good to have you with us on "the ed s" "the ed show, listen to my radio show on sirius monday through friday, 12:00 to 3:00. like me on facebook. rachel maddow, her show start tonight. have i only told you that once? >> yes, you have. i was telling secrets. thanks, i'm looking forward tomorrow night. >> yes, it will be fun and who knows, you never know what will happen. >> unpredictability at this stage of the race was itself unpredictable and that makes this all the more fun. thanks at home for staying with us for the next hour. there have been two republican presidential candidate debates this week. the moment that newt gingrich and his supporters are most excited about is the very start of last night's debate. >> mr. speaker, i want to start with that this evening. as you know, your ex-wife gave an interview to abc news, another interview with the washington post and the story

has gone viral on the internet. in it she says you came to her in 1999, at a time when you were having an affair, she says you asked her, sir, to enter into an open marriage. would you like to take some time to respond to that? >> no, but i will. [ applause ] >> i think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office, and i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that. [ applause ] presidential debates are stressful events quasi high wire acts. on the republican side, attack the media is like the net under the high wire.

if you ever don't want to answer the question, step off the high wire and fall, happily and lazily in the safe bouncey net that will always hold you. yelling at the media, blaming the media, never fails before a republican audience. even before anybody was taking his candidacy seriously, even before his ex-wife said on the day of the debate sponsored by national organization for marriage, that newt gingrich had asked her for an open marriage while he was already cheating on her, even before all that happened, attacking the media was already newt gingrich's best trick at the debates. >> i'm frankly not interested in your effort to get republicans fighting each other. >> it's sad the news media doesn't report accurately how the economy works. >> i want to raise a report. none of it gets covered by the news media. i hope all my friends up here will repudiate every effort of the news media to get republicans fighting each other. >> having seen him fall in the net and all the previous

debates, given the history, the only thing i don't understand about what happened last night in this moment of the newt gingrich people are so excited about, the only part i don't understand is this part. >> would you like to take some time to respond to that? >> that is the question. would you care to talk about this now? the reason mr. gingrich's response sounded so awesome because yelling at the media is satisfying and also it's true there is nothing inherently newswor newsworthy about anybody's sex lives, it's not inherently newsworthy. to not just seem like you're prying to make clear the newsworth iness about someone's private sexual morale tee you have to say why it's news worthy and why you're not just prying. how about this, how about was it

hypocritical of you to lead the impeachment of president clinton while you were having an affair. you have admitted to numerous adulterous affairs including one to the woman to whom you are now married. your ex-wife pointed out while you were cheating on her, you were also giving political speeches accusing democrats of undermining the institution of marriaxplain that hypocrisy, sir? or in this campaign you've said you would fight for a federal ban on same sex couples being allowed to get married. how can you justify passing government judgment on other people's marriages when your own marriages are the kind of ethical mess described by your second wife on abc news today. there is a lot you could go on, right? the point is you could ask the question a different way, instead of just saying, would you like to take some time to talk about this? nobody's sex live is anybody else's business unless they are a hypocrite or demagoging other people's sex lives to benefit

themselves comparing the moral -- newt gingrich bad husband, who cares? newt gingrich hypocrite cal family values politician, i care, everybody cares. he's running for president, he's not asking us to share him with calista, too. even if cnn inexplicably gave him this out and put a tar get on their forehead by not explaining his hypocrisy is the issue, even without raising it, it still a little bit weird that newt gingrich believes he should not have to answer this question. because frankly, even people who aren't hypocrites on issues like this, in a presidential campaign, get asked stuff like this. really, really rude pruient questions come up all the time. >> who is jennifer flowers, you know her? >> yes. >> how do you know hoer? she is described in some detail

in the supermarket tabloid, a 12 year affair with you. >> in recent days, we have learned that four different women have accused you of inappropriate behaviors. shareholders are reluctant to hire a c efeo character issues,y should the american people hire a president if there are character issues. >> the first question to governor dukakis. if kitty were raped and murdered, were you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer. >> as president, would you be submissive to your husband? >> in campaigns, questions like this get asked. they even sometimes get asked in a competent way. so, listen, maybe cnn face planted on the way they asked the question. remember the specific question fought mr. gingrich was, "would

