not because mitt romney is the front-runner, because mitt romney was ahead or mitt romney had a goodpaign. mitt romney winning new hampshire was a foregone conclusion because historically speaking, new hampshire couldn't have been won by anybody other than him. because he's the guy from massachusetts. the guy from massachusetts, whether a republican or democrat, always wins new hampshire. in 2004, john kerry, in 1992, paul songas, 1998 michael dukakis, henry cabot lodge, john f. kennedy. when a massachusetts politician is running for president it's a safe bet they will wine in new hampshire. they will win. there are two exemptions to the rule. two exceptions to the massachusetts guy winning in new hampshire in modern political history. 1980, jimmy carter got a primary challenge from the left from inside the democratic party from ted kennedy, ted kennedy was from massachusetts, he did not beat the incumbent president in that new hampshire primary. that is kind of an exception but it wasn't incumbent president, so not really. the only other exception to the massachusetts guy not winnin

but we need an alternative to mitt romney to go one on one. ey doesn't want a one on one, and i think santorum could be that person. >> bob, i want to just go in reverse order here, quickly, on this question. if mitt romney emerges as an unstoppable front-runner, will you be able to support him? and what kind of support do you think he will get from your allies in iowa? >> well, i think what it is, our allies and myself included, i mean, we're very concerned about defeating barack obama. we would definitely go in and vote against barack obama? but mitt romney needs to come to our base. and he needs to have -- rebuild that trust gap that tony talked about, so that not only do we go and vote against barack obama, but that we're willing to work, knock on doors, make phone calls, and put an all-out effort to vote for a mitt romney. but right now, we're in a primary. and our goal in a primary is to find that alternative. that's why i think we need to do a coalescing around rick santorum right now. >> peter mccoy, how much do you worry that the damag

mitt romney is weak. ron paul is out of the mainstream, almost a freak show in the republican party. how can you claim you're stronger if you keep losing to the candidate you call weak or freak. it's an interesting argument. >> and we wonder whether it was to the party's advantage, the republicans, to have an extended battle. when barack obama had a win after months on end, they were the only story in town. obama appeared to get better as a candidate as the months went on, and that seemed to play well for him against john mccain. couldn't the same thing happen here? could romney become a more formidable opponent? >> there are some who would argue that. he was much better tonight than the speeches he gave in the past. it was the best speech he had all year. there is that argument. you have to remember with barack obama and hillary clinton they believe largely the same things. you got to be very personal about which one you preferred. in this case, mitt romney has a fractured party on his hands with differe

not three days, seven days, ten days gives mitt romney a chance with the advertising. tv ads up in the states right now, if you add in the superpacs that are spending, all the spending in florida as of today was pro romney. count a few hours. >> newt gingrich is going to get his superpac. they're going to be all over the place. there are some rich people who support newt gingrich out there and can give unlimited amounts of money to the newt gingrich superpacs or to the mitt romney superpacs, the rick santorum superpacs. they've all got their superpacs. let's go over to erin burnett. south carolina is in the millions, no doubt about that, but it's going to be a lot more over the next ten days in florida. tell us about south carolina first. >> south carolina, all in. mitt romney by far spending the most. this is mitt romney on television ads. $2.7 million. to buy 30 seconds of advertising in south carolina is $300. now, here are our four candidates, going on to florida. mitt romney's campaign has already spent $2.4 million on television ads in florida. when you d in the s

a lot of people are talking about mitt romney -- florida being mitt romney country. newt gingrich could do very well down in florida. he's already cultivating ties with the cuban-american community and mitt romney will have a tough time explaining his opposition to the dream act, which is a bill that would lead to a path to citizenship for young latinos in this country. newt gingrich said he's in favor of portions of that bill. mitt romney said he would veto that act and newt gingrich would be very popular in the central part of the state. that's sarah palin country and sarah palin, she sort of endorsed newt gingrich here in south carolina. so buckle your seat belts. >> candy crowley is at romney headquarters. it was interesting to hear governor romney's speech tonight, talking a lot about obama, but he did throw a few references towards newt gingrich, though not using the candidate by name. we anticipate that is going to change in the next couple of days. he's squarely got to go after newt gingrich, right? >> reporter: and it's clearly one thing he told me and talki

