willard mitt romney wants voters to think he's just an everyday joe.e's got no idea how joe makes ends meet. here's willard's idea of a friendly wager. >> rick, i'll tell you what. 10,000 bucks? $10,000 bet? >> i'm not in the betting business, but i'll -- >> oh, okay. >> $10,000, willard, your 1% is showing again. 10,000 grand may be betting money to you. but to the average iowan, it's just not chump change. it's about two months' salary in iowa where the average household income is $50,000. it's also enough to cover the $7,500 tuition at iowa state university. the average iowan could use that $10,000 to pay the rent for at least a year. willard, you're hopelessly out of touch. but the other gop frontrunner isn't any better. newt ran up $500,000 tab at tiffany and bragged about how much he charges per speech. >> i did no lobbying of any kind, period, for a practical reason -- i'm going to be really direct, okay? i was charging $60,000 a speech. >> what newt and willard don't seem to get is that millions of americans, democrats and republicans, are hurt

. >>> a brand-new poll out of iowa has willard mitt romney back at the top of the pack. nd he's kicking newton leroy gingrich to the curb. look who is number three? santorum. it's a complete reversal of fortune. willard has risen five percentage points since early december, while knute plummeted 19 points in less than four weeks, and rick santorum is soaring up 11 points. >> whether they got down to the time to seriously look at the candidates, they saw we had the right message, the bold plans, the consistent track record. >> rick santorum, direct message, rick santorum who worried president obama might go to indonesia and bow to muslims, who called elder education programs a government plot to indoctrinate your children, this is the new gop flavor of the month. the republicans have gone extreme and they're not turning back. >>> joining me now, anybody elsç news political analyst ed rendell, former dnc chairman and pennsylvania governor, and live from des moines, iowa, where she's cover the race, erin mcpike from real clear pot tick. thank you both for joining me. >> my p

>>> and did you know willard mitt romney makes as much as $13 million a year for a job he doesn't even have anymore? hey, i'll vote for him if everyone can get that deal. >>> and forget flavor of the month, republicans are about to have a ron paul moment. are they ready for it? >> i think gold is a good insurance policy and i personally buy my gold to protect my family. i'm for seat belts but i'm against seat belt laws. i don't think we need a department of education. >> welcome to "politics nation." i'm al sharpton. looks like a christmas miracle, republicans actually backing a plan to help the middle class. but not so fast, folks. the tea party's holding the conversation hostage once again. later tonight, house republicans are expected to vote down a bill that would keep money in the pockets of 160 million americans. and extend unemployment benefits for all those struggling to find work in this country. this was supposed to be easy. in fact, 89 members of the senate voted in favor of it, including 39 republicans. this weekend, speaker boehner even called it, quote, a good deal. and,

balls that belong to one willard mitt romney, who is facing a bit of an uphill battle in his race to be the republican nominee. by "uphill battle" i mean nobody seems the want to vote for him, so he's decided on a ballsy new tact. >> he's going after gingrich, questioning his conservative yes den,s. >> jon: romney is questioning gingrich's conservative credentials. barbara? >> what? >> jon: this is what romney, the former not-pro-life, pro-gay governor of massachusetts says about newt gingrich's consistency of thought. >> the number of times he has moved from one spot to another has been remarkable. i think he has shown a level of unreliability as a conservative leader today. >> jon: you're talking about you. that's the kind of sack that santa would look at and go, we're going to need a bigger sled. by the way, romney wasn't just saying gingrich was inconsistent, he was specifically saying gingrich wasn't conservative enough. romney, how would you describe a not idealogically pure enough conservative, and can you frame it as a positive in 2002? >> i think people recognize that i'm no

today, willard mitt romney came to new york and mr. monopoly man managed to hit all of the big banks hot spots. his first stop, breakfast at an exclusive chipriani restaurant. it was attended by none other than ron paulson, a man who personally made $3.7 million betting on the mortgage crisis. willard's next stop, a lunch at the wall dor if astoria, hosted by a jpmorgan chase banker. and to cap off the day, a private dinner on park avenue hosted by another one of the world's biggest banker. but, of course, this is no surprise. willard may flip and he may flop but he's always been consistent on his love for big money. from back when he was posing with money at bayne capital to the present day. >> corporations are people, my friend. we can raise taxes -- of course they are. everything corporations earn goes to the people. where do you think it goes? whose pockets? human beings, my friend. >> corporations aren't human beings, willard. but he's not the only one with 1% dreams. newt brags about his big money speeches. >> i was charging $50,

