take away the sprites, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. good morning. i'm chris jansing. today is super tuesday and the voters are headed to the polls for the first nation presidential primary. it's been just a week since the

votes separated newt gingrich and mitt romney from rick santorum. but what a week it's been. >> we are off to new hampshire. >> these results are the closest in the history of the iowa caucuses. >> game on! [ applause ] >> former senator rick santorum pulled off an epic turnaround. >> we always need a jesus candidate, someone who believes in this. >> i decided to return to texas, assess the results of tonight's caucus. >> it looked like he was throwing in the towel. >> i just said i was going to reassess last night. i reassessed. >> i have decided to stand beside him. >> the republican party is becoming the almond joy party. some days they feel like a nut, sometimes they don't. >> the gingrich campaign appears to have visited into a jack mode at full throttle. >> it's a joke to call himself a conservative.

it's a saturday night live skit. because he he doesn't tell the truth. >> the final debate before new hampshire voting begins. >> his record is so great as the governor of massachusetts, why didn't he run for reelection? >> i went to massachusetts to make a difference. i didn't go there to begin a political career, running time and time again. >> can we drop a little bit of the pious baloney? >> finally election day and we are live in new hampshire with chris matthews, host of "hardball" and author of the terrific buy iography, "jack kennedy." what does mitt romney need to do tonight? does he need to win or does he need a big win to chip away at that narrative? >> i think he needs 35 partie%.

the bar keeps changing, but 35 sounds right given where he's been. >> he's in a battle for second. that's what everybody is talking about. paul and gingrich going for santorum. who has the advantage? >> it's very hard. i looked at the daily by suffolk today, and they're all bunched today. paul is a bit ahead of the others. i think the undecided as 15%, i think most of them would go for huntsman. so i'm saying in the spirit of new hampshire being a very flimsy state, a very new england state, that huntsman will come in second here and beat paul. that's my hunch, and i think it would be good for the race to create that kind of excitement. >> if he doesn't finish second, is he out? >> well, i don't think he's achieved his purpose. he's put everything in this state, and if he can do better than every other candidate except romney, who is the local guy, yeah, i think he would have

failed. >> if he surprises, chris, is it healthy that he serve for the president of the other party? do you think new hampshire-ites are looking at you served as ambassador to china, you signed on for barack obama, do you think his independent streak he's shown in the debates and before that separates him a bit from the pack and may help him in new hampshire? >> it definitely will. in 19352, dwight eisenhower was head of nato and serving under democratic president harry truman and he won the primary without even coming here. under lyndon johnson, a democrat serving at the time, he won a writing campaign here in 1964. now there's a president, two of them. i think the voters, as you just said, respect national service. they don't really care which party you serve.

they know you're serving the country. >> and whether or not john huntsman dropped out, whether or not he comes in second, how significant will this be to sort of remaking the race in south carolina? do you think that whatever happens here could have a big impact momentumwise or otherwise in what happens in south carolina? >> to give a different answer to your first question, if romney doesn't do well up here, if he gets around 30 or lower, it begins to set the notion that maybe he's not the nominee, the right person. then the goal will be to get his number down low in south carolina. it's not that anyone can beat romney, it's that they keep lowering and suppressing his number. if they're successful at keeping him at 30 or lower, they will kill the inevitability argument. i think newt gingrich may be winning but he's doing the most

damage as possible to romney. >> you've been on the ground there and have been for several days. what are you sensing in terms of interest and excitement for this race? if you talk to candidates, they say, i feel the excitement, i feel the momentum. it is 10:00 in the morning, but the polling place is empty right now. what's your sense of new hampshire right now and how engaged they are in all this? >> i don't think it's like the early days of gene mccarthy or george mcgovern or pat buchanan where there is a lot of excitement, or with hillary clinton last time. i think it's pretty low grade right now excitement, but i do think there are a lot of undecideds, and that's what's going to make this race tonight so interesting. where are those 15% going? where are those 40-some percent who say they haven't made up their mind? i think this is very up in the air up here, and that's why i'm betting on huntsman. i think when in doubt, they're

