his exchange? >> we -- it sounds as if you are seeking to belittle people. >> well, first of all, juan, the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by barack obama than any president in american history. >> just what role did the audience play you in the south carolina debate and back to business, but will congress get anything done this time, a record 84% of morns have their doubts. steven colbert's super pac cannot resist reviving herman contain. >> a vote for herman cain is a vote for america. he is such an outsider he is not running for president.

>> in a new poll taken before he turned into a piniata at last night's debate, mitt romney has a 2-1 advantage with 35% of the vote. a big leap, chris is a managing editor of post politics.com. that is the national picture, but how badly do you think he was hurt by what happened last night with the candidates going after mitt romney over bain capital and the rest of his record, and the audience getting into the act? >> you know, time will tell, my initial read was it was not mitt romney's best debate but the dynamic was still in play. newt gingrich and santorum was fighting over who was the real conservative. that was to the good and rick perry putting in a better than expected, performance. that is to the good for mitt

romney. there have been so many debates. i think our thabit has to paint each one as a game changer. after 15, the story is, mitt romney as the front-runner due to electability. >> it may not be a game changer but given the calendar, as long as they divide the anti-romney vote. look at this exchange, this was santorum going after romney, a heated exchange about allowing convicted felons to vote after they served their sentence. >> i would ask governor romney, do you believe that felons who served their time and exhausted their parole and probation should they be given to right to vote?

>> governor romney? >> first of all, as you know, the pacs that run ads -- >> i'm looking for an answer to the question first. this is martin luther king day,s that huge deal in the african american community. >> i don't think that people that committed violent crimes should be allowed to vote again, that is my own view. >> rick santorum had a strong debate performance especially with those voters there at the same time, newt gingrich, really dominated the debate and again, today, newt gingrich turned it from mitt romney to barack obama. this was newt gingrich talking to reporters today. >> what i have been looking for in my candidate is fire in the belly. we have got to bloody obama's nose. >> let me say, first of all, i don't want to argue with you about the term i don't want to

bloody his nose, i want to knock him out. >> there were a lot of knockouts last night. that was not a reporter, that was a voter. a town hall. put you ting the target right o president. >> there is that sentiment within the republican party and let's be honest, mitt romney is not their guy, he is kind of down the middle, centrist, tonally he will paint himself as a moderate. he is a centrist. and the problem i keep coming back to is you have three, maybe four, fighting for the tea party conservative vote in south carolina, and you have one person mitt romney competing for the establishment vote. john mccain won with 33%, we could be headed for a similar result on saturday. >> replay, indeed. thanks so much, chris.

and in a debate held on the martin luther king, jr. holiday, there were remarkable exchanges about racial attitudes not just by the candidates but by the audience. chris matthews joins me now. it was stunning watching some of it. let me play a bit of it for you of what we saw. this was between gingrich and one of the moderators of the debate. >> i have to tell you that my e-mail account and twitter account has been filled from people from all races asking if your comments are intended to belittle the poor, we saw that during a visit to a black church. it sounds as if you are seeking to belittle people. >> we will, first of all, juan, the fact is that more people

have been put on food stamps by barack obama than any president in american history. >> of course, you could come up with the data to point out that we are in the worst recession in decades or coming through the worst recession and that the population has exploded so there's a natural increase in food stamps that are approved by congress. >> well, we know what is going on. and the people that don't hear it don't want to hear it. you cannot argue a person into it. you cannot tell a person that is code, because the people that don't want to hear that it's code will say it's not and the people that clearly hear that it's code will. it's not something that you can argue with a person. there were interesting aspects to that, wasn't there applause when he called him juan. newt is a smart guy. he knows how the play an audience.

there was a interesting exchange where a question was answered and he said let me help you with that one, pierre. and it was his name, and juan is his name, but it was an interesting way to personalize it and it was guts to get in front of a white audience in myrtle beach south carolina and ask a question that was a reasonable question. i think that all work is good. i do not agree with juan on this one. a janitor's work is just as good as any other work. it sieerves a purpose. catholic schools operate because the kids do the work. they clean the blackboards and fix the books at the end of the year. there's a lot of things they do that i'm all for. you can argue whether janitorial means black or not, these are codes for some people in some cases. >> here he is defending himself. let's hear that. >> you could take one janitor and hire 30 kids to w s ts to w

