genuinely in earnestly anti-war and that was the reason why they participated but it was president george w. bush that made the events seem so threatening and once president bush went away people felt less threatening and were thus less likely to participate i guess i would also add that the anti-war movement has not gone away completely or rather it has gotten very small so that what is really left is the hard core highly organized dedicated people in other words it's become a movement in abeyance now rather than a really nasty movement michel that can stay with you i mean i want to just kind of press you a little bit i mean if it's really really diminished in its numbers i mean how can you see these people in the anti-war element it seems a bit thin really there i mean you're just slightly against the war or you know i'm against a war this war i mean what i'm saying is that you know the united states is constantly at war it is bankrupting itself while others are making a fortune in misery unspeakable misery that we caused the united states causes so many places and you say people kind of walk a

is he more radical than george w. bush? is this guy on all the issues across the board more radical than bush? >> rick perry has to compromise in him. he won't meet anybody in the middle on his principles. >> we know what that's about, michael. what about that? >> for a preview of rick perry, see for reference the tea party debacle that sunk this country and cost us a rating of aaa. that's the kind of non-compromise and non-investment in the politics of cooperation that we'll see from a president. it's very scary. yes, to answer your question, i think he's far moorad cal and dangerous and far more sub versive and far more of a problem than george w. bush. >> he's had more news in 24 hours on the campaign trail that mitt romney has made in a month. great to have you with us tonight. jim moore, thanks for your time. remember to answer's tonight's question at the bottom of the screen. now that governor perry has burst onto the presidential scene in a big way, we'll see how he stacks up against mitt romney and michele bachmann.

rick perry said earlier this summer he called george w. bush on his birthday to wish him a happy birthday, but make no mistake about it, during his time in office as the governor of the state of texas, rick perry tried to step out of the shadow of george w. bush, trying to become his own governor in his own right in this state and a lot of people in texas will say, yes, rick perry, you have done that. you have to close your eyes and listen to his voice and as you said, you can hear the voice of george w. bush. that's one of the stylistic, you know, sort of intangible things that he will have to overcome as a candidate in this race. he was -- he did an interview with wmur in new hampshire, very important tv station up in new hampshire the other day. one of the questions that was asked in that interview is how are you different from george w. bush? "time" asked rick perry, how are you different from george w. bush. it is a question for rick perry as the days go on. >> jim acosta, thank you very much from charleston, south carolina. appreciate tha

governor rick perry, but perry is already getting compared to predecessor, texas governor george w bush and perry seems to be channeling bush. look at these side besides. >> you know, this annual meeting has truly become an incubator. that's what i call it. man, it hatches some great ideas. it's an incubator for good ideas. >> we need to unleash the america.ector incc1: >> i see a great day coming for america. >> even though perry looks like he is working hard to imitate bush, he is actually more authentic. he is a true believing deep south conservative compared to blood bush who sometimes seemed to be playing a part. listen to this bite to how bush slips in the word desert. >> i think, see as i remember, i was raised in the desert, but see1: a tide y tocc turn. >> some folks look at me and see a sort of swagger which in texas walking.cc1: chris: well, of course, that dones mess with texas was swagger for another bush caricature, will farrell. he had an hbo special lampooning bush's texas image. bush is telling a story about aving his brothers and dadcc1: into an abandoned mind shaft on

w. bushsked him to serve in the executive branch, this time as secretary of defense. >> i was the special assist abt for soviet affairs. i remember then secretary cheney as someone who was able to debate and talk to someone as junior as i was at that time. >> when plans were made to repel saddam hussein's invasion of kuwait, cheney argued behind closed doors on behalf of a powerful presidency. >> he didn't want president bush to go to congress and the united nations because he didn't want bush's hands tied. >> bush did both and got their endorsements. >> seems to me, there is only going to be one outcome. that's going to be his defeatatism desert storm was perhaps the most successful military operation in modern history. though the coalition left saddam hussein in power, cheney defended that controversial decision. >> bottom line question for me was: how many additional american lives was saddam hussein worth? the answer -- not very damn many. >> president george h. w. bush had sky-high appro

