mae. >> if you check investments you also have funds that invest in fannie mae and freddie mac. >> right. >> you guys leave that alone and focus on the issues. >> with growing income equality and anger rising romney dragged his heels for weeks about releasing his returns. >> almost $22 million in 2010. nearly $21 million last year. >> the president of the united states. >> thank you. >> everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. >> trying to divide america. >> by the end of my second term -- we will have the first permanent based moon -- ♪ you believe they put a man on the moon ♪ f. i had a business executive come to me, spend $1 billion to put a colony on the moon, i'd

say you're fired. >> i don't think we should go to the moon. we should probably send some politicians up there. >> only the last week or so. rye out in in florida people are voting. looks like mitt romney's new strategy worked. poll after poll shows he's going to win today after turning up his attacks. the question is, how much will he win by? and newt gingrich isn't letting up on attacks of his own. >> you cannot get to the president if you don't have the courage to tell the truth to the american people. >> i know the speaker's not real happy. speaker gingrich. not excited these days. it's sad. flailing around trying to go after me for one thing or the other. >> let me bring in msnbc political analyst michael steele who's down in florida. good morning. >> hey. how you doing? >> maybe the bigger question is, every day these guys go after each other with all the negative ads, all the attacks. is it hurting you guys in the big picture? republicans? >> i believe it is. i think it's beginning to form

an armed camp with the gop at the grass roots level. my concern is coming out of this, certainly going into future contests, most especially getting to the convention, whether or not people are going to be in a frame of mind to fight barack obama or still fighting each other? my hope is that the adults in the room will take control of this thing. >> who are the adults in the room, michael? >> it's candidates themselves. they need to take control of this thing. mitt romney, make your case. you don't need to tear down opponents to make your case and connect with voters. the other candidates, you don't -- >> here's the problem, obviously. it worked. >> isn't that funny? yet at the same time, you're looking at a race in which, within's party there's going to be greater polarization than you're going to have going out of the, out into the general election to get the vote toers pay attention what you want to talk about. there was talking about the last

negative commercial. what they need to be talking about, your agenda and how you plan to move not just the party but most especially the country forward. and i'm hoping that coming out of florida, and i take your point, chris, it does work. it's one of those catch 22s. you know, people complain about negative campaigning but it works. that's why they do it. >> well, speaking of kplarcomplg about the negative complaining. let me play what sarah palin had to say. >> it's gotten vicious and i'm not whining about the viciousness and don't think anybody should. i will call people out on when they choose lie about a candidate, and what we have seen in the politics of personal destruction has been based on lies. that is why so many people feel disenchantsed from, with our political process today. >> so how, michael, do you deal with this populist grass roots conservative wing of the party personified by sarah palin by

rush limbaugh, herman cain. they feel mitt romney is being rammed down their throats. >> absolutely. that's one of the things that mitt romney has got to solve for his campaign, quite frankly. again it goes back to my point. you don't do that by tearing down someone of newt's stature, for good or bad. like him or not like him, you know, he's played a role in the party, and he has a lot of support behind him, so when people are looking at leadership they're looking at how do you embrace and bring that kind of leadership to help you, if you truly are going to be the standard bearer. how do you, then, go forward, should you get the nomination and have a newt gingrich ticked off to the side, not really participating? that's the concern the sarah palins and rush limbaughs and others have about the way this process is unfolding. getting back to my point, it's time for the adults to step up, run the campaign that's going to talk in a visionary way about the future of our country, and leave all the pettiness aside. okay.

we've got the bain thing, the freddie mac thing. move on to talk about how what obama's doing, stifling growth and economy opportunity and how what you're going to do will create an avenue for small businesses to rejuvenate the economy. >> stay with us. joe, the editor and chief of national memo.com and mother jones and msnbc political analyst, also. joe, give me odds. i don't know if you're a betting man. what are the chances the adults in the room will show up? 92% of political ads aired in florida over the last week, they were negative. >> yes. not surprising, and i would say 91% of them, something like that, were romney ads. people were bombarded with romney's money and gingrich is very bitter about that. if he's expected to be the adult in the room, in new york he's known at cry baby gingrich and not going to change his stripes after this. i think this is very bad for their party, because what it does, you know, you could hear sarah palin creating a narrative

