c -- three different candidates approxima? never, never before. joining me we have a killer panel from the nation, msnbc contributor ari, and the host of the to be named show, we are all excited and former hillary clinton adviser, howard wolfson who is tardy but will be here soon and michael steele. we are starting in south carolina where herman cain is having an interesting couple of days. he took stage in charleston awaited his endorsement. >> my unconvention allen endorse endorsement is the people. >> herman cain joins us now.

mr. cain, i thank you for endorsing me, i'm very excited. >> thank you. and you know what? i'm here on the campus of the charleston, the students and people love it because we the people have to take back washington. washington is broken, america is broke and so the people have to take it back. >> so let's ask about the people, eventually they will have to vote for somebody on the ballot. unfortunately we did not qualify in south carolina and virginia. you know the other can tadidate well. giving your insider knowledge could have helped us? i could have, but i'm running an unconventional campaign. this is why i did not offer an

endorsement. i'm more concerned about the ultimate mission and i want to make sure that people stay inspired to stay engaged in the process. if i had done a typical endorsement, this media would have had a story for 24-hour news cycles but it would have fragmented my supporters. i want my supporters involved and engaged and spired. >> melissa? >> i have a question for you, msnbc host, rachel maddow has sometimes talked about your presidential campaign as a satire that it was not a campaign it was more the imagine of what a campaign may be. in joining together with colbert, it feels like you are, in fact, re-enforcing rachel's idea that that is what is up. what is with the decision to join with the comedians when it seems that your message has been

more get the people together, but colbert is a comedian? >> first of all, i could care less about rachel maddow's opinion of me and my campaign. that simply means she does not know me and all the people that wanted to criticize and make fun of my campaign. they don't know me. and in my grandfather's word, i does not care. the reason i'm teaming up with colbert, is because we have solutions at cain connection.com, i'm going to promote solutions and not candidates. and i believe that people can get excited about solutions, like the 9-9-9 revolution. that is what i'm about. if she and others want to criticize me and call my campaign not serious, that is their problem. >> i want to talk to you about that 9-9-9 initiative. but let's talk about colbert,

his idea is that it's a farse that it's being run by big business, and do you agree with him on that? >> he is partly right, i happen to believe that the campaign finance laws are flawed and they need to be changed. one of the flaws is the ability for super pacs to have the kind of impact that they have had. we saw the impact in iowa and all over. so he is right, that they are flawed but we need to overhaul the entire campaign finance law, in order to make it much more equitable, such that big money does not determine who actually gets the nomination fwlm >> herman, michael steele here, you are mixing it up as usual. i want to spin off the point, how do you see it playing out throughout the rest of the

campaign, how do you see this thing working out particularly as we settle on a nominee, are you looking to work with that nominee to see how you integrate the ideas that you are talking about, how do you see it playing out down the road to the nomination? and certainly in the fall? >> great question, let me first reassure people, i'll encourage people to not vote for me just because iep 'm on the ballot. don't waste your vote on me. this is to raise awareness for the process, it has flaws but it's the best system we have, we have to make it work. here is how i see it playing out. i think it's going to be a close race coming out of south carolina, between romney and gingrich. florida will be another wild card because of the restructuring of how the votes in florida, because they moved

that date. wro i don't think that we will have a clear idea until we get through super tuesday, there may be space between the two by super tuesday, but i don't think that it will happen before that. >> i want to pick up on your comment this is morning, defending, to some degree, newt gingrich, you didn't the defend bill clinton's private life when newt gingrich made that a problem for him, don't you think that you open yourself up and the republican party by injecting yourself here in a way that teseems to some people as double standard when it comes to candidate's private lives? >> it's amazing that you can dig up the stuff from the farthest back that is irrelevant. i was not a voice in the public when bill clinton was president. and now you want to draw a

parallel -- why didn't i defend bill clinton? i was not in politics then. i was not a voice out there. i think that newt gingrich did the right thing to push back, people need to make decisions based upon solutions of how we fix problems. what happened to newt gingrich is the same crap that they did to me. so i was happy to see him push back on that, so it's not even an adequate comparison to talk about bill clinton and what i said in defending newt gingrich. that is not valid. >> briefly, mr. cain, you were out there in a town hall meeting talking and newt gingrich is the one with the record here and he was the one you were talking about. >> that is true. talking about today. back during when bill clinton was president i was fighting against hilary-care. i did not discuss bill clinton's