but are george w. bush and rick perry really that much alike? >> no. they're actually very different people. that caricature of george bush that we all participated in painting about a decade ago, the swaggering, drawling cowboy, is really something of a construction. it's really what rick perry is in real life. they're really not the same. perry is more conservative. he is more -- he is shrewder. he's the kind of person who is partisan whereas george bush, at least in texas, really viewed a bipartisan way of doing things. they are not the same person at all. perry is much more expressive about his religious faith. in many, many ways they're different. but you're right. the problem is when people listen to them -- when people listen to them -- is he what? >> is he almost the authentic george w. bush? is he really what george w. bush pretended to be? >> this is exactly -- you've got it exactly right. this is the real thing. the real cowboy from a dryland farm on west texas. the suggestion is that he's the guy in the cowboy boots from texas. as you know,

for the first time, president george w. bush talks about the attacks of september 11th. >> first reaction was anger, you know? who would do that to america? >> and his reaction to the news of osama bin laden's death. >> announcer: frfr the global resources of abc news,ith terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," august 25th, 2011. >> good evening, i'm terry moran. well, we're looking at a historic weather event now. it's rare that storms this big and this violent take aim at major american cities along the eastern seaboard, but that is what's apparentry happening with hurricane irene, now a category 3 hurricane, with winds of 115 miles per hour. irene blew past flolorida todayn its way toward landfall in the carolinas, sometimes early afternoon saturday. the big question, where does it go from there? here's abc's matt gutman for our coverage of hurricane irene. >> reporter: hurricane irene rumbled over the bahamas today, bending palms like rubber, toppling trees and ripping boats right o

w. bush's texas and looking forward to a possible campaign clearly governor perry is going to need distance from president bush. >> reporter: perry isn't the only one doing the distancing, when perry ran for re-election last year, bush's father and his vice president both supported senator kay bailey hutchison in what was a bitter challenge. >> in some of the texas staffers for george w. bush and governor perry's staffers. >> reporter: ary fleischer says there's no scandal in perry wanting to be his own man. >> part of running for office is establishing your identity, sometimes you reinforce that which came before you and sometimes you differ, i suspect we'll see both with governor perry. >> reporter: in his speech perry is expected to tout his economic record but democrats in this state point out that record has never been tested on a national stage. that process has just begun. jim acosta, cnn, charleston, south carolina. >> let us know what you think, we're on facebook or follow us on twitter. @andersoncooper. i'll be tweeting tonight. >>> up next, the first big test for gop candidates t

you know, when proponents of george bush -- chris: when supporters of george w. bush accuse perry of being shallow, we've hit the mother load. >> i think democrats and the cast of "saturday night live" want to see perry as the nominee. chris: and a lot of focus on that guy. six months from now, david you pick this up here, who is going to be the hot hand in the republican fight? who will be the big name out of iowa? >> the big noise officially will be rick perry and the country will learn about him, look at his personality and his leadership skills and then we'll see. that's the great thing about a campaign, people look strong at the outset, sometimes have trouble. you know, for me the question is whether romney's kind of managerial strength of so lidity is something the public in this very difficult time will like and get interested in, then you'll have a cumulative effect. >> why all the picking over of candidates, why have we ignored him, why has no one thought of rick perry until now? why has he never come up before? >> we'll see the vetting. that's the thing romn

the book "fed up" he's saying all the places on fiscal policy where he differs sharply from george w. bushpent too much money and was not a fiscal conservative. what perry has to do, appeal to the primary voters, win the nomination. if he gets the nomination, it's how can he pivot and emphasize he is not george w. bush in a general election. >> wayne and maggie, thank you for joining our conversation on "hardball." >>> let me finish with this, was irene worth the treatment she received? >>> finally tonight, i hope you're faring well from hurricane irene. nearly three dozen are dead, millions are without power, and the property damages are still to be calculated. still, it's not as severe as predicted. i was wondering if irene was worthy of the treatment she received. on saturday morning, i sent a tweet that got an instant and huge reaction. i said irene, it will rain, it will blow, but as a category one, is it worth the hype? many said it wasn't, one said it was the iowa caucus of storms, one said it's a slow news week, another said tell me about it, it's the fear that's the worst so far.

