[ applause ] >> we are back for our final half hour. so much discussion, speaker gingrich on facebook in the course of this debate about jobs. you can understand why. we've talked about spending, we've talked about economic growth. it was governor romney who made the point to a young person who approached him. if he were president and when this person got out of college, he or she would have a job. if president obama has a second term, he or she will not have a job. isn't that the kind of thing that makes people angry, the politicians, easy answers like that? >> i don't think that's an easy answer. i think that's a statement of fact. [ laughter ] [ applause ] >> let me go back to what john distaso said. it's the same question. the long-term answer to $4 heating oil is to open up off shore development of oil and gas, open up federal lines to oil and gas. flood the market as dr. paul said, make supply and demand work for us, not against us.

price will come down. under obama, 2011 was the highest price of gasoline in history. it's a direct result of his policies, which kill jobs, raise the price of heating oil and gasoline, weaken the united states increase our dependence on foreign countries and in the face of iran trying to close the straits of who muz. there's 3.2% unemployment in north dakota. there's a hint here. you can have jobs, lower price heating oil, which by the way means less lie heap spending. more revenue from the federal government from royalties, less spending on subsidies. lower price. people are happier all the way around. that's what it was originally all about in the 1970s. >> governor romney, on this economic question, you blame president obama for the jobs crisis but when you look at the data and a positive trend line, he gets the blame and none of the credit sh.

>> actually i don't blame him for the recession and the decline. what i blame him for is having it go on so long and a recovery that's been so tepid. businesses i talked to all over the country that would normally be hiring people are not hiring. i asked them why. they say because they look at the policies of this administration and they feel they're under attack. when you have an administration that tries to raise taxes and has on businesses, when it puts in place obama care that's going to raise the cost of healthcare for businesses and stack the national labor relations board with labor stooges which means that the policies relating to labor are now going to change dramatically in a direction they find uncomfortable, when you have obama care that places more mandates on them and harder for banks to make loans. all these things create a reality of a president who has been anti-investment, anti-jobs, anti-business and people feel that. if you want to get this country

going again, you have to recognize that the role of government is not just to catch the bad guys. important as that is. it's also to encourage the good guys. to return america to a land of opportunity. >> back to john and andy. john, go ahead. >> governor romney, i'll stay with you for one moment on the talking about regulation. one of your prime new hampshire supporters, senator a yot has said new hampshire should not be the tile pipe for pollutant. many attacked a rule limiting air pollution affecting downwind states, which he and others join with the president and senate democrats to block a repeal effort. now, is this an example of this trust state air pollution rule of fair regulation, something that we in the northeast are very concerned about in terms of pollution or is this overregulation, job killing overregulation? >> i'm not familiar with the specific regulation as it applies to new hampshire.

but i do believe that we have a responsibility to keep the air clean and we have to find ways to assure that we don't have the pollution of one state overwhelming the ability of another state to have clean air. in my state of massachusetts, we received a lot of air from the rest of the country, obviously given the winds coming from the west of the country to the east. so the responsibility in our state was to get the cost -- get the emissions from our power plants down. that's one of the reasons why we moved to natural gas. really, by the way, its discussion about energy and security, getting a cost of gasoline down, the big opportunity here is not just a new oil distribution system but it's a natural gas. we have massive new natural gas reserves found in pennsylvania, in north dakota, south dakota, texas, natural gas cheap, a fraction of the cost for btu oil. if we want to help people in new england that want homes and businesses that emote less pollutants into the air and lower cost energy, it's let's build out this natural gas

system to take advantage of the new source of economic strength. >> speaker gingrich, what exactly is an environmental solutions agency? i think a lot of people may not want to understand why you want to expand the epa and set up something that looks like the epa. >> if you look at the epa's record, it's increasingly radical and i am peer yus. it doesn't cooperate and collaborate and doesn't take into account economics. the city of nashville recently had a dump that was cited by epa. they went to find out why. they told them frankly we don't know. we can't find the records that led to this citation. we're not exactly sure what a reference. it must be bad or we wouldn't have sent it out. in iowa, they had a dust regulation under way because they control particulate matter. i agree on clean air. dust in iowa is an absurdity. they were worried that the plowing of a crown field would leave dust for another farmer's

field. they were -- in arizona they went in on the dust regulation and suggested that maybe if they watered down the earth, they wouldn't have the dust storms in the middle of the year and people said the reason it's called a desert. [ laughter ] is there's no water. this is an agency out of touch with reality which i believe is incorrigible and you need a new agency that's practical, has common sense, uses economic factors and in case of pollution, actually incentivizes change, doesn't punish it. andy? >> governor perry, your party's last nominee, john mccain wrote in the washington post about a year ago. his words, "i disagree with many of the president's policies. i believe he is a patriot using his time in office to advance our country's cause. i reject that his policies and believes make him unworth toy lead america or oppose to its founding ideals."

