that state's republican governor nikki haley threw her support behind mitt romney for president. now, nikki haley, seen as a rising star in the republican party closely aligned with the tea party, this was a big coup for mitt romney a stamp of approval from the conservative base of the party, happened in a critical state. he got the nikki haley endorse nent. something weird happened. he got trounced in south carolina. he did not just lose to newt gingrich, he lost by double digits, was not close. mitt romney rebounded, went on to win in florida and nevada, but losing south carolina after getting the endorsement of the republican governor, that turned out to be a sign of things to come. after tim pawlenty dropped out of the race last fall, he also threw support behind mitt romney for the republican nomination. but when minnesota republicans got their chance to vote, they went for rick santorum instead. mitt romney not only didn't win minnesota, he didn't even come in second in minnesota. he finished third in minnesota. despite having the endorsement of the state's former governor.

governor nikki haley. she is an indian. traction. her parents are u.s. entrepreneurs. and chris christie, the new jersey governor that endorsed romney a very popular republican in a democratic state. and daniel's rebuttal it be deemed clear, very persuasive and station man like. and other candidates, south dakota's senator, new hampshire's senator, and virginia governor bob mcdonald, and new mexico governor martinez. >> let's assume that the presidential primaries are protracted and they are decisive. what imperative does that impose on a presidential nominee when selecting a running mate? you understand the question? >> i do. >> do you want to answer the question? >> want to unite the property. and if you're mitt romney, there's not much enthusiasm for you, so you want to excite the party. who you foreclose do that is another question entirely. romney and the delegates that he needs are held by rick santorum, then we'll have a romney and rick santorum ticket. christy is a problem. would he light up the campaign trail initially and the question is would the tea party b

let's go with south carolina governor nikki haley. >> he didn't plead the fifth, everybody.lie don't care. >> there you go. the comment was in reference earlier lil kim said i smell like bologna. >>> jon stewart making the rounds last night stopping by david letterman. >> the guy i feel worse for is romney. >> mitt? >> well, not just for that. because he's the guy you know is like considers himself next in line, the guy at line at the deli, but i'm number six. but they don't like him. the voters. >> yes. >> and he's like -- because he wants to be a regular guy but he can't be himself. he puts on jeans but you know he's got his suit pants underneath it. like he's in a bar, sure, i used to hang out in this bar. get me one of those malted hop drinks. like he's -- nothing is authent authentic. i realize that rick santorum is the guy mitt romney's pretending to be. now they're up against each other in these debates and there's a certain inauthentic quality. >> yeah. he reminds me of the guy that you see on the package of underpants. you and i look at these two different ways. >>

got the support of nikki haley, lost south carolina. has the support of john mccain, isn't really making much of a play for arizona. he also has the backing of chris christie and donald trump. how much do endorsements matter for mitt romney? >> well, the way you put it, not much. >> well, i would -- >> i think they do matter. look, a lot of people overhype what endorsements really are all about. i mean, in fact, they don't even go to what they're really all about. they're really about organization and structure on the ground, maybe some money, that may come in, that the flow in. but this is really about how you get that individual, particularly somebody who's the governor of a state or who has a very important network of activists, that they can tap into. that's really what those endorsements serve. now, from the media standpoint, it's great pr, good stuff for us to sit and talk about and to make the comparison, well, they endorsed you and you lost their state. and there's a real question, the governor of michigan is coming out today an

romney was beaten by newt gingrich in south carolina after getting dpof nor nikki haley's endorsementwinless in minnesota, colorado, and missouri after the most recent republican governors in those states gave him their respective blessings. but enough with the real news. i guess john su knew knew of new hampshire. he endorsed romney. he won new hampshire but that's a no brainer. let's gather around the water cooler to show how the president is showing off his lungs again giving an encore. ♪ i am so in love with you >>> he's got a pretty good voice. last night the white house hosted a blues concert. the iconic rolling stone front man mick jagger, 50 years in the business, by the way, perform, "i can't turn you loose." buddy guy challenged president obama to sing "sweet home chicago." oo come on. >> i heard you sing al green. you started something. >> you can do it. >> come on. whoo! ♪ baby, don't you wanna go ♪ come on, baby don't you wanna go ♪ ♪ same old place, sweet home chicago ♪ >> not bad. it's been just over a week since she swept the grammys, and after last night's brit ceremo

the accusations were raised by republican governor nikki haley's dmv director.th carolina's republican attorney general alan wilson was cautious about the investigation at first. >> if there's some discrepancy or some glitch or some mistake, we'll look at it and before i start throwing out the idea that there is fraud going on, i want to know. i want facts. >> but once the bright lights of fox news came calling, wilson changed his tune. >> we know for a fact that there are deceased people whose identities are being used in elections in south carolina. we found out that there were over 900 people who died and then subsequently voted. that number could be even higher than that, bill. >> we know for a fact the number could be higher than 900. turns out that those facts are simply not true. not true. the state's election commission reviewed more than 200 names and found no instances of dead people voting. most cases were human error. in three cases, absentee ballots were received from voters who later died. okay. the commission said continuing the review would be co

