if you recall, bob dole was that year's mitt romney. >> when they say bob dole wants to raise taxes, and i've got a record of carrying the ball for ronald reagan, that is not accurate. >> bob dole who referred to himself as bob dole, lost to bill clinton badly by 8 million votes. after that electoral drubing he got, there have been two surprising and interesting things about bob dole in american life post losing for president. number one, the viagra ad. it was so amazing mr. dole later did a pepsi ad making fun of his own viagra ad. >> i'm here to tell you about a prod thaukt put real joy back in my life. it helps me feel youthful and vigorous and vital again. what is this amazing product? my faithful little blue friend. an ice cold pepsi cola. >> are the revitalizing effects right for you? check with your counter clerk and start living again. >> i love the fake guy. bob dole losing the presidential election in 1996, then becoming a viagra pitchman. that was the first surprising thing about him, in american life after he lost to bill clinton in 1996. the second surprising thing about

bob dole and john mccain both lost. and they are both big touted endorsements by mitt romney right now. there are two main things going on in the republican press shall nominating process. there is a question of when rick santorum will get out of the race, the question of why ron paul is amassing all these delegates and what he wants to do with those delegates once he gets them. there are sideline issues. but the main two things going on are these. the republican establishment is pulling out all the stops to kill the gingrich candidacy and the gingrich candidacy keeps exposing new and very real weaknesses in mitt romney as a candidate. pick a conservative establishment news outlet, pick one, any one, they were all busy absolutely slamming newt gingrich. look how the dredge report did. there is me on the right making fun of me because nobody recognized me on jeopardy. which i thought was hilarious. on the box the same box on the front page of the dredge report, the smiley happy picture of mitt romney and his handsome son

in fact, bob dole -- wasn't bob dole's debating skills that harmed it. defeat bill clinton, it was because newt gingrich in his wisdom decided we needed to shut down the government in 1995, and that really did receive very dams to bob dole's chances because bill clinton was -- emerged vicious, but mitt romney is doing a great job. his credit den shalls were that he saved the olympics in salt lake city. he has been a governor in the free enterprise system. has the credentials to be the next nominee and the next president of the united states, and i'm not surprised he is picking up momentum. i was down in florida campaigning with him. we had a lot of fun. and i think he is going to do extremely well. >> i for one loved the gabor line. i would probably wonder who in the audience would have gotten that. >> worked better at sun lakes, and at the villages. >> i hear you. senator, is there michigan to what the former speaker says about republicans going more moderate? i don't think that's a fair general description of you. but i do think we wrap ourses around t

bob dole, i remember the bob dole negotiation. bob dole is a man who talks in versus. one-liners, and he never talks more than two and have many. so his negotiators were willing to give up anything in order for those answers to be only, never more than two and a half minutes long. and, of course, against bill clinton, bill clinton could talk for two and a half hours on any given question. so in order to get at, clinton also wanted a town hall thing. so they swapped. they are negotiators. they swapped. dole got what he one of which was short answers and some of the debates, in exchange for clinton's people getting what clinton wanted, which was a town hall debate, for the first time. and everything about what the size of the holding rooms are, everything about it is negotiated. >> host: including the moderator. and that may, if you sort of positive, that maybe why they ended up with a single moderator because they couldn't agree on anybody other than you. >> guest: this is not false modesty. it's true. that a couple of times that i ended up moderating debates is because

[cheering] >> my opponent for this nomination is bob dole. >> bob dole must win tonight. he knows that. >> thank you, iowa. >> this is my opportunity obviously to thank the people of new hampshire. >> we want everybody here in new hampshire. >> this tennessean is in the end zone and it feels great! >> we're going to washington, d.c. to take back the white house! >> i love new hampshire! >> thank you, iowa! >> the next president of the united states, barack obama. chris: actually pat buchanan beat bob dole in one of those races. thank you to our producer who put together a great reel. when we come back, our new year's resolutions for our own world here, the media, how did we do and can we do better? "scoops and predictions" from the notebooks of these reporters, be right back. chris: welcome back. everybody is making resolutions for what they want to do better this year. so let's do it here. gloria, if you could offer a new year's resolution for all of us, this is tricky stuff, in this profession of journalism, right, what would it be? >> i would say stop interviewing dona