agreed? >> i make a very proud statement and a fact that we have a president that's a socialist. i don't think our founding fathers wanted america to be a socialist country. so i disagree with that premise that somehow or another that president obama reflects our founding fathers. he doesn't. he talks about having a more powerful, more centralized, more consuming and costly federal government. i am a tenth amendment believing governor. i truly believe that we need a president that respects the tenth amendment, that pushes back to the states, whether it's how to deliver education, how to deliver healthcare, how to do our environmental regulations. the states will considerably do a better job than a one size fits all washington, d.c. led by this president. >> can i jump in. governor perry, they call the president a socialist. senator santorum, when you voted

for a new prescription drug benefit that did not have a funding mechanism, were you advancing socialism? >> i said repeatedly that we should have had a funding mechanism and it's one of those things that i had a very tough vote, as you know. in that bill, we had health savings account. i had been fighting for that for 15 years to transform the private sector healthcare system. we had medicare advantage to transform the medicare system into -- medicare advantage is basically a premium support type model. >> is it sewsism, that's the point. >> i think i answered your question. maybe we're not communicating well. i talked about that health savings accounts is an anti-socialistic idea to try to build a bottom up consumer-based economy. in healthcare. the same thing with medicare advantage. we also structured the medicare part d benefit to be a premium

support model as a way to transition medicare. there were a lot of good things in that bill. one really bad thing. we should have paid for it. that was a mistake. >> follow-up on that? >> no. i'm going to switch to congressman paul and say many americans, particularly democrats, believe that hoig books healthcare is a right. in your opinion, what services are all americans entitled to expect to get from government? >> entitlements are not rights. rights mean you have a right -- [ applause ] >> rights mean you have a right to your life and you have a right to your liberty and you should have a right to keep the fruits of your labor. this is quite a bit difference. but earlier on, there was a little discussion here about gay rights. i in a way don't like to use those terms. gay rights, women's rights, minority rights, religious rights. there's only one type of right. it's your right to your liberty. i think this causes divisiveness when we see people in groups.

we punish groups so the answer then was, let's relieve them by giving them affirmative action. so i think both are wrong. if you think in terms of individuals and protect every single individuals, they're not entitled. one group isn't entitled to take somebody from somebody else. basic problem here there's a lot of good intention to help poor people. but guess who guess the entitlements in washington? the rich people. they run the entitlement system. the military industrial kplek complex. in our remaining moment, back to you, john. >> governor hunts man, andy and i are about to round -- as someone who has been here in new hampshire. live free or die, what does that mean to you personally and how would it guide you in the white house? >> it is the fulfillment of a citizenry being able to live out the meaning of our founding documents.

life, liberty and the pursuit o happiness. everywhere i've gone in this great state and we've done 160-plus public events. [ applause ] i feel it and i sense it and people take that very seriously. you know what else they take seriously, they take seriously the idea of real leadership. i've heard a lot of obfuscating up here, the blame game, talking about gays and unions. everybody has something nasty to say. the people of this country are waiting for, they want a leader to unify, who is going to bring us together. because at the end of the day, that's what leadership is all about. it's not about taking on different groups and vilifying them for whatever reason. it's about projecting a vision for a more hopeful tomorrow. that's why there's no trust in in country today. that's why, as president, i'm going to attack that trust deficit just as aggressively as i attack that economic deficit. with no trust, i can't think of anything more corrosive longer term to the people of this

nationment. >> we're going to leave it there. thank you john, and andy both. we'll take a quick break. i'll be back with a final round of questions including the questions from our meet the press facebook page. we'll be back in just a moment. i refer to her as "that woman with the great gums." as jill's dentist, i know that her gums are a foundation of a healthy smile. jill knows that, too -- so she uses crest pro-health clinical gum protection toothpaste. it helps eliminate plaque at the gum line, helping prevent gingivitis. it's even clinically proven to help reverse it in just 4 weeks. and it protects these other areas dentists check most. crest pro-health clinical gum protection. because healthy smiles are built on healthy gums.

