thinks of a deeper level of discussion than the opponents an unlike him, he has the perspective of knowing history and what is ip pornlt. so let's get to the man who gave mitt romney a good fight and learned the hard way a lot about mitt than most of us will ever learn, former speaker of the house, and presidential candidate newt gingrich. anybody who watches you knows that you are smarter than you talk sometimes and you are know politics at a deeper level and you read endlessly about the political history and write historic novels and up against guys in a debate who don't. >> that is true. >> how much does it burn you that mitt romney, a man who i am convinced and check me on this, is not deeply root ed in americn political history beat you with money? >> i don't think it burns me a lot. look, you know, mitt romney did what he had to do in order to become the nominee. he organized for six years. he has worked at this since his

dad's campaign for president, and his mother's campaign for the u.s. senate. he has paid his dues. and he lost in '94 to teddy kennedy and came back to serve as governor and when it got to the crunch he was tough enough and smart enough to beat me in florida. i have a real respect, and you have been at this stuff in the same business, and you know, when you have somebody who is tough enough to look you in the eye, and run over you -- >> does he tell the truth about you? >> no. but he did what he had to do. >> so the end justifies the means and we get the right way that way? >> no, it is look at what obama did to hillary. these are tough fights and you know this, you have been through them and you throw the kitchen sink. he was in a situation where everything that he had done was going to disappear if i beat him in florida, and he said, two choices, throw the kitchen sink at mitt romney or a nice fwi and not be the nominee. >> what burns me as a student of politics is that someone like yourself who has been studying politics, and look at what we have a history of the presidency

and people like woodrow wilson who wrote "a life in washington" and people in the office who earned it in terms of the deep thought of what the office meant h historically and mitt romney is not the guy. he is a man of faith, and we will give him that, of family, give him that, of business, and give him that, but certainly not of history and any historical understanding of the presidency, and he does not understand what it is. he thinks it is a business tin kerer job -- >> well, that is not fair. >> el the me what i have missed. >> well, first of all having served as governor is a step, but something deeper. this is a guy who has thought about this at least since his a father ran in 1968. >> doing what daddy couldn't do. >> but he has thought about it on a serious level. >> is that understand iing the country? >> well, having collided with him head-on and the organization head-on and now working with him on the campaign -- >> right. >> he has assembled a very smart group of people.

and he listens to them well. and he asks them tough questions, and he is approaching this as methodically as anybody i know. you know, back in the 1950s, sam le bell one of the great political scientists of all time was at election night with a whole bunch of academics who were shocked that eisenhower won over stevenson and walked around the room and not a single person in the room had voted for eisenhower, and he said, guys, this is a sign of how big the gap is in america. >> i understand that. >> okay. mitt romney is a lot like eisenhower, and he is a very good organizer and methodical person and prepared to systematically do what he thinks is right for the country, and i think that he might make a surprisingly good president. >> that where it gets to me, because eisenhower received the nazi surrender and won the war in europe and kept us out of the indo-china war and out of lebanon and the suez canal, and that is about it, but a man of

peace, and the other guy is a guy who never saw war and talks like a hawk, and i have a problem like that. romney talks about he has been to war, but he hasn't. am i right? h. >> well, the parallels are not even, but the point is that stevenson is much more eloquent than eisenhower and stevenson was much more admired by intellectuals than eisenhower and presidents come from different backgrounds and who would have guessed in 1860 that lincoln would end up being as eloquent and effective as he was. i am just saying that -- >> you are saying it is a long shot? >> you are saying that you don't know today and he doesn't know today exactly what kind of president he will be. but you won't agree with this, but look at obama. obama is one of the most arctic you late, eloquent people we have ever had and he is largely an amateur. i believe that the misunderstanding of this city is extraordinar extraordinary. >> okay. that is your shot. okay. an earlier shot that you made against romney. he was not a career politician against january and during that "meet the press" debate and this

is a smart comment by you. let's watch it. >> this for me, politics is not a career. for me, my career was being in business and starting a business and making it successful and my life's passion has been any family, my faith and my country. >> can we drop a little bit of the pias baloney and the fact is that you ran in 1994 rand lost and weren't in the senate with rick santorum. and now suddenly citizenship showed nup your mind and level with the american people that you have been running since at least the 1990s. >> you got him to laugh, because it was true. >> well, he is a failed politician and claims to be better than that. >> okay. now i have to tell you that he is probably laughing watching that, because he is now a successful politician and going to be the republican nominee. >> and his claim to be a citizen by choice and guy who stayed away from the dirtiness of politics was forced on him by defeat. >> right. it was not a volunteer after

