have, you know, ron paul, holding his probably 20%, that he seems, that seems to be sort of the threshold for him and then people are watching what's going to happen with santorum, but at the end of the day he feel like the states are sort of towards different people and you can write off different things like santorum is probably not doing great in new hampshire, but could do well in south carolina, gingrich could do well in south carolina and we'll see going back and forth between the states, a lot of different
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performances. >> bret: chris, ron paul on fox news sunday. interesting to hear him how he wants to influence the platform in tampa and he's skipping florida aen focusing on the caucus states and trying to get the delegates in caucus states around the country. >> and also, there is a rule in the democratic, i mean, the rule, by laws, you have to have a plurality in five states to get your name placed in nominations, and if he wants to have the speech and the nomination speech and prime time address by him he's got to win five states and he wants to play a role in the platform. if you're worried about that and caucuses and doesn't sound like you're worried about the nominations. he says, well, you can do two things at the same time. two things i seemed to take awashings one he seems to be looking at influencing the party rather than nomination and two, doesn't sound like a guy who is planning to run as an independent. >> bret: and make setting the
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table for senator rand paul down the road. >> absolutely. it's interesting to watch. rand paul has been with him in iowa and again here and wondering if he is maybe he's passing the torch. >> megyn: steve, what are the chances of a huntsman surprise as we saw from santorum in iowa? >> he had more time in the debate this morning than any of the other debates and quite a bit of time due to the fact he was doing well or better in the polls and lord knows he spent a lot of time here. is there a sort of huntsman excitement on the ground? talking to people you don't get the sense that people are running around and trying to rally support for john huntsman or cheering for john huntsman the way that you saw for rick santorum in iowa, his message and even in the debates, one last night and one this morning, he comes across as almost lecturing, about big political science issues, trust deficit. leadership, rather than saying the kinds of things that republican electorate, even in new hampshire, a little more
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moderate, is likely to get ginned up. >> there's a fascinating development about huntsman and that's he's almost out of money and in fact, put in the first tv ad in the air this weekend. what's strange about that, john huntsman is a very rich man and his father is enormously rich man. the head of huntsman chemical, hundreds of millions. new york times what they indicated was that the father wants the son to ask him for support, and the son doesn't want to ask the father for the support and so they're kind of generational standoff and the result is the guy is broke even though he's as rich as can be. >> megyn: maybe there was a fear he would go naked. [laughter] >> we do indeed. >> bret: kirsten, we heard steve mention holy cow two debates in 24 hours. >> yeah. >> bret: do you think they raigtsed the ball in any way, shape or form? >> hard to know the debates were so completely different. the debate last night.
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everyone kept their hands off of mitt romney and he had an easy ride and came out of it unscathed and did a great job and this morning, everybody got up on the wrong side of the bed and saw he was a front runner and really, really going after him and i think that steve was saying, that huntsman got a lot of time and the question is, is this something that will make enough of a difference for people who were sort of maybe thinking they like him, did they like what they saw, when he got, seemed like he got a disproportionate number of questions in the debate. >> megyn: and romney's camp will tell you, a win is a win. they felt that way about iowa and what about new hampshire. >> i think he has to win decisively. if the trend line is going in the wrong direction and if the suffolk tracking poll ands' losing points and other candidates are getting a look and late deciding voters, as were you talking, but break away from mitt romney ap comes away with a 10 point victory or 8 point victory, hard for
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him to justify the win. they'll take it and be happy with any victory, but going into south carolina and preparing for florida he wants to sort of increase the sense of inevitability that had been accompanying his candidacy for so long and got cheipped away in iowa and in a virtual tie. >> if he does better than 37%, i am pr he is -- impressive win, if he does less, not an impressive win. >> with or without tim tebow. and do we want to tell people what happened with tim tebow. >> bret: no, no, we'll save it. >> megyn: panel, thank you. and coming up, more insight from the panel straight ahead. we'll be right back. capital one's new cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus! so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody...