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we are back. gentlemen, candidates, we have just a few minutes left. i'd like to try something, because i do want to get to as much substance and pin you down on views as best i can. i know this could be hard for you. but you are spending a lot of money getting your message out in 30-second increments based on what i've been watching in the hotel room in new hampshire. let's try 30-second answers to some of the questions. senator santorum, iran, it's been a big issue throughout the campaign so far. i wonder why it is, if america's lift with a nuclear soviet

union, we've come to live with a nuclear north korea. why is it that we cannot live with a nuke lar iran? if we can't, are you prepared to tab the country to war to disarm that country? >> they're a theocracy. they have deeply embedded believes that the afterlife is better than this life. president ahmadinejad repeatedly said that the republic of iran martyr come. when your principle virtue is to die for allah, it's not a deterrent to have a threat. it is an encouragement for them to use their nuclear weapon. that's why there's a difference between the soviet and union and china and others. >> what about pakistan, they're an indifferent ally at best. are you peeped to say they must disarm or else? >> they're not a theocracy. a more secular state that's in

place today. there is a serious threat. this administration has bungled it badly and trying to continue the positive relationships, we've had serious problems with the pakistani military, obviously with respect to osama bin laden, with respect to others. the reason is we have a president who is very weak in that region of the world and is not respected and he's not been able to have that strong hand in working with pakistan that they're used to. >> speaker gingrich, the tone of this campaign. i was in iowa, i heard you on the stump. you complained bitterly about the super pack, the outside groups that were lodging charges against you, bringing up some old issues against you. now you have a former campaign spokesperson preparing attacks against romney calling him a predator at the -- you agreed with somebody who said that governor romney was a liar when he didn't take account for those

attacks against you. are you consistent now as you're preparing to launch against governor romney? >> sure. >> how so? >> i'm consistent because i think you ought to have fact-based campaigns. the talk about the records. >> calling him a predator is not over the line? >> i have to look at the film which i have not seen. the times on thursday, you have to say engaged in behavior where they looted a company leaving 17 unemployed people. that's the new york times. that's not me. one of the ads i complained about, for pinocchios from the washington post. to get four of them in an ad means there's virtually nothing accurate in 30 seconds. >> you decry the washington establishment and you talked about the new york times and washington post. you've agreed with a characterization that governor romney is a liar. >> governor, i wish you would calmly and directly state it is your former staff running the p.a.c.

it is your millionaire friends giving the p.a.c. and you know some of the ads aren't true. just say that. straightforward. [ applause ] >> well, of course it's former staff of mine and of course the people who support me. they wouldn't be putting money into a p.a.c. that supports me if they didn't support me. with regards to their ads, i haven't seen them. under the law, i can't direct their ads. i can't direct their ads. if there's anything in there that's wrong, i hope everything is taken out if it's wrong. let me tell you this. the ad i saw said that you had been forced out of the speakership. that was correct. it said that you had sat down with nancy pelosi and argued for a climate change bill. that was correct. it said that you called the ron paul -- paul ryan's plan to provide medicare reform a right wing social engineering plan. it said that as part of an

investigation and ethics investigation that you had to reimburse some $300,000. those things are all true. if there was something related to abortion that it said that was wrong, i hope they pull it out. anything wrong, i'm opposed to. but you know, this ain't bean bag. we're going to come into a campaign and describe the differences between us. >> go ahead, speaker. >> i do think the rhetoric was a little over the top. >> you think my rhetoric was over the top. but your ads were totally reasonable? that's -- i've taken the governor's advice. >> mr. speaker, the super p.a.c.s that are out there running ads with ron paul's, mine, yours, as you know, that is not my ad. i don't write that adment. >> how about this. >> mr. speaker -- >> i wouldn't call some of the things you've called me public. i think that's over the top. >> would you both agree to request that these super p.a.c. ads be taken down? >> wait a second. come on. come on. i'm glad finally on this stage weeks later, he has said gee if

