you know, here we have paul tsongas. no one thought paul tsongas was a winner.the new hampshire guy being in the lead as if it's a big win. >> first of all, i think bill clinton so cleverly when he declared himself the winner. and he just had more maganytichl about it. and the fact that he had been in so much trouble for all of the other personal issues that he had come up during the primary, the win was surprising. that's what he then carried out in florida. >> we thought he was going to be left in the snow banks. >> let's give romney credit for this. if he wins iowa, then he'll be the first chicagoan to win both u.s. contests. that should be the lead on wednesday morning to give him his due. >> okay. >> that is a hard thing to do. >> what has to happen in two, three, or four to change that lead? >> there is one other piece of volatility. there is going to be reaction to this about the pink slip controversy. it's happening at a perfect time. >> and a pollable time. we won't know the infect until the voters tell us the effect. >> i think people may react to that

or when he defended his vote for paul tsongas with this forever-changing answer he gave. tonight, mitt romney meets the truth squad. you have doubt? newt gingrich made this absurd claim about president obama last night. >> if you're for european socialism, you're with barack obama. >> saul alinsky radicalism. to republicans who spew that kind of stuff have a clue who the guy was? do the voters? we've got the file on alinsky tonight. a man whose message has been admired by conservative icon william f. buckley, dick armey and, guess who. mitt romney's own dad. >>> plus, the more newt and mitt duke it out. he has a new spring in his step. one reason why is the fight we're all watching on the right. and newt gets an endorsement he can do without from prison from as we say, inside. and that's in the side show tonight. we begin with mitt romney's strong debate performance on cnn. howard fineman is a political analyst. and susan page is the washington bureau chief. howard, let's look at the polls out today that show the race in florida turning strongly for romney. take a look. b

. >> content in 1992, paul tsongas -- >> comeback kid. it is all about expectations and the margin. it is not necessarily what order of finish, except that santorum has to show that he can beat ron paul and, of course, all the others. >> you wonder about the ron paul factor. the slogan is "live free or die." apparently this is ron paul territory. but he has not done much up there. >> you look at the trend, ron paul is picking up in new hampshire. >> the other thing is the independent vote in new hampshire -- >> undeclared. >> in iowa they went heavily for ron paul. one-day republicans. >> republican elders are being very nice to ron paul these days. they are praying he does not run as an independent. >> he is sort of like jesse jackson in 1984. he has a constituency, an important one in the party. not going to win the nomination, but he could end up in tampa with a strong number of delegates, and he will command respect, perhaps a speech. >> he is going to demand more than that. >> platform? that is going to be a problem for the republican "establishment" -- >> i don't know how you a

. &->> lehrer::paul tsongas -ick gepharrt. ú& um, the, the big games, the ú& big guys had not, had deciiedike frankly tte race now. >> lehrer: absolutely. >> smith: you know, where3 you• ú& -> lehrer::bob kerrr was in that group• >> smith: •group, ight. -> lehrer: and had reaaly table.& -ut the wweding went on, just likee t'ss3 &-gging on now. &--et me move away ffom, from the book nd the topic of debatts and ask you to tep ú& back and llok t the media. &->> lehrrr: yeahh >>>smith: you've been doing thissfor a long time, that's a great thing for all of uss >> lehrer: es. >> smith: but it also ives >> lehrer: sure. or bad about our profession some elements f oor profession..3 i don't feel so good about other elements of our profession. >> lehrer: okay.3 &-firrt of all we are in our profession is in the iddle of aarevolution. >> lehrer: and, being in the middle of a revolution is not terrific.3 you don't• >> smitt: right. well i caant that's the point. [laughs] iffyou could ask. >> smith: if i could ask, i >> lehrer: he's say,,no; ttey're not rrally terrifii. -> lehrer: welllii'ssthe right n

