of a humble tone than he he has been. this time it was well, you know, this will be up the the american people to decide. it was quite a spectacle. donald trump was not at the forefront. it was really interesting. newt gingrich spoke first. >> which is amazing with an egothe size of trumps, the battle between the two. i think there was some general thinking that with the exit of herman cain maybe the self-promoting behavior would take a back seerkt but enter donald trump. >> it doesn't get worse than that. a new poll finds that an endorsement from donald trump could actually hurt a republican candidate. 39% of people in new hampshire and 34% of people in iowa would be less likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by trump. this is how 2k07b8d trump responds speaking with chuck todd. >> it depends on how the question's asked. i know a lot about polls.

i studied polls at the wharton school of finance. i think you believe somebody is worse off because i endorse them. >> also joining the panel to talk about the supersized self-confidence -- that's a big mouthful, is alan lichtman a presidential historian. i am looking at this field thinking how can -- we know that it takes a certain amount of let's say self-confidence to run for president. historically speaking doesn't this current field seem to have egos beyond the pail? >> i think it really does. i think we are seeing the super ego field. i don't mean that in a freudian sense of the term. i mean that in the absolute sense of the term. all presidential candidates have enormous egos. the difference is they tamp them down. they use self-deppry indicating humor. they come off as cool.

these egos come off as hot, bright, and shiny. newt gingrich is boasting about ending the cold war. talks about himself being a celebrity. donald trump is now an expert on everything even on polling. this is really unique. remember, the republicans made a big thing back in 2000 of al gore's supposed outside ego. remember he was blasted for purportedly claiming that he had invented tp internet and other inflated claims. so imagine the field day that democrats are going to have with this field and particularly if it is super ego newt gingrich who becomes the republican nominee. he may be the smartest person in the room when he enters most rooms. you don't have to remind everyone of that. >> or he might not be. >> depends on the room. >> matt lewis, we're looking at this field, how much does standing next to be donald trump

her or help your candidacy if you're newt gingrich? >> i think it's a very minor blip. ultimately will not matter one way or the other. right now we obsess about that because that's what we have to do. i do the same thing at the daily caller. cable news is 24-hour cycles. ultimately it's not going to matter. if you're newt gingrich any chance you have to debate you take because he's a good debater. if you're jon huntsman you stand on principle and say you're not going to do it. i don't think it's a big deal. >> what do you think trump stands for? what is his constituency in this party? >> i think he stands for self-promotion above all. having said that, i don't think it's a huge deal. how many debates have these folks had? if newt gingrich goes out and debate it's not granting don trump -- the other thing this is going to be a couple days' story. i don't think this goes into iowa or new hampshire. >> don't you think that this is

harmful overall to the republican brand? i'm starting to think there might not be a republican party. there might be an endless "saturday night live" skit that won't end. the idea of debate with news max. >> we will not impugn news max on this channel. >> donald trump is the moderator. it's silly. >> i don't believe this is going to be televised national. >> that's even sillier. >> my point is it's not like people are going to obsess over its. i do think this maybe hurts politics in general. it is becoming a reality show. i don't know that it rubs off on the republican party. >> the other thing that i would say about the donald trump debate here what could be a bigger problem is iowa voters were turned off by the fat that donald trump was supposed to be the keynote speaker at the gop fundraiser months ago. when he pulled out of the race he cancelled the event.

that is something that will stick with him. >> you have a column about this in the nation today. i think that there are implications donald trump brings with him a host of divisive things, rhetoric, issues, et cetera. if we are talking about the broad implications for the party, beyond just the reality television aspect of it, this is a guy that's challenging the citizenship of the president of the united states. if you can just talk to more i think the racist undertones that you think he brings with him. >> this is not just a joke, this is a sad statement about what is quarterbacking the republican party. donald trump has a political force separate from a financial force has been all about challenging the president's citizenship, his credentials and his race. donald trump has attacked this president for being black. it's hard for some people to get their arms around that. this is a guy that said that president obama needs to get off the basketball court and focus

