Romney had a strong night … Santorum may have won the debate … But that only helps Romney … All three Republicans are a net-negative in NBC/WSJ poll. … Romney’s image has been hurt by the primary … But the tide has turned in Florida, and Romney’s the front runner again there … Revenge of the establishment on Gingrich … Romney, Gingrich and  friends spending $22 million in Fla. … And welcome Caleb Fenne Murray!!!

*** Romney owned Gingrich…: If Mitt Romney wins the nomination, we'll look back and say the first hour of last night’s debate and say that was when he finally put it away. Romney dominated Newt Gingrich -- from the opening barbs over immigration to his effective response to Gingrich on Freddie/Fannie money (“Mr. Speaker have you checked your own investments?”) to squashing Gingrich’s attempt to co-opt the audience once again (“Wouldn’t it be nice if people wouldn’t make accusations somewhere else that they aren’t willing to make here?”). Romney was aggressive without being petulant. He finally looked comfortable sparring. He looked for the first time like he deserved the moniker “front runner” on stage. And it certainly helped that he had a new debate coach. Romney just wasn’t the same guy.

*** …But Santorum at least rented Romney: That said, the winner of the CONSERVATIVE debate was Rick Santorum. He ended up forcing Romney to defend health care in the same language President Obama uses. It’s amazing that with all the candidates chasing Romney, none has been able go box in Romney on health care and the mandate the way Santorum did last night. Romney still has trouble, and will likely continue to have trouble, explaining his logic on why government intervention on health care is OK at the state level but not the federal. Romney still didn’t fix his conservative problem; he has simply made the others look like worse alternatives. Santorum was also strong in his closing case to distinguish himself from the two front runners and scored points when he chided Gingrich and Romney for their attacks on each other -- for Gingrich’s work as a consultant and Romney’s private-sector work. Santorum defended both and went for the high ground: "Leave that alone and focus on the issues," he said. (Of course, part of why Santorum defended “consulting” is because he was one, too.) Santorum’s hoping for that classic rule of politics: A attacks B and C benefits. Of course, Romney camp is thrilled either way -- the better Santorum does, the better for Romney, because Santorum takes votes away from Gingrich. And, by the way, for the first time in a long time at a debate, Ron Paul seemed to be having fun. His politicians to the moon line got big laughs. Hey, “60 Minutes,” shouldn’t Paul be the frontrunner to replace Andy Rooney?

*** It wasn’t all good for Romney: He made at least three unforced errors – (1) He opened himself up on his “blind trust” Fannie and Freddie answer. He effectively responded to Gingrich noting Gingrich’s investment in Fannie and Freddie Mac, but he flubbed the details of his own Frannie/Freddie investment. He said it was in a “blind trust.” But it wasn’t, as the Boston Globe reported; (2) He didn’t know his campaign has a radio ad running statewide hitting Gingrich on his “language of the ghetto” comment – even though Romney signs off and approves the ad at the end in Spanish; and (3) He had this awkward spin on why he voted for Paul Tsongas: "I've never voted for a Democrat when there was a Republican on the ballot."   What might the late senator say – maybe: "Don't be a panderrr bear.” By the way, wasn’t President Bush on the primary ballot that day in Massachusetts too?

*** NBC/WSJ poll… All three Republicans negative: The most important item in the NBC/WSJ poll was that all three Republican candidates are a net-negative when it comes to favorability. Romney was exposed in two ways in the poll – (1) he has a conservative problem staring him right in the face. That hasn’t changed. Any time base conservatives -- very conservative voters, Tea Partiers, Southerners, feels there’s a viable alternative to Romney, they rally around that person; we’ve seen this phenomenon for months. And (2) The primary has done damage to Romney. He cannot afford a long primary. If this thing goes to June, that would be very problematic. He’s already in a bad position. George W. Bush, John McCain, and Bob Dole were all in primary fights and ALL were a net-POSITIVE at this time in the election cycle. In the past 20 years in the poll, no one who went on to be the major party nominee of either party with a net-negative at this point – except John Kerry, and we all know how that turned out. Clearly, Romney is looking like he’s getting his momentum back, but he has fundamental problems for the general. The primary has done him no good. (Here’s our story on the poll, how the candidate match up with Obama, and the GOP brand problem.)

*** The tide turned in Florida: Speaking of that Romney momentum. A new Quinnipiac poll is out in Florida showing what seemed to be happening yesterday – that Romney’s retaken a sizable lead. He’s up 38%-29% over Gingrich. And the candidates’ rhetoric was evidence of the change yesterday. Gingrich leveled some of his harshest attacks on Romney on the trail yesterday, but Romney kept his focus on President Obama. Watch Gingrich carefully today, he could just unload. How he handles himself today is going to tell us a lot. By the way, Gingrich being unwilling to defend his Swiss Bank comments in the debate was a bad moment. Flashbacks to Tim Pawlenty’s missed opportunity on Romney.

*** Revenge of the Establishment: If Romney’s the nominee, we may look back this week as the week the establishment rescued him. Take a look at the cavalry that’s come to Romney’s rescue in Florida. John McCain is doing solo-town halls. Jason Chaffetz is following Gingrich around the state and picking fights with his staff. Bob Dole is writing letters attacking Gingrich. Marco Rubio, who is supposedly neutral, is playing referee in the state and constantly calling fouls on Newt… Bottom line: as many predicted post-South Carolina, if Newt actually looked like he was one primary win away from delivering a near-knockout blow to Romney, a significant group of folks would begin rallying to his defense. Or in this case, simply rallying to stop Gingrich.

*** Romney, Gingrich (and friends) spending the $22 million in Florida: The latest ad spending totals show Romney, Gingrich and Super PACs supporting them spending almost $22 million in Florida. Romney and Restore Our Future have outspent Gingrich and Winning Our Future about 4-to-1. The Super PACs, by themselves, have spent so far a combined $12 million, according to Republican ad tracker Smart Media Group Delta. The pro-Gingrich one, Winning Our Future, promises to spend another $2 million before Tuesday (to get up to that $6 million promised, but they haven’t booked buys YET). NBC’s Michael Isikoff takes a deep look at Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate and principal funder of Winning Our Future. Here are the numbers:

- Pro-Romney: $15.7 million (Restore Our Future $8.8m; Romney: $6.9m)
- Pro-Gingrich: $3.9 million (Winning Our Future: $2.8m; Gingrich: $1.1m)

*** Welcome Caleb Fenne Murray! Caleb Fenne Murray, with a head of dark hair and hazel eyes, came into the world at 12:40 pm ET yesterday, weighing in at 8 pounds, 13 ounces and measuring 21 inches long. Caleb’s middle name -- Fenne (pronounced like Penny and derivative of Fennigan) -- is in honor of Sasha's late maternal grandfather. A long-time journalist at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Fenne's love of journalism and politics inspired his daughter and grandchildren to always pursue the story and never be afraid to ask questions. Congratulations Mark and Sasha!!!

*** On the trail: All candidates (with the exception of Paul) blitz the Sunshine State. Santorum visits Miami … Romney rallies in Titusville, Orlando and Miami … Gingrich stumps in Miami and Delray Beach … Meanwhile, Paul is en route to Maine, campaigning in Bangor, Waterville and Lewiston, ahead of its caucus.

Countdown to Florida primary: 5 days
Countdown to Nevada caucuses: 9 days
Countdown to Super Tuesday: 40 days
Countdown to Election Day: 285 days

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The Miami Herald: Thursday night’s debate was supposed to be the debate that would prove critical in Tuesday’s Republican primary. Yet, there was no clear winner or loser. Polls show the race is exceedingly close, but Romney might be surging amid a statewide ad blitz. Yet the debate lived up to its nickname: The River City Rumble. Ron Paul and Rick Santorum played the roles of foils, chiding the frontrunners for bickering and, at times, not answering questions. This was also the debate where Florida took center stage. The problems in the nation’s largest swing state are the problems of the nation writ large: Unemployment, home foreclosures, immigration. Cuba, Israel policy and space travel got some airtime, too.

