>> after 7:00. polling places in south carolina have just open, will remain open for the next 12 hours. in papers today, the polls have former speaker knut gingrich leading. and don't forget, our live coverage of the south carolina primary starts 7:00 tonight on c-span. you'll also want to stay close to the campaign 2012 cite at c-span.org as well. your thoughts on today's votes, especially in light of the

news-making event. here's how you can participate today. also, if you are a resident of south carolina and you want to participate this morning, here's how you can do so this morning. a line set aside for you. if you want to tweet us, and you can also send us e-mail, too. real clear politics averages polls taking a look at this contest when they take those polls on average they show with former speaker going rich up by 2. if you break down individually the clemsen poll has him up by 6. the public policy polling, which is a democratic firm has him up by 6.

rasmussen reports has him up by 2. the political terrence poll has mr. romney up by 7. in the washington poll today, what has to happen in order to see various candidates win. knut gingrich up, saying the key is for former senator rick santorum to fade just enough to allow him to win three out of every five, which would be enough to win. for mitt romney saying he badly needs santorum and ron paul to sivene off enough votes. for romney to win he needs a split decision among evangelical conservative voters. for ron paul, like romney, paul has a dedicated base of supporters who will under no circumstances leave his side. the problem for paul is that his support base in south

carolina is about half the size of romney's. and santorum saying the question is what he does if he finishes last in south carolina and going rich wins it there will be considerable pressure for him to drop from the race in hope of unite clg servetives behind going rich as their best last hope against romney. the numbers are going to be on your screen if you want to talk and participate about the south carolina primary today. we've divided them up politically. you'll notice on the screen for you now a special line for you. several map in the papers showing political geography when it comes to south carolina. this is how it breaks down to help us to walk through how things are going to look today, especially if people start heading out to the polls, chris of the south carolina state election commission joining us on the phone. mr. whit mire can you talk to us about who is allowed to participate today? >> south carolina is a little

different in other states that we have open primaries. we have no registration by parties. so south carolinians are just registered. so on the day of a primary a voter can choose whether to vote in a democratic or republican prime rifment today we only have a republican so the only choice for voters is whether to vote or not. voting is open to all voters in south carolina, all registered voters. >> as far as turnout, what was done last time in 2008 and what's the expected turnout today? and what's i guess the difference if turnout doesn't meet those numbers? >> in 2008 we saw a total turnout of 43%. there was about a 23% in the democratic primary, about 20% in the republican primary. what is interesting right now is that we have seen about 29,000 absentee ballots issued for the republican primary and the total in 2008 for the

republican -- just the republican primary was 21,000. so if we look at the absentee preesinchingt we've already seen an increase in the turnout. so we saw a 20% turnout in the republican primary. you would assume that some who participated might switch over. so i think the numbers would tend to lead you to expect that we would see higher than -- at least higher than a 20% turnout for the republican primary and as high as 43 that we saw in 2008. >> i believe there was icy precipitation falling down on primary day. what's the weather expected this time around? >> the weather today here is rain expected, thunderstorms off and on, but warm. about i think the high today here in columbia is about 68 degrees. so no threat of icy weather here.

>> and so the places will be open from 7:00 to 7:00. what's the process? like walk us through south carolinian's day today when they decide to go vote. >> it's different having a saturday election in that south carolinians are used to voting on tuesdays like most people and you see heavy turnout between 7:00 and 9:00, people voting before they go to work and then a big rush in the afternoon between 5:00 and 7:00. it being a saturday election, we expect that to be more spread out throughout the day and particularly that you wouldn't see that big rush toward the end of the voting day between 5:00 and 7:00, that maybe we'll see more of a waning toward the end of the day and you would expect people i think to just go out during their saturday whenever they have time during the middle of the day and cast their vote then. >> what led up to the decision to hold it on a saturday? >> the state law that lays out how presidential primaries lay

out in south carolina gives the parties the option to choose the date of the primary and the republican party chose a saturday. so not sure what went into that and why the party chose a saturday, but here we are. >> several map today in the papers kind of breaking down south carolina by sections. one called upstate, the midland section. the grand strand, low country. could you break those down and how candidates fair in those sections of the state? >> traditionally particularly in the upstate counties we see high participation in republican primaries. but with that said, there can be counties in those other sections of the state and the grand strand area, the midlands that have counties that traditionally see higher republican participation. and then even in a county when you look at the county as a whole, as more of a democratic county, you can have pockets,

precincts and neighborhoods where you would see high turnout today because it's a republican-leaning precinct. so i guess the big view is i think everybody in south carolina knows the upstate sees high participation so we would expect higher tun turnout in those counties. but with that said throughout the state you can see higher or lower turnout. >> how are the votes tabulated and making sure the votes are taken correctly? >> once the polls close at 7:00, the poll managers upload the votes from all the voting machines and they print a paper tape and post it on the wall there in the precinct and take the media and a second copy and send it to election central in the county seat. and they read all that media from all the precincts in their county, check it against the paper tape, and get their totals for the county and they

transmit it to us and it goes up on our website. after the election, after today, tomorrow, monday, up to precertification zaut where we go back and look at the data compare it to what came out of the system to ensure no mistakes occurred prior to certification of the elections. counties certify next thursday. the state county commission will certify next friday and that's when the results become official. >> a lot of events this week leading up to the south carolina primary. people dropping out, events happening in the news. how much do you think those events specifically this week will bring people out, especially if they maybe decided they weren't going to participate in the first place? >> one thing about the candidates dropping out, that's important to know, is that all nine candidates who were originally certified to be on the ballot will appear on the ballot today. none of the candidates

officially with drew with the state election commission and the republican party didn't send us something saying these candidates officially withdrew they're no longer official candidates. that would be the first step in getting a name off the ballot. and even with a candidate like rick perry who withdrew so late, there would be no way to remove his name from the ballots. that's important, the voters will see all nine. as far as how that may affect turnout, i don't know. what i always say about turnout is it just depends on the people and whether they are excited about the candidates on the ballot. and if they're excited about the candidates on the ballot and want to get out and cast their vote, that's what drives it. so i really don't have a pulse of the voters on how these dropouts might affect that. >> thank you for your time, sir. >> you're very welcome. >> our cameras live at one of the polling places, park

community center in columbia, south carolina, where our previous caller mentioned he was. people starting to get activity there. we will check in during the course of our program to see what kind of activity there. only one of several across the state. again, we're talking about the south carolina primary. numbers on the screen, if you want to take advantage of that especially those of you in south carolina, a special number set aside for you. reach us off of twitter as well. baltimore, maryland, greg, democrat's line, you are up first. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for c-span. i really like your tie. the first thing i have to say is number one, i think that knut gingrich is going to win the south carolina republican primary today. that being said, i think that there's no viable way that he will get the republican

nomination. and further more than that, i just think that mitt romney, as mart as he is on paper as being the rich massachusetts man that he is, i don't think that he will be the best nominee for the g.o.p. i think that knut gingrich, even though i don't agree with him and even though he's bright, i think that the debate with him and barack obama will be more about issues and ideas and about ideology. i think if the republicans nominate mitt romney, it will be more about images, it will be more about personal text and speaking kind of things and that sort. but further more, i think yesterday i noticed how mitt romney was on the campaign trail with nickie hailey and governor bob mcdonald. and this is just my prediction. if he wins south carolina today, expect nickie hailey to run with him as the vice presidential nominee. but there's also a secret weapon that barack obama has

that the republicans don't and it's a two-letter word. it's joe biden. >> charleston, south carolina. republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. host: do you plan to go out today? caller: yes. i plan to vote for romney. host: what led you to your decision? caller: i think he ts best overall candidate. host: explain. caller: from his experience in the business world, he's got the best overall experience, he'll bring a better message on a national scale. i think he's more electable. just a overall better candidate. host: how would you sum up the last ten days, the campaign stops, the commercials, the news of this week? caller: well, obviously a lot of negative ads. debates are important. but overall, i think it's been

a good campaign. obviously you don't like all the negatives. i don't like the super pacs. but overall, i think it's been a good campaign. host: who did you vote for last time around? caller: last time i voted for i think it was george bush. oh. host: in 2008 i mean. caller: i would have voted for john mccain. host: thanks for your time. next call, rochester, new york. independents line. caller: good morning. now, i've heard regarding mitt romney's tax returns that he has money in the caymen islands. so i'm wondering how that helps generate jobs. i've also heard a lot about his business experience. i'm wondering how that would translate into, say he would have to make a decision to go

into pakistan and get osama bin laden, how his business experience would translate making a decision about that. host: you're trying to say what by that statement? caller: i think you can gatsdzear lot of data and make a business decision based on widgets and statistics and stuff like that. but when you've got to come down to your gut and make a decision, can he do that with his, quote, business experience? host: what do you think is going to happen out of south carolina today? caller: i think romney will probably win. but i hope it's close, because i think i would like to see the race go on for a while and see how it shakes out. host: what's the value in that, do you think? caller: well, i think there's still more issues that need to be explored and to discuss. i've heard a lot about the politics of envy. and i don't envy anybody. if somebody makes a lot of money, i wish them well.

but i just want a fair shake. host: when it comes to actual events, the "washington post" breaks down the events of south carolina since the first of january. rick santorum with 33 events in ten days. speaker knut gingrich, former speaker knut gingrich, 28 events in nine days, mitt romney 15 events in ten days and ron paul nine events in two days, all those being captured by our c-span cameras. and if you go to our campaign 2012 site at c-span.org you can pull them up with video and look at them as well. also, you'll see on information concerning our coverage again that starts tonight at 7:00. kansas city, kansas. good morning to tim, republican line. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. and i am a c-span addict. every morning i start my morning at 6:00 here and

anyway, i just want to comment my vote goes with speaker going rich. i think, i feel like he's the strongest man, the strongest candidate available for our republican party. and he's got more experience in the washington scene than anyone else. for instance, he balanced the budget. along with bill clinton, for four straight years. he's proved to me that he can work across the aisle in a bipartisan fashion. host: what do you make of the events this week, about what was happening in his marriage? does that way you at all? caller: it makes no difference to me. i've been divorced twice myself and i don't think that should not be much of a character issue. how many people are there in this country, how many men and

or women have similar issues in their lifetime? host: south carolina is where former speaker was yesterday at a campaign towel hall event. here's a bit of it. >> only effective conservative vote to stop a massachusetts moderate is to vote for me. that's what all the polls are saying now. and if every conservative decided to vote for me we would win a shockingly big win tomorrow. that would be good. conservatives need to come back in a reagan tradition, we need to shock the country and washington and prove to the world that we really are an extraordinary country. host: new in georgia. mike on our democrat's line up next. good morning. caller: i'm from georgia. he's a slick [inaudible] he went down there, played the old southern strategy. i guess he put rural, what's

his name, warren williams in his place. i don't see how you can get ten points. just because he embarrassed warren williams, embarrassed the other guy. he never came up with this new one. they raised them up ten points. if south carolina and the republicans put him in, he's going to put charles in your own place. thank you. host: del mar, california. republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. your first caller spoke quite intelligently, i've got to give him props for that. i'm 37. i voted for bush senior my first vote at 18, and these -- the last four years, i've had a tough time with the man because you're seeing romney struggling

consistently struggling. he's in it from day one. going rich was like on a crews to start off with. it's very hard to watch romney in these primaries. he lost against mccain. and now he's struggling. it's like my dad said, he just doesn't have what it takes to be president. he's got $650 million bankroll and success in business. but like the lady said, the previous caller, that 3:00 a.m. phone call is going to come. and, unfortunately, i see going rich having more experience there. and i do see romney as a good vp, honestly. why do we have to take vps out of congress or -- you know, no name? i can see even ron paul's son coming out as vice president. i think going rich and romney

would be a good ticket. host: los angeles, california. democrat's line. caller: good morning. as a democrat, i was pulling for romney to win today just to see the amazing outcome and how going rich would handle mitt romney win in south carolina, because it's just been amazing, just amazing to watch this g.o.p. primary. and as a 44-year voter, it's just been amazing. so as a democrat, i'm pulling for mitt romney to win just to continue the amazing outcome of what will happen with this g.o.p. host: what do you think of a contest between mitt romney and barack obama as president?

