music lately and happen to love the patriotic songs of america. music lately and happen to love the patriotic songs of america. >> i have been talking about music lately and happen to love the patriotic songs of america. >> i have been talking about music lately and happen to love the patriotic songs of america. >> i have been talking about music lately and happen to love the patriotic songs of america. >> i have been talking about music lately and happen to love the patriotic songs of america. >> i have been talking about music lately and happen to love the patriotic songs of america. >> i have been talking about music lately and happen to love the patriotic songs of america. >> on track to win new hampshire. >> they're say mitt is it. now won. >> then just maybe. >> it will be so much fun. >> 'don't we caucus right now. >> i have been talking about music lately. that is the gop front-runner for the nomination. in 2004, you remember the line was the dated dean, but they married kerry. republicans it seems like to play the field. they dated bachman, kerry, cain, gingrich and ron paul. they will marry romney. >> mitt romney leading in iowa with 25% of the vote. >> mitt romney maintained his spot at or near the to which every poll. >> mitt romney making a big push. >> the cnn timeç poll with mit

romney at the top. >> yes that, latest poll shows romney leading in iowa with registered republicans. right behind is ron paul which is good for romney. the republican party will be so excited to marry mitt romney. after iowa, the campaign moves on to new hampshire. according to the same poll, romney is killing it. he's at 44% in the polls. ron paul again in second has half that with 22%. for months the question has been can romney win? can a guy the republicans don't seem to like pull it off. my question is about to change. it's about to become what will he do if he does win? a few years after graduating, romney was invited back to give a presentation. he stood in front of the students and said to think of themselves as tiny multinational corporations.

he drew a chart. they understand how the products are contributing to the growth and the market dominance. as romney explains it, children don't pay any evidence of achievement, but if you don't pay attention to it. quoting from romney, dogs. dogs is consultant speak for dragging down the rest of the company by taking time and resources, but not generating growth and profits. it's not that romney is not a good family man. everything we know said he is an (lc% romney is a guy who thinks of himself as a business. his personal life is a company. his family as times asç a product. that's where you get lines of the corporations with people too. you get interviews like the ones he gave to fortune. that would help the economy recover because it would send a signal that people who hire that our future is positive and they will not be demonized.

if romney said corporations are people, perhaps people can be corporatio corporations. they are steeped in the ideals of america's corporate class. what does that tell us about how he will govern? to help me answer that question, washington correspondent for the times and they initially reported the corporation on work life balance and the obamas that is due out in january. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> one thing that struck me in the recent comments, he believes there is an element of class solidarity to the business men of america. he believes business men will see another business man getting elected and hiring again. how much is this idea to the response of his mind set. >> a huge one. it's both a strength and a weakness. the appeal is obvious given the current economic moment. one thing i have been thinking about is he's running kind of a single issue candidacy.

his entire claim for being president and moving into the general election is that he feels he can revive the economy. he has to prove there is some secret thing that barack obama either doesn't know how to do or is not willing to do. therefore he should be elected president. >> it's funny that you bring up obama.ç i think when i watch romney quite a bit of the time, there is a symetry in the way they are described. they are data driven and vulcans that don't have a great personal touch. you reported on mitt romney and do you think that's correct? >> i think it's totally true. these are highly rational harvard-driven guys who are extremely analytical and one thing we have seen with ork bama is being analytical was a huge strength and can make the job difficult and kind of maddening.

we have seen again and again obama stand up and say what's happening here just doesn't make sense given what's happening in the country. hundreds of times, thousands of times we have seen that for him and it makes doing parts of his job difficult for him. he had a difficult relationship with think and if romney was elected, his relationship even with the republican-led congress can be extremely difficult. congress operates according to a logic all its own. >> you had an interesting vignette in your piece about how romney brought together the best and the brightest group in harvard. i don't know if you have done it, but is he considered to have a good personal touch. he was dealing with the legislature of the other party and got a fair amount done. >> i think it was very mixed. i think it was very mixed and i think on the presidential level in sommç ways it would be much

harder because it's not clear what kind of relationship he has with his party's own establishment or conservative ideology. what struck me about the presentation he gave about work life balance is that he was trying to prove something that everybody knows which is that spending time with your kids is say really good thing. it's about the least controversial kind of statement you can make. yet the effort he went to with the charts and the data and the little circles to prove something that everybody already knew to be true. >> i will never criticize anyone for putting things on a chart. it brings up this other piece because the other interesting part is it showed a fascinatingly consulted driven mind set. he work as a management consultant and a take over artist. a lost folks who go through the school do that work and are conflicted. they write about business's social responsibility and the roles they have in paying back

