good friday morning. two big stories. more evidence this morning that the economy may finally be steaming ahead. 200,000 new jobs created in december. the unemployment rate dropping again to 8.5%. it comes as the republicans are gearing up for a pivotal weekend four days until the first primary in new hampshire, two debates just 16 hours apart. who will be the target? joining me now "new york times"

columnist charles blow and real clear politics reporter erin mcpike. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> you can hear the white house right now, charles, four straight now five straight months drop in the unemployment. they weren't expecting this 8.5%, lowest in three years. which happens to be just about the amount of time that he's been president. does it help him? >> of course it helps him. this is an election about the slope of two lines. one is the unemployment rate and the other is his approval rating. if he can get the unemployment rate down below 8%, which is what he said the stimulus package would do, it helps him tremendously. and if he can get his own approval rating above 50%, no incumbent in recent history has lost re-election with an approval rating above 50%. it is about the slope of those two lines. they're both headed in the right direction. he starts 2012 with an approval rating of 46%. that is a big improvement above that 39% we saw last year which

was his lowest point. >> i have to tell you it was so interesting. i don't want to read into it but if you want to, erin, feel free. we were watching for a mitt romney event to start this morning and he came out literally one minute after the jobs numbers. let me play a little clip for you. >> and this president i don't think understands how the economy works. i think he subscribes to something i call crony capitalism. >> but i have to wonder if his speech would have started a little bit differently if the rate had as was expected ticked up instead of going down. >> you know, maybe so. but some of these -- these arguments that they're going to be making are going to fall flat if the numbers keep improving incrementally as they have which as charles said is very good for obama. >> if he was able to come out and say, look. the unemployment rate went back up again this month, he's got a whole different sort of feel to that argument he just made. >> he does. and again, these numbers have been improving and actually, chris, you know, people have been saying the last couple

months that the numbers have been surprising in their improvements and if it continues this way, and improving in a surprising way, then that's great for obama and the republicans are going to be in a little bit of a tough sell when they try to make their arguments. >> an independent tax center analyzed mitt romney's tax plan annal shows in fa and shows the rich will benefit. the average tax cut for a millionaire is $300,000. $1800 for the average middle class family. for poor families some would actually see their taxes go up. so sounds ripe for an attack. >> perfect republican land. listen, what the republicans have based their entire attack on the president on is hoping that the economy stays sour. if that does not happen, as they plan, they have to then re -- >> let's be fair. no one is saying the economy is suddenly going to bring the unemployment to 7%. >> absolutely not.

>> and the job creation is going to have to be a lot stronger to get back to where we were prerecession levels. but the trend does seem very clear not just in unemployment but at least two or three other numbers that came out yesterday. >> you don't have to get back to where you were. what you want to show is that things are headed in the right direction. when you look at right direction/wrong direction numbers in polls it is horrendous. what people say the country is headed in the wrong direction, one indicator we would be headed back in the right direction would be to see the unemployment rate continue to trend in this way. and if that happens, that's a big problem for republicans who have to then rejigger the message. >> let me play the message that newt gingrich had. this was his economic message. i'll play it for you. >> more people are on foodstamps today because of obama's policies than ever in history. i would like to be the best paycheck president in american history. i am prepared if the naacp

invites me, i'll go to their convention and talk about why the african-american community should demand pay checks and not be satisfied with foodstamps. >> just to be clear, according to the usda, 22% of people on foodstamps are black. 34% are white. and 17% are hispanic. i don't understand why you make a statement like that. >> well, i think it's that it's a disproportionate number or percentage of the population and so he's trying to get into obama's base. that's what that's about. >> you look exasperated, charles. >> i'm heated. i mean, this sort of kind of racial pandering is exactly what happens at this point in a race. when all else fails, when you come in fourth in iowa, when you are expected to do better, you know, you have this extreme, very racist kind of terminology

and that's tr-- the idea of a ly black living in america with his hand out is easy sell to a lot of people and that's what newt is aiming for. and it is shameful. and there is no -- not only do the numbers not back up what newt gingrich is saying, you know, most of the people who receive foodstamps, who benefit from foodstamps, are either too old or too young to work and then you have to get down to the working -- >> right. that is a key point. >> he is complaining of a lot of issues here and what he says is that the president has, because of his policies, more people -- more people are on foodstamps. what do we want people to do when the bottom fell out of the economy? were we supposed to let these kids starve? were we supposed to put old people back to the, you know, that familiar stereotype of opening dog food cans? it's an outrageous attack. >> i want you to stick around but we want to go back to those

