good morning, i'm chris jansing, and strap on your seat belts, get ready for another wild ride. newt gingrich, probably owes his victory in south carolina largely to those two debates, so tonight, game on in florida where nbc's debate will be critical. expect mitt romney to sharpen his attack, he's already started going after gingrich. >> now, speaker gingrich has also been leader, he was leader for four years as speaker of the house, and at the end of four years, it was proven that he was a failed leader, and he had to

resign in disgrace. >> you have a clear establishment candidate in mitt romney. look where his money comes from, look at his background, look what he did in massachusetts. >> he talks about great bold movements and ideas, well, what's he been doing for 15 years, he's been working as a lobbyist and selling influence around washington. he's been working for freddie mac. >> i was not a lobbyist, never a lobbyist, don't try to miff these things up. >> mike allen and ron fornier, good morning, gentlemen. three states, three different winners, tonight's debate will be critical. when mitt romney went on attack during debates three years ago, he wasn't exactly good at it, it didn't help him, so if you're in the room preparing with him right now, what do you say? >> you need to say something clear, that was part of his problem in south carolina, he didn't have definitive answers, so the romney campaign is going to try to push a clear message

of romney is the outsider, newt gingrich is the insider. governor romney is a businessman, newt gingrich as a politician lobbyist coming up here in a half an hour, they are going to do a conference call pressing the idea you saw there in the clips that he's a washington insider. gingrich, on the other hand, says that he's going to frame it as bold conservative versus timid massachusetts governor. they say hit back pivot to obama, hit back, pivot to obama. that's what you'll see newt doing in the debate tonight. >> one of the hits on mitt romney is he hasn't found a good answer to the criticism of his work at bain. let me play something he said a few minutes ago in tampa, florida. >> i wish gingrich were here this morning to listen to those stories. he said in a debate, actually, that people who profited from the failed model of freddie mac

and fannie mae ought to give back their money, well, speaker made money, he ought to give it back. >> let me contrast that to how chris christie defended him on "meet the press." >> you look at places like staples and sports authority, everybody who goes to work at those places today has mitt romney to thank for it, he's going to know how to get government out of the way and let the private sector create those jobs we so desperately need. that's his greatest contributions for the conservative movement. people that go to work at staples and sports authority aren't the elite, those are middle class americans. let the president attack that. >> ron, let's see, who had the better answer there? >> chris christie by far. it's almost political malpractice that governor romney hasn't been able to take his greatest strength and run right

towards it. instead, he sounds ashamed of his business record. he's got to embrace it the way chris christie's doing there. >> one of the things is release his tax returns, can that help? >> the damage has been done. he should have done it three, four months ago. getting it out tomorrow where a lot of people will be focussed on the state of the union address, he's going to try to bury it a bit, but certainly not going to help him, he's going to stop being hurt by the issue. >> the other issue, the way he sort of dealt with all this, is throw money at it. he's going to do it in florida, they have ten media markets. romney and$10 million, in south carolina, his super pac spent almost the same. can newt lose on the air waves the way he lost in iowa, what do you think, mike? >> gingrich campaign tells us they may not go all in in florida for that reason.

he's raised a million dollars in the last 24 hours, they are going for $2 million, but he does not have the organization and doesn't have the ad time on all those media markets you pointed to, so he's going to be there, because the media are there. he's doing these two debates, but unlike some of the others, the florida primary is winner take all so it does no good to blow millions of dollars and come in one point behind. we might find newt gingrich jumping ahead to some of the other states. >> hold on, i want to bring in rick tyler, newt gingrich's former spokesman, good morning to you. >> good morning, chris. >> you just heard that stat, romney and his super pac have spent $7 million, gingrich and your super pac, zero. are you going to get on the air, when, and how much are you going to spend? >> $10 million in florida yet there are three polls out today that all three have newt gingrich ahead.