what do you think of that contest and what will happen before november? caller: well, president obama will be reelected. in the next election cycle. it's just amazing also, to me, to hear that his enthusiasm for president obama has diminished. i took a poll of friends and family throughout the united states over the christmas holiday, and none of us have been polled and we're all -- we're fired up, we're ready to go. my grandsons on the college campus in the midwest, they're fired up, they're ready to go. it will be president obama. i'm looking forward to tonight.

it's raining here in los angeles, so i'll be stuck with the g.o.p. primary. and it's just amazing. thank you. host: joining us on twitter. you can participate on twitter. the caller previous mentioned senator rand paul. we have tape from ron paul yesterday. he was at the southern republican leadership conference. >> in many ways we're murdering ourselves by the extension of our troops around the world and now we still accept this notion which has to be challenged. entitlements are not right. you have a right to your liberty and your property but not entitled -- [cheers and applause] nobody's entitled to somebody else's effort. so as long as that exists, a

token change in washington won't make the difference. the government that we have in washington is a reflection of the people's attitude. but the good news is the people's attitude is now changing significantly. host: in the "new york times" this morning, with headline, with hours to decide, few are willing to commit. she talks to kim, at 35, from

the "new york times" this morning. several of the papers in south carolina highlighting today's vote. this is the times and democrat in orangeburg. here's arkansas. good morning. brenda, independent line. caller: ok. what's the procedure? host: is this first of all brenda from arkansas? caller: no. this is john from pennsylvania . host: what are your thoughts on the south carolina primary today? caller: well, it's rather informative that they still haven't countered the subjects that i'm interested in. we have around 50 million americans that do not have

hins. i don't hear them talking about this. and the other thing, the republicans continually say that they're against abortion, what have you. you can bring a child into the world, but when he becomes an adult, what do we do with him if he can't afford hirns? none of this is ever asked in these debates and none of them cover it. host: wyoming, republican line is next. good morning. caller: good morning. i thank you for c-span and i would like to see knut gingrich get the nomination. and i do believe if he got the nomination, god would be back in this country. and we need him. host: what specifically about mr. going rich wants you -- wants for you to have him win? caller: well, i think he has the experience and of course the congress does not want him to win because he knows all the

tricks ch that he can stop. obama can't get back in. we will have a destroyed country if he does. he's not for america. he's against it. >> a poll in place just opened 26 minutes now in woodland park community center where our c-span camera is located today and gives you a little bit of a view of what's going on there. first, early off that's going on, we'll show those shots occasionally during the course of the program. the "wall street journal" talks about how this race, according to the headline, is going down to the wire. talks about the strategy that campaigns have employed both mr. romney and going rich campaigns have five offices and the endorsement of state political figures but mr. going rich has visited more often and has a dozen paid staffers here.

>> michigan, democrat's line. caller: good morning. around here i'm better known as ram bo because i'm a decorated vietnam veteran. i'm not against newt with two or three wives.

but he was doing the same thing . that makes him a hypocrite to me. so i'm going to be doing the same thing how can i talk about it? host: los angeles, california. paul, independent line. caller: calling concerning -- i am a ron paul supporter, proud of it. but i'm calling about this other focus on gingrich. he's being treated as if he is the only alternative out there. that if you're conservative it's either romney or gingrich. it's just absoid to me that 20 years ago we would have booed this man out of contention and now he's being treated as if he is this great candidate. it's just utter hypocracy for republicans to claim that they want this man running when they

were the same people demanding bill clinton's head on a plate. host: your support for ron paul, how did that happen? caller: i used to be a die-hard republican, i was a die-hard news fan, and a friend gave me the book, the 5,000 year leap. i started reading other books. he said there's this book called the revolution by ron paul. i read that and my life hasn't been the same since politically. host: what specifically about dr. paul is it about his philosophy or policy that drove you to that decision? caller: well, the biggest for me is the way that our economy is run by a few men in washington that use the federal reserve to basically -- just like the old romans used to do by killing the air stocksy and killing, now they just have to print out at the federal reserves.

so there's unlimited warfare, unlimited spending in washington. nobody cares about that they claim to now. but this was a man for 30 years has been screaming in the wilderness, these guys are bringing our country to a halt. and nobody else cared about that but ron paul. host: what do you think about his ability to gain a nomination? caller: honestly, i'm a realist and i will do everything in my power to make sure this man wins and gets into office. but this is a man that's running against not only the republican candidates, but he's running against fox news who do every chance that they get to take this man down, he's running against a media establishment that doesn't want him in. he doesn't fit their game plan. but, us ron paul supporters are going to do everything we can to make sure this man does get elected. we will btb at the polling booths and we will cast our vote for this man. not because he does great sound bytes, not because he's an eloquent speaker, but because

of the message this man presents. host: our topic for the next 10, 15 minutes or so, the south carolina primary. our focus after that will be joined by chad connelly, the chairman of the south carolina republican party. the same topic, you can ask him questions. long island, new york, marsha, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm calling in support of mitt romney. i find the fact that this man is being demonized for his success absolutely ludicrous in this country. i don't give a with about his taxes. we have so much more important -- so many more important issues and i give great credence to him being a businessman and i think we have to really focus on that issue. i would -- i will support

whoever does get the republican nomination because four more years of obama will be a disaster. i don't know that we would survive. but -- host: how do you think he is going to do today in south carolina? caller: i'm hoping people come to their senses a little bit about who can actually -- who has the best chance of beating obama. and i think clearly mitt romney has that chance. i think he would get a lot of independents. i mean, no one beats me as far as a conservative philosophy. but i'm a realist and the paramount issue to me really is getting obama out of office. i have to -- i chuckle a little bit when i heard that woman several callers ago, when the

phone rings at 3:00 in the morning, will he have the presence of mind to make the right decision? does she think about what experience obama had? i mean, really, the man was -- i mean, he was a community organizer. there was no leadership experience coming into office. and i think that's so evident in the way he's conducted his presidency. host: before we let you go. if mr. romney is your guy, can you briefly tell us why mr. gingrich, mr. santorum and mr. paul are not your guys? caller: i don't think santorum is electable. although he would be fine with me, i think he's too socially conservative for the country. i'm a little afraid of gingrich because i think sometimes he doesn't have a filter between

what he is thinking and what's coming out of his mouth. i think he's a brilliant man. i think he has many ideas. i think he would probably be a wonderful president. but when republicans run, they run not only against the democrat opponents, they run against the media. and i think the media would have a field day with him. host: and that's marsha from long island, new york. she mentioned her support for mitt romney in friday -- on friday in north charlesston, south carolina, for event. here's a bit of it. >> put in place a stimulus that didn't protect private sector jobs. it grew government by 35,000. his path is bigger government and bigger deficits. my course would be cut spending, eliminate programs, cap spending, and finally, finally, balance our budget. [cheers and applause]

he's looked at something like health care and says health care isn't terribly well, let's make it terribly like europe. that's the wrong course. the right course is to make health care more like a free market, a consumer market. i will repeal obama care and get america back to the principles of enterprise. host: in election related news, there's a story from the "new york times" this morning, the supreme court justices rejecting election map drawn by u.s. court, the texas case that may affect control of the house.

if you want more about this story and directly what happened at the court this week concerning it, go to c-span.org. there's more information specifically about the court case, a preakdown of what happened, again all of that can be found at c-span.org. kentucky, james is on our democrat's line. good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to say mr. obama had his shot. and i know i want to thank crn span for being there. you guys are great. i have seen obama in there with president bush in the oval office, i've watched him beside bush and i know he acts and

thinkses like bush does and we don't need a president like that. everybody in my office needs to hear my voice. get gingrich back in there so he can get us back on track. host: what is it about his policy that you support the most? caller: i support him most because he's got the guts to stand up to the media and to all the other republican nominees, people running for president. and i think he can stand up to obama and beat his tail right there in front of america, and he's going to do it if everybody will vote for him. so i say everybody get on the ball, get him in there and take care of business. host: this is carol in south carolina via e-mail.

we are in woodland park community center in columbia, polls opening at 7:00, some activity going on there. we'll go to our next call, pennsylvania, john, independent line. go ahead. caller: my question is this. and none of the moderators that conduct those interviews ever ask the candidates what are they going to do about the 50 million people that do not have life inshurens? they continually talk about abortion, which i agree with. i don't like abortion. but you bring the child into the world when he comes an adult, what happens? does he die? a lot of people are on minimum wage. they can't afford health

insurance. i'm retired now and i have to pay for my wife every three months $475 supplement to medicare. how is a person on minimum wage ever going to afford to have health insurance when he doesn't make enough money to even buy it? i don't ever hear this question. the other thing is i continually hear these people talk about reagan. i lived during reagan. during reagan's lifetime, he caused the pension plans to be messed up by companies. companies used to have to put so much money into a retirement account each year and it was protected. and what he had companies do, they could put us into a 401(k) which we had to put money into to have any kind of retirement, and the company took this money out of our account -- because i

was in management -- and they either spent it or put it in their pocket. and at that time i could afford to put the max in the 401(k) but raising four children i couldn't afford it during my lifetime. so i continually hear about reagan. but reagan helped bankrupt this country as bush did. everybody continually forgets what this country was into in his last few months that he was in office. thanks. host: you may not get it at home, but the financial times in its style section has a piece by its fashion editor. she writes about the politics of sweater vests in which she says --

say. >> let's just be honest. that of the two candidates that i'm competing for here in south carolina to win, both of them supported individual mandates and one put in a full-scale obama care plan in massachusetts. it's taken that major issue off the table. both of them supported global warming and one of them sat on a couch with nancy pelosi to talk about the need to do something. and a third issue, the wall street bailout, both of them supported the wall street bailout. how are we going to differentiate ourselves on the major issues of the day if we

nominate tweedle dumb and tweedle de, against someone who stood up and said no? >> host: we are starting our coverage today. don't forget, 7:00 tonight as the polls close in a little less than 12 hours from now, that's when our coverage will take place here at c-span. it starts at 7:00. a few more calls to go before we go to our first guest, chad connelly. belleville, yeark is on our republican line. caller: good morning, c-span. i'm a big paul supporter for five years. and i watched the debate the other night. what came to mind, being a coastal state -- i've been through their beautiful state -- you would think they would be very interested in someone with a real strong economic background. romney, yes, has got a business background but he seems to be

someone that really favors our banking and financial system, which personally i'm opposed to. ron paul stands up against our federal reserve and that. but with an open-minded philosophy of free trade and monetary policy. i would think south carolina would really do some research and -- on economics. i feel that they really back ron paul a little bit more, business has -- with romney, i don't know. i think we're just going to get the same old same old. i don't think -- i don't think we're going to change anything in this country with that type of mentality. south carolina, beautiful state. and there's no doubt that this primary will probably give a good foresight as to how the nominee will be. thanks again. host: the caller mentioned that it was a coastal state. and the map on the "washington journal" today highlights one

of the areas. one is known grand strand, a boomtown with retirees and their children. and what's known as low country which includes charleston, its residents, mostly fiscal conservatives, retirees from the northeast. roseburg, oregon is next. democrat's line. caller: thank god for c-span. really. oh, my god. these people are insane. oh, god, help us. what are we going to do? host: what do you expect is going to happen today? caller: probably romney is going to get elected. but it's incredible. the entire field, these people are -- my god, there's no one out there that's presidential in my opinion at all. for example, the international -- ok, dealing with europe.