unexpectedly strong new numbers on jobs offering some hope for not just continuing recovery in 2012 but also as charles said the president's re-election bid. msnbc's richard louie is here with the details. you've been looking at that and the impact on the election. >> surprising numbers you were saying, chris. it is the one number that could decide who wins the white house. unemployment and the president is smiling today. 200,000 jobs were added last month as you were saying. expectations were beat by at least one-third. government shrank while private sector jobs grew. also encouraging is the rate expected to increase. it did not, dropping to 8.5%. the lowest in almost two years. now republicans have this to hang on to. no president since world war ii has been re-elected when unemployment has been above 6%. that important number save one. ronald reagan, unemployment at 7.2. he handily was re-elected with an 18% cushion. now, gop candidates are now switching gears from iowa to

three key votes as we know. jobs at the center of their messages. >> he's a job killer. and it's going to keep america from creating the jobs we need. you know, he said he wanted to create green jobs. he wants to give jobs to the people who gave him the green. >> next to vote, new hampshire voting at four days. their jobless rate is the fourth lowest in the country at 5.2% but with many small business owners there, jobs are on their mind. where religious conservativism was iowa, fiscal conservativism is new hampshire. south carolina next for you with a rate higher than the national average. you see right here 9.9. the state's governor championing romney as the candidate with strong economic experience. we'll see how that goes and with the boeing and bmw factory there you know manufacturing and you know nonunion jobs are important to that state. romney, in fact, airing an ad criticizing efforts to try to block boeing from moving nonunion jobs to the state. watch that. then we got florida for you. that of course is important. 10% jobless rate there. it is the lowest in 31 months. some progress despite being

higher. the overall latino unemployment rate out today is almost 30% higher than the national average. some florida cities have up to two-thirds latinos and with high latino dissatisfaction with the president gop candidates have an opportunity. so expect to hear this from canada. it's like romney pushing the point that 2 million jobs were lost under the obama presidency. well, pulitzer prize winning economist paul krugman, chris, says this. he reminds us with this number here that it is higher, according to him, those losses, do not include the recent uptick and before they do not include obama's stimulus and programs before they took effect. >> it is also worth mentioning if people saw the front page of the "new york times" manufacturing jobs are up, too. we haven't had two straight years of that since i think 1978-1979. so people said look at manufacturing. look at construction to see if the economy is on the way back. so this is sure to be, charles, a big topic. >> right. >> at the debates this weekend.

>> right. >> what are you looking for? i for one cannot wait. >> right. i think first on the economic side i would expect to see someone pick up on the idea of switching the focus of the economic trouble from jobs to debt. so, you know, we now have the national debt out pacing gdp for the first time since the 1940s. that is, if you can craft an argument around that you can make a strong argument and shift the focus away from jobs in case the job number keeps going in this direction. the other thing i would look out for is a two-prong attack on mitt romney and the other candidates. there are some people who are pitching directly to south carolina. you may not have enough money to run enough ads but you have, you know, a debate where you're having free television time. you can then craft an argument that pitches to south carolina, actually skips right over new hampshire. >> let me actually play some of the attacks on mitt romney that

we've heard over the last few days. >> i don't believe a massachusetts moderate is in a very good position to debate barack obama. >> i've never been for government-run health care -- never. unlike the other two folks who are running here --. >> so those are just a couple of them, erin. what are you expecting? i suppose for some of these candidates this is sort of a last-ditch effort to really make themselves seen, to separate themselves. or do they play it safe? is mitt the target? is santorum the target? >> i think it's both -- that santorum and mitt romney are going to be targets. here in new hampshire mitt romney is winning right now with 44% of the vote. everyone expects that mitt romney is going to run away with new hampshire. so all of these candidates are looking forward to south carolina where they can really be the conservative alternative to mitt romney and that's what you're hearing from rick santorum and newt gingrich. because that's really the place

where conservatives think if they're going to stop mitt romney from running away with the nomination they're going to do it in south carolina. but that also means that these candidates are going to be looking to attack rick santorum because as one of the biggest social conservatives in the race, he is going to be the one to stop in south carolina. >> all right. we cannot wait for the debates but i had to bring this up because it's just so fun. there's a vanity fair/60 minutes poll that asks people, and this is serious. we're not making this up. okay? "vanity fair" asked people what mitt romney's real first name is. don't know. 44%. mitt is 20%. mitchell 18%. milton 8%. willard 6%. gromit 2%. my personal favorite, mittens 2%. mittens romney. >> why did you mix this in?

