basically, chris just described a gay who is totally out of touch with the country but he might not be out of touch with the republican party, no offense, steve. but the other thing, he has got a let s win it now strategy, we will deal with the general election later on the you can t be in the general unless you win the primary. we got money to deep six all the other guess, they can t stay with us. they know him at bain, made a lot of to money, i m a business guy, i can say things obama can t say because he has been in a business world where president obama hasn t been. so he his playing to basic strengths now, not saying 22% corporate tax and 999, don t have to go there let the money wipe him out and money come back later on when he doesn t have any competition and he will eventually turn to his own party and say, look, you really want obama again or you want? he forgive some sins, let s move forward. i think that s exactly what he has in mind, but i think the eloquent description o
were able to settle their fish. i think part of it was that they basically improved their political situation in every state they fought in. look at the states where they had their real battle royale, north carolina, indiana, hillary clinton won about half of them. she won certainly all the big states except for illinois, yet in every case where she won, she didn t mess it up for obama. it is so interesting, this is worth studying in the annals of politics, how they both ran against each other on issues. let s remember the issues, the war in iraq, barack obama, as a state senator, opposed the war. senator clinton had voted for it with some caveats but had voted to authorize it and never really come back on that. so, that was a good issue to fight barks good democratic issue, where the president ended up being with most people in the party. then fight for things, as tim russert brought up, fighters of the new york process of spitzer s process of giving away driver s licenses to people t
so, just does a long, drawn out campaign, what does it mean for the eventual republican nominee? is this campaign more like barack obama versus hillary clinton in 2008 in wit long, drawn out campaign resulted in a very strong nominee who won the general election or is this more jimmy carter versus ted kennedy in 1980 where the long campaign was seen as hurting the party s eventual nominee? msnbc s coverage of the florida primary continues in just a moment.
regardless of the outcome tonight, this race is going on and newt gingrich is ahead in the polls nationally right now as we speak and one other thing, i know it might not be popular to say on your network but the fact is that george soros this weekend said there wouldn t be much difference if romney were elected than if obama were president but a huge difference if newt gingrich were and newt gingrich is the shakeup artist and i think that s not going to serve romney well among the base of the party in the many, many states that come after this especially super tuesday and the tuesday after that. it is lawrence o donnell here. i know many in our audience are saying where have i seen that guy before and i just want to remind them that you were one of the house prosecutors in the impeachment of president clinton. and you have a candidate their supporting, newt gingrich, who helped you lead that prosecution in the house. and he has apologized for things he s done in his past, sins, mist
pretty good fights, actually, but they didn t destroy them, they didn t destroy the party in november and i think, boy, it was just like lawrence just said, this is a battle plan for destroying yourself, that was a battle plan for winning in november that kind of fight is a wonderful model for fighting it out in a way that leaves your party strong. do we see the democrat the republicans coming together and having that wonderful meeting the way barack obama and hillary clinton did at senator feinstein s house? because everybody was on the same page after that meeting. there was no aftershock politically. it was obama, going to move forward, they wanted change, had to shift from the bush years to do different things for america? it just seems to me that the republicans are setting the table here where i don t think you re gonna see newt gingrich come out and say, oh, mitt, he is a good guy, i really didn t mean t. you know, even on our air