as for the show today, i have jonathan alter sitting next to me quietly and graciously waiting to discuss the various primary issues which i look forward to that. >> he's an impressive guy. >> and also governor eliot spitzer will be here to discuss the banking conclusions of my book, specifically the suggestion that we need on reclassify all naked swaps as online gaming and declare them null and void. that from the former heftd new york stock exchange. we'll see what the former chair arri sheriff of wall street thinks about that idea. >> sounds interesting. would that allow you to tax offshore online betting, as well? >> will is more a classification of what and online bet is. >> i understand that. but would you not be able to approve tax benefit? >> i would imagine you could. there are a tremendous number of benefits. i believe reclassifying it as online gaming would be a

significant improvement pretty much for the whole world. >> looking forward to it. take it away. >> thank you so much. show starts right now. good wednesday afternoon to you. i am dylan ratigan. the sheriff of wall street still to come. and the latest trend in america, apparent lit stay at home husband. we'll talk about it with the author of a new book out of bloomberg news. but our big story today once again obviously auction 2012, mitt romney now 2-2 after winning new hampshire. this has not happened for a nonincumbent republican for whatever that means to might be anywhere. maybe john alter will give us context into it. ron paul pulling off a second place with jon huntsman third. that's interesting because it

suggests that the two things they and you can about, trade, banks and the war are significant issues in this country.can about, trade, banks and the war are significant issues in this country. however two states that poorly reflect the national eelectorate, iowa and new hampshire, we can now actually move on to early voting states that are living with the same real issues that the vast majority of the 311 million of us are. the folks of south carolina, the folks of florida and nevada. there unemployment rates are at or above the national average. 13% unemployment in nevada, which by the way is the highest for any state in america. home foreclosures also among the highest in the nation. 177,000 in florida are in the process of being foreclosed on as we speak. the sunshine state earning the prestigious title i might add, irony added, the country's foreclosure capital. something we'll be talking about when we visit florida on our 30 million jobs tour with greedy

bastards later this month. more than half of all voters if south carolina are paying off student loans. it will debt, lack of jobs and sour housing market have all added up to mar sif possive pov america. the role of representative states and whether they truly represent us is just one part of the problem with our process. but the biggest barrier to an electoral system that actually measures the intent of the electorate is the money in politics buying our elections. and that brings us to jonathan alter who is covering what i call the auction. >> how are you? >> very good. the last time you were here, you say you've done this seven times. this is the first time -- i was a financial anchor in wow 8. so we know there's a the lot of

money flying around. it's been escalating going back to the 70s p. how much worse is the system or is is that a leeleading questio? >> you're right, i've been doing this since 1984.watergate, a se reforms were put in. those have now been stripped out of our process, largely by the citizens of united case, and we were -- >> but also buckley in '77. >> also very critically important. a couple other decisions, as well. and now we are what i call back to the bad men. what was a bad man? a very familiar creature in american politics going back to the 19th century. he was the guy who carried a sack of cash. he would go around with the politician and he would either give the money -- >> is this a real person? >> every politician had a bag

man. and then later by the 50s, 60s, 70s, they used a briefcase instead of a bag. >> more sophisticated. >> so by the '72 campaign before the watergate reforms, you had a guy named w.clememt stone who gave richard nixon a million dollars to do whatever he wanted with. so that was outlawed. now we're back to the bag man, these high rollers who are dominating our politics. so the most important people in american politics right now are -- >> the bag man. >> we know some of their names. like sheldon adelson, jon huntsman senior, a couple people from hitsburg, they will

determine whether rick santorum continues to go on. >> and it's not just the republican side of the i'll. you look at bill burton running a super pack on behalf of the obama administration. and the super pac sounds like it is the new bag. >> it is. >> that's what that is, right? >> but it's in some ways more insidious because there's only a certain amount of cash you can fit in a briefcase. $5 million, it's kind of hard to fit that into a paper bag. >> that's why they call them blood diamonds. you have to use minerals. >> so this is warping our politics. the worst part about it is that at least under the system that we had until it year, you had to say i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. so there was at least some measure of accountability for

who was throwing all the mud. now you can be behind a rock and just -- nobody knows where it's coming from. >> and interesting for everybody in america and watching this republican primary is it's really a tutorial in modern politics. it's not just a question of what do you think about this person or that person. it's expository for the 311 million americans to learn, well, how is this working. who you are these bag men, how does this money work. it's interesting to watch the democrats political posture. the same way mitt romney has played the republican primaries, which is who hope the other guys chew each other up, we now have a president that appears to be quite rationally i would assert from a strategic standpoint staying off the ball, hoping that mitt romney will be the only one standing and knowing that he has the polling to be better than mitt romney. but is there anxiety that if you don't address this issue, you

