Donny Deutsch: [Newt Gingrich] is a wonderful performer. And I think there’s a difference between people applauding and voting. It’s not going to make a difference.
Willie Geist: But Donny, in the polls he’s there.
Deutsch: He’s 25 points behind in Florida, and it ends in Florida.
Joe Scarborough: No, no, no. Let me explain. It doesn’t end in Florida…The rules have changed. The laws have changed. It used to be that if you won in Iowa, and you won in New Hampshire, then you won. If you ended in third or fourth in Iowa, ended third or fourth in New Hampshire, what would happen? The checks would stop coming in. Because you have to collect checks by $500 or $1,000 or $2,500, and even your ardent supporters could write a couple of checks, but you didn’t have the money to go to South Carolina. The laws have changed. You can end in fourth or fifth in Iowa and New Hampshire now, and you can call a guy in Vegas and he can write you a $5M check. You can catapult into South Carolina and have more ads against Mitt Romney than ever before. It’s changed that way. The second way it’s changed is it’s proportional representation as far as awarding of delegates goes. There are no winner-take-alls. This thing isn’t going to be over any time soon.
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