going to go with the guy who has shown himself right near polling time. huntsman did very well in that debate with david gregory on sunday morning when he stood up for national service and stuck it to romney. i think people -- well, maybe i'm voting or thinking with my heart here. i'd like to think americans pay attention to those moments on television. >> "hardball"'s chris matthews. thank you very much. he will be a part of the live coverage coming out of the primaries. it all starts at 6:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. mitt romney's carefully planned campaign is doing some damage control after he uttered the phrase, i'd like to be able to fire people, when talking about choosing an insurance company. >> the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. it also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. i like being able to fire people who provide services to me. if someone doesn't give me the

good service i need, i want to say, you know, that i'm going to go get somebody else to provide that service to me. >> well, joining me now, politico's wall street journal's ben white. let me play some of the other candidates' reactions to what mitt romney says. >> governor romney enjoys firing. i enjoy creating jobs. >> mitt romney will kill those jobs. i don't think that's the type of job creation we're talking about in america. >> i do draw a distinction between leaving behind broken families and broken neighborhoods and leaving behind a factory that should be there. >> in context, we should say, ben, that romney's comments make sense. but is there an optical problem here? we've already seen a ring tone put out by rick perry's campaign, i like firing people. i like firing people. i like firing people. >> obviously mitt romney's campaign is no stranger to

taking comments out of context and using them in ads, just the same with president obama taking john mccain's comment and using it out of context about obama oning with his record on the economy. but mitt romney will face this argument sooner or later, it just happens that he's facing a republican primary, which is surprising some people, but his image is of a corporate raider who slashed jobs, which will show up in the general election, and it still will if he gets the nomination. so there is an argument here that he could be getting inoculated against this. people don't understand exactly what has been done. mitt romney on the campaign trail he created 100,000 jobs, but there is no documentation of that. they have not released any kind of definitive numbers on jobs made or lost, so we have to trust him on that. but he's lost control of the narrative, i think, and he's getting inoculated a bit. >> i should just mention that

nbcu and bain kacapital are bot owners of the weather channel in the interests of full disclosure. but when we talk about the narrative, this isn't the first step to get his opponents fodder. he said he was happy kennedy had to take out a second mortgage to beat him in the race for the senate. his dad told him don't run for office if you need a paycheck. is there a sign that romney is getting a little rattled here? >> yes, and it's getting close to voting day, chris, but over the course of the year when mitt romney has been a little under fire for stumbling over his words, the press makes a big deal of it because he hasn't campaigned that much this year. he's really been sort of caged up all year. the romney campaign hasn't wanted him to be overexposed, so when he comes out and says things like that, we pounce on him. the public hasn't had much access to him, but he's not as

disciplined as people think, and when he's let out to say things, it's going to create a problem for him, and the more he campaigns in the next year if he's the nominee, he could face some of these problems. >> there are a lot of people who look at this campaign and say, wow, what a well-organized, disciplined campaign, but the candidate himself, is he prone to gaffs? >> lately he has been. there has probably been a reason he hasn't been let out to have these unscripted back and forth with voters. he's not a guy who is ever going to be great at connecting with the average joe. it's not who he is, he doesn't come from that background, so the tightly scripted campaign has been tightly scripted for a reason. he could ultimately be an excellent commander in chief. we'll wait and see about that. but he's not the great politician that even rick perry is, that rick santorum is. they're much better in those environments where they're connecting with voters and talking to voters. mitt romney is not as good at

that and he's been kept in a box for a reason. >> erin, even though this is coming um early in the campaign, ben pointed out that people thought it's not going away any time soon, is it, the whole criticism involving bain. >> no, and the last time it didn't come up. he talked about working in the private sector and we knew about bain, but some of these arguments didn't come up. but now that people think mitt romney may be the nominee, it's coming out in full force. when he ran for senate in 1984 against ted kennedy, they did make this argument against him and mitt romney didn't handle it very well and went on to lose pretty handily against ted kennedy. so democrats know that's a tactic that works. the democratic campaign is loving this, because if romney gets the nominee, they can see in these attacks what can work and what won't. >> thanks to both of you.

it was just four years ago that then-senator barack obama captured the imagination of williams with his now famous "yes, we can" speech. can he recap toture that messag today? we'll hear what president obama's biggest challenges are right now. the white house is already dismissing a revealing new book that talks about the tensions between the show obama and the white house star. they're pushing back saying the book is, quote, overhyped and sensationalized, arguing that the white house is

an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car is totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us today. responsibility. what's your policy?

