come on, jeffrey sachs.was in the kremlin when the generals had just endeded the soviet union. and newt's name didn't come up. >> wait a minute, didn't he lead the solidarity movement? i can't remember? >> mika, you know, he just wasn't -- >> he was -- >> behind the scenes. >> seriously, he's always had this problem. >> that day -- >> in the shipyard. it's amazing. >> newt is such a deep backgrounder. >> you know, we joke about it, but this has always been a serious, serious personal problem with newt gingrich. susan mullan ory talked about how disconnected from reality he was. and rich gaylynn yesterday -- anybody who has ever worked with him knows, he will whip himself into a fury and start tearing up, saying don't you realize, western civilization rests on my shoulder, just like churchill, just like fighting the nazis. he has always been that way. it is frightful. it is -- it is a frightening thing. and that has nothing to do with ideology, even. he's not right on ideology, because he's too all over the p

jeffrey sachs is with us, as well. and former chairman of the republican national committee michael steele. michael, very good to have you back. >> look who's back onset. it's about time, willie. >> we missed you. >> everything's good out west, primary's going to go off without a hitch. >> good. good. willie worked early on the california primary. >> june the 5th. >> june the 5th, and i had no idea that the epicenter of california politics was in santa monica in a bungalow in santa monica apparently involving lots of alcohol -- >> i was talking to lots of operatives. >> and late night strategy. >> newt got hammered last night. >> he did. >> he recovered. >> then it spread out, but there was a little bit. it was interesting. >> what was interesting about it? i found it just an overall blur last night other than a great tim tebow reference. it just blurred. the whole thing blurred. >> we need to just go ahead. >> just cut to the chase. >> literally -- >> no, we've got to do it. >> do it. go first. go first. >> this is ri

jeffrey sachs, in des moines, iowa mark halperin and in washington matt lewis.ugh to be fair they're growing for most of the candidates now. mitt romney is running a low risk campaign. he is doing some interviews, but his stump speech i saw yesterday both in mason city and in ames is about the olympics. he recites lyrics from patriotic songs. he talks about the president and the economy. but otherwise we're not talking about policy. he's not playing for the tea party crowd or the social conservative crowd in any way. he's runningç a very safe, generic campaign right now. i think it put him in a commanding position and the other candidates seem to be more interested in fighting with each other than they do with taking on mitt romney. >> what kind of patriotic songs are we talking about, lee greenwood? do you have any specifics for us? >> i do have some specifics. i wish it were lee greenwood. america the beautiful. >> okay. >> that's a good one. >> yeah, it is. >> and little -- he's doing a version that is spoken. i told him yesterday as he was getting on his bu

jeffrey sachs, and in washington, chief foreign affairs correspondent, host of "andrea mitchell reports every day at 1:00 on msnbc, andrea mitchell. good morning. >> happy holidays to everybody. >> happyç holidays to everybod. let's get to these polls. i want to break it down for you. particularly the cnn "time" research poll, five days to go to the iowa caucuses. a new poll shaking up the race a little bit. mitt romney on top, 25% support among likely republican voters, ron paul in a close second within the margin of error. the story here, though, rick santorum up 11 points since the last poll a few weeks ago at 16% and newt gingrich down 19 points at 14%. andrea, i'll start with you, what do you read into that poll? >> well, the fact is that gingrich is really in a dive, that's clear. he hasn't figured out what to do to turn this around. i don't think going to a chocolate factory and mimicking what romney did on lucille ball is going to do it. i think he's got to talk about what propelled him to the top right away, which was that he came back from sort of the living dead politically

. >> that is the -- the two-month extension as tom friedman and jeffrey sachs said on friday on thishow basically i'm paraphrasing is the stupest waste of money. it is nonsense. you might as well just take that money to the center of the mall and burn it. and so the "new york times" is saying, richard, that somehow these republicans don't want to help the economy. a two-month extension of this tax cut is worthless. it will help some americans and that is good, but if the goal is to revive the economy, what is it do in the end? >> absolutely nothing. even a one-year extension does virtually nothing. what business leaders are looking for, and particularly american business sitting on $2 trillion of cash, they want to know what the tax environment is, the regulatory environment is. american business needs predictability. the american's consumer needs predictability. two-month changes are irrelevant. we need to set the table so people can make serious decisions for the long run. >> vote it down, make sure it doesn't happen and make sure the middle class don't get that tax cut. that's gre

>> you can't call somebody a clown for doing what steve rattner, i'm going to put you in with jeffrey sachsbly the right thing to do. even if politically -- >> had they done it at the right time, absolutely. >> you calling them clowns for being right, carl? >> no, clowns for not following a schedule that would've made sense for the american people, that we would've had an on-time budget, a sensible way to address entitlements, and what's going to happen now -- >> let me write that down. on time budget. >> meaning the day before -- >> hold on a second. >> this is probably not a good point to bring up, democrats -- >> on time budget, like the democrats who haven't had a budget in over 900 days. >> i'm not suggesting that the democrats are much better on the question of timing. >> no. >> and if what we're going to see now is that in february obama will be on time. he's going to introduce a budget -- >> that's going to be exciting. >> it is. >> it's going to have big entitlement votes. >> do you think it'll get one vote this time? >> i think what he's going to do is as these numbers show is he

again, i think for the right reasons if you look at economics, tom friedman would agree, jeffrey sachs and i would agree. but i was reading, sam stein, as i usually do late at night in front of a crackling fire the speeches of margaret thatcher. and in it -- >> who doesn't? >> but in 1975, margaret thatcher was talking about how they lost two elections in a row, and she said the reason we lost two elections in a row is because we were more focused on macro economics than we were on average britains. and she said we can never again lose sight of how policies impact average britains. >> yeah. well, first of all, i listen to my margaret thatcher speeches on audio book, we're a little different, i guess. >> it's a generational thing. >> yeah. >> even if they were right in substance, they were wrong -- >> i think we need to step back for a second and look at where we started, which is obama came out and said pass my jobs bill. it was a $450 billion jobs bill roughly. he said pass it, i want it passed in full. republicans were able to get him to only pass $30 billion -- that's 1/15 of the jo

we will have michael steel with us, also jeffrey sachs.y, morning joe live from java joe's. we are back in des moines for the iowa caucuses. can't wait to get there we will be there all week next week starting on monday. >>> coming up next here what, if anything did we learn today? y you

sachs, and m. f. global and is likely one of the best christmas presents a maryland military dad will ever give to his two sons, colonel jeffreycan't be home, but these troops serving in afghanistan, still are getting into the spirit of christmas, taking a little time out to belt out some of their favorite christmas carols. ♪ ♪ three french hens ♪ two turtle doves ♪ and a partridge in a pear tree...♪ >> the third stryker brigade. infantry division, doing their best version of 12 days of christmas. and those are your headlines. and i think we'll hand it over to rick for weather, right, dave. >> dave: rick, how is this weather and who is getting some snow? >> rick: texas, that is about it. can you believe it? and, amarillo, a tweet from ed, saying, we have a dusting on the ground. and, looking good. and, we have great folk out here who are here from... >> israel. >> rick: isn't that great? >> amazing. >> rick: and you have come here for hanukkah. >> for a visit, yes. >> rick: and thanks for coming and joining our christmas celebration here as well. what is your name. >> alisa. >> rick: and you are from the bronx. >> river dale!