i'm ezra klein in for martin a bash bashir. thank you for watching and i'll see you tomorrow with a big year-end exattractitravaganzext. my friend, matt miller, is in for dylan today. >> ezra, great to see you. we've got lots more on iowa coming up.ç we've got a rising democratic start making a case for pension reform. and we'll explore the prospects for an independent presidential candidate in 2012. the show starts right now. the boig story. the insider's guide to iowa. i'm matt miller in for dylan ratigan. we're five days to the iowa caucuses. the latest polls show mitt romney could make history if he pulls off back-to-back victories in iowa and new hampshire. that's never been done ever by a non-incumbent republican, but now it looks like romney could

pull it off. he leads the latest polling in both states. a big deal given how different the electorate is in the buckeye state. intrade has him up 74%. all the ads against newt gingrich look to be paying off. he's down to fourth in iowa polling, with rick santorum surging. >> the people of iowa over the course of these last few months have been sizing up the candidates and looking for someone they can trust that's going to go out there and fight the battles and be the sharp contrast to barack obama. now they're coming to the guy that has the best and strongest record and the strongest plan to get this country going. >> major drama among political wonks. michele bachmann's iowa campaign chair stunned everyone by def t defecting to ron paul last night. and iowans, get ready for an onslaught of last-minute ads coming at you from every aniae.

positive, negative, there's $10 million in ads clogging iowa tv and radio just this month alone. we start with peter alexander on the ground in mason city, iowa. it seems like madness out there. what's the latest? >> reporter: that's right. you were speaking about those ads. $12.5 million in ads have been spent through the entirety of this campaign so far. a new one today from rick perry, who's attacking his conservative rival, the now emergent rick santorum, just coming out a short time ago as well. we are here in mason city. this is the town that inspired the broadway musical, "the music man." mitt romney with another large crowd today. and the consistent theme of the visits he's had along the stump throughout the last several days has been family values. his wife, ann romney speaking at every stop about the 42 years the two of them have been married. and patriotic values. really trying to be above the fray to position himself as the front-runner here. he has 25% of the republican vote right now, according to this latest poll from cnn. significant because that's the percentage he had just four

years ago, where he was badly defeated by mike huckabee. the difference this time around is that there is no one conservative that all of this support has coalesced behind right now, and this has been great divisions between michele bachmann, newt gingrich, rick santorum, and rick perry so far. mitt romney very confident now. already putting out an ambitious plan for his next several days, including a return to new hampshire. then coming back here for caucus day and caucus night. the announcement of a party that night, matt, and then the fact that they will stay here overnight to do tv interviews from here in iowa the next morning, on wednesday. >> peter, you know, just quickly, one thing that people don't appreciate amongst all the back and forth is the impact of it's supposed to be unseasonably warm, i think, on tuesday. how's that going to affect things? >> calle . >> reporter: that's right. we were debating about whether or not to put a jacket on.

the temperatures are definitely mild by comparison. when we think of past years, people remember snows, they remember frigid temperatures. the lows on january 3rd average about 14 degrees. this time around, the high is expected to reach up to about 40 degrees. des moines forecasting 36 degrees. no precipitation. that's good news for mitt romney, who may benefit by the more moderate republicans coming out. likely bad news, as it has been the conventional wisdom, for ron paul, whose supporters are the strongest and will likely show up no matter what the weather looks like. >> peter alexander, on the ground, thanks for keeping tabs on all of this for us. i know we'll be talking to you again. now to our mega-panel, something a little different this thursday. susan del percio, for once, you won't be the only one to the right of jimmy. we've got a little backup today with tim carney with the washingt"washington examiner." as usual, jimmy williams. susan, let me start with you, you've got the home court advantage here in new york. what do you make of this?

