joining us the author of the paper's endorsement joe mcquaid. anchor of bbc world news america, katy kay. former democratic congressman, harold ford jr. and "time" magazine's mark halperin. from nbc news in washington, "meet the press," with david gregory. >> good morning. what a week in politics from herman cain's exit, the republican field down to seven. here's how things in iowa and new hampshire look now. exclusive results from our nbc poll in new hampshire has mitt romney on top over newt gingrich by 16 points. ron paul in third place with 16%. and in iowa, newt gingrich, ahead of mitt romney by 8 points and ron paul in third with 17%. herman cain at 9%. a little later on we'll show you how it looks when his support is taken out and redistributed to other candidates. also we have the des moines register poll, they released it last night. newt gingrich on top in iowa, but again, underlining ron paul in second place slightly ahead of mitt romney. a lot to get to. we go inside the polls and look at the key moments from the week later in our po

katty kay, mark halperin, joe mcquaid and harold ford jr.xt after this brief commercial break. hi, i'm cashing in my points... peggy? no more points - coupons now. coupons? coupons. coupons? next, you convert coupons to tokens. tokens? then you trade tokens for credits. and then i get the cash? then you call back. bye bye. peggy? hello? what just happened? want rewards that make sense? switch to discover. america's #1 cash rewards program. it pays to discover. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and

joining me the publisher of the new hampshire "union leader" joe mcquaid.om tennessee, harold ford jr. editor at large, senior political analyst for "time" 45g zone, mark halperin. and washington correspondent and anchor for bbc world news america, katty kay. welcome all of you. i have to go right to the scene this weekend on saturday. down in atlanta, herman cain's brand-new campaign headquarters. there it is. quite a -- quite a display. then you have him and mrs. cain arriving on a campaign bus. they get off the bus, the music that you can ar, "i am america." he's there with his wife, and yet, katty kay, here he is. this is why he's getting out of the race. >> this is exactly why -- >> because of theseaults and unproved accusations it has paid and had a tremendous, painful price on my family. >> katty? >> well, he was defiant when he got out of the race. and he didn't say it was specifically that there was anything in these allegations, and that that was why he was leaving. but, this has dodged him for the last couple of weeks. it was interesng to me that

has courage conviction and isn't just telling them what they want to hear now the editor there joe mcquaid confirm that that last line was really about you it's reagan's line was are you better off than you were four years ago if you get the nomination what would your line be about obama and you really stand for many years of this. so basically the primary is they're going to kick romney's butt and their kids seen in the new gingrich they're giving him fluff ball interviews you know he famously picks politicians in the u.k. to actually become prime ministers he's picking republicans in the united states really is this i thought rick santorum was a paid contributor huckabee was sarah pailin they didn't seem to push them to the front of the repugnant at this time they did huckabee last time around but who gave the republican party or when did the republican party give the murdoch empire the power to pick through their nominees because certainly said look i don't go and i don't recall that happening but. if you don't know what i mean if you don't you don't go to fox news the whole fox propaga

now, the editor there, joe mcquaid, confirmed that that last line was really about you. what's your reaction to that endorsement and specifically that charge about that you lack conviction? >> why do you think that you're the more conservative candidate? why do you think that you're more electable? >> your critics charge that you make decisions based on political expediency and not core conviction. how can voters trust what they hear from you today is what you will believe if you win the white house? >> let me ask. because it's interesting. on the other hand, you sort of take it on the role during the debates as a statesman. >> do you still support the idea of a{ mandate? do you believe that that was the right thing for massachusetts? do you think a mandate mandating people to buy insurance is the right tool? >> this interview's going great so far but -- >> do you think you have work to do to convince republican voters to trust you? >> if you could choose which republican candidate for president you could be in that one snapshot of a day on fox news, knowing how importan