mark shields and michael gerson are here, to analyze the week's news and look ahead to the year in politics. those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

that's syndicated columnist mark shields and "washington post" columnist michael gerson.ant to start out with a gallup poll a 1,000 sample. they say the most important issue throughout the last year has been government and that was interesting to me because, you know, when you look back at this, 2004 to 2007, it was iraq. 2008 to 2013, it was the economy. then 20 2014, the government. so these are long-standing concerns. when it was the iraq war, that was something we were concerned about and the economy through the national crisis. but this turning point that so many people are so concerned about what's happening in government and washington, whether it's even possible to get anything through. what will happen in 2015? >> it's part of crisis of legitimacy of institutions. people are questioning whether institutions including government are up to our challenges. we have serious challenges on education and title reform and our institutions aren't responding in a way they should. i think obama care played into that, to be honest, which faltered at the beginning and also, yo

bloomberg politics and we are joined by cbs news congressional correspondent, nancy cordes, and michael gersonngton post columnist, former member of the george w. bush administration. >> well, so let's start with mitt romney, he was telling everybody that he was not going to run again i said way back there, one thing i have gotten right lately and still right he is now thinking about running. now he is looking to jump back in. mark, what do you think, what changed his mind? >> it is a wide open field. he has a chance to get elected president and he doesn't want to give up the opportunity not because he lusts for power but because he thinks he would be the best president. he thinks increasingly as he did four years ago he has the best chance to beat the dependent nominee. i think a lot of reason he thinks he lost last time is it is hard to beat incumbent president and last night nancy and i were both there he gave a message that was different than last time he talked about his mormon faith and empowerment agenda that sounds like jeb bush and paul ryan and would like to give it another try, he i

bush, michael gerson is a former speech writer under president bush and matthew litman is a former speechrom l.a good morning to all you guys. >> good morning. >> mark, let's start with you. last night the president said tonight we turn the page. we just played a little clip. why is now the time to turn the page? >> well, it's a really interesting theme for your sixth state of the union address. it works for the first one when you're turning the page on the previous administration. but six years in you're kind of turning the page on yourself. so it's an unusual theme. but also, the president has been trying to turn the page on the war on terror for six years and terrorism isn't cooperating. the headline in the "washington post" today is, the shadow of crisis has passed and right next to it is a story that basically says yemen is on fire. so i don't know how the shadow of crisis has passed when yemeni government is about to fall which he held up in his last state of the union address as a model, and isis is in charge of half of iraq and syria, and beheading americans and crucifying people.