GINGRICH: The Washington Post: Cheers filled the air as Newt Gingrich’s campaign bus eased out of the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express. He had just made an astonishing vow: By the end of his second term as president, the U.S. flag would once again be planted on the moon. America, he said, would have a permanent lunar base. Gingrich’s speech Wednesday created big headlines Thursday on the Space Coast. People here have been eager to hear some launchin’ words. The question is whether this is science fiction.

“The fact that he originally chose not to go after Romney on the Swiss bank accounts issue was a moment of weakness for Gingrich,” CBN’s Brody writes. “You can’t rail on Romney on the trail and then come up lame on the debate stage. Furthermore, he made Romney look even better because it gave Romney a chance to essentially say, “Man up” and don’t run and hide.”

Newt Gingrich’s former Republican colleagues in the House are more than a little nervous about the prospects of sharing a ticket with him in November. They think he’d run weakly in the suburbs. And among women. And independents. And especially in the Northeast. To some of them, he’s a disaster in the making, a potentially combustible nominee who could, in a worst case scenario, cost the GOP its newly minted majority. The concern is serious enough, one freshman Republican told POLITICO, that on the bus ride back from the House GOP retreat in Baltimore last week, Gingrich’s electability was the prime subject of discussion among nearly a dozen members — many of them first-termers.

NPR headline on Gingrich’s debate: “Live By Debate, Die By Debate.”

Duke Cunningham likes Gingrich. Cunningham, a former member, who pleaded guilty to “conspiracy and tax evasion” in 2005 “in one of the biggest federal bribery scandals in recent memory," the Voice of San Diego writes, “Cunningham tells Gingrich in an electronic message he says he sent to the candidate last month that his fellow prisoners, and their families, support Gingrich."

ROMNEY: "Mitt Romney, forced to prove his resilience after a stinging loss in South Carolina, is showing why the so-called Republican establishment thinks he has the best discipline, organization and campaign smarts to challenge President Barack Obama this fall," AP writes. "The former Massachusetts governor turned in his best debate performance yet Thursday night, putting chief rival Newt Gingrich on the defensive from the opening minutes in Jacksonville, Fla., and never letting up for two hours. It was a striking change after two South Carolina debates in which Gingrich revived his own campaign with fiery populist and media-bashing zingers that made Romney appear pallid in comparison."

The Boston Globe: Though Mitt Romney made his reputation as a private equity investor, his tax returns show the presidential candidate has a large portion of his wealth in an even more aggressive corner of the investment world: hedge funds.  

As others noted, NPR writes: “One reason [for Romney’s improved performance] is that Mitt Romney looked at the debacle of those South Carolina debates and made a crucial adjustment. He brought on a new debate coach. And not just any debate coach, but Brett O'Donnell, who in recent years raised Jerry Falwell's Liberty University to the top ranks of college debate. Not just the top ranks among religious schools, but the top ranks, period. More recently, O'Donnell had advised Michele Bachmann. Say what you will of that candidacy, what life it had emanated largely from her early debate performances in the summer of 2011.”

A Detroit Free Press/WXYZ TV poll shows Romney up 5 in Michigan. The results: Romney 31, Gingrich 26, Paul 14, Santorum 10, Undecided/refused 19.

SANTORUM:  "Rick Santorum’s sporadic Florida campaign has cancelled his scheduled appearance in Jupiter on Friday. Santorum was going to hold a Tea Party rally in Abacoa. Santorum will instead spend Friday morning being interviewed by three Florida radio stations, including NewsRadio 610 in Miami at 7:50 a.m.," The Palm Beach Post reports. "Santorum is then leaving the state for a Friday night fundraiser in Pennsylvania. He will also prepare his tax returns before heading back for one final day of campaigning in Florida."

The Wall Street Journal on Foster Friess, the financial backer of Super PAC Red, White, and Blue Fund: “Mr. Friess, 71 years old, said he plans to fund television advertisements for Mr. Santorum in other states in February and March. That could help keep Mr. Santorum competitive against his better-funded rivals and is one reason the fight for the Republican nomination will likely run at least through Super Tuesday on March 6.”

The Detroit Free Press: President Barack Obama heads to an event in Ann Arbor today holding a clear lead in the state over the two Republicans with the best chance to block his re-election in November. Two months ago, Obama trailed Michigan-born former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Free Press/WXYZ-TV poll, 46%-41%. Now, the Democratic president leads Romney in the state, 48%-40% in a poll of 600 voters taken Saturday through Wednesday.

President Barack Obama's goal of approving enough renewable-energy projects on federal lands to power 3 million homes may be the easy part — getting them built could be another story. In his speech at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora on Thursday, Obama repeated the goal he set in his State of the Union address — 10 gigawatts of renewable-energy generation on public land. Yet even as the Obama administration is approving projects, the federal financing programs that are key to their construction are fading, The Denver Post reports.

FLORIDA: Per Political Wire: A new Suffolk University poll in Florida finds Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) leads all four potential Republican challengers in Florida's closely watched U.S. Senate race. Rep. Connie Mack polled closest, trailing by 10 points in a head-to-head matchup with Nelson, 42% to 32%, with a considerable undecided of 25 percent.

By NBC's Michael Isikoff

Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino mogul bankrolling Newt Gingrich’s super PAC isn’t trying to “buy” a presidency, his top political consultant tells NBC News.  He’s just following in the footsteps of another powerful business tycoon, Joseph Kennedy, father of President John F. Kennedy. 

“I don’t think it’s buying a presidency any more than it was when Joe Kennedy helped his son,” Sig Rogich, a veteran Republican operative who serves as Adelson’s government affairs consultant, said in an interview about the massive donations that the casino mogul has made to Gingrich’s super PAC.

Adelson, 78, who has a personal fortune estimated at $21 billion, “plays to win” and “puts his money where his mouth is,” Rogich added. 

In the last three weeks, Adelson and his Israeli-born wife Miriam have pumped $10 million into the Winning Our Future Super PAC. Those donations provided a critical cash infusion that helped revive Gingrich’s candidacy, bankrolling attack ads against Mitt Romney in South Carolina and now Florida.  They’ve also made the Adelsons the largest known donors so far in a presidential race awash with money under new rules allowing unlimited donations to so-called super PACs. 

But the contributions have also raised new questions about Adelson’s outside role in influencing the campaign.  Those questions could intensify as a result of potentially provocative comments he has made about Israel uncovered by NBC News. 

Scott Audette / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich makes a point during the Republican presidential candidates debate in Jacksonville, Florida January 26, 2012.

Adelson owns a newspaper in Israel, 'Israel HaYom,' that backs conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and adamantly opposes any peace settlement with the Palestinians.

But while Adelson and Gingrich have bonded on the issue of a hawkish Mideast policy, especially over the threat of a nuclear Iran, some of the casino mogul’s comments could prove embarrassing.

In a talk to an Israeli group in July, 2010, Adelson said he wished he had served in the Israeli Army rather than the U.S. military—and that he hoped his young son would come back to Israel and “be a sniper for the IDF,” a reference to the Israel Defense Forces. (YouTube video of speech)

“I am not Israeli. The uniform that I wore in the military, unfortunately, was not an Israeli uniform.  It was an American uniform, although my wife was in the IDF and one of my daughters was in the IDF ... our two little boys, one of whom will be bar mitzvahed tomorrow, hopefully he’ll come back-- his hobby is shooting -- and he’ll come back and be a sniper for the IDF,” Adelson said at the event.

“All we care about is being good Zionists, being good citizens of Israel, because even though I am not Israeli born, Israel is in my heart,” he said toward the end of his talk.  

Asked about those comments, Rogich said: “No one could possibly ever think that he is anything but a loyal American.  He’s shown that time and time again.”

Rogich cited major donations that Adelson has made to medical research and other philanthropic causes that were far bigger than his political contributions, he said.

As for Israel, Rogich said: “I think that the fact that he is a Zionist and believes deeply in the preservation of Israel is so commendable.”

Newt Gingrich, who stirred controversy recently by calling the Palestinians "an invented people," appears on the cover of Sheldon Adelson's newspaper, Israel HaYom, blasting the Obama administration for its policies on Iran. "The Obama administration is denying reality," reads the headline in Hebrew. "The refusal to confront evil could cause a second Holocaust."