if you took the top down on a crossover? if there were buttons for this? wouldn't it be cool if your car could handle the kids... ♪ ...and the nurburgring? or what if you built a car in tennessee that could change the world? yeah, that would be cool. nissan. innovation for today. innovation for tomorrow. innovation for all. ♪ diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'.

mitt romney has been called a lot of things during this election cycle. a front runner, massachusetts moderate. and how here's john huntsman's take from morning joe. >> why is mitt romney so far ahead of you, then? >> he's a homeboy. he's been here for a whole lot of years. >> can i say this for the record? you're the first person who has ever called mitt romney a homeboy, but go ahead. >> newt gingrich's headquarters was surrounded by protesters. they have security concerns and apologized to supporters in manchester. but the protesters had more than one mission. >> a lot of people came out to counterrally or counterprotest, including ron paul's quarters, occupiers, and people were just

interested to see what was going on. >> president obama took aim at republicans in a fund raising speech last night. he said congressional republicans are trying to make him a one-term president, not unlike the republicans on the campaign trails trying to replace him. but he tried to fire up the crowd of 700, a lot like the last time he ran. >> i said it in 2008, i warned you all, i said, you know, i said, i'm not a perfect man. i said i won't be a perfect president, but i promised you this. and i wake up every single day thinking about you and fighting for you and trying to figure out how can we make sure that everybody has access to the american dream. >> and that's the theme you'll be hearing from obama 2012, but who will be fighting with him? white house chief of staff bill daley is leafiving a little mor than a year after he started and

a little sooner than expected. anita dunn is senior adviser of the obama campaign and she joins me now. good to see you, a neat a. >> thank you, and good to be on. >> does this change look bad for the administration, do you think? >> i think that bill daley did an excellent job as chief of staff, and if you look at especially the end of the year and the fight over the payroll tax extension, which was a core difference between the president and the congressional republicans. the president who was fighting to make sure that we kept taxes low for the people who really work for a living in this country, and the congressional republicans who wanted to raise those taxes, and you look at the record over the last year and you see that it was an exhausting year. i think you'll see a seamless transition, and what i think you'll see as the year goes on is a continuation of really those sharp definitions of the difference between the president

and the republican party, and they are real differences. >> it does come at the same time as this new book. jackie tanner's book paints a picture of tension at the white house. it could raise a question of obama's management style. conventional wisdom is that in reality, while bill davis still has the corner office, he frankly wasn't running things, anyway, and the problem is a pr one, not that it's going to change day-to-day operations. is that analysis fair? >> i worked in the white house in 2009, which is grounds that's covered in jodi's book. i think it's always easy to take things, small things, and make them appear much larger and try to fit them into a narrative. the reality is that if you look at this white house and you look at this president, what he has achieved and what he has accomplished over the last three years is really extraordinary, and, you know, you were hark harkening back to new hampshire four years ago. this president did something

nobody did in 70 years, was have national health care reform to make sure health care is accessible and affordable to american families. he took on wall street to make sure we don't have another meltdown like we had in 2008, and he put a consumer financial protection bureau in place so consumers have someone standing um for them. he kept his pledge to the war in iraq and we brought the troops home in december. and he is working hard every day to build an economy that's going to last, that doesn't go from bubble to bubble and that really restores the vitality of the middle class. these are things he talked about four years ago in new hampshire. >> can i play a little bit of this famous "yes, we can" speech four years ago in new hampshire. here we go. >> we've been told we aren't ready or that we shouldn't try or that we can't. generations of americans have responded with a simple creed

that sums up the spirit of the people. yes, we can. yes, we can. yes, we can. [ applause ] >> that was -- arguably, one of the defining moments in his political career, the hope and change theme caught hold. but if i can, anita, let me read for you from a press release i got 20 minutes ago from the rnc. hope and change may have defined obama's 2008 campaign, but false hope more accurately defines his presidency. at the beginning of 2012, three years into the obama presidency, 70% of americans now believe the country is on the wrong track. how does the president answer that criticism and recapture the enthusiasm we saw there in 2008? >> i don't think it's any surprise that the rnc, given the