won't satisfy america? >> first, it's not at all clear that he'll meet mitt romney. he had every advantage and he got 53% of the vote. john mccain who was completely inept, worse than mitt romney, almost won and a lot has changed for the worse in this country. so this is still a 55/45 chance for obama to win. and i don't think he's looking ahead until after it the election right now. they need to get through this process, but they for thegot a break this week because adelson and some of the sugar dad daddies, are already doing some of obama's dirty work for him.a daddies, are already doing some of obama's dirty work for him.d, are already doing some of obama's dirty work for him. dad are already doing some of obama's dirty work for him.dadd are already doing some of obama's dirty work for him. and it makes easier for the democrats to return to them later on. the other thing that's

critically important that got almost no attention in this area is that there was push back from some of adelson's investors. from the shareholders. and if that catches on, it will be harder for the sugar daddies to -- >> so that's something that we could all be pushing on the pension guns, all the big pe pensions. >> let's say jon huntsman sr. surfaces to pour all this money into his son's campaign. if we learn about that, the shareholders in huntsman chemical can start to rebel. >> and specifically we should be using the pension fund which is are the people's money, the cop's money, the teacher's money, as the first point of leverage by creating rule changes. >> absolutely. >> always a pleasure. this will be an interesting year for all of us. >> absolutely. >> john alter, ladies and gentlemen. coming up here on the dr show,

you have seen the politicos parse the new hampshire data. we'll show you three number has when combined may reveal what the race is truly about. plus behind every great woman, stand as great man. our are trophy husbands becoming the new normal? and the mafia coming to italy's rescue. of course there's a catch. all ahead. look! the phillips' lady! we have to thank you for the advice on phillips' caplets. magnesium, right? you bet! phillips' caplets use magnesium. works more naturally than stimulant laxatives... for gentle relief of occasional constipation. can i get an autograph? [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'.

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we want to show you three numbers that we believe truly paint the picture of the

election. the president's approval rating. but especially with such terrible numbers, he still defeats all of the republican candidates by a significant margin by the only people they like less are the republicans that claim they would like to replace him. now, a all that into account and consider this number which is actually the most significant. 18. that is the percentage of americans who city thsay they'r satisfieded with the overall functionality of our government and country. time for the mega panel. jonathan, when do you think the political class of the country will wake unup? 88% of the country believe that

the government is not serving their interests. do you get sense there's any awakening happening in washington, d.c. yet? >> i think folks in washington when you say folks in washington meaning -- >> i mean specifically dnc leadership, rnc leadership, staffers in the white house, staffers in pelosi's office. >> everyone knows folks are angry. >> do they know the american public is angry about the role of the corrupt -- >> yes, they do. they learned about it when the tea party movement happened. they were reminded when the occupy wall street happened. they know the only problem is, and this is one of the thing you've been banging the table for four years now, that because the folks come to washington and they hit the brick wall of special interests and lobbyists and folks whose businesses to keep things from changing. congress has an 8% approval rating for a good reason because they get nothing done.

the president's approval rating, yes, 43%. as 46%. but the key number to look at in terms of the president's approval rating is his personal popularity rating. that's in the high 60s and 70s. they like him personally. but they just don't like the way things are -- they don't like the way he's doing his job. and i think the reason why -- and that's why he's doing much better than mitt romney or any of the other -- >> because we don't know if they like those guys let alone their job practices. the question becomes how hot does the kitchen have to get, okay, whether it's the tea party, whether it's the occupation, the polling data, whether it's the silence that exists in kitchens around this country, in order for some politician, and you see it a little bit with huntsman and ron paul, dhthey came in second and third. how hot does the kitchen have to get until you start to see a counter narrative candidate

inject themselves into the -- >> it won't happen if you have two solid happy parties. if you have a third party movement, you will start to see that. that's been the history. when a movement comes in, people co-op it and it changes the party or both parties. ron paul is an example. watching his success, which i think you can call it that, yesterday in new hampshire, following from iowa, you see consistent and you you see a very strong following. you look at his following, it's strong, it's a base. it's a movement. and so when you watch that thing creep up and i think that could change the narrative. >> i agree. >> i'm teacher's pet. in your book, you talk all the time about reset meetings. going back to the drawing board. the republican party, if they lose the presidential election, which let's face it, they should win, but it's a very weak field, they will have a massive