on the economy. what? this is a guy more so than anybody else got the hawaii health department to dislodge the long form birth certificate and was never enough. white presidents have never had their birth certificates questioned. what's going on in a primary with niche level issues as opposed to other polls that say six times as many people say they would be turned off by a trump endorsement. this is something we're seeing where people are going towards the birther now and then they're going to -- >> the guy is employed by the network we're on right now. >> what does that have to do --? >> giving haim forum means you endorse his point of view. >> if newt gingrich goes to the debate and endorses donald trump's views, i agree with you. if he challenges him, this is a debate. we welcome opposing viewpoints, i think it's good. >> briefly to say to that,

lawrence o'donnell works here and he and trump have had fights. i think that's all right. my point is in politics unlike in business you have to decide who you chuck with. if there was a democratic party campaign and someone with a history of anti-semitism. i don't think the candidates would go to that debate. >> if jesse jackson held a debate, i bet you they'd go. >> donald trump works for nbc entertainment. lawrence o'donnell, the people sitting here work for nbc news. i think that the fundamental split between entertainment and news should probably be maintained when we're talking about the presidency of the united states. >> certainly, this is something -- donald trump shows no signs of going away. alan thank you for putting this in historical perspective. it is certainly going to be a hot test of egos in 2012. after the break, who's left for the right? that's next on "now."

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budget crisis, no problem. cut a trillion bucks year one. that's tril with a t. department of education, gone. interior, energy, hud, commerce, gone. later bureaucrats. that's how ron paul rolls. want to drain the swamp? ron paul, do it. ron paul, do it. is ron paul running to be president or a ford f-150 truck? take a look at this ad. >> so every truck out there is trying to pin, bend, slice the stats. they're claiming the best this, the highest that, the most of something else. blah blah blah.

>> i'm not sure whether ford would like to do away with the department of energy, hurd and commerce, there is an uncanny resemblance there. >> blah blah blah. >> more to the point, ron paul. the guy who is consistently up in the polls yet nobody actually ever talks about. >> i think he's going to get talked about right now. you've had three polls in the last three weeks i think that have showed him at 17%. it's looking like a three way race going into aye iowa. newt gingrich, ron paul, mitt romney. ron paul has done something which we didn't think he could do. expand his base of the support. he has run the most professional campaign of the cycle. i'm saying that on the record. i've been very critical of ron paul at points on our blog. he has run an efficient effort. he had been much more tempered. of course, what we knew of ron paul in 2007 is he was a bit

more engaged and entertaining. >> in the bedates he's come off as the sanest person on the stage, which is saying a lot. ron paul is considered far out there. he's the one that comes across as the most sensible. he sort of seems like the most normal one. i don't think that says good things about the others. >> normal is a phrase that we should parse out here. >> mainstream. >> some of what he's saying is not going to appeal to the gop base this is a guy who said i want to cut aid to israel. he's is only person -- >> legalize drugs. >> he's the only person not taking part in the republican jewish coalition forum. >> and the trump debate. >> test normatively normal. he's republican primary normal. i do think in iowa, iowans republican. gephardt ran in '88, in 2004 you had people say i remember from 11 years ago he was weird or i liked him. ron paul finished third in iowa

last time when he was outspent a ton. right now he's a stronger third than he was last time. i don't think that there is the ingredients for ron paul to get the nomination. ask hillary clinton whether you have to get the nomination to have a huge impact and a future. >> to keep this going for a while. >> do you think he's had an impact so far? we talk about the poll that shift the polls to the right, you'd say that about michele bachmann and to some degree newt gingrich. has ron paul been successful in doing that? >> i think so. if you look at the debates in terms of introducing the ideas into the political mainstream. he challenged newt gingrich during the last debate over the patriot act. he's talked about things, whether or not we should allow iran to go nuclear. he thinks we should. i don't agree with a lot of what he has to say. i think it's healthy for the conservative movement and the republican party. the great tradition of the conservative movement there's been different strains and he brings out certain elements that