i didn't really mean i liked paul tsongas.n't even stand up for his own health care plan. barack obama has some stuff cutting against him. there's the economy, the incandescent hatred for him on the right. there are people over there that would vote for himler over obama, but that -- but he has some things going for him -- >> you'll pay for that one. you'll pay for that comment. i'll tell you what. the tweeters are out there right now. >> if gingrich is -- >> you say they hate him so much -- yeah. >> yeah, never mind that. but they hate him so much, the economy is bad. here's what he's got going for him. romney and gingrich. look at the last few debates here. does anybody watching those debates think to themselves, hey, these two guys, either one of them really belongs in the oval office? they've been diminishing themselves steadily throughout the debates. gingrich is a joke. and romney, mr. $57,000 a day man who doesn't seem to grateful for that. he just seems entitled. >> you are so well -- by the way, he wants a tax break.

the late paul tsongas found that out when he defeated bill clinton in new hampshire in 1992 and won very little else. >> well, let's see, so you say if huntsman is fourth, if he's anything less than third, he should drop? >> i'm not going to tell governor huntsman what to do. i'm certainly not going to tell someone with his resume and his linguist skills what to do. what i will say is if he doesn't place fourth, it will certainly slow the momentum and his team going into south carolina will certainly have to take a second look at how far they go. >> or tell dad i need the money that i've been rejecting so far. now, you also write that ron paul is the henry cabot lodge of 2012. what does that mean? >> no, i said that jon huntsman was the henry cabot lodge. that's right. henry cabot lodge in 1964. >> they look alike. >> he was ambassador to saigon under presidents kennedy and johnson and he actually won the republican primary for president as a write-in candidate while he was a world away and again, he never went that far after that. jon huntsman is a republican who served as a diplomat un

clinton had had a real stumble and the neighboring state of massachusetts had its own darling, paul tsongas. clinton came in second and declared himself the comeback kid. what's interesting to me about that is that you do have this sense that everyone is expecting romney to win. it is baked into the expectations. if he wins by a much smaller margin and there's a surprise in second, somebody else can declare themselves the comeback kid and then slam into south carolina, where i believe mitt romney is going to have some trouble among the conservative evangelical base there so i think the outcome of new hampshire will put romney on top but we all expect that. the question is by how much and who is the surprise second finisher? >> david, talk about south carolina and rick perry is still in this. boris, i want to talk tour we have the debates, too coming up but the one this weekend on sunday before new hampshire, who has the most to win, the most to lose, in your estimation? >> in new hampshire, mitt romney has obviously got the most to lose, you look at rick santorum and newt gingrich the most

romney said he only voted for paul tsongas in the democratic party in 1992, the most liberal democrat running because there was no alternative. larry i sabato of virginia sent out a tweet and said in fact he could have voted for george h.w. bush or pat buchanan the same day. time after time after time when you try to engage governor romney. we learned yesterday there were 23 foreign accounts he did not reveal back when filed his disclosures that have now shown up because he finally revealed his taxes. and, you know, this guy is supposed to be a great manager. he misses 23 foreign accounts that just happen not to be disclosed. >> chris: mr. speaker let me ask you, though, about one in your ads with what you say one of romney's alleged lies is and that is a radio ad he ran charging that you once called spanish the language of the ghetto. i understand in the debate he said he doubted it was his ad and, of course, it turned out it was. isn't the basic charge he made in that ad true? >> i never used the word spanish in the conversation. i was talking -- i was giving a speech talking about

he has, he voted for the late paul tsonga. >> when a republican was on the ballot. >> i believe thate're going to find out tomorrow morning that mitt romney did not come forth and tell on immigration and you know, two weeks ago, in iowa, he was against, you know, he had a different policy. tonight, i'm sitting here looking at all of the things he said. i'm like, immigration, on never voting for a democrat, on his taxes, his money. democrats are going to have a hay day tomorrow fact checking mitt romney. >> did you agree about some of the things that were said? >> i do. back to david and ari's exchange, i think we're in politics. we know that candidates, they send out a lot of ads on the campaign. the candidates don't all seem them. when the public sees the ad and hears i'm mitt romney and i approve the message or whoever, they connect it to the candidate. when he's there tonight and says that he didn't know about the ad even though it ended with i approve the message, it makes you wonder, he's running on his management skills as a ceo. at the same time, that was his weakest moment of

