the city of los angeles and las vegas and albuquerque and what will it mean to all the farming communities that rely on the colorado river system? what will it mean to the tribes? and get the big get it. -- and they get it.

we understand that climate change and what it will bring. we want to get ahead of that. dealing with a sigh into making sure we have a good understanding of the future is an important thing. it is important to communities throughout our country. >> this one is from reed ol orich from utah. he is concerned about protection of public land in utah. any comments? is there any action on cedar breaks gaining national monument status? >> we can have a conversation about all these lands as we move forward. i have a meeting with governor

herbert who has started a public land use policy with in utah some of these projects are projects and land areas that we will have on the table for discussion about the future. >> we will wind down in a minute but i want to morph a couple of questions. there is one from patrick fitzgerald and jorge madrid. out in the department of interior support the development of renewable energy on tribal lands? >> we have great potential on tribal lands or ignoble energy. that is a recognition first that has to be made. thee working with department of energy and the assistant secretary for indian affairs and my department to identify those areas on

reservations where there is great potential for renewable energy. the navajo reservation which is a huge expense and arizona presents great opportunity for both solar and wind energy and is very close to transmission. we hope to be able to work closely with tribal communities so that tribal communities are not left out of the renewable energy revolution which i believe we are in the midst of. it will happen in this country tribal communities and the reservations should not be left out of that energy opportunity for america. >> last question from chris soderstrom with the conservation land and foundation. they are pleased with the great outdoors report for protecting critical landscapes in place of historical importance.

can you comment on how the intricacies act -- of the antiquities act helps local economies? you are safeguarding these treasures but how do monuments help local economies? >> monuments like so many other iconic places of our natural landscape in america are economic generators. we always think about the state of montana that has a population of less than 1 million people and yet there are 11 million people per year that go to montana that hunt, fish, hike, bike, wrapped, and enjoy the great outdoors of big sky country. all of these places are economic generators. they are part of our national landscape systems. we need to understand and i think the people of the united states our understanding that

there is a direct connection between conservation and preservation of our lands and economic vitality. john podesta spoke to a back in the 1990's that when we take care of our place and we protect our environment, it is consistent with good economics. i remember a long time ago, colorado was working on economic development. part of the reason we lost companies that come to colorado is because of the quality of life. park the quality of life is part of the experiences we can provide to companies and their employees as for his connections to the outdoors. >> you are always so thoughtful and enter everything that is asked of you. i am amazed at how much knowledge you have about our treasured places in the united states. thank you for your public service. thank you for being here at the center for american progress.

>> thank you very much. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated while our speakers depart. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> on cspan today, for our presidential candidate and arkansas governor mike huckabee. then, two days "washington journal." and at the annual winter meeting of the democratic governors' association, governors talk to labor and business leaders about the economy and jobs. >> this weekend, governors will

talk about how to grow state economy, education, and cyprus security as they gather in washington for the annual winter meeting of the national governors' association. we will have live coverage throughout the weekend on c- span. >> think our system of government is breaking down. i think the system of checks and balances we have in our system are not operating properly. >> winslow wheeler heads the reform project. he has written two just published essays in the pentagon laboratory >> cong chris has three essential -- congress has three essential powers, to go to war, the power of the purse, and the power to investigate. the first two powers, to go to war end of the purse, are meaningless yet congress does not exercise power to investigate and it is not doing that. >> either rest of the interview sunday night on cspan's "q &a."

>> at the national press club, a former arkansas governor and 2008 republican presidential candidate mike huckabee said that he believes a republican will be president -- will beat president obama in 2012. he said he is seriously considering a second bid for the presidency. the governor was in washington, d.c. to kickoff a tour for his new book. the next stops are in the state's scheduled to hold the first presidential caucus in 2012, iowa. this is 50 minutes.