lack of enthusiasm, the everyday growth of their candidates is now turning its attention and making this argument against the president. let's think about what he said in new hampshire, chris. he said, yes, we can. we can all work together. we can all move this country forward together and we don't give up in the face of adversity. don't forget that is a speech he gave the night he lost the new hampshire primary to hillary clinton. and throughout his presidency, the republicans have put up every obstacle they can. they have been unflinching in their desire to defeat him. and he has not turned back, and he hasn't given up, and he has pushed ahead and he has succeeded. that is a real thieme that i think you'll see throughout 2012, what has been done and what is left to be done. there is so much that we have to do to move this country forward together. and the republican candidates haven't offered any ideas to create jobs. they haven't offered any ideas beyond going back to the

policies that got us the problems that we have in the first place. and i think that that is why you're going to see a lot of press releases from the chairman and they're all going to say the same thing, no, we can't, but the president has always said yes, we can pull together and move forward in 2012. >> anita dunn, good to see you. >> good to see you, chris. can all republican candidates survive after new hampshire? who do you want to win the race? let us know on facebook.

[ male announcer ] vicks nyquil cold and flu. the nighttime sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, fever, best sleep you ever got with a cold...medicine. ♪ thrilled. wait. we can have shakes? and boston cream pie. did you say pie? pie. she said pie. pie. [ male announcer ] get back on track with low prices on everything you need. backed by our ad match guarantee. walmart.

we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally.

ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. in just moments, mitt romney is scheduled to meet with voters in manchester, hoping to make some history. a win tonight would make him the first non-incumbent to win both the iowa and new hampshire gop.

something that hasn't happened since the '70s. the polls are open until 8:00 tonight. nbc's richard lui is here to tell us about tonight. >> it's not about the percentage of registered republicans, it's about the whopping 41% of undeclared voters. watch them in the exit polls tonight. more undecideds, perhaps more uncertainty. who does it help? not huntsman. this university of new hampshire poll, for instance, says undeclared want mitt. for all the ballyhoo, new hampshire only represents 1% of what's needed to win the gop. a small number but big significance. the mayor says in his book that

the candidates in 2004, remember the number 27. if you win new hampshire, he says that candidates on average can win a stunning 27% more in the rest of the nation's primaries nationwide. which leads me to 3. notice the line between second and third place tonight. since 1952, no candidate has become the gop nominee if they placed third, fourth or anything outside second place in new hampshire. 30. in iowa, romney was in the 20s. he then went to 30. romney is trending down. he wants to win in the 30s to show he's a strong front runner. 2. last week we said watch the number of religious conservatives. not in new hampshire. it's the second least religious state in the union. south carolina is the second least religious. romney and santorum have one

campaign each in new hampshire. obama in 2012 endorsed them with seven offices. it will probably be the quietest place, though, chris. >> thank you so much, richard. by all preliminary accounts, romney has a decisive lead in new hampshire, but when it comes to south carolina and florida, things could get a lot tougher for the front runner. and join me tomorrow for an analysis on new hampshire and a look ahead on former presidential candidate herman cain and debbie wasserman schultz. we'll be right back. fferent. first, it's been re-engineered with micro-particles. second, it enters the bloodstream fast, and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. the best part? it's proven to relieve pain twice as fast as before.

bayer advanced aspirin. test how fast it works for you. love it, or get your money back. ♪ tell me what you really mean ♪ do you know what you want? ♪ while beating up on yesterday ♪ ♪ rolling on, moving on [ female announcer ] the space of a small suv. and more ways to connect to your world. ♪ do you know what you are? the all-new prius v from toyota. ♪ do you know?

i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel. i want to go on a road trip. when i grow up, i'm going to go there. i want to fix up old houses. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. i want to fall in love again. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. . on new hampshire primary day, a new advantage for mitt romney. a national poll shows he's the only candidate that a majority of republicans find to be an acceptable nominee. more than half of conservative republicans say romney is okay

with them, and moderate and liberal voters in the gop say the same thing. more than half of conservatives also approve of gingrich and santorum but nobody comes close to romney as moderate, liberal republicans. editor in chief of the gallup poll. good morning. what does it mean to places like south carolina and florida? >> if i was flippant, i would say what does new hampshire mean for those numbers? what we're doing in dallas is tracking these numbers closely for republicans across the country. the real key to new hampshire is, you've been saying all morning, chris, is what impact will it have on everybody else, the psychology of it. so the real key will be after new hampshire, the kind of number we just looked at, romney is very strong nationally. he's expected to win. 60% of republicans think he will t acceptability numbers, so the real key will be