he gives money to democratic candidates for congress, votes for paul tsongas, the most liberal candidatend runs for the senate to the left of teddy kennedy and says i was never for the reagan and bush policies, i am an independent, i would not want to bring them back. this is the campaign. he was the -- romney is the anti-reagan republican. this is the campaign somehow trying to smear me and distort my entire history. you know personally, larry, that we worked on supply side economics before reagan adopted it, worked to pass it in '81 with reagan and to have the anti-reagan, which is what romney is, decide he's going to disrupt my historic record is typical of the romney campaign. >> if you look at the atlanta constitution journal, i defended you. i didn't get the anti-conservative memo. i'm just here to ask questions. you know your bain capital thing is driving me crazy, you know that, i got to put it out from the heart. >> that's fine. >> you have a big, very important debate tonight, sir. romney in the monday debate put you in a box. he said you, newt gingrich, you were a long-time co

my hunch is he'll come in about where paul tsongas did when everybody thought he lost the election atbout 37%. if that's the case governor romney has a hard case to make that we should find him electable. he's campaigned the longest. i think as we go south in south carolina we're going to have a very different set of arguments and i think he will have a fairly hard time defending his record when we get to south carolina. >> we'll let the expectations. i love the way you try to raise the bar to 50% in the state of new hampshire. that's what makes it fun, mr. speaker. ultimately to be the nominee you have to start winning. is sk svg a must-win state for newt gingrich. >> i think it is. we're going to go all out to win in south carolina. we think that's a key state for us. we think that the contrast between a georgia reagan conservative and a massachusetts moderate is pretty dramatic. i fought for tax cuts. he raised taxes dramatically. in fact, romney taxes.com we've outlined all of his tax increases. i'm for the second amendment rights. he was for massachusetts gun control laws and he

romney did register as a democrat to vote for paul tsongas.s are not, you know, you don't have to go out and select things out to distort them and you don't have to get into his career and do any of the things that would get into negative advertising. say, look, here is his public record, here is my public record, you choose. >> his ads aren't really -- it is not about distorting the facts. [ inaudible ] fact driven websites, it is really about the tone, the aggressiveness that the -- >> yeah, yeah, i think frankly i think you can do very calm, very pleasant ads that the nation of the republican party is such that a calm and pleasant ad that says he was for tax paid abortions, i'm against it, you can say it happily, pleasantly, it works just by the nature of the data. >> he quotes america the beautiful while his ads show -- >> right. >> is that the future? >> no more than it has been in the past. this is always -- [ inaudible ] >> he says how great he is and -- >> sure. >> his ads are trashing you constantly. >> right. so part of the question

voting for paul tsongas in the primary. running against teddy kennedy, he said, flatly, i don't want to go back to a reagan-bush era. there's a pretty wide gap. he's more mature, he's more conservative, i accept that. i think it's a good thing. but those of us in the trenches fighting in the '80s, it would be nice to be recognized for what we did and not to have orchestrated attacks to distort the history of that period. >> governor romney, you can respond. >> just a short clarification. i never voted for a democrat when there was a republican on the ballot. and in my state of massachusetts, you could register as an independent and go vote in either primary that happens to be interesting and any any chance i got to vote against bill clinton or ted kennedy, i took. so, i am -- i have always voted for republican any time there was a republican on the ballot. with regards to the speaker's involvement in the reagan years, he can speak for himself, the reagan diaries can lay that out, as well. i think -- i think what he said spe