>> i just -- >> i think his affectionate nickname is mittens on the road. >> erin mcpike with the line. thank you so much, charles blow. thank you both very much. >> well, rick santorum has been bringing out crowds in new hampshire but he got into it with college students over gay marriage comparing it to polygamy. who is this guy? our guest worked with santorum for more than ten years and we'll talk to him about it. he hasn't officially run his hat into the race yet but gop reaction is starting to pour in after reports that joseph kennedy iii is exploring a run for congress. republican elizabeth childs, who has already announced her intention to run, said she has more confidence her neighbors will do more than just vote for a name. the 31-year-old grandson of rfk is said to be leaving his job as a prosecutor in middlesex county, massachusetts, to launch a bid for the seat being vacated by congressman barney frank. okay... is this where we're at now, we just eat whatever tastes good?

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we look to bring you only the best campaign moments. this is from littleton, new hampshire yesterday. one of the voters asked to hear newt gingrich's wife's voice. >> i just want to say that i believe newt has been preparing for this challenge his entire life and i believe that he has a thorough understanding of our nation's history, a proven record of national leadership, and i believe truly that he is the best person to lead our country. >> callista gingrich. later at another event newt took a shot at mitt romney. >> he's not a conservative. it's a joke for him to call himself a conservative. it's a "saturday night live" skit. and i believe by the time we get to south carolina it will be

vividly clear that there is a real choice. >> rick santorum certainly not embarrassed about his religion. >> he said we don't need a jesus candidate. we need an economic candidate. my answer to that was, we always need a jesus candidate, someone who believes in him. [ applause ] >> santorum certainly believes in the number 2. his campaign has raked in $2 million in two days since finishing second in the iowa caucuses. nbc's ron mott is following the santorum campaign in keene, new hampshire and i understand another big crowd for rick santorum. >> he is the hot ticket. he is at the keene public library this morning. there are so many people who came here to see him that the fire department sent the fire marshal out to clear out the few people standing around the edges of the room because it was over capacity. so it interrupted the proceedings there for about five minutes. he is back at the podium talking

now and he began his remarks this morning talking about the jobs number, the 8.5% unemployment rate, saying that despite the president's policies that the economy seems to be improving and people are going back to work. but he's kicking off what he calls today this faith, family, and freedom tour, something he tried in iowa and to great success there and is trying to replicate here in new hampshire. the trouble is he has four days left. he is still well behind mitt romney, the front-runner here by about 29 points according to the latest suffolk poll nan a lot of ways a loft campaigns outside the romney campaign are essentially playing for second. ron paul polling at about 18%. that seems to be the number that folks like rick santorum and jon huntsman and newt gingrich and others are trying to reach or trying to catch up to ron paul here. the debates this weekend, chris, as you guys have been talking about this morning crucial. so we'll see how these candidates perform come saturday with the local debate and sunday on "meet the press." >> especially for somebody like rick santorum who's surging.

let's bring in comcast network washington bureau chief robert tranum who was a santorum aide in more than a deck kald. six months ago did you think rick santorum would still be part of the conversation going into new hampshire? >> no i did not. you know, as you know i worked for rick for ten years and so i have a personal friendship with him. i thought he was going to be perhaps maybe fourth or fifth in iowa and he himself said that if in fact he came in dead last in iowa just a couple weeks ago he said, quote, i'd pack it up and go back home to my seven kids and my wife. i never thought in my wildest dreams he would be in the position he is in given the fact that six years ago he lost the senate seat by 18 points. >> he got booed by some college students over his opposition to gay marriage yesterday. let me play that clip for you, robert. >> what about all men are created equal and have the rights to happiness -- and

women? [ applause ] >> are we saying that everyone should have the right to happiness? >> yes. >> yes! >> okay. so anyone can marry anybody else? >> yes. >> okay. so anybody can marry anybody else. so anybody can marry several people? >> no. >> you know, that was quite a departure from hundreds of friendly town hall meetings he had in iowa. do you think he got thrown a little off message here? in the last couple of days as people have been deconstructing rick santorum and how is he going to play to a wider audience, one of the sort of criticisms of him is that he can be a little thin skinned. sometimes he can react a little inappropriately. do you think that's a fair criticism? >> yes. i do think that is a fair criticism. look, rick is someone as everyone knows who is very passionate about his beliefs. he knows what he thinks and he's not afraid to say it.

