this is going to continue for a while. >> robert zimmerman, ronald reagan 30 years ago came out withmmandment saying republicans should not attack fellow republicans. that commandment is by the wayside. are you surprised by all the anger and emotional badger aring going on between these republican candidates? >> actually, it really doesn't surprise me, because not only is ronald reagan the commandment gone by the wayside, ronald reagan and today's republican party has gone by the wayside subpoena here's a man who served president eight year, raised taxes 11 time, goerted with adversary, made peace treaties raised the debt ceiling. by today's standings, the republican party would reject it. inconsistences of the race and highs and los. one consistency, while republican party plays to the extreme right wing, they're a victim of their own rhetoric. the right-hand doesn't know what the extreme right hand is going trying to galvanize anger in their party what do you think barack obama feel answer the vitriol in the republican nominating campaign right now? >> i can't claim to be a spokesp

he's a new hampshire-based republican strategist and democratic strategist robert zimmerman joins us om new york. robert, i'm going to start with you. is romney the guy democrats want to face in 2012? >> it's not about wanting to face him. the reality is we're going to be facing him in all expectation. except for that concept jim acosta brought up about a tim tebow-comeback which i don't want to hear about after hour new york giants beat the atlanta falcons today. i'm not looking for any tim tebow comeback to take place here. >> do you think you may be jumping ahead. newt gingrich was up and there have been so many republican hopefuls who were up at one point and now all of a sudden it's mitt romney. mitt romney has been steady. tough to get above 25%. we've been hearing that. do you think he may be pushing forward just a little bit too soon here? >> i think the reality of the situation is, just on the basis of organization alone, he's well positioned to be able to go the distance or run the calendar. versus the others. the challenge for mitt romney is not just to win but to make sure

and, you know, it's not too surprising why. >> i want to get to robert zimmerman.n this party of republicans. how are democrats viewing this race? are you glad to see mitt romney in the lead? >> well, realistically i disagree with many of my democratic colleagues who talk about the republican party being divided or romney being an unpopular potential front-runner because the reality is, he appears he'll be the nominee. and the republican party have every confidence it's going to unite and re-energize. the real issue is the price that mitt romney and the republicans are paying to achieve this unity. we have never seen republican presidential candidates or for that matter any candidate go to the extreme right wing these candidates are, whether it's mitt romney talking about deporting 11 million undocumented workers or newt gingrich saying he'll just overturn or not enforce supreme court decisions or rick santorum saying he'll just dismantle congress as president or for that matter, send our troops back to iraq, whether the iraqis want us there or not. it just speaks

joining me now is gentry collins and robert zimmerman. welcome to both of you.seeing a different tone for mitt romney. listen to this. >> he was a leader for four years as speaker of the house and at the end of four years it was proved that he was a disgraced leader. >> romney on the attack. good move? what do you think? >> i think it's a great move for governor romney. i think the lesson from iowa is that negative ads work. the difference is that romney's super pac was not as aggressive with newt gingrich in south carolina as it was in iowa. i think the first three contests is that negative ads work. >> here's the problem. in many ways the republican parties become the victims of their own rhetoric. you've got a climate where the right hand doesn't know what the extreme right hand is doing because it's become so intense and so personal that it's not just going on the attack, it's the way you go on the attack. obviously going after newt gingrich with his record as an insider, lobbyist, and certainly with his ethics problems isn't going to work. the problem for r

. >> bill: here is robert zimmerman's choice for the best clip last night. >> this is typical of whatoth senator santorum and i. super pac influence how much influence he would have as president. >> i can't call these people and direct them to do that as you know. that would violate federal law; is that correct? >> absolutely. >> all right. so i can't do what you just asked me to do but i can't tell them publicly as i can here if there is anything that's inaccurate in any ads to support me i hope they take it off and don't run it. if we are talking about super pac ads that are inaccurate. mr. speaker you have a super pac ad that attacks me. now, just hold on. that attacks me. it's probably the biggest homosexual since big foot. >> bill: you selected that why? >> because that was a very revealing moment about mitt romney. here he is is now in his 16th debate. while he is, in fact, in the 16th debate now bill, he still can't give a straight answer about his relationship to super pacs. let's remember, bill. >> bill: whoa, wait. the federal law says that romney can't be directly involved

