minutes, the latest on the presidential race in new hampshire with "the nashua telegraph" reporter kevin landrigan, and representative charles bass, and the results of a poll of young voters with trey grayson from the harvard institute of politics. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] host: and "the washington journal" continues its coverage of the 2012 presidential elections. that is manchester on your screen. we will return there later this morning. but we want to start off than our first segment with president obama's event yesterday in cleveland and his appointment of richard cordray as chief of the consumer financial protection bureau. here is the president yesterday in cleveland. clip: i nominated richard for

this job last summer. you may be wondering why am i appointing him today. it would be a good question. [laughter] for almost half a year, republicans in the senate have blocked richard's confirmation. [booing] they refuse to even give richard and up or down vote. now, this is not because richard is not qualified. there is no question that richard is the right person for the job. he's got the support of democrats and republicans are around the country. a majority of attorney general's -- richard is enough -- former attorney general -- the majority of the attorney general's of both parties across the country have called for richard to be confirmed. your local members of congress who are here today, they support him. he has the support of a majority

in the senate's. everyone agrees richard is more than qualified. so, what is the problem? the only reason republicans in the senate have blocked richard is because they do not agree with the law that set up a consumer watchdog in the first place. they want to weaken the law. they want to water it down. and, by the way, a lot of folks in the financial industry have poured millions of dollars to try to water it down. host: and "the washington times" lead story this morning --

we want to get your reaction in this first segment of "the washington journal" to president obama's recess appointment of richard cordray to the financial consumer protection bureau. 202 is the area code for our members --

you can contact us electronically as well -- here is a little bit more from "the washington times" article.

tayside article, daniel wagoner writes -- now to your calls. we want to get your reaction to president obama's appointment

of richard cordray to head of the consumer financial protection bureau yesterday. we will begin with a republican from kansas city. randy, you are on "washington journal." caller: good morning. i tell you -- president obama, all the presidents do this, but at least they bring that up before the senate to have a discussion about them and if they do not like him, the book turned them down. you listen to what he said -- he says, by the law -- the republicans in the senate will not go by the law. they do not have the majority in the senate. and c-span, you put this on there and you even spoke, saying the majority in the senate. to confirm these guys -- they can turn them down. then president obama again put

him in there. that a dictatorship. host: randy in kansas city. by the way, the congressional research service came up with a new appoint the report about recent recess appointments, president clinton, over two terms, 139, george w. bush, 171, president obama so far has made 32. winston-salem, north carolina, michael on the democrats' line. good morning. michael, are you with us? don't think michael is there. we are going to move down to idaho. jackie on the independent line. you are on "the washington journal." caller: good morning. well, i did not vote for obama and i probably will not vote for him again, but i got to tell you, somebody's got to do something. and the republicans and democrats -- might congress, i am just ashamed of them, totally ashamed. and somebody has got to start

doing something. our country needs to be fixed and everybody wants to stand around and not do anything. at least he is doing something and i've got to back him on this. host: allison -- branson, missouri. another independent. caller: obama is doing what he can for the country. the rest of the people in the house and senate are sitting on their hands and playing tiddlywinks. i feel he is trying to move the country in the right direction but he has to many obstacles. host: thank you for coming in this morning. "the wall street journal" lead editorial. contempt for congress.

is how they conclude that editorial.

arkansas, theodore on our democrats' line. what do you think about this appointment? caller: i also want to say this -- that how is it we are not raising cain concerning oil companies selling oil overseas, when the price of our american oil is high as the sky. we need to start investigating the oil companies, what are they selling oil. thank you and have a great day. host: william is a republican in cincinnati. what do you think about the president's appointment of richard cordray, your former attorney general. caller: i think it was an excellent move. i think it was long overdue. i think republicans have got to stop stalling -- either help the country move forward or gets out of the way. and i think they are not going to contribute to the progress of this country, they need to step

aside. host: and snow, alabama. emmit, good morning. democrat -- hansville, alabama. caller: my opinion is ever since rush limbaugh made the statement that he one of the country to fail an order to make this man a one-term president, this congress has been pretty much following order. they have been following the orders of rush limbaugh. they adopted the policy -- consistent with what was limbaugh said. i want to hear what your callers have disappeared are the republicans following rush limbaugh's order. when we get to the point of where we are that sinister, charlie in the wrong direction or what in terms of politics. i want to hear what your callers have to say. host: isn't it fair to say it is the other parties job to get

that -- the other parties president out of office? as a democrat, did you want george w. bush to serve two terms? caller: not at the expense of this sinisterism, not at that level. i was the person -- i did not like mr. bush's policies, but there is good in every president and every president in this country has four years. what you do, you try to do it in the most constructive and positive manner. if you have to reach to sinisterism, politics have become so corrupt. host: all right. thank you for calling in did what you do? caller: i am an engineer. i had to leave my home in florida to come to alabama? spaceisn't there a big program? caller: yes, sir. that is why i had to leave my family and come this way.

host: because of the shutdown of the shovel? caller: the working conditions in florida, i had to accept a job here. and they have a big military base year -- it is a military town. host: all right, thank you for calling in and things were watching "the washington journal." here is how "the hill" newspaper played the story about the appointment of richard cordray. jim is a republican from oklahoma. jim, what do you think about the president's appointment yesterday? caller: i think him and holder need to be arrested and put in jail. it is ridiculous. he has done again what he promised in his election bid for the presidency -- he said he would never do what he just did and he did it again. and it is not about democrat or bad republican but about but rule of law and the constitution

and he is breaking them both constantly. and anyone saying it is about -- the republicans are tried to stop -- heck, yeah, the republicans of trying to stop him. he is destroying the country. probably about $15 trillion in debt, at least $17 trillion in debt. excuse me -- the wars -- and not one thing he has done has helped the country at all. host: we will leave it there. "the new york times" also opined on this appointment.

north carolina, ward, independent line. caller: good morning. i am 100% behind barack obama

and i am glad to see him stand up and start talking now. i want to see a fight come out in this year because i am tired of seeing these obfuscating republicans, and they are just creating the problems. you can listen to them if you want to, because i have done it in the past, and they say one thing about their negative opponents, the democrats, but as it turns out later on you find out they are doing the very thing they are complaining about the other side. watch them and see if i am right there. all i have to say. you all have a good day. host: all right, ward. lee summitt missouri, valerie. caller: your callers cannot see the forest for the trees. this is not about appointing someone, this is about a new federal bureaucracy barack obama

and the democrats are creating -- a bigger federal bureaucracy. everybody in this country -- if you have a consumer protection problem, you call the attorney general of your state. do you really think if you have a problem you go to some bureaucrat in the federal government in washington, d.c., or what ever, and get your problem solved? this is absurd. the republicans are just trying to keep the federal government under control. host: that was valerie in missouri. here is "usa today" and how they played the story. in "the washington post" this morning is the story. consolidating the missions and

downside ambitions of the armed forces -- that is just part of the article in "the washington post" this morning. phil is a democrat from los

angeles. talking about the consumer financial protection marrow appointment yesterday. caller: i encourage people to go ahead and look at some of the historical rates a recess appointments and what they would find if they looked at it was that president reagan actually did them at a rate higher rate than president obama. the last five presidents. president obama has done recess appointments at a lower rate than any other president. and so, i would just encourage people -- there are a lot of people who have really negative feelings over president obama and i doubt there is pretty much anything that can be said to change their minds, but at least if they could go ahead and look at the facts as we know them and the rate of historical, the rate that presidents have done these recess appointments, what they find it is if they are condemning president obama for doing these recess appointments, they should have been even more upset at president bush and even more upset at president reagan.

just encouraging people to use -- to look at the facts and maybe look at those rates of historical presidential recess appointments. host: the majority leader senator harry reid's statement regarding the appointment of richard cordray. >> i support president obama's decision to make sure in these tough times the middle-class -- that was part of senator harry reid's statement. jeffersonville, indiana. kelly is a republican. caller: good morning, everybody. good morning, americans. i just want to say, there is a difference between being in recess and in a pro forma, and people need to bone up and realize congress was not in session. but regardless, the alabama caller from huntsville -- we

republicans want to make sure we hold president barack obama to his promise, the one he made that if he did not fix the economy in three years, then his presidency was going to be a one-term proposition. d and we want. amn sure that is the case. host: eric is an independent in pensacola, florida. caller: good morning. something interesting i was hearing the other day when obama was talking about how this new agency, which i consider unconstitutional, was going to protect us against all the unscrupulous businesses. but i think it is funny that the one i find to be the most unscrupulous is the federal government. where is our ombudsmen to protect us against them? it is ridiculous -- this entire debate -- and i am an independent -- but i hear

democrats talking about how bad the republicans have done it, and they are saying it is not a matter of that it is wrong but your guy has done it, too. if it is wrong it is wrong and if these people cannot follow the rules, why do we allow the government to use legal means to do illegal actions? host: facebook/com/cspan if you would like to make a comment and continue the conversation. we just want to read a couple of them --

some of the comments on our facebook page. we can continue the conversation. of the post will be up there all day. no hypen in c-span in that case. some of the twitter comments -- jody says -- tj says -- lou is a republican in naugatuck, connecticut.

caller: i am a registered republican but i have been voted libertarian since the mid- 1990's. washington, d.c., is the belly of the beast. this clown in the white house, he has to go. we do not need a socialist pervert social engineer. what we need to do is cut the size of the federal government by 90%. it is federal policies put forward by the left that is responsible to the economic collapse -- you look back to jimmy carter but the community reinvestment act where the government forcing banks to make risky loans to people who could not afford to buy houses. and bill clinton doubled down on the community reinvestment act which gave us the subprime fiasco. well-intentioned, try to help the poor and then collapsed the economy and now they blame the banks and the financial institutions when a federal policy contributed to this mess. number one, central planning does not work. we need to cut the size of the federal government by 90%.

host: we will leave it there. from "the new republic" --

delta, colorado, daniel on the independent line. caller: thank you, sir. i would just like to say that, please, come together, our government, work together, please. as an independent, i just look at both parties fighting back and forth and constantly just blaming each other for what has happened, and they are all to blame. and we are all struggling here trying to pay our bills and i would -- several of the callers, including valerie, that this is just another bureaucratic belly of the beast.

