gwen: is it a gingrich-romney race going forward as well? because we have michigan and nevada coming up. >> so much depends on every week's outcome. we've created how many two-person races in this race with romney in the one slot and somebody else? i think john is right. i think at this point it is romney and gingrich but who knows what might happen if, in fact, gingrich does implode and then there's a question within the republican party of do we really want romney? gwen: john, you agree with that? >> i do. we talk about the reversal of florida versus issues south carolina. going into the vote in south carolina, gingrich had all the momentum. he had the strong debate performances. the roll any folks feel like -- romney folks now feel like they have the momentum. the problem with gingrich's debate performances and he -- is he needed to continue to build his momentum and it's basically stalled. at this point with a few days to go before the voting, there's a feeling inside the roll any example that they're going to do very well in florida and

first up, a look at this state of the florida race for the white house. polls show mitt romney with a lead over his chief rival, newt gingrich at the moment. a win in florida would be his biggest yet as he tries to secure a republican nomination. also, a conversation with the filmmaker who made take home the oscar top prize next month for "the artist." it is an acclaimed a silent black-and-white project. we have a look at the artist coming up right now. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with better. >> and by contributions from your pbs station -- to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: ron brown skin is a two- time -- ron brownstein is a two- time award winning journalist. he has been covering this race. good to have you back on the program. >> good to be back. tavis: you just got back from florida. these numbers referenced suggest that mitt romney is going to pull this of

has to show that he can battle. >> mitt romney still is the one who has the organization, who has the ground forces and the money. >> that's right, and this race changes once it gets outside of south carolina. newt gingrich can claim victory and it will be a big victory. romney was mr. inevitable on monday. he's not that person anymore, but when it gets to florida, we're talking about multiple media markets where it takes lots of money to campaign, and mitt romney has the organization on the ground and the super pac that is going to flood the zone the way it has south carolina. >> inevability isn't a campaign term. >> we should mention one thing, gingrich and romney may be at the same place tomorrow on the campaign trail. they're supposed to be in tommy's ham house, sort of the ham handed way it has been handled this week. maybe not a lot of ham on hand. >> thanks very much. john as well, still ahead, raw politics. the latest dirty tricks in south carolina. a lot of heistry in the state. phony e-mails send to republicans on the eve of the primary. newt gingrich the target of the spear mootonight. >> also, disturbb new details of how long it to

. >> many believe this could be romney's raced to lose. if he does well, it puts him in for new hampshire. newt gingrich was registering the weekend. 41% of caucus goers are still toecided -- are still likely change their minds. of wiggle room here. >> the people like rick santorum like camelot. -- him a lot. only mitt romney and ron paul the virginia primary ballot. our coverage of the coverage -- the coppices continues tomorrow night. we prepare for the first big in the election season. >>> brace yourself from some -- some very chilly temperatures. the weather was nice over the but that is over and the temperatures are tumbling. get ready for the 20's and lower. >> those warmer temperatures back sooner than you think. get you started. 38 degrees such reagan national airport. temperatures will drop through the evening. wind chills are already in the 20's. snow showers south of culpeper. we may see a flurry in some spots this evening. most of the snow showers are the mountains. our forecast through this monday, partly cloudy, temperatures

has to show that he can battle. >> mitt romney still is the one who has the organization, who has the ground forces and the money. >> that's right, and this race changes once it gets outside of south carolina. newt gingrich can claim victory and it will be a big victory. romney was mr. inevitable on monday. he's not that person anymore, but when it gets to florida, we're talking about multiple media markets where it takes lots of money to campaign, and mitt romney has the organization on the ground and the super pac that is going to flood the zone the way it has south carolina. >> inevability isn't a campaign term. >> we should mention one thing, gingrich and romney may be at the same place tomorrow on the campaign trail. they're supposed to be in tommy's ham house, sort of the ham handed way it has been handled this week. maybe not a lot of ham on hand. >> thanks very much. john as well, still ahead, raw politics. the latest dirty tricks in south carolina. a lot of heistry in the state. phony e-mails send to republicans on the eve of the primary. newt gingrich the target of the spear tonight. >> also, disturbb new details of how long it took