. >>> you can say a lot of things about willard mitt romney, and i sure have. he's a flip-flopper. le. but you've got to give willard credit. there's one thing he's got at doing. that's making money. the problem for him is coming back to haunt him. here's the infamous picture of willard during his time at private equity firm bain capital. this week we're learning his 'still making millions. under his retirement deal, he got up to $13 million from bain in the last year alone. but willard does not want us to know it. >> i can tell you we follow the tax laws, and if there's an student to save taxes, we, like anybody else in this country, will follow the opportunity, but we don't have any current plans to release tax returns. but never say never. >> meanwhile, the associated press has uncovered more details about some of the jobs bain cut in the '90s. under bain's control, a photo album company opened and closed a south carolina factory where 150 people were laid off, but bain made $22 million from the company. great deal for willard. not so great for the 150 people who lost their jobs.

the fight between newton leroy gingrich and willard mitt romney is hotter than ever.llard was on this network slamming newt. >> i know the speak would like to say, look, we shouldn't have any negativity, but look, if you can't handle the heat in this little kitchen, the heat that will come from obama's hell's kitchen will be a heck of a lot hotter. we have to show as a party and as a candidate we can stand up to the barrage that will come from the obama world. >> whew, can't handle the heat? wow. newt is finally ready for a fight. >> he wants to take it out of kitchen. we'll bring in his ads, and he can defend them, and we'll bring "the washington post" indication that his ad is fill with lies. would he like to play in the kitchen? i don't think so. i don't think he want to do anything except hide over here and pretend that it's not his fault he's flooding the people of iowa with falsehoods. i can take the heat plenty well. >>> it looked like the republicans will need a 12th commandment -- don't leave a bruise when you slam the competition. >>> joining me is bob shrum

. >> that was willard mitt romney sounding pretty confident about his chances in iowa, even though hehe last year avoiding the state. suddenly it's his favorite place. right now he's on a four-day bus tour there. next week he'll spend caucus night and do morning-after press interviews in iowa, a sure sign he's expecting a good result. unbelievable. the candidate who flip-flopped on everything from abortion to guns, even his own name, who republicans just don't seem to like that much. he's the guy who could win, but that's not the most baffling thing happening in iowa right now. even though a new gallup poll shows romney pulling ahead nationally, and a cnn poll shows him leading in iowa, willard's gop rivals are acting like he doesn't exist, and instead they're piling on ron paul. >> not only was ron paul dangerous when it came to foreign policy. ron paul would be willing to legalize drugs in the united states. >> you can't have your cake and eat it, too, dr. paul. >> we have a lot of heartburn on the national security issues with ron paul. >> i think it's difficult to see how you woul

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let me show you what happens this morning when willard mitt romney tries to act as though this meansthing and they couldn't even get their talking points together on fox. >> what do you make of it? it's going to be a boost for barack obama, right? >> well, we've had three years of barack obama. it's the slowest recovery since president hoover. >> so we look at 8.6 but it's below 9% which is at least going in the right direction for the country. >> it's very good news, obviously, going into the holiday season, people are shopping again. very good news that the unemployment rate is down. >> somebody didn't get willard the memo. he said you can't put perfume on this pig. even the host there at fox said, it's going in the right direction and all of a sudden it was good news. i mean, do these people stop at anything when it comes to what helps people work? i mean, we know it's an election but, my god. >> the reality, reverend is that there was has been almost across the board and the only sector, and you know this, that we haven't seen recovery in construction and local and state governme

willard mitt romney, who appears to be feeling mighty confident about his chances in iowa, a state he'dginally all but written off as lost.ç today the romney campaign announced plans for a four-day marathon bus tour across the hawkeye state in the final days before the caucuses. the weird thing is romney doesn't appear to be planning to get off the bus much. he has only ten stops planned in four full days of driving. some 770 miles. on wednesday morning, the day after the caucuses, romney is planning to still be in des moines so he can be available for morning show interviews, which is exactly the kind of thing you put on your schedule when you are feeling are about your chances the night before. joining us now from java joe's coffee house in des moines, msnbc contributor and slate.com political reporter dave weigel. he's been spending time with all the political campaigns in iowa. dave, how are you doing? >> very good. good to see you. >> good to see you too. so from your on the ground reporting today, covering the various campaigns, what is your sense of the state of the race? >> i t

