. >> before we go to tony, let me ask john. the book that you wrote was such a commentary on how we train or fail to train lawyers. you know, in the typical method that we teach in law school. that book and that story "the paper chase," what were you saying about the way in which -- i mean, when i went to law school, the emphasis was to become a corporate lawyer. there was very little emphasis placed on being a people's lawyer. or somebody like a tony sarah. what are your thoughts on that? you've practiced. you're a law professor. recently retired. you've taught at a number of different schools. any thoughts on that? >> well, yes, i have lots of thoughts on it. i went to harvard law school. and believe me, when i was there, there was no legal aid at all. everybody was become a corporate lawyer. there was no question about it. you didn't even think about it. it would never even dawn on anybody. i don't think that anybody knew that there were defense attorneys. you know? anyway, at its heart that little clip said something, i thi

. >> let me ask you about john huntsman, made new hampshire an attempt to break through and put his resources through, who how is he going to do? >> i think he'll do well, but considering romney's lead, he'll have to do very well. he'll have to do almost as well as santorum did against romney in iowa and he's not going to do that. what romney really has her is history on his side as well. the last candidate to win both iowa and new hampshire and not win the party nomination, ed mustski, 1972. he's got the money-- >> you want to roll this thing up already. >> there's an argument, paul, a long drawn out contest will help romley and make him battle ready, i'm not so sure and the press republican turnout. >> newt gingrich is staying in, a lot of people say he's staying in to hurt romney, he thinks he could be the last one standing. >> that's right. the assembled press and uniformly stated of course he is doing this out of spite. and that isn't really true. he's had a considerable sense of his own success and it's been, you know, mirrored in the response to him even today, so he didn't win in iowa

. >> let me ask you, john, about the question of whether this stops romney one way or the other. it's hard to believe come saturday night when we report this thing coming out of south carolina that a couple of votes are going to decide who the nominee is. if romney's in a tight fight on saturday night, if he barely squeaks down in south carolina, will he still be in trouble even if he technically wins? >> i don't think he'll be in much trouble at all. the iowa thing is a little bit of a setback for him. santorum having been determined to have won iowa. if mitt romney wins new hampshire, and then wins south carolina, even if he wins it close, he goes into florida with enormous advantages. there's almost no one i know in republican politics who thinks that mitt romney will lose florida. even if gingrich wins south carolina, it's going to be very steep hill for gingrich to climb. romney's got so much money, so much organization in florida which is a big state with a lot of media markets. you can't do that on the cheap. romney is well positioned to win florida. in that case, winning

let me ask john a question because i do think there is a good question about timing.p last night in the comments that he said. let me play you a little bit of what newt gingrich said in response to john king's question and then we'll talk about timing on the other side of it. listen. >> the story is false. every personal friend i have who knew us in that period says the story was false. we offered several of them to abc to prove it was false. they weren't interested because they would like to attack any republican. they're attacking the governor, they're attacking me. i'm sure they'll get around to senator santorum and congressman paul. i am tired of the elite media protecting barack obama by attacking republicans. >> so he attacked the media, attacked barack obama even in that. but i think a very valid point was one of the timing of the interview. what's your take on that, john? >> first off, she talked to me 18 months ago. marianne has waited 12 years to talk about this. i think that people are sort of assuming that she's a bitter ex-wife. >> john, let me stop you f

. >> let me ask john king a question.t does it say that a guy whose economic plan has been praised by the "wall street journal," they said it's as impressive as any to date, better than what we have seen from the other front-runners, which is pretty much a big old kiss from the "wall street journal," is not here because he literally thinks he cannot do well in this state. >> candy made an important point. sometimes the strategy picks the candidate. sometimes the campaign team has a lot of influence. it's the old mccain campaign, and they don't like iowa. they didn't want him to get caught in the evangelical trap they view as iowa. but they may have miscalculated. their calculation was that romney would stumble, that iowa would hurt mitt romney going into the state where he would have the most strength. if the polls are right and romney comes out with a bounce, you may have a giant miscalculation on the part of the huntsman people. however, their calculation is this. the conservative base of the party will still look for a

