[O'brien:] And welcome back to STARTING POINT. Let's get right to the headlines. Christine has those for us. Good morning.
[Romans:] Good morning, Soledad. The president says Israel is still considering military strikes against Israel. The president told NBC he hopes to solve the tensions over Iran's nuclear program, though, through diplomacy.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] I don't think that Israel has made a decision on what they need to do. I think they, like us, believe that Iran has to stand down on its nuclear weapons program. And we have mobilized the international community in a way that is unprecedented. And they are feeling the pinch. They are feeling the pressure. But they have not taken the step that they need to diplomatically, which is to say we will pursue peaceful nuclear power. We will not pursue a nuclear weapon.
[Romans:] Ex-Panama dictator Manuel Noriega goes from prison to the hospital. He is being treated for hypertension and possible stroke this morning. The 77-year-old Noriega is serving time for crimes committed while in office. Noriega returned to Panama late last year, nearly 22 years after U.S. forces forcibly removed him from office. General Motors says it can make more than $10 billion a year. It may be close to reaching its goal. The "Wall Street Journal" reporting GM is expected to report a net income of $8 billion for 2011. GM received a federal bailout of course in 2009 after filing bankruptcy. "Minding your Business" now, Concerns about Greece's debt problems pushing markets lower this morning. U.S. stock futures for the DOW, NASDAQ, and Steve Hayes, senior writer for "The Weekly Standard," 500 all pointing to a lower open right now after a stellar week last week. The CDC is now recommending that boys get an HPV vaccine. It's aimed at preventing cervical cancer in women. But since women get infected from women, doctors say it makes sense for them to receive the vaccination as well. The new CDC guidelines call for routine vaccinations for boys 11 and 12 years old, and three-dose vaccinations for young men 13 to 21. And our own Soledad O'Brien honored by the United Negro College fund Friday at its annual leadership conference. Soledad was awarded the national legacy award for outstanding service to higher education. Soledad, congratulations.
[O'brien:] Thank you very much. And Roland is killing my joy by saying, oh, that trophy looks familiar. Didn't I win one of those? I'm teasing. I'm teasing. Thank you, Christine. All right, we have some poll numbers to give you, a new national ABC-"Washington Post" poll of Republicans. In that poll, Mitt Romney has a commanding lead, 39 percent, to Newt Gingrich's 23 percent. You can see how the rest of the folks come out under that. This is following Newt Gingrich's loss in Nevada this Saturday. Tea party leader Dick Armey says that Newt Gingrich's time may have come and gone. Listen.
[Dick Armey,  Former House Majority Leader:] South Carolina was an aberration because Newt Gingrich had what is likely to be in final analysis his best moment in South Carolina. He had just one masterful moment where he transformed himself from perpetrator to victim, attacked the media, which as you know, is always popular with our base, and just sort of took that momentary surge.
[O'brien:] Tom Lucero is the Colorado campaign chairman for Newt Gingrich. Colorado holds their caucuses there tomorrow. Nice to see you, sir. Thanks for being with us. We appreciate it. As you heard Dick Armey say, and others have said, when the slide starts it's very hard to reverse that slide. Is this a downward trend? And Newt Gingrich made it clear he's not getting out of the race, so what do you do about a downward trend?
[Tom Lucero, Colorado Campaign Chair For Newt Gingrich:] Well, all I can do is speak to the state of Colorado tomorrow night as caucus night as you mentioned in Colorado. And it begins the first phase in electing delegates that we're going to send to the national convention. And we actually select our delegates April 13 and 14, and we're just receiving tremendous support from grassroots leaders, liberty leaders around the state of Colorado. And we feel tremendously confident that of the 36 delegates that Colorado is going to send to the national convention, the majority of those delegates are going to go on behalf of Newt Gingrich. But you hit on one point, and tomorrow night we do have a nonbinding presidential straw poll. And chances are Mitt Romney is going to do very well in that presidential straw poll. And it creates a perception that he's doing very well in the state of Colorado. But I can assure you the majority of the delegates for Colorado are going to ultimately go for Newt Gingrich.
[O'brien:] When you look at the state of Florida, Newt Gingrich did very well among people who identified themselves as very conservative or strong tea partiers. That was South Carolina and Florida. But then when it came to the state of Nevada, actually those same categories all went to Mitt Romney. How do you get them back? I mean, I've got to imagine that's got to be important to the strategy any kind of strategy to win.