the country. is there evidence that romney had any type of conflicted relationship with the corporate class or bought into it fully? >> it's funny that harvard business school changed. when you talk for this piece that drove dozens of people who were students and professors there, what they say is that a greater sense of responsibility and romney taught the education that was completely case by case. there was no larger discussion of the role of business in society. the school has really changed that and thereç a ton of cours on that. we don't see that reflected. >> quickly before we go, we talked a lot about the take over artists, but it has been a long time even though he seems like a guy who loves power point propertiations. is this a way to think about him or the degree to which it seems

decades ago? >> the funny thing is it's a way he wants us to think about him. has he given us a larger and better rounded view of who he is as a person or leader or is he making this much narrower argument that he will hammer away at how he has this magic ingredient to revive the economy. >> the obamas are coming out with the book in january. >> tomorrow live from des moines iowa at 1:00 p.m. only on msnbc. stay with us. we have much more coming up. >> i'm allowed to say this and i wasn't thinking anybody would say that. you can be an advocate without being a lobbyist.

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>> welcome back. i want to tell you about a special law. very powerful law. a law that is defeated. a law that is vank wished. most of the primary field. rick perry said it was among the most ournous and unconstitutional. newt gingrich compared the impact to pearl harbor. michele bachmann and john huntsman were so intimidated, they backed off without a fight. what piece of policy, what law could the republican candidates running so çscared? social security? medicare, obama care? it is the law for getting on the ballot in the primary in virginia. of the seven candidates, the

republican nomination, only two of them, mitt romney and ron paul qualified. only two will be appearing. that has as you might imagine filled the republicans with outrage. fury. this law they say is disenfranchising voters. here's governor perry in fact. >> i don't want the hundreds of thousands of people that are my supporters in virginia to be disenfranchised because the party mechanism made it so hard to be on the ballots. >> you know what else disenfranchises voters? rick perry. the voting reforms that rick perry signed into law, perry's law enforces a photo id requirement that can be met by the hand gun requirement, but not by a student id. sorry, kids. no democracy for you. it makes it illegal to register voters unless you are a citizen.

he hired a professional staff for the purpose of figuring out ballot laws and still failed. despite the fact that the rules were well-known to him and his team and unchanged since the last election, perry changed the rules and those that don't have staffers dateicated to help him vote. they made it harder for those to send in staffers to help them vote. i don't mean to make this about rick perry.ç sex as is not alone in dozens of states, republicans are passing laws that will make it harder for ordinary americans to participate in the 2012 election. 34 states have introduced seven have passed. that may not seem like a big deal, but as they note, 11% of americans do not possess a government-issued photo id. 21 million citizens and the poor

and african-americans are disproportionately disrepresented. only two states have enforced strict voter id laws. it's not just the voter id laws. 13 the same day and election-day voter registration. nine brought up bills with early voting. another four restricted abientee voting and two states have ex-convicts to vote and 12 require proof of citizenship. nationally house republicans even voted to do away with the election assistance commission. the law should be changed, but i'm not so worried with the politicians with the massive campaign staff. ordinary voters head to the polls as they do every four years and be+xkj¢ik unexpectedd away. wendy directs the program at the center for justice. thank you for joining me. >> thank you for having me. >> how big of a change are the

laws from 2008? is this what happens between every election or is this really a big shift in the landscape? >> this has been the biggest in legislative assault on voting we have seen in decades. we seeç changes from election election and this has been a massive change in more than a dozen states, 20 or more different laws have pass and there at least 40 pending right now to make voting harder for ordinary americans. >> if i were cynical about it and i'm not, but if i were to be cynical, a lot of them appear to be passing in republican legislatures and seem to particularly harm constituencies and students and african-americans and lower income voter who is tend to vote democratic. is that in the aggregate and putting aside motivation and how they fell on the impact? >> it is accurate that the laws are passed exclusively by republican legislatures and