you like to respond to that" the answer was no, duh! seriously, that is how you put it to him? someone will ask him the competent about his arch arch c. i hope this campaign never ends, finds a way to disrupt the space-time continium and go on forever and ever. joining us fresh off the plan from south carolina is gail cullins. you want this to go on forever? >> i sort of want this moment in the south carolina contest to go on forever. i feel like somebody were either in hyper speed or time has stopped, because so much is happening all at once and each thing feels like it's epic, each thing tells a major story about the candidates, our politics and where we're at. >> okay, rachel, if you want it to last forever. okay by me. >> you disagree, you're ready

for it to be over? >> i'm ready for it to move along a little bit. >> really? what do you feel we are stalled on? >> the south carolina primary. we're stalled on will we have mitt romney or not, that is the basic question, but i'm always good for a good sex scandal, that is my point in life, really. >> do you feel like the inevitability is becoming more inevitab inevitable? >> i sort of actually don't still. i don't. i truly don't. because it's like at the end it's like the idaho caucus will happen, all these things out there that you have to plan for and they are not popular votes, and they will happen and newt gingrich doesn't have a clue. >> i feel like the reason that mr. romney still feels like he's gotten the nomination is his to lose because it does not seem plausible for any of his rivals

to actually win. >> true that. >> does that -- if that is the con straining factor on what we can imagine about the future of the primary does that mean we should start thinking outside the box, we should think there will be a third party person, someone joining late, mitt romney seems like a bad nominee. >> getting worse and worse. i find it sort of touching this vision that the republican wisemen will get together in somebody's basement or something and bring jeb bush in the race and that will save the day! there is nobody out there. and there is no way, and no. >> it's done. >> i think it's pretty done but certainly is hanging on longer than i thought it would be. who would have thought the iowa caucus, that rick santorum run the iowa caucus, that was pretty good. >> at this point, maybe in another two weeks, maybe mitt romney will have won -- the republicans don't know who won.

>> no. >> they desided it doesn't matter to them, they don't know who won. so they said nobody won or can't be determined who won and then the iowa state republican party chairman went on the radio that day and said actually rick santorum one. and did a press conference said no, nobody won. >> then the guys will come back and say in four years, oh no, the iowa caucus must be first even if it's in december we are such a great proving ground for democracy in iowa. that is pretty wonderful. speaker gingrich's ex-wife doing an interview about him cheating on her, giving speeches on the sanctity of marriage, that comes out on the day of the debate sponsored by the national organization of marriage. this turned out to be a good thing for him? >> you would almost think looking at the beginning as if he had hid all those affairs and ruined marriages so that moment could happen, so it was a cosmic

plan on his part that he has been cheating on all these wives, just so at that moment on cnn he could do. that that is my thought. >> gail collins, when the south carolina primary sadly does end, time and gods of politics will have you to thank for it. if they had me it would go on forever. gail, thank you. there was a book how to campaign for president against mitt romney. it was a book written for john mccain in 2008. the man who is the only person who have ever beaten mitt romney in a presidential campaign is the man who ran the john mccain campaign against him. and beat -- john mccain beat mitt romney. he will join us for the interview tonight, that is coming up. ♪ he was a 21st century global nomad ♪

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come on man, dig it! [ female announcer ] travelocity. get great deals on all kinds of beach vacations. today is friday, tomorrow is saturday, the south carolina republican primary is tomorrow. so even though you may not be accustomed to turning on msnbc at 6:00 saturday, tomorrow you must. chris matthews will be down south with howard fineman, jean robinson from south carolina will be in charleston for us, and here in new york, i'll be anchoring with ed schultz and al sharpton and lawrence o'donnell and steve schmid. lawrence made a point i think overlooked in the 2012 process. the point is this. mitt romney winning new hampshire actually needs an asterisk, because mitt romney winning new hampshire was a foregone conclusion.

