three events today and he isç taking on mitt romney. >> i'm clearly the more conservative candidate. i think the person who is able to debate obama and draw a sharp and defined contrast has an enormous advantage. i don't think you go to the middle. you bring the middle to you. >> mitt romney has the money. he's got the organization and has the name recognition. so why can't he get the love? it's the cover story in the newest issue of "time" out today, why don't they like me? joe klein wrote it and he joins us from new york. it's sort of the reverse of that academy award moment with sally field. which is, why don't they like them? >> they really really don't like me. it's not that they don't like him, they don't trust him i think. it's been interesting that as this newt moment has been happening, you know, romney, who is floating around 20, 25% in the polls, all of a sudden is down in the mid-teens in a lot of these early primary and caucus states. >> you spent some time with him and seen sort of the steady campaigning of mitt romney. he maintains his level but he can't punt through and keeps being challenged. do people think that newt gingrich is going to be the nominee, or is this just the latest it race in a roller coaster ride? >> i think that newt probably is a more serious contender that herman cain was. cain was clearly just a parking place and especially after we started to attack cain, then republicans populist republicans, decided to support cain just to send us a message. newt çthough, people have respected from the very beginning. i saw this happening on my road trip in september. i was down watching a debate with laredo republicans in texas, they are saying newt is really smart. but he's not plausible, is he? performance after performance he's gotten more plausible and now he's very plausible if he doesn't screw up the way he usually does. >> and when we talk about mitt romney, he's been very reluctant to do interviews. >> wouldn't talk to me. >> really? >> no. he hasn't sat down for a major -- >> it's not just television. >> he hasn't sat down for a major mainstream print profile this time. and i had pretty good relations with him in the past. i did a column promoting his universal health care plan in massachusetts back in 2006, but i guess he doesn't want to talk about that too much anymore. >> that could be the reason, joe klein, thank you, congratulations on the cover story. see you tomorrow when you're down here. nbc news chief white house correspondent chuck todd has our daily fix today. republicans are now saying that they are looking at all of these candidates, newt gingrich says he is the front-runner. on what does he base that? >> reporter: he's basing it on what he's seeing in the polls and the fact is it's been sort of a hard thing to judge post thanksgiving day polls, we haven't seen a lot of numbers. there will be new numbers on "meet the press" on sunday out of eye way and new hampshire. but when you see the robo polling out there, which is a methodology that nbc news doesn't use, but at the same time, you're seeing the trajectory in newt's favor, calling himself the front-runner is kind of a bold statement. organizationally he's not front-runner but on pure popularity, i think that's what he's basing that on. >> newt has some criticism as some of the others do from one of romney's chief supporters chris christ ty, take a look at that. >> if you define 8% two weeks later, i call that schizophrenia, not enthusiasm. that second place spot which temporarily becomes a fourth or fifth place spot for the same person has moved between congresswoman bachmann and mr. cain and governor perry and now congressman gingrich. okay. but the one steady has been governor romney. >> so now what we're seeing is that romney is actually making the play in iowa and there was a little bit of criticism to josh romney, one of his sons last night, this was one volunteer or an iowan saying where he is. let's watch this. >> we need him in iowa more, not just after the caucuses, when he's running against obama, we need him. iowa is nonforgiving sometimes. we don't like to be ignored. we need him. doing stuff nationally. >> ez spending a lot of time here. he has me here today. you have the a team. >> you can see, the poor guy, josh romney is pinch-hitting, he's saying oh, my gosh there's a camera there and this woman is in myç face and how am i goingo deal with this? >> not an easy spot. the decision they made is to play in iowa but they are not playing enough where they can plausably say they didn't play to win, they played to compete. sure it's a fine line, they had no choice. they didn't want to regret not playing but it seems to me they try to balance resources a little bit between iowa and new hampshire. it's not as if the last time if you recall andrea, it was all in iowa where he did every little thing and make sure he called up every county. not doing that this time. to say he's all in in iowa is not fair to the romney campaign. but he's clearly made the decision to compete. the irony of all of this, newt gingrich is the one candidate so far, the major candidates that you have to spend a dime in iowa. he's there campaigning today, but i think it's interesting, we hearing from romney, he's got the ad and now chris christie is going to do a teletown hall with io io iowans, doing these phone conference calls with 2500 caucus goers getting a phone call and saying, stay on the phone, listen to chris christie. we'll see how that goes. >> thanks chuck todd. republicans are saying they will support extending the payroll tax cut by capping fall salaries for three years and withholding some benefits from millionaires. democrats say that's not good enough and the plan won't pass. bob corker is live on hill. senator corker, thank you very much for being with us. what about the payroll tax extension and the