if they would really read up on willard mitt romney and his dad, they would find that this man is a great man. and he does speak the truth. host: all right. thanks. caller: wait a minute. i need to make another point. you give a lot of people a lot of time. host: ok. finish up. caller: finish up i said. i'll give one instance about barack obama, how dishonest he is in his presidency. i'd like for everybody to go back to 2009, when his first appointment was the green jobs, and his right-hand gal, ms. valerie garrett. there's a video on where she's saying, talking to a group of people, saying -- she's smiling. she said, and here's a guy that we have really wanted to get for a long time. so no doubt that they vetted van jones. ok? he was a devout communist and spent time in prison and was a radical. host: all right, horatio. going to let you go now. you've had plenty of time. wanted to mention that while mitt romney is not in iowa today, his wife ann romney will be meeting with voters. that is one of our live events today 1:15 eastern time. she's going to meet with voters in ottumwa, iowa. w

nixon and later went to work as the hud secretary for nixon, if they would really read up on willard mitt romney his dad, they would find that this man is a great man and he does speak the truth. host: thank you. caller: wait a minute. i need to make another point because you give a lot of people all lot of time. host: go ahead. caller: i want to make a point about barack obama. i would like for everyone to go back to 2009 when his first appointment for green jobs was van jones. there is a video on where he is saying, talking to a group of people, and she is smiling and saying here is a guy we have really wanted to get for a long time. no doubt that they vented van jones. ok. he was a devout communist and spent time in prison and was a radical. host: ok, i'm going to let you go. you have had plenty of time. we want to mention that although mitt romney is not in iowa today, his wife will be meeting with voters. we will have her at 1:15 p.m. eastern time. she is going to meet with the voters, and we will stay there later in the day for a campaign rally by rick santorum, the former pennsylvania sen

. >> in fairness, i think if you're going to be refer to mitt romney as willard, we should point outas a real first name, leroy. >> leroy? i wish you told me that when we were on the education tour. hey, leroy, that would have been great. nia, let me ask you, as we watch leroy newt deal with these things. last night i've got to give bob credit, newt did kind of take a couple zings, and even tried to turn one around. look at how he dealt with being called zany. >> i sometimes get accused of using language that's too strong. so i've been standing here editing. i'm very concerned about not appearing to be zany. >> kind of turned that one around, when leroy was talking last night. >> yeah, he did. it was the subtle way, i think, of jabbing at mitt romney, almost trying to draw him into maybe trying to swing at newt gingrich. he of course did not. that whole night. i think in some ways mitt romney owes michele bachmann like a box of chocolates or flowers, because she did his dirty work last night in going after newt gingrich. i think she landed a couple blows, not only on him, but also on

mitt romney. >> bob, how can willard romney take the lead again and how can he even in a long run in terms of thisng and prolonged, how can we hinn this? >> three ways. one, he can hope that newt blows himself up though so far the verbal gaffs have tended to come more from romney. two, he can hope that in a long war of attrition the amount of money he has, the organization he's built in these states is going to sustain him, although that could fail if newt did very, very well at the beginning and people began to say, look, it's him and we've got to move to him, and the third thing he can do, and he's doing it right now, is throw every bucket of mud he can throw at gingrich, fair or unfair and hope it sticks. i don't think it will. they know he sat next to nancy pelosi on that couch but as mark said and mark is absolutely right, they know he's one of the seminal figures of the conservative movement and they think he's a real conservative. i happen to think he's a real conservative. i hardly agree with him on anything. >> but you're not voting in the republican primary. >> no. >> mark, your group no