not because mitt romney is the front-runner, because mitt romney was ahead or mitt romney had a good campaign. mitt romney winning new hampshire was a foregone conclusion because historically speaking, new hampshire couldn't have been won by anybody other than him. because he's the guy from massachusetts. the guy from massachusetts, whether a republican or democrat, always wins new hampshire. in 2004, john kerry, in 1992, paul songas, michael dukakis, henry cabot lodge, john f. kennedy. when a massachusetts politician is running for president it's a safe bet they will wine in new hampshire. they will win. there are two exemptions to the rule. two exceptions to the massachusetts guy winning in new hampshire in modern political history. 1980, jimmy carter got a primary challenge from the left from inside the democratic party from ted kennedy, ted kennedy was from massachusetts, he did not beat the incumbent president in that new hampshire primary. that is kind of an exception but was an incumbent president, not

really. the only other exception to the massachusetts guy not winning in new hampshire, the massachusetts guy being surprisingly weak, defying history to lose new hampshire, the only other example? mitt romney. when he lost new hampshire in 2008 to john mccain of arizona. john mccain cleaned mitt romney's clock in 2008. mccain surged from a horrible fourth place finish in iowa to win in new hampshire, beating even the guy from massachusetts, who always wins new hampshire. then john mccain went to south carolina, not exactly a john mccain state and what happened in south carolina? not only did he win there but his challenger, the massachusetts guy, got killed in south carolina. mitt romney came in fourth place in south carolina in 2008. he only got 15% of the vote. not only did john mccain beat him but mike huckabee beat him, too. fred thompson beat him there. who? yeah, that fred thompson. put aside all of the coronation

stuff, all the mitt romney in evidence vicinity storyline. if you took a snapshot, look at the presidential race right now, iowa, first contest appears to have been won by rick santorum. new hampshire won by the massachusetts maguy. heading in south carolina, the massachusetts guy has the big s campaign, last time south carolina had the chance to vote on him they game him a buck 50. 15%. he lost to who? he lost to fred thompson. it's true that mitt romney is the default nominee. that everybody assumes he has it wrapped up. we opened the show last night by saying yesterday was a disasterous day for mitt romney, today was worse. today mitt romney actually did something on tape if he is the nominee will haunt him all the way through november. this is one of those issues for him that started small, back in

june in the early days of the full-time seven days a week campaign. you may remember the romney campaign making its opening argument, unveiling what they wanted to be the defining message of the romney campaign. they put mr. romney in front of shuttered factories and depressed economic locations, had him talk about how awful the economy was. >> when he took office the economy was in recession, he made it worse. he made it last longer. >> president obama did not cause the recession, but he made it worse. the trouble that mitt romney got into this, into over this was two-fold. first problem was some of the places he went to as photo-ops to demonstrate the impact of the economic recession, those places did not want to be character iced that way and did not appreciate mitt romney talking smack about their towns. the other part was this. >> when he took office, the economy was in recession. and he made it worse.

>> he didn't create the recession, but he made it worse. and longer. he did not cause this recession, but he made it worse. i didn't say things were worse. >> that was the other problem with the launch. mitt romney kept saying it was central to his message the economy was made worse by president obama. of course the economy has not gotten worse under president obama, the economy has been thrown out of a 30 story building and was lying dead on the ground when barack obama started his presidency. the economy has since sort of pulled itself back together and started to sit up. nobody would call this a great economy, but compared how it was, it is definitely not worse. when called out on that, mitt romney weirdly denied that he ever said what he plainly had said over and over and over again. i never said it was worse. except all the times i said it was worse. i never said it was worse. the launch did not go smoothly. we knew with the flubs and messing it up that was the

message. economy is bad, president obama is bad on the economy and i'm mitt romney, i will be better. that is the basis for his campaign. that is what it boils down to, that's why he's running. bad economy, president obama, bad on the economy, mitt romney will be good on the economy. since then, that assertion, that justification for his campaign has been tested. mitt romney is not campaigning on the basis of his times as massachusetts governor. in fact he talks about himself as if that time never even happened in his life. >> you have to choose someone who is not been a life-long politician. for me, politics is not a career. for me, my career was being in business and stareding a business and making it successful. >> pay no attention to my times as governor and all the other times i ran for office and failed. the basis for his claim he would be better at dealing with the economy is his private sector experience, right in, his time in business. his time in business was his time at bain capital. however much the republican establishment wants to protect