personal life, i stayed focused on the political life. >> you have been vocal on this issue, you have the 999 plan, and one of the parts of it is transparency and tax has become big in the republican party recently, let me ask you straight on, does mitt romney need to release his tax returns? >> no. >> why not? >> i don't think he needs to and here is why, it gives liberals another arguing point for class warfare. class warfare divide this is country just like when they bring up the race card, it divides us. we need to get rid of focusing on that. worrying about mitt romney's tax return is a distraction. how are we going to get this economy go? it's not moving. how do we get to be energy independent? the president has rejected the keystone pipeline and put up

another barrier, that is what people should be focused on. i do not care if mitt romney releases his tax return and i don't think that the american people care, liberals care because they want to play the class warfare card. >> mr. cain, thank you for your time, i hear there's a long line outside of your events. we are looking forward to it. last time you were here, you told alex that you said next time you are here, you would sing us into the break, she is at home sick watching, i bet it would lift her spirits. >> well, ezra with all due respect, i'll sing to alex when she is there. i'm sorry, not going to sing to you. so i'll save that for when alex is there. >> fair enough, coming up. by most accounts if newt gingrich won the debate, will he win the primary in south carolina? next on the show. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool

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south carolina now appears within striking distance for newt gingrich, if he wins tomorrow after romney lost his blue ribbon in iowa, this would be the first time in gop history that three different candidates would have won in iowa, new hampshire and south carolina, it did happen in '88 when dukakis split the vote.

we have alice stewart with us today, thank you for being here. >> great to be here, heezra, thk you. >> who had the best night and who had the worst? >> it's a toss up, san ftorum h a good night and that means that romney had a good night. what santorum's performance did was minimize the gingrich surge, i guess you could say, the first five minutes of the debate, without a doubt belonged to gingrich but after that santorum made good points and romney made good points to capitalism issue. that was good for mitt romney. >> i think that folks felt that gingrich owned it in the first five minutes and that won it. >> i think he did well in the

debate before last night and last night. you see, primaries have an tremendous impact. the super pacs matter and people that will vote in the primaries are tuning in and want to see what people do in the debates and they have a big impact on the elections. >> they do, the first type of minu -- the first 5 minutes you are sitting there saying oh, my goodness, he went there right out of the box, i get the idea of the 800 pound gorilla in the room, but you could see it on newt's face. >> i'm appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that. and i'm frankly asound ee eed - astounded that cnn would take a

story like and open a presidential debate. >> as if on cue, gingrich had a story that would derail, but he managed to make the media an issue, it was a plus for him. >> he d and it was fascinating to watch and it was appalli inio be talking about the personal life of a candidate from newt gingrich. the fact is, it's indicative of the politics that newt gingrich himself has activated other the past 20 years, he was able to make it not about him or his ethics but somehow about media. >> that is what he is good at.

he is better than anybody else in the field. he has a lot of ideas. but the thing he was great at when he came to power in '94 and what he has done well in this campaign, he is good at figuring out what the voters don't like and telling them why they should keep not liking it and the media has been in a way his perfect challenger. >> i think that is right. a good defense is always a strong offense and in newt's case, it's all offense and attack. look the media likes to see itself as an innocent nonplayer. an observer of these things that are happening and that is often not the case and howard will tell you in debates that is not the case. everyone remembers when hillary clinton said are you going to offer barack a pillow because i feel it's all coming at me. you can do that in either party if you attack that kind of

resentment. the problem for newt gingrich is the weakness is real among people that care about hypocrisy but from last night he moved the conversation from him to the press. >> i want to bring in alice on that, alice you were bringing up santorum and said he had a couple of good debates here. i would have thought after iowa and particularal day when it turns out that he won iowa, he would have been the guy that was the anti-romney instead newt seems to be taking back some of that momentum. why is santorum having trouble catching fire? >> well, yesterday was a huge news day as you all know, i think that santorum made good point on saying that gingrich had grand ideas but we had perry dropping out and endorsing romney, and the question of the ex-wife interview, whether it was appropriate. every issue that has been out there is on the table in a

debate. especially this close to a primary. it was the elephant in the room. i do agree with michael, oh, no you didn't bring it up in the beginning. it was a little bit questionable, but it had to be asked and it was just as well for gingrich to get it out there address it and move on to the issues that people care about which is jobs and the economy and here in south carolina, the social issues are critical and they were able to touch to that as well. >> and it gave newt the opportunity to own the moment and keep owning the moment. and you saw as it unfolded that newt was driving that discussion. it was almost as if you can see that jon was hesitating to go back to ask him a question because he was not sure what newt would do with the question. whether it was health care or the economy because newt so owned that first five minutes. santorum had great points after it settled down. that exchange between he and

