President Obama signaled an aggressive tack for his early re-election campaign in an ABC News interview.

“How much do you want it?” Diane Sawyer asked.

“Badly, because I think the country needs it,” Obama replied.

He added: “Whoever wins the Republican primary is going to be a standard bearer for a vision of the country that I don’t think reflects who we are. I’m going to fight as hard as I can with every fiber of my being to make sure that we continue on a path that I think will restore the American dream.”

Not many of Newt Gingrich’s former House GOP colleagues support his presidential bid, but the Voice of San Diego found one who does: Former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA), who is in prison for conspiracy and tax evasion.

Cunningham sent a message to Gingrich: “Newt, a voice out of the past. Down but not out and
still fighting. First I do not want anything from you but have been
watching the debates. I have 80% of inmates that would vote for
you. They might not be able to but their extended families
will.”

With just 5 days to go until the Florida primary, the four remaining Republican presidential candidates face off in yet another debate tonight.

The action starts at 8 p.m. ET on CNN.

Ron Fournier: “Tonight’s is the last debate until Feb. 22, nearly a month from now,
which leaves Gingrich with one less tool in his toolbox to counter
Romney’s financial and organizational advantages. That is, unless he
wins Florida … which brings us back to the extraordinary importance of
tonight’s debate.”

Some investments listed in Mitt Romney’s 2010 tax returns — including a now-closed Swiss bank account and funds located in overseas tax havens — were not explicitly disclosed in the personal financial statement he filed last August, the Los Angeles Times reports.

“The Romney campaign described the discrepancies as ‘trivial’ but acknowledged Thursday afternoon that they are undergoing an internal review of how the investments were reported and will make “some minor technical amendments” to Romney’s financial disclosure that will not alter the overall picture of his finances.”

MSNBC notes that while Romney’s tax 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.”

National Review has the brutal statement from former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS):

“I have not been critical
of Newt Gingrich but it is now time to take a stand before it is too
late. If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on
Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices.
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.”

He adds: “In my run for the presidency in 1996 the Democrats greeted me with a number of negative TV ads and in every one of them Newt was in the ad. He was very unpopular and I am not only certain that this did not help me, but that it also cost House seats that year. Newt would show up at the campaign headquarters with an empty bucket in his hand — that was a symbol of some sort for him — and I never did know what he was doing or why he was doing it, and I’m not certain he knew either.”

The latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll shows most Americans agree on one thing: 56% of registered voters say they would vote out every member of Congress if there were a place on the ballot to do so.

Support is consistent across the ideological spectrum — with 55% of liberals, 55% of moderates, and 58% of conservatives all feeling the same way.

Said pollster Bill McInturff: “We found the one area in which all people in the country agree.”

Despite recent Florida polls which show Mitt Romney opening up a lead over Newt Gingrich in that state’s upcoming Republican primary, the latest Gallup tracking poll shows Romney continuing his fall.

Gingrich now leads Romney nationally by six points, 31% to 25%, with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul both at 13%.

Reuters reports that while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) might check a lot of
boxes for the Republican Vice President nomination — “telegenic,
Hispanic and a fiscal conservative who has been embraced by the Tea
Party” — his financial troubles could be problematic in the vetting
process.

“In 2008, despite earning a declared $400,000 — including
his $300,000 salary from the Miami law firm Broad and Cassel — Rubio
failed to pay down the principal on his home for several months,
according to Florida campaign finance disclosures. During the same
period he did not make payments on a $100,000-plus student loan from his
days at the University of Miami, the disclosures said… Rubio’s
handling of his personal finances contrasts sharply with the image of
him on his Senate website, which highlights Rubio’s efforts to prevent
Washington from ‘piling up debt.'”

A new Dallas Morning News poll finds Gov. Rick Perry’s dismal showing in the Republican presidential race has plunged his approval among Texans to its lowest level in a decade.

Most striking: Perry’s 40% job approval rating in his home state is lower than President Obama’s 43%, despite the GOP’s domination in Texas.

The poll also showed that most Texans — 53% — do not want to see Perry seek another term as governor. Even some of his strongest supporters — 41% of Republicans and 35% of those who voted for him two years ago — don’t want him to run again.

A new Rasmussen survey in Florida shows Mitt Romney now leading Newt Gingrich by eight points, 39% to 31%, with Rick Santorum at 12% and Ron Paul at 9%.

Four days ago, just after the South Carolina Primary, Gingrich led Romney 41% to 32%.

Meanwhile, a new Monmouth University poll shows Romney with a 7 point lead over Gingrich among likely Republican voters, 39% to 32%, with Santorum at 11% and Paul at 8%.

A new InsiderAdvantage survey shows Romney with an eight point lead over Gingrich, 40% to 32%, followed by Paul at 9% and Santorum at 8%.