interview and thought it was uncalled for. >> and the romney staff was particularly whiney after cnn's security debate so much so it made me wonder if they knew something we didn't. here's tonight's truth. if there is a romney collapse, you will trace the roots of the unraveling back to this week. whining is not sim non nom this with winning. team romney senses a disruption in the force. that united states a week ago. things aren't getting better from the romney perspective. a new florida poll shows romney 30 points behind newt gingrich. herman cain's campaign is teetering and its collapse could help gingrich consolidate the anti-romney vote in the early key gop battlegrounds. if you need more proof the republican race has a new front-runner, watch here. ron paul turning his attention to gingrich. >> i think he's getting a free ride and i've worked with him for a long time and i think that the points i made on various issues he's a flip-flopper. he can hardly beat me on terms of mitt romney. >> ouch! listening closely. even after an afterthought in na sound bite from ron paul, governor romney gets labeled a flip-flopper. the campaign is to see a candidate determined, at least most of the time, to put principle ahead of political expediency. consider this from the "time" magazine cover story. he seems to discovered, you gain credibility, you see more real if you don't try to please all of the people all of the time. joe kleine wrote this excellent time cover story. joe joins us from new york. i want to read more from your piece. unfortunately all romney's calculations all of the improvements in his stump and debate performances all 0 it has lest him in the same old place, uninspiring to moderates and untrustworthy to conservatives an the vast mo jort of romney's support have suffered a series of malarial fevers and chills, warming and cooling on his opponents, desperate to find a candidate to take his place. ouch. that's a tough assessment yet he's still, if not the front-runner, the top alternative. is he the top alternative to newt gingrich, i guess? >> i guess he is. and but this is a week, john, i think where things have suddenly gotten very tough for romney. up until this point he could get away with skating by with maybe 20%, 25% of the republican electorate support. now we're getting down to crunch time. and suddenly, gingrich is putting together the kind of coalition that the other republican candidates could have only dreamed about. he has become the unmitt. you know in some states like south carolina, florida, the poll numbers are just extreme. >> so, part of it is you question the romney strategy, how they get to this point. they've had a play it straight strategy. he doesn't do many interviews. they've had a pretty run level campaign but haven't addressed in a smart way most republican strategists would say the big fundamental question, you talk a lot about it in your piece, and that is his reputation, his history, and the label of a flip-flopper. and you write this, sometimes a flip is justified as with romney's position on ethanol. but all too often his switchbacks have been so expedient to make you wonder how stupid or short sighted he thinks the electorate is. and that is the label, right? that he has just -- for massachusetts governor he ran as a moderate, now as president trying to run as a conservative. he's not been able to shake that. >> you know you get the sense with romney, he's a very smart guy and in the old days he used to talk to me he didn't talk to me this year. but he's not talking to anybody. this strategy has been disastrous for him because you know you look at his interview with fox news this week, which was very uncomfortable. if you choose not to ever confront issues like these flip-flops, even fox news is going to ask you about them when they finally get a shot at you. that's what happen this week. that's what's going to happen every single time romney makes himself avail. >> to the media. if he doesn't make himself available to us, he's going to suffer as well, as he has been. >> so they come up with their first tv ad in iowa. the calculation seems to be they need to play there in an aggressive way because of what you just noted. it gets worse. he's leading in new hampshire but look at south carolina, florida, and it's beginning to look bleak. in camp romney they think we better make a try in iowa, we better try hold or lead in new hampshire. he's a seasoned candidate from last time around he has a deep and experienced campaign around team. what are they missing or what haven't they done what they need to do? >> what they're missing is that the presidency is the most intimate office that we have running for president is the most, the closest that any politician ever gets to the american public. and you have to make yourself available. you have to make yourself available in every which way. every last position you've ever taken, every last change that you've made, comes under scrutiny. they've underestimated the importance of that and it becomes more important every last campaign because you know the breadth of the media gets greater. we have internet, tweeting, all kinds of stuff now. >> we see front-runners have this problem sometimes, maybe the specifics of this one different, but every front-runner hits a ditch. john mccain, last time around, written off as dead, he had personally a tenacity, a fight, he refused to die and when he was written off he fought back. does mitt romney have them that in him? >> we haven't seen it so far. it's striking how much gingrich's campaign resembles mccain's campaign. gingrich fell apart in the spring when he went to the greek isles and spent $250,000, more or less, at tiffany and he just didn't seem to be running very smart or very hard. now he comes back, and you have to wonder, here's a guy, gingrich, who has made many of the exact same policy flip-flops as romney and yet he can get away with them, i think, because he's far more passionate and bombastic in a way na republicans, who have become the party of passion, respond to. >> very smart take on state of the romney campaign in this "time" cover