and herman cain, rick perry, michele bachmann, which republican presidential candidate has been the butt of more jokes on late-night tv? well, someone actually tracks this stuff. we've got the answer tonight in the sideshow. but let me finish tonight with some advice. be careful, progressives, for what you wish for. i'm talking about those wishing for newt gingrich to be the republican candidate. we start with mitt romney on the attack. republican strategist steve schmidt worked on the bush/cheney 2004 campaign and ran the 2008 campaign. he's also an msnbc political analyst. and jennifer donohue is a senior fellow at the eisenhower institute and a "huffington post" contributor. both of you, thank you much for joining us. it's great to have two people on who really know the republican party well. let's talk about the numbers. another day, another new set of poll numbers showing newt gingrich gaining strength among registered republicans. take a look at the new quinnipiac data. in florida, a wide lead for gingrich over romney where he had to win, 35, gingrich, 22, romney. in ohio, this is fascinating. gingrich is 36% now, twice