governor romney will have to defend what he did be. >> and how mitt operates. >> i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. >> like firing people. what? is it time republicans started looking for someone else? more on the race for 2012. we begin this hour with breaking news from the white house. bill daley, the president's chief of staff, is stepping down with budget director jack lew to take over. we're expecting the president to speak in a moment. i'm joined by kristen from the

white house. there was an interview that bill gave in october when he said he would remain in position as chief of staff at the white house until election. what happened? >> reporter: that's right. in november the white house announced they were going to divide bill daley's responsibilities between bill daley and pete roos. there was some indication that things weren't moving along so smoothly although no one knew it would come to this. according to a senior administration official, bill left for his break. he came back last tuesday and gave the president his letter of resignation. the president was apparently surprised and said look, think it over for 24 hours, and then come back if you're absolutely sure. apparently, he went home, thought about it, gave the president his letter of

resignation and said he was sure. martin, remember there were some questions that started to first come up after this summer's really bruising debt ceiling debate. that's when reports started to surface that maybe that had been mishandled by bill daley. back to you. >> thanks. joining us from new hampshire chris matthews. i'll have to start with this shakeup at the white house. what does this tell us about the president's strategy going forward, do you think? >> i'm trying to think it through with this news. i know bill daley. i'm very friendly with him. >> i'm going to have to pause you there because the president is at the podium. >> okay. >> last week my chief of staff, bill daley, informed me that after spending time reflecting with his family over the holidays, he decided it was time to leave washington and return to our beloved hometown of chicago. obviously, this was not easy news to hear and i didn't accept

bill's decision right away. in fact, i asked him to take a couple of days to make sure he was sure about this, but in the end, the pull of the hometown we both love, a city that's synonomous with the daley family was too great. one of the things that made it easier was the extraordinary work he's done for me through an extraordinary year. bill has been an outstanding chief of staff during one of the most busiest and consequential years during my administration. we were thinking back before he was named getting the job he was getting updates for shooting in tucson on his very first day.

this was all before he had time to unpack his office. over the last year he's been intimately involved with every decision surrounding the war in iraq. he was instrumental in developing the american jobs act and making sure taxes didn't go up on middle class families. he helped us reach an agreement to reach the deficit by over $2 trillion. given his past record of service as the secretary of commerce he was invaluable in negotiations. no one in my administration has had to make more important decisions quickly than bill. that's why i think this decision was difficult for me. naturally when bill told me his plans to go back to chicago, i asked him who i thought could

fill his shoes. he told me there's one clear choice and i'm pleased to announce that jack lew will serve as my chief of staff. let me thank route for allowing jack to serve in one of the most difficult jobs in washington. he served as the director of office of manage and budget. this is not an easy job. during his first tour, jack was the only budget director in history to preside over budget surpluses for three consecutive years and over the last year he's helped strengthen our economy and streamline the government at a time when he need to do everything we can to keep our economy going. he's service has been invaluable

as he has my complete trust because of his mastery of the numbers but because of the values behind those numbers. ever since he began his career in public service as a top aide to tip o' neil he's fought where hard work amennd responsibility pays off. the belief is reflected in every decision that jack makes. jack has my confidence on matters outside the borders. before he served for me he spent two years running the budget and operations process for secretary clinton at the state didn't. over the last year he's weighed in on many of the major foreign policy decisions that we have made. there's no question that i'm going to deeply miss having bill by my side here at the white

house, but, as he will soon find out, kmchicago is only a phone call away and i'm going to be using that number a bit. i plan to seek bill advice and counsel on a whole range of issues in the months and years to come. here in washington i have every confidence that jack will make sure that we don't miss a beat and continue to do everything we can to strengthen our economy and the middle class safe. i want to thank bill for his extraordinary service, but also his extraordinary friendship and loyalty to me. it's meant a lot. i want to congratulate jack on his new role. i know he's going to do an outstanding job. thank you. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. >> thank you. good luck. >> thank you, everybody. >> the president there speaking to announce the resignation of chief of staff bill daley and his replacement by jack lew.

