very first great available panel he is the chief washington correspondent for cnbc please welcome john harwood, everybody. (cheers and applause) john, good man, thanks so much for being here. boom, lock it down. all right. he is the editor of nation magazine friend of the show katrina bandenhovel is with us, katrina boom, give it up. ladies and gentlemen, star of stage and screen, best selling pop artist and recent first person voted off celebrity apprentice david cassidy, (cheers and applause) >> stephen: okay. high five from a distance my man. all right, first of all, great available panel do you have your -- >> yes, we do. >> i didn't put the tip on there yet. >> stephen: that's all right. you're not reimbursed for tips, okay. and we're get a check out to you guys in 12 to 18 weeks. thank you so much. all right, panel what is going on with this election? okay, john harwood, okay, you're a political analyst who takes florida-- florida. >> stephen: . >> well, first of all i'm in an open marriage with my political predictions right now, but-- . >> stephen: good man, good man, that's appealing,

john harwood. we were working together up there. what a long road trip this has been. >>> romney still needs to get past south carolina. some are going on the road again where his rivals are attacking him as a job killer. and that's newt. and also rick perry blasting away on this populist issue that that man right there is taking away your job. we'll also get to the question of how well this fell oh, given his background, will do in the south among evangelical voters. we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] a simple gesture can spark romance anytime. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a clinically proven low-dose tablet you take every day so you can be ready anytime the moment's right, even if it's not every day. [ man ] tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. don't take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause

john harwood, jeanne cummings, and fred yang. all right.president, john harwood, take on wall street, take on congress. let me ask you about the wall street portion. how upset will wall street react to some of what the president proposed last night, in particular that criminal justice subbureau if you will he wants to create in the justice department. >> the real problem wall street has with this president is psychological. that is to say, they think the president is condemning them publicly, making them look like villains, making them look like criminals, trying to make them feel gilley for the money they make, and that's caused a big estrangement from a lot of people who supported him in 2008, but in the election environment of 2012 he'll take that estrangement and wear it as a badge of honor with independents. >> jeanne, hitting congress, daring them to do reform bills. i thought it was funny he mentioned this insider trading bill, which is this ability to take congress and wall street and lump them together. >> clearly he's going to run

john harwood. we were working together up there. what a long road trip this has been. >>> romney still needs to get past south carolina. some are going on the road again where his rivals are attacking him as a job killer. and that's newt. and also rick perry blasting away on this populist issue that that man right there is taking away your job. we'll also get to the question of how well this fell oh, given his background, will do in the south among evangelical voters. we'll be right back. shipping git can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower emissions planes... which still makes for a pretty enchanted tale. ♪ la la la [ man ] whoops, forgot one... [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter. than leading regular juice drinks. because less suga

john harwood, you've covered many a new hampshire primary.sn't it always close? >> to some degree and i'd go 72 hours to wait what the result is but you'll have the free media that sort of cascades out. you've got advertising. one of the questions for romney is going to be do they bet on a rise by santorum and go after him at all in paid television. if you're rick santorum i think he is a skilled debater. he's done well during the debates but now he's the focus of the attention, and i would think that he has an eye on two things at the same time. one is south carolina. one is here. you think he would -- he would save some of the money that's coming in very rapidly for him now for south carolina and use free media, the debates in new hampshire to try to make it. >> funny you say that. we have a new ad tracking service that we do with spending and i think you're right and i think that's exactly what's going on here. they seem to be saving and conserving their resource. you know, mike, i want to play for this quote. santorum is enjoying this mom

. >> i'm john harwood.

joining me today, john harwood, patricia murphy and michael hastgs, and mr. sunday morning, hugo lindgren, john heilem heileman. mitt rom in my opinion came to the debate with his boxing gloves on, descend newt gingrich to the moon, panel? >> i do not think that newt brought his gloves, so that was part of the problem. >> so that was a yes? >> gingrich's moon idea is all i like about him. >> there was a lot of moon time last night. >> i think that romney needed a great performance and he therefore e delivered it. he could not afford another night of being on the ropes and let newt gingrich walk all over him. newt gingrich did not take the criticism nearly as well as he delivers it. >> john heileman, i want to bring you in because you were in debate central in jacksonville, we know that mitt romney has been working with brett o'donnell, and that seems to have paid off for him. >> yeah, brett o'donnell is a guy with a great reputation, he has worked with a lot of candidates for a lot of years and back before mccain, i saw him and he was pleased with his performa