host: why do you expect none of the candidates can meet up to that challenge? caller: none of them have any experience. gingrich is so crooked, and he's going to present himself as a moral compass with three wives in the closet? and romney, you ask him one day one question, the other day we'll do this one now. the dude is -- this guy has no moral fiber in my opinion. if you tell him one day if he thought he could get a few extra votes out of this crowd he'll do that. host: talking about the influence of the super pac influence and the headline is the g.o.p. race, no jocking matter. in which he writes, saying one

more call this morning. arizona. we go to mary, independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: fine, thanks. caller: i think that the republican party has become morally bankrupt if they nominate knut gingrich. i'm a moral voter. i voted for mccain twice when he ran against bush and obama.

i just don't understand what's going on with this republican party. host: who best represents your values now? caller: well, i'm really torn between morality, which i think santorum has the morality, and ron paul who i think is really -- would shake up washington. i'm just terribly confused. host: so you haven't made a final decision yet? caller: no. host: that's arizona. thank you to all of you who participated today. we'll continue on our discussions about today's primary with the south carolina republican chair. he'll answer your questions about it, talk to him about what he might expect going on after today's vote. you heard some of the people mentioned by e-mail and you've

probably seen stories taking a look at the ads that have been making their way through the state as people have been buying up media time. you'll see ads from romney, santorum, and gingrich campaigns. >> president obama wants to fundamentally transform america. i stand ready to lead us down a different path. this president has enacted job-killing regulations. i'm eliminate them. he lost our aaa credit rating. he passed obama care. i'll repeal it. if you believe that the disappointment are a detour, not a destiny, i'm asking for your vote. i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. >> obama supported the wall street bailouts. so did romney. obama gave us radical obama care. that was based on romney care.

obama's a liberal on social issues. romney once bragged he's even more liberal than ted kennedy on social issues. why would we ever vote for someone who is just like obama when we can unite around rick santorum and beat obama? >> i'm rick santorum and i approve this message. >> joining us on screen is chad connelly, the south carolina republican party chairman. thanks for joining us today. guest: good morning, sir. host: can we start with polling today. if you go to real clear politics, when they take an average of polls done about the primary today it shows almost all of them saying mr. gingrich is up especially leading into it it was mitt romney's to win. what do you think happened in the ten days or so? guest: well, i've been saying since new hampshire that anyone who tries to put this state in a box and determine based on

just polling instead of being on the ground and looking at what's going on is probably going to be off. sort of like there's a national message already written. so i know people are reading that in national papers and on the press. it's just hard to do that and put it in a box without being here, seeing what's going on, on the ground, and watches the surges go back and forth. for me this is a typical primary season. i think you can't really call it until the end. then it may surprise you because it depends on turnout. host: do you think the news about what came out about going rich was a game changer as far as how things changed in south carolina? guest: i don't think so. i think that the speaker has been very assertive in the debates. there's no question that him calling out the media specifically for asking pointed questions that obviously barack obama never had to answer when he was a candidate, and there just seems to be a different

bias and a different playing field. when you're looking at the media and how they deal with republican and conservative candidates. so it's tough to tell what all the pieces were that have impacted the race so far. but when the negative stuff comes out right before primery, people are more savvy than that and they think, why this timing right now just before a primary election? host: take us back to 2008, to the point where people in your state would consider themselves undecided and compare that to where that number and those people today heading out to the polls. what's the difference? guest: it's pretty close for the eve of the election, looking at the undecided numbers dwindle down. i was a little amazed even over christmas with my own families talking about this, i was with my wife and my wife was with we were remarried so i get the opportunity to see four families. like a big focus group. and even that week before and after christmas talking to my

four families, i think there were something like 60-something voter and all those parties and lunches and dinners, the undecideds amazed me. i would like to think my own family was tuning in better. but once the debates started happening here and iowa and new hampshire occurred, those numbers started dwindling down and people have made up their minds. i think there's some people who haven't decided yet but we have been inundated with mail and tv ads. we've had record-shattering tv ads here by the state and of course robo calls. i don't think it's much different but i do think the numbers have dwindled in the last day or so quite a bit and now we're sitting about 6% undecided. host: how would you factor in the super pac advantage or the influence in this process? caller: well, it's a new animal, as you know. i think the biggest impact has been for the state of south carolina just in the fact that they're buying a lot of ads and making purchases that haven't been there in the past.

so the impact we saw, the super pacs move the needle in the other early states. i wouldn't be surprised in an after-action to see that those super pac dollars made an impact here as well. hard to tell now. i hear so much from activists and g.o.p. folks around the state in the field that i'm talking to every day, and it's hard to tell which one is making the most impact because it's literally saturated out there with media. host: how do you think today will be different than the last cycle because it's on a saturday? guest: well, we've always had it on a saturday since it was established in 1980, this has been called the working man's primary. they wanted to make it so everybody can vote and not be a hassle dealing to get to work on time or get off early to stand in line. so the early founders of the primary back in 19 0 and i think all the way through have

had our primary on a saturday and called it the working man's primary to make it easier on folks. host: and somewhat better weather this time around. guest: well, it's been raining this morning but it's supposed to clear up and be nice later on. host: our guest with us until 8:30 to talk about today's primary. you can join via phone. mr. connelly, who do you think wins today guest: well, i'm not very good at picking and all my clemsen buddies would get better for saying this -- will get mad at me for saying. i think it's going to be very

close and it wouldn't surprise me if the pundits and the talking heads get surprised today. host: what do you mean by that? caller: like i said earlier, like there's always a national narrative already written. i feel sometimes that people are just looking for a line to fit into the story that's already been written and all the bases covered. so it wouldn't surprise me if there's a new story that comes out of south carolina. host: what are the top three concerns about the candidates, not only the candidates they'll pick but what are their concerns overall about what they want this candidate to accomplish if he becomes president? guest: i think that in south carolina we have 60% of the social conservatives make up the vote, so it's always going to be an issue that they have the right to life correct, they've got traditional values correct. those are kind of threshhold issues. i don't think they're top of the mind right now.

with what president obama has done specifically in south carolina and in other states, people are just concerned about jobs and the economy and this crazy spending. you know, i'm one of the republicans who was really dismayed that president bush took us to $10 trillion in debt. and i've got to tell you, i don't know if any american is not upset about president obama taking us to $16 trillion in debt. he's made president bush like a miser. and just can't get it under control. and the worst part, he's done it in only three years. i'm the father of four and i'm concerned for my kids' future when i realize somebody's got to pay that bill. and when things are tight around the connelly household we don't spend more than we make. but president obama seems to say it's a party. let's go have a good time. so i think we've seen the last ten days candidates focusing on the jobs and the economy and the spending, because we as republicans believe that the spending and taxes are directly attached to our ability to create jobs.

on top of that, too, when you look at what the obama presidency has done here, they've intervened in the voter id law, in our combhgration law, and the national labors relation board they've told boeing, a private company in a right to work state that they couldn't locate here and hire south carolinians. now, i don't care what political stripe you are, it hurts jobs in a major way. so the democrats and the independents who come up to me and say, wow, i don't necessarily agree with you on everything, but obama is hurting jobs in south carolina. and they can make that connection that he has hurt jobs nationwide, too. so our candidates are talking jobs in the economy, they're getting through. host: our first call, north carolina, republican line, good morninge. you're on with chad connelly. caller: hi. i'm going to take my wife to ashville nsked weekend for a get ay way. host: good. come on up. the built more house will be a

nice place for you to stay. i'm a big mitt romney supporter. what's happened in the debate in the last two, knut gingrich has just gotten away with murder. he dodges every issue. he gives different talking points to different networks. he was voted out of the house three times and the fourth time he was successfully voted out by his own party. this man is just getting away with murder and i cannot believe that the -- anybody in south carolina would fall for this. i'm just really jup set by it. you know? and i'm just hoping that the trend that's gone this week will not continue to fall and people will see through to the truth. guest: and thanks.

i appreciate you calling in. i don't want to move the needle for anybody. i really think that any of our candidates is going to be a thousand times better than this train wreck of a disaster we've got in the white house. i remember as a young man i went to massachusetts and volunteered to help mitt romney run against ted kennedy. and so i got an affection for governor romney. he as business executive. there's no question about it. i've been to speaker going rich's events and santorum's and paul's too. i think they're trying to speak to the heart of the matter and i'm sure everybody has things they want to put in the past and keep them there. this could be a long, drawn-out process with all the new rules and the delegates. i'm standing on my message. we pick presidents. whoever wins here is likely to be the nominee. and that's based on history.

i would like to see us continue our history. but this may be a process -- and i'm not so concerned about things coming out that people say hurt our candidates. i think it's a vetting out process. i think it helps them hone their message when it goes back to obama. host: maryland, you're next. independent line. caller: ok. i heard several of the republicans say they are reagan republicans. i would like to remind you that reagan gave us our first $1 trillion deficit in 1982 and before he left office we had approaching a $4 trillion. he was the most liberal president we have ever had. thank you. host: the influence of reagan, do you see it? guest: sure. i mean, reagan is a hero to conservatives. there was nothing liberal about him. obviously he cut taxes and increased the tax revenue. so i think this gentleman's got

it backwards. spending went up because of the defense department had been so cut by the carter administration. so but revenues went way up. and reagan is certainly credited with one of the most, biggest explosive growth periods in american history. so you look back on that in history, and i think he will go down as one of those mount rush more presidents. i remember as a young man in clemsen i joined rotc and i was in the national guard already. my dad had back surgery and mom and dad were going through a tough official time and i was expected to pay my way. i worked four jobs in college. one i was really proud to serve in the national guard and in the army. and i remember running around campus as a freshman in my uniform. and being booed because you've got to remember following 81, this is six years post vietnam, and after carter's disastrous presidency, people weren't proud of america. nobody talked good about our

country. if it was the sweaters sitting around the fire lamenting over our troubles, that a lot of them had been brought on by his policies, i don't know what it was, just a negative cloud that was around america. and just in a few months i went from being booed running around campus to being cheered. the same uniform, the same run rout, but it was reagan's positivity that sit ong a hill that message that this is the greatest place on the face of the earth. we're not perfect, but this is the place that people want to come to be free. and it was reagan's message of america matters and the morning in america that really worked. and i think set a new tone for our country. host: when it comes to economic issues, was the boeing plant in south carolina a big issue this cycle? guest: oh, man, it's huge here. it's really huge all over the state. but probably in the low country where people know they came that close to losing a mega

business locating here. and for all the work that our governor, our legislatures, our chamber and other folks have put in to bring a company like boeing here, to a right to work state, the obama administration almost cut the legs out from underneath that. and that's a thousand direct jobs and immediate impact in the job market. but like we saw with bmw in the upstates some years ago, that has a ripple effect throughout the low country where suppliers open up businesses and build plants, and there are thousands and thousands of people blessed when a company like boeing comes into the state. so it's a story that everybody knows and everybody understands. and i've got to tell you, i think that's one of the reasons that obama is going to lose next fall, is because we're not the only state that's been assaulted by interventionist policies by the federal government coming into the state. host: which candidate handled the issue best do you think?

