disaster on the high seas. thousands of passengers left in p peril. dozens of people missing. we have a live report ahead for you. is newt gingrich backing down? he says maybe one of the attack ads against mitt romney should be pulled from the air waves. the latest on the gop fight. office politics. chuck todd tells me something about mitt romney and president obama that might surprise you. are the two similar in any way? finally snow in nsome parts of the country. look looks like winter at least after a long dry spell. a look at the rest of the weekend weather for you coming up in minutes. good morning, everyone!

thanks for joining us. it's 9:00 here on the east and 6:00 a.m. out west. get to what is happening out there. attacks moved into high gear one week to go before the all-important gop primary in south carolina. the candidates are now crisscrossing the state and sharpening their messages while targeting their opponents. peter alexander is standing by with a beautiful backdrop there. where do things stand this morning? >> reporter: welcome to you. we are on the campus of the charleston. mike huckabee will be hosting five of the six gop presidential candidates here on campus for a forum. what is significant about this is it's really a chance for these candidates to try to woo conservative christians. evangelical christians in this state who represent nearly 60% of the voting population here. campaigning across south

carolina friday front-runner mitt romney tried to present hichlself as a sympathetic conservative. >> i want to get jobs for americans. by the way, i'm concerned about our poor in this country. >> reporter: at the same time, romney launched a new ad responding to his opponent's actication that he killed jobs while running a private equity firm. >> this is a business that mitt romney helped start and this one. and this steel mill. >> reporter: newt gingrich continued to challenge romney for mischaractering his record at bain. >> he claimed he created a hundred thousand jobs. "the washington post" two days ago reported in their fact check column that he gets three pinocchios! pinocchio is when you get to the post if you're not telling the truth. >> reporter: the same fact check analysis by "the washington post" found gingrich's own supporters guilty too and awarding them four pinocchios in this movie for portraying romney as a selfish profiteer.

>> i am asking them to pull the entire film. >> reporter: a new memo president obama's re-election team seized on the line of attack writing brom romney and his partners made hundreds of millions of dollars while taking companies to bankruptcy. romney supporters are targeting rick santorum. his message could appeal to the state's large population of evangelical christians. >> vote for the bridge to nowhere. a teapot museum even indoor rain forest. >> reporter: rick perry took his struggling campaign to target practice. but he was off the mark again during an interview confusing which three federal agencies he has vowed to shut down. >> that -- >> reporter: a little more detail for you this morning about that 28-minute blistering movie attacking mitt romney called "the king of bain." "wall street journal" is reporting three of the former factory workers shown in that movie which appears to imply they specifically were laid off

say, in fact, they were not laid off. but they got promotions and raises after their companies were purchased by bain. >> perhaps the comments by newt gingrich. peter peteralexander, thank you for that. we now join joe scarborough. the three new south carolina polls out there this morning including this one from arg in which it shows, joe, romney is ahead of newt gingrich by four points. now a week before that primary, a week is a long time in politics, certainly. do you see anything happening with these numbers? >> well, i see newt gingrich still in the race, despite the fact he is making one terrible mistake after another. right now, mitt romney has to consider himself the luckiest man in the palmeadow state. he could be attacked on abortion

or gun control. instead, newt gingrich and rick perry and even sarah palin by association are bashing romney based on what he did at bain capital, based on attacks that are just blatantly false. "wall street journal," as peter talked about, has an article saying that the three people that were picked out as victims of one of these south carolina failures ended up being promoted under romney's bain capital. "the new york times" talks about an entire town yawning at the accusation is that romney and bain killed them. "the wall street journal" saying the same thing. you have wild attacks against mitt room knee, against capitalism and the free markets that are dead wrong. on the other side of it, as peter was talking about, the evangelical vote in south carolina matters more than anything else. and the "wall street journal" out with an article this morning saying evangelical leaders are wringing their hands in south

carolina like they were wringing their hands in iowa because the evangelical vote is going to be split up three to four different ways, which means what? they divide their vote and moderate mitt romney wins south carolina. >> let's take a little look here at newt gingrich talking about this 28-minute bain capital film. here it is, everyone. >> i'm calling on the super pac. i cannot coordinate with them or communicate directly but speak out as a citizen talking to you. i'm calling on them to edit out every single mistake or to pull the entire film but to not run the film if it has errors in it. >> see, now, is this posturing right now, joe? because the damage that would have been done from this film is already done, right? >> the damage is already done, but not to mitt romney. the damage is

but newt attacked bain capital and he's now saying, well, let's edit the parts of the film that are incorrect. if did you that the 28-minute film would probably be a 2-minute film. newt has really damaged himself and for the long run and all of that being said, because of the way the republican primaries are being run this year, he still may be in the race if he corrects his track one more time. >> you know, i want to talk with you about the super pacs in general with respect to the gingrich supporter who put up the $5 million to air this film. joe, how can one person have

such a huge impact on a presidential race? that blows me away. what is your gut reaction to this? >> well, it's really -- it's really remarkable, because -- but for the super pacs, newt gingrich probably would be in first place but mitt romney used super pacs to destroy newt gingrich through the second half of december. that drove newt down across the country. but all that said, now we move forward and but for the super pacs, newt would be out of the race. rick santorum would be out of the race. rick perry would be out of the race. these super pacs that helped romney in iowa and new hampshire are now going to keep a lot of weak candidates in the game for a very long time and at the end of the day, they are going to end up hurting the republican party because you're going to have millions tearing down each one of these candidates and as they go toed general election against barack obama that will be that much weaker. >> you mentioned the

evangelicals in a group of more than 150 religious conservatives gathering in texas this weekend and they are trying to coalesce and decide around a conservative candidate. it's been called the anyone but mitt romney crowd. some gop members are harming the party. there is a recent column in "the washington post" calling the gop a circular firing squad with respect to this election. what is your reaction to that? >> well, i mean, that happens in every primary. the first time i ran in 1994, i was running against five people. we savaged each other from january of 1994 until september of 1994 when our primary was. it actually made my campaign better. it made it stronger and made me a better candidate. the problem here is, though, that you've just got millions and millions of dollars being dumped in and, again, tearing down each one of these candidates. they are going after romney now. romney is going after santorum. newt is going after romney. it is a circular firing squad. but as far as those evangelicals

go wanting the field to narrow down, i suspect after south carolina unless he gets into the double digits, the rick perry is going to have to get out of the race. he still is the governor of texas. he is embarrassing himself every day. he as peter said, he forgot the cabinet agencies once again, that he wanted to apolicy bsapo. big supporters on wall street, it's taking a anticapitalist line and talking about vulture capitalism and it's not helping him at home and not helping him with the supporters. if he wants to have any long-term political career in the republican party he needs to get out fast. >> i bet you he is listening. we are always listening to you, joe scarborough, working o.t. on a saturday. watch "morning joe" weekdays

6:00 to 9:00 on msnbc. coming up at the bottom of the hour, james clyburn will join me live. president obama is promoting his efforts to persuade companies to bring middle class jobs to the u.s. and make his point he brought a few props to his address the nation this morning. >> a padlock, a pair of boots, a candle, and pair of socks. these products may not appear to have much in common. but they are united by three proud words made in america. they are bringing jobs back from overseas. >> in fact, the president is calling this insourcing and that is the opposite of outsourcing. also this week, president obama announced new efforts to streamline government in washington by merging six federal trade agencies, including the commerce department. tragedy this morning for the passengers of a luxury cruise ship off tuscany in italy. italian official say three

people dead and 4,200 evacuated. we are joined by claudia. good morning. this seems like something that happened to a modern 21st century ship. >> reporter: well, alex, this is still a mystery. it's anyone's guess as such a modern cruise liner and this was built in 2005 to go off course by four nautical miles. that's a lot. what is worse than that is that it was aiming straight at an island off the coast that is not far away from where i'm standing. if it hadn't hit a rocky reef it would have been in this island and the tragedies could have been worse than it is already. investigators right now are trying to find out whether this was the consequence of mechanical failure or human

error. it is a modern day "titanic." this is what is left of the floating temple of fun. few hours after it set sail. thousands of men, women, and families on holiday boarded the ship on friday night for a tour of the mediterranean. the passengers were having dinner when they heard a loud bang. it was immediately clear that something had gone terribly wrong. >> we were scared because everything started to fall. all of the glasses started breaking and we went outside and we looked through the window and see what is getting close to us and realized the ship was tipping to one side like really fast. >> the ship hit a rocky reef off the coast of tuscany. how it ended up there, is still unclear. it quickly took on water. a crew member told nbc that panic quickly kicked in. >> a lot of people were falling down and getting hurt. the water was coming in really fast and it happened in the last

hour. >> some passengers said it felt like being in the "titanic." the ship fell to the right and life boats felling on passengers and some jumped into the ice cold sea. the shore was 200 yards away. too far for some of them. residents of a nearby island rescued some in their boats and put them up in their homes overnight. divers were deployed to look for survivors. hope faded by the hour. only last night, they waved the shore good-bye. now they must be glad back on it. now the cruise company has said that about 129 americans were along the thousands of holiday people on this ship but unclear whether they found rescue or if they are, if any, among the many missing and that is about 50 or 70 of them.

>> claudio, thank you very much. we hope the missing are rescued. coming up, we have office politics. chuck todd answers the age-old question with whom would you rather have a beer? the president or anyone from the gop field? plus chuck's take on the crime beat of political journalism. you're watching "weekends" with alex witt.lf c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey!