it's been a topsy-turvy race, romney looks like he's the a strong position, but santorum looks like he's coming out of nowhere. >> well, every candidate that looks like they're coming out of nowhere, day fall off overnight. i don't think you'll see that with rick santorum. he has a grand operation, but he's starting to get some hits. radioç ads came out today. plus, when you start looking at such a fluid number of people surging, it means there's a lot of undecided. but romney's people are staying strong with him. so probably, given that and the fact that you can register same day and change your party affiliation and vote will all be good news for romney. >> jimmy, what do you make of all the -- it sort of just going back and forth and back and forth. what are you looking for in the next days? >> remember that 1970s game show called "the dating game"? so you had the bachelor or the bachelorette or whatever, they'd

go and be on tv and interview the different candidates or whatever. this is one of those cases where the republicans in iowa don't like anybody on the dating game. they think they all basically suck. i mean, if you can't get above 24% in iowa, then that means you, for all intents and purposes, stink at what you're doing, okay? here, if i'm a republican in iowa right now, i either have to hate barack obama so much and pinch my nose and vote for one of these yahoos, a flip-flopper, or a nutbag or a crazy woman or whatever, or i just stay home and don't vote. >> tim? i'm sure you see it that way too, from your side of the aisle, right? i mean, what do you make of this? ron paul still in contention. there's a chance ron paul could win this thing. there was a lot of stuff in the press today about his ground forces, college students from all over the country, helping the 76-year-old libertarian, you know, get his vote out. what's your take? >> well, the phenomenon of the bachmann rise and perry rise and cain and then gingrich, now

santorum, that is all people looking for the anti-romney vote. and i spokeç to these voters o there. someone who said, originally, i was a cain supporter, now i'm supporting gingrich and maybe i'll support santorum if he can win. he's my favorite guy, but i don't know if he can win. momentum is a real thing here. usually it's just a word pundits throw around. so paul is getting some of the anti-romney vote. it's funny, because first it's anti-obama, then the second most important thing to a lot of these voters is to beat romney. but paul's getting more than just the anti-romney vote, he's getting people who are really attracted to the idea that he has real beliefs and he has ideas that are different from the republican establishment. i don't know that that will translate into a huge turnout on caucus day, it probably will. but if you look at the polls where he's doing well, they poll lots of independents and lots of democrats. those people may not show up at the last minute and want to register as a republican. >> it still seems to me, susan, if romney ends up one or two,

this is going to be over very quickly. he's so strong in new hampshire. if it's ron paul that comes out of iowa winning, i think the whole republican electorate is going to say, we know this guy can't beat obama. he's not a serious candidate. romney's the only choice. but what's your -- >> there's a few things. when you look at the second, more third, fourth, fifth place. we're talking about the santorums, the newt gingriches, perry, there's only a couple thousand votes dividing them. you're only talking in some cases a thousand votes. that's a very fluid thing. but what's happened is, everyone's conceded new hampshire to romney. south carolina, i think romney's looking past. it's still somewhat expensive to be there. so who has money left on the table? santorum says he's raising some money and could potentially do okay in south carolina, but he has no real money. so then it's florida,ç which i one of the most expensive states because of its media market. you have four major media markets there. it's going to be extremely competitive. and that's really where romney's money can play through. >> jimmy, will this be wrapped up very quickly?

or as often is the case, we have no idea? >> look, i thought when beginning rip began to surge about three weeks, i thought this was going into march or april, but it looks like with him sort of floundering away that unless ron paul remains sort of in the run, if you will, and nipping at the 20% number, then i suspect that romney will run away with this. again, susan, listen, i agree with everything that susan and tim just said. i know that's shocking for everybody, but at the end of the day, romney cannot win in south carolina, so it's up for grabs. he'll win new hampshire, i don't know what his number will be. the question is, what happens in florida? so if romney wins all by south carolina, he's got the nomination for all intents and purposes. because he's got the money. >> the panel's going to -- the panel's going to stick around. this is a dizzying, it's a dizzying level of -- i mean, newt's one he's down. it's like two days. the half-life of these cycles is unbelievable. stick around. coming up here on "the d.r. show, the straight-shooting

democrat who took on members of her own party and her constituents on one of the toughest issues around and now they're thanking her for her. hplus, with the busy holid travel weekend looming, what you can expect on the roads and on the air, including whether there'll be more or less of those controversial tsa security screenings. and later, out with the old and in with the new, year that is. imogen lloyd webber will join us with some reasons why 2012 may be the best year yet.ç [ 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.