please, stop spending all of our money. it is hard earned and taxed. please, give us a break. host: all right. we got your pub. that was daniel in colorado. from "politico" -- so, he made those appointments as well. this is what the u.s. chamber had to say about those appointments to the national labor relations board.

al, democrat. topeka, kansas. caller: i would just like to say that the way the republicans are fighting against each other to get in the white house -- i am living here in kansas. a few months ago our president came to visit us. our congresswoman and our governor failed to visit with the present. what that tells you, it shows you they are all against our president. our president is trying to do the best he can but yet everything he says, it is always a no. thank you very much. host: senator mitch mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate, also tweeted his

response to richard cordray's appointment -- there is on the screen. mitt romney's response to the appointment. chicago style politics. here is the headline in "the hill." by the way, we will returning to new hampshire in about 15-20 minutes and will be up there for several sections -- sessions. we will be live there every day until tuesday, january 10, primary day. and, of course, we will have live primary coverage that evening as well. this is a picture of the president. you might have seen it on the news. this is "the daily news." the president playing touch football with some secrets service agents in hawaii during his recent vacation. looking to -- image, score

political touchdowns. john is a republican from hudson, florida. caller: first of all, i am not shocked about what he has done. other presidents have used it. but obama who supposedly came into the office as a great uniter, but has been a great divider. we all know he is the socialist and marxist -- but we have to throw one other thing in there, was to be a dictator. i would to clarify a few issues. people said he is here for the best of the country. no, i kiss the ground every day the republicans went in to stop him. we are still cleaning up from the obamacare and everything else. the bottom line -- i want someone is knowledgeable, too. maybe in islam, he is. we have 50 states. hawaii is one of the state's duty it the state'smarine co rpse -- he is unprepared and

ignorant. host: your primary is coming up january 31. who are you supporting right now? caller: i am looking toward romney. because, again, he has the business experience and the political and i believe he will be a person who will bring the parties together more so than obama. our country is divided so much -- in my lifetime i have never seen it like this. but i believe with what romney has said, too. i am from chicago and all of this is obama chicago politics. host: where is hudson, florida? caller: outside tampa. host: would you do? caller: i work with small businesses, sba, i tried to get businesses going. but i have to say the only way businesses are going to go is once obama is out of there and then i think everything will take off. host: hatch gets challenger.

sinaloa's, democrat. what do you to think of the president's appointment yesterday of richard cordray? caller: i think it would be a very interesting court decision if it is ever challenged by a bank lender or anything like that. but i was very interested in your question to one of the gentleman that isn't it republicans jump to try to get the president out of office? host: i think as said the other

party -- because it can go on either side. caller: exactly. the other party. the difference is, that is what elections are for. if you want to challenge his record, that is one thing. but in the course of legislation if you deliberately try to sabotage him from even making a record, when you stalemates and the like that -- i mean, the president's job is nothing like my job. i would not want to be president. but i can guarantee you that if i found -- or it was discovered that somebody where i worked or a group of people had conspired where i worked to keep me from doing my job and to keep me from making progress in my job, i would have a lawsuit. this level of -- it is one

thing -- people you have to work with. that is fine. that is expected. host: but isn't it fair to say that politics is a little different? caller: no, it is not. the only reason it is different is because we turned our politics into the next football game. we have -- we pick sides. we do not look at issues objectively. we look at these issues now in terms of the competition. do they have a better idea? if they do have a better idea and we are not in office, we need to make that idea look as bad as possible. that is not good for this country. host: all right, thank you for calling in. it from open -- from "usa today" --

governor walker is in washington, and he will be speaking at the american enterprise institute, an event c-span will be covering today. now, there are several other events we will be covering. many in new hampshire. we will be covering rick santorum and newt gingrich, reets, and wed g will be looking at a news cast out of manchester, the largest city out of the state of 1.3 million, and it will be all live during the day on c-span. if you go to c-span.org, you can get a full schedule of events on our website. though there, and you will be able to see everything we are covering. philadelphia. michael, republican line. what do you think of the president's appointment

yesterday? caller: i am very much in favor of it. host: ok, why? caller: i am sorry? host: why? caller: i and in favor of it because but congress has been -- i'm in favor of it because the congress has been stalling for years because of their special interest groups and dealing with lobbyists. i really believe congress has let the american people down for 12-15 years. i am a former police officer, conventvet -- combat vet. host: thank you for calling in did reminder to always turn down your volume.

tim is a democrat in spartanburg, south carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to say that these republicans are a joke. it is literally a joke. i wanted to comment on something one of the earlier callers said, that the employment rate going up. if the republicans would let the man do his job -- you know, we would get things done. these republicans are a joke, man. like a frat party or something. i am from a small, little town in south carolina, and it is a

republican state, everybody knows that. but i am behind obama 100% and a lot of people around here are. so, it is like a misconception about south carolina and a republican state. these republicans just need to get off whatever they are on and let them and do his job. host: your primary is coming up saturday, january 21. are you starting to see a lot of political ads on tv? caller: yes, sir. and obama -- i do think obama needs to take the gloves off and come out swinging a little harder because people need to listen to him, and these republicans, they are a joke around here, man. host: all right. "usa today" --

bowie, maryland. did i say it right? caller: yes. host: independent. caller: i am very disappointed in some of the callers -- that is the reason why i am an independent. the caller from connecticut and indiana totally uncalled for to call the president names, that they did. that is totally uncalled for. and i think that is the reason why so many people are turning independent, because republicans and democrats both, all they want to do is-the other side. and both are responsible for the mess that america is in. this is going back 30-plus years. this did not just suddenly have been, the mess we are in. as far as the appointment, who cares? obama has done, how many, 32,

compared to other presidents, republicans and democrats? why of the sudden interest or the sudden out rage because president obama is doing it? it does not make sense. we have bigger problems than this and we need to come together and stop all of the bickering. i am sick and tired of it. host: you can see on the screen, president clinton over his two terms, 139, george w. bush, 171, over two terms -- so far, president obama has made 32. from "the financial times" newspaper" -- the aerospace and defense company, which has been reviewing the future of the plant since the middle of 20 elevenses pressure on the u.s.

defense budget and lack of work at the site made the facility to expensive to operate. that is from "the financial times" this morning. this is from "the washington times." as we continue to take your calls on the president's appointment of richard cordray. ohio, bob on the republican line. caller: how are you doing? i want to address a couple of the callers you had before.

our local speed limit on the highway is 65. the other morning i was late for work and i was going 75. but, you know, i thought it was okay because i just ignored the rules like president obama was doing. a senate was not out on recess so it is illegal. and the driving 75 in 65 is illegal. simple. anybody can figure it out. i do agree with the caller that we should get out of the democrats and king obama's way and let him ruke the country and tell us how to live our lives. host: yemen's leader will not seek treatment in the u.s.. and here is how this newspaper placed the richard cordray appointment. and here is the front page of " the atlanta journal

constitution." last call comes from tarboro, north carolina. greg the independent line. caller: other presidents have made appointments during the same time. but this partisanship is pathetic. especially on the republican side. i am independent. i was a republican. they say that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. a radical is a conservative who has been constantly stopped by cops. this president, he swat today fly on television. he got a letter from the animal rights activists.

he told every child in america do well in school, what every child tells their parents, and they accused him of partisan politics. he addressed or tried to address the health care issue and he was stopped at every angle so he could not do his job and fix it, and that is why we are in the health care mess we are in today. host: all right -- we are going to leave it there. i think we got the point and we appreciate you calling in from north carolina. two final headlines we want to show you. 2011 was most expensive year in world disasters. this is a chart in "usa today." and the front of "the wall street journal" this morning. kodak teeters on the brink. chapter 11 in its future. right there is the story right underneath the fold. and finally, i just want to

bring your attention to this op- ed piece in "the new york times." he is often known as the father of the internet. his story -- or his op-ed piece is "internet access is not a human right." if you are interested, it is in "the new york times." we will talk to a longtime new hampshire political reporter, kevin landrigan, of "the nashua telegraph." we will be live from new hampshire. after that, we are also going to talk with congressman charlie bass, a supporter of mitt romney. and finally, we will look at a new study out from harvard university about the millennial generation, 18-29-year olds and how they will vote, how they feel about president obama, the republicans, the country in general. but first, we want to show you some of that adds that are running in new hampshire. here they are. and then we will be back. clip: this nation has been

downgraded. we have been kicked around as people. we are getting screwed as americans. we have an economic deficit in this country, and it is going to ship wreck the next generation unless we can do it. we have a trust deficit. i am the person who will lead the charge on all of the above and not only fix the economic deficit, but i will fix the trust deficit because -- in the whole we are in, we deserve better. clip: this election is about more than just replacing the present, but it is to save the soul of america. we still believe in an america that brings out the best of all this, that challenges each of us to be better -- better and bigger. it is time for this pessimistic president to step aside and let american optimism that built this greatest nation on earth build a greater future for our children. if you believe the disappointments of the past years are a detour and not a destiny, i am asking for your vote.

