when you try to pierce through the web of his financial dealings, since he left the speakership in washington. he made money, as he said, he was a small business man, he was a lecturer. he had various foundations and such, and associations that he created, closely tracking a lot of these policy issues, and he s going to be scrutinized on that. but let me just make a general point. i mean, a lot of voters who are not actually voting yet are evaluating candidates as an anti-romney sort of candidate. maybe they don t even say it that way, but that s kind of what the vibe is, it s what the feeling is. and you see a rick perry who can t get started and then gets into trouble. and herman cain has fits and starts. and then you see gingrich, who s performing well in the debates, taking on the media. they re not looking a to the whole composite of this. that s why if i m mitt romney, i m still looking at this and saying, who out there is really putting it all together to challenge me? has any o
about that clip afterwards and he has moved away from that, and not used the patriotism defense here for what he did. and you know, so i think he s tried to account for that, which is not a judgment about whether it s going to make a difference for voters. and on that point, just some reporting from this afternoon, i have talked to a prominent midwestern conservative, somebody who knows gingrich well, and the question i was posing had to do with whether the lobbying ties were going to be a disqualifier for him. this source brought up, in fact, they were character issues that he thought were going to be the biggest problem for gingrich. and this was not necessarily someone endorsing him, but certainly an ally who thought that was going to be the biggest issue. so if you can see other
reporting from this afternoon, i have talked to a prominent midwestern conservative, somebody who knows gingrich well, and the question i was posing had to do with whether the lobbying ties were going to be a disqualifier for him. this source brought up, in fact, they were character issues that he thought were going to be the biggest problem for gingrich. and this was not necessarily someone endorsing him, but certainly an ally who thought that was going to be the biggest issue. so if you can see other conservatives launching on this in terms of paid advertising and the like, it could be difficult. a projection here, howard, and you re as good at this as anybody, suppose this does crumble, this personal life issue, the the ethics issue, the character issues. throw it all together with his lobbying establishment past and his total inconsistencies about the issues they care about, like the individual mandate and death panels, so-called, who else is the alternative? if they re forced to
degrees on both issues. but he seems to do it within the hour. he does it with utter conviction. that s the thing about newt gingrich. david, i want to first show and then react to this. here it is. we have so much good elements tonight. remember the so-called death panels that republicans used to attack the president s health care plan for? newt weighed in on an end of life care article which he signed in the summer of 2009. he talks here about a company in wisconsin which happened to be a paying client of gingrich s consulting firm. here he is making the case for if you want to call them death panels. more than 20% of all medicare spending occurs in the last two months of life. gundersen lutheran health system in la crosse, wisconsin, has developed a successful end-of-life best practice that includes community-wide advanced care planning, where o. in other words, living wills. the gundersen approach empowers patients and families to control and direct their care.
somebody who knows gingrich well, and the question i was posing had to do with whether the lobbying ties were going to be a disqualifier for him. this source brought up, in fact, they were character issues that he thought were going to be the biggest problem for gingrich. and this was not necessarily somebody endorsing him but it s certainly an ally who thought that was going to be the biggest issue. so if you can see other conservatives launching on this in terms of paid advertising and the like, it could be difficult. thank you, david. thanks for joining us. thank you, howard. of course, david interviews this weekend super committee members jon kyl and john kerry. that s sunday on nbc. david will be back with us, by the way, later on in the program with that strange story of natalie wood and what s up with that case. coming up, herman cain says americans want a leader, not a reader. what s that about? rick perry says president obama thinks he s the smartest guy in the room, like th