>> is he almost the authentic george w. bush? is he really what george w. bush pretended to be? >> this is exactly -- you've got it exactly right. this is the real thing. the real cowboy from a dryland farm on west texas. the suggestion is that he's the guy in the cowboy boots from texas. as you know, george bush was born in connecticut. so rick perry is the real thing. now, is that a good thing or not? might be a bad thing in some places. >> it could be. here's perry pronouncing a certain word. just the way his predecessor george bush did. let's listen. >> it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. >> i am a supporter of nuclear energy. >> what is it about nuclear and nuclear? i don't get it with these guys. richard, an interesting thing. when perry got into the race, the people who jumped on him first and began pointing out problems with his record and things like that were not really the democrats so much. they were old bush hands. old w. bush hands and others associated with that family. what's re

he is george bush on steroids. >> jon: no. no, he's not! he's not george bush on steroids. rick perry is what happens if lex luthor disstilled george bush's essence in a laboratory and crossed it with gun powder and semen from the finest thoroughbred and strappeded that concoction on to a nuclear missile and shot it into the (beep) sun. and then waited, waited, waited, until one day on the anniversary of the alamo a solar flare yada yada yad rick perry. how do i know that this creature is george bush-plus- plus? oh, i'll tell you how i know. >> he's a man of trust in his family. his father-in-law actually did his vasectomy. (laughing) >> jon: may i remind you, his father-in-law is not a doctor. (laughing) just one of these. hold still, rick. which want do you want vasectomyed first? so now with pawlenty dropping out, rick perry dropping in, we've got ourselves a race. >> we have a top tier. it is mitt romney, rick perry and michele bachmann. >> we have a new top tier. perry, romney and bachmann. >> there's a top tier in this race of romney, perry and bachmann. >> that's fai

if you close your eyes, rick perry sounds like rich little doing george bush. it really does. i have a role. i remember the bumper sticker of any candidate on my car who uses the words optimize, proactive, or prioritize. i was leading in his direction, but when he said prioritize, that did it. >> you don't like his english. >> he can do in texas what most states can do. they do not have armies. they did not fight wars. they do not have global responsibilities. one aspect of this whole discussion that is being overlooked, ignored, whether the debt ceiling will be raised for two years or for six months, the way this thing is going, given what is on the table now and the possibility that there will be cuts, there will be massive dislocation in this country. children are going to find that their access to hospitals will be cut back. senior citizens will take some hits. there will be -- education will take big hits with the pell grants. to achieve the so-called cuts they are talking about would mean that a lot of people could be severely hurt. >> but we cannot sustain this level of

you know, when proponents of george bush -- chris: when supporters of george w. bush accuse perry of being shallow, we've hit the mother load. >> i think democrats and the cast of "saturday night live" want to see perry as the nominee. chris: and a lot of focus on that guy. six months from now, david you pick this up here, who is going to be the hot hand in the republican fight? who will be the big name out of iowa? >> the big noise officially will be rick perry and the country will learn about him, look at his personality and his leadership skills and then we'll see. that's the great thing about a campaign, people look strong at the outset, sometimes have trouble. you know, for me the question is whether romney's kind of managerial strength of so lidity is something the public in this very difficult time will like and get interested in, then you'll have a cumulative effect. >> why all the picking over of candidates, why have we ignored him, why has no one thought of rick perry until now? why has he never come up before? >> we'll see the vetting. that's the thing

very human characteristic i'm curious why you know you've really dug into this stuff why did george w. bush ignore the cia. read for who flew down to crawford i mean they sent a special guide out across particular that famous memo that condi rice finally had to blur the name out before congress you know determine a strike inside the united states and then after he got the memo he was scheduled to go back to d.c. but instead he extended his vacation for a couple weeks nothing happened and then he went longest presidential vacation history back to george washington and then he went to his brother's state of florida rather than going back to d.c. and jeb knocked down the entire state. it makes one wonder if bush was just like waiting for something awful happened maybe didn't know what it was i'm not trying to play you know the nine eleven conspiracy theorist here but. what was going on with that well i think all the investigations will show for move the nine eleven commission the congressional investigations they're going to a lot of investigations of this is that the bush administration just