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all year, democrats have slammed republican governors in wisconsin and ohio for their evil plans to cut public employee pensions. but my next guest is a democratic official who said rhode island had to do exactly that or else the runaway system would go bust, and along the way, snuff out spending on schools, roads, and bridges. the stunning thing is that her progressive case for facing facts and fixing the problem, including politically toxic steps like raising the retirement age and flatlining current pensions passed by huge margin last month with the support of union allies. joining us now to explain the progressive case for public pension reform and how she pulled it off is rhode island state treasurer gina raimondo. if you haven't heard her name yet, remember, you heard it here first. also staying with us, the mega panel. that's susan, tim, and jimmy. welcome, gina, it's great to meet you. >> hi, matt, how are you? >> so tell us -- there are a lot of democrats who don't understand there's a kind of progressive case for the public pension reform you spearheaded in your state.

share that case. >> right. so when i took office, the first thing we did is we did a diagno diagnostic. it became clear that we had a runaway train of pension costs. last year about 10% of the state's tax revenue went towards the pension, and it was very quickly going up to 20%. and at the same time, you saw cuts in aid to cities and towns, funding for pq&ic buses, funding for higher education, funding for schools. and we had a choice. as a state, we had a choice. we could either kind of rightsize and stabilize our pension and then be able to invest in the future or not. and thankfully, we decided to choose retirement security for our public employees, but also investments in the future of rhode island. >> now, before i get susan in, gina, just briefly, how did you make the case to the

stakeholders on the democratic side, because you've got big democratic majorities in the leadership of the democratic party and the state to support some very tough measures. what was that process like? how did you persuade them? >> you know, we kept the process focused on the facts. and we kept down the emotion, we kept down the politics and the rhetoric, and we kind of forced everybody to confront the fiscal reality, which is, as i said, pension costs will be doubling and tripling, and quite frankly, a pension that was going to run out of money. so everybody realized that the pension system we had was broken. you know, it wasn't working for public employees, because they'd have no pension. and frankly, it wasn't working for our children, who deserve, you know, good public schools and public buses and like library. so they just decided we were going to fix it. >> congratulations, first, gina, on what you're able to accomplish. because it's great for everyone in rhode island and hopefully across the country will be taking notice.

here in new york, governor cuomo tried to do some reforms, but he didn't really get down to the brass tacks, for example, that you got to. my question is, you were able to get there, it seems like, because it wasç absolutely broken. it was the bottom of the barrel. you had towns going in bankruptcy in rhode island. and because it got so absolutely bad, it seemed like there was no other alternative. and i'm wondering if that's what other states are going to have to face in order to turn things around. >> you know, it's a great question, susan. although, i have to say, you know, we could have let this go. this is a problem that like in every other state has been in the making for decades. and we could have gone another year or two, but we decided not to. and i think that, you know, part of what was critical to our success is we said don't blame public employees. they've done nothing wrong. this is not us versus them, democrat versus republican, public sector versus private sector. we're fighting for the future of rhode island and it's time to

step up and fix this problem for everybody. and, again, as i said to matt, once we kind of forced everybody to just look at the facts and focus on the math, it became pretty clear we needed a solution. >> tim's got a question. >> yes, thanks. and matt, thank you, i look forward to when you bring on governor christie and then governor kasich and governor walker to have their similar stories told. >> i can't wait until you're executive producing the show, tim. >> for gina my question is, one way i hear liberals often talk about public employee pensions as if this is sort of a duty to the public workers. this is what we owe them. this is a way to help out people, as opposed to we give people pensions in order to attract the best talent. so did you think about -- i mean, is that a distinction that you guys workedç on as far as,e want to help out these republican employees or we want to hire the best people. is that a clash or distinction you had to wrestle with? >> of course, we were looking at

attracting the best public employees, but where we began our debate, and i think this is unique in tackling pensions -- security. and we had a -- what does it mean to have a secure retirement? and we quickly realized that the mention system we had often provided folks with more income in retirement than when they were working. and i think everybody can agree, you know, that's too generous of a pension. that's not retirement security. and so, again, we just kept kind of forcing it back to a rational set of, you know, fiscal, financial decisions. and once we decided that retirement security is maybe 70 or 80% of your working income in retirement, then we got to work designing a system to provide that. >> jimmy, what's your take on all this? ask gina a question. >> actually, i have a two-part question, madame treasurer. the first one is, did you guys