two sides are agreeing now, reports that republicans were concerned that they were gettanf out flanged on this payroll tax cut and it was too dangerous to go against the democrats on this, not a good talking point politically. can you agree on how to pay for it? >> i don't know, andrea. i think it really is a bad policy. i think where we need to be moving is towards the kind of thing that bowles-simpson laid out, doing away with the loopholes and lowering everybody's rates, that's the very best thing we can do to our economy. if you look at this payroll tax holiday or reduction, it moves in the opposite direction and i'm actually surprised that aarp has not come out and said, look what you're doing is really turning social security into a welfare program. i think all of this is really really bad policy. i'm not yet in a place where you're willing to grant a proposal because of that. i think it's taking us in exactly the wrong direction. there seems to be bipartisan consensus around looking into kinds of things that was laid out through bowles-simpson, that's what we need to be moving towards. this payroll tax holiday moves us away from that and makes that movement more difficult. >> why do you think mitch mcconnell and other republican leaders jumped on the payroll tax? >> look, i'm not criticizing them in any way. it is about politics and i do think that probably numbers of republicans wanted some cover and wanted some way. when you think about it andrea and i know you covered these things extensively, we're spending all of this payroll tax money in one year and then we'vç gotten years worth of pay fors. and it's just not -- it's not intelligent. it's not the way to run a government that has that huge deficit issues like we have right now. look, it's one of those kind of things, let's face it, it's politics right now. i mean, this payroll tax holiday was to be for a year. and now it's going to be for another year. and andrea, you know how things are around here, after a while it's permanent. think about it. basically what that means is that social security becomes a welfare program. i don't know. is that what most americans want it to become. i'm surprised that there's not been some discussion about that, most of the facts that i know in social security don't think want it to be deemed that but that's the direction we're moving. and i'm sort of surprised that this decision has taken on the angle it's taken on. >> do you think there could be some bipartisan new momentum to spark another look at bowles-simpson and get the republicans to say, we've made a mistake, let's revisit. >> i don't think there's any question you'll see that happen. i think it's going to happen multiple way ss, whether you take the over that toomey made, which was what was like and you add plus plus to it or take the bowles-simpson report and reduce it to legislative language, whether you have two groups -- i think it's going to be difficult to have a large negotiation over that and try to get it where it needs to go.ç bowls simpson there's a lot of detail that needs to be added. i plan on talking to erskine, yes, it's balance the but there's a lot of details left out. once you get into the details, that's when you start pulling people apart. but i think you'll see tremendous efforts over the course of the next several months towards that end and the type of tax reform that the two of them and the commission put out is exactly the kind of thing that to me would stimulate this economy in huge ways. here we are dealing with little thing, it's a political issue, we all know that. and i know it matters and it's more than just political. it does matter. but it's not the kind of thing that we need to be doing for a country that's this in debt at this time to stimulate the economy. people really are looking for the long term and anything we do short term andrea, just continues to me to add to that perception that and the reality that people really don't know where we're going as a country. that doesn't bode well, i think for economic growth. bob corker, pleasure having you sir, thank you very much. >> thank you. upnext, republican presidential candidate rick santorum on newt and mitt and the hazards of the campaign. we had so much fun with our live web chat, join me live every monday from 2:15 to 2:45 eastern and i'll answer your questions, whether it's about politics or what's happening in washington or foreign policy. every monday online. this is andreaç mitchell repor only on msnbc. 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>> i think if you look at our campaign, we've run a strong grass roots effortses and i know people talk about my social conservative views, if you followed me and i give credit to nbc, they've been great, out there on the ground and i've had following my town hall meetings. if you talk to folks following the town hall meetings, we talk about national security issues and getting the economy going and laying out a growth plan particularly for rural iowa and rural america with manufacturing sector of the economy. we've talked about all of those things. i think as a result what you're seeing in iowa, as people begin to make decisions as to who they seriously report, not just who the media is talking about, but when they measure up the candidates and decide who they are going to support, there's no question. we actually feel that it's coming our way. and we've done very very well among activists. people who actually show up the town hall meetings and show up in great numbers. we think that's a great indication as to when people get a chance to see the candidates and look at the record and not just what they want to do but look at what they've done, we're going to do very, very well. >> what do you think newt gingrich's appeal is, why is he getting so much attention and support as the latest polls show? >> i