both standing next to the president. with us is kristen who is at the white house. i have to be moved by how personal the president was. he said he found the decision very difficult to accept at first and he said it was difficult for me. >> reporter: right. certainly strong words, personal words. he called him an outs statandin chief of staff. it's cheer it was not easy for bill daley to make or the president to accept. what's interesting is the choice of jack lew. he is the budget director but he has strong ties to capitol hill. he's doing work with the state department. there's thinking that it would strengthen ties with capitol hill. as you look back at some of the recent battles on capitol hill and between the hill and the

white house, there's been some concern that there hasn't been enough discussion. there haven't been enough sit down discussions between top advisors here and folks on the hill. i think there's some thinking moving forward this could help. bill daley making the point he's ready to go home, back to his family in chicago and the president quite personal in his remarks. >> i was struck by bill daley's comments represented or parapraezed by the president where he said bill wanted to go home with his grand children. i guess there wasn't any direct conflict but this was a man who felt his time of service drawing to an end and he wanted to go home. >> reporter: right. it doesn't seem like there was any direct conflict. have said that, there were a number of reports that surfaced

here that questioned whether bill daley was the right person for the job. the question is did bill daley feel like he was a good fit. it's a difficult job here in washington so it's possible he just tired out at the end of it. there's been a lot of discussions about whether the job of chief of staff was handled properly. whether or not there was enough discussions going on between the white house and capitol hill when you had things like the debt ceiling debate, and also, the payroll tax cut fight, which was seen overall as a victory for the white house. >> indeed. thanks again, kristen. next, america's ceo and chief. i know what it's like to worry whether you're going to get fired. on my journey across ame,

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perhaps the most surprising thing about the weekend debates is that mitt romney was not attacked for the health care plan that he introduced in his massachusetts but instead for his period at bain capital. he claims his business experience is exactly what the country needs as we recover from recession. to put bain capital's mitt romney under the economic micro scope, i'm delighted to have dylan. welcome to our broadcast. in in republican presidential campaign, mitt romney continues to say and draw stark contrast between him and the president. he's a businessman.

he knows how to run an economy. when you look at mr. romney's success or otherwise at bain capital, is he successful? >> there's a distinction we make in the book and the broad n narrative and a simple distinction. a capitalist uses resources or capital to produce something of value for other people, cure cancer, produce a movie. in exchange for creating that value, the people that work to create the value and the people that will invested to create the value are rewarded for that work. there's a second class of capitalists, if you will, that's been invented in this country, which is a professional who uses someone else's money and uses

someone else's money to command control of other businesses that they could never otherwise afford to control with the intention of annihilating those businesses in order to extract for themselves a dividend. >> when rick tyler who is running a super pac on behalf of newt gingrich who says mitt romney was a predatory paper shufflers, his businesses come from putting people out of work and stealing their health care, is that accurate? >> not entirely accurate. here is the point he's missing. everything you just read is accurate, but he's missing be most important part. the most important indictment that the super pac has failed to recognize that in prosecuting the process you described, he's using the local pension money, the leveraged money of banking

system that's being fraudulently run to do that. it's one thing if they were using their own money to purchases these businesses and do these horrible things, which they do do. it's vastly more offensive to take your retirement money or your retirement money or the cop's retirement money or the insurance money and borrow against it, leverage it up in order to do it. if you buy a company and destroy it, use your own money. >> exactly. also interestingly in today's wall street journal say they about 22% of the businesses that bain invested in filed for bankruptcy or closed and 8% ran into trouble resulting in bain's complete lost of investment. that's 30%. is that a good business record? >> at the same time was mitt romney or were they accumulating

compensation. this is the same thing we saw at citigroup under richard parsons. he ran it from '02 to '07. he was approved $100 million. citigroup's business is going straight in top and the executives were raiding citigroup which was bailed out by you and me. the question is while they were running a third of the businesses with other people's money were they paying themselves out at the same time. >> i want to play something mitt romney said earlier today that's making the rounds. >> i like being able to fire people that provide services to me. if someone doesn't give me the good service i need, i want fo say i'm going to go somebody else to provide that to me. >> fire people. he likes that. >> this one. >> come on. >> this one i'm going to defend

