tense moments on the tarmac. and the rubio factor as gingrich and romney duke it out for florida's hispanic vote. would the popular cuban-american senator be the decider? shooting for the star or the moon, gould newt gingrich's moon colony comments help him in the sunshine state? we have all of that to talk about this morning. hi. great to have you with me today. i'm thomas roberts. much to talk about with the candidates, campaign trail and the president in a full-fledged campaign mode now. president obama finding the political wins are shifting as he pushes his sta ees his staten economic message. two-day tour. there are signs that his americans feel the economy improving they are giving the president the credit. new nbc news/wall street poll shows americans believe the president is doing a better job with the economy. that's up six points right there. his approval rating is above water for the first time since june with 48% approving of the

job that he is doing. that is up two points from a month ago. nbc is live at the white house for us this morning. so, mike, it is a good sign for the president, while republicans candidates are tearing into each other down in florida he's seeing good numbers and positive are action from the american public. >> yeah, certainly the economic trend is the political friend for the president as you move forward. you mentioned the figures in that poll, most of the deep dive, some of the numbers of that are going to be out later tonight at 6:30, some of the numbers we have already released, one-year highs, republican to the republicans, their opinion, confidence in the direction of the economy, it's up 16 points since october. certainly good news for the president from a political standpoint. also that right track/wrong track figure you hear is mentioned a lot and is a crucial figure in an election year, particularly a presidential election year. it's still abysmally low, make no mistake about it. 30% of americans think the country is on the right track, 61% say wrong track. never the less that is trending

in the right direction as well. you mentioned the biggest news and that is the president's approval rating. he's been under water for months. the number of people or percentage of people who disapprove has exceeded those that approve now that has turned around in a positive direction for the president. 48% now is the approval rating. 46% disapprove. the trend is certainly the president's friend in this case, thomas. >> let's talk about this picture we've been showing everybody, the picture of the president arriving on the tarmac there in arizona. the governor, jan brewer. what did this moment capture yesterday? >> it's interesting because this goes back a couple of years to a moment that was here -- a meeting here in the west wing between governor brewer and president obama. the president of course traveling in many swing states. arrived yesterday in arizona. he was in iowa previously. greeting him at the bottom of the tarmac, traditional, welcoming committee including the governor of that state, jn brewer. she handed him a letter to talk further about the issues important to arizona.

and the president immediately took issue with a passage in governor brewer's book with a somewhat dispeptic title "scorpions for breakfast" where she recounted that oval office meeting on the subject of immigration and said the president had been patronizing and lectured her on these issues surrounding immigration. the president took issue of that. aides say it was a mischaracterization. that's what they were discussing. that picture is a win-win from a political standpoint for both the president and jan brewer, pleasing both of their political bases on immigration. >> to be a fly on the finger, right? mike vieira at the white house for us. ups center in vegas, at 1:00 p.m. eastern time, we'll have it for you live. just tell you that now. also a programming note for you. right now mitt romney is speaking in jacksonville, florida. also making a sharp attack though, keeping his focus squarely on president obama. let's listen in.

>> when the founders wrote those words, i believe they set a blueprint for america. i will return to that blueprint, restore it, rebuild our strength by virtue of having doing so. i love this country. i love america. i love its beauty. i love the people of america. i love our freedoms. i love the pirinciples that mad us great. my mom used to sing a song from america's heritage, one of my favorites, "america the beautiful." oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. when i was in iowa i used to say the corn qualified as an amber wave of grain. probably why i lost by 25 votes. >> he's hoping to repeat that there in florida. former massachusetts governor talking up his plans in tl in jacksonville and the economy ahead of tonight's debate. a new poll has romney just ahead of the former speak we're just five days remaining until polls open. nbc's peter alexander is in miami the morning.