Gingrich, who stirred controversy recently by calling the Palestinians “an invented people,” appeared on the cover of Adelson’s Israeli newspaper blasting the Obama administration for its policies on Iran.

“The Obama administration is denying reality,” reads the headline in Hebrew. “The refusal to confront evil could cause a second Holocaust.”

When Gingrich was questioned about the money from Adelson this week, he immediately cited the casino mogul’s backing of Israel as a major reason he had received his support.

“Sheldon Adelson is very deeply concerned about the survival of Israel and believes that the Iranians represent a mortal threat to Israel and the United States,” Gingrich said in an interview while on the campaign trail in Florida.  “And he is deeply motivated by the question of having a commander-in-chief strong enough and willing to make sure the Iranians do not get nuclear weapons.”

Asked if he had promised the casino mogul anything in exchange for the money to the super PAC, Gingrich replied: “I promised him that I would seek to defend the United States and the United States allies.”

Adelson’s interests extend beyond Israel.  His personal fortune comes from a casino empire that stretches from the Vegas strip to the gambling havens of Singapore and Macau.  But his business interests have also provoked legal troubles.  

Adelson’s company, the Las Vegas Sands,  disclosed last year that it was being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations by a former top company executive that Adelson directed him to put a local government official on its payroll in Macau — a potential violation of a U.S. anti-bribery law.  The firm has denied the allegations, saying they come from a lawsuit filed by a disgruntled former employee.

Adelson also earned a reputation in Las Vegas as a fierce foe of labor unions after he bought the legendary Sands Hotel, home base of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack, and then blew it up in 1996.

About 1,500 casino workers lost their jobs.  Adelson built a spectacular new hotel in its place, the Venetian, but locked out the state’s powerful Culinary Workers Union, which resulted in street protests and lawsuits.

Union official D. Taylor (sic) said that Adelson’s security officials at the Las Vegas Sands Hotel tried to have the protestors outside his hotel arrested, but Las Vegas police refused.

“He claimed that he owned the sidewalks,” Taylor said.  Georgia Democratic “congressman John Lewis led us on the sidewalks to say that nobody’s going to own the people on the sidewalks,” he added. “Sheldon then appealed the decision of the police not to arrest us all the way to the Supreme Court.”

Taylor said Adelson lost that battle — the courts upheld a finding of anti-labor practices against his company — but now the casino mogul thinks he can purchase a presidency.

“I think it’s very scary that any one candidate would be so beholden to one persona, a billionaire, who obviously has a very specific agenda that he wants to achieve,” said Taylor.

But Rogich, Adelson’s consultant, said that agenda consists of nothing more than trying to elect a good friend who he believes “would be a great president.”

“And that’s what this process is all about — that’s why we call it America,” he said. “You have the right to spend your money how you’d like to spend it.”

NEW YORK--Ten days after dropping out of the GOP race, erstwhile candidate and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman has accepted his next job: chairman of the Salt Lake City-based Huntsman Cancer Foundation.

The foundation announced this morning Huntsman will succeed his father Jon M. Huntsman, who will serve as chairman emeritus.

Huntsman Sr. who founded the namesake organization said his son takes the position "with a wealth of leadership experience."

On the campaign trail, Huntsman often touted his experience "running a cancer institute" when answering questions from voters about his experience. He also regularly invoked the idea of cancer in his stump speeches.

"We have a cancer metastasizing in this country," Huntsman said hundreds of times across New Hampshire. "It's called debt."

"His unparalleled international reputation and experience will greatly enhance the life-saving work in which the Foundation is engaged," his father noted in a statement. "We join together with the entire Huntsman Cancer Institute team of more than 1,300 full-time faculty and staff in welcoming Jon to this new position."

This comes after the younger Huntsman told a voter at a GOP breakfast on Charleston's Daniel Island that his father "is not well." The elder Huntsman -- who was expected to bankroll his son's presidential bid via Our Destiny PAC -- attended his son's primary night celebration in New Hampshire and his announcement to leave the race in South Carolina.

Huntsman Jr., who dropped out on January 16, endorsed Mitt Romney after struggling to gain traction in the polls. He finished a distant third place in the New Hampshire primary after centering his entire campaign efforts in the Granite State. Unlike Romney's other major surrogates including former GOP rival Tim Pawlenty however, Huntsman is not expected to play a major role in Romney's national efforts, after recording a targeted auto-dial message to moderate voters in South Carolina shortly after dropping out.

Huntsman's new role is perhaps one of several he may assume in the coming months. Many have speculated what the future holds for the well-credentialed Huntsman, who has served in three Republican administrations and most recently as President Obama's top envoy to China.

This is also a return to the foundation for Huntsman, who served as an executive when the foundation was first launched by his father in 1995.

According to a release from the organization, the Huntsman Cancer Foundation is a cancer research center that provides patient care, education and outreach for ways to prevent and treat cancer, and "the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in the entire Intermountain West."

All eyes are on the GOP hopefuls who are taking the stage tonight in  Florida at a debate sponsored by CNN,  the Republican Party of Florida and the Hispanic Leadership Network.

The NBC political team will be live-tweeting the debate, offering minute-by-minute updates and analysis.

Tweets from NBC producers and correspondents  will appear in this post as the debate begins at 8 p.m. ET.

Newt Gingrich leads Mitt Romney among Republicans, but he is the weakest of the Republican candidates tested against President Obama, according to an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday evening.

Gingrich leads Romney 37 percent to 28 percent nationally among registered Republicans likely to vote in the primaries; Rick Santorum is in third with 18 percent, and Ron Paul is fourth with 12 percent.

Gingrich has built its advantage by consolidating the heart and soul of the Republican Party: very conservative voters, the South and the Tea Party.

Though Gingrich is the preferred candidate of GOP primary voters, he performs the worst of all Republican candidates tested against Obama, including Santorum.

"Gingrich is Goldwater," said Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. "In the general election, Gingrich not only takes down his ship, he takes down the whole flotilla."

Read the full poll results here (.pdf)

The GOP race
Gingrich leads Romney in a four-way matchup, including Santorum and Paul, with “very conservatives” (47 percent to 17 percent), Tea Party supporters (46 percent to 21 percent), and in the South (45 percent to 21 percent). Those numbers gets even bigger in a two-way matchup. For example, in the South, one-on-one with Romney, Gingrich leads 65 percent to 28 percent.

Romney leads in the Northeast (38 percent to 32 percent), and is statistically tied with Gingrich in all other regions: in the Midwest (Gingrich leads 32-29 percent) and West (Gingrich 33-32 percent).

In December, the last time the poll was conducted, Gingrich also led (40 percent to 23 percent), but much has changed since then, including two fourth place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire for Gingrich, and his decisive victory in South Carolina. The poll, conducted Sunday through Tuesday, went into the field the day after Gingrich’s victory there.

Gingrich is also viewed as the most electable candidate by GOP primary voters. He leads Romney 2-to-1 among those who picked electability as mattering most to them in a candidate. He holds a narrow lead, 46-44 percent, among those say views on issues matter most.

By a nine-point margin, Republicans said a candidate who “comes closest to your views on issues” is preferable to a candidate who has the best chance to beat President Obama.

Gingrich weakest against Obama
Romney fares best against the president, trailing Obama by six points among registered voters, 49 percent to 43 percent. That’s a four-point improvement for the president from a month ago.

Obama, however, beats Gingrich by a whopping 18 points, 55-37 percent, expanding the president’s 11-point lead a month ago.

Santorum also loses to Obama, but by a narrower margin, 53-38 percent, than Gingrich.

“More than his mojo, he’s getting back the middle of the electorate,” Hart said. But Hart warns, whether it’s the Republican race or the uptick in Obama’s ratings and standing, “I look at these results, and they have all the permanence of skywriting -- looks bold, but disappears in seconds.”

Obama, however, is still below 40 percent approval with white voters, and McInturff points out that number and the direction of the country still would indicate "The incumbent president is going to have a difficult re-election. Many of these are still problematic numbers -- as improved as they are."

