[cheers and applause] >> 2012 is ours. we're going to take it back! >> congresswoman michele bachmann wins big in iowa. rick perry officially announces that he wants to be your president. >> i declare to you today as a candidate for president of the united states. [cheers] >> who has the advantage and what does this mean for the other candidates? we will hear from one of them. >> there is nothing wrong with america that can't be fixed. >> president obama begins his midwest bus tour talking to the folks about the economy. but, with his poll numbers hitting a new low, is it too late for the commander in chief? mary katharine ham and leslie marshall will analyze. >> we have it better than we have ever had it. >> warren buffet continues his campaign to get the rich to pay more. actor and economist ben stein has a few thoughts of his own. >> caution, you are about to enter the no spin zone, the factor begins right now.

captions by closed captioning services >> laura: hi, everybody, i'm laura ingraham in tonight for bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us. let's get right to our top story. it was a busy weekend for the republican presidential contenders michele bachmann edged out texas congressman ron paul winning the iowa straw poll with just over 28% of the vote. >> this is the very first step towards taking the white house in 2012 and you have just sent a message to barack obama who will be a one-term president. >> and on the same day texas governor rick perry traveled to south carolina to throw his hat into the presidential ring. >> we do not have to accept our current circumstances. we will change them.

we are americans. [cheers and applause] >> that's what we do. we roll up our sleeves. we go to work. we fix things. >> i believe in america. i believe in her purpose and her promise. i believe her best days have not yet been lived. i believe her greatest deeds are reserved for the generations to come. and with the help and the courage of the american people, we will get our country working again. >> both congressman bachmann and governor perry showed up at a big political dinner in waterloo, iowa last night where he touted his economic success story. since the recession ended texas has created about 37% of all the new jobs in the united states. but, it took no time for the obama campaign's war room to dismiss perry's role in texas job creation. >> it's extremely difficult for him to deserve credit for that

job creation when you have the recovery act championed by president obama that created jobs in texas that he had nothing to do with. >> he has been the beneficiary of things he had very little to do with. governor perry also was the beneficiary of $17 billion of money from the recovery act. >> laura: but, of course, the field is still bigger than simply bachmann, perry and romney. so far only former minnesota governor tim pawlenty has dropped out of race. that was after miss anemic third place showing at the straw poll. joining us now is former speaker of the house newt gingrich who finished 8th place on saturday. speaker, it's great to see you. >> good to see you. >> laura: a lot of my listeners on my radio show were completely wowed by your appearance at the debate. you were strong. you were conservative you were very passionate and people liked that you got eighth place at the straw poll. where does that leave you now? pawlenty did better than you and he dropped out.

>> governor pawlenty made a decision he was going to compete head to head in a straw poll that required people to pay $30 a vote. one candidates we're told bought $2,500 a ticket. come eat my food and vote for me. >> laura: that's the straw poll. >> we made a decision early on we didn't pay for saying gel ticket. we got the number of votes we got which was comparable to mccain, actually more than mccain got in 2007. our commitment walls to compete in january when there are del cats being picked. we had great reaction. the phone calls you were getting being similar being at state fair and ames walking around talking to people. i think it was because i was both very committed on certain key issues like absolutely taking on the super committee, which i think is an add suffered at this. >> no hope -- absurdity. >> outlining why we should replace the super committee.

get rid of it before it does damage. >> laura: that's not going to happen. they have moved forward wind mills here. >> no. i think i am describing describ% of the american people would feel. to shrink the decision process to 12 people is a fundamental violation of legitimate government when you have 535 house and senate members. i predict this committee will be a fiasco because they are going to spend most their time in ideological fights over tax increase, no tax increase. i think it's bologna. the congress can do its job and save more. they are only trying to save 4 cents on the dollar over the next 10 years. >> laura: i think it's going to move forward. we will see what happens. in they obviously don't come up with a cut. what is your pathway to victory? map it out for us. how you can move on from an eighth place showing in iowa. straight talk 8th place showing in michigan and.