identity crisis. they will 00 have to have a reset meeting. but on the the bigger scale, there is this. i was speaking to one of the people in charge of the uk's financial system over christmas and i said to him the question, what's the likelihood of the euro collapsing. he said 20%. there's a one in five chance the euro collapses. george soros was talking about how they would be catastrophic for global financial system. and there will be a great big reset meeting for marshall plans and so forth. so we'll see reset meetings. it will happen. >> it's a function of the industrial digital transition. we just have to figure out how to do things. and last night we had our first big book party which is great fun, it was more of a happening, if you will. an experience. it was like a shin dig. it was fun. i don't know what it was, but it was fun.

it was attended by tea party, okay fires. depoc summed up the core issues for a lot of people in the country. >> we're bamboozled by special interest group, by lobbyists by government, by dishonest corporations. it's time for democracy to be restoreded. because this is a cleptocracy. our freedom has been stolen by these special interest groups and we've allowed it. >> we did a streaming poll with the following question which said, and i don't think this question goes far must have by the way, i would argue this question is inadequate. but that's my problem. do you support a constitutional ban on funding of political

campaigns? i guarantee you this is not a rigged poll. but i do love the fact that look at the results. thec. >> inconclusive? >> clearly. clearly we have moved to a world where we can frame it by a central government dictating all these rules and for that matter a liberal establishment that has the same fear that the conservative government will take over and create a who the other set of rules. and i wonder whether you feel like we're moving to a place where we can do that spp there a space in this country in 2012 to have this will conversation beyond this set? >> absolutely. you've been talking about it as jonathan said for a few year, but you're not alone. everybody out there, this is the thing that unites the tea partiers to the occupy wall street people. people are upset with a legalize the corruption in congress.

if you ask people do you believe in corporate funding, of course -- if you said do you believe that people who like dogs should be able to -- >> what was missing from that question by my view was do you support ban on corporate funding and private funding. because if you just ban corporate funding, i still have the koch brothers nonprofit, i still have super pacs, i still have all these issues. so this is the low hanging fruit. but at least it's a beginning. >> the point i wanted to make is that this is just one piece, getting the money out of politics. >> it's just the first step. >> but ultimately what's going to have to happen is that the american people are going to have to elect members of congress to go to washington to make the tough decisions, to make the hard calls that are going to really be uncomfortable, maybe even painful, but then the next step is to not punish them for doing

things you've sent them to washington to do. so to allow congress and the senate to be fearless. that's the key. a lot of the people, the 535 people on capitol hill are running scared. >> tough to get rid of your fear when you have shelly adelson with 5 million up to it. >> as you say, the first stage of the conversation. i come from a country when we got rid of this in 1983. but what happened? only prime minister could only be voted in to power if they had the support of you rupert murdoch's organizations. so the media came in. fundamentally you have to have a discussion about getting out of politics, but i'm just saying britain is not perfect and we don't have money in politics. we ended up with the murdoch situation and that massive scandal. >> and carney says you get money out of poll politics, you creat

murdoch variable. the beautiful thing is that we're even talking about it. we need to understand that as we address the money issue, that it is not a panacea, that it is the beginning of a process that will be a raft of reform in this country. and if they did it in 1883 and put murdoch in charge, they may want to keep the money in. straight ahead, stay at home dads. b.j. took over her cincinnati business. she moved it away from diamonds an gold to offer more unique ring, pendants and necks hases. she scaled down, moved to a smaller space and became more web centric. a more personal operation led t. for more, watch your business sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition?

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are you sure you're ready? >> why. why hire a nanny when you have me, right? >> i'm just saying don't sit on the couch all day watching hockey and playing video games. >> what? no. it's not even plugged in. don't worry. i can totally do this. >> you just said worry, i can't

totally do this. >> no, i said we can. >> that rather comedic take on stay at home husbands. in the past 40 year, women in the workforce has jumped 14%. women now outnumber men in college graduation rates. and the number of female fortune 500 ceos is up to 18. now you may be horrified by that number. but you should know that that number was zero not too long ago in the late 1970s. and nearly half of those fortune 500 female do have stay at ho these stats and the stories behind them are profiled in the perfect husband. our specialist today and author of the piece with a break of our