guest: i don't know. they all addressed it and talked about it, and talked about the things they would do in the obama policies that would take that away from the table of even impacting us at all. host: john, from myrtle beach. go ahead. caller: good morning, america. i hope i'll be able to say what i'm going to say to you. everything that comes out of your mouth about our president seems to be negative. it seems like you don't believe that president obama has done anything positive for the country. secondly, south carolina still has the confederate flag hanging up. so as you talk about freedom, that doesn't stand for freedom. that stands for slavery in the kind of state south carolina used to be. thirdly, the republican party right now, any time you see any tv image of any of the

candidates, and if you want to see america, you don't see america in the backdrop. not one person of color. not a latina, not a black person, not an asian person. just typical republican demographic. not even republican demographic. conservative republican demographic. and lastly, sir, going rich standing up there on cnn and being an argue nt dictator saying it's ok to have his wife in the bed with his other wife as a conservative, and in a religious state like south carolina to accept that is the biggest hypocritical statement that anybody can say. host: mr. connelly. guest: do i get a list to keep up with all the questions? look, you're exactly right and your world view is not going to match mine. president obama is a disaster. he looks to be a good daddy and

husband and a good singer. i think he needs to stick to those things. he's put us into debt. if you pay taxes that's got to concern you. if you've got kids and grandkids, that's got to concern you. now, i'm just trying to think really hard of something that he has done well. he's intervened in policies in the states, violating the tenth amendment. he's done recess appointments of the nlrb board. this program is not long enough to list the foibles and the problems. but we differ on our world view. mine is one of limited government. mine is a christian world view that people are following. they're not perfect. there aren't perfect parties and candidates. i've got a wife and four kids. i can't get them to agree with me every day. so it's not that i expect us to agree all the time. that's not the point but we've got to do the principles that move our country forward. and he just hasn't done that. he's put us into more debt,

saddled our kids with a future of rising taxes and he just seems to think that spending works. and there's no country in the world that shows that government spending and central planning works. you can't point to an example. in fact, when you look at world history, and when you look at the countries that have more government, what you see in more government is more poverty. and when you see more freedom where there's less taxes and less intervention, there's more wealth. america is a blessed place. we're just -- he can't mess up america so bad that our next president won't fix it. but you've got to think, western europe is the second wealthiest place on the planet and we've got a level in america that we don't let people fall below and that's called poverty and we help those people out as a christian i think it ought to be done through people's willingness instead of government at the sword of the i.r.s. but the average person on poverty today has a better lifestyle, has air conditioning, has gadgets and cars and lives in more square

footage than the average person on the second wealthiest place on the pleant in western europe. we're really blessed. but these taxes and spend rg going to have to impaid at some time. and when you have a president who is willing to do a hollywood bash for halloween and pay george luke cause to bring in chew backa and johnny depp to play characters and handing out halloween candy and says we just need more money, how would you not see that as completely hypocritical? and i can't remember all the questions. but we just won't agree on world view issues. host: our guest chad connelly, the south carolina republican party with us until 8:30 to take your questions about today's primary. our numbers will be on the screen. in 2008, you had about 445,500 show up to vote. in 2020, 573,000. what do you expect today?

guest: i think we're probably going to have h 450,000. when i look around the state there are hundreds of people coming out. and we'll be inundated by media. host: do you think that there's a sense of excitement about today? guest: oh, yes, sir. i mean, good gracious. everywhere you go there are satellite trucks and reporters and presidential candidates events going ofpblet there's a great deal of excitement all over the state. host: one of the papers talked about the lack of tea party support for this cycle go around, talking about jim demint the south carolina senator holding off on making, according to the paper, declining to endorse any of the candidates. what do you think about the tea party's support during this cycle and if it's not there what does that indicate? guest: i just totally disagree with that article. the tea party is very engaged. a lot of them fold into the party and become activists at

the county level. i can name good friends of mine, friends that helped my campaign last spring, that are from the tea party that are in every different campaign. good friends. and i can name republican activist that is have been around the party a long time that are in all four campaigns. so i see the integration of the tea party and the party itself as being very widespread, very engaged, and certainly not hands off. the fact that senator demint has declined to make any kind of endorsement, that's his call and prerogative. he wants people to decide for themselves. certainly the tea party is not standing on the sidelines. >> is there a sense of discontent about your governor supporting mitt romney and she was elected by tearp support? guest: like i said, i see tea party in all four campaigns. and the events i've been to, governor hailey and governor romney, have been pretty crowded. host: we go to north carolina.

republican line. good morning. caller: i'm here. host: go ahead. caller: well, the thing is i have one concern. if we're trying to get government out of business, why is it that we have individual running like romney, and all he's running on is business? it just doesn't make much -- quite a lot of sense when everybody else is trying to get government out of other business. host: mr. connelly. guest: i'm not sure i understand his question. you know, all governor romney talks about is getting the government out of business. he's from the business side of things. certainly been very successful, become a wealthy businessman on his own, is in high regard in business circles. i'm not sure what this gentleman's talking about in reference to governor romney wanting to put more government in. i sure don't see that.

host: that was north carolina. next call is vermont. independent line. mike, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm one of those independent liberals that conservatives don't like too much. i voted for barack obama. i had tears in my eyes the night he was elected. now i have tears in my eyes because he followed bush's policies. i'm looking for someone like ron paul who will back off from these asian wars, these middle east wars, will some expanding the military. we're into australia now with the base to confront china. nuclear armed nation. it's ost we'll never go to war but we keep wasting money on the military, on defense. i like ron paul, i like his military iceleationism. i do believe that business must

expand. i like the best of capitalism and socialism. i think we need a net for poor people in this country despite many other people's positions. i also find hypocracy in people like romney and going rich talking about war. romney lived in france for years to avoid vietnam. gink going rich got married and i believe to avoid vietnam, got deferment. so i favor not serving in vietnam. but don't be a hypocrite. o those are my comments, sir. guest: i love your state and it's beautiful up there. i don't know what an independent liberal is. sounds like you're a libertarian and ron paul's vain wanting us to get out of wars. there's no question that congressman paul draws a lot of attention talking about are these wars necessary? is this a place we need to be or ought to be and ought to be spending money. so i think that's part of his appeal here.

we've got seven military bases and people are very much supportive of our military and our veterans, especially, but i think he has gotten some ground tracktion here with some of those messages. so it's going to be an interesting take. host: has foreign policy been much of a factor among south carolinians as they vote and have the candidates brought it up? guest: they have brought it up. it's probably been of an issue than i would have expected but i think it goes back to the economy. i think that's so prominent in people's minds that it's hard for them to get to the third or fourth or fitchtsdz thing on the list because they're worried about jobs and the debt, and as this gentleman from vermont, they're worried about the spending and crazy levels of debt we've accumulated. . .

yet you sit there and say that he is a train wreck? it appears to me that the train wreck has run over you, thinking the way that you are thinking this morning. guest: i think this say every day. he is a disaster. the seal team that got obam

our spending is out of control -- socialism just as not work and the free market does work. as far as governor haley, she did not say that she did not want amazon to come here. she said she did not want special tax breaks for them. now that amazon is hiring and so

is continental power and bridgestone and boeing, the unemployment rate is coming down. all whole lot more about the economic cycle that has been in the downturn, and president obama's policies that hurt south carolina jobs, and governor haley has only been in job -- in her job a year. but she has brought a lot of companies here. host:. how the you maintain this without having it go too far? they spend no question that we -- guest: no question that they create more programs. we have gone too far and gotten while out of control spending and we have watched increase so fast. i was upset with president bush and congress letting debt owed to $10 trillion. that was in eight years. president obama has increased it up to $16 trillion in three

years. so obama has done in 40% of the time four times as much as president bush did. that is a problem. that is a past increased spending, wildly out of control, and when he wants to take $1 trillion from military and put it to two entitlement spending, we have a problem. please show me were socialized medicine works, please. when the canadian prime minister has a waiting list because they have free health care and he comes to south carolina, that is not very free to me. their own people do not want to take advantage of their free health care. i remember going to the netherlands and speaking over there. you've got these little tiny cars were your knees are on your chin. they said, it is because of the waste tax. every three months, you have to go in and take your car in to get it weighed.

maybe they have changed is, but i bet they took everything that is not glued or bolted on out of this card to pay as little weight tax. what is it for? she says, it is for the free health care. i'm saying to myself, lady, you know what you have said? free health care and a weight tax to pay for it? and south carolina, that means it is not free. there is no such thing as something for nothing, because someone else is always getting nothing for the something they are paying an -- what they are paying in. host: what was your reaction to newt gingrich calling president obama 8 through stamp president? guest: looked at the facts. there are more people on that stance today than when president obama took office. i think that as part of this whole taxation thing. i think he wants to create more dependency instead of less.

laws may not pete, from long island, you are on the republican line. caller: you are 100% correct. this president is destroying us quickly. this health-care bill that is unconstitutional, anyway, i could talk all day about him. i like ron paul, you know. his ideas, and what he has to say. get us on a gold standard someone. i do not even know we can. these people better wake up because our system could crash and we were really not have any money. these people, they separate us, they divide us, republicans, democrats, and everybody better wake up. we need this dart throwing out both parties, -- we better start

throwing out both countries and wake up in this country. i do not think ron paul can be elected but newt gingrich can and i think it will cut the spending and put us on the right track. he will bring back the manufacturing wide awake, cut the taxes like rick santorum's ideas, and bring back the manufacturing because we will never survive if we do not have manufacturing to get this country going. that is all that i have to say. keep on going. guest: thank you and i appreciate your comments. i was coming through town lace last night -- late last night and congressman paul had an event was not. i got home to see the crowd. he has certainly pulling people out of the woodwork that have not really been engaged before, really proud of that. a lot of young people, too. i was on 26 which goes from greenville to charleston and i saw a ron paul supporter

literally hanging off of a bridge overpass to put a bed sheet from paul for president on net. i thought, i hope he does not fall. but their enthusiasm and their zeal for the candidate, we need more of that in south carolina. you are right. this spending, all of our candidates are speaking to the issue. we have got a problem. when people think of free health care is a good idea, where is the money to pay for it? i'd just do not get it. talk to a doctor. they are against it. they are seeing that this is a takeover of a massive part of the american economy. we all love something free. i tell my kids, no, allyson candy, daddy. you're not getting any candidate. i did not work for candy. we're not going to by that candidate. i have to teach my kids that you cannot have everything you want. someone has to pay for it. the lady was saying free health

care is a good thing. look, moved to canada. move to cuba. move to russia. move to north korea. they have got all those free thing there but they do not have any freedom. if there is not any incentive and reward at the end, president obama is driving people out of our nation, driving producers and companies out with his policies. they do not want to be located here to pay these gigantic taxes that just eat up their profit. there is no reward for them to take a risk. a host: from twitter. guest: we are strong on the border because we're to provide for the common defense. when he talks about cutting the military $1 trillion and going

back up 40 years ago, levels, and in some states even further than that, levels of military strength, he opens it up to attacks from terrorists everywhere who want to get in our country and attack our country just like what happened on 9/11. those military cuts are drastic. everybody is for being good stewards of money. everyone is for watching the dollar not overspending, but $1 trillion out of spending, just to prop up people and by their vote, that is not smart about. host: gingrich is at 32% of the vote right now. mr. romney, a 26%, ron paul with 11%, and cleveland, ohio, go ahead. caller: i wanted to make a comment about -- you guys keep

talking about newt gingrich. you're talking about newt gingrich. newt gingrich, look at obama, how can you pass a bill with obama because we first got in office, he did not get no kind of cooperation with yes. look what he did with fannie mae. all you republicans sit here bickering and arguing toward each other, and everybody is watching a. who is the candidate? all you're doing is arguing and fighting bad things about each other. you guys are in the same party. host: we have lost him. guest: i was wondering if there was a question in there. host: two calls from south carolina, first the independent line. caller: of few calls ago, one person called from myrtle beach. he had all litany of things that he wanted you to address.