try to bust the public employees union first by calling that reform. and secondly, but more importantly, are you as a pension fund manager for your state allowing the pension itself to be invested in companies that do dealings with people like the koch brothers or other publicly or privately traded corporations that don't do well by their actual own employees? >> right. so the first question is, did we try to bust the unions? >> right, yes. because that's always called reform. i'm just wondering,ç you did reform, but you didn't bust the unions, right? >> right, no, not at all. in fact, the joins were at the table the entire time. and that was critical to getting this done. the day i took office and decided to take on this issue, we said, this is an everybody issue. it's in everyone's interest to fix it. i had a 12-member pension advisory group and four of the 12 members were from organized labor. so we had to listen to them. i spent a great deal of time

meeting with rank and file teachers, social workers, members of every wroin and talking to them on one on one or one on a couple hundred. and over time, we kind of realized that together we had to find a solution. and i think that process and involving the unions and involving the union membership was critical. because they realized themselves that something had to change. as far as how we -- go ahead. >> i think jimmy makes a wrong comparison. it's not that the republican governments were trying to bust unions, it's that they saw a chance to score republican points -- >> no, they were trying to bust the unions also. they were trying to take away the bargaining rights and make changes that gina said they weren't trying to do and rhode island was part of the change -- >> that's not true in all cases. we're not going to have time to re-litigate all of that. jimmy, i'm not going to let you finish your ten-part question. we've got a minute left, gina. bill clinton talks a lot in his new book about the need for us

to to be getting back in the future business. when he says that, i think one of the things that you're modeling at the state level is that progressives need to realize that there's so much of public money now that goes into health and pensions for seniors that we're going to have to question from aç progressive se if there's going to be anything left over as the baby boom retires for money for poor kids, for bridges, you know, for all this stuff, gina, what's the lesson do you think that other democrats need to take? oh, sorry -- oh, i think we lost gina. i'll make my last speech to you all. just nod in agreement, as we finish -- >> but you raise a very good point. you have to look towards the future, and that we can't keep going on the same direction in spending in general on all these things. they're all big issues. >> and the point i want to leave folks with is that it's not just a conservative case, but there's a progressive case to be made for looking at the overall budget allocations, or if there's no trust fund now for

great teachers, for our kids, no trust fund for the roads and bridges that need enormous repair. if we want to do those things for folks under 65, we have to look at things that make sense in terms of allocating this. thanks as always for our sensible mega panel for joini i us. susan, jimmy, and tim, who will be producing things here before long. potential changes on the horizon for 2012 at the train station. on my journey across a,

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ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. it's estimated 92 million americans are almost a third of the u.s. population are taking to the roads and skies during the end of the year holidays. many coming home from grandma's this weekend. and for those of us traveling, a bit of reassuring news today that so far 2011 has shaped up

to be one of the safest ever for flyers, a record-low number of accident-related deaths according to one aviation consulting firm. still, most are choosing not to fly and they drive instead. aaa estimates 91% of holiday travelers are driving, up 2% over last year, while the number taking to the skies isç down nearly 10%. and can you blame them? with higher airfares and security being such a pain, no wonder americans are staying grounded. with us now to tell us what to expect this weekend and in 2012 is kate hanide, founder of the coalition for an airline passengers' bill of rights. welcome, kate. so this year, what do you make in terms of the trends of air travel being up and road travel being down. what does that tell us? >> when the tsa introduced the new, invasive pat-downs, about 15% of all regular air travelers decided they were not going to fly any longer or fly as infrequently as possible. between that and flight delays

