points. ing -- we have our congress woman from florida. first, i want to talk to the panel and discuss the romney numbers, is this evidence of a changed candidate or a campaign that knows what it's doing? wow, crickets on set. >> the most telling thing is that gingrich did some imploding and the telling number is the rick santorum. >> the one number not on the list. >> take santorum occupaut of the and put those mb those numbers gingrich. >> if you ever met someone on facebook and you are like, she looks great, she is beautiful, she has interesting hobbies and then you meet them and she seems

different. that is what is happening with gingrich. he led in florida for while and now they are getting to know him. he is campaigning and dealing with negative ads and he is hurting. >> florida is technically in the south but it's not a southern state. he is coming out of south carolina, he will do well? had no. you have a ton of older folks there, latinos and jewish vote, it's a whole different ballgame. we will see more of newt gingrich coming back up as we get into the southern states. >> i want to bring in our congress woman. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> in florida, we look at what romney is doing among women and men and tea partiers and he is up nine points in the women and up in the other categories. he seems to have them on lock down in your fair state of florida. >> i think he has had a very

good message, a positive message. he has been more aggressive in contrasting his agenda about the economy with those of the other opponents and i like them all. i don't speak badly about any of the republicans. but he has been more aggressive after south carolina, it was like a splash of cold water. he came in charging and he the not let up. he is still hard pounding his opponents and what concerns us here in florida is unemployment. our south florida unemployment numbers way up, more than the national average and the latino vote has gotten a lot of attention and it's been said that romney is an anti-immigrant. that has bommaranged and we care about jobs and education and everything else and romney has the right message. >> is this the moment that the

chattering class has been waiting for where romney finally takes off, florida is sort of a model for a national campaign. he is doing well with sections of the electorate, is this the moment that he is the real nominee and support coalesces around him and it's over? >> it he depends how it plays out wednesday morning. the reality is we had romney benefitting greatly for a number of reasons and the biggest one is gingrich imploding and the establishment had the oh, no moment when gingrich went to south carolina. they she had if we do not stop him this could be a problem. and now the far right do not want him. so they are having their oh, no moment. they are talking about gingrich's flaws. starting wednesday morning, tuesday night, there will be a lot of people that will say,

romney will win by the end of february or middle of march. gingrich if he performs better in florida than he has going forward, he could head off the idea that romney is inevitable. >> newt is not going anywhere. he has southern states, including let see, arizona, could be more favor able. and georgia, his backyard, missouri, further on, march is a much better month for newt gingrich than it is february. but can i keep -- when you talk about the oh, no moment is it on the part of the far right, is it going to be as loudly heard from the rest of the republican base? which is to say can they maneuver their troops as efficiently as romney? >> money can't bipartisuy you lt

endorsement endorsements, trusting those people that have been with you take this and day out is important and he has done that and that is what is going to help propel him more so hthan te money. >> i think what is more important is the anti-endorsement. bob dole came out and said, by the way, newt gingrich has crazy ideas, was difficult to work with, do not nominate this man, that mattered. coming in with a hard negative if you have credibility in the republican party matters more than what nikki haley or others did saying we like somebody. >> it depends on who the endorsement comes from. a catch-all, but an endorsement from a key party in the latino population makes a difference. >> we know the romney camp has

been incredibly organized sending ssend ing surrogates to the gingrich events to question him. if we talk about effective campaign organization, what is it like there on the ground for you? there was a article discussing how romney's campaign was instrumental in getting him back up in the polls and perhaps a candidate did not have as much of a role to play in all of that what do you think is th? >> it's the candidate that came out stronger. if we had a do over in south carolina, you would see the same organization, but a different mitt romney showing up for debates. and that is what we saw in florida. the two debates were knockouts by mitt romney because he knew

everything was at stake here in florida. we know the candidates will go on for many more races, you'll see what we saw here, a new mitt romney who is charged up and aggressively courting the vote. and we have had these tests with evangelical voters before, iowa said it would be hard for him. did not technically win but came close. he has been proving it. and he was not on his a-game in south carolina. the message did not need to change, it was the delivery of that message that we want to beat obama that he is the candidate to beat obama and he has a strong economy message for our times and i think that is what will make a difference >> it's worth mentioning that mitt romney pushed that he the not have a role to play in the

campaign organization. >> i think you can think that the work of advisers thinks the works of advisers is very, very important if you look where it changed was the debates. >> it was the word to the wise, they did not plug me into wall, it was my work at the debates. can we expect that sort of sharply tongued mitt romney to be on stage when he is going at president obama. >> we are all evaluating him as the likely nominee and how he is doing now to see what he will do in the general. strong in the debate when the game was on the line. strong on the stump. but remember during the same period, he had the tax returns, all the little nendimensions of that, he has not been all that consistent. i think he is right, he has done this and you have to have the