john, let me ask you something. are you here to offer to take over colbert superpac. i won't offer. ight, john. prepare yourself. here we go. >> trevor, if you will -- >> colbert superpac transfer activate. aaahhh! colbert superpac is dead. >> but it has been reborn as the definitely not coordinating with stephen colbert super pac! >> well now that that's all cleared up, nation, i have a major announcement to make. for over a day now the people of south carolina have been crying out for someone who can restore our nation's former greatness to its current perfection. well, america, that someone is now. i'm proud to announce that i am forming an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the president of the united states of south carolina! i'm doing it! whoo! >> stephen colbert in south carolina says he might become a write in candidate for the primaries next saturday. of course, this stems off a poll that is in question that showed him with 5% of the vote. he wasn't even in the race. one point ahead of jon huntsman. colbert jumping in. still ahead, why

. >> let me ask john king a question.hat a guy whose economic plan has been praised by the "wall street journal," they said it's as impressive as any to date, better than what we have seen from the other front-runners, which is pretty much a big old kiss from the "wall street journal," is not here because he literally thinks he cannot do well in this state. >> candy made an important point. sometimes the strategy picks the candidate. sometimes the campaign team has a lot of influence. it's the old mccain campaign, and they don't like iowa. they didn't want him to get caught in the evangelical trap they view as iowa. but they may have miscalculated. their calculation was that romney would stumble, that iowa would hurt mitt romney going into the state where he would have the most strength. if the polls are right and romney comes out with a bounce, you may have a giant miscalculation on the part of the huntsman people. however, their calculation is this. the conservative base of the party will still look for an alternative t

. >> peter, this is john king. let me ask you a question.fer a huntsman over romney? you think huntsman would be a better president or because those at the "globe" feel snubbed that romney is campaigning more proud of his massachusetts experience. he doesn't talk about as much working with the late senator kennedy or how closely he had to work with democrats in the legislature. you feel like he's running from his record in massachusetts or you just don't like him? >> well, i think that his aspect of running from his record in massachusetts is something that everybody has noted, not just here in boston, but everywhere. becomes a part of his character. part of his presentation in some way. so, i think that probably was some factor. but it wasn't some sense of personal peak. people feel that huntsman would generally be the better president. >> ron brownstein from national journal. in the editorial you suggest that the mitt romney that you saw as governor in the first couple years there would be, in effe effect, an effective president. what has

. >> let me ask you about the first five minutes of the debate when john king asked newt gingrich about wife's interview in which she revealed newt gingrich asked her for an open marriage. all of the candidates were asked their thoughts on this issue of a person's character and how it should play into the vote. i want to show you each introduced themselves to the audience. >> i'm rick santorum, and i want to thank the people for their hospitality for my wife and karen children. >> i'm married now 42 years. i have five kids, daughters-in-law and 16 grand kids. >> i'm proud that my wife of 54 are years tonight. >> i want to thank the people of south carolina for being so hospitable. >> the other three thanked their lives and brought up their families. when given an opportunity not to do any mud slinging, but to just talk about character. they passed, but then were passive aggressive and bringing up their spouses and how many kids they have. >> we all do that. i'm proud of the fact that i've been married to the same person for 50 years. i have three lovely daughters and three great-grandch

john heileman, let me ask you about this different blame game.m the beginning of our country's history, politicians have blamed new york bankers, big east money. almost like apple pie going back to huckleberry finn. this is what we do in american politics. blame the big city, new york and the wealth. will it work this time for president obama running for re-election? >> i don't think president obama is has ever been a comfortable full-throated economic populist. there's no doubt the white house and his re-election team is pushing him more in that direction. we saw the speech he gave in kansas a few weeks back. there's no doubt they are going in that direction. but the president is, as i say, no huey long. he's never taken up that mantle very comfortably. and he's also someone who continues to receive a lot of money, a lot of support from the financial services industry. he had a chance in doing wall street reform to really crack down on the big banks and didn't do that. i think he's going to walk a line that's more of a soft populism when it come