>> and iowa. first of all, offering better solutions. there is no question in a three big money candidates in the race. >> laura: money is important u isn't it at this point, newt. >> maybe. mccain was consistently outspent by romney and giuliani. it didn't matter. reagan at times was outspent and it doesn't matter. ideas do matter in the end. i think we are going to offer better solutions. talk about things people ought to be talking about. an american energy plan. how you would go about dramatically reshaping the government. in ways that i think the other candidates don't talk about. we're also going to talk about issues like how you deal with alzheimer's and autism and a variety of other things that relate to brain science. how you modernize the food and drug administration. how you replace the e.p.a. with an earn environmental solutions agency. remember, people don't just want to send a message to washington. >> laura: you have been doing that and so far in the polls, it hasn't resonated. >> the polls have started back up. i took about two months of the elite media explaining i was dead. and i'm still here.

and the polls have started back up. we have many new donors coming out of thursday night who went to newt.org and gave money voluntarily. frankly, that's all been very helpful in rebuilding the campaign. >> laura: what about the charges that have being levied against all the candidates and something have you gone through for years. you arics streamist, you are partisan. this is what the obama people are doing switching from his record abysmal failure to the fact that all of you guys are these brinksmanship types. you don't care what happens to the country as long as you win. that's the new line from obama. have you been through it how do you advise the other candidates who are friends of yours, most of them. to weather. this bachmann is perry is outside the mainstream. >> talk about things people resonate with. 79% of america want energy plan. senator warner and webb senate democrats have announced a bill to allow virginia to develop oil and gas. i'm proposing that the u.s. house pass the warner webb bill exactly intact.

send it back over to the senate. and challenge the senate democrats. if the republicans pass a bipartisan democratic bill for more energy how does harry reid say we are not even going to let warner and webb pass. their former national chairman tim kaine favors the bill. >> laura: by the way it looks like the president is no longer getting daily economic briefings. do you think this president likes to deal with economic issues? are they interesting to him? he is not getting any briefing on the crises that are focusing on this -- effecting this economy. >> the president has a diluted view that class warfare and bureaucratic socialism can work. just has he as he has a diluted view that appeasing our enemies can work. >> why we worry about daily briefings? >> laura: is he smart. he is vey smart and believes all the wrong things. very high iq and be out of touch with reality. krugman who won the nobel prize who is very smart, is he just really out of touch with

reality. >> laura: he is obama talking points in his column. thanks so much for coming. up next, we will get reaction from two prominent democrats. what did they think the republican field and what the speaker just said. later, president obama begins his three day bus tour in the midwest. we're going to show you what he said.

>> laura: continuing now with our top story. let's get reaction to how the republican field is shaping up. joining us now from boston, democratic strategist marion march and fox news contributor kirsten powers. okay, ladies, i want the view. i just flew in from iowa. ways there for the past several days. what did you think the ultimate perry, bachmann smashup last night in waterloo? we will back up and get to the straw poll. what did you think. >> i wasn't there but i read about it and i think what's interesting is it sounds like he is really digging into the retail politicking side of it where she is pulling back a little. i was following her and watching her where she spends time with the people. takes limited questions from the media very controlled. he is just jumping right in and doing what you need to do in iowa which is just hang out until the last person leaves. and, you know, talk to anybody that wants to talk to you. talk to the others, be available. >> laura: marianne, look, clearly michele bachmann made an enormous amount of headway with the voters in iowa. she hit pretty much every county

and did the hard work. i'm trying to put myself in her position, right? she had this amazing moment on saturday and here comes the texan in south carolina announcing he is getting into the race. he flies to iowa. he already had that scheduled in iowa water a lot. did it rain on her parade a little bit. >> no question about it. let's face it, the most dangerous candidate in politics is always the one who runs like they are fearless and has nothing to lose. right now that is rick perry. he has romney and balkman both in his sights. he went from south carolina to new hampshire, new hampshire which mitt romney has to win to be nominated. then he went right to iowa, went right to waterloo. bachmann's home town and then went to the same event and sat there and clapped for her periodically during her speech and she ignored him. rick perry is the guy everyone needs to fear right now because he has got everything it takes to win this nomination today. >> laura: he he has a lot of bravado, kirsten. he remained at the dinner when she spoke. apparently she was not present

