>> good morning everybody. let me begin. your loyalty and friendship -- >> david koch has entered the conference. >> welcome and thank you. >> david koch has entered the conference. courts. was you will. -- >> droid was you all. -- god bless you all. >> rand paul has left the conference.

>> i believe i have the best chance of beating the eventual democrat nominee. >> hillary clinton has left the conference. >> after giving considerable thought: i have decided it is best to give other leaders in the party the opportunity to become our next nominee. >> marco rubio has left -- >> chris christie has left -- >> marco rubio has left -- >> i am organizing a pac for donations. from all my supporters, and friends, and family. >> mark halperin has left the conference. >> goodbye. >> in lineup tonight, romney and the budget. but first, romney. he has ceased to be as a political entity, he has expired and gone to meet his maker. he is a late candidate presumably forever. here is how romney explained his decision not to run on a conference call with supporters this morning.

>> i'm convinced that we can win the nomination but i fully realize it would be a difficult test and hard fight. i would have the best chance of beating the democrat nominee. but that is before the other contenders have have the opportunity take their message to the voters. i believe one of our next generation of republican leaders, one who may not be as well-known as i am today, one who is not yet taking their message across the country, one who is just getting started, may well emerge as being better able to defeat the democrat nominee. >> so in the words of michael scott, why? why? why, john, did mitt romney choose not to run? >> well, the answer is at this moment, i don't think any of us know. mark, you may know better than anyone. you wrote a big piece for bloomberg politics that came out talking about what mitt romney's mindset was, how he was torn between positive reasons to run

and reasons not to run. we are going to go through this in more detail in just a moment it seems to me this was a very open question as recently as 24 hours ago whether he was going to be yay or nay. give me a sensible reporting is best sense of what your -- sense of what your reporting is telling you? >> what he said on the call matches what our sources are saying in the last two days. he thought he would be the strongest to be the nominee. he thought he would be the nominee. what he is worried about and what he obliquely referred to in the clip we play from the call this morning is that he runs as a messy toss nomination. he emerges as he did in 2012 broke, battered, bruised by a tough fight, maybe even tougher. hillary clinton, not encumbered by a record in office. and he cannot win a general election. he did not want to be the guy. he did not have it in him to run for a third time and lose at the white house again.

>> the hillary clinton thing the 2012 analogy really important. you remember as well as i do in 2012, against a much weaker the old them he would be facing -- field that he would be facing this time, he was battered by the end. barack obama having sat back and amassed his war chest, he was never able to recover from the depletion. you can imagine him, as much as he was convinced he would be a great president and as much as he convinced others including chris christie and jeb bush that he was a better candidate, in the end, he just could not get there. interesting also these comments i want to know what you made of them, these comments he made about the next and a ration, about someone from the next -- next generation, about someone from the next generation. that is not jeb bush who he is endorsing to take the fight hillary clinton. >> as i reported, he does not think jeb bush and chris christie, the establishment candidates, the front runners, he does not think they will be the nominee.

he thinks jeb bush will be scrutinized. he does not think she is a good candidate. he thinks he has problems with the base. he thinks chris christie can't survive the vetting. he is hoping someone like a marco rubio steps up and is a more impressive candidate then currently some believe and grows into it and becomes a nominee and sweeps into the white house. >> that makes a perfect segue. the other candidates. one thing that romney said on a call was that if he decided to run he would do well according to the poll. he cited a bunch of polls. romney looks actually weak in iowa according to our own poll. here is a peek at some of the numbers that relate to romney. likely republican caucus-goers do him only a 57% favorability score. that is down eight points from our last poll. 40% viewed him unfavorably. from 30% a few months ago -- up

from 30% a few months ago. where romney did look strong was head-to-head with jeb bush. voters say mitt romney understood them better and would have been more formidable. going back to the rest of the field, among the potential 2016ers, who is most helped and you think is most hurt by the mitt quit? >> most helped is jeb bush. he has the capacity to lock up the establishment donor class in a way he could not as long as romney was going to be out there. he could dominate fund-raising. historically, if you dominate republican fundraising the year before the election, you win. i don't think anyone has been hurt by this. it opens up space for possible candidates. he gives everyone a chance to say they are going to get that romney support. >> i agree with you. bush is helped. i think christie is helped. because it frees up donors romney may have gotten too. it helps rubio and walker. for the reasons we were talking

about, the generational arguments. the person i think who is hurt is a guy like rand paul, whom i thought it would be good news to have a three-way battle of the titans in the establishment rocket. the bracket. all -- bracket. paul would have been in a better position. it is going to be hard for him to do that. >> who is today the front runner in new hampshire? >> with romney, it is romney. with romney out, today, it is rand paul. >> you think he is a front runner in new hampshire? >> today, i can't name anyone else i think is more likely. over time, jeb bush, let's see him go up there and can build support. but i think today, rand paul is the most likely one to win. >> i will go back to strengths. i mentioned christie on the way in. he has a lot of problems, chris christie, going into this. romney was thinking about some of the vetting they did for him in the vice presidential selection process.

