>> i am mark halperin. >> i am campbell brown. and “with all due respect” to the big blizzard, we are ready. ♪ on the show tonight. >> if you love freedom and if you love iowa and summits, there is a place to be this weekend. the iowa freedom summit. basically like the s.a.g. awards. after the confab there were 16

potential candidates. >> i would say scott walker because people have been saying that this guy is completely charisma challenged and he has a pulse. he gave some speech that was better than a lot of people expected. he probably came out with more points than anybody because expectations were so low. i would say marco rubio who spoke at the koch brothers conference talked about foreign policy and a smart way. people were impressed with him which led to concerns and he was young and he got a lot of points for that. and jeb bush for skipping iowa for being disciplined enough to say this is not my crowd and he gave a smart, good speech in california. >> walker, he did fine. i have seen a version of that speech. it is a more developed stump speech and people in iowa want to see him.

let's see when he starts going up against people with really developed speech is how he does. on marco rubio, i agree. he was good at the koch event. in terms of jeb bush, being in san francisco while almost everybody else is in iowa, i heard of people being hostile in terms of the grassroots or not caring that he was not there. if you are the front runner and i think he is, people should care and they did not. and carly fiorina helped herself a lot. she was much more impressive and political and tough. >> she had good lines and i am psyched to see a strong, smart woman. do you think she will get scrutinized about her role at hewlett-packard? >> they all will. name one person who is worse shape. >> i thought rand paul. on the foreign-policy issues he actually said that we should be

giving president obama more leeway in terms of how he deals with iran and that does not feel -- play with any part of the republican agenda. >> huckabee, santorum in iowa. the last two guys who won caucuses and i thought they were fine. there was no magic. the crowd was exhausted after 10 hours. they have a huge fight with 12 people competing for their lane in the caucuses. they will have to revitalize. >> you have to wonder if it is not necessarily about an ideological battle. old vs. young. >> in the arena and basically retired. our wishes to governor terry branstad after suffering some flu like symptoms. he is a big fan of the iowa caucuses.

some talk that the establishment candidates might skip the caucuses in 2016 so, governor, if you're watching, campbell is a hardy perennial. how important will the caucuses be, can people skip some this time? >> i do think iowa was important that we are putting too much emphasis on this past event. can we debunk the notion that steve king is a kingmaker? the last few people he endorsed. >> he drew 150 national media. will the caucuses be important? >> i do not know if you can skip them but i do not know if they will be as important necessarily given the number of people in the race but i think this event was not necessarily representative of the iowa electorate and not representative of the republican electorate. >> there's a big establishment vote as romney proved.

we stay on this trajectory and this is the most wide open and competitive nomination that any of us can remember. you cannot skip iowa because everyone will be focused on the first event. you can win this with nine -- 19% of the vote. >> i do not think the republican nominee will be terms and by the people in steve king's garage. i do not think that was representative. >> a huge percentage of the electorate is represented. there is a big establishment that i think on almost every issue, steve king, liberals can say he is so far to the right. he is where the party is in almost every issue. he is not farther to the right than the republican party. >> the endorsement of joni ernst or the governor are much more important than steve king. >> not in iowa. they are all they all went for a reason to kiss the king's ring. his positions are not so far

right. he uses inflamatory rhetoric and says people that -- things that people will denounce. he is not being denounced by mitt romney or anybody. they are not afraid of him. they take his endorsement. >> we will see. >> i bet they would take it. >> who is the voice of the republican party? mitt romney? hardly. john boehner and mitch mcconnell have that mantle and here is part of their interview on "60 minutes." we clipped the part where they are whining about president obama. >> he seems to have forgotten or chose to ignore the election last november. >> the president could have put out an olive branch, could have taken a little bit different tone that would have indicated that there is some interest in working with us.