nobody is the saint in this process. democrats and republicans alike act in the electoral self interest and our right to vote shouldn't be in the crossfire. >> tell me because your center is represented different politician when is they tried to challenge axis laws before. are you representing in 2008. is the virginia law because we did bring that up because a virginia law is unconstitutional perhaps? >> we think that virginia's law creates a serious problem. if two of the seven contenders were able to make it on, there is certainly a bigger barrier than is reasonable to show that this is a serious candidate. that is all that is allowed for adding restrictions to ballot access. >> sorry. i know you are involved in the effort to challenge perry's law in texas. me about the case against that.ç >> the department of justice is considering whether or not to

approve texas's law. whether or not the law is discriminatory against minorities and makes it harder for them to participate. we have taken the position that it does and in fact a much greater proportion of african-american and latino citizens will be disenfranchised and participating in the texas elections than the law with white voters. >> the brena know school for justice. stick around with us and the day's top lines are coming up. >> ron paul would wait until one of the cities in the united states is wiped off the map before he reacted. oh it's clearance time!

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rounds? when i remembered that, it rhymed. iowa voters are not as reliable as the post 58 service. rain and sleet do keep them away from the polls. that might have ron paul worried. he built a devoted following. so devoted, folks itching to see him income the nominee with the sleet and the rain and the snow to caucus form. the same can't be said for all of gingrich's or romney's fans. the weather man and women are predicting a clear die tuesday. that might be a boom for them and put ron paul in a bit of a tougher situation. actually in general, rain benefits republicans. a 2007 paper looked at 14 presidential elections and found rain and snow did decrease the voter turn out across the country, but that tended to help republicans with helping the

constituencies rather than the democraticç leaning ones. stick around. > i have known him since we were high school sweethearts. we had been dating and in love ever since. we are still sweethearts which say wonderful thing.

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my coat? solid gold. my insides? pure platinum. [ female announcer ] a healthy outside starts inside. new iams simple & natural has chicken as its number one ingredient and zero fillers. it works inside for health you can see on the outside. [ dog ] i can't be a rockstar on the outside if i'm not one on the inside. [ female announcer ] new iams naturals. you'll like what's in them and love what's not. [ dog ] i am an iams dog. [ girls ] he's so cute! [ dog ] groupies! >> can't afford the flight to iowa? don't have time for every candidate on every day of every week in the campaign? no worries. we got you cover. here are today's top lines. >> this is going to be so much fun. why don't we caucus right now? >> here i am in the chocolate factory. >> they pick corn in iowa. they pick presidents here in new

hampshire. >> you said something despicable. we will do that on politics nation. >> sorenson toll me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the ron paul campaign. >> she said you told her you were offered a sum of monetch. >> that's not true. absolutely not. >> the ron paul campaign has to answer for their actions. >> i'm a nowed to say that's not a lobby. you can be an advocate without being a lobbyist. >> ron paul would be dangerous such as newt and romney and changing positions on libya. rick perhas taken millions for political campaigns and many of the donors -- >> that must be rick perry. >> i think so. >> frankly i thought if they

gave them six weeks, i decided to say third or fourth. >> i will be the nominee. >> let's getçon together and compare the two plans. >> it's hard not to look at the recent poll that is the odds are very high i will be the nominee. >> it's nice to see that reflected, but we have a lot of work to do. >> would you like me to be the vice presidential nom neechinee. >> what are about today's poll? >> i would not want to be a presidential candidate with newt. >> good to see you, ezra. >> i have been trying to figure out the right word for this. rick ment um. rick santorum. >> not the thing to get into. >> rick santorum is up 11% to a

robust third place in iowa. >> yes. question mark. it's inevitable. you guys had a freight train. it should have been a clown car speeding down the road. i will say santorum question mark is huntsman, question mark, exclamation point. he spent over three and had over 350 town halls in the state. he has gone to all 99 counties and doing the old fashion shoe leather5w3ç5;??;oewzñóñvwi poli one guy that we have not looked at. he is unsulleyed by a lost mud slinging and having been out in warks and new hampshire and seen rick santorum in small town hall settings,

the cop movies that all the attacks keep going to whoever. >> not steady eddie. >> whoever is not mitt romney. ron paul success hammered by perry and john huntsman and rick santorum is about to get it. they took a lot of focus. >> this is what's happening. they are all becoming one. a terrible thing. the ron paul thing i don't understand about the ron paul, if we talk about the attacks, it doesn't sound like the ron paul newsletters and the incredibly racist sthauf has been published has stuck to him in the same way it would have perhaps if it was a newt gingrich or anybody else. >> that's the beauty of it.