ranting of politics. what is going on with the perfect husband? what's going on in the american household? >> you have an increasing number of couples where the guy is saying you're surpassing me at work. it's okay. i'll stay at home with the kids. because i know if i don't, we'll have to outsource child care. tough jobs are so demanding. they're so tim consuming. couples who both have them basically never see their children and they have to give them up to nannies. >> are there any countries that sort of get it right in that if member want to work, they,and their wives can work as well and you don't have to outsource child care? >> and how do we get in the situation where basically everybody has to work like anore best model. men have to take off some time and women take off some time and they make it much easier for women to get back to work and of course they have much better

child care. >> something you said before, is it a proactive choice by men to say home or is it the ceo wife who is saying you know what, you're staying here with the kids. because i'm bringing home the bacon and a lot of it. >> that is a good question. i think it variouses couple by couple. in certain cases the wife certainly is nudging the elbow saying i really need you you here. in other cases the guy makes the decision. and it really varies. >> so the female ceo, they make 10 times or 40 times the average worker's salary. it's a smart economic decision. but if you look at the american workforce workforce, the "times" had a piece how women are not getting as many jobs since recession. i just wonder, ultimately, men are still making more than women in the workforce.

so is this -- are you focusing on a minority that is not giving us the full picture? >> i don't think so. because if you look at the recession, lee men lost hair jobs for every woman. the main losses in construction, manufacturing and take created a big trend for guys to go home. no question men still make more money. so in most couples it's two people working, but you often -- 51% of professional jobs are now held with women and with the college graduate statistic, women are really advancing. ten years from now, who knows what it will be. >> it looked like the women under 30 in your article it seemed to say are making more than men. >> they are. >> that's pretty interesting. >> there's an underlying premise that life has become so expensive, period, that two incomes are required to meet what used to require one income. that's a broad generalization,

but not that broad. and the up told pantold part of these stories is more that in order to have a house, put kids in school and have food, your ambition is not to have private airplanes and boats. your ambition is to have your house and have your children and be able to have the ability to be able to feed them. what has happened in this country since the 1970s that the ability for any one breadwinner, male or female, to do so without the help of a partner has become so remarkably difficult? >> middle class incomes haven't advanced as ches when you account for inflation. we also do expect a lot. two car, lots of electronic equipment. but the main reason is incomes haven't advanced. so the middle sclas boclass is people working.

>> so a lot of things happened in 2008 where a lot of the conventional wisdom was thrown out of the window. do you think that this man session that we're going through, is it going to be permanent? are we going to see who are women than men working, more women -- i'm sorry, women making more money than men, is this the new normal? >> i think it's becoming the new normal. how far it will go and how much the wage gap will close, it's hard to say. i think the other thing i found is that with this will whole movement of women into the workforce, there's still a big disconnect between what people need in their lives and what they do at work. and certainly in the u.s., we haven't yet come to a solution of how do you handle both. which do you think the reason we're recruiting more women into the workforce is because you can pay them less? >> well, probably not. good question, but generally speaking women moveded in to jobs men no longer wanted. >> i know we like to reduce

costs by hiring chinese slaves. anyway, go ahead. >> it all is really quite extraordinary. my big worry is for men, is there sort of support networks for men that are how coming up, men have that big stigma effect? >> they're starting to form their own groups. there's a big group in new york called at home dads and there is a lot of daddy blogging. >> what are they saying? >> they are complaining, they are talking about -- >> are they similar to what we would view as traditional stay at home mom complaints? >> absolutely. >> she complains about the continue, she doesn't talk to me -- >> absolutely. she's too tired to talk. >> she won't have sex because she's always working. >> absolutely. >> same problems. that's genius. we're finding equality by working our way into the who

will match whoever has the worst deal. that's the opposite of our original intention i think. it's a weird way to pursue it. congratulations on the cover article. >> thank thank you for educati us. up next, bank sisters and gangsters. the euro zone's a mess, but business is booming for lending in italy. by guess who. [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus presents: the cold truth.

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these days it is proving pretty true to life in italy where the mafia is making a lot of ir refusable offers because it is now italy's number one bank. yes, the country's debt problems have gotten so bad that the infamous crime syndicates have become the go-to lenders for small business. a well respected italian business group reports that the four biggest mobster groups have combined liquidity of $83 billion with a b in the mob. and are raking in $127 billion with a b in annual profits. and bull the mob is stepping in loans to customers an bits and businesses. of course you pay quite a price to have the mafia settle your family business. the generations old crime groups are charging exorbitant rates and causing businesses to fail

at an alarming rate. 1800 failed businesses in 2010 alone couldn't keep up with the loan spaharking payments. so it seems the 21st century mobster may be more dangerous with a smart phone than with a silenced pistol. sounds like other dangerous tough guys we know. who knew that the bankster sft and the gangsters had so much in common. next up, a discussion i've been looking forward to before i even thought of writing this book. the sheriff of wall street, the arbiter of integrity in our capital market, elliott spitzer on how we can encourage the right kind of agreed this banking. althy. like splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweeteners. this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. and now, b vitamins to boot. coffee doesn't have fiber. unless you want it to.