i met romney, and i approve this message. clip: america is in trouble. clip: washington is a disgrace. clip: overtaxing, overspending. clip: we need to change direction. clip: we cannot afford to make the same mistakes. clip: mitt romney's reputation as a flip-flop. clip: he went the other way when he got paid. clip: syria hypocrisy. clip: this election is about trust. clip: 1 true consistent candidate, dr. ron paul. clip: ron paul has been so consistent. clip: tells the truth about what he believes. clip: never once voted for a tax increase or an unbalanced budget. clip: his bold plans to cut five departments is what we need. clip: when he says he will cut $1 trillion in the first year, i believe it. clip: is that you are tired of politicians -- clip: ron paul is the one we are

looking for. clip: i am ron paul and i approve this message. host: on your screen is manchester, new hampshire, which is the largest city in that state. joining us from the center of manchester on our c-span desk is kevin landrigan will writes for "the nashua telegraph" newspaper, political reporter and columnist and longtime watcher of new hampshire politics. it is good to see you after four years. welcome back to c-span. guest: thanks so much, peter. thanks for having me. host: i want to start by asking you about your story this morning in "the nashua telegraph." you write about mitt romney coming to new hampshire after iowa, and you say he looks stuck in neutral before a relatively small crowd of supporters. guest: it is really hard for a

candidate like mitt romney, who has a 30-point lead in new hampshire to maintain a high level of energy and enthusiasm. when you have such a big lead, you don't tend to get complacent, but certainly it is harder to rev up. and you can see, john -- john mccain, a veteran of all of these very close races, sensing a little lack of energy there and trying to buck is a candidate up at that event at central high school. host: you say mr. romney has a big lead. the most recent poll has him at 43%? mr. romney, 43%, ron paul, 14% sun, jon huntsman, 9%, newt gingrich, 7% and rick santorum, 6%. how does this campaign feel to you as opposed to four years ago, eight years ago? guest: well, certainly the

economy and jobs is the dominant theme. and it is important to note here in new hampshire that we are doing better than the rest of the economy nationally. our unemployment rate is much lower than the national average. our poverty rate is the lowest in the country. we are the safe its stake in the country. but you sense out there nonetheless, in the workplace, a lot of anxious people about the possibility of a second dip recession. at so that issue has really displaced all others, whether it is foreign policy or social issues -- jobs and the economy are really important. what is interesting about this race that is different than eight years ago or four years ago is this is a fierce fight for second place, with enormous consequences for whoever gets it. it is really reminiscent of the 1988 campaign on the democratic side, when, ironically enough, another massachusetts governor,

mike dukakis, was the overwhelming favorite. and the question of, who was going to challenge dukakis. the question going forward from the hampshire, who will challenge from the? is there somebody who can coalesce the conservatives who obviously in great numbers are larger than romney's support nationally. is it rick santorum, is it ron paul, is it newt gingrich, is it jon huntsman? they've all got a shot and they all come as i say, are jockeying for that position in these last five days before the election on tuesday. host: your paper this morning endorsed mitt romney in the gop primary. "romney best choice for gop" --

you have an boys -- endorse mitt romney. "the manchester union leader" endorsed newt gingrich. guest: and four years ago we endorsed john mccain. it's sort of highlighted some of the flip-flops in romney's record. mccain went after mitt romney about -- the democrats and the newt gingrich campaign were shopping a video, a web of video from the 2008 campaign produced by the mccain campaign in which it listed some of the flip-flops and changes in positions, whether it is abortion, gun owner rights, that mitt romney had in its pre -- his previous history. we look at that and judge romney to be the best candidate and really to provide a clear choice and competitive choice to president obama in november. host: up until yesterday, did

rick santorum have any presence in your state? guest: it is interesting -- he has spent so much time and c- span has chronicled it so well, 380 town hall meetings in iowa -- that kind of grassroots politics catapulted him to the near victory that was really astonishing. he has made the third most number of trips to new hampshire before all of those four races in iowa. only mitt romney and johnson -- jon huntsman had been here more. he has about 30 elected and former-elected official supporting his campaign, and he also has a cadre of a political organizers, seasoned professionals, who really helped engineer pat buchanan's stunning defeat of the front runner bob dole in the 1996 republican primary. it added by a nail -- man from manchester -- headed by a man from manchester.

pat buchanan was singing his praises and all of those troops yesterday during many conservative talk shows. and santorum are obviously hopes those faults can provide the same kind of magic for him as they did for pat buchanan 16 years ago. >> do you think in the next poll taken, there will be a search for rick santorum? >> i think we will see some movement for rick santorum. unfortunately for newt gingrich, i think some of the tracking polls has showed slippage. as you pointed out, the "union leader" endorsement was a big help. the house speaker, it conservative tea party republican, endorsed him. it helped a great deal. but the disappointing finish in a iowa and a lot of the national news about the attack ads from romney's super pac hurt him. he has obviously come here angry, infuriated, and he is rodney's stalker in new

hampshire the next five days and it will be fascinating to see what the newt gingrich offensive against mitt romney does in this race. but it solidify votes for newt gingrich or, in fact, as even some newt gingrich supporters worry about, will it this logic mitt romney supporters to go to rick santorum and taken the conservative alternative with a strong second place showing? it is possible. but there is no question ron paul has the most passionate following in new hampshire. there are many thought he has a ceiling of around 15%. if he cannot grow past 15% tuesday, he can be passed by rick santorum, jon huntsman, and newt gingrich. host: we will put the numbers up on the screen -- an e-mail, journal@c-span.org, twitter.com, and you can, on

facebook, facebook.com/cspan. "the wall street journal" says the clock ticks for announcement in new hampshire. is that correct? guest: it is correct. i think he had a disappointing day yesterday. it is important to emphasize. he is a good friend of john mccain and was really hoping john mccain -- why? because jon huntsman's secret recipe for financing a strong second in new hampshire is to tap into those large numbers of independents that can take a republican or democratic ballot -- they will enormously take a republican ballot tuesday. he was hoping to get the votes. john mccain does not transfer all the support to mitt romney. polls show mitt romney leads among independents, jon huntsman is seconds, and huntsman has to worry right now whether mccain's endorsement of mitt romney stops some of the surge of more independents to his candidacy.

it is key to him coming in seconds. host: we want to hear from the hampshire residents and we set aside our fourth phone line -- 628-0184. kevin landrigan of "the nashua telegraph" is our guest. lisa from sacramento. caller: hello? hi. good morning. i just want to say that i have been laid off for a little over a year. thank god i do have an interview on tuesday. i just want to say to the republicans, they need to just allow obama to do his job. if he would just do his job, then the things that go wrong, we can blame him. but we can't blame him if the republicans are in the way. because i blame the republicans for everything that is going on. host: any comment for her? guest: lisa, you certainly raise

a point that the democrats and some independents feel very feelhere that they really feel that the agenda of the republican party nationally for three years has been -- has not been simply to vote no, but to stop obama's movement in its tracks in any way possible. that is one of the reasons why the republican leadership on capitol hill was on it -- was under severe pressure regarding the extension of on and on the benefits, and i thought president obama really pleaded that issue extremely well, put the republicans on the defensive, forced them to accept an extension of on and on the benefits, which is very important in new hampshire. as i say, we have an unemployment rate in the low 5% range, it is well below the national average, but we have thousands of people who have stopped looking. we have thousands of people who have exhausted their benefits. and, like lisa, are continuing to look for work. and it is very difficult to

find. host: kevin landrigan, about 240,000 people voted in the republican primary in 2008. guest: we have not heard from secretary of state bill gardner. he comes out with a turnout estimates which is usually very solid. i've police suspect a much higher turnout on tuesday and then we had in 2008. there was such a competitive primary on the democratic side from hillary clinton and barack obama, which turned out enormous number of independent votes. that race does not exist on tuesday. democrats have no contest to vote for. many loyal democrats have come to the polls. i think that we could approach 300,000 on tuesday. host: do you have to be registered as a republican to vote?

guest: no, you can be registered as an independent and take a republican ballot at the polls. you don't have to be registered. if as an unregistered voters you can show up at the polls, sign up, declare any party. if you declare republican or independent, you may take a republican ballot. host: what if you are registered as a democrat and say you want to switch? guest: you cannot do that. about five weeks ago you had to change your party affiliation in order to participate in the republican race. it is different than we saw in iowa in the caucuses where democrats tried to cause mischief by showing up at caucuses and voting in the republican caucuses. host: barbara is a republican in brooklyn. good morning. caller: good morning. i am conservative, but i called on the republican line.

the lady that called, she is brainwashed by obama, saying the republicans are blocking everything. they had the house 10 months. obama had two years of democratic control. he pushed on his agenda as a side. his playing class warfare. i am a disabled veteran. i am insulted that people have fallen for the rhetoric. if anybody can beat obama, it is romney. people in the tea party, you have to be in the middle. i am independent, but i cannot stand people saying republicans -- not making obama dew poin not making obama do his job. it's making me sick. i am a veteran and cannot get a job. i am disabled and cannot work at all. host: we will leave it there. kevin landrigan.

guest: barbara is right about the fact that early in his presidency he had democratic control of the congress and got his health care reform bill passed, about the stimulus package approved. republicans argued that made the economy worse and made the economy uncertain. she raises an interesting point and that is, what do republicans want in this nominee? there's a fierce fight in new hampshire about that. do they want a moderate who can appeal to mainstream voters and independents in the general election? or a fierce conservative who will take the fight hardest to president obama in the debates? many conservatives in hampshire point to the nomination of more moderate republicans such as john mccain in 2008, bob dole in 1996, leading to battle victories for republicans.

denominations of more conservative candidates like ronald reagan in 1980, leading to strong victories for republicans. that fight will go on past new hampshire as was reported yesterday, conservatives are meeting in texas next weekend to try to have a summit about whether we can coalesce around a candidate. can we all get behind newt gingrich, can we get behind rick santorum, ron paul, although that's unlikely because he is not acceptable to ne-yo conservatives here and around the country, or jon huntsman? that decision, after new hampshire, could have a lot to do with the kind of challenge mitt romney will say is going forward in this long primary season. host: you fail to mention new perry in that list. guest: rick perry certainly did a texas two-step on caucus night. it sounded like a candidate

getting out of the race. but as we have seen in published reports as he was jogging yesterday, had some kind of epiphany and decided that he is back in the race. he made the right decision. with michelle bachmann getting out of the race, there is an opening for rick perry. it's not going to happen in new hampshire. he is going to south carolina today, by passing new hampshire. there is no conservative candidate who has an ability to raise enormous amounts of money into like rick perry does. the thing about -- money follows momentum. that's one of the axioms of american politics, but the big money slowly follows momentum. as rick santorum has seen yesterday, he got 50% more campaign contributions yesterday banned in the entire campaign. almost all of it has come on line from conservative

republicans all over the country who have been woken up by his astonishing showing in iowa. it will take a lot of time for establishment republicans to decide rick santorum is the kinguy. rick perry knows that. he is sitting on several million dollars and will stake its claim in south carolina and tried to make a surprise showing like rick santorum did in iowa. it is a longshot, but it is worth taking for governor. because he still has those resources. people never star running for president, they run out of money to run for president. rick perry has not run out of money. so is no reason for him to get out. host: kevin landrigan has been writing about new hampshire politics with the telegram since 1988. mary is a democrat in illinois. caller: i will make my comments short.