when nikki haley endorsed mitt romney in december, it didn't turn out to help him in south carolina butndorsed him at ta time when newt gingrich was surging. so it helped at least prevent the idea that newt gingrich was going to be the candidate of the conservatives. but when it came time for votes, it didn't help. somebody it might help, senator marco rubio because of the credibility he has in the pea party or republicans in general. that could help. otherwise it's hard to say that a particular endorsement is going to make a difference on the ground. >> quickly, one person, rubio. would you agree as well, maggie? >> rubio. >> maggie, thank you so much. david as well. >> any time. >> you bet. >>> the final countdown to super bowl xlvi, it's under way. less than two days. look at that. seven hours, 50 minutes, 12 seconds. we'll all counting down the days. mandy drury of cmbc nbc is hereh what's moving your money. he here's gresham, our line producer. so could this be affecting some productivity? >> i would say yeah. after all, we're all chatting about it, setting up office pools, plannin

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and republicans, in fairness, have had some success, nikki haley in south carolina and others have.o they're clearly working on this issue. >> thank you, john. thanks for our politico briefing today. always good to see you. >>> and coming up next, violence in afghanistan, iraq, and syria. former u.s. ambassador to nato, nicholas burns. plus, former congresswoman jane harman from the wilson center. >>> topping the headlines right now on "andrea mitchell reports," seven u.s. marines were killed overnight when their helicopters collided during a nighttime training mission over the california desert. it's not clear yet what caused the accident, which ocurd over the border. as anti-american protests spread, a pair of u.s. soldiers were shot and killed today. multiple reports blame a man wearing an afghan army uniform for firing the fatal shots. it's not clear whether he was an actual soldier, a trainee, or perhaps a taliban insurgent in disguise. at least 11 people have died in demonstrations after it was discovered that copies of the koran were burned at a u.s. base in bagram. president

south carolina governor nikki haley. >> that's good. he didn't plead the fifth, everybody.nk? >> willie reeks of whiskey. >> looks like he did a great job. >> did a great job. always. >> by the way, my sister-in-law loves you and wants me to tell you that. okay. here with us now -- >> everybody loves him. >> vice president of original programming and development of bra voe. editor in chief of "parade" magazine maggie murphy. what else happened with willie? >> willie was good. we played pin the pasty on willie with lil kim. the back story is that little kim was on the mtv awards years ago and had two pacies on and dia diana ross -- >> kim was very handsy. i wasn't comfortable with. >> she was. >> wow. >> she was. >> i felt like both of us had a shot with lil' kim last night. >> you think? that's the first thing she said last night when she sat down, she's in love with mr. cohen. >> it almost happened, jim. >> it did? >> i was holding my breath. >> did you? >> i was watching. >> i bet you were. >> i was saying, magic's going to happen tonight. >> the cover story of the new ed

they point out nik nikki haley, allows you to be working, drawing a pension and trying to make cuts toa whole hypocrisy. >> you have a great column today. >> about facebook and how many users they have. if you read the prospectus you would think they have 845 million users and we talked about it last week, they have 400 million some odd active daily users. >> i have a facebook account i don't use very often and i thought the 800 million was exaggerated. i heard the 400 plus million that's a lot of people who check in every day. >> you would think an active user goes to facebook.com. if you went through the prospectus they define somebody active who engages facebook, you could use the "like" button, if you were at nhl.com and pressed like, that counts. if you shared music on spotify, that counts, if you tweeted and shared it through facebook that counts but you may never go to facebook.com and you're an active user. >> i understand you're using the platform but if you're an investor thinking this is a way you to monetize the users to get an ad next to them. >> you can't put an ad next t

nikki haley is trying to crack down on that. the that is one issue. the other is called sick pay. when martha was talking with chris christie back in december. he brought this up. listen to it. we'll address it after this. >> going forward the taxpayer should no longer pay for someone not being sick. if you're not sick, that's the gift. martha: you don't need to stay home for a sick day. >> that is your gift. you're not sick. thank god for the fact that you're not healthy. don't have your hand out. what folks call this in new jersey because they're getting six figure check when they walk out. they call it the boat check. they use it to buy a boat. bill: that is great for the boat business but not for balancing your books. >> a lot of local governments in new jersey you can accumulate sick leave. if you're never sick, you get, 10, 15, 20 days put in the account. it is cumulative. if you serve 20 or 30 years in local or state government you take out a six-figure check that is ridiculous. sick leave is for when you're sick. not for you to build up a second, basically the equivalent o

i mean, you know, look what happened to nikki haley endorsed romney down in south carolina. gingrich wins and then herman cain endorses -- >> so where do you think the campaign is right now as you go through a period in which there is not but only one debate and not a lot going on? is romney way ahead? can he close it down or will they go all the way to the convention? >> i think it's going to on for a while. i'm not sure it's going to go all the way to the convention. i wish it would. i think it would be great from a journalist standpoint to cover a convention where they didn't know who the nominee was going to be. gingrich is going to hang around here as long as he can continue to get money for the superfund that he's getting from this fellow out in las vegas who's pouring millions into that because there is still a divide in the republican party. >> there are two important comments that came out yesterday that we want to make sure we hit them both. aim throwing both of them at you at once, bob. mitt romney talking about the very poor. this is really haunting him over the