story, why don't they like me? the flip-flopper label that annoyed romney most about the fox interview. >> there's no question but the people are going to take snippets and take things out of context and try and show that there are differences where in some case there's are not. >> there that conversation governor romney conceded a change of heart and position on the abortion issue. but he says other flip-flop critiques are dead wrong or grossly exaggerated. to steal a lining we report, you decide. we showed you a then and now on immigration last night. gun control is another favorite of romney's critics. then -- >> we do have tough gun laws in massachusetts. i support them. i won't chip away at them. i believe they help protect us and provide for our safety. >> and now -- >> i do not support any new legislation of an assault weapon ban nature. >> now all front returns as i noted hit a rough patch. the question is, can governor romney recover and regain the calm confidence that of late has given way to whining. susan molinari is a romney backer and dana lash. congresswoman to you, first, as a lead surrogate, one of the leading surrogates of the romney campaign, you have conference calls all the time, when you talk to the campaign, what is it that you folks on outside have telling them at a time it's obvious they're in a ditch and they're struggling? >> the truth is, i'm not an official surrogate. i am an official supporter. i'm not on a lot of phone calls but if i were to give advice i would talk about, particularly to somebody like dana loesch who has some concerns about the conservatism of governor romney is his record in massachusetts of cutting taxes, increasing employment, of what he was able to do change an entire culture in the way this nation needs to changed in the bluest of blue states. when we talk about conservatism it's going back and looking at the type of governor he was and how he governor earns under the circumstances. >> look at the polling, talk to tea party activists in iowa, i was just in south carolina the over day, there's a steady and firm and deep organization in all of the states. the question is, is it deep enough? what has the last week or two done to the zeitgeist, if you will, the buzz about romney? the romney buzz has died down. i think it's also because of his report. someone like me and other grassroots individuals that obviously speak for themselves, they look at governor romney's record on massachusetts and one of the things they see is increase in fees. we know there are different buzzwords that different politicians like to use when they discuss tax increases and governor romney's the word that he liked to use was fees he raises hundreds of millions on businesses, on first responders, gun owners for licenses. we look at his record and we couple that with this oversensitivity that we've seen this week and it just doesn't play out well. just atone for your record. if you're repenitent about some of the thing yufs you've done so and don't go back. >> one-the things that they get it a lot of early speeches, campaign appearances and some of the web videos they have done, even they're first ads have been about how he put me up against president obama, running as if you're already the nominee and you're a general election candidate. look at this ad in iowa. mitt romney's well known, has 100% name identification among republicans yet his first statewide tv ad in iowa is getting to know you. >> i spend my life in the private sector. i've competed with companies around the world. i've learned something about how it is that economies grow. >> that, to me, susan, is a sense that they're saying, i'll get back to running a republican caucus candidate. let's hit the reset butten. i think it's also that, but i think it's also we want to get in people's minds. what is the discussion going to be when we enter the general election? jobs and the economy, that is the overriding issue. and it's going to be the one that president obama has to defend against somebody like mitt romney who, in his former lives, has done an awful lot to create jobs, left a rainy day fund when he was in government and increased employment. to get back to not only the republican roots but what the overall country wanted to discuss, which is this stagnant economic condition that president obama continues to boast. >> he also says in that ad, dana, you know, you can -- you have to cut spending, you're not just going to have jobs, grow the economy. i take that as a sense they realize they have doubt as the grassroots and trying to go straight at them. is it too late? >> i don't know if anything is too late at this point. again, you know, i look at his record when he left, he left his pred s predecessor over $1 billion budget deficit. to say we have to reduce spending, this is what i would cut, these are the steps i would taking i don't think that could hurt him. he has to a lot of press in the flesh to make up that ground that he's lost with and his record to conservatives. >> iowa votes a month from tuesday and the question is, so much volatility in the race, dana's trite say, who knows if it's too late. but let's look at the moment. we know gingrich has surged in iowa polls, he's doing better in south carolina. governor romney seems to be holding his lead in new hampshire. look at these numbers from florida today. niece are the kind of things that make you say, what's in the water? gingrich, 50, romney, 19. in october, it was romney, 28, gingrich, 11. that's 39 points for newt gingrich in a month which tells you there's something happening out there. and it has speaker gingrich so confident, bordering on cocky he said this to abc's jake tapper a short time ago. they are not going to be the nominee, meaning his rivals. i don't have to point out inconsistencies of people who are not going to be the nominee. jake asks, you're going to be the nominee? speaker gingrich says, i'm going to be the nominee. it's hard to look at recent polls and not think the odds are very high. >> it's a shock newt gingrich would present himself with such an ego. so uncharacteristic of the man we know. >> you