prestige of newt gingrich. prestige of the speakership of the house. that's what they're selling. it's the newt gingrich signed gavel and newt gingrich framed certificate and the party where you're allowed or guaranteed you'll be allowed to be near newt gingrich. it is the letter you get from the desk of speaker newt gingrich. and today we have learned that it's not just small businesses and doctors who've been suckered into the whole access to newt fund-raising spam scam. it's big companies, too. today "washington post" reports that the newt gingrich's health care think tank, the center for health transformation, collected $37 million over the past 8 years from some of the biggest health care companies in the country. companies like astrazeneca and blue cross blue shield and ge health care and wellpoint. all of these companies would pay newt's for h-profit health care thing, $200,000 a year in membership dues. what would they get for their membership dues money? in part, they'd get special access to the former

he's certainly favoring newt there, so is that -- is he playing the white house game of helping newt so he can be the nominee, and therefore be easier to beat? or is he just having a little fun and hurting the president so sell a book? i'm not knocking it. he's making news. we're talking about him. >> i talked to lots of white house and dnc people today, trying to suss out not the clinton story, but the general attitude toward newt gingrich. the campaign's pretty blase about gingrich. the dnc, which is more interesting, which has a lot of people who have been around washington for a long time, take newt very seriously. i think the dnc, the party apparatus takes newt more seriously than the obama campaign in chicago does, because they weren't really around here for the most part when newt was a big deal in the old days. i think bill clinton. partly with clinton, it's remembrance of things past. he did all those deals with newt back in the '90s. they had their fights, like ali/ frazier, et cetera. you know, they're old inadvertence. i also think there's no love lost between this white

see, now, everybody's waiting for newt to blow up. you know, newt's capable of losing his temper. capable of overplaying his hand. there's always interesting battles in newt's entourage. as we saw when his staff quit back in june. but it's all about debates, he's got the gravitas to win these debates. also the notion that it's got to be a governor who handled a loyal economy doesn't seem to be holding water at least in this election cycle. and newt gingrich can go back to the days of the '90s which ironically bill clinton's out there inferentially touting. newt's got a lot of strength here, and i think that mitt romney needs a new rationale of some kind. he needs a new strategy. what's going to happen is his people, he's got very experienced people on his campaign. they're going to look for dirt on newt. they're going to go after newt with all kinds of opo research and all kinds of stuff. newt is kind of predisaster, to use the phrase from the john irving book. first of all, because all the other candidates who came before him are deeply flawed, whether michele bachmann, herman ca

he said, excellent question, newt.t clawed his way to the top by spending the previous 11 debates attacking the media and moderators. today he was the nice purring like a kitten newt gingrich in his new front-runner status. i think a measure of his confidence now was his willing r ness to take on the immigration issue as ron was saying. that's what killed rick perry. newt is a superconfident guy who thinks he can explain it better. i think he backed away a little bit in the middle of the debate after he first got in it saying the people would have to be here 25 years, et cetera. he did use the "h" word, humane. he said, i'm willing to be humane. that's a measure of his confidence. mitt romney came to the conservative line on most points, but always in a mechanical way that never convinces the conservatives but manages toç keep them at 20% t 25%. rick perry interestingly had a chance to say to newt gingrich, hey, you and i agree on immigration, but rick perry is so flumixed at this point that he didn't do it. he stayed

prestige of newt gingrich. prestige of the speakership of the house. that's what they're selling. it's the newt gingrich signed gavel and newt gingrich framed certificate and the party where you're allowed or guaranteed you'll be allowed to be near newt gingrich. it is the letter you get from the desk of speaker newt gingrich. and today we have learned that it's not just small businesses and doctors who've been suckered into the whole access to newt fund-raising spam scam. it's big companies, too. today "washington post" reports that the newt gingrich's health care think tank, the center for health transformation, collected $37 million over the past 8 years from some of the biggest health care companies in the country. companies like astrazeneca and blue cross blue shield and ge health care and wellpoint. all of these companies would pay newt's for-profit health care thing $200,000 a year in membership dues. what would they get for their membership dues money? in part, they'd get special access to the former ho

look at newt gingrich. newt gingrich is tied with mitt romney for second place in this poll. a new poll out today by marist and mcclatchyn, trailing romney by four points. newt gingrich's poll numbers started at nil but are pointing up. rick perry self-emulated and we're watching the art project known as herman cain self-emulate as well, it's not surprising that the beleaguered republican primary voters of this year will turn to yet another candidate begging them to please not be mitt romney. they've gone through this with donald trump now and michele bachmann, rick perry, herman cain and expect them to do this with everybody in the field except for rick santorum. nobody's going to vote for rick santorum, come on. the idea of a newt gingrich surge is almost as absurd as people googling rick santorum and saying, i like what i found here, i'm going to vote for this guy. if you know nothing else about newt gingrich, what is the other notable thing that's happened to newt gingrich since he's been running for president this year? what's the one other thing? back in june, remember,