him on that issue, wants to shield his time at bain capital from any criticism, they want to make it an asset only, nothing bad could be said. no matter how much they want to do that, the criticism of his time at bain isn't made up, it's real been around for a long time, even though the establishment succeeded in shutting down other republican candidates from talking about it, the republican party establishment cannot shut up everybody and the problems with bain are on main stream journalistic journal. it's in the wall street journal, reuter, tampa bay times, there is stuff to be reported on. since launching his campaign, about how great he will be on the economy because of his business experience, real questions have been raised and whether or not it's an asset, makes people more or less likely to vote for him. mr. romney has been clum si to the point of pitiful on adirection the inevitable questions how rich that work at bain made him. questions about all his wealth and what he has done with all

his wealth. >> i like being able to fire me people who provide services to me. corporations are people, my friend. rick, ten thousand bucks. $10,000 bet? >> i'm not in the betting business. >> oh, okay. back in 1967, your father set a ground breaking standard in american politics. he released his tax returns. he released them for not one year, but for 12 years. when he did that, he said this, "one year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show" when you release yours, will you follow your father's example? >> maybe. you know, i don't know how many years i'll release. i'll look at what our documents are. >> this campaign has been a real test for mitt romney. after all of that, what is the state of mitt romney's core argument? his core argument why he's running, economy is bad,

president barack obama is bad on the economy, mitt romney will be good on the economy. where are we on that central justification for why mitt romney is running for president? >> you've also noted that there are signs of improvement on the horizon in the economy. how do you answer the president's argument that the economy is getting better in a general election campaign if you yourself are saying it's getting better? >> of course it's getting better. the economy always gets better after a recession, there is always a recovery. >> of course the economy is getting better. this is mitt romney speaking today on the conservative radio host -- radio show hosted by laura ingram. >> isn't it a hard argument to say you're saying he inherited the recession, took a bunch of steps to turn the economy around and now we're seeing more jobs, but vote against him anyway? isn't that a hard argument to make, is that a stark enough contrast? >> have you got a better one, laura, this happens to be the

truth. >> if mitt romney does get to be the republican nominee for president this year, do you want to know what the ads in the general election will sound like? >> inherited this recession, took a bunch of steps to turn the economy around and now we're seeing more jobs, but vote against him anyway isn't that a hard argument to make? >> have you got a better one, laura, this happens to be the truth. >> this is a ready-made campaign ad. mitt romney agrees president obama is turning the economy around and things are getting better. so vote for mitt romney despite that? what happened to the core justification for why mitt romney is running for president? it and his campaign appear to be collapsing. collapsing is the word that the editor in chief of gallop used to describe his poll numbers. the latest polling out of south carolina hours before voting due to begin. newt has opened up six point lead over mr. romney, this is what it looks like on the national level. mitt romney beginning to see poll numbers, what was that

word, collapse. while newt gingrich is on the rise. if you ask me, i think you can't discount the fact newt gingrich spent millions of dollars against mitt romney in south carolina and that matters. but it is also the collapse of the basic justification for mitt romney. newt gingrich is killing mitt knit in the debates. two this week. supposed to be another one in florida on monday. mr. romney today making sounds about potentially not showing up for the monday debate in florida. the romney campaign kicking a whole contingent of press off their campaign plane today. the romney campaign warning supporters they expect to lose tomorrow. in 2008, john mccain kicked mitt romney's butt. this year, none of these other republican candidates is john mccain. but could mitt romney still be beaten the same way he was beaten the last time? on a day like today it feels more possible than ever. joining us next is the man who ran john mccain's 2008 campaign, stay tuned. i want to look natural, not naked!

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this involvement in washington is my view a perfect example of why we need to send to washington someone who has not lived in washington. but someone who lived in the real streets of america. >> mitt romney living in the real streets of america. joining us now for the interview is the only person ever run a successful presidential campaign against mitt romney, msnbc analyst steve schmitt, former

strat at t strategist for the mccain-palin campaign. do you think this is a flash in the pan thing doesn't matter, in florida it's all over? >> george bush in 2000 was the inevitable republican nominee despite the loss in new h hampshire as a function of his strength as a candidate. in 2012, mitt romney i think is the inevitable nominee but it's a function of the other weakness of the candidates and their implausability to take the oath of office. >> so when you think about the strength of mitt romney as a candidate it's purely relative strength? i feel like he is melting down and not handling the stress very well. do you see it that way? >> i think all campaigns that go on to win survive some degree of near-death experience. they get tested. new hampshire was a terrible period, obviously, for president bush in 2000. made him stronger as a candidate.

