helping to ruin his party, or is he turning into a media gad good fly? and abc had a real presidential debate last night, but donald trump wants to moderate his own version of a debate. >> some of the candidates aren't coming because you haven't ruled out running yourself. >> well, i won't rule out a run, greta. especially if the party nominates a joke candidate like ron paul or jon huntsman or rick santorum here. [ laughter ] >> rick -- >> i'm talking. >> you know, it's sometimes hard for news shows to capture the absurdity of the campaign. "the daily show" and "saturday night live" have a major impact on 2012 other will give us much-needed comic relief. i'm howard kurtz, and this is "reliable sources." when it comes to newt gingrich's surging presidential campaign, the journals have been something sly over the past week or so. news outlets carry stories about how republican leaders, even white house officials, are reassessing newt's candidacy and agreeing, hey, he might win the nomination. who they are saying is that media mavens have been backing off premature obituaries and taking newt gingrich seriously even as they argue over whether he's presidential timber. >> why does a guy with a i do bicycle gr-- i dobollic grin, i being serious here, why is the nasty guy doing the best of all the candidates now? the one who's obviously nasty? >> the new republican front return newt gingrich is soaring in the polls, not because republicans love newt. who could? it's not because they love him. it's because they just hate mitt. >> he is not a nice human being. he's a bad person had it comes to demonizing opponents. >> newt's trying to do something good. what you have here, these are snipers. these are political hit squads. these are asassins that are on rooftaps waiting for newt gingrich to come around any corner. they're going to try to take his head off from here on out. >> this is one strange campaign, as i can report firsthand having just gotten back from iowa. joining us in washington, john harris, editor-in-chief of "politico." margaret carlson, columnist for "bloomberg news" and "washington" editor of the week. the media scrambling back from a collective assumption, washington wisdom, that gingrich didn't have -- what's the technical term? a snowball's chance in hell. >> right. well, i think that's true. and that did indeed reflect what the apparent reality back when we were writing those obituaries, it's not a common thing for the entire -- candidate's entire staff to quit, as newt gingrich's did in june. saying that they don't think he's prepared -- >> it was an implosion. >> a genuine implosion. i think a lot of are surprised -- i know i am -- the durability of his candidacy. and i do think it reflects something that we have written accurately, that this party is not enthusiastic about mitt romney. and that anti-romney energy is going to go somewhere. the fact that it's settled on newt gingrich is a surprise to me. life's full of surprises. that's why in game is fun. that's why i love covering it. >> bachmann and -- and on trump and cain. but do journal swhoifts have been through -- journalists who have been through all the controversies, do they view this guy differently than, say, a lot of people who will vote in republican primaries? >> well, journalists are trying to remind people of newt gingrich's history. and it's a vast amount of it. >> remind them or warn them -- >> well, you know, it comes out as a warning. i think most of this. but the degree to which there are people willing to go on the record about newt who know him well -- i mean, republicans, that's a treasure trove of sources for the media because they still hold grudges against him as speaker. with this joe scarborough in your lead-in -- >> you're saying politicians, political colleagues hold grudges, not that journalists although that a few might. jacob wiseburg wrote the other day under the headline "is newt nuts," "one observes the former house speaker symptoms -- bouts of irritability, racing thoughts, spending sprees, that go beyond the ordinary politician's normal narcissism." would you say that some have such an innate hostility toward gingrich and view him as a self-important gas bag? >> right, i thought "is newt nuts" up there was right up there with "is rick perry dumb" in sellers of headlines. i think there's bias, i think some is unfairly. it comes from covering him for years. i think the guy, you know, newt gingrich is very smart. i think he definitely rubs people the wrong way on some occasions. i think that, you know -- >> he takes on the press regularly. >> he does. he does. but guess what -- here's something -- i think this is helping him. the more that slate and more than -- by the way, most of those clips did come from that cable network. and republican establishment figures attacked newt gingrich, i think the better he does. >> speaking of gingrich, last night, of course, was the abc news debate. george