i'm thinking maybe they should keep running these ads and we shouldn't run any at all. this is working great. >> are you being serious, you're not going to run any ads? >> look, we have three polls that say newt gingrich is ahead. you just said it, we haven't run a single ad. these ads don't work, mitt romney has not found his stride and his support has been paper thin. >> do you think, though, you can make a comparison to florida and the other markets, it's so much bigger. you have a much more diverse population there. you're throwing your hands up, but you think it's not apples and oranges? >> no, it's bigger. it's bigger, it's more expensive, would require more money, but my point is $10 million of ads have gotten newt gingrich ahead in florida, not behind. mitt romney was ahead, 24 hours later, he's now behind. we haven't spent any money on ads, he's spent $10 million. people understand that he is not the right candidate to go up

against barack obama because elections are about contrast and there is no contrast between barack obama and mitt romney. by the way, there's -- this whole idea we're attacking capitalism is false and i hear now the romney team is bringing out tim pawlenty, which i'm frightened of, then you have chris christie talking about a $300,000 fine. everybody knows who covered that, it wasn't a $300,000 fine, it was a cost assessment to get it beyond that. >> you're talking when newt gingrich was speaker of the house. >> yes, no fine. 84 ethics charges and to the substance of those 84 ethics charges, all filed by democrats, i don't know why romney is using the weapons of the left to beat newt gingrich. 84 weapons charges, to the substance of the charge, he was exonerated. >> you don't think newt gingrich is using the weapons of the left to go after mitt romney? >> let me ask you a question, we have a company, damon, defrauded

medicare, senior ins florida will be concerned about this, $25 million. his company he served on the board of, fined $119 million. so i can explain what the $300,000 is. i'd like to hear mitt romney explain what the $119 million fine for medicare was from a company he served on the board of. >> to that point, i'm sure you heard what jeb bush had to say, he's not going to endorse anybody. he's concerned about the circular firing squad. is that what's going on here, and ultimately mitt gingrich -- mitt romney going after gingrich, gingrich going after romney, does that ultimately hurt whoever becomes the nominee? >> of course not, i'd love to line up comments, it's historic, mitt's going to win 3 for 3, nobody can defeat him and here he is behind in florida after

losing south carolina. i think mitt romney's not been vetted, we are vetting them and he is not standing up to the test. >> let me go back to the money, i hear your argument about the advertising, i don't think you're going out of business and i don't think newt gingrich needs to raise money. he put it out there he raised a million after south carolina and got the huge boost when shelden adelson wrote that $5 million check to winning our future. have you gotten big commitments since the win in south carolina? >> there's -- let me just say the owners are enthusiastic, i'm not going to talk about pledges or donations, that's not something i'm going to talk about, but we'll have the money to compete in florida, we will compete in florida, and i believe ultimately we'll win in florida -- >> what's your goal? >> i'd like to raise $10 million, just so we're clear about it, i think it's doable but will be a real challenge. >> rick tyler, good to have you on, thank you so much.

>> thanks for having me, i appreciate it. >> let's go back to our company, mike, you were nodding at that, what's your thought? >> the fact there's two debates in florida is a big advantage for gingrich. took awhile for the romney team to commit to them, because they rightly thought their opponents are getting their oxygen from these debates, so why should they do more? after that tough loss in south carolina, governor romney couldn't look like he was hiding, but gingrich may not need a lot of tv time if the debates go the way they did in south carolina. now, of course, the romney team is going to prep differently and they are going to be more aggressive starting tomorrow when governor romney does a prebuttal to president obama's state of the union, he's going to a tampa business to talk about his economic message. >> i thought the line of the day from the sunday's shows, my opinion, came from "meet the press" yesterday. let me play it. >> the reason liquor sales have

quadrupled in washington is truckloads of champagne are going over to the pelosi office. newt gingrich cannot carry a general election swing state if it's made of feathers, this is a fact of politics. >> ron, very funny line, but is mike right, does gingrich have no chance of winning the nomination? >> i'm not going to rule out anything, especially in a year like this. the conventionalism is, it's going to be hard for gingrich to beat romney, although he's making it easier and easier, but it's hard to see his path in a general election, but i'm not going to rule out anything. >> chris, what's right about what mike is saying there, washington insiders are panicked about the idea newt gingrich being the face and voice of his party. he's not trying to run as an insider. i got an e-mail from a top republican who said that newt

gingrich's president obama's best friend. we're going to hear a lot more of that. also, washington republican-types saying that gingrich is a force of negative energy. >> ron, thank you, mike allen, happy birthday. you're five years old. >> thank you, politico is five, grateful to msnbc and happy debate. >> indeed. you can catch the nbc news republican debate on a special edition of "rock center." right here, nbc live from tampa bay. today gabrielle giffords is going to her last event as a member of congress. she announced her resignation over the weekend in this touching online farewell video. >> i have more work to do on my recovery, so to do what is best for arizona, i will step down this week. i'm getting better.