newt was awesome, it was like the mentor and student going back and forth. and the student saying i have it i can take the hand off. it was interesting to watch those two battle out and the rest of it just kind of sit back and watch. >> you have been through the campaigns before and you have seen these, romney was not the most exciting candidate in the night, but in the long run, his tax issue will be a bit of a bigger problem. we have audio from him. >> you are right, i think grand thoughts, this is a grand country of big people doing big things and we need leadership to take on big projects. >> that was not in fact the sound i wanted. but what he said was this is just continually dripping at him. and the nemedia loves it.

but he is the one bringing it forward, you have watch today media swarm on these, he is saying blood is here. there's something here. >> when hillary went against rick lazio, he did not want to release had his taxes. they sent a character dressed like uncle sam saying i want your taxes, release your taxes. and he went from the position of i'm not going to do it, to a week or two of this constant conversation of why not release the taxes and then finally he released them after wasting a fair amount of time. some candidates have done it and the president has, so his opponent has. and i think that obviously this will continue to be an issue until he does it or he finds a

new or better way of talking about it that previously we have not heard. >> the other candidate that did it was governor romney's father who released 12 years office them and said if you only release one year it can be a lie. can he stand against the example of his father? >> i would like to take a minute and talk about all the daddy issues going on in this campaign. the big issue is that he did not own the moment in the way that we were just talking about newt gingrich owning it. it has less to do with whether or not he is transparent with the tax returns than it is about whether he can turn to the camera and own the stage and explain why not. instead he is doing a meek, maybe i'll release them maybe i won't. and that is exactly the thing that is turning off so many gop primary voters. >> all right. well after the break, we will have more newt, no, but i will. it's really an unlikely way to dominate a debate, but he did it. we will see if he can keep it

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my wife and my family. >> setting standards are very important and i'm proud that my wife of 54 years is with me. >> the flip side of what we are talking about the hypocrisy charge on clinton, a lot of people said, it's private, it's not a good thing that he is committing adultery but it doesn't effect how he does his job. why should gingrich though he held clinton to a different standard, why should he be held to a different standard? >> well, i'll answer you and i will say that i've been with my girlfriend for two years, and each day is better than the previous day. that is important. there's two ways to look at that. do you think that people's private lives should be an issue

in the way they governor. that is an issue that we have seen play out and we know that newt said yes, we know that about newt and some of the other people and that makes them hypocrites, regardless of whether we get into their lives or not. if you ask my opinion, i don't believe it should be an opinion. and i'll say briefly, whether you think this is going to effect how they governor regardless of what they say. my issue on gay marriage, is if you do not like it, don't get gay married. there are people that feel the government should tell the rights they have based on them being gay. that is the problem that i have. >> from somebody who has been married for a little time. i want to show you a poll on

whether it an issue for newt. 72% say not a factor and 19% say not a reason. >> well, i think as a woman who has been married and divorced and now remarried to the love of my life for a year and a half or something like that, i would like to say this, this was not, that cheer was not about a question of marriage, what i felt going on were several different things that an ex-wife is the easiest thing to boo, part of this was a gender politics. the fact is when we look at the gender divide, it's not that women are more likely to be democrat, it's that men are more likely to be republican. there's a strong male dominance in the republican party. that cheer was how dare my ex-wife h ex-wife show up and have a say. when each of them say they are

amare e married and here are all my children. part of what they are saying is i'm the great father and don't you want the great father of the country and i'm deeply concerned about that. because part of it is what is allowable as reasonable as married but the other piece is about saying, we the guys here, we have got this, we have got this under control, we will be the great fathers. >> i'm giving us a point forgetting that into the broadcast. i want to go to alice on this. you were mentioning that these issues can be important in south carolina, two questions here, one will it matter and two, should it? >> i think it will have an impact. the thing that will be interesting to see is truthfully none of what ex-wife said was anything new, we knew he cheated on the two other wives and the details about the open marriage

and some of the specific details were relatively new. but people knew that. he answered that. i personally don't like it. i think it's issue, he answered it and answered it over and over, and for it to come up at this point is questionable. as i said before, in a debate, everything is on the table. certainly people's private lives should be private but we are in a day in age in politics where people's private lives are on the public stage and there's no way to put that toothpaste back in the tube. time will tell if it makes a difference. what he has in his favor is that he that the momentum, the gap has closed significantly between he and romney. he has the momentum and as we saw in iowa, santorum had the momentum and pushed him over the top in the iowa caucuses, whether it will have an impact. the people in south carolina are paying attention and it important to them. but he has had the momentum