now, bob dole today. bob dole. who knew? >> yes. yes. >> a war hero but not to be the most conservative. >> bill: he doesn't like newt gingrich. they don't like him. >> yeah. i know. i understand they don't like him. i'm not endorsing anyone in this race. >> bill: i know him. >> i think that, again, there are a lot of conservative who's look at gingrich and say, okay. now, if he gets into office, and he starts doing this kind of crazy phone calling stuff or stuff that kind of... >> bill: have you to say the speaker said yesterday in florida he was on the space coast if elected we're going to have monday colonies before 2020. >> i have people would like to put--i'd like to put in those moon conlol yeens. i'm a space person. i like space and think we should be doing more in space fchl you're a conservative and concerned about our standings you can make an argument this is a great idea. not one you have to sink millions of dollars in debt. they're worried gingrich could represent the face of conservatism. that is what they're doing. >>

are you with bob dole on the po templeal down side of picking newt gingrich?is is the first time i ran for office, so i think, you know, this state elected manage -- i think what i hope he'll talk about tonight is jobs. what we want in florida, we want something to help our state get back to work. we've had a lot of success this last year. but we need or federal partner, not help, really, about you a federal partner that thinks the same way we do. and get our state back to work. >> i know you haven't endorsed anyone yet. it's getting closer to tuesday. that's when the florida primary takes place, but you did say some nice things the other day about mitt romney. it was from a radio show. then we'll discuss. >> if you're going to hire somebody, we're basically hiring a new president, would you hire someone successful in business our unsuccessful? the thing that mitt romney has going for him is he was successful in business. he said, look, this is the greatest country in the world and i can go build companies, and that's what he did. >> sounds pretty close to an

bob dole says, "i have not been critical of newt gingrich, but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late. hardly anyone who served with newt in congress has endorsed him, and that fact speaks for itself. in my run for the presidency in 1996, the democrats greeted me with a number of negative tv ads and in every one of them, newt was in the ad." so, at this point, it's sort of the standard, newt would be a bad nominee, newt would lose the election thing, until you get to this final crank from bob dole. and i do mean crank. he says, "newt would show up at the campaign headquarters," says bob dole, "with an empty bucket in his hand. that was a symbol of some sort for him. and i never did know what he was doing or why he was doing it and i'm not certain he knew either." why was newt gingrich carrying a bucket in the 1996 presidential campaign? whacky! newt on the moon. but the most notable thing from newt gingrich from the republican establishment, a, they're going with the wacky and unstable thing, but mostly, it's the magnitude of it. they just piled on. for example, just lo

, let me share a bit of it with you. >> sure. >> bob dole has not said much politically.has been ailing off on and off, here he comes out swinging. there was a long history, he was the senate majority leader while newt gingrich came up and became speaker of the house. and he was senator majority leader when gingrich was preventing a lot of bush 41s initiatives. >> newt will have an adverse effect on those running for state and local offices. it was his way or the highway, and he talks about mounting ethics problems, he said that even he went to bob dole and dole helped him get a line of credit to pay off his fine and it ended up newt raised the money from other sources. this is crushing. >> yeah, this is remarkable, it not surprising that newt gingrich had made a lot of enemies especially within his own party. we have all been waiting for folks from the '90s to go public with whoa, we tonight want newt as our nominee, you saw bob dole come out and we have had reports that the freshman, who never served with newt gingrich are becoming equally worried. some of them will not