say romney get 30%, and geng gets this% and santorum gets 2%. the race will go on. that the delegates are proportionally allocated most delegates are not romney delegate it. most in iowa were not romney delegate it and new hampshire where he got 40 will end up not being romney delegates. eventually the conservatives have to consolidate. newt and santorum, one of them will emerge. it doesn't have to happen immediately. the media here is desperate to end this thing. two states voted. there are only 48 left. let's end it. call the football season off after the first two games. they look very good at the beginning of the season. >> bret: when speaker gingrich today and yesterday says i have to win in south carolina or essentially the race is over, tt's not the media. that is one of the candidates. >> well, i didn't realize he said he has to win. i think he has to do well in south carolina. i think between gingrich and santorum we will emerge in the next couple states as a knock-out going. there will be conservatives running against, self-proclaimed con seventive, i won'

has to show that he can do battle. >> mitt romney still is the one who has the organization, who has the ground forces and the money. >> that's right. this raceich can claim a victory tomorrow if he comes out on top. mitt romney was mr. inevitable on monday. he's not anymore. when it gets to florida we are talking about miami, orlando, jacksonville, the panhandle. it takes lots of money to campaign and mitt romney has the organization on the ground. he also has the super pac to flood the zone the way it has in south carolina and other states. >> it turns out inevitability is not a campaign message. >> right. >> we should mention both gingrich and romney may be at the same place on the last day of primary day in tommy's ham house in greenville. sort of the ham-handed way the campaign has handled the week. hopefully lots of ham an hand. >> we'll see if the ham house is big enough for them. still ahead, raw politics. the latest dirty tricks in south carolina. a lot of history here in the state. phoney e-mails sent to republicans on the eve of the primary. newt gingrich the target of the smear tonight. >>> also, disturbing details about how long

. >> i think i hear you saying this is still romney's race in south carolina and beyond, right? >> that's the way it looks now. mitt romney won in iowa. he won in new hampshire. he has momentum. that's showing up some some of these polls. his events are also very well attended, and also if you look at south carolina in 2008, which mike huckabee ran, he was a big favorite of a lot of conservative elites, well, john mccain won that state. he also won 30% of evangelical voters which means evangelicals are not just voting for the candidate the elites in their order tell them to vote for. so this is a state that has a lot of votes that mitt romney can get. >> okay, political director john dickerson tonight, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> iran today claimed it has reliable documents-- this is a quote-- and evidence that the c.i.a. was behind the killing of iranian nuclear scientist. he was killed wednesday by a magnetic bomb attached to the side of his car. the united states has denied any role in the killing. a suicide bomber outside the iraqi port city of basra killed 53 peopl

and mitt romney has all the momentum in the race. since 1980, south carolina, the winner has gone on to be the republican nominee. if mitt romney goes 3-0, it's very difficult to see how he would lose florida. and certainly if he wins four of the first four primary contests, whether these guys are in the race, out of the race, suspended or not, he'll be the nominee of the party. so he's got all the momentum and he has got to be really happy with where he is. >> very briefly, last thought? >> the problem that i have is true believers in ron paul's camp and possibly in some of the camps of santorum and them, who may not go with whatever deal the evangelicals say or the party bosses say, and the true believers can be very disruptive. if they hang in there, romney came in tonight number one, but obama would have won. >> al sharpton, steve schmidt, ed schultz, lawrence o'donnell, thank you, fellas. i'm rachel maddow. thanks for being with us tonight. chris matthews picks up msnbc's coverage of the new hampshire primary in just a moment wit