about, that almost makes it impossible for them to endorse romney at the convention. he's lied about them. he is dishonest, and they've opened up a whole narrative framework for obama that's very convenient. you know, they made romney release his taxes. done by republican, but he only released two tax returns. when bill clinton ran for president in 1992, he released 12 years of tax returns. >> of course, he didn't have any money. >> didn't have any money. romney has a lot of money. not good that he paid any taxes. what people want to know is going forward, where do these gingrich attacks end up? what is the final answer? >> to michael's point, too, david. yesterday, you would think, yesterday and today, these last 24 hour, so important. winner take all primary, a chance for candidates to make they're closing argument. let me play for you what newt gingrich had to say yesterday. what is it getting all the press

in the last 24 hours? here's newt gingrich talking about kosher meals. >> governor romney imposed activities on the catholic hospitals against their opposition, refused to allow them the rite of conscious in romney care, just by the way he eliminated serving kosher fooled for elderly jewish residents under medicaid. >> is this where we are are, david, in this campaign? >> by the way, he's a mormon. didn't say that, but came pretty close. i feel for michael's pain. go back to 1978 in our time machine. newt gingrich running for congress then tells young republicans the problem with our party is we don't teach you to be nasty enough. we've had over 30 years of newt gingrich being nasty, and the last two or three years we've seen the republican party go to extreme lengths, comparing democrats to nazis when they pass health care reform.

sarah palin was just down there crying crocodile tears after she campaigned against barack obama saying he palled around with terrorists. they call him a socialist. all of this swelling of nastiness has crescendoed with the obama presidency. what are they doing? using it on each other, and it's ugly. it's helping the democrats. you compare the way barack obama looked with his state of the union speech versus the way mitt romney or newt gingrich looked this past week, the past few weeks, and there's a very clear contrast there that independent voters will see. so this is really, you know, it's a classic case of reaping what you sow. >> we heard from newt gingrich said. i'm in this for the long haul. what does he do? start to try manage expectations? in other words, you know, if it's an 8-point loss instead of

a 15-point loss, is it a win? >> they want to forget florida tomorrow and have to forget a lot of february, because the states coming up this month are all favorable to romney. won them all in 2008, some by large margins. states where there are quite a few mormon voters out west or states that be friendly to a new england former governor. so he's -- he looks like he's set to win almost every race, perhaps every race this month. he has to hang on until the beginning of march when there are southern states to try to battle back, but the setup in the republican party this year with fewer winner take all contests would allow him to get enough delegates to keep going if he has the money. >> that's the other issue. isn't it, michael? >> yeah. >> the way this is set up, this is going to april anyway. >> yeah. and let me just correct one point that everyone keeps mentioning. florida is not a winner take all state. florida's proportional. florida violated the april 1st rule of the rnc, rule 15, and

there's delegates, whatever number's apportioned to them will be proportional for the candidates. that's why newt and rick and paul fill very good coming out of florida. winning or not winning. they will all get some of these delegates. i have confirmation talking with some of the leadership yesterday at the rnc. the committee, members of the committee agreed this is proportional. california, michigan and ohio just a few of the 35 states that changed their rules to comport to this requirement who will not be very happy if florida gets away with having a winner take all at this time. so that's a factor here that is very real. it changes the dynamics on the ground for sure. mitt will have a big night tonight, but coming out of florida, there's stilt a ll a l more room ahead. the candidates know it and will take advantage of every inch of that space. >> you're telling me florida is not winner take all? >> it is not. it is pro pogsal because they violated rule 156 t that said,

before april 1 it stshgs i know it, i wrote the rule is proportional. >> i want to say, a matter of contention if it becomes a big issue down the road? saw it up in the obama/clinton fight four years ago. it still may be up for grabs. >> a convention rules fight, i guess. >> it's how -- that's more of an issue with respect to whether or not you're going to lose your delegates. as we saw with obama, the nominee is not going to tell delegates they can't be seated. how you apportion those delegates is what we wanted to check. >> right. >> all right. michael, joe, david, gentlemen, thanks to all of you. >> thank you. on the other side of the campaign, president obama did more than just talk about job creation for americans when he talked one-on-one with a text resident, jennifer wadell on google plus. took her out of work husband's resume and we'll get details on that and talk about it with the host of the "ed show" ed schultz

coming up next. we want to get you or primary pop quiz. florida is best known for the recount and hanging chads in 2000, but which two republicans lost to george w. bush in that year's florida primary? do you remember? if you know the answer, tweet it to us at jansingco, and we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

