DORAL – A day after most pundits agreed Mitt Romney had bested Newt Gingrich in Thursday night’s nationally-televised debate, he received enthusiastic applause and several standing ovations while speaking to about 500 leaders at the Hispanic Leadership Network conference.
Gingrich? Not so much.

The two GOP presidential candidates said many of the same things to the group formed by former Gov. Jeb Bush. For instance, both want to open up trade with Latin America, both want to free Cuban from the clutches of Fidel Castro, both said they love immigrants but hate illegal immigration and both want the Dream Act to require American-raised children of immigrants to serve in the military before they can achieve citizenship and what is now an elusive college education.
However, Gingrich’s speech fell flat. Some suggested he was tired after flying from Jacksonville to Miami immediately after the debate to make a morning appearance before the Latin Builders Association.
John Papavaritis, a Miami real estate agent, agreed that the two candidates agreed on many issues. For instance, both said something has to be done to streamline the nation’s bureaucratic process of obtaining visas, which prevents people from visiting and working here.
“Gingrich said the same thing,” Papavaritis admitted. “With Mitt, there was less rhetoric.” (PostPolitics/Musgrave)

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(Photo Credit: AP)

President Obama won’t say who he’s rooting for in this year’s Super Bowl.

“I can’t call it. I can’t call it,” Obama told ABC News’s Diane Sawyer in an interview on Thursday. “When the [Chicago] Bears are not involved, I can’t make predictions because I will get into trouble.”

Calling both the New England Patriots and New York Giants “great teams,” Obama complimented Tom Brady as “obviously one of the best quarterbacks we’ve ever seen” and said Eli Manning is “playing as well as he’s ever played.”

Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has officially picked the Giants to win – after accidentally declaring that the team would beat the 49ers in San Francisco last week. Biden tweeted his prediction on Thursday: “Eagles… next year. Love Brady, think @Giants.” (Politico/McDevitt)

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Not sure this will generate a press release from the Mitt Romney campaign, but former Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer is weighing in on Newt Gingrich’s efforts to link Mitt Romney with Charlie Crist because they have campaign consultants in common:

Thanks to a boost from President Obama, sales of Al Green’s song “Let’s Stay Together” have increased by nearly 500 percent, Billboard reports:

A video of the president singing the first line of the song at a Jan. 19 fund-raising event went viral the next day, sparking a 490% weekly sales increase for the song. It sold 16,000 downloads in the week ending Jan. 22 according to Nielsen SoundScan.

It’s the best sales week for the song since SoundScan began tracking downloads in 2003.

 Impressed with Obama’s delivery of the song, Green told TMZ last week that “he nailed it.” (Politico/McDevitt)

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Jacksonville, Fla. — Former Florida governor Jeb Bush tells National Review Online that Newt Gingrich should stop insinuating that Mitt Romney aides, due to their past work for Charlie Crist, are part of a moderate GOP conspiracy.

Earlier this week, for example, Gingrich told supporters that Romney hired Crist staffers, and emphasized the significance of this fact. “We discovered last night that Mitt Romney has picked up Charlie Crist’s campaign manager,” Gingrich said. “I thought that told you everything you need to know about this primary.”

“That’s not a serious accusation,” Bush says. “Candidates win elections. I’m not a big Charlie Crist fan, as you recall, but these guys shouldn’t have that moniker attached to them, as if Governor Romney is part of some evil plot. That’s ridiculous.”  (NationalReview/Costa)

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From Quinnipiac:

Just four days before the nation’s first big-state presidential primary,former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney opens up a 38 – 29 percent lead over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich among Republican likely voters in Florida, according to a Quinnipiac University poll taken Wednesday and released today.  Only 6 percent are undecided, but 32 percent say they might change their mind by Tuesday. 

This compares to results of a January 25 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University, showing Romney with 36 percent of likely primary voters to Gingrich’s 34 percent.  Wednesday’s survey showed Gingrich ahead 40 – 34 percent among voters surveyed after the South Carolina primary.

 In today’s survey, men back Romney 36 – 29 percent, a shift from January 25, when men backed Gingrich 37 – 33 percent.  Romney leads 40 – 30 percent among women, virtually unchanged.  … Read more    (TampaBayTimes/Klas)

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Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Mitt Romney endorser whom Newt Gingrich name-checked as a potential member of his administration, emails our colleague Jonathan Allen to call dibs on a plum position:  “I’m holding out for Ambassador to the Moon!” she wrote. “That’s if Newt wins. If Romney wins, then Ambassador to (a free) Cuba!”  (Politico/Burns)

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(Photo Credit: AP)

It’s not an official endorsement, but film critic Roger Ebert gave Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul a good review on Thursday night, tweeting: “Ron Paul is the only one I’d want to sit next to on a long airplane flight.”

Ebert has singled out Paul as the best of the bunch before. Earlier this month, he wrote, “Leaving politics out of it, what sets Ron Paul aside from every other GOP candidate? He’s the only one who’s cool.” And in December, he called Paul the only Republican candidate  “who speaks directly and clearly without a lot of hot air and lip flap.” (Politico/McDevitt)

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