candidate driving the message, you see gingrich has been a disaster since south carolina, but he has not been a flawless candidate by any means. >> one can bet the term swiss bank accounts and kaman islands will be in the air as we go toward 2012. thank you congress woman for your time. >> thank you. >> we look forward to hearing more from you. rick santorum is back on the trail today but not where you think he may be. we will look at his strategy next on "now." ♪ eggland's best eggs. -the best in nutrition... -just got better. even better nutrition -- high in vitamins d, e and b12. a good source of vitamin b2. plus omega threes. and 25% less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. but there's one important ingredient that hasn't changed. -better taste. -better taste.

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. four years ago i was definite about one thing, i would never do this again and mitt laughed and said you say that after every pregnancy. and all the women out there know what i'm talking about. >> that's ann romney, wowing the crowd in miami on friday. is she mitt romney's secret weapon what assets do the other candidates have in their arsenal. i have to say, you see her and she immediately humanizes her husband. there's a genuineness and a warmth, her battle with ms and

breast cancer, what do you make of her role in this campaign vis-a-vis her husband, does she highlight him? >> she absolutely helps him. women have an important role to play. and it's more important in the case because he is zombie like, you can plug him into a wall and she soft ens him. however, romney doesn't need his help with women in the primaries he will need it in the general. and we know that women tend to vote democratic, she may help now but going into the general i don't think there's going to be much help there. >> did you say he was a robot or zombie? >> i'm going zombi/robot. >> the key is that women age 30-50. we know older women tend to vote for republicans younger women

tend to vote for democrats. we watched what those women did in 2006, they gave the democrats the house back and helped elect obama in '08 and took it away. they are flocking away from the gop, does that last through the summer? i don't know. >> it will be michelle obama against ann romney. >> i don't know anybody that does not like her. that's a huge asset. what she has not done often is drive an actual political message. when you go back to the new hampshire speeches, she was different, she was confident. i think for them to win, she will have to drive a general election message against the president in a way a suppopouse needs to do. she is highly motivated. she wants her husband to win, i

think she will get there. >> she has gotten better and better and better as time has gone on. >> but only driving the humanizing message not why does this choice message for the country. she says it but does not drill down to it in a way that they need her to. >> especially because michelle obama has gotten good at doing that for her husband. [ phone ringing ] >> hello. it's relevant that we bring in sarah palin who is sort of endorsing gingrich. let's listen to what she said on fox on sunday. >> if for no other reason, rage against the machine, annoy a liberal, vote newt. keep the vetting process going. keep the debate going. >> annoy a liberal, vote newt. is that a ringing den endor ini and does it matter? >> no hope for the future, no policy, it's media bs, and this

is what she has become. i don't know how much longer she can be out on the channel talking like this. her main appeal was that she had a political following or relevance. >> she is giving voice to i think a line of thinking among some parts of the republican party, iron sharpens iron, steel sharpens steel. the longer romney and gingrich are in the race, the stronger they'll get. >> that is legitimate but i don't think it right for them to say let's do this. that is what rush limbaugh did. neither of those would be good you views. in my book, if you believe in something or someone you want to motivate or organize for them. you campaign for this person. >> we will be talking more about

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b benefactor, the super pacs. as we look down to the future, will there be a scandal and what needs to happen to kill the beast money as the super pac? >> i hope so, the work we do is to try to expose this kind of crap. it's bad stuff. you don't have can indicates rai -- candidates raising money, you have people going out and spending money on a candidate and they don't talk to each other? if anyone thinks there's no coordination, their crazy. >> is it happening with the president? >> sure, i understand it breaking the law, the $6 billion that will be spent on this campaign, how much of this is dialing for dollars, i need $25 from a grandmother, very little. >> to point out, mcccain is

talking about how you get things done. enron was what helped to get their issue off the ground. the financial crisis, got us dodd-frank, that is what he is talking about, but he is trying get a bill through are congress. do you want to overhaul all the elections and do public funding and remove the donations? the outside expenditures under any reading of the law will be allowed because they are people spending money to speak. >> there's no majority and there won't be any time soon for public funding what there is support for disclosure. why isn't there disclosure? you can't deposit the check until disclosure. the president would be for that boehner would be for that and the presidential candidates

would be for it. >> it's worth noting that at midnight tomorrow -- >> belatedly. >> and romney's super pac was out front trying to toy with the disclosure ted lines. it's fodder. john mccain was going after the supporters that are casino owners and as we talk about mitt romney, bain capital, vulture capitalism, swiss bank accounts and the bermuda and the caymam islands, is this really about newt gingrich and being funded by one person? >> if it's an attack coming from the president and his supporters it's not credible. he opted out of the funding the first time. and as mark mentioned the president has a big outside operation going and the

