>> we have mark haleprin. we have also the political writer for "the huffington post," sam stein, and editorial writer for the -- >> not the shot i would have taken. >> the msnbc contributor jonathan -- >> how did it go in the break? >> how are we doing? in the way of e-mails? >> how was willie's show? >> willie's show was great. the e-mails were fine. some dude who says he's lanny davis e-mailed in saying he hadn't been awake that early since the last time he was on the show and he was -- you were berating him about bill clinton. something like that. >> that guy's living in the '90s, i guess. >> this was a big, big day for the democrats, big day for the president. >> it is. >> finishing strong. >> yeah. i think so. >> the democrats have finished strong. i remember sugar ray leonard talking about how he beat marvin saying he would stand there taking a beating and then steal rounds at the end. well, the democrats stole a big, big round. >> the democrats are taking a victory lap after house republicans retreated

there is no next time. >> no, no, mark haleprin.him and like a lot of other people had problems with his lack of consistency. he's not a conservative. george will's right, he's not a conservative. certainly not a william f. buckley conservative. that said, he has run a national campaign. you remember chuck. he ran a national campaign in 1994. and whatever nasty things were written about newt this past weekend, they were already written about him, like day in and day out, he was savaged in 1994. and he still -- it was the gingrich revolution. he won that battle. he's been there before. >> and for a lot of voters. >> and survived it. >> he's done one of the biggest things the conservative movement has done, winning back control of the house. >> and not to interrupt, but also, balance the budget for the first time in a generation, balance the budget four years in a row for the first time since the 1920s. no, let's talk about things he really did. fought for welfare reform. he basically forced welfare reform down bill clinton's throat.

mark haleprin and harold ford jr. are still with us. thank god, because i need to talk to him. co-founder of no labels and vice chairman of the consulting firm hill and nolan strategies. mark mckinnon, and that was romney back when, alex? 2002. >> first of all, make congress work, not left, not right, forward. and no labels has come out with a -- i think just a fantastic plan to reform congress, which by the way has historically low approval ratings, we'll talk about the nbc wall street journal poll. but first, i've got to -- mark mckinnon, i asked you a question before, were you surprised that mitt romney in this decade was bragging about being progressive. your answer was depressing. >> i was not surprised. >> nothing these guys say surprises. >> and i agree with mark haleprin and you, i think that this thing could be a total train wreck. i think he could have a totally mixed result in iowa. you could have five or six people coming in around 15%, 20%. i think ron paul could win iowa and even new hampshire. raw milk, i'm telling you. t

"time" magazine's mark haleprin.he table, we have the editor of nationalmemo.com, john conisan. good day to have you on, jim. thank you. we'll get to our top story and go straight to the pentagon. this morning, we have news that kim jong-il passed away over the weekend. the north korean dictator passed away on saturday after 17 years in power. and this morning, reports that north korea conducted a short-range missile test within its borders. south korean officials cannot confirm whether the test was related to kim jong-il's death. but south korean president has put his country on high alert. so that news just coming in to us now. >> jim, let's go to the pentagon. jim, obviously there have to be concerns at this point. a nuclear nation changing -- power changing hands, and as said last hour quoting churchill, mystery wrapped in? >> a riddle wrapped in mystery wrapped in an enigma. >> that's what we have in north korea. >> everybody here and in the intelligent services knew, of course, that kim jong-il was on his death

boy, mark haleprin, he's sounding kind of confident. says he's going to win. you look at the recent polls, it's his. >> people in this city, there's an irony. he's former speaker of the house, one of the most powerful jobs in this city. but in this city, people still don't take newt gingrich seriously. around this table we do. we were talking before, we think he can be the nominee. but he is -- he has had a 30-year relationship with the grass roots of the party and he is reaping the benefits of that now. mitt romney is a stranger to most people in the republican party and in the current state we're in, that's a big advantage. they like newt -- we look at these daily sound bites and think, oh, that can't sustain, but people like that side of him. he comes out to eye of the tiger and they like his eye of the tiger. >> newt is not a conservative. i can show you reams and reams of paper of speeches he's given. but what we found in 2012 in this cycle is -- michael steele, we'll go to you, the republican party, they're not necessarily concerned with the fact that ne

