we are joined by david frum in washington, cnn contributor and conservative columnist.h me in chicago diane swonk chief economist at mesirow financial and terry from chicago times. le me start you. troubling enough for the middle class american to deal with their lives in this economy, republicans, democrats what they are doing with the economy then christine lagarde is saying solving europe's problems is the whole world's problem. i don't know how that will go over. >> it won't go over well. imf was created to help poor countries, germany and france don't qualify. american citizens are wondering what all this economic talk is about. first of all if you're a senior citizen, saved your money, government helping by keeping interest rates low, funding its own deficit. seniors are wondering where is the interest i was planning to live on. >> absolutely. >> young people i'm paying 6.8% on student loans, where are the jobs to help repay those. people in 40s and 50s and thinking about retirement, scared to invest and worried about jobs. everyone knows someone out of work. the

david frum former speechwriter. good to have both of you with us. frum, what do you make of this, especially when in the general election the president beats newt gingrich handily, but mitt romney barely. >> needs to hear more purple haze on cnn, first of all. >> yes, that's true. that's what we're here for. >> look, this is going to be the fifth bad christmas in a row. families all across the country have been promising their kids, wage earners have been promising their loved ones, themselves, maybe next year will be better. five in a row since december 2007. the patience of the country is fading under the onslaught of unremitting bad economic news. and, of course, in large parts of the country, we're having a cold winter, that means heating bills. that is what is grinding the president. and he keeps giving speeches, but i can remember from the bush days, after a while, you can give the greatest speech in the world, people stop listening. they want to see the results and where are the results. >> that's true. but right now, i mean, john, he's doing

bush speechwriter, david frum and susan molinari. you know ron paul.ar out there this cycle as he was last cycle. >> that's absolutely true. >> with the new proportional rules we could get to tampa and ron paul could be to this republican party what jesse jackson was to the democratic party in '80s. >> a genuinely nice guy. when you see him on tv you think he's going to be so out there and some of his views, his social views are an anathema to most republicans. but he is consistent, sincere, and that does resonate this year, and clearly when it comes to not his isolationist policies but his economic policies, the timing wasn't right for years ago. it is right this year. as a romney supporter and a lot of the areas the republican party, governor romney and others are right there with him. >> why? >> look, republicans and young people, young people you references we're in the middle of this terrible, terrible depression. people want an explanation. and ron paul has something that sounds like an explanation. it's not an explanation. it's exactly the wrong

david frum former speechwriter. good to have both of you with us.rum, what do you make of this, especially when in the general election the president beats newt gingrich handily, but mitt romney barely. >> needs to hear more purple haze on cnn, first of all. >> yes, that's true. that's what we're here for. >> look, this is going to be the fifth bad christmas in a row. families all across the country have been promising their kids, wage earners have been promising their loved ones, themselves, maybe next year will be better. five in a row since december 2007. the patience of the country is fading under the onslaught of unremitting bad economic news. and, of course, in large parts of the country, we're having a cold winter, that means heating bills. that is what is grinding the president. and he keeps giving speeches, but i can remember from the bush days, after a while, you can give the greatest speech in the world, people stop listening. they want to see the results and where are the results. >> that's true. but right now, i mean, john, he's doing b

also, david frum, a special assistant to president george w. bush. david, first to you. first republican candidate to flatly say if ron paul were to get the republican nomination, we would not be able to vote for him. >> the key part was no, ron paul is not going to get the republican nomination. the republican party is a party of strong national defense. it is an antiracist party. a party of inclusion. it's a party that does stand for decent social safety net and it's a party that has made contact with the changes in economic thinking over the past 150 years, so somebody who wants to take us back to the banking system obtained by the civil war, no, that person is not going to get the nomination for president. although it may make for a fun night in iowa. >> but it certainly, jonathan, i don't know if you're familiar with the ron paul supporters out there, they are very, very devoted. they're very articulate. they work really, really hard. this is going to antagonize a lot of them. it took guts, i think you'll agree, for newt gingrich to come out as strongly and as adama

but let's take a closer look now, dig deeper with mary matalin and our cnn contributor david frum andel crowley. mary, someone who has taken candidates from the process, not only is gingrich ahead in three of the four states, deep into the poll, where are his weaknesses when you look at incomes, the evangelicals and nonevangelicals, his support is consistent and solid which makes it hard to get at him, no? >> right. weaknesses don't pop out, his strength pops out. he's the first of the at bms, anybody but mits, to consolidate, not just conservatives but to consolidate across the continuum of conservatives. and on the right issues. number one issue is economics and they're all for them. what he did today, we all saw him earlier with wolf, we talked about this last night, we're on icarus watch. we saw today his wings are not wax. he's doing everything he needs to do. remember about iowa that never shows up in the commentaries, they don't -- they're very civil people. they're sophisticated people. when the instinct for these campaigns is going to be going to it on attack in the final thr

