grandmothers, it's friday january 27th and this is "now." joining me today, john harwood, patricia murphy and michael hastgs, and mr. sunday morning, hugo lindgren, john heilem heileman. mitt rom in my opinion came to the debate with his boxing gloves on, descend newt gingrich to the moon, panel? >> i do not think that newt brought his gloves, so that was part of the problem. >> so that was a yes? >> gingrich's moon idea is all i like about him. >> there was a lot of moon time last night. >> i think that romney needed a great performance and he therefore e delivered it. he could not afford another night of being on the ropes and

let newt gingrich walk all over him. newt gingrich did not take the criticism nearly as well as he delivers it. >> john heileman, i want to bring you in because you were in debate central in jacksonville, we know that mitt romney has been working with brett o'donnell, and that seems to have paid off for him. >> yeah, brett o'donnell is a guy with a great reputation, he has worked with a lot of candidates for a lot of years and back before mccain, i saw him and he was pleased with his performance. i mentioned that someone on the twitter machine said he should immediately double his rates. he smiled and deferred on that. but i think they were incredibly happy with the performance last night. the romney people were. the gingrich people, obviously, not. you are the creator of the angry teddy bear comparison with newt gingrich. >> and for that i expect to be charging higher rates in the coming months. >> as you should --

>> they have libraries in florida. >> there's -- >> i bring my library with me everywhere i go. jon harwood, the angry teddy bear was missing. it was angry teddy bear for the win in south carolina the teddy bear was mia down here, now it's going to be are we looking at atb, rip. >> so many abbreviations, john harwood let's play sound to show audiences what we are talking about. romney attacking gingrich and they are going back and forth to fannie mae, freddie mac question. >> we discovered to our shock, governor romney owns shares of fannie mae and freddie mac. and made money on selling it. >> i do not own stocks in either

company. but there are bonds that the investor holds through mutual funds, and i know that sounds like a big revelation, but have you checked your own investments, you have mutual funds that also invest in fannie mae and freddie mac. >> it was like show time at the apollo, it was an effective moment for mitt romney. >> and if you looked at newt gingrich's body language, he was like the nfl quarterback that was knocked cold by the defensive lineman, yeah, you got me. this was the story for him last night. the rip discussion that john was make ago moment ago, one of to be a bit humble about our ability to project forward in the race, because we have bn wrong. >> i have never been wrong in my life, but i heard that other people in the show have been wrong. so i'll give rope there. romney's performance, it was the first time that he was

comfortable with his wealth. he was defending himself and saying he was proud of his wealth. it was the first time in the course of the campaign where he was not apologizing and where he seemed strong on it. >> but i think there are opportunities that gingrich passed up to attack them and that is the real sad story for newt in this. i mean, and a lot of the revelation since, the fact that romney did his home work better and he was able to come right back at him. and gingrich had nothing to come back with at all. there's plenty of things to come back on this and i don't understand why he is not doing it. >> it's the first time that romney opened who he is. when he said i'm proud to be successful he was finally flying his flag. welcome to the race. >> there's limits how far you

can fly that flag. >> the money flag. >> i mean, you remember the famous picture of him having dollars coming out of his pockets. >> john, who doesn't have photos like that? john heileman, we heard from an nbc, that newt gingrich doesn't do debate prep. he watches old movies and has a snack. do you think that after thursday he will be sort of tightening up his game, as it were? >> it's possible this race will end, i'm not predicting it at all, i don't think that gingrich will change, that is the story of this debate. he is a guy who believes in his power on the stage and does not do a lot of debate prep, he looks for his moment and tries to seize it. if he gets the moment he is effective but if not he is not. he the not have a strategy or plan when he came to this debate

and it showed as opposed to romney, and it's not a matter of just doing home work, mitt romney had a game plan, he had things to execute on, he had a strategy for what he needed to to and he accomplished those things and the contrast of the two of them they were in terms preparation could not have been more stark. >> we the gingrich organizations that were defending romney. i thought, to john's point, romney did have a plan and managed to get newt gingrich out on the moon conversation. >> yes. >> and the idea that, at considerable amount of time, was spent talking about lunar colonies and gingrich was out there defending this plan, shows real weakness for him. >> it a picture of the republican primaries, they are talking about colonies and the rest of us are trying go about our business and pretending that