playing today democrat strategist robert zimmerman.rphy and chris mets ler. >>> right now, it looks like the new hampshire primaries will be a race for second and third, your best guesses at tomorrow headlines. who will be tonight's top three finishers? robert? >> well, in polling, it's always important to watch not the final number you see on the screen but to see where the trends are going. the trend shows that huntsman finishes in second and ron paul finishing in third place. even though mitt romney is not going to get the bounce out of his first-place victory, the good news for romney, neither romney nor -- ron paul can really go too far. the reality is ron paul is ron paul. and jon huntsman believes in science and climate change. >> chris? >> well, i think, robert's analysis is correct. i think in the second and third place you're going to see huntsman and you're going to see paul. the unfortunate thing of course for santorum, he got no bounce out of the iowa victory. i think what it also says for mitt romney it's not the coronati

three questions, 30 seconds on the clock, and robert zimmerman, founder and editor of citizen jane politicsand chris mets her. first question, newt gingrich trailing mitt romney as florida votes today. the gingrich camp strongly suggesting it will cede michigan and nevada to romney. is this a sign the campaign is starting to crumble? >> absolutely not. it actually is a sign that what newt is doing at this point is doing what he can, which is the best strategic move possible. he realizes he's not going to win michigan. he realizes he as not going to win nevada, so why spend the resources there? last time around romney won those states, so newt's conserve is his resources for the southern swing. that makes sense. there's no sign that the campaign is crumbling. as a matter of fact i think the opposite is true. they are looking at strategy, and this is the best possible strategy. >> robert? >> well, real test of whether the gingrich campaign is crumbling or not will be revealed tonight when we look at how he polls in northern a florida, in the panel handle region. that would be reflective of ho

and robert zimmerman, patricia murphy and cnn contributor will cain.ack ads getting vicious in south carolina. not even the family pet is safe. here's newt gingrich, a web video. targeting romney for putting his dog in the crate on top of the car for 12-hour road trip. >> we love the dog. it was where he was comfortable. we had five kids inside the car. my guess is he liked it better in the kennel than he would have inside. >> who let the dogs out? who? who? >> all right. low blow or an indication of what's ahead? robert? >> yes on both counts. i'm not sure i trust newt gingrich with the family pet. there are so many more important issues to focus on. when he was governor of massachusetts his notion of outsourcing jobs overseas. advocating 11 million undocumented wo,ers, ending medicare for undocumented workers. that's the subjects that the american people have a the right to a debate about. i'm in a bad habilitate of surrounding myself with them. i can say with some confidence that it is. i might have heard them before. not from you. but i might have

joining me to talk fair game is robert zimmerman and lenny macalister here at the cnn center.enny, i'm going to start with you because you're closer. you're right here. newt gingrich has been asked about this earlier in the day. he didn't get so angry earlier in the day but do you think he was playing with the crowd knowing that he had an audience there? >> he was definitely playing to the crowd. the conservative was always the liberal mainstream media. he had a couple hours to build up the rage at the exact same time as the debate in cnn, he played into it. he knocked a fast ball right into the ballpark and i believe he won the south carolina primary with that response last night and again if that's the case, one for santorum, one for romney, gingrich, game on in florida. >> all right. we're going to get more on that. go ahead, robert. >> let's put this in perspective. first of all, i have to throw a shout out to john king by asking a very appropriate question. newt gingrich was playing to the extreme right wing that defines the republican party today, especially in south car

joining us is robert zimmerman and anna. i'm going to start with you, anna.ing more and more conservatives speaking out, criticizing. the conservatives are saying they might actually win. >> what i see is the establishment to stop gingrich and i'm not sure that makes that much of a difference with the republican base in florida. when you go to newt gingrich, you see them on tv, they are gigantic, 4,000, 5,000-people crowd. so i don't know the supporter of wanting to stop newt gingrich is really on the ground. >> that's a very important point, ana, you bring up. because when you watch these incredible crowds, newt gingrich is attracting -- every time he's caught in a lie or hypocrisy, everything that happens, he yells at the moderator for asking that question. the crowd cheers. his great strength is, you can't embarrass me and ultimately he really is speaking to a republican party that's not motivated by philosophy or policy but motivated by revenge and they are better off not winning elections because of the vengeful strategy. >> one thing you've been hearing

robert zimmerman, patricia murphy and sherry jakobis join me now.last night's debate. we've been talking a lot about in this morning, taking a lot of flack for super pac ads. but he fired back at newt gingrich. take a listen. if we're talking about super pac ads that are inaccurate, mr. speaker, you have a super pac ad -- >> and i've said -- >> that attacks me. now, just hold on. that attacks me. it's probably the biggest hoax since big foot. >> gingrich is romney's closest competitor in south carolina right now. is this kind of talk going to keep gingrich as the runner up, you think? sorry, robert, go ahead. >> okay. good morning. very frankly, that alone is not going to keep gingrich in the mix. what is keeping gingrich in the mix, however, is his tactics which you saw auto display last night of engaging in class warfare, his refers to elites against people that work, whatever that means, his attacks on capitalism, and also explo exploiting bigotry towards going after the gay and lesbian community. unfortunately that keeps him in the mix in today'