stephanopoulos racesed the question -- actually had come from the "des moines register," a co-sponsor of the debate, about infidelity. did it in a general way. every other candidate got to answer, then he came to gingrich and asked it in a more -- somewhat vague way. let's look at that and talk about it on the other side. >> should voters consider marital fidelity when making their choices for president? speaker gingrich, what do voters need to know about this issue from your perspective? >> in my case, i've said up front openly, i've made mistakes at times. i've had to go god for forgiveness, i've had to seek reconciliation. >> the action shot from his wife. you've been a debate panelist earlier with "politico" and msnbc debate. was it fair for stephanopoulos to raise that question? and if you are going to raise it, why not ask newt directly rather than kind of circle around -- since he was the obvious target of the question. >> one, it's fair. i think it's a subject that's in currency with a lot of discussion. >> the three marriages, the acknowledgment -- >> yeah, not just from reporters but from figures in iowa. the -- raising the issue, a fair question. as far as circling around, there's lots of ways to answer the question. i'm sympathetic to anybody on national tv trying to raise a delicate subject, that their is one that you don't necessarily want to grab somebody by the lapels and say, hey, what about your cheating. gingrich understood the question. i think he gave a pretty effective answer. >> he was prepared, obviously. >> there is bias about gingrich. face it, the media bias about gingrich right now late in 2011 is a pro-gingrich -- stay in the race -- >> the worst thing in the world for the media would be a mitt romney/barack obama campaign. >> right. >> both the guys are bore, and they keep the press at arm's length. you would get no action. >> what is the pertent nature of the pro-gingrich bias? >> that we love spectacle, competition. we love long campaigns. so we would love to see the equivalent on the republican side of hillary vs. obama in 2008 when all the -- went to june. >> it's not just longevity, gingrich is great copy. he's always throwing rhetorical bombs. >> absolutely. >> he's the -- we went from the period with newt, he's toast, history, just got out of the race. to he's surging, how is romney possibly going to stay competitive. has the pendulum swung too far where the coverage now suggests that romney is hanging on by his fingernails? >> no. we have polls which tell us that not only did -- is newt having a surge, it seems to be holding and growing. you know, the longest surge this time around has been about 30 days. it hasn't -- i don't think he's exhausted his period of his urge. no, this is factually based. do we hope, as john says, that he continues? protectered convention -- >> you want $10,000? >> do we think -- i think the only flub last night was mitt romney -- this was the israeli thing. you know, and the $10,000 shows that mitt romney is extremely wealthy. you might bet $100 -- yeah. >> a point about the press. we were writing off newt gingrich six months ago. there was very good reason for doing that. i think part of the problem in this news cycle, if you come forward and say boldly newt gingrich is done, you get attention, you get praise for that, you get a -- six months later, nobody calls you out on that. nobody looks back and says matt luis was wrong, he wrote a groif. nobody holds him accountable. >> do we still have, tracy, the sound bites from six months ago? can we play that? okay. while we look, let me ask you a related question. and if we can put up this graphic, gingrich is on the cover of the new "newsweek." he spoke extensively with "newsweek." last week, romney was on the cover of "time." the headline said, "why don't they like me?" he didn't cooperate at all. i know romney will go on "fox news sunday" next week. how much has romney's avoidance of the press hurt his ability to get the message out? >> i doubt such. his problems are structural and have to deal doo with how republican activists feel, not how reporters feel about them. anybody's press strategy, whether it be accessible or inaccessible, is driven by their particular self-interest in the moment. his interests have changed now that he's fighting back. he's suddenly more accessible. i think that's the -- >> all right. since matt lewis -- sorry, since matt lewis said nobody calls him out. let's call him out. we played this a couple of weeks ago. i'll play it for fun. >> gingrich's campaign has fallen apart. most of his staff has quit. the former speaker is pretty much done as a serious candidate. >> maybe newt gingrich's sort of fake campaign is totally dead now. >> this thing is over for newt. i think newt is done. >> we have to revise and extend our remarks on that. let me get to one more bit of sound. that is the donald trying to reinsert himself into the process by hosting with newsmax, a -- a