steve schmidt says we're looking at an obama-romney race. how does that look to you? >> i think the president's campaign has always anticipated a tough race and a close race regardless of who the republican nominee was. in reality, most of the republican candidates who are running have ended up taking relatively similar positions on almost all of the major issues, whether they are social issues. issues, shall we say, later in their careers than others. but they've all kind of ended up at the same place, whether they're social or fiscal issues, issues around federal spending or issues around tax. they've all fundamentally aligned pretty much with republican congress. we've always anticipated from an issue point of view we'd be running against a nominee who is going to be carrying the banner, like it or not, of the very unpopular policies that this republican congress has seen fit to try to adopt over the last 15 months. as much as they would like to try to escape that, they will have that. in terms of moving forward, i think that one of the things that i have found inte

looks like perry and bachmann -- looks like -- may not stay in the race. romney/santorum. your thoughts about that, going forward? first in new hampshire and beyond that? >> i think santorum will give him a run in new hampshire. i believe that. he's the incumbent because he was the governor of massachusetts, the frontrunner the whole time. new hampshire likes to sort of flip things around a little bit and santorum is a new, fresh face and i think he will get some traction. >> what about the fact that carl cameron made, there is not a lot of inventory for ads, so even if he gets an influx of money, the airwaves are controlled by romney. >> the free press that rick santorum earned him. you cannot overestimate how strong that's going to be rolling interest new hampshire. >> karl? >> i agree that new hampshire could upset the apple cart. it's less likely to happen with santorum. first of all, i don't think new hampshire pays much attention to what happens in iowa. but jon huntsman is camped out there and working it desiduously and speaker gingrich with the state's leading news

after the primary in florida, it is a gingrich and romney race. rick santorum and ron paul vowing to stay in the race. gingrich will stay through the republican convention in late august this year. what does this mean for the gop? senator mcconnell was asked about that. >> senator, it looks like whatever the results are, the contest may go on for a while. newt gingrich would like to go all the way to the convention. how concerned are you doing something like that might hurt the senate republicans' efforts to gain some momentum? >> i don't think the primary voters out in the presidential contest need any advice from me, certainly, about who to support or how quickly to end it. it will end when it ends. at that point, we will have a nominee who is very competitive. i think we have an excellent chance to have a new president next year. we're all watching like you are the drama associated with this contest. it is reminisce sent between the contest of obama and bush in 2008. i don't think this contest is going to do us any harm. thank you. >> senator m

now huntsman is exiting the race and endorsing a man he loved to bash. >> reporter: mitt romney starts the final week of campaigning in south carolina with a boost. later today, jon huntsman will drop out of the race and endorse romney. just a week ago, he implied the former massachusetts governor lacked a core. >> he has not given us reason to trust him. >> reporter: even after a disappointing third place finish in new hampshire, huntsman had pledged to keep going, but south carolina polls show him in the single digits. overnight, a spokesman told abc news the candidate does not want to stand in romney's que. >> corporate races led by mitt romney. >> reporter: they're not ready to step aside, they have unrelenting attacks hoping to slow the governor's marks for nomination. >> governor romney's record on the economy, obviously, romney care is a real scarlet letter here. >> mitt romney as governor governed like a massachusetts politician. he's much closer to dukakis and kerry than ronald reagan. >> reporter: the conservative vote appears to be split. if the gop candidates can't stop rom

race so far for the republicans. whiplash. >> absolutely. candidates went up and down. mitt romneytart a stayed steady, but has not been embraced. will see the results in a few hours. >> will become out of the caucuses with a clearer idea of who will be the candidate? >> i think so. polls show mitt romney is likely to win. it could be close between him and a couple other candidates. if he does fairly well, people will say this is his pathway to move on to new hampshire and the next few states. >> met romney is part of the reason the race has been so wild. the fact that he has not managed ever to convince the bulk of the conservative base of the party that he is there guy -- that has been a problem. >> it is a problem in the obama campaign has watched closely. they will try to take advantage as the primary continues. if he is nominee, they will poke at them. >> you cover the white house. who is the candidate the obama people tell you they would like to run against to maximize the chance of a second term? >> they do not like to answer that question. they have not said that. they woul