democrats had 5-27s and the republicans had a swift boat, so this stuff is old and we are kidding ourselves if you care about reform, are you kidding yourself if you want to believe that there are clean hands on either side. >> and i guess, if we talk about the spark that will lead them to be against super pacs. if it's drawn out, if you look at the numbers here, in florida alone, $24 million has been spent, restore our future is mitt romney's super pac, 8.9 million and gingrich outdone by the romney campaign by 12 million dollars in this goes on, it has a chance to bruise and bloody romney and weaken him as a candidate. if you think this is ultimately

harmful to the republican nominee process there will be more paths to make it more transparent. >> i want to take a step back and talk about, it's an indication of more and more candidate centered politicpolite party needs to come in and say we need more control here not only of the candidates but the political process itself. that will be another start of reform and hopefully it will be transparent. that is what we want. >> i think that was alex's question, there was an article that hit the same point. there's a tension here as the money goes in different directions, you have other groups that then assert control and the article said what about the ground game, they were getting in there making phone calls. ron paul's people ran into his pacs people and didn't know who was speaking for the campaign. that's a political question that matters a great deal. they don't care about reforming the rules they want other people

to help only in the way they want the help which they cannot directly coordinator. >> no voters registration drives is stepping on toes. do voters know? can they tell the difference between a campaign ad and a super pac ad, my guess is no. >> i just spoke, can i reup? >> always. >> when i spoke for john kerry, people would come up and say, i love the ads is he going to win, by the way, why does he say i approved this message. and everyone knows that it's a required discloser, unless you are a junkie, you do not know the rules or the requirements and you definitely cannot tell the difference between the super pac ad and the regular ad which is a problem. >> even romney did not know the difference for his. he was asked whether he ran the ad or not and he said no and it

was his ad. i think mark is right. i want public financing we are not there yet. if we can do anything, frankly if the congress had brains they would pass disclosure measures and have the sign them and make everyone pony up and show who they are. sunshine is always better and in this case -- >> i agree with you, jimmy jims, sunshine is always better. >> why are we doing the show from here? >> we will talk more about ads after the break, he has been called the political magic maker and he is only 23 years old. we will talk about the film maker that is behind some of this race's most recognizable ads next. [ male announcer ] how do you trade? with scottrader streaming quotes, any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process -- from thought to trade, on every screen. and all in real time. which makes it just like having your own trading floor,

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>> i'm mitt romney and i approved this message. >> if mitt romney would mislead us on this, can we trust him on mission else? >> i'm newt gingrich and i approved this message. if you are in florida, you cannot go without seeing an ad, lucas joins us from washington, to discuss how to make an ad that stands out. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> you have a very interesting background, lucas and i would like to touch on it about a bit. you got your start working for hillary clinton in 2008 and when y -- then you worked for pawlenty and on to rick perry. talk to us about your political he education and how you managed to cross the spectrum so quickly? >> it's a journey, and the youtube generation, anyone can be a entrepreneur.

i studied film and poll tibitic college. when the youtube cycle was just ramping up in a sense, people were not utilizing the political agenda to tap into that youtube generation and from there i thought, this could be an opportunity on get involved i felt that i could potentially get some transaction on line and what not. well, today's day and age, it's a good thing. >> and traction you got. let's play a perry ad from this campaign cycle. >> this election is about our children and grandchildren and they are waiting, they are waiting for us to answer if we are going to participate, if we are going to call. this is your country. and your country is calling.

>> the level of the sort of movie quality in these ads today, i think it's not shocking but surprising given how bad political advertising has been in the past. i would probably say the 2008 campaign was sort of the line in the sand where you saw everyone up the ante, rick perry sort of changed courses towards the end there it looks like. i think a lot of us remember specifically the ads where he is in the barn jacket talking about gays serving in the military and it's a more christian message. were you involved in those ads and you walk us through the change in the advertising message? >> i was not involved in that particular ad but the first ad i was involved in. at the time, it got more hits than all of romney's ads combined. in today's day and age, people are angry and people want something this that can reflect

their anger in a sense, and i have taken the theatrical approach in leveling that playing field when people thought that democrats had the upper hand in technology and i want to use my skill and visual and media traits and try to bring up, up the ante, if you will. >> i want to open it up to the panel a bit as we talk about advertising and messaging, there was controversy last year when the romney campaign took a quote from the president the white house said out of context. and the value that is placed on messaging. weapon look at the outized roles of the debates. it's a very slippery slope as we auction about context and what exactly is fair use. as we move forward are we bearish or bullish about how much sort of quotes may be taken in and out of context and how much blow back and push back

