the next day we were put in a jeep and headed out to thompson newt airport to get on the freedom bird. to go back to america. and we got the tom sob airport and it was bg being mortared. after all we had been through we thought, this is ironic to get killed or wounded in a mortar attack in saigon. so they sent us back to saigon and we were delayed on the airplane for two days and got on the airplane the next day. came home together. plumly is a piece of work. he doesn't give interviews. he avoids the press. but he is -- he and i are dead loyal to one another and he lives just my side of fort benning. sergeant-major plumley. and over the years, long gone by, my wife and i would go over to fort benning on occasion to visit my troopers at the cemetery. and her parents were very -- she's the daughter of a colonel. and on occasion, we'd visit. we'd sit down in this kitchen. we'll visit the sergeant-major, in the kitchen with his wife. and she'd always have a pumpkin pie, hot coffee. and we'd sit there and talk about old times. tell war stories. some of them were true. and we visited the ce

newt gingrich banking on the south to keep his campaign alive. fred thompson hitting the campaign trail with speaker gingrich. >> i think we're in the tipping point in this country in a bad way. when you have a debt that is big as the entire economy of the country which is three or four european countries in worse shape than we are, you have a serious problem. you have a president who intent not doing anything about it but demagogue go anybody that tries to do anything about it. he is trying to divide the american people. you got a serious situation on your hands. >> greta: in 2008, senator thompson ran for president himself. nice to see you. i take it you miss running? >> no, i don't. been there, done that. >> greta: speaker newt gingrich. some of the candidates have a lot in common. all want to get rid of healthcare so i'm curious, your candidate, newt gingrich, against romney. why did you pick gingrich over romney? >> i talked about that, by the way, i need to be tennessee based on what you said. that is serious business. yeah, everybody is reading from the

watts in oklahoma, fred thompson in tennessee, as you know, michael reagan and the others are supporting newtause of his understanding that 37 months ago when the president took over he has racks up more debt than the first 42 presidents combined in only one person from the time that calvin coolidge left the white house until this morning, america never balanced its budget for 24 months except when newt was driving. for 48 months paid af half a trillion in debt. so you had david there a moment ago. you know, chuck, whenever you get people together and they start to talk about who would actually be the best prepared in this moment of crisis to take over america? everyone agrees, you know, newt is really the best and knows what to do i'm looking here. the bottom line is you're coming out of ohio with no delegates, and this is not exactly a state you didn't campaign in. what happened? >> the largest votes tonight will be the state of georgia. and we'll do very well in tennessee elsewhere. but when the -- when it's racked up, as you know, this is only the first week of march. and we love john mcc

newt gingrich win any and have mitt win the other one. >> steve, when your candidate john mccain was up against mike huckabee and mitt romney and fred thompson and the rest of those guys in 2008, why was a smaller proportion of the electorate for those races a white evangelical elect toran than we're seeing this year? >> i think as we're looking at the accumulation, rachel of exit data from all these states, we don't have a clear enough picture yet to make diagnosis about exactly what is going on in the electorate. but when you look in the president's numbers, there is a couple of polls that show his support level shrinking as well, you look at the republican voter, and the negative intensity that they have for the president, one of the highest groups with the highest negative intentionity is white evangelicals and that could be driving turnout in these republican primaries which is ultimately a good sign for the republican candidates in terms of being able to put the party together. you want to have an enthusiastic electorate for you, the next best thing to that is an enthusiastic electorate against the other guy you see a dynamic where the

newt gingrich is at 31%. mitt romney at 30%. ron ball way out of it at 4%. joining me now, karen finney, msnbc political analyst, and mark thompsonsirius xm radio host. karen, what do you see in these results tonight? >> well, this woman vote really hurts me. i've got to say. you heard me say that. i mean, a couple of things. it's not surprising given how conserve -- >> let me -- i think the number you're referring to, we have an exit poll of alabama republicans showing that working women went for rick santorum in a big way. 49%. and that may very well be how he won this thing. >> it may very well be indeed. and that's why i say it's a little painful because i'm wondering if those women really heard the full message that yes, there's the economy, but if you've got to worry about your basic health care, how are you then going to be able to do what you need to do in terms of having a job, paying your rent, taking care of your kids? but you know, we'll deal with that should he become the nominee. one of the things i would say is it's not surprising, having just spent a little time in alabama and how conservative alabama is, that ric

newt gingrich had gary busey up until a couple weeks ago. >> and who doesn't want gary busey's endorsement? the sound rational voice of gary busey. >> you've got fred thompsonand he's got chuck norris. texas walker ranger. >> yeah, some muscle. very cool. >> ron paul has got -- >> does he have chuck norris's mustache's endorsement? >> no, he doesn't yet. but ron paul because of his libertarian point of vooz he he has attracted over 20 celebrities, including snoop dogg, michelle branch, kelly clarkson, joe perry from aerosmith. he's doing quite well. the old man's doing quite well. >> oliver stone's there. joe perry. jesse ventura, former minnesota governor. that's an eclectic mix too. and a few more than santorum. >> and that speaks volumes about his libertarian point of view. because of the youth. he's attracting a lot of young kids who are interested in his views. >> and we can assume maybe why snoop dogg likes him. we'll leave that one out there to dangle. >> quickly, though, how much of an advantage does obama have going into the campaign considering all support and money and in terms of like social media? >> nobody can celt message better than a celebr