and tomorrow we are going to give a speech on that romney kerry and obama care. ma care.y care and obabm [applause] we will talk about the states that are up next in the next week. that is what the issues that we need. we need a can of it who can get up on the issues of health care and draw a clear contrast with president obama. and we need someone who can beat up on the issue of environmentalism. we need someone on the issue of wall street and the bailout. here in nevada they have suffered, while the folks and wall street have prospered. the people here who have the loans under water continue to suffer a while those who were selling for profit for bad paper continue to get bailed out by washington, and approved of by newt gingrich and it romney. and we need someone who can draw the contrast. we need someone to be the conservative nominee. in florida newt gingrich had his opportunity. he came out with the big win and a lot of money. he said i will be the conservative. it did not work. we cannot allow our nominee to be the issue of the campaign. [applause] so i sa

. >> well, i kind of think his son mitt has less of a george romney problem than a john kerry problem. >> okay. >> the romney campaign on foreign policy reminds me a lot of the kerry campaign in 2004 on foreign policy where you don't really get a lot of very sharply drawn distinctions with the president, but you get a lot of invective and a lot of, you know, performed outrage. like if you just read the transcript of what romney said on afghanistan there, it is actually pretty straight recitation of facts. the secretary of defense said that we're going to withdraw by a date certain in mid-2013. you hear it, like you just played, it is a timetable, you can't believe it. it seems a lot less like romney has a substantive critique to make than he wants to just show the audience that something obama has done is self-evidently wrong. >> he has taken on advisers, foreign policy advisers who are best known for their advocacy of the position that there ought to be negotiations with the taliban to end the afghanistan war. he is also made the case on the campaign trail that there should definitel

kerry. >> in chicago they're trying to rerun 2004 where obama -- >> is bush. >> and a mitt romney is john similarities beyond both being from massachusetts, a stiff quality, doesn't necessarily connect so well with voters but this super pac deal, chuck, is the big story of 2012. obama folks are not going to raise $1 billion. that's out the window. >> no. they're going to be matched dollar for dollar but what karl rove said in '04 was he thought that they kept, they didn't do the act at the time it was the whole 501c4, they didn't play that game and there was no cohesive democratic strategy and they felt they were wasting money. we might be seeing the same thing on the republican side. >> maybe but you're talking about a bottomless pit, unlimited amounts of money a very few, small number of individuals can pump into our politics, almost like an oligarchy type of situation where we have these people who are so wealthy and they can pervert our process. it's frightening. >> we'll take a quick break and we'll let you disagree right after the break. trivia time. who was the last republican to w

race played out differently. >> john kerry lacked just enough excitement, because did he not have that extra push that you need in the end. >> it's true, that mitt romney is sort of the john kerry of this race, except more wooden. he is carved or granite or something like that. >> completely carved of stone. after the break, we will talk good guy that is not carved of stone. i'm not weighing on what he is carved up. gingrich set s his sight on his home state. we will take a look next. are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. wait. ♪ it's morning in the himalayas... [ male announcer ] it's sweet. it's nutty. it's absolutely delicious. kellogg's crunchy nut. it's morning somewhere. it's absimmerse yourselfs. in all over relief nut. [ female announcer ] feeling that flu all over your body? with alka seltzer plus. it's specially formulated to speed relief to every inch of you. liquidate your flu symptoms with alka seltzer plus. until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ th

kerry, they lose. obama leads there partly because two-thirds of the public don't think romney paid his fair share in taxes, since he paid that lower 15% rate for investments. these relatively bad numbers for romney raise the question, diane. has this primary battle done irreparable harm to him? 31% of americans have a favorable opinion of him. while 49% have an unfavorable opinion. >> that seems high. >> no, this is high, even compared to other candidates at this point in their primary battles, whether obama or john mccain or john kerry or george w. bush. these are bad numbers for romney. >> some cautionary numbers. >>> still ahead on "world news," nerves of steel. eli manning's game of a lifetime can teach everyone about winning in your life. >>> and we have secrets from behind the scenes of madonna's big halftimshow, dancing at 53. "hey" yourself. brad needs car insurance, but, uh, brad doesn't want to spend too much. who's brad? this is brad. ahh! well, progressive has lots of discounts for a guy like brad. brad's intrigued. paid in full, safe driver, multi-car, going paperless -- all can help brad sav