the odds are still with mitt romney. >> john harwood proves what i said.is there with the gingrich campaign. thank you for joining us, gentlemen. this monday don't miss the nbc news republican presidential debate, moderated by my colleague brian williams live from the university of south florida in tampa at 9:00, 8:00 central on nbc. >>> next, $13 million buys a lot of voters, doesn't it? wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. in your breakfast cereal, what is? now, in every box of general mills big g cereal, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient. that's why it's listed first. get more whole grain than any other ingredient... just look for the white check. c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may ha

john harwood joins us now, obviously, a challenge for the president and the republicans going forward from the mayor, they want an opportunity to create jobs. tell us a little bit more. >> chris, i'm still trying to get my head around the fact the mayor wants to spend time with his daughter on his birthday instead of watching the nbc debate tonight. >> or he's happy about turning 60. >> what is he thinking? look, jobs is the central challenge for both parties, the president is hoping to get a full year extension on the payroll tax cut. that is the central new initiative that he can hope to get from congress. congress is going to come back, you can expect republicans, perhaps, to try to force him to say yes to the keystone pipeline. that's a jobs point of attack for them, because the president's held up that pipeline, and the president's going to lay out some other initiatives, we understand, in the state of the union address, so-called insourcing, ways to provide incentives to companies to bring jobs back to the united states, but to some degree the president's at the her smercy o eco

cnbc chief washington correspondent john harwood joins us. great to see you. what a night last night. let's talk a little bit about how this is all flowing into what you're seeing in new hampshire today. >> well, i think the question is how does this field shake out? you've had one good development for rick santorum and one bad development. the good one was what you heard from michele bachmann in that gracious speech, getting out of the race and saying our party needs to unite around one person. rick perry went home to texas with all signs he would pull out of the race. both those developments together would make it easier for rick santorum to compete with mitt romney and newt gingrich in south carolina. but perry was talked into staying. some texas republicans i talked to think it was his wife who urged him to not quit this race. so now we've got a slightly more complicated picture but in the immediate term, that means rick perry will come to the debate here in manchester on saturday. another debate on nbc on sunday. and the game is on as rick santorum said l

our john harwood is here. some very recent poll numbers out. i don't know whether that's your area of concentration right now, but what is the latest state of the race? >> well, i an interesting dichotomy because nationally we have a new nbc "the wall street journal" poll shows newt gingrich leading mitt romney by 9 percentage points. by almost precisely that margin mitt romney's leading newt gingrich in florida. he appears through effective debate performances including another one last night on cnn and a heavy dose of negative ads against newt gingrich, he appears to have breaked newt gingrich's momentum from south carolina and taken the lead in florida. now, the question's going to be since we've seen this race bounce up and down, when we move beyond florida, we've got a little gap before we have states and super tuesday's coming up in early march, there will be a lot of southern states on the ballot there, more favorable to newt. can newt survive that quiet period? he's going to be entering that sort of by-month with a loss if these numbers

chris is in the city of rome as we used to call it and john harwood is with us here with the "new york times." a somewhat superior newspaper historically speaking. romney got to give the big speech this prime time. i think he gave a speech more appropriate to a convention. which is probably an arrogant thing to do. but his focus was clearly on president obama, not the guys he beat yesterday. let's watch. >> president obama want it is to fundamentally transform america. we want to restore america to the founding principles that made this country great. he wants to turn america into a european sometime social welfare state. we want to ensure that we remain a free and prosperous land of opportunity. this president takes his inspiration from the capitals of europe. we look to the cities and towns across america for our inspiration. >> chris, john and i can see it, his sons were lined up there like one of the motown groups from the '60s. four of them all lined up, doing everything but clapping and showing rhythm. >> the four tops. >> exactly right. let me ask you about that speech. this pol