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we will see if that changes. in the meantime, mitt romney it taking heat from his competitors. a new political article says signs the bain attacks may fall on deaf ears in south carolina. the state hosting the next critical primary. i'm joined by michael tomossky and jonathan allen. good to see you. >> good morning. >> in the interest of fair disclosure i should say that nbc universal and bain capital is part owner of the weather channel. having said that, why not bain play in south carolina? >> i think a couple of reasons. the sort of overall story of corporate raters coming in and destroying in particular the area of -- that used to be textile mills and what is called the uplands in south carolina is absurd. if you go there today, i went to gaffney, south carolina, the last couple of days. what you'll find is a factory

outlet mall and a thriving plant that makes frozen food dinners for i think it's weight watchers or one of those types of places. you'll find a starbucks. this is an area where the economy has changed over the years, where jobs picked up and left, and then able to attract them back. partly through the voters there that the free market is good because it has, in a lot of ways, been good for them. an area cheap and abundant labor supply and right to work state and anti-union. the idea that corporations are necessarily bad falls on deaf ears here a lot. when you talk to people and ask them what do you think of bain capital, they say, what is bain capital? >> yeah. >> or i never thought about bain capital until the last couple of weeks. the big but here is newt gingrich is trying very hard with social conservative voters in that part of the state to distinguish himself from rick santorum and rick perry and coalesce conservatives and looks like it's happening a little bit. one of the reasons is newt

gingrich is showing what the bain capital attacks that he is the tough guy, that he can fight hard against mitt romney. i think that is what a appealing down here in south carolina. >> michael, this discussion, you know, the argument here for bain may be falling on deaf ears. if it doesn't change the race for romney in south carolina do you think it's something the democrats run with in the fall or a failed issue? i don't know if you saw that graphic we put up. at this point, 77% of folks there in south carolina saying this would be a problem for them. >> i did see that graphic. i do think that obama will be able to return to this. obviously, he is going to be -- he will not be able to use three-quarters of the material in that documentary which has been discredited. about a quarter of it seems like it's valid and it can stick. ted kennedy used some similar material to a very good effect in 2004 when romney was running against him for his senate seat.

kennedy had effective ads. i saw an ad yesterday that kennedy didn't have to air because he got so far ahead. it's on youtube. there is enough true material there, i think, for obama to try to keep raising this as an issue. >> i want to be clear. the stats is an online survey. michael, you wrote this week that romney speeches of late seemed aimed at conservative republican voters in the gop, not the middle. and that that is good news for obama. how is that? >> right now romney is just talking to the right wing base. he'll change that, of course. but i was very surprised watching his victory speech in new hampshire and a lot of commenters said this is a foreshadowing of the themes he will be using against obama. when i heard that i thought this is not smart on his part. if you look at that speech it is full of dog whistle right wring language.

obama is an appeaser and apologizing for america and put the free enterprise on trial and turn it into europe. i don't think middle of the road swing voters are impressed by that and frankly i don't think most people in the middle believe that about barack obama. >> jonathan, i want to go through some numbers with you. this new national poll showing mitt romney has 34% among registered republicans and three-way tie newt gingrich 18 and paul and santorum each with 15. with the delegate math this time around, do you see this as potentially protracted race? >> i think it's possible that some of these candidates will stay in the race for a while but it's going to be hard for them to sustain. it's one thing to get $5 million from -- and put up pac ads in one state and another thing to run an entire campaign based on somebody else, one individual or a couple of individuals' money. it seems like that money is likely to dry up overtime. mitt romney is built to last in

this race. if you're talking about delegate math, huge states that he should be expected to win, california, new york, illinois. these are delegate rich states. even though we think of them as democratic estates and for republicans they are republican rich states. this is a situation where the republicans still haven't picked an anti-romney candidate and doesn't look like they are ready to go that yet. >> thank you, guys. see you again. >> take care. speaking of gop candidates. denver quarterback tim tebow say some running are seeking his endorsement. would that make a difference for you? talk to me on twitter. i'll be reading some of your tweets throughout the morning. information gap? what do you know about the race for 2012? the results of a new poll is later. [ male announcer ] is zero worth nothing? ♪ imagine zero pollutants in our environment.

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welcome back to. only one week left before the south carolina primary most of the republican presidential candidates are actively campaigning there this weekend. front-runner romney is trying to maintain his lead in the polls while his competitors are slamming him in the private sector. joining me from columbia, south carolina, is republican congressman joe wilson. good morning to you, my friend from the other usc. nice to see you. >> absolutely. it's great to be with you, alex, of the other usc. >> yes, all right. we have to come together and talk about this race. you know it feels like it's tightening there in south carolina. you have these three new polls indicating that newt gingrich is closely at romney's heels. do you think we could get a surprise next saturday? >> well, the good thing is i have faith in the voters of south carolina. since 1980 and each presidential primary that whoever has taken

south carolina has gone on to get the nomination. alex, i believe the reason for this is that our state really is a composite of the united states in that in the primary next week, hilton head, charleston, to myrtle beach, nearly 95% of the people are voting in many communities and they will be transplants largely from the midwest to northeast. in my home community, nearly 75% of the people voting are transplants mostly from the northeast. >> all right. i'm looking at what you said here in the huntsville times this week. saying that the president, president obama will be a one-term president. >> yes. >> who do you think is the best republican candidate to deny him re-election? >> well, i believe that all six candidates who are running hard in south carolina and each one is making a real effort. i believe that any one of them can win because the president's economic policies have failed. we see that in south carolina. sadly, we have 9.9%

unemployment. we have never had that. this administration is has even tried to destroy jobs in south carolina. boeing has built a 1.1 million square foot plant, employed a thousand people and the administration intervened to try to stop the production of aircraft at that facility. the people at south carolina want change and will vote for change in november. additionally, the people here support a strong national defense. we have paris island and know the president's policies of cutting back on army and marine strength at this time is wrong. we have an enemy that d in iran where people carry signs in english, death to america, death to israel. this is not the time to cut back on our ground forces. >> but, you know, when you talk about unemployment, this president inherited the worst economy since the great depression. and the unemployment rate is going in a downward trend.

so if that continues come november, end of october, do you think that he has got a chance to be re-elected because people will want to stay with a positive trend? >> the trend is not good enough. the promise was through his stimulus plan to make sure that unemployment didn't exceed 8%. but it's been above 8.5% for the last 35 months. what should have been done is what john f. kennedy did, cut taxes and ronald reagan, cut taxes. not grow the government, but cut taxes. that's what should have been done and that's why i believe people will be voting for change in november. >> quickly, i know you endorsed tim pawlenty and have not endorsed anybody else. when do you plan to do so or will you? >> i was so proud of governor pawlenty and his record in minnesota and regret he withdrew. at this time i'm not committed but i really am excited that we have candidates who are truly

working in our state hard. rick santorum has family at hilton head. so we really are identifying with the candidates. >> all right. well, south carolina republican congressman joe wilson, good to see you. thank you. >> thank you so much. new alarming reports on iran and u.s. concerns that israel is preparing to take military action against iran and the pentagon has released video of three iranian boats approaching american ships in the strait of hormuz. it is warning israel do not attack iran. joining us for more perspective is p.j. crowley. nice to see you. >> hello. >> it feels like we could be reaching some sort of a tipping point any day now. how are you reading all of these reports? >> i'm not sure we are yet at a tipping point. i think on both sides they believe their strategies are working for the u.s. and the west imposing sanctions on iran and clearly those sanctions are

having an effect. iran, by the same token, has recently just doubled down on its nuclear program and it opened a second facility and stepped up its enrichment of u ra uranium to get to a level it desires. >> it's reported the u.s. is using secret channels through which they are warning iran not to close the strait of hormuz. how effective is that? >> very limited. the challenge over 30 years of diplomatic paralysis the two countries did not have the ability to have an exsensitive and lengthy and comprehensive conversation. we have had diplomatic contact with iranians through the years but it's limited and boneleds ha the full range of issues between

our two countries. >> can militarily speaking iran really effectively close the strait of hormuz? if you look at this video you see these huge american ships and you've gos artd with guns o th, mounted guns. really? could they even close it? >> closing the gulf of hormuz would be economic suicide for iran. it has the technical capability to do it, but clearly the united states has indicated it will prevent iran from sustaining any new blockade. the question is no and how much pain and cost iran would create before the united states would reopen the strait of hormuz. something playing out like a spy novel this iranian scientist was killed in his car in ta r n terrain? who did it? >> i don't know who did it.

the united states has said it did not have any involvement in it. if i had to pick a country, i'd say musad. it shows the professionalism of the israel security forces and intelligence forces. but, obviously, that is one strain. also have this week, you know, iran sentencing an american citizen to death for alleged spying. so on top of an already complicated and stressful situation we add other layers of tension. >> which means we have to speak with you again and get a state of affair on things. thanks so much. >> thank you. time for office politics. this week, i went to d.c. to pay a visit to chuck todd. host of msnbc "the daily rundown." he is busy this time of year covering the race for president. in the little time he was able to give me, i asked him how inevitable is a mitt romney nomination or is it?

>> if mitt romney wins south carolina, he can't win there supposedly daze he is not conservative in social issues ocket win therhe can't win there. newt gingrich said to knee in an interview. i said what it fit splits? he said if he wins south carolina by a couple of points, he wins. how do you justify he will have all of this momentum? you will see a rally around romney effect. and then what it will do is he'll cement it ten days later by winning florida. >> you mentioned your interview with newt gingrich. in general, the attacks from the gop on mitt romney, are they helping him out at all? are they getting him prepped for what comes in the general election? >> that is the glass is half full approach that the romney campaign is trying to take, right? well, at least we are learning how to do this now. apparently they have -- they

will take the bain arguments about his days at bain capital that investment firm and trying to tell positive stories out of it. right now they say only the negative stories are being told. the problem, though, is it's republicans hitting him on a vulnerability that the democrats and president obama already believe was a liability for him with swing voters and they have always believed once you're able to talk about his record as one of these, quote, wall street guys, bain is not technically a wall street firm but if he gets classified as that, then now the obama campaign can use newt gingrich and rick perry words. they are not using democrat talking points but use republican talking points. that is where this doesn't help him. >> what about that concept of whom the republican party would like to have dinner with? that was a thing with george w. bush. does that reach to barack obama or mitt romney? >> i look at it it's more of the -- we always say have a beer with and all of this stuff.

people go ah. it's that. it's more of who is more likely to understand my problems. that's ultimately what it is. who is it that most understands my problems? and cares about the needs of people like me. that's ultimately that question and who wins that -- who wins that question usually becomes president. and when have you these comparisons. so, you know, that's why clinton was able to overcome some of his peshl problems against george w. bush and how clinton beat dole and how bush beat gore. you know, gore -- it's funny. talking to some former gore staffers and people who were with gore. they are having flashbacks watching mitt romney and feeling as if of his connection problems are similar to the same problems gore had with the american public. and romney -- that's the thing. you can't fake it either. you know? so romney will figure out how to take this maybe weakness, or perceived weakness and make it a

strength. this is a guy i am, a fix-it guy. >> what is it keeping up with so many candidates in so many different states? understanding where their vantage point is from each state's demographic, their constituents? >> for me it's sort of how i started covering politics. my first job covering politics was in a small publication called "the hot line." my first beat was house races. when you're able to start small and like if you're going to become a supreme court justice it's good to have covered a city hall and a crime beat. i always say house races are the crime beat of american politics. you learn idio sin crassy. you know having that as a foundation then helps following along the way. i'm enough of a political junky i want to know what is going on in state and house and senate

races now. i think having that ten tour, 15-year foundation i had covering every race even down to the mayor's races helped -- helps make it easier to do it now and easy to go now and know the stuff going in. >> yeah. nothing easy. >> that's what i mean. my point is you can't just parachute in. you see a lot of people trying to parachute into politics and never covered a house race or a mayor's race. i think they will never quite get it. >> coming up later in the show, i'm going to bring you more of my interview with chuck todd including why he thinks mitt romney and president obama are very similar guys. you can always catch chuck's show each morning at 9:00 a.m. eastern here on msnbc. air travelers apparently lose more than patience when they go through airport security. they also lose money. transportation security administration says when airline passengers went through security checkpoints last year, they lost a total of about 400,000 and

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that's a big issue here. obviously we're a big tea party state. that's going to appeal to a lot

of folks, talking to shutting down five federal agencies and shutting down the irs. i think a lot of people can agree on that. i think he'll get a lot of popularity, votes out of, that but will it transfer into anything but being in third place. >> evangelicals are divided over who could support and that could pave the way for a big romney victory. what is it about not getting a consensus around a conservative candidate. why aren't they doing that in south carolina? >> i just think there's a lot of choices, the super pacs have kept some candidates in the race who may not have been in after new hampshire and that's sort of dividing the field after romney. there's obviously support for santorum, gingrich, and in the sense that these are where the social conservatives would look to. i think it's just going toend up splitting the second place vote and making it probably not giving -- giving romney a bit of a more cushion in winning the

state. >> the state newspaper's andy shane. andy, thank you. there will be a meeting of evangelical leaders in texas, try fiengd out whom to support for president. one prominent evangelical who says he won't be there says the meeting is just a waste of time. we'll talk with him next.