kerry or george w. bush. these are bad numbers for romney. >> some cautionary numbers out there tonight. thank you, jake, good to have you up here. >> good to be here. >>> still ahead on "world news," nerves of steel. eli manning's game of a lifetime can teach everyone about winning in your life. >>> and we have secrets from behind the scenes of madonna's big halftime show, dancing at 53. 53. "hey" yourself. brad needs car insurance, but, uh, brad doesn't want to spend too much. who's brad? this is brad. ahh! well, progressive has lots of discounts for a guy like brad. brad's intrigued. paid in full, safe driver, multi-car, going paperless -- all can help brad save a bunch. sign brad up. cool! jamie will ring you up. show brad the way. who's brad? oh, here we go again. discounts that everyone can use. now, that's progressive. call or click today. what if the first step on that road is a bowl of soup? delicious campbell's soups fill you with vegetable nutrition, farm-grown ingredients, and can help you keep a healthy weight. campbell's -- it's amazing what soup can do. with thermacare hea

romney was just like with john kerry on the war. omney was for this plan before he was against it. megyn: the republicans have been doing that. oner to up has been hitting him with that and still they are showing romney beating obama in these key states. something the president hopes to turn around. anyone here in favor of the $750,000 soccer field? anyone? show of hands? >> i want to keep guantanamo open without a soccer field. megyn: you cannot make this stuff up. chris, see you tonight. a couple kids at a california elementary school have been suspended or transferred for a prank. a prank that could have killed the teacher. what happened. what should happen when you put rat poison in your teacher's coffee? [ male announcer ] this was how my day began. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪ megyn: "kelly's court" is back in session

romney, we are salivating. the campaign they ran against kerry in 2004 will pale in comparison to 2012. >> newt gingrich did not hold back last night in the post caucus news conference that was very unusual. here's a taste of what he had to say with romney. >> i didn't have the neck nichls of those who were blatantly dishonest as a candidate for president. if you can't tell the truth that a charge has been made by mccain and fred thompson and huckabee, if you can't tell the truth as a candidate for president, how can the country expect to you lead? >> watching this, what are democrats thinking or his strategists as they are watching newt gingrich go after mitt romney this way? he is very negative against romney. >> the theme is newt gingrich really dislikes mitt romney. don't talk about newt gingrich at all and that means he will stay until the end of the race. if i were romney, i would keep quiet and continue to run the campaign. >> is gingrich running out of steam by doing this? is he focusing on the wrong person? romney was all obama, obama and gingrich is romney, romney. >> i don't think gingrich is interes

primary process, that the tea party voters just can't get their arms around mitt romney, and that remains a problem. >> john kerryeed to pass a rule that says, neither one of us will nominate someone from massachusetts again. >> is that it? >> he's from michigan. he's from michigan. >> it's ms. michigan, massachusetts. >> right, exactly. >> if he loses michigan, though, is mitt romney out of the race? >> no. absolutely not. i think it makes his path a little longer and a little harder. but you know, the flip side is, i think rick santorum has to win michigan, because a failure -- he's not going to win in arizona, and a failure to win michigan really, you know, is going to hurt him going into super tuesday, and it makes the long-term sustainability of his campaign a lot more difficult. >> all right. well thanks to all three of you. we appreciate it. we are just 15 minutes away from the debate and the big one, the 20th. can romney stop the santorum surge? will rick santorum look presidential? and what if none of the candidates secure enough delegates during the primaries? oh, it would become a dream come true for s

romney. >> it didn't work for gore or kerry. >> this is the tricky part.e says to the american public i am going to make things a lot better. the american public i think is saying how. has he told them how? >> no. there was the 57, 59, i'm starting to lose track, point program. no, i think he needs to come out with that tax plan which he keeps hinting at, showing a little ankle here and there, a little -- >> to help the poor as well as the middle class. >> that's right. >> i thought he didn't care about the poor. >> we need mitt romney to have a little jack chemical np him. >> yes. >> a little jack kemp. entrepreneurial -- >> why -- don't pick up the individual boats. >> it's not about the individual classes. it's about all the classes -- >> a job. >> 243,000 americans have that had month that they didn't before. romney's got a major problem. he's got to change his playbook because the economy is growing. it's been growing for 20-plus months. it's going to continue -- >> but you're going to have to dial down this -- the obama boom a little bit. dial it dow