in particular, he talked about the confederate flag. you did not address it. also how newt gingrich acted in that last may, how arrogant it was. you did not address that. you immediately went to president obama and you did not address that young man's comments. if you, -- if you could, what is your position on the confederate flag? please do not talk about president obama on that because we know his position. guest: thank you for calling. i think i said that you gave me such a litany analyst, as you said, i could not remember it. but confederate flag as a settled issue. the black caucus agreed with the location and the naacp agreed with that and now it seems like it is a new issue of a sudden. it is a settled issue is that this side came together on 14 years ago and came up with a compromise. the last part about that, i do not think speaker gingrich looked angry at all. i think he was righteously

indignant at a pier project a person from the media asking appointed, personal question. this is why the standing ovation happened. i watched it happen around me alas two debates, sir. what he is really talking about, the reason people got excited is that he was pointing out that the media never bothered to ask pointed questions of barack obama or hillary clinton. they were calling each other on the primary. it was a huge battle. people tend to forget that stuff and it was four years ago. but the people were most animated and excited about speaker gingrich saying why don't you people in the press ever ask the stuff of democrats? it is not an even playing field. we have to ask pointed and personal questions and barack obama got a huge pass. he sat with a pastor that was a certifiable wacko. rev. wright needed to be in one

of those jackets with long sleeves that tie in the back. he hates america and for barack obama to say that he was not influenced by him, and he sat under his membership for 20 years? that is a farce. and the media said, ok, jeremiah right, they gave him a total pass on that. he did cocaine on his youth and no one followed up and ask the hard questions. and yet our candidates have to endure that. i hope that as an answer to your question. that is the frustration that folks on our side of the aisle c a. you are on the liberal side you do not see it that way. but there is not -- the result liberal bias in most of the media. most of the stories are looking for a quote that that's the narrative. i try hard not to give it to them. host: a few more minutes with our guests. don from new hampshire.

caller: i like to refresh your republican brand a little bit. you cannot think of something that president obama did writers anything. he said he would pass health care of me did. would you agree with it or not, it passed. number two, he would bring the troops home from iraq. we all know that it should not have happened because george jr. died. he did that, too. number three, they do not like to admit it, the republican brains, but he did get osama bin laden, the guy responsible for 9/11, yes, that navy seals did it but george jr. cannot do it in seven or eight years. i like to see you spin these facts around. i cannot wait if it is romney or cambridge, it does not matter. president obama has so many trump cards, he is going to mop the floor with these two imbeciles. checkmate. guest: i will not call your

names like you call me. but president obama is a disastrous candidate. i think he is a good father, a good daddy, and a good husband and he can sing. he said he would pass health care but he also read as a centrist. it was disingenuous during that campaign. he has governed as a marxist, a leftist, a socialist, someone who carl marks would of love. he would love to have socialized medicine nationwide. if it was such a good thing, why not started immediately? why make it come into play three years later in his second term? look what they had to do to pass it feared the democratic senate had to meet on christmas eve and forge a vote for you hadn't been nelson in nebraska not running again because he was bored. the cornhuskers kickback. mary landrieu, she was bought off. they had to make all sorts of promises to make her vote for that debacle.

most people do not like health care. like i was telling you earlier, i do not know if you are listening, but when people want something for free, of course it sounds good. three cars and three houses, but it does not work. there was going to pay for it? he might gotten socialized medicine pat but that is not a centrist ideas. that is a leftist idea that karl marx would have loved to of written about and seen past and our country. it undermines the fabric of our country and it takes away from the idea that we can produce an be self-governing. if you want to be governed completely, then there are countries that believe in that and it is easier to go there. this country believes in self- reliance and responsibility. and president obama is feeding that idea that we're going iraqi from cradle to grave. and you pour baby cannot take care of yourself. it goes against everything that i believe and in every fiber of my being.

host: how many electoral votes to is the state have? guest: 9 votes. there are seven congressional districts -- are you talking about votes for the presidency itself? yes, we are a winner-take-all state. but we have been penalized and lost half of our delegates because to keep our first in a nation spot, we had to move it. the florida decision forced us to move into january to keep the first roll and we were penalized. we will lose half of march 50 delegates. we will have 25. 11 of them will be given to the winner. they are at large delegates. the other 14 will be proportional last based on congressional districts. whoever wins that congressional district, they get two of those votes per congressional district at the convention.

host: does that process need to be changed to make it simpler? guest: believe me, i agree with that. host: carl on the republican line. caller: you mentioned that once adulation, the obama white house does not like profits. what you want to take a look at is the it takes a look -- it takes a village combination with social justice, hillary clinton and barack obama are one in the same people. mr. gene sperling went out when the irs found 30% in the welfare to work, he went out and shamed taxpayers, saying why are you picking on the poor when we know that the business people are altering their income tax? they are hand in glove, 75% of

hillary clinton is invested in obama, and it is going to carry out that way and if we do not stopper by 2018 we will be a socialist country. guest: our senator demint is fond of saying, this is our last chance to beat obama. if we think he has been left in the last few years, he will ruin our country in a second term. there is no doubt in my mind and we cannot go back to the freedoms that we enjoy. host: larry on the independent line. go-ahead, good morning. caller: good morning. yes. i am ultraconservative. ultraconservatives. i am sorry, -- a true conservative. i am sorry, a true conservative does not leave his wife when they get sick. that is not a sign of good leadership that we can depend on.

can you hear me? guest: yes, sir, i was waiting on a question. caller: the question is -- why is it that the news media almost wants to apologize to newt gingrich for asking the tough question, for him getting nasty tough question, and he is not being put on the spot. yes, it -- yet it was ok for him to push mitt romney about his income tax. it sounds like a double standard going on there. newt gingrich is not conservative. i've got good moral fiber and i have raised my kids to do what is right. he left his first wife when she got cancer, and then left his second wife when she got multiple sclerosis. that sounds like when times get tough, he wants to leave. guest: thank you for calling in.

i do not know the whole story, obviously. i think what the speaker and governor romney had been bringing up is that they think all the questions are fair. they're just not ask of democrats. the entire point was not to investigate this stuff and ask this question of a democratic candidate when they come around? that was the whole point of that. they are not afraid of answering anything for the speaker answered the hard questions and the governor has had to. senator santorum has had answer the hard question. those of in the front runners in the campaigns. they are not scared of a hard question. they will like to see the media asked the same questions of the democrats when they come around. host: coming up, adam green will join us to talk about the role progresses in the 2012 election. the last question is from the democrats' line. caller: thank you for taking my call.

when i looked at the republican candidates the other night, it gameded me of a child's that we play as children, when your opponent's call red rover, when they were across the field from you and you are afraid to ask for one of them to come over to your side to break through. looking at them and listening to all the rhetoric that we're talking about and complaining about against each other, it reminded me of a child. i am sure president obama's group is also saying to them, red rover, red rover, send any republican nominee right over. and we will deal with you. we will deal with you because you have nothing to offer. we are not afraid of you. any of them can come over and be an opponent to president obama.

and he will be a win against any of them. he is the best of all of them. and i can tell you, michele wilson is from your state. -- doug wilson was the first to shout in disrespect to president obama. host: what is your question? caller: how can you set up there and say all of these negative things about what president obama has not done, when you represent the state that has shown that disrespect for president obama? ) we will leave it there. caller: we're never going to agree and most americans would not agree with her. any of our candidates will defeat obama.

he has a disastrous record. he is running against congress already, talking about them. you're going to see them go at each other in a primary fight. i am completely confident that most of america agrees with our principles. we do not have perfect people anywhere. no one has perfect people running in any race. look at the principles and the republic and pencils and conservative ideals founded our country and made it successful. when we get back to them, we will be successful once again. president obama has taken us down the road of european secular socialism. if someone can point out to meet a country that has forced these kind of ideals on a country and lasted, i would be willing to look at it. but you will not move me of my stance. i look of world history and see what works. what works is conservative foundational ideals that had been here for a long time. if they have always worked in the will continue to work when we get this man out of the white house.

he will continue to be a good husband and a good father. host: thank you for joining us today. we're going to take a break now and then we will talk to adam green, talking about campaign 2012, the progressive change campaign committee. he is there co-founder and we will talk about their efforts, particularly the works of progressives, as they work in 2012. we will be right back. ♪

>> mr. speaker, the president of the united states. >> tuesday night, present obama delivers his state of the union address grid live coverage today p.m. eastern, including the president's speech, republican response by mitch daniels, and your phone calls, live on c-span and c-span radio. on c-span2, watch the speech along with tweets from members of congress. after that, more reaction. go online for live video and add your comments with facebook and twitter at c-span.org. >> if you have a saudi prince who is part of the royal family of saudi arabia, effectively bind one of the largest new franchises in the world, bought into it, you have to look at his

motives. >> diana west writes about culture, politics, and the spread of islam and the western world. >> if there is an argument to make that box should register as a foreign agent, given the role of the prince in its corporate structure. >> more with the syndicated columnist and the west sunday night at 8:00 on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. host: on your screen, adam green, of the progressive change campaign committee. is there co-founder. describe the work that you do. guest: we have nearly 1 million grassroots members. we get involved in campaigns and issue advocacies. one of our top candidates this year is elizabeth 1. on the issue aside, we're big advocates of the public option, wall street reform, so we do

50/50 his work like that. host: was a likelihood of progress of voters and candidates showing up in 2012? guest: i think that occupy wall street happening right now, saying that the little guy needs to have a fighting chance, it is just not a leftist center idea. it is something that many are feeling. as we endorsed evidence, we're looking for those who were going to meet this moment and -- as we endorse candidates, we are looking for those who were going to meet this moment. host: you mentioned at elizabeth warren. why do you highlight her? guest: she has a genuine record of holding wall street's fee to the fire. she was willing to grow wall

street executives when she was in power. when someone like that decides to run for office, we need to get her back. many chipped in for smaller contributions, over $600,000 to our campaign, over $30,000 -- 30,000 donors. it is a symbol of what it means when a genuine progressive leader runs for office. we're trying to let her and other allies in the house and senate will get her back in the congress and work with her to fight for the little guy. host: talk about what is different between her and the current incumbent scott brown. guest: what is not? on wall street reform, he was the deciding vote which he used to water it down. he has gone a long step -- a lot step -- lockstep with republicans as they have blocked everything.