but mark haleprin's right, this is a turf battle.hele bachmann hates rick perry more than mitt romney right now. so of you got this struggle to be the conservative. the other thing i would point out that i find interesting is mark was talking about the establishment. if you look at -- this is almost becoming a bush versus reagan thing here. no one's talking about it. but mitt romney has the backing of george h.w. bush and dan quayle and the former chief of staff -- while newt gingrich has michael reagan and art laffer who was the architect of the reagan economic plan. that's what conservatives are starting to notice, as well. >> jeff sachs has the curve framed over his bed. >> the original. >> it's one of his favorites. >>> also in the nbc poll, voters were asked who they think is the "true conservative" in the race. this is inside iowa. rick santorum and ron paul topped the list there. michele bachmann at 16%, rick perry at 11%, mitt romney getting only 7% support. newt gingrich at 6%. mark haleprin, before we lost your shot, front

. >> we talked to mark haleprin earlier this morning, he said look at what he's seeing on the ground well, i wouldn't go it's mitt romney's to lose. this assumes one thing here, right? if you take the poll at face value for now, what's fascinating to me is numbers one and two there, romney and paul add up to 47%, three, four, five, and six add up to 50%. what do the three through six candidates have in common? they're all trying to be the conservative alternative to romney. they're trying to appeal to evangelicals, a big voting block out here. what aye noticed there's clearly a fear among the evangelical community here and the conservative activist community they are going to splinter that sort of 50 accou% of the vote. and means romney can win with 25%, 26%. so if you say that's definitely going to happen, yes, it's romney's to lose. look at what happened in the last 24 hours, bachmann lost her co-chair. that's an attempt to do everything you can to have her lose support if you will. to see her support go down. granted it went to paul who is somebody who is not fully going after tha

. >> mark haleprin? >> what have you heard from your fellow republican governors and other leading republicans about what would happen if newt gingrich were at the top of the ticket for your party? >> look, i think that the problem for us if speaker gingrich were at the top is the election would be about speaker gingrich and not about the president. and i think as republicans, this election has to be first and foremost about the president. and i think the speaker can't help himself but make himself the center of attention all the time. as a result, while some of his ideas i think are fine, i think some of them aren't, and in the end, he's going to carry so much of that into an election that the election's going to be about newt gingrich and i don't think that's a good thing for our party. >> would he be a good candidate for new jersey? >> no, he would not. new jersey is a tough state for any republican. but i think that new jerseyans have a long memory about his time as speaker of the house. he was very

. >> mark haleprin tells us he's a good father -- >> if you look at the way you judge people. there's so many things, the meanness. by the way, with everything you've read and heard, would you describe him -- just you, as a good guy? seems like a bad guy. >> i'm able to separate things out here. i don't know him personally. i've got references. his daughter says he is a good father. through all the chaos, he's kept the family together. i hear others say he's a good grandfather. so is newt a good person? you can talk to others. and i know people are saying you could talk to his ex-wives, they'll tell you something different, but i'm not going to judge what kind of person he is. but i can judge what type of political figure he's been. and i don't think it's a positive one. michael? you wanted to get in. >> yeah, i just disagree with donny's assessment there. i think the total package, we evaluate every aspect of a person's life. and i think newt, knowing him personally and seeing him work, he brings a lot to the table. yes, he's got a lot of baggage, but he makes an articulate d

in fact, mark haleprin in his little column in the issue talks about how mitt -- i mean how newt is actuallytely capsize romney's campaign. >> you have a full screen -- you have a chart that may answer the question on why voters, republican voters have problems with mitt romney. and it's a chart about where he has stood through the years. guys, do we have this full screen? okay, so in 1994, after the u.s. senate lost to ted kennedy, mitt romney supported cap and trade, and he supported gun control. in 2005, as massachusetts governor, he increases his support for cap and trade, and supports the banning of guns. then in 2008, he refuses to support cap and trade when he's running for president. and on gun control, after banning guns in massachusetts, he joins the nra, and then in 2011, he is actually against cap and trade, and he supports -- >> well, it all goes -- and if you see the chart in the magazine. >> by the way, he was asked about -- he was asked about this yesterday on fox and got very testy. >> show the chart. >> well, you see it's going in one direction. he's going from more moderat