now, on one hand as everyone knows that's very authentic and very refreshing. right? that we hear politicians and public officials say exactly what they think. their comments are not sound bite driven and so forth. however, and we see that in chris christie and some other politicians. however, the flip side to that is that when you are a public official you have to remember that your words have weight and that people in their consequences because of what you say. so rick is an adult. he is someone obviously running for president so he knows exactly what he's doing and the question becomes whether or not the american electorate are going to buy into that message or not. >> you can make the argument that this weekend with these two big debates including the one on "meet the press" that nobody has more to gain or potentially to lose than rick santorum because he is the guy with the momentum, but a lot of folks still don't know about him. he used to joke at all the other debates. he was always so far on the end you could barely see him in the wide shot, he hardly got any questions. it's going to be a different situation. you know, he is going to be the one on the hot seat. how do you think he is going to

do this week? what do you think his strategy is going to be? >> two things. first and foremost i challenge you a little bit on the much -- i still think mitt romney has the much to lose. but if you take a look at all the tapes of rick santorum over the last couple months in these debates, say whatever you want about his policy. he has been pretty solid on the issues in terms of being very substantive about what he thinks. him now moving to the center meaning geographically in the center of the stage clearly he is going to be in the hot seat but i think he is going to be okay given the fact that he has done fairly well substantive in the debates all throughout his senate career and obviously throughout the last couple primaries or debates. >> is he going to be nervous going in or is he going to just like look at this like oh, boy. i've been waiting for this. >> well, i don't think it's going to be a walk in the park for him but i also don't think he is going to be nervous. remember he's been a united states senator for 12 years and prior to that a member of congress and the house. he has been through a lot of debates before. obviously this is the presidency so the stakes are much, much higher. nervous? probably not. but i think he is probably going to be, look, i think this is

what is going to happen. i think he'll have his game face on now more than ever. that's what i think. >> robert, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> well, he's back. after dropping out of the presidential rate herman cain is restarting his 9-9-9 bus tour this weekend. you've missed that, haven't you? he wants to get members of congress to promise to back his 9-9-9 tax plan. you won't want to miss herman cain today on now with alex wagner. time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. masi is the owner of chesapeake bay candles. for years her product was manufactured in china but now she has moved the company to a new multimillion dollar factory in maryland. she says the move reduces shipping and inventory coughs and brings much needed jobs to the u.s. for more watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. i had enough of feeling embarrassed about my skin. [ designer ] enough of just covering up my moderate to severe

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house democratic leaders coming out to react to that better than expected jobs report. unemployment down 8.5%. let's listen to james clyburn. >> not having a continued tax cut. we democrats believe that middle income americans are deserving of this tax cut but they also are deserving of certainty. and that's why our colleagues are here. as you noticed, we were just

shut down and not allowed to speak on the floor when we were told that we are in session. and we went to the floor to work. but we were not allowed to do the people's work. and so my colleagues are here with me today and i would like now to yield to our illustrious leader who has come back from vacation to bring us democrats here to washington so we can do the people's work. leader pelosi? >> thank you very much. thank you for going to the floor. to call for conferrees to give a payroll tax cut to 160 million americans to assure and reassure millions of americans who are

out of work through no fault of their own that they will have unemployment benefits and to tens of millions of our seniors that they will be able to see their doctor under medicare. this certainty gives people confidence. these measures will inject demand into the economy because those who receive the tax cut and those who receive the unemployment benefits need the money, will spend the money, inject demand, create jobs. it's good for the economy. it's good for america's families. we were told with great vehemence yesterday that the congress was in session. that is why we went to the floor today to call upon the conferrees to get to work. the american people are crying out for jobs. they want us to work together. we can do that. i don't know what the republicans are afraid of. where are they? but they're telling us that we're in late december so they can't be here in january? what is this, one month on one

month off? the american people want jobs. we have a job to do. we can't wait. as the leader said, the president's american jobs act has given confidence to people. already the economy is responding to his leadership in that regard and with the hope that we will continue our work in a bipartisan fashion and in a timely fashion to extend the tax cut, the unemployment benefits, and the seniors' ability to see their doctors for the rest of the year. there is no reason. tell me why, how can we explain to the american people, why the conferrees are not here to do their work? even if the leadership does not want the congress to be here doing the people's work. one year and one day ago the republicans took the -- were sworn in as the majority and the congress of the united states. great privilege. we can associate ourselves with what a great privilege it was to do the peoples work.