fight about which understood reagan and which of us did not, this was a guy who n 1982 voted for paul tsongas. he should not get involved in a fight that he does understand. host: thank you for being with us here on c-span. >> for more recess -- resources on the present rates, use the c- span.org/campaign2012 website. >> tomorrow on washington journal, a look at the current tax rates on equity income earned by executives. then a discussion about the recent shutdown of websites in protest of the stock online privacy act. and later, federal government funding. that is all live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. lord congressman allen west hopes a discussion on conservatism and the african- american community. among the participants, tim scott and fomer rnc chairman michael steele. monday at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> mr. speaker, the president of the united states. >> tuesday night, president obama delivers his state of the union address. the president's speech, republican response by mitch daniels and your phone calls. live on c-span and c-span radio. on c-span 2, what the president's

just ask past new hampshire winners, presidents, gary hart, paul tsongas, pat buchanan, john mccain and hillary clinton. maybe it doesn't always pick presidents but is the next great step on the yellow brick road to the emerald city of the nomination. guess who has a lake house by the yellow brick road. >> well i have a summer home here. it's right next door. we have a lot of friend here. >> meet romney the former massachusetts governor has a va caution house here and has been campaigning here since 2007. and will be very hard to beat here. >> good to see you. >> also waiting for the candidates. former governor jon huntsman skipped iowa and has been scamped out in the granite state for months. he knows if iowa is the place where candidates leave licking their wound. new hampshire is the place where they come to pour salt into them. >> do you anticipate sharper elbows in the state starting tomorrow? >> hard to know. sharp elbows started a long time ago. that will continue. all parts of differentiating candidate by canned day. >> reporter: how sharp are your elbows? >> sharp enough. >> re

did he vote as a democrat for paul tsongas or did he not?t of ted i can den i can? yes, he did. why is it politically incorrect to tell the truth? you're saying that a traditional washington pattern. it's better to be sweet and honest than have the face and say we want to be nice to each other no matter what the american people want to hear. i think the american people deserve the truth. i'm prepared to defend everything i said this morning. candidly, i wish mitt would level with the american people, be who he really is and let's have a debate about massachusetts moderate versus a real conservativconservative. >> all right. mr. speaker, we have to bring it to a close there. we thank you for coming on and answering the questions this morning. thank you very much. >> thank you, plaintifmr. speak. on an emerald card. e just bring in your tax information and get a refund anticipation check... in 7-14 days, for up to $9,999. you pay nothing out of pocket. hurry. this offer ends february 4th. why pay for fast money when you can get it for free? ca

paul tsongas got 33 over bill clinton at 24. number does mitt romney have to get to call it a real win there? >> well, winning these two states in a row is an historic victory no matter how you slice it whether he gets in let 30s, mid-30s or high 30s that is a tremendous victory, particularly this many candidates in the field. if mitt gets 30s, that  well done and on to south carolina. >> governor, al sharpton f mr. pawlenty gets a big margin tonight or just whips decisively, you are right, the first time that you have had an iowa and new hampshire victory that didn't go on to get the nomination, but the question becomes will there be a leading conservative or group of conservatives that would join you all in saying the conservatives ought to pull out and unite the party and stop this bickering and really look like -- make the conservatives that stay in, gingrich has made a huge buy in south carolina and others, look like they are being destructive and going against the interests of the party. do you think that some of the part

he registered as a democrat to vote for paul tsongas, the most liberal guy in 1992 running and callederate running for governor in 2002. and signed a bill to pay tax paid abortions and planned parenthood, with an official position in romney care. those aren't conservative positions. some people look at rick santorum now, according to the polls, as surging. do you buy that surge? and what do you thing of that. >> first of all, rick is a very good guy and i admire him, i like him. he's exactly right on iran and in contrast, ron paul is exactly wrong on iran. h he has dedicated an immense amount of time in iowa and should do well and probably will do well and has nad no negative ads against him and at a time when i'm getting beaten up, there is this my who is not getting beaten up and he's getting a good residual benefit. i admire him and he has great discipline and great focus of trying to do the world good. >> new conventional wisdom, there are four tickets out of iowa. if you come in 5th, what happens. >> then there are five tickets out of iowa. there are no circumstances where somebo