don't know. look, you know, newt is a very glib guy and i think done very well at the debates. but as you çknow, we have to lk at what the is and i think there's a lot of issues newt and i disagree on, everything from immigration to health care to the wall street bailouts, i don't support individual mandate and topdown government on health care. i don't support allowing folks who have come into this country illegally to stay here. those are big defining issues in iowa and conservatives across the country. when people begin to focus in and look at issues and look at the track record, look at the record of someone who's been a solid consistent conservative across the board on all of the issues versus someone who has been jumping around a lot over the course of time and you know, i've been out and worked on national security issues and worked on energy issues when i was out of congress and worked on things i believed in and fought for. didn't believe in thing that i didn't necessarily support when i was in congress. >> when you say he's jumped around a lot, what has he jumped around a lot on. what do you think are the important issues that social conservatives should look at, for instance on abortion? >> i would say first, one of the issues social conservatives care about, is the issue of amnesty, they don't like government run health care. they know that con strains personal freedom and liberty. number one and number two, we've seen from the obama care bill with respect to abortion coverage, con tra septemberive coverage and all of those things can be tram ped by obama care. this is a big issue among social conservatives. the issue of global warming, huge expansion of government. we've seen the ron paul commercial showing nancy pel loiscy and newt gingrich sitting on the couchç talking about ho they can work together on something that most social conservatives don't believe in manmade global warming. it may be warming and cooling but man's role is not one that needs huge government intervention to prevent. those are all very, very important issues to conservatives generally and conservatives in iowa, there are a lot of farmers who would have their way of life dramatically con strained if newt had gotten his way when this was a popular issue. i was strong out there. i was working for -- because i felt so passionately about it, i went to work with a coal company and worked with them to try to stop this from happening and advising them and helping them put together a strategy to make sure that cap and trade didn't pass. >> what about michelle bachmann, she said she would consider you for attorney general or even for her running mate if she is the nominee. is that rich wishful thinking? >> it's always nice for people to say nice things about you. we have a lot of shared values, she's a fine lady and i think the way we look at the world is very similar and i've said before that she's someone that i would certainly look at as having an important role in our administration, all of those positions. i think that we're the campaign right now on the move. we're the campaign that's rising. we're the campaign that people have seen the experience is there. the ability to get things run, conservative. >> if you can't win in iowa or place well in iowa, beat newt gingrich in iowa, can you hang on for south carolina? can you get through new hampshire? or is iowa really do or die for the santorum campaign? >> every race is important. but iowa isç important. we will do well in iowa, i have no doubt about that. we will exceed expectations which are not particularly high, but we will do what we did in the straw poll. we were running last going into it and spent no money, went out and did not 99 counties about 50 town hall meetings and finished a strong fourth, strong enough that tim pawlenty dropped out of the race. organization and being there that matter and we'll surprise people on election day on january 3rd. >> do you think herman cain can stick it out? should he? >> that's a decision for herman cain. my policy with respect to the candidates is we pray for them and he's going through a very difficult time and we pray for him and his family as we do for all candidates in the race and the president. i have to stay focused. it's a distraction for him, not a distraction for me. we're focused on communicating to the people of iowa and new hampshire and south carolina that we're the best strongest conviction conservative, someone you can trust and has a track record of success both in getting things done for the conservative cause as well as winning tough elections, we think when all said is done and people take seriously the job of picking the right candidate, we're going to rise very quickly in the polls. >> rick santorum, thank you very much. speaking of herman cain, he says he is sticking it out. but will his wife have the last word? the politico briefing up next. ♪ [ man #1 ] i was fascinated by balsa wood airplanes since i was a kid. 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[ dog ] groupies! herman cain is in new hampshire to have that meeting with the editorial board but may face tougher questions at home this weekend with gloria. ken vogle joins me now. he has talked to his wife but not face to face. he won't make a decision until he gets home this weekend. he has got new ads up but says he's sticking it out but clearly there's going to be a reassessment after he goes home this weekend. >> he said all along if his wife and family tell them it is taking too much of a toll, then he'll drop out. you have to wonder how much more they need to get to that point. we're only 33 days f$-5 iowa, think it's probably looking likely that he's going to stick it out. it's a tough situation. if he drops out now, he will look like he's bowing to liberal or media pressure to get out of the race. if he sticks it out and these