there are a lot of problems for chris christie. i just can't help but think he is looking at those donors who mitt romney would have locked up. they are at least available to him. he has got to be happy. >> he is going to get psalm but -- get psalm -- get some bot jeb bush is going to get more of them. >> we have more to the poll, check it out on bloomberg politics. >> enough about mitt romney for today. this next topic is brought to you by money. from february 28 of this year to october 1, there are five key deadlines for the fiscal fight that could get messy from both ends of pennsylvania avenue. last night, one of the huffington post most prominent bloggers, barack obama, wants to spend the money. he wants to end the automatic budget cuts and jack up spending by 7%. he made his case to house democrats.

guess who is going to hate this? every republican. in these looming fights over the debt ceiling, funding homeland security, etc., which party is better position to win these fights? >> i would have said before this morning, the president had the upper hand here. i have to say, today's economic numbers, the gdp growth, 2.6% for the fourth quarter. down from 5%. imbue third quarter of last year. -- and the third quarter of last year. a lot of economists thought it was going to be over three. those are disappointing numbers. they are ok. every moment it looks like the economy is weakening, that is bad for liberals and bad for barack obama and trying to spend more money and win fiscal fights. >> i don't know we can put the graphic back up. if you look at the fights, in every one of them, unless republicans find a new way to have these fights, they are going to lose. they're going to have to punt and wait for a republican president.

medicare doc picks, republicans always cave on that. trust fund, cave on that. debt ceiling, cave on that. homeland security, they can't shut the government down. unless republicans have a brand-new strategy, the president has the upper hand. >> obama won't get more than 7%. >> up next, something like that. i take on orrin hatch in a battle of wits. that's when we come back. ♪

>> so today i crept into orrin hatch's office with some rock em' sock em' robots. why? because journalism. >> do you like boxing? >> i do. >> one muhammad ali walked in on me. -- one muhammad ali walked in on

me. >> it's like ali-frazier. >> we became fast friends. >> he just walked into your office. >> yes, just walked in. and sugar ray robinson. tony zale. you know, there were some great fighters. your array, probably trauma -- will was, probably sugar ray was outside of ali the greatest fighter i ever saw. >> you are an nba man. >> i love the nba. >> it is fantastic. >> we are a small area chain. >> the craziest thing is that team used to be in new orleans new orleans jazz. >> we took the name jazz and it irritated them to death we would give them back. >> is there a history of jazz in utah that i do not know about? >> i don't the tabernacle choir has sung jazz. it has done it from time to

time. >> we talk sports and music. let's talk politics. >> ok. >> governor romney today said he wasn't going to run for another time. you ran for president as everyone knows in the 2000 cycle. >> for not long. >> what did you learn about running for president, about why it was filed and why it was -- it was fun and why it was hard. >> i found too late, i did not have a chance. e-mail or call -- the miracle did not occur. i did give it a good run. i ran to give [indiscernible] that became one of the three important issues w ran in his campaign. and also becoming president. >> in the course of your short-lived campaign, what would you say the highlight was? >> the highlight was in some of the debates we had. naturally, being really a

smalltime guide in that particular league, they didn't give us as much time. bush said you would make a great vice president. i said, no no, you got that wrong. i said when i'm president i will make you vice president, and you will have eight years of training and you will be a good president after that. everybody laughed. he laughed. he was a good sport. a wonderful man. >> in the time you have been in the senate, everyone talks about how washington has changed. more partisan, senators do not socialize. from your point of view, what has changed for the better the time you have been in the senate, in washington? anything? >> i cannot really think of anything right now. there are some things that are better. i've seen people who are less drunk then they used to be. >> the same person has become

less strong? >> frankly, you have to raise money so much, you are going every chance you get away from the senate so you can go out and raise money. kennedy and i did all kinds of those things. just pick one, the child health insurance bills. he wanted to be more liberal to get on the liberal bloc. i said ok, but it will be a block grant and these dates will control it. -- the states will control it. he never thought we would get there. when we finally did get there i said this is what it is. he was upset. to his credit, he helped put it through. the hatch-kennedy relationship is pretty well known around here. we passed all kinds of bills. and he was fond of saying, you never know who really read it. i always said yeah, you're the one that never read the bill. we had a great relationship. i came here to fight him. we would get into some awful

scraps on the floor. he would be yelling and screaming like only kennedy can do. after it was over, he walked over and i was ready to punch him. it would walk over and say how did i do? how do you get mad at a guy like that? i miss him. he was their great legislator. but i'm not sure he passed many bills before i became chairman of the labor committee. because the southern democrats hated him. >> as they say in massachusetts, hatch made kennedy. >> there is a lot of truth to that. [laughter] >> three questions to close with. >> i certainly worked with them, no question about that. >> first question, short answer what is the thing that most confuses you about president obama? >> well, his continual ignorance of how this, what has to be done in this country. he is not an ignorant man. he is a bright guy.

but he is so left wing. that he can't get off of that left wing kick. i could get kennedy off of that. i was asked the other day, we had a meeting of republicans and democrats, and i think it was senator brown, who is very liberal himself, a very fine fellow from ohio, he said what caused you and kennedy to get together. he was willing to move to the center right. i had to move too, but he was willing. >> another question. i need short answers for fcc requirements. let me hear your best imitation of another senator, go. [laughter] >> that's pretty hard. >> it is said in the hallways you do a mean barbara mikulski. >> not true. i would not do a mean facsimile of a woman to begin with.