would be confident if your polling in florida went from 11 to 50 in a month. >> maybe it wouldn't be the best political strategy to exercise. that's the overall concern to those who know and served with newt -- i was part of his revolution -- that ego, that inability to deal with what were the more politics things to say and do, and that is what concerns a lot of us. were he to become certainly the republican nominee and especially if he were to become president. >> so dana, we've watched the anybody but romney ball as we call it passed from michele bachmann to rick perry to herman cain, speaker gingrich has it now. is what the conversation at the grassroots level? do they want to pass it around some more or are they happy with it staying there? >> i think the ball's going to get passed around quite a bit and it will be until the point, we're at the end of it, it's time to pull the cord, do or die time. there's a lot of decision making to be made. i think there's a lot of the conversation -- i have this conversation with a couple of activists today we were discussing how we can't believe that now we're looking at newt gingrich, who is soaring in the polls and is becoming the leader, you never thought you would have this conversation ten years ago or five years ago or even a couple of years ago. it's been extraordinary. it's proof that anything could happen and anything definitely could. >> volatility is the catch word of our politics today. susan, dana, thanks for coming in. still to come here, consider this question -- is your new iphone a new ally for the anti-abortion movement? herman cain gives a new hampshire newspaper new details whether he'll stay in the gop race. take a look at this. on the ellipse behind the white house, that is kermit the frog. that was. president of the united states, they lit the christmas tree, the holiday tree some call it across from the white house today. the president and his daughters leaving the stage at the white house tonight. you hear a lot of merry christmas.no gi an amazing gift, shouldn't it be given in an amazing way? 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[ male announcer ] discover why it's the brand eye doctors trust most for comfort. if you have astigmatism, there's an acuvue® oasys lens for that too, realigning naturally with every blink. ask your doctor for acuvue® oasys brand. herman cain says he will talk with his wife face to face for the first time on friday about a georgia woman's allegation the two had a longrunning extra marital affair. cain said his wife was unaware of a friendship and nothing more, unaware until white went public. the friday conversation could determine whether cain stays in or drops out. let's get more details of the conversation from joe mcquade, with us live from manchester, and our chief political analyst gloria borger with me here in washington. joe, your take on the conversation. first we're just getting video of the key parts. i want to let viewers here what you experienced when asking herman cain what happened and who knew what about this georgia businesswom businesswoman. >> my wife is comfortable with the explan thaation that i told regarding having to help her. >> when did you tell her? was it after the fact? >> yeah, after she -- >> after this woman came out. >> after she went public. >> why didn't you tell your wife during the time what was going on? >> you know, there are some things that you -- it may appear now that why didn't i tell her about this when it was going on? you're absolutely right. >> in retrospect. >> but retrospect doesn't necessarily change what we're dealing with now. >> retrospect done change that he's dealing with now. your gut sense from having this conversation. the first face-to-face with gloria cain, he's been on the road, dealing with this. is this candidate, do you believe, will he be a candidate come monday? >> monday, tuesday, i don't think so. i again wu winly feel for the guy. this in was an astounding interview. this is one, john, blown off a couple of weeks ago, a, he didn't want to tape, b, he could only be 20 minutes. tiling is everything. he came in today. i threw him a couple of softball questions about the federal reserve, but good on my reporter, john, who asked him about the text messages back and forth, herman answered and said, yeah, if she hit me 8 times with text, i responded 17 times and john said what were they? she was asking for help. i was responding trying to help her. did you give her money? yes. how much? i can't tell you on advice of counsel. it was astounding. >> and i want to read a little bit. john posted a story on line after the conversation in which he said, cain said he will leave the race if his wife asks him to do so but my wife couldn't ask me to get out. i would make a decision base on how all of this stuff is affecting her. gloria borger, it's a decision time for mr. cain. let's take him at his word that the most important calculation is his family. but he knows, as he sits down with that conversation, that he is sliding precipitously in the polls everyy. >> first of all, i have to say i'm astounded he hasn't had that conversation before this moment since these charges came out on monday. but i do think that there is a decision that's got to be made on the personal side and also on the cal pain side. if he's running out of money, one, he can't continue. if he's losing support among women, which he wasn't strong to begin with, he can't continue. he's got his family and his wife. he could continue in this race to be some kind of a spoiler. but it's clear to me he's not going to get the nomination and that's also something else he has to take into consideration. >> this was on again, off again, mr. cain didn't want to do it he wanted to do in 20 minutes. i want to give him credit, he came in at a tough time in the campaign, sat down with the editorial board and reporters who asked tough questions and pulled no punches and we played first video we're getting from it. he also said this here. i have about the -- how this came about. but i have strong speculation that someone offered her a lot of money. i was helping her