stories continue to swirl around him and he continues to go down, he's only going to hurt his post election prospect s assuming he doesn't win the nomination. >> the republican party is pretty much aghast at what's happened to the cain campaign and other candidates think he's hurting the party's interest, not just his own. >> that's right. that's a good point. his prospects and potential to do well in iowa where a lot of folks before this started that he had a chance for a strong showing have been hurt by these allegations and we've seen a lot of conservatives who were supporting him or at least supporting him against the media which was sort of how he framed the original allegations and original story as sort of a media plot or a plot by rick perry. we heard at one point as well to bring him down. well, that good will has dissipated and we saw it dissipate even further this week with the ginger white allegations of the 13-year affair. >> this is what he had to say last night on the campaign trail about his conversations about that with his wife. >> i have talkeded to my wife many times since monday about this situation. i have not talked to her face to face. that's what i said. we have had many lengthy conversations. this is another reason why that i am not going to make a decision until after we talk face to face. >> so that's when i guess you're going to get a decision sometime this weekend. he has little incentive to get outç at this point as you say. 33 days, no reason not to go forward unless it becomes too burdensome for family. ken, thank you very much for your reporting. >> thank you, andrea. >> on capitol hill today, leading senators were pressing the administration to take a tougher economic action against iran in the aftermath of this week's attack on pt british embassy in tehran. israel is engaged in a fierce debate over whether to launch a preeliminative military strike against iran. a new poll asked israelis about military action and they are split down the middle. 43% support an attack, 41% do not. that polk released in the next hour but we have it for you here first. the vice president and director for president for foreign policy add brookings institution and convening that forum, annual gathering of u.s. and israeli officials from around the world here in washington this week. thanks so much for joining us. there was pressure in the foreign relations committee on why the administration has not yet taken action against the central bank. they were saying they will take action when it is proficient. they are looking at energy markets and a lot of other things according to the testimony today. do you think they should be taking stronger action. we're slightly behind great britain and some of the other european powers moving against iran. >> it's a rather stark irony that france and britain should be taking the lead on new sanctions, particularly on the iranian central bank and that we should be appearing to hesitate. i think the concern here is that with the global economy in such a delicate state, particularly because of the eusó zone crisis, that actions that might drive up the price of oil could be dell tear yus to the american economy. it's a reasonable concern but i do think that other very real concern is is that iran is continuing its path towards acquiring nuclear weapons which would be a huge game changer for the middle east region and cause a greater instability, especially if it were to provoke an israeli military attack. so i think the administration needs to get behind these new sanctions. >> israel's prime minister netanyahu has basically told his cabinet officials not to talk publicly about the iran situation. they are involved in a very tough internal debate, which is being israel a very public debate, all over the media. what about the divide that your own polling shows israeli public opinion about taking military action against iran? >> well, i think that the israelis, the united states as well, faces this really tough dilemma as iran draws closer and closer to the nuclear threshold, the dilemma is to bomb iran or live with an iranian bomb. and neither course of action is a good one. and i think the israeli public reflects that kind of concern. if the israelis were to take military action, there are 40,000 hezbollah rockets just north of israel that will likely start to rain down on israeli citizens. and i think they understand that very well, that there are all sorts of consequences unintended sequences as secretaryç panett worned defense minister last week, that israelis are conscious of so they are split. it is a very tough dilemma. that's why i think that toughening the sanctions and trying to get the attention of the iranian regime to not to cross the red line so we don't have to make that choice between two bad choices and the israelis as well don't have to make that choice is the most important way of proceeding now. >> thank you very much for being with us. join us next tuesday, december 6th as we broadcast our show live from israel for the launch of msnbc on hot tv, the cable network there. ? 