>> can you do in imitation of another senator? >> i can talk like the amato -- diamato. he was a great character. i remember when he sang a song on the floor of the senate. >> it worked. >> it didn't work. >> it orrin hatch ran for president in 2016, what would his slogan be? >> the slogan would probably be this is a guy that counts. this is the guy that will get it done. >> that is good. >> right off the top of your head. you're the don draper of the senate. >> that's right. >> we are putting that on the set in new york. that says orrin hatch. that is why we need the notary. thank you. >> the fireplace is real. and when we come back, we go to the super bowl with our version of roderigo no facing -- roger goodell facing the music.

♪

>> the super bowl is just two days away. it has been an amazing year for football. honestly, i'm so excited about the game. that i forget what happened but i'm sure it was positive all around. our tireless contributor will leitch is in arizona for the biggest of big games. and he joins us now. hi. how are you? glendale, arizona. what is it like to be out there? is it more exciting than you can possibly explain? >> there is nothing more nutritious and fulfilling than the two weeks in between the football games before the super bowl. it is an exhausting week. everyone is tired of talking about anything other than football. if someone says in the about a deflated football i'm going to fall over. , baseball, baseball. -- >> baseball, baseball or

baseball. roger goodell gave his version of the state of the union. there was so much nonsense that it felt like we were at the circus. we set some of the highlights of the press conference to the appropriate music. sit back and enjoy. >> we take seriously the integrity of the game. it is my responsibility to take responsibility of the integrity of the game. we have been soul-searching starting with yours truly. we have people that have uncompromising integrity. the integrity is impeccable. >> hello. i'm the nfl super kid. >> i was in a gym at; this morning -- 10:00 this morning i was doing the elliptical. the highest level of integrity. that's the integrity of our game. thank you. enjoy the weekend. >> my question to you, you are a great student of roger goodell. a great student over the management of public image. which questions do you think, do you think he handled worse?

the ones about the deflated balls or if he should keep his job. >> he handled the one where he tells everyone his workout routine very well. i love that the one plant in the audience let him say he was working out at 4:45. check me out. there is a certain -- it's odd how he repeated integrity over and over. he did a better job than the one in september in the midst of the ray rice stalls and there was a howard stern had color and it was chaos -- heckler and it was chaos. this is the super bowl. there is a certain media person that comes here, someone who is part of the establishment nfl media that is not going to push him too hard. related trauma there were maybe -- really almost there were maybe three actual tough questions asked, not including the kid who asked. one tough questions came from nichols, where he did not

-- he them completely belittled her with the question. the interesting thing is there was a smarmy cockiness that wasn't there in september. he made it through. he survived. he made it through the difficult part. you saw that in his response. >> you basically are referring to your colleagues who are out there as lapdogs. and the only reason i let you get away with that is that you are there being a lapdog. do most reporters in that room even though they are lapdogs consider him a liar? >> there's a great moment where he said that the nfl is full of good and caring people. you stopped for a moment and said we didn't think it wasn't, but now that you mention it, i actually don't believe you. there is a certain motion for that. -- notion for that. i think roger goodell, he makes a ton of money for these 32 owners of the nfl, which is why he has never been in danger. certainly, you can make a strong

argument that he has been standing by while the nfl is making this money. as long as you can be reviewed yard, -- he can be the piñata or the non-piñata, he will be in a safe place. people asked about his job. he said i'm not worried. he should not be. >> three quick questions. first, who are you betting on to win the game? >> i think it's new england. i think the quarterback brady's so much better than the seahawks. i think it is new england. >> who is the surprise musical guest? >> i am still surprised katy perry is there. i do feel like lenny kravitz, i know they have announced him but it will be someone from his , train. >> what do you think the first commercial will be? really quite. >> probably involving a clydesdale. you see them bowing to american monuments. my guess is it is a bud light.

>> our very own clydesdale, or the dog the clydesdale falls in love with, will, thank you so much. we will be right back. ♪

>> hey mark. come home soon. everybody else, have a great weekend. ♪

>> hello, i am pimm fox and this is what i am taking stock of on this friday, january 30, 2015. consumer spending drive the economy last quarter. -- helped drive the economy last quarter. the report shows gdp expanded 2.6%. that follows a 5% growth rate in the fourth quarter. despite the results, the s&p 500 fell more than 1%, marking its worst monthly performance in a year. crude oil rose 7%. shares of shake shack also rose today. the stock sureoared in its first day of trading as a public company, get