Gingrich’s problems – women, independents, ‘personal standards’
Gingrich particularly struggles with women and independents. Women say they would vote for Obama over Gingrich by a wide 60-31 percent gap, far wider than the 54-38 percent difference by which Obama beats Romney.

With independents, Gingrich gets just 28 percent against Obama, who wins with 52 percent. By contrast, Obama narrowly edges Romney with independents, 44 percent to 36 percent.

Asked if the candidate has “high personal standards that set the proper tone for the country,” Romney gets a 67 percent positive score, Gingrich checks in at 32 percent.

Issues of character for Gingrich haven’t “been put to rest,” Hart said. “It may have been a great debate point last week, but there is still uncertainty among all voters.”

Challenges for Romney, too
Romney’s strength as a candidate is thought to be his business experience, as it relates to the economy. But GOP primary voters call it a “draw” between Gingrich and Romney when it comes to economic expertise, Hart said.

Sixty-one percent of GOP primary voters rate Romney's ability to deal with the economy positively, surpassed slightly by Gingrich, whom 63 percent of Republicans believe is well-equipped to handle the economy.

“If that’s the ace card for Romney,” Hart said, “it hasn’t materialized at the moment.”

Gingrich beats Romney on sharing your position on the issues by a wide margin, 56 percent to 43 percent.

But on the issue of whether Republican voters would be “comfortable” with Romney as their candidate, he gets a higher score than Gingrich – 75 percent say they would be comfortable with him versus 61 percent who say the same of Gingrich.

GOP brand problem

There’s also evidence in the poll of a Republican brand problem.

All of the GOP candidates are a net-negative in favorability ratings, with Santorum getting the best marks -- 26 percent positive, 27 percent negative.

Gingrich gets the worst -- 26-48.

Romney scores 31-36, and it’s worth noting that Bob Dole, John McCain, and George W. Bush were all net-positives at the same time in their fights for the nomination. The exception of a recent major party nominee being a net-negative at this point -- John Kerry, who was 22-26 in January 2004.

“Romney’s numbers are net-negative, which is unusual,” McInturff said.

Hart added, “It’s hard to make the case that anything but injury has come off the Republican brand off Congress and electorate.”

The congressional approval rating is near record lows of 13 percent, and more people say the GOP has brought the wrong kind of change (31 percent) in Congress than the right kind (12 percent). That represents a drop for the Republicans from a year ago, right after they took control of the House as a result of the sweeping 2010 elections. In January 2011, 25 percent thought Republicans would bring the right kind of change versus 20 percent who thought they would bring the wrong kind.

Those attitudes are also far worse than right after Democrats took control of the House in 2006 (42-15 percent) and Republicans regained a majority in 1994 (37-11 percent).

Additionally, Democrats lead in who people prefer to control Congress, the so-called congressional ballot, 47-41 percent. It’s the fourth consecutive month Democrats have led on the question and it has expanded from their two-point lead a month ago.

McInturff points out there is a “pretty significant gap” between the optimism primary voters -- 80 percent of whom believe a Republican will defeat President Obama -- and reality.

Republicans are “not going to win by simply being the option against the president,” McInturff said, adding, “The entire national environment isn’t going to do the entire job for the party.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post misreported the margin President Obama wins women against Newt Gingrich as 69-21. It is 60-31, as noted above.

Displaying just how important Florida is to the hopes of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, the leading candidates for the GOP nomination and their supporters are spending almost $22 million, flooding the television and radio airwaves with ads supporting their candidates -- and mostly attacking the other.

Romney and friends have outspent Gingrich and his allies about 5-to-1 with the Super PACs leading the way, spending -- so far -- a combined $12 million, according to Republican ad tracker Smart Media Group Delta. The pro-Gingrich one, Winning Our Future, promises to spend another $2 million before Tuesday, but, at the end of the day, Gingrich and his allies will be outspent by at least double.

Here are the numbers:

Pro-Romney: $15.7 million (Restore Our Future $8.8m; Romney: $6.9m)

Pro-Gingrich: $3.9 million (Winning Our Future: $2.8m; Gingrich: $1.1m)Source: NBC/Smart Media Group Delta

Today, Gingrich placed another $855,000 on broadcast and cable with serious buys in Ft. Myers (1000 points), Jacksonville (1500 points), Orlando (1000 points), Tampa (700 points), and West Palm Beach (875 points). You can also find his ads on AEN, CNN, Discovery, ESPN, ESPN 2, the Food Network, HGTV, the History Channel, TNT, and USA.

Romney's campaign added about another $200,000 in the Panhandle (Mobile-Pensacola) as well as Tallahassee. Before this, he was not on air in these markets.

And it's not just in Florida. Restore Our Future is going up with another week of ads in Michigan, trying to ensure Romney, whose father was governor of the state, wins there. So far, Restore has spent $245,000 in Michigan.

A senior Democratic congressman likened Republican lawmakers to terrorists on Thursday for their insistence on tying approval of construction of a new oil pipeline to must-pass legislation.

California Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the coauthor of the 2009 cap-and-trade climate change bill, decried efforts by the GOP to force the Obama administration into approving a permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline.

"They want to use legislation as a way to act like terrorists. They hold things as hostage," Waxman said. "We almost couldn't fund the government because Republicans wanted to hold that idea hostage, we almost couldn't pay our debts because the Republicans wanted to hold that legislation hostage to their extreme agenda, and I wouldn't be surprised if they scuttled this conference by trying to hold us hostage."

Waxman was referring specifically to rumblings from Republicans that they might attach the provision to legislation extending a payroll tax cut through the end of 2012. Waxman is one of the 20 bipartisan negotiators who are working to reach an agreement on that extension by Feb. 29, when the current extension is set to expire.

During the first meeting of the payroll tax cut negotiators on Tuesday, Waxman said that he supports using the millionaire tax surcharge to help pay for the extension, a nonstarter for Republicans, but has made it clear that the Keystone pipeline is not something he would support.

"That is so stupid already for them to be pushing the Keystone pipeline issue in this bill, in this conference," Waxman said today, "Republicans have been so mean-spirited, and I think that's coming across to the American people."

Waxman is among a group of lawmakers who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline for environmental reasons, citing the number of jobs created over the two years it will take to construct the pipe as not worth the environmental costs that will result from the use of the oil that it transports.

"Many of us believe that that pipeline will lock us into a 50 to 100 years of dependence on the dirtiest source of oil that can cause enormous increases in greenhouse gases and lead to greater global warming and climate change," Waxman said.

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Surrogates for Mitt Romney are out in full force today at events for his GOP rival, Newt Gingrich, further proving that the battle between the two GOP presidential frontrunners is in full swing.

"The campaign is entering a phase now where we are defining the terms of the Florida race," a source close to the Romney campaign told NBC News.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R–UT), Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL), and Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), in addition to two Romney staffers, all attended events of the former House speaker today in the Sunshine State, a development about which the Gingrich campaign seemed less than pleased.

Gingrich campaign spokesman, R.C. Hammond, even approached Rep. Chaffetz following a Gingrich event in Mount Dora, resulting in a long back and forth between the two men.

“I just had a couple questions. Do you own any stock in Freddie Mac? Have you ever lobbied for them? A lot of members of the Romney campaign have lobbied, have you ever lobbied for Freddie?” Hammond began his laundry list of questions for the sitting member of Congress who endorsed Romney. 

“This is really what you have to do right now?” Chaffetz replied in disbelief.

“So you’ve never voted on anything that impacts the housing market? Do you have a mortgage?” Hammond, wearing sunglasses and holding a tape recorder, continued to press the Congressman.

“Is this really what you’re doing? I’m sorry, I’m happy to answer questions from people with press credentials but from the Gingrich campaign, probably not,” Chaffetz finally said.

This tit-for-tat continued for the next several minutes turning to topics of Gingrich not being able to get on the ballot of his home state of Virginia to using the Thomas System to look up legislative records.

“The campaign is rattled. They don’t like being challenged on the facts and it shows,” Romney adviser Dave Kochel told NBC News about the altercation following the Speaker’s second event.