school and those kids would be less likely to drop out and they would be getting money, which is a good with -- good thing when you are poor. >> this is so mixed up. this is all going to be about coaxing people to go back to where they are going to vote. now, i see in mitt romney's campaign for example, a brilliant kind of boredom that you cannot blame a candidate for running a boring campaign. >> it's almost rope a dope. >> remember the campaign of harding back in '21. >> frankly, i don't. >> it was like return to normalcy. we have had this international global thing with obama, and now we are going to call him a european welfare socialist. it's the idea of, this has been a tough time, let's go back to

something boring and bland again, and i think that romney will offer himself up to do that. obviously there are racial aspects to that. you cannot blame the guy for being a racist. >> you are not saying he is. >> well, i think that sometimes it's just very interesting to watch how it's done. i do think that romney is going to benefit from that, you know, david brooks on his column today talked about the sense that he watched the campaign down there and there's a sense of a reseeding white culture of the past trying reclaim something, almost regain what they had in terms of the white majority. >> one of the signals that was really out there was rick perry talking about -- >> is >> in south carolina, watch. >> i'm saying that the state of texas is under assault by federal government. i'm saying also that south

carolina is at war with this federal government and with this administration. >> this whole idea of voter id cards. i cannot stand the idea of a person cheating in an election. you go to south carolina, not everyone has a driver's license, you are a black voter and 70 or 80 years old, and you don't have a card, and now you have to have a id card. >> it's called voter suppression. it's going to get ethnic and racial and hot. and you saw it in that all white audience. it going to be bad and i don't like it. we are looking for signs of coaxing people back to their tribal attitudes. you know how it's done. that use of the name juan, the way he does it. you cannot argue it.

you either saw it or you doesn't. i sensed applause when he said let me help you, juan. calling somebody a racist is the worst way of getting them to stop being a racist. they get mad about it, it's stupid to say it. but if you notice it, you sort of out to blow the whistle. there's a dog whistle going on here. and boy is it tricky. and people are watching me saying that matthews is calling somebody that is not there and others are saying it about time somebody called this. >> "hardball" tonight. the president's job council pressing for tax reform, how do his business advisers feel about the class warfare and new details on italy, what the captain was doing duringe evacuation. [ male announcer ] at scottrade,

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president obama has had a love hate relationship with the business community, at least some of them seem to feel that way after some of the white house rhetoric about wall street, today the president met with his job's council. >> this has not been a show council, this has been a work council, and because of the extraordinary commitments that each and every one of you have made, we have generated as good a set of proposals as we have seen. >> steve case is a member of the president's couple on jobs and competitiveness and ceo of revoluti

revolution, llc and of course of aol, thank you for coming us. i want to ask you about the road map. there's a long list, there are specific issues though coming up like keystone pipeline, where do members of the job's council come down on subjects that are going to be up on the hill and are big fights between the white house and congress? >> the council is divided one part was focused on job creation and innovation and the other was competitiveness of the nation longer term and the focus today w ed -- mostly on bridging the two. entrepreneurship has been the creation of the country. when we met with the president we laid out a frame work and had great support from congress and

now almost a dozen bills have been introduced in the last 90 days that focused on entrepreneurship, acts of capitol or whatever, the challenge and opportunity is to make it a priority in the next couple of months so we get it done. >> how do you do it in the midst of the heating election campaign. here is the president in september with a populace tone. >> some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1%, 1%. it's about making choices that benefit not just the people who have done fantastically well over the last few decades but that benefits the middle class. >> it's a lot of super heated rhetoric from all sides. we have heard it to campaign debates there's talk of class

warfare, how do you get things done? >> we have to separate things and you are right, things are getting tough out there and it will get tougher closer to november. we have to focus to policy, and make sure we make the right choices as a nation. the jobs council has been focusing more on the policy side, as i said before, i'm encouraged in the last couple of months there's been bipartisan support around entrepreneurship, and there's not for many things but we have seen a number of bills in the house and two from the senate. we saw a couple of acts coming in, and so there's bipartisan support that is focusing on entrepreneur ship, it's the secret sauce that has built america. there's battles that will be fought in the next couple of months but i hope people will come together and put our

entrepreneurs first, hwhich is the best way to drive the economy long-term. >> do you think from what you heard from the president today you'll see new initiatives in the state of the union? >> i will let them decide when they want to talk about the state of the union. the preside the president has focused on this. we have spent time and there's clearly a recognition that it's an important moment and exactly what the right path forward is for the president and white house they will decide that. it's what happens here in washington, and this is a moment to build bipartisan support aur around aur around entrepreneur ship, so the next few months is about getting into the end zone. >> steve case, taking us into

the end zone. thanks. >> thanks. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ♪ ♪ you and me and the big old tree ♪ ♪ side by side, one, two, three ♪ ♪ count the birds in the big old tree ♪ ♪ la la la [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. ♪ ♪ you and me and the big old tree side by side ♪