look at president obama's audience compared to the republican audience. president obama's of audience looked more diverse like america really is, compared to the republican audience. thank you and have a good day. kevin landrigan host:, how do you describe the diversity of new hampshire? guest: it is not averse at all. it is the most white state in the country behind only vermont. -- it is not diverse. we're getting a larger minority population, but it is in the single digits when it comes to african-americans. and hispanics. we have a larger agent population -- asian population now moving in. it is a very white state.

we are trying with this tradition to represent the entire country. issues of diversity are very ofhere. here. we are one of five states in the country that allows same-sex couples to get married. a sitting governor signed that bill into law. courtber of courts had staye decisions to bring that about. that is an example of diversity inclusion that new hampshire is very famous for. it has a very libertarian, very yankee, a live and let live and do your own kind of thing attitude in new hampshire and that is not changed. senator santorum during a town hall meeting last night made a fierce defense of the republican party and its support for african american voters. he spoke about the fact as an

urban congressman and then senator in pennsylvania that the leveraged over $1 billion to historical links african- american colleges. there are three of them in pennsylvania. he tried to defend the republican party's support for african american and minority residents in this country. host: next call for kevin landrigan comes from new hampshire. curtis on our independent line. caller: good morning. i am a native of new hampshire and small business owner and veteran. i am pretty upset that romney has such a lead in this state's, because i don't see him as being much different than what we hadn't for decades. what we need is a change in this country. what we need is less military intervention, nation building,

and on false premises. ron paul is being described as a dangerous person, yet so many veterans and active duty military and are supporting him. how can he be considered dangerous when he does not want to start world war iii? guest: curtis, thanks for the call. great to have a new hampshire caller. ron paul has a passionate following here. a lot of it is built on the opposition to military interventionism. he is counting on a number of independents to vote for him on tuesday. they voted for president obama in 2008. they are disappointed that we are still in afghanistan and appears we will be there for many years. what is interesting about ron paul says -- in a hampshire we have the eighth largest per capita population of veterans in

this country. 130,000 veterans. the military is very important here. we used to have an air force base here. that was on the coast. ron paul has the most tempting contributions from members of the military. the talks about that a great deal. -- ron paul has the most campaign contributions from military members. he is counting on that kind of believe system to take cold on tuesday and really engineer what would be a surprisingly strong results in the second place showing in new hampshire. host: the front page of the new hampshire union leader this morning has newt gingrich on the front. kevin landrigan , have the negative ads against gingrich started? guest: they have not.

we understand that time has been bought by the super pacs of mitt romney. so far all those ads against gingrich in iowa, so far they are all pro-.- he does not have to shoot from the back of the bust at newt gingrich with the kind of leader that he has, like he had tro in iowa. we don't expect that kind of negative attack by the romney's super pac leading up to tuesday. so far he has presented a very positive agenda for change, for taking back this country, as mitt romney talks about during the campaign. host: have you heard anything about a new gingrich ad purchase? guest: yes. he has purchased ads.

he is dwarfed in the purchase of air time compared with mitt romney and even compared to jon huntsman. he has some resources. newt gingrich told us yesterday in concord after a town hall that he's not going to wage a negative attacks. his message will be about his agenda for the future, about his new contract for america if elected, not about mitt romney. rick santorum is interesting. most of the prime-time tv ad spots have already been bought. it is very difficult for rick santorum to a financially take advantage of the surprise showing in iowa with a huge media buy in new hampshire. the time does not exist on air. to othero go on t markets that are more expensive and prime-time spots in boston have already been taken up, some

of them. if this campaign has been spending the last 48 hours seriously trying to find the right tv slots before tuesday. host: st. louis on our independent line. caller: good morning. what you are failing to look at is you think the media is the only option. there's also the internet. there's a lot of things going on telling people that mitt romney is not the one. we had problems with bush and detainees and they put the country in such a bad place. there's no way obama or anybody can get the strength back that we used to have. the republicans have been standing their ground and saying no the last two years and caused a really bad taste in pretty mouth.erybody smi's

the republicans don't have a chance this time. democrats in the lower states will rule. ron paul speaks the truth. he says lobbyists are a bunch of crooks. i think that is a bad thing that you can legally buy washington, because that's what it really is. host: kevin landrigan. guest: thank you, louis. he raises some good points. candidates other than ron paul are talking about closing the revolving door as well as ron paul. people becoming lobbyists. there is some pessimism in new hampshire among republican establishment about their reelection chances. nationally, as we know, mitt

romney is the only candidate running neck-and-neck with barack obama. the callerrankly, h does not after worry about mitt romney. barack obama will campaign hard and will work hard and be very competitive here. i find it very difficult to see barack obama winning hampshire and if mitt romney is the nominee. one of the important reasons why is one of its secret weapons is being taken away. john lynch, a very popular democratic governor, the historic four-turnkey executive of new hampshire is retiring from politics and will not be on the ballot right under barack obama. that was the wind under his sales in 2008. that helped him to crush john mccain here by a large margin historical in new hampshire.

he does not have that going for him. it will be very difficult for obama to take those four electoral votes if romney is the nominee. if not, all bets are off. it is a swing states, like it always has been. it is up for grabs. host: we would like to hear from new hampshire residents as well. here's a picture on the tampa bay time on your screen. that is surely a smith and pat dexter, who both worked at a manufacturing company. there were listening to jon huntsman yesterday at the manufacturing company. the national telegraph website has the candidates' schedules in case you're interested in seeing where they are throughout the day. they have quite complex and heavy schedules, including jon huntsman has a meeting with buddy roemer and his office in

manchester today and also has a concord main street stroll. lots of events going on. c-span is covering several of those events today. we have rick santorum and newt gingrich and we have another event on c-span 2 tonight where the people supporting the candidates are talking. if you go to c-span.org, you will build to get into our coverage schedule from entered today. the long beach, california, and grace, if you are on with kevin landrigan. caller: hi, thanks for taking my call. i wanted to talk to you briefly about the hatred against this president. that's put aside even though it is hurtful, i would like to address some of the talking points. they've been in the air a long time. sometimes the media rolls over

and lets it go because it is so much. one thing i want you to please address -- and i will take your answer off the air -- is the fact that republicans continue to say that president obama gave us all this debt and at the same time no one seems to be addressing the fact that when george bush was president of most of the defense spending and certain things were not added to the debt, so the debt was looking smaller. when obama came into office the went ahead and added everything so everybody could see the whole picture of the debt. another is thing is they keep saying the stimulus did not work. but i feel that when the stimulus happens, some states returned the money. chris christie did not want to build a tunnel. things for in destructor worth put by the wayside and the states did other things with the money.

we did things for infrastructure went by the wayside. guest: really good point. we saw this in 1984 against republican president ronald reagan. we saw that in 1996 against democratic president bill clinton. when the incumbent has no primary challenge and when there's a huge fields on the other party side, so much of the early campaign is an audition for who can be the most vitriolic and most confrontational against the incumbent. that is what we saw here for months. it is one of the reasons why mitt romney stands in the position he does today. as we saw from the exit polls in iowa and i think it's true here, which is, among those that said defeating obama was their number one priority, mitt romney got 41% of the caucus votes. if it is driving the other

republicans crazy. we saw newt gingrich yesterday basically explodes at this motif. he said i cannot stand this electability argument about about romney. three out of four people at the caucus said that romney was not acceptable. part of it is a complement to this president. barack obama is extremely good candidates. we saw that on the ground in new hampshire. he is a very deft, very articulate speaker, he connects well with people in a crowd, and is a very good debater,, as john mccain learned in the 2008 campaign. that is why the republican party has been defined, and nominee who can debate with barack obama and take the fight to the incumbent, who can put the white

house on the defensive, which is a very difficult thing to do. with this difficult economy and with all the struggles obama as, this president has enormous advantages of incumbency. he will deploy them to every utility as we will see and he will probably have a record war with as much as $1 trillion if you count all the various committees that have been raising money for him curiously. host: the most recent poll by suffolk university and channel 7 -- mitt romney with 43% in new hampshire, ron paul with 14%, jon huntsman at 9%. that is from yesterday. inverness, florida, florence on our republican line. caller: i am for ron paul

because they're sending billions of dollars to other countries. $3 billion a year for the military and the nuclear power plants over there. we should stop all of that. host: kevin landrigan, you said earlier that ron paul has the most enthusiastic backers in new hampshire. what kind of presence does he have organizationally? guest: he has a pretty good organization. he made a tactical error. he had a strong showing in iowa. over 20%, a close third place finish, and sort of goes dark, not campaigning here until friday. that does not sound like a candidate who wants to carry the big momentum from iowa into new hampshire. we expected to see him on the ground right away. but he has a number of volunteers, he has strong support in the college campus community of dhahran, plymouth, other towns, which makes for an

interesting triangle in new hampshire. -- durham, plymouth, and another town. they have a lot of influence in the suburbs directly roundels college towns. i expect ron paul to do very well in that part of the state and to show a basis for this report tuesday night. it would be a surprise if the is a second place finisher here. there is not the kind of level of isolationism and time to pull up the drawbridge, to totally end any u.s. involvement overseas that lawrence spoke about that we saw in 1996 that pat buchanan tapped into, with the very pro usa message. his famous line was "to grab your pitchforks." he was talking about storming the castle, basically talking about not just getting out of foreign conflicts but getting

foreign investment back into this country and to reignite the economy of this country. there is a lot of emphasis on that here, which is bringing back investment in new hampshire. while i talk about the economy doing well here, it is important to note that per-capita if there have been more jobs lost to china in new hampshire than any other state. why is that? because we are a high-tech manufacturing state. we have an enormous percentage of people who use the internet and have used it such as facebook, twitter, the web, to get information about presidential politics. china has very low wages that they are able to attract companies that are very high tech, very high-knowledge-based industries. they have stolen a lot of those jobs from new hampshire. that has been very harmful to this economy during this tough recession. host: kevin landrigan is in our