they're wrong they should take them down. we've sent a letter warning the stations to fact check them before they start running them. i'm taking his advice. we started to run his commercial from 1994, attacking teddy kennedy for running negative ads. we thought no, that would be wrong. instead, i agree with him. takes broad shoulders to run. if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. when the 27 and a half men and women movie comes out, i hope it's accurate. i can say publicly i hope that the super p.a.c. runs an accurate movie about -- bloomberg, news, barons. i hope it's totally accurate and people can watch the 27 and a half minutes of his career. let me ask you senator santorum. we talked about the role of government. but it's often called the bully pulpit. how would you use the bully pulpit to shape american culture and values?

>> i haven't written a lot of books. i've written one. it was in response to a book written by hillary clinton called it takes a village. i didn't agree with that. i believe it takes a family. that's what i wrote. i believe there's one thing that's undermining this country and it is the breakdown of the american family, it's undermining our economy, you see the rates of poverty among single parent families which are moms are doing heroic things. it's harder. it's five times harder in a single parent family. we know there's certain things at work in america. the institute came out with a study a couple of years ago that said if you graduate from high school and if you work and if you're a man, if you marry, if you're a woman, you marry before you have children, you have a 2% chance of being in poverty in america and to be above the median income, if you do those three things, 77% chance of being above the median income. why isn't the president of the united states or why aren't leaders in this country talking about that and trying to formulate, not necessarily federal government policy but

local policy and state policy and community policy to help people do those things that we know work and we know are good for society. this pt doesn't. in fact, he's required programs not to talk about marriage. not to talk about abstinence in order to get federal funds. he's working exactly against the things he knows works because he has a secular ideology against the -- >> dr. paul, how would you use the bully pull put? >> i would continue to preach the gospel of liberty. the most important ingredients in this country that made us great. our founders understood what liberty meant. that is what we need. we have deserted that. we have drifted a long way. it involves our right to life, right to liberty. we ought to be able to keep the fruits of our labor. understand property rights. understand contract rights. we ought to understand what what sound money is about and defense needs. the bully pulpit we need, we need to defend liberty. >> all right. defend liberty and -- >> and liberty.

[ laughter ] >> thank you. we'll take another break here. we'll be back with closing moments right after this. i would like to thank the

i would like to thank the candidates for joining us and our debate partners, facebook, the new hampshire union leader and our hosts in concord, the capital center for the arts. thank you, of course, for watching and participating in this debate online. post analysis continues on msnbc. watch complete coverage of the new hampshire primary returns tuesday night on msnbc and online at nbc politics.com. if it's sunday, it's meet the press. [ applause ] we've been watching the 15th

republican debate of this election season. good morning, i'm chris math in manchester, new hampshire. two days away from the new hampshire primary. we'll be here for the next hour and a half. i'm here with the huffington post political director and eugene robinson, pul utser prize winning author. both are analysts. fantastic event this morning a ripping debate, highly charged. electric in many moments. >> yes. let focus the main question of new hampshire. whether mitt romney will be ratified as the likely nominee of the party in this debate showed his weaknesses. it showed his stance as the nice guy, businessman, nonpolitician was open to question. it was questioned by everybody else on the stage and very surgically and strategically by the questioners, david gregory and the other. >> your first thought, gene? >> they landed some blows on romney today.

the question is, whether it's too late. things happen late in new hampshire. it seems like there's an eternity between today, sunday, and tuesday. but is that really, realistically enough time for the needle to move. >> here is the one-two punch from santorum and gingrich going after romney for being in public life, attacking his geist or his presentation. here is the first shot from santorum. >> i went to massachusetts to make a difference. i didn't go there to begin a political career, running time and time again. i made a difference. i put in place the things i wanted to do. i listed out the accomplishments we wanted to pursue in our administration. there were 100 things we wanted to do. those things i pursued aggressively. some we won, some we didn't. run again? that would be about me. i was trying to help get the state in the best shape as i possibly could. left via the world of politics, went back into business. now i have the opportunity again to use the experience i have --

you have a surprised look on your face. it's still my time. >> are you going to tell people you're not going to run for reelection for president if you with in? >> rick, it's still my time. >> i'm just asking. >> go ahead, governor romney, take 30 seconds there. >> what i'm going to tell you is, this for me politics is not a career. for me, my career was being in business and starting a business and making it successful. my life's passion has been my family, my faith and my country. >> as you made the point, finally, somebody asked the question why didn't you run for reelection if you're such a great governor of massachusetts. he didn't have much of an answer. >> he didn't have an answer. as others point out, mitt romney, newt calling it pious baloney. >> pick up on this. saying he's not a career politician saying it's baloney. he's been running since 1994. he never stopped running. here's the point made by newt gingrich.