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a number of religious conservative leaders are meeting in texas this weekend, trying to figure out if they can unite behind a candidate other than front-runner mitt romney. one who is not attending that meeting is pastor robert jeff fres, also the rick perfery supporting, the author of "as time runs out," also calls mormonism a cult. why aren't you attending the meeting this weekend? >> first of all, i wasn't invited to the meeting this time. i've met with that group before, alex, and frankly some of them are ticked off with me about what i said about mitt romney last fall. but i have talked to some of the organizers of the event and let

me tell you what's really going on here, alex. you've got a divide among these leaders behind the idealists who are trying to search for the right kand dad dat, that is anybody other than mitt romney, but then you have the pragmatists who want to make sure they don't hurt their access to the next president who they believe is going to be romney. i predict what's going to happen is, after south carolina, you'll see a group of these evangelicals meet with mitt romney, they will, quote, share their hearts with romney. romney will listen politely. they'll hold hands and sing kumbaya and they'll come out and endorse romney. >> where do you fall in those two groups you were describing sfl. >> i believe right now romney is the inevitable nominee. the fat lady hasn't sung yet, but she's in the greenroom warn warming up. but i would say right now before romney becomes the nominee, i would encourage christians to look for the most consistently conservative christian they can find. but i do think in november, if

romney is the nominee, we may have to hold our noses and choose between the lesser of two evils, but it's not november yet. >> what do you think might happen between now and november? >> well, i just do believe that romney is going to be the nominee, especially if he wins south carolina. but, alex, i think it is a real mistake to confuse inevitably in the primaries with electability in the general election. i remind people that in 200830 million evangelical christians sat at home and didn't vote because they weren't energized by john mccain. barack obama won by 10 million votes. and i think that could very well happen this time unless governor romney reassures evangelical christians that he really is consistently conservative and not a closet moderate. >> well, i remember peeking with lawrence o'donnell who said republican pollsters have told

him a full 20 pr% of eadvantagv would never vote for a mormon. that puts romney at a deficit right out of the starting gate. do you think they will not vote for anybody? they will just stay home? they're not going to vote for barack obama, right, the evangelical christians. >> right. some of these evangelical leaders meeting today are convinced that if romney is the nominee that every long elle cals have no yo choice but to vote for mitt romney. i disagree. i think 2008 showed they have another choice other than romney, and that's the choice to stay at home. i don't think mormonism is the only problem or even perhaps the major problem. one of these leaders said to me this week, my problem with romney is not that he's a mormon but that he's not good enough of a mormon. i mean, they don't believe that he's really consistent on the issues of life and the sanctity of marriage. you know, you had romney saying at one point in his career that he would run to the left if ted

kennedy on the issue of abortion and home me sexuality. i think romney will have to do some things to reassure evangelicals if he wants to energize them in november. >> do you think religion will play a role in the general election? >> oh, yes, i think it does. again, i don't think it's the primary issue with a lot of people, but to religious people, religion matters. and what a candidate believes is very important. it defines the essence of who he is. and i've said from the beginning, alex, i think mitt romney is a wonderful, good family man, but we don't confuse that with historic christianity. >> pastor robert jeffress, nice to see you again. thank you so much. the candidates are looking south of south carolina to the next primary. in fact, coming up, the high stakes in the sunshine state. also ahead -- can football's magic man make a difference in the presidential election? republicans are hoping to score a tim tebow endorsement. you heard right.

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passengers are calling it a real-life titanic. the search is on for the missing after a luxury cruise ship runs aground. about-face? newt gingrich pac may be rethinking that film about mitt romney's business experience. plus, show and tell at the white house as the president makes a point about middle class jobs. good morning, everyone. women co welcome to "weekends with alex witt." one week to the south carolina primary. former u.n. ambassador john bolton appeared with mitt romney on stage for the first time since endorsing him for president. the two were joined by john mccain. as soon as bolton took to the podium, he went after president obama on national security. >> he's not only the most radical president in history domestically. he's the first president, republican or democrat, at least since franklin roosevelt who

didn't get up every morning thinking first about what threats the united states faces. >> before that stop in hilton head, romney met with voters in aiken, south carolina, where he side stepped criticism about his time at bain capital. the former massachusetts governor made a slight tweak to his usual campaign message. >> i'm concerned about our poor in this country. we have to make sure that the safety net for our poor is always strong and able to help those who can't help themselves ltz. i'm not terribly worried about the very wealthiest in our society. they' doing just fine. i'm concerned about the vast middle class of our nation, the 90% of americans, 95% of americans who are having tough times. >> during a campaign stop in miami, newt gingrich accused romney of trying to hide his private sector record as governor of massachusetts and as head of bain capital. >> the fact is, he still is not prepared to release any documents from bain to prove anything so i think we have no idea what his net job creation was and we have no idea how many of those jobs were in the u.s.

and how many of them were outside the u.s. so if this is a big part of his campaign, he should meet the same test as the rest of us and give us facts, not just keep making claims. >> rick santorum getting support from reality tv stars in south carolina. jim bob and michelle duggars, the stars of "20 kids and counting" attending a town hall meeting with rick santorum. >> to be a good mother and wife and father and dad, we had to go out and make sure we're not only taking care of our family but our children could grow up in a country where they could realize their potential, practice the faith that they were called to practice, and be able to raise their children with the values and virtues that were consistent with our faith. >> and all of the candidates will continue campaigning today across south carolina with the exception of ron paul. i'm joined now by david chally, washington bureau chief for

yahoo news and anne kornblut. good morning. >> good morning. >> we just heard mitt romney talking about the middle class and the poor. anne, is that going to resonate with anybody? >> well, he's got to talk about it, whether it resonates or not. he's obviously spent a lot of time over the last few days talking about his corporate record and talking about his work as a ceo. and initially that's what romney campaign wanted, to remind people he ran a business. now so many questions fw his watch on bain capital, not to mention his comment about enjoying firing people, though it was taken out of context. it's important to talk to regular people and try to connect with them even if initially it doesn't resonate. >> david, three polls rooelsed this past week showing romney leading in south carolina. if he wins, has he locked up the nomination? >> he's gone a long way to locking it up. i suspect we'll see ron paul ride this out for the long term because he'll be able to collect

delegates and demand a presence for his message at the convention. but if he wins -- if mitt romney wins the first three contests and especially south carolina, alex, because this is it a different kind of electorate. this is an knot an electorate that is all that natural of a fit for mitt romney. and if he's able to, after an iowa and new hampshire victory, win this third one, first of all it's sort of an unprecedented path to the nomination and i just don't see sort of political oxygen for anyone else to be able to come up and try to capture the nomination away from him. >> speaking of not a natural fit for mitt romney, there's this meeting of the influential christian leaders in texas, they're the ones weighing their options in the republican field. you have santorum and gingrich pretty much splitting the conservative support there. do you think it's going to be one having to pressured to exit the race so they can coalesce around another? pf this is it tied to what david was saying. i do think if it looks like romney has it locked up and every day it goes by where he's

looking good in the polls in south carolina, it looks increasingly that way, then certainly i think you're seeing increased panic among some of the conservatives in the party who want to figure out if there is a way to spr somebody else emerge as this non-romney we've been talking about for a year now. but it hasn't happened so while there might be pressure, we haven't seen any of these groups coalesce around one. it will be hard to call on one or the other of them to drop out, namely, how do you decide? there's been no clear front-runner among the non-romneys anyway, not to mention that's all the super pac money has meant gingrich in particular can stay in and there's no reason to say he's not viable. they may want to coalesce around bun, but i think it's hard. >> david, what about the history of things getting ugly in south carolina, politically speaking, the nasty attacks, many of them anonymous. dow see things going that way this time around, or is there a tamer sense? >> we haven't seen too much evidence of that yet. i think there's a bit of a mystique about the south

carolina republican primary ever since the george w. bush/john mccain fight in 2000. they do do politics a bit different in south carolina, a bit more of a rough-and-tumble. we haven't seen it yet too nasty or covert in its sort of approach yet. listen, i think in today's world with the super pacs, these attacks are more overt and out in the public thab normally because there's not a fear that candidate gets tainted by it because the super pac is dog it without coordination with the campaign. i think we'll see more of these attacks just out in the open rather than below the radar. >> anne, i was talking earlier fw the fact that the super pac can actually be embodied by one person, seems to be the case now with newt gingrich and that $500 million donation and kraitding this 20-minute film attacking romney. how remarkable is that? >> well, it may be remarkable, but it's what the supreme court has decided is just fine, and these pacs -- you, you know,

they're evolving over the course of this race, and i don't think anyone knew ahead of time exactly how they would work. there was alots of guessing but now we'll know. if newt gingrich does not wish the nomination and we see what happened to him in iowa from the attacks from romney's super pacs but he's able to inflict real damage on romney in south carolina with his own super pac, i think you'll see the republican party in particular do some soul searching about the wisdom of these organizations. >> anne kornblut and david chalian, many thanks. at the bottom. hour, a live interview with congressman jim clyburn of south carolina, about mitt romney, plus what president obama has done to create jobs for african-americans. president obama is using show and tell this morning regarding bringing jobs to the u.s. >> a padlock, pair of boots, a candle and a pair of socks. these products may not appear to have much in common, but they're united by three proud words --