seriously, could you imagine george w. bushmarkets absolutely collapse like that? i'm sorry, maybe he did. maybe there are examples of this. it just sends a horrible message. republicans, as well as democrats, i blame both sides, blah-blah-blah. i think seriously, if i'm in the middle of the greatest economic crisis in my administration, i'm probably not going to go to a political fundraiser that night to raise money. >> milike sing with jennifer hudson and stuff. >> i don't get it. >> i don't either. that, i don't. >> the other thing, going is one thing, the message he's using at these events. i understand he's talking to his base about i inherited this. >> he did. >> george bush made terrible mistakes, taxes cuts, two wars, prescription -- >> can i say democrats did much too much spending. let's not pretend that democrats didn't spend. actually, attack george bush for not spending enough. >> they did throughout the decade. >> republicans don't want to bend. >> that is the point, when everybody is going to blame george bush, h

i love george bush. he's a great president and i support him. >> reporter: he's also courted tea party republicans. >> all of that was an effort to rebrand, if you will, texas as rick perry's texas, rather than george w. bush's texas and looking forward to a possible national campaign, clearly governor perry is going to need distance from president bush. >> reporter: perry isn't the only one doing the distancing, when perry ran for re-election last year, bush's father and his vice president both supported senator kay bailey hutchison in what was a bitter primary challenge. >> i think apt the staff level there is a certain tension between some of the texas staffers for george w. bush and governor perry's staffers. >> reporter: but former bush secretary ari fleisher says, there's no scandal in perry wanting to be his own man. >> part of running for office is establishing your identity, sometimes you reinforce that which came before you and sometimes it means you differ, and i suspect we're going to see bot

i love george bush. he's a great president and i support him. >> reporter: he's also courted tea party republicans. >> all of that was an effort to rebrand, if you will, texas as rick perry's texas, rather than george w. bush's texas and looking forward to a possible national campaign, clearly governor perry is going to need distance from president bush. >> reporter: perry isn't the only one doing the distancing, when perry ran for re-election last year, bush's father and his vice president both supported senator kay bailey hutchison in what was a bitter primary challenge. >> i think apt the staff level there is a certain tension between some of the texas staffers for george w. bush and governor perry's staffers. >> reporter: but former bush secretary ari fleisher says, there's no scandal in perry wanting to be his own man. >> part of running for office is establishing your identity, sometimes you reinforce that which came before you and sometimes it means you differ, and i suspect we're going to see bot

the last few years have done damage to george w. bush and the reputation of george w. bush. dent ran against george w. bush. he wants this president to run against rick perry. he has to show he's different than george w. bush. he is a leader that will bring hope to the united states. the next president of the united states from our party will have to be a cheer leader from the united states and lift us up again to make us feel good about ourselves and feel good about our country and i think rick perry would be that guy. megyn: karl rove says he's surprised he's distancing himself from bush. bill clinton weighed in saying he's a good looking rascal but says he's full of nonsense. he came under the microscope because he made these comments about ben bernanke which is turning into a news story. >> if this guy prints more money between now and the elections, i don't know what y'all will do to him in iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly in texas. and printing more money to play politics at this particular time in america's history is almost treasonous in my opinion. megyn: we

the president repealed george bush's order on presidential papers but we are still not sweden. the administration has been aggressively pursuing leaders and brought five criminal cases against alleged leaders as opposed to three in the last 40 years. the response to julian assange's offer to negotiate rejections in the state department cables was worthy of john mitchell's approach to that matter. the obama administration's treatment of photographs of all abu ghraib kite abuse was interesting. everyone has seen the abu ghraib pictures, gruesome as they are but it turns out there are a lot more, 2,000 of them showing abuse of prisoners by military personnel in iraq and afghanistan. some were taken by soldiers as souvenirs like most of the abu great pictures. some were autopsy photographs and others taken in the process of criminal investigation of the abuse by our government and the aclu and others sued under the freedom of information act to get access to these and released photographs. the administration argued, opposed the request. the obama administration oppose the request s

last year, the entire bush machine including george herbert walker bush and karl rove went to bat for senator kay bailey hutchinson for her failed g.o.p. primary bid against rick perry. >> laura: they were against him and for kay lay -- bayly. >> laura: you pick sides and do what you do. you can't be surprised if perry is annoyed by that or frankly if bush is annoyed bush is criticizing him. now we find out that jeb bush is very encouraging to someone like a paul ryan, that paul ryan should get into the race. jeb bush was thinking 2016 according to some sources. now jeb bush encouraging ryan according to steve hayes at the "weekly standard" fox news contributor. that also adds a level of intrigue into this. >> yeah. if those reports are true, laura, it would spell a kind of a death nail death nell. whatever his intentions with the karl roves and the tony frattos and tony wieners. perry wants to be able to tap into the bush donor network. >> laura: money. >> if is he urging other people to run it could mean that perry will have a tough time accessing that money. >> laura: that money ne