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did you get it right? florida is best known for recounts and hanging chads in 2000. which two republicans lost to george w. bush in that year's primary? john mccain and alan keyes.

both lost. when your husband can't find a job it doesn't hurt to go straight to the top. during an interactive google town hall, president obama offered his hope to a texas woman whose husband, an engineer is how work. >> it is interesting to me, and i meant what i said. if you send me your husband's resume, i'd be interested in finding out exactly what's happening right there, because the word we're getting is that somebody in that kind of high-tech field that kind of engineer, should be able to find something right away. >> so at the republicans battling it out in florida, what's the president up to? joined by ed schultz, host of, of course "the ed show." love having you on. >> good to be here. >> pounced on that answer by the president. said it was interesting that an engineer was out of work when they're in such high demand. the rnc immediately said that shows how out of touch the president is. >> no. a very real moment. this is a president who all along cared about the middle

class and the unemployed, tried to do everything he possibly can for them, but also information seeking. he said in the sound bite, in that exchange what we're hearing -- he wants the real story. this is a president who paid off his college loans just after he got into the oval office. a president who has been a community organizer pap president who's never forgotten where he came from and how to get there and always concerned about where middle income people in this country are going to end up in this changing economy and the global structure. that's why he's got a big focus on manufacturing, and i think you can connect his answer to his state of the union speech about high-tech manufacturing. an engineer if we're moving forward in this economy, should be getting some bites. on the other hand, i've been around the country and talked to so many people saying they put out 50, 60 resume as week and never get a call back. there's a message inside the president's answer there. go through every resume. america has great workers. make sure that you don't short

change your own company sayings another resume and throw it off to the side. >> you and i both talk to ceos. many tell you, especially in some of the higher tech companies, they do need people, are looking for people and their message has been, we can't get the people we need. >> well, not everybody is a marketing expert. and i think the president is setting a real good example. this is not him showing he's out of touch. this is a president who's very hands-on and wants it's real story. he wants to know what that lady's going through what her husband's going through and how qualified this gentleman is. it's a great story, and it was very natural. this is who the president is. >> i also thought this really is kind of a microcosm, i think, of what the general election is going to be about. this is going to be about real people. >> do you care? >> and do you care, real concern, and can you really every thys, understand where they are, and who's going to do something about it? >> a president who reads letters from americans every night. this is a president who has written personal checks to

people after being moveed by their stories. a president who tried to get the congress to do everything it possibly can for a jobs package and extending unemployment benefits in a tough recovery time, and i think that it was a genuine exchange. that's who barack obama is. who the president is. he cares and wants to do something. >> it does look like this is going to be, if not a landslide, a strong win for mitt romney, and we just talked about the fact that even though the primary process may go on for a while, it looks as it's looked all along as if mitt romney will be running against barack obama this november. and his argument is one you know very well. i'm a guy who's been in the real world. i'm a guy who's created jobs. how does the president answer that? >> very easy. the fact is, he's out of touch with what people are doing. when he thinks speaking fees, oh, abouts 3ds 75,000. way out of touch where americans are to pass that off at no big

deal. trying to pass on jobs at staples and sports authorities as middle-class jobs. they are not. we checked it out. he can't give a definitive number. a wall street baron, corporate raider, comes from the financial sector. his job, hit the bottom line. done a good job of that at the expense of a lot of people where jobs have been created overseas not in the united states. if he wants to run on that record, that's fine. what we've seen from south carolina to florida, how you deep 6 somebody with citizen's united behind you. how can mitt romney have almost no mown meant um and staggering in south carolina and turn it around in a little over a week? well, it's called 5 to 1 advertising against your opponents and puts newt gingrich in an untenable position. the only way to fight back, go as negative as he possibly can, where he comes from anyway. >> et schultz, always good to see you. join ed tonight for msnbc's primetime coverage of the florida primary. begins right here are at 6:00

p.m. another state, by the way, also voting today in the first congress' contest of 2012. a special election held today in oregon for congressman david wu's seat. web, wu resigned last august amid a sex scandal. democrats, big a key state to hold on to in 2012. state senator suzann bonamici is expected to beat the republican rob cornilles in's election. progresso. it fits! fantastic! [ man ] pro-gresso they fit! okay-y... okay??? i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit. okay is there a woman i can talk to? [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ that right now, you want to know where you are,