there is no question that obama romney race will be class warfare at highest level. governor romney is a rich guy. his father was a rich guy. the tends are rich people are they not and so were the vose velts. while most americans were suffering during the great depression franklin roosevelt was living large. he had plenty of money. so this whole thing is bogus. with a capital b. what really matters is which presidential candidate can restore prosperity to america. that's the talking points. it is dr. martin luther king's birthday holiday. like everything else it has become political. >> you hear mitt romney, all these folks very subtlely infusing race. by the way, the republics have scheduled their big debate for monday, martin luther king day, without any regard whatsoever to the civil rights issues that this state has faced. >> bill: now, that sound bite confused me so joining us now from columbia, south carolina is dick harrpootlian? are you offended by the g.o.p. debate tonight because it's mlk day? >> no i'm not offended by it what i was trying to say in a state

republican establishment is not doing well tonight, his turn and mitt romney believes this is his tufrnlt the history, except in the '64 race as pointed out earlier tonight, generally the way republicans pick their candidate, they go with the guy whose turn it s there is something wrong with mitt romney and the republican base, they are rejecting him like tissue rejection, rejecting him like a newing or innocent body you it is going to take special drugs to get him accepted by the body politic of the republican party, he doesn't fit with the rest of the organism t is a problem. he may be able to do it with a lot of salesmanship but he didn't do it in iowa. >> can i just add, rachel, having covered ron paul four years ago i thought new hampshire, his big play four years ago, do better than he ended up doing, i think the result here is going to end up being a tick less than people expe expected. this is the second go around now where i find a big show of people saying i'm for ron paul and part of it, for some people, dramatic affect, then when they get down to whether they are going to actually vote for the guy there is about

embrace rick santorum, they need to get around him and coalesce so this can become a santorum versus romney race. romney does not want to go one-on-one. he wants a fragmented field. santorum i believe is take it to romney so it's up to us to make it happen. >> neil: what you want to make happen is the other guys to go away. michele bachmann is going away, rick perry is not as of now. newt gingerich is still in the race. in fact, he seems to indicate he's ready to go negative himself in ads that worked against him in iowa. what do you make of that? how divided is this field? >> i give compliments to michele bachmann for putting the cause of the country above herself. rick perry needs to reassess his campaign effort. he spent $4.5 million in the state of iowa and he went from 10% to 10%, not a good return. newt gingerich has been open today about saying he would like to be in collaboration with rick santorum to make sure that we have an alternative to mitt romney. mitt romney really ticked the u.s. speaker off and i think if he wants to get his payback, let's surround rick santorum and go one-on-o

state division and very few people the media are calling him out for it at this point seems as romney's race norrin him they're letting it go to romney versus obama and then perhaps then we will hear the real issues that we want to hear about how you get american jobs created again how you get this economy going how you going to lower foreclosure how you get americans back working and making the reason their income go up instead going down every year i think it's a good point you bring up about rick santorum specifically he has run the most socially conservative campaign that was a very interesting comparison with the taliban but let's go with it but the thing about santorum is he was a nobody up until the you know the week before the iowa caucuses and maybe is on to something because he ended up coming in second by eight votes in iowa. this is really nothing more than american presidential idol it just happens to be his chance if herman cain was still in the race herman cain would be second that mitt romney i have no doubt it seems republicans are really taken by as his simple affable charm