>> i realize the red light doesn't mean anything to you because you're the front-runner. [ laughter ] but can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney. the fact is you ran in '94 and lost. the fact is you had a very bad reelection rating. you dropped out of office. you had been out of state for something like 200 days preparing to run for president. you didn't have the interlude of citizenship while figure -- you ran for president while governor. you were going all over the country. you were out of state consistently. then you promptly re-entered politic. you lost to mccain as you lost to kennedy. now you're back running. you've been running for years and years and years. this idea that suddenly it showed up in your mind, level with the american people. you've been running at least since the 1990s. >> devastating. >> he's been -- if he's the

nominee against president obama, obama can throw this in his face. you're not the innocent here buddy. >> he likes to portray himself as i'm a businessman. this is not my career. i'm a business guy. i just did this to help out for my country. moments of patriotism. why do these guys wait? a couple things hit me. late in the game. it's sunday, two days before the new hampshire primary. we've had months to rip the scab off this profession of innocence. why now? >> this is the last clear chance. if mitt romney wins big here, he has momentum into south carolina. he can potentially wrap up the nomination. >> this is the pass of politics. new hampshire. everybody is firing at you from the hills. also, go to gene's point. things happen here late. i've covered a million of these. the ground moves in new hampshire on the last week what they have to -- >> you need a moderator to open the door for them. >> i am not a media critic. but the door was never opened for this kind of assault. david gregory opened the door

from the beginning of the debate. >> i think they were all nervous. they didn't know how it would play. they thought, here's a guy who is the front-runner, republicans aren't supposed to be like that. they're not supposed to go after each other. you go down to the wire, they've got to do something. they've got to slow him down. >> let's look at the tv ads. for month, all three of us were in iowa sitting in our hotel rooms. we would come home and watch the devastating super p.a.c. ads. late in the debate, a few moments ago, mitt romney and newt gingrich had this heated exchange of ads put out by a super p.a.c. that clearly backs mitt romney. this is finally the issue we've been talking about. lits listen. >> governor, i wish you would calmly and directly state it is your former staff running the p.a.c., your millionaire friends giving the pam and you know some of the ads aren't true. say that straightforward. [ applause ] >> well, of course it's former

staff of mine and of course they're people who support me. they wouldn't put money into i a p.a.c. if they didn't support me. with regards to the ads, i haven't seen them. under the law, i can't direct their ads. speaker, hold on a second. i can't direct their ads. if there's anything in there that's wrong, i hope they take it out. i hope everything that's wrong is taken out. let me tell you this. the ad i saw said that you've been forced out of the speakership. that was correct. it said that you had sat down with nancy pelosi and argued for a climate change bill. that was correct. it said that you called the ron paul -- paul ryan's plan to provide medicare reform a right wing social engineering plan. it said that as part of an ethics investigation that you had to reimburse some $300,000. those things were all true. if there was something related to abortion that was wrong, i hope they pull it out. anything wrong i'm opposed to. but this ain't a bean bag. we come into a campaign and

describe the differences between us. but i do think -- >> go ahead, speaker. >> the rhetoric, mr. speaker, i think was a little over the top. >> you any my rhetoric -- >> here's the question. here he is admitting he knows the content about what he says. because he said there were problems in there. >> first he said he hadn't seen it. i happened to see it. i happened to see it. then he recited the specifics of the entire ad almost word for word and ends up by saying like the wrestler who puts the razor blade back in the turnips. this ain't bean bag. get used to it. >> ultimately, the foreign object in this case is a super p.a.c. he claims he doesn't know about and as howard said, he recited the points in the ad. >> of course, it's my former staff. of course it's -- what does that mean, of course, it's my former staff. >> the accusations. >> what it means is that of course is a fiction. of course it's my ad. we maintain the fiction that it's independent.