john kerry went through this in 2004. president obama went through this in 2008 during the primaries, so i think these experiences will forge a stronger candidate but there is no doubt this is not the type of week you want to have. a week ago the consensus conventional wisdom among every political reporter, person that works in republican politics, mitt romney would win the south carolina primary and the race would be effectively over. and this has entirely changed over the course of the week and it is hard to imagine scenario where seven days ago you could have pictured having a worse week than the one he's having. >> seven days ago mitt romney won iowa. he had won iowa. he may be one for three at the end of the weekend, we thought he would be three-for-three. what was your mccain's campaign main strategy against mitt romney in 2008? what did you see as his biggest strength and how did you try to

neutralize it? >> biggest strength is money, resources, john mccain campaign in the summer of 2007, campaign collapsed. he was flying on the middle seat of southwest airlines up to new hampshire. the entire campaign for john mccain was based on we have to win new hampshire primary. patience is an under-valued strategic virtue in the campaigns. we took advantage of the fight between mike huckabee and mitt romney in iowa, mike huckabee knocked out mitt romney in high wa. that slowed his momentum in new hampshire. john mccain was able to win in new hampshire, because fred thompson stayed in the race in south carolina, we were able to close out the race. but it's a very different race in 2012. romney still has a hangover of the problems from the 2008 race. in 2008, he entered the race as the conservative candidate. tried to position himself completely as the most conservative person in the race and that gave birth, i think, to

the inauthenticity problem he carries today. that is a major part of the architecture of the campaign against governor romney, but at the end of the day, john mccain won that race because the issue of the hour was the withdrawal debate about taking our troops out of iraq in the middle of the chaos, in the middle of the surge and john mccain in a move you don't see often in politics staked his campaign and said i believe in this to the degree i would rather lose the election than see this country lose a war in his view. i think that had enormous currency in the republican primary. >> the inauthenticity problem you say carries forward to 2012, i feel like the attacks on mitt romney are partly in that same vein, partly in 2008, he's a flip-flopper. is there something else that has emerged as a weakness for him or do you think that is still his

achilles heal? >> if you a nanalogize this to football game he's a quarterback that is throwing interceptions, somewhat inexplicably. his strongest argument is the n inevitability argument. on the strength of who he is, as opposed to department efficiencies in the other candidates. >> how would you go after the in evidence vicinity ability thing, not just i would be best but i am the one who is going to wrap this up so get out of the way? >> i think you have to right now you're going to have to absorb potentially a loss in south carolina, florida will become very important, will florida l validate a gingrich victory or will florida throw cold water on gingrich momentum? i think it will be an interesting ten days as we move

forward to florida. and we essentially have a long break as we get ready for what it's sens essentially a primary. the nature of the gingrich campaign you saw last night was an acting performance worthy of meryl streep, incredible as you're watching it. but the mellowdrama around this, how will that impact the race over the next 30 days, and i think it's an open question, but for my part, i think the notion of a gingrich nomination is totally implausible, he's 100% known by the american people, has a staggering unfavorable ratio. >> and can still beat mitt romney in south carolina. i'm looking forward to being on the v-shaped set with you tomorrow. >> will be an interesting night and i think it will be a long night. i think they will be counting

late tomorrow. >> then we get to watch florida fill up with romney bucks. >> it will. an intense ten days in florida. >> just a reminder the coverage of the south carolina primary here on msnbc starts at 6:00 eastern tomorrow night. speaking of south carolina did you see the crowds in south carolina today? in a week when lots of top tier candidates couldn't fill a room this is the crowd that turned out to see apparently the most popular pseudo politicians in the state of south carolina. neither of them named mitt or newt or rick or the other rick. that is coming up. [ male announcer ] juice drink too watery?

