Video: Who came out on top in GOP debate?

>> 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/

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