joe watkins is a former george h.w. bush white house aide. ood morning, chris. >> so, joe, rand paul has won two straw polls. he's topping the latest 2016 poll. so to chris cillizza's point, does he need to be taken seriously now? >> clearly, he's somebody to be taken seriously. winning these polls early on means a great deal and he's got a strong following. it still is early, though, chris. remember, there have been lots of folks who looked strong early on and ended up not being the party's nominee. the ideal person to be the nominee for the republican party is somebody who cannot only draw on the base, but can likewise win women and independent voters, hispanics and african-americans. people who we were not able to draw in the last election cycle. >> well, to that point, i think his timing, some people might argue, is very good. not only is his appeal on the rise, it kind of coincides with the rise in popularity of libertarianism. and he was just in utah, talking about growing the republican party. here's what he said. "we need to welcome ne

. >> reporter: joining us to discuss the conservative conference is joe watkins former aid to presidentsh and mr. watkins it's great to see you and how important is this conference for republican presidential contenders, let's start with that? >> well, it's an early indicator whether or not you are viable as a republican because you have to win the nomination first before you can be the party's candidate. so being invited to the cpa c convention and certainly passing the test with conservatives is an important thing inside the party. >> reporter: christie has not always been invited. >> last year he was not invited because he took the photos with president obama but it goes to show you how much things can change a year in politics, someone who was not invited last year or two years ago today is not only invited by tomorrow could be the darling of the party. with the 30% that said they would never vote for him it could change easily in a year. >> not even just a year, how about a couple of months, right. >> right. >> reporter: let's look at the cbs news "new york times" poll released las

msnbc.com managing editor daphne linzer and joe watkins. let's go first to ukraine."meet the press." >> president obama hopes that president putin will turn in the direction that's available to him to work with all ofs that you creates stability in ukraine. this does not have to be and should not be an east west struggle. this is not about russia and the u.s. this is about the people of ukraine. >> your reaction to that? >> i think that's a message that john kerry has been trying to emphasize all week. he did it in his interview with ann mitchell. this isn't going to be a return to the cold war. it's certainly looking that way. there wasn't this push towards democracy and the west having some impact in ukraine, i don't think we would see this. but i think the way putin is behaving certainly makes us feels like it's the cold war all over again. >> you know, jason, this is another foreign policy challenge for president obama. understandably he's loathed to get military involved anywhere. how does this set him up for this challenge? >> it doesn't set him up at all. ther

morris reid and joe watkins, three of my favorites. hello, guys.with you. as the christie administration has this report that came out thursday, exonerating the governor and put the blame on two former aides, bridget kelly and david wildstein, both who declined to participate in this report, this report says kelly had a personal relationship with bill stepien, which was ended, apparently by stepien. the report also says that kelly seemed, quote, emotional. and was, quote, habitually concerned about how she was perceived by the governor. i would like your reaction to this, goldie. what do these kinds of details accomplish? >> and i think that's the key question here. what do they accomplish? are they seeking to malign or discredit ms. kelly? i think that's exactly what they're out to do. the unfortunate thing about this report is, it doesn't come from a truly independent source. and so all of the planets would have to align in terms of governor christie. they would all have to align for us to understand that he did not know anything about this bridg