romney just said he can't wait for tonight's debate. he's fired up. what can we expect tonight? they're back at it once again. >> reporter: well, as you heard him just a moment ago he's trying to sort of provide these patriotic themes. this is the stump speech you're hearing just moments ago. tonight though he's likely to return what he said so effectively earlier this week which is go on the attack of newt gingrich. the challenge will be this time with the audience participating and may be a little more challenging to get the same traction he was hoping to get just a couple days ago. one of the other challenges will mitt romney faces in this state is drying to promote himself as a pro-immigrant candidate in the state where increasingly over the course of the primary campaign season he's moved to the right and hispanic leaders have said that they're critical of him having done this saying it was unnecessary at this time. he made it clear they would veto the dream act. went after rick perry who has sense dropped out for being more moderate on the issue of illegal immigration. ultimately perry's campaign referred to mitt romney as heartless but yesterday in an

event that we sat through in front of the cuban community here in miami, he was very much anti-fidel castro. providing the language they wanted to hear, really trying to deliver that message that he is pro-immigrant. even as we speak right now there had been radio ads airing in this community, thomas, that called him, ads provided by newt gingrich that called him anti-immigrant. popular senator in this says, rubio, defended mitt romney saying that was unfair language to use and saying neutral, that both are trying to bring him over to their side. >> everybody is courting mark rubio right now. peteral xander in miami. thank you, sir sir. newt gingrich is rolling into tonight's debate ahead of the steam going after mitt romney with sharp words about his money and his campaign allies. take a listen. >> what level ofgall does it take to think that we collect e

collectively are so stupid for someone who owns lots of stocks in fannie mae and freddie mac, and a part of goldman sachs that was specifically foreclosing on florida floridians and then did his entire campaign in florida around a series of ads that are just plain false because they're counting on us being too stu mid. >> nbc's ron mott is there. he's back, guns blazing. why the change in between from what we're seeing over the last few days to this? >> well, i think because he knows that this crowd in the debate tonight is going to be allowed to participate and stand up and give ovations whenever they feel it's appropriate. that was not the case on monday night. newt gingrich appeared off his debate and critical tonight, the last chance to get the candidates to get in front of the masses here in florida. you've got a huge hispanic population here. almost 25% of the population here hispanic and a lot of folks going after that voting bloc.

anti-immigration ad the gingrich camp quickly pulled off the air, he called mitt romney the most anti-immigration candidate in the field. rubio did not like that at all. he said this, quote, more than just unfortunate. it's inaccurate, inflammatory, and doesn't belong in this campaign. then he want on the air this morning. here's what he had to say on cbs this morning. >> i think the speaker gingrich made the right decision. i've noefr gingrich a long time, i think he made the right choice. >> a lot of folks courting marco rubio. his name is often mentioned as a top candidate for vice president on this ticket in the fall. thomas? >> senator rubio knows how hotly he is wanted right now. thank you, ron. as newt gingrich tries to keep his campaign afloat, campaign cash will be key. right now $10 million is flowing to a pro-gingrich super pac bankrolled by las vegas

billionaires who seem determined to keep gingrich's campaign alive through super tuesday. who is this power couple? john ralston is a political analyst for the "las vegas sun qutd "and host of "face to face" on nbc networks in nevada. john, it's great to have you with me today. quick bio on sheldon adelson. self made billionaire. pro israel. he's known newt gingrich for more than a decade now. what is his political motivation and why is he so sure that newt is the man to deliver this political message? >> well, as you mentioned, thomas, they've known each other for more than a decade. they met back in 1995 shortly after newt gingrich became speaker and sheldon adelson was in washington lobbying on one of his big causes which was to move the embassy in israel to jerusalem. he met newt gingrich in a hallway. they talked about that. they bonded over that. but their friendship really blossomed after gingrich left congress, a little later in the

'90s and started up americans solutions which was a pact that adelson contributed $8 million to. so that is the tie that bound them together. and what is his agenda? he's a very conservative guy. probably the most conservative casino owner in this state. he has long been very hawkish on israel. he's involved in israeli politics, too. very close to benjamin n netanyahu. he loved it when gingrich talked about the palestinians being invented people. he and marion adelson immediately associated himself with those remarks. he's very conservativconservati. an anti-union, pro israel. he thinks gingrich is the best guy to put forth his agenda in the white house. >> as we look over history this isn't the first time that adelson has tried to g fl influential. he gave money to dick armey and gingrich in 2010.