going with the information that they already had. so, my guess is i do not see it ma making a tremendous difference tomorrow. >> that is all good points. when we come back, i would to get howard's opinion on this, so stick around. [ female announcer ] investing for yourself isn't some optional pursuit. a privilege for the ultra-wealthy. it's a necessity. i find investments with e-trade's top 5 lists. quickly. easily. i use pre-defined screeners and insightful trading ideas to dig deeper. work smarter. not harder. i depend on myself the one person i do trust to take charge of my financial future. [ bell dinging ]

that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. but does bringing a floor back to life really make us heroes? [ chuckles ] yes. yes, it does. ♪ call 1-800-steemer i think anybody's behavior in their personal life does have to impact what they do in their professional life, because i think it comes down to the simple question of character, it matters in your family and in your business and in everything that you do each day of your life. >> that was former south carolina first lady ms. sand

ford, mike you were making an interesting point, if jon king would not have asked about it newt would have brought it up? >> he knows it has to be dealt with and it can be dealt with in one of two ways, i can wait for it to be brought up or bring it up myself. when you look at the video, you could tell he was no, you are not really doing this yourself. but i think to arii's point, he was relieved to get it out of the way. >> he kept saying he was appalled but what i saw was gleas glee, and he want saying i'm appalled and i cannot believe you have done this -- right, in the briar patch, right? >> he knew that moment was coming of course whether he started it or someone else did, he was going to finish it and he did last night. and after that, it was, i mean, it was game, set, match the rest of the debate was like whatever.

>> he the look in the eyes where he was like say that again. he was very excited -- >> exactly. >> to have this clash. and we were talking about, what is the proper role of the moderator in a debate like that? >> that was the claim he wants to make over and against president obama, what the republicans are saying is that president obama is not firry in that way and he does not have the stay the course, bush' ism and he is performing in a nonpolicy way in that role. >> has gingrich completely reform the issue, does this work going forward? >> he has not reframe todd the debate. the democrats went on offense against the republicans and ken star who they believed were leading attacks to president. you saw last night, instead of going against the democrats newt

went against the media. there's always somebody to push back on, he went on offense against the media. maybe if this were a general election, he would have gone on offense against the democrats. i find it interesting that the media plays that kind of ofa ro in republican primaries. he had two good debates. the moderators are not on the ballot. >> do you think they will allow it to be about newt gingrich, through super pacs and other ways that are not as traceable? >> that is the beauty of the super pacs, campaigns are using them to do their dirty work. when the question came up, he used all the candidates, he

attacked jon king and he said this could be you next, rick, and mitt, we should not allow this to happen to me, because it can happen to you next. that was smart. once the question was out there, the candidates had the opportunity to address it, so i think they were easier on him. that was smart for him to handle that question that way. >> alice, stewart, thank you for joining us. pay no attention to the democrats lurking outside the house, with the potential republican take over in the senate, we will talk about that next on "now." is it fast?

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seats than the republicans are and they only need to pick up four of them. republicans could have a better chance at getting back the house. they are in 30% range. and if you think biabout it, th won in with an older electorate than they will face in 2012. michael, what do you think? >> i think it's true, right now i agree with you the senate is in play for the republicans and likely a strong pick up for the majority. the house, i keep warning folks, 25 seats is not a lot. we had to climb 39, which was more difficult because they were in tough areas and so when we won those seats that were formally held by item democrats -- by itdemocrats, the republicans have to go on the defense in an environment where the president will be engaged, it's a top of the ticket for the

republicans and right now it's a question mark, but if that individual is not strong, you could have a downward pressure on that individual congressman and that forces that person out. 25 seats will be tough for the gop to keep in an environment if message doesn't click, their momentum is not there, it could be very, very hard. i think they hold it right now, but they have to come with a good ac-game to keep the seats out of play. >> the nature of the 2010 primary led to candidates winning in districts that would elect people more moderate, it was a big election for amateur outsider politicians who are exciting in a wave like that and in a couple of years later, when they have not gotten as much done as you thought, they are weaker than maybe a more professional candidate would have been. >> i think the difficulty in comparing 2012 to 2010 is the mid term versus the presidential. what map does the president end