>> can everybody hear me? good. it is great to see this great crowd here. wonderful. mike huckabee is here today. it is a part of his book tour to promote his newest book, "a simple government: twelve things we really need from washington (and a trillion that we don't!)." is an honor and pleasure to introduce a man who burst on the national stage in to those and it when he won our republican caucuses and finished third behind and john mccain and mitt romney in the nomination for president. he burst on page 6 of "the washington post." the question on many minds now is whether he will pursue the republican nomination in 2012. maybe he will tell us today. governor mike huckabee was born in 1955 in hope, ark., nine

years after bill clinton was born there. his father was a firefighter and a mechanic, but the son was to become a congregational pastor, and head of the southern baptist state convention. in 1974, he man in -- he married his high-school sweetheart, and they have three children. he was elected lieutenant governor in 1993 and was governor from 1996 until 2007. he is also an author of such books on character-building, and one on beginning a healthy lifestyle. he also hosts the fox news channel show how to be. he is an honorable member -- huckabee. he is also a member of the fraternity that incidentally was also the fraternity of ronald reagan.

i give you mike huckabee. [laughter] [applause] >> i might also mention it is the honorary fraternity of elvis presley. where i come from, the three people speak of our jesus, elvis presley. i was almost the same. i have a phone call this morning, that lasted 20 minutes, and i was finally able to break loose and be with you. i wanted to correct one thing i was not third in the republican primary. i was second. i worked really hard to be second, not that it means a darn thing because when you come in second place, there is no prize, or 1/3, or fourth.

i think all of you have a copy, at least i hope of the -- hoped to do, of the book "a simple government: twelve things we really need from washington (and a trillion that we don't!) turcotte i hope you have a chance to read it. -- (and a trillion that we don't!)." i hope you have a chance to read it. in many times, -- many ways i have been asked the question about 100 times its five when you run for president. no matter how many times as stated, there are a hundred ways people reported. there is an option that i am considering, and i am seriously and genuinely contemplating it. i also want to make sure people understand where i stand, what i believe, and what i think america's priorities ought to be. part of the reason i'm writing the book is to let people have

been inside before they know on the front end before i run, and before they commit. part of the purpose with the book was to say "here i stand." martin luther nailed 95 on the door, and i'm not sure this is as important apiece, but it is a document of a statement of conviction. you will find some things that i say that are not necessarily politically correct. i do not always follow the company line of the gop. there are some more unorthodox points of view that you will find. i think you will find an extraordinary level of candor, where i talk about things like social security and medicare. i want to give a summary of some of the salient points i think are most critical in

understanding what is in this book, why i wrote it, and then i will be happy to answer your questions. in politics, we call? -- we call them "q&a" and that usually stands for questions and answers, but here it's not -- stands for questions and avoidance. [laughter] the issues we face in this country are extraordinarily complex, and often the answer to dealing with them are not easy, but they are simple. it is necessary to back away and the through a macro lens, and ask ourselves is there a common sense principle we could apply that would make sense out of some of the challenges and the issues that we face. in each of the chapters, why i have done is create a subtitle.

for example, the first chapter, i talk about the most important form of government being a father, mother, and children. the first level of government to which any of us are subjected is not the government of our city, state, or our federal government. is the government on what our own family. if that is where we are governed first. the fact is that it is bad form of government that serves as the foundation for all other forms of government. i tried to make the case, and i believe i do, that this is not just a social issue, as it has often been described. and there are people that want to create an artificial conflict between the designated social issues and the economic issues. the first chapter of the book will make it very clear that there is a direct correlation between the fabric of our culture in the relationship of

its families, and the economy of the country. i want to begin before i even get into some of those figures by saying that i make it very clear that this is not an attack on president obama. i believe we hear a lot of talk about civility, although on any given day you will find politicians to use the most inflammatory rhetoric possible. there were some congressman yesterday that were utterly bizarre from congressman regarding going to the streets. i find in the midst of that it is important that we can somehow separate a person's policies from the person. i find it unnecessary, useless, and, frankly, a bit on necessary to get into debates over president obama's religion, the authenticity of his birth -- i know for some people is an obsession. it is not with me. i have said this many times.

