john heilman who was at the debate last night. msnbc political analyst, alex wagner. former adviser to the george w. bush and mccain campaigns mark mckinnon and former chief of staff to michele bachmann, ron carey. thank you for staying with me. to add to the video library on mitt romney and health care, here is mitt romney on "meet the press" in 2007. >> now, i think it's a good model for every state. maybe not every state, but most. >> so much for the it was only for massachusetts. we're going to see an awful lot of that "meet the press" clip in campaigns ads, aren't we, john? >> sure will. mitt romney has done a good job so far at defusing this issue up until now. there was always a time when you knew it was going to come, when the ideological critique as mitt romney as not being sufficiently conservative for today's republican party was going to come at him from every angle. this has got to be exhibit "a." the individual mandate is something many, many republicans thing in principle is wrong not just for the federal government but any state to adopt. romney is goi

joining me now, national affairs editor for "new york magazine" john heilman. and aol, "huffington post" analyst, howard fineman. thank you. you were chuckling as we were ramping back into the latest christie fever, christie indecision 2011 discussion. what's so funny? >> i was chuckling at the definitive politico report. >> the definitive maybe. >> the definitive maybe. here's what i know. i'm in john's town here. so i'm calling new york sources. he's seriously considering. a political consultant close to him, also by the way close to karl rove, and others who have been going around saying, i said this on the show last week, they're saying to professionals around the region and the country, if the governor were to decide to do this, would you be willing to go with him? either as fund-raisers or as professional staff people? that doesn't mean he's going to do it. the last word i had before i came on the air was one guy who worked for him at one point who said, look, if he's gone radio silent, that definitely means he's seriously considering it. that's all we ca

. >> john heilman, pat robertson as a reasonable man in republican presidential politics only these charactersld have driven him to that position where he is more reasonable than they are. >> never thought you would see that. the center has moved to the right. we see how far it has moved to the rights when robertson is coaching on how to get to the center where you need to be to win an election. >> we know rick perry is in a lot of trouble with republican voters on immigration and calling them heartless, the voerters that is and that sort of thing. can this tax plan that he introduced today do anything to move his numbers as he's been just sinking? the trend line on him is disastrously straight down. >> i think so. i think the tax plan can do him good and set the table for the expenditure of the $15 million he's got in his campaign bank i account. remember no one started advertising heavily yet. that's when we will find out, first of all f rick perry can do something to help his image. his numbers, the way people measure how voters perceive candidates. if it is positive or negative is underwat

." >> thank you, john heilman and mark halperin. >> coming up, there's an anti-abortion measure on the ballot in mississippi that would actually declare a fertilized human egg to be a legal person. if it wins in mississippi, it could go national. we'll get to that next. it's an interesting way to address the abortion issue from the pro-life side. haven't seen it before, it might be a game changer. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. >>> here's big news. president obama's standing among african-americans remains rock solid. "the new york times" debunks the conventional thinking out there that the black community is souring on the president and the polls prove it. a pew poll found that 95% of african-americans say they'd vote for president obama versus only 3% who favor mitt romney, of the african-americans. those numbers show no erosion of support compared to the totals obama racked up against mccain in 2008. we'll be right back. >>> welcome back to "hardball." it's one of the most radical anti-abortion measures to appear on a state ballot. on november 8th, this november 8th, mis

." >> thank you, john heilman and mark halperin. >> coming up, there's an anti-abortion measure on the ballot in mississippi that would actually declare a fertilized human egg to be a legal person. if it wins in mississippi, it could go national. we'll get to that next. it's an interesting way to address the abortion issue from the pro-life side. haven't seen it before, it might be a game changer. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. endless shrimp is our most popular promotion at red lobster. there's so many choices. the guests love it. [ male announcer ] it's endless shrimp today at red lobster. as much as you like any way you like, like new sweet and spicy shrimp, all for $15.99. my name is angela trapp, and i sea food differently. [ dr. ling ] i need to get the results from the m.r.i. see if the blood work is ready. review ms. cooper's history. and i want to see katie before she goes home. [ male announcer ] with integrated healthcare solutions from dell, every patient file is where dr. ling needs it. now she can spend more time with patients and less time on paperwork. ♪ del

. >> john heilman, you've been watching all this as well. what do you think in terms of who is left in the race that can really cement the party behind them? >> well, it's going to be difficult, andrea, for sure. i agree with everything that all my colleagues have said previously. i do think you have to make some distinctions in terms of who, about what this opens up for rick perry. there's a big part of the republican party, conservatives or tea party voters. they may very well be attracted to perry. attracted to perry. he may get a second chance with them. a lot of people trying to get chris christie in the race, the donors, billionaires and multimillionaires in the tri-state area. most of the kind of donors behind rudy giuliani who are socially liberal. i think it will be hard to attract ken lango and other kinds of big dollar republicans who are libertarian or socially liberal to his side. there is no one else out there. there will be a flurry of inevitable and speculation around sarah palin around the next couple of weeks. she is the on

. >> with us onset msnbc contributor mike barnacle and national affairs editor john heilman. great. >> how you guys doing? >> john is already, like he is just excited. he's so excited. >> why are you excited? >> about herman cain's ad. >> you are. >> he just came in here and he can't, i have lots of other things to talk about but it looks like we're just going to go there. >> he's excited because he shorted netflix. did you see this story? that guy screwed up. "the times" tells a story. he's sitting in a hot tub. says i'm going to split my company. >> hi, willie. >> his friend goes don't do that. >> remember when the three of us were in the hot tub? >> last night? >> is there a less pleasant picture in the morning than that? >> yeah. i just threw up. all right. >> think of that. >> a lot of love. >> so he should have listened to his friend in the hot tub. they've lost what, 800,000 members, subscribers? that's not good. >> while you're thinking about that -- >> not halloween yet. okay? >> "the wall street journal" fresh recession -- [ laughter ] >> maybe we do elos. can't get