the book "fed up" he's saying all the places on fiscal policy where he differs sharply from george w. bush too much money and was not a fiscal conservative. what perry has to do, appeal to the primary voters, win the nomination. if he gets the nomination, it's how can he pivot and emphasize he is not george w. bush in a general election. >> wayne and maggie, thank you for joining our conversation on "hardball." >>> let me finish with this, was irene worth the treatment she received? ♪ okay, so who ordered the cereal that can help lower cholesterol and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. that's yours. lower cholesterol. lower cholesterol. i'm yummy. lower cholesterol. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste? honey nut cheerios. want whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. it's a win win. good? [ crunching, sipping ] be happy. be healthy. can i try yours? i've tried it. be healthy. but nothing's helped me beat my back pain. then i tried this. it's salonpas. this is the relief i've been looking for. salonpas has 2 powerful pain fighting in

w. bush's record in texas saying he was never ever a fiscal conservative. last year, the entire bush machine including george herbert walker bush and karl rove went to bat for senator kay bailey hutchinson for her failed g.o.p. primary bid against rick perry. >> laura: they were against him and for kay lay -- bayly. >> laura: you pick sides and do what you do. you can't be surprised if perry is annoyed by that or frankly if bush is annoyed bush is criticizing him. now we find out that jeb bush is very encouraging to someone like a paul ryan, that paul ryan should get into the race. jeb bush was thinking 2016 according to some sources. now jeb bush encouraging ryan according to steve hayes at the "weekly standard" fox news contributor. that also adds a level of intrigue into this. >> yeah. if those reports are true, laura, it would spell a kind of a death nail death nell. whatever his intentions with the karl roves and the tony frattos and tony wieners. perry wants to be able to tap into the bush donor network. >> laura: money. >> if is he urging other people

w. bush's texas and looking forward to a possible campaign clearly governor perry is going to need distance from president bush. >> reporter: perry isn't the only one doing the distancing, when perry ran for re-election last year, bush's father and his vice president both supported senator kay bailey hutchison in what was a bitter challenge. >> in some of the texas staffers for george w. bush and governor perry's staffers. >> reporter: ary fleischer says there's no scandal in perry wanting to be his own man. >> part of running for office is establishing your identity, sometimes you reinforce that which came before you and sometimes you differ, i suspect we'll see both with governor perry. >> reporter: in his speech perry is expected to tout his economic record but democrats in the state point out that record has never been tested on a national stage. that process has just begun. jim acosta, cnn, charleston, south carolina. >> let us know what you think, i'll be tweeting tonight. >>> up next, the first big test for gop candidates tomorrow, some of the most interesting moments from the debate

>> his name was george w. bush, al? do you want to blame bush? >> so bush and perry are doing well and when obama came in, you became number one in these areas. pe found out how you became so well developed in these areas. people, 25 and older with a high school diploma, credit score, 49. high school graduation rate, 43. all that happening in the last two years too. >> funny enough, despite all this, again, we have a thousand americans -- >> despite all this -- >> no, listen. the texas economy in the pave five years, have a net increase. so you have to set stats against the reality that texas is the only thing propping up barack obama's's con my right now. the reason to quote the poem, give me your tired, poor, huddled masses, be free. the huddled masses are moving to texas because there is a real need here. >> yeah, there is a real need, for -- minimum wage and below. for min pum wanl and below minimum wage laws. >> that is absolutely false. bogus stat, al. >> more minimum wage than any other state. >> do you know what median wage here in texas

>> la realidad es que recibiÓ una economÍa en desastre de george w. bushmos quÉ difÍcil es. durante la depresiÓn de 1932, durÓ mÁs que ocho aÑos en revertir las cosas negativas y hasta necesitamos la segunda guerra mundial. el presidente trabaja adelante siempre. los republicanos lo han hecho mÁs difÍcil. vimos la crisis de la semana pasada que no era necesaria. la realidad es que la situaciÓn es muy difÍcil. tenemos que tratar tambiÉn con el problema de la deuda. el presidente tiene un plan y creo que la elecciÓn de 2014 serÁ decidida en estos tÓpicos: economÍa, sueldos y vamos a tener una elecciÓn bastante difÍcil. creo que el presidente puede ganar, pero la gente tendrÁ que reconocer que no hablamos sÓlo de polÍtica, pero nuestras vidas, nuestros presupuestos prsnaoles, es una elecciÓn bastante clave, bastante sigcificante para el futuro de nuestro paÍs. >> si fuera una de las asesoras del candidato republicano, por dÓnde atacarÍa a barack obama? hace unos meses hablÁbamos del gran triunfo al haber capturado y asesinado a osama bin laden. parece que el