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not to say the rule couldn't be changed by their rules committee at a later date, but that's not the rule they're operating under now. right now, florida is indeed, as we have been stating, a winner take all state. now, newt gingrich, who would love to win delegates, just can't get away from his comments about a moon colony in jacksonville yesterday mitt romney and his supporters could not resist one more jab. >> what was that back there? send him to the moon, he says. well, the idea of the moon as the 51st state is not one that would come to my mind as campaign basis here in florida. >> and a swipe at mitt romney, check out this picture tweeted by president obama's senior campaign adviser general axelrod, how loving owners transport their dogs. romney took heat traveling with his dog in a kennel on top of the family car. frugal lawmakers, if you can

believe it, topping the list, senator richard shelby who gave back $1.2 million to taxpayers from his office' budget. and here's the musical section of today's politics now. rapper snoop dogg showing support for -- ron paul. posting a picture of the texas congressman on his facebook page. a huge caption, smoke weed every day. ♪ for purple mountains majesty above the fruited plain ♪ america ♪ america ♪ god shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ and crown >> and i don't know, maybe because singing worked for president obama, now mitt romney is breaking into song? he does say "america the beautiful" is his favorite patriotic song. and newt gingrich is getting sued for playing "eye of the

tiger" at his campaign events. franky sullivan told a chicago paper the song is his legacy and can't be used without permission. speaking of "eye of the tiger," comedy central stephen colbert super pac a better tomorrow tomorrow managed to raise, get this, $1 million 23,000. among contributors reported in the filing, california lieutenant governor gavin newsom and the actor bradley whitford who of course starred in "the west wing." last night he took his pac back from jon stewart. >> you don't have to give it to me, jon. i'm going to take it from you. >> oh! ah! >> super pac! [ dennis ] switch to allstate.

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florida's not a state like either new hampshire or south carolina. florida's a state with all kinds of people, and i think it's more representative of the country. i supported mitt romney this morning. >> romney has been running attack ads that don't have a lot of basis. so newt's not perfect, but he -- he's the best of the choices. >> rick santorum and i supported him probably because i thought he was more of a moderate in between the two that were the front-runners. >> just some of the reaction from voters this morning at a precinct in winter park, florida. newt gingrich is still crisscrossing florida today trying to sway vote here's maybe still haven't made up their minds. mitt romney on the other hand has a very light public schedule today. peter alexander is covering the romney campaign. ron mott is covering gingrich, and peter, let me start with you. is mitt so confident he's not worried about filling his

schedule today? >> reporter: i think it's not that. the campaign would say it's not about being overconfident. even nbc news poll showing him up by roughly 15 percentage points. within the campaign, internal polls say it's still really close. single digits. again, trying to reduce the expectations here. if they do win by double digits they can celebrate that as big win. again today the romney campaign is doubling down on a new strategy, chris, of attacking newt gingrich. here they've been doing that on the campaign trail. already doing it ahead of saturday's vote in nevada with some surrogates for romney, doing a conference call today going after newt gingrich as an unreliable failed leader. the exact same way they went after him in this state with surrogates over the last several weeks. romney's folk, hopeful when they leave this state they will have new momentum in the sthats voted over the course of february. a good month, they are confident. in this state, chris, just four

years ago mitt romney lost by 5 percentage point and could trip that this time around. >> peter, thank you. nbc's ron mott, meantime in lakeland, florida. i guess, ron, for newt gingrich it's an managing expect ace aceations and a memo that went out from this campaign, supporters showing going forward how he could still win this nomination? >> reporter: right. good morning, chris. i think that's the thing you have to do any time you lose in a primary. signal to supporters in other states and other races that it is not over. that's what he's been trying to do here in florida as we've come close to tuesday. because poll numbers don't show a real good chance for him to win here. he's asked every day the future of his campaign if he loses in florida. he's handled a little differently every day. took to humor this morning. take a listen. >> how close is this to being over? >> probably six months. >> six months? >> unless romney drops out.