hold on. >> newt gingrich.t newt gingrich, the more positive newt gingrich who sort of had a vision and took on ron paul, and the patriot act debate, it was very, very interesting. the intellectual newt, but he was appealing which is something i don't think he's really been before. i think it's probably because he's more relaxed and he's doing better in the polls and people like him. i think he was more likable this evening. >> i think speaker gingrich came into the debate with the most to lose. i want to see how the immigration debate plays out. herman cain was asked a question about syria and started talking about the u.s. economy that to me is a sign of his weakness when it comes to commander in chief test. thanks to our panel. that does it for this edition of "360." you can see the debate in its entirety, next. [ male announcer ] tom's discovering that living healthy can be fun. see? he's taking his vitamins. new one a day vitacraves plus omega-3 dha is a complete multivitamin for adults. plus an excellent

we start with newt gingrich. howard fineman is an msnbc political analyst and the "huffington post" media group editorial director. and melissa donohue is now a fellow with the eisenhower institute. the new hampshire leader endorsement had a subtle slap at romney. "gingrich is by no means the perfect candidate. we would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what he thinks we want to hear." boy, that is a shot. howard, tell me about this. this is an endorsement that doesn't mean you win, but it means what? >> well, you don't want to get in the gun sights of the union leader. and it's clear that mitt romney is right there. sure, joe mcquaid, the publisher and president, who i spoke to just a couple of hours ago to ask him about the endorsement is thinking behind the endorsement. and the first thing joe mcquaid said to me was, did you see "saturday night live" last week, in the skit that they did about mitt romney? that's the one where the comedian plays mitt romney and mitt r

newt?ell, i just think it's probably really good news for obama. so i'm not going to get caught up in what a hypocrite he is. >> just stop that. come on. >> no, that'll come out in the wash. so what's great is the republicans clearly don't want to win and that's good for obama. >> wow. i don't know. i don't know -- i mean it's looking pretty good for him. he's moving ahead in the polls. mark, he's moving up in new hampshire. he's moving up in iowa. he's got the endorsement -- >> conservatives love him. >> what i call the manchester union leader. he doesn't have a conservative record. he's spotty at best. >> but they can pretend he does. >> but he's still doing very well despite the fact he flip-flops as much as mitt romney. >> i'll say again, if you take the good newt, man of ideas, passion, long record of working around the country and conservative circles and articulate and a real ability to touch the republican soul on what they don't like about president obama, he's a great candidate. >

newt gingrich campaign. newt gingrich still doing more than a third of his upcoming events as book signings and dvd screenings. running for president it turns out is a great way to sell your stuff. the whole idea behind newt's stuff, the whole idea behind newt incorporated is that you should want to buy newt gingrich books and should want to buy newt gingrich dvds and want to pay thousands of dollars to get fake awards from newt gingrich enterprises because newt gingrich is such an important and very serious man. that is the whole marketing concept behind newt gingrich incorporated. and that dovetails really nicely with running for president because if you're newt gingrich, running for president sort of givings you a justification to talk about yourself in rather grandiose terms. for example, late last week at an event in michigan, mr. gingrich was asked about judges. dave wiegel at slate.com was at the event and quotes mr. gingrich as responding this way. "if you go to newt.org, you'll see an entire paper o

check out newt gingrich. his website has shiny, new explanations for why he's changed his positions on the health care mandate, on global warming, on t.a.r.p., on what he called paul ryan's right wing social engineering medicare plan and luckily for newt, all of his new positions line up nicely with the conservative republican primary voters. well, also the veto -- >>> the video that went viral this weekend. campus police pepper spraying peaceful occupy protesters out at uc dave this california. the university's police chief was placed on administrative leave today and many students are calling for the university's chancellor to step down. >>> and look who has decided to take a chance on iowa, mitt romney. he may be trying to win it all up front, but if he loses out there and loses big, it could be all over for mitt. >>> finally, let me finish tonight with why i think november 22nd, tomorrow, should never be a day to remember john f. kennedy. >>> we start with the super committee's failure to reach a deal tod

i don't think newt -- i don't newt's going to have the big impact in new hampshire.in south carolina if he doesn't blow up the way herman cain blew up. and that's a big "if" with newt because newt usually can't stand success. >> well, he likes to talk about his success when he's making a point. let's move on to this. the latest american research group poll shows gingrich topping the field in south carolina with 33% support. that's up 25 points since october. romney is in second place with -- in the state there with 22%. dropping 3 points since last month. as newt gingrich rises in the polls, there is growing scrutiny in to his work after he left congress. he maintained -- >> he was a lobbyist. he made how much? did he make $100 million? >> no, he took -- >> no, no, he introduced -- >> he was a historian. >> well -- >> but he also talked to government groups in which "the new york times" story today, but introducing clients to a conversation. >> he basically was -- >> you could buy time with newt. >> in other words, the lax -- >> he sold access. he sold access. and he