elizabeth warren is a fighter. she will never stand alone because she has a real grassroots movement at her back. if you look at the fun rating -- rut -- fund raising numbers, she was the top senate fund-raiser in the nation. other candidates were trying to figure it out. the liquor -- they look at her and say, i want to be more like that. what she has done right is keeping true to her wall street accountability message, and we really hope she is that north star that other democrats used to guide their positions. host: how much came from within the state and how much without? guest: i do not know, but she does not hard -- she does not hide the fact that she has an appeal outside the state. it is a national issue. wall street irresponsibility is what hurt our economy. we need every political leader in every state to be held

accountable. she has been on the forefront of that. i have donated to her and i hope other people will as well. one thing that is heartening when we get something in the mail, that says i cannot give much but here is $3. that is a packet of trust, she has said. it is trust and a political leader and she has inspired it. host: our guest is with us until 9:15 a.m. you can give us comments @ facebook and twitter. a couple of other candidates you have supporters, some our viewers may know, but let us start with the ones that you may not know. i may not be precise in his right. from illinois, the 10th

district. why are you supporting this person? guest: and inspirational guide. he is a movement candidate that used to work for democracy for america. he helped to lead the fight for the public option. he is a genuine organizers. he is also very in touch with his home district. this is the first primary and the nation on march 20 that pits a bold progressive against a blue dog corporate democrat. we did a poll put shows that he is winning in this primary. a few people lacking at the bottom. unions and many progressive people are getting behind this campaign. if he pulls off his primary win, he will go on to defeat the tea party republican. it will have ripples across our entire nation. if you stand for your principles and you are in touch with your

voters and are a progressive, you will win the primary in the general. the first big primary in 2012. host: in new mexico, and in the first district. guest: he has been elected several times in the past. in the albuquerque's city council. he is very progressive and effective. he is one of the few to pass at public funding bill, to get corporate funding out of local politics. it is a flagship city, as people think about how to get corporate money out of politics. people talk about bringing jobs and he did it. he passed the green jobs initiative, one of the flag ships in the nation. when he kicked off his campaign, literally the first words was

that we the democratic party should stand for something. we do not need to be kinder and gentler. that is who they really want to rally around. he has raised about $90,000 in small dollar contributions. and we're looking forward to working with him. host: how do you keep these candid it's committed your ideals in office? what happens if they shrink from that? guest: some groups are purely electoral and focus and we are -- and some are issues focus. we do both. we work with them closely on the campaign trail to show that boldness equal support, fund raising, and when you're bald, the cattle we will ride. by the time they get the congress, they're working with the progressive movement and when we're there, we work closely with their offices. we look for heroes on the hill.

so we do not -- we try to provide an incentive system, you can rest assured that the press of movement will have your back. host: are those that you have been disappointed in question that you have been in desperate to get to have been disappointed in? guest: it is not discouraged -- it is discouraging when democrats affect -- except the wall street reform that was passed as the best that we can do. we need to end too big to fail and the goal was not accomplished. others are saying that we're coming up to a another project another wall street collapse. when it comes up to the debt ceiling debate, we need democrats to draw a line in the sand. particularly when so much of the

public is on their side at on the issues of the days, there is no need to compromise. you draw a line in the sand and rally the public on your side and force the republicans to cave. in the last several months, president obama has actually taken the of is that progressive -- the advice that progressives have been giving, barnstorm, go to john boehner's district, force them the backtrack. i think the public galvanizing against paul ryan and his medicare plan, it was a really good example of how when we take our case to the public as opposed to negotiating, the republican -- the public will get our back. we had hoped but we also believe in holding democrats accountable. host: when the president makes a decision like he did this week on keystone, how does that help you accomplish? guest: that is great.

we want to praise democratic leaders for doing the right thing. host: even when republicans talk about lost jobs because of this measure. guest: it is important that we not let that talking point of jobs get in the way it good policy. republicans can barnstormed across the country saying that they think prostitution will be legal because it will create jobs. digging a huge ditch the the entire united states and having oil and dirty substances pont to our -- pumped through our neighborhoods is not a way to create jobs. when president obama says no to that policy, he gets praise for that. host: adam green of the progressive change campaign committee. caller: thank you for taking my call. mr. green, i have one concern.

i know the democratic party has always been the big tent. i want to make sure that you are working with debbie wasserman schultz and president obama. this is a critical election and we have all this noise on the right, but that t baggers. we do not need the firebaggers on the left to marginalize the good that president obama is doing. guest: i believe in the big tent, and it goes wider than the democratic party. we do our homework and we do the polling. -- the polling. it shows that on some of the tough issues of the day, including taxing millionaires, tax in those over $250,000, and some swing states, even taxing

people over $150,000. they are popular among independents and even republicans. do not marginalize herself. -- >> believes -- do not marginalized yourself when you're true believes are the 80% of publicly. we did not take our ball and go home. we activated with our friends to make 1 million phone calls on behalf of democratic progressive candidates in the final month of the election. back seeks to take to restore the democratic house majority. if our theory is that it is smarter to go into a general election with an 80% election day -- position than a 20% position, we need to get that point across to the democrats. when president obama puts for

gadhaf proposal that is real and was funded smartly by having a surtax on millionaires, which he did, he deserves all the praise in the world. back in the day when there was capitulation before the fight even began, that is the day when democrats were putting medicare benefit cuts in social security benefits cuts on the table, which will be destructive to the democrats in 2012. we need to say no to that. we have done that and in one case we were successful and we look forward to the democrats taking back the house. host: wrong on the republican line is from wisconsin. -- ron from rohrabacher -- from wisconsin. caller: i believe i'm going to be changing over to democrats. could you put up your web site so that i can get more involved?

he called the president of marxist and then he takes offense when, what did they call him, i forget what they called him, but they called him a different name and then he comes out and says that he is a marxist. i do not understand that. please put your web site up and i appreciate you. guest: please, no hardball questions. let's stick to softball. our website is boldprogressives.org. we would welcome your support for the cause. host: this is a memo from twitter. guest: part of the answer depends on whether our candidates won the primaries. the main thing that we're

playing is an open seat primary, employees were democrats should definitely when and where there is no place -- no reason for true progressive not to win the primaries. chris donilon running in connecticut, the speaker of the house there, and the other candidate that we have been -- endorsed in new hampshire, she won a competitive primary against joe lieberman. she then went on to have pretty much the closest general election in the entire nation, all little over 1% in a landslide election for republicans. we want to support bold progressive candidates in these primaries. and blue dots will not increase

their numbers considerably. caller: hi, how could any progressive vote for obama again when he disrespects the place? where is obama on card check, the police beating of occupy wall street protesters, the bush tax cuts, and indefinite intention? obama wants to make americans slaves to private health insurance companies. how can any progressive vote for him again? the progressives have stockholm syndrome. they have got to move on. guest: it is funny listening to someone who i agree with on almost all the issues, it sounds like, with the exception of the slave language. there is no progressive group that has held president obama more accountable than us. if you go to our website, you can watch our ads that we had actively aired holding him

accountable in iowa and new hampshire that when he was on the verge and did cave on the bush tax cuts. during the public option debate, it was leaked before a big speed stick congress that he was going to throw the public option under the bus. we organized and took out full- page ad in the "new york times"n donors. you are absolutely right that we need to hold him accountable and we need to push him to be more aggressive. when we are led down by him and other democrats, we need to be willing to speak out. we cannot just get in line. in an election, an election is about choices. if the two candidates are on the

ballot, barack obama and newt gingrich, i do not know if your solution is not to vote or what, but there is a smart way of going about things. been willing to push and the more vocal. i invite you to join us. host: david on our republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to ask mr. green this morning if the progressives have a majority in the house, and majority in the senate, and majority in the supreme court, and the white house, what does america look like? what is the end game? i will take the answer offline. guest: i think he said progresses and not democrats. we saw what happens when we only have democrats in these positions. that is why groups like ours are

pushing the democratic party to have a backbone. we need real investment in people. frankly, there has been a class warfare against the middle-class and against the poor and on behalf of the 1%. we have been looted as americans, money taken out of our pockets. you are not supposed to say that in washington, but in the country that is what people are feeling. we need to reverse that right now. we need to hold wall street accountable and get rid of this idea of personal corporatehood. in the spirit of big economic fights in the past like having a minimum wage or social security and medicare, we need to push them forward. we need to make sure that people are getting paid more.

it is absurd that teachers often are starting out at salaries below the 20% range. i would be happy to talk to you more about this. you can e-mail us at. -- us. the broad theme is having corporate accountability and having a society that works for the little guy. host: nigel asks this question -- foreign policy's -- look, i've heard a fine progressive analysis of ron paul. watching him during the presidential debates, half the

time you want to say that is a great point. at the time, you want to say what? stopping the occupation of foreign nations, he was one of the early people saying get out of iraq and afghanistan. on iran and economic issues, he goes back and forth. if eradicating the department of education and the epa is a bad thing. holding the federal reserve which gave $13 trillion to big banks is a good thing. ron paul, at the end of the day, it is now going to be president of the united states. on some of these issues, it is been good to have him on the stage at the republican debate. it is important that america hears that viewpoint. host: minnesota is next. deb on our democrats' line.

caller: hello. i hear the republicans say that obama's bill is going to make our children and our grandchildren pay for it. it is actually a republican children and grandchildren that are at risk. it is because of republicans'. when obama came into office, the republicans had killed this nation. coming into office and wanting to appease progressives, which is fine, he had a big job on his lain save ourplan save ou country from the republicans. we have a blue dog in my district, but he does not have anyone to go against him. collin peterson from the house. there is no one really broken go against him because he is

popular and i live in a more republican-type area. you cannot appease progressives when the country is falling apart. you have to balance everything out. in his next term, and i believe obama will be elected, he will do more progressive things. >> you hit a couple of points that are interesting. you said that collin peterson cannot be beat because he is popular. if you look at rick perry over the last couple of months, his support in texas has collapsed. my home state of new jersey -- chris christie has been riding a bottle of pseudo-popularity but we do not have our own media market. he does not get the scrutiny that he deserves. his popularity will go down. someone like colin peterson -- i

encourage you to find a way to increase the scrutiny on him. if people do not hold him accountable when the waters down wall street reform and goes back to special interest, people back home will never know what he is doing. we control our own destiny on that front. on the idea of appeasing on most issues of the day is at appeasing a 80% of america. when it comes to the bush tax cuts, although wall street accountable, and jailing bankers who broke the law, these are overwhelmingly popular positions. when the president does not support those, he is alienating not just his base but independents and many open- minded republicans as well. nobody got up on more days in

2008 to help president obama elected than me. every single day. there are a lot of people in my shoes who want him to succeed. we want the obama of 2008 who is a fighter and wants to make things succeed. when he has the opportunity to achieve big things but does not because of certain political realities, we have to push him to do better. host: is it your expectation to see president obama leading up to november? guest: he is definitely more in line with the obama of 2008 than he has been. he has a job to do to get people motivated in november as they were in 2008. a lot of young people got involved in politics for the first time thinking that big things could happen, and they did not see those things happen.

the criteria is on the battles that you actually wage, do you fight as possibly hard as you can to achieve the best result? if you have to compromise, do you achieve the best compromise? if you do not take your case to the people and have scrutiny on these republicans so their popularity goes down, if you start off with a compromising position it instead of having a clear line in the sand, if you do not do those things, you cannot go back to the young people and say this is the best we can do. it has been very encouraging to see how he has been campaigning in the last several months. i think people get more young people involved in his campaign. we hope to see a lot more of the 2008 obama. the troy mich..h. -- caller: what we have seen is a

government has become a tool for wasteful special interests and firms in society like environmentalists and teachers' unions to impose their will on main street because they could not do it by voluntary means. everything this gentleman says has to be done by the mechanism of government through coercive means. there is nothing that is either free or voluntary, which is why they will fail. if they win, the country collapses because it is an unsustainable system. socialism is great until you plundered all the money from the productive class. guest: sir, i sympathize with you and feel sorry for you. you are advocating against yourself in this case. there is an economic pie. bad faith corporations and wall street actors have most of this

pie. their hope is that we squabble among ourselves for the crumbs, and that is what you are doing. when you say that teachers' unions have their paradise by starting off with salaries in the 20,000-range, i think it is a little bit delusional. maybe teachers have health care insurance. maybe you would be objected to that. what we need is to stop -- i mentioned before that the fed gave $13 trillion to the big banks which was not even open to the public until ron paul had an amendment in the wall street bill. if you think that $13 trillion fell from the sky, you are mistaken. that $13 trillion came from you and me. $13 trillion is a lot of money.

