ramesh, thank you very much. want to go to the audience for questions in just a second, but i will take the moderator's prerogative to ask a question of the panel, and i'm actually going to break the rule that i set out at the very beginning, and i actually want to talk politics for one second which is i worry that in the wake of governor romney doing so poorly among hispanics that it just seems so obvious that republicans and conservatives may want to change how they approach the immigration issue. and while i can't certainly know that this is true, i always suspected that governor romney wasn't really sort of deep down inside a hard liner on the immigration issue as he came across. i think there was a question of he had to win his party's primary, and he calculated accordingly and crafted a policy approach and a rhetorical approach in keeping with that. now, nothing that has happened even since the election would seem to me necessarily to have changed that fact for republicans who need to win their party's nomi

[applause] >> next up was someone an enormous brain, ramesh ponnuru. >> not as big as my mouth. a lot of the concerns about immigration policy yet been discussed here. matters that have to do with economics and morality. what i thought i would do is talk a little bit about an initiative that tends to get under-emphasized in these conversations, and that is assimilation. people mean different things when they use that word. what i mean in saying that our immigration and post-immigration policies ought to be oriented towards assimilation is simply that we should want newcomers to the united states to have a good shot at becoming successful americans who can support themselves rather than rely on taxpayers, who can and do fully participate in local, state, and national political deliberations, fully participate in our culture, and who see themselves and are seen by others as americans. these are things we should want and these are things we should take steps to achieve. assimilation should not come in my view, mean the elimination of what is distinctive about immigrant cultures. th

thank you ipod back. >> ramesh, thank you very much.i want to go to the audience for questions in just a second, but i will take the moderator's prerogative to ask a question of the panel. and i'm going to break the rule that i said out of the very beginning. i want to talk politics or one second. which is, i worry that in the wake of governor romney doing so poorly among hispanics that it just seems so obvious that republicans and conservatives may want to change how they approach the immigration issue. and while i can't certainly know that this is true, i always suspected that governor romney wasn't really sort of deep down inside a hard line on immigratioimmigration the issuee across your i think there was a question of he had to win his party's primary, and he calculated accordingly and crafted a policy approach and a rhetorical approach in keeping with it. now, nothing has happened even since the election would seem to be necessary to have changed that fact for republicans who need to win their party's nomination in order -- he's s

[applause] >> ramesh, thank you very much. i want to go to the audience for questions in just a second. but i will take the moderator's prerogative to ask a question of the panel, and i'm actually going to break the rule that i said at the very beginning, and i actually want to talk politics for one second, which is, i worry that in the wake of governor romney doing so poorly among hispanics that it just seems so obvious that republicans and conservatives may want to change how they approach the immigration issue. and while i can't certainly know that this is true, i always suspected that governor romney wasn't really sort of deep down inside a hard liner on the immigration issue as he came across. i think there was a question of he had to win his party's primary, and he calculated accordingly and crafted a policy approach and a rhetorical approach in keeping with that. now, nothing that has happened even since the election would seem to me necessarily to have changed that fact for republicans who need to win their party's nom

yes, ramesh. >> in "the los angeles times," the kato institute explains how state governments can protects from an unpopular health care law. >> i don't know. i don't get the context. thank you all. my shameless plug is eight days ago and 43 years ago, my parents, john and mary ellen, were married. happy anniversary, mom and dad. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." and never fear, the goateed one, chuck todd, will be back on monday. coming up next on msnbc and chris jansing & company. enjoy your weekend. why is cdw like an i.t. caddy? because they provide solutions for all situations. how? they work with vmware to provide virtualization and cloud solutions tailored to a company's unique i.t. needs. so, you're my caddy. what solution would you provide for me now? well, you're 30 yards away from the green. you've got a bunker to the left of you and a bunker to the right of you. and remember, this is client golf. go ahead, mark your calendars. it's the last day you can switch your medicare part d plan. we're ready, and we can't wait to switch. [ male announcer ] make the switc

host: on twitter -- ramesh has a column in today's new york post talking about the potential solutions to the fiscal cliff. we are taking your calls on your confidence in the u.s. economy this morning. don is from sumter, south carolina, on the democratic line. anything you are doing to prepare for this looming fiscal cliff if the u.s. goes off it? caller: i will probably get a hold of james cliburn and give my opinion, which i will give to you. host: that is your congressman? caller: yes. john boehner and nancy pelosi need to get together, organized all the votes they need to pass the bill that is already passed through the senate, which is the 250,000 and below, maintain the bush tax cuts. if they did that and went ahead and passed that bill, that would put the issue of the other foot -- the shoe on the other foot in regard to congress would show good faith in the effort to avoid the fiscal cliff. that would force the democrats to seriously look at fiscal reduction. it would demonstrate the fairness aspect of the rich paying a little more. but it would force the democrats to seriousl

i mean, i heard some other comments ramesh they come and they can't disagree with him more, because it's such an early -- i hear so many times about latinos, and a conservative, it just shows a lack of understanding of the latino community. latinos are extremely, opening businesses three times as fast as the national average. latinos are people of faith. the majority of latinos begin in the life to -- the right to life. on marriage, latinos were decisive to pass proposition eight in california, 53% of latinos voted for proposition eight in california. we are extremely conservative. i think, and we also have to understand there's some difference between the old latino community of say 20, 30 years ago what i call the cesar chavez a team community, and, the new york, the puerto ricans in new york and chicago, and those in the southwest, been in the u.s. since the was basically took half of mexico. and the new latino population which is foreign-born, 40% foreign-born, and the rest of the children of immigrants. very conservative. i know when asked about government they may give answers that