john harwood, thank you very much. david gregory, we'll be seeing you this weekend, of course, on "meet the press," if not sooner, and matt bai, thanks so much to you. >> thanks, andrea. >>> and president obama hopes to boost florida's economy and make it the happiest place on earth, at least come election day. interior secretary ken zahlsala joining us from orlando. >>> and python politics with john switser. is it fast? it's got 10 speeds, my friend. ♪ is it fast? it's got a lightning bolt on it, doesn't it? ♪ is it fast? i don't even know if it's street-legal. ♪ is it safe? oh, yeah. it's a volkswagen. [ male announcer ] the security of a jetta. one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. ♪ got you in a stranglehold, baby ♪ >>> i'm here today because i want more tourists here tomorrow. i want america to be the top tourist destination in the world. >> florida, of course, is the next primary state, is critical in the general election, for sure. so it's no accident that that is where we find the pre

i'm joined by john harwood. washington post political reporter, malik a henderson. >> mia, i'll begin with you. does this throw the race into disarray? >> absolutely. i think we came into this thing in south carolina thinking that mitt romney was a contest away from winning this whole thing and wrapping it up very quickly. now in thing looks like it's going to go on. florida is a huge, huge state, obviously. i think one of the questions will be whether gingrich can get up to speed in terms of his campaign which has been in some ways very disorkd. whether he can get the money he needs, it's a huge media market down there. romney is already up on the air with about $2 million worth of ads. there are ten media markets there. it's a big, unwieldy important state. the real test is whether he's able to really turn this around. turn his campaign around and capitalize on who he's done in south carolina. >> here's interesting stat. 45% of the voters in south carolina said electability was most important factor to them. o

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post," john dickerson of "slate" magazine and cbs news, julianna goldman of bloomberg news and john harwood of cnbc and "the new york times." >> award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. this is a special campaign 2012 edition of "washington week" with gwen ifill. produced in association with "national journal." corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> this rock has never stood still. since 1875 we've been there for our clients through good times and bad. when their needs changed, we were there to meet them. through the years from insurance to investment management, from real estate to retirement solutions, we've developed new ideas for the financial challenges ahead. this rock has never stood still. and that's one thing that will never change. prudential. >> a line is awe powerful thing. it connects the global economy to your living room. cleaner air to stronger markets. factory floors to less crowded roads. today's progress to tomorrow's promise. norfolk southern, one line, feign knit possibilities. -- infinite possibilities. >> corporate fu

hello i'm john harwood in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture and i'm the president is giving his state of the union address i'll tell you how the average american really feels about our nation also republicans are criticizing the state of the union as a camp speech republicans are also sending out campaign material prior to the speech why are they doing as well as my family and the state senate in indiana passes right to work for less legislation is that what it is and what does that really mean i explain why you may want to call it right to work for us so that. the constitution requires the president to quote from time to time give to the congress information of the state of the union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he may judge necessary and expedient and quote from the constitution every so often the speeches given during times of booming prosperity low unemployment and peace is given when spirits are high when confidence in our form of government is unshakable and

in minneapolis, anna maria cox and john harwood. david, do you think rick perry after describing social security as a ponsi scheme and saying turkey is ruled by terrorist, do you think he's come to realize if you don't know anything about domestic and foreign policy, you're not qualified to become president of the united states? >> he had some trouble with numbers during this campaign. i think he saw some numbers and a realized they do more talking than anything else. it was clear after iowa he wanted to go home. i almost felt sorry for the guy. i don't know why he put in this extra two weeks here. maybe it was to please his own ego or wife or somebody else. there was no place for him to go. he kind of ruled from a high position. he's not going home to a heroes welcome. >> john, i hate to place any responsibility on you for the demise of candidate, but it feels your interaction with rick perry that many say was the beginning of the end. take a listen. >> you can't name the third one? >> the third agency of government, i would do awa

joining me now from manchester, new hampshire is john harwood. starting with the politics, no republican candidate won iowa and then new hampshire. romney poised to do that and take south carolina as well. what is the romney camp saying? >> first of all, you are scaring that with that brain decline story, but i will do my best. >> you have plenty of time. >> mitt romney is poised to win here in new hampshire and that could be a big step for the, but the tightening polls show that rick santorum has a shot. not a great shot. he needs to finish second and get a push and show that nude gingrich and rick perry are not not the viability alternative and santorum is and he has a chance to do that. mitt romney is in a powerful position. >> let's turn our attention to the economy as well. the new jobs numbers are out. unemployment is down again. where are we seeing the job growth? >> growth in manufacturing and how permanent yours will be. overall this is continued good news for president obama. what he needs to show is that he's got the economy moving in