mitt romney. >> you are? >> i am. it's politically idiotic to say i like firing people. >> especially for somebody that's been running 15 years. >> that's a suggestion of somebody that needs communications training. >> least been training for 15 years. >> yes, that goes without saying. the issue is dumbness of communication although i believe his point in this one is one that everybody in america feels is we all benefit from being able to make choices as to where we acquire our services. i don't think it's fair to indict him for saying i like to be in a situation where i can switch from one service provider to another. he was talking about -- the thing about any of us obviously, want to be able to make the choices first of all, i don't know who likes firing people like as on a act of pleasure and if you do,

you ought not say it. >> you were saying the point of principle. >> he's defending the right of the individual to choose their service provider. >> when he says repeatedly i'm a businessman. i imagine someone like the late steve jobs who created greatness, greated -- >> steve jobs invested capital in an idea and produced the idea. >> give me a compare and contrast between the late great steve jobs and mitt romney. >> steve jobs with the exception to use slavery. >> set that aside for one moment. >> i need to be honest about that. but let's pretend he wasn't running a slave farm in china. he represents capitalism in its

principles and principals at its best. a highly ambitious with probably millions of ideas running through his head and the willingness and ability to organize with money and people, capital, to organize them to manufacture devices that he thought had value. i think he's been validated by virtue of the tremendous ben fi benefit we've been afforded. mitt romney has to say what are the barriers to execution to getting a touch screen and these things. mitt romney says how much is that business worth. how little money dop i have to use to get control of it and how much money can i borrow once i have control of it in order to strip it of its assets. mitt romney and bain are extractionists. they are not in the business of creating capital. they are identifying assets to

extract value from. they take capital. >> thank you very much for joining us. the book is called "greedy bastards". you lo you can catch him monday through friday. stay with us. what goes around comes around in today's top lines. >> i have individuals to have their own insurance. that means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. that also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. i like firing people that provide services to me. ♪

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the neutron bomb finally exploded in new hampshire. what a weekend. >> the person who should represent our party running against president obama is not someone who called him a remarkable leader and went to be his ambassador in china. >> this nation is divided because of attitudes like that. >> something may go down tonight, but it ain't going to be jobs. >> i realize the red light may not mean anything to you because you're the front-runner, but can we just drop a bit of the pious bologna. governor romney will have to defend what he did at bain.

>> mitt romney became ceo of bain capital. his mission was to reap capital rewards. >> it's hard to justify reach people figuring out how to elude companies. >> there was a couple of times i wondered if i was going to get a pink slip. >> it's your millionaire friends

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try our easy-to-use scottrader streaming quotes. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. be my at accounts, mitt the front-runner, announced day-to-day debates. he said he likes to have the ability to fire people. though the full context may have been about choosing health insurance, already his opponents are pouncing. democratic strategyist, crystal ball is with me now and dr. james peterson. good day to both of you. do you like firing people? >> he sounds a bit like donald trump. your fired. if you look at the full context, it's not quite as bad as the sound bite but for a guy who one americans look at him, their gut

tells them insincere, this is the guy that fired your father. these comments are very damaging and are really going to be replayed again and again by his republican opponents and if he makes it in the general election, this feeds into what the obama administration wants to paint of him. >> he was talking about choice. we all make accurate choices about that kind of thing and we decide who we prefer. i guess context doesn't matter anymore. >> it's all about pulling the sound bite. romney has shown a propensity to make a few unforced e ed error. he was not under fire. this was a really bad mistake for him and if he makes a lot of these on the trail, he's going to be this trouble. >> professor peterson, you agree with that? >> i do. i think he should have been

aware of the potential of this kind of sound bite. the reason why it resonates is people believe this is mitt romney's mentality. the connection to bain is one piece of it, but his policies have this disconnect of working folks in america. >> don't you think this whole business of mitt promoting himself as the business leader, the man ready to lead this country and contrasting himself with the community organize of president obama with no experience. wasn't this going to happen? the people were going to examine his performance and they were going to explain, as they do in the wall street journal today, that on many occasions people like him go into business to extract value, they don't produce value. >> that's right. all of his rhetoric about being a businessman is backfiring right now. there's been a lot of talk about

this documentary. it's devastating. the reason it's so devastating is it's not coming from democrats. the president made this argument he would be painted as anticapitalist. that makes it very damaging not just for the premare but for the general election. >> professor peterson, mitt romney's business success comes from raiding and destroying businesses, putting people out of work, stealing their health care and he describes him as a a predatory paper shufflering. >> these are not the kind ovf business people you want to run