>> reporter: six months, unless romney drops out before then. he wants to go on. going on to nevada this week. big benefactor is out there, supporting his super pac. we'll see if he does well there. his real challenge, chris, is the fact that there isn't a debate for another three weeks or so. kind of his forum. some people may point his lackluster perform innocence the two debates last week, how he might have lost few vouters here are in florida. >> and gave mitt romney lines to bring out on the campaign trail. thank you. veteran news man dan rather, covering elections more than 40 years in florida as part of hd net's primary kov rav. dan good to see you. ready to stay on the campaign trail six more months? >> well i think so, chris that even if mitt romney wins and wins big here are in florida, as is expected, that doesn't mean he has the nomination. not by a long shot. and i think what many people may not realize when they're reading the paper tomorrow, if the headline is romney wins in

florida, whether single digits or double digits that doesn't mean he has the nomination. this is going to go on, in my opinion, at least until sometime in may, and perhaps on into the early part of june. it will take that long to get a nominee settled upon if, indeed, they're to get one before the convention. where newt gingrich is, you know, he's hoping against hope for a last-minute shift in voters here in florida, where he can at least finish close, a close second. he'd like to win. mitt romney has been beating him, beating on him like some dusty rug here. romney has had a lot of money. a terrifically organized campaign. he has just devastate the gingrich who came in leading in the polls, but quickly evaporated. this romney machine is formidable, and not the least of which is they have so much money. but gingrich will go on from here. >> anything you're hearing on the ground, dan, that would

suggest this could end up closer than most of the polls are saying it's going to be? >> no. i don't see anything on the ground that would indicate that. however, i think some of the internal polling on, of all of the candidates indicates a very slight tightening, but the expectation is romney will win, and the expectation is he'll win fairly large, as was mentioned by your correspondent earlier, the romney people are trying to tamp down expectations. my point is, though, that even if gingrich loses here and even if he loses big, it's a big up for romney but doesn't mean that romney has the nomination. >> let me ask you about perspective. you've been covering campaigns 40 years. we know this. every four year wes say, this is the nastiest campaign we have ever seen. how could it possibly get any nastier as the year goes on? but there is something different about this. isn't there? >> well, there is. it is true that we journalists and others say, oh, every year is the nastiest campaign, but this is unquestionably, chris,

the nastiest, down and dirty, gut fighting alley fighting campaign that either party has ever conducted during a primary campaign. part of the reason for that are what have already been, 18, 19 debates. one reason. another reason, so much more money is poured into the campaigns now. particularly secret money, money that's not transparent, but this is special in terms of its nastiness, and these television ads that mitt romney has been running against newt gingrich here, people can say, well i don't like negative campaigning, but the candidates run negative campaigns because they work. and here is example a in florida. mitt romney came in trailing in the polls in less than ten days, probably less than a week was able to turn it around. no question that this is in terms of negative campaigning, the worst we've ever seen in any primary campaign s. that what makes it different than four years ago? because the comparisons have

been made. they're being made. look, barack obama and hillary clinton had a pretty, you know, drag down fight, and in the end, it made barack obama a stronger candidate. do you see a scenario under which this actually makes mitt romney a stronger candidate, because he seems to be getting a little bit more comfortable on the attack. seems to be getting a little more comfortable on the trail, and frankly, whatever's come out about him has already come out? >> i think it makes all the candidates stronger what you said about barack obama getting stronger, made stronger, made into a wing candidate by those standards at that time a tough campaign against hillary clinton, listen, chris. i think i've said it to you before. mitt romney, if he wind up with the nomination, will be a formidable opponent tore for ba obama. with the economy where it is, barack obama is at least a slight underdog. what's missing with mitt romney is a sense of passion.