candidate forum two days after christmas. most candidates saying no. here he is making the rounds. first on the "today" show, and then calling in to chuck todd's msnbc show and not being very happy with the hosts. >> this will truly be about the candidates, right? >> i want a great candidate. a candidate that is going to beat president obama. your statement is false. you said -- i quote, "donald trump wanted to respond to a poll." well, i didn't want to respond -- your people called my office about 40 times asking me to go into this. it's dishonest what you're saying, chuck. i wish you would sort of say it like it is and just -- i think you'd do better. >> kind of called him out on trying to get him on the program. what explains the media's utter continuing and ceaseless fascination with donald trump? >> i guess he's a flamboyant personality who can always be counted on to say provocative things. my own view is at that time for newt gingrich -- excuse me, for donald trump was maybe the first six or nine months this year when we're looking for entertainment. i actually think we're in a serious moment of the campaign. we're trying to assess people's actually qualifications to be president. so i think the trump business is kind of nonsense, that should properly be pushed not just to the margins but off the stage. >> it's nonsense. please, come on my show, donald. >> yeah. but it won't be. i don't think it will be pushed to the side because you can see just as he announced how much coverage donald trump has gotten. >> and then he's -- let's the hint drop, well, might run as independent. everybody rights that. does anyone take that seriously? >> i don't think so. but there is a feeling i think among grassroots republicans that is unless he renounces that and says "i will not run as an independent," then he shouldn't be moderating republican debates. >> a disappointment to journalists, we were looking for something to do christmas week, some of us. let me get to the next segment. over three weeks until the iowa caucuses. and most of the candidates are campaigning from tv studios or selling their books. whatever happened to meeting the voters? [ male announcer ] tom's discovering that living healthy can be fun. see? he's taking his vitamins. new one a day vitacraves plus omega-3 dha is a complete multivitamin for adults. plus an excellent source of omega-3 dha in a great tasting gummy. one a day, gummies for grown-ups. i was just back from uwa where i didn't -- iowa where i didn't see many presidential candidates, i did go to a ron paul event. and the pain is really playing out on television. here's dick morris on fox news giving his view of the position. >> this is the februaphenomenon. you don't win iowa in iowa. you win it on this couch. you twin on fox news. you win it in the debates. you win a national primary and it imposes itself on the early states. >> that could make this the most powerful piece of furniture in america -- >> absolutely. this is the casting couch. >> whether or not you were on that couch, margaret carlson, has this become a debate-driven tv studio campaign where the conventional wisdom about going out and to taun halls in people's living rooms is so much less important than it ever has been? >> it's so debate driven that when you talk to people in iowa, the leaders of the three big christian groups there, they're just horrified that the candidates have not come calling for. they're furious at mitt romney. they're using that as a reason not to put them on the list of potential endorsements. >> i had top republican officials tell me romney made a mistake by not spending much time in iowa. he kind of wanted to bypass iowa. an adviser told me we are engaging in iowa through the debate as opposed to going to cedar rapids and sioux city. that would suggest that what succeeds in this campaign are good debating skills, 30-second answers, and debates have always been important. is that -- has that changed the nature or dumbed down this presidential campaign? >> first of all, i think this is not an anomaly. i think it's part of the thing happening in society where we don't have regional accents anymore. we sort of watch the same tv shows. this could be good or bad. you could argue it's good to meet people. on the other hand, is iowa really predictiontive of what the country is like? should they be empowered with this personal, you know, retail politics? and you could also argue that rhetorical able, the ability to communicate is important for a president. and debates show that in a way that glad-handing iowans does not. >> there's been a question about why the early states have so much influence. the rationale for iowa and new hampshire, and we've spent time in those states, is that candidates get out and answer to answer tough questions from real voters. not the kind of questions reporters or voters would ask. and that whole tradition seems to me to be fading. >> i think that was always a