'94. >> and look at this, newt gingrich at an event down in florida. watch the next clip of you in action. i like this stuff. >> we're not going the beat barack obama with some guy who has swiss bank accounts, cayman island accounts and owns shares of goldman sachs who closes on florida and a stokeholder in fannie mae and freddie mac while he thinks that the rest of us are too stupid to put the dots together to understand what this is all about. >> so now, the obama team, maybe they are not as sharp as your team, buzz th -- but they will everything that i have said. >> here is the problem they have got, and i am surprised they used this, because it didn't work. >> well, you didn't have the resources. and if you could havech maed him dollar for dollar, you would have won this election and you know that. >> well, that issue didn't work. >> in the republican party, it didn't work. >> no, not in general. >> yeah? >> watch what is happening right

now. there is a reason that you the governor of massachusetts and a senator from california and -- >> they like the equity of the boys give them and they hang out with those guy guys, because th want their support. cory booker,m cop on, leval patrick, come on. >> you are saying the only honest ethical guys are barack obama who is the number one choice -- >> no, you are the only one being honest and you had a streak of honesty saying you want some chop shop guy coming over to take over the american political system to be run by a guy who cost cut and flipped them. you said it well by the way. and using your i.q., you said that the bain capital is the bain of the guy's existence and now you are saying it does not work? >> here is the president's

problem. he was the number one recipient of the wall street money in 2008 and the president was loved by everybody who is he now attacking. >> for reasons that have nothing to do with economics and you smile, because you know that the people on wall street don't vote their economic interests, because they don't want high taxes, but despite them, and the republicans do, because they like the deals. you know the difference. >> i am reporting to you that the positions if they are for s us, and they are not virtuous. >> no, a lot of people vote their interests, and clearly in wall street, they vote republicans. >> here is the problem, obama has set up a class welfare paradigm which people reject and the performance of the economy is so bad that a president with this level of unemployment attacking business is not credible. >> let me try the class warfare here, and a guy says look at my way of making a million bucks, and we will have class warfare. and a guy who is successful.

in other words, my wealth is my case for my presidency. >> that is what george washington would have said. >> they were elites. >> and historically, they would have said they are interested in ending poverty by leveling up and not down. >> well, washington had a couple hundred slaves and different politic, but nothing we say here is as good as you said on the campaign. you describe the choice between yourself and the president in stark terms a few months ago, and i want you to analyze the signals being sent, and these are called dog whistles, and you listen and watch. >> if you are for paychecks, you are for us, and if you are for food stamps, you are for barack obama. if you are for american exceptionalism, you are for us, and european and stalin ways, you are for barack obama. if you are for a strong america in a dangerous world, you are for us, and if you are for a weak america trying to appease

the enemies, you are for barack obama. >> and you use the terms food stamps with all of the baggage attached to it, and the sal alinsky,and what is a point of giving a stump people like this, food stamps and sal alinsky. >> well, the food stamps are not about the poor blagblacks, but dependency. >> how come it is not a negative connotation until you came along? >> no, that is not it. >> reagan used to do it and s saying a man or woman standing in line at the safeway and sees a young buck walk by and buy his liquor with the food stamps and

it is the same old food stamp lineage, and i won't get you to agree with it -- >> reagan's welfare queen never once had an ethnic, and it could have been any background. >> yeah, right. you are smiling. >> more whites than blacks are on food stamps. >> i know that and you know t t that, but the average person out there thinks it is a shot. >> well, come on. if i said bill ayers instead of a foreign-sounding name -- >> well, we know it was. and we will be back in a moment and talk about some interesting stuff. one question i have about the party and you are a prominent republican and former speaker, and why can't you lose the birther stuff. you have trump and you will be with him tomorrow and u kaufman out in colorado push iing this line, and there are a dozen of the guys and why don't you drop them off of the back of caboose and say, "lose it."

we will talk about newt gingrich and why his party continues to talk about birthers. >> this is going to be an interesting segment. you are going to tell the donald. >> tell who? >> the donald. sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering so, i'm walking down the street, sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering just you know walking, sfx: sounds of marching band and crowd cheering and i found myself in the middle of this parade honoring america's troops. which is actually quite fitting because geico has been serving the military for over 75 years. aawh no, look, i know this is about the troops and not about me. right, but i don't look like that. who can i write a letter to about this? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

back to "hardball" and former speak of the house newt gingrich. i don't believe you believe a word of this, but how come some people in the party like wealthy donald trump, and i like him in some ways, but he is not stupid enough to believe this birther stuff and yet he keeps playing it. barack obama has the birth certificate the same as ours and he comes from a father from a different country, but locally born in hawaii and why are some people in your party continuing to push he is not american? >> beats me. >> and let me ask you about the tampa convention and the way it works is we will be gavel to gavel and covering this thing on fox, and here at msnbc, and cnn, but on the broadcast nets which is still the standard that people like to apply to, which

is an hour a night, are you going to get prime time? >> i have no idea. >> will you ask for it? >> no, but i will get what romney believes will help him win. if it is not on the broadcast? >> no, whatever he wans me to give. >> and you are a supply can't. >> i am a team player. >> when you smile, i see what you are. and with the vice president, and without trying to guess it, and it is important without guess it, i would love to be governor christie than you for purposes of the nominee, for color, but how does he do wit with a ibm calculated one state at a time and get ohio. >> well, no. if you look at george w for e m example, getting wyoming could not have been the reason he picked dick cheney. >> dick cheney picked himself. >> that whole dance was orchestrateded. >> by cheney and row.