[Lucero:] Well, the one thing I know, and I don't know about Nevada, but I know here in the state of Colorado when you look and you show up at events where it's the grassroots, hard core party Republican party activists, Newt Gingrich is doing very well. Mitt Romney's people are not the grassroots leaders in the Republican Party. You see a lot of people from the Republican establishment, and you will see those people show up on caucus night and vote in the nonbinding presidential straw poll for their guy. But the people who are actually doing the work, who are going to become delegates, who are going to take this all the way to Florida and to the convention, are the Republican grassroots activists. And here in Colorado, those people are solidly behind Newt Gingrich.
[Martin:] Tom, Roland Martin here. How do you keep your candidate on message? He goes to Florida. He is talking about landing on the moon and putting a colony there, possibly making them the 51st state, when the real issue comes down to the economy and jobs. So what about keeping him on message and disciplined?
[Lucero:] I think that's a great question, Roland. And that's part of it the reason I love Newt Gingrich is because he has a vision for restoring America's greatness. I served for 12 years, and it was great because I was hearing you guys talk about higher education. I was on the board of regents at the University of Colorado for 12 years. And one of our main focuses in Boulder was on NASA space exploration, because we get it. We understand the role that higher education plays in making America great. When you talk about innovation that takes place, that innovation takes place and that research and development on college campuses all around this country. You said a vision about exploring space that is a public private partnership and critical to that public partnership are America's colleges and universities. You want to talk about an infusion of physicists, of engineers, of the technology that will be developed, you are by the very essence of that defining jobs in the economy as part of that public private partnership between the private sector and government. But it takes a big vision to define that vision for America and to restore America's greatness.
[O'brien:] Tom, I want to ask a question to Congressman Poe, who is sitting here with us as well. That vision was mocked on "Saturday Night Live" in a very funny piece. Does that have any impact, number one? And number two, are we seeing the signs of the great coalescing, which I think were the words from the "Wall Street Journal," saying that Mitt Romney is gathering up all the pieces now even though some people say no one really likes him?
[Rep. Ted Poe,  Texas:] Well, we still have this issue between Romney and Gingrich. That's where the focus is. Most folks in the Republican Party are divided, and Ron Paul and Rick Santorum of course at the end. Romney is trying to make sure that this whole issue of who's the presidential nominee does not go to the convention. That he gets enough delegates before the convention so that the convention stays out of the process. But, yes, there are two different philosophies between Newt Gingrich and
[O'brien:] And which side are you on?
[Poe:] Well, of course, I'm a conservative, and I believe more the conservative philosophy. But I have not endorsed anybody. Every time I get on somebody's side, they drop out of the race. And I was zero for eight last time. Every time I endorsed someone, they were out of the race.
[O'brien:] Tom, we can spare you that. The congressman will not endorse because apparently he is like kryptonite. You don't want his endorsement. Let me ask you a serious question, though. He is talking about sort of staying Mitt Romney not wanting this to be an issue when you get to the convention. Can Newt Gingrich afford to stay in through March, to super Tuesday? Which he's said he's going to, but can he afford to? Michele Bachmann says money is kind of the big issue. Listen.
[Unidentified Male:] When do you think the nomination will be settled?
[Michele Bachmann,  Presidential Candidate:] I think it could be fairly soon. But Ron Paul has said he will go all the way to the convention. Newt has said he will also. Rick Santorum has said he will. But the practicality is money is a big part of it. And it would be up to the candidates what they can pay.
[O'brien:] Final quick question to you, Tom money. Can he really stay in until Super Tuesday and beyond?
[Lucero:] Well, as long as the grassroots stays energized just like they are here in Colorado, those small dollar donations will keep rolling in to the campaign. And if we can win delegates every state we go, we have a legitimate shot at ending up in Florida at a brokered convention just like the congressman mentioned. And if the other two candidates remain in the race as well, and we see a dilution of the delegate pool, we get to Florida anything is possible. And if the congressman would please throw his endorsement to Mitt Romney, the Newt Gingrich campaign would be absolutely thrilled.
[O'brien:] Tom Lucero is the campaign manager for Newt Gingrich in Colorado. Nice to have you with us. Thanks for being with us. Still ahead this morning on senator, Ford, GM, is there a feud? The ad war launched during the Super Bowl with this ad here which some people really felt this ad was inappropriate. Me too, kind of. I didn't like this ad. Plus, there is this new book is out. "The Reveal" this morning, a teenaged mistress said she had an affair with a sitting president. And she goes public 50 years later. You're watching "STARTING POINT. We'll dig into that straight ahead.