they don't exist. it was my favorite part of the debate. hash tag rich guy problems. who has the bigger blind trust. >> did they propose 9-9-9 on the moon? >> that is the one place you could get support for it. my question for john down in florida, would be, you saw gingrich in iowa peter out on the final debate before the big show, did you get a sense that it happened last night. wh he had his moment he did not seize it? >> well, you know, it's interesting, michael, no question if comparison between gingrich in iowa and here seems to be close. when he is riding high perform hopoorly. it's not a question of him not

reacting to pressure, it's a question of what his status is in the face of the pressure. and you mow, the moon colony thing is so interesting, because gingrich is in this opportunity iftic, he is like a dog on a bone, when there's something that he cares about and he feels that he is being unadjusted maligned he will not let it go. and he was like that last night and throughout the debate, romney was successful, and they have been trying get under gingrich's skin on things where they know he will get irritated. when he is irritated he is fixated and that is not a recipe for focus or success. >> it's only a matter of time until we have the hotly contested debate over pulse attacks that gingrich feels we are at risk for. john heileman, thank you for joining us from the sunshine state, we look forward to hearing more from you next week.

>> thank you. >> we will talk about how the gop candidates are courting the hispanic vote, that is next on "now." ♪ ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? it's got 10 speeds, my friend. ♪ is it fast? it's got a lightning bolt on it, doesn't it? ♪ is it fast? i don't even know if it's street-legal. ♪

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>>. all i want to do is allow the grandmother to be here, legally with some rights to have residentsy but not citizenship so that he or she can finish her life with dignity. >> our problem is not 11 million grandmothers. all right? >> the gop's problem with the issue of immigration is not going to go away any time soon, how heavily will it factor in

winning over the hispanic vote? florida primary on tuesday, obviously. we know the hispanic community in florida is diverse, and it's worth pulling up the full screen map, miami dade is leaning gop and orange county 27% hispanic, and broward hispanic by 25%. mitt romney's position on immigration, we have talked a lot about it, he had a more hard line stance in the northern states he has since taylored that message. >> yes, it's so easy to taylor a message when you are in florida. >> when you are mitt romney, a great taylor. >> in 2008, he got 14% of the latino vote and won the white vote in florida and got

clobbarred in the state because of his stance on immigration. it points mad genius of newt gingrich >> mad genius. >> he was so open to the dream act many, many weeks ago and people said, wow, where did that come from? it came from yes, my last stand, my first stand will be if flori -- in florida. very smart. >> clearly there's been some, i don't know whether it's his business background but he is doing well in the state and looks like he can beat newt gingrich. >> i think that part of it is the whole state is going that way and the hispanic vote is going into the flow. nobody wants to be betting on a loser and the more newt performs like that he looks like a loser. >> and hispanic republicans are different than hispanic

democrats. >> i want to bring in jose, thank you for joining us. >> alex, good to see you. >> great to see you, you interviewed mitt romney before the debate and we were talking about his support from the hispanic community in florida, are you surprised how he taylored his message from iowa to florida? >> not really, because that is what good politicians do regardless of what really their positions, the better the politician, the better he/she is able to pivot and not make it obvious that he is pivoting. it's an interesting he story, the cuban/american vote in south florida and now mitt and newt have been going at it from different perspectives trying get a small group of motivated voters to support one or the other candidate. mitt has the establishment

cuban-american republican class and newt saw that and kind of is trying to go around that. it's a very interesting thing to watch these battles in spanish language. even ads they are running in spanish language are far different than what they run in english. >> i find it somewhat ironic, there's been a big push, a lot of rhetoric about making english the official language of the states yet you have newt gingrich putting out ads in spani spanish. i was in new shamp sure and he had -- new hampshire, he had a hispanic town hall. it seems like the grand old party has a distinct difficulty, jeb bush said we need to think of immigration reform as an economy issue not a border security issue. we need people to come ready to work, and immigration policies

should reflect that principal, as we believe in free trade of goods we should support the freer flow of talent. you hear this on the sidelines of the race, when it comes down to brass tax, we really do not hear that message that embraces the immigrant community. >> that is such a great point that you are bringing up and by the way this is a criticism on both political parties because, and i think that if you talk to the white house, they would recognize the fact that the focus on immigration reform being the civil rights movement of our era for the history panic population, really, if that's the only focus that we are talk b about, it takes away from the economic benefits from immigration reform. with a immigration reform bill, some say it would help by one