wobbly ration alale asked -- io and new hampshire are terribly important because they're first. and there will be the so-called bounce. there's no question that a candidate that does poorly in the early state will have a very difficult time continuing, even if they had strong national appeal. so the -- iowa and new hampshire, we don't have to shed tears for them. they have disproportionate outsides and infair influence. i think it's true, the point that dick morris made, it sounds like matt agrees, that this is a national process. not a regional process. plays out on debates. we could do worse than that. those are -- >> killed rick perry. he would have been the nominee in the -- >> those debates, they're frequent, they test the knowledge of the issues, they test what you're actually positions are. they test your ability to think on your feet. they test the ability to communicate effectively. those don't seem like bad things to test. >> and if it reduces the tyranny of iowa, that's not bad. >> sounds like some people going to iowa. it was 12 degrees when i landed there, i must point out. before we go, tonight on "60 minutes," president of the united states will sit down again -- done a half dozen of these since being in the white house. you don't see, it's early, any of the republican candidates appearing on "60 minutes." which has a huge audience. at what point does that become unfair, anybody? unfair advantage for obama to command that stage? >> well, i mean, most of them, you know, for instance, mitt romney, doesn't want that. he doesn't want to sit down where a wlorpt hreporter who ha range and shoot himself in the foot -- >> i bet newt would do it. is this an advantage of an incumbent that you can go on any news show? >> it is. i've been interested in the mystical connection between "60 minutes" and president obama. he obviously likes that platforms. i don't doubt that that platform would be available to any republican once he emerges to the nominee -- >> in a day and age when there are so many cable channels, that show still bestows a cache that plays into obama's strategy of casting himself above the fray while republicans fight it out. >> i'm hearing that next week, eric cantor, the house majority leader will be on "60 minutes." so they don't really play this game with democrats. he's not running for president. margaret and matt, thank you very much for stopping by. up next, john harris on the speeded up news cycle that's produced a new form of campaign coverage, the ebook. "politico" published its eback called "the right fights back." bimike allen and evan thomas. here this is on the ipad? why publish an ebook about the campaign before a single vote has been cast? >> well, we published a book about the campaign this early because the story is interesting. this is an idea that john meacham, former "newsweek" editor, now at random house, brought to us. we really liked the idea because as mike allen's editor, i've always had a degree of frustration that he knows so much. there's so much information rattling around in his head health care reform and in his notebook. >> he could write it every day for "politico." but not in a form like this -- >> it's the nature of the business and the rush of events. you well appreciate, howard. you often don't have the time to step back and make a great story out of this. >> it's always been -- >> we've got -- really mike allen is a classic new media reporter. knows everybody, seems to know everything, reports in real time. evan thomas spent a career at "newsweek" writing long form narratives. >> this week's projects used to come out after the election. this is the tradition that goes back to the teddy white books, and mark halpern with game change. are you trying to preempt game change before the game is over? >> we're not trying to preempt game change but tell an interesting story in real time, in serial fashion. this is the first of these ebook. we'll do three or four more over the course of the campaign. >> is it harder to get candidates and staffers to talk about their ventures in real time while the thing is still going on as opposed to looking back after most of the candidates have dropped out? >> i don't doubt it's harder, but it's not impossible, as mike and evan have shown. >> one of the things i like, is you have a lot of people on the record. extensive interviews with newt gingrich. there are people on background, saying thing about, for example, white house official valerie jarrett and the boys club, don't like her so much. you got people to put their name to it even while the campaign is going on. are you disappointed at all that the book didn't generate more big headlines? >> we're pretty happy. made the best seller list on its first week. "the new york times" has a special digital ebook list. it shot up -- it's in the top ten. i think maybe the top five of that. so a bunch sold the very first day. mike and evan both did a lot of publicity in the fi