The Romney surrogates, according to a campaign source, are attending these events to rebut the speaker and provide another narrative to the press. They stand in the back and talk to press when approached, rarely speaking to voters unless the voter initiates conversation.

"With what he's out there saying and doing right now, we've go stay on top of him pretty close cause otherwise he'll get away with telling people Romney is anti-immigrant,” the source close to the Romney campaign said. “So that's why we're going to stick close here and not let him make those charges."

While the former Massachusetts governor and his staff may feel the need to send his supporters to his rival’s events, Gingrich, however, does not feel it is necessary for his campaign.

“He doesn’t say anything worth rebutting,” Gingrich said during a press conference Thursday morning. “I mean we would send somebody if we thought it was a useful exercise.”

Chaffetz believes that sending surrogates “is all part of the game” and said he would do whatever necessary to get Romney elected president, including trailing the Speaker.

“Remember it was Newt Gingrich who said he was going to follow President Obama everywhere he went,” Chaffetz said.

In almost every stump speech, Gingrich tells the crowd that if President Obama does not agree to do seven Lincoln-Douglas style debates with him as the nominee, the White House will become his scheduler and he will show up wherever President Obama speaks 4 hours afterwards to rebut him.

The Congressman even brought that point up in the exchange with Gingrich’s spokesman but was told he had it wrong.

“But you have to be the president to be followed around,” Hammond shot back at Chaffetz after suggesting Gingrich gave them the idea to attend events.

The Romney campaign plans to bring surrogates to as many Gingrich events as they can.

The race in Florida may be changing again.

There are three robo-polls out today showing Romney back in the lead. NBC News does not endorse or report on automated polls.

But forget the polls, look at the rhetoric. Gingrich today leveled his harshest attacks yet on Romney in Florida after ignoring him at the NBC debate Monday night. If that suddenly rhetoric sharp rhetoric against Romney is any indicator, it may mean Romney’s regained the momentum.

Gingrich declared he was “angry” today. “I am angry," he said. "But I think I'm angry and every American should be angry.” He said of Romney, “How can somebody run a campaign this dishonest and think he's going to have any credibility running for president?”

He went on at a Tea Party rally: “This is the desperate last stand of the old order throwing the kitchen sink. I’m here as a citizen and I frankly don’t care what the Washington establishment thinks of me because I intend to change them.”

He charged that the ads are paid for “with the money taken from the people of Florida by companies like Goldman Sachs,” that are trying “to stop you from having a choice in this election.”

He added, in an attack he'd used in Iowa: “We aren't that stupid, and you aren't that clever.”

More evidence the tide may be turning. Romney's rhetoric on Gingrich was tame. And Romney mostly kept his focus on Obama, saying this is a "'Groundhog Day' presidency. … Nothing changes."

Mitt Romney could face new questions about his overseas investments after a campaign official acknowledged to NBC News that his campaign is revising his federal ethics forms to report more than a half dozen offshore holdings, including income from a multi-million dollar Swiss bank account that was not disclosed last year.

The tax returns released by the Romney campaign this week showed that the Ann Romney Blind Trust had reported $1,783 in interest income from a bank account held at UBS in Switzerland in 2010. But interest from the Swiss bank account -- as well as holdings in other offshore investments in the Cayman Islands, Bermudas and Ireland that appear in the trust fund's tax returns -- were not disclosed in Romney’s financial disclosure form filed with the Office of Government Ethics last August.

A Romney campaign official emailed Thursday afternoon that Romney’s financial disclosure form is now being amended with the government ethics office “to address this minor discrepancy” and “to deal with some other minor issues.” The Romney campaign’s decision to amend the forms, and additional details about the failure to report the overseas holdings, was also reported Thursday by Los Angeles Times.

The number and size of Romneys’ offshore investments have lately emerged as a major campaign issue, putting the former Massachusetts governor on the defensive over his wealth (estimated at up to $250 million) and forcing his campaign to release his 2010 tax returns this week. When the campaign released the returns on Monday, it arranged for R. Bradford Malt, a longtime lawyer for the Romneys, to brief reporters in a conference call about them.

But while the returns have produced no revelations about any improper dealings on Romneys’ part, they have continued to raise questions about how and why some of his multiple overseas investments were made in the first place, and why there were not more fully reported on Romney’s financial disclosure forms. 

Malt said he opened up the Swiss bank account, holdings in which are valued at between $1 million and $5 million, in 2003 on behalf the Ann Romney trust in order to provide “international currency diversification” for the trust's holdings. He then shut it down in early 2010, he said, and transferred the assets to the United States, noting that Romney was preparing to run for president at the time and he did not want to have it become an issue in the presidential campaign.

“I was worried that people would write stories not understanding this,” said Malt, who administers the blind trust on behalf of the Romneys.

But Malt apparently did not act quickly enough, given that the interest income had to be reported on the trust's tax returns for 2010. (He would not say when in 2010 the account was closed.)

The account was first disclosed as one of Romney's holdings when he filed a financial disclosure form in 2007 after he launched his first campaign for president. Malt acknowledged today that it should have actually been reported as a holding of the Ann Romney blind trust and that Romney’s 2007 financial disclosure form is also being amended to correct what he described as a "clerical error."

The campaign had no immediate explanation for why the  $1,783 in interest income from the UBS account had not been included in the 2011 financial disclosure, an omission noted by political rivals. The Democratic National Committee hastily organized a conference call Thursday afternoon to seize on the revelation.

Malt initially insisted in an interview that the amount was below the threshold that needed to be reported. But one category on the standard government financial disclosure form specifically asks candidates to report assets valued at between $1,000 and $5,000 as well as income from any holdings of between “$1,001 and $2,500.”  A campaign official later said Malt had been misunderstood, acknowledging that both the 2007 and the 2011 financial disclosures the campaign filed are being revised.

But the inclusion of the Swiss bank account is apparently not the only revision. The Ann Romney blind trust also reported income from shares in offshore companies such as Barricuda Investments Ltd. in Ireland, Castle Garden Funding in the Cayman Islands, and Sankaty High Yield Assets Investors Ltd. in Bermuda. Those holdings also were not included in the financial disclosure form that Romney filed last August. The form requires presidential candidates to report all assets and income for them and their spouses for the full calendar prior to the year of the filing.   

But Malt said there had been no attempt by the Romneys to conceal these investments, and all taxes on their earnings were fully paid. Malt stressed that the Ann Romney trust fund was simply a passive shareholder in the investments funds, which in turn owned shares in the offshore companies. He said the investing entities were like “mutual funds.”

Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich following a Lake County Tea Party rally Jan. 26, 2012 in Mount Dora, Florida.

Newt Gingrich, if nothing else, has sought to position himself as the enemy of the Washington establishment in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

The former House speaker, who's been a staple on Washington's K Street, its lobbying corridor, has postured himself not just as the enemy of the "elite media," but also as a potential thorn in the side of the Republican establishment.

"The Republican establishment is just as much of an establishment as the Democratic establishment. And they're just as determined to stop us," Gingrich said at a rally this morning in Mount Dora, Fla.

"Make no bones about it, this is a campaign for the very nature of the Republican Party, the very opportunity for a citizen conservatism to defeat the power of money and prove that people matter more than Wall Street, and that people matter more than companies that are pouring money in to run the ads that are false."

In that, Gingrich is looking to channel the frustration with the GOP establishment that drove the advent of the Tea Party during the 2010 campaign cycle, and align himself with that sentiment to use to his political advantage.

"I think the Washington establishment is going fight me every steps to the nomination. And I think they are going to say whatever they have to say," he said following the event, explaining that he's "angry" about the attacks his candidacy has faced in Florida, which hosts its pivotal primary on Tuesday.

The ex-speaker has sought to paint Mitt Romney, by contrast, as the choice of the establishment. The former Massachusetts governor is Mike Castle to Gingrich's Christine O'Donnell (the Tea Party-backed Delaware Senate candidate who has, ironically, endorsed Romney), or the Lisa Murkowski to Gingrich's Joe Miller.