it's my forper staff that does it. it's legal, but it's fictional. >> that conversation was the high point of this campaign so far in terms of honesty. ended by him basically saying bean bag. you got to take this stuff. is he denying the truth of these ads and then he said maybe there were inaccuracies. >> there was a question about the abortion language in the ad. but newt comes back and says being look, i agree, you have to have broad shoulders to be in the campaign and hey buddy, wait until you get a load of the independent ad about baine capital that will be 27 and a half minutes long. it's all going to be based on the new york times. >> a spokesman, a surrogate for governor romney, the former governor of this state, new hampshire, he supports governor rom mi for president. he was also white house chief of staff for the first president. governor, let me ask you a particular point here. should candidates be responsible for ads put on the air by their former staffers and friends in

their interest? should they be responsible for the content of those ads? >> you guys are reveling and wallowing in ridiculous perception of what's going on. there's a law defining what can and can't be done by those p.a.c.s and all the candidates are following the law. to suggest that governor romney shouldn't know what's in that ad with all the clippings that have been out describing it, come on, stop being ridiculous and get to the point. you guys don't even know you're seeing new hampshire politics. when you think there's something bad about tithing your time to serve, if there's any state that understands that mitt romney going in and serving and giving his time and going back to the private sector is a normal part of the process, it's new hampshire. stop being ridiculous and talk about the issues. the job problems in this country, the need to cut spending and the need to cut taxes. when the -- >> governor, you used the word ridiculous. just repeating the word

ridiculous doesn't make it so. i was in iowa and couldn't get away from the ads run by your candidate again and again and again. >> there's nothing wrong with it. >> saturated with negativity and saying he isn't responsible. i'm asking you, is a candidate responsible -- >> he's not responsible. do you know what the law is? >> i know what the law is. we're talking about how laws can be used should a candidate be -- should the candidate -- >> you guys have an agenda that you want to drive and you have no idea what the rules and regulations are. >> you obviously are here with an agenda. okay. let me ask you. >> come on. >> let me ask you one last time. do you think the law is a good law allowing candidates. >> no, the law should be changed. everybody. every candidate agrees the laws should be changed. nobody likes that law. but unfortunately, bad legislation put the supreme court in a position where they had to make that decision. >> okay. gene, i've been watching this campaign. i have yet to hear a call by governor romney for reform in campaign advertising. >> i haven't heard that either.

i'm curious why governor romney -- governor sue new new why did the governor say he hadn't seen the ad if he had? >> well, he has gene. the clips describing what's in the ads. you don't think he reads news clips? don't be silly. >> don't be silly. so you're attesting to the fact he doesn't see the ads before or after they're airing. >> can i ask a question? >> sees the ads. i know he reads the news clippings. >> i don't know why you're skirting theish eye but saying he didn't watch the ads. why are you dodging the issue of responsibility? >> everything that he talked about has been described in the news clips. and if you guys aren't smart enough to understand that, you got a real problem. >> okay. let me ask you, governor. let's lower the temperature for a second. we'll notch it back on my end. he ran against ted kennedy. we agree that was an uphill battle. not a suicide campaign but i difficult campaign. he took credit for the fact that he forced him to mortgage his

game to protect incumbency. he lost that. began running for president. he ran for governor, of course. he served one term. his poll numbers were very low. there was very good reasons to indicate he didn't run for reelection because he wasn't going to get re-elected. what's wrong with admitted he's been a career politician having been in electoral pursuits? why keep pretending he's not a politician? >> you got to decide whether you want to attack him for being a career politician or attack him for all the successes he had as a crier private sector guy. how can you be a career both? you guys don't know which way to go and which way to go after him. he's a career private sector guy that understood how to create jobs, took it to massachusetts for a period of time and went back to the private sector. now he's running for president. he'd like to take at that talent into the oval office and start creating jobs for america and fix the mess that your guy obama has caused.