one year later have they tired of it? one year later we're working five days in the month of january. when the american people desperately need us to take positive action for job creation. i'm very proud of our conferrees. some are with us right here now. all of them here this week to get the job done. scores of our members came from across the country to urge congress to get moving on the conference report hoping that we could be in session to have some exchange of ideas on this subject. >> and so the house democratic leader nancy pelosi surrounded by the other members of the leadership. they said that they want republicans to start working with them and immediately about a permanent extension of the payroll tax cut. remember they got only a two-month extension and so taking a dig, too, at the republicans saying you need to get here and get to work. and of course all of this coming on the heels of the better than

expected jobs report. we'll have more on this throughout the day here on msnbc. but let's talk about those nasty campaign ads that have played such a huge role in this campaign including taking down newt gingrich in iowa. is mitt romney the next candidate to get an onslaught of negative ads? that's next. [ female announcer ] removing facial hair can be irritating. challenge that. new olay smooth finish facial hair removal duo. first a gentle balm. then the removal cream. effective together with less irritation and as gentle as a feather. new olay hair removal duo.

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every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. ♪ slowly turned into a scream ♪ there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? let's just say this is crunch time would be an under statement for the republican candidates right now. the new calendar has changed everything. think of this. back in 1980 when ronald reagan lost iowa he had 36 days to stage a comeback and of course he did. now new hampshire is just four days away. only a week after iowa. so is there enough time to change anyone's mind? stanley greenburg is a democratic pollster who advised bill clinton and al gore. good morning and good to see you. >> very good to be here this morning. how are you? >> good. if you look at the latest new hampshire poll rick santorum is up two points nationally. he is up three points. they've moved these primaries and caucuses up so they're so close together. >> right.

>> is there really an opportunity even with two debates to see a lot of movement this weekend? >> i think there is. i mean, we've seen, i think, in both iowa and in this whole process pretty rapid movements and we've seen if you go back to the 2008 election we saw pretty dramatic movements in the hillary clinton/barack obama race. so i think there's room for movement. at the moment i don't see it. i think mitt romney seems to me fairly solid in new hampshire. i don't think santorum is a natural candidate, you know, candidate. we'll see what happens with the debate on whether he gets hurt in the debate but things can move. clearly these candidates have not locked in loyalties that have kept, protected them from the variations of the race. so i'm still looking for movement. >> i was looking at this race and i think probably the most dramatic instance of movement in the polls was after rick perry's oops moment and then you saw his polls drop like a rock.

what does history tell you? what is your experience telling you? is it easier to move down than bring it up? >> well, i've watched it go down. i mean, i was with bill clinton when we went into new hampshire in a fairly short order, you know, faced the accusations from arkansas, then the draft stories covered by "the wall street journal." i guess famously now reported meltdown as the -- our poll numbers. so i know numbers can move down and can move down dramatically. now we also became, bill clinton became the comeback kid. >> the self-proclaimed comeback kid by the way. great line there. >> well, we helped. we helped. it helps to have a great leader as well. >> you know, i want to switch gears and talk about this president because we got these new jobs numbers today and there have been a series frankly of economic reports that have been pretty positive. he's also been out there a lot, you know, trying to create jobs,

talking about college students, talking about different opportunities. would you expect to start to see his numbers move? is there sort of a relationship as the unemployment rate goes down we'll see his numbers edge up? >> i think these are very closely correlated and i think, you know, that if these -- if this kind of -- if he got 200,000 jobs a month which is not under historic standards not that great a number but given where we've been if you've got that kind of steady growth and the unemployment number began to ease i'm sure you would get a movement up on his job approval and his ratings. his ratings are now moving toward the middle and high 40s on his overall approval rating which is a decent number. to be honest, given the, you know, 75% or 80% wrong track in the country, you know, you would never expect a president to have an approval rating in the mid 40s. people do like him. they do want him to succeed. they do know that even though they, you know, want him to get this economy, they want to restore the middle class, they also know that george bush and

the republicans created a mess. he was handed a mess. they believe that. you know, they want him to work on it. they don't want him to blame people. but they know what he was handed. and so they want him to succeed. you know, i think if you get, you know, steady progress going into the next couple quarters in the economy and then our politics, i think he gets into a stronger position and the republicans are a mess. you know, this primary process and the republicans and the congress, you know, is a death march. >> as long as they keep going after each other the white house is happy to let him do it. democratic pollster stan greenburg, it's good to see you. thank you so much. >> thank you. something new this morning from the president. the administration is expected to announce plans later today to change an immigration rule to allow some undocumented immigrants to remain in the u.s. while applying for legal status. i want to get more details now from telemundo's jose diaz. happy new year. i haven't seen you in a while. >> same to you. good to be with you.