you can't act as though the president had the wherewithal to move forward as george bush did. s grand bargain was blocked. i don't think you have the same thing. i don't think that my friend pat who had no problem with mr. bush in the middle of two wars he created going to texas every chance he got. i think his opinion of the president's vacation will give you some slack. >> let me correct you there. o f i oppose george bush's war in iraq, okay? >> you didn't oppose his vacation? >> no, i don't oppose vacation. i think nicole and i agree with that. presidents ought to have vacations. the president of the united states, willie, down to 39%. that means he's not losing gas like pat buchanan. he's starting to lose people in his base who are exas per rated and some of whom are saying, maybe the hope and change thing isn't working out the way we wanted. i don't think riding around in the bus out there repeating the same message with no problem is helping him. >> pat, wasn't ronald reagan down? >> he was down there too, sure. >> did he come back? >> yeah, but the economy by now revere

i love george bush. he's a great president and i support him. >> reporter: he's also courted tea party republicans. >> all of that was an effort to rebrand, if you will, texas as rick per re's texas rather than george w. bush's texas and looking forward to a possible campaign clearly governor perry is going to need distance from president bush. >> reporter: perry isn't the only one doing the distancing, when perry ran for re-election last year, bush's father and his vice president both supported senator kay bailey hutchison in what was a bitter challenge. >> in some of the texas staffers for george w. bush and governor perry's staffers. >> reporter: ary fleischer says there's no scandal in perry wanting to be his own man. >> part of running for office is establishing your identity, sometimes you reinforce that which came before you and sometimes you differ, i suspect we'll see both with governor perry. >> reporter: in his speech perry is expected to tout his economic record but democrats in this state po

ronald reagan, the werner dethroning the establishment, mitt romney in the way reagan pushed aside george bush 41. reagan found a way to play a big debate moment in new hampshire to make bush look too small for the role. >> i am -- for this microphone -- chris: democrats hope barack obama won't be like jimmy carter, whose economic times were so tough they got reagan elected and reagan's far right views weren't even in focus. could the same be true for rirk perry? if he were the republican nominee, would his controversial views get ignored? >> i'm not real sure you're a bunch of right wing extremists, but if you are, i'm with you. >> john is this what the republican parties wants? a guy wo -- who kids around and embraces the far right? >> certainly i think that the republican party right now is a very it logical party. the story of reagan is a guy with extraordinarily good skills, with deep conviction, with a degree of certainty about himself that was lacking on the part of any other candidate. all those things are present in rick perry and not as pretty in mitt romney and they give perry a rea

unlike george bush, bush sought authorization for the use of force. obama did not. why is there no outcry in that case? we don't know the outcome. i think projections of democracy in egypt, north africa, mideast, i don't believe any that >> it is not going to happen. i'm happy to see the war powers act trashed. the sooner the better. the president made a big point how he went to the u.n. security council to get authorization. only to protect the libyan civilians not to overthrow gadhafi. there's hypocrisy even in the conducting of the military operation. >> sean: i thought i was mu mill ing and embarrassing with our vice president in china. -- humiliating and em-- embarrassing with our vice president in china. he defended their brutal one-while policy, saying i fully understand it. i'm not second guessing one child per family. otherwise one person going to be paying for four people, it is not sustainable this is a policy of forced abortion. this is a policy that has been brutal toaoztó women and girls - >> anti-girl policy, no doubt about it. i find it unspeakable t

george bush wins in '99. mitt romney in 2007.o does the winner of the straw poll, boom, do they go on to be the nominee? no. ronald reagan, george h.w. bush, bob doll did do it here. bush did do it here. john mccain was the nominee in 2007. what happens on saturday doesn't necessarily mean there's your winner in the race. here's what it can do. this is the impact of the straw poll. he's a governor and then a senator. governor alexander, elizabeth dole, their presidency ended in the days our hours because of their performance being so week. that was in the 2000 cycle. in the last cycle former governor tompson, former senator brownback, boom, gone because of poor expectations, straw poll performances. what do you look for in 2012? number one, governor pawlenty has to center a strong showing. he's from neighboring minnesota. number two, congressman paul has a strong grassroots connection. do they win for a top three showing. there's a write-in option. governor perry is announcing that he won't be in iowa. will iowans be mad or might