and all of the ore problems with air travel, you've got a pretty large faction of people who have decided it's much more cost effective and much less humiliating to just drive to their destination. >> now, why -- it seems like we're the only ones. i travel a lot. i think these pat-downs have gotten out of hand. do other countries do the same percentage of the kind of physical pat-down that can be off-putting to so many folks? >> no! isn't that ironic? america is the only country that has implemented these very intrusive pat-downs. and we fundamentally believe the tsa implemented them to force people through the body scanners. i think the tsa believed that it would be so uncomfortable, which it is, that most people would say, the heck with it, i'll submit myself to radiation and my fourth amendment rights being violated by going through the body scanner. >> you speak about the radiation stuff, and this is a real subject of debate within my own family, because i tend to think, look, i don't like the ideaç o the radiation, but i travel a lot, i don't want to take the

option aal pat-down, because it can take ten minutes. my wife has a totally different feeling, which is, we shouldn't be doing this radiation and they're not really being truthful with us about the harm it can cause. who's right in my family? >> well, you shouldn't be submitting yourself ever to any extra radiation, because it never leaves your body. and for those people who do travel a lot, they're being exposed every single time they go through the scanners. our hotline director is a veterinarian and he's been going through the scanners -- he travels a lot. and he's been going through the scanner with a radiation detector. and our results are showing every time he goes through the scanner, it's a different level of radiation. so they're not calibrating these machines equally. there can be surges in radiation, the dose goes entirely into the skin, not through the body. and so when the original testing was done, it was done based on the radiation moving through the whole body, so the tests were really inaccurate. and then the tsa found out about six months ago when they went

out and did some random tests that the scanners were showing about ten times higher radiation than what they had disclosed to the american flying public in the beginning. so it's really a crapshoot as to whether or not you're getting a real low dose of radiation when you go through. and for those who do travel a lot, it's definitely cumulative and it never leaves your body. >> well, you may be changing my travel behavior, as we speak. but that means that americans are left with this choice of exposing themselves to this radiation or exposing themselves to a kind of long wait and then a, arguably humiliating kind of0

we just have to wonder, what are they thinking? they really should be using biometric technology and doing background checks like the fly clear program or global entry, and allowing a large group of low-risk people to travel fairly easily and quickly through the security system so that tsa could be focusing on secondary screenings for those people that do present an actual behavioral risk. >> now -- >> that -- >> let's talk for a second. just because i want to make sure we hit the condition of our airports as well. because all the international rankings now show that the quality of our infrastructure and our airports, which is a central part of that, there's only been one new airport built in the last couple of decades in denver. all around the world, anyone who goes overseas now sees all these gleaming new airports. and a lot of ours are in terrible states of disrepair. you land, you can't get into a gate. what's the deal with that? and where does that fit into your passengers' bill of rights? > >> i can tell you exactly what

the deal is. there's two things. the aviation trust fund is what's funded to repair all of those things you see broken at airports, as well as the tarmacs. and with all of those unbundled fees that we now have, the airlines are no longer required to pay the excise tax on all of  and, you know, aisle seat, window seat fees that they used to have to pay when it was included in the base fare. that money's not there in the trust fund any longer, which has now been depleted. and the passenger facility charges that the airports charge in order to pay for upgrades of the airport and to keep an airport looking nice and hygienic, those haven't been raised in like 30 years. not even inflationary increases. so those are things that must happen. and the faa modernization bill, which we've been fighting very hard to have passed, because more passenger rights languages in that bill would give an increase to the passenger facility charges for the airports, but the airlines don't like it, so they've been holding thaup bi

up that bill in congress. that's the answer. >> now, talk -- it's all kind of depressing, but this is what we seem to be going through now. talk about the way tsa now is not just at airports, but they're increasingly doing stuff at major train stations and hubs. what are the pros and cons of that? are you seeing trouble there? does your group look at that stuff as well? >> oh, we do. and let me say this. why not take a failed program and expand it? right? there's never been a terrorist caught at a tsa checkpoint, not one! every single terrorist that has made it on a plane, the passengers and the flight attendants have been the first line of defense. you know, the body scanners don't pick up anything more than the metal detectors did, so why not expand that into the train stations? we looked very early on, if they really wanted to find bombs, what would have been the very best method of detections, and it was the dogs. if they really wanted toç find bombs on bombers, they need to