mitt romney is weak. ron paul is out of the mainstream, almost a freak show in the republican party. how can you claim you're stronger if you keep losing to the candidate you call "weak" or "glooirk?" it's hard to make that argument. >> we had a spirited debate about whether it was to the party's advantage, the republicans, to have an extended battle. i remember when barack obama and hillary clinton went for months on end and they were the only story in town. obama appeared to get better as a campaigner as the months went on and that seemed to play well for him against john mccain. couldn't we see the same thing happen here? it goes on and could romney not become a more formidable opponent? >> there are those that believe that. that he'll hone his skills. he was much better in his speech tonight than we've seen him in the past. i think that was the best speech he's given this year so there is that argument but with barack obama and hillary clinton, then largely, the same things. they believe largely the s

a lot of people are talking about mitt romney -- florida being mitt romney country. newt gingrich could do very well down in florida. he's already cultivating ties with the cuban-american community and mitt romney will have a tough time explaining his opposition to the dream act, which is a bill that would lead to a path to citizenship for young latinos in this country. newt gingrich said he's in favor of portions of that bill. mitt romney said he would veto that act and newt gingrich would be very popular in the central part of the state. that's sarah palin country and sarah palin, she sort of endorsed newt gingrich here in south carolina. so buckle your seat belts. >> candy crowley is at romney headquarters. it was interesting to hear governor romney's speech tonight, talking a lot about obama, but he did throw a few references towards newt gingrich, though not using the candidate by name. we anticipate that is going to change in the next couple of days. he's squarely got to go after newt gingrich, right? >> reporter: and it's clearly one thing he told me and talki

will they endorse one candidate to go against mitt romney. it may be as important as ever as we move to state three. there's a momentum factor. if romney can win south carolina, he will go into florida with considerable momentum. >> it will be a three for three sweech, which is going to be very, very impressive. anderson, let's throw it to you. >> romney's momentum tonight, let's see if it's changed minds in south carolina. tom foreminute, when i was with you before, a number of people said their minds had been changed tonight or they were moving in a direction tonight based on tonight. we wanted to know who they're moving toward, what candidate? >> good point, anderson. let me show you that again with this group, all of you have been very patient this evening here at the college of charleston. let me ask you all, you came in here tonight, all saying you were undecided. how many of you moved closer to making up your minds tonight? look at that, anderson. tremendous amount of people here considerably closer, and i want to play a little bit of s

he's coming after mitt romney. get to new hampshire, as long as newt gingrich does the job on mitt that we all anticipate he's going to do, anybody can bounce including santorum. >> well, mr. burton, i said it's going to be saturday night in the alley with this debate coming up here this weekend. >> broken bottle and all. >> maybe so. where is santorum in this? i mean, could he make a serious run in the long haul? could he develop enough infrastructure fast enough and get enough people onboard if the money comes in to make a run and spoil this for mitt romney? a lot of people think he is the nominee. >> well, like you, i'm not a big santorum supporter. i will say, he did something smart last night. he had a chance to introduce himself to a much larger group of voters, he used that opportunity to say, look, i'm a blue collar guy, i come from a blue collar state and if you pick me as your nominee in places like michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, i can be a lot more competitive than the hedge fund guy. basically. >> no

mitt romney is weak. ron paul is out of the mainstream, almost a freak show in the republican party. how can you claim you're stronger if you keep losing to the candidate you call "weak" or "glooirk?" it's hard to make that argument. >> we had a spirited debate about whether it was to the party's advantage, the republicans, to have an extended battle. i remember when barack obama and hillary clinton went for months on end and they were the only story in town. obama appeared to get better as a campaigner as the months went on and that seemed to play well for him against john mccain. couldn't we see the same thing happen here? it goes on and could romney not become a more formidable opponent? >> there are those that believe that. that he'll hone his skills. he was much better in his speech tonight than we've seen him in the past. i think that was the best speech he's given this year so there is that argument but with barack obama and hillary clinton, then largely, the same things. they believe largely the s