why does he feel that gingrich is the person to back in super tuesday? >> adelson is a guy constantly trust trade with the establishment, whether it's here in nevada or nationally. 4th he did contribute a lot of money to freedom works but it's a personal relationship with newt gingrich and that $10 million that he and his wife gave started out with $5 million with to a guy eighth richest guy in america isn't a lot of money. i don't think he thought newt gingrich was going anywhere before south carolina. i think adelson looks like a genius now was really just helping a friend and now he looks like, wow, newt gingrich looks like he has a chance and now donated $5 million. i think he'll wait to see what happens in florida. i wouldn't be surprised to see more money coming newt gingrich's way either through the super pac or through some other avenue. >> jon, is it true if gingrich weren't in this and drops out, he's going to go behind romney though? it's not that he's newt or

nothing. >> yeah, i think that he is so negative on the president that, as a lot of business folks are, rich businessmen and smaller businessmen that he is going to support the republican cause. there won't be the personal investment with romney but i think he will help the republican party. you contribute a lot of money to help republican causes without going directly to the candidate. >> certainly got dividends out of south carolina. we'll see how it goes in florida. jon ralston live in las vegas for us. why some might say it's out of this world. plus, take a look at this. the roof of an ice rink collapsing because of snow and ice. the quick escape out. [ coughs ]

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new developments today in a case of an american aide worker, jessica buchanan, freed from

somali pirates after a daring navy s.e.a.ls rescue. she has arrived at a u.s. base in italy and could be reunited with her family as soon as today. buchanan and a danish worker were held three months before they parachuted into somalia from fixed wing planes on wednesday, killed nine gunmen holding them hostage. a turn in buchanan's health triggered that operation. u.s. state department officials expressing gray concern over egypt's transition to democracy after authorities there detained the son of transportation secretary ray lahood along with several other u.s. citizens. police stopped sam lahood as he tried to board a flight out of egypt telling them he was on a no fly list but lahood heads the institute of egypt raided in september. sam lahood worked as press rep for republican in arizona john mccain saying, quote, i deeply regret that this crisis has escalated to the point that it now endangers the lives of american citizens and could

setback the long-standing partnership between the united states and egypt. is the right in a panic over a potential newt gingrich nomination? it's a big question a lot of people are asking. and one of politico's top stories this morning is on an onslaught of conservative criticism against the former house speaker. it reads, it's as if the conservative media over the past 24 hours has decided gingrich is for real and they need to come clean about the man they know before it's too late. but is this enough for the right to finally unite behind mitt romney? joining me this morning to talk about m snrks bc crann, i'll st with you and politico and let's talk about that. ann coulter, tom delay, among gingrich's critic here's. and kouis the right starting to take newt gingrich more seriously and, because, so they're really worried? >> well, i mean, in fairness,

ann coulter endorsed mitt romney many weeks ago. and a lot of the members of the conservative media that you're quoteing are people who have a long history with newt gingrich. in particular, they knew him during bill clinton's impeachment and remember his own behavior then and since then regarded him as a hypocrite. there's a long history with some conservatives who were spectacle of gingrich then and spectacle of him now and don't believe he's fit to lead the party. i think they're gaining more traction now and are being heard simply because he is doing so much better than he was earlier on. >> they believe he's a hypocrite and don't believe in redemption? >> maybe not for him yet. >> they question gingrich's ties to ronald reagan. look at this. >> i worked with president ronald reagan. president reagan. reagan. >> reagan criticized gingrich saying newt's ideas, quote, would cripple our defense program. >> gingrich responded last night with this.