after the results come in tonight and over the next several days. how is this going to affect the views of republicans nationwide, and we'll have to wait and see. >> you have a couple things going on here. one is the acceptable. the other thing, and this applies to all candidates on both sides, how enthusiastic are you about them, and is that something that perhaps even a more critical measure? >> well, it can be a critical measure, but john mccain came out of new hampshire back in '08 and, of course, went on to get the nomination, and i'm not sure he is the candidate who generated the most enthusiasm. i think that will be an issue for the nominee in the fall, because motivation and turnout is always critical in any election. but at the moment, i think republicans are looking about for who is going to be able to beat barack obama, and we're going to see if that ends up being mitt romney. >> let me ask you about a little bit of history and the perspective on this contest. the pew research center says 44% of republicans say the gop field

is fair or poor. >> i think based on their research, certainly those numbers are lower than they were back in '08, looking at the history from what pew told us there. remember, our data showed that this is the most up and down race in recent memory for the republicans. in other words, in our tracking, the lead has changed hands more times this year among republicans than any race i think going all the way back to the 1960s, 1964. we had a litre like cain and then we had perry ahead and now we have mitt romney ahead. i think part of that may be that republicans nationwide are saying, geez, this field is really bouncing around and we're not sure who is going to be the nominee yet. >> we're not sure who is going to come in second, third, fourth, fifth tomorrow. frank newport, editor in chief of the gallup poll. fascinating stuff. thank you. the key report helped people score points in the last

election, of course. this time the people are divided and that could be good for mitt romney. cory is here. good morning, cory. the race tonight is for second place is the rumor. do you have a feeling for where those members of the tea party are going to go? >> i think the vast majority of the tea party in new hampshire are split amongst their votes. i think you'll see dr. paul has a strong showing, very likely to finish in second place, however, the remainder of the field has not done as as well amongst the tea party because their positions are so similar. by that i mean speaker gingrich, senator santorum, and it could have been governor perry. unfortunately, with so many candidates in the race that support the tea party values, those voters are split. >> rick santorum, though, generally put in the category of conservatives. what is it about him that you think is not resonating with the

tea party? >> i think you can look at senator santorum's voting history as a member of the u.s. senate and you see where he supported earmarks, something the tea party has advocated against. he's also been someone who is a strong social conservative but, really, the tea party has a fiscal responsibility and that issue alone is something that raises some concern. >> as you know, there is concern about many in the leadership of the conservative wing of the party who say, we need to coalesce around one candidate. if we're going to beat mitt romney, who they don't like, if we're going to have a chance at getting into the play to beat barack obama, we can't allow this process to continue a long time. are you on board with that? do you think it's time for conservatives and the republican party to start coming together behind one candidate? >> i think it's important to know here in new hampshire that

most of the most conservative numbers have endorsed president obama's campaign. i look at tom thompson, who has been a leading tea party advocate the last 20 years in new hampshire, he supports the campaign. it's not like governor romney doesn't have tea party support. after tonight in new hampshire where governor romney is going to win the primary, it's going to be very, very difficult for any other candidate to potentially challenge him for the nomination. if the polls hold up and governor romney does well in south carolina as the polls indicate he would if the election remember -- were held today, he will be the nominee for president of the united states. the number of people who plung plunked down the plastic and put down loans surged in more than a decade. mandy, do we know what's behind this surge and what it might

mean for the economy going forward? >> chris, consumer borrowing, yes, leads by the most in ten years. the era of reductions that has held back the economy for years might be entering a new and moderate phase. it's also part of the hope fatigue. households seem more willing to take on debt after years of paring back and being frugal. credit card balances, which the feds regard as revolving credit, rose by 8.5%. it's a double edge sword. it may be part of the economy and willingness to spend, but number two, it is also possible, chris, that many households felt compelled to borrow because their finances were so extreme and that was the only way that they could pay. so we really have to see a few more months to see what trend it is to find out whether it's mitt positive or mitt negative.