the right wing talkers of america think mitt romney is not conservative enough. but this venture capitalism and this vulture capitalism, which it's turning into because of people like romney, they're out defending that on right wing radio, i mean it pains them to stick up for mitt romney. get your cell phones out. tonight's question, does our country need a vulture capitalist in charge of the economy? text a for yes, b for no, 622639, go to our blog at ed.msnbc..com. i want to ask you, does it bother you at all that mitt romney went overseas to get seed money to start a business in the united states of america, which eventually cut a bunch of jobs? does it bother you at all? took foreign investment to work over american workers. is that true? we'll have that story tomorrow night. >>> joining me now is rick tyler, tore near newt gingrich campaign spokesman and senior advisor to winning our future, which is a pro newt gingrich super pac. great to have you with us tonight, sir, appreciate it. >> i'm glad to be here you're on fire. >> i'm going to put left, right, blu

mitt romney, but a crowded field. man, paul, perry, santorum, say they would be a stronger nominee. can governor romney win it here? it's a state that often decides the election. south carolina on the 21st, we clous out in florida. we're going to go into yet another swing state. iowa, new hampshire, here is sahuge swing state. mitt romney adertiing here. if the race goes on, where do we go? nevada, romney leading in nevada right now. we'll see how the race goes. the race also would be in arizona, a big primary, a state where mccain carried it four years ago r and also on the map ahead, when we get into february, the state of michigan. remember george romney, the former governor, mitt romney has

mitt romney has a us new hampshire, the polls show him well in the lead. t obviously there was a huge not romney vote last night. new hampshire's a very different state than either iowa or south carolina. but do you think that with mitt romney right now so far ahead that any of these other candidates can truly challenge him in your home state? >> well, where was rick santorum two months ago when you guys were talking about being ahead in the polls? i mean, polls are today, not tomorrow. look, 75% of the people in iowa last night said no to mitt romney. 75%. he got six less votes than he got four years ago after spending tens of millions of dollars. the danger for mitt romney is that somebody unites around a conservative like mitt -- like newt gingrich and wins this thing. the people, the republican voters have said very clearly, we do not want a massachusetts moderate to head our ticket. and that's going to be -- that will be the issue throughout this entire campaign and when it's over, at the finish line, newt gingrich, i believe, will be the nominee. >> s

john mccain aendorsing mitt romney today. mitt romney already has the endorsement of nicky haley. i predict we'll see other people, maybe lindsey gram from south carolina endorsing romney as well. that means that people are going to have to find a way to beat him in south carolina. s it's true that gingrich and santorum are likely to attack each other. they don't have a lot of money to spend on tv ads. they have to find a way to work together but both of them still want to win. so at some point they're going to have to differentiate as well. and that's good for romney. but he got 25% here. he's going to have to get more than that next time in south carolina with rick perry out of the race. i think he can do it. it's not a sure thing. >> mike, as i walked out of the caucus site last night, i grabbed this as a potential collector's item. rick perry says he's going back to assess the campaign. he is finished? >> yes. you would not go to texas. you have to keep your foot on the gas if you have any hope in new hampshire. he has $3 million left. they had planned to go on. but they're ver

you know, he's paid the dues. >> i know. >> i don't know mitt romney. i just know over the last 18 months i've traveled the country talking to republicans and they said there's two camps, the romney camp and anybody but the romney camp. if he is the nominee he obviously has some selling and persuasion. >> what is it with your party? the democrats feed the hot hand. they feed jack kennedy thechlt feed bill clintothechlt -- whoever has the -- don't give him the ball. let's slow this down. the guy lost two or three times. what is it about the republicans? you got to lose a couple times. >> we don't fall in love. we fall in line. >> what is that about? >> i don't know. i think the best person ought to get a shot and when i ran for leadership i had people telling me, well, you know, you've only been around for four years. you know you ought to sit on the bench a little longer. you know, nonsense. i think you fight it out and you let people decide and at the end of the day 75%, 80% has decided or they have decided. >> when does newt throw it to santorum and sa