every day, my spirit is high. i will return. >> and president obama issued a statement, reading in part, "gab "gabby's cheerful presence will be missed in washington, but she will remain an inspiration to all those lives she touched and i'm confident we haven't seen the last of this extraordinary american." there will be a special primary election in april to replace congresswoman giffords. we wish her the best in her continuing recovery. i thought she looked great. we'll be right back. [ male ann] from our nation's networks... ♪ ...to our city streets... ♪ ...to skies around the world... ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... [ soldier ] move out! [ male announcer ] ...without their even knowing it. that's the value of performance.

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big labor is getting involved in the gop race in florida, buying ads attacking mitt romney and connecting him to florida's republican governor, rick scott.

>> the company was fined $100 million, but romney himself made a fortune. corporate greed, medicare fraud. sound familiar? >> romney is already talking about a short list of people he's considering to be his running mate. he dropped a few names including mitch daniels, marco rubio, conde rice, but no one is causing more buzz than new jersey's chris christie, who's no longer saying that's out of the question. >> i said certain personalities are suited for jobs better than others, and i don't know that i'm the guy to stand behind somebody and nod my head. it's not necessarily in my character, but again, you have to balance that against your love for your country and your love for your party, but you know what, there's one person who gets to decide that question, that's the nominee of our party. if i'm approached, i will listen. >> the president's only public

event today, he honors six-time stanley cup champion boston bruins at the white house this afternoon. no doubt he'll also be spending plenty of time working on his state of the union address at a time when the american voter is up for grabs. we've seen the indecision in the republican primaries and a recent "washington post" poll thinks 48% of voters think there's a need for a third party candidate. a huge audience that could total 50 million to win them over. joined now by "the washington post" columnist and msnbc contributor, ezra klein. this is a chance to attack the candidates, their super pacs. what do we know about the speech and how does the president plan to connect with voters? >> let's do some context, what this speech will not do is transform american politics, gallup looks at polls after every state of the union and what they say despite what everybody thinks about state of the unions, they never, almost

never, have a real affect on presidential approval ratings. the only president who had a demonstrative effect from his state of the unions was bill clinton and that effect was three percentage points in the polls, which shortly thereafter disappeared. these do not change american politics, they do set an agenda for the next year. what barack obama is going to attempt to do tomorrow night is set the agenda that puts the playing field of 2012 over topics he's comfortable around. equality, fairness in the economy, failures of the bush tax cuts, which would reset the terms of the debate, but don't expect anything in the short-term manner. >> certainly, the terms of the debate take on increasing significance in any election like this, but certainly this year, and it surely looks like this whole idea of this populist

approach is catching fire on both sides. >> what's funny, it's not actually that different. what you have right now, is a large argument in which the two sides agree about tax cuts, but the question is how many. barack obama and the democrats would like to extend all the tax cuts expect those for the top 2%, that's about $3 trillion in tax cuts. mitt romney would like to extend all the tax cuts and add more, $6 to $7 in tax cuts. newt gingrich would be about $15 trillion in tax cuts over the next ten years. you could eliminate the entire military and still not have it paid for. in some ways, we're playing between the 20 yard lines, 10 yard lines here, and it's on the republican side. both parties agree we should not have revenues anywhere near they were in the clinton years and the question is how far of a regression we'll continue on with. >> as that debate continues, the