implement the dogs, like they do in vancouver and like they do around the world as the most effective detectives to find bombs. but they didn't do that. instead, the scanner companies bought their way in. the scanner companies are running the show. they've already went out there with an edict saying, we want to be everywhere. we want to be in every courthouse, they want to be in guantanamo, they want to be at every military base, they want to be at every airport, at every single checkpoint, and they're winning the battle because they're spending a lot of money to ensure that they are appropriated the funds to expand everywhere that the government will let them. >> kate hinni, you're such an articulate advocate for all these passenger concerns. i really hope the tsa chiefs and the gurus up there sit down with you. because there's a big agenda, and i think a lot of us are going to experience it in the next few days where things are just not right. thanks for coming by today and sharing your thoughts. >> thanks for having me. and remember, flyersrights.org. next, no snow, no problem. the pricey way some folks are

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don't tell bing crosby, but i'm sure you've noticed by now for the majority of the country, it wasn't exactly a white christmas. this time last year, nearly half the country was covered in snow. but right now 77% of the country is enjoying a snowless winter. check out the difference in weather conditions at 30 rock between when i was here doing the show a year ago and today. of course, it's a welcome break for many across the northern half of the united states, but in some of the warmer states in the south, snow is in demand. so much so that people are paying anywhere between $2,000 and $20,000 to have their yards turned into winter wonderlands.

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we're back. and it's pretty clear our country's at a crossroads. the latest nbc/"wall street journal" shows nearly 70% of us think the country's on the wrong track. and both the republican and democratic party approval ratings are at or near all-time lows. it's no surprise there's huge interest in a third alternative for the presidential race. a new group, americans elect, is providing just that. a third option on the ballot box this election day. republican, democrat, independent -- they don't care. the candidate will be nominated through their open online convention to take place in several rounds from april to june of 2012 and the ticket will be on the ballot in all 50 states. forget depend on a handful of extreme voters in iowa and new hampshire to give us our choices. if it works, this could provide millions of us the chance to pick what we want, not what's being offered to us. americans elect is getting high praise from some political

bigwigs. tom friedmanç of "the new york times" says this could make way for the radical center. ruth marcus, my colleague at "the washington post" calls them a phenomenon worth watching. and i have called americans elect a potential breakthrough way to challenge the democrats' timid half-measures and the republicans' crazy anti-government nihilism. joining me now is ceo of americans elect, khalil burrow. good to see you. >> good to see you, matt. >> here's my question. you guys have made enormous progress in terms of getting yourself on the ballot as best you can by the end of this year, getting a lot of the chattering class to take interest and talk about you. this is really crunch time now, because between now and really april, you've got to have millions of americans become more involved and also candidates willing to put themselves forward. what's your plan between now and then to really ramp this up? >> all the indicators say that the american people are ready. we've had more than 2 million people sign petitions for americans elect to get on the

ballot. right now, as you point out, we're done with the process in 30 states. we'll be done with all 50 by summer. in january, the process opens up for candidates to begin to step forward. the american people who are coming to americanselect.org, at half a million people a month, are ready for an alternative. you pointed it out. iowa and new hampshire and a 100-year-old primary system are antiquated. what people are looking for is an alternative. we think it's a bipartisan ticket, running in 2012, talking about the issues that the american people care about, not, you know, failed super committee bargains or two-month extensions that aren't pushing the middle class forward. >> now, what's your -- what are you actually going to increase public awareness of this? right now you've got some opinion leaders that are engaged in this. i know you've -q stuff going on in various states, but it's a very short time for you to get from, you know, just that smaller group to really millions of americans being aware of this. are you guys going to be advertising? are you going to be -- what's the plan? >> we have everything from our