studio in the center of new hampshire, manchester, new hampshire. looks like there is snow falling behind you. guest: we are going to get snow flurries for the next couple days. fortunately, the forecasters are telling us there are no major storms predicted between now and tuesday, which is great news for the turnout. if we have had primaries with big snowstorms. trust me, people show up. it is a duty. they take it extremely serious in new hampshire and no matter who they are voting for. no matter what the weather is. host: michael, aurora, colorado. caller: good morning. you have a beautiful state. my sister lives in a little village right outside of keene on the other side of the state. guest: i am familiar with it. caller: republicans have been

blocking president obama every step of the way. mcconnell publicly said that my number one job is to defeat obama. we know politically -- i understand that politically. but to say that publicly and to act that's out has to be very embarrassing from john boehner not to be able to deliver his caucus. something karl rove said, and he was right, he said the tea party is going to ruin the republican party. they don't believe in compromise. you would've thought they would have read history and look at newt gingrich in 1994 and 1995 when at that time he would have been considered something like a tea party person wanting to close down the government. but cooler heads prevailed. senator dole and others reeled him in and said you cannot do this because if you shut down the government, government contractors, private-sector people, were going to lose a lot

of money. the final point i will make is i can see in the debate where someone will ask the question in the presidential debates, "the country is tired of gridlock, what can you do to improve you can work with the other side of ove youle -- to apppr can work with the other side of the aisle." guest: thanks for the call. i am a graduate with a journalism degree. so i know the town where your sister lives. it is a quaint new hampshire community. as we talked about before, independents make up the largest bloc of voters in and enter. if by a significant margin. they have been growing in numbers in the last three presidential election cycles. over 40% now. we hear from independence the same message this caller just

provided. washington is not working, the two parties cannot get together, why can we not have bipartisan cooperation? jon huntsman is the one candidate trying to tap into that reservoir feeling. he talks about the trust deficit. he essentially says the american people of lost trust with their leaders of both parties in washington. he says i'm someone who can work with both parties in washington and get things done. he has been an ambassador for ronald reagan and an ambassador for barack obama. so he has worked with both parties. he is trying to tap into that belief, that skepticism about the future, that washington will always remain divisive and a volatile place without someone who can stop the food fight and

get people to work together to get people back to work again. host: pennies in concord, new hampshire, where kevin landrigan'a newspaper is based. caller: this gentleman is looking at new hampshire jobs with rose colored glasses. i am a retired senior. i raised my daughter in keene. i lived there 26 years. it's a beautiful town. i now live in concord, new hampshire three doors down from our statehouse. on any given day i can look out and see homeless people walking up and down our street. they are living down here not far from where i live. bads so bad appear tha -- up here that we have had to put a food pantry in the elderly housing. concord housing has cameras

downstairs because there are so many homeless. people are letting them in because they have nowhere else to go. host: mr. landrigan. guest: yes, penny, thanks for the call. there is no question, as i spoke about before, while the numbers look rosy, the economy here is not. i am a resident of concord and work at the state house. she's right. i go to work and every day scene outside the congress library dozens of homeless people, people without jobs for looking for warm place to go and many of them to try to use their cell phones or their computers, to try to get jobs. concord is also the place where when we close the state's school for the disabled community,

which was a terrible warehouse and probably one of the signature achievements in mental health that and hampshire has had when it closed the facility? n the early 1980's, the population is primarily migrated to capital city where the most services from the state exists. she's absolutely right. we have people living in tents along the merrimack river who are homeless. we have people downtown that are outside the coffee shops and retail merchants in the capital city begging for any food. we have street musicians playing music asking for collins. -- for coins. it's a real frustration even for the current administration. because of the federal regulations, when the unemployment rate dropped to a certain level, as ours has dropped much lower than the

national average, the department of employment security had to lay off a third of its employees. the employment commission was very unhappy about this. they know there's a bunch of people who are not on the statistics. there are people who have exhausted their benefits and still cannot find a job. there are many homeless people who have never been on the unemployment rolls and are looking for a warm place to stay. soup kitchens are crowded. some of them overcrowded throughout the state. so there is this underground economy. it does not look like the numbers look, which are rosy. the underground economy is very ugly and very tragic. host: kevin landrigan has been our guest from our studio in manchester, new hampshire. the washington journal will be

live all week and all weekend leading up to the january 10 new hampshire primary. mr. landrigan, as always, thanks for being on the journal this morning. guest: thanks for having me, peter. it's great to have c-span in new hampshire. host: we continue live coverage from manchester in a minute. representative charlie bass will be in our studio. he is a republican from new hampshire scans has endorsed mitt romney. we will speak to him about that. first, our colleague is looking at different issues in manchester and how they prepare for the onslaught of the media. clip: we are in downtown manchester with the mayor of the city. a republican just sworn in for his second term a couple days ago. tell us how the city has prepared for the primary. >> there's no way to really prepare. if all you can do is make sure president's understand there's a lot of people coming into town

and they have to have enough food to feed everybody. there's nothing you can prepare for because you don't know how many people are coming in crew or where they are coming from. but manchester is alive and the hotel rooms are full from here to the north country. people are excited. >> i read in the union leader paper yesterday that you expect diplomats from other countries to be in the proceedings. host: they are here. you can see them walking l street yesterday -- elm street. yesterday i saw them excited to go into stores because they did not back to pay sales tax. >> what about the impact on local businesses? >> is a big impact and people are excited. we have a little bit of a different bunch in manchester. we have not felt the pain that most of the country has. the unemployment rate is about 5%.

it's probably the envy of many places because we are creating jobs. we're not as what you would see in most parts of the country. people are happy and excited about the visitors. >> i did read in the paper that there's a $20 million budget gap. does this help at all? do you get taxes from those visiting? host: >> we do, but that all goes to the state. hopefully we will help the state budget. none of the states in the pockets of the city. >> any cost to the city itself before you all to prepare for the primary? >> when you have big groups, you have police details and you have to worry about that. there was an event yesterday at central high school. mitt romney did need police officers and firemen there and he did pick up the tab. >> is that normal for candidates to pick up the tab?

>> it is not, but i wish it would be. doesat infrastructure a place need to have? >> hampshire campaigning is very important. if ya don't have the ground game in new hampshire, if you have a tough time, because people want to see you and touch you and puts up a lawn sign. >> what is the ground game in new hampshire? >> it means going to the diners or breakfast places in the mornings especially one on the west side. if you go by there you will see pictures of almost every presidential candidate that comes to new hampshire. also balmont hall and a few others in town. those are the most prevalent with people visiting. >> have you seen all the candidates? >> i met with all the

presidential candidates. the only one i did not meet with was michelle bachmann. everybody else has been by there to talk to us. about told that it's retail politics in new hampshire. if you don't have the game and are ready to go and to shake hands, it's not the place to be. people want to look you in the eye. they will not make a selection until they have met you at least three times. >> i know that you have endorsed former massachusetts governor mitt romney. what is your role in the primary as mayor? >> i tried to keep my door open to everybody. even though i have endorsed mitt romney, i'm willing to speak to all of them and tell them what the role of candidates should be and how they have to go out and about, to make sure they meet people. it is important. it's about going to town hall meetings and house parties and stopping into the restaurants. >> thank you very much.

>> thank you. host: live coverage from manchester, new hampshire, continues. that is the men tested skyline on your screen. in the center of that city is our next guests in our c-span studio. representative charlie bass, a republican congressman from new hampshire. he has endorsed mitt romney in this primary. congressman bass, why did you endorse mitt romney? guest: he is a rather remarkable individual. i have been working in new hampshire politics -- my dad was in congress in the 1950's and i endorsed howard baker in 1979 and have endorsed somebody for president ever since then. like all new hampshire people interested in the political process and getting involved, i've looked at all the candidates -- and they are very good candidates, but mitt

romney combines extraordinary experience in business, 25 years. he did an amazing job with the olympics, which is in the non- profit area, and has a record as governor of massachusetts where he was able to work with democrats in a very partisan environment and really get a lot done in massachusetts. he has a unique opportunity in the nation to replace obama, who has extraordinary experience, clearly is a courageous leader. i came to the conclusion that in this field, the big field we have, that mitt romney is head and shoulders above all of them. host: what is your role in helping mitt romney's campaign to strategizing and get out the votes? guest: i am doing everything. i have a little cut on my nose.

i was putting up a lawn sign in my hometown day before yesterday at the top of a ladder and it hit me in the face. i am doing anything i can do to make sure that vote is a majority vote for mitt romney on tuesday. as far as strategy, i am in touch am his campaign. i had a great event at my house last night for key romney supporters. senator mccain and governor romney were both there. we had a very successful town meeting again in my hometown right afterwards. there's momentum. the support is there. i think mitt romney's supporters and his friends are ready to work. nobody is taking anything for granted in this race if over the next six days. we will all be out working doing whatever we have to do no matter who we are to make sure we get the votes on tuesday. host: we have the phone lines,

but we have set aside the fourth blind for new hampshire residents. -- fourth line for new hampshire residents. you were elected to congress in 1994, the same year republicans took over congress. newt gingrich was your speaker. you have not had some nice things to say about mr. gingrich. guest: i have not been unfriendly. i was in congress during his entire speakership. he has a lot of great qualities. he's a very smart guy, is a great historian. i've read a couple of his books. he is an interesting fellow, a lot of new ideas. that is not the primary justification for candidacy for president. i think newt gingrich would be a great secretary of new ideas in a new administration or a great

commentator. but the job of president requires its enormous self discipline. it requires the knowledge that the new gingrich has, but that is not a fit. with all due respect to my friend newt gingrich, mitt romney has been governor of massachusetts, has been in the business community, has a very diverse background. america is not in a situation where you can have people whose primary claim to fame is new ideas. it has to be about turning this country around. america is not in a turnaround situation, it is in a workout situation. romney knows what it takes to get america working again. it really matters. it matters more than ever. this is the time where we have to let somebody knows how to

