whenever the media are confronted by the quotes, they can apply the dan quayle rule or the barack obama rule. the barack obama rule you ignore 57 states, you ignore clinging to their guns in religion or the dan quayle rule, you focus and pound away forever on murphy brown or spelling of potato. and something tells me, and i'm trying to think the kwarable. maybe because quail and mitt romney are republicans and romney gets the quail rule and not obama. >> jon: what about the fairness they used. >> i think it's unfair the conservatives immediately beat up on him. for saying he intended to repair the safety net. i thought the statement was, forgive me fair and balanced and managed to allow conservative pundits and the liberals. it was kind of an astonishing display. >> some pundits thought it was out of touch. were they wrote? >> no, they weren't out of touch. what he should have said, look, the war on poverty has been going on 40-some years and just as many poor people as when we started maybe we ought to try something else. there's a template here. the media believes that big government

dan quayle started the trend 20 years ago by attacking tv's murphy brown for being a single mom. >> itmatters when primetime tv has murphy brown, a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid professional woman, mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice. >> but these days, republicans are turning against talking sponges. >> spongebob is talking a lot about global warming. >> clearly nickelodeon is pushing a global warming agenda. >> oh, yeah. that sponge clearly has an agenda. and they are worried about those muppets brainwashing our kids with a liberal agenda. >> liberal hollywood depicting a successful businessman as evil. that's not new. is liberal hollywood using class warfare to kind of brainwash our kids? >> yeah, absolutely. >> oh, yes, those muppets are dangerous. but trends come and go so quickly with kids. fortunately, fox business host lou dobbs is up on the latest fads. he's bashing the new doctor seuss movie "lorax" for being too pro-environment. >> the president's liberal friends in hol

but among the vips, governor jan brewer, the former vice president, dan quayle lives in arizona now, be here as well. as you look around the hall, some of ourback backdrop looks quite familiar, you see the seal of the united states. but at all of our prior debates, the kand have said standing at podiums, but tonight they'll sit down at a desk. i'll be sitting over here at a separate table asking the questions. we'll also take questions from our studio audience, as we have in the past, questions from twitter, questions from facebook, questions from cnnpolitics.com, still a chance for you to participate at home if you have a question. please send it in online and take a look. it's a very important night tonight. these are the final four contenders. it's been nearly a month since they have had a debate together. this one comes at a critical time. it's the final debate on the books. as i noted, arizona and michigan, but on tuesday, then washington state on saturday, the wyoming caucuses coming up as well. and then a host of contests all over the map on super tuesday. it's been a very unp

imagine for a moment the president george bush the first had suddenly died in office leaving dan quaylehe national punchline who nobody thought would ever wield any real power as president of the united states the measure nearly three decades later the same perceived slight weight was still running the country. that generations of americans said never known any other leader that he and marilyn quayle were busily remaning the public buildings, bridges and libraries after themselves and the president for life was seemingly grooming one of his children to continue the family business of running the country. if that seems far-fetched, it isn't too far from the reality that the egyptians have been living through for nearly three decades. put simply, hosni mubarak's was never supposed to happen. one of the core ironies of the 29 year deaf girl on egypt was that he stumbled into what was probably the most important and influential job in the modern middle east entirely by accident. it's a reality that became abundantly clear from the beginning of uprising in the winter of 2011 that finally top

we're talking about decades of bias against ronald reagan, pror trade as a huge dunca, dan quayle, whosestroyed because of the potato spelling, george bush, portrayed as jeshes and idiots and destroying the country. we know there's a built-in bias. rick santorum, it's what he is pointing out. again, the question is how to point it out. i'm not sure this is quite the way to do it or the time -- >> megyn: because he didn't have to get pretty cloud. one crack about the satan thing -- but in this defense, we pulled a couple of examples, you guys remember eugene robinson, he's really weird, not everybody is going to be down with the story of how he and his wife handled this stillborn child. >> sure. and i didn't like the way that -- >> mig and he apologized for it but they've been calling him a religious nut, a lunatic, on and on, you know. it's not just really the satan comment. he probably just got to the breaking point. >> okay, so first of all, look, you know, voices in the mainstream media have suggested -- our current president is a muslim, not an american citizen and not a christian. i

you go back to 1984, 84, republicans picked dan quayle they thought he would appeal to women becausepick sarah palin after the democrats picked hick hick. republicans ha hillary clinton. they think diversity is a bad worse. it's about african americans and hispanics. >> can we pretend you're a woman, dean, what was i thinking ask this of all men? >> today i'll circle my calendar. i agree with michele bachmann. i don't think the republican party is anti-woman, i think the problem they are being defined by people like rick santorum. the guy is not against birth control paid for by the government, but birth control. he's against abortion even in the case of rape. you need moderates to say these guys don't represent our party or will lose women and the gender gap will grow and the president will win the vote. >> all right guys, rick santorum responding to criticism he questioned the faith at a tea party event. take a listen. >> it's not about your jobs. it's about some phony ideal, some phony theology. not a theology based on the bible, different theology, no less a theology. i just said

so when dan quayle misspelled potato it was a much better deal than if al gore had misspelled potato.e's accumulation going on here because he's made so many awkward comments relating to money, i'm unemployed, too, i like firing people. you know, each one might be misconstrued and certainly some of them have been stretched. but there is more sensitivity to it. i think the second thing is kind of, you know, i think he's kind of internalized a kind of unease about this. i mean, i think, you mow, the fact that republicans, as well as democrats, have been going after him on his financial background. has made him somewhat unsteady in this terrain. i think he probably doesn't feel as secure as he does on some other areas. so i think the combination of more sensitivity and kind of the audience and more sensitivity on the part of the performer explains part of what we're seeing. >> ron brownstein, we love having you in person. you might want to move to new york. >> do it, do it, ron. the "national journal" is out now on newsstands. >> do they have ads for chrysler products in the magazine? >>

and he picked dan quayle as his vice presidential candidate and had debates and he won the race because about how they wanted to keep him on and they put dukakis immediately on the defensive, which was a big, big issue for him. >> right. >> a lot of what happens this fall, joe, will depend on what happens between now and the fall. in the economy, iran, in afghanistan, and all these places where the big issues are still very, very much in play. i've said it here to the point that my wife is ready to throw up, the ufo theory is still in place. the unforeseen will occur at some point. and it's very hard to project how people will respond to it. >> potential game changers to use your words. >> no doubt. go back to september 15th, 2008, that was a turning point in that election. when we had the meltdown and people saw how the president responded to it and how senator mccain responded to it and that -- you saw the numbers change. >> the health care debate before the supreme court, what the supreme court does around obama care law could have a similar impact september 15th -- >> tom brokaw, st