>> are these the right two guys to lead the party? >> the fight means no leading voice will come from the presidential ranks anytime soon. i thought they were on "60 minutes" pretty good. they are still negative. they are still more about criticism than about concrete solutions. it is hard to lead from congress against the president but if i were them i would send paul ryan out to do "60 minutes," not them. >> i had the same thought. they are good at some things organizing congress, holding a very diverse house together as john boehner has done. in terms of being messengers or the party it sounds a lot like whining. >> it is a huge problem.

for the next nine months, 10 months, maybe a year and a quarter, they will be the face of the party. i applaud them for trying but i do not think they are right now in a position to enunciate a positive agenda on the issues where the president is out there every day talking. >> why can't they be passing legislation right now? they now control both houses. get hillary clinton on the record on issues like keystone. put things out there. >> even though they are the majority they have to get past barbara boxer and bernie sanders and harry reid. it is tough to pass legislation quickly and the senate does not want to have the president veto stuff. >> they should not be a laboratory for ideas to give these guys something to run on. >> take a lesson from ted cruz. the optimistic. time for the nfl update. the league is investigating the

patriots' deflation scandal. >> will they he punished? not as long as they are still taking pictures at their respective homes. you talk about conflict of interest. as long as that happens, it will not affect them at all. >> fox news sports reports that a low-level patriots employee is under investigation, a person of interest. should the nfl hurry up and finish the investigation before the super bowl? >> i do not think they will. thank god for richard sherman. he is the only one who does. it is not -- there are a lot of fans who want this thing, no one wants to deal with it. they think it is stupid, let's get it out of the way.

>> let's say the nfl came out before the super bowl and said brady lied. what would happen? >> the colts should be in the super bowl. i have two little boys who are the most passionate fans and they are looking at me and saying did he cheat, what am i supposed to tell them? we let the nfl off the hook. roger goodell gets paid $44 million a year to walk around and go lalalala. he does not want to know that ray rice beats his wife and he does not want to know what goes on with tom brady and the patriots. he is the one who needs to be a price. demand accountability. >> they will announce before the super bowl. >> i hope you're right. >> our dark and stormy republican shoptalk after the break. ♪

guests. the strategist for dennis hastert and and some other republicans. we will unpack the weekend activity and we will start with a guy who seems to have helped himself the most within conventional wisdom at that event in des moines. wisconsin governor scott walker. >> we took the power away from the big government special interests and we put it firmly in the hands of the hard-working taxpayers. that is what we need more of in this great country. >> i do not quite understand what all the fuss is about.

where do you think walker ends up after the weekend? >> i certainly think his performance is -- i am used to governor walker being much more subdued and this was a concern that he did not have the fire in the belly. this speech proved me wrong. he definitely has the ability to fire up conservatives. he hit it on all cylinders and talked about the policies that helped the state of wisconsin and how they were conservative. i hope this gets him get noticed and can propel him forward if someone to look out for in the 2016 primaries if he chooses to run. >> were you just as wowed? >> we have a girl that works in our company who is a big fan and i have always been a yawn. i saw that and changed my mind. i thought steve king was the greatest winner but scott was second. >> let's look at chris christie.

if you are looking at a number two it was chris christie. let's play a sound bite. >> if i was too blunt, too direct, too new jersey for iowa, then why do people keep inviting me back? you will always know who i am. you always know what i believe and you always know where i stand. >> someone said to me earlier that this is less about chris christie in his speech and more about steve king, to your point, introducing him and welcoming him and blessing him and sending the message that he may not be the moderate that so many of the pundits make him out to be. >> i think not only not the moderate, but -- i hate to use the word bully. i do not know him, i met him once and he was charming but people talk about him being a bully and i thought he came across explaining that he is direct and tough but maybe we

need direct in tough and he is not this evil, mean guy. >> what did you think? >> i thought it was smart of him to have a sense of humor and show it on display. we are used to the chris christie finger-pointing and getting loud with his voice and this showed another sight of him. i think he has done a solid job making inroads in iowa. he has visited the state six times since 2014. he has been all over this. i thought this was smart to smooth out the rough edges and this was a little bit of a surprise. >> is iowa skippable? mccain skipped it. is iowa skippable for a candidate? >> it is always skippable if that is your strategy and your strategy works. we know of certain candidates who skipped certain states and went down in flames but several of them quite well skipping

states. iowa -- >> you are saying that you can skip iowa if it works but you have to make a judgment in advance, right? is christie smart to make an investment there? >> i think anyone should play iowa if they can. there is a strategy out there where you can skip iowa and still win, ask john mccain. >> is this time different because you have a field of some any strong candidates were you can almost see a scenario given everyone who is in it that you have a lot of people who end up with 10% and there is not one or two or three people coming out of iowa the way there has been in the past. >> the more visibility you get -- >> i agree with fred. look at the visibility you get.