kerry. >> nina? >> it does feed into the spirit that, and yet, you have to say, the romney campaign is so magnificently discipline that the one undiscipline, and blowing what he has done for a year -- i am caught between admiration and fascination with the undisciplined moment. >> he is not thinking about the public listening to this. >> he is trying to identify with the middle-class. it has become the coveted constituency of both parties. it is not what you do for the rich, is what you do for the middle-class. the antidote to this problem that governor romney had was his endorsement yesterday by a billionaire. he is a multi millionaire, he got endorsed by a billionaire -- >> who likes to fire people! >> so donald trump solidified the billionaire vote for romney. >> look, romney's problem is that he is late to his ideology. if you are conservative, you don't want to play on the grounds of liberals, which is class distinctions and, if you like, pitting one class against another. the conservative idea of economics, the moral defense of the free-market, is that it helps everybody. if you have economic exp

state in michigan and it is mitt romney's home state and winning there could put him over the top that's right but a loss of santorum could send the whole race into kerry os real clear politics puts the spread of the most recent polls at one and a half points the new york times numbers cruncher projects that romney will get thirty eight point seven percent of the vote north of detroit is oakland county a lot of votes in this county romney won it over mccain by twenty points four years ago look at that thirty six percent for santorum thirty five percent for romney if mitt romney loses michigan it could turn this already to mulch or was race into reset mode by calling into question his electability. now this point we've seen this entire campaign coverage monster in action for long enough i would not blame people if they haven't already but have just decided to now turn off their t.v.'s until november because seriously this is are going to get but that doesn't make it all right and so guess what i'm not going to stop calling them out for it obviously a presidential election is a big deal this is an incredibly important year for this country providing nons

kerry sanders, nbc news. >>> back to this country now. once again in this wild gop primary campaign, mitt romney is in a tough spot. as the analysts always like to point out, he's still the best finance candidate with the best organization, but on top of the fact rick santorum one three of the last four contests, while romney is from michigan, he owns place necessary four other states, and these days is working hard to explain why he was against the government's auto industry bailouts. that doesn't go over well in the state we associate with detroit and american cars. nbc's peter alexander is in grand rapids tonight. >> reporter: a self-described son of detroit, mitt romney is son of michigan's legendary governors george romney, the sign of an auto executive who proudly claims cars are in his bones. >> detroit auto show with my dad. that was a big deal. i want to make michigan stronger and better. michigan has been my home and this is personal. >> reporter: for adults of a certain age across this state, romney is a household name dating back a half century. it's one reason romney lost his 2008 presidential bid at t

if we get mitt romney, we're really salivating because the campaign that they ran against kerry in 2004going to pale compared to what we run against him in 2012. >> i want to talk more about newt gingrich. he didn't hold back last night, and we were watching it live here, will. he didn't hold back in that post-caucus news conference which was very unusual as well. here is a taste of what he had to say about mitt romney. listen. >> i didn't have any good mechanisms to turn to somebody who was being blatantly dishonest to the entire country as a candidate for president. if you can't tell the truth as a candidate for president, which is, by the way, a charge that's been made by mccain, by fred thompson, by huckabee, if you can't tell the troou as a candidate for president, how can the country possibly expect you to lead as president. >> jamie, watching this, what are democrats thinking? what is the president thinking or his strategists are they're watching newt gingrich last night go after mitt romney this way but then saying i want a more positive tone but then he comes out and is very ne

want to ask you, i look at this, i think in some ways isn't mitt romney the worst candidate for these guys? it's kind of like a john kerry situation, i think he's electable, and it turns out whoops, he wasn't electable at all. >> yeah. he's a bad general election candidate until you compare him to the other options the republican party has for 2012 and then he becomes the good enough candidate. the problem with romney is two fold. his entire political career his status as the rich guy with the privileged lifestyle with the private equity background has always been a problem. ted kennedy's campaign against romney was sort of about the negative excess of big apartmentallism, the plants that that were closed, things like that. it's been a problem, but when you look at 2012, it's particularly problematic. we're having a conversation in this country for the first time as long as i can remember about income inequality, tax fairness. wall street is in people's minds. you've got obama and the democratic party absolutely intent on harnessing that spirit and portraying the republican party as the protector of the top 1%, the super

kerry's political campaign in 2004. >> pelley: armen, thank you very much. a new gallup poll out today finds that mitt romney is leading newt gingrich nationally for the first time in more than a week 31% to 26%. romney hasn't had much time to savor his big victory last night in florida, however. jan crawford tells us he spent much of today explaining a controversial comment. jan is in nevada, which is holding caucuses on saturday. jan? >> reporter: scott, romney was actually taking a victory lap on the morning news shows when he started talking about how he was focused on helping the middle-class, not the very rich or the very poor. he's made that point a lot on the campaign trail but this time it was the way he said it that got him into some trouble. >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it needs repair, i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich, they're doing just fine. i'm concerned about the very heart of america, the 90%, 95% of americans who right now are struggling and i'll continue to take that message across the nation. >> reporter: romney's comments lit