if there was any question about the authenticity of his birth certificate, i am sure that the opposition researchers and hillary clinton campaign would have found that and use that. we could save ourselves a lot of time. secondly, he has personally articulated not once but numerous times of his christian faith. i take him at his word. i have no reason not to. for us to dwell on that is missing the point. i have no disagreement with president obama as a human being. in fact, i will go so far to say that i respect the role model he has served as a husband and a father. he has been an exemplary husband to his wife and father to his children. america needs a good role model like that. how can i argue for the prominence the of the american family and not recognize that he has given the senate -- an

excellent example of a person who has his priorities straight in marking up time for his wife and raising his daughters in a disciplinary environment where he recognizes he, the parent, is responsible for the atmosphere in which they are raised. i commend and salute him for that. as a child growing up in de -- deep south, who saw the evils of segregation and the horrors of segregation, it did give me cause to celebrate that in my lifetime i saw an african- american elected to the presidency. i could have wished it to be a republican, and i can wish that now that we have been there, and done that, that we will get -- elect a republican next year, but i genuinely felt a sense of great satisfaction in seeing in my life that moment,. i do not celebrate his policies. i will make it very clear why.

this is not an attack on president obama, the person, even though you will see sharp elbows at the policies that he has put forth, specifically, many of the economic policies. the most basic form of government being a family, there are some things that i think we as a culture need to fully grasp, and one of them is that if we do not have strong families, the government will end up with extraordinary costs. for example, there are figures that should get our attention -- simple things like the family that does not have a frequent dinner together around their own table -- children growing up in that atmosphere are two times more likely to use tobacco and marijuana, and 1.5 times more likely to use alcohol and make c's or the were in school. i am not saying the government must have a program. i am not for a nanny state.

i do not want the government telling us what to eat, once a week, or how often to gather around a table. i would like for americans to understand common sense needs to be applied. when there is not the sense in which families raise their children, and expect the government to do it, the taxpayers end up with an extraordinary consequences. to those both on the left and the right to believe that there is nothing to be gained from a discussion of the importance and the primacy of the basic family unit, i asked them to wake up and smell the dinner table, because the fact is there are some direct costs that result from a broken fundamental form of government we know in this country we have a $300 billion debt deficit, how much the government picks up. that is real money.

even in washington terms, to $300 billion is a significant amount of money. we also know that two thirds of the children in america who live in poverty would not live in poverty if the mothers of those children were married to the fathers of those children. my wife was raised by a single mom who successfully raised five of her kids and one step child, and is a remarkable woman. there are extraordinary success stories that all of us could tell of people who in single- parent homes have been able to overcome the odds, but it does not change the odds. the guides are the children who do not have the stability -- the guides are that children who do not have the stability of a family where there is a mother and a father present, and at least one of the parents is employed, and those parents

have a high-school education, that child has a significantly higher likelihood of living most of their child in -- childhood in poverty. that is probably david culver calling again. tell them i've probably already talked to him -- i have already talked to him. daniel patrick moynihan admitted that 25% of the african-american births in this country were out of wedlock. he was a thoughtful man looking at this objectively. at the time, as a young staffer in the department of labor, what he saw startled him, and give him pause, and he wrote about it, and warned the consequences of a growing level of out-of-wedlock births.

how shocked would he be to find that today 75% of african- american births are out of wedlock. 41% of all births are out of wedlock. again, forget the position on the political spectrum. this is a concern. there are economic consequences for those children. i would like to think that people on the right are just as interested in eliminating poverty as people on the left, but the reality comes down to simply putting more money in a government program. that does not address the root issue which is mothers and fathers are the most important form of the government. i also want to mention that i think we sometimes forget that

the origin of our country was one in which government was intended to be as local as possible, and as limited as possible. one need only to read the writings of jefferson, james madison, john adams, to see that it was never intended that we have a massive federal government, but what has happened since 2009, even states and cities get more of their revenue from the federal government than any other source. this would be a shock to thomas jefferson, james madison, into our founders, who never concede that the federal government would be so big that it would not just be as big as, but incredibly much bigger than the collective states and cities that originally the federal government was to serve. but, that is where we have come. so, my title in this view is that the further you dress from

shore, the more likely you are to be lost at sea. the premises is a common-sense, simple principle if i govern my own family, i can do that because i know my children. my wife and i have three children. we have a 34-year-old son, a 30-year-old son, and it 20-year -- 28-year-old daughter. for some reason, once the kids all moved away, we ended up with three dogs. we end up with three dogs. the kids think the dogs have replaced them. they also think we treat the dogs better than we treated them. i simply tell them that -- that the dogs be a better -- i simply tell them that the dog's behavior better. i know my own children. i know their personalities. when they were growing up i do not think there is a person in america who couldn't raise them better than me because they

were of sydney. -- who could raise them better than me, because they were of meat. i knew when they were going to crack the i knew when they were getting angry. -- i knew when they were going to cry. i knew what they were going to get angry. i virtually could melt my daughter by might look of disapproval. all of that is to say that the closer you are to the people being governed, the better you are able to govern because you know them. government at the neighborhood or community-level is more effective because you are governing people you know, you like, and you are responsible for. one people tell me they are on the school board, i always say you have the toughest job in politics. they can find you at the little league game, and they can chew you out.