have been tamped down in recent years. >> i want to talk a little bit about the man you just mentioned newt gingrich. and this notion that he has to battle and as much as he has to battle for the nomination, not only mitt romney, the rest of the field, but himself. the idea of good newt versus bad newt. i thought one of the telling things on the sunday shows was when tom coburn was asked whether he would endorse newt gingrich. he very strongly said i am not going to. i have had experience with this guy and i don't think he would be my nominee. i am paraphrasing. there's real dissension among republicans regarding newt gingrich. >> the other thing ron paul needs to bring to the table is institutional memory. when people served with gingrich it was very caustic. he went out in a very bad way. the people who know newt best served with him in the house of representatives, they don't provide a ringing endorsement for him.

>> i would argue newt was the speaker. his his job to provide a grand vision and some cases helped whip rank and file members into line to lead them to do compromises. >> maybe whip a little too strong in some cases. >> lead them to do compromise. i'm not saying he did everything right or wrong. it's not surprising that some of these freshman in '94 might object to them the way they don't like their boss. >> these are not speaker complaints about i didn't like too much pressure. there's specific allegations not only the ethics stuff, republicans would say he would go out on the floor and use the c-span cameras to make it seem there were other cameras and say if that member disagrees let me hear their opposition. and everyone in the house, all of your colleagues that you need votes from know what you're doing, but you're playing a deceptive game for the cameras. here's my response. these are things that angered a lot of conservative republicans.

>> i think one thing what you just said is very notable. the criticism, coburn's krit simm aside, it has not been that loud. >> considering how many people just don't like him. >> a lot of people have bad memories. >> it's a double edge sword. the guy's a visionary. he's brilliant. he's an ideas guy. sometimes those type of people -- >> look at steve jobs. >> whoa. we have just heard newt gingrich being compared to steve jobs. we are going to have to tackle that later in the show after break. is the uncertainty of the republicans an opportunity for president obama? that's next on "now." ♪ when your chain of supply goes from here to shanghai, that's logistics. ♪

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this chart shows how our

country actually works today. i'll go from the most powerful institution to the least. let me tell you the presidency is not even in the top five. and finally, me, the president barely above pip pa middleton and the kia gerbils. >> pippa middleton and the kia gerbils. that was "s.n.l." this weekend. is president obama less powerful than tyler perry and mark zuckerberg. we are talking about a president and the presidency that seems greatly weakened. >> especially in contrast to the way george w. bush pumped up the president into a regal office. i think that americans are finding out a civics lesson that is first branch of government is congress. and congress can do a lot. that said in the first term the

amount of productivity that came out of the 111th congress was pretty big. health care was huge. congress can constrain the white house. >> the fact that he chose to spend his political capital on passing health care reform, obama care, whatever, instead of tackling jobs i think that is the big story that we keep relieving. he spent -- he left it all in the field. his political capital was over when health care reform came. >> that's not where the key gentleman gerbils come in. you might be right and there are many people across the spectrum that say there should have been a lot more on job growth. i think that's a great point. i think what the "saturday night live" skit is giving us, the feeling this is a funny joke because people don't have the sense that this president is not powerful. that other people, members of congress, people many the media, wherever it is are calling more of the shots, framing more of the debate. that's a messaging problem more than a substance problem. >> that's what i was saying is i

don't think white house sold the message. we discovered how powerful congress is, the civics lesson portion. the reality is there were pieces of legislation, regardless if you think they were the right ones, that they got done that were major pieces of legislation. the president himself has said this. we have seen him quoted saying we're not doing a very good job with the communications. >> he's just brought in jennifer palmerry to help with messaging. >> yes. it's odd to see a president musing about the messaging going wrong. >> i think they won that fight at the end of last year, last december versus republicans. i think the white house did very well in a lot of negotiations. but they don't sell it. that is one thing that's badly needed in the white house. >> i don't think you can underestimate the degree they pivoted off the debt ceiling debate. they think it's very bad for the president. he's pushing this payroll tax thing and it's very partisan. this is the guy that doesn't want to get involved with congress and doesn't seem to