could it really be newt gingrich?rt captured the iron of that news on "the daily show" last night. let's watch. >> the scandal has taken its toll on the cain campaign. reports are now emerging that he might be considering withdrawing from the race which i strongly discourage him from doing. i've already lost trump. i can't lose you, too. if these allegations of sexual improprietary derail cain, who will benefit. >> herman cain was already losing altitude in this race. where do his votes go? >> they go to newt gingrich i think. >> what? so voters leave cain because they don't like that he had an affair and go to the guy who had two of them. i guess newt gingrich becomes the candidate for people who like herman cain but think he was too monogamous. [ laughter ] >> well, look, the only candidate saddened by cain's downfall besides cain is mitt romney. here's junts man speaking for the happy survivors. quote, we've got real issues to talk about, not the latest bimbo eruption. well, this whole shebang has been like the old

i would put newt -- you have newt in the eastern conference, i would put him kind of in between. i think he's trying to get that social conservative tea party vote, too, though he is clearly a member of the establishment. he's the momentum guy at the moment. he's the next guy in line after donald trump, michele bachmann, and herman cain, the kind of anti-romney conservative. i think to the extent that there's a momentum candidate, conservatives are looking for someone who isn't named nominee, who can win the nomination and be credible against barack obama, that's probably newt gingrich. but there was a pew poll conducted last week. people who named herman cain as their first choice, their second choice split between romney and gingrich. it's not as simple as gingrich gets all of the herman cain -- they probably go a lot of different places. but i think these are people who jumped on the cain train, pardon that terrible pun, but jumped on because he was the momentum candidate and now gingrich is that candidate, so it's an easy transition for them. >> i would be a lot more hesitant

. >>> will newt get the boot? let's play "hardball." >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews down in washington. leading off tonight, hey, newt, how's that front-runner thing working out for you? we've now learned that in representing health care companies, newt gingrich supported what republicans now denounce as death panels. he came out in favor of an individual insurance mandate. is it possible to take anything he says now seriously? >>> also, when did the gop decide that ignorance is not only bliss, but it's downright presidential? herman cain says americans are looking for a leader, not a reader. but how about reading the newspapers? rick perry criticizes president obama for being the smartest guy in the room, like there's something wrong with it. the days of conservatives admiring their own intellectuals are apparently long gone. >>> and plus, a conversation about america and politics tonight with tom brokaw. why, we're going to ask him, are politicians on both sides of the aisle, left and right, including president obama, having so much trouble conne

the whole idea behind newt's stuff is you should want to buy newt gingrich books and dvds and you should want to pay thousands of dollars to pay awards because he's an important and serious man. that's the whole marketing concept behind newt gingrich incorporated and that dove tails nicely with running for president. it sort of gives you a justification to talk about yourself in grandiose terms. for example, last week mr. gingrich was asked about judges. dave wiigle at slate.com was at the event. if you go it newt.org you see an entire paper on rebalancing the judiciary. it's the most common statement written by a political figure since lincoln's first inaugural in 1861. now, this is not somebody else's awesome paper that newt found somewhere and he's publicizing since the first naul ral. he's talking about himself. the most thorough statement of the constitution and balance of power since lincoln's first inaugural? when he was republican speaker of the house he was quoted in the "new york times" telling an audience, quote, people like me are what stand between us and auschwitz. america,

we start with the apparent gop front-runner right now, newt gingrich. david gregory is the moderator of nbc's "meet the press." and howard fineman is an msnbc political analyst and "the huffington post" media group editorial director. david gregory, great to have you on. we'll talk about "meet the press" coming up this weekend. but let me ask you about this whole thing. don't you think just in a psychological way, what do you think it can does to mitt romney, who's been running for president since the last time to realize that newt gingrich is now the preferred candidate of the republican party, with all newt's baggage. i mean, totally, objectively, he's carrying so much baggage, serial marriages, reprimanded from the house of representativess, basically moved out from his own party caucus from the speakership. and here he is back as if none of that happened. >> i think it's troubling for romney. at the same time, i think there's a level of resignation in the romney campaign, that their campaign was not predicated on setting the electorate on fire. by b

