GOP nomination remains up for grabs

>>> folks, with less than five weeks to go to iowa , unwleef believe blee the gop is up for grabs. willard romney was the front-runner. the last five polls although gingrich ahead of romney and gingrich is getting cocky.

>> i'm going to be the nominee. that's very hard to not look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high that i'm going to be the nominee.

>> romney is feeling the heat . today he went on the attack.

>> to win the election, you've got to earn it. you've got to get out and win it. newt has had a very extensive long record of working in washington with various governmental and nongovernmental agencies. and i just don't think that's the background that is ideally one to lead the country.

>> willard can lash out all he wants but more bad news is heading his way. herman cain says he will make a major announcement about the future of his campaign tomorrow.

>> i am reassessing because of all of the media firestorm stuff. why? because my wife and family comes first.

>> if cain drops out, it could be real bad for willard . cain is still pushing at 8 or 9%. now those voters might have to go somewhere else. joining me now, syndicated columnist and joe madison , host of "mornings with madison," thank you both for being here.

>> thank you.

>> bob, is is willard in more trouble than he expected?

>> yeah, certainly. he was sort of hoping that he could have and the circular thing and each of them has a little bit of time in the sun . in the case of gingrich , he's not a novice and he's gotten traction right now, in addition to which, the first election up is not an election but a caucus. it's the first result we care about as iowa , which is an extremely conservative state. mitt romney is not going to do well, which presumably will mean that gingrich will get even more traction.

>> now, joe , tomorrow herman cain is going to announce whether he is going to be the next step or not in his campaign. whether he stays in or if he drops out, what will the impact of his eight or nine polling points be in terms of how to fix the outcome of this race, which is now a gingrich - romney race?

>> well, it also could end up going, some of those votes, to perry. this favors newt gingrich because once again we can see what newt is doing with his outlandish statements that you discussed in the program. he is appealing to that tea party crowd, to that base and that's what you have to do in a primary. now, it won't get him through the general election .

>> well, that's what i want to know, joe . that's the problem. you've got to play to his base in the primary.

>> right.

>> but how does any one of these guys come out and really compete with president obama in a general election ? what does this say about the whole crowd and how do they navigate through this primary season that you've outlined, i think accurately, but then have appeal for the broader american public to face the president, joe ?

>> look, i think if the democrats are smart -- and they are in this one -- they have enough sound bites to take them through the general election and it's all self-inflicted. that's exactly what's happening here. when they get through -- and they are putting these sound bites together now. you saw it with mitt romney . and it was very effective. it made him actually go on the defensive with the democratic party that he's not even running against at this point in time.

>> now, bob, do you think that there is a strategy that makes sense for woman knromney in now that he is coming out and attacking newt? what does he do?

>> well, i think what he does is panic. that's what we see happening right now. but he's probably going to have to get ready for a big fight and make sure that all of the information about newt, all of that gets out. and he's going to have to mix it up, which is not something that he's wanted to do and was able to get away with it for so long. and it's a possibility that and we're missing a point that we're going to do you think that he he plays contact and that's the way he plays. this is somebody that has built a career out of nasty politics and that's not about to change.

>> well, i bet you you're going to see. and if i were advising mitt romney and, remember when you and newt gingrich were traveling the country together, al?

>> yeah.

>> if i were mitt romney , that's the photograph, that's the tape that i would show. he's got to make newt gingrich look like he's more of a flip-flopper than mitt romney as a flip-flopper. and he's got plenty to do it with.

>> he's flipped now on the kids that we toured to do it with.

>> absolutely.

>> you're in the advice business. herman cain has gone home tonight . if he's watching, what advice would you give herman cain ?

>> oh, take a large piece of jewelry to your wife and ask her for your forgiveness. forget about the presidential campaign . you've got a 43-year marriage that you've got to keep together and quite honestly, i don't think anything on the planet is more important than that.

>> bob, what advice would you give to willard ?

>> well, hope that herman cain stays in the race and whatever his wife says, this candidacy is over. as a candidate, he's a dead man talking. really, he is.

>> let me say to both of you, new york headlines says, romney cannot steal the deal with the gop establishment and republican leaders still seem torn about romney . does that mean that they can say, better works rs we're going to have to go with newt gingrich ?

>> no.

>> i think there's a lot of that conversation right now. don't you, joe ? newt gingrich has been the champion of the party before. he's making sort of a richard nixon sort of resurrection here.

>> can gingrich win iowa and then someone like from the bottom tier use that and come later and try to be the stop gingrich guy?

>> well, remember now, mitt romney is not really campaigning hard in iowa . he pretty much gave iowa up. now, if newt gingrich comes close, even close second in new hampshire, he's well on his way because then we do what? we go south. and that's his strong point. so, yes, that's a very good possibility. but then, you know, i think the white house is chopping at the bits to be able to run against newt gingrich .

>> for the franken and joe madison , we're out of time. thank you very much. both of you have a good weekend.