percentage point. it would have a 1.5, $1.6 billion benefit to the economy. we can talk about immigration reform on emotional and, you know -- >> 11 million grandmothers, yes. >> -- societies but there's a financial aspect to it. >> jose, i want to play a little sound from your interview with mitt romney. you are talking about the dream act which seems like the biggest no brainer piece of legislation that should be passed ever. let's hear what mitt romney had to say. >> the three major provisions are as i understand them, one is to say that you can have instate tuition for illegal immigrants. that i think is a mistake. if you have gone to school long enough you will have a permanent

residency status and the third is to provide legal status to those that served in the military and i think that is the one of the three that makes sense >> you look at that and i guess that is mitt romney walking back a little bit. he seems to open the door a bit there for military service. there are 50 million hispanics in the country, and you talk about a long-term strategy here, it would seem that having a more, sort of, embracing attitude towards children of legal immigrants that are here and want to serve in the military would benefit the party in the long run, would it not? >> but they need the racist votes in the primaries and then they get to the general and they say, it not such a bad idea, let's have another look at it. this was romney that was criticized for hiring undocumented workers at his

home. >> look at what happened to rick perry when he came out and said, i think it was the right thing to do, humane thing to do. >> not just humane, a matter of good politics. you want better educated people living in the country, no matter where they are from. >> it was the beginning of the end for perry, because he went on that limb. you can understand that anybody that is on the stump as a republican, trying to find the right way to do this. but, it's important to note that democrats are not really all to same page either, it could have passed in a democrat house and it didn't. >> may i add for the first two years that the president had the senate and house and there was no real comprehensive immigration reform proposal, serious one presented by, menendez did it in the senate and gutierrez did it in the

house. but last year when the president was saying pass my bill, the people in the hispanic community are saying where is the immigration reform bill that you are looking to pass? both parties, but i agree, it's a far different group of voters in the republican primary season than you are going to have in the general election and that is why i go back to the pivoting issue that is so complicated for candidates that have had to be really strong and tough on absolutely nothing on immigration reform until the border is closed. and then you say, what happens when the border is closed? we have to close the border first. >> thank you for joining us, after the break -- >> good to see you. >> good to see you, jose. ron haul, the comedian, his lines from the debate last night. that is next on "now."

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jtsds are -- are you prepared to release your medical records so that voters know what your health is? >> obviously, it's one page if even that long. but i'm willing to -- i'm willing to challenge any of these men up here to a 25-mile bike ride. i don't think that they see a terrorist under the bed every night. >> imagine you are in the oval office and you speak to castro, what could you say to him? >> i would ask him what he

called about. >> dr. funny bones, he brought clarity and humor to last night's debate. what is next for him in the race? >> i'm hoping a bike race, i think it would be better. >> newt gingrich on a bike. just putting it out there. >> challenge him to a sprint. >> god bless, ron paul, the longer he can use his momentum and get his ideas out there, more power to him. >> he is the most principaled candidate in the race. >> laugh at this man at your peril. he could be a king killer. he has a lot of power. >> king killer, deliverier of 1 liners, with friends like these

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we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. politico quotes a conservative describing the possibility of newt gingrich as the republican nominee saying it could happen and it would be a disaster. but what do they really think about a newt gingrich candidacy. worth mentioning a poll, romney beating gingrich. perhaps understandable that the gop establishment is kind of coming if not to romney's rescue to attack gingrich. bob dole said if newt gingrich is the nominee, it will have a

negative impact on those running in local and state levels. he was a one man band that rarely took advice. newt gingrich's track record in washington is not particularly serving him well in the field of ento endorsements >> he did good things for the republican party and that goes to the underlying credit that he gets from republican voters but most people i talk to think it's a disaster if he is on the ticket. worth noting, that same poll shows that gingrich leading romney nationally by 9% points. there's a similar margin with the gallop, it's good to explain the panic. >> it's very, very strange to see an entire group of people that worked with gingrich to not

only not give him credit but to say he is going to be the end of us, he will ruinousruinous -- t what a lot of republican voters are hungry for. >> it's worth mentioning, i think there's different levels of criticism, tom delay is saying that what was said about newt pretty much true because he is not a conservative. that is worse than i do not like the guy. >> there's a lot of i don't like the guy too. there's a lot of he is just a bad guy what voter doesn't take that into consideration, you need a quality person to run the country, that is kind of like test-a before anything else gets done, anybody that has ever worked with him says the opposite. >> isn't tom delay the guy that

took a baseball bat to the democrats to make them vote for medicare part d. if we are talking about newt gingrich, his unfavorables are through the roof. it's something like 70% of voters in florida he has a 70 unfavorable rating. >> people put the electability question to the table and you felt in south carolina that people looked at him and they said there's a fighter he can beat obama. he has gone from angry, over the line in some cases, and to dangerous. they will say he cannot win. >> i said to this during the break, when do people remember, this is the guy that ruined the '90s. he is living a swinging lifestyle, going after bill clinton and joe scarborough said