>> to suggest that governor romney is more reagan-like than i am is an act of total fantasy. >> so how problematic is it for the former speaker that people are starting to now draw this, you know, defined contradiction between how he says he is a ronald reagan conservative and people actually holding up to facts that don't say that? >> i think this is an important moment because you have a few days until this primary and for most of the campaign we've seen romney cast as the moderate, gingrich as the conservative and south carolina, the result shows a lot of conservatives behind gingrich. romney needs more con zef tive votes and one way to get that is to cut back gingrich's credentials and say he is not as con zer tive as you think he is. this is a big moment if romney can make this case. this is a place where he can make that case stronger. >> two new polls that show that conservatives have reason to believe concerned.

qui quinnpiac and in florida, in south carolina, he was seen as a fighter but is that image nowfi florida? >> i think we're going to see the numbers change from state to state. obviously florida is a swing state. voters there are very attuen tao what it might look like. the leb the electability is one. i expect that we will see these figures go back and forth with fr state to state. it's keeping romney in the game in florida. >> great to see you both this morning. thank you. coming up next, one in five home sales in the u.s. are foreclosures. is there real help out there for struggling homeowners? we're going to answer that question. yoo-hoo. hello. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall. [ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can come from any faucet anywhere.

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jobless claims jumped by 21,000 last week. the liz volatile four-week average was down 377,000. timothy geithner says he doesn't expect to serve a second term even if president obama is re-elected. he's confident the president wouldn't ask him to stay on. the economy's slow recovery is prompting the federal reserve to keep the benchmark interest rate at near zero for at least a year and a half. that should make it cheaper for consum consumers to borrow much needed money. as we look across the board, the dow jones in the green, up by almost 28. there we go. and the standard & poor's, nasdaq, they are both in the red for right now. stunning news in the housing market to talk about this morning. this new report from realty track shows one out of every five, one of five homes in 2011 were made up of foreclosed homes. it dropped in december for the first time in four months to

2.2%. that makes 2011 the worst year for home sales in u.s. history. jen cocoa is the chief economistist for a real estate website and joins me now to talk about this. these aren't numbers that we're really happy to report about because these affect real people in 2011 but let's talk about the foreclosed properties being sold. the number of homes being foreclosed are down. and price of foreclosed properties being sold are selling at a higher price. so on the surface, this looks good but it doesn't mean things are overall good for the housing market. right? >> that's right. going to 2012, consumers are going to see a tough year for the housing market. prices overall are still slipping, and we're likely to see a new wave of foreclosures this year as the robo signing settlement finally comes to a close, banks are going to start going through some of the foreclosures that they've put on hold while the settlement was being noeg yated. >> as we look at this, i want to

show everybody how the country breaks down. let's talk about this state by state. certainly people are feeling the pain across the country but the highest number of foreclosure filings are in the nevada and arizona and california. and that's exactly where the president was yesterday, in arizona, and today he's going to be in nevada. in his state of the union address on tuesday the president proposed this chance for homeowners who were up to date on their mortgages to refinance. so will another mortgage plan actually help out? >> letting more borrowers refinance won't do much to slow down foreclosures. that's because the borrowers who can refinance are those who are current on their payments. but people who are on the verge of losing their homes probably have missed some payments in the past six months or year. and, therefore, they probably won't be eligible to refinance. easier refinancing puts more money in the pockets of homeowners who are current, but it doesn't do much to help those who are on the verge of losing their homes. so it helps some people but not those most at risk.

>> jed, trulia incp. thanks for your time. why you're airfare is about to go up even though ticket prices are staying the same. plus, to infinity and beyond. newt gingrich's sky high plans is the political talk of the day. ♪ ♪ tonight ♪ ♪ we are young ♪ ♪ so let's set the world on fire ♪ ♪ we can burn brighter ♪ than the sun ♪ carry me [ male announcer ] the all-new chevy sonic. from your first time... to the time of your life. chevy runs deep. of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest

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so you're calling to tell me you're giving me the silent treatment? ummm, yeah. jen, this is like the eighth time you've called... no, it's fine, my family has free unlimited mobile-to-any-mobile minutes. i can call all i want. i don't think you understand how the silent treatment works. hello? [ male announcer ] buy unlimited messaging and get free unlimited calling to any mobile phone on any network. at&t. developing right now, the gulf states are on high alert for severe weather and we're tracking several bands of severe thunderstorms. look right there. some have the potential to spawn ts tornadoes. we're keeping a close eye on this radar and we'll let you know if anybody pops up. for now, shooting for the moon. that is newt gingrich's campaign for florida and gingrich's comments on the sunshine state trail have gotten quite a bit of attention over the last 24 hours. especially this one.