president is gaining ground and i thank you for tweeting about this, that's what brought it to my attention, reelection chance at 56%. that's a five-month high, what does that tell us, anything? >> a newt gingrich bump. also the weaker mitt romney looks, the better things look for president obama. it was a funny thing if you looked at the night of the south carolina debate, it's a political betting market, gingrich's numbers went way up, romney's numbers went way down and since then, barack obama's numbers have been trending too because the republican primary is happening on ground that isn't good for the general election, gingrich is running on resentment of the media, it's not how you win general elections. mitt romney is struggling with his tax cuts and having to move further to the right to counter the gingrich attacks. that's not great when they are moving romney out of his general election strategy, which is what

he'd been in and expected to do all the time by now in the primary. now good news for the republicans but is for barack obama. >> ezra klein, always good to see you, thank you. candidate, is hehe white house dream come true opponent? tweet me. we'll be right back.

we've got a developing story about the supreme court weighing in about whether police can secretly place a gps tracking device on a suspect's car without getting a warrant first. pete williams live at the supreme court. so much of technology is raising issues for the legal profession, and now the supreme court has made an important fourth amendment ruling. >> it is important, chris, this is one of the court's first decisions on the question of privacy in the digital age and the supreme court has determined

unanimously. of course, to get a search warrant you have to go to a judge and establish probable cause, so that is a big check on the police practice. the court split on why this is true. the majority of the court, five of the justices said your car's your property, period, end of analysis, this first amendment affects people's homes, effects, papers, so forth. the other four said, no, you have to get into the question of reasonable expectation of privacy, maybe if the police left it on for a long time, it would be different. the reason that's important, chris, the descenders or concurers, the ones who didn't agree with the court's analysis say people have plots of electronic devices, your cell phone can tell the police where you are. there are closed-circuit cameras all over cities in america that can tell the police who's where at a given time, and we have to be careful about where we draw the lines on the protections of

the fourth amendment against searches and seizures, so it's a big deal, chris, because the court has very conservatively said the police have to have a search warrant if they intrude on your private property. it will be up to future cases to decide whether that's true, for example, your cell phone or your ipad or something like that, but at least for now on one of the first privacy decisions involving a digital device, the court has been quite conservative about privacy protections here. >> fascinating stuff, pete, thanks so much. >> you bet. the biggest challenge so far, florida, larger, more expensive, more diverse. will it be the game changer in this election? details next. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've made? [ '80s dance music plays ] [ sighs ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego.

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if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. >> that was mitt romney just a few minutes ago continuing to sharpen his attacks on newt gingrich after gingrich buried romney in south carolina, so the question is, is newt gingrich actually the democrat's dream date? here's how a liberal "the washington post" columnist puts it, pinch me, i think i'm having a rare and racy democratic dream, newt won, he really did. the most beatable republican has just made it a race. patrick gasbard, good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> james carville, never at a loss for words, says republicans have a first-class disaster on their hands. did you party just a little bit when the results came in in south carolina? >> chris, i'd be lying if i didn't say i wasn't a bit entertained by what took place in south carolina. a few weeks ago, newt gingrich compared mitt romney to lucille

ball. he lost moderates, independents, he's lost the middle class. i think the only income group that supported mitt romney in south carolina were those over $250,000 a year. that's no surprise. so it's quite amusing. >> although this has been a completely unpredictable year and we shouldn't forget the democrats were also hoping for ronald reagan to win back in 1980, so what's your biggest concern right now? >> well, actually, i think that any concerns i'd have were met when i was in south carolina and i saw on a pouring, rainy day, 300 activists come out to organize for barack obama, get the word out about all of his incredible accomplishments over the last three years, despite the fact we didn't have a primary opponent down there. so we're seeing a real animated base on our side. we're not seeing the kind of predicted enthusiastic turnout on their side and romney proves

the longer voters have an opportunity to look at him and look at who he is, the less and less appealing he appears to be. >> you know, we heard about how the president's campaign folks were sitting around watching the last debate and doing little check marks about where the lines of attack are, what seems to be working. how much of an advantage is it for the -- for you, frankly, and i mention this before the jeb bush calls it a "circular firing squad" and says stop it already. >> well, i can tell you that irrespective of how long or how short the republican primary goes, we're ready for the playoffs. this is not a team that needs a bye week. barack obama's prepared to debate economic security for the middle class with whoever emerges from that primary contest, which is veering further and further rightward as both romney and gingrich contort themselves to appeal to tea party extremists. >> there are a couple of