willard romney might put on the ticket if he's the nominee? >> i believe it's going to be a southern senator who is strong in the evangelical bloc voting group. the biggest problem mitting to have is the south with that evangelical. that's the 800-pound gorilla in the room in a nobody wants to talk about. they really have problems with him, and i'll say it, being a mormon. and turning out that base. i think it will be a southern senator. who? honestly i don't know. pick one, but it's got to be somebody from the south who is well-liked with evangelicals. >> all right. let me do this last round real fast. our last prediction, the big one -- who will win the election? my producers tell me all our panelists are on the same page with this one. maria? >> i think it will be barack obama, but he has a lot of homework to do. one, eric holder has to continue to go after states with voter i.d. laws. that's the true voter fraud, but also president obama has to take his message local. he has to dominate locally in the states, talking about the issues that americans really care about -- job creation, the health care reform he did that's gotten so little steam but will impact perso

or does he become the set-up man for the resurrection of willard as i call him mitt romney. >> that's exactly what terry branstad says. he told "politico" this. people are going to look at who comes in second, just as you said, reverend al. and who comes in third. if mitt romney comes in a strong second, it helps him going into new hampshire and the other. >> this is actually -- this is actually i think a big help to newt because it stops the bleeding. the focus turns to ron paul. >> yeah. >> he's the front guy. he's going to get hammered, and if you look at this poll, newt has dropped in iowa but he's sitting there about a point or two behind, and i'm telling you, the story, steve rattner, you're a numbers guy and you come in with charts and graphs -- >> he has some today. >> you ought to chart mitt romney's whole numbers over the past year or two. it is a flat line. this latest poll, 17% in iowa, this guy is getting 17%, 20% in these early states. more in new hampshire and his home state. >> well, it was a flat line for a long time, then started to creep up, and then the newt thing

willard m. romney in the polls, leaving romney a desperate shell of his former self. mitt romney, the man with the longest winning streak in the history of presidential debates on saturday night was reduced to this. >> i read your first book and it said in there that your mandate in massachusetts should be the model for the country. i know it came out of the reprint of the book, but you can, i'm just saying, you were for individual mandates, my friend. >> you know what? you've raised that before, rick. >> it was true then. it's true now. >> i'll tell you what. $10,000. a 10,000 bet? >> i'm be in the betting business. >> okay. >> do you know who else is not supposed to be in the betting business? devout mormon mitt romney. in the gospel topics section of the official website of the mormon church, the faithful are taught about gambling. the church of jesus christ of latter day saints is opposed to gambling, including lotteries sponsored by governments. gambling is motivated by a desire to get something for nothing. this desire is spiritually destructive. it leads participant

willard? >> he's saying right now he's not going to go negative. he obviously instructed his staff not to attack mitt romney will work. as far as talking about his record is concerned, sure, maybe it's an exaggeration, but that'ç romney hasn't talked much about his record. he talked about how he spent most of his life in private sector. he is drawing a contrast there, by trying to list all of his accomplishments. >> now, nia-malika, some people tweet me and get upset when i call mr. romney willard. i wonder what we'll hear when you compare him to pee-wee herman, but he is a little awkward. there are some things that does caught people to kind of look. and politico has dug up footage for him campaigning for senate in 1994. he was just as awkward 17 years ago. look at this. how are you, ma'am? >> i don't vote. >> tell me, why don't you vote? >> i've never voted. >> never voted? >> no, because if you want to know why, i don't believe anybody that's a politician. >> well, you should know one thing. i have never run for office before. that's why i finally decided to do it. good to see you. >> yeah. >> don't run

willard. you know, i don't know whered bottom is. he keeps dropping. >> right. he keeps dropping. here'sed one silver lining that there is no mitt romney.rying to build the plane as he's flying it the operation is nearly not where it should be, as compared to mitt romney's. so i think what the romney folks are hoping for is that, because newt gingrich doesn't have the campaign apparatus that he needs, he'll stumble. that's why you're seeing these attacks from mitt romney and surrogates, i think it was jim talon today and john sununu, going after substance and policy, but talking about his character, his leadership abilities, the chaos that engulfed the capitol when he was the speaker. they're hoping to bring that mean down. michele bachmann has officially said she's not not going to -- mr. trump only has mr. gingrich and mr. san storm. is this the uncrowning of the donald? he can't get everybody to the debate clearly because of him. does this take away a lot of perceived influence? >> sure. to get attention, santorum would go to the opening of a can. newt gingrich is going to this debate, because he believes donald trump will endorse hi