it doesn't stick and gets everybody talking about something that is not mitt romney. he ran without the sustained attack on him. it has been fairly remarkable. >> talking to reporter who is have been covering the campaign closely, there was genuine fear in their hearts. there was collective thinking in the party that gingrich would be a formidable opponent and however flawed he may have been and the pivot to getting moreç aggressive. that day seems to be done and it is safely presumably in mitt romney's corner which is why they are keeping him until the day after the caucuses and doing a battery of interviews. it wouldn't make sense to line that up. >> gingrich has gone completely down. is there any chance of a come back? >> the teddy wear bear is mad. you see and there have been a number of articles about this, newt gingrich's enemy has been

newt gingrich and he put himself in a corner. nasty newt or angry newt depending if you are the wurn or "new york times" keeps rearing his head. this is part of the problem. he has this incredibly malleable set of policy prescriptions. he has made not a lot of friends and he is in the front-runner position and the chickens are coming home to roost. >> we have to mention for a minute because he is the last one standing. john huntsman. ron paul comes in second. there is note anyone near enough in third to get a bump out of it. if there is going to be an aspect romney push, it will have to be john huhsman. sheet only who hasn't had it yet. >> i talk about him every day buzz i am obsessed with the fact that the gop doesn't want to come around to this guy. if you want a moderate

conservative with a good job creation record and experience, you don't have a problem with the mormon thing, why aren't you goingç to john huntsman. we are talking seriously about ron paul and rick santorum. will they give him a look? it's a distinct possibility. >> that's the problem with huntsman and you can be a candidate that the voters don't like. >> wasn't that mitt romney? >> i don't know about that. >> the climate change and over evolution, i think it's correct. he made it seem like he might have contempt for the direction the republican party has gone in. mitt romney makes it look like he has nothing but fear and awe for where the party is moving and happy to commit to it. >> if the party is the father figure, mitt romney is pry trying to be the son and a band

called wizard. >> let's move off of the candidates here. virginia and the ballot access. in order to vote in the virginia primary, the virginia republican party is proposing you will have to sign an oath saying you will vote for the winner in the general election. whatever you want to say about the constitutioniality strikes e as insecure. >> the idea of the government intervening in the private life and there so many contradictions and wanting to get the government out of their yard and in terms of social issues like gay marriage and abortion, it's fine for the government to be in a woman's uterus or at the alter. this is part and parcelç with e party that is having an identity crisis. >> thank you so much for joining us. >> always a pleasure.

>> don't miss now with alex wagner here on msnbc. join her tomorrow when he looks at the best excuses of the year and discusses the white knights in the gop. >> they are not actually in the party. the nuts and bolts of the iowa caucus. yourself sometimes cleaning up after your dishcloth? bounty extra soft can help. in this lab test bounty extra soft leaves this surface three times cleaner than a dishcloth. super clean. super soft. bounty extra soft. in the pink pack. what is it about taking a first step that we find so compelling? is it because taking a step represents hope? or triumph? at genworth, we believe in taking small steps every day to keep your promises, protect what matters, and prepare for a secure financial future.

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>> can we just take a step back for a minute? iowa is all anyone is talking about. all we are talking about to be fair. iowa, iowa, iowa with good reason. they may well decide our next president. the momentum can cement romney or revolt another contender. this is completely insane. the iowa talk us got record turn out. 120,000 people. that is to say 4% of all the residents of iowa.

4%. they represent 4/100s of a percent of the total population of america. statistically speaking, nobody attends the iowa caucus and possibly deciding the primary may well decide the shape of the 2012 election and who gets the presidency next. gale collins put it well. imagine she wrote that iowa gets record crowds and 150 attend. that is about the same number of people in pomona, california. imagine your reaction to seeing a story that said the people in pomona, california think newt gingrich would be the best candidate. would you say why newt is the front-runner? probably not. probably you would not say that. joining me now is the political reporter in iowa. ìyr2ujuk good and well. >> for we can, let'sry view in iowa.