it did not go to the teachers' unions. i assume that you are middle- class, working class. i encourage you to look at the real source of the problem, which is the middle-class has been the victim of class warfare in this country. host: tyler town, mississippi, jeffrey, thank you for holding. go ahead. caller: how are you doing? i feel if all of the people would rally around newt gingrich and rick santorum, i believe we would have a good ticket. and quit all this squabbling and the stuff like that. that is it. that is what i believe. guest: i encourage republican voters to do that. host: this is from twitter.

guest: corporate control of our elections and democracy. there is a bill in congress that has 185 co-sponsors in the house. id is a combination of public funding of elections and people- powered elections. any politician who pops into this system is able to get a certain number of grass-roots their nations and qualifies for a big chunk of public money. enough to run a credible campaign. in addition, they can accept contributions up to $100, and the government would match those contributions four to one. what does that mean? it means that if you have a

truly people-powered candidate and a corporate pool who has nobody behind them, they will not be beneficiaries of the system. the people-powered candidates will have a comparative advantage which is what you want. the real thing that it does is it takes the incentives in our political system from spending hours and hours per day on the phones to big donors which is what members of congress have to do right now and incentivizes them to hlistened to their districts and not be held into one big funder. that would be an ideal system of an election. this idea that corporations equal people doing it to a constitutional amendment. those are some of the big ideas that are out there.

there are some conservatives who support this idea. they support it because this would cost $1 billion a year in taxpayer money to get corporate influence out of all of our congressional elections. $1 billion. the fed gave away $13 trillion to big banks. the big bailout was between $700 billion and $800 billion. so much corporate welfare would be eliminated if we catered to everyday people. it would be a moneymaker to the american people that would stop the bleeding and allow politicians to focus on the party's. host: huntington, west virginia. pat, go ahead. caller: thank you for c-span. i come from a poverty area. poverty is a way of life in west

virginia. this is a true story. he just got hurt in a mining accident. he is 58. he has been off two weeks in that time for injuries. he is now worried about his job. it is a non-union outfit. i do not say that because i want to bring that attention. what i want to talk about is we want fairness. i drove by two schools on the way home and one of them was crumbly. children have to walk past that every day. there are people who live probably in better homes than these schools are. the homes are actually better than the school's. we want fairness. here is what jesus said. in the hearing of all of the people, jesus said "be aware of

the doctors of the law that like to walk up and down along roads to achieve places of honor and feast. while they say long prayers for appearance's sake. they will receive the severest punishment." guest: first of all, thank you. i would second your thanks for c-span in this dialogue. the one thing i would point out is your call stand for a certain proposition. progressives are not just in california and new york and some ofthese more-progressiv progres states. -- progressive states. it sounds like you have a religious background. different things motivate different people.

we can all get behind the idea of what you said. fairness, and economy that works for everyday people. if you are not a member, i invite you to join us. host: mike from houston, tx. caller: first of all, ron paul was on the record saying that the federal reserve was doing a decent job. i think the federal reserve is the biggest ponzi scheme. people do not understand that they are owned by the rockchilds and the lehman brothers. they are a separate entity. they are not even the united states. they make it seem like it is a part of the united states, but it is not. is owned by bankers and bank they of the biggest crooks out their. they should all be in jail for

running this ponzi scheme. you are passing on a big debt. you are passing on maybe $150,000 minus. host: and the question is? caller: more of a comment. i want people to be aware. guest: i think he made the case. look, i agree with your basic point. people do not know much about the fed. giving away $13 trillion of our money to big banks. their boards are wall street banks. the wall street bankers appoint the board of the fed governors. it is somewhat of a corrupt institution from a systemic point of view. it is not democratic. it is very encouraging to see people like elizabeth warren helping to clean up this environment. host: one more call from our

independenct line. caller: i want to start up with the website. i know that david will spin it to my disadvantage. i am going to say website. just google "frontline: the warning." you will see that the cause of this economic collapse in 2008. elizabeth warren was sitting on the oversight committee regarding this financial collapse. what did she do? she said the mechanism, how it happened, but she never said who did it or how to -- she never really enforced her authority. it was like nothing.

it was like a big nothing. in effect, she is misleading the american people. she never came out with who was responsible for this. elizabeth warren -- she is part of the establishment. you are pushing her as a candidate, but she is a disaster, this woman. if you google "frontline -- the warning" you will see what happened and how she covered it up. guest: more information is good. feel free to google a lot of things. to say that elizabeth warren has not called out the bad actors, you have not been watching her statements very carefully. she has used the power that she has to really drill them publicly. i will point out that the tarp oversight panel after the

collapse, after the bailout, cleaning up the mess, had powers that congress gave it. the sense that congress does not give them that subpoena powers or other things that might be appropriate, it cannot use those powers. i think that is symbolic of the republican theory of government right now which is to take over the apparatus of government but to make it as ineffective as possible and then blame democrats for progressives for the inefficiency. the one real sympathy i have for president obama is that when it comes to the stimulus, when it comes to health care reform, when it comes to wall street reform, he actually did not pass the pure version of his plan because of republican obstruction, republicans taking away power to do if good things. than the republicans criticize him for things that are not working.

it is symbolic of the argument you are making against elizabeth warren. the final thing i would mention is for those who dispute that caller who support elizabeth warren, who want an economy that fights for the little guy and wants to know who the candidates are that are viable and are credible that can win, i invite you want more to go to our website. host: what is the track record between those you support and those who win office? guest: we have had some recent successes. included recalling a couple of republicans. unfortunately, in the last election cycle, democrats from top to bottom got wiped out. it was not the best test case for us. one candidate came within two

points of winning when the entire establishment was against him. my predictions this year is we will probably indoors between 10 or 12 candidates, and i expect the majority of them to win. we are now close to 1 million members. host: the web site for our guest -- if you want to find out more about the organization and what they do. adam green, the co-founder of the progressive change campaign committee. in our last topic, we will take a look at unemployment among veterans from iraq and afghanistan. first, a look at the polling places in south carolina. do not forget, our coverage of that is at 7:00 tonight. we will be back.

>> hoover argued a couple of things. he argued that american policy toward japan in 1940, 1941 was rather provocative and perhaps in a juvenile way he said that we are putting pins in a rattlesnake, and eventually the rattlesnake will strike back. >> tonight, an editor and hoover scholar on the former president's evaluation of the

executive branch decisions starting with the second world war ride to the cold war with the soviet union. also this weekend, religion in america. tonight at 8:00. sunday night, understanding our constitution by looking at the odd clauses. every weekend on c-span2. >> the conspirators planned was to have the street lined with their guys, part of whom would create a distraction so any police escort would be drawn away and the rest would close in for the kill. >> 1861, allan pinkerton uncovers evidence of a possible plot to kill the presidential e lacked. -- elect. also this weekend, the origins of the cold war. tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern. sunday at 7:30 p.m., fdr's inner

circle of advisers and their role in planning the world war. "american history tv" this weekend on c-span3. >> "washington journal" continues. host: on your screen, tom tarantino, iraq & afghanistan veterans of america, the senior legislative associate. how does your organization best get jobs? guest: we are the first non- partisan non-profit organization for veterans of iraq and afghanistan. we have to redefine how we deliver services to veterans of iraq and afghanistan primarily because there are so few of us. less than 1% of the population. the traditional models do not really work. we are online.

we understand community differently where it is defined by our access to communication. the way we communicate to the world is different than previous generations. we have been innovative to reach out to veterans so we can reestablish a sense of community we had when we were in the military. host: give a snapshot of veterans ability to get jobs. guest: the jobs epidemic has been getting worse and worse. i think we are looking at an average unemployment rate of 12.1%, and generally two or three points higher than the civil population. this is the first generation that has not served in the military so we do not have a real way to quantitatively and qualitatively tell the business community what their military

skills are. in generations past, almost everyone understood this. it was part of what you did when you were younger. this is no longer true. this divide has created a bigger divide within the employment community bank businesses want to hire veterans. they want to understand. they are building cohorts of veterans within companies to try to teach h.r. managers and hiring managers what they can bring to improve the company. we want to go back and quantified what military skills mean. if you are a medic, you cannot even drive an ambulance in most states because we have not quantified what being a medic

means in the real world. i think being a medic is equivalent to being an emt, but i do not really know that. we spent this last year working with the house and senate to pass an act that is going to translate military skills, retrain people for a new market, and incentivize hiring veterans. if they get skills and training in iraq or afghanistan and do not have a college degree, does that factor into their ability to get a job? guest: yes. we have passed the post-9/11 g.ii. bill. it is probably the greatest veteran benefit in a generation. it allows veterans to get whatever they need to do so they can do whatever they want in

their civilian life. we have to teach people that these veterans have practical job experience that is 10 or 15 years beyond what their civilian peers are. i came out in my late 20s. i had managed an organization with 400 people and a multimillion-dollar budget. that is what my friends are not going to do. we have to figure out a way to quantify those skills of the business community can take advantage of them. we spend billions of dollars every year training our military to be the most proficient in the world. we spend countless man-hours giving them these skills. for some reason, we think it is okay to throw that away when they leave the military. we need to bridge that gap. unfortunately it is a little late for this employment market.

host: we have set aside a phone line for specific iraq and afghanistan veterans. the numbers will be on your screen. you can also reach out to us on twitter or e-mail. caller: my question is -- i think our service men and women would be better served if we started bringing some of the billions of dollars that we are spending in afghanistan back here and deploy those resources here. the last time i looked at the defense budget, $12 billion was spent on afghanistan's security forces. i would like to comment on that. thank-you. guest: thank you. the bottom line is in all of these discussions about the defense budget and cutting the defense budget, we have to make

sure that how we rhee appropriate funds does not take away from the personal benefits. you do not balance the budget on the backs of the men and women who spent the last years sacrificing. whether it is taking money away from security forces or having less fighters, i am not an expert. about what i do know is there has been a growing rhetoric coming out of the house, the senate, and the white house talking about changing the way military health care is dinah. that is part of the compensation package for people joining the military. it is not equivalent to the civilian retirement and health care programs. we cannot continue to ask people who have sacrificed for the last 10 years to sacrifice more. frankly, they have given their share. host: off of twitter --

guest: because people who joined the military voluntary for theelite of public service in this country. this is a big problem. military service is not just another job. this is a choice to serve something greater than yourself, and the benefits to this country from our military are unmeasurable in terms of leadership and the types of things these people do when they get out of the military. it is the elite of the public service in this country. it is really hard for people who have served in uniform to understand -- it is really hard for people who have not served in uniform to understand what they go through and the burdens that the military and their families are put under during the time of war. so we owe veterans our freedom.

it is part of the deal. when someone joins the military and agrees to put their life on the line, we do that understanding that our country will be there for us when we come home if we come home. host: the republican line, good morning. caller: i was a vietnam veteran. i was there in 1968. i learned because of what eisenhower did -- he created the roads in this country. the build them. he created the d i a bill for the world's warii veterans coming home. but we do not have a republican today like that. that is what i am talking about. you are talking about a vietnam veteran -- we got nothing. we got absolutely nothing.

