get the republican voter in these caucuses and primaries to think about how the white house may have thought or may believe that they can open up newt gingrich like a cantaloupe. that you re serving up to the white house exactly what they want, a guy who s deeply flawed, who won t even give the president a contest. or worse, or worse, you cost republicans the house and the senate. yeah. they believe look, the republicans believe in this town they may lose the president may get re-elected, but they cake comfort in the fact that they re about 70% confident they ll re-elect the house majority, and they re about 60% confident they re going to get the senate majority, as long as the nominee doesn t doesn t mess it pup. and the knock on gingrich will be, some of these longtime insiders are saying, hey, you
elite of the party, the commentary in washington and new york. under ordinary rules, no candidate could survive this kind of challenge. what gingrich has to bet is the conventional rules do not apply. this is not a conventional year or moment. an unconventional candidate can prevail. he s got a lot of what would ordinarily be fatal weaknesses. there used to be a phrase you don t hit below the belt. i m not sure where the belt is anymore. the first attack on gingrich was religion in the romney ad highlighting his con sis ten si in his fate. look at this mistake venturing into the issue of religion. i think people understand i m a man of steadiness. you are not going to find somebody with more of those
moment, both for newt gingrich and mitt romney to see how he responds. i heard part of that speech, how his dad was part of a motor company. very soft stuff. hardly the pre-gaming or buildup if you re going to be going after a guy s jugular. i agree. it s funny, chris. it s like this has been you know, one of the things that makes gingrich appealing to base voters in the republican party is the fact he think not only can he possibly beat barack obama, but that he kind of beat him up and bloody him and give him a black eye. they find that lacking in mitt romney. now romney will have to demonstrate that in spades right now. this is why this is a great opportunity for romney. if he can now take gingrich on, he not only can break gingrich s momentum, but he can demonstrate to conservative voters that he is capable of taking on a dragon, taking on a big guy like newt gingrich, and therefore, like barack obama. but it is like the it is the make or break challenge for him. if he can t
the same front, i think. in writing your book about this, you might think this is the fact how newt gingrich got to be powerful in the house. he took over the house leadership, really, the nice guys, like bob michael before him wouldn t go for the jugular. you know, even moderates like lynn martin of illinois said they ended up voting for gingrich for power, knowing how nasty he is, because they were tired of losing. yeah. 40 years ago out of power. as you know, chris, back at that time, the idea that republicans would ever take control of the house of representatives, although everybody liked people like bob michael, this was a guy who was never going to lead. they need to have had an insurgent energy. gingrich was the insurgent energy. he was sometimes the nasty energy, but he was also the successful energy that made it possible for them to do what many people thought was unthinkable at that time. and i think that s one of the things that for a lot of
it out there. they want to believe the family stuff is a big deal to evangelicals. i think you are right in this sense. i don t think voters this time are going to worry about the personal words. if newt gingrich is undone, he is going to have done it to himself in some form. realtime. i think the romney strategy is hoping to throw it at the wall and hope at some point he cracks. gingrich, when you have gotten under his skin, he cracks. he gets upset about air force one. that s the strategy. i have heard that today. thank you, chuck todd for coming on. thank you john harris for coming on. have a good weekend. what is it they simply don t like? we re going to ask a few members. you re watching hardball on msnbc. breathe robert, out of your mouth.