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[ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey! search teams have now recovered the bodies of five more people, you are looking at live pictures from the cruise ship off of the italian coast s. that brings the death toll to 11. shocking video seems to support that the captain abandon the ship before the passengers were off and then made excuses why he would not reboard. a captain said, so what? you you want to go home? get on the boat using pilot ladder, tell me what can be done, and how many people there and what their needs are now.

michelle, this is all adding to more shock at the behavior of the captain as the rescue continues. >> absolutely. that audio that was supposedly leaked from the investigation, nobody is denying that it was the captain. seems to be no question that it was him. people just can't believe it. some of the exchanges that are so angry and the port authority is saying over and over, get on that ship, no, get back on that ship and you are right, he seems to be making several excuses there. and we are actually now on the island where the accident happened so we are as we speak in view of the submerged hull. there was so much activity out here today, the rescue and recovery effort has intensified and there seems to be an army of rescuers out here but unfortunately the news was grim

today when they recovered the bodies of five victims. at this time we don't know if they are passengers or crew, we know they were four men and one woman and they were wearing life vests. >> a very difficult and dangerous search and recovery issue. and in today's politico briefing did ron paul give his rivals more amunition to call him weak on foreign policy? >> saddam hussein, we tried him. the government tried him and he got hung. what is so terrible about this? maybe we ought to consider a golden rule in foreign policy, don't do to other nations what we don't want to have happen to us. >> and the booing because he was talking about osama bin laden. there's not great pay off for that anywhere in american politics but particularly in

south carolina, one of the most military intensive states in the country. ken? >> reporter: yeah that is right, you have to give it to ron paul, he has been an isolationist, his since 2008 presidential campaign run and now he has been consistent on those points and philosophy and that has manifestations including the one that you heard last night. they are unpopular in the democratic and republican base, but he doesn't shy away from them and that is right, south carolina is a strong military state and that will hurt him there, but he will still get his. he is in a third place tie for rick santorum and there's an appetite for his views including when they sort of take these positions when they lead to these positions that are unpopular. >> ken, thank you so much. and they are back, but will congress's return make a difference? and who is the real mitt romney

we will talk to the authors of the new book that pulls back the curtain on the candidate. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday.

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purina one beyond. food for your cat or dog. and topping the headlines right now on "andrea mitchell reports" advisers for massachusetts republican senator scott brown and his challenger are meeting the today to try to create a pact that will stop special interest groups from running attack ads, he sent her a letter asking her to denounce the ads. voters are trying to force governor scott walker into a recall election, if they are certified he would have to face a recall vote barely a year into his first term. he angered voters and union members when he supported a law that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for

union workers. and the president is taking a play from his acceptance speech. the convention committee announced that the president will give his big speech at bank of america stadium in charlotte, north carolina, the dnc is shortening the convention by one day to allow a day of family oriented events. and after a month of vacation, congress is back at work and they will say they were on recess. they have a lot to get done this session, after last month's political disaster over the payroll tax extension, how are they going to accomplish everything on their to do list. >> kelly, first to you, the new washington post, abc news poll has an 84% disapproval rating.

it cannot get worse than this. 3% had no comment on congress. that is what they are fighting as they figure out whether to fight each other or get something done. >> and some people are saying who are the 13% and see how closely they are paying attention. really only on capitol hill can you say happy november. some of the members are on overseas trips to afghanistan, but there's a long to-do list much of it is bit familiar to us, issues that have been left over, pieces and parts that were not resolved. of course the big payroll tax cut was only for 60 days. and including in that deal is the fate of unemployment insurance for those that are out of work the longest. how long should shows checks continue when they have exhausted state benefits. it includes things like making sure doctors do not get a cut in their payments which could

adversely effect seniors that need to go to those doctors. that is written into law, and something they need to keep fixing and issues like the debt ceiling. the president said he will look for authority to borrow more money. congressional role is not what it was last time. but it's an issue and it gives a plat for for the political arguments to be carried out. there's lots of things to do and how much can be accomplished is a question mark, but there will be a lot of talking points from both parties to find out what is now a campaign year for all members of the house and a third of the senate who are up on the ballot come november. >> when we talk about this campaign year, gingrich had a good line with the audience when he talked about the long-term unemployment insurance.