up using for his re-election strategy, what that will determine, what states will he spend the most time. if those are states where we have possiblesitiy possibles -- for picking up, then if you see him not spending time in places whe democrats are not up for this seats, then you have voters not getting over the hurdle of the issues of voting universe. >> we think of the voting union versus as static, the obama campaign and tea party changed the universe. to pick a example, utah, they outed a senator because they realized that the universe is a small number of delegates and if

you take over the party, and people don't take the time or investment to do, you can do it with a change of a few thousand people. in indiana, which george bush won by 19 points, obama took it back, he did not convert 19 points worth, he added voters. there's potential here in the districts to see a voter registration surge and if mitt romney is the nominee, a fairly moderate reaction. >> democrats have had a tough retirement recently. it seems to me that almost no matter what happens, even an obama victory, they are going to lose the senate. >> you have to look at two points, one is congress is at historical disapproval. >> less popular than paris hi hilton >> there you go.

we have four turnovers in the house. you have to go back to the 19th century to see that happening. there's a big amount of dissatisfaction with the status quo, we could see that turnover again, and you could see people not being satisfied with the house turning the republicans out for the democrats and not being happy with the senate and turning them out for republicans. >> the double switch. >> the double switch. >> it friday, and while alex may not be here, she will explain to you what just happened on the campaign trail this week. >> and i'm andrea mitchell, coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports" live today, newt gingrich is fighting back and surging in south carolina and rick tyler runs his super pac and why is mitt romney still stumbling over releasing the tax

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in south carolina, as alex is about to tell you, it is not for the faint of heart. >> at my signal, unleash hell, serial hypocrite, why would we ever vote for someone just like romney. and mitt romney is a serial killer. >> i don't want to bloody his nose, i want to knock him out. >> men were fell. innocents lost. fighters that were not made for the hell of battle. knelt before their people and announced failure. >> today, i'm suspending my campaign for the presidency. >> today has been awesome, girl. >> fighters who proposed

themselves battle ready. >> football, hunting, barbecue. >> who vowed they would not be conkerred. >> i'm going to stay in the race and stay in this fight. could not withstand the heat of war, the cruelty of the fight. >> i'm suspending my campaign and endorsing newt gingrich. >> and for the hunter the gladiater, the battle is not yet over. >> there's always someone left to find. >> enemies both seen, and unseen. >> american's for a better tomorrow tomorrow believes a vote for herman cain is a vote for america. >> we know the battle will be fierce and that he who is crowned winner must be not only relentless but ruthless. >> we kill them. >> kill them.

>> this is sparta! >> sparta, i want to ask you a question off of that -- >> i thought my politics were scary. >> why do they suspend their campaign? >> i was going to say that. it's a legal fiction that allows you to still raise money. they want to raise money if people want to go to their websites and give them money. if you are ending your campaign, then your candidacy would have to be shut down and stop raising money. so if you want to go to huntsman.com, you can do that and give them money. >> got pay the bills. >> got to pay the bills. >> they end with a lot of debt. so they want to make sure their donors can still show love and write me a check. >> you can still give money to

hillary clinton. >> yeah. >> are you going to pull a herman cain and give her url? >> isn't money part of the story that we have not talked about. we are talking about the ideas and policies and debate performances but part of what is going on here, is some folks are unable to raise enough money to continue to go forward. they cannot go forward because of money. and even as we are trying to handicap the general election, the other piece is the president, and how far ahead out is he? >> it's a great point and people personalize it, and say, ron paul and hillary clinton had persistance, but those were two candidates were not going away. pawlenty to your point. he did not have the money, until he was willing to take on more

debt. >> i want to say thank you to the crew today. howard wolfson, michael steele and melissa harris perry, and arie, thank you all, alex will be back on monday, we think, i hope. for special coverage on the vote in south carolina, same time, 12 p.m. eastern. be sure to catch our prime time coverage tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. live from charleston, where you are looks beautiful. >> it's gorgeous, we have a lot of politics today. have a great day. >> thank you. >> coming up, the campaigns are c canvasing the state and we will have the winners and losers of the debate. and ron paul come from behind.

his campaign manager right here with us on their strategy. but the house and senate are stalling on the first legislative issue of the new session, targeting internet piracy. chris dodd joining us here, only on msnbc,po "s." ♪ you and me and the big old tree ♪ ♪ side by side, one, two, three ♪ ♪ count the birds in the big old tree ♪ ♪ la la la [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. ♪ ♪ you and me and the big old tree side by side ♪ but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the charming outfits. take away the sprites, and the storybook narrator...

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