this is not actual low a vote. people conduct a ritual called caucusing. what is this? >> in the caucuses, anyone who feels like voting in this case for a republican presidential candidate goes to whatever municipal location is selected. i know one city in the student center and about 700 locations. they declare who they are for and go to the side of the room where their candidate supporters are congregating. this is somewhat like a town meeting. this is in the rest of the process. it's a little bit different than democrats. republicans have fewer rules about the threshold that is it takes to be viable. democrats cut you off 15% and

republicans don't. eats a bit chaotic and democracy in a sense that requires and you probably point this out that requires you to take more time out of a busy day than voting does. >> for can lead to unexpected outcomes. sibd it at least in 2008, there rules on how to change the vote. you can give your speech and notice that gingrich has 7% in the polls and switch over to ron paul and mitt romney. the gingrich voters throw the election and say it's more like instant run off voting in the end. right? >> it is.ç this is a reason why despite some, you hear people talk about santorum doing well. michele bachmann who going after the same voters want to be strong in westernia i and more rural parts of the state. voters can tell who is doing poorly in polls and tell who doesn't have that much can't.

there could be a surge we don't see coming. this is what we see happening to john kerry and john edwards. edwards surged at the end of the campaign because of this sense that is harder to pick up in a traditional primary. you don't have any idea whether you are voting with or against the polls. in new hampshire 2008, they didn't know who voted for obama and didn't think they would lose the primary. one thing that happens is the time spent telling us how great iowa was. he is not competing in iowa. he is totally ignored. take a listen. >> one of the reasons i'm here in new hampshire, there is activity coming out. they pick presidents here in new hampshire. >> my question is rules aside, is he right?=xíñwñó/cii do they pick presidents or corn

in iowa. >> this is a place where somebody who doesn't win can upset. george bush won and he became president. john mccain skipped them and in the end one the things is he was not as organize as obama is. the obamaç campaign did well i the primaries and beat hillary clinton despite not getting that many more votes. he organized in states that had this odd voting system. >> i mean huntsman is dismissive there and didn't get on the ballot in virginia. it doesn't hurt you as many qualms as you have with the system. they get volunteers good at driving people to the polls. you drag out people in the primaries that will be more exciting. it's not the insane turn out that you will see. there going to be nip and tuck races and a lot of caucuses that

the people who organize will do well. this is a reason when people call romney the front-runner despite not dominating in the polls. newt gingrich not getting his force together and romney has been on every ballot and has a pretty well-trained army of people out of iowa. >> reporting from iowa. thouch. newt and mitt's mandate problem. julia boorstin has the market wrap. >> let's take a look at how stocks are trading right now with just about 15 minutes left in the trading day. the dow jones up by 140 points. s&p up by more than 13 and nasdaq higher by 24 points. after falling yesterday, stocks resuming their upward move into the year end. positive data offsets concerns about the euro zone. pending home sales reported this

morningç soared to a 19-month high compared to expectations of a 2% increase. leading were banking stocks, jpmorgan and b of a after a sell off. volume is still very thin and we are in the final trading week of the year. one good sign is the volatility index considered the best gauge of fear in the markets. it dipped below 23 that is i good sign. that's it from cnbc, first in business word wide. back to you.

you remember repeal? it is one of the big republican promises in 2010. it was in three words, their entire health care policy. they will repeal obama care and replace it with something. they said so. all the time. >> our pledge to america is to repeal and replace obama care. >> instant effort to repeal and

replace the bill. >> trying to repeal and replace this failed health care bill. >> to repeal it and replace it. >> repealing and replacing. >> repealing and replacing. we are about done with the first year and let's see how they did. repeal, check. they voted for repeal over and over again in the house. replace? not so check. they have never come up with a replace plan. why you need to look no further. over the last decade, romney and gingrich establish themselves as two of the gop's most knowledgeable and active voices on health care. in massachusetts, romney passed the most successful universal health care reform ever limp elemented on the state level. gingrich was runingly the center for self transformation. they created one republican super care wonk. in april of 2006 in the monthly health care commentary, newt's notes, gingrich applauded and

saying the most dwighting development of the past few weeks is whatz5ñ happening up in massachusetts. he went on to specifically endorse the individual mandate. he said individuals who can to insurance and simply choose not to place an unnecessary burden on the system that is on the verge of collapse, these free writers undermine the entire health system by placing the onus of responsibility on taxpayers. the individual mandate, of course, later became the core of president obama's health care plan and the republican party is now furious at gingrich and romney for having done so much to promote it. but there's a bit of revisionist history happening here. gingrich and romney were not alone. over the last two decades, health care plans, including an individual mandate, have been proposed or co-sponsored by republican senate majority leader bob dole, by the conservative heritage foundation, by arch conservatives like phil gramm and jesse helms andstrom thurman. in the 2008 election, tea party leader jim demint endorsed mitt romney, and when he did so, he specifically praised romney's health care plan.