some run-ins with people of his own party, but, you know, a lot of them -- i am not talking about bob dole who i love, but a lot of them were holding newt's coat back when he conceived to have the first republican speaker in years, when they balanced the budget and held bill clinton's feet to the fire and got welfare reform passed, and we were winning elections and his personality and leadership skills didn't seem to be a problem back then, but when the poll numbers dropped off and started to lose elections we should have won, everything changed and mitt romney has been the frontrunner for a long time. >> is the real fear, as governor christie said last week, that he is an embarrassment to the republican party. >> i would not say that, but i would say we had rather unpleasant experiences with newt gingrich, and one of them was the goverent shut down, and bob dole is the one that called a halt to it because it was killing us. the american people rejected the idea of us shutting down the government. my problems with newt has been over earmark spending. billions and billions and billions. whe

bob dole supporting mitt romney. >> i'm not sure it will persuade a single newt newton newtonian. the reason is dole didn't do that well in '96. he is exactly what the gingrich people would say is what romney is. he's the next in line. the establishment favorite. somebody who doesn't have a kind of fire and energy and ideological fervor that gingrich had. not sure that the romney people using it, as i'm also not sure that romney fighting on the ground of reaganism is a good idea. if anybody was not a reaganite et's romney. interesting the colleagues talk sigh coy tri and i am talking history. i just think, the real problem newt has is the claim of the stuff he did. he always has been. essentially he brought reaganism in the '90s. if that is the claim he makes a stand on he is right. >> bret: charles, who is the republican establishment? who is that? >> is it you? is it karl rove? >> karl rove is the president. we meet every month on the full moon. i explained this. at the masonic temple. we have the ritual. i bring the -- [ inaudible ] we begin as i explained. with a pledge of alle

bob dole went to the floor and said enough was enough, and he thought republicans were getting hurt and we ought to accommodate clinton, and that's what we did. that's the philosophical difference, and all the other overkill, bringing members of congress and putting them in the gingrich rallies and causing disruptions and things like that is way overboard. what is hurting us and what is going to be hurting our nominee, let's say romney is the nominee. his plan is to play nice guy until somebody gets close to him and then he unleashes his attack machine. and that's what happened in iowa and what is happening in florida, and spending millions -- i think they spent $16 million in television ads alone in florida. >> but, this is moderate politics? >> well, it's being bad when the shoe is on the other foot, and gingrich does something that they don't like. he out spent -- this goes to electability, too. he out spent gingrich in south carolina, and that was not enough. and he is out spending him in 5-1 in florida with a lead ad that is totally false according to the wall street journal yester

bob dole releasing a scathing comment today. in a statement.ingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse effect on republican candidates running for county, state and federal offices. hardly anyone who served with newt in congress has endorsed him. that facts speak for himself." he said, "gingrich had a new idea every minute when he was speaker and most of them were off the wall. he loved picking a fight with bill clinton because he knew it would get the attention of the press. this seasoned a myriad of other specifics helped topple gingrich in 1998." bob dole supporting mitt romney. >> i'm not sure it will persuade a single newt newton newtonian. the reason is dole didn't do that well in '96. he is exactly what the gingrich people would say is what romney is. he's the next in line. the establishment favorite. somebody who doesn't have a kind of fire and energy and ideological fervor that gingrich had. not sure that the romney people using it, as i'm also not sure that romney fighting on the ground of reaganism is a good idea. if anybody was

and bob dole is the one that finally called a halt to it because it was killing us. i mean, the american people rejected the idea of us shutting down the government. my problems with newt have been over earmark spending, billions and billions and billions. when newt gingrich became speaker, they turned earmarks into an art form. >> gingrich is fighting back, though, against what he calls the washington establishment. defending his candidacy and noting helpfully those two romney supporters didn't actually do so well in presidential races. >> i think the republican establishment believes it's okay to say and do virtually anything to stop a genuine insurgency from winning because they are very afraid of losing control of the old order. we tried a moderate in 1996 for president. he lost. we tried a moderate in 2008 for president. he lost. it's very hard to take romney care and obama care and have a debate and have the republican win that debate. you need to have a conservative who's a big distance away from obama because you've got to have the space so that in fact you c