if newt gingrich is the smartest guy in the room, leave that room. >> not everyone is a gingrich detractors, a few women in the house said, let's listen to what she said. >> newt gingrich was very, very, very welcoming to all of us who were women. ? i want to a tribute my appropriation to newt gingrich, he wanted a token pro-life republican. ann was there. so then i got appointed and kay got appointed. the republican s did not have women in appropriations. he said immediately, we will put women in the chair and, he did, he said you would be a good appropriator. >> i guess this counts as a

ringing endorsement. >> plainly he likes women. >> hello, all of us who are women. >> that was pretty low wattage, if that is where we have to go to find support. >> it's faint praise. it's faint. >> but to for the man with the felony on his record, yes, newt knows how the win and he has a habit of losing and losing big. that is what they are afraid of. >> locking up votes, it will be a long dance. after the break, the pentagon proposed major cuts. we will look at how the cuts will affect america's role on the global stage. [ male announcer ] new starbucks blonde roast is another way to look at the bean. another way that reveals the lighter,

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in a new behind the scenes book on american forces in afghanistan, called the operators, michael hastings details deep frustration among america's troops and commanders, michael, we know, i think a lot of us, you first came to the national stage with the rolling stone article on stanley mcchristal. i want to talk about the subject of the book and the frustration that is there is regarding rules of engagement and the hatred that the troops have for the avenue fw afghans. >> this is really about the run away military and it's kind of the not safe for work version of your book about afghanistan. the strategy is with the rules of engagement, you are talking about american servicemen who feel like they are not allowed

to defend themselves. and in the story we detail in the bob, one of the soldiers was killed because they were not allowed to do these things. petraious dialed that back after taking over. >> we had in the news, the photo, the images of u.s. troops desecrating the body of dead insurgery ants. there's clearly a lot of stress on these men. if we talk about the wars in afghanistan, the american public has looked a lot away. there's not a great amount of attention paid to veterans when they come back, what did you think when you saw the pictures? >> i defended them. these war trophy digital photos are common. what i said, what bothered me

about that and it really bothered me was that you had an official outrage from the secretary of state, from the defense department, from the white house. how could this happen? we are ten years in, you are continually pushing the policy of putting the soldiers in these sort office situati sorts of situations will happen. we cannot be shocked when you are going to see them videotape them urinating on the body, b. >> there are some that would i say it's inappropriate to do it no matter what, and walks back the progress we made. it's a good path to bringing in the defense department has thou announced cuts. they will bring down the army troops by 80,000, marines will see cuts, 20,000 and 14 navy war

ships will be retired or built more slowly. these are the first defense cuts since 1998. which is interesting, the white house of course said this is an effort to streamline u.s. fighting forces. there's a lot of resistance from the republican party saying that moor troops are perhaps needed. >> it will add more urgency to come up, perhaps in a lame duck session with the alternative, the super committee failed. you have $600 billion more in defense cuts, and nobody wants that to happen. >> it's important to remember that the reality is this money will be where the policy goes. remember that the bush administration had a very elaborate plan. more mobile forces and then they engaged in two ground wars and the money was there.

most people at the pentagon say, if you don't know anything about the defense budget, you do not think there are cuts to be made. there's a great deal of contractor spending that can be streamlined and focused. >> there's nothing conservative about the defense department. it's a 53rd state. we spent -- >> so the moon would be the 52nd? >> $20 billion in air conditions in afghanistan and iraq last year. >> $20 billion in a year? >> one year. >> how cool is it? >> it's cool. >> one thing that is interesting about the defense cuts, it suggests the way that the government is moving toward corporate america. specialized talents and streami streamiextrem

streamli streamlining, you are talking 10s of thousands of young men that there's not a whole lot of other things to be doing in the country at this time. >> and veterans unemployment is high eer than the national average. have you a cover story coming up on israel and we are looking at what is going on in iran, vis-a-vis, the strait of hormuz, the idea that there's increasing tension between iran and israel as israel wants to neutralize anyclear capabilities and there's rhetoric of how and whether america should be involved in this? >> and it speaks to what some backers of the military say why there needs to be a huge defense