The fact that Romney has rallied more establishment support to his campaign than any other candidate does little to dispel Gingrich's narrative; it only ads kindling to the fire Gingrich has sought to stoke in the race. As if to underscore the extent of Romney's establishment support, Bob Dole, the 1996 GOP presidential nominee who served in the 1990s as Gingrich's counterpart in the Senate, released a statement through Romney's campaign assailing Gingrich.

"Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway," Dole said.

Slideshow: Newt Gingrich

Duricka / AP

Historian, author, member of Congress and speaker of the House — a look back at his public life.

Launch slideshow

Seventy-two Republican House and Senate members have endorsed Romney, according to The Hill newspaper's tally, versus nine congressional endorsements for Gingrich.

Romney supporters are inclined to point out the absurdity of a figure who spent 20 years in Congress, who profited handsomely from D.C.-based advocacy work upon leaving office, and who makes his home in one of Washington's more tony suburbs seizing the banner of an outsider.

"It's so absurd it's laughable. He is the epitome of career politicians and DC lobbyists." said Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Romney supporter who attended Gingrich's event Thursday in Florida. "Clearly people understand that Newt Gingrich is a product of Washington, D.C. And there's a reason there's a lot of us newbies in Congress want Mitt Romney: because we want someone from the outside."

Chaffetz said that his colleagues on Capitol Hill "are frightened and scared to death about having Newt Gingrich at the top of the ticket," which the Utah congressman said would mean the GOP as a whole would seem "mired in scandal" by Gingrich.

That sort of sentiment has driven the assumption that, if Gingrich were to win Florida and solidify his challenge against Romney, the Republican establishment would rally against him.

But at a time when the popularity of D.C. institutions are flirting with all-time lows -- 13 percent of Americans approve of Congress, according to the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, and 56 percent said they would vote to replace every single member of Congress if they had the option -- the perception of establishment support might not carry the heft it once did.

Romney's trump card has long been that he's the most electable conservative in the race. But that assumption was challenged in South Carolina, where Gingrich beat Romney among primary voters who said a candidate's ability to beat President Barack Obama this fall was the most important quality in choosing a candidate. Fifty-one percent of voters who named that their top priority voted for Gingrich, while 37 percent supported Romney.

And while Romney holds a slight overall advantage over Gingrich in yesterday's TIME/CNN/ORC poll, Gingrich leads, 39 to 29 percent, among self-described conservatives in the sample.

That's the reason why Gingrich's anti-establishment rhetoric is so frustrating to figures like Chaffetz, an original member of the anti-establishment minded class of conservatives. He won office by winning a 2008 conservative primary challenge to a veteran Utah congressman, and has been one of the most outspoken conservative members of the House.

"Just because he says it doesn't mean it's true," Chaffetz said of Gingrich's anti-Washington message. "I'm as Tea Party as they get. You're not going to out-Tea Party me. And I want someone new and fresh."

TALLAHASSEE, FL -- A defiant Rick Santorum on Thursday attempted to squash any rumors that his campaign is coming to an end, guaranteeing to reporters that he will be in the presidential race for the long run.

"We have a long, long way to go," said Santorum. "We feel very comfortable that as we keep going we're going to pick up our delegates, we're going to stay in this race, and the longer we're in it, the better off we'll be."

The former Pennsylvania senator has signaled a waning commitment to Florida since arriving in the Sunshine State on Sunday. The campaign is still unsure if they'll be in the state on the day of the primary, or if they'll begin campaigning in the quickly approaching caucuses in Nevada or Colorado -- two places Santorum has indicated he will focus on next.

A long primary season would likely present more challenges to Santorum as his would struggle to compete with campaigns with more robust organization and deeper pockets. Santorum has conceded he has no staff in Minnesota or Maine, and only volunteers in Missouri -- states that will hold their contests in early February.

Reshuffling of campaign events and last minute changes to his schedule have fueled speculation that the Santorum campaign might be on its last legs.  But today the GOP hopeful signaled his Republican rivals were behind the rumors.

"I know where they're coming from, they're from the other camps. I get that," Santorum said of the hearsay. But, he maintained that no competing campaign has contacted him directly and did not specify which of the candidates he believed were behind it.

It is his fellow candidates vulnerabilities and the volatility of the race that is one reason the Iowa-caucus victor says he has not plans to quit.

"This is unprecedented. We've never had three winners," he said, referencing the fact that three different candidates have won the first three contests of the primary season. "We've never had the dynamism of having eight leaders. And this race is constantly changing ... we believe that that dynamic is still very present."

He has compared the frontrunners in this race to the porridge in the story of Goldilocks, calling for Gingrich "too hot" and Romney "too timid."  It's the propensity of the former speaker to speak off the cuff and the long standing inability of the former Massachusetts governor to connect with voters that has Santorum that his longevity in this race may be rewarded.

And despite recent polling showing him well behind frontrunners Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney in Florida, the candidate struggling to remain relevant will campaign in the state on Friday before heading to Pennsylvania for a fundraiser and returning to Virginia on Saturday to sleep in his own bed since Christmas. It is at that time Santorum will prepare his tax documents to be released, though he has not said specifically when he will make them available to the public.

He returns to Florida for campaign events on Sunday and Monday.

"I guarantee you, we're going to be in this race for a long time," he said.

In a country sharply divided on almost every issue, most Americans agree on one thing: they don’t like Congress, and they would vote to replace every single member -- even their own -- if they had the option.

Fifty-six percent of registered voters say they would vote out every member of Congress if there were a place on the ballot to do so. That’s the highest response in favor of the question since it was first asked in March 2010.

And they say so across the ideological spectrum – with 55 percent of liberals, 55 percent of moderates, and 58 percent of conservatives all feeling the same way.

“We found the one area in which all people in the country agree,” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the survey with Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart.

Combine that with Congress continuing to be at near-record lows in approval at 13 percent and all members of Congress are at risk, McInturff said.

But there are also warning signs specifically for Republicans.

More people say the GOP has brought the wrong kind of change (31 percent) in Congress than the right kind (12 percent). That represents a drop for the GOP from a year ago, right after when they took control of the House as a result of the sweeping 2010 elections. In January 2011, 25 percent thought Republicans would bring the right kind of change versus 20 percent who thought they would bring the wrong kind.

Those attitudes are also far worse than right after when Democrats took control of the House in 2006 (42%/15%) and Republicans regained a majority in 1994 (37%/11%).

“People want Congress to get things done, act responsibly and fix the economy,” McInturff said, “and if they don’t,” they could be in trouble. McIntruff added, “These guys are going to be running in a head wind.”

MOUNT DORA, FL -- An admittedly "infuriated" Newt Gingrich launched a full-on attack against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whom the former speaker blamed for negative attacks in the primary campaign.

“I am angry. But I think I'm angry and every American should be angry,” Gingrich told reporters following a speech during which he hit Romney harder than he ever has in the past. “How can somebody run a campaign this dishonest and think he's going to have any credibility running for president?”

The Republican presidential race in Florida is shaping up as a showdown between Romney and Gingrich -- both candidates need a win -- with many polls showing the two neck-and-neck right now. Gingrich is trying to paint Romney as the “establishment” candidate while Romney tries to cast Gingrich as a lobbyist.

“This is the desperate last stand of the old order throwing the kitchen sink,” Gingrich told the roughly 1,500 people in attendance at a Tea Party rally Thursday morning acknowledging that he is taking a more “blunt” approach towards Romney. “I’m here as a citizen and I frankly don’t care what the Washington establishment thinks of me because I intend to change them.”

The former House speaker said that, ultimately, the people will decide who they wish to nominate and acknowledged he would live with their decisions as long as they had all the information on both he and Romney.

Both the Romney campaign and the pro-Romney Super PAC are running negative ads about Gingrich that the Speaker says are false.

“Let's be really clear, your’re watching ads paid for with the money taken from the people of Florida by companies like Goldman Sachs, recycled back into ads to try to stop you from having a choice in this election,” he said.

One message should be given to Romney from Floridians, Gingrich told the massive crowd with Lake Dora to his back: “we aren't that stupid and you aren't that clever.”

How important is Florida? The Romney campaign even has surrogates available for comment at Gingrich’s events in the Sunshine State.

