someone that america trusts to do what in our heart we know needs to be done. to get washington under control. ladies and gentlemen, if you look at the candidates in this race, it s no longer a question as to who will beat barack obama. if you look at the polls today, one came out of rasmussen had president and me beating barack obama by one point [ applause ] we still have a ways to go in name recognition across this country. i m not a household name like mitt romney or newt gingrich. we have potential to grow, to improve our standards upwardly. we don t have the high negatives. we kept this campaign on a high plain. i didn t engage in petty, personal politics.
of florida, in nevada there s a large lds vote but what i was struck by is that the christians are voting for romney heavily tonight which tells me that he has broken through what we thought was going to be a religious barrier there with the conservative christians. well, that is certainly possible but with every passing contest, mitt romney just reveals a little bit more evidence of how dramatically out of touch he is with moderate and independent voters, voters that are focused on trying to make sure that the middle class and working families have an opportunity to be successful. you know, whether it s that he is saying that he would veto the dream act in iowa yet pull us back a little bit on states like florida and nevada where he said in florida that banks have feelings and feel similar pain to homeowners who are upside
nowhere near the level of proficiency right now that romney is driving. so interesting, mark. great reporting and analysis. think about how newt has to play this game. coming up, the senior strategist and how they are seeing it from the inside. steve schmidt will be back here with us, also. you re watching live the nevada caucuses.
the e generalje general electio two themes, where the economy is helpeded overall, the health of the economy, the other about the distribution of chances and assets in our so tie. very fundamental. elections are always about that. this more than any other time. that s why some body like rick santorum had an tar argument toe about economics was trying to break through. because the he had to emphasize the social part of his message to get traction which he barely did. he was unable to capitalize on it. that s what romney is trying to do. what newt intermitently is frying to do. i don t think either of them has found his voice on that topic yet. let s talk about that. you and i are from pennsylvania, howard the we grew up similar background. seems different. it is very similar. middle-middle. i knew so many republicans in pennsylvania i grew up with
down in their mortgages and facing foreclosure. so for the entire contest, mitt romney has demonstrated how out of touch is he with regular folks. congressman, let s talk about the biggest news of the week, not most important but the endorsement by donald trump. if you were told by donald trump s people that he was planning to endorse president obama, that he just wanted to meet with them and shake his hand like he did in vegas, what would have been your reaction? donald trump comes to you and says i want to endorse him, what would you think? it really makes more sense. you do not want to answer this question, do you? no. i m happy to. my answer is that it would make more sense for him tone dors mitt romney because they both enjoy firing people and both have made millions doing it. so it was a con grew went