>> maybe people are using their ipods, because i'm looking at what happened to the new ceo steve cook of apple. fortunate guy, let's put it that way. >> last year apple granted him a million stock units. he took the reins, of course, just before the co-founder steve jobs died. which means that cook's total compensation package for last year was at $378 million. but here is the catch. he does not get all of that money unless he stays at the company for at least ten years, because half the stock units are going to be vested in august '26, the other half in august 2021. so if you look at salary and bonus, they're at about $900,000 each. he earned about 5.5 million shares which today would be worth $2.3 billion. >> yeah. yeah. well, i can see the headlines

now. is tim cook worth $378 million? i tell you, the way sales are going, some people might argue for it. cnbc's mandy fields. see you tomorrow. >> bye. class warfare. the 1% and the republicans tax plan. we'll break it down, next. tbeat, tbeat, and that it put me at 5-times greater risk of a stroke. i was worried. i worried about my wife, and my family. bill has the most common type of atrial fibrillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem. he was taking warfarin, but i've put him on pradaxa instead. in a clinical trial, pradaxa 150 mgs reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin without the need for regular blood tests. i sure was glad to hear that. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding, and seek immediate

medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have a bleeding condition like stomach ulcers, or take aspirin, nsaids, or bloodthinners, or if you have kidney problems, especially if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures, and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval, as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. pradaxa is progress. if you have afib not caused by a heart valve problem, ask your doctor if you can reduce your risk of stroke with pradaxa. excuse me. him? he's helping me get back to normal. hey, i don't even live in a floodplain. but i've got flood insurance, so i'm covered. how's that? nice. flood insurance, it helps make your home a home again. or, your me a me again. ooh, check it out fred, new foundation.

got any of those in my size? [ female announcer ] only flood insurance covers floods. for a free brochure, call the number on your screen. ♪ you and me and the big old tree ♪ ♪ side by side, one, two, three ♪ ♪ count the birds in the big old tree ♪ ♪ la la la [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. ♪ ♪ you and me and the big old tree side by side ♪ but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals,

and the charming outfits. take away the sprites, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. live pictures from manchester, new hampshire. cameras moving around looking for mitt romney who has just arrived at the pollster place at the webster school. big day for republican candidates, the first in the nation primary, and we've got an eye on it here. the election talks a lot about income and equality, the 99% and the 1% and the fight for the middle class. >> this is a make or break moment for this country, for the

middle class in this country and folks who want to get into middle class. >> it's pretty interesting to see how all the candidates stack up on taxes. check this out. the republican plans all give big tax breaks to the rich. nbc panelists and self-described wonk have been writing about this. also joining us jose diaz velar. good morning, gentlemen. >> good morning. >> there is another report from the citizen tax justice which shows that the tax cut of 1% would be $400,000, rick perry, 272,000, mitt romney, 126,000 and rick santorum, $217,000. is it fair to say the rich would be paying less? >> there are two things going on here. one is the bush tax cuts.

we used the question of whether or not we extend them for ten years. they gave a lot of money to the top 1 or 2%. all the republican candidates said they would extend those tax cuts, make them all permanent. president obama said he would erase those from the top 2%. so they would first extend the bush tax cuts and give more tax cuts. of this group, newt gingrich, rick perry and miron paul. mitt romney gives them another top 2%. >> we should say $82,000 as a tax cut is more by far than the average american makes. let me play for you newt gingrich at a hispanic town hall. >> i think through all of these election regulations have made it harder to be a middle class

candidate and have made it harder for middle class candidates to raise money. we are drifting to a society where millionaires buy office, and it's very dangerous. >> well, he may think it's very dangerous, but, jose, you look at the sea of candidates and they're millionaires. how do you appeal to real people out there? >> yeah, and maybe that was before newt gingrich got that $5 million check for one of the -- >> for his pack, yeah, superpack. >> maybe that was before that. but, you know, it's interesting, and who knew, by the way, that mitt romney is the plan that is least nice to the really rich. that's a pretty amazing graphic that you showed a couple minutes ago, chris. the fact of the matter is that i think mr. gingrich is right. you just need to have money, apparently, to run for office. there you go, look at that. $126,400, that's all, compared to the other candidates. those are peanuts! >> yeah. so are we making too much of