>> what would the rule change mean? who would it affect? >> it is interesting. it could actually help hundreds of thousands of u.s. citizens. let me just very briefly paint the picture. there are millions of people that live in the united states. u.s. citizens either married to someone who is undocumented or who has undocumented children. now, normally and until now, how the process works is if you're married to a lady who doesn't have her documents, that lady would have to leave the united states, go back to her country of birth, and then request a waiver to come back into the united states. but the minute you leave the united states as an undocumented person, you are automatically prohibited from returning back to the country from three to ten years and so what the obama administration is proposing and it's just a proposal, it's got 60 days of discussions and negotiations before anything happens, is listen. let's give these people a waiver so that when they leave the united states for their country of origin, they already have the

guarantee that they -- if they are accepted back they don't have to wait three to ten years. that way the u.s. citizen doesn't have to wait that long with the family separated. >> critics of the president and certainly some members of the all important latino voting bloc have criticized him because they wanted some comprehensive immigration reform. it hasn't happened. it certainly is not going to happen during an election year. but these kinds of things incrementally can they make a difference? >> well, they've certainly started to make a difference in some cases. for example, we've talked about this. there is a backlog of about 300,000 cases of people who are facing deportation hearings and so far it's been pretty haphazard on who gets the hearing and who doesn't because there is a backlog in what they've done. the administration has done over the past six months has asked that those rules change so that those people who don't have any major crimes committed in the united states once they've violated the law by coming in originally will be put aside so that the criminals will be the

ones that are dealt with quicker and more forcefully. those are changes that help tens of thousands of people. the question is, why now when we're in the re-election season? well, that's a discussion we can have at another time i think. >> well, you know, i think if it's affecting you you're probably saying i'll take it. >> that's exactly right. >> thanks so much, jose. again, great to see you. come back soon. >> will do. thanks. >> this will do wonders for your new year's resolution to get in shape. fast food chains rolling out the deals to lure in the post holiday cash strapped customers. cnbc's mandy drury is here with what's moving your money so cheap eats huh? >> mainly because we've maximumed out our credit cards over the holiday. the fast food business typically takes a dive in january because a lot of people have already over spent and might be more likely to eat at home. here are some of the reasons to lure you back out. for example, under a buck you've got taco bell just brought back for a limited time the 99-cent

beefy crunch burrito. you've got wendy's pushing its 99 cent value meal. family bargains like kfc, $10 a bucket chicken. the pizza hut spruce back the $10 any pizza deal. so much for the salad resolution. >> just in time for all those super bowl parties. >> yes. >> cnbc's mandy drury, thank you so much. see you soon. a live look right now inside a peruvian courtroom where joran van der sloot's trial is getting under way for the 2010 murder of college student stephanie flores. in a taped confession he confessed to beating and strangling her in his hotel room. his attorney says the confession should be avoided since there was no lawyer present and he didn't understand the language. van der sloot remains the prime suspect in the unsolved disappearance of natalee holloway in 2005. so, this is delicious

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.

m.r.i.'s may be unnecessary among patients being treated for back pain. doctors often order an m.r.i. before giving patients a steroid injection to help with the pain but a study at john hopkins university found that after three months there was no difference between patients who got an injection based on m.r.i. results and those who got one based on a physical exam only. >> hi everybody. good morning. i'm thomas roberts. in the next hour on msnbc the unemployment rate drops to 8.5%. 200,000 new jobs added in december. is the u.s. economy on the rebound and can the president take claim for that? president obama speaking live in the next hour. newt gingrich lashing out for saying african-americans should demand pay checks and not be satisfied with foodstamps. we'll have full reaction.

then jon huntsman is the one republican candidate who hasn't become a flavor of the month. will new hampshire mark that turn? we'll ask his daughter abbey. she joins me in the next hour. chris, back to you. thanks so much. the gingrich campaign appears to have shifted into attack mode at full throttle. the former speaker has unleashed a new ad targeting mitt romney in both new hampshire and south carolina. >> romney's economic plan? timid. parts of it virtually identical to obama's failed policy. timid won't create jobs and timid certainly won't defeat barack obama. >> joining me now is bob mann with the school of communications at louisiana state university. go tigers. he is also the author of daisy petals and mushroom clouds. lbj, barry goldwater and the ad that changed american politics. good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> are you surprised by what you're seeing? given that ad, the infamous daisy ad that changed so much, but we're seeing so many negative ads so early. could it have been predicted?