there maybe for truth and transparency? >> i don't know about y'all, i don't think that was the first time that anyone was taken out of context. i don't think that they will stop doing it. but the transparence, what i think matters more is who is paying for the ads where is the money coming from and at the end of the day, who is being scapegoat. i know you did not work on that broke back mountain thing but as a gay man i would be ticked off if a friend of mine was prochtiprocht i -- profiting off of that. i hit mute when an ad comes on. >> you hit mute and most of us do, but it's the emotion that goes into it. how you frame things up. it's the message, you know, these people like lucas are working on the ads they have you

in mind, so they show positive feeings or negative feelings about the count er candidate. >> the romney organization has found out that the press unfortunately is so weak at certain things, that they can up a controversial ad and they will get it to voters and tons of controversy from the media. we need to to better than that. we need to do better at not giving them what they want. what matters is, the candidates that dove tails, romney's positive ads re-enforc re-enforced. gingrich has been a disaster. he has not been consistent between the ads and what esshe

saying on the stump. >> the other person that has kind of amazing ads if we are looking at production quality and message -- >> dr. paul. >> -- is dr. paul, can we play a little dr. paul ad? >> what is up with these sorry politicians, lots of bark and when it's show time, whimpering like a little dogs. >> i think you get a free truck if you vote for ron paul. lucas, those ads, let's talk just basic production value, i believe i was featured in a perry ad talking about the youth unemployment rate. in terms of producing these things, walk us through it. this is something that you do. are republican candidates tuned to msnbc waiting for usable nuggets? >> no, it's about seeing how we

can utilize what we have given to us. in today's day and age, the reason the polls are so up and down, partly because the voters have so much accessiblity in today's day and age for the first time and in the election where they can go on youtube and the websites and they can watch feature films that gingrich put out or we had put out, short films on governor perry's campaign and what not. so the accessiblity is a prime factor and utilizing instant messaging to connect with the voters. >> it's worth noting that top video views, newt gingrich is leading the pack. i'll say in terms of pure visual enjoyment my favorite is ron paul. thank you lucas baiano, we look forward to your next act. >> thank you for having me. >> what now?

the "occupy" movement, what is behind it and it working? that is next on "now." coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports" battleground florida, what is in mitt romney's momentum as all the polls are giving him a double-digit lead and newt gingrich claims to be the heir to the reagan legacy. and what could stop president obama from winning florida? b that is next.

welcome back, it's time for what now? the occupy edition, about 15 minutes ago, occupy protesters were supposed to leave mcpearson square but they are saying under what they call a tent of dreams. in some areas, occupy

protesters -- >> we talk about the discussion of, regarding income inequality in this current presidential race, certainly the white house has wrapped its arms around it. when you look at this, whether it's the violence or the sort of back and forth between the d.c. park police and the movement, where to we place the movement right now in terms of the national dialog? >> i think it's a movement that shows what happens when you politically participate in ways that are not sanctioned and that is in oakland, people are getting hurt. and police have a tough task on their hands but in some cases they have been of courexcessive force. if we saw this footage from another country, we would be shocked. it's a huge problem and they will have impact as long as they

continue to assert thenmselves. >> i wonder if there's a concern about the message getting sort of thinned too much. and that it's not, you know, aity lot a i lot of folks said that just by virtue of them existing that is enough. >> they have a super powerful morale argument. there mistake is to not be part of politics. the tea party did and they had an impact. >> this idea would be that that republican voters could come out and vote in protest to the violence. because they have not yet got to the formal modes of democracy. >> in my time at the occupies, they are not caring about this race or this election, they are

thinking about decades. >> unless they plan to over throw the government, they are noti itgoing to have an impact. >> and they are leaderless. you have on have a leader. they have no leader. >> the morale argument gets watered down with the violence. the occupy oakland, if we keep seeing that, it will hurt the movement and the democrats. >> well, if today and previous weeks are a sign, they are not going away. we are sure to discuss the occupy movement more as the months continue. thank you to all of you, that is all for now. tomorrow, herman cain will join me live and full primary analysis from chuck todd, and so many more. but until then, you can follow us on the old twitter machine. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. >> hey, thanks so much. coming next, alex, looking at

the political divide in florida as the campaigns race to the publish and of all the voting blocks which are the most reliable. and joining us today, jacksonville's democratic mayor alvin brown who made history of his own in is sunshine state. all that and more along with a fact check here. what reagan insiders are telling us is the real story. that is up next. what's with you?

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