With just a few hours until tonight's debate, the final one before the primary on Jan. 31, Gingrich seems to be unleashing a new side of himself, a side that is fed up with his chief GOP rival.

“I can promise you I am going to fight every day from here until we win the nomination because I am not going to allow the moneyed interests that are buying those ads to come in here and to come into other states to misinform people and then to think we are too dumb to fight back,” Gingrich vowed to the crowd.

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Who knew Mitt Romney was a Bill Murray fan?

The former Massachusetts governor unveiled a brand new attack line on President Obama this morning, hearkening back to a classic 1993 comedy, no-doubt familiar to any basic cable audience.

"This has been a 'Groundhog Day' presidency. He keeps saying the same things and we keep waking up with the same things going on. Nothing changes," Romney said. "He keeps saying these great things he’s going to do and yet it’s the same picture every single morning. It’s been a Groundhog Day presidency and that’s going to end if I’m president."

The hit came as Romney continues to divide his energy between striking President Obama, and holding off Newt Gingrich. Today. Romney made his anti-Obama argument in simple terms.

"If you believe things are on the right track in America then you ought to vote for Barack Obama. If you believe, like I do, that he has not put things on the right track, that we're on the wrong track and that we need to change course in this country and to get back to American values and American principles, then I want your vote," Romney said.

If that message sinks in, it may be good news for Romney, as today's NBC News/WSJ poll shows that voters believe, by a 61 to 30 percent margin, that the country remains on the wrong track.

With tonight's pivotal Florida debate just hours away, Romney also continued to draw contrasts with Newt Gingrich, who has surged into a dead heat with Romney, and on whom Romney's campaign has trained increasing amounts of fire each day this week, with surrogate conference calls, research dumps and direct assaults from the candidate on the stump and in interviews.

"Florida is going to make a decision about who is going to be our nominee. And I've got something to admit: I've never lived in Washington DC. I'm not part of the culture of Washington DC. I spent my life outside of Washington, D.C. I lived my life on main street and on other streets across this country. I want to use the experience I've had, working in the real economy, to go to Washington and fix it," Romney said, in a none-too-subtle contrast with the former speaker. "Now if you think that you really need someone who has been part of the culture of Washington for the last 35 years to go there again and continue in Washington, why there are other people you can choose."

Of the debate itself, Romney said it would be "fun," and jokingly urged the supporters gathered here outside a shuttered printing company to attend and be loud -- by any means necessary.

"We may talk about the differences between ourselves as well. There may be some give and take. That's always fun and entertaining, I know. If y'all can get there, we'd love to see you there, cheering and being part of that," Romney said. "No tickets huh? Just storm in. Oh you're going to be there? That'll be fun."

Are we seeing a turning point on the economy and for President Obama? … It’s a coin flip in Florida … The candidates debate one last time before voters go to the polls there – what to watch for … It’s Vegas, baby, Vegas for Obama, then off to Colorado – the importance of the West … A finger-wagging tense moment with President Obama and Tea Party favorite Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer … More than $20 million spent between Romney, Gingrich and friends … And to the moon!

*** A turning point for Obama? Six months of positive to semi-positive economic news is starting to have an impact with the American public, according to the latest NBC/WSJ poll. And that uptick is benefitting President Obama. This poll showed important one-year highs on the direction of the economy. By a 37%/17% margin people said it would better in a year vs. worse. That’s a seven-point jump in a month and a 16-point improvement from October. Right track, wrong direction is still just 30%/61%, but that right direction number’s an 8-point boost from a month ago, a 13-point bounce from October. And -- excluding the bin Laden bump in May -- the right track is the highest it’s been since February 2011.

*** Obama in positive territory for first time in six months: The president’s approval rating is at 48%/46%, the highest since June. There have been upticks like this before and the White House won’t be celebrating – remember, when there appeared to be “green shoots” in 2011 or 2010, something out of the president’s control -- whether it was the BP oil spill, the Greek debt crisis, or the Arab Spring -- derailed that optimism. But this poll does feel different. The positive economic data has been on a more consistent trend. By the way, how much is the president’s job approval benefiting from the economy or GOP race? The full poll, including a VERY deep dive inside the Republican race will be released tonight at 6:30 pm ET.

*** Anybody’s race in Florida: Five days until the voters go to the polls in the Sunshine State, the GOP presidential contest is very volatile. It’s a pure coin flip. Two polls out yesterday both showed Romney and Gingrich in a statistical dead heat, but with very different trends – one with Gingrich surging, the other with Romney on the rise. The bottom line is no one knows what’s going to happen, raising the stakes for tonight’s debate, the 19^th of this cycle and the last one before this primary. We’ve seen a ton of late deciders in these early contests – 53% in South Carolina said they made up their minds in the last few days, 46% said so in both New Hampshire and Iowa. These debates have shaped this race as much as anything, and the big question is: who shows up -- “Good Newt” or “Bad Newt,” Aggressive or Passive Romney. Their approaches will tell us tonight where both campaigns think this race is headed. (Romney, by the way, got a boost in his electability argument with a Suffolk poll out this morning showing him beating Obama by five in Florida, but Gingrich losing by nine.)

*** Wild West: President Obama continues his whirlwind post-State of the Union tour with a speech at 10:00 am ET in Las Vegas, before heading to Colorado. Both are key to the president’s reelection hopes. With New Mexico, they could be his Western Firewall. Latinos, of course, are crucial -- they make up 27% of Nevada residents and 21% in Colorado. Obama will speak in Aurora, CO, which is in Arapahoe County, one of the pivotal swing counties in the country (it went for both Obama and Bush). By the way, how concerned should the White House be about the mediocre ratings for the State of the Union? Fewer than 40 million tuned in, down from a year ago.

*** Finger pointing: The president spoke in Arizona and had a tense exchange with Arizona firebrand Gov. Jan Brewer, a Tea Party favorite, at the airport yesterday where she met him. AP captured an image of the governor with her finger pointed sharply at the president. She says he asked about an unflattering mention of him in her book, which led her to calling him “thin skinned.” It’s something that’s going to keep the conservative media fired up today. She gave them something to chat about. It’s certainly not exactly the kind of picture you think of when a governor greets a president.

*** Tough interviews and Gingrich’s moon shot: Don’t miss the interviews yesterday with Romney and Gingrich with Jorge Ramos. He pointedly went after both men’s weakness -- Romney on his wealth and Gingrich for his extra-marital affairs. It’s hard for Gingrich, in particular, to “attack the media” in this instance when he and his rival are trying hard to court the significant conservative Cuban vote in Florida. Also yesterday, speaking of issues important to Florida, Gingrich went after the Space Coast vote, going so far as to pledge, "By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon. And it will be American.”

*** Big money: Just how important is Florida to both the Romney and Gingrich candidacies? Romney and Gingrich allies are spending more than $20 million between them to try and win it and possibly put away the GOP nominating fight. Here’s the latest:

- Pro-Romney: $15.4 million (Romney campaign: $6.6 million, Restore Our Future $8.8 million)

- Pro-Gingrich: $3 million with another $3 million promised (Winning Our Future $2.7 million, Gingrich campaign: $282,000)

***On the trail: No surprise here: All the candidates (except Ron Paul) are campaigning in Florida: Romney stumps in Jacksonville …Gingrich holds rallies in Mount Dora and Jacksonville … Santorum visits Tallahassee … All the candidate will attend tonight’s debate in Jacksonville beginning at 8:00 pm ET on CNN and co-hosted by the Republican Party of Florida and the Hispanic Leadership Network.

Countdown to Florida primary: 5 days
Countdown to Nevada caucuses: 9 days
Countdown to Super Tuesday: 40 days
Countdown to Election Day: 285 days

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*** Thursday’s “The Daily Rundown” lineup: Obama 2012 Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter… Florida strategy gurus Brad Todd (R) and Steve Schale (D) on what to watch for with five days left until the primary… “The Real Romney” co-author Mike Kranish of The Boston Globe… more 2012 analysis with USA Today’s Susan Page, National Review/Bloomberg View’s Ramesh Ponnuru and former Rep. Tom Perriello, D-VA, who now leads the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

*** Thursday’s “Jansing & Co” lineup: Chris welcomes Florida Senator Bill Nelson (D); NYTimes Charles Blow; Nationalmemo.com’s Joe Conason; WSJ’s Alicia Mundy on Sheldon Adelson; fmr Rep Harold Ford Jr; and Goldie Taylor. 