>> oh, yeah. i think so. i think especially in this race where the stakes are so high that you're going to always see negative spots even in a republican primary. what i'm surprised by is that in iowa romney really skated and wasn't the target of those ads. it was gingrich who was taking all the fire and romney kind of waltzed into new hampshire. he isn't going to have the same experience in new hampshire and south carolina but it is interesting that the other candidates decided not to attack romney the way that they did gingrich. >> yeah. they definitely have had an about face on that. not only that as you just saw, which obviously came from the right, but also from the left he's getting hit. the progressive group movon.org released a new attack ad targeting romney and this is running in new hampshire. let me play that one for you. >> i worked in the steel meal in kansas city for 32 years. and mitt romney and bing capital came in and took the place over and eventually shut it down. we lost our jobs.

they made millions. >> mitt romney wants to call himself a job creator? mitt romney doesn't care about jobs. he cares about money. >> it's so interesting to me because this was the candidate who was going to tout his business experience. now have you these kinds of ads and just today that study from a nonpartisan group that said his tax plan in fact is going to favor millionaires to the tune of about $300,000 and really potentially hurt a lot of low income people. they'll pay more taxes. is this going to be a real problem for him? do you think we'll see more ads on this topic going against mitt romney who has touted his business experience? >> yeah. i think we will, because that's the flip side of the coin of romney's strength, which is his -- the experience of laying off a lot of workers and taking over these companies at bing capital and that movon.org spot i think is deadly because it plays into an existing narrative about romney. i think the obama campaign is going to pick that up and you're going to see the obama campaign

go right at what romney wants to be a strength and they're going to try to turn it into his weakness. i think there is great opportunity for that. >> bob mann from lsu. good to see you. thanks so much for coming in. we do want to remind you that this sunday david gregory will moderate the final presidential debate before the new hampshire primary. it will also air here on msnbc at 9:00 a.m. eastern time and then right after that join "hardball"'s chris matthews for a live post debate analysis, 10:30, right here on msnbc. ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8. over a million people have discovered how easy it is to use legalzoom for important legal documents. so start your business, protect your family, launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side.

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let's take a look at our tweet of the day. i just saw that tweet. i'll bring it up. where is it? do we have it? all right. i'll walk over and look at it. this is from richard blackden who says about the new jobs number, yes, it's just one figure but today's 200,000 jobs number will be far more worrying to romney than anything his rivals come up with in new

hampshire. how about this from our own alex wagner tweeting jobs report, 200,000 jobs created, unemployment down to 8.5%. smiles in the oval office. 38% wider. now down to the wire. drew's engagement and a converse collection. here we go. tiger woods' ex-wife elin nordegren knows just what to do with her $100 million divorce settlement. she bought a $12 million home in north palm beach, florida and, get this, bulldozed it. the house had six bedrooms, eight bathrooms. no word on what she plans to build there. drew barrymore is sporting a shiny new engagement ring. the actress's art-consultant boyfriend proposed over the holidays with a four karat cut radiant cut diamond. they've been together less than a year. this will be her third marriage. of all the tricks he could have pulled a washington state driver put a plastic skeleton in the passenger seat so he could

use the car pool lane. he might have gotten away with it if he wasn't pulled over for speeding. they really have world records for everything don't they? a retired florida teacher believes she has the largest collection of converse sneakers in the world -- 731 pairs of chucks. officials paid a visit yesterday to make the count. she has been collecting the sneakers since she was a teenager. that wraps up this hour of "jansing and company." thomas roberts is up next. don't forget the debate this weekend. i'll see you back here on monday.

breaking news on msnbc. another better than expected jobs report and it's good news for the president. the unemployment rate drops again this time to 8.5%, 200,000 jobs added. manufacturing, making a comeback. can the president finally make the case that his policies are working? we'll hear live from him