w. bush's texas and looking forward to a possible national campaign, clearly governor perry is going to need distance from president bush. >> reporter: perry isn't the only one doing the distancing, when perry ran for re-election last year, bush's father and his vice president both supported senator kay bailey hutchison in what was a bitter primary challenge. >> i think apt the staff level there is a certain tension between some of the texas staffers for george w. bush and governor perry's staffers. >> reporter: but former bush secretary ari fleisher says, there's no scandal in perry wanting to be his own man. >> part of running for office is establishing your identity, sometimes you reinforce that which came before you and sometimes it means you differ, and i suspect we're going to see both of those with governor perry. >> reporter: in his speech perry is expected to tout his economic record but democrats in this state point out that record has never been tested on a national stage. that process has just begun. jim acosta, cnn, charleston, south carolina. >> let us know what you think,

fed up", he is saying in there all the places on fiscal policy where he differs sharply from george w. bushspent to much money. not a fiscal conservative. so what perry is going to have to do, enhe is playing a primary game right now, pale to the primary voters, if he get the nomination, it is how can he pivot and emphasize he is not george w. bush in a general election. >> wayne slater and maggie haberman, thanks for joining us on "hardball." >> thank you. >> when we return, was irene worthy of the treatment she received? you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. emily's just starting out... and on a budget. like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. ben and his family live on this block. ben's a re/max agent, and he's a big part of this community. re/max agents know their markets, and they care enough to get to know you, too. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. over time, my lashes thinned. after 40, i didn't have

>> well, to use another phrase from george w. bush, i think he benefits from the soft bigotry of low expectations. there's been an absolute trend in texas, despite the victories in state politics, people consistently think he's fluked his way into office, that he's kind of managed to get there through a string of dumb luck and kind of coincidences, i don't see the support for that, even in the most recent election. >> if that's not the case, what is he good at? it looked particularly in this last election like he was facing a primary election, survived that, what are -- what is the source of his strength? >> well, one thing we could say, i guess this goes to hightower's point, i think democrats have struggled to get candidates to run against him. the more interesting victory was against kay bailey, as you note, people expected that to be a very, very close clash of titans in texas. kay bailey has obviously won statewide office before and was considered popular, more so than perry at the time. he has a sense of what he needs to do to w

clarke the former white house counterterrorism czar under both presidents bill clinton and george w. bush unveiled some shocking allegations about the cia soon to be released radio documentary clarke alleges that the bush administration's cia and. the leadership george tenet purposefully withheld information about the nine eleven hijackers from both the white house and from the white house both before and after the terrorist attacks clarke claims the cia not only knew the were about seven to nine eleven hijackers but actually tried to recruit them prior to the attacks and kept the white house in the dark about it after the recruitment efforts failed but this bombshell contradicts what clarke said in two thousand and four about george tenet and the cia. george tenet was saying to the white house saying to the president as he briefed him every morning a major elec fact is going to happen against the united states somewhere in the world in the weeks and months ahead he said that in june july august so what's behind clark's new take on nine eleven and could it be true for more on this i'm joi

the last few years have done damage to george w. bush and the reputation of george w. bush.ident ran against george w. bush. he wants this president to run against rick perry. he has to show he's different than george w. bush. he is a leader that will bring hope to the united states. the next president of the united states from our party will have to be a cheer leader from the united states and lift us up again to make us feel good about ourselves and feel good about our country and i think rick perry would be that guy. megyn: karl rove says he's surprised he's distancing himself from bush. bill clinton weighed in saying he's a good looking rascal but says he's full of nonsense. he came under the microscope because he made these comments about ben bernanke which is turning into a news story. >> if this guy prints more money between now and the elections, i don't know what y'all will do to him in iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly in texas. and printing more money to play politics at this particular time in america's history is almost treasonous in my opinion. megyn: we

passed through congress last texas governor to be president george w. bush happily signed it into law but this act to did is keep the government from regulating derivatives markets which allowed banks to use to create all sorts of complex financial instruments like credit default swaps collateralized debt obligations and inflated the housing bubble made them all tons of money basically creating things that were bets and then bets on those bets and then bets on those bets on those bets until we end up with hundred literally hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of these bets out there. that never existed before phil gramm created this law that made them possible it made the legal that made it possible for the banks to get and in addition to that blowing up was legal and then what happened some of the underlying mortgages start to fall apart as could have been predicted and the bets went bad the insurance went bad and then the bets on the bets went bad in the bets on the bets on the bets went bad and it all crashed because if this one piece of legislation res