i am approachable, but i know where i can get away. if you are on the school board, they have your home number, and it is the toughest job in american politics, but you know what? that is a good thing. the more the government gets disconnected from the people that are being governed, the less likely they are to get it right. i am not sure that any person living 100 miles or 1,000 miles from my neighborhood would better raise my children than me. the application of that is that we have made a huge mistake. but me be clear, whether it is a democrat or a republican administration, both parties have made the unconstitutional and unconscionable mistake of moving government further away from the local community, and closer to this city. in doing so, we've created not

only a monstrous-size of government, but we've created one that is very unlike our founders envisioned. in the federalist papers, it is explained why. what we have come up with is a formula by which the federal government is able to get larger and larger by the granting of federal money to the states and the programs, often just enough to get them hooked on something, but the long-term money is left to the states and cities. when i was governor are remember the big program to put 100,000 cops on the street. it made good press conference, and the first three years it was funded. guess what happens in your four? if the cities and the states do not have the money, the

governors and mayors to make the announcement said they have to lay off police officers. the headlines always read the column there makes a our cities on safe caracol this idea is what the free -- the headline always reads "maters make our cities unsafe." we are seeing governor's turned down federal money, and many people in this city are throwing up their hands and saying what is wrong with these guys? they do not want money for a high-speed rail or to expand their medicare program? they are smart enough to understand if the money is only good for two or three years, some governor in the future will curse them for taking money they cannot sustain once the federal funds dry up.

that is why more decisions need to be brought death to a local community. when i was vice-chairman of the national governors' association, mark warner, who was then chairman and i worked on getting all the states and governors together on a medicare reform program, and go to the congress and the senate and ask them to approve changes that would save the federal government money and give the governors more flexibility. there were 50 governors in america. 49 signed on. every governor except one have not signed on. rod will give its did not sign on. he was the only one that did not. we thought this ought to be a slam dunk. it is not a political issue. it is not partisan. mark warner and die, one democrat, when republican -- and i, one democrat, one

republican, we say we can save you several billion dollars, let us govern our medicaid programs all little bit more. it was the biggest fight i have never been in. mark and i would look to each other and just shake our heads and say "what is wrong with these guys?" they wanted to fight fights we were not even having. it taught me an important lesson. a further you row the vote from the shore, the more likely you are to be lost at sea. be a lot of folks in the city that are lost at sea. i used a quote where states were the laboratories for government. the states for where power was

she did and they would have the opportunity to try things, sometimes bold things, and sometimes they would not work. when they did not work, not all the states would make the mistake of attacking them, but it would be one thing that had been tried and put aside. if it did work, all the other states could adopted. think about what we have done in the last year with obama- care which i specifically reference as one of the prime examples of rather than road testing something in the states, which in this case it had been tested yet tennessee in massachusetts -- tennessee and massachusetts, but no one book that those programs, and decided that even though it did not work really well, let's put all 50 states under the program so everyone can sell equally.

is that kind of insanity that i believe we have to speak to. by the way, speaking of insanity, every one of the attorney general in the united states, every last one of them, and complained to the office of the comptroller of the currency about the growing housing bubble, and the fact that we were headed for serious consequences and dire consequences if we continue to follow the policies without stepping in with different levels of regulations on making loans to people who could not afford to take those loans. again, bipartisan, all attorney general's in all 50 states filed a complaint. this was not a democrat against republican. this was state against the fed, saying are you guys not? they did not say they were, but their actions said "yes, we are crazy." the result has been an economic meltdown that as calls all lost

a dramatic impact -- caused all of us a dramatic impact. we ought to be outraged, angry, and demand a new level of accountability. i will not get to cover the entire book before i take your questions, but i want to say that part of this book was written last summer, in june, july, and august, and put to bed in november. no one was talking about public employee unions and their impact, but if you look on page 35 of the book i feel somewhat validated because i feel -- i talk about the coming meltdown that we will see as a result of the public employee unions and in the fact that against the private sector, wages are 30% better and benefits are 70% better in the corresponding private sector.