during his speech, which kind of rough feld some feathers. she was in her campaign bus outside, idolizing outside of the dinner when she spoke literally. >> she is not available. she is not -- she is acting like a celebrity versus going in and mixing. >> laura: i saw her mixing with the people at the straw poll. she was amazing. >> i'm talking about the dinner. >> laura: great politician. >> they are if a fat particular call about -- fanatical. reminds me of these people with palin who really love her. not a question she is a good campaigner. people complaining that they wanted her to be doing more of the rick perry stuff where he was -- >> laura: in her defense, she has been doing that consistently and she had the straw poll victory to show for it you just heard newt on with me both of you. i'm wondering after his appearance at the debate, i think my radio listeners were wowed by him. he is an institution. clearly one of the smartest guys

out there. so garm he hasn't really caught on. and marianne, i will go to you on this first. why hasn't gingrich quality on yet? is there any hope or pathway for his victory. >> the smartest person always doesn't win. we can show plenty of examples of that only three people who can stay in this race for the duration because they have the resources and the rationale. bachmann, perry and romney. they all have the money and they all have nothing to lose. they will be in this throughout. no one else, including newt gingrich can say yes or has both of those circumstances. gingrich will stay? for a long time because this is his last shot. support his fundraising all of that is lagging. i don't see him making that up. people got used to him and already have an image of him when he was speaker of the house ands that not what they want to see in a president. >> laura: just dove tailing on that. isn't that the thing that perry has going on him now? he is the shiny new penny in the jar of coins rusting away on your dresser? shiny and new. >> new is the key word. people are looking for something different. different from obama.

>> the unromney they are looking for? >> antiestablishment candidate. people generally just looking for something different. like we have heard all of this before. we want somebody new. and that's why bachmann has caught on so much i think because she is so antiestablishment. she even gets in fights. >> laura: what is the establishment? george will said that the other day what the establishment anymore. >> she even has conflict within the republican -- within congress. >> laura: she has ruffled a lot of feathers in her own caucus. >> they liked that she takes on the guys in the republican party here. so i think they are looking for someone new and rick perry is new, too. >> laura: who is the candidate that the obama people want to run against least right now of the three that you mentioned? >> well, i think all three would be fine to the white house to run against, especially bachmann and perry because they are so conservative, i think the democratic base would get very fired up about that romney, as you know, a little more wishy washy on the positions, i might

say. so he makes it a little more challenging. i think that hurts him in the end because it's hard to trust him as a result you never know where he is on all the positions. having watched him 17 years he has been on any side of all of them. all three. >> laura: hope -- happy to run against all three. thanks for being with us. why is the president of the united states riding around on a bus? we will tell you. has the media been fair to michele bachmann? we will ask bernie goldberg about that. that's coming up.

where he defended big government.

>> you'll hear a lot of folks by the way say, you know that government is broken. well, government and politics are two different things. government is social security. government are teachers in the classroom. [cheers] government our our firefighters and our police officers and the folks who keep our water clean and our air clean to breathe. so, don't be confused as frustrated as you are about politics, don't buy into this notion that somehow, you know, government is what's holding us back. >> laura: i need to buy a vowel after that do the folks approve of the president's message. after his job approval rating dropped to all-time low of 39% in the tracking poll. today the president's job approval climbed to 41%. 52% disprove. joining us now with reaction fox news contributor mary katharine ham with me here in washington