make tough decisions. newt gingrich is very articulate with great ideas. but the presidency is more than that. host: chris tweets -- who you are on the record as saying that newt gingrich on the ticket would drag the entire party down in 2012. guest: in my view mitt romney is the candidate that can unite this party. there is -- if you add up the votes from all the other candidates in iowa, that is the business of picking a nominee. i have no doubt that if mitt romney wins the nomination, almost all the republicans will conclude that he would be a better president than the current president and failing to

vote for mitt romney for effectent will have the impac of electing president obama to a four-year term. when it is over and we will be united. for me in new hampshire and four others in other northeastern states, clearly, mitt romney is an attractive candidate, because he understands the problems that are unique to the northeast. host: what is your relationship with rick santorum? guest: he was elected to the u.s. senate the same year that i was elected to congress. he served in congress, i believe, four years prior to that. he and i know it to other personally. we have been on a show's not like this one but on other shows together advocating for

conservative republican causes. i have a lot of respect for him. but, again, he is a relative newcomer to the field. i am not suggesting newcomers are not just as qualified as those who have been around, but we don't know as much about him as mitt romney. i want to emphasize that the purpose of this exercise is to nominate candidates that we like the most but also the candidate who is most likely to win in november. i don't know whether rick santorum has the shoulders, the money-raising capacity, the ability to deal with a $1 billion political machine that will come after a republican nominee in july or august of this year. although i respect rick santorum and certainly understand why a lot of people are supporting him, because he is a person with tremendous conviction and passion, but in

the end of this is about winning in november. mitt romney is the candidate that has shown most of rick santorum's view on issues but he can win in november. host: representative charles bass was in congress from 1995 to 2007. he was defeated in 2006 and then he won again in 2010. guest: that is absolutely correct. host: the first caller is randy, a democrat in illinois. go ahead. caller: hey. i am a democrat and was trying to get ron paul in there. my big question, are any of the candidates to help us have jobs in hampshire? guest: first, randy, i am a business person, myself, by trade. i have been in manufacturing

since 1981. i understand better perhaps than most the problems that manufacturers face. i had a somewhat different view about what it takes to succeed in manufacturing. it is not about complaining about china or competition. i discovered long ago, you beat the competition. the businesses i have been involved with have succeeded primarily because we understand how to compete, how to close the sale, how to get a well-trained work force set up, etc. so there are issues related to manufacturing that are not just about having a federal government be involved or not be involved. if we need a tax code that is friendly to manufacturing and do business in general. we have the second or third highest income tax -- corporate income tax in the world. we have a tax system that foreign earners.

we need to simplify the tax code and make employers more competitive internationally so they would be less likely to want to situate manufacturing facilities offshore. i happen to believe the free trade agreements that we have passed, three bipartisan free trade agreements, with panama, colombia, and south korea, are critical, because in new hampshire we are exporters. one out of every four jobs in this state is either directly or indirectly related to exports. not only in manufacturing but also in services. we need to be able to compete. when we pass these free-trade agreements, we make them abide by our rules, not the other way around. we will see a better competitive economy as a result of that as well. again, i have a somewhat

different view coven kurds in manufacturing. we need to do it by giving employers the tools they need to compete. the federal government cannot create a competitive environment through the passage ormandates orthoped edicts stimulus bills. host: the next call is doug on our independent line from new hampshire. caller: there's an old saying that says how do you know when a politician is lying? when they are talking. romney is establishment, no different than obama. you have romneycare, pro- abortion, gun laws in massachusetts are like communist china. ron paul, on the other hand is not running for power. he wants to legalize the

constitution. that's why so many people are behind him. guest: thanks for your comments. if all of that were true, i would not be endorsing mitt romney. nobody is more in favor of gun owners' rights. nobody understands or believes that the u.s. constitution is more important than i do. mitt romney was an effective and successful governor of massachusetts. he had to work with a legislature in the senate that was very democratic. under those circumstances you had to compromise on occasion, but mitt romney has explained himself adequately? over and over again for the work that he did, the good work, i believe, as governor of massachusetts. as much as i respect congressman ron paul, who has been in

washington very little this year, by the way, as a congressman, i believe that he is running a little like newt gingrich. he has a lot of ideas, hicksites a lot of people. but the question that the potential voters have to ask, is ron paul really going to be the person that winds up in the oval office? i think ron paul said the other day that he was thrilled that a pollster finally asked a question about the gold standard. if it had not been for his candidacy, we would not be debating the gold standard. well, that is not what this process is about. this process is about financial issues, but it's about replacing a president that we don't think has done a very good job for the last four years. ron paul, although he has a lot of good ideas, would not be this party nominee. i think he knows that and a lot of people support him know that,

i think. hopefully, i will have the privilege of working with the successor to barack obama. i hope it is not barack obama. that somebody else will be mitt romney. mitt romney will be a generational president like ronald reagan or teddy roosevelt, because of his experience, because of his record, because of the fact that he's a good communicator, and because of the fact he will be able to end better than anybody i can think of on the sticky right now, the gridlock in congress and in the senate -- better than anybody i can think of right now. host: new dynamics. mitt romney and rick santorum on the front page of the boston globe. barbara, a republican colleague from delaware. go ahead. caller: good morning. all these jobs have gone overseas, who owns these

factories? you hear about the products being manufactured in china and other countries. are they americans? i think we should make them all come back. i would like to see a ticket of romney and santorum. guest: thank you for your call. i certainly understand your frustration about losing jobs. any job that goes overseas is a bad thing to happen. however, it is difficult to distinguish between companies that are american employers and those that are not. some of the major foreign automobile companies in the world now have major manufacturing facilities in america. many of the american corporations are manufacturing components for devices or things

that they're putting together in america. it is almost impossible to distinguish what is american made and what is not. the key to economic success in this country is to make sure that our employers are competitive with the structure, the economic climate is competitive with that around the world. i certainly understand that if a job is lost to a country that is not domestic, that is bad. on the other hand, the way to combat that is if you cannot pass a law that says, home. nothing would happen. what we have to do is create incentives or eliminate disincentives that derived jobs offshore. i have discussed a minute ago some ways that can happen. primarily through the tax code, if through trade, and through good education, making sure that our businesses can compete with

those elsewhere. host: the associated press is reporting the number of people seeking the unemployment benefits fell further in the final week of 2011. a positive sign for hiring -- next call, tried-city's washington, george on our independent line. caller: i voted for reagan the first time around. since then i have concluded that the last good republican president we have had was dwight eisenhower. the grand jury clause of the fifth amendment does not apply to the states for administrative and real progress in 1889. johnson versus louisiana in 1964.

the number of 12th is mystical, the jury number. host: we're going to leave it there and let your comments stand, george. here's a comment about dwight eisenhower being the last good republican president. guest: it is interesting that the caller would say that. i have a particular feeling about that. my dad was elected to congress in 1954, of which was two years after eisenhower became president. adams, governor of the state, later became his teeth of staff and my father and a couple of others here were the people that promoted eisenhower's candidacy in new hampshire against senator taft in 1952. my father at a time was president of the new hampshire state senate. eisenhower was the head of nato in europe. there's a famous letter written

by the assistant attorney general on back of the secretary of state to the secretary of state of kansas try to determine whether eisenhower's party affiliation was a republican or democrat, because he was being drafted to the new hampshire primary if and they did not know which balata put him on. i don't know what that says about modern politics versus the politics at that time, because eisenhower and was a great war hero, but the fact that it was such a great gulf between republicans and democrats in those days, at least perceived. eisenhower ran very much as a populist candidate. adlai stevenson, his opponent twice, never had a chance. i certainly understand the collar and i agree with the caller's reminiscing that eisenhower was a great president. he is certainly -- it certainly was one of the better times in

american history when he was commander-in-chief. host: front page of the houston chronicle this morning, perry off to the races again, on his way to south carolina. there's a related story this morning in "politico." there was an emergency meeting -- order will be held next weekend to come up with a consensus candidate. i want to get your thoughts on this consensus candidate and this group meeting. guest: fair enough. i don't want to be political junkie and try to handicap what this means for that. i know you have guys that do that all the time. i believe that rick perry

staying in this race probably does hurt rick santorum after new hampshire, because rick perry is not running in new hampshire. i will not speak for individuals, anybody but mitt romney realizes now that if they don't get more of these candidates out of the race sooner rather than later, that governor romney will be the nominee. this kind of thing usually does not work. candidates that run for any office do not duet because they want to be part of a team -- they do not to wait because they want to be part of a team. i have never discouraged or

tried to talk somebody out of running for any political office. you cannot manipulate the system that way. i wish these individuals well. i do not think the voters appreciate the advocates trying to settle on a particular candidate and transferring that support to that candidate. i do not think that works. republicans and independents will pick the candidate most likely to be the incumbent president in november. host: john on our independent line. caller: good morning. i would keep everybody's number on speed dial. i am involved issue why is it. the republican party is just losing it.

the president passed recess appointments yesterday that are not legal. we are so frustrated. i probably will vote for mitt romney. some like donald trump should by-4 because of all of these lies. guest: the president -- this reminds you of a political move on his part to attempt to exhibit leadership. he should never have done this. my response to the caller is that the way you'll be able to resolve this problem is through your vote next tuesday and in november.

if you believe that donald trump can beat barack obama in november, you should support him and vote for him. i don't want to live in an america with four more years of president obama. i am supporting the person that will have the kind of supports and ideas that john has to the white house. i agree with the frustration. members of congress and the speaker have put out statements condemning president obama for what he did yesterday. there probably will be some resolutions on this matter. i hope that you'll be out there working hard in the next five days and the next nine months to elect a different person to the white house.

tweets onlso take the "washington journal." rick.is from wr guest: i do not know what the caller -- the tweeter is talking about brinksmanship. i guess the logic is that the tea party is somehow controlling the legislative process and things do not get done on to the last moment. that's the way this system has worked since i can remember. when you go to buy a new car, you did not say i will be back in two weeks to pick it up.

you make the sale and you move forward. you do the hard is studying in college at the end. i would suggest the brinksmanship that existed in the 1990's -- every time we had a recess, they have to get 15 different bills out. i think the debt limit vote, keeping government opened vote, and the temporary payroll tax extension -- this would have happened this way no matter who was in charge of congress. the rhetoric is so shrill. there is not buy partisanship in the public perception. it looks worse than it is.

advocacyelieve any group is trying to control any of the agenda in congress. the agenda is based on a job- creating economic turnaround, strong national security, less government, balancing the budget, lower taxes. host: chicago, carl, you are on. caller: good morning. i will call you congressman. my comment that i wanted to make goes like this. for two years, your party to a man voted no on everything that the president presented. you voted no on everything.

