kathleen parker and from "the daily beast" andrew sullivan. romney's problem is that just when the problem started paying attention, he's looking too rich for the times. he's made slip-ups like the $10,000 bet. and his tax return showed just how rich he is. newt is not much closer to every man than romney is. he'll be dragging along his deals at k street and charge accounts at tiffanys. a poll asked about whether gingrich cares about average people? 22% says gingrich cares about the average guy. 24% says romney does. when the president framed the 2012 election this way. >> can neither settle where a shrinking number do barely well, where a growing number do well. everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same set of rules. >> well the white house, the president included oftenly believes that's going to be how the pie is sliced in america. is that's how it's going to be how it makes it in america? >> i don't think that a candidate has begun his presidential campaign and put class at the center the way president obama did this wee

"the washington post's" kathleen parker. and "the boston globe's" neil swidey. first up, even with his bad last two weeks, full of slipups and slowed momentum, mitt romney still looks like the heavy republican favorite. that means he's got a 50-50 shot to win the white house this november. but a "new york times" poll shows that half of the voters don't know mitt romney well enough to support or oppose him. who is he? today, we look at romney's motivations, for running. and his personality. first, let's look at these three possible motivations for mitt's run. his father, george romney, ran himself in 1968. but dropped out when he slipped and said he had been brainwashed by the generals in a visit to vietnam. second, is mitt romney driven by ideology or philosophy? and third, did he have a big career in business to build a life for himself? or was it also always a foundation for politics? neil swidey, you're on the spot. you've covered him for years for the globe. let's get to some basics here. i grew up knowing a lot of us here with george romney who ran for pres

. >> kathleen parker who just won a pulitzer for her column, had a column recently and i use it for statistics and she's talking about history and historical. she says america's growing historical illiteracy is well known to educators and policymakers. in 2006, for instance, the intercollegiate studies institute tested the civic literacy of 14,000 freshman and seniors at 50 colleges and universities. the average senior failed with a score of 54%. >> you know, they've been doing these things for a long time. what do you think they would do -- i mean, it's a tribute to history that they do it, but what do you think the score would be if you went out and tested their knowledge of biology or of chemistry. >> about 10%. >> maybe. so, you know, that doesn't bother me so much. something that bothers me you have what's going on with texas now and that's not the university education, it's high school and middle school and elementary school where they are rewriting the textbooks along with a particular ideological line, and that's troubling. again, it's a tribute to how important history is that people

join me and andrea mitchell, kathleen parker, major romney expert neil swatty for a great roundtable.at what's coming up on "meet the press." here's david gregory. david? >> thanks, chris. good morning, angie and chris. coming up, newt gingrich recasts the republican race for the nomination, winning big in south carolina. the man of the hour will join me fresh off his win. then, looking ahead, can governor romney, the one-time favorite to win the nomination, regroup and connect with conservatives in the sunshine state before the all-important florida primary? i'll speak exclusively this morning with top romney supporter, republican governor of new jersey chris christie. plus, we're going to have a special "political roundtable," breaking down all the results from last night's primary and looking at just where this race goes next. it's all coming up this morning on "meet the press." and be sure to stay tuned after the program for my special "press pass" conversation with mayor of washington, d.c., vincent gray, and mayor of philadelphia, michael nutter. only here on nbc 4. >> thank you