romney. if someone else had said this, perhaps it wouldn't have had this impact. and it's just one of the john kerry moments. >> did you say anything and get it spun and spun around, misspoke? >> not spun and spun around. i kept adding. it was the argument about when he had to deal with the coach, i turn around and i was so mad, and i said, he may have needed choking. >> that went all over the country. but what do you do in a situation like that? and mitt romney, you know they're going to take that bite and the democrats are going to have a field day with it and newt is already having a field day with it. whoever wins the primaries, it doesn't matter. >> well, remember back the middle of last year, newt gingrich was caught saying republican social engineering is just as bad. and then said, anybody who puts me completely in context is wrong. so perhaps mitt romney could try that method. >> well you use -- >> well, but he's not sharp enough to do that. mitt romney is not sharp enough at all. he's like a wooden figure. like out of one of those operations where you make them, put them in place, wind the

kerry and edwards were able to take one or two in iowa. and i think actually a bit of santorum can be explained by romney and gingrich going after each other so heavily in iowa, there wasn't much advertising in new hampshire, actually, in iowa, in south carolina, in florida. and what happens is, you know, one of the reasons why burger king might not go after mcdonald's is that if they go after mcdonald's, it then benefits wendy's. so if you -- so i do think there has been an unusually high level of negative advertise iing in t particular presidential primary. and also the ability of, what jane was saying, it used to be, you would win a primary and then it would take you a week or two to raise money. now a win can be a $5 million check within 30 minutes and that can be wired right to the television stations. it's the speed at which that request happen, i think. >> you talk about how you can see something on a website one day and an ad the next day. the information months before the ad actually being ran. that seems like a quaint period of time now. >> under citizens united, is there disclosure? how did we know that foreign entities are putt

romney has the endorsements and the money. nonetheless he struggles and struggles to just maintain his position. at this point in 2000, at this point in 2004, the two obvious nominees, bush and then kerryre supported by 60, 60, 70%. >> what if he doesn't win michigan? >> it's all up in the air. >> really? it wasn't supposed to be this hard for romney. >> look, i've always thought and i said he is the inevitable nominee at the loses michigan it's up in the air. he has a 29 to 1 advantaging on what he's spending on the air with the super pac in michigan. if he loses under these circumstances in his so-called home state, like george h.b. bush, he has a lot of home states, he's in deep trouble. >> are we seeing the conservatives coalesing behind santorum? he has more wins than anybody else, what are we seeing here? >> conservatives outside the south coalesce around santorum. you still see gingrich support in places like georgia and north carolina. now whether that is still tll on super tuesday or whether people move toward santorum i don't know. this is a big deal for romney. he needs to win michigan, he needs to win it convincingly, win arizona, then i think he will be okay on super tuesd

i think that romney would be stronger in some ways, in is same way, i think of 2004. john kerryflected george bush's strengths, what people liked about bush they liked about dean, he was strong and consistent and bold. we know that president obama and his team are getting traction on their strategy with a middle class message about income inequality. and if that is where they are strong, that is where santorum is strong. that is where romney is weak. so, i think that if that is where obama's strength is, that is also where santorum's strength is. there's an argument that santorum could be a stronger general election candidate. >> just to make your point, i wanted to play a bit of mitt romney in farmington hills, michigan. this was the mitt romney, full out pander to how much he loves michigan. >> i love this state. it seems right here, the trees are the right height. i love cars. i i don't know, i mean, i grew up totally in love with cars. it used to be in the' 50s and 60s, i could tell you what model defense. i love cars and i love american cars and long may they rule the world

and that is how they denied the governor to appoint a senator when they thought john kerry might wind and mitt romneyht appoint a republican. just remember what he was dealing with in massachusetts. host: sort myers, florida. pat, a democrat. caller: the catholic church, who made a fuss about this, in -- embraced a policy that was against their belief for 50 years. they paid for, circumvented the law, and apologize. they have had bishops against john kerry. they made a big thing about obama doing something to them. i really think that they are not living up to what they should be. that is all. guest: you are from 4 myers, you said, -- sort myers, you said, right? caller: i am. guest: i want to know what you meant by 50 years. what was the policy? caller: you remember the scandal, right? the embraced taking priests, putting them from one parish to the other, not bringing any of them to the law. in my book is circumventing the law. if they embraced the policy because they did not give it up, and it was the until the scandal came out that they did anything, and that was an apology. so, why they're makin