obama in 2008 saying george bush is unpatriotic.d that the republicans, they are putting politics above their country. saying unpatriotic. those republicans, they are nasty republicans. they want guys like perry to be nasty against obama. they never talked about obama calling george bush unpatriotic. let's roll that tape. >> people -- he's so fiesty against obama, they like that >> republican party is very conservative now a lot of people in the republican party don't believe romney is a genuine conservative. there's a piece that is angry. >> sean: i get a thrill up in my leg every time i hear that guy talk. he's the gift that keeps giving. i ought to send a check to chris matthews. >> who has in the last month called the tea party muggers, called them kidnappers, called them terrorists? who has called rick perry a supporter of segregation and bull connor with a smile. he hates civil rights and rush limbaugh is for resegregation of the military and public schools. all in the last month? chris matthews. >> sean: where would we be wit

three times to george bush, and obama's was largely in response to george bush and hank paulson asking us to bail out the financial structure of america. we have to get real about what the problem is. the second piece of this, senator boxer and senator inhofe have a terrific highway bill if we were to do that do it quickly, we will save 600,000 more jobs than what the house is setting out to do. three, we need to pass the infrastructure bank, which is bipartisan, senator kay bailey hutchison of texas and myself have introduced this w lindsay gram of south carolina and mark warner of virginia. we have $2.2 trillion of infrastructure deficit in america. china is putting 9% of gdp into infrastructure. the united states of america is putting 2% or less into it. we have $80 billion of loss every year just to bail out just to grid problems with our energy structure to highways that are clogged because we don't build a transportation system. we know how to do this. we could have patent reform. there are millions of jobs being wrapped up in the bureaucracy of patent reform which isn't moving f

. -- you could hear eight tinge of george w. bush. est: that is the sales pitch that the mid romney campaign is getting. they don't want to go back to texas although we have had -- if you can't george h. w. bush, there have been three -- lyndon johnson and the two bushes from texas and that does not seem to bother them to elect a second bush after the first bush got rejected for a second term. i'm not sure that will play very well. there is a real hunger among conservatives for someone with executive experience and credibility who has a record. i have seen a lot of politicians. my first political story in 1968 -- rick perry knows how to work the crowd. he has an attractive family but he came up and was standing next to me before he bounced onto the stage and he looked at me and said," this will be a fun ride." he was like a racehorse getting into the gate. politicians say the best day of any campaign is the day you announce. from then on, it is downhill. i'm sure there'll be a lot of attacks and so on. rick perry likes retail politics

don't give us nobody gives less of us than george bush if you was hanging from a cliff getting ready to fall to your death that's right and bush was at the top of the cliff and all you needed was a to save your life and bush had a pocket full six he wouldn't give you one we would have played the clip from this and we even had a ready with all the beautiful f. bombs leap out but. if you h.b.o. so for all the wonderful criticism we enjoyed from chris rock during the bush years surely he wouldn't just stroll into the white house for a little schmoozing without making a point right. just love the president's birthday party at the white house herbie hancock played stevie wonder saying and yes they did the electric slide on a great night so i eagerly check back in chris rock's twitter feed there today and not been talked about not given a funk sorry this is an h.b.o. cable so chris rock you have the opportunity to change the world yesterday you were not into to confront the great obama or at least to say something about being invited to the white house because of what we both hailed as an a

and senator bob -- or rob portman, spent a year as george w. bush's budget director. that's not exactly a glowing resume for someone on a debt reduction committee. this is their idea of working past political brinkmanship. joining me now is representative jim mcdermott, democratic from washington. congressman mcdermott is also a member of the progressive office. congressman, you've heard the stance of republicans on the committee. how can we reach a bipartisan compromise with these members? >> al, i'm very, very pessimistic about this being productive at all. the congress, as described in the new republic this week, is a block congress. that's all the republican party is, is block the president's efforts. and they put together a team which is going to make this debt reduction problem absolutely impossible to solve. if you can't have any kind of revenue increases, and you can't cut defense spending, and you can't stop the wars, how can you deal with the problems this country faces? and those are the guys they put on there and so they set it up so as mitch mcconnell say

george h.w. bush in '79. bob dole and phil graham, they tied in 1995. george bush wins in '99.itt romney in 2007. so does the winner of the straw poll, boom, go on to be the nominee? no. ronald reagan, george h.w. bush, john mccain was the nominee in 2007. what happens on saturday doesn't necessarily mean there's your winner in the race. here's what it can do. here's the impact of the straw poll. he was a governor now and senator now. governor alexander, elizabeth dole, their presidency ended in the days our hours because of their performance being so week. and because of poor low expectations, straw poll performances. what do we look for in 2012? and strong grass roots, do they win for a top three showing. there's a write-in option. governor perry is announcing that he won't be in iowa. will they be mad or might they write them in. right them for conservative support. candy crowley in the freedom coalition, steve, even engel cals, some people report about that, like yourself, very important in your iowa caucus, very important in the straw poll and said that's the last thing i