he said it's an associate's degree, saying we should retrain workers. this is what pelosi had to say about that. >> i really don't know him. i don't know who knows him. does he know him? because i heard him say things last night which were really either uninformed or just plain wrong. >> pelosi at a political breakfast sponsored by bank of america. seems to be everywhere today. what about the sort of dynamic, is pelosi, as a democratic leader going to be able to work with jon bhn boehner and be ablo bridge the divides. we had senate democrats and senate republicans willing to work together but the outlying

members were the tea party members. >> you have people not going to walk the plank on a payroll tax issue. and mitch mcconnell wants to be the majority leader and the way he does that is to give those campaigning on the republican side, a path forward. that dynamic exists still. all the rhetoric you are hearing now is not about what they were talking about in september. offsetting and finding ways to pay for this. it's the keystone pipeline. i belief that republicans if they get the president to decide to keystone will consider it a victory and accommodate everything on the spending side. i think that is where we are heading inin ining on this iss. >> nobody watches this more than you and kelly. kelly, bill livinggood? >> he is the top law enforcement

officer on capitol hill. he is the face and voice that says, "mr. speaker, the president of the united states" he has retired as of today and a new sgt. in arms will be installed. he has a long history of government service and work, including the presidential detail. he will make that transition, it's a post that is highly respected here and the job doesn't come up very often so it's of note when that passing happens. andrea. >> certainly is and we will be watching for the new sergeant at arms. and will voters have a hard time connecting to mitt romney, that is a question because his life story has been so different from most people's experiences. the new book the real romney is an unvarnished book. i asked the authors what was the

most interesting thing that they had uncovered regarding his at bain capital. >> what we tried to do was tell the full story of how mitt romney got into this business and what he did step by step at bain capital. so we drew in a lot of resources at the boston globe over a 20-year period and we tried to explain he was in several stages. he was a consultant and then went to venture capital which was brief and then he did buy outs. so specifically, venture capital is putting money into a new business. so you can say you are creating jobs and so forth. staples is one of those deals. it's one of the smallest deals he did. later on he went into leverage buy outs which is more controversial. you are not putting money into a new company, are you taking over a company doing things to it and making it smaller to make it more efficient. jobs can be lost and sometimes

they are gained. and at the lbo phase, it's more controversial. >> the leverage buy out phase, does fit more of the profile of what has been negatively refered to as vulture capitalism, is it no? not? >> it's more controversial, you are putting debt on that company, you tell them take out a loan and we are going to get management fees and hope that the market does well enough so we can sell you at a profit. in many cases jobs were lost, so we give many examples in the book where we do talk about this is what happened to a particular company, this is how he did it and why he did it. it's interesting in the first, when he first started in leverage buy-outs he said that the venture capital investments were risky and sew switched to the lbo phase and initially one of his first deals, he told

people jobs would not be lost and in that deal, jobs were created. as this field exploded he was at one of the most profitable points in leverage buyout history, they made bigger and bigger bets and made more money. the staples deal, $3 million investment and they made a lot more back. so you can compare the deals and see where the money was made. >> let be clear about what success is, it's making money for investors. they were successful for making millions and millions dollars for themselves and outside investors. sometimes that resulted in job creation but as he is talking about jobs it was to make money not though build up employment in the companies. >> why do you think in your

reporting that mitt romney has a hard time connecting to people. does that have to do with his background, the way he was raised? >> he yes, it does. that is his biggest challenge. there's a big gap by how he is perceived by people close to him, his wife and the morm morm church and how he is seen around the rest of the world. he has to close the gap. in terms of where it comes from, he grew up in a bubble of sorts and then sort of entered different bubbles along the way. he is at stanford his freshman year, and then as the anti-war stuff picks up he leaves and goes on a mormon mission and that is a different world. he comes back a man stronger in his faith and devoted to living a life of purpose. he marries ann and goes into a,

mare -- married life. >> he transfers from mission work in france and goes to byu. >> which is a big time bubble, this is a campus that looks down on rock and roll music and bans long hair on men. and even when he gets to harvard, he is not living in student housing he is living in suburb bellmont with his wife and with his young family. so, i think that combined with the fact that he is extraordinarily wealthy and there's a certain financial disconnect, all of those bubbles contribute to him being a man apart or a man removed. and i think it's a problem for him as he goes forward politically. >> and you added new detail, gross as it is, to shamus the dog, the theme of so many columns. you have added new insight into

that whole, it was a 12-hour trip to canada, and the dog was put back on the roof even after the rest stop, is that correct? >> well, yes, and this trip has become sort of a story as to who he is. he is described as emotion free and crisis management, it's taken on a life of its own. it's a story that trails a person because it fits the image that people have of him. that is a truthful element to him. i saw a clip of him saying that the dog was in an air tight container. and that may have been a problem. i don't know if he meant air tight. but that was his explanation. >> and up next, the white house strikes back. stay with us. there's so much to choose from. [ male announcer ] the four course seafood feast is back at red lobster. still just $15.