he may have passion, but he's not able to communicate that, and a sense of authenticity, and as we go along in the campaign, he's gotten better. better at the debates. he still has a long way to go in terms of exuding nags e inine ie really cares and authenticity. is what he believes real? those are his problems. a formidable candidate, far better than when he entered the race. as he goes along, he'll be stronger as the nominee come late summer early fall. >> hd net anchor dan rather. always good to see you, dan thanks. >> thanks, chris. and 50 delegates at stake today. richard lui will join us. florida by the numbers. >> good morning, chris. we've got eight hours left to vote. eight hours to pick a winner. eight hours to place a wager by

the numbers here's what to look for, for 632,513. that's the total number of floridians who have already voted, and listen to this. that's about a third of the number of republicans that voted in 2008. who that favors, mitt romney, as we was polling well earlier are on. xx. it's a broken record. florida is still about romney. can he show he's the front-runner? a strong double digit win is what he needs. a single digit leaves doubt there. also for you no doubt how negative ads are. 92 percent of ads in the last week were gloomy antagonistic and nasty according to campaign media analysis group. romney outspending newt gingrich 4-1 on that count. florida is like four states in one some say. the issue here, you've got the panhandle, socially and fiscally conservative. north florida, like south georgia, if you will. central florida which is the swing vote area and then south florida, with a complex latino

vote. 4%. that's how many delegates florida has to help a candidate win the nomination overall. worth double that, but bucked rnc rules to vote earlier and get more attention. did it pay off? looks like it may have without any hil la ballou along the way. what about african-americans? only 3% of voters were blacks in 2008's gop primary. come the general, african-americans making up 16% of floridians will weigh heavy there. then finally for you, 11. president obama's re-election campaign has 11 offices across florida. more than any gop candidate, held hundreds of events across the state including target eade vents for latino and jewish communities. one bonus number, chris. 77 -- degrees -- in florida. the sheet on. >> ah. that's not heat. that's perfection, in my opinion. >> and warmth.

>> no excuse not to get out and vote. thanks. don't look for herman cain to make another go for the presidency. on "today" ann curry asked if he would ever run again. boy did he give a classic's cain answer. >> my biological clock is ticking and i don't think i want to spend too much more of my biological clock running for president and getting beat up. >> his biological clock is ticking. expect more when herman cain joins "now" coming up at noon eastern right here on msnbc. ♪ spread a little love today ♪ ♪ spread a little love my way ♪ ♪ spread a little something to remember ♪ ♪ ♪ spread a little joy and see ♪ you need a little happiness to be ♪ ♪ living the life with me [ female announcer ] fresh milk and real cream.

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♪ [ male announcer ] it's sweet, it's nutty... it's absolutely delicious. kellogg's crunchy nut. it's morning somewhere. ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. good morning. in the next hour of msnbc, florida's knock down drag out super stus sheer. will early polling be right and reveal mitt romney the winner or a super tuesday surprise with the comeback contender newt

gingrich? and the sunshine state has been flooded with millions, millions in cash for negative campaign ads intended for media markets, two different time zones. is the gop kand ballizing itself with the nasty mudslinging? plus asking the president why her husband can't find a job. now the president wants her husband's resume. joining me in the hour. that and much more coming up. >> thanks. and deciding to step down effective friday february 10th. now, you might know, talk he might resign sthans flap iowa where mitt romney was declared the winner. but, in fact, rick santorum won. strong served gop chairmstrawn since 2008. and former adviser to the pro pac winning our future. good to see you.

>> hi, chris. how are you janchts sense of what's going on here. certainly poll after poll after poll, none of them looks good. you had so much momentum coming into this. what happened? >> well, look, a little suspects of the polls. weekend polls are not very reliable. i think it will be closer than people suspect. remember, mitt romney spent tense of millions of dollar, running for six years and just can't seem to close the deal. there's still a large part of the party that just does not want to elect a moderate massachusetts liberal to the white house, and they're looking for an alternative. i think we're are starting to see them coalesce around a conservative, newt gingrich a proven track record of fostering economic policies thy s thaies growth. did it with kemp and reagan and in the "wall street journal" a piece laid out why newt gingrich's economic program is far superior than that of mitt romney who when he was governor was 47th in job creation.