>> you saw how he shot himself down to get the job. >> look, they will face a couple of big decisions, and you won't know the shape of it until july. for example, virginia is a key state both for governor and for the senate. bob mcdonald is a terrific governor and do you use him and seal off the south? >> does it hurt if he is catholi catholic? >> oh, no, if anything, it helps given the current struggle between obama and the catholic hierarchy, mcdonald would be an asset everywhere and across the whole country as a catholic. if you want a guy who helps you in the industrial midwest, portman has the advantage. >> does it hurt that he was in the bush administration? >> well, he is more complicated that he was a trade representative, but on the other hand, portman is really smart, so i suspect that he can handle being the trade representative. >> would you get with a colorful guy like rubio or governor kr

christie? >> i would look at rubio seriously and they will, but also a longer shot like sus suz martinez from new mexico. >> and what about rubio? >> well, he is a unique figure in his own right. >> you think he is a being considered in the running? >> well, i believe so, because delivering florida is a huge state. >> if you had torder it right now, who are the best picks for him, if you were picking? >> oh, i think that almost anybody that you mentioned and look at at a mitch daniels and three or four other people, and they have to decide a couple of things. first of all the person has to be philosophical and capable of being president, and secondly, philosophically compatible which means a broadly conservative

person. >> thune? >> i think that john thune is extraordinarily attractive and articulate and -- >> last question, animals. you and i in a different way share a tremendous interest in animal, and you are the only presidential candidate ever to basically go zoo-to-zoo. and what is that about you? you went off on a zoo trip, and you have made comments over the years about how men and women in combat or women are a combat because men want to kill giraffes. >> well, that came from a course i taught which is in reference to -- >> well, it belies whatever it is about, and what is that about? you and animals? >> i love the natural world and i love the animals whether they are out in the wild and i love the animals in zoos and paleootologists. >> and what about big animals or -- >> well, the big animals. and the san diego zoo. >> and the favorite animal to watch? >> well, hard to say, but maybe

elephant elephants. >> me, too. >> they are remarkable. >> i show you the picture. and do you like the reptile house? >> yes. >> why do you like the reptile house? >> fascinating. they are astonishingly successful and do it in a totally different way than we do, and they have been successful for a long time. >> favorite snake? >> probably a python. >> why? >> it is big and passive. >> constrictor. >> yes. >> and you like the constrictor aspect of it and like that it eats cows whole? >> they don't eat cows whole. >> what about a black mamba that goes like this and keep attacking -- >> well, you have a ruthless approach to politics than i do. >> well, the black mamba has been here, and thank you, newt gingrich, and please come back if you don't sign with fox it would be good for you and stay independent like notre dame. we will be right back with the not been that.

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♪93g over the past few months there has been an increasing buzz that mitt romney will pick a vice president who's safe, white and duller than him. [ laughter ] which pretty much narrows it down to a piece of chalk, doesn't it, really? >> back to "hardball" and that is the "side show" and we have started. how former governor rick scott just became the laughingstock of spanish tv. it started in spain to promote business in his own state. and king juan carlos caused a firestorm when he went on an elephant trip in botswana in africa and it did not go well with citizens of the country who are struggling with the crisis. and enter one juan carlos who entered this week.

>> i have never tried to shoot elephants, and we are in botswana and in a jeep, and the elephant started chasing the jeep, and my wife is in the back part of the jeep, and she wanted to get out of the front of the sdwreep. he really didn't want the talk about it, but you talk about the elephant in the room, and rick scott didn't know that the elephant in the room is the elephant. all over the spanish press. romney said that the edge among the hispanic voters could spell doom for the republicans and a closed door event, but msnbc caught part of it on tape, and anyway, last night mitt romney spoke to a coalition of latino economic summit, and so what did he talk about? >> if every one of the small businesses just added two employees americans could pay more mortgages and buy more groceries and president obama has decided to attack success. if unemployment was where it should be and home values were going up, there is no question

but that the crisis in american education would be the great cause of this campaign. as president, i will pursue a very bold policy of change that will restore the promise of our national education system. >> well, no mention whatever by romney of immigration in a speech to latinos. that is and comi coming up next is "your business with j.j. ramberg." power surge, let it blow your mind. [ male announcer ] for fruits, veggies and natural green tea energy... new v8 v-fusion plus energy. could've had a v8.

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