most republican candidates energy to invest some time, get noticed, be on the trail. you do not know what will happen in the field of 23 or 24 folks. what you do not want to do is do a rudy giuliani in florida. you want to make sure iowa is part of your playing cards until you want to give that away. the question is, does jeb bush want to play iowa? i do not know at this point but for the rest of them, stay in. >> he called the iowa party chair to chat him up and the chair came away thinking jeb bush will compete and compete in florida. he gave his speech in a different part of the country, san francisco, which was pretty well received. let's listen and talk about jeb. >> all across this country will we need to restore a sense of our heritage, our history, wyatt is so special to be an american, believe it ourselves and ask the newly arrived to do the same thing. nothing would stop america if we

did that. [applause] >> that is jeb bush on immigration. i do not know how much you have seen jeb bush do retail and crowd events. whether he has got good skills people are divided. when he puts his mind to it he is pretty darn good. >> one thing have i have been asking is has anyone ever seen him speak? most voters have not seen him on the national stage, actually listening to him and maybe have heard something about his education policies or common core or whatever. we need to see more of him. and i have no idea what his retail skills are like. we have to see that on the campaign trail sooner rather than later. what we do not want to have is the name jeb bush out there with nothing behind it.

hopefully he is not a paper tiger and he can pull it off on the retail level. he has great retail skill. he does. it was an iffy question on skipping iowa. he may be should have gone. >> do you think jeb bush is making a mistake, even holding back having the strategy of doing fundraisers in a few public events. >> he is starting to. he is giving a big speech in detroit where he is using detroit as a model to say here is a city that has failed and here is how my ideas and policies could change things here and in other parts of the country.

i think that i would argue marco rubio stood out in was distinct. a positive message whether you agree with everything he is saying, it has been positive and ideas-based area people got the biggest applause lines in iowa where people who were voicing grievances the loudest. >> i tend to agree. he had some time to define himself but i think he needs to define himself to a large primary voters sooner rather than later. right now, people are not quite sure what to make of him just yet. other than that, he has the bush dynasty. >> when he speaks it is like chelsea clinton speaking. you cannot believe you're hearing words coming out. based on what you have heard who was the winner out of that thing? >> i go back to iowa was the winner, mark. i thought they pale by comparison and all the press they got and the attention they got as to who was the winner. had i seen them all i could have answered your question but i do not know. i was amazed by how much

attention iowa got by comparison. >> the koch event was at 11:30 p.m. eastern. that may have had something to do with it. >> good to see you, it appreciate it. >> absolutely. >> thanks very much. >> when we come back, winner of the sarah palin rambling speech award. spoiler alert, sarah palin. ♪

sarah palin has a lot to say. if she does decide to run for president, we figured her speech would serve as a preview of what her campaign might look like. we recorded her first ad. >> sarah palin, a patriot who knows this land. >> the rest of the country knows this part of america as the heartland.

>> a straight-talker. >> it is about game time. >> and a leader who is prepared to fight. >> ready for a new chapter in america. >> what will they do to stop causing our pain and start feeling it again? >> not afraid to ask the tough questions. >> that a pantsuit can crush patriots? >> she has some strong words to live by. >> from bad comes good. that has been one of my mantras. >> right. >> there is no free phone, someone pays. someone always pays. >> what? >> we on offense give them the

true state of the union. >> what does that mean? >> on gender, they shackle them to the good old boys. >> where is she going with this? >> the man can only ride you when your back is bent so strengthen it. then the man can't ride you. what the media will do in 2016 to all of us. >> telling us what we all deserve. >> we have to be candid and people deserve the candidness because that leads to solutions they deserve. amnesty, no. >> the candidate leads to solutions. >> that is not too far away. >> she is not running. she is just teasing. next when we come back, what senator harry reid is doing in his living room right now. after the break. ♪

>> harry reid left the hospital after eye surgery and they say from his living room he is giving updates on

>> hello, i am pimm fox and this is what i am taking stock on this monday, january 26 2015. the first blizzard of the year is bearing down. the storm's intensity is forecast to increase with snow falling in some regions at four inches per hour. a state of emergency has been declared in new york, new jersey, and connecticut. thousands of flights have been canceled while rail and bus transport is shut down. chris christie says the state is prepared. >> i have had double-digit states of emergency imposed on for snow, we have had hurricane irene and hurricane sandy. for better or for worse, we know