"made in america." the companies that make these products with part of a hopeful trend. they're bringing jobs back from overseas. >> today's address caps off a week where the president pushed for more insourcing to combat the outsourcing of american jobs. also this week, he announced new efforts to streamline government in washington by merging six federal trade agencies including the commerce department. a quick look at other stories making headlines this morning. between 50 and 70 people are missing after an italian cruise ship ran aground off the coast of tuscany friday. these are live pictures of this ship. incredible. thins dent created a 160-long gash in the ship. 4200 passengers and crew, approximately 100 have been evacuated. at least three people are dead. hundreds of university students marched through tehran today to protest the assassination of a nuclear scientist. he was killed wednesday by magnetic bomb to his car. report out of iran this morning

says tehran is planning to punish whoever work straited the attack. at least 15 are dead in boz ra, iraq. it happened as shiite pill gims were passing through a checkpoint. let's get 8 look at three big money headlines generating the most buzz this morning. eu downgrade, apple's walking on eggshells literally, and $10 million tebow? msnbc's vera gibbons is joining me to make sense of this. good morning. >> good morning. a lot of outrage being sparked by the downgrade of eu countries. how did this happen? >> i think the policy nirtives we've seen are insufficient. if you look at the confidence level it's fallen by the wayside pretty much. there are consequences to this downgrade. you've got nine you'euro zone regions, financial, psychological consequences, consequences in the u.s. we don't know the extent of the

consequences. we'll find out what they whether are, but it will make government borrowing more xpenlsive and could scare off investors from investing in europe debt. there are real consequences here and abroad. >> do you fear a hit to the markets tuesday morning? >> it's possible, although the markets have been waiting for the sa pnd to act on this. so maybe you won't see as dramatic an action as otherwise. it's sort of baked in, if you will. but there will be consequences. what about this angry mobs in beijing throwing eggs at an apple store? what happened? >> the store didn't open, yelling, throwing eggs from apple consumers, which goes to show that demand for apple products in china is off the chart. here it's big, but in china it's bigger than that. sales as a result of this outburst have been temporarily suspended at five mainland stores in china. fwik kwik to point out, you can still buy the products online. nefrt less, you know, apple fans are disappointed.

>> well, sure. it's part of the whole experience, going in the apple store. >> and dealing with the crowds. >> absolutely. like that crowd right there waiting to get in. how about tim tebow, vera? the nfl's new $10 million man? >> he could be, right? it's just amazing. this guy is just off the charts in terms of what he's done for the denver broncos. you know, he's had several come-from-behind victories, just on this major winning streak. he does str a couple of million-dollar deals or endorsements thus far, he's got nike, jockey and a couple others that bring in $1 million or $2 million. fe continues on this winning streak and defying logic, he could very well become the $10 million man. we'll wait and see. so far he's been delivering the goods and defying logic all around. >> i think a lot of people think he has a $10 million arm for sure. >> thanks, alex. we've been asking you all morning, tim tebow says some gop candidates are seeking his endorsement. would that make a difference for you? whomever tim tebow endorses will

not make a difference. he hopes it could, but he's just dreaming. jsa 413 says, only if he were to campaign would it help. tebow endorsement? why do i care what he thinks? tim tebow means a definite no. keep talking to me. i'm get to some more of your tweets later this morning. the ground game in florida, who's dominating the air waves now and how much it could change between now and primary day. first, winter finally rearing its ugly head. live from cleveland when "weekends with alex witt" returns. new starbucks blonde roast is another way to look at the bean. another way that reveals the lighter, mellower side of our roast. being blonde is nothing new, but blonde roast is something new.

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of. >>. a federal judge is refusing to -- the judge ruled rick perry, newt gingrich, rick santorum and jon huntsman failed to get enough signatures in time to qualify for the march 6th primary. only mitt romney and ron paul will appear on the ballot in virginia. the republican presidential candidates are battling it out in south carolina for next saturday's primary, but meantime they are spending loet lodes of money on the crucial florida primary on january 31st, where the race could end for some of the contenders. the latestest poll in florida shows romney leading with 36%, followed by newt gingrich with 24%, rick santorum weighs in at 16%. joining me from tampa, a longtime political analyst on the ground there, susan mcmanis, a professor at the university of south florida. good morning, susan. >> good morning. >> how much do you think the race in florida could change between now and the primary day at the end of the month? >> well, you never say never in this state. polls have been all over the place, and we still have two

major debates the week before the election. i think a lot of people in florida watch those debates very closely, of course one of them right here in tampa at the university of south florida, nbc, and the other in jacksonville, another key republican area. so the debates have been really capturing the attention of floridians and i think that they are the mechanism that will see whether they're going to be basic changes or not. >> i'm curious, susan, who's the one dominating the airwaves there in florida, the commercials and just the news coverage. >> romney, romney, romney. he's the one that's had the most ads on television so far. his super pac has been running ads for over a month, and he bought initially in nine of the ten media markets in florida, and he captured the tenth just last week where he purchased spanish language ads. sew's in all ten media market. gingrich is supposed to start airing ads quickly.

other candidates are using mailers. a lot of activity here in florida. newscasts are covering it 24/7 here. >> okay. the key to winning florida is winning the senior vote. the president has been able to appeal to those voters while the gop candidates are battling it out elsewhere. who has the advantage in the republican candidates for the senior vote? >> it looks like romney right now. the senior voters in florida are absolutely unequivocally concerned mostly about the economy, the national debt. many of the retirees here are invested in the market. they're not anticapitalists and i think that's one reason you see them leaning more toward romney. >> from the university of south florida, professor susan mcmah mcmahonus. thank you. residents across the midwest are getting their first real taste of winter with as much of a foot of snow covering the region. the end of that drought is bringing bitter weather, fatal

car accidents as well as hundreds of flight cancellations. the weather channel's mike seidel made it to cleveland where he's keening an eye on the weather for us. good morning. >> reporter: we'll get another one or two inches on the eastern side of cleveland, alex, up the lakefront, northeast of cleveland, south of buffalo, north of syracuse. maybe another half foot of snow today. by any means, in a regular winter, wouldn't be that much snoext but since we haven't had much, in fact, in buffalo yesterday they set a record daily snowfall of 6.4 inches, but they're still with a foot of snow this season down three feet of snow. the other change in the temperatures out here, in cleveland the temperature 19, 20 degrees, windchill at 5 or 6. really not far from average for a morning low this time year. minneapolis/st. paul down to 6 this morning, still not below zero. there's been snow in buffalo, chicago had snow on thursday, and we had over 550 flight

cancellations on thursday at midway and o'hare. today flights should be in better shape, some de-icing here, also in buffalo and pittsburgh, and we're keeping an eye on the northeast airports because there may be some wind issues. won't be as windy as yesterday. so winter is back, alex. it will be a cold weekend, but, like we've seen, it won't be persistent. in fact, there's no reason at this point, looking at the long-range map for the next two weeks, that we'll get into anything like we had the past two winters with persistent arctic chill and big snowstorms. enact, we don't see any risk of snow at all in the big cities, boston, philly, new york, d.c., in the next couple weeks. it's going to warm up the first of the week, turn cold again and bi-next weekend another big flood of warm air from the gulf of mexico. so if you like the snow, enjoy it while it's here. had a foot in the berkshires and some of these lake belts have so far had 8 to 10 inches. alex? >> crazy winter. >> reporter: good to see you finally for some winter weather. >> you, too. thank you so much, mike seidel.

a new target for apple could it lead to a match made in heaven? plus, meryl streep in "the iron lady." the reviews are in. is it a must-see? we'll take a look here on "weekends are alex witt." [ male announcer ] feeling like a shadow of your former self? c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey!

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how the silent treatment works. hello? [ male announcer ] buy unlimited messaging and get free unlimited calling to any mobile phone on any network. at&t. tech watch now on weekends with alex witt. you may soon be able to shop at an apple store inside target. that's right, apple will open mini stores in 25 targets this year, part of target's plan to host boutiques from independent retailers. now let's get straight to today's list of number ones. when general motors releases global seals figures for 2011 later this month, experts say g bh will resume its crown as the top seller automaker in the world. gm lost the lead in 2008 to toyota after seven decades

of.com nanof dominan dominance. nevada tops 24 wall street lists of the states that have the most trouble paying its bills. the budget shortfall accounted for about 55 prls of the state's budget. "the advocate" magazine has lilsed the gayest cities. based on various factors including the number of lgbt elected officials, the advocate puts salt lake city at the top. orlando, florida, comes in second followed by cambridge, massachusetts, in third, ft. lauderdale and seattle rounding out the top five. tim tebow's popularity, results in a poll show tebow is america's current favorite pro athlete. lady gaga's marry the night" as the top workout song of the month. those are your number ones. we'll play this for you. get moving, everyone.

♪

the south carolina primary could help mitt romney seal the deal in his bid to become the republican nominee and obama campaign is on the offense in a scathing new memo. president obama's reelection team has joineded chorus of attacks against romney for his time at bain capital saying, romney and his partners made hundreds of millions of dollars while taking companies to bankruptcy. joining me now is democratic congressman james clyburn of south carolina. good morning. glad to see you. >> thank you so much for having me. good morning. >> i know that you have been going after mitt romney and his record at bain capital lately. you compared him to bernie madz off during an interview here on msnbc. we'll play some of that for our viewers who didn't catch it the first time around. here it is. >> what my problem is, is if you question things done in the name of capitalism, then he calls it being envious. >> right. >> i don't think anybody was

envious or fearful of being envious when they failed to question what bernie madoff was dog. he did all of that in the name of capitalism. we can question what people are doing and the way they do it and to make sure that people adhere to fair play. >> now, is this a fair comparison? because you're comparing a criminal to a capitalist. >> well, let me tell you something. thank you so much for having me. if we fail to question, to provide oversight, the fact of the matter is, none of what happened with bernie madoff would have happened if the ftc would have provided adequate oversight. we all know that. and when you take the oversight away and you don't have the kind of vetting process that we can get through the media, then all kinds of things happen. so i think the media is

absolutely correct in looking into what went on with bain capital. i think that his political opponents and those of us who really were affected by it here in south carolina, we had georgetown steel, we had a company up in gaffney, both of them were affected by decisions made by bain capital, and they were decisions that were adverse to these local communities. and, at the same time, billions were made and millions by romney and his investors. so i think we ought to question these things that decide whether or not there is really fair play here or whether or not someone was just trying to make a quick profit. they made profit, and they did it rather quickly. >> how do you account for the fact that mitt romney is it leading right there, in a place where he, by association, is being painted as having wiped out part of the state's economy