100% no. you offered legislation that there was no support for it. how is your party doing anything to help this country? i am trying to understand your point of view. "we need to give business everything." if you're an american business, you can do something for the country. business in this country right now is making profits. they have more that $3 trillion in profits. i did not see -- invested in america and pay our debts. host: congressman bass. guest: businesses do have

accumulated profits that they are holding onto. the government cannot or them to do something else. they are worried about what the future -- where the future lies for america. what will the new health care what do? the deficits are $1 trillion a year. we have run out of options to turn the economy around. the caller is right. the republicans voted no on the cap and trade bill and on the dodd-frank built because none of them were perceived as providing long-term economic stimulus that would put people back to work. we have been proven right.

these other pieces of legislation passed, except for the cap and trade bill. isn't it time to try something different? we need to try something different. the republicans have sent 27 different job-creating bills to the senate. some of them deal with taxes. i have not voted for all of them. they are legitimate concrete efforts to turn this economy around. faced with economic stagnation. the employers in this country are waiting to see what happens in this election. government does not create wealth.

government creates an environment for potentially wealth creation. the corporate taxes are too high. in my home state, new hampshire, we depend on a good, strong import-export market for economic vitality. our unemployment rate is about 420% over last year -- 4.2% over the last year, year and a half. we have relatively high education rates, and we export. there are other ways to attack this problem. i think it is time for a different direction and i believe we will be able to move

this ship in a different direction come november. it is the definition of a loyal minority. host: we are talking to congressman charlie bass from new hampshire. joseph from new hampshire on our republican line. caller: good morning. ever since the ross perot campaign, we have incurred everybody in the political arena. we need to take our country back. nobody has the courage to tell the truth and say who we need to take the country back from. you know as well as i do and all those people considered insiders that the 13 wall street banks by

way of the federal reserve are running the country. the reason why the democrats and republicans cannot get anything done is because democracy is dead. our way of life is gone. host: congressman bass. guest: fair enough. i appreciate your perspective. i support more transparency in the federal reserve. i think it operates in too much of a sphere of secrecy. that would be helpful for the economy. i do not want to be thought of as supporting the behavior of wall street over the last four years. the solution of the dodd-frank bill does not solve the problem

and creates more regulation and more cost and doesn't do anything about reforming the current six or seven agencies that have jurisdiction over the financial markets in this country. it creates a new agency which may or may not be successful. taking america back is turning this ship in a different direction. government has become bigger and bigger and more intrusive. when i entered congress, the federal budget was about $1.5 trillion. it is article that close to 50% of americans -- it is arguable that 50% of americans do not pay any taxes at all and receives some benefit from the government.

we're the insurer of last resort. we have a safety net, but the safety net gets higher and higher. how much treasure is there to support those who cannot support themselves? we have to seek a balance. taxes are kept low and that citizens have a chance -- my children have a decent chance to be successful and not have to turn to government to do that. that is taking america back. my candidate for president has that vision and i hope that the majority of voters in this country feel that way as well. nobody is perfect. if i agree with governor romney

on everything, there would not be a reason for both of us to be here. we need to get together and show our votes in november to make that happen. caller: it has been a long time since i've talked to you. mr. bass said we will take the country back but i do believe we're taking the country back. he fixed iraq. we were told there were weapons of mass destruction. we were told we would be greeted as liberators. we were told saddam hussein had something to do with the planning of 9/11.

four strikes. even in baseball, three strikes you're out. guest: i commend the president for getting osama bin laden. that is an enormous accomplishment. muammar gaddafi, successful operation the president was part of that. what the president did in iraq was almost the same as what president george w. bush planned to do before he left office. president obama has surged in afghanistan and now has problems that were faced in iraq. record as abama's leader in the foreign policy

area is successful in some areas but mixed in others. there were people in 2006 and 2008 that did what president bush planned to do and has increased our presence in another country in this troubled region of the world. host: congressman charlie bass is a republic and has endorsed mitt romney. we appreciate your time this morning on the "washington journal." we will continue our live coverage from manchester up through tuesday night when the new hampshire primary occurs on january 10. florida on january 31. we will be live up through next tuesday and we continue our coverage. we'll be joined in a minute

with trey grayson. there is a new study about young american's attitude in public service and we will be talking to them, but first our colleague is also in manchester. host: we're back in downtown manchester in city hall with the mayor, ted gatsas. why should new hampshire hold the first primaries in the nation? guest: this is the only place that people come to the might be little known and make a big jump into the national limelight. i look back to jimmy carter when he first came here. nobody knew who he was. he went to a country store. he went in and said, "i'm jimmy

carter." "jimmy who?" so you can come to new hampshire with very little funds. it is not about the media. people want to meet you. seeou campaign, you'll people standing on street corners with signs and waving. that is a tradition here in new hampshire. just waiting to people as they go by -- just waving to people. host: we are in the primary room in city hall. there is a question about whether retail politics matters. guest: it matters in new

hampshire because there are a lot of issues out there. there's not one burning issue. the burning issue across the country is jobs. they want to make sure someone is coming to them about retaining their jobs or creating new jobs. they will say, how much can you guarantee that i'm not losing my job? getting up on the airwaves and advertising is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't give you an opportunity to meet the people. host: what is alike to be a voter in new hampshire -- what is ait like? guest: when the political ads jump on the airwaves, the prices

go up. you could tell that people were not buying a lot of air time before iowa. host: and if that will increase. describe the new hampshire voter, specifically the manchester voter. guest: there is a great diversity in this community. 80 different languages being spoken at a school that mitt romney spoke at yesterday. we have people coming in from all countries that sell all right here in manchester. we have to find a way -- i asked the current administration about waiving test scores from people from other countries and i have not heard back from

the administration. host: you have endorsed governor romney. guest: i have. we are a resettlement committee for refugees. we settle about 60,000 communities and have about 200 to 300 people that are settled here on a regular basis. we have great diversity in this community. they may not be the tech-savvy people as today. facebook and everything else. you still need to get to people that don't have the ability to get to the polls. host: who can vote? guest: you can vote in a primary on the democratic side and on the republican side. independents can go went and

reclaim their independence. host: you were at the mccain event yesterday when he endorsed mitt romney. tell us what happened. guest: there was a lot of excitement when senator mccain came in. he noticed me and said, "you're here?" i endorse senator mccain and he was hoping i would bring the same lot to the mitt romney campaign. i look forward to the race and mitt romney being the next president of the united states. host: mayor ted gatsas, thank you very much. host: c-span all week will be all over new hampshire leading

up to the primary next week's. there is a meet and greet with rick santorum and we'll hear from the circuits on c-span2 this evening. you can get the full schedule on c-span.org of campaign events all day long from new hampshire. joining us from harvard is trey grayson, the director of the harvard institute of politics. there's a new study and we will show our viewers the front page of the study, the survey of young american's attitudes toward politics and public service. what would you say is the headline from the survey? guest: young americans are pretty pessimistic about the future of their country and that is having a big impact on their views on the president,

congress, and they're willing to participate in the upcoming election. host: are they more supportive of somebody else? guest: this is the generation -- these voters played a pivotal role in electing president obama. in a couple of states, they are given credit for providing the winning margin. they supported over a generic republican as well as any specific republican we polled. when you ask if the president is going to win, a plurality says he is not going to win. if you ask if they improve of the president's performance in andice, they disapprove of,

that is the lowest number -- we test this once a semester and that is the lowest number since he has become president. host: president obama gets about 35%. how does that compare to four years ago? guest: i cannot give you the specific number off of the top of my head, but i think it was almost two to one. you had a bigger margin. his margin over mccain was igger than kerry's margin over bush. there was a bigger preference shown for president obama. host: do you think that things

in the nation are in the right direction? 52% say wrong track. what does that portend? guest: if your president obama and the look of these folks who are a part of your base, you see this and you also say the numbers were they asked what is your top priority? the economy. how did you think president obama is doing running the country? let these voters and they are for me. if i'm running the campaign, i look at these folks and say, how my going to get them to the polls? i need them to get out and to spread the word in person using social media, showing up at the

polls. there could be a motivation problem. tois not like they're going support mitt romney or some other republicans. they might not volunteer. that is a real concern is if i'm the president. host: what is a millennial? guest: what we do is we define it as anybody born between 1980 and 200. 0. 18 - 30-year-olds. it is everybody in that generation. the largest generation in history of the world. these are the children of the baby boomers.

as they become activists, they are changing everything. about 10 years ago, we started studying the millennials with our own students, helping us put together the survey. it's been a fascinating project. host: we have set aside our fourth line for millennials. 202-628-0184 is the number to call. trey grayson is our guest, director of the harvard institute of politics. guest: i ran unsuccessfully for the united states senate last year. i lost to ran paul. host: a lot of attraction to ron paul from the millennials generation.

