portraying romney as a gordon gekko from "wall street." >> greed is right. greed works. >> reporter: as we flew with romney to south carolina today, he was outraged hearing this from his own party. >> we have known for a long time, that the obama would come after free enterprise. little surprised to see newt gingrich is the first witness for the prosecution. >> reporter: romney says he created 100,000 jobs in maine. he would not give the number of jobs lost. rick perry saying romney's work is like the work of a vulture, having said this -- >> there are vultures sitting out there on the tree limb, waiting for the company to get sick. and then, they swoop in. >> reporter: because of the attacks, the romney team has been able to achieve one thing, rallying support from influential conservatives. >> newt and perry blew it. the attacks they mounted on romney are not defensible. >> reporter: romney, meanwhile, looking beyond his opponents here, focusing on the one in the white house. >> president obama. this president -- the president has run out of ideas. now, he

the gordon gekko of capitalism. a better chance to gain a foothold with the 9.9% unemployment rate. i would look for the super pack helping gingrich to plug into the narrative. >> yeah, gingrich blames his loss in iowa on negative ads. let's play a new ad attacking romney on his abortion record. >> he governored pro-abortion. he appointed a pro-abortion judge. put planned parenthood on a state medical board but failed to put a pro-life on the same board. mandated health care with taxpayer funded abortions. massachusetts moderate, mitt romney, he can't be trusted. >> this is a very important issue to voters of south carolina. >> this is exactly the kind of ad that does the work. what the nasty ads do is shrink. people don't bother coming out. if you convince people there is some candidate who is so critically important on an issue either against them or for them, this is a person if i go vote for them, it's going to make a big difference on the one issue i care about, that can be the one thing that breaks through. if

he's like morphing into gordon gekko. >> jonathan, your feelings about this. the mood seems to be important to voters right now. >> the newt gingrich that south carolinian saws on that debate stage monday night that brought them to their feet at one point with his denunciation of juan williams is, i think, you are exactly right. that's the reason why newt has his third moment here. it's remarkable. he's on his third life in this campaign. and his second life politically overall. look, you're -- he has captured the anger of a lot of republicans in this state towards president obama, but towards washington, i think, overall. and that's why if you look at the tea party, newt is doing much better than what romney is doing. if you look at income, by income, newt is doing better among those folks who are middle income or working class than mitt does among the rich. newt has tapped into the middle class populist fury at washington and president obama. >> romney took on a man in a crowd who challenged romney about being part of that elite 1%. >> what will you do to su

personally, he exudes this gordon gekko persona and his policies. it's interesting, chris, that romney is trying to have a moment. if you watch that confrontation, you can see romney trying to have his reagan, mr. green moment. he's trying to show toughness and conservative voters that he too is angry and is going to tell it like it is. the problem is he doesn't do it as naturally as newt does it. >> let me go over to dana. that great moment for reagan is when he wanted all the candidates to speak. not just him and bush. this isn't a populous move by romney. it's we're rich, we're going to get richer. >> the man has become this walking cliche. the problem is on the personal side, now we hear he has all this money invested in the cayman islands and comes up with this clintonian answer. he has all these things on the one side. the extraordinary wealth, the 15% tax rate, the refusal to release his returns, coupled with the policy to make people like him wealthier. he's written the democratic ads for president obama. if he survives the primaries, as i t

. >> reporter: while the group linked him to that '80s symbol of american excess, gordon gekko from "wall street." >> greed, for lack of a better word, is good. >> reporter: fellow republicans were throwing punches about romney's days running bain capital. >> i think companies like bain capital could have helped these companies if they truly were venture capitalists, but they're not. they're vulture capitalists. >> reporter: romney responded to the criticism this morning on the "today" show. >> i think it's about envy, class warfare and something we expected to come from president obama, but we didn't expect that newt gingrich and rick perry would become the witnesses for his prosecution, if you will. i don't think it's helped them. >> reporter: it hasn't helped perry and gingrich in the polls much. both were distant finishers in iowa and new hampshire. nor did it help win favor with conservative heavyweights like rush limbaugh. >> i don't care what you think the attacks they mounted on romney are not defensible. >> reporter: the former speaker disagreed, almost cringing at the notion

newt gingrich's campaign is portraying romney is a a gordon gekko-type character, you remember him from "wall street." >>> more on the new tv ad. mr. gingrich has a 30-minute documentary that is planned to air coming up soon. >>> washington authorities say a woman 18 miles the wrong way on the highway thursday morning, hitting 100 miles per hour she scared a number of drivers. troopers say the driver topped 100 miles per hour during an 18-mile trip all going the wrong way. >> police say the woman has no prior convictions. she bailed out of jail late wednesday morning. a man who answered the door at her home says she doesn't remember a thing. >>> newstime 4:50. >>> a woman near denver has damage to her mini van and a vehicle after sliding into a car yesterday. the snow arrived at the worst possible time, right around rush hour. slick roads meant lots of accidents as the morning commute turned into a nightmare for many motorists. if you've ever been caught in a situation like this, oh! >> you look for the breakers. got to keep moving. that's what we're missing. snow lovers, that image is