*** Thursday’s “MSNBC’S Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks with Jon Ralston, Anne Kornblut, Perry Bacon,  DNC Communications Dir. Brad Woodhouse, David Winston (Gingrich Campaign), Pew Hispanic Center’s Mark Lopez & The Grio’s Joy-Ann Reid.

*** Thursday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: Watch for the [resident’s live speech at 1:00 pm ET today from Las Vegas. Andrea will also have new NBC News/WSJ poll numbers with NBC’s Chuck Todd, The Las Vegas Sun’s Anjeanette Damon, The National Journal’s Ron Fournier, and the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart.

*** Thursday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: Col. Jack Jacobs on defense budget cuts, Michael Smerconish, Shari Olefson, Author of foreclosure nation on foreclosure report.

A new Suffolk University/WSVN-TV Miami poll, per Political Wire shows Romney beating Obama by five points in Florida, while Gingrich loses to Obama by nine points.

AP reports: A two-man fight for Florida is emerging ahead of the state's final Republican presidential debate, with Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich pounding each other over personal and professional vulnerabilities. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul will take their places on the stage for Thursday night's debate but have their sights set elsewhere and have largely stayed away from the Romney-Gingrich drama."

ROMNEY: The Daily Caller: Mitt Romney's campaign is attacking Newt Gingrich as an "influence peddler." But it turns out that some of Romney's closest advisers (or the firms they lobbied for) were paid hundreds of thousands--maybe millions--of dollars on behalf of failed mortgage giant Freddie mac.

Politico reports: "For a moment Wednesday afternoon in Miami, Mitt Romney seemed to have a solution to his Hispanic problem: Was he not, Univision’s Jorge Ramos asked, Mexican-American himself, as his father had been born south of the border? Romney confessed his parents were American citizens who never spoke Spanish."

GINGRICH: The Miami Herald: "The close, volatile Republican presidential campaign exploded in Miami on Wednesday as Newt Gingrich pulled a controversial Spanish-language immigration ad after Sen. Marco Rubio bashed it as out of bounds. The radio ad, featuring a snippet of a Fidel Castro line, described Mitt Romney as "anti-immigrant" for his hardline stances, which mirror those of Rubio and many Republican leaders."

"Fueled by the Adelson family’s second $5 million donation to assist Newt Gingrich, spending in the final week of presidential primary campaigning in Florida is expected to top $16 million," The Boston Globe writes. "Virtually overnight, the contribution from Miriam Adelson wiped out much of the money edge that Mitt Romney enjoyed in Florida just days ago. Like an earlier $5 million donation from her husband Sheldon, a casino magnate, the latest infusion went to a super PAC supporting Gingrich."

The Palm Beach Post: Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican rising star and vice presidential speculation magnet, has remained determinedly neutral throughout the 2012 GOP presidential race. But in the frenzied final week before Tuesday's Florida primary, Rubio has weighed in twice against Newt Gingrich -- first for comparing Mitt Romney to Republican pariah Charlie Crist, then for running a Spanish-language radio ad that called Romney "anti-immigrant."

Tom DeLay on Gingrich, per Political Wire and KTRH-AM: "What has been said about Newt is pretty much true. He had to step down because Republicans, conservative Republicans, wouldn't vote for him again as Speaker. Because he's not really a conservative. I mean, he'll tell you what you want to hear. He has an uncanny ability, sort of like Clinton, to feel your pain and know his audience and speak to his audience and fire them up. But when he was speaker, he was erratic, undisciplined."

The Washington Post's Dan Balz writes, "President Obama’s political advisers have long been preparing for a general-election contest against Republican Mitt Romney. What they have seen of the former Massachusetts governor in the past 30 days makes them think he will enter a fall campaign, if he survives a turbulent nomination battle, significantly weakened by self-inflicted wounds and a major strategic mistake."

"When he speaks to an assembly of employees at a UPS facility in Las Vegas today, President Barack Obama will be christening the opening of the country’s first multistate, natural gas-powered transit corridor, and laying out the road map for a greater domestic energy strategy." The Las Vegas Sun reports. "The president’s energy plan, which he introduced in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, has three core components: the safe and responsible development of oil and gas, the creation of clean-energy jobs in the U.S., and increasing energy efficiency, with a special focus on the industrial sector. That begins at the UPS facility in Las Vegas."

Politico reports: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised over $61 million in 2011, according to fundraising totals provided to POLITICO - an impressive total for the organization as it aims to reclaim the House majority. The House Democratic campaign arm outpaced its GOP counterpart for much of the year, even though its members have been in the minority since a midterm wave in which Republicans captured 63 seats. The National Republican Congressional Committee, which has not released its year-end totals, had raised just short of $52 million at the end of November. DCCC Chairman Steve Israel argued that the committee's fundraising success is proof that the party is gaining momentum as it lays the groundwork for the fall campaign season. ...The DCCC raised $5.3 million in December and wrapped up the year with $11.6 million cash on hand. It has paid off all $19 million of the debt it incurred during the 2010 elections. Much of the Democratic cash push has been guided by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a prolific fundraiser who last year attended around 400 events in 40 states."

ARIZONA: The New York Times reports, "What began as an effort by political opponents to block Mrs. Cabrera from the ballot for a seat on the City Council has mushroomed into an uncomfortable discussion of just how fluent Arizona officeholders need to be. Like many other states, Arizona has long required politicians at all levels to speak, read and write English, but the law fails to spell out just what that means."

FLORIDA: The South Florida Sun Sentinel: South Florida stands to lose some clout in the Republican-dominated state Capitol under proposed legislative maps steaming toward passage in the once-a-decade redistricting process in Tallahassee. Blame it on the population currents that steered people to points north and west during the past decade-- and the Fair Districts reforms that direct lawmakers to protect minority seats and scramble current district boundaries to cut fewer counties and cities into pieces.

The dispute over Florida’s rules continues, the Tampa Bay Times’ Smith reports.

COCOA, Fla. -- Newt Gingrich promised Wednesday on Florida’s space coast to create a moon colony by 2020 if elected president.

"By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon. And it will be American," Gingrich told the crowd of roughly 700, taking them to their feet in applause.

The former House speaker said the current space program in the country is a "tragedy" and believes his "grandiose" ideas can help fix it.

"I am sick of being told we have to be timid and I'm sick of being told we have to be limited to technologies that are 50 years old," he said, noting that by 2020 he wants to be capable to go to Mars.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney seemed to question Gingrich’s desire to put lunar mining colonies on the moon during a debate last month but the speaker says these are bold ideas the governor doesn’t understand.

"I was attacked the other night for being grandiose. I would just want you to note: Lincoln standing at Council Bluffs was grandiose. The Wright Brothers standing at Kitty Hawk were grandiose. John F. Kennedy was grandiose. I accept the charge that I am grandiose and that Americans are instinctively grandiose," Gingrich said.

Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, center, speaks at a Space Coast-Space Industry roundtable Wednesday at Brevard Commnunity College in Cocoa, Fla.

Speaking about space is not new for Gingrich. In stump speeches, he often references his ideas to change the struggling American program, but this was the first event he completely dedicated to the topic, hoping this is "the second great launch of the adventure John F. Kennedy started."

"At one point early in my career I introduced the northwest ordinance for space and I said when we got -- I think the number is 13,000 -- when we have 13,000 Americans living on the moon they can petition to become a state," Gingrich said, telling the crowd this was the "weirdest" thing he has ever done. "And I will as president encourage the introduction of the northwest ordinance for space to put a marker down that we want Americans to think boldly about the future…"

Gingrich finished off his public schedule for the day with a Space Industry Roundtable at Brevard Community College.

More about space, politics ... and the moon:

• GOP debate spotlights commercial spaceflight
• 2012 will be a pivotal year for private spaceflight
• Russia wants to build international moon colonies
• Will China take over the moon?