harpootlian? >> i sure do.ve been here in myrtle beach as republicans celebrating martin luther king's birthday all day. i mean, we had a lunch presentation, tim scott was involved with it. our rights -- i mean our history of civil rights is so obvious. bill, it's fun to look at and so much revision of this history it was fun to look at the fact that our party was formed around equal rights for african-americans and the things we have done since then since 1964. the bill was written by the eisenhower administration and 0% of the republicans in the house and the senate voted for it to overcome the democrat block in the south. so it's time americans know the truth about the republic party and we have always been. >> bill: put forth that the republic candidates in south carolina have not bought any air time in the black media did not participate in the columbia, south carolina. capital of the state. didn't participate in the martin luther king parade today. that might look to african-american voters as kind of a s

this is, if newt wins tomorrow, he's preordained to be the nominee based on that logic. >> dick harpootlian hayes, thanks for being here tonight. let me say this. many people said when rick perry came out of the race yesterday he was only at 4%, 5%, maybe 6% among voters in south carolina. he didn't have a lot of votes to give to newt gingrich who he endorsed. and that may or may not be true, depending on how close the race is, if he can deliver a lot of that 4% or 5% in a close race, it would be substantial. but what i want to offer tonight is there's something else we better watch with rick perry. he raised a lot of money. and if he can deliver his money guys over to newt gingrich, he answers what chris hayes brought up. newt can then get the noun go all the way and match romney. let's not forget mr. perry made $17.2 million in the first quarter of his candidacy. $17.2 million. he left the race with 6% in carroll, carolina, 5% nationally. if he can get the big money guys and girls that supported him to now support newt, then we will be able to see newt say, financially, he can go for the

bush and dick harpootlian is chairman of the south carolina democratic party., thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> hi, allison so. alisyn: 48% of the respondents think that romney would do a better job with the economy than president obama. isn't that the very heart of what this election is about? >> well, i think there's a couple things we need to note about this poll. first of all, the rasmussen poll's an outlier. it had, it rated president obama -9 points. two other polls, one of them yours fox news but o other gallup, had him down two points. having said that, there's no question that this race is close, and there's no question that we're going to have to fight hard between now and november to stop mitt romney from taking over the country and doing to the country what he did to south carolina with bain capital. let me tell you, it's very important -- wait, wait, wait with, it's very important to understand this poll does not, first of all, it's an outlier, but more importantly, they haven't had time to flesh out mitt romney. once the people in this c

dick harpootlian, and in a moment we pe to have chad conley who's the chairman of south carolina's republican you two, both of you on before, dick, to talk about south carolina politics. well, as we wait for chad to join you, i want to ask you what is the history in south carolina? do they tend to decide late, does this last minute surge for gingrich bode very well for him, or should we be paying more attention to the real clear politics average which shows, you know, a much different race between romney and beginning -- gingrich? >> well, megyn, i think what the polls indicate is what we all feel on the groundib!= here whs that gingrich is trending up, and romney's trending down. now, where that intersection is, i think, is anybody's guess. but what is clear, the fox debate on monday night was clearly the turning point because it not only -- romney looked flustered, incompetent, didn't have the answers to questions, but then gingrich, if you turn on tv here, he's talking about the bain capital issue which, apparently, is resonating that romney, basically, put profits over people. and in add

. >> dick harpootlian and meliss athank you. >> thanks for joining me tonight. >> race is the elephantina right now. and it's the republican elephant. >> it's a small room with a big elephant. thank you very much for joining me tonight. melissa, your new show starts? >> february 4th. february 4th. >> at? >> 10:00 a.m. saturdays and sundays. 10:00 to noon. >> right after chris hayes. >> up with chris hayes and then something with me. >> all right. >> straight ahead, our effort to get americans back to work. 700 jobs available now. that's next. mid grade dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback right now, get 5% cashback at gas stations. it pays to discover. what is this shorty? uh, tissues sir, i'm sick. you don't cough, you don't show defeat. give me your war face! raaah! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop. trouble with a car insurance claim. [ dennis ] switch to allstate. their claim service is so good, now it's guaranteed. [ foreman ] so i ca

joining me from south carolina is dick harpootlian, democratic chairman in south carolina and james staff writer forrian ginh and for that interview, it ran today in "the washington post." and he spoke with her this morning. thank you both for joining me. >> you're welcome. >> thank you, al. >> james, what stuck out most in your interview with marianne? >> well, the thing that jumped out at me was the fact that he asked her for a divorce a day before flying to a conference entitled "the demise of the american culture" in which he was extolling family values and criticizing liberal politicians for their family values and their lack of religious values. so that was one striking contradiction. the other was, i think, the deep pain that mrs. gingrich felt as any spouse might feel when she learned that her husband had been having an affair while he was in office and unknown to her at the time. >> so this is not just a story of just a marriage. this is a story of hypocrisy because you are saying that she said he actually was on his way to a family values forum preaching family values and preach

chad connelly is the chairman of' south carolina's republican party and rick harpootlian, the chairmanlina. we heard the gloves come off in south carolina. what does that mean. >> people note races are decided here. people look at south carolina and they realize if they are going to win, they have to win here. megyn: i heard some people say it's a cheap media market and it's easy to run ads. >> i think south carolina first of all has a history of this sort of -- lee at water is a buddy of mine and he developed this 30 years ago. we remember the whisper campaign of john mccain having a mixed race illegitimate child. he came to the gunfight armed with a knife. mitt romney has all these terriers nipping at his heels. i watched tv this morning. in the 24 hours since new hampshire. the negative advertising from these independent groups is brutal on mitt romney. you would -- i have never seen republicans in 40 years of watching politics go this negative on another republican. i have got to say, it's fun to watch. megyn: i want to ask you. you mention that back in 2000, when john mccain and g

brad blakeman is a former deputy assistant to president bush, and dick harpootlian is the south carolinatic party chair. gentlemen, he outlined it in rather stark terms. brad, how's that going to play? >> i think it's going to play very well because barack obama now has a record, he has to live by that record. of course, he wants to deflect and have a warfare on class, he also wants to continue to blame george bush, but i think the american people and the voters are smarter than that. if there was ever a contrast between what the republicans want to do with our economy and foreign policy and military, this is the election to do it, and i believe we have the right message unlike obama who seems to have a campaign slogan that it can be worse. megyn: you know, dick, some of these republican candidates, including newt gingrich, have not been too ginger about saying that they think barack obama's a socialist, and newt gingrich has said repeatedly he thinks he's a radical. you know, there is a question about how that will play if gingrich becomes the nominee. what are your thoughts? >> well, i

[cheers and applause] megyn: joining me now, brad blakeman and dick harpootlian, chairman of south carolina'semocratic party. all right, brad, so apparently there's a group of gopers similar to what we heard about a group of barack obama campaign operatives sitting in a room -- there's two rooms, there's a gop room and a democratic room, and all they do is analyze media. and the gopers are looking at nothing other than president obama, all the promises he's made and then trying to juxtapose them against what they believe are contradictory facts s. that the effective strategy for the republicans to win back the white house? >> you bet it is. we're going to remind the people what barack obama the candidate and the president said in the past and what he's delivered. he's been an absolute failure on the economy, and we're going to remind people that the president joked off there weren't as many shovel-ready jobs as he thought with the stimulus, the stimulus, remember, that nobody read. the president said he'd tackle immigration in his first year, and he gave us fast and furious, running guns to s