and from l.a. leslie marshall. great to see both of you. leslie, i'm going to start with you. we need to all come together. left coast, right coast. why is a bus tour really worth the president's time? i mean, he is traveling 115 miles today on a bus. doesn't he have something better today than traveling on a bus for three hours. >> no matter what he does somebody out there is going to think there is something better. when he sits behind the desk beltway people saying left and right is he not in touch with the american people. i honestly think after this debt ceiling debacle which is clearly what it was, a circus. i think it's essential and his responsibility as president to get out and to speak to the people so the people can hear him and he doesn't just hear the people via polls. clearly left and right, congress wasn't listening to what america wanted when it came to the debt ceiling. america really wanted a clean straight up or down vote. >> laura: no politics. >> he did this in the spring. did he three states.

>> laura: no politics. i mean, okay. let's go to this mary katharine. because republicans are just wrapping up their big weekend. i just interviewed governor brand stead on my show. they don't want any part of this bus tour. they emailed the communications people i'm busy, something to do with the state fair. he didn't take part in this. this isn't political. >> they say it's not political. so the taxpayer dollars can pay for the buses. that's part of being president. you go on political swings. >> laura: making too much of it. so, but knock me over with a feather, laura, the president sees a problem and goes out and gives a speech. that's what we're getting from him. doesn't bother me because i'm not sure he does any more good here. but the "new york times" rolled out this weekend talking about some the things is he contemplating are a second round of stimulus and maybe making a new federal agency out of parts of commerce and u.s. trade representative. the only person who going to have a job created here is the guy who sticks the obama 2012 decal on the bus that guy will have a bus.

>> laura: the bus is a very cool bus. i'm into buses. only $1.1 million. someone said it was 2 or 3 million. >> used for other presidents. >> laura: a bus that gets used. can't make too much of it not like we are in a bad deficit situation here in the united states. leslie, when you look at this. when you look at this, i'm actually not making more of this than it is. the president can do this kind of stuff. this does happen during election years where presidents of the united states show up in places that, you know, may or may the mat may not have preliminary implications and other presidents have done the same thing. talk about what the new tactic here is for the administration politically because there was politics, you know, discussed today. part of what is being said now, especially about people like perry because they see him as a big threat is that, well, he not really part of job creation. perry is not about job creation it was the stimulus bill. a lot of defense money. kind of nasa and oil and gas. leslie, do you think that's a really strong message against

perry when you are the president of the united states presiding over pretty high unemployment and a lot of consumer angst out there? >> yes, i do laura. because the president is not the one that's held back the jobs. i haven't seen one jobs bill from the republicans that were elected in by the american people who threw so many democrats out because they wanted the economy to improve, which it hasn't. and they wanted to have a decrease in unemployment. more jobs created which have not been. i mean, the president, yes, he is the president of the united states but without the people in the house and the senate doing their job for their constituents that they promised when they were elected, you know, he can't take a pen and sign air. >> laura: he doesn't have any influence over the process as president of the united states, the strongest economy in the world? >> he has an influence over the process, but i have to say and i'm angry with my party as well. when it came to this last -- the whole deficit, debt ceiling debacle, left and right cared more about politics than the

will of the people. i think the president is speaking from that. >> he was removed from the situation. barack obama's bag of tricks i think mostly empty. if you remember the super awesome jobs bill that he got was the stimulus. perfectly natural that people are extremely skeptical when he goes to them again and says we need to do that again. i think it's a really hard argument for democrats to make and liberals have been making it all weekend, sure, rick perry's state has a lot of jobs but we have this program where there are none? i just don't think. >> laura: they are also saying -- amazing political jits jujitsu. he said it's the stimulus bill that created a good percentage of these jobs, barack obama deserves the credit for texas job creation. you can't have it both ways. you can't own none of the responsibility for the downturn but take all of the credit for one state that's showing the real vibrancy. >> i think he knows he can't have too much impact he is pushing patent reform. not a. >> laura: all your patent

lawyers are bris ling at mary katharine's comments. leslie thanks so much. plenty more ahead as the factor moves along this evening. billionaire investor warren buffet says the super rich need to pay more taxes. ben stein agrees. bernie goldberg on how michele bachmann is handling the mainstream media we hope you stay tuned for all of that