bu budget. if it turns out that israel has to attack iran, what happens with america and all the other countries. there could be a much larger war over there that the united states would obviously have to be involved in. and it's unclear what kind of war that would be. and, you cannot just start cutting the military and not know what the potential conflicts are. >> when you look at the middle east and it has been the shifting sands of foreign policy, sometimes it's leading from behind and sometimes more aggressive action is called for. senator mccain criticizine the protests. we are looking -- we are doing an around the globe sort of section here. put it all in a block. what has happened in terms of who has been elected to parliament, there was a contention that egypt, democracy has been restored and there were

folks installed in parliament that were friendly to western objectives, we know that i believe, the u.s. is threatening to rescind $1.3 billion in aid because there are travel restrictions on americans in egypt and there's a 70% plus isl islamist marriage jority in par. >> a guy not to leave out is sam lehood, his father is in the obama administration. any democracy in the middle east will have a huge islamist party. so, we have to be comfortable. if we want to promote democracy, we have to be comfortable

dealing with this element. i think it the egyptian military sticking us for not supporting them fully. >> come pg ing up, friday, is t republican nominee presidential race becoming a horror story. coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports," romney campaign adviser kevin madden joining us and david gregory is here with the winners and losers of the florida debate and we will look at the new poll. and education nation, controlling tuition costs, county president, dr. freeman robowski, that is less than 15 minutes from now.

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a gingrich campaign is looking for its second straight victory unless the romney camp

can fend them off, it's time to look back and ask, "what just happened?" . in theaters across florida, it's the republican night of the living dead. a campaign once left for dead that just keeps coming back to life. but who will stop it? an innocent front-runner left at home alone. >> i don't think that people would be thinking i was being honest with them if i said i was mexican american. >> he had to resign from congress in disgrace. >> he was tapped. >> and tapped and tapped. >> resign in disgrace. >> leaving him defenseless against attacks. >> something hypocritical about the romney campaign, we are not that stupid and you are not that clever. swiss bank accounts -- >> by a candidate that will not

stop until he gets what he wants even if it does not exist on planet earth. >> by the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon. >> the story will give you thrills. >> i don't think that he will meet his maker. >> he will find another region more to his comfort. >> and chills. >> i've been working on the railroad. >> and with cliff hangers galore. >> that is not going to happen. he will not be the president of the united states. that much i know. >> who knows? >> who knows? >> [ laughter ] >> night of the living dead. here is the question, has mitt romney after yesterday night successfully beat back gingrich to the degree that he will not come back? >> no. come on!

newt gingrich feeds off the failure of others and he will keep going and going. this is pro portional, it not winner takes all and 75% of republicans cannot stand mitt romney. you either have to learn to love him or newt will be there to be end. >> you have a lot of southern states coming up that he got on the ballot for, he will have favorable voters for him. >> sequel to this movie, parts, two, three, four, five. does he still maintain the momentum that he has out of a place like south carolina though? >> obviously not. but it's true like hardship brings out the best in newt, he is down and gets going. he needs to take another cruise and recharge and come back. >> mitt romney is like a weird science fiction character, dropped in from another planet to act like he is a politician. yeah, from another dimension where you can have two different

positions and still -- >> each time he comes back, is he as strong as he was the last time. you have to think that to some degree, and you saw it from republican leadership that he is losing -- he is losing some amount of steam so when he does come back, it will not be to the same degree that he has been. >> he is leading romney by 9% points. i like that romney will win florida and get nominated but you cannot go to the bank on that. >> an open marriage with your political opinions, newt gingrich has been accused of having a open marriage with his political opinions. >> i'm bullish on newt.

>> and as a member of the news he media, i can only hope there's more newt where that came from. >> david axelrod is wagging his tail and watching it all. >> wagging his tail? >> you know, his pretend tail. no, just a fun-loving campaign he doesi itnot have a tail. thanks again to john, that is all for now, i'll see you back here on monday at noon eastern when i'll be joined by my panel. but until then, you can follow us on the old twitter machine@now with alex. hello and happy friday to you an -- andrea. >> the romney campaign's kevin madden and president obama rallying the home team, we will have his speech live to house

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to any mobile phone on any network. at&t. right now on "andrea mitchell reports." president obama in campaign mode, fighting for votes in michigan. >> that's the spirit right now that we need, michigan. here in america, we don't give up, we look out for each other we make sure everybody has a chance to get ahead. >> next stop for the president, maryland where he is trying to reassure house democrats whose jobs are also on the line. who is first? our poll has gingrich ahead of romney nationally b ll lly but ahead in florida. he was in form for the debate. >> i'm