john harwood knows that issue better than i. there's also an economic funk in the country. there's people that could put people back to work, but their looking for a sign. that's what he's got to deliver tonight. >> john, last question. can we expect to see the president look at members of congress in the eyes as he has often and can we expect him to continue this do nothing mantra? >> absolutely. i don't know if he will use those words, but i think you can expect him to look in the eye of members of congress and challenge them to be on the side of average people, which is where he says he is and not with the quote, millionaires and billionaires warren buffet secretary will be seen with him. he'll talk about the buffet rule and who announced he made $40 million of income, mitt romney. >> always a pleasure, gentlemen. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >>> as the president gears up for his critical speech, republican candidates are in a slug fest for the sunshine state. mitt romney and the super pac supporting him have poured $14 million into advertising in florida. his

john harwood joins us this morning. i don't want to say wtf, but that's kind of what's going on here? so many moving parts. >> sure. the iowa results which are a boost of santorum to some degree but more of a blow to romney. now you have gingrich coming on in the polls. we have seen that in our nbc marist poll. some are showing him overtaking romney. to str phave perry drop out, th helps newt gingrich a as he comes from behind against mitt romney here. we have two big things. you have the debate tonight and the interview with mary ann gingrich. both of those are wild cards in the race. >> let me talk to you about the pressure rick perry must have been under to get out of this race. we talked about conservatives wanting to coalesce a around one or two people in an effort to try and defeat mitt romney. what was happening behind the scenes. rick perry wanted to stay in through south carolina, maybe even florida. >> reporter: he had wants to do that, tamron. this entire race has been a huge come down for rick perry ever sin

for more on what to expect i'm joined by john harwood.es have been pivotal to his success. how does one disarm newt tonight? how does one not allow him to determine the shape of the debate? >> first of all, martin, i think brian williams needs to wear a helmet to that debate because you never know how much newt will come after him. the person that needs to disarm him is not brian williams, but mitt romney. you'll have to watch the dynamic whether or not mitt romney decides to intervene if he goes off after the media again. for him to say it's not just the media raising questions about your work for freddie mac and fanniem mae. he's contributed to the foreclosure crisis. mitt romney has to go on the attack and it's not in his interest to have newt gingrich limit his attack. >> being an attack dog doesn't come naturally to mitt romney. he's more op an attack rabbit. >> he's a nice guy that likes to smile a lot. he's straining to try to suggest impropriety on his part. the forces have had the ability to put newt gingrich down. they have to d

joining me now is john harwood. gingrich's campaign say they are putting this new ad.eople say he was blistered by one after the other responses. >> it's a little late. i think newt gingrich believed that coming out of south carolina that the wave of momentum he was going to take to florida was going to be bigger and more durable. he went on cruise control. he was not effective last night. now he's scrambling in the 11th hour. the trend line is not good for newt gingrich now and the question will be when we have the one month hiatus, how does he get off the map? >> he was complaining there was no audience participation. now he has the audience on his side, but they were going for mitt romney. how did he blow it last night? >> i think newt gingrich was not aggressive, was not prepared, was not focused. >> he's mr. aggressive. he said he's the smartest guy in the building. >> i think it's prosperity. an obama advisor told me when he swamped romney in south carolina, watch how gingrich does more poorly when he's up than when he's down. he's still up nationally. the poll s

and joining us john harwood.huck, first to you, this themes that you heard last night, the themes he repeated today in iowa, we want to explain, it was all of the audio and video that was interrupted, and we will get it back later on msnbc >> there were some paragraphs word for word, this is standard fair, after the state of of tth union they do this. and this one in an election year, and each state has a theme to it. today it was manufacturing and then they will have a energy day and then to a jobs skills day, if you will, for job training and push that over the next three days. i think, it felt more pointed. a little bit. you know he is not in an official campaign event but it's more pointed than last night which had sometimes a reserved tone, the trappings of the house chamber. >> mitt romney in an interview responded to the one signature economic proposal that certainly seemed targeted right directly at mitt rom in my opinion which was the 30% minimum tax for the super rich. let's play a bit of romney's respo