have a very good relationship with congress. we have reports about the frostiness between the hill and the white house. >> i wonder how much of it is stylistic, too. part of the reason obama won is because he's so different than bush. all that worked for him. ultimately bill clinton had that swagger and that sort of likablity. but he also could be tough. i don't know that obama can be tough. >> ben smith did a piece on this that nobody fears obama. >> ben smith of politico. >> that ben smith. he did a very smart piece. it was a while ago. it was at the kbining where we were seeing that people did not fear this president. you just touched on something interesting. newt gingrich was talking about this on statin island where you'd expect to find him 31 days after the caucuses this past saturday at a tea party event. he was talking about how they couldn't have gotten welfare reform done many the '90s without bill clinton and that

bill clinton knew how to work with the legislature. this was revisionist history and the government shutdown. he was making the point that bill clinton would reach out to lawmakers. there would be birthday well wishes, rides on air force one. i do think there is something to that. >> dlfs a sense that there was a love for the president. clinton was called a political animal. everybody who runs for and wins the office of president has to be a political animal. the back and forth seems so much a part of clinton's dna. >> to maggy's point, i saw a greet tweet, when i come on tv i like to regurgitate tweets. somebody said shortly after bin laden was killed, somebody tweeted, lacking the filibuster terrorists have no recourse against barack obama. and there is in great divide here between the fact that a lot of people fear him around the world, and i think on civil liberties there's areas where he's doing very poorly precisely because he's taking the power to

detain or assassinate citizens without any due process. there are ways that this presidency is as aggressive and as fear inducing as anything that the president -- >> i agree. >> domestically we have this idea of he's hanging out. >> he's been tough on terrorists. i do think, alex you have a very good point. which is to say i don't think obama loves politics. newt gingrich after that last debate he came off the stage like a champ. >> newt gingrich loves politics. and we will talk about the love that we all have for not only politics, but talking about newt gingrich and his love for politicians. when we come back, tim tebow's play with politics. that's next on "now." on my phone, i got internet! hotspot five dollars. hey, hey, hey, hey. i can see who's on my network people! lance? lance? yes, yes

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some liberals say that

faith's a sign of weakness. well, they're wrong. i think we all need god's help. america's greatest leaders have been people of strong faith, strong values. that make for the a strong america. i'm rick perry. i'm not ashamed to talk about my faith. >> that was rick perry in a new ad that's playing in iowa. and is a good jumping off point to talk about how religion is playing out on the national stage. i do have to interrupt breakingish news that herman cain on a news conference with more than 100 advisors and staffers says he does not plan to endorse another candidate today. >> can we do this every day. >> so we can talk about him again tomorrow. >> can we trademark the phrase, breakingish news. >> america held hostage. >> the unemployment rate is still high. let us do talk about the issue of faith in american life.

i want to sort of bring in the broader context for this. there's an op-ed in "usa today" on sunday by lawyerry taunton the head of the fixed group christian foundation. he's talking about tim tebow. there's a lot of back and forth about his talents and a quarterback but the fact he wears his christian faith on his sleeve if not in his -- >> eye black. >> that has scripture numbers. we look to faith in public life is very much a part of this 2012 race. which is interesting to me is potentially at the top of the ticket you have newt gingrich or maybe mitt romney both of whom have sort of complicated issues with religion. i wonder how much you guys think that matters at this point. >> i think it matters much more than people are saying and much more than people are telling pollsters. part of the reason i think this

newt gingrich excitement fest. there was a woman from houston here as a tourist. we stopped to talk to her. she was waiting around to catch sight of gingrich. she said she wouldn't vote for mitt romney because he's a mormon. >> i cannot vote for mitt romney because he's a mormon. >> there was a poll out about a week ago, nobody picked up on this it was in the cross tabs. romney and gingrich were tied among kath lix. among protestants gingrich had a 20-point lead. that you might extrapolate the more monoissue. i've never believed when people say the mormon thing doesn't matter. it matters. if romney is the nominee he has a put a firth breathing baptist on the ticket to get through it. if you look at tim tebow the reason people like that, we like to see ourselves as that. americans like to project this