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says he will probably release his tax returns in april, is he truly waiting or is he hiding? it's no secret that he is a multi-milli multi-millionaire and now the white house is reacting saying that it was romney's own father that start today tradition of releasing tax returns when he was a candidate. it's our news nation gut check, should he turn over the tax returns. and lina taylor will join me live, it may be 25 degrees in the state of wisconsin but the politics are red hot, the democrats are saying they may have more than enough signatures to force a recall for the controversial governor of that state. we will have more on governor walker and the battle he has ahead. economic concerns are going to be front and center when south carolina is holds the primary saturday. it one of the nation's poorest states. the state's unemployment rate is nearly 10% 100,000 households

depend on food stamps. chief washington correspondent john harwood joins us. jake carney has just responded to the food stamp president destination by gingrich. let's watch. >> the result of that terrible recession was a dramatic increase in unemployment and a dramatic, or increase rather, in the number of people who need assistance. needed assistance. i would simply say that those are the facts, and the economic policies that helped create that situation are ones that in the case of the candidate that you just mentioned, he supported and they are the kinds of policies that he supports to this day,

this president takes a different approach. >> there are economic issues and racial issues we discussed them earlier, but focusing to economy, south carolina is a different south carolina than it was just a couple of years ago. >> it's a long-term transition, andrea, for most of the 20th century. textiles were much of the south carolina economy. but that has been shifting it's under continued pressure from imports from china, that is why romney was talking about, and he did last night in the debate, the crack down on china trade practices that he wants to advocate. but south carolina is transitioning toward service s and export related businesses. it's one of the top 20 ports in the united states. there's a mix in south carolina, high unemployment, as you mentioned, but rising afluents in the state that has closed the gap and that provides a base of

support for mitt romney in the state even though you have people like rick santorum going after blue collar workers. >> it strikes me as it did in 1992, you saw they lost their manufacturing but they were beginning to move to high tech and be more of an export economy so the appeals that worked in the '80s did not work in the '90s in new england. >> and a similar dynamic, in 1996. pat buchanan came roaring out and took on bob dole in south carolina about the problems that trade had inflicted on the state. but bob dole was able to rally the chamber of commerce and middle class, that vote is still there for mitt romney to some degree and you have the more

liberal retiries. that is one of the reasons he is leading in the polls right now.. what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." from idea to research to trade. including financials, indicators and real-time streaming quotes. whether you check your investments every day or every minute, our app can take them from thought to trade. at scottrade, seven-dollar trades are just the start. try our powerful mobile app. it's another reason more investors are saying... i'm with scottrade. try bayer advanced aspirin. it's not the bayer aspirin you know. it's different. first, it's been re-engineered with micro-particles. second, it enters the bloodstream fast, and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain.

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and which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? coming up nbc contributor, chris cillizza joining us. we had the white house party. this was carney's response. >> it is an established tradition for presidential candidates to release their tax records. then senator obama released multiple years and has released his tax records. president george bush. president clinton.

nominees for each party. i think it was a tradition that was initiated by then presidential candidate george romney back in 1968, who released 12 years of tax records. >> oh, you sly, sly guy. >> see what he did there? >> yeah. >> does this hurt him in south carolina? >> i don't think it does, andrea. only because i think the cake is baked. if you care about electability in south carolina, we think there's probably between 25, 31% who that is their primary concern, you're going to vote for mitt romney. does it matter in the long-term? absolutely. this is something the obama campaign will work to paint as out of touch with the average person. there's a reason with mitt romney, and i know you asked him, why not release your

records. we now know it's going to show him paying a lower tax rate than lots of people who is significantly more wealthy than and it's not going to sit well and it's not going to be something the obama campaign low pressure let go pass. i think a day will not pass when they do not remind mitt romney in some way, shape or form of that be. >> newt gingrich will release his on thursday. that's the next 48 hours. we'll see what happens. thank you very much. >> that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow obama deputy campaign manager and south carolina democratic congressman jim cliver. follow the show online. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next. you were talking b about jay carney and the reaction to mitt romney not releasing tax

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