3,000 volunteers who are putting together meet-ups all around the country, a bus tour that will go from new hampshire to florida this spring. but most importantly, it's candidates beginning to step forward, talking about the issues that people care about. you talk about the republican party in one way, but here's one thing they did prove with all of these candidacies that are flare-outs, is that somebody can create an impression about what they think is right for america, in a very quick period of time. and between now and april when our national primary opens and our convention in june, we think that several candidates are going to step forward to articulate what the american people are laooking for. that's solutions, decisions that are going to make this country great again. >> now, who do you think -- you guys must be talking to folks around the country who are potential candidates, briefing them on this process. who do you think may become part of this? there's talk sometimes that a jon huntsman, if he doesn't -- you know, if he kind of phases out immediately in the gop primary, he's got folks. there are folks who think a ron

paul, if he ends up out of it in the next couple of weeks, he's got some very active groups that are trying to support him. but then there are those who are worried that a donald trump, you know, somebody with 100% name recognition, even a stephen colbert could end up deciding to throw their hat in the ring in a way that would hijack this in a weird way. how are you guys thinking about protecting against that? >> we've talked to almost 30 potential candidates around the country. we as an organization don't have issues. we don'tç support the candidacies. this is a vehicle for the american people to take. but what is important is that people who are constitutionally qualified, who have shown leadership, been governors, been senators, run businesses, run universities, are going to have an opportunity to run strong and get on the ballot in 2012 at a time when we're used to things closing back down. you pointed it out. the primary system and the two-party system is not serving america well. 81% of the american people are disappointed. what we think is that several candidates stepping forward can create a national profile for

themselves, that the act of reaching across the aisle and picking someone of another party to run with them and standing on the stage in the debates in the fall and also the advertising in the campaign that they can run actually gives someone an opportunity and the american people the opportunity for more choice in 2012. >> now, the white house is obviously watching what you're doing. i want to put a quote up that david axelrod offered to "the new york times" the other day. he said -- axelrod, obviously, is obama's chief campaign strategist, saying, "it's supposed to be the most democratic nominating process ever, except there's a board of censors to decide who's actually worthy of the nomination or not, so it's kind of like uber-democracy meets backroom bosses." how do you respond to that? >> such a smart man, didn't read our rules and bylaws. he would know that the more than 100 people who have come to the table to serve on our board of advisers and others have one simple mission. and that is opening up the doorway for the american people to take over this process.

the delegates. a delegate is any registered voter in america, have the opportunity at this point, to shape how this is done to choose the candidates and choose the issues.ç what i think you're seeing is old politics meeting something that's new, that the american people are demanding, and that's real leadership in terms of this campaign. some people are saying this is going to be one of the most negative campaigns in history. this at a time when unemployment is over 8% and we don't have anything near a grand bargain. some people think, our organization especially, democrats, republicans and independents can put greatness on the ballot in 2012 and that americans elect is the way to do it. >> now, you've already got win notice when i look at the different committees that you ever running diffent parts of the -- overseeing different parts of your process, you've got some prominent rs and ds and independents who have come forward to be involved with this. a guy like william webster, the republican former head of the fbi. jim thompson, a guy who i know from los angeles who for a long time was the head of the rand

corporation, the public policy institute. even a democratic policy guru like will marshall, who people may remember ran the progressive policy institute that was part of the clinton surge in 1992. the policy infrastructure. what do you attribute -- are they getting a lot of flak from their traditional colleagues for stepping out in this way and supporting this process? >> add to your list, republican christine todd whitman, who ran new jersey as governor and dennis blair, who was the national intelligence adviser to the president. gncç=ñ[ó democrats, republicans, and independents are gathering together and doing what americans always do when they see a problem. we think americans elect can be a solution. it's the first time ever that there'll be an open competition, where every american voter can participate in what is essentially a national primary, to put real leadership on the ballot in 2012. this hasn't happened before, and what i think you're seeing is that people are willing right now to reach across the aisle, go above themselves to pick a president, above their own party

needs, so they can start to see some of the solutions that we've all been talking about placed forward and actually go into legislation next year. >> just about 30 seconds left. i want to push you on how you guys are going to build public awareness of this. because maybe you're just not ready to talk about it yet, but it seems to me it's a very tall order to get from where we are now around january 1 to have the kind of national sensation that it would take to get all the folks involved, flooding the website, to have millions of americans being involved in this process. so it's not just hijacked by what could potentially be, you know, a few rogue kind of folks with 100% name recognition. there's a bus tour you mentioned. what else you got? >> imagine this. imagine a candidate stepping forward, talking about the issues, not because the special interests told them to or deals that were made in small rooms in the parties, but actually talking about the issues that people care about. that in and of itself is going to bring the attention. add to that hundreds of adviser who is step forward from each of