sort of image of strong faith and a sort of all american image, tim tebow represents that. in a presidential candidate you think that's what the republican party would want that's been their image. now you've got the republican party seriously considering somebody like gingrich who's had a terrible track record with one of the fundamental issues for conservatives, marriage. >> he's selling his story as a story of redemption right now. what he essentially says is i'm in a happy ending. people around him say they believe he's a changed guy. >> this sort of bible thumping religious aspect. there's a philosophical aspect of defending western civilization against secularism. >> wait. let's talk about this. >> secularism -- >> i want to say two things, we just say the ad that alex teed up that shows rick perry say i'm not ashamed to talk about my

religion. i read that as him attacking mitt romney and his religion. that's what i see. i think that's wrong. i also think, understand me i don't mean this in a controversial way. if he did that on orissues like race or gender it would be called out in a different way. i think there are different standards here. you get away with attacking someone -- >> how would it be different? >> amazing range of dog whistles in american politics. my point is he gets away with this. >> newt gingrich has done this. >> it's not just about mitt romney. the faith community in iowa which is where this race is right now, no matter how national it feels and personally for newt gingrich and rit hom knee. >> that's a great point. there's a huge opening for the evangelical in iowa. it's not newt gingrich, a catholic convert with questionable baggage.

mitt romney, there's a huge opening for an evangelical. bachmann and perry are fighting. santorum appeals to that group. i don't blame rick perry he's smart to run on religion. that's the opening for him. >> it's not necessarily in this context. i agree with you, a lot of people heard it as a dog whistle. >> i didn't. it was news to me. >> one at a time. >> who is say shamed. who is ashamed to talk about their religion? >> there are people who are. >> let's refer to an interview -- an interview that mitt romney did in "parade" magazine yesterday which was to burnish his credentials as a family man. he does not refer to himself as being mormon once. he says jeudeo christian over and over again. this is clearly an issue for him. >> the cnbc debate was the first time he used the line of i am a

man of faith and family. >> it was an issue for barack obama when people thought he was muslim. there was a need to re-enforce the christianity of american presidents. which i find disturbing that you have to re-enforce it, but romney know it's a problem. >> jfk overcame the problem. barack obama overcame the problem. this is something romney has to. he could. >> i will say broadly speaking there is a mean developing out there that some religious voters are as attracted to the democratic platform as they are the right because the notions of faith and being my brother's keeper and addressing income quality are christian values. >> i was speaking to a chair in iowa who said he was big for huckabee last time, but mitt romney is an easterner and they're interested in someone that's a christian faith candidate. what that person said to me in that conversation suggested they don't want to vote for mitt

romney because he's mormon. >> one thing we've missed and no one's discussed it yet about newt gingrich he's a southerner. newt gingrich has got that little t from georgia. he's not a baptist. but because rick perry fell apart there is an opening. >> gingrich feels like a republican. he seems like it. mitt romney's problem it's not just the religion, he seems like an elite. >> that's the northeastern thing. >> the eastern thing. if you were to put up john kerry and george w. bush in four and say which guys does mitt romney remind us of. >> we will be discussing more rhetorical questions next. protecting the vote, why is the dnc charging that the gop assaulting voting rights? that's next. that says it has