>> fair enough. your guy too. he's your president as well. let me ask you, governor. let me attest to why this is important. there's a lot wrong with this country, not just js in terms of the economy. we have too much division in the country. we have a country that doesn't trust its own gochlt these are clear fact. what the game is right now in politics and all the candidates are playing,let admit that, to say they're not responsible. everybody from rick perry, everybody is not from washington, everybody is not a politician. everybody is a citizen, everybody is an innocent out there. it is not a ridiculous argument to have over the clear nature of what a person's profession has been. mitt romney has attempted to live his life in politics and has failed on a number of occasions. that's all that's being said by his opponents. you say that's not fair? >> no. what i say is you got to put a context on it. he took a chunk of his life and went to the olympics. he took a chunk of his life and served in the private sector.

he took a chunk of his life and served as governor of massachusetts and now he's willing to take a chunk of his life and be president. there's a hole there. not just one sliver. it's not just a sliver of being a career politician or a sliver of being a career private sector guy. it's a combination of all those things. it's the combination that he brings to the table that -- >> fair enough. good retort. i hear the retort. gene? >> it's an accurate answer. not a retort. >> governor, i wanted to ask you. change the subject a bit. governor romney criticized, has criticized jon huntsman for serving as ambassador to china under president obama. >> right. >> huntsman, today, essentially said, attitudes like that are why the country is divided. does governor romney stick to that, or do you subscribe to that, you having served in the white house yourself that it's not wise to serve the president when he says -- when he asks you to serve?

>> i was a republican that agreed with the policies of my president. if governor huntsman wants to stick by agreeing with the obama policies, then he should carry the burden of having been part of the obama policies. what's more damming to governor huntsman are the fawning letters that he wrote drooling all over the place about obama's policies and him as a leader. that's the biggest burden that governor huntsman carries from his service in china. >> let me ask you, henry kafrt lodge was successful in the new hampshire primary winning back in 1964 having just served and was still serving as ambassador to vietnam under president johnson a democrat. were the voters of new hampshire wrong to make that decision? >> i think the voters of new hampshire today would not make that decision. i think there's a very different climate in the world and i think that if that situation came up senator lodge, former senator from massachusetts, then ambassador lodge would not do as well. >> unfortunately, i think you'd have to say that huntsman is right when he said to quote -- verbatim, this nation is divided david because of attitudes like that. i think what you just reflected is that we're living in a country that has a very bad attitude to the kind we had back in the very divisive 1960sment that's a bad comment about the nature of the election. >> no, no.

people are angry at the policies that are reflected by this administration and they are not supportive of somebody who, in serving that administration, supports those policies. that's what the issue is. it's supporting bad policies. >> okay. supportive of somebody who, in serving that administration, supports those policies. that's what the issue is. it's supporting bad policies. >> okay. thank you, governor. it's always good to have you on. governor john sununu. have a great surrogate for mitt romney. thank you for coming on sir. >> thank you for having me. let's go to david gregory. moderator of meet the press. let me be the first.

it was an electric debate. this was highly charged and you're moderating skills, i think, played a major role in activating the candidates to be their best. i give you that for sunday morning greatness. >> thank you. >> what do you think you learned as a newsman? >> well, i do think the tone was a big role. i think that i the start both by where trying to lead theandidates but certainly where they picked up the ball and ran with it. that they were trying to slow romney down. i mean, they recognize if you were not romney, you had to do something to try to slow him down. as you referred to, the debate about running for politics, for quite a long time, being a career politician, that back and forth. i have to say, there may have been more heat than light. even newt gingrich, who says that romney is unelectable still has some bullet points about what he sees as a moderate record and i don't know that they sort of line up point to point about what the record actually was for governor romney.

but it was very clear that whether it was just process, just argument, there was an attempt to come at him and say you're not for real. you're not authentic as a conservative. you're not authentic as a guy who is an outsider who can pick up the mantle of the republican party and ultimately, you're too compromised to go against president obama. i think that argument was made and i think everybody was ready to come and make that argument today. >> here's howard fie man, david? >> i wondered if there's anything that surprised you. you were right there within a few feet of them. you were asking very tough questions. they were going after each other. what surprised you about either the dynamics or the content of what they said today? >> well, i think what surprised me a little bit is that governor romney, my thought from last night on that other debate was that he was trying to be very cool, trying to be above the fray. i think he was happy to see that paul and santorum were sparring.