with job loss? >> well, i assure you it's because people did not know. in fact, he was leading by double digits here in south carolina until recent days because people now are beginning to see, hey, this guy had some relationship to those jobs, 150 jobs, we lost in gaffney, south carolina, and we had 800 or 900 jobs lost down in georgetown. and a lot of people wondered, why is it that you can put in -- a company can come in, put $30 million into the process, little while later take $180 million out of the company and then the company goes into bankruptcy and all of the people, 150 people, are unemployed? nobody can square that be fair play. something went wrong, and i think we have an obligation to the voters to look at this because if that's the kind of practices that he will bring to the white house, then i think

the whole country could very well be in trouble. so i don't see that there's anything wrong with us raising these issues and letting him respond. if he responds adequately, he'll be fine with the voters. but if he fail so explain his actions in a way that squares with good capitalism, then he's going to be in serious trouble. >> let's talk about the president right now, looking back four years ago that wave of enthusiasm which ushered the president into the white house. do you have any concerns that the president's not going to be able to garner the same amount of enthusiasm this time, especially among his base? >> oh, sure, i'm very concerned because, look, we were all invested in the campaign. we saw a man running for office who exudes the kind of hope, the kind of dreams and aspirations that all of us here, especially here in south carolina, grew up with. and here he comes into office, two months before the election,

we have something to hit, wall street hit the economy, that we have not seen since 1929. now, it wasn't as bad as 1929, but it was very close to it. and we knew right then that all of these dreams and aspirations were going to be jeopardized. so president obama takes office on the heels of 2.1 million jobs being lost in 90 days. 700,000 jobs a month over a period of three months. he took office with all of that so he can't think about what to do about education, what to do about health care. he had to immediately try to figure out what to do to save the automobile industry in michigan and ohio, what to do to save jobs in local communities, stop the hemorrhaging. and he did that. that took him off the plans that he had for the country.

now that he has stabilized the economy, we now see job growth taking place. we now see unemployment coming down. we see that the things he put in place are working. so now we have a new paradigm with which to affiliate ourselves. so i think the president is going to do just fine because these numbers will continue to improve. >> how about the promise of hope and change, particularly relevant to the afr condition american vote? because there are those who say that he's made just a drop in the bucket when it comes to that segment of the population. look at these numbers, in south carolina the jobless rate there 9.9%, higher than the national average of 8.5%, and the national unemployment rate for african-americans nearly 16%, south carolina of course has a sizeable african-american population. do you worry at all about those in south carolina or across this country within the african-american community

really getting behind barack obama the way they did last time around? >> yes, i do worry about that. i stay awake at night being concerned about whether or not we will do an adequate job getting people to understand the extent to which president obama has not been responsible for the current state of affairs. because he had to really concentrate on stabilizing the economy. it's like anything else. in the health care field, if i might use this as an analogy, if a patient come into the emergency room, the first thing you've got to do is stabilize the patient. you've got to stop the hemorrhaging. and then you begin to apply a remedy. that's what the president had to do. we were hemorrhaging jobs. he had to stop that, stabilize it, the economy. and then begin to build the economy back again. that's what is happening, and that's what i think people will understand when they begin to

measure what was going on when he took office, what has gone on since he's taken office, and i think he's going to do fine. but we cannot just assume that because we know that the voting public will know. we've got to get out here and get this message out to the voting public. they've got to see that what this president did saved the automobile industry. mitt romney himself said we ought to let them go into bankruptcy. and i can understand why, because the way he's always done things, let the company go into bankruptcy. he wanted to see the same thing apply to the automobile industry that he helped apply to the steel industry. president obama says no, we are going to keep this as an american icon. he saved the automobile industry and now general motors is back on top again. and you all reported that on this station this morning. >> we did, yes. well, perhaps with a better understanding of president obama, his situation and

political tactics, you, sir, will get a bit more sleep. we thank you for joining us, democratic congressman of south carolina, james clyburn. thank you. >> thank you so much for having ne. let's go to strategy talk. despite the poor showings in iowa and new hampshire, newt gingrich is still polling well in south carolina, closing in on republican front-runner mitt romney, coming in second at 25%, just four points shy of romney. but it's support from evangelicals in the palmette toe state that could tip the scales in his favor. i'm joaned by two. nice to see you both. rich, i'll begin with you because gingrich leads among the evangelical christians with 40% in this new poll, also very popular among tea parpty supp t support supporters. i know you once served as his spokesman. explain his appeal with that voting bloc and how it might help him a week from today.

>> it's a little hard to parse it out because it's the terror of small numbers. when you look at these polls, this they're relatively small sample sizes to start with. when you go to the cross-tabs, the tea party supporters are also evangelicals, you're down into the tens and it's dangerous. but newt is newt. it doesn't matter if you like him or not, when you hear him speak he's very effective. this kind of politicking is great for him, this retail politicking. and he's sort of on a roll. can i go back to something that congressman clyburn said, though? >> yes. >> he does need more sleep. general moetors and chrysler di go into bankruptcy. that's how they got out of this thing. he needs to do something hoer than reading the dna talking points. >> gm is back at number one, topping toyota with sales. >> i understand that. but they did go to bankruptcy to get there. but i think the governor's probably better at this than i am. when you get into the retail

political realm, you do tend to have ups and downs, swings, and then, as people begin to sort of get closer to actual election day, the positions tend to harden and everybody kind of gets into the position they're going to be. but newt's very effective on the stump. >> governor, i want to talk about gingrich in terms of this threat he remains in part because of this huge $5 million campaign donation made by one man, billionaire sheldon adelleson. i mean, how much does that injection of money affect the outcome of saturday's vote? and can you get your head around the fact that one person may have such enormous influence? >> yeah. the supreme court justices who voted for citizens united should be ashiemed of themselves. they should watch what's happening. one person, a casino magnate, gives $5 million and maybe changes the outcome of the third and one of the most important primaries in the country. it's an embarrassing situation.

it's embarrassing for the american democracy and they should rethink citizens united and get rid of it real fast, number one. number two, though, i think what was said was absolutely correct. there are swings in a campaign, even a short campaign like this. the gingrich campaign has come out with a ton of negatives on mitt romney. they take hold. mitt romney is going to answer. there's going to be an ebb and flow, alex, between now and saturday. but there's no question that what the most effective part here -- i don't think bain capital with republican voters, even though two of the places that were closed down were in south carolina, i think that hurts a little bit, but what really hurts is, for the first time with aloft money behind it, the flip-flopping on social issues, abortion, gay marriage, thing s like that, those are being exposed to a convict sev tiff voter base. that was bound to happen in a republican primary. i'm surprised it didn't happen earlier and it is go being sto have an effect. i still believe mitt romney will

win here, but i think newt gingrich may establish himself as the conservative alternative and you may see this go to florida with almost a virtual one-on-one. >> what about -- >> what are you things you do in these situations if you're the romney campaign is you let these things play out for a few days -- >> and then fight back. >> go into the field and sew see what's sticking and try to counter those things rather than trying to defend the entire line of attacks which you just can't do. >> clearly, those numbers you just read us, gingrich just a week ago was in the teens and romney was in the high 30s. >> well, what about, rich, the prospect of the gingrich/santorum duo and one having to drop out sooner rather than later to let the other one be propelled forward and try to catch that evangelical vote and volt of conservatives? >> well, if i were the santorum folks i would be looking for my sheldon adelleson, somebody to

come in and throw 3 million, 5 million bucks into the deal. i think that's what he needs. perry clearly is gone. huntsman has never been a factor from the beginning. so i think it does come down to -- and to the governor's point, i think the fact that everybody came out of new hampshire and went into south carolina has been helpful to romney because it does diffuse the non-romney vote. that's why they go to the polls, people actually vote, why we actually wait for the real people to tell us what they want as opposed to geniuses like me saying what they should want. >> alex, there will be a selection process that people will make. let's assume perry drops out, huntsman is no longer a factor, santorum does reasonably well but not as well as gingrich. well, the voters in florida, the evangelicals and conservatives don't want mitt romney, may say, i like rick santorum, but it looks like gingrich has the best chance to stop governor romney

so i'm voting for gingrich. >> it might be helpful to gingrich, governor rendell, because if it does come to that in florida and romney beats him decisively, then that will end the campaign as opposed to saying, well, there were still three people in. so this could go either way. >> governor, how much do you think the obama campaign is watching all of this infighting with the gop and basically giving them a political blueprint for their campaign? >> to some extent, yes. but remember -- and i warn my democratic colleagues all the time -- there are two phases to elections and the post-convention phase is almost like a brand new game. it's almost as if things are wiped clean. then events and the tenor of the campaign matter dramatically. so i wouldn't be so hard -- look, this has been a bloodletting, awful for the republicans, they look crazy, it looks like the candidates are emerging from the old clown car, one more by zoor than the next. if i'm an independent voter i'm shaking my said saying, what in

god's name is this party made up of? but that all changes when it's one-on-o one-on-one. >> remember in 1992 the democratic field was called the seven dwarfs. one of those dwarfs became president of the united states. >> i do remember that, you're right. rich galen, ed rendell, thank you. the latest of the return of a beloved classic to movie theaters, right here. me accesso. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. yoo-hoo. hello. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall.

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>> yikes! i'm joined by pop culture expert amy palmer from pure wow.com. good morning. >> good morning. >> that's mark wahlberg, contraband. must-see or must-avoid. >> i'm sorry to say, i love him. this is a must-avoid. you can see it in a few months from the kfrts of your tv on demand. it's not something to go rush out and see at the theaters. >> what about this re-release of "beauty and the beast"? it's new this time around. should we all go spend money? >> i think you should go see it if you have kids and you want to expose them to this beautiful tale. it's in 3d, it's so much fun, a great marketing tool for disney. they'll mike hundreds of millions off of it. but if you and i were going to go see it without the kids, i would say no. definitely great for families this weekend, especially with the three-day weekend and parents looking for something to do with the kids. >> in april, the re-release of titanic, do you think it will make hundreds of millions?

>> i think it will because a whole new generation want to see that. kids these daze only want to see something with special effects so they can put on the glasses. it's a very smart marketing move. >> what about meryl streep in "iron lady." i've got to tell our viewers you were all over this on the kmeshlg. you said she is even surpassing meryl streep? >> yes. her depiction of margaret thatcher is brilliant. you see her here in this footage, and she spans dick aids, but we see a lot of her in her 80s going through dementia. she outdoes herself. she is brilliant and stunning. i would say definitely a golden globe and i wouldn't doubt an oscar for her. >> how tough is it, sometimes, you have a film like this, she gets her rave reviews, but the finnell overall is not really -- >> it's almost a perfect film. i will say that they have cut in archival footage into this, that they show historical viewpoint. it's also an important film for

women. >> so you don't agree with the critics saying this film is really not so much? >> absolutely not. i think it's an important film for everybody to see, especially young women. she was a pioneer for women, not only in the political arena but women in the workforce. >> it's on my list. thank you, amy. president obama's plan to shrink the government, will it please his base? plus, the search for the missing after a luxury cruise ship runs agrounld overseas. h a. would you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye-care experts at bausch + lomb. as you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. [ male announcer ] ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. now, that's a pill worth taking. [ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health. but my nose is still runny.

