prove it again in florida. three state, three winners. next stop, florida, where mitt romney still has a commanding lead according to the latest poll. wolf blitzer, gloria and john king will be here in a moment to talk about it. but first, two people that are very happy with the results. i spoke with newt gingrich s daughters, jackie and cathy. ladies, judging by the big grins on your faces, you re pretty happy down there. we re thrilled to be here in south carolina. it s a great place to be tonight. i bet it is. what an amazing turn around for your father. i ve spoken to him a few times and he was dead on arrival in the summer. he made this amazing comeback. then he was like the has been who had blown his chance. now he s the front-runner. how do you feel? very excited. i think what it proves to everybody, the american people, i think he s like the energizer bunny. he goes on and on and on. he s very persistent and that s one of the things we love about him. it s
wolf blitzer, gloria and john king will be here in a moment to talk about it. but first, two people that are very happy with the results. i spoke with newt gingrich s daughters, jackie and cathy. ladies, judging by the big grins on your faces, you re pretty happy down there. we re thrilled to be here in south carolina. it s a great place to be tonight. i bet it is. what an amazing turn around for your father. i ve spoken to him a few times and he was dead on arrival in the summer. he made this amazing comeback. then he was like the has been who had blown his chance. now he s the front-runner. how do you feel? very excited. i think what it proves to everybody, the american people, i think he s like the energizer bunny. he goes on and on and on. he s very persistent and that s one of the things we love about him. it seemed to me that his fortunes seemed to change rather dramatically when he stopped being saint newt, this word new creation he had come up with a halo an
he is in full frontrunner mode. he is basically playing prevent defense. he makes sure nothing catastrophic happened and he can try to get through. for gingrich, it is different. he needs to take risks. he has to convince south carolina voters in risking for the first time since 1980 their record in selecting the eventual republican nominee. gregg: romney has a strong national lead but fairly narrow in south carolina. lots of undecideds. some of them could go to rick santorum. was he a standout last night? how did he do? not super for rick santorum. out of the three, what i call the not-romneys, santorum, newt gingrich, and rick perry, santorum probably had the toughest night because now that he is in sort of a top tier, the field has shrunk he got some very tough questions on his record as it relates to labor relations, as it relates to gun control, things like that. that was tough. when he tried to attack mitt romney on his record on
brilliantly he underlines the issue, makes himself the good guy and hurts mitt romney, it seems to me. again, to do that, you know, says that newt understands the dynamic he s in right now, number one. he s ahead. he s ahead, and he s everybody is sitting there waiting for him to fumble the ball and that can play the prevent defense all day long, but it s not going to work here, i don t believe. i believe mitt and newt have their targets cited and newt right now is in explain as a good jock the prevent defense. i use that a lot. the prevent defense is when you re sitting on the lead and you think you ve got the game in hand and you re going to play this defense, give the guy who is trying to work his way down the field as much latitude, keep everything in front of you, don t let him get behind you and guess what happens? you win. the prevent defense section act lit current strategy of newt gingrich. coming up thank you, joan. we re learning these things with great def
member for what they said before joining his staff, newt gingrich did this, for making what looked to be an anti-mormon comment though the person was saying he thinks it s going to hurt romney, that issue. brilliantly he underlines the issue, makes himself the good guy and hurts mitt romney, it seems to me. again, to do that, you know, says that newt understands the dynamic he s in right now, number one. he s ahead. he s ahead, and he s everybody is sitting there waiting for him to fumble the ball and that can play the prevent defense all day long, but it s not going to work here, i don t believe. i believe mitt and newt have their targets cited and newt right now is in explain as a good jock the prevent defense. i use that a lot. the prevent defense is when you re sitting on the lead and you think you ve got the game in hand and you re going to play this defense, give the guy who is trying to work his way down the field as much latitude, keep everything in front of you,