28 minute video and said they'll spend millions on ads in south carolina, portraying him as the gordon gekko of presidential politics. >> a group of corporate raiders led by mitt romney. the company was bain capital. more ruthless than wall street. >> pulled the rug out from under our plant. >> everybody was fired. they fire people, they cut benefits, they sell assets. >> mitt romney, them guys, don't care who i am. >> i feel that is the man that destroyed us. >> winning our future is responsible for the content of this message. >> joining the panel, this week, "wall street journal" columnist and deputy editor, dan heading jer, assistant owed tor page editor, james freeman, editorial board member, dorothy ra begrabz and, kim strassel. >> that is well produced smear and, so is the 28 minute film and i think once newt gingrich quits and the pac closes up shop it will be able to sell it to the obama campaign for a large amount of money. >> well, but, is it -- is that what -- a fair description of the public/private equity business. >> it is completely one-sided and the point of private equity i

society returned to the ethics and values of the days of the robber barons, and our heroes are gordon gekko and donald trump. as a steward of city development, vote against this effort, or at least limit their request. >> next speaker, jackie bryson. next speaker, mark bruno. >> thank you. my name is mark bruno. i am a member of the swimming club at 8 washington for the last three years. i have lived in north beach for 25 years. i worked at the st. peter and paul church and throughout the city, specifically helping homeless families find places to find food and shelter. i came here to speak specifically about notice, because the city has failed, in my opinion, the members of the swimming club and the tennis club, telling them about what is going on. i want to correct one thing that was stated by the first speaker in public comment, which is that we are all very wealthy people who belonged to the swimming club. i am not wealthy. i work for st. vincent. that is my job. the pay is almost nothing. the reason i can afford to go to this club is because for my health i like to swim. you do not hav

we joke about the gordon gekko, the embodiment of wealth.nts of romney will utilize now, this larger than life figure to paint him in that life. take a listen to what rick perry said today. >> there's a real difference between venture capitalism and vulture capitalism. venture capitalism we like. vulture capitalism, no. >> he says he stands on a tree limb, ready to pick a carcass clean. >> i think mitt hasn't come clean and there's maybe good reason with what bain capital did. it will keep dripping out. he's been more of a parasite than a vulture. a parasite sucks life out of a living carcass. they transferred wealth from companies and employees to themselves. >> there are people born into wealth. people that work for wealth. is the narrative that the romney camp wants to paint now about being envious about wealth. even from the president obama election team to the envy of wealth. is it something the american public wants to hear? those working hard and struggling in this country? >> where mitt might slip up, might. he had a great night last

here in south carolina, there was a guy dressed up like the famous character from wall street gordon gekko saying greed for lack of a better word is good. they're hoping that resinates. the romney campaign said they expected this, just from the democrats, not from their republican rivals. >> thanks so much, peter. >>> we want to talk about the fight that we're going to see over the next nine days with our panel, politico executive editor jim vandehei who writes about why south carolina is the snake pit. here's rick santorum actually defending mitt romney over the bain attacks that have been launched by gingrich and rick perry. take a listen. >> i hate to sit here and be a defender of mitt romney, but to me this is a defender of capitalism. and, you know, i have to say that you know, this is an attack that's probably not warranted. there's plenty of mitt romney's record as governor of massachusetts to attack and go after it. >> so is rick santorum taking the high road here? basically a conservative rallying to romney's defense? >> i think he clearly is. and you can see a lot of other republ

going to try to paint him in the same way newt gingrich is now as a kind of gordon gekko figure and put in that box. >> that makes sense. here's president obama laying out his election strategy in his kansas speech last month, which people believe is a smart speech. it's not just that it's soft. it's not maniacal. it's not hateful. but it does particularly target a certain kind of money making, which he knows people don't look up to. people who make money off money rather than making things. fair or not, that seems to be the discourse right now. here he is last month in kansas. >> this isn't about class warfare. this is about the nation's welfare. it's about making choices that benefit, not just the people who have done fantastically well over the last few decades, but that benefits the middle class and those fighting to get into the middle class. a strong middle class can only exist in an economy where everyone plays by the same rules from wall street to main street. >> that's sort of a sunday morning attempt to be a populous. one guy doing it. what do you make of this president who is

- his opponents, be it democrats or republicans are trying to paint as this cold, calculating, gordon gekkoigure. and so that's going to be a huge challenge for them to humanize him for the general election, if hee he ends up the nominee. >> all of this, the south carolina poll says romney is at 37%, santorum 19%, gingrich 18%, paul 12%, perry 5%, huntsman 1%. if that holds, and willard wins and wins with this kind of margin, it would be just about a lock, don't you think, on the nomination? >> yes. i think governor romney would be well on his way to becoming the nominee. but let's keep in mind, the south carolina primary is not until the 21st. look what happened to rick santorum between iowa and new hampshire, which was seven days. a lot can happen between now and when folks go to the polls on saturday the 21st. >> yeah, i agree with that because it is -- we watch the polls tighten in iowa right at the end. everything does kind of tighten up. especially with all these ads running and just south carolina politics in general. i agree, they'll tighten. >> south carolina is one nasty pit when