even though mitt romney is doing well. ote for romney. in fact when you look at the numbers, look at newt gingrich supporters, it is two-thirds of them have reservations about supporting mitt romney or would not support mitt romney. in response to bret baier's initial question. nationally mitt romney is the best candidate for republicans and they are focused on beating barack obama. he runs better in obama and newt gingrich, no other candidate can say that. >> yet they didn't believe that in south carolina on electability they sided with newt gingrich and that's the most recent metric we have. >> the things are related. there is a cause and affect. the fact that mitt romney didn't do well in the debates and that he was stumbling and searched answers to the questions and on other policy questions was not sharp as he had been and perhaps thrown off by the fact he had trouble answers questions on taxs and bain. i think they are related. if you see mitt romney not a strong debater against barack obama and machine who can't beat

mitt romney, common man. a time magazine reporter how strange it was to be in the room when he was asked a benign question by a little kid about why he wanted to be running for president in order to explain how much he cared about the future of the country, mr. romney started a riff how difficult it has been for him to decide who to leave his fortune to. >> i remember i sat down with an attorney, i said if i have a will i want to make sure and pass along my whatever i have to my sons, and she said well, what do you want to give to your grandchildren? i didn't have any then. i said nothing, i'll give to it my boys, they bill give it to their children. she said you'll change your mind. i said i don't think so. well now i have grandchildren, i saw this lady lawyer of mine i saw her on the street i said by the way, i don't want to give anything to my boys, i want to give it all to my grandchildren. >> the heart warming story about his fortune and the wacky run-ins with the lady lawyer. he told that story at a cam

to try to stop -- to make him stop attacking mitt romney, specifically for mitt romney's business record. don't run the when mitt romney came to town attack ad about his economic record in the private sector, stop saying things and get on board. private equity executives our kind of people, shut up, newt gingrich. this is the test. is there an anti-establishment right wing populist insurgency that matters or was the whole tea party story line much ado about nothing. has nothing changed between 2008 and 2012? joining us is dave weigel, dave, thanks for being here i'm sure you're tired after all your days on the campaign trail recently. >> i'm been woken up by watch t tiny heads. >> john mccain's heads are almost this size. >> they are two dimensional. in terms of your thesis, was that the overall point you were trying to make that the same dynamics driving the republican party's decision making last time around are still driving it now, that nothing really has changed? >> that is what was surprising to me. i almost in making the comparison, probably peddled how well mitt romney is doing.

>>> hoy en el noticiero telemundo, otra victoria, mitt romney se anota su segundo triunfo en new hampshire, el próximo reto carolina del sur, noticiero telemundo en vivo desde la elección . >>> por qué no están votando los mexicanos en el exterior. >>> a rescate de ciudad juárez, lo que hacen para cambiar la imagen de una de las ciudades más violentas del mundo. >>> la edición martes del noticiero telemundo desde new hampshire comienza ya. >>> noticiero telemundo con ustedes, josé díaz balart desde new hampshire ♪. >>> hola, ¿qué tal?, muy buenas tardes, desde el centro electoral de telemundo en new hampshire, les saluda josé díaz balart, el ex gobernador de massachusetts, mitt romney se declaró ganador de las primarias republicanas, el segundo y tercer puesto es para el congresista de texas ron paul y mientras que en tercer lugar está jon hutsman, ex gobernador de utah con nosotros angie sandoval . >>> muy buenas tardes, josé, una tarde muy fría, pero políticamente muy agitada y acalorada, mitt romney es el primer precandidato republicano en ganar tanto la primaria de iowa y también new h

nbc news projecting that mitt romney has won with ron paul in second. newt gingrich and santorum is around 10%. you said hello to the state and why are they staying in it? could it be they do not like romney? howard fineman is an analyst and editor for the huffing post. occasionally, jennifer and howard, why doesn't someone get the appointment? you find out months later he screwed him six months ago. it made them personal enemies. we know why he may be angry at mitt romney. out in iowa a week ago, 100 years ago he was destroyed by an advertising campaign that is saturated and destroyed he has reason to get the intramural thing with the lds member and both from that part of the country to keep it in. newt gingrich. he pulled in his horns and no personal attacks in his speech tonight. has authorized his friend who has tons of money to spent 3.something million to go after bane capital in the next week and a half. is he going after him personally and trying to destroy him or pulling back? >> he has been told by everybody publicly and have been told by forme