a country. it is ironic that you have a casino conglomerate executive funding this kind of critique. >> good point. >> i said last week that romney would pay the price for trying to make an enemy out of newt gingrich. >> sheldon is up front about he's running a casino. >> we're looking at romney's polling, still strong against the opposition. it's come down ten points in five days. do you think the kind of attack on romney is now going to further reduce his size of lead in new hampshire. >> just ask newt gingrich when you have millions of dollars of negative advertising going against you. it has an affect. voters say they hatepaigning ans but it's effective at bringing

down your opponents poll numbers. hunts h huntsman had a great debate this weekend. >> he's the best in the field. >> he doesn't have legs past new hampshire. can newt gingrich or rick santorum pull together conservatives to make stand in south carolina? that's the big question. >> you were saying you thought this was jon huntsman best debate and you believe he's the best candidate? >> i do. >> that must mean he has no chance. >> it's sad to see his numbers. the things that he talks about captures the imagination of independe independence. they will try to fragment the vote enough. it's really becoming more and

more absurd the further we go along here. >> i want to go back to this newt gingrich super pac and the trailer. >> you're obsessed with that, aren't you? >> i'm shocked. i watched it several times last night and i was struck by it. he laid off people, real americans in swing states and midwestern states and states across this country. in south carolina his campaign is seized on the fact that there are workers that were laid off because of mitt romney and when you get it down do that practical level, your neighbor was laid off because of what he did. >> you're not voting for that guy? >> that's right. the republicans like this line of attack. >> thanks as always for joining us.

next, the three daughters of jon huntsman. stay with us. >> there's a lot of blue sky in this race. you look at iowa. 75% of the voters said no way, no how, no thanks to the establishment front-runner. i believe the same is true in new hampshire. ♪ hift in what passes for common sense. used to be we socked money away and expected it to grow. then the world changed... and the common sense of retirement planning became anything but common. fortunately, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. take control by opening a new account or rolling over an old 401(k) today, and we'll throw in up to $600. how's that for common sense?

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jon huntsman is on the move in new shahampshire. he's in a tie for third with rick santorum. turning the heat up on the man that would be king, mitt romney. here he is. >> i will always put my country first. it seems that governor romney believes in putting politics

first. he enjoys firing people. i enjoy creating jobs. >> joining us now governor huntsman's daughters. good often to all afternoon to . >> hi. >> your father just first namished discussing the challenges of dealing with china and governor romney attacks your father saying that your father was in china supporting the obama administration while quote, the rest of us on this stage were getting republicans elected. the next debate your father goes back to romney, here is what he says. >> he criticized me while he was out raising money for serving my country in china under a democrat like my two sons are doing in the united states navy. >> not someone who called him a remarkable leader and went to be his ambassador in china.

>> this nation is divided because of attitudes like that. >> abby, what was your initial reaction to that comment? to my ears the accusations sounded a bit like party first, country second. >> i was so proud. that's my dad to a tee. i'm so glad the rest of the american people got to see that side of my dad. he always stands up for his country. he believes country first no matter what. that's why my brothers are serving in the nation. he served reagan. he served bush. i'm glad the american people saw that. >> mary ann, the response on sunday's debate was forceful. why didn't your father hit back immediately on saturday? >> first of all t it still gives me chills to watch that. i don't know. i think sunday was kind of the day to go after everything and it seems like all of the candidates took sunday to do

that as well. i am very proud of him for standing up for his country first, and he's always taught us, since we were little, to serve your country first before anything else. >> lidie, your father distinction wished himself by mentioning your brothers that attend the navel academy. can you tell us a bit about them. >> my brothers? >> yes. >> he believes that everybody sthou should be serving their country first. we all need to be serves for the same thing. >> where do you think your father will finish in new hampshire? >> you can't say hard numbers. >> give me a guess. >> martin, here on the ground, i can tell you we started from house parties will people would

trickle in. he had zero percent name recognition and now we go out there's 400 and 500 people at this town halls and they have tears in their eyes. they can feel his message. i think people really are connecting with that. >> can you explain one thing to me. we had a guest a few minutes ago and he said the best candidate by far, the one. >> that's what new hampshire is for. they always up ended conventi conventional wisdom.