i think here he understood, a, that he was very much a target and there was no getting around it. and that he had to fight back. i just saw a lot more fight in him today as a stylistic piece and seeing them up close and certainly at the end there between romney and gingrich. i thought that was striking. here's another point. i do think this is important substantively. politicians go around in the debates and say let's not be superficial. let's talk in great depth, tell the american people what they want to know. instead of answering questions about the painful cuts they're going to make, there becomes an attack on the commentary. or if it was governor perry, really that that's the answer he's going to surprise let's talk in great depth, tell the american people what they want to know. instead of answering questions about the painful cuts they're going to make, there becomes an attack on the commentary. or if it was governor perry, really that that's the answer he's going to surprise republicans by calling for a balanced budget amendment. i don't think that's bucking the orthodox i of the party. i don't think we learned a lot about how these candidates can do what bush and obama were unable to do and that's actually change the way washington works to get results. i think they have to bear in mind, people expect results and

expect things to be accomplished. that's not happening in washington. >> david, i think in closing, i want to congratulate you again on the substance in this case. i think you got a lot out of them in terms of means testing. the wealthy. they seemed to chime in there. that's a tough one for republicans to hear. i thought they were all very forthcoming in that regard. david, congratulations on an amazing performance. >> thank you very much, chris. >> a lot of substance we'll get out of this as we study the transcript. thank you, sir. thank you howard, my colleagues and lore and eugene robinson of course from the post. more analysis from us. you're watching msnbc's coverage. what a great morning for nbc and msnbc. we're talking about the republican presidential debate just held here in manchester new hampshire just two days before the new hampshire primary. >> let me answer the question you asked earlier. what are the three areas you would make reduction that people

will feel pain. it would be those bureaucrats at the department of commerce and energy and education that we're going to do away with. [ applause ]

first of all with respect to governor romney, there were a lot of people tuned in this morning. and they're confused after watching this political spin up here. i was criticized last night by

governor romney for putting my country first. i just want to remind the people here in new hampshire and throughout the united states that i think -- [ applause ] -- he criticized me when he was out raising money for serving my country in china. yes, under a democrat. like my two sons are doing in the united states navy. >> i just think it's most likely that the person who should represent our party running against president obama is not someone who called him a remarkable leader and went to be his ambassador in china. >> this nation is divided, david, because of attitudes like that. [ applause ] >> i think that's an historic retort. thanks for joining us. alex wagner is host of now which airs every weekday at noon eastern time. exactly at noon. you're a young commentator and analyst in the news. first of all, i want to hear your reaction. >> it was my favorite moment of the debate. i thought huntsman was

incredibly strong. he's been hammered and over again for having served as ambassador to china. the response was eloquent and of a peace in terms of new hampshire what the voters want there panned to some degree what the country thinks. is it such a black mark on his record that he served in the administration? i don't know why all of a sudden we talk about the ideas of public service and serving in government is a bad thing and being a politician is a bad thing. here's a guy with incredible foreign policy experience. yes, he served under a democratic president. but the huntsman question has been a huge head scratcher for me. it's great to see he's rising in polls and he answered that with confidence and spoke truthfully. >> here's a man with unique experience in china, the most trading partner we'll have. speaks man dar in, can do a job that few other public officials in our history could have done having that language ability. he's asked to give that unique training and experience to the country in the interest of the country and he accepts it.

>> i will say, huntsman is not done himself a service in some areas in terms of appealing to -- in the debate. the constantly dropping chinese phrases is a little dork i and embarrassing. i think -- >> it wouldn't hurt him on the democratic side. >> you're correct. i think huntsman biggest problem is he came out of the gates and was so gung-ho about being a moderate outside of the mold of the republican, wearing the jean jacket, riding the motocross across the desert and talking about captain beef heart and turned off everybody who was ready to dismiss him because he served under president obama. that's to some degree why he hasn't gotten traction. >> where 40% of the country wants to get i -- some in the worst way, there's a lot of hatred out there, what do you think it will do to him in terms

of coming out on the eve of the new hampshire primary. will it get him votes to be a serious man in the middle sm. >> i think it works in new hampshire. in south carolina, it's dirty politics, it's going to be nasty down there. can jon huntsman get his head above water? it remains tbd. stay with msnbc for our coverage of the republican presidential candidates debate just held. in manchester, two days before the primary. it's gotten hot. they're going after romney, dirty ads, the works. it's finally come to the high noon here in new hampshire.