this? if you want to be fair, if you say you're going to cut taxes, the rich would see a bigger tax cut because they make more money. >> it isn't true. you can cut taxes in all manner of ways. you can cut the payroll tax. the payroll tax you only pay up to $170,000 of income. if you cut the payroll tax, that is the tax concentrating on the working and middle class. you can do tax cuts any way you want it. there are 100 groups in town that would help you with a tax cut. what i'm asking here, is how are you going to pay for this? when you extend the bush tax cuts, you add 4 million. if you do the rest, you have to cut another billion dollars in public spending. they have caps. they say they have 18% of gdp spending, but they don't say here's how much we'll cut education by, here's how much we'll cut unemployment by.

they're not clear how they'll pay for it. >> they have said over and over again that they do want to cut entitlements or government ministries or the different departments, even. but they haven't said how. even mitt romney hasn't said how much he'll cut medicare by. he has a plan for forming it, but he refuses to say, here's how much i'll save in medicare. >> the key state where you are, jose, is that an argument that can work? when you start talking about, look, everybody wants to think they're getting a tax cut, but when you start talking about how do you pay for it? if the democrats are pounding, how do you pay for it? >> it's a traditional republican argument, actually, right? how do you pay for it is some of the questions we've been hearing over and over again traditionally by the republican party. it's interesting, in places -- we're in new hampshire, live for your guy, and the lowest taxes in a number of ways. and florida is in some ways

similar to that. no state income tax. so the issue of taxes in general kind of raises a lot of red flags with florida voters in the republican parties. and that's a good point. how are you going to pay for things that you want to do if we're in such a difficult economic moment? and, you know, raising taxes is one thing, but how do you pay for them is equally as important for states like florida and everybody else. >> let me ask you a more broadly based question based on the premise that i started with. it was interesting to me that rick santorum did so well in iowa, he had this sort of blue collar appeal. he talked about his grandfather working in the coal mines and growing up in a shack, sort of living the american dream. are you one of the people who think this 99 versus 1% is going to be one of the defining issues of this campaign, if not the

defining issue? >> i don't think they have made it clear that it will be the center of their campaign. but it has played out loudly and someone to mitt romney's detriment. he's a guy whose background is very, very wealthy, whose job at bain capital is very productive, and he's cut taxes by much less, so he's actually tried to have a little more of a moderate platform, and yet the fact of the matter, he comes off with the 1%, you sort of can't make that stick. so romney as a nominee, president obama will have a chance to go against him, and it will be very difficult for mitt romney to make this work because his very presence brings so much to the fore. today's tweet of the day

comes from patrick griffin, senior fellow at the new hampshire institute of politics. in a stunning redux in 2000, dixville voters deliver a tie to mitt and hunts. al gore demands recount. on top of her prescriptions. so she was thrilled that her walgreens pharmacist recommended a 3-month supply and would always be there to answer questions about her health. now mary gets 3 refills in one and for 3 months, she's done. more or less. ask your pharmacist about a 90 day supply today. walgreens. there's a way to stay well.

big day, but that's going to wrap up this hour of jansing and co. i'm chris jansing. we're getting a big post-primary show ready for you tomorrow. herman cain will be live in the studio. i'll also be talking to debbie wasserman schultz right here on 10:00 a.m. eastern time. see you then. another way that reveals the lighter, mellower side of our roast. being blonde is nothing new, but blonde roast is something new. something subtle. something soft.

something with 40 years of roasting experience on its side. introducing delicious new starbucks blonde roast. the lighter roast perfected. come to our tasting event this thursday to saturday and try it for yourself. like splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweeteners. this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. and now, b vitamins to boot. coffee doesn't have fiber. unless you want it to. splenda® essentials™ are the first and only line of sweeteners with a small boost of fiber, or antioxidants, or b vitamins in every packet. mmm. same great taste with an added "way to go, me" feeling. splenda® essentials™. get more out of what you put in.

for just a little money? let's start with a paint we know can do the job. new glidden duo paint plus primer. ♪ one coat does double duty. ♪ and fits our budget perfectly. so there's a brand-new room right where the old one used to be. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. new glidden duo paint plus primer only at the home depot and starting at only $24.97 a gallon. good morning, everybody. i'm thomas roberts. the pressure is mitt romney to beat expectations