numbers, however, that are troubling to you. one is, obviously, the 8.5% unemployment rate. the second one is this poll that came out from "the washington post" last week and close to 50% of people in that poll said they'd be in favor of a third party candidate, which indicates they are not thrilled with the republicans or the sitting president. is that of concern to you? >> well, chris, you're a student of politics and you know that going back the last 20 or 30 years, we've seen similar numbers about third party candidacies, and i will tell you, just on the economy and we'll hear more about this from the president directly in his state of the union address, clearly, most americans understand the crisis we find ourselves in, it will take awhile to get out, but we have a lot of really encouraging numbers, 3.5 million jobs growing in the private sector over the last 22 months, increase in manufacturing and we're seeing for the first time,

given what we've done on education, a sense across the country that we're prepared to outinnovate and educate the rest of the world. all americans are facing head winds right now, but they are encouraged by what they are seeing. >> thank you so much, great to see you. >> thank you so much for having me. it's moving fast, eight days to seal the florida voters. what worked in the previous contests won't necessarily work where the sun shines. you've been looking into the florida keys, how clever. >> thank you mass media. >> first of all, juan, the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by barack obama than any president in american history. i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a

topic like that. >> well, tv was newt gingrich's south carolina friend, personal politicking mattered less there. florida, though, there is no choice. its organization, ads, and debates, florida is big, ten key tv markets, twice the population of the first three votes, some northeastern snow birds nesting for the winter and in total, the state holds 4% of delegates to win the nomination. up to a quarter of votes could be made before election day, notes "the washington post." voting started this weekend, 225,000 have voted. then there's florida's krystal ball effect, it mimics the general election's voter. good for gingrich and 39% evangelical and born-again christians according to the last exit polls. here's what to watch, insiders talk about florida's midsection

and the i-4 corridor, the area around tampa and orlando is the road to almost half of florida's ballots. there's duval county, as well, they've picked the nominee some 80% of the time. romney is to do well in the south where it's more moderate, gingrich doing better in the more conservative north. first, preparation for tonight's nbc debate. calm now, expect the opposite. romney honing new attack muscles and gingrich wanting to say thank you, brian williams. brian doesn't want that, chris. >> thank you so much. always good to see you, richard. more on the obama strategy coming up, but really, who didn't gasp a little when we heard over the weekend joe paterno had died so soon after his forced resignation. we expect to learn more about funeral arrangements. nbc's ron allen is live in state college, pennsylvania, ron, good morning.

>> reporter: good morning, chris. we're outside the football stadium, beaver stadium, where paterno and penn state had so much glory, you can see behind me, there's a statute of paterno over there and it's become a shrine with people lighting candles, leaving flowers, it's a cold, rainy day, but there are people constantly coming by. you're right, last night in the center of campus there was a huge outpouring of support, grief, mourning for paterno, alumni, students, former students, current players there to come together to grieve paterno's loss. everyone here is trying to focus on his accomplishments here, the 409 victory, the 61 years he was here as an assistant coach and 41 years as a head coach. incredible run that probably will never happen again in college football, all of college sports, because it's such a different business now than when paterno started some six decades

ago. we don't know the final funeral arrangements, the family will announce that, we think, some time later today. again, thousands upon thousands of people will come together to honor this singular and iconic individual. >> nbc's ron allen. thank you so much for that update. we got a tweet a short time ago from rand paul's office, the congressman, and apparently he's been detained at the airport. kelly o. is working the phones in d.c. for us, she's got some details. we'll have that story coming up right after the break. specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans.

