. >> joining me now are wendy shiller, associate professor of political science and public policy atversity and howard fineman, aol, "huffington post" editorial director and an msnbc political analyst at the site of tonight's debate. howard, what was the feeling there? it seemed like a relatively subdued debate, compared to the other ones we've seen. >> well, the overall atmosphere of the debate, lawrence, was very subdued, very low-key. just as a general matter, i think the reporters here are tired, tired, i think the candidates are tired. frankly, this thing has been going on nonstop from the middle of december until now. iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, lots of hand-to-hand combat in seeking out voters. everyone came down here to florida and things sort of loosened up a little bit. but i do think you were right to focus on what was really the most politically substantive part of the debate, which came right at the beginning, where mitt romney had really studied his brief and really went after newt gingrich on the topic of freddie mac, which matters here in florida because of a

. >> to grate this debate and talk about where things go from here, we have wendy shiller and nia malika hinder son, national political reporter for "the washington post." professor shiller, if you were grading, let's talk about the fact it was a rough night for romney. in your estimation whose night was it best for? >> definitely newt gingrich. i think he gets an a-plus. this guy has nine political lives, he's counting, but what stayed so consistent for newt gingrich is his ability to stay fabulous in debates. he sounds smart. he keeps himself alive, in the game, and i think he was trying to make the point to the party more generally that there's more they can expect from their nominee than just what romney is giving them. he's three in the polls, but went on to along, so i think he was probably the biggest loser, and i think gingrich is the biggest winner. he certainly showed hi can. it's a learning curve when it comes to debating. >> no bell curve when it comes to this morning. romney attended an event innic is second quarter where he tried to build this aura of northwestibility. >> n

>> wendy shiller, howard fineman, and david k. johnston, thank you all very much for joining me tonight. >> thanks, lawrence. >> thank you. >>> last weekend, evangelical leaders chose to back rick santorum. tonight, here on the last word, the favorite presidential candidate of the legal pimps and prostitutes of nevada will be revealed by america's most famous pimp and a couple of his employees. >>> but up first, stephen colbert's super pac may be a joke, but robert reich is dead serious about trying to stop the super pac abuse that the citizens united ruling has unleashed. >>> and later, michelle kosinski will join me from the scene of the italian cruise ship disaster. you'll hear the chilling audiotape of the captain refusing to return to the ship when he was ordered to do so. that's coming up. is it fast? it's got 10 speeds, my friend. ♪ is it fast? it's got a lightning bolt on it, doesn't it? ♪ is it fast? i don't even know if it's street-legal. ♪ is it safe? oh, yeah. it's a volkswagen. [ male announcer ] the security of a jet

wendy shiller, you were starting to say, how is this different -- >> i think we have to be very careful. the media is very good at associating the super pacs with different candidates. instead of this corruption, right now it's not that secret. we know who's giving the money for the pacs, we know who they're supporting. in a democracy, you want as much information as possible. this information is not always good, it's distorted. but in some ways, liberals have to think to themselves, wait a minute, do we want to get rid of these super pacs or do we want more and more of them. they crowd the airwaves and they compete with each other. liberals and people who support obama love that. >> we don't know where all the money is coming from. we don't know, in some cases, because you can actually, as stephen colbert has so m mischievously pointed out, you can give money to one group and it will give it to another, and it feels like a legal type of laundering. but it's true we could try to create çrules, congress could legislate more rules of disclosure, and realtime disclosure. the internet is a