>>
david gregory
, moderator of "meet the press" good morning to you.
>>
good morning to you, matt.
>>
it was creating a lasting impression for people in
iowa
to talk over for the last 18 days. are you with some who say this was a good night for
mitt romney
?
>>
i am. all of the candidates touched on issues for
iowa
, conservative voters,
romney
made the calculation he was not going to attach
gingrich
because
gingrich
is a good counter-puncher. he learned that in the last debate, kept his fire trained on
president obama
, talked about himself. we to fend off tough questions from moderators but all in all it was a good night.
>>
as chuck pointed out in his piece, on the one hand they're being civil and friendly but all running ads in
iowa
and elsewhere that are anything but.
>>
absolutely. they don't always engage each other as hard on the stage as they do with the tv ads. make no mistake,
mitt romney
is relying now on some of his rivals like a
michele bachmann
,
rick santorum
,
ron paul
, to take the fight to
newt gingrich
. there's a lot of folks in the republican establishment taking on
newt gingrich
and it's giving room for
romney
to step back and knock take him on frontily, where he doesn't necessarily have all of the goods on the debate stage.
>>
you talk about seeming to come to the rescue of
mitt romney
, are they taking on
gingrich
on ideological grounds or electability grounds?
>>
it's an important point. it's actually both. you see some conservatives actually making the point that
gingrich
is a much bigger government conservative than people may think, and the glenn becks, the ann coulteres, they'er this they're taking him on from that point of view, something a lot of
tea party
folks do not like to hear, and the electability argument, who can best debate
barack obama
, the president, on the economy but also electability, high negatives for
gingrich
and a certain ceiling talking about independent voters.
>>
we put a couple of recent polls up on the screen, we're noticing that lead that
newt gingrich
had developed over the last several weeks in
iowa
seems to be shrinking in this poll right here, the rasmussen poll, it's actually gone and
mitt romney
is in the lead and as we talked about earlier in the week, david, the guy who was there in the middle of these polls continually and has been for a long time,
ron paul
.
>>
and he took it to
gingrich
again over the
freddie mac
issue. it goes to the point that
gingrich
has really high negatives. people disliking
gingrich
, sometimes voters forgotten why they dislike him. they can be reminded through
television ads
. paul is running the most negative ads against
gingrich
in
iowa
. he'll continue to do that, the super packs, outside groups will continue to do that on behalf of
mitt romney
as well. it's driving up the negatives and look at what's happening in the vacuum. there are no big republicans around the country who are stepping up for
newt gingrich
, and everybody knows him. nicky hayley from
south carolina
, being endorsement for
romney
today.
gingrich
, he has a tough time standing behind him, yes, he's the guy.
>>
who do you have?
>>
michele bachmann
and the near
government shutdown
with the member offed the amrgs.
>>
david gregory
, see you sunday on "meet the press."
>>
thanks.
Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/45695190/
tracy mcgrady mash alec baldwin kicked off plane alec baldwin kicked off plane mumia mumia uss arizona memorial