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tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like a lot of things, the market has changed, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and your plans probably have too. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we'll give you personalized recommendations tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 on how to reinvest that old 401(k). tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and bring your old 401(k) into the 21st century. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 rollover your 401(k) or ira and receive up to $2500. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 see schwab.com for terms and conditions. msnbc host rachel maddow has sometimes talked about your presidential campaign as a kind of satire, not it wasn't an actual campaign but more like the image of what a campaign might be. i have to say that in joining together with colbert it feels like you are in fact reinforcing rachel's idea that is what's up. >> first of all i could care less about rachel maddow about

me and my campaign. she does not know me. all the people that wanted to criticize and make fun of my campaign, in my grandfather's words, i does not care. >> he is the former ceo of a mafia-themed pizza chain. former presidential front uner. i think he is an art project and he does not care what i think! all very admirable qualities. i would like to get to know you, sir. you would not think the biggest crowds would turn out for herman cain but the biggest crowd in south carolina politics turned out for herman cain. that is coming up.

happy happy birthday citizens unite. you are turning two years old tomorrow. on january 21, 2010 the supreme court decided that money is the same as speech and therefore cannot be restricted in the political process. now, in this first presidential election since then, we're all waiting to find out what the next billionaire decides. because that as much as anything decides who gets to be the front-runner for the republican party presidential nomination. so happy freaking birthday, citizens united. the birthday of citizens united was celebrated with an occupy the courts protest across country. little portland, maine, 26 degrees today, there were one, two, three, i think you can see we figured out, 20 people here,

maybe more. i'm starting to think the crowds over citizens united today rivalled some of the crowds for the south carolina primary. this, for example is the crowd that turned out to hear newt gingrich today. 25 people. so few the gingrich campaign cancelled the speech. here is rick santorum packing them in on the uss yorktown. mitt romney looks like he got a whopper of a crowd, oh my, until you see the picture buzzfeed posted, camera angle makes a difference. ron paul faced a giant hangar of empty today in south carolina. because we have also seen sizeable crowds in south carolina today. mitt romney drew several hundred people at one stop, so did newt gingrich in orangeburg. we can conclude that the south carolina primary is sort of a late bloomer? but if you wanted to see a big crowd in south carolina today you have to look to a fake campaign. this is the rally today for comedian stephen colbert and the performance artist formerly known as the candidate herman cain. i long maintained herman cain

was an art project, i maintain it still even though he denies it. if you believe you have been falsely accused of that, if you were trying to prove you weren't an art project, this event today, not helping your case! joining us from the middle of the circus in south carolina is joel sawyer, you used to direct governor huntsman campaign, he served as mark sanford's spokesperson and former director of the south carolina republican party. good to have you with us tonight. >> thank you rachel, very much. >> i'm not, there i'm not in south carolina, but what i'm seeing from here is a mix of unexpectedly low turn out for candidates event and also occasionally a giant crowd somewhere. can you give us a sense of the level of enthusiasm, is south carolina late blooming in terms of interest in the primary? >> yeah, and overall i think it's kind of high. one thing i would differentiate. there was a conference being held where organizers told all the campaign ts, i know because i was one of them at the time, they were expecting 800-1000

attendees. you all week, 50, 60 people. i don't know that is the best judge. the candidate forums and events they held themselves have been well attended. building a political event is an art form, we know how the media likes to talk about it always good to have standing room only. if i think there will be 1be 10 i'll get a room for 80. when you compare how people in the state are turning out to events and how they are feeling about the campaign, just people you know talking about how enthusiastic they are to participate in the campaign and get out there and to vote tomorrow, how would you measure this year versus other years? >> you know, i think you have to go candidate by candidate. i think there is right at this point this time there is a lot of energy behind gingrich, a considerable amount behind santorum. ron paul has his pocket of very fervent supporters.

romney, i think you will struggle to find somebody who is really, really fired up. he's a candidate that talks to your head than heart. but he's drawing big crowds at his events, too. i think their campaign has done a good job turning people out for the events they've had. >> i know you watched the debate last night, second one this week that was scored heavily in favor of newt gingrich, both of them were this week. >> right. >> today at the romney campaign started casting doubt on whether or not they are going to go to the next debate. monday, in florida. you have been a campaign strategist, having seen what happened at the debates, would you be advising your candidate to not go to the next one, what is the risk and benefit there? >> not on a nationally televised debate. i don't see the upside. if it's something other candidates committed to, for a while now, on a nationally televised debate i don't know i would do that. i don't know internally what is going on with the romney campaign, but i have a hard time