, no one needed this little straw poll to indicate how strong the candidacy of george w. bushn he was running. >> exactly, the media say in their own defense, that look, not many people vote, but it's a sign of organizational ability to get people to this event. well, you know, it's on a bright and sunny day. it can rain, but it's usually been sunny in the past, i've been to four of these things, you get them on air-conditioned buses to an air-conditioned tent to a very nice air-conditioned coliseum. the hilton coliseum at iowa state university where they play basketball, basketball is the state religion of iowa, it's a very nice place. that is not a sign of caucus night, which is scheduled for february 6, next year, the dead of winter, at night where people sometimes have to drive two or three hours. stand usually in an elk's lodge or library basement and they don't get to see any candidates, there are no media superstars to see. that takes real organization, and you know what, only about 20% of republicans even bother to go to the caucuses four years ago. >> roger, we can't

i'll let you weigh in on the george w. bush saying that. but some people are saying, they were upset because perry did this today and didn't wait until tomorrow or monday or some time next week. what do you think of that? >> i look at it differently. there is no question difference center of the political universe this week and i don't think whether governor palin's visit to the fair yesterday or governor perry's travels to south carolina, new hampshire, whatever. >> we're going to talk about sarah palin. >> i don't know if that would have necessarily happened without this little gathering in ames this weekend. i think that shows that iowa was driving the national political discourse and i know we'll see governor perry in short order. we'll see him in waterloo tomorrow night after he wraps up in new hampshire. the republican iowans will assess that. in my conversations with his advisers, they understand the caucus process. they understand it is a retail heavy process if you want to be successful. and i suspect we'll see governor perry early

in george w. bush was a texas evangelical who went out of has way to really soften his appeal in every way in 2000. perry feels no need to da that. >> what do you think of the turnout he got at the stadium? >> impressive. >> evangelicals -- like -- [everyone talking at once] what perry has is the romney doesn't is intensity. he request bring those people out. had le do extremely well in the sunbelt. his problem is if he does get the nomination, can the guy with these credentials and in kind of persona do well in pennsylvania? >> bush come back as elmer gantry? >> how far back? >> not as far back at -- >> my favorite! >> burt lancaster. >> who was the author of the book? >> oh, i don't remember. >> that's enough on that. exit question, will rick perry go the distance? will he be in contention for the nomination? >> he'll number the contention from the very day he announces. >> and maybe win it? >> maybe. >> he's in contention, i can see him in the number two spot. i don't see him as the nominee. >> real

i wasn't always in those rooms. >> we learned from george w. bush through bob woodward's books that they never had a discussion on whether colin powell, a direct discussion, as to whether colin powell supported the iraq war or not. woodward asked bush, well, why didn't you ask him? and bush said, well, because i already kind of knew what he believed so i wasn't going to ask him anyway. >> did you -- >> i wonder how a guy who was chairman of the interstatejoint the time the united states of america invaded iraq ten years earlier was not more of a central player in these discussions and why he didn't speak up more than he did. >> in the room. >> the fact that we're hearing that he didn't speak up in the room. and the president -- >> let's let it count, though. what i think is interesting. colin powell and dick cheney and rumsfeld worked together for decades. they knew each other -- their relationships were complicated dynamic between those three men predate george bush's presidency by, you know, two or three more republican administrations. >> right.

george w. bushd dog whistles, like when he referred to the wonder working power of the american people during his 2003 state of the union speech. that was familiar, but would have passed unnoticed by others. recently, the religious fervor has grown more overt. where were you on august 6? i remember where rick, not related to me, perry was. >> his agenda is not a political agenda. his agenda is a salvation agenda. he is a wise, wise god and wise enough not to be affiliated with any political party. >> that's right, perry was speaking before 33,000 people in houston's reliant stadium. governor, seriously no relation, perry boldly proclaimed his faith at this event called "the response." now we know the not so hidden agenda for the event. organizers wrote "today i want to introduce you to the champion the vote ctv whose mission is to mobilize five million christians to register and vote according to the biblical world view in 2012. the assumption there is only one biblical world view and benefits the r