newt gingrich over romney in a hard-fought race. romney coming in second, rick santorum in third. ron paul coming in fourth place in south carolina. tonight the what is most important to the voters, let's get right to to. the question what matters most. nearly half said the ability to beat president obama in november. followed by the right experience, third, strong moral character. this was telling as well on the question of which issue most important voters said again overwhelming overwhelmingly, that it's the economy. economy, number one and federal budget deficit number two. when asked about explosive debates, did they make a difference? 65% said those debates were important, half deciding the choice. our coverage begin was jon karl in gingrich headquarters, we're waiting to hear from the victor tonight. >> reporter: we are, the crowd getting ready. they were surprised by the speed of this victory, coming as soon as polls closed. a stunning turn around from newt gingrich. we've heard from mitt romney a short while ago. congratulated gingrich on the victory, the attack gingrich

what is the war issue. >> what mitt romney has to do, he has to make the speech defending capitalism. like barack pumbum came out on race. mitt romney has to come out and defend capitalism as a source of. it is taking out 180 million in fees. and then that is not the kind of capitalism i defend. and i think he should come out and say 15 percent tax on carried interest for people who run private equity fun exercise hedge funds is wrong. >> he has that which he does. >>> and he is the person who can change the law. just like when roosevelt put kennedy in the fcc because kennedy knew the trickings. >> is it when bill clinton took on a rapper in the democratic party. a defining moment. but could i ask you about the money advantage regardless of the case of the republicans. the president has a significant advantage. mitt romney has more money for now. but money follows momentum. are they running up hill here. >> mitt romney doesn't have a money advantage obama. >> obama has more money than the republicans. but obama has 90 million and mitt romney has 30 million . obama has done 127 fund raising and twice more than bill clint

you guys about a report and romney said he paid the 15% race is greater than most americans when, in let's roll this tape first. >> mitt romney spent most of the day responding to calls that he release those tax returns. but then like you said, he revealed that he paid a relatively low rate on his investment income. that's the same low rate that bill heir warren buffett pace. >> tuesday romney revealed he pace a lower tax rate than many middle chas americans. he promise today share his returns in april and also disclosing he pays 15% in income tax. like many wealthy americans but last in many middle class americans. >> you did something interesting, it's called journalism, and you went to the irs and what did you find out? >> what you find is that the rate he is paying is higher than 97% of the american people. but forget the rate for a second. one thing the media won't report because they haven't seen it while they are doing these stories, when the numbers come out, how many millions of dollars in taxes will this man have paid and still not good enough for the left wingers. >> you kn

if romney were to win south carolina by seven or eight points the race would be over. gingrich would have no moment going into florida neither would santorum or paul. romney he has bought $4 million in ads and field organization he would win florida and everything after that. but if gingrich can defeat romney in south carolina, and more importantly if he can have a big gap between him and santorum and paul, then santorum and paul go away even if they don't drop out. perry has gone away and gingrich against romney race. that then becomes a would way race. florida becomes important but not decisive. one man could win florida and next could win michigan and next could win minnesota and it could go back and forth until april when they have winner take all primaries. >> sean: what do you make of what is now happening, the intensity in south carolina has an all time high. new romney ad on gingrich and newt saying, wait a minute, i think it's time the people of south carolina need to know about your tax returns after romney gave. i probably will, i might release them sometime

overnight, the candidate does not want to stand in romney's way. >> corporate races led by mitt romney. >> reporter: they're not ready to step aside, they have unrelenting attacks hoping to slow the governor's marking for the nomination. >> governor romney's record on the economy, obviously, the real scarlet letter here. >> mitt romney has governed like a massachusetts politician. he's much closer to -- than ronald raging. >> reporter: the conservative vote appears to be split. if the gop candidates can't stop romney there's always stephen colbert. >> you know, i'm exploring right now. i'm a one-man militant park. >> as he makes up his mind, the real candidates get a chance to go after romney tonight. >> thank you for that report. >>> now for a developing story overseas this morning, word that the leader of the taliban in pakistan may have been killed in a u.s. drone strike. pakistani officials say they have intercepted messages that mehsud is now dead. it's been a grave threat to u.s. troops in afghanistan. >>> tributes take place across the country today for dr. martin luther king jr