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are republicans using voter i.d. laws to rock the vote in their favor by disenchanting minority voters in the dnc says absolutely. wovb learning that there's been a raft of new voter i.d. passed in many cases gop held states, states with republican governors. tell us about the implications of this. >> over the course of the last year we've seen a number of state legislatures across the country enacting laws that require photo i.d. at the polls or either restricting early voting or also trying to curb third party voter registration drives. democrats say this is an all out assault and attack on black voters particularly up to 25% of

black voters don't have government issued i.d.s. >> the i.d. laws disproportionately target the elderly, low income, latinos, african-americans all of whom traditionally vote democratic. i guess i wonder the charge of voter fraud, there have been a lot of studies about voter fraud. is that -- is there -- does it hold water? is this -- is this really the brazen sort of partisan maneuvering that it seems to be? >> there's never been any study that shows there's widespread voter fraud. the bush administration attempted to investigate this with their justice department. didn't find it in florida one of these lays was passed at the attorney general of florida was asked, can you site any instances of voter fraud? he could not. this voter laws exempt the one area with voter fraud, which is absentee balloting. it's the only conceivable place.

no one's showed up with mickey mouse as their i.d. and tried to vote. >> it's curbing people posing as other people at the poll. but absentee tends to be a more republican form of voting so they leave it alone. >> if you look at the supreme court this issue came up from indiana's really restrictive law in 2008 and a lot of people were hoping that the court would say this is an area where you're con flating economic prereck kwiss with voting which has been very disfavored in the court. instead they said this is a reasonable way, states will have the discretion to decide. i don't think that having a a car has anything to do with voting, but a lot of times if you don't have a car you don't get a majority i.d. or driver's license. have you find there was a difference after the supreme court ruling? >> i think so much is yet to be seen. we're still in the process some of these laws have been

rejected. what seems most disturbing for many this harkins back to the days where black voters had to guess the number of bell jeans in a jar. >> you're going too far now. we would all agree that majority intimidation is wrong, voter suppression is wrong. there's two ways that your vote can be stolen. the one is to not allow you to vote and the other is to allow people to steal votes. >> by putting laws in place, you should disenfranchise five different voters. to get here today i had to show my license three or four times. >> that's not the same thing. >> nothing is more precious than a vote. the integrity of elections -- >> you don't have a right to be in this building. >> true. that is why -- >> follow my logic. you don't have a right to be here. you're in a private place and

you're choosing to be here in negotiation with the people here. >> voting is more precious than coming in this building. >> let me say it goes to the other direction, that is why -- >> we should let people say my name is matt lewis. i don't have to show an i.d. >> this is a talk show. it's not a yell show. >> i'm sorry, go ahead. it's your show. >> if we both agree it's that important, i think what the supreme court has historically said and the reason it's been compared to poll taxes is more important it is the lower the barriers are allowed. that is to say you don't get in the way of people exercising that right. >> if i could give you a specific way that this is similar to a poll tax. if you don't have the kind of government issued i.d. that's required in a state. let's say texas. they say that even your university of texas, the state school in texas that i.d. is not good enough to vote. you then have to go out and purchase the kind of i.d. that

they're asking for. that isn't a direct poll tax. >> one of the ways is to have your vote stolen and majority fraud happen. >> when does that happen? >> i think it happened in seattle. it's happened in louisiana multiple times. >> what kind of voter fraud are you saying? >> the kind of -- >> louisiana. >> there's a lot of information -- >> you should explain it. >> how much time do we have? >> we have a minute. >> it was 1994. he was running for governor of maryland m. >> matt, voter fraud exists. and at the end of the day, it comes down to weighing your options. i think there is a lot -- there is evidence that has made voter fraud seem like much more of a problem. on the other hand, you have the implications of these voter i.d. laws and countless numbers of states that could affect up to

five million people. when you're purely look at those numbers, one would think you'd give a little more weight that the fact that five million people may be disenfranchised. you're targeting minority et voers, lower income voters and elgderly voters. >> should people have to show anything. could you just show up and say i'm matt lewis? >> in tennessee chattanooga, tennessee, a 96-year-old woman was voting for years. couldn't find her marriage certificate and she was denied the right to vote. this is what we're talking about. >> she couldn't file a temporary ballot. >> there is a face for every portion of voter fraud. we unfortunately -- it is not just coincidence that all of the states that enacted voter i.d. laws were held by republican governors. we will talk about this more. thank you for being part of this panel. a programming note, "block the