>> we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be american. >> joining us this morning is dnc communications director brad woodhouse and gingrich's campaign senior adviser. great to have you with me this morning. david, i want to start with you because we have more from newt gingrich furthering explain his goal for his base on the moon that i want to share with everybody. >> because it is within our interest to acquire so much experience in space that we clearly have the capacity that chinese and russians will never come close to matching. >> david, right now being in nasa country is this campaign promise a giant leap for gingrich or going to be giving his opponents for fodder for criticism? >> clearly the science that you learn from space exploration and going to the moon is huge, what it does in terms of enhancing your defense capabilities from

what you learn, basic things like the in terms of computer chips and computers and the evolution that occurred in terms of that as a result of this space program. the space program is an opportunity for significant learning. having said that, the key is that he's got to tie it back into how that will generate economic growth and create jobs. >> sure perks up a lot of ears for people in florida, though, being nasa country. brad, i want to talk to you about a univision interview yesterday and he was asked about his own infidelity and criticism of the president at the time, president clinton. >> people think that's hypocritical to criticize president clinton for doing the same thing you were doing at the same time. >> okay, the place where there's a mental synopsis. i didn't do the same thing. i have never lied under oath. i have never committed perjury. i have never been involved in a felony. he was. >> so as we look at that and this is digging up a lot of old history, is this hypocrisy on gingrich's part or claim that his situation was different is

completely valid? >> look, there's a ton of hypocrisy here. i don't know if newt gingrich has ever committed perjury or not or lied under oath. only he knows that. there's a ton of hypocrisy here for someone with his background to continue, you know, to act like, you know, to act like what he did -- look, part of what happened in newt gingrich was after '98 elections, the country recoiled at the whole impeachment process and he was eventually run out of office. so i don't know why he wants to replay that history. but thomas, if i could just touch on the moon shot briefly. there's a ton of pandering going on in florida. if you look at newt gingrich or mitt romney's economic plans, the things they are promising for nasa in florida are the biggest leap you could imagine. they just couldn't do any of it. mitt romney's economic plan would slash $4.5 billion out of nasa and newt gingrich wants to go further basically not taxing anybody on investments or

capital gains. there wouldn't be money to do anything at nasa under his plan. >> i -- i'm sorry. i've got to respond to that. long-term commitment to science and specifically space exploration because of the knowledge it could bring and what it could do for the economy. and -- >> how is he going to pay for it, david? >> you're going grow the economy. >> oh, come on. that's what you always say. >> no, no, no. let me give you a specific number. in 2003 when the bush tax cuts were enacted, by 2007 revenues had increased by $800 billion. that is just a fundamental fact. >> are you serious? are you serious in this -- the bush economy led -- have you tan a look at the cbo numbers? you can say that may not be the reason but you can't say $800 billion was not generates? >> i don't see anything in newt gingrich or mitt romney's economic plan. they want to go back to the exact same things that tanked the economy. that's not going to revive funding for nasa or anything

else. >> look, this president hasn't had unemployment under 8% for 34 months it's been 8 1/2% or higher. that's a good record? >> we can go around about this. we've had -- we've created 2 million jobs between state of the union addresses. you know, that's a fact that you can't get away from. >> no, but since the beginning of his presidency we've lost jobs. and since -- we have never seen unemployment at this level for 34 months, 8 1/2% or higher. if you want to run that record and remember when harry truman won in november of 1948, and that's strategy that this president is using in terms of do nothing, unemployment was 3.8%. not 8.5%. >> you would have the president be responsible for the jobs that were lost in day he took office. but if you look at the record, from the time his policies were in place, the unemployment rate started to fall. and we started to create jobs. >> 8 1/2% is not acceptable. >> of course it's not