and that's only a very partial list. i could give you dozens more. so the fact of the matter is that the republic party used to have a health care plan. the only issue, it was obama care. and that's why the republican party can't figure out an alternative to the affordable care act. the affordable care act was their alternative. now they need an alternative to the alternative. joining me now is ranesh panoor to help me figure out the alternative to the alternative. ranesh, good to see you. >> thanks for having me on. >> this has been one of the odd elements of the republican campaign. at times, romney, gingrich, huntsman, and pawlenty have had to answer for kind words or past support for the health careç concept. doesn't this show that at one time this idea was mainstream in the gop? >> it is a very funny kind of role reversal, because a few years ago, obama was campaigning against the individual mandate. so they've crossed each other

without ever meeting in the middle. i think that a number of things happened. one, you've got to remember, as i know you know this, ezra, republican politicians have been historically much less familiar with health care, much less interested in health care policy, than a lot of democratic politicians. you had a very divided conservative policy community on this question, and the missing element all of these previous discussions of health care is, grassroots conservatives weren't paying attention, weren't interested. when they started looking at the individual mandate, their instinctive reaction, of the public in general, was highly negative. that's what's driving the politics of this issue right now. >> so where do republicans go from here? looking at both the candidates and the house republicans, it seems the the trend is to propose more in the way of medicare reform than actual sort of broader health care reform. but i sort of wonder if that will be enough in the general election or more to the point, if a republican wins and tries to repeal obama care, they'll probably need something to say

about the uninsured, pre-existing conditions. so what is sort of the next play, after they move from just sort of being an opposition and having to produce more of a governing agenda? >> well, i think you're exactly right, that republicans have been talking more about medicare and medicaid than about middle class people who aren't retired and what we're going to do about their health care, if obama care is repealed. congressman ryan rtried at a speech at the hoover institution to começ up with a kind of refm package centered on changing the way the health care and health insurance policies are treated by the tax code. but it's been hard to get republican consensus on that, because a lot of republicans are worried that if you can change the tax treatment of health insurance, you end up threatening people with employer-provided coverage and they're worried about the political consequences of doing that, of unraveling that market. i think what the future, the likely path republicans are going to take on that is to try to come up with some sort of split the difference policy that

gradually changes the tax treatment of health insurance and gradually expands the individual markets while -- without threatening people who already have employer-provided coverage. >> i'd actually ask you the same question about stimulus. both reagan and bush when they proposed big stimulants faced opposition and support. and they did it as stimulus. i wonder if a republican comes into office in 2012 and is facing a weak economy, over the last year with obama opposing them, republicans have been very critical of any dimos, including tax cuts. that republicans by necessity will have to rethink to some degree if they return to the white house. >> i think republicans are likely to remain opposed to a spend-driven stimulus. if it's a tax cut-driven stimulus, i think you'd have a

different kind of situation, because i think, look, a lot of what republicans are objecting to in stimulus is really, they're objecting to the spending. and it's become sort of the convenient catchphrase for aç larger argument about the size of government. >> but that's -- but on the payroll tax cut, republicans haven't really argued about the spend. they haven't wanted to cut the payroll tax cut for another year, other types of spending r reductions. there's been offer on the democratic side to do a straight one-year extension of the payroll tax cut, nothing else in the bill. republicans have not had it at all, despite having favored other policies at different times. >> i think there's been a lot of republican confusion about what to do about the payroll tax, but at the end of the day, the house republicans did come out for a package that included a one-year extension. i think that, you know, republicans have tended to take this sort of odd view. i've always talked about this before on this show, in fact, about the payroll tax, sort of treating it as though it's not a real tax, because it's dedicated to social security and you have

to leave it alone. and i think that that mind-set is misguided and it's eroding in the republican party. >> well, thank you. ramesh ponnuru, always good to see you. we'll be right back with a note on newt. having tripletsha ha hais such a bles. not financially. so we switched to the bargain detergent, and i found myself using three times more than they say to and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back to tide. they're cuter in clean clothes. that's my tide. what's yours? ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪

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shortly before we came on the air today, a crucial piece of iowa news broke. and we simply cannot finish the show without mentioning it. the coffee works in sioux city, iowa, has unveiled a sandwich named after newt gingrich. the newt, as they call it, consists of ham and cheese on, wait for it, white bread. hey, guys, in the rest of america, that sandwich has a name and it's called a ham and cheese sandwich. i'm ezra klein in for martin a