the parties and independents and thousands of volunteers on the ground. we're going to continue telling the story everywhere we possibly can, and the candidates are going to have a debate that hasn't been seen in american life and certainly isn't being seen right now in the democratic and republican primary processes. >> all right, khalid byrd, i am a fan of what you are doing. i understand some people's anxiety about which way it could go, but i think it could give us a chance if this unfolds in the right way in the months ahead to really challenge the way that both parties are going for 50% plus one, which has nothing to do with solving the áávrj biggest problems. we'll be watching. >> thank you. coming up on "hardball," with just a handful of days to the caucuses, chris is on the road live from des moines, iowa. but first, imogen is here with reasons for cheer in the new year. and no, that rhyming wasn't intentional. w at&t 4g lte is fast. did you hear sam... ...got promoted to director? so 12 seconds ago. we should get him a present. thanks for the gift basket. you're welcome. you're welcome.

did you see hr just sent out new... ...office rules? cause you're currently in violation of 6 of them. oh yeah, baby? ...and 7. did you guys hear that fred is leaving? so 30 seconds ago. [ noisemakers blow ] [ both ] we'll miss you! oh, facecake! there's some leftover cake. [ male announcer ] the new htc vivid. stay a step ahead with at&t 4g lte, with speeds up to 10x faster than 3g. ♪ so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates.

here now to give us some reasons to look forward to the new year, imogen lloyd webber. take it away. >> thank you, matt. prophesy has it that 2012 will be the end of the world. it could well be the end of the world as we know it. the eurozone, north korea, and the rest. however, from great crisis comes great opportunity. the coming year could quite possibly mark the start of an exciting, fairer, new era. and there are also some more tangible highlights scheduled. so here are my top eight reasons to be cheerful about 2012. number one, if you're an adult american, you can vote in november and your vote will be counted. the stuff of dreams for many

syrian and russian. have a problem with a politician's offer? we come to my second reason to be optimistic. dylan's book, well, this is his show, "greedy bastard$!" is published on january the 10th. we can get informed, demand change to systems and personnel that we believe should be better. thirdly, yes, because of those greedy bastards, the world is facing financial meltdown, but i'm going to take lemons and make lemonade. as the world's reserve currency, the dollar will probably strength en in 2012. the world in 2012 would be an american's oyster. which leads me to the fourth reason to look forward to next year. sports fan? great britain will be trying to do great things with the london olympics. and team usa will definitely dominate. returning to the american side of the pond, number five.

culturally, there are some big toys heading to a town near you. "war horse," red hot chili peppers, coldplay. number six, massive movies are slated for release. the new james bond "skyfall," batman 3, "the dark knight rises," abraham lincoln, vampire hunter. if you're a gadget geek, 2012 could be a stellar year. rumors abound about the ipad 3, blackberry 5, and iphone 10. we arrive for the eighth reason to be positive for 2012. we are living in america. the usa may have its frailties and failings, but with the arab spring, 2011 saw change in countries where it was thought to be impossible. just imagine what america, the land of the free, can dream up for itself next year. thank you for letting me be here as your guest. i can't wait to be a part of

america's 2012 with you. wishing you all a very happy and healthy new year, matt? >> those are great reasons to be optimistic. i was worried aied at the begin because the cup was half empty, but you turned around. the fact that bond is coming out next year, that's huge. there was worry that what's hisç name, daniel craig, wasn't going to do another one. >> a fascinating fact about bond, he is actually -- james bond, the character, is ian fleming based him on my grandfather, my mother's father. >> is that right? >> yes, he served under ian fleming during the world, as naval intelligence, and my grandfather, yes, is one of the men james bond is based upon. >> that is a fantastic fact. >> very cool claim to fame. >> quickly on the tech thing, one thing i worry about, every year, there's so many new generations of stuff coming out, we have to get a new gadget and feel ours is obsolete every year. is that a worry we should have? >> if it's an american company, such as apple, maybe you should