acceptable, david. but we're -- >> you seem to be implying it is. >> no, i'm not at all. we're on an upward trajectory though now. not downward. even mitt romney admitted that in an interview recently. >> i have to jump in right here. the next time i have two you two on i'm going to make myself a bowl of popcorn and sit book. thank you, gentlemen. >> thank you. as the hispanic leadership conference kicks off in miami a top florida republican is urging his party not to ignore america's latino vote. in a "washington post" op-ed former governor co-chair jeb bush said, quote, in the 15 states likely to decide who control tsz white house and the senate in 2013, hispanic voters represent the par gmargin of vi or defeat. hispanics make up a quarter of that state's population. 11% are republicans. cuban-americans dominate that group. mark lopez is the associate director of the pugh hispanic center. it's great to have you here to talk about this and the gop

presidential race is all about florida right now and your su va shows that most in the state are republican. while nationally there are 21 million registered hispanic voters. how are florida voters unique from other parts of the country, like nevada where the president is today? >> one of the things that makes florida unique compared to other places is that in florida we have a huge cuban and large port corick can population. those are actually the second and third largest populations of hispanic origin folks in the united states. by contrast, a place like nef m nevada is more than 30% mexica . also, when we talk about a state like florida you mentioned there were about 450,000 hispanic republicans registered to vote in florida. that's lower than the number that are registered as democrats but, none the less, florida has one of the largest republican hispanic populations in the united states. >> so this new survey in florida though showing, mark, mitt romney with a wide lead right now over newt gingrich, 15 points among florida's hispanic

voters. some florida republicans voice concerns over the romney stance on immigration. so could that cause trouble for him in a general election fight? >> it may. remains to be seen though how that will play out, particularly because there have been a number of -- we've done a number of surveys in a few reports about latinos in on immigration. we found that hispanics overwhelmingly support the dream act but we find hispanics disapprove of the way the obama administration is handling deportations. what's interesting about that finding is that even among those latinos nationally who disapprove of the way the obama administration is handling deportations, we see that in a head to head against mitt romney barack obama wins. >> mark lopez, mark, great to see you this morning. thank you. >> thank you. >> absolutely. here's a look at other stories topping the news right now. president of iran saying his country is ready to return to nuclear talks with world power, toughening sanctions led by the u.s. and forced tehran to scale back the nuclear program.

still, president ahmadinejad insists iran will continue enriching uranium which he says is for peaceful purposes. over 12,000 people are expected to pack an arena to pay tribute to joe paterno. thousands have lined the streets to view the funeral procession on wednesday. paterno died sunday from lung cancer at the age of 85. italian officials say it would take a miracle to find any more survivors on board the cost a concordia. 16 people killed after the cruise ship rammed off a reef oust the tuscan coast. 16 are missing. the captain of that cruise ship says he was pressure bid his superiors to take his ship so close to shore. the cruise ship company says the captain's course was unauthorized. new rules in effect for airlines across america today and impacts all of us who fly. carriers now have to post full fares including all taxes and government fees so passengers can see what you're paying for. what started as a normal day

for the prime minister of australia ended up being anything but. riot police had to rush the prime minister after an event. she was swiftly taken to her car unharmed but lost a shoe in the scuffle of that process. and this amazing video from slovakia where former nhl player and youth athletes were practicing at a hockey rink when suddenly the roof collapsed because of pressure from the snow. the athletes were able to escape before the roof completely caved in. nobody was hurt in that incident. ♪[music plays] ♪[music plays] when you're responsible for this much of the team...