. >> rick perry sounds just like george bush. >> he's not george bush on steroids. >> rick perry accusing our federal reserve chairman. >> some felt that was a threatening comment. >> well, i might have said it a little bit differently. >> welcome to the nfl. >> even carl rove is worried his party is going too far to the right. >> republicans are going to have to make a choice. it will become a self-defeating message. >> the worst thing you can do in politics is be a hypocrite. >> howard dean is here. >> there's a lot of explaining to do, as they say. >> and michele bachmann gets fact checked again. >> let's all say happy birthday to elvis presley today. >> 34th anniversary of his death, not his birthday. >> i forgot my teleprompters today. >> but who's counting? >> he's still alive, alive in our hearts. >> bachmann got a commanding 80% of the votes she paid for. >>> good evening from new york. it took all of three days for smooth customer, political veteran, rick perry to say something odious, not just odious to me or liberals, but thuggish and odious to anyone, even mr. carl rove. we'll

. >> and george w. bush. and that debate with jim lair in 2000 when george w. the same thing. >> something happens when they get into the white house. something changes. >> something happens. it's fascinating, to every president. i remember the transformation of bill clinton who -- who evolved from election from an anti-china, an antiwar, son of the '60s, to being sucked in, becoming commander in chief, and suddenly sending troops all over the world. >> suddenly you're in somalia, bosnia -- >> suddenly you're sending ships to haiti. yeah, you're going -- >> dick cheney could argue that we're all cheney-ites now that -- here is obama with guantanamo and the drones. >> triple the number of troops. we're firing drones into somalia. dropping bombs on a country we're not at war at -- yemen. >> he's been validated by obama. >> he has. i said that yesterday. boy, the tweets. whoo! >> all right. for now -- >> it's true. >>> let's bring in now, let's bring in chuck todd? >> why not? the chief white house correspondent. >> and he's also director of "the daily rundown." >>

george bush's intelligence.very is a genius who drives the economy into a ditch. [ talking over each other ] >> first thing, you are a moron. then you are a racist. >> you don't see me doing that. >> no, but your friends do. you should ask them to stop. >> okay they should stop. but we should have a conversation about the policies these candidates for president are pursuing. that's the conversation -- [ talking over each other ] >> we are not having it tonight. >> sean: wish all the navy corpsmen out there my best. appreciate you being with us steve. >> that is a riot. i love that. >> when do i get an easy segment? >> sean: do you think he made a mistake or didn't know? >> i think he made a mistake. he caught osama bin laden. [ talking over each other ] >> sean: listen, he gave the order, i give him credit. but it wouldn't have happened without the intelligence from enhanced interrogations. i got that go. thanks to all our navy corpsman viewers out there. coming up colin powell lashes out at dick cheney over the

he is george bush. they love the -- george bush minus ten. they love the guy in texas.th him. that's the good news for all democrats. >> do you know what else? it will be hard to chant we're number 43. we're number 46. like texas isn't number one in anything. so good luck, dude. >> if he flames out though. if he flame out, what about paul ryan jumping in? >> this is what i think is so great. basically the media name is yeah, maybe somebody normal will eventually jump into this race. and it is just not happening. you saw huntsman's tweet today, right? i believe in science. nibble evolution. it is like, dude, it's like the one shirt that has the two arm at the outlet mall. they don't want someone saying that. >> if you look it a, they're throwing spaghetti at the wall and hope something will stick. it is fun to watch karl rove. he is in hell right now. he understands what is getting ready. they've turned into the tea party. he know it. they can't solve it. and rick perry is their guy. the more we look at him, the more whaends the new republican really looks like. >> i thi

and then george w. bush in his book decision points basically said the same thing you said three people were water boarded i believe that decision saved lives so is it time to convene a war try and war crimes tribunal and try these guys for the crimes that they've confessed to after all we put people to death japanese to death for doing this to our soldiers. how do you look like you're going to take the whole why don't you try president obama continued many of the same policies that the left condemns on the war on terror he seemed older teen i'm torturing you but he detaining individuals are going to talk i don't i mean does that still actually trying to close down guantanamo bay in the republicans filibustered the funding necessary to show that he did not he never shut it down like he promised he said he was going to democrats had full control of congress for two years and he didn't do so so it's on him not only that did he start a military conflict in libya i mean has he not attacked and use drones through