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deadly cruise ship catastrophe. a mad scramble for life. a luxury liner carrying thousands runs aground. a live report coming up. also ahead, carolina on their minds. one week before a crucial primary, the gop presidential contenders on the stump in the palmette toe state there. we're on the trail. plus, office politics. chuck todd on the similarities between president obama and mitt romney. good morning, everyone. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." it's 11:00 straight up on the east coast. we'll get to what's happening right now as the gop

presidential hopefuls are wasting no time at all campaigning hard this morning in south carolina. just a week away from the all-important primary. jut gingrich, rick santorum and rick perry are all holding events with perry focusing on states' rights. >> the states are under assault by the federal government, and my home state, under assault in a various asundry ways. but, south carolina, you all aren't just under assault, you're at war with the federal government. >> let's head back to charleston, south carolina, nbc's peter alexander there, with another good morning to you, it's a beautiful place on the surface, but the political attacks, they're ramping up and they're kind of ugly sometimes. >> reporter: yeah, alex, you're exactly riept. we're on the campus of the college of charleston, a short time from now, mike huckabee, the candidate from just four years ago is going to host a sit-down forum with five of the six candidates. ron paul not participating,

significant for a variety of reasons, not the least of which many of the candidates will try to woo the conservative christians in this state, evangelical christians make up nearly 6 out of 10 republican voters expected to vote in the primary one week from today. what's making news here reese entsly are the consistent attacks on mitt romney, specifically in the words of his opponents for callously killing jobs during his time at the private equity firm bain capital. romney has responded with a new ad had showing success stories. take a look. >> this is a business mitt romney helped start. and this one. and this steel mill. mitt romney helped create and ran a company that invested in struggling businesses, grew new ones, and rebuilt old ones, creating thousands of jobs. those are the facts. >> reporter: the facts throughout this argument have been in question for a while now, specifically those facts being used by a pro-gingrich super pac that purchased a

movie, a 28-minute blistering movie, that attacks mitt romney, as we said, for being a job killer, to use their language. today the "wall street journal" is reporting that three. former factory workers shown in that miniature movie say that, though it was implied that they lost their jobs as a result of bain capital's purchase of their company, in fact, they were proemtded, alex, and actually got raises. gingrich himself said that he would back off that and wanted to make it very clear that that company, specifically the super pac, should pull those ads and pull any inaccuracies from that exact movie. alex? >> okay. thank you for that update. nbc's peter alexander. let's get a bit more on that battle under way in south carolina to do that i'm joined by david kant aknees, national political reporter for politico. good morning. >> good morning, alex. >> you're in washington now but heading south on monday i'm told. neefrm in terms of your colleagues and with whom you've spoken in the state, what's the feeling on the ground there? what's the sense you're getting? >> i think the battle on the

ground is between newt gingrich and rick santorum to see who can really cobble out a coalition that will topple mitt romney. now, if you look at that arg poll that's out, it looks like voters are moving to newt, heeding his argument that, hey, if we don't stop romney now, this thing is over. but i can tell you that rick santorum continues to get very, very big crowds in south carolina. i think people are listening to him and open to him. and just this morning he was talking about how they're recounting votes in iowa and that he could come out on top there. so he's still seeking momentum from that first caucus state a few weeks ago. >> really? i thought that had been put to bed when it was certified. so that's still maybe up for grabs. >> well, they are doing a recount this morning, and one of my reporting colleagues james holman report that's rick santorum on the stump in greenville this morning was talking about how he believes he could come out on top when the vote is certified finally. it hasn't been certified yet.

remember, it's an eight-vote margin. this is what he was saying on the stump this morning. >> and that guy who said there was a 20-vote discrepancy. i don't know about the math. anyway, let's get to the story line getting a pretty fair amount of attention, the fractured right in south carolina. what do you think it's going to take to coalesce the republican base around one of these guys, any one? >> it's going to be very difficult, but just last night newt gingrich and rick santorum appeared at a conservative event and they're not taking aim at each other. they are both training their attacks on mitt romney. the question is, if newt gingrich starts to get momentum this week, will the others, rick perry, rick santorum, turn their fire on newt, or will all the fire be turned on romney? again, as the narrative has been settle, this all benefits romney, the fact you have rick perry, though he's in single digits, rick santorum and newt gingrich all fighting noor same coalition. advantage romney. but if you see conservatives starting to agree with newt's

argument, he's making lts most forceful argument, hey, unite behind me or this is it. you'll be unhappy with the nominee. that's where we're starting to see some movement. we're watching closely. >> hang on just a second because i want to bring in reed wilson, editor in chief the national joornls hotline. reed, good morning. it's not too early to talk about how this ticket overall could be shaping up. you have a new article on what's going on behind all the closed doors, republicans trying foig out who might be number two, the veep pick. if romney indeed emerges as the nominee, what is the buzz you're hearing about the number two spot? >> there are a couple of candidates from around the country who -- there is of course a race that you can't really talk about in public. you can't bring it up in polite society, if you will, if you actually want a chance at the vice presidential nomination. but there are a couple of candidates that are doing what they can to prepare for the eventuality they'll make a long or short list.

they've all been informed by sarah palin and her unpreparedness four years ago for the national spotlight and even by rick perry this year, a guy who went out on stage in a very early debate sort of threw away his entire presidential campaign because he wasn't able to get those talking point s right. what we're seeing is some candidates behind the scenes getting briefings on certain issues that they don't necessarily deal with in their everyday current jobs. some other candidates taking some stands now on issues that could play better to sort of bolster their resume in the long run. and then other candidates going out on the stump, really trying to prove to the romney camp that they're valuable as surrogates or as anybody who can sit there and bash president obama, which is of course the traditional role of the vice presidential nominee. >> yes. reid, is there anyone whose name emerges among the other candidates? is there anyone that people say, well, we could see them, once they get past the fractured nature of the primaries, the two

would coalesce and work well together? >> well, none of the folks who are actually running for president right now i think are going to be on mitt romney's short list. none of them really brings a lot to the ticket. on the other hand, everybody is sort of fascinated by the idea of marco rubio, the junior senator from florida. he's hispanic, young, exciting to conservatives. he would really help romney coalesce any sort of fears, any conservatives, around him who might still have questions about his nomination. again, some people are actually worried that rubio is very yong u young, doesn't have a lot of experience. he was only fifrpt elected to the u.s. senate in 2010. doesn't that flay into the sort of sarah palin not ready, president obama didn't have a lot of experience, that is a concern that i think a lot of republicans have about rubio's qualifications. but then again, you know, young hispanic, something that the republican party really needs to convey right now, that's what bhaiks him such an exciting potential candidate. >> yeah. so, david, if romney is it indeed the nominee, what is that

thing that he needs to kpe compensate for in his vp pick? is it a personality deficit, policy deficit, a geographic, demographic pick? >> i think all of those are going to be factors. i would add one more name, sort of a dark horse name, that could be a potential pick. the governor of new mexico, susanna martinez, i think a lot of respect for her of democrats that have worked against her, again, female, hispanic, from a blue state. i think she could be a factor. but, look, if it's going to be romney, i think you need someone that's going to provide some type of jolt. but i think reid's exactly right. because of what happened with palin last round, i think there's going to be extra scrutiny on, hey, are they ready for prime-time? and the vetting process could go a little even deeper this time around. >> david, reid, good to see you. thank you. a federal judge has refused to add four republican

presidential candidates to virginia's gop primary ballot. the judge ruled perry, gingrich, santorum and huntsman all failed to get enough signatures in time to qualify for the march 6th primary. so only romney and paul will be appearing on that ballot in the state. new reports about tensions in the middle east this morning. u.s. fears that israel is preparing to take military action against iran also. the defense department has released video from a week ago, three iranian boats approaching american ships in the straight of hormuz. the u.s. has warned iran not to try to close the strait. joining ne from san francisco is janeane zakaria, visiting lecturer at stanford university. nice to see you. >> you, too. >> let's talk about this report that says the u.s. has warned israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu to not attack iran. would that be enough? >> no. i think it would be very

difficult for israel to pull that out without coordination with the united states, maybe a little easier now that the u.s. doesn't have a large military presence in iraq. but i was very surprised by the warning right now, especially in light of the fact that prime minister netanyahu came out this week in an interview saying iran is now starting to wobble because ever sanctions on its central bank. i think he's saying an option is not on the front burner for israel right now. >> but perhaps. but the u.s. is starting to, they say, safeguard american facilities in that region in case of armed conflict. so how do we interpret that? >> i think you have an overall rising of tensions that began even last late year. if you recall, the iranians said they had downed a u.s. droenl surveillance drone. you had the attack on the british embassy there last year. now you've got the former u.s. marine who was sentenced to

death in iran there. and you've got a lot of thing that's are happening in addition to the rhetorical back-and-forth between israel and iran that sprouts up every couple months. so i think the u.s. is being precautious. >> do you think in this situation israel is working as a partner with us or does israel's actions undermine the fact that we're trying to control iran by sanctions? >> well, clearly israel has no leverage in terms of sanctions. naktd, there was an interesting quote just about a month ago by the deputy prime minister saying some countries act via sanctions and some countries have to act in other ways. sort of a subtle maybe acknowledgement of israel's participation or leadership or direction ever the various ways we've seen iran's program being undermined, namely, the attack on -- the killing of nuclear scientist, the virus, computer virus last year that disabled centrifuges that enrich uranium and also two suspicious attacks on military facilities that

house long-range mils ils. >> the killing of the iranian scientist, though, who's behind that? i mean, i know we don't know for sure, but if it were to be israel, as has been publicly speck lai speculated, how would they be able to even launch such an attack that? >> you know, israel is known in the intelligence community as being able to recruit people. i would suspect outside of raunl, pakistan, maybe somewhere else, to be able to carry out these very ambitious, incredibly planned attacks where these motorcycles are racing up next to the cars of the scientists and they're placing the bomb on the cars. there have been at least four scientists killed in the last two years,s first killing exactly two years ago and it was at a time, if you go back when this campaign started, when iran was really rebuffing the international community when it came to its nuclear program, refz refzing to ship out its own low enriched uranium, the main point, just weeks before the

first attack. israel among others to be concerned was getting very frustrated with the lack of international focus on the issue. so i think you see -- it's quite likely and quite possible that israel is behind it and natio l naturally they wouldn't acknowledge it but they really haven't vehemently denied it either. >> always a good conversation, thank you so much. we're following developing news off the coast of tuscany in italy. tragedy for paerngs of a luxury cruise shim. italian officials stay three are dead and 4200 had to be evacuated after the ship was knocked on its side from a collision with a sandbar. we'll have details later this hour from a reporter in italy. let's go to signs of winter finally in this country after a prolonged snow drought. as much as a foot of snow blanketing towns across the region, the storm is bringing bitterly cold weather, fatal car accidents, as well as hunls of flight cancellations. and the weather cham's mike seidel keeping an eye once more for us in cleveland where it's certainly snow on the ground but not too much it looks like.