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>> i doo think there's a difference between a bold reagan conservative model and more establishment model that's more caution about taking the kind of changes. >> i am a cause guy and care deeply about this country and the causes i think are the core of this country. >> obama has thrown gasoline on the fire, but the bonfire was burning well before obama
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got there. it was policies and spending both from wall street and from the insiders in washington d.c. that got us in this probl problem. >> megyn: and we're back now with our panel, a sampling of some of the second tier candidates as far as new hampshire is concerned anyway. newt gingrich, difference in town this morning at the debate than we've seen from him thus far. what's happening with him. kirsten? >> well, it's interesting, last night i think everyone was expecting that he come and kind of burn the place down, the way it had been laid out and he was saying, watch out here i come kind of stuff and then he wasn't like that. this morning, he came in and yeah, bad newt was back and he was really being, kind of snide with romney and he seems to be doing this sort of murder-suicide type thing he's going to try to kill off romney and in the process kill himself because it's such an unattractive, unappealing thing to see him being mean
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and negative and i don't think it enhances himself in any way. >> bret: although, steve, there are other people who look at that and said this this is challenging romney and what some in the conservative base want to see. they want to see this challenge in the final days so that he doesn't run a way with this, from their point of view. and so, gingrich people were very happy with the performance. and i think that people beyond gingrich were happy with this. this is what people thought with newt gingrich in terms of willingness to challenge romney and challenge with questions and newt gingrich is at his best when he's answering the question or posing premise of questions occasionally, when he's dealing with substance he does well and why people thought he'd done well throughout the debates and all of these debates over the course of the campaign so far and when he's focused on that, i think you see the best of newt gingrich and it's what i think contributed directly to his ri rise. challenging romney this this
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way works if he stays disciplined. there was a disconnect when he was asked about the super pac ad and i don't know anything about it and yes, that's borderline appropriate, but if you look at the new york times, newt gingrich you know, referring to the establishment new york times, and that's his source and happens to know, newt gingrich did, a number of details about the allegations in in film which suggest that his earlier denial didn't quite fit. >> bret: on the flip side, the answer to that, governor romney said he hadn't seen the super pac ads and went on to detail them. >> both of them did. >> megyn: and one more point on gingrich. does he run a risk? romney came out and came out and clear that angry, gingrich is an angry man. there seems to be a narrative is he angry? it's not the ads that brought gingrich's numbers down, it's the reaction to the ads and should have taken it sort of like he's been there before. >> well, i mean, that's the confounding thing about newt gingrich as steve put his finger on it.
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when he's good, there's nobody more impressive. when in the debate he challenged george stephanopoulos, asking about contraception and said look there's a bias in the media and won't talk about the anti-catholic bias of the administration and the way they're taking away social services and catholic church has been providing for years. and fascinating and gripping stuff and he says, spare us the pious baloney, and seems mean and petty. did it hurt romney? perhaps. but i think it hurt gingrich more, gee, is that a guy i want to see in the oval office. >> megyn: gingrich going after the moderator and being mean, does that bring back anything at all? >> in therapy for that, megyn, you weren't in it. >> bret: kirsten, rick perry, i'd seen written if he'd had debates like that ten debates
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ago this would be a different race. >> i've seen that and i've never gotten the rick perry thing. some people find him really appealing and he certainly did better than he has in the past and he was able to list all three things this time, and that was a positive thing for him, i guess, but, i just don't really see the path for him. he says he's going to stay in. he has money. he obviously would be appealing candidate in south carolina, if people can move past him at an earlier mistakes that he's made, but he doesn't seem to be catching fire. >> i just want to pick up on that. because i've had my heart broken by rick perry over and over and interviewed him the first sunday show in austin and impressive and three days later the oops moment and i keep waiting for him to be good. i thought he was very good this weekend. i looked at clips we ran of gingrich and santorum and perry one guy who looks to me as potential president and contest it with romney is rick
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perry, but you know, as our friend brit hume said, you know, he may vomit all over himself in the next debate. we'll see what happens. wow, nudity, vomiting. >> hey, it's 8 p.m. >> megyn: what about santorum though? joe trippi says how disappointed and stunned he was that he wasn't able to turn his iowa success at least into something more and he didn't land a lot of blows at least last night' debate. came out swinging a little harder. >> this is unfriendly territory as we've discussed, but i think he did being 0 on substantial this morning. i think he had some strong answers this morning, a good answer, in the debates when he was asked about discrimination against gays and i think he was asked about what he would say if his son came out to him and he said i would love him ever bit as much as the second before he told me this. i thought he had good moments, but what rick santorum needed here, a huge moment, a moment where he was the anti-romney.
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>> bret: we want to end on a sad note to the panel. conservative author and commentator tone blankly has died, he had been battling stomach cancer for some time. editorial of the washington times and press secretary and communications advisor to newt gingrich in the '90 he is, he was 63. our condolences to his@@@@x
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tony blankley. >> the trad tradition of new
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hampshire dates back to the 1920s. >> mitt romney hopes to become the secondary pub can to win both iowa and new hampshire since 1976. the other gerald ford won the nomination. >> no candidate since 76 has failed to win either iowa or new hampshire and gone on to head the ticket. that puts pressure on everybody put romney. >> we will be with you through out this entire time, the next two-days with all of the late breaking news from here to new hampshire. the incredible thing is the polls that show more than 60 percent of people still undecided or they could switch their vote. i will be on special report at 6:00 p.m. >> i will beat him. america live is 1:00 p.m. eastern. i will have everything you need to know and then if we don't cover anything he will be there. >> so comforting. we will be here tuesday night 8:00 p.m. eastern for primary night coverage we will have live results and

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