joining us here, in las vegas, cnn contributor, mary matalin, ed rollins, and in st.is, dana lash. dana lash, i'm going to start with you. sense we went through cain and romney and perry, what is your one-word for michele bachmann? >> grassroots. she's been very involved with the grassroots. you know what? grassroots and i only get one word, but obama care because she says that quite a lot. it's obama care. it happens simultaneously. >> okay. >> it did, i swear. i think that's the one word association. >> mary? mary matalin, one word, michele bachmann? >> i think she's persistent. she's a fighter. she's not a whiner. people like her. she gets back up on the saddle when she gets knocked down. people want to fight her and she is that. >> ed rowlands one word, you worked for michele bachmann and things haven't been great sense you left. >> true believer. >> true believer. that's two words. >> believer. >> all right. let's move -- believer's good. i want to focus a bit -- we'll spend most of our time talking about the republicans but i want you to listen to something. bar

james carville and mary matalin. would he be president if that war had not been launched?s good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $7.8 billion to small businesses across the country so far this year. because the more we help them, the more we help make opportunity possible. [ inner voice ] establish connection. give me voice control. applications up. check my email and text messages. hands in position. airbags. ten of 'em. perfect. add blind spot monitor. 43 mpg, nice. dependability. yeah. activate dog. a bigger dog. [ male announcer ] introducing the reinvented 2012 toyota camry. it's ready. are you? ♪ and who ordered the yummy cereal? yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy. i got that wrong didn't i? [ male announcer ] want great taste and whole grain oats that can help lower cholesterol? honey nut cheerios. i've got to tell susie ! the vending machine on elm is almost empty. i'm on it, boss. new pony ? sorry ! we are open for business. let's reroute greg to fres

talk about it with gloria borger, ari fleischer, you can follow him on twitter @ari fleischer and mary matalin and bill burton, who is president obama's former deputy press secretary. bill, thank you for being with us as well. mary, is this much ado about nothing? is it the problem that america doesn't have a sense of human or the media doesn't? >> he needs to -- the surge for him is serious. it is an attraction to a message that is the 75% of the people that still don't support mitt romney. he needs to stay a happy warrior. but he needs to get serious. it is not politically correct to have to answer questions about particularly the 9% sales tax, or you don't have to know the name of the president of uzbekistan, but you need to have clear foreign policy principles. so you can get away with that when you're the third man or you're just one of eight, but when he's the front-runner, he's got to put some flesh on the funny. >> what about that, ari? he says that people need to lighten up and not take everything he says as seriously as, you know, can't he make a joke? >> he's right, but up to a limi

erick erickson, mary matalin, chief political analyst gloria borger.an only imagine that mitt romney is breathing a big sigh of relief tonight. >> i spoke with some people in the romney camp. they are clearly breathing a sigh of relief. look, they would have been competing against chris christie for the same constituency in the republican party. they would have been competing for money in the republican party. and essentially they would have been making the same argument about being the most electable candidate in the republican party. with chris christie gone, what we're hearing tonight and what we're reporting on cnn is that some of those top would-be christie fund-raisers are now moving very quickly to the romney camp, including ken langone who is the co-founder of home depot. the romney people are quite happy about this. and all they have to do is convince republicans to get on board. they're polling at a solid 25%. but you need to do better than that to get the nomination. >> let's look at some of those polls because after losing support, gloria s

joining us is a a cnn contributor from washington and mary matalin in new orleans. ry, how does something like this still happen? >> well, welcome, erin. we love the show. we love you at cnn. >> thank you. i'm thrilled to be here. and thrilled to have you on. >> well, we lover it. how does it happen? well, what would be an important event is if rick perry or for that matter even tony perkins colluded or agreed with that statement. evangelicals are saying they have the same concerns, the same priorities, jobs and the economy. we have 32 months of ungrowth, no growth. and that's what they're going to be voting on. this is a skirmish. but it's not dispositive in any way in the primary certainly for the perry campaign. >> paul, would you agree with mary on that, especially when you get to the primaries in the south, just a nonissue? >> no. i wish i -- i wish you were right. i think mary is putting hope over reality. i think the only prejudice that the poll has seen go up. george romney, governor of michigan. had been an auto company ceo before that. he ran for president

joining us is a a cnn contributor from washington and mary matalin in new orleans. es something like this still happen? >> well, welcome, erin. we love the show. we love you at cnn. >> thank you. i'm thrilled to be here. and thrilled to have you on. >> well, we lover it. how does it happen? well, what would be an important event is if rick perry or for that matter even tony perkins clu colluded or agreed with that statement. evangelicals are saying they have the same concerns, the same priorities, jobs and the economy. we have 32 months of ungrowth, no growth. and that's what they're going to be voting on. this is a skirmish. but it's not dispositive in any way in the primary certainly for the perry campaign. >> paul, would you agree with mary on that, especially when you get to the primaries in the south, just a nonissue? >> no. i wish i -- i wish you were right. i think mary is putting hope over reality. i think the only prejudice that the poll has seen go up. george romney, governor of michigan. had been an auto company ceo before that. he ran for president in 196

bring in our roundtable, george will, republican strategist mary matalin, "the washington post" columnist ruth marcus and abc scene i don't remember political soernt jonathan karl. welcome all of you. so, george, you saw that axelrod came down on romney like a ton of bricks. this is the man they think the nominee? >> clearly andy war whole primary where everybody is leader for 15 minutes and cain's turn today but it's not clear that cain has staying power. not running for president, sort of strolling for president without an infrastructure. it's pretty and cute and nice but whether or not it works we can be doubtful. they clearly decided that romney is the problem. and they have a problem with romney because they're not going to run on their record because the record isn't particularly appetizing, therefore they're going to run on the fitness of the republican candidate and i think precisely because how do we say this, romney showed a certain versatility of conviction over the years it's hard to nail him down. >> versatility of conviction, nice way of saying what george was trying to say.

session with steve hildebrand, the deputy campaign manager for the 2008 obama campaign, also, mary matalinpublican strategist. continuing to conversation on arguably the front-runner on some of the national polls, when he's asked a tough question on other issues, let me play this little clip. >> one of the things i've always prided myself on is making an informed decision based upon knowing all of the facts. after i look at all of the information provided by the intelligence community, the military, then i can make that decision. i can't make that decision -- i could see myself authorizing that transfer, but i would make sewer i have all the information, considered all of the options. i as president want to look at the department of education and make that determination when all of the facts are considered. >> is that good enough for a presidential candidate to repeat that when he may not necessarily have a great answer? >> not in the 21st century, wolf. people are looking for real strong, important answers right now. >> what do you think, mary? >> i think herman cain is getting a certain