>> laura: in the personal story segment tonight, stop cod ling the super rich. that's what billionaire investor warren buffet said in his "new york times" op. ed today. america's third richest man, worth about $50 billion said he only paid about $7 million in taxes last year. buffet's buddy president obama mentioned this during his bus tour today in minnesota. >> he pointed out he pay as lower tax rate than anybody in his office including the secretary.

he figured out that his tax bill, he paid about 17%. and the reason is because most of his wealth comes from capital gains. you don't get those tax breaks. you are paying more than that. and now i may be wrong, but i think you are a little less wealthy than warren buffet. that's just a guess. >> laura: joining us from l.a. is economist ben stein. ben, it's great to see you as always. >> always a pleasure. >> laura: can buffet just cut the treasury a bigger check on april 15th if he wants to? i think the answer to that is yes. why doesn't he just get it with and start giving more of his billions to the federal government to solve all of our problems for us? >> well, that's a kind of a superficial question from a very brilliant woman. >> laura: no, that's a condescending answer. it's a real question. why won't he give more money to the federal government. >> people pay taxes that are required of them by the law.

that's the standard way people pay taxes. he gives an enormous amount to charity in any event. but, look. >> laura: the government is not a charity, is it? >> no, no. but it's similar to a charity at this point. a way of transferring money from well-to-do people to less well-to-do people. something president obama said was silly. saying most of you pay more than that actually about 50% of americans don't pay any taxes. >> laura: pay nothing. >> that's a little bit wrong, too. anyway, we have a situation where very rich people are paying a lot less taxes, less in taxes than ronald reagan. i don't think ronald reagan was annual aggressive tax raiser. why can't very rich people pay the same rate they did under ronald reagan. we need money desperately. the rich people have got it why can't we go back to the reagan rates. >> laura: why not tax them at 90%? >> it's fine with me.

>> i don't get it? >> i'm a lot woulder than you, laura. can i remember in the 50s when the marginal rate was close to 90% and, you know something? we were were a very prosperous country with very rapid economic growth then. >> laura: that's our pathway to economic success. >> no. no. no. not at all. >> laura: you will have plenty of time. one point. there actually is a provision in the tax code to pay more money to the program government if you wish. it was actually a serious question not a frivolous one. rich people have money why not give it to the government? let's accept the premise of your thought there that assumes then that that extra money, that extra cash will go toward deficit reduction and that would be good for everyone. but interest is no indication, especially when democrats are in control that that extra money is going to go to anything except extra spending because they have shown themselves entirely capable of spending a lot of money all at once. so would you not agree, ben,

even in your evolving days of your, you know, of your not senior years but your middle aged years. >> no my senior years. >> laura: that money is not going to go toward deficit reduction. it's going to go toward more liberal spending? >> i would say that this is a problem for republicans and democrats. if you look at the chart of federal spending under mr. bush, very, very steeply. >> laura: i criticize that i'm with you on that. you are right about that but now the republicans are getting serious. they are trying to get serious about spending cuts. we can be critical of them but they are trying. >> they say they are. they ran up the deficit something incredibly fierce under mr. bush whom i love i consider him a great guy. ran up the deficit. whoops, now we want a balanced budgets amendment. i totally agree there should be measures in place to make sure that government spending is in control. i'm in total agreement with the idea that the hard working people of america should not be taxed to death to support bumps

and narrow do wells. billionaires incomes of $10 million a year they can easily afford to pay more taxes. lock in provisions that require cutting government spending but let's tax the rich more than they just don't pay enough in tax. >> the numbers don't add up to that all that buffet cited in his piece today double it to 40%. the amount ends up being $40 billion. our deficit is about 1.6 trillion just for the current budget year. budget reduction we know it's not going to. it's just a drop in the bucket. the math doesn't add up. >> we know if we kept the taxes at the level that they were under president clinton,. >> except with the problem of wars. see, that's the problem.