a clear distinction who would be the better president in terms of job creation. that's newt gingrich. >> those are the talking points and we've heard them from your candidate, and there is no doubt that you've been out-spent 4-1. that's significant. 4-1 is significant. what do you do about it? will you have enough money, really to move forward? to go up against mitt romney? one way -- you can say the money's bigger now, of course it is. bigger than we've seen before, but money's always been important and frankly mitt romney is getting more of it. >> well, mitt romney started here in florida with a $5 million advantage, spent somewhere twreens 15ds million and $20 million. our spent 6's definitely we've been outspent. the nature of the false ads, my work here in florida temporarily, but eventually the truth catches up with you and people will discover these things mitt romney is saying about newt gingrich is not true.

he's got to say positive things about himself. he hasn't been able to do that because he doesn't have a positive record to run on. not a conservative governor. all his conservative utterances are at odds starkly with his record. he's not a job creator. he was not pro-life. he was not pro-business, and the record goes on and on. gingrich passed the balanced budget, a million jobs createdeneder newt. >> i've got to call you on something, rick. the last time you were on we talked and money, you pointed to the fact you thought the reason gingrich was surging, because he had done great in debates, people were seeing him as the better candidate and in fact now they're not. you could make the argument that apart from the ads, your candidate had two not so good debates, in fact, even acknowledged it after both times saying why he didn't think he such a good debate. did he just get out-argued by mitt romney? >> well, on the one hand it's hard to argue jon gecongenital

liar. surrogates out there saying newt's an angry person. i've never known him to be angry and he failed to get newt mad. he didn't get angry. mitt looked irrational and erratic in the debates to me. some people have said one way or the other. even hall of famers only hit the ball one out of three times. maybe newt wasn't as energetic in one of the debates. i don't think it's going to be decided by that. it should be decideed by their records. not rhetoric but records and the records stand in stark contrast. >> that's the last word. their records. not their rhetoric. thank you. good to see you. today's tweet of date, a prediction of sorts. romney will win florida, but he better do it big. 12 or more given how high they set expectations and how cocky the campaign sounds again. okay... is this where we're at now, we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ...

why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic. are you done sweetie? yea [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. fiber one. hey, i love your cereal there-- it's got that sweet honey taste. but no way it's 80 calories, right? no way. lady, i just drive the truck. right, there's no way right, right? have a nice day. [ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. fiber one.

consider this.

in 2008 a third of the primary voters in florida were 65 or older. nbc's kerry sanders is live in miami with more on this very loyal group of voters. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, chris. 4 million registered republicans in the state, and in that group, there's a category that no politician would ignore. they would ignore at their own peril, really, because they are the most powerful voting block in the state. senior citizens. there are more seniors than anyone else at campaign events in florida for a reason. close 2 million registered republicans in the sunshine state are over the age of 55. almost half of all republicans in the state. >> i'm a lifelong republican, and i'm a republican activist. >> reporter: bonny rey volunteers for the romney campaign in south florida. >> they want to know, who is going to turn our country around and that's what most have heard from the seniors. >> reporter: mike and jerry craig, both in their 70s.

both gingrich a supporters both troubled by governor romney's massachusetts health program. >> gingrich is the one that will present medicare and because of the massachusetts experience from romney, he represents a threat to medicare. >> mitt romney would never, ever do anything that would be detrimental to seniors. >> reporter: in an aarp survey of florida residents, 43% say health care costs are a big worry. 31% of seniors are concerned about the economy. warm weather lured many into retiring in florida, but for some, the tough economy is making living here increasingly difficult. >> about everything i buy that has gone up, nothing has stayed the same. >> reporter: political analyst kevin wagner. >> it's going to be pivotal to win the senior vote. the person wins the senior vote on the republican side will be

in the driver's seat to winning this election. >> reporter: how powerful is that vote? two years ago the senior vote was the deciding factor in six narrow congressional races here in florida. all six of those seats went to republicans. chris? >> ah, fascinating stuff, kery. thank you, as always. that wraps up this hour of "jansing and co." i'm chris jansing. tomorrow on the program i'll talk with former white house communications director anita dunn about president obama's campaign strategy following the florida primaries. thomas roberts is up next and i will see you tomorrow.

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