i had been a governor for the 11 years. it became obvious that if you look at the long-term calculations here, it is unsustainable. in the same way that if a governor looks at the medicare program and sees costs going up anywhere from 6%-12% a year, and looks at the health plan -- in my stated would require all of the employees of walmart and tyson foods, the two largest corporations in arkansas combined, and they would not equal the number of state employees. in most states, the state- employed body is the largest entity and as they are unionized, it becomes a parasitic relationship with the states, and a symbiotic relationship with the federal government.

i feel validated because you could see this coming. his playing out on the lead story of every newscast -- it is playing out in every lead story of the newscast. it is in indiana, ohio, and probably coming to a theater near you were there is a growing sense of urgency about how we are going to fund these costs. some of these are trying to say this is republicans attempt to bust unions these are factors jerry brown are dealing with iran -- are dealing with in california and andrew cuomo is dealing with in new york. i doubt they watched fox news every night. they should, but i doubt they do. we cannot bar all we cannot pay back. you ought to understand that with your family. if you are in serious financial trouble, you have to stop spending.

i have never met a mother and father who sit down and say i've lost my job, i do not know where we're going to do, we are broke, we have no savings, so you know we need to do? let's go to disney world. we do not spend money. we figure out how to cut back expenditures. we figure out whether we can sell. when i ran for office and i knew we did not have enough money to live on, i cashed in my insurance policy, annuities, we sold off things. my point is you do not recklessly spend if you do not have that, and the last thing you do is if you cannot pay back, go to the bank and ask to borrow several million dollars. i tell some ridiculous stories of what i would love to do is build a $100 million home in the hamptons, higher servants

to take care of it. why do i not do that? no bank would never lonely the money because they look to me and say there is no way you could pay that back. we have a whole series of times in this country where the government encouraged people to take out loans they could not pay back, and why did they do that? the government set the example. the government has been borrowing money they cannot pay back. we owe more money than our total combined gross domestic product in a year for the first time in history. this ought to be shocking. we have a gross domestic product that is less than what we all. when you do that in your family, and i'm getting the question signal, right? either that, or you were making a pass at me. i am not sure which it was. [laughter] >> i am going to assume it is

about the questions. when that happens into -- in your family, you are under water. a lasting in need to do is to pour more water on yourself. i try to cover the broad front from the border security and everything in between. most importantly, i want to say this is an attempt on my part to say "here i stand, here is what i believe kirkcaldy the question you want to ask is are you going to run -- i believe." the question is you want to ask is do you believe this message resonates with you. that gives me encouragement if it does. with that, i will open up to? >> i have two questions for you, governor. first of all, president obama is considering opposing the marriage act.

since this just happened, other economic consequences as well? [unintelligible] secondly, i understand in response to israeli settlements and the arab opposition to building them, you believe that these is the equivalent of racism. i'm one and if you could clarify those remarks. >> that is a wide range of a question, but i will do my best cared -- best. >> in our "newsmakers" program, would each reporter identify his media linked, and give us their name, and try to make the

question as short as possible? thank you. >> ok. i think the first question -- i think the president made an incredibly amazing, inexplicable political error yesterday because he is out of touch with the voters in every state in which this has been on the ballot. 33 states have had this issue on the ballot, and in all 33, including liberal states like california and maine, voters have affirms the definition of marriage to be the traditional definition of marriage. if he wants to keep his promise of this should be handle legislatively, he should've kept his promise. he and broke it. if he should also explain why this is not the position he took one he was on his campaign.

i think he would not have. -- not have been collected. either he was not been honest then, is not being honest now, or he changed his position, and needs to explain when, how, and why that happened. the basis on which he says his justice department will not defend doma is because some lower court has decided. by that standard, the president owes the american people a response as to why he would base a decision on doma because of a lower court decision, but will not do the same for obama- care, which is also been

rejected by a lower court decision. it is the hypocrisy that is as disturbing as the policy reversal itself parity is going against his own campaign platform. whether he did that with a wink-wink, that is what i find frustrating about politics today. you might disagree with the conclusions i've reached in this book, but you know where i stand. i think politicians zero people that kind of clarity of conviction. -- owe people that kind of clarity of conviction. >> governor, you talked about seeing whether your message resonates through this book. [unintelligible] are you going to pick a number for the possibility of money raised?