where's mitt romney on all of this, the gordon gekko of the 21st century, greed is good.sition on returning to the election of 1860? where is he on voter i.d.? where is he on these racial issues? when he was governor of massachusetts, he was very liberal on all these issues. especially states' rights. and now he's very silent. so i think it's important to note when he had a chance to speak up, i don't want to have a debate on martin luther king's birthday. that's a day we need to celebrate a great american leader. i don't think 1860 is the most important election. where is he? he's quiet. he's a meek, meek man about these issues because he's always concerned about winning, not moving this country forward. >> i am sure some of our tweeter -- twitter folks are tweeting, oh, there goes sharpton bringing up race. well, let me show you who brought up race in this campaign. mr. santorum and mr. gingrich. watch this. >> i don't want to make black people's lives better by getting them somebody else's money. i want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn their money. and p

they chop them up like gordon gekko, sell them in pieces and reduce their efficiency to the point wherehey pretend to cut their costs so much they end up destroying the company but they make a killing. doesn't that go on, sore that just a phantom notion? that there are equity companies that basically are vultures. >> there's bad behavior in every industry and every profession known to man. but over a long period of time, people engage in the free market system, people that embrace economic freedom can't succeed unless they create value. i'm not here to defend bain capital or -- >> we see people in these ads as we've shown them tonight who have lost their livelihoods because of bain capital. >> there are probably very ugly incidents that bain capital was involved in. but when you look at -- >> are they fair game for a political opponent to raise? >> everything is fair game. >> here's newt gingrich defending his attacks on bain capital. >> there's a big difference between financial manipulation and capitalism. capitalism is what entrepreneurs go out and investors go out. they start someth

if that person is romney, they're going to run against him as a gordon gekko wall street pig and sayd coreless and -- >> that's what they've started to do that, have they not, bringing out testimony from former employees? >> yes. >> who have been laid off. it's worth mentioning that nbc and bane are both part owners of the weather channel but the white house is bringing out testimony from folks laid off during romney's tenure at bain. >> and but in the end, i have to say, you know, there are now, if you talk to people in the investment banking world who are doing forecasts for the macro economy in 2012, people are again starting to think the unemployment rate is going to rise back 0 over 9% and gdp growth under 2%. you can run $7 million worth of adses against romney but those will be a huge anvil around the president as he goes forward. it's going to be a very close and tough election even with all the president's political skills, his organization and his money. >> not only political soothsayer but an economic swami. john heilemann wearing many hats for us in iowa. we look forward

. >> that was of course was michael douglas as the wheeler-dealer gordon gekko, responding to his proteje played by charlie sheen in the movie "wall street," the 25 years ago. back in the late '80s, the director oliver stone, himself the son of stock broker, saw something happened before it reached the mainstream. before the rest of us knew what hit us. that little speech about the richest 1% of the demise of democracy proved to be prophetic. flesh and blood americans are living now every day with the consequences -- >> my name is amanda greubel. i am 32 years old, born and raised in iowa. i've been married for ten years today to my high school sweetheart, josh. he's the high school band director of the same district where i am the family resource center director. we have a five-year old son benen, and our second child on the way in december, like a lot of american families we have a lot of debt. mortgage, two vehicle, and because we both have master's degrees a lot of student loan debt. >> amanda was invited to testify last summeralt a senate hearing on how americans are coping in hard t

out to chop shop companies founded by the person who founded the company, they chop them up like gordon gekkoling? doesn't that go on or is that just a phantom notion, sn. >> there's bad behavior in every industry and every profession known to man. but over a long period of time, people engage in the free market system, people that embrace economic freedom can't succeed unless they create value. >> we have seen people in these ads as we've shown them tonight who have lost their livelihoods because of bane capital. what do you make of those presentations? >> there are probably very ugly incidents that bane capital was involved in. >> are they fair game for a political opponent to raise? >> everything is fair game. >> here is newt gingrich defending his attacks. >> there's a big difference between financial manipulation and capitalism. capitalism is when entrepreneurs go out and investors go out, they start something real, they grow something. and it has real impact. >> and you don't feel like that's a class warfare argument? >> no, i think that's -- >> some romney defenders are saying. >> firs

hits reel for david axelrod and the guys in chicago in terms of painting him as simultaneously gordon gekko of jobs, vulture capitalist, wall street predator on one hand and richey rich on the other hand. the guy from the monopoly board with the top hat and the monocle on the other. and everything that romney has done over the course of this last week has only further perpetrated that and given them a lot of fresh footage. i think it's a real problem going forward for him, and so much of it could have been avoided, especially this tax return thing, which if he had put out his tax returns last fall when a lot of people weren't paying as much attention and was tabable to explain themd start develop well-honed answers to these questions, he'd be in so much better shape today. but again another unforced error that's really hurt him. >> and you've got to wonder why they didn't see this coming. for a campaign that's been so well run and looked forward to every eventuality, it's mitt romney's father who decades ago began the process of releasing one's tax returns. >> i think it underscores a more