vote" a series airing all this week on politics nation with the reverend al sharpton will investigate new voting laws around the country. you can catch that right here on msnbc at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. but up next, what now is the obama administration considering action in iran. we'll talk about that after the break. [ male announcer ] cranberry juice? wake up! ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

welcome back. let's go to "what now." we start with iran. are we already at war? we hear about our cyber wars with iran. there's back and forth. there are explosions. we have a very contentious relationship with iran. we've got to bring in into context what happened with the british embassies, the sanctions. is this an area where we are going to take more aggressive action? >> the idea of that i'm sorry

frankly sounds insane. we are not going to start a third war in the mideast. iran is not a country you can simply occupy. though we occupied iraq, the land smas is large. the army is huge. they have an actual military. i don't think it will happen. the big risk is that israel may feeling measure and more isolated in the region, feeling like fewer and fewer people have their back, terrible relationships with turkey right now that israel may decide we're going to do something hoping that the u.s. will be pulled into it because we backed them so strongly that we'll have to act with them. this is the danger. >> it is a very politically sensitive problem for the president because of israel and everything you just outlined. i think where he goes on this you are going to see perhaps more hawkish leanings than otherwise. >> the fact that the sands have shifted under his feet throughout the region, u.s. foreign policy in the mideast are all over the place. but moving across the globe back

home, occupy wall street, occupy the movement latest there have been arrests in d.c. los angeles protesters are going to go to foreclosure neighborhoods. we talk a lot on this show about sort of the next act for occupy and how successful they've been. as we see these protest movements sort of get clamped down upon around the country, what is your prognosis for the survival through the winter? >> we're seeing a consistent theme that's emerged from a chaotic and decentralized process. that is bringing protesters and the small number of people who are willing to go out day after day and bringing them right up to the edge of official authority. what we're finding and this is my liberal perspective, i think it bears out. what we're finding in a lot of cases if you don't follow the certain rules about how to be politically active and how to exercise your first amendment rights you run into hurdles. you run into them in democratic controlled cities and republican

controlled cities in. public parks and privately held areas. in this case we have a foreclosure system in this country that is very severe. that they're going to do is go into places and try to bring light that there is very little due process for people that said that a bank said they don't own their home anymore. this is a very serious thing. it has lot more powe potency. >> they've done an incredible job about changing the dialogue over income equality. speaking of homes that are broken, tiger woods finally won. is he getting his groove back? >> of course. this is the two-year window after his incredibly messy divorce that was a very nice broken home segue there. i do think he is. i think that he is clearly had a rough go of it.

i think this is probably the second hurdle. >> thank you guys all for joining me again. matt, maggy, joanne, ari, a powerful panel today. that is all for now. i will see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern. until then you can follow us on twitter. savannah guthrie is up next in for andrea mitchell. hello. >> thanks, coming up, the head of the faa sb under arrest charged for driving while intoxicated. and the final four, less than four weeks away from the iowa caucus. and mark mckin nonon the state of the race. but jerry sandusky raises new questions about his behavior as he tries to tell his side of the story. and did iran shoot down a secret u.s. spy drone. there are now concerns that stealth technology may have fallen into enemy hands. "andrea mitchell reports" next wish you could guarantee me they won't be beat. oh, actually... then i'd be like, you rule! and my kids would be like, you rule!

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mitchell, breaking news, president obama will speak this hour urging republicans to join democrats to pass the payroll tax cut extension. is newt gingrich now the man to beat? with just four weeks until iowa, our new poll shows gingrich surging, romney slipping and ron paul's surprising still in third place. newt gingrich goes up with his first television ad and becomes the latest republican candidate to make a pilgrimage to the donald. >> you talk about the god father of gridlock here. the guy who two decades ago invented the kind of tactics that have become common place in washington this is a whole new newt. plus, is the supersecret u.s. stealth drone now in iran's hands? and jerry sandusky speaks and gets himself perhaps into even more hot water. and newt gingrich takes a break from the trail to attend the kennedy center honors but there was no break from the political