. >> robert zimmerman and lenny, thank you to you both.id armageddon is coming and said that his attack may have been a mistake. did the attacks go too far? >> well, the attacks didn't go too far. he wants to stay above the fray. he wants to stay positive and has the negative baggage from 10, 15, 20 years ago. unlike going negative, trying to paint himself as a positive inspirational figure, he's trying to ride the line and it's a very difficult ride and he's now in third place and in some instances fourth place. if he doesn't do something, he's going to be put in third place and that's not going to give him the nomination. >> we know that limbaugh is defending romney and we know that huntsman and santorum are sort of calling off the dogs and saying, let's stop this. today, a financial backer for rick perry defected to romney's team in south carolina because of words that rick perry has used because of the whole bain capital experience and the word vulture. are the attacks on romney at bain capital, do they seem to be backfiring to you? >>

>> actually i had two choices, the first was robert zimmerman, but i decided to -- instead, i decidedrry seinfeld. i think he has a striking resemblance to seinfeld. the difficulty, of course, is, he doesn't have the humor of seinfeld. so probably zimmerman would have been the better choice. i'm going to stick with seinfeld. >> patricia, did i give you enough time? >> i'm ready. >> give it to us. you have ron paul. >> i'm going with a thin archie bunker. sort of a armchair quarterback complaining about a lot of things, the world is not fair. i'm going archie bunker. >> love it. >> i could see the new sitcoms now coming out this year. you guys, thanks so much. >> thanks. take care. >>> and the nominees are in for the 84th annual academy awards. a.j. hammer is here next. this new at&t 4g lte is fast. hey. did you guys hear... ...that mary got engaged? that's so 42 seconds ago. thanks for the flowers guys. [ both ] you're welcome. oooh are you guys signing up for the free massage? [ both ] so 32 seconds ago. hey guys you hear frank's cat is sick? yeah, we heard. wanna sign the card? did

and playing robert zimmerman, founder and editor of citizen jane politics and newt gingrich tells mittling just be man enough to get up and say, you know, this is my negative campaign and i admit it, i'd be a lot happier. what i find really frustrating, and frankly irritating as a man who wants to run for president of the united states who can't be honest with the american people. if he can't level with the american people about these ads, why should be expect him to level about anything if he's president? >> so, can gingrich convince voters that romney's dishonest, robert? >> well, kyra, when newt gingrich said he was going to run a positive campaign as an experiment, it really was a novelty act. because when it comes to cutting, vicious and personal attacks, he's the political answer to wes craven. and you can all google his name. he's the author of the freddy kruger and "scream" movies. bottom line is you have to have -- newt gingrich doesn't have the character or the credibility or the positive approval ratings to be able to convince anyone of anything. so, no, he can't convince an

playing today robert zimmerman. dino.>> weesh' ten minutes away from president obama's news conference on the shifted u.s. military strategy. will this become a campaign issue for the candidates. ron? >> i think it actually will be, although this year is going to be an economic election. the issue over defense and the strategy and the defense cuts will definitely be an issue for republican candidates this fall, absolutely. >> robert? >> well, certainly the republican candidate is going to try to make this an issue this year. mitt romney's advocating keeping troops in iraq. he's advocated zeroing out our foreign aid to countries like israel. the reason it won't get any traction is because the president's policies in terms of military strategy have gotten -- have achieved great success, therefore, it's got broad appeal. for example, his relentless pursuit against terrorists and dismantling the leadership of al qaeda, including osama bin laden, extracting us from the civil war and forming coalitions to defeat dictators like

playing today, democratic strategist robert zimmerman, founder and editor of citizen jane politics, patricia cnn contributor will cain. first question, guys, and i'm going to kind of split this up, if you don't mind. rick perry dropping out of the race. we've been talking about it all morning now. expected to make his announcement in about 30 minutes. where do his supporters go? robert? >> well, it's important to remember just how small his supporter base is. but you've got to say advantage gingrich in that perry dropping out just contributes to the momentum newt gingrich is gaining and he's got a nationur affinity with the evangelical voters. i would point out, though, i was talking to my republican leadership friends in south carolina, there's a strong collection of retired military personnel who live in that state who vote republican. some of them perry was playing to, maybe some of them a little romney. >> will? >> well, i'm not trying to be cute, but you know, like robert just said, what supporters? we're not talking about a huge number of people here. that being said, it kind of sticks