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nature valley trail mix bars are made with real ingredients you can see. like whole roasted nuts, chewy granola, and real fruit. nature valley trail mix bars. 100% natural. 100% delicious. hi, everybody, good morning, i'm thomas roberts. in the next hour of msnbc, the fight for florida, the gop race moves to the sunshine state where mitt romney is coming out swinging against newt gingrich. the economy, home foreclosures and freddie mac dominating the conversation. joe paterno lost his battle with lung cancer over the weekend.

secrets from the jerry sandusky child abuse sexual scandal go to the grave? can this mother of five help mitt romney breakthrough his being an everyday kind of guy? we'll explain that and more at the top of the hour. chris. breaking news about rand paul, the son of ron paul, detained by the tsa at the airport in nashville. kelly o'donnell live on capitol hill with the details, what have you been able to find out, kelly? >> aids say rand paul was unable to get on his flight to come back to d.c., what they describe is the senator went through the full body scan imaging and that the alert was sounded and they say it had to do with his right leg. he claims he has no metal, nothing that should have set off the alarm. he called it a glitch. they tell me he lifted his pant leg so show no metal there, but

their procedure was he'd have to go for a pat down, he declined to do that. in their words, they say he was detained by the tsa and is unable to fly. rand paul is in a position now where he has been publicly critical at hearings and so forth about that kind of procedure. he'd asked to be rescanned, they say, and he was not given that opportunity to go back through the machine. at this point it appears to be some kind of standoff where he's not able to board his flight, will not submit to the patdown, on his view it is too invasive, even though that is a standard procedure that many people who fly go through. so right now, he is, at this point, not able to board his flight to come back to d.c. it's one of those unusual moments where the clash of civil liberties and disagreements of how that should be done affected a united states senator. he claims he had no reason to set off the machine and it was a mistake. that will all have to be sorted out, but because he's been a public critic, that will bring

additional attention to this. it's what many flyers go through, but if you've been vocal about it, you get more attention. >> you fly a lot, as i do, yes, they have procedures. i feel for the tsa agents, because they put up with a lot very often. on the other hand, just this weekend i found somebody who set off the machine come back and then go back through. it does seem a little odd they wouldn't let him go through the scanner again. not sure what's going on there. >> we've reached out to the tsa as well hoping to get official comment from them and he is, as we understand, still at the airport in nashville. >> to be continued, kelly o'donnell, thank you for that report. the obama administration warned liberals and that will likely mean cuts, including the money sent to cities all across the country. joining me on the phone, los angeles governor antonio

villaraigosa, good morning, mayor, how are you doing? >> good morning, chris, how are you? >> very well. i saw on twitter last week you talked to the president and gene sperling, what was your message? >> the message is, we want to stand with the president and the white house to call on the captains of our democracy, the congress, to get back on the ship. they have abandoned ship. the costa concordia captain abandoned ship, and that's what they've done when it comes to the economy. and the fact of the matter is, they are spending too much time with vitriol and finger pointing and not enough time doing their job, reaching across the aisle, coming together with bipartisan initiatives to create jobs. we put a common sense jobs agenda that said pass the transportation bill, extend the payroll tax cut, do what we need to do to put people back to work, invest in our ports, airports, roads again. they can't keep on saying that

the only thing they are going to do is cut, cut, cut, and not make the investments that we need to put our teachers and our firefighters and our police officers back to work. >> were you happy with what you heard from the president or is there something in what he told you about the upcoming budget that really has you worried for your city and other cities? >> yes, the mayor -- the president has been there pushing for jobs, trying to reach across the aisle, even sometimes criticized by his own party for doing it, but what we've seen is recalcitrant congress that's refused on virtually everything to work with the president and our cities. on a bipartisan basis, democrats and republicans together, job number one, putting people back to work. we've got to work to get our economies back. you know, 90% of the gdp,

according to our metro economies report, 90% of the gdp is created in our cities, 85% of the jobs are created in our cities. so as our cities go, so go the nation, and you'd never know that given the cuts that the congress have made over the last year and the cuts that they are going to make going into the future. we all understand that we have to reverse the deficit. these are tough times. we've had to trim our own budgets, we've had to make tough calls. i've cut a fourth of the l.a. work force, general fund work force. i've had our employees go from 6% to 11% in what they pay for their pensions. we've had to make tough calls. they have to make tough calls too, but they have to make investments as well, that's what this is about. >> antonio villaraigosa, happy birthday, mr. mayor. you got a fun night planned or are you going to be home watching the debate. >> i'm going to spend time with one of my daughters, but thank you very much.