good morning. >> reporter: hey, good morning, alex. about 4 inches on the ground here, the windchill is 9, the temperature 21. not bad, considering it would be an average day in a typical january. but this has been far from typical. 271, the major interstate on the east side of town, everything is fine, they've salted. we've got a little stun, they've pl plowed. the surface streets will be an issue. let's go to the radar. see the white streamers off the lakes, south of buffalo hit pretty hard around dunkirk, also a band between here and erie and again some bands off lake michigan. that's it. otherwise, you get away from the lakes it's just cold and kind of breezy today but not as cold as it was -- as windy as it was yesterday. so flight delays and cancellations are down, especially at the northeastern airports. it's going to stay cold through the weekend, but it warms up again next week. and, alex, now, live vicariously through this shot because i know it's cold, it's been windy in new york city. this is the only way we're

staying warm out here. we're focusing in on this sign, the bahama breeze restaurant sign and feeling the warmth. you really have to think hard. >> i'm thinking -- >> reporter: in the meantime, colder weather but nothing persistent, long range, like we had the past two winters at this point. back to you. >> mike, thank you. coming up, the tebow effect in 2012 politics. also ahead, the power of the pocketbook in the palmetto state. who is payi ining big bucks for tv spots? how to put more money in your pocket by giving yourselves a raise. don't you all deserve one? i'm sure you do.

well, the mud is flying and the attack ads are descending upon south carolina with just a week before the primary.

the super pacs and candidates have spent $11.3 million in the tv ads in the palmetto state alone. joining me is chad connell, chairman of the south carolina republican party. good morning. >> good morning, alex. how are you? >> i'm doing great. hope you are, too, except when you think about the record $11.3 million. does that make you feel at all uncomfortable? >> it's actually what i've been predicting six or seven months since i got elected chairman. i believed all along south carolina would again be decisive in this race. we've got a 30-year track record. with this many candidates descending on the state, i knew they'd be crisscrossing the state and i knew they'd be bieg up all the tv ad time they could. >> but do they have to do it with all of these negative tv ads? i mean, i read some place that people will be seeing about 128 ads on average between now and a week from today when they head to the polls. that's a lot, and a lot of these ads are nasty! >> yeah, i understand.

in fact, that report that you're referring to is the one that said basically virtually all tv ad time in south carolina had been purchased already. >> right! >> the average viewer will see the ads over 100 times in the coming week. but this is a primary season, and it's usually a battle. i've been calling this the battle royale. it will be pivotal and decisive. i believe we'll pick our nominee who will go out and beat barack obama next fall. i don't think it's unusual at all. i think this year is kind of tame compared to years past i've watch td. >> i was going to ask you because it does seem at least the tenor is slightly more tame. but you've got a week to go. we know there is one super pac releasing twor new ads tomorrow and we expect those to have somewhat of a nasty tone. do you think things will get worse this next week? >> i don't know. you know, i remember as a young man watching reagan and bush, when reagan did the reaganomics and bush responded with voodoo economics and i thought, they will never be friends.

then they became running mates. then the whisper campaign that went on in 2000, the stuff that really has no source that you can pinpoint. the really nasty stuff i haven't seen at all, and what i think we're seeing right now is just a backyard brawl and a fight amongst friends th s th will come together to beat obama in the friend. >> your fellow south carolinians, what's your read on how they feel about this primary season and the candidates? >> i think what i've been judging it by is the ground gains. some of these candidates have been here a long time and have made a lot of visits. the interesting thing to watch, i believe, in this final week is the debate monday night, of course, in myrtle beach. thal be pivotal. but then how the ground games really translate into votes. i know senator santorum has been here the most, then speaker gingrich, then probably governor perry and governor romney, in that order i think. so they have big ground games they've got good folks on the ground, great political operatives that they don't leave a stone unturned in this

campaign race. so we're going to stee how the negative ads or the tv ads impact the numbers i think after the weekend. bull sometime this week we're going to see any kind of surge that takes place, and that will come frt ground game. >> chad connell, big week ahead. get your running shoes on. >> yes, ma'am. >> thanks. >> have a great weekend. john edwards has been diagnosed with a serious medical condition. and a federal judge has delayed his criminal trial for at least two months so he can have surgery and recover. doctors are not revealing the nature of edwards' illness, but edwards' defense presented two letters from cardiologists asking for this delay. edwards is accused of illegally using campaign donations to pay his pregnant mistress during his 2008 presidential campaign. i make real italian ravioli. small tender macaroni pies, filled with hearty italian seasoned meat, smothered in vine-ripened tomato sauce. and absolutely no preservatives.

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here on how to fatten up your wallets. a lot of the credit card bills are starting to come in. you say give yourself a raise? >> right. change the number of withholdings you take. everyone gets this wrong. 75% of us get a tax refund, the average is about $3,000, which tells us we're having too much withheld. so there are calculators on the web that can help you with this, irs.gov has them, turbo tax is offering free advice this season. you could ask them about e filing or your withholdings. just to give you an example, if you're single, you made $30,000 and you got a $1,000 refund, if you take two extra allowances, that will put $90 back into your pocket every month. a lot of people have this wrong. just check it out. >> what about mortgages? you say there's a way to nibble away at the payments. >> interestingly enough, we still have 12 million credit-worthy merges who are overpaying their mortgages by $436 a month collectively if they were to refinance they would save over $52,000 over ten years. fu want to find out how much you

could save, zillow has a free app, refi calculators on the web. a substantial amount of money on the table. you have to have good credit. >> i can't figure out, how can you fatten your wallet by cleaning out your drawers. >> i want to know what's in your drawers, a.lex. we have $16 billion in bonds that have expired, are not earning interest anymore. just sitting in people's drawers. you want to cash those out. we also have gift cards, at any given time, we have around $300 of gift cards on us. many are going unused. sell them if you're not using them. >> you know what you have to pay attention to, too, redeeming your miles if you're a frequent traveler. i have let some expire. >> we leave a third of the $48 million on the table. you have to redeem your points and miles. >> thank you, vera gibbons. >> thank you, alex. in a moment, today's fact or fiction on president obama's

plan to shrink the u.s. government. in office politics, nbc's chuck todd talks about interviewing the president and how nervous he gets. you're watching "weekend with alex witt." [ deep breath] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth! 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. ♪ achoo! [ male announcer ] and common tissue can make it burn even more.

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so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey! welcome back to "weekends with alex witt" at 31 past the hour. we're going to bring you alive look right now at the effect of this ship over on its side. look at that as dusk approaches off the coast of italy. pretty remarkable. can you imagine seeing that? it is a situation with a search under way to find dozens of missing passengers. the ship ran aground on some sort of sandbar. here's more from florence. >> reporter: 129 american tourists were among thousands of holiday makers na that were on board the cruise liner that sank off the coast of tuscany last night. we don't know what their fate is yet and whether they managed to get out of the boat safely.

what we know is there are about 50 to 70 people still missing, and that's why divers have been deployed to search for the missing and eventual survivors cabin by cabin. of course the rescue operation is being made very difficult by the fact that the cruise liner is now tilted on one side and half of it is under water. an investigation is also open on the responsibility of this. the cruise liner was way off course and had headed straight into a coral reef. just hundreds of yards away from the coast. well, they need to find out now whether this was due to mechanical failure or human error. alex? >> claudio, thank you. take a look at all of this, everyone. right now they're looking for as many as 70 people, but the problem is apparently this ship could even slide further into the water. in fact, another 230 feet is the latest information we're getting, and that would make things extremely perilous for

divers that are trying to look for those that are missing. again, it's hard to get a full count because you had over 4,000 people on board that ship. but they're looking at up to 70 right now that are still missing in these waters there off of italy. pretty tragic situation, this happened at dinner time last night. about 8:00 p.m., only just a few hours after that ship had left port for the very first time for what was supposed to be a wonderful vacation for those many thousands on board. we'll keep watching this and give you the latest developments as we get them from italy. let's go back to the campaign trail. for republicans in south carolina, this week the forget has been mitt romney's business career. meantime, in washington, president obama wanted to merge six government agencies, aiming to extreme line regulations. all good fodder for fact or fiction. joining me, david, we're going to get right to you. our first fact or fiction, president's obama's plan to shrink the federal government

will please his base. >> that's fiction. generally, his base being liberal democrats, are in favor of expensive government spending. they benefit strategically a little bit in washington from having similar functions of the federal government spread among different agencies. one example would be the noaa, the national ocean graphic and add moss feeshg administration. it does weather and fish. it would seem a natural fit for the interior department. right now it's in the commerce department. that's what the president wants to do, move it. environmental groups don't like it. they are very happy with the status quo. generally democrats like things just the way they are. this is a play for the republican bails, not democratic. >> let's move to the 2012 republican field. with mitt romney's time at bain capital being a focus of many of the atooks. fact or fiction -- it is it impossible to kwauntd five jobs lost or gained at bain capital. >> that's a fact. it is impossible to quantity 5,

especially when you consider that the businesses that succeeded when bain took them over, in some cases, had the effective destroying other businesses. so to give mitt romney's bain capital credit for doing nothing but creating jobs isn't right. he, for example, saved the staples office supply chain, but in so doing put a lot of mom and pop shops out of business. >> xakts exactly. during romney aels time at bain capital, they never invested in a business that filed for bankruptcy. >> that's fiction. the "wall street journal" actually did an interesting study on this. they calculated that of the 77 businesses that bain capital invested in, 22% of them either just closed up or filed for bankruptcy protection in the federal courts within eight years of bain making an investment. >> how about this -- since this election will likely hinge on the economy, it's always worth a fact check of the