we don't know that's true. there is no clear data that shows that higher taxes correlate with fewer jobs. there is just no doubt. the lowest unemployment we have ever had in word war 2 when we had very high taxes. >> there was also a lot of other things going on there. we had a huge manufacturing sector and the whole war -- things were a little bit different. ben, we want you to move back to the east coast because i think have you been out in the left coast too long. come back. we want you to come back. >> i have a home right near you. >> laura: okay. all right. we're ending it right there. ben, great to see you as always. when we come back, bernie goldberg is going to be here with his thoughts on whether michele bachmann is getting a fair shot from the mainstream media bernie is up next.

>> laura: thanks for staying with with us. i'm laura ingraham in tonight for bill o'reilly. in the weekdays with bernie

segment. hot off her straw poll victory. congresswoman michele bachmann made the rounds on the sunday morning talk shows where she faced some tough questioning about controversial commence she has made in the past. >> congressman, what do you mean wives should be submissive to their husbands? >> there was a debate earlier this week and that question was asked earlier in the week. for my husband and i submission means respect. mutual respect. >> you once characterized homosexuality personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement. do you believe that? >> well, i'm running to be the president of the united states. i am not running to be any person's judge. and i -- i ascribe dignity and honor to all people,no matter who they are. that's how i view people. >> laura: joining us now from north carolina with some thoughts on how representative bachmann handled those questions. the purveyor of bernard goldberg.com. mr. goldberg. bernie, good to see you. so, how did she fare yesterday?

she did the big rounds. and i don't know. i watched it i thought she acquitted herself quite well. she got some tough questions. >> yeah. i disagree. i disagree. first of all, i think they are not only tough questions but fair questions. michele bachmann went to a church a while ago and said that her husband had told her that he thinks she should become a tax lawyer. she said at the time i'm not interested in taxes but then she told the church group, but the bible says a wife should be submissive to her husband and so, therefore, i did it. laura i don't care if she is submissive or her husband is submissive. nic anything about that when she is asked a question and her explanation is submissive means respect. no, it doesn't. the two words aren't synonymous

at all. >> laura: she was obviously talking about her religious beliefs. >> how about this? how about instead of being a hack politician the way politicians are always weaseling out, what about saying, you know, i said this to a friendly audience at a church. and i believed it when i said it. and i believe it now. but she realizes, laura, that you can say things to a friendly audience and get away with it that you can't say even to a republican primary electorate. >> laura: i see what you are saying. >> let alone a electorate. >> laura: i see what you are saying. husbands and wives. i'm not married. i'm not judging what she said or what other people believe about this. she believes that she -- she is respecting her husband by taking into account, i guess, his point of view. and to me that seemed like a big ho hum point. that i don't think that made her look bad. i thought it made the questionnaires, perhaps, look a little bad recommendation well, it did to the partisans in the

audience, maybe. but i don't think it makes the questioners look bad at all. it matters how people see issues like this. when she goes on and she says that gay people live lives of despair, bondage, and enslavement. >> laura: that was a little tougher. >> that also stems from her view of religion. >> laura: yeah. >> when she is asked about it, she says well, i don't judge people. really? you know, if i said on this program, you know, michele bachmann, i believe, i believe lives a life of enslavement, despair and bondage, that would be making a judgment. you see what bothers me about her is that she says things when she thinks she can get away with it. i think she says things that she honestly and truly believes. buff when she has to speak. >> laura: what politician out there today, what politician out there today would pass your lit mus test on your point. that's a legitimate point. speak the same way to every

