she hopes her flens the first lady's box last night lynn speier others. >> what we have been through in the country with bullying and kids struggling with their sexuality. this is an example of it really is better and it's getting better. >> reporter: colonel wallace will deploy to afghanistan this spring to serve as an adviser to the afghan government. >>> doug's here with a look at the weather forecast. it was nice while it lasted, huh? >> it was with. speaking about that, time of the year we tend to go down in a hurry. this is one where we go down slowly and it is not that bad but it is a storm so we have to talk about it, at least a little bit. some rain will be making its way toward us. shower activity overnight and better chance through the day tomorrow. outside right now, another beautiful evening out there. another nice night to get out and about. a little op the cool side, but not cold and you know we can get cold in january. we have escaped that cold so far. 49 the high today. low this morning of 36. the average high 44. yet another day well above average. the record high t

joining me today from salon.com, steve kornacki, elizabeth speiers is the editor in chief, and representing brooke lynn, buzy ben smith. joining us from charleston, south carolina, the induetable john heilemann, national affairs editor at "new york" magazine, and then msnbc political analyst, the pride of the south. john, thanks for being on the program. >> good afternoon, alex. >> what's that? >> i said, hello, alex. hello to you, john. we're talking rick perry, perrying on. what's his departure and endorsement of newt gingrich do to the race? i want to go to you first, john, since you're there where it's all happening? what is the inside dope on the timing of this? were there internal polls that just showed perry dead last? was he polling behind stephen colbert? what's the reason for the announcement today? >> alex, i think that -- well, first of all, i'm feeling a little bad, i don't have any chocolate bread pudding for you from south carolina, but there's a lot of news. hopefully that will compensate. what happened with rick perry, there's no question he came here in a bad situation, he tried to tu