>> to successfully compete in the primary cause or make the decision to run? >> you cannot raise money on us to declare a candidacy. if you declare a candidacy, i also give up my job. i want to make sure i am ready to give up my job. those to the ball -- those two happen simultaneously. some people in congress get to draw a paycheck, and campaigned on my time as a taxpayer. they never even have to come to office. i will be in a different position. the day i say i am running, that is the day i do not have an income. what i am looking for is something that i cannot to define and quantify to save his sells this many copies, or

review with favorably, but i think you have a feel for it and you know whether it resonates. people say i love the book, i get it, i am with you, that is different than "hey, it was not a bad." i know the difference between those two things. [unintelligible] >> did you support the idea -- [unintelligible] >> i will not second-guess governor walker. each governor has to govern their own state. when i hated the most was take one state, and take it as a template and laid it across all 50 states. there are no such things as two states that are identical.

mine is why i hate report cards. they are meaningless. if you do not analyze that to the lines of each state's constitution, statutes, political environment, priorities, how many people are in poverty -- are a lot of factors. i am same as -- saying this from experience of the governing state for a long time, along with anyone who ran for president four years ago. at that level, governing is an art, not a science. i want to be very clear. i am not going to try to legally but governor walter's decision. let me tell you what i believe was important in my state. we have a very low teacher pay. we have the highest increases

in teacher paid during my time as governor. we also made major changes in teacher pension and retirement plans, but i knew we could find them, and we did. we went from some of the worst paid in the country, to some of the bus in our region, and frankly, if you put in all of the economic factors, one of the best that we had. that was a difficult decisions. i did not need to take that to the voters. i had a legislature that agreed with me that good teachers ought to be paid good money. i still believe that. we ought to tell you teachers. they are the fundamental force of what kind of generation we will have the next time. i wanted to be pretty good. so, governor walker's decision might be a very different one. he will have is some explanations. >> did president george w. bush make the right decision in

relations with -- [unintelligible] >> i think it is awkward for the president of the united states to tell another country and its leaders said they ought to step down. there might be one here. there was one of your body will years ago in iran. presidents have been from 8 -- there was one two years ago in iran. it is easy for me to be critical, and i will be on many decisions the president will make. i am also cognizant of the fact that while i can second guess a lot of things, i did not have the intelligence reports that he gets every morning. i do not have the access to a larger picture and body of information that he would get. >> you called on president obama --

>> one of the statements i made is that of michael and walk softly and carry a big stick, when the policies is make a policy, and grow with the stick. i did not think that as a great foreign policy. >> i wanted to ask -- [unintelligible] >> about his health care policy? >> in general. >> like your website indicated the other day -- , unlike your website indicated the other day, which was i might run for president over a personal grudge, which is the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard. i will firm that today, that that is nonsense. i do not have a personal issue with mitt romney. in i clashed in the last presidential contest. i do not think it is a surprise one if you think and they say

things about you that are not sure that you said this is lovely. i was not singing that capt. and some meals song all code do that soon be one more time -- "do that to me one more time." if mitt romney is a candid, i will support that, because i am a republican. i am critical of the messages as health care program, but i'm not alone on that. i'm using information gleaned from entities deadlocked at it and said this and not turn out so well -- hattis that has looked at it, and said it did not turn out so well. >> [unintelligible] >> if you did not hear the question, it is the president

has called for an increase of the irs budget, and i have called for its abolition, because i support a fair tax, which is a consumption tax. i think the tax system we have is not just a matter of the raid been screwed up. i think the real issue is the fundamental principle behind the manner in which we tax is itself screwed up. you should not penalize productivity, income, works, savings, investment, because those are the things that to build a healthy economy. you should want people to work and work harder. you should want people to take risks with their capital that might create business or a jobs. one person has any state that is developed, and you punish them for, if that is counter- intuitive. when china can send a table and

that it builds into this country and it does not have any indicted tax because they are happy to send it here, but a table made in north carolina will have 22% in betted tax for all the things they have to pay in order to get that table to the marketplace, it should not be a big shock that that product is coined to be able to be manufactured less expensively, not just because of labor, or not because you have a government that looks the other way, or is willing to steal intellectual property rights, and makes or not -- all sorts of concessions to the environment to get there, but because our own country is punishing those in this country who would manufacture. so, that is why i am then unapologetic and strong advocate of the fair tax, which would put us in a position where we tax consumption. the beautiful thing is that it does not tax the poor of the basic necessity, because of the predate.