person. >> not many. >> laura: who in the republican field would pass that litmus test. >> not many. i acknowledge that. >> laura: the point is, the questions always go one way, right in the media. they are not going to ask questions from another point of view when, you know, when probably most of the country is a little bit more conservative on some of these social issues than the media. they are not going to ask the questions the other way around. they will try to put the conservative in the box by asking these questions, oh, you are a hatedful person. you are not a nice person or whatever. >> that's absolutely true, laura. but michele bachmann gives them ammunition. i mean, she walls booed at the fox washington examiner debate in iowa. she was -- i mean, i'm sorry, the reporter, byron york was booed when he asked that question about submission. they booed because it's an uncomfortable question. and it's an uncomfortable question because she made an uncomfortable, in my view, well,

as i say, she could be submissive or not, i don't care. she made that statement and she has to answer for it and they're blaming the press. hey, i come on this program every week and spend a lot of my time blaming the mainstream media for this or that i'm not blaming them for this one. this is on michele bachmann. >> laura: i talked to byron about that he was right. he said somebody was going to ask her that question. i'm glad i got to ask her the question. he is right. she is one of the frontrunners for this race. you are going to be asked about every statement you made on every hot button issue. no doubt about it i just wish the same fervour was applied by more liberal reporters to, you know, president obama on some of the things that his wife has done, for instance, his wife has a huge legislative agenda. she has done a lot legislatively actually with nutrition or so forth. maybe you agree or disagree. is that even legitimate. if you are asking that question you are someone who doesn't like

michelle obama. >> on that we totally agree. >> laura: bernie, it's great to see you. it's a fascinating topic. left's see how she handles all these tough questions as time goes on. up next, we will take you out to the iowa state fair where carl cameron caught up with rick perry today. right back with that.

>> laura: in the back of the book segment tonight, texas governor rick perry has only been a presidential candidate for three days but already made a huge splash in the race for the g.o.p. nomination. democrats are already busy trying to paint him as the second coming of george w. bush. our own carl cameron asked governor perry earlier today if that was a fair comparison. >> they are not all carbon copies in texas. and, you know, i tell people i

say one of the quick ways you can tell the difference is, you know, is he is a jail graduate and i'm a texas a&m graduate. the texas graduate of the united states, which state they are from doesn't matter. what matters is what's in their heart and their mind. what's in my heart and my mind is we're going to get america working again. >> laura: joining us now from the grounds of the iowa state fair. i was standing exactly where you are standing now. fox news chief political correspondent carl cameron. carl, i can't believe i didn't see you yesterday riding the tilt awhirl. you everywhere missing all the fun interviewing presidential candidates. >> up in waterloo where rick perry and michele bachmann and mitt romney had an event yesterday afternoon. he brought a big throng with him no doubt about it. >> laura: tell us what happened last night there was some scuttlebutt how michele bachmann didn't listen to rick perry's speech and he sat and listened to her speech. is that much to do about nothing or what happened? >> it doesn't isn't any kind of

measure who would make a better president it is important politically. in iowa and in new hampshire, the two most renowned first in the nation states, voters caucus goers, really demand a the love attention. they are michele bachmann goes out of her way to point out she was born in iowa specifically waterloo. last night's event took place in the electric park lounge the very same place where michelle balkman announced her candidacy about five weeks ago. they had rick santorum and rick perry speak. they got there early and worked the crowds aggressively. ms. bachmann stayed away. she had a family reunion yesterday that and you some amount of her time. before her remarks she parked her bus down the road and waited and waited and waited. when she arrived, as always, she blasted the music and went in and made her speech, her speech was fairly typical for her and well-received. afterwards, unlike rick perry, she didn't take questions from the crowd. she did sign some autographs and shake some hands but then rather

than interacting with iowa caucus goers and the republicans insistent on attention from the candidates she left the building and came out and held a press conference with the national media in front of her bus. afterwards there was a lot of con expressed by the organize organizers to me and other reporters it wasn't hard to hear them overtalking themselves these iowans that michele bachmann was effectively the host. her hometown. she didn't welcome rick perry into the race. she didn't acknowledge that rick santorum was there she didn't do the type of retail politicking that iowa within as demand. they were frustrated. one guy said i want you to report it at length tomorrow. i suggested that they might sleep to have and change their minds by today. but there has been some press reports about it. they continue to sort of carp about it. bachmann has a very, very disciplined and tight nit campaigned approach. she seldom ventures very far from her bus when she is out at campaign events, et cetera. some some of the folks in iowa