candidates' differences on the issues. so is that a fact or fiction, with president obama and mitt romney both having plans to cut the national debt by 3 trillion over ten years? >> that's a fiction. that is the president's number. he has set that target for himself. he hasn't succeeded so far at all with congress, but his plan would combine two-thirds spending consults, one-third tax increases to get to the $3 trillion target. romney hasn't talked about that number. he's talked about the so-called republican cut cap and balance plan, which would involve capping federal spending, but he's also talking about a $600 billion tax cut along the way. so maybe that's why he's not talked about a $3 trillion deficit reduction because that would be very hard to do, to cut and tap spending while at the same time giving another tax cut. >> david, hawk beings, as usual, our thanks. >> thank you. it's time now for more "office politics" and more of my

interview with chuck todd, chief white house correspondent and host of msnbc's "the daily rundown." busy guy. i asked him at this point in the 2012 campaign how confident is president obama's team in their reelection effort. >> to say that they're, like, confident beating romney, they're not. they know that this is -- they still believe they're running against the economy, not running against mitt romney. but they also believe mitt romney is going to run the best race against them. so they've been run trying to run against mitt romney for the last six months. they've been preparing the reelection strategy, assuming that they can create a choice between the president and mitt romney and not -- i mean, the last thing they want is this to be a referendum on the first four years. they think that's a harder path to reelection. if the economy accelerates and there's job growth, fine, they can make it a referendum. right now they want to prepare to be a point win not a referendum. so they do think they've -- they

know how to run against romney. they know exactly the campaign they're going to runl. they think if they're successful at dog doing it, they will win. the one thing they say to me about romney, when newt was popg off, you know, the one good and bad about romney is you know how they're going to run against up. >> how about the hope and change message that swept obama into office four years ago? can they even go near that again? >> i think they do to get their base fired up. because they need turnout among particularly their core group of supporters, liberals, african-americans, hispanics. they need to ghaet excitement again. so i actually think in a weird way they need to sort of, yes. >> is that their biggest challenge evenin challenge? >> it's certainly what they expect and i think polls indicate to me that they're not going to see a dip in turnout among african-americans. you know, the game is making sure african-american turnout is as high as it was so that if

you're winning 95%, you know, of 15 million voters versus 95% of 12 million voters, depending on the state or -- that's certainly one of their concerns, and that's part of their play book. but, you know, i think the challenge both mitt romney and barack obama have is personalitywise i think they're very similar pefrnwill personal. they're very analytical. spending time with both of them, they're not heart guys, they're head guys. and i think -- that turned out to be a very good strength for barack obama, you know. the idea of obama became a heart -- he was able -- that was the sort of heart appeal, but what helped him win over a bigger coalition of voters, particularly independents, was the head appeal, the analytical mind that he was pushing. i think that's -- in this case you do get the sense that the public wants a populist. neither romney nor obama do

populism well. that's not who they are. they're analytical guys first. the two of them would have worked well nogt the academic arena or bain or mckinzie. they both like their power points. they want a presentation like that. they're analytical thinkers. so the stylistically there's not going to be a huge difference between the two of them. >> i see a couple of pictures of you interviewing the president. do you get nervous preparing for something like that? >> always. >> i know you know your stuff. >> no, no, no, no. i always get nervous the first -- particularly the first time, but with the president it's a different -- it's weird. you're nervous for a million reasons. >> a lot of weight on you. >> exactly. it's sort of one of those, there's no room for error. >> yeah. >> you mess up, network might yank you, could be a career killer. you embarrass yourself in front -- president of the united states, it's just -- you don't get the same level of nervousness interviewing any -- even the candidates themselves. >> i love this picture.

you, tom brokaw dead center, brian williams right there. >> at the convention four years ago. somebody gave it to me as a gift. all of a sudden i went from the obscure political director guy in the boiler room and they're giving me the opportunity there. >> his office has so much cool stuff if you're a politics junky. also a reporter extraordinary. i'll have more of our interview, including how much of a sports nut he is. watch "the daily rundown," chuck todd's show every morning on msnbc. coming up, what if tim tebow endorses a presidential candidate?

today's poll of the week apparently a lot of voters don't know some basic facts about the gop field. only 53% of americans know that massachusetts is the state where mitt romney served as governor. just 45% know south carolina is the next state to hold a

primary. also, the pew research center poll found registered voters know more about the candidates than nonvoters, which i guess that part at least not surprising. it is time now for the big 3 panel, the tebow tug-of-war, what candidates are doing to win the quarterback's endorsement, the president and back off bain, the populist line of attack against mitt romney, could it back fire. i'm joined by goldie taylor, joe watkins, republican strategist and anne kornblut, white house reporter for "the washington post." good morning you three. we're going to start with romney's time with bain. it has gained some new steam this week with the release of the 28-minute ad called the king of bain. it was released thanks to money from a super pac, $5 million. this is now what gingrich is saying. >> i'm calling on the super pac, i cannot coordinate with them. i cannot communicate directly. but i can speak out as a citizen

talking to you. i'm calling on them to either edit out every single mistake or to pull the entire film but not to run the film if it has errors in it. >> you know, joe, isn't the cat already out of the bag? why is gingrich speaking out now? >> i think he's doing the right thing. this is what you do if you're an honorable guy. i think newt is. if your facts are incorrect in the piece, he wants them pulled. >> but you know what, joe? if he were being honorable about this instead of maybe looking at this from a political perfect spektive, wouldn't he have gotten on that sooner? i mean, because it's been out there for a while. so damage may have been done. there were those earlier on the show that thought the damage is actually being done to newt gingrich because of this ad. >> there may be some truth to that. at the end of the day mitt romney has tremendous momentum going forward. his work at bain capital is it a tremendous plus for him, something for him to push as a candidate for the presidency, his capacity to create jobs, put people to work, invest in companies that employ more americans. all of that is good information,

it's good for mitt romney. and to attack it, especially with in a republican primary, is a hard thing to do. >> i should mention here that bain capital and nbc universal, we're each part owner ever tof weather channel. gingrich really loses nothing by speaking out against the super pac. some say that. what do you think? >> that's exactly right, i think. and if anything he gets to have it both ways. he gets to have this quote, unquote documentary out there raising issues about mitt romney's record and portraying him as a corporate raider and at the same time he gets to look noble by condemning it and calling on the super pac to stop it. now, he is protected a little bit by the law, which does forbid them from coordinating. but obviously the coordination happens in plain sight the way we're seeing. anything he says in public the super pac hears and can act on. that's been true across the board. so i do think he benefits both a ways and he now can claim he demanded this come to an end immediately. >> yeah. goldie, you know, supreme court ruling notwithstanding, are you

straching your head as i am to think that one person can donate $5 million to a campaign, to a super pac, and have this kind of influence in the political conversation? >> well, i am scratching my head, if corporations are people, then they ought to identify themselves and be subjected to the same limits, if you put mitt romney's marationa there. a bunch of high-end millionaires put in a bunch of money into an atlanta mayor's race and never had to say who they were. and that's just most unfortunate. you know, i don't think that the public is served in any way by people hiding behind a curtain pumping money into political campaigns. because of course when you give the mnl, you're going to be beholden. anybody who says these kpaichb campaigns don't coordinate whether in front of or behind the camera with these independent expenditure

campaigns are patently naive. newt gingrich is having it both ways. mitt romney is having it both ways. it's time we put a stop to it. >> anne, president obama announced this week he wants to extreme line the government by consolidatining six agencies in one. is into one. is he stealing the republicans' thunder? >> it sure does. >> i'm giving it to ann first. >> i don't know if he's stealing their thunder or making a preemptive strike. this is something he mentioned in the state of the union. as we approach the next state of the union, it is important that he checked a lot of boxes so his opponents can't say, hold on, unfinished business. this is something he's talked about for quite a while. it's popular across the board. people don't blik government bloat. the real people it concerns are the workers because it will obviously result in some redundancies. they've said they'll let people go by attrition, but that's a concern for people here inside the beltway, but that doesn't

concern most actual voters. >> joe, the president talking insourcing. he wants to bring the u.s. jobs back from overseas to change the tax code to incentivise domestic. how can they argue with these moves? >> he's making some very, very good points. the question becomes does he have the capacity to actually get it done. he hasn't shown the deftness as a president to get things through congress although some of the proposals are helpful. this is a proposal that many republicans would agree with, but the ability to get it through congress especially in an election year is questionable. >> how about this, goldie, streamlining washington and bringing jobs back to the u.s., are these plit canal winners? >> they are political winners, but joe is right. what can the president get done and republicans will stand in the way until they extract a lot of pain out of this president to get it patsed. even though you're going to lose a thousand jobs by attrition, even though it would save the

government $3 billion over the coming years, i think some pain will be put on the table to get this thing passed. >> goldie, ann, joe, you guys sit tight. i'll talk to you a few minutes from now. i'm scott williams with a look at that saturday forecast. we're tracking some of the coldest air of the season moving in to the northeast. case in point, new york city high today of 35 degrees. 18 degrees in the buffalo area. elsewhere across the country 50 degrees in atlanta, low 40s in seattle. we're looking at sunshine in phoenix. [ female announcer ] crest 3d white was recognized

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nfl quarterback tim tebow says the gop candidates are looking for his endorsement although he's not naming names. he's declined to back a candidate. but back now with goldie taylor, joe watkins and ann corn blute. you're take on a tebow endorsement. >> i'm a proud christian. i love what tim tebow was doing on the national stage, but whether or not his endorsement means something real at the ballot box, i really sort of doubt it. it is nice to get for fund-raising, to get people to turn out and write checks, but other than that, i think that's as far as it goes. >> joe or ann, any of you disagree? because we're almost out of time

here. >> i agree. i think she's right. having the endorsement of governor haley is more important than tim tebow wencht saw katy perry endorsed ron paul and it did more for her record sales than for him. >> let's go right to your take on the best and worst weeks of washington. joe, you got best with whom? >> mitt romney, worst, rick perry. >> wow, that was a sync. i don't know what to do with all this time. ann, off to you, best and worst? >> got to give it to mitt romney for the best week. that's for sure. the worst week to jon huntsman. he needed to have something big happen in new hampshire and obviously didn't. we'll see what happens in south carolina. but we never thought that would be his strong fold. he and perry might have to share it, but he ekes it out. >> goldie, best and worst? >> best week newt gingrich, worst week newt gingrich. he is closing in on mitt romney down in south carolina. and also he's been chided for putting out, you know, what

seems to be, you know, a missed mark in terms of hitting him on bain. best week and worst week. >> you guys hit it right on the money. thank you, goldie, ann, joe. we'll see you again. that's a wrap of weekends with alex witt. we have breaking news as it happens. male announcer ] everyby loves that cushiony feeling. uh oh. i gotta go. [ female announcer ] and with charmin ultra soft, you can get that same cushiony feeling you love while still using less. charmin ultra soft has extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent. so you can use four times less versus the leading value brand. ah. [ female announcer ] using less never felt so good. we all go... why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra soft. ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie.

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