>> two more questions. [unintelligible] >> i do not see it unfold in a doctor that is why we need new leadership. -- unfolding at all. that is why we need new leadership. >> can you talk about the internal struggle going on within the republican party, where you come down on that, and how that might affect your decision to run? i'm talking about the social conservatives and libertarians. >> i do not think it is as big a conflict as some people see it to be. i try to make the point that there is not a conflict between social and fiscal conservatives. all the social conservatives i know are fiscal conservatives. there are some people that are fiscal conservatives who might not have much use for the social issues like sanctity of life, marriage, it's every -- etc., but overwhelmingly, even

among the tea party, most tend to be social conservative. it is a compatibility that i think is consistent. there is a perception that i do not necessarily find accurate they you have to be one or the other. i think a person can be both, then most of us are both fiscally conservative and socially conservative as well. >> one more. >> wow. you already asked one. let me see if i can get somebody who has not. >> ok. i guess. >> if you do get in the race, let you think your toughest opponent will be? >> -- who do you think your toughest opponent will be. >> toughest opponent? barack obama. clearly, that is the goal.

i do not see the other republicans as being enemies, or opponents, or as much as i do as people that would like to see the same our opportunity to challenge obama. republicans have an understanding that there is no value in attacking each other up in the primary because all it does is making it more difficult. all we need to do is show the contrast between ourselves and barack obama and where he is taking the country, and not so much the differences between each of us. we will staples positions, and i think the voters are smart enough to figure out -- we will state those positions, and i think the voters are smart enough to figure out where we stand. >> how will the president to run against? >> he will be tossed.

i made comments last week -- i think he will be tough. i made comments last week that said -- that were interpreted to mean that he cannot be beaten. i think he will be beaten. there is an all-out brawl map that has shifted states like virginia and -- there is an electoral map that has shifted. states like virginia turned the math completely. having said that, i'm just reading that when republicans acting giddy and start measuring the and trips for the family quarters, i just want to remind them that this guy will be sitting on $1 billion, he is the incumbent president, and while the republicans are battling it out in a protracted primary, this is going to go on for awhile.

the calendar has been stretched dramatically from where it was four years ago, and the second one is that states that were winner-takes-all are now proportionate. no one will be able to sweep up all the delegates in the first few. the mechanics will be dramatically different of all of the people that say you are getting a late start, i say let me ask you how many other candidates have announced. when he said nobody, i said "who is late?" why would we jump in? there is a finite amount of money that will be in the republican primary. if eight people run, or 15 people run, if you need to start splitting them up. if your campaign will be a 12- month in denver, that is different than an 18-month endeavor.

bill clinton did not announce his candidacy until october of 1991 and he defeated an incumbent president one year later. the calendar is something upon this create, but the candidates are the ones than need to create because they are the ones that get to live with that and funded. with that, i see about saying "we have to go caracol thank you very -- if we have to go caracol -- we have to go." thank you very much. [laughter] [applause] >> >> mike huckabee's boat tour continues on sunday and monday. the former governor will be stopping in davenport, debut, waterloo, and the university of iowa. hear more from him on sunday's road to the white house at 6:30

p.m. eastern time. in the meanwhile, the national governors' association is holding its winters meeting in washington. this afternoon, they will be discussing jobs with a panel of business and labor leaders. live coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. but first, "washington journal" is next, live with your phone calls. in about 45 minutes, scott ross, executive director of one wisconsin now has a look at the state house. also, analysis of rising oil prices with john felmy of the american petroleum institute. and the result of a new poll showed fewer voters identifying with democrats. we will talk about that with troy lee cook of the political report.

>> good morning, a live view of the u.s. capitol this friday morning. in wisconsin, the assembly there