took offense at that pro. ed headlines that perry had upstaged her in her own hometown. that's probably exaggeration. perry took a big hit because he announced his candidacy on the very same day of the iowa straw poll. that had a lot of hawkeye republicans ticked off as well. he arrived here yesterday. he came to the state fair today. just as it's likely that folks in her hometown will forgive her for one night's performance. rick perry seems to have been largely forgiven by iowaians by were announced in south carolina. who would have thought two months ago that the leaders of the pack would be michele bachmann, mitt romney and rick perry. now with bachmann having won the straw poll, defeating ron paul and essentially ousting tim pawlenty in the race. perry in it and mitt romney who hasn't put a lot of earth in iowa campaigning mostly in new hampshire. they are in fact the equivalent of the top tier such as it is in the 2012 race, laura.

>> laura: do you get the sense, carl, this is now a race for the evangelical vote, more a social conservative vote right between bachmann and perry and that romney is on his own? he has raised a lot of money but these two know it's only going to be one of them against romney in the end? is that the sense you are getting in. >> well, it's kind of the same story in presidential politics on the republican side when you just oppose iowa and new hampshire and various different candidates. in iowa, where more than half of iowa republican caucus goer ares are self-described evangelical christians, there will be a big battle between michele bachmann and rick perry for religious conservatives. it's already underway at the grass roots level. the candidates aren't speaking about it. in new hampshire social conservatism isn't popular more of a fiscal agenda. there you will see mitt romney playing off of his business, cultivating granite state voters. rick perry finds himself competing in both places against two different candidates. he wants to cast himself as what's been described as the

whole comprehensive conservative. it's going to be a three-way battle. it's going to be very tough. ultimately south carolina usually decides it between the two early states. as they go forward for the nominating process. that's likely to be the same case this time. >> laura: fascinating. carl, stay away from the friday twinkies and oreos. all right? >> thank you. >> laura: pinheads and patriots on deck. you will never guess the latest food to be deep fried and put on a stick by the way. p and p

>> laura: finally, pinheads and patriots. all eyes on politics in the hawkeye state. a new feature in the food section of the iowa state fair got a lot of attention. >> if you can put it on a stick and fry it, you can probably get it here. this year's big hit, deep fried butter on a stick. ♪ ♪ >> that's right, four ounces of butter dipped in honey and cinnamon, then deep fried and drizzled with a sugary glaze. surprisingly, even with all this fried grub iowa is only the 20th most obese state in the nation. >> laura: see how bad could it be? would michelle obama approve of any of this? indulging in a tasty treat every now and again patriotic. a little moderation is never

pinheaded. check out billoreilly.com. there's a big summer sale. if you sign up for a premium membership you get the patriot shirt, free. follow me on facebook and twitter. don't forget, pick up a copy of my "new york times" best seller "of thee i zing." laura grange gram.com. i'm in -- lauraingraham.com. i'm in for bill o'reilly. remember the spin stops here because we are always looking because we are always looking out for you. closed captioned by closed captioning services, inc. >> top of the morning to you because it's tuesday, august 16th. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks so much for sharing part of your tuesday with us. president obama wanted to meet real americans on his bus tour

and guess what? he did. >> what made you realize -- by left wing and not people like me. >> where were you -- >> he's raising some eyebrows. >> when bill clinton first set eyes on rick perry, his reaction, that's a good looking guy. but don't misstate that for a compliment. we'll play you what came next. brian? >> very similar to when we first saw dave. >> and you. >> that's a good point. it's a shot of the lifetime and the kid scores for $50,000 but he may not get the money on a technicality. a moral technicality. we'll explain, yes, we will. "fox & friends" starts right now.