you know, great old bob dole story. wt came up said senator, i don't understand why so many people take an instant dislike to me. dole goes, oh, saves them time. >> no question that mitt romney will be on the hot seat regarding his finances. he put out his taxes and now, there are questions being raised as to whether this swiss bank account was on his financial disclosure. >> do you guys moe how to do the swoop? >> swoop! >> show them the swoop! the swoop! they're too busy getting ready for the debate. thanks. still ahead here, he's hosted wheel of fortune for more than 30 years, but he's revealing he hasn't always been sober for every show. that's his secret. plus, chaos as a snow covered roof collapsed in slovakia. [ hermann ] there's always something that's going to have to be done by a certain date. you always have homework, okay? i don't have homework today. it's what's right here is what is most important to me. it's beautiful. ♪ ♪ when we were determined to see it through. here's an update on the progress. we're p

bob dole was out on the tape this afternoon supporting mitt romney and bashing newt gingrich. shing newt pretty bad. john mccain bashed newt earlier. you had of course the bob terrell from the "american spectator" writing a tough article on newt, my pal elliott abrams going bag to pat moynihan days wrote a rough piece in "the national review." why are these conservatives coming out and slamming newt gingrich so much? >> well, look, i think there's a couple reasons. first i don't think it breaks along eideological lines as muc as it breaks along the lines of these are people who know newt gingrich. they've seen him up close, they've witnessed his lack of leadership as somebody who is in a position of power in the late 90s and they just believe that it would -- he would take the country in the wrong direction. he's very erratic. in his interview tonight he showed he's very irrational, pointing his finger at the camera. is this someone we want to nominate to lead the party? i think the answer on that is no. and these are the type of arguments that many of these people who know new

because 26%, bob dole had that dubious record in 1996. that is now beaten. does it show an even field, a talented field or does it show that they just don't know in iowa? >> yes, and lowest percentage per candidate at the top. however, record turnout of people who actually came out to vote in the caucus. so it's an interesting dichotomy there. i think it shows once again what we've been seeing throughout this entire campaign season which has been going on now for about six to eight months which is republicans keep not changing their -- they keep changing their mind, not sure about exactly who they like. i'm not sure we know even yet. moving to new hampshire, romney is going to take that, i would guess, but south carolina and florida, those are going to be the two battleground states moving forward in january. and here's mitt romney. >> he's on track to put almost as much public debt in place as all the prior presidents combined. this has been a failed presidency. and i'm absolutely convinced that if we want to get jobs in this country, it's going to be helpf

bob dole -- >> i think he goes to florida and that's why mitt romney win.se they stay in the race. they divide up -- i think it's going to be like '08 actually, where there's no incentive to get out. they divide the vote. instead of john mccain winning it's mitt romney. >> that's interesting -- that is an interesting point. >> after florida. >> and what happens when you have such a divided race? we'll talk about that next coming up, republican candidates have been courting the votes in iowa but are their views too extreme fort national stage? whee wheeeeeeeeeeeee! wheeeeeeeeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! pure adrenaline. whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! everything you love about geico, now mobile. download the new geico app today. whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee! the best approach to food is to keep it whole for better nutrition. that's what they do with great grains cereal. they steam and bake the actual whole grain while the other guy's flake is more processed. mmm. great grains. the whole whole grain cereal. >>> i don'

former senate majority leader bob dole saying: >> former house majority leader tom delay remember him piling on today telling radio talk show host michael berry: >> yeah, sort of like clinton. meanwhile, romney's attacking gingrich in florida with this ad, which focuses on the former house speaker's ethics violation. >> gingrich paid $300,000, later resigned in disgrace. now pelosi said she has information so secret she once asked her husband to leave the bedroom so she could discuss it privately on the phone. newt gingrich, we cannot risk. >> nancy pelosi states any information she has on newt is in the public domain. >> many of you probably noticed a number of attack ads and all sorts of junk and that's what it is. this is the desperate last stand of the old order throwing the kitchen sink hoping something sticks because if only they can drown us in enough mud raised with money from companies and people who foreclosed on the people of florida. >> can't say he's not colorful. i'm joined by "countdown" contributor, nia henderson. >> great to say you, bill. >> the polls that we saw yes