believing on the first debate in florida something that will be nationally broadcast they would turn that down. >> one of the things we talked about last night, south carolina's reputation for dirty tricks, today a new one, e-mails purporting to be from cnn, that weren't from cnn with a nasty abortion allegation a nasty abortion allegation about newt gingrich. do we ever get to find out who is doing this kind of thing? i mean, next year in some bar somewhere, a political consultant having to pull that one off so they get hired by whoever they want in 2016? do people ever figure this out? >> if the political consultant is smart they won't. for the gingrich campaign, just about an hour ago the state attorney general announced that is he going to launch an investigation of this particular e-mail. i think it takes it to a little different level because they are purported to be from groups, misrepresented the identity of

the they could potentially bring prosecution. >> in terms of what you're expect being, the romney campaign expecting what they are going to lose now, it sounds like that is warranted, that mitt romney is not going to come in first now. >> you know, in the political consulting game, we call that managing expectations. i think it's going to be an exceedingly close race. at this point my guess is going to be that gingrich squeaks it out, just barely. >> joel, thanks for being with us again. nice to have you back. >> thank you, rachel. i appreciate it. it's friday. the south carolina primary is tomorrow. naturally, next is a cocktail moment and a useful one, too. does any mother ever feel like their kids are adults? i have twins, 21 years old. each kid has their own path.

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back in 1967 your father set a groundbreaking standard in american politics. he released his tax returns. not just for one year but for 12 years and when dethat, he said, one year could be a fluke, perhaps for show. when you release your tax returns, will you follow your father's example? >> maybe. i don't know how many years i'll release. i'm take a look at what our documents are. >> tomorrow, south carolina voters will vote in the republican primary. tonight, it's friday. has there ever been a more appropriate time for a cocktail moment? in the week that mitt romney showed himself totally unable to answer questions about his millions, about how he made his millions and where his millions currently reside and what kind of view they have from their kay

man islands home, i thought it would be appropriate to have a cocktail called the millionaire. this particular tweak of the millionaire cocktail comes from a bar in new york city that i love very much, called, the employee's only. it's called speak easy. the millionaire cocktail has one trick in it but it otherwise is pretty straightforward. the first thing i have to tell you, i'm going to do something that i don't normally do. i'm going to make two drinks instead of one. so to make two drinks, we're going to need four ounces of bourban. and i apologize, i'm going to make a mess because i have to go fast. two drinks, four ounces of bourbon. okay. also, 1 1/2 ounce of gr gran marnier. there are a lot of orange

liquors. one is orange and one is brown. an ounce of grenadine. it you can't get the good stuff, you can make yourself with pomegranate juice and sugar. it's not very hard. you can google it. it's safe. it's not like rick santorum. you need an ounce of lemon juice. and, again, if you get lemon juice from something other than a piece of fruit that's commonly known as a lemon, i will hide under your bed at night and grab your ankles when you wake up in the morning and terrify you forever. in my other life, i'm a goblin. all right. an ounce of lemon juice. it's not that hard. here's the thing that freaks everybody out. pastes. it's delicious and won't taste

the same if you don't do it. even if you don't think you like lick rich, try it. . now, here's the trick. if you think you were freaked out by the pastis, there's an egg white in it. okay? i know. this is why we have to make two drinks. because it's really hard to make half an egg white. and one egg white is enough for two drinks. so -- did you see that? that was the yoke. what do i do? >> get a spoon. >> get a spoon? i could -- you know what i'm going to have to do? i'm going to have to tell you what to do and not make it because if i shake it up with the yoke in it, i'm going to be making the millionaire flip. you think i can get it out with a spoon? i don't think so. oh, my god.

wait. do you have the jerk cam on me? i'm doing the most difficult thing that ever been done live on television and that isn't sneezing. uh-huh. that's exactly what i meant. uh-huh. thank you. i actually quit my job now. you can find me working at the parking lot down the corner. you want to shake without ice first to make sure you get adequately as sper rated. whenever you use an egg white. because if you don't do that, you won't have enough froth to make it really frothy, which is the point of the egg white. i can't believe i rescued the egg yoke out of there. if i was a genius, i would have done it over the top of the cocktail strainer so that wouldn't be a risk. at any case, shake it up with the ice after shaking it without the ice a