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we've been talking a lot about the new book greedy bastards. and maybe we've given you the impression that greed is a bad thing. or that -- but there are ways to structure the natural human tendency to acquire things into a greed that could actually be good for america where you can only make money by actually solving a problem. it's about bringing out the long term greed in every american and explicitly those who invest money.

they should only be able to make more of it if they're aligned in their interests of those they're investing with. how do you do that? we have eliot spitzer breaking it down. >> congratulations on the book. it is spectacular. buy it. >> that's validation. you were attorney general in the state. >> here's what we said off the record. before ag, i prosecuted tommy gambino. the similarities and parallels between the way organized crime would squeeze money out of the sector and to a certain extent what wall street has become, there's more there than just sort of a metaphor for the

moment on tv. each has figured out how do you use leverage, how do you organize if a way to eliminate competition. because the mob was at its most powerful when it become a monopolist. conflicts of interest, they squeeze all the money out. even though it doesn't as you just said doesn't serve their krint or the public at large. parallels there that really should be developed. >> obviously as long as you and i keep showing up to work, we can extend that conversation. >> that's right. >> i want to read just two paragraphs from the conclusion of the banking chapter of greedy bastards which is basically my assertion of how you align those interests and get both your assessment and whether this is actually happening. the financial markets need regulation the way a nuclear power plant need as cooling agent for its radioactive fuel records. if safety rules ren forced, the result are be clean abundant energy. but if the cooling process is neglected, there could an

meltdown. similarly, capital requirements having money required from the bank are the cooling agent of risk taking in the economy. and just as nuclear fuel will always be reactive, people will always have a tendency to be greedy. we need to enforce rules to balance natural greed so that greed can create risk taking and competition, not short term extraction. fair assessment? >> it takes brilliant metaphor. i've always said a football game without referees become mayhem and a mob. people appreciate a nuclear power plant without coolant. so i think your metaphor is exactly right. you and i and this is a point that i think bears repetition, we are capitalists. we believe in capitalism, competition, and people trying to get rich. that's good. it's a question as you say of having the coolant, the referees, the rules to make sure it is done the right way. >> and the right way very simply

is if you want to buy something, should you have money to purchase it. you if you want to lend will money should actually have money that you can lend. fair? >> i always say the three letters you have to understand to understand wall street is opm. other people's hone. as long as it's merely a mechanism to play with other people's money or where they're doing -- the whole issue of extending mortgages without skin in the game so that you take enormous risk because somebody else is bearing the burden and you only get the up side, then you get an imbalance and crisis. nuclear healmeltdown. >> have we done anything since 2008 to restore the water in the reactor to -- because the other side of the nuclear meltdown metaphor is a properly cooled reactor where you have everybody working together, investors, entrepreneurs, student, educational universities, advising, teaching people like

me and down the line that you're in a situation where everybody is aligned and you're going in that direction and you get that with capital requirements. are we doing that? >> we're beginning to take very tiny steps in the right direction. that's why your book is so good because it really sprains tdesc framework. basel iii, yeah, it's better. >> basel iii is the standard that international banks use for capital. >> interestingly, most of the good stuff has come from overseas. the europeans -- the last thing you want to be is a european these days. but putting that aside, the european banking structure is going through a fundamental restructuring. england, they're actually proposing to go back to a pre-glass steagall era where you you take out the investment banking and commercial banking which would be an important real manifestation of the volcker

rule done right. >> so putting the water back in the reactor so they can create clean abundant energy. another part of that is we've created fuel rods, if you will, that are the swaps market that are very toxic fuel rods. specifically everything else in the world, stocks, bonds, commodity, oils, is traded on an exchange and yet we have a $708 trillion swaps market which is the credit insurance market that is the only market in the world that is not traded on an exchange. >> people make a ton of money will. >> politicians keep a secret $700 trillion -- the president has authorized will ththis. >> this is the cesspool that has driven so much of what is corrupt out there. and you have asked the most

