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and harold ford jr.do with tacks taxes or religion. good morning. we're going to get to what's happening now out there for you. newt gingrich and mitt romney are are battling for votes this weekend in a furious dash across florida ahead of tuesday's primary. gingrich has held two campaign events this morning and wasted no time attacking president obama. >> i think that this particular president is so totally out of touch with reality that he is a fundamental threat to the united states' safety. >> we're going to check back in with ron mott in florida for us. another good morning and what else is gingrich saying? >> good saturday morning to you. speaker gingrich just wrapped up comments here at the pga museum of golf. he says the answer people are -- from how to get people back to work, how to fix the housing situation can be summed up in three words. defeat barack obama. yesterday, i got a chance the sit down with a former speaker. we talked about a number of thing, including how he plans to broaden his

we also have harold ford jr.nd here. >> we do. >> let me read from joe's latest piece. i couldn't agree more. here's this, there was a reason for romney's success and it pains me to disclose it. he was well prepared by his consultants. none of the candidates seemed to have prepped at all. they had their moments. they seemed amateurs, romney is a professional. you have to work at being a good debater, a good candidate. and he has clearly done his homework. you say at the beginning mitt romney won the debate and most likely the nomination. >> this is a professional mainly in the field of amateurs. >> totally amateurs. the interesting thing is that all of these debatiing points that you guys mentioned in the last secment is that -- nobody attacked him on his health care plan in massachusetts, santorum didn't get off his populist anti-wall street bailout message, they didn't attack him on flip-flopping on social issues, it was all you didn't run for a second term, or your highest bologna which really is a great phras

. >> goldie taylor, harold ford jr. >> go giants. >> if you follow harold, on twitter, the president x, go blue. and then newt gingrich said, go giants. >> go blue means michigan. go giants, absolutely. go giants. >> thank you, harold. >> i'm a georgia dawg. >> thanks, goldie. >>> two unlikely online friends continuing their love fest on twitter after the president's state of the union. this was maybe for me the twitter highlight. patriots wide receiver chad who also spent ten years playing for the bengals in cincinnati was live tweeting the address and wondering who is this guy behind obama? and then after that, when he figured out it was speaker boehner, why wasn't he clapping? today's tweets today comes from oc ochocinco. if all feels bad in life, just remember, i love you, kind sir. the speaker responded, thanks and good luck in the super bowl. see you in the playoffs next year. go bengals. [ male announcer ] new starbucks blonde roast is another way to look at the bean. another way that reveals the lighter, mellower side of our roast. being blonde is nothing new but blonde roast

>> harold ford jr. needs a big loan to pay off gambling debts from last night. >> try again. >> guess what? baby's going to be able to get a new pair of shoes. i thank you for that, harold. if it's way too early, willie what time is it? >> it's "morning joe," live today from manchester. see you tomorrow. >>> there is-it-is. the music. always great. an election day. it's primary day in new hampshire for mitt romney. it couldn't have come fast enough. he's still the outright favorite. the last 48 hours, he said, romney may leave the granite state a lot worse than he came in. >>> will new hampshire deliver one of the trademark surprises? polls opened at 6:00 a.m. communities, meaningless results, already in. tell you who grabbed those handful of votes, and in washington, changes at the white house. president obama announces the resignation of chief of staff bill daly, what's really behind the move, why did it come now? talk about your "daily rundown" news. it is tuesday, january 10, 2012. home of nbc unive

donny deutsch and harold ford jr. are here onset with us.s, "wall street journal" columnist peggy noonan. always a pleasure to see you. >> good morning, mike, hi, joe. >> hey. >> yeah, go ahead. >> no, no, i was just going to ask peggy about what happened in iowa. and i think peggy may be a kindred spirit here. regardless of what you think about rick santorum and his policies and whether he's too far right on social issues, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, you and i have been lamenting the fact that over the past year, year and a half, there have been not been grown-ups in this presidential race. that some have even made a joke of the entire nomination process. and when we say that, people assume that it has something to do with ideology. rick santorum is a perfect example of somebody who is a hard right republican. and yet, he's a grown-up. he's been in the senate, he represented pennsylvania. this is actually a guy who if he had the money and infrastructure could be a kocontender. >> absolutely. he was in the house, in the senate, helped s

back with us on set, we have mark halperin and harold ford jr. >> harold ford believes and understandsgn commercials. he -- you were raised in a pew, my man. yes. >> i think the longer this presidential race goes on the republican side, i have an unconventional thing, i think it is better for republicans. i hear your point, mika about president obama probably like to run against gingrich more but if you can remember four years ago, as you all were talking about the real focus was on democrats. obama and clinton fought for a long time, fought right up until the convention, clinton's delegates or clinton's senior people went to complain or protest the fact that florida and michigan were not counted. remember, there were disputes about whether these votes should be count, delegates should be counted on her behalf and i think it helped democrats in the long run. this, i think, helps republicans in a long run. if it is romney this will strengthen him if it is gingrich, a chance to rehabilitate himself and himself in the eyes of independents. >> i think you are right. you know, mark halperin

i talk with former congressman harold ford jr.n and size up the gop field for us. pretty chat i had with him. >> thanks. what do we know now we didn't know last week? thanks for romney's tax returns we know in calendar 2010 he paid an effective tax rate of 13.9% and less than his own estimate of 15%. we know the reason he paid such a low rate was somewhat strangely because he wasn't laboring for it but rather than drawing off the gains of previous wealth and investments. we know former marcot suggested reporters ban the phrase romney made from the writing and replace it with more accurate romney estate generated. less you think he is out of touch? never fear thanks to this photo by one of his sobs last week, we know mitt romney has laundry but he has someone else fold it! we know romney does believe corporations are people as he famously pronounced last year saying this week, the banks aren't bad people, they are just overwhelmed right now. we know that institutions do not have to be filled with bad people to do very, very bad thi

dan rather joining us, and michael steele and harold ford jr. >> dan rather, you've been to this rodeothis year, social media and what happens on the internet. that's a big game changer between even the last election here. the other is that it's not new, but it's a reminder. new hampshire loves to give some hue milt toy front-runners, and i've watched the program this morning and everybody agrees it's mitt romney's to lose. he could lose it, but i'm looking for the surprise. just trying to figure what the surprise is. what makes it different this year, i also think it matters more this year. both in the nomination process and the country. listen, we have problems in the country, we need to solve these problems. everybody's looking for a leader. i do think jobs and the economy in the end is the spine of the campaign but people are looking with a leader with character, somebody they think can make a difference. go back to at least the 1992 campaign to find one in which people had a sense, it really does matter this time. maybe franklin roosevelt in 1932, people had a feeling, things are