it's forpts them. that's why they are a great example for the rest of the country. who can

the state department is demanding iran replace a marine that's been sentenced to death by an iranian court for spying on behalf of the cia. he was born in arizona and according to to his family, he was visiting his grandmother when he was picked up by iranian authorities. this afternoon, the white house categorically denied that he's a spy. i'm joined by the bureau chief. have the iranians presented any evidence at all to suggest that this man was indeed an american

spy? >> well, no, they haven't is the simple answer to that. they have come up with a couple photographs of him at the air base dressed in marine fatigues. this places a huge amount of emphasis, important emphasis on a confession. just the fact that he confessed on state tv was enough for the ruling establishment here to find him guilty beyond a doubt. things are not looking good for him, even though there was little evidence presented. >> ali, do we expect, because we know he has 20 days to appeal, do we expect him to do so? >> definitely. he's got nothing to lose. he's essentially been sentenced to death. he doesn't have anything to lose. most people here will appeal

their case. it buys them more time. i have no doubt he'll appeal the case. then it will go to the next stage. >> thank you for joining us. we'll be right back to clear the air. ♪ you and me and the big old tree ♪ ♪ side by side, one, two, three ♪ ♪ count the birds in the big old tree ♪ ♪ la la la [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. ♪ ♪ you and me and the big old tree side by side ♪ but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the charming outfits. take away the sprites, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la

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it's time now to clear the air. and the weekend debates particularly sunday's were pretty antagonistic, particularly in regard to mitt romney. from birth control to mitt romney's claim that he's not a career politician. and yet, there's one glaring subject that not one of these candidates bothered to focus upon or make central to their candidacy. a subject that's critical to the future peace and prosperity of this nation. a subject that ordinarily would be at the heart of any politician's agenda. education. there is vast inquality in this country, and much of it starts when a child is born.

but we also know from the experts and the best available evidence that investing in early year's education can reverse poverty and make all the difference in the world. professor james heckman, with the help of economists, psychologists, and neuroscientists, has proven that early childhood education influences everything. many major economic and social problems, such as crime, teenage pregnancy, dropping out of high school, and adverse health conditions, can be traced to low levels of skill and ability in society. and that's why in 2006, a congressional panel made this important assertion. "america's global competitiveness depends on the ability of our high school graduates to earn at least a bachelor's degree." so from individuals to our entire society, we know that

giving every child access to quality education is absolutely critical to our future prosperity. but here's what rick santorum thinks about that. >> i was so outraged at the president of the united states standing up and saying every child in america should go to college. who are you? who are you to say that every child in america go to college? >> and here's how newt gingrich would deal with children born in poverty through no fault of their own. >> you have a very poor neighborhood. you have kids who are required under law to go to school. they have no number. they have no habit of work. what if they became stapt janitors and their job was to mop the floor and clean the bathroom? >> just to be clear, these were not responses to got ya questions. they weren't tricked up by a clever journalist. this is what these two actually

believe. that going to college shouldn't be an ambition for every child and that cleaning toilets will prove transformtive for children. they believe they are qualified to become president of the united states. thanks so much for watching. dylan ratigan is here. you have had a busy day starting this morning, i believe, on "the today show." watch this. >> people think that money buys making something happen. what the money is buying is making something not happen at a time when we need a lot to happen. >> you have a lot to say, dylan ratigan. >> you have a lot to say, dylan ratigan. explain. >> well, the best illustration of this, the most obvious one is the health care debate in 2009. there's a tremendous amount to discuss. a health care and employer-based health care system that dates to dwight eisenhower. a monopoly organization.

a raft of evidence, all these things. the president comes out and says i want to reform health care. only to watch $600 million come from private drug companies, private insurance companies, private hospital companies into washington, d.c., including to the president. and only to watch nearly the president and the congress leave intact the month nopoly, do a back-room deal, and ultimately do little more than reform the health care system beyond giving hng away. one more thing. banks 2010, same thing. $600 million. don't break up the banks. don't put swaps on an exchange. don't reform the system. that's a small price. these are multi-trillion dollar businesses. that's big money. that makes