david frum was the one who said just borrow the money, it's really cheap. a little ironic there.this second half of our show with stories you care about. we have been working pretty hard today.reason i'm in d.c. tonight is i spent the day with jan eith janet napolitano. i asked her about drones and whether the predators that currently control the border will be much more widely used inside the united states. >> i think we have to be very careful here. what we're talking about is the domestic united states. and we want to make sure the things we do have also respectful of people's privacy and civil liberties, the constitutional values that we're protecting as well as protecting safety. so i think any discussion of using that kind device within the united states, that would require a serious policy discussion. and i'm not prepared to make an announcement on that. >> well, there were explosions, there were guns, there were knives. and there were drugs. much more tomorrow "out front." >>> next at&t announced it's an ban toning a bid to take over t moebl. a move analysts predicted las

david frum fits into a category of intellectual conservative or something close to that i think thatgroup not all the people who are intellectuals feel that way but many do. they don't like the riff-raff, you know, who they sees a the riff-raff. they don't like the tea party people for instance because they think they are dumb. now, here is the beef, bill. could you imagine how frustrated it must be if you are intellectual and you realize that the riff-raff have more influence on the culture and on politics than you and your incident electric actual pals have? that must be really frustrating. i think that's what the beef is with some of them. >> bill: they resent fox news now being in the middle of the campaign because absolutely we are. >> they resent the facts that fox news is an important player in the culture and by and large they are not. >> bill: that makes sense to me. >> lots of resentment from fnc both sides of the political speck couple. we are the go-to place in the presidential election. there are two people and this is what frum is referring to who believe stuff they hea

david frum, former speechwriter for george w. bush, and ron christie, national republican editor for govote.com. good to have all of you with us. let's get straight to it. first, let's start with newt. since he's been dropping in the polls, here's how he responded to a question ability electability by brett bauer on fox news channel. >> i think i can debate barack obama, and i think in seven three-hour debates, barack obama will not have a leg to stand on in trying to defend a record that is terrible and an ideology that is radical. >> well, maybe because barack obama will be tired and need some water after seven-hour debates. but we know newt can talk for a long time, and so can the president. >> he can. but erin, that's never going to happen. we've seen the former speaker's numbers really start to drop, because the more people hear about him and the more the media really scrutinizes his record, people say, is this the best man to lead the country? i think the debate will never happen. people are looking now and saying, we need

knowing the price of gold has dropped considerably since the summer, david frum wrote this this mornings a way to make a statement. simply not a sensible way to invest. a great many americans are paying a steep price and may pay a much steeper price yet for allowing hucksters and ideologues to sway their economic judgment." gold has a kind of totemic allure for certain kinds of conservatives. it's something real, something the government can't get its filthy mitts on. but now that the price of gold is at a three-month low and dropping still, what does the bursting of the gold bubble tell us about where this economy is headed? joining us now is ezra klein, the "washington post" wonk blog. he's also a columnist for bloomberg view and an nbc political analyst frequently seen here right here in this building as martin bashir guest hosting at 3:00. >> i did. >> thank you for doing double duty this evening. >> i'm glad to be here. >> what do you think of allure of gold is? i have to admit i find the universe of gold buggism fascinating. and i find the kind of gold industrial can complex that

i think the maverick conservative writer david frum writing in "new york" magazine had it write, them which was one a serious intellectual movement is in danger of become a niche market, the same niche occupied by fox news and the conservative radio hosts. i've been trying to think back because it's such an odd campaign for historical comparisons. one is just on the reality of what's happening. it feels a little like 1972. ed musky was the safe democratic candidate. he's a little bit like mitt romney who was the safe republican candidate. but the party couldn't fall in love with musky and they learned to george mcgovern. >> and look what happened there. >> look what happened there. i think newt is a little bit in the role of george mcgovern, not to offend everybody involved. but the other one i've been thinking about is 1980 when you had a very serious argument among serious republicans. you had ronald reagan representing the very conservative position, although not as conservative as today's conservatives. you had george h.w. bush, the elder bush, a moderate conservatism. you had jo

david frum, former speechwriter for george w. bush, and ron christie, national republican editor for govote.com. good to have all of you with us. let's get straight to it. first, let's start with newt. since he's been dropping in the polls, here's how he responded to a question ability electability by brett bauer on fox news channel. >> i think i can debate barack obama, and i think in seven three-hour debates, barack obama will not have a leg to stand on in trying to defend a record that is terrible and an ideology that is radical. >> well, maybe because barack obama will be tired and need some water after seven-hour debates. but we know newt can talk for a long time, and so can the president. >> he can. but erin, that's never going to happen. we've seen the former speaker's numbers really start to drop, because the more people hear about him and the more the media really scrutinizes his record, people say, is this the best man to lead the country? i think the debate will never happen. people are looking now and saying, we need

. >> david frum in his latest column writes this. prediction, he says.ngrich has emerged as the nominee by then, according to the republican convention next summer, the mood of that convention will be full of unconcealed panic. you know newt gingrich. you were in the clinton white house. you worked with him on a nearly daily basis when he was speaker of the house. what do you think? >> he is perhaps the most partisan conservative i know. i mean, he is a -- but i think is appealing to the republican base and dan frum's a very principled guy. peg peggy, i think they may be helping newt. i think karen's point is well taken. it's the old joke where clinton said why do people take such an instant dislike and clinton says, because it saves time, newt. he appeals to whose who want somebody radical, conservative, bomb throwing. the more the establishment says they don't like newt, the more they may be helping newt. >> in part, look, i think what the party wants more than anything is to defeat barack obama. and i think they see the how well newt has performed in