and you guys over there, you got paid it three times what we got paid in money. all i see is a mercenary force that this country ought to do away with entirely. i do not believe we need and military to send men off to a war for lies. that is all it is. it is all for greed and loyal. guest: thank you for your service and welcome home. i think it is true that the way this country treated the vietnam generation was despicable. we have an opportunity to welcome our men and women home from iraq and afghanistan in a prospective way. it was president roosevelt who created the g.i. bill. a lot of this was built because veterans wanted to come home and continue to serve their country.

we have a chance right now to welcome home this next generation of americans coming home from iraq and afghanistan and allow them to continue to serve our country. this is a group of young men and women, a very small group, her toes public-service. when they leave the military, largely they want to serve. i think we have a real opportunity to highlight successes and the potential of this generation to become our next leaders. host: our next call, an iraq vet. good morning. caller: good morning. i was overseas 5 times. i just had a question. the unemployment rate for veterans is appalling, number one. have you noticed any career field that has been more attractive for veterans coming home than any other field?

guest: yes, and thank you for your service and welcome home. it is typical that the government sector is always the largest employer of government veterans. government contract and is very attractive largely because it is a similar industry. what we are seeing now is the tech sectors and the financial- services sectors are making a huge push to hire veterans. the financial sector is young and fast paced. they train us to be independent operators, to be innovative and to think outside the box. i think that leads well into some of the business sectors in this country. in the financial-services sector, they are making a huge push to hire veterans. the problem is that we are so spread out and it is very difficult to find concentrations

of where everyone is and what everyone is doing. we have to make sure we have a way to educate anyone who wants to hire a veteran. we have something to give them to show what their skills mean. this is something that we are terrible. we are great at training people to be warriors but horrible at training them to be citizens again. i know we are working on better transition assistance programs. there is some stuff going on in congress right now that might help that along a little bit. host: "usa today" offers some information about women, saying that there were nearly 22% of all unemployed, iraq and afghanistan female veterans. guest: is really tough to get good numbers on female veterans.

on average, the numbers are about the same. the problem is the sample size is so small, when they collect data -- think about this. less than 1% of the population, iraq and afghanistan veterans. 11% of those are women. when they take sampling, a difference of two or three or four in a given month can swing it five or 10 percentage points. we need to get an accurate picture of what is happening with our female veterans because they are a critical sector of the veteran population and is a need services that are on par with their male counterparts. this is something that we have been very aggressive on. the next part is to try to figure out what an accurate snapshot of where things like

employment and health care are. with a spread-out population, it makes a challenging. host: things like posttraumatic stress disorder -- to those served as stigmas for those who could potentially higher? guest: absolutely. the vast majority of veterans have serious readjustment issues. it is a process for everyone. first of all, you have the crazy veteran stigma. frankly, it is not true. the incidents of someone going to extremes with post-traumatic stress are incredibly low. i would venture far less in the average civilian population. what we have to do is educate the workforce. we have to let them know that posttraumatic stressis a wound. it is like getting shot in the chest. if you are shot in the chest, you are not going to walk around

with a hole in your chest. you are going to get it treated. we need to reach out to community-based solutions like non-profits and training them to understand what, that mental health looks like. host: maryland is next on the democrats' line. caller: thank you for your service. following on what you said, i am learning more about this stand down movement where non-profits and companies come together to try to coordinate jobs and social services and sheltering other veterans who have returned. i am wondering what your perception is about the stand- down movement. do you think it is a valuable asset to help veterans who need services? what is your take on stand-down? guest: it is great and highly effective. as a first step, having that day

where you have all the services in an easy access area where especially homeless veterans typically are not accounted or traded or do not have access and cannot get into a va very easily, they can get into programs. veterans have an easy way and are there with other veterans. one thing that we found, the key to helping veterans get what they need is to make sure they are all around other veterans. one of the really powerful things about stand-down is it is typically large crowds of veterans who are there to get help or get something that they need or are there to help their friends get what they need. i think it is a great first step. i think we need to take that model and expand it. i think we need to create this network of support. there are a lot of community- based non-profits fell there

that are not engaged. we have to come together to figure out how we can integrate all of those operations and break down these stovepipes that we have between organizations so we can reach out and catch people who need services and help. host: augusta, maine, good morning. jake, good morning. go ahead. jake, one more time. caller: thank you for having a -- can you hear me? host: stop listening to the tv. caller: you guys have a great show. thank you for having such a great show. unfortunately, i think it is more propaganda than anything else. i feel that many -- to call a

soldier a public servant is a little bit silly. you do not get paid to serve. you serve god out of love. postville you can respond if you wish. guest: nobody joined the military for the great pay and easy access to great benefits. anyone who has tried to deal with the military or the mental health service knows it is difficult. the pay is certainly a lot lower if you were doing an equivalent job in the civilian world. it is impractical and ridiculous to -- we need the military -- and to ask them to serve for nothing is in street. the fact is military service is a calling. it is not a job. it is a mission.

it is a way of life. you do it because you want to be a part of something better and bigger than yourself because you have a love for country and you feel it is important to serve your fellow americans. you are willing to lay down your life if necessary. that is really the core of military service. you do not do it for the well- off, the fame, or the glory. host: republican line, good morning. caller: i want to thank you. my son is an 18 delta which is a special forces medic. he has been in the service for almost 30 years and it is very talented. he has had many accommodations and bronze stars for his duty and things that he has done. one of the things attached to the accommodation metals, he was a lead surgeon. my problem is when he gets out

of the service next year, what kind of opportunities does he have? he says he cannot get a job as a physician or anything like that at va hospitals or anywhere. it seems like all of this talent is being wasted. i would like you to comment on what other options for a person who is good at what he does how he can continue on. thank you. guest: thank you and thank you for your service as a military mom. you are absolutely right. you are 100% right. that is what frustrated us so much about the way we handle military vocations. you have medics, especially special forces medics, which is described as medical school in six months. i have seen these guys out in the field. their skills do not translate to

any sort of certification in the civilian world, and that is totally insane and unacceptable. we have worked with the house and the senate to pass a bill that will be able to quantify that. probably not within the next year wbut maybe the year after. we will be able to figure out what that training means, whether that is equivalent to a p a or an emt. the problem is we have never done that math. we are going to start doing that math. so people like your son will be able to get out of the military and walk into a job bank the office of professional management is starting to do that internally so people like her son could continue to work in the dod as a doctor or a p a or a medic or within the va system and just continue their school or their education so they can get the last few bits that they need to be whatever

level they want to do. so things are moving and happening. i suspect that we will see a lot of movement within the next year and see this changing quite significantly. host: is there any relation to the president's plans to cut portions of the military's budget and for the ability of veterans to go back into the pentagon to maybe fill jobs that would be there if those budgets are not cut? guest: i have not seen a direct correlation with. some of the proposals are about changing health care and retirement. frankly, i am absolutely opposed to those. nothing has been in direct correlation of cutting the work force. in fact, the administration has overhauled the way we higher in this country and that is going to change even more in the next year so the preference system is fixed so it is more manageable so veterans' preferences are

not 5 points and good luck. that have made a concerted effort to an executive order in 2009 to make sure every government agency can hire veterans, has a way to track them from the moment they leave service into wherever they want to go in an agency so they can bring them on to continue their service and government. coastal alabama, john is on our democrats -- host: alabama, john is on our democrats' line. caller: i am a veteran. what the local va at one time had a program that was peer-led and that meant a lot to me, listening to other veterans how to attack and solve their problems. i think if we can keep the lines

of communication open and have a double mindedness of the people when they need armed forces -- they are all for them, but when they are finished, they do not consider what the person has gone through. my son was incarcerated in washington for something i think was out of proportion due to the nature of their laws up there. guest: thank you for your service the fact is cannot mental health care in the va is not where it needs to beat. there are a lot of efforts to try to figure out how to fix the system or to reach out to state and local resources and non- profits to have a timely, adequate mental health care. you are absolutely right.

peer-support is the key to almost everything. no one can talk to a veteran like another veteran. i have dealt with this myself when i have gone to the va. in terms of the justice system, what has happened is you are starting to see a lot of veterans who cannot get to the va or they go to the va and they say we will see you in six weeks. what happens is they get in trouble with the local justice system. understanding that these crimes are due to their combat-related injuries, there have been 72 veterans -- there is a large movement. these are not people who made a conscious choice to live a criminal lifestyle. we can treat them come in to break them with the va in a network of peer support rather than sending them to jail. the recidivism rate is

virtually zero. studies have been highly effective programs. the problem is they are not everywhere. we need to make sure that every community in america has the ability to do this. host: this is off of twitter. guest: yes and no. the problem with the equivalency and transfer of skills, there are no set standards. this is actually a larger problem. the military has a certain systems where you can get credits for your service, but most institutions do not take them. the american council on education as an amazing system where it gives a suggested amount of credit that you can get at community college or university. the problem is is totally voluntary and nobody takes them. what we need to do especially

for military families that move every two to three years, we need to figure out a way to transfer credits from institution to institution so a to -or 4-degree does not take -- host: alexandria, minn., good morning. you are on with tom tarantino of the iraq & afghanistan veterans of america. caller: thank you for having c- span. you are a voice in the dark. i want to say that this is concerning the iraq war where i believe congress laid down to bush when he came out with that yellow cake uranium think. there was no question that it showed there was no backbone in congress. another thing is with this private enterprise, these people

who complain or say that we should have everything private enterprise, newt gingrich is one of them. he made over $1 million off of fannie mae and freddie mac which is government money coming into his coffers. i want to see how many historians which he claimed he was get paid the kind of money that he got paid. host: do you have a question for our guest? caller: i believe that a lot of these wars have been perpetuated. there has been no real basis for them to do what they do. they have squandered our national wealth. guest: i think this is a testament to the service of this generation of veterans. i know a lot of veterans who

felt exactly like he did. at the end of the day, it did not matter how you felt. you had a job to do, you had a mission. when i went, i did not go because of some political belief. i went because they were sending my soldiers. i had a mission, and that was part of my service. you do not join the military because of your political beliefs. you join the military because he went to serve your country. that kind of service is difficult. that is a testament to how great this generation is and how great generations who have chosen to serve in the military are that they are able to serve their country and then come home to serve theias leaders. caller: wow.

i was flipping through the channels and i thought i would call in. i appreciate what you are doing. i totally agree. the playing field out there. my father was a veteran. when he retired, he was more about who you know and not what you know. what you are doing is great and i appreciate it. less than 36 months out from retirement myself, i am definitely going to use your services. i appreciate that. guest: jeff and i were team leaders in iraq and he is an old friend of mine. it is great to hear his voice. you fought really hard. we were there together. go ahead and give me a call. we can talk more. it is good to hear your voice. congratulations on almost retiring. host: one more call, from our

republican line. caller: thank you for your service and i apologize to the american people to the two despicable calls that hurt the military. newt gingrich did not get the $1 million then that the companies got that. it is not right to live. i thought it was the presidential ploy. ok. on the head injuries and the post traumatic stress, dr. carol if you could get her online -- the problem that is in this is national health and the military is not using this. they are already doing it in san antonio. when you are under huge stress, it depletes the amino acid in your brain. that is what makes your

neurotransmitters work. it is that simple for the most part. you can take amino acids in capsules. anyhow, to make it plain, they are already working with them in san antonio. this is urgent for our troops. host: thank you. guest: thank you for calling. there are a lot of things that did dod and the va need to do to look outside the box for treatment. there is no magic bullet. we need to cast a wide net to figure out how to treat. overall, this generation of men and women need a job. they need to be welcomed on campus and need help integrating back into society. the biggest problem we have had with a lot of people with coming home is we come home to a lot of indifference. we come home to