and as i said to someone earlier today, i'm 59 and can't wait for 60, love my job and i love life. >> good for you, again, enjoy your time with your daughter tonight, happy birthday and thanks for coming on. >> thank you. of course, jobs, and the mayor was just talking about, they've been such a key issue in this election and a new survey find 2 out of 3 executives do not expect any boost in hiring over the next six months. john harwood joins us now, obviously, a challenge for the president and the republicans going forward. you heard it from the mayor, they want an opportunity to create jobs. tell us a little bit more. >> chris, i'm still trying to get my head around the fact the mayor wants to spend time with his daughter on his birthday instead of watching the nbc debate tonight. >> or he's happy about turning 60. >> what is he thinking? look, jobs is the central challenge for both parties, the president is hoping to get a full year extension on the payroll tax cut.

that is the central new initiative that he can hope to get from congress. congress is going to come back, you can expect republicans, perhaps, to try to force him to say yes to the keystone pipeline. that's a jobs point of attack for them, because the president's held up that pipeline, and the president's going to lay out some other initiatives, we understand, in the state of the union address, so-called insourcing, ways to provide incentives to companies to bring jobs back to the united states, but to some degree the president's at the her smercy o economic forces, he had growth in the last monthly report. he's got to hope that continues and if it happens, will lift the mood of the american people that's been very pessimistic so far. >> what are you expecting tonight, john, tomorrow night, obviously, tomorrow night we know what's going to happen, it's going to be crazy, can't wait for the debate. but tomorrow night, will the president frame this job's issue in a different way? >> i think we'll hear some new things.

the white house isn't showing their hand. housing is one area the president has had some initiatives that haven't had an impact and there's been talk of more ambitious things, for example, helping mortgages through the fannie mae and freddie mac to refinance at lower interests. mitt romney's chief economic adviser has been in favor of a proposal like that. it's hard to accomplish, but i think the president has to balance that with a need to, as you were discussing with the mayor, show some restraint in spending and show he's willing to tackle the deficit. so the president's said many times, there's no magic bullet in the effort to get the economy going. he does have the benefit of some positive signs in recent months, decline in the number of people claiming jobless benefits, all suggest our economy's recovering, just not recovering fast enough so far to make the

american people feel optimistic about the future. >> john harwood, thank you. >> you bet. earlier we asked you to tweet your thoughts on whether newt gingrich is a dream candidate for the democrats. not sure if newt is a dream, more of a nightmare, i think. tom wilson 70 writes, newt and mitt both terrible. newt's win in south carolina was shared by every dem in the country, be careful, reagan was wanted by dems and won, newt is no giper. you're giving me the silent treatment? ummm, yeah. jen, this is like the eighth time you've called... no, it's fine, my family has free unlimited mobile-to-any-mobile minutes. i can call all i want. i don't think you understand 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.

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the super bowl is s setbuffett's tune and heidi and seal split. a rematch from 2008, giants versus patriots in the super bowl. the giants beat the 49ers with a field goal in overtime. our own 49er fan lost a friendly bet with one of our producers. good sport, he wore a giant's jersey, ouch. the patriots won after the raven's kicker missed a

game-tying field goal, but it was steven tyler's national anthem that has people talking. ♪ and the rocket's red glare ♪ as bombs bursting in air >> rewrote the lyrics, too. another interesting song, this one courtesy of billionaire warren buffett. ♪ i've been working on the railroad all the live long day ♪ ♪ i've been working on the railroad just to pass the time away ♪ >> normally you'd say don't quit your day job, but he can afford it. that's kind of cute, right? that's going to do it for this edition of "jansing and company." does any mother ever feel like their kids are adults? i have twins, 21 years old.

each kid has their own path. they grow up, and they're out having their life. i really started to talk to them about the things that are important that they have to take ownership over. my name's colleen stiles, and my kids and i did our wills on legalzoom. [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help you take care of the ones you love. go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side.