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joining me now is dave weigel, msnbc contributor and political reporter for slate.com.do you make of the events that have taken place as of late? >> well, we all made fun of bill kristol and other republican leaders when they were calling for mitch daniels to save the party or calling for paul ryan to save the party. that was not crazy. they might have seen something coming. this might have been a nostradamus moment for people like kristol. because this is a mess. mitt romney is in the eyes of what's left of the republican establishment, certainly in the eyes of republican pollsters, is an electable candidate who, you know, has advantages over obama that most -- the last few -- the other possible nominees don't have. and he can't convince this -- about 75% of the republican party to take him seriously, especially in iowa. >> you know, dave, you look at the democrats. john edwards spent almost four years in iowa. chris dodd moved there. hillary clinton had awesome name recognition. but it was the ground game of barack obama and a bunch of youngsters out there working eve

joining me now is dave weigel from slate.com. taken place as of late? >> we all made fun of bill crystal and the republican leaders when they were calling for mitch daniels to save the party or paul ryan to save the party. that was not crazy. they may have seen something coming. this may have been a nostradamus moment for them. certainly in the eyes of republican pollsters, mitt romney is an electable candidate, if he has an advantage over obama, the last few nominees don't have. he can't convince about 75% of the republican party to take him seriously. especially in iowa. >> you look at the democrats. john edwards spent almost four years in iowa. chris dodd moved there. hillary clinton had awesome name recognition. it was the ground game of barack obama. and a bunch of youngsters out there working every single county. is newt gingrich working every county? who's got the best ground game in iowa to your knowledge? >> he's doing better. romney theoretically has something that can be activated. he got 25% last time. he has a networ

editor for most newspapers or magazines and television stations you enter here and it's you know dave weigel at slate he's a great reporter i mean. really contextualizes how this is playing in the right wing blogosphere and i'm sure drudge probably why because we're out and you know i think there's a conversation that needs to be had a battle playing into the hands up the very people you're trying to defeat and i think you are in fact got people inside you're going to zation who want to play those hands because there are those people and none of us know you know and there's there's a through z. as i'm there's there's a lack of political sophistication and there's some people who think that turning the whole thing down is the whole best way to start over again is a bunch of we're out of time here is a real important point you want to make is a really short just because it's very frustrating that they didn't direct the woman in the wheelchair with one of the fifteen other exits because i feel like that's how these things also get borne out of proportion when folks don't do what makes the most

msnbc contributor dave weigel. good to have you on with us >>> thanks to you at home for staying with us the next hour. at berkeley, cal, outside the administration building there there's a big empty plaza space. at the top of a short run of stairs, from the administration area down to that plaza, there is a plaque that's embedded in the steps. it names those steps the mario savio steps. this is mario savio. you are about to hear mario savio in a moment. for context, the president kurr you hear him mention was president of the university of california at the time mario savio was speaking here. the students were trying to overturn a ban on political activity on campus and free speech rights to advocate for political causes on campus and protesting against the university board of regents. >> we were told the following, if president kurr tried to get something more liberal out of the regions in his telephone conversations, why didn't he make a public statement to that effect? the answering we received from a well mean