but newt gingrich is different. newt gingrich is different from all the rest of these pachinko ball front-runners for five minutes. newt gingrich is fun to cover in his moment in the sun here. because newt gingrich has been around in politics in one incarnation or another basically forever. to trace the origins of the eyebrow raising stuff that newt gingrich is promoting now that he's the presidential front-runner, go back to newt gingrich's old cassette tapes. remember cassette tapes? for all viewers younger than me, this is a cassette tape. used to have boom boxes and machines in our cars that would play these things and sometimes your car would mess it up and the tape could get tied like this. one of the things newt gingrich did when he was on his way to becoming speaker of the house newt gingrich -- look, i broke it. no, there it goes. he took over a republican organization called go-pac and he would send republican coaching cassette tapes to republican candidates for office all around the country. not just peop

they damage romney, or if not they get newt gingrich.ney's interpretation. they would be less excited about these candidates. don't fear mitt romney. fear is way too strong and dramatic for approaching romney right now. there's a lot of frustration among senior democrats in the chicago headquarters of the obama campaign that the republicans have not picked the low-ringing fruit that is romney's record so they do it for them. >> john huntsman is the one republican not afraid of going after romney. i think it's because he knows there is absolutely no chance of him to be chosen on the ticket with romney, because romney is going to practice religious discrimination in his choice and he will not under any circumstances xhooz another mormon on that ticket. let's listen to huntsman on this. >> you should be wary of any candidate who carries all the endorsement of the members of congress because there's a status quo president. anyone in the hip pocket of wall street because of all the donations they pick up like mr. romney is these days is not a

will it be the intellectual newt gingrich unafraid or the sour, nastier newt gingrich that is not likeable? i think the first newt gingrich was at your debate last night. >> certainly he surprised all of us, given where he was over the summer. everyone thought his campaign as it was beginning was already over. all of a sudden, the new polls show he's right in the thick of things. >> what a testament to the power of the debates and the way it changes the way they run for president. >> we'll see if this last debate winds up helping or hurting him. don't go too far away. we have a lot to discuss. the candidates were united in slamming the tsa. some calling for profiling of muslims. also, a sharp clash over the u.s. military mission in afghanistan. act my age? -why? -why? -why? [ female announcer ] we all age differently. roc® multi-correxion 4 zone moisturizer with roc®retinol and antioxidants. lines, wrinkles, and sun damage will fade. roc multi-correxion. correct what ages you. the sleep number bed. with the sleep number bed, it's not about soft or firm. it's about support where you find it

if it's newt gingrich, well we all know newt, i served with him in the house.. it's a week republican field in my judgment. i think that will help the president immensely as he comes into the midwest. >> well, michael may have a different tactic there because of the 12 states. >> just a little. >> do you think the gop candidate must win or the ultimate gop candidate has to win to take the white house? michael, no republican has won the white house without winning governor strickland's home state of ohio. >> ohio will be at the top of the list. i think along with florida. what will be important for the gop next year will be to get back virginia and north carolina which they lost in 2008. they were huge losses in the sense that it began to eat into one of the core stint weconstit in the south and wrapping our arms around ohio sets in place the pathway to 270 votes in the electoral college. but i think it's doable. i think the president has a lot of baggage as they like to say. to care any this campaign. certainly, ohio will be competitive because of the state of

there's newt the sharpest guy in the room, and he often is, and the very able newt and inspiring newtthe dinner speaker newt. and then the newt who wilts under pressure and often brings it on himself. who when the lights are shining brightest fails the most. and that's what this primary campaign is going to test for newt gingrich. as anybody knows, campaigns are brutal. they're long. they're hard. newt's yet to be tested. i'm not sure he's going to hold up. >> when you look at the polls among republican voters you see right now newt gingrich is ahead on the substantive things, whether it be the economy or foreign policy. when it gets to morality, no. not even remotely close. it's interesting because when i interviewed newt gingrich a few weeks ago, we were talking about herman cain. i said does morality matter in a candidate and the answer was no. i'm wondering how you think that will play out over time. >> in the immediate term, i think what david and ari are saying is right. newt gingrich has emerged almost entirely through his debate performances. that has been the entire surge beh

newt gingrich, 27%. romney, 20%. paul, 16%.e digits, cain, bachmann and santorum. moving to new hampshire, romney 33%, gingrich 22%. paul 12%. single digits again, cain, undecided and huntsman. okay. couple questions. is newt gingrich a serious contender at this point? >> i think the endorsement of "the union leader" makes him a serious threat to mitt romney potentially in new hampshire in ways that he might not have anticipated and we'll see what happens in the polls in the next few weeks. i think in iowa it is easy to say newt's on top but that contest comes first. he has a lot of explaining to do on the immigration question. he has a lot of explaining to do on other issues. support for t.a.r.p. which he then took back. his position on climate change. his position on the ryan medicare plan. a mandate for health care. advanced directives for health care. he has a lot of answering to do in iowa before those caucuses are counted -- the votes are counted on a cold january 3rd night and i think that ultimately, iowa could be a mud