guest: there were attracted to rand against me. if you look at the polling data from the iowa caucuses, congressman paul got over 40% from all of the millennials. that played a big role. getting almost half was a big part of his coalition. when you go to his rallies, you see a lot of young people. you see it a lot on college campuses. young people are big fans of congressman paul. host: on the republican side for the millennials, mitt romney leads with 23% fall by want paul with16%. herman cain had 15%. -- fall by

ron pollowed by ron paul with 16%. let's take some calls on this new study. birmingham, alabama. caller: good morning. i think millennials will come around to support barack obama. republicans of not offering anything to young people. the message he espoused when the talk to young people. and also i think the young people need to become more involved in politics themselves. old and i'm so sick

and tired of a lot of white man in politics. we need a lot of young people regardless of race. we need young people to become involved in politics. thank you. guest: thank you. that is great that you called in. when we get closer to november of this year, i suspect young people will pay more attention. humid look at this data and say it is tough on president obama right now. as they pay more attention, they will probably get more engaged. your prediction that they may come around is possible. we sought mitt romney not do

very well in iowa among young americans. he will have to do a better job to minimize that gap between the millennials that support president obama or support him. about getting more young people engaged -- we have seen a bit of a youth movement in the last election cycle. millennials are not eligible for the congress yet. we see a fairly young faces on the republican and democratic committees and we will see more and more young americans run for and win office and hopefully start to support things. host: greg is a millennial.

caller: the way obama used his powers was unconstitutional. we have more information. we have been raised with a bombardment of information. we have kind of had everything given to us, as opposed to older times what it was shoved down people's throat. and so what is happened is people are being informed and knowing what is going on in the government. guest: that is a good point with technology. we asked millennials where they get their information. they get a lot of their information from traditional

news entities but they get online. reading it online so there's an opportunity to get a lot of information out there. they can get connected to campaigns in a way that they never could before. they can act upon that information. some concerns is that there's too much information out there and you choose where you get your information from. young people get their information differently than their parents or their grandparents and that has an impact on how campaigns reach out to them. host: do get a read about how millennials feel about occupy wall street? guest: we had a question about

occupy wall street. not a lot of millennials are paying attention about occupy. 20% said they supported the movement. the other half not pay attention. that is a little surprising. the people at the occupations are young people. our thought was that maybe this is a movement in the larger cities and when you get out in the more suburban areas, they do not see the coverage. maybe the tactics of the group have not been successful. there is only 10% of the folks in our survey who said they were supportive of the tea party movement. they thought the tea party

movement would have a greater impact on public policy. this survey was taken right after the things given. we may see more millennials have strong opinions one way or the other. host: next call for trey grayson comes from marianna, arkansas. caller: i have something important to give to you. i have contacted the united states attorney in this matter about voting. young people have a tough climb. there is a chief of the public integrity section, jack smith. there was no election one year. i have been trying to get that

information to you. host: we will move on. we're talking about the millennials generation. michael is a republican in illinois. caller: good morning. the impact on millennials support can be attributed to dr. legalizingtion of marijuana and heroin. guest: we did not specifically asked about that. i think in general and his libertarian philosophy has a lot of appeal to this generation. we have asked millennials to classify themselves on a wide variety of issues. they have more of a libertarian streak than generation x or the

boomers were the greatest generation. they tend to be more economically conservative and less interest in government regulation and taxes. they express -- they believe more in economic freedom. they tend to be more supportive of gay marriage. we did not ask a drug question. that is more of a libertarian kind of position. this whole libertarian strand of young republicans is out there and will impact the republican party going forward even if it doesn't cause ron paul to be the nominee. host: we have a tweet from

jkl. guest: he is absolutely right about the debt. i am sure he is factually correct about the age of the senate. i was struck about how old members were when i ran. they can elect their own candidates or candidates who will pay attention to issues like debt. there were a big part of president obama's coalition and they can make a difference. every election there were participating in a higher numbers than the prior election.

it was down in 2010. it'll be interesting to see what happens in 2012. this generation will become more and more of a part of the voting electorate. their voices will be heard. policy makers need to listen. host: new jersey, go ahead with your question. caller: good morning. hello? host: we are listening. caller: cosmetic, about how unconstitutional it was for the president to make a recess appointment. since obama has been president, he has made 28 appointments. george bush and 1 made68 recess

appointments and ronald mre get me something like20 200 appointments. republicans have done nothing but block and criticize ever since this man has become president. this is nothing more than a revival of the jim crow party of the past. host: what is your enthusiasm level in 2012 for the president? caller: i will go with the president because when i look at what they see on the other side come out the rhetoric and the the drawl that -- and the vitriol that i've been hearing has been nauseating. guest: if i could make an observation about his point and the way answered your question.

i wasn't surprised to hear him say it wasn't as if he was excited about reelecting president obama. it was more about fear of the other choice. sometimes it is, i want my candidate to win. president obama benefited from this generation wanted him to win in 2008, so we wouldn't have these confirmation fights. we have seen this with the approval ratings for both parties in congress. they are heading down because people are upset. they are not enthused and voting for the president because they do not like the other guy. that is a process -- a problem for is based.

malcolm.kansas, now caller: good morning. i want to talk to about something. harvard has a pool of young, talented young people. if you could speak about the investments they have done in the area of technology and ideas of collaboration. guest: we do have a lot of innovation. your new mayor was with us last month. we have a seminar that work on for all the newly elected mayors and she came with about 20 other new mayors and it was nice to get to meet her. harvard does have a lot technological innovations.

we just open up the innovation lab which will be a collaboration between local businesses in cambridge and boston. our most famous alum is mark zuckerburg who created facebook in his dorm. i have been struck by the interest by students in technology. the founder of paypal was one of the early investors in facebook. he was invited to speak about technology. ideas.e open to you can send me an e-mail. host: if people want to read this survey, can they read this online?

guest: yes. all the materials from the survey are available on our web page, www.iop.harvard.edu. you can do research on twitter. hash tag harvard poll. you'll find information in the tweets. hash tag.uoll for the host: mary is a millennials in north carolina. 28 years old. caller: i think obama could have done better if we had a congress that could have worked together. congress has not been able to agree on anything for a couple

of years. i am losing faith. host: do support president obama four years ago? caller: no, i did not. but he is my president. i have been watching closely. host: all right. thanks, mary. guest: 22 great hearing all these seven voices -- it is great hearing all these seven voices. president obama ran on trying to change washington. it wasn't enough in the senate to overcome the filibuster. now we have divided government and it is much more difficult to get something done.

he felt compelled to do the recess appointment. the need for them as well as the constitutionality of them, so you get anger from both sides. year't anticipate the next being very productive in washington and i do not think it will make us feel better about government until we get to the 20 top election. -- 2012 election. host: we have a tweet from donna. guest: if congressmen paul decided to run as a third-party candidate, i think he would get a decent percentage of the vote.

if he ran, he would probably get 15% of the vote, which would reelect president obama. i do not think he will run as a third-party candidate. that would put rand in an awkward position. rand has ambition is to try to continue to be an important player in washington, d.c. it would hurt him back in kentucky and in the republican party. i think he will push his issues and uses sons to continue the ron paul revolution, but i do not think he will run as it third party candidate. host: what about millennials and third-party? guest: we asked questions about

americans elect. we had a forum that received a lot of interest from our students with the founders of american elect. that is a vehicle that will get on all 50 ballots but washington, d.c. they are falling state laws -- they are following state laws. any citizen can vote in the online convention. we asked the millennials, are you in st. by this idea -- are you intrigued by this idea? this goes back to frustrations

by some of the callers about how washington is not working and they are open to alternative idea in nominating a candidate and a president. it will be fascinating to see how this plays out. buddy roemer has expressed an interest in being there nominee. an advisor to senator mccain and president bush is a supporter of this. they will get on all 50 ballots. host: we're talking with trey grayson in cambridge, massachusetts, the director of the harvard institute of politics. americans elect was on this program on december 26 and you can watch that online. c-span.org is the website.

caller: i am a member of the institute of politics at loyola university. it is interesting because after this election, we do need the youth to step up. the future of the market is in their hands. -- the future of the country is in their hands? guest: amen. i will say amen to that. our whole mission is to encourage students to get more involved in politics and public policy. i think around the country, we owe it to young people so they can play a role in fixing america. host: how do you make that happen?

guest: there are short-term things and long term things. we want to get a dialogue going between millennials and non- millennials about their views. we sent copies of this survey as well as a memo summarizing the findings to all the presidential campaigns and said these are some ways to approach millennials voters and tried to appeal to them. we also did some focus groups in iowa and new hampshire. the culver center in iowa. one thing is to help the candidates. if campaigns talk more to millennials, i think they are more likely to be engaged as parents encouraging children, teaching them about the process.

as members of the media with the great work you at c-span. we have to show them how works, that they can make a difference and that they are needed and they can shape the future and to not accept something they are not happy about. host: what is it about barack obama created such enthusiasm? guest: there was a lot of things. age was helpful. he was the youngest candidate in the field. he was the first african american candidates. the ability to embrace technology. people could create the wrong

social networks and get their friends involved. they captured technology. they took the message to the millennials. his message of trying to bring the country back together resonated with these voters. millennial voters -- maybe they were more idealistic. they appeal to their sense of " we can do better." the millennials tends to be probably a little more democratic, progressive, even with that libertarian streak. i think those are reasons from the top of my head and the think

there are more that could explain his popularity. host: vista, california. caller: i have a large family. they are not all democrats like i am. they do not want to elect newt gingrich because they said he does not get a lot -- he did not go along with his constituents. they all agree on one thing. they want to know what the republicans will not tax the multi millionaires. they feel the republicans are wrong in not letting them pass that tax. such businesses -- some of the biggest businesses are abroad.

children seem in formed nowadays. they do not see color. they do not have the practices -- the prejudices. guest: on that last point, this is the most diverse generation in america. they are used to having classmates of different colors. that is very common. but the demographics -- look at the demographics. it cannot help but affect their views on race relations in a positive way. host: if you break down millennials overall, or that as far as being democrats, republicans, independents/ ?

guest: they are more democrats than republicans. we asked party affiliation and ideology. there was not a majority democrats. there were more democrats than republicans. the independent numbers are pretty sizable. they are more liberal and democratic than they are conservative and republican. we see that in party affiliation. there were a lot more independents millennials. right now they might be a democrat. the affinity is less strong than their grandparents. i don't think this generation you have a yellow dog democrats.

but they tend to be more democratic. host: trey grayson is the director of the harvard institute of politics. thank you for joining us. here is the hash attack in case you would like to read the survey for yourself. thank you for joining us on the "washington journal" today. i enjoyed the rest of your day -- enjoyed the rest of your day. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> president obama goes to