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this is an episode of "survivor q. "and that is you keep out there, you keep your name out and lots of things are going to happen between now and august. >> hasn't been voted off the island yet. "survivor" it is, rick santorum

will try to survive another debate tonight. showdown between two former house speakers. gingrich says if poelosi has anything against him she needs to bring it out or quit talking about it. she has twice hinted that she knows something about gingrich, but according to pelosi's spokesman that something is nothing new, just public information about the 1997 ethics investigation into his use of tax exempt organizations. ormer cuban president fidel castro is weighing in on the republican candidates who have been happily talking about his demise while campaigning in florida this week. he said, quote, the selection of a republican candidate for this presidency of this globalized expansionive empire is, and i mean this seriously, the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that i have ever seen. castro has been battling with every administration since the revolution. we have an update on that bugged relationship between john boehner and nfl star chad

ochocinco. he reached out to congressman boehner on tuesday night after the state of the union. yesterday he sent another message saying, quote, hello, mr. boehner. hoping you are in better spirits today. if all else seems bad in life, just remember i love you, kind sir. the house speaker responded, thanks, and good luck in the super bowl. we'll see you in the layoffs next year. go bengals. he used to play for the bengals, said, go bengals. because he lives in ohio. i still smell a bromance brewing right there. still a line we keep hearing on the campaign trail and the debate states. take a listen. >> i want to run this fall as the jobs and paycheck president versus barack obama who is the most effective food stamp president in american history. a job and paycheck candidate versus a dependency on food stamp candidate. >> a woman asked you why you

referred to president obama as the food stamp president. >> first of all, the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by barack obama than any president in american history. >> but the candidates times a speaker may have helped pave the way for the spike in food stamps that we've seen across the country. you wrote this op-ed piece on the gri about all this stemming from 1996, the well sffare refo act that we hear so much about. take us through the process. >> sure. there are probably two republicans that we have to thank more than anyone else for the current status of the food stamp program. one is bob doyle who authored -- who sponsored the bill who changed food stamps from something you had to purchase into something you got from the government without buying them. then newt gingrich in 1996 championed welfare reform.

that replaced the program which was a straight cash benefit to families with temporary assistance to needy families. temporary assistance cut the amount of benefit, required people to have to work, so it's ironic he says poor people don't work because by design you have to work to get the benefits. and by reducing the cash benefit they receive it forced people to get more food stamps because you're still going to need the same amt amount of food but if you have less cash assistance you've still have to eat so people relied more and more on food stamps. you saw this spike in food stamp use after welfare reform. >> turns out to be a big catch-22 when referring to this. >> in a sense, he's the food stamp speaker of the house. >> is it fair that that's something he glosses over when he talks about that now in reference to president obama? >> yeah, i think it's fundamentally unfair and historic. newt gingrich claims that poor people don't work but his own reform required them to work and he claims that barack obama is the food stamp president when, for one thing, george w. bush is

the president that saw the largest amount of increase in food stamp recipients and his own reform in a very direct way caused people to become more dependent on food stamps to feed themselves. >> also has has racial undertone which people see clearly as overtones. >> i don't see them as undertones. newt gingrich is from georgia. he's a man from the south. he understands how to blow the dog whistle and you do see a sense of welfare queen theme in his entire presidential run. >> and more white people in this country are on food stamps than any other person. msnbc contributor, great to see you. new rumors of a new iphone have apple fans buzzing out there. settle down, that's coming up next. as boomers age it becomes more important to exercise. staying fit improves overall health and mood. the national institute on aging suggests these exercises for those over 50 build up endurance

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something so grotesquely hypocritical about the romney campaign that i think is just going to melt down over the next six or eight weeks as the american people learn more about

it. let's get it out in the open. he wants to run a campaign where he drowns me in mud with money he raises for people who are for closing on floridians. >> newt gingrich on the attack against mitt romney in mt. dora, florida, as the two prepare to go face-to-face in their 19th debate coming up tonight. all right, so everybody out there that loves their apple products, if you own an iphone, listen up. the latest blog buzz is that the new iphone model could see the street by summertime. so no complaint from apple about these rumors, though, and on the heels of monster earnings, $13.1 billion, why are these trade secrets so secret? paul hochman is founder of thenewsimple.com and "today" show contributor and joins us now to talk about this. so the iphone 5, when we tweeted about this earlier, a lot of people got upset, because they just got the iphone 4s, and they're upset they're already going to be obsolete, so quickly. so is this true? is summertime when we're going to see it hit stores? the iphone 5?

