is appealing to those who resent those who believe that the wealthy are abusing the system. >> bob franken jackie kucinich, thank you both for joining us. >> thank you. >>> coming up -- a big boost for president obama. the brand new nbc poll straight ahead. >>> plus -- new outrage over a man's ridiculous response to charges of racial profiling and harassment in his town. stay with us. we are the house when it comes to the big game. yeah. it's his thing. i don't even participate. boom! here it comes! bring it back! bring it home! [ male announcer ] when you combine creamy velveeta with zesty rotel tomatoes and green chilies, you get a bowl of queso that makes even this get-together better. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪

joining me now is bill press, host of the bill press show on sirius xm radio and bob franken, a featuredolumnist. >> reverend al. >> al. >> bob, you've covered newt for a long time. was there ever any question that he was going to go negative on mitt? >> certainly not in my mind. when he said that he was going to be running a positive campaign, i have to admit to a chuckle or two. what ran through my mind is you're going to run a positive campaign, how many seconds is that going to last? of course, it didn't last long. >> i felt he was going to run a positively negative campaign myself. but let me ask you, bill, when you look at this new poll, it says that 58% of primary voters, republicans in south carolina -- 58% -- don't want romney to be their nominee. so these ads are hitting a pretty fertile ground. the question is, i suppose, if the opposition to romney is so split up that they can't win. >> çno, exactly. by the way, in response to your first question, i wonder sometimes whether newt gingrich is actually on obama's payroll because he certainly is doing a lot of the work of the ob

and bob franken a kings feature syndicated columnist. bob's covered newt gingrich for years. thank you both for being here tonight. >> thank you. >> erin, let me start with you. what are you expecting to see from both mitt and newt tonight? >> i think it's going to be a fight about character. at least that's what both of the campaigns are telling me. mitt romney's been saying gingrich needs to release his contract from his consulting fees with freddie mac. earlier this decade and -- or i guess six, seven years ago and newt gingrich's campaign, his lawyers are releasing that contract tonight which we talked about that last week, al, as you remember. newt released his tax returns going into that debate. he's doing the same thing again as a preemptive strike at mitt romney. >> now, you know, bob, you learn from lawyers. i've never been a lawyer, but a lot of my friends are. you never -- >> more power to you, al. >> you never ask a question you don't know the answer. and it seems to me that mr. romney in asking this, is he shooting in the dark or does he know there's something in

and bob franken, who has covered newt gingrich for years. you both for joining me. >> good evening. >> thank you. >> erin, you are down there. what do you expect to see tonight? >> just as you said, a big fight between newt gingrich and mitt romney. they've been going at each other, mitt romney's finally starting to talk about newt gingrich in his stump speech which he hadn't done in about a month. i think we're also going to see a little bit about newt gingrich's three marriages come up tonight. as you know, another network had an interview with his second wife marianne in which she bashes him for essentially asking her if she would be open to an open marriage with him while he was carrying on an affair with his now wife calista. but, you know, i think, al, that we're seeing a lot of overconfidence from the gingrich campaign. he was talking today at an event in walterboro, south carolina, and saying if he wins here in south carolina on saturday, that he thinks he'll be the republican nominee. it's the kind of language that we heard from him

. >> joining me now is bob franken, a syndicated columnist and -- with feature -- king features and ones known mr. gingrich for a long time and covered him for an extensive period of time. and cynthia tucker, pulitzer prize wing syndicated columnist and now a visiting professor of journalism at the university of georgia. she recently wrote a column about class warfare and the gop's reagan problem. let me start with you, cynthia. does romney really think this recycled reagan talking points will hide the fact that he's a 1 percenter as a candidate? >> i think he really does think the strategy will work, reverend. i think that's the reason he keeps using it. but he lives in a bubble. he talks about earning $374,000 in one year in speaking fees as not very much. you know, when he released his income taxes, he said, well most of what i earned was income from investments, but then i earned a little from speaking fees, not very much. that turns out to be more than $374,000, more than seven years' salary for the average american. so when he talks about class warfare, yes, he's trying to hide th

problem the go to washington and pass another program to put on another layer of regulations -- bob franken is hanging out there, of course, as well -- dodd-frank is hanging out there, as well as obama care, of course. you have got to get that off and i believe that we could do that. [applause] >> my first job is that i teach american and constitutional history at a community college. i want to say thank you for talking so much about the constitution. it is very much appreciated by myself and everyone else in the room. my second job is i work for the new york city police department. i was a first responder on september 11. [applause] i think that a lot of people that like what you say about the constitution and domestic policy are on the rigid policies are on the fence about what you're saying about domestic policy and september 11. could you talk more to reassure the people? >> 9/11 will be remembered by every one of us. one of the significant events of 9/11 was it brought the american people together. it was a devastating day. it should have been a time when we reassessed all of our value

. >>> joining me now is bob franken thank you both for being here tonight.hen numerically, that is clearly not true, i mean. >> let me use the term intentionally that you used last night and whether you meant it or not. i do mean it whether it seems to be appeals to the extreme right wing of the republican party. that is to say that there continues to be among many conservatives a real resentment against blacks. this is a way of pandering to that, in addition to which you have rick santorum representing the theocrats and the republican party, which is also part of the base, theocracy, of course, like perhaps the one in iran, they would like to see that created here. this is really an appeal to the base instincts in the republican party, and the base instincts of the republican base. >> i meant what i said. somebody said it was a gaffe. i repeated it last night, that it was in line with the angry -- it was in line with the distortion, so clearly let me show you some of the confusion on this rhetoric. >> i had this discussion with al sharpton the other day on

problem the go to washington and pass another program to put on another layer of regulations -- bob franken is hanging out there, of course, as well -- dodd-frank is hanging out there, as well as obama care, of course. you have got to get that off and i believe that we could do that. [applause] >> my first job is that i teach american and constitutional history at a community college. i want to say thank you for talking so much about the constitution. it is very much appreciated by myself and everyone else in the room. my second job is i work for the new york city police department. i was a first responder on september 11. [applause] i think that a lot of people that like what you say about the constitution and domestic policy are on the rigid policies are on the fence about what you're saying about domestic policy and september 11. could you talk more to reassure the people? >> 9/11 will be remembered by every one of us. one of the significant events of 9/11 was it brought the american people together. it was a devastating day. it should have been a time when we reassessed all of our value