meeting with regan in '74 and a massachusetts moderate who was independent in the '80s, voted for paul tsongasibed himself as a moderate running for governor. put planned parenthood the largest abortion center in the united states into romney care by name. raised taxes including by the way taxing gun ownership. you have to pay $100 per year to own a gun in massachusetts. something which in south carolina will be seen as truly strange. i think it is hard for somebody from the state of dukakis and john kerry to come in and say he is a conservative. that is not accurate. he is not being candid. >> shannon: thank you very much for your time. see you on the campaign trail. the countdown is on in new hampshire with the state's is first in the nation primary just two days away. mitt romney's rivals all have the same game plan take down the frontrunner. i'm shannon bream in washington. let's get right to it with carl cameron live in manchester with the latest. hi, carl. >> reporter: it is coming down to the wire and the back-to-back debates are unprecedented in new hampshire history and raises questio

bill clinton and paul tsongas. i think you'll see mitt romney stay about 35%, 36%. new hampshire voters do not like to be told who will win. ron paul has been very steady. does rick santorum have enough movement to get into the 20%? the last thing is newt gingrich. eight months ago he was sitting on top of the world -- a month ago, he was sitting on top of the world. does gingrich break 20%? >> talk to us-- host: talk to us about radio row. guest: today and tomorrow will be the heaviest. surrogates comesir gets co in. then c-span comes by. host: how long have you been doing this? guest: my show is about four or 5 years old. this is my first formal year of playing a role here. they have been organizing radio row for about four or five years. it is a great way to center in new hampshire. this is the olympics of the media in politics. host: thank you very much. guest: thank you. luck.od host: back in new hampshire. we will take a look at another group of radio hosts. we're joined by bill adair with politifact. he is an editor. guest: we are fact-checking website and we

in '92 he was donating to the democrats for congress and voted for paul tsongas in the democratic primary. in '94 running against teddy kennedy, he said flatly, i don't want to go back to the reagan- bush era, i was an independent. so there's a pretty wide gap. now, he's more mature. he's more conservative, i accept that. i think it's a good thing. but those of us who were in the trenches fighting in the '80's, it would be nice to be recognized for what we actually did and not to have orchestrated attacks to try to distort the history of that period. blitzer: governor romney you can respond please. [applause] romney: just a -- just a short clarification. i -- i've never voted for a democrat when there was a republican on the ballot. and -- and in my state of massachusetts, you could register as an independent and go vote in which -- either primary happens to be very interesting. and any chance i got to vote against bill clinton or ted kennedy, i took. and so i -- i'm... [applause] romney: i have voted -- i have always voted for a republican any time there was a republican on the ballot. w

print ad and he said governor romney was an independent and repudiated reagan-bush and voted for paul tsongas, the most liberal candidate since the 1992 campaign and ran to the left of ted kennedy in 1994. so the gloves are off even before newt landed. >> yeah, indeed. meanwhile, we got to tell you this amazing story out of oklahoma. just imagine you're a woman with a 3-month-old baby, right? >> your husband just passed away through lung cancer. >> right, on christmas day. there's a man at your front door with a 12-inch knife pounding on the door. there's another guy, his accomplice at the back door pounding on that door. she calls 911 and says essentially, there are these two guys here. i have a shotgun. i have a pistol. what can i do? >> with my infant baby, can i please get someone out there, please? >> are your doors locked? >> yes, i've got two guns in my hand. is it ok to shoot him if he comes in this door? >> i can't tell him if you do this. you do what you have to do to protect your baby. >> interesting thing is that she eventually did shoot this gentleman in the torso when he came in