>> the people i talk to, and they have been reliable in the past, have said that summertime is the most likely launch time, or at least the most likely unveiling. it's often, with apple, they often will unveil a product, and then it will take a month or two for it to actually hit the store shelves. but summer is probably when we'll see it first. >> so what are the differences? the bells and whistles that are going to be the big selling point for the iphone 5 that's going to make it different from the 4s examine >> let's start with the name. it may not even be called the iphone 5. there are a lot of rumors it's going to be called the iphone 4g, and one of the reasons is it's going to have or is rumored to be having a 4g lte network connection, meaning about three times as fast as current 3g, that's number one. and number two, very important to a lot of mobile users, a new format or basically a new protocol or language for communicating via wi-fi. it's call 80211ac, which is about three times than 80211n,

which is the current standard. so a lot of speed is in the works. >> paul, how much do you anticipate this will be touted as a product that steve jobs had some insight into and development of? >> i think the vast majority of products that will be introduced within the next few months are still very much under the umbrella of steve jobs' influence. i don't think he had his hand, in a very good way, in a lot of ways, in almost all parts of the company, and it takes a while for things to work their way through from development into the public, so i think it's very safe to say that a lot of the stuff, he had his hand on. >> they unilaterally get great press, but apple's money has brought some bad pr, concerning human rights abuses in china. explain that to us. >> that's not unique to apple, of course. nike had a heck of a problem a number of years ago. anytime you force downward the price and the cost of your components, you are also going to be doing that, on occasion, on the backs of the workers that do it, in this case, in china. there's an enormous factory in china called foxcon, which makes the screens for the iphones, and

apple pushed very hard, as many oems do, to try to reduce costs, and there were complaints. some of them documented, that the workers were mistreated and apple is handling a very large pr problem right now. and frankly, it's forcing consumers to ask themselves, are the lower costs and beautiful look of these products worth it if we are, in fact, you know, challenging the work environment of folks who are putting them together? >> i know it's a lot for people to take into consideration when they go in and want these products, they've got to think how they got them. "today" show contributor, paul hochman, great to see you. >> my pleasure. >> that's going to do it for me today. i'll see you back here tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. eastern and every weekday morning. until then, follow me on twitter @thomasroberts. but don't go anywhere, "now with alex wagner" is coming up. she's in the building. >> hi, thomas, we're going to the moon! coming up in a mere three minutes, newt gingrich's latest plan to colonize the lunar landscape. plus, mitt romney is getting aggressive down in the sunshine state.

is it working? independence day. how both parties are fighting for that critical voting bloc and attorney general beau biden on now. he joins us to discuss president obama's new housing task force. will it crack down aggressively on wall street? that's all now when "now" starts in 180 seconds. who is the "your business" entrepreneur of the week? harvard student james herschfield wanted to trns late the look and feel of a high-end paper invitation to the digital realm. in 2007, he and his sister pooled their savings and started paperless post. it attracted high-profile users like prince charles, condoleezza rice, and the white house. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings.

today my journey continues across the golden state, where everyone has been unbelievably nice. mornin'. i guess i'm helping them save hundreds on car insurance.

it probably also doesn't hurt that i'm a world-famous advertising icon. cheers! i mean, who wouldn't want a piece of that? geico. ah... fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent oh dear... or more on car insurance. newt gingrich is calling the race the desperate last stand of the old order, throwing the kitchen sink, hoping something sticks. will it? it's thursday, january 26th, and this is "now." joining me today, the always sharply dressed ari melber of "the nation," also linda killian, a senior scholar at the wilson center, and author of the new book, "the swing vote," "new york daily news" slcolumnist s..