i'm going to take out mitt romney. benefits it was about selling books and being able to write off vacations we could take and meet people and to maybe increase my speaking fee but now i'm going to do some damage. >> what's interesting, we have seen people -- we've seen people go after mitt romney in debates and relatively hard charging. i mean you know -- gloves off kind of thing but he hasn't really been barraged with negative ads. la is the big test and is anyone going to do that in the next round. >> there's lots of -- >> of course, there is. >> who has the money to do it? that's the real question. rick santorum is going to spend money on clearing the rest of the anti- -- the non-mitt romney people. so no one has the money to attack romney right now. but on these debates that are coming up this week, you're going to see gingrich is going to blow through every question and immediately -- >> frankly, that's whobl what he'll do. he will profoundly and frankly go after mitt romney. >> i read the speech as i will try to

can anyone stop mitt romney? romney won new hampshire commandingly. taking 38% of the vote. and the former massachusetts governor demonstrated resilience and staying power, after a week of fierce attacks from his opponents, aimed partly at his record at bain capital, the massachusetts investment firm he ran for 15 years. what does new hampshire mean? here's anchors diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> that's right, terry. what a win it was tonight for governor mitt romney. we should point out who came in second and third in this race, as they poured it on in new hampshire, the candidates all did. and behind mitt romney was congressman ron paul. and behind him, jon huntsman, governor jon huntsman, former ambassador to china, as well, who, in the last few days, seemed to be surging, gaining some steam. but apparently didn't have enough to take him into second place. >> there were some polls showing that he might come into second. but he couldn't get over ron paul. what we're learning also from these exit polls, what voters were focused on here is finding the candidate th

so mitt romney is saying that 76% of americans are guilty of the sin of envying mitt romney.wo-thirds of the country see a strong or very strong conflict between rich and poor. we know this about mitt romney. he is very simple minded and he is a liar. he will say anything to get elected. that's why he said liberal things to try to get elected in massachusetts. the man will say anything. so it's hard to tell what he might actually think or if he actually thinks. if mitt romney does think that 76% of americans envy him, his wealth, that we are all sitting here envying him, all of that money, then he needs to listen to someone who actually knows something about our economy. alan alan krueger is the chairman of the and knows about questioning income distribution in any country is called economics, not envy. >> the trends that have taken place in the u.s. over the past three decades are particularly of concern to economists and others. we've seen a steady decline, erosion in the size of middle class. that's not good for the economy. that's not good for all citizens of the american

it's a very, very close race between rick santorum, mitt romney, and ron paul. e the headquarters right there, the romney headquarters. they're getting ready to hear from him. believe in america. that's what it says about mitt romney. rick santorum, faith, family, and freedom. you see the big banner behind the stage there. and ron paul, restore america now. we're going to hear from all of these candidates, stand by. let me show you the vote count, the official vote count right now as it stands. these are not entrance poll numbers, these are the official numbers. 48% of the precincts have reported. rick santorum is now 328 votes ahead of mitt romney. they both have 24%. 13,339 for rick santorum, 13,011 for mitt romney, ron paul slightly behind with 22%, 11,972. newt gingrich at 13%, 7,248. he was really hurt by all those negative ads that were pummeled against him over these past several weeks in iowa. rick perry is at 10% if you take a look over there, the bottom three. michele bachmann at 6% and jon huntsman only 1%. big, big night. you know, rick santorum, ande

mitt romney is not an extremist. an history. it's so hyperbole and overblown. >> i get it, mitt romney. you support mitt romney. when you look at the big issues in florida, ronnie, economy, as we heard, is number one. certainly a deficit is another one. top one. florida is really struggling at this time. what is going to happen there? >> well, i think it is the same thing. i think it's the same thing that the entire country is watching and that's what we're highlig highlighting at the committee. the nice thing about the election for us is that when the facts are on your side, it makes things a whole lot easier. the facts are that this president has specifically made many promises to the american people that he hasn't even come close to meeting. number one, he said he cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term, what did he do? he introduced the biggest financial structure in the world. he introduced more debt than every single president before him. he got health care costs down and health care costs have actu