going to be based on 68, gene mccarthy, finish second, claiming victory. '92, bill clinton lost to paul tsongaspending on his statement tonight, you know, finishing second, we really won, he, he could provide romney with a real tilt down the road. >> so much depends on ron paul, mika. ron paul sitting at 20% right now. is that ron paul's ceiling? are we going to see people move away from ron today, because they think huntsman has a better chance of beating romney in the long run? that's the big question mark. two big question marks. where does huntsman end up and where does romney end up? and that's wide divergence of opinion out there. >> you talk to people on the ground and you get a sense that something could happen that is very unexpected. we should talk, we bumped in with an ad, a pro gingrich ad going after mitt romney and his history at maine. firing people. and let's add to this, there was that gaffe yesterday where he said he likes firing people. it was taken out of context. but there's now a superpac ad, the pro romney superpac, restore our future has made a $2.3 million ad buy in sou

romney did register as a democrat to vote for paul tsongas.n't have to go out and select things out to distort them and you don't have to get into his career and do any of the things that would get into negative advertising. say, look, here is his public record, here is my public record, you choose. >> his ads aren't really -- it is not about distorting the facts. [ inaudible ] fact driven websites, it is really about the tone, the aggressiveness that the -- >> yeah, yeah, i think frankly i think you can do very calm, very pleasant ads that the nation of the republican party is such that a calm and pleasant ad that says he was for tax paid abortions, i'm against it, you can say it happily, pleasantly, it works just by the nature of the data. >> he quotes america the beautiful while his ads show -- >> right. >> is that the future? >> no more than it has been in the past. this is always -- [ inaudible ] >> he says how great he is and -- >> sure. >> his ads are trashing you constantly. >> right. so part of the question you have to ask yourself is

in 1992 he voted in the democratic primary for paul tsongas, one of the most liberal candidates, andand he is questioning my credentials? i challenge you to find out how of touch mitt romney is capable of being, and that is why i was glad michael reagan is flying around. you just saw one of the great grassroots candidates in the country support me in herman cain. i am trying to be inclusive about folks who have great talent. i have asked governor rick perry if he would share a project to take the 10th amendment, develop the strongest possible republican platform plank for the summer, and then developing a model bill that would put in the contract this fall to try to pass it early next year to take power out of washington and bring it back home to the people. similarly, having worked with herman as early as the fight against "hillary-care," knowing his background, who ran a company and made it work. i have asked herman to help chair a council on jobs, economic growth, and tax reform, which he has agreed to do. as part of developing a new set of ideas. i also know, he is going to walk

washe 1980's, he independent, in 1992, he voted for paul tsongas, the most liberal candidate, and hes questioning my credentials? it tells you how out of touch with honesty mitt romney is capable of being. that is why i am so glad michael reagan is lying around. you saw one of the great grass for -- its populist is -- i am so glad michael reagan is flying around. you saw one of the great grassroots topless in the country -- grassroots populits in the country endorse me. when rick perry called to endorse me, i asked if he would take a project to take the 10th amendment and develop the strongest possible platform plank for the summer and developed a bill we would put in the contract this fall to pass it next year to take power out of washington and bring it back home to the people. [applause] similarly, having worked with herman as early as the fight against hillarycare and on issues of tax reform, knowing his background as a business leader who actually ran a company, not just an investor, but a guy who actually ran the company and made it work, i've asked herman to chair a project on

tsongas -- >> comeback kid. it is all about expectations and the margin. it is not necessarily the order of finish, excepthat santorum has to show that he can beat ron paul and allhe others. >> you wonder about the ron paul factor. the slogan is "live a free or die." apparently this is ron paul territory, b but he has not done that much up there.. >> you look at the trend ron paul is picking up in newew hahampshire. >> the independent vote in new hampshire is not a peer republican -- >> undeclared. >> in iowa, they wenent heavily for ron paul, independents and democrats. when-state republicans. -- one-day republicans. >> republican elders are being very nice to o ron paul these dayspraying he does not run as an indndependent. >> he is kind of like jesse jackson in 1984. he has a constituency within the party d not going to winin the nomination, but he could end op in tampa with a strong number of delegates, and heill command respect, perhaps a speech. >> he will demand more than that. >>>> platform? that is going to be a problem for the rerepublican "estlishment." >> i don't know how you all can -- >> we will have to have a meeting and decide how to handle i