critical question which is what purpose does it serve. most of the other markets you talked about are there to create capital raising function. so much of the swap market, the credit markets, now are revolving around these arcane products that don't do anything other than permit people to bet in a casino without having any real social utility. and so you ask the yes why are we even supporting it. and what wouldn't we do better just to eliminate it. >> i asked dick, he used to run the new york stock exchange. he knows about securities, how to create marketplaces for securities. and i said, dick, how do we deal with the swaps. this is crazy. i still am stuck on the fact that you really believe the only reason the swap market exists is that they're paying off the government. but you're right. >> let me add a footnote. some part is hugely important, but not the size you're talking

about. a lot of it is just gambling on other people's houses. >> and your friend and mine in richard grasso makes the point that we can distinguish between mission critical swaps that are facilitating energy, food, other mission critical things, and things that are not. and he says i believe regulators should require the product being swaps to be registered with a central clearing agency like an exchange or perhaps central bank. and thus able to be monitored globally to prevent contracts being written in excess of the debt obligations they're designed to insure. he goes on to say this is easily accomplished by regulators and treasury issuing a rule adopt pid nonu.s. counter parties. this is the most interesting part. he says any contracts there in that second category, nonmission critical, nonreal basically, any contracts written outside of these requirements would be deemed null and void by

regulators as simply online gaming. is that online gaming? >> it seems to me it is. and this issue has been addressed by state regulators who in the past before it suddenly exploded, they said what are these products and do they -- should they be prohibited. it's not a crazy thought. i think dick is on to something. he and i have had our battles in the past, but i think here he is exactly right. what he's really saying is if these products don't serve a purpose, get rid of them. >> what do you think of the chances would he get eliot spitzer and dick grasso together? >> 100%. >> hanelliott, thanks so much. for more ways how we can encourage the right kind of greed, head to greedy ba

bastards.com. and if you haven't gotten a copy yet, be sure to pick one up pup coming up on "hardball," chris talking romney versus obama. but first the daily rant. have i got a surprise for you! a mouthwatering combination of ingredients... i know you're gonna love. [ barks ] yes, it's new beneful healthy fiesta. made with wholesome grains, real chicken, even accents of tomato and avocado. yeah! come on! [ barking ] gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat. ever think healthy could taste so good? [ woman announcing ] new beneful healthy fiesta. another healthful, flavorful beneful.

that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

here's the daily rabts. >> thanks. something great happened last night. . p in that was the second state to vote in the republican primary and again the voters rejected all the bad advice and false narratives they've been hearing from the campaign preseason. the voters did not follow the media script. they did not use the playbook of gop insiders who insist that this choice is between romney

and a trags tra decision al conservative. # just hilike in iowa they madep their own minds. first, they rallied for ron paul who came in second. and new hampshire suggests that paul has a wider appeal than most other candidates. that's a fact. he came if first among voters who make under $50,000. and he came in second among both registered republicans and people who voted in past gop primaries. now, that folks is the most active core of the gop base. and remember that super influential tea party we always heard about? paul came in second among tea party voter, too. but republican insiders just want paul to go away. so they say he'd never be acceptable to the whole party. you've heard that, too. well, that might be rght be tru day.

but not today. this one of the most telling exit poll questions, it turns out that regardless of which candidate voters backed, more people said paul would be an acceptable nominee than gingrich or santorum. as dylan and i discussed last week and you may recall, the political media has been shorting ron paul's campaign and that's a tough habit on break. now on to the second thing. this may disappoint some conservative king maybers what i'm about to say. and liberal junkies may also not like it. but you can't ignore the numbers. mitt romney is killing it. but for months, we've heard the republicans don't like him. they're searching for anybody but him. today some people even say that his victory wasn't convincing enough. the huffington "post" asked why did he only get 39% of the vote. let's look at the facts. last cycle, if you look at the new hampshire winners, mccain and clinton, they got 37 and 39%. john kerry who i worked for in 2004 got 38%. at 39%, mitt romney even had a

wider margin than all of those recent winners i just mentioned. now, what about the conservative base of the party which is supposedly still searching for an alternative? finally we have data on this. romney beat every other candidate among voters who describe themselves as, quote, very conservative. he won the voting bloc of tea party supporter, registered republicans and those past republican primary voters who i mentioned like ron paul. we don't know if these trends will continue. but we do know that so far the narrative was wrong. we know that so far in these pivotal early states the republican base does like romney and paul. and we know that lots of these media predictions we've been hearing have been flat wrong. so trying to understand the real's electoral by watching fox news is like learning about the ocean by watching shark attack coverage. so let's get on to something