john, let me -- let me ask you, mark, about that ad.n who looks in very bad shape blaming romney personally as the villain who cost her her life basically. is this going to cut down there? >> we don't know what happens if you put hundreds of thousands or millions behind that kind of message, whether that will have an impact. i think there's some people in the country who will look at this message which the democrats would run against mitt romney and it would impact them. again, i don't know that it would stop mitt romney from winning the primary. it might cost him some votes, but i don't think it will cut against him and nationally it will help him because there's been a closing of the ranks from republicans saying this is not a good message to have and even speaker gingrich seemed to step back and say this isn't a message we should be driving. >> well, read his latest iteration. he continues to go back and forth on that, mark. we have a new bulletin just recently from him. he doesn't like the headline in -- what was it called, the poli

romney that causes people, establishment republicans to say, man, mitt romney is a -- >> let me ask you this, johnt's say we have newt going after mitt really hard. it's going to hit him hard. you're going to have huntsman attacking mitt, you're going to have santorum attacking mitt. he's going to get it from three or four sides now for the first time. there are a lot of people that said and we're going to ask him when he comes, what would've happened to mitt romney if he actually had been attacked? he wasn't attacked, he got the same number he got four years ago. do we not know yet whether he has a glass jaw? >> we don't. there's that question. if you talk to establishment republicans, that's the question lurking in their minds. two big questions, one, can he breakthrough the low 20s ceiling he's had nationally? and the second is, if he gets hit once or twice hard on the jaw, is the whole thing going to crumble? and we've not tested. it's an untested proposition at this point. we're about to test it. >> this weekend, two debates, ten hours -- one of them msnbc "meet the press," facebook. >> and t

have a chance joining me from our studio in los angeles is john amano founder of crooks and liars john i want to thank you for joining me tonight and first of all let me just ask you know we have seen some effects obviously of citizens united especially in the midterm in two thousand and ten more money spent than ever before but do you think that we've seen the worst of it yet or is it just the tip of the iceberg. it's just the tip of the iceberg and thanks for having me on it's really it's really cool to be with you alone and the amount of money that we're going to see coming in the general election is just going to be obscene and you know what's been really good to me larry as you've even seen it yourself is that newt gingrich has been complaining about mitt romney's super pac money those at this point since we have the republican primaries go in they have bash in each other with all these anonymous corporate donations i mean it flipped the election for romney even though romney now officially didn't win iowa but it destroyed gingrich if the millions and millions of dollars of negative ads run so he's the first recipient of this ruling against the republican

let's finish up with our panel. john harwood, jeanne cummings, and fred yang. all right. we saw the president, john harwood, take on wall street, take on congress. let me askhe 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 against congress, they will try to link this republican nominee to this congress. the

me he got more time than rick perry. he came on after perry. george asked him an interview about john stewart and you'll let me play for you part of that and we'll see his response to that at the end. >> roger, the chairman of fox news said about him. you said that stewart hates conservative views, he hates conservative thoughts, he hates conservative verbage, he hates conservatives. he is crazy. it wasn't polarized, he couldn't make a living. he makes a living by attacks conservativetives and stirring up a liberal base against him. it's not going help you all that much in south carolina to have someone who according to him, hates conservatives support you. >> roger is a friend. we hit the steam room together a lot. i usually do his back. i agree with roger. i mean, that's why i am disavowing anything that john stewart does that is not accurate. i believe that john stewart is a loose canon. >> throwing jon stewart under the bus. so here he is appearing on a serious sunday morning show. is the yeetd world taking the colbert phenomenon seriously because we're tired of digging into intrick assies of what did bain capital buy and how we jumped throu

. >> let me ask you first, anthony, do you... is anthony his middle name? >> he's anthony john. >> anthony john. >> anthony john. and i'm spelling your last name v-e-double-r-i-n-o. >> yeah, that's correct. >> is he a junior or is he a second, or... >> he's not a technical... yeah, he's himself. >> he's one of a kind. >> he has no middle name. so, that makes him not a junior. >> and his date of birth is november the... >> 18th. >> two thousand and... >> four. >> four. >> tim told me that you were a good friend of father meagher. am i... do i have that right? >> yeah, father tom, yeah. >> is he aware of what's going on with you guys? >> mm-hmm, he actually... he spoke to my mom this morning. so, he hears, you know, there's always that social connection one way or another, but he said to my mom, "i heard that the baby's not doing so well," and he wanted... he said, you know, "keep me informed." >> yeah, talk to father tom about this, but my guess is he's going to encourage you to bring your family and friends and your boy into church. and then... then the other question would be