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[ male announcer ] get low prices on the latest smartphones. for a limited time, buy any smartphone and get a $100 walmart gift card. save money. live better. walmart. newt gingrich is coming under attack on all fronts, this time from a former congressional colleague, ron paul. >> he's a flip-flopper so he can hardly be the alternative to mitt romney. i think -- what i found is a shame is that -- look at the amount of energy the media put into talking about sex and how much energy does the media put into exposing what newt gingrich believes it and what he's done. >> ron paul is running against newt gingrich. karen kinney is a former communications directser for the republican party and susan is a former congresswoman from new york. susan, you were in congress with newt gingrich. >> yes, i was. >> part of the republican revolution. >> all right, i'll admit it i was part of the revolution i've written about it. >> this is the new newt or old newt? >> i think newt does try to recreate himself all the time and has three or four acts, all are a concern to me. what we always get with newt is high drama and great ideas but this storyline that is always about newt. very unpredictable, always about newt. lack of delegation and organization and really a drama that unfolded in the house of representatives, the shortest speakership on record for four years because he was taken down by the members of his own partyç i think there's a lot there to be concerned about from a presidential -- >> bob livingston may have been the shortest -- he was there for five minutes. >> duly corrected. that's right. >> just to follow up on that, there was -- haley barbour trying to put a good face on this on with chuck todd saying that the republican -- the mainstream establishment republican party could easily get behind newt gingrich. do you sense that? what are you hearing? >> i think just look at the numbers. okay maybe we can have an argument over mainstream, there's not a lot of former members or current members who have signed on to his campaign. there is a concern from those of us who worked with him who will admit he is very smart, that he skates a little close to the edge sometimes. i think it's not only concerning in a presidential candidate but very concerning in a president. >> the obama force is sitting back and watching all of this with some delight but the president has his own problems, the changing demographic. there had been studies now of what has happened with minority voters and what has happened with married women. what are you seeing? >> this is the report that the center for american progress did and they are looking at what impact will the demographics play. i wrote a column for hill saying politics has become a game of inches. if you look at state by state and the changes, the way you get to the magic number, the african-american vote, latino vote, unmarried women that's how you put the issues together to win a state. although i do think the republicans will have a s(potential that these changes people -- if we pay attention to them now and appropriately address the concerns and issues much these communities have also benefit our senate candidates as well as our house candidates. >> karen, won't it seem as though he is just playing up to this group or that group and playing you know, ethnic politics or divisional politics and it will see not authentic? >> at the end of the day though, when we have a republican nominee, whoever it is, it's going to be about a choice. when you layout the choice between that person and president obama and the things the president offers, particularly if you're an african-american or unmarried woman and look at the record and look at -- you'll be able to say to yourself, this is the guy who i think has my interest better at hand. now that being said, i think in the latino community when it comes to immigration, for example, that's going to be a real challenge. i think how that issue -- >> nobody has stepped up to the plate. >> and the president has been aggressive on deportation which has created a problem on left. >> i was shaking my head because i thought you were going in another direction. the vote has always been problematic, particularly the unmarried woman's vote. but we saw that gap close to three points. no one knows how that's going to go in the next general election. it was that unmarried women's vote that did help elect president obama. >> susan and i were talking about this in the green room. i wish all women would vote and i wish more women will run for office because i'm pretty much we would not be in the fix if we had women running things. >> there's no doubt about it. we did agree on that. >> more women should run. everyone agrees on that. >>ç correct. it's a great pleasure to see both of you. up next, keeping the commitment, you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." 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>> waiting for herman. >> he said friday is the day when he willç see his wife face-to-face and have the conversation about the latest allegation and he will then do his assessment of his campaign. a lot of people think it might be code for he is going to dropout, but one way or another that's what we will be figuring out and trying to figure out the impact on the rest of the race. he is not the front-runner now, but it could have an impact on where his support may go. >> he can continue to try to repair whatever damage has been done it his reputation and he could stick it out to see if he can get past the scandal. >> we have seen people go up and down. no one thought newt gingrich would stay in the race after his staff quit. there is a case to be made for staying in. how the conversation with the wife went. it's at least 24 hours and i suspect longer. >> for that. thank you very much. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." the new york time magazine's robert ghraiber with his profile of mitt romney. follow the show online and my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> we are talking about herman cain's date night with his wife, gloria tomorrow. mitt romney and newt gingrich going at it and the worst winds in years blasted through the west coast with gusts up to 100 miles an hour.ç hundreds of thousands are people are without power. we will have the latest on this weather phenomenon beating down the west coast. the "huffington post" will join me as well about the push for two popular governors asking the dea to reclassify marijuana. why are they requesting this? 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