and all i can imagine is pawlenty is now running for romney's vice president. why else would he let mitt mount him like a silverback gorilla. (laughter) and, folks, there are a lot of good reasons for pawlenty to be vice president. romney has said he likes the economic ideas that pawlenty has been throwing around. like this economic idea he announced last week. >> we should cut the business tax rate by more than half. on the individual rates, i propose just two rates, 10% and 25%. >> stephen: just two rates. it's easy a child could understand it, especial they e-trade baby who i believe is in the top 2%. (laughter) and the paweconomics, average americans will save $700 a year while americans who save $10 million a year will save $2.4 million. now, that would widen the gap between the superrich and the middle-class but that gap is already so wide we can't hear them complaining. (laughter) and pawlenty has a simple way of paying for all his tax cuts. >> we can start by what i call the google test. if you can find a service or a good available on google or the int

question, can pawlenty win iowa? tim?absolutely, and i'm very happy he began by going to iowa and attacking ethanol subsidies, especially because he used to favor them. that takes guts. his being from a border state is good. okay, michelle bachman could complicate it, but if the ethanol thing is a cue and he'll really battle the special interests like barack obama pretends do do, i think he can catch a lot of attention and win iowa. >> who is that lady? >> michelle bachman. >> the alpha female is. >> and she's too from minnesota and could -- >> born in iowa. >> born in waterloo, and she could tap into the evangelical base and tea party base better than they about. >> what about the problems she has, where places are located. >> oh, workplaces? -- [everyone talking at once] >> she had historical problems, said the founding fathers ended slavery. she's a very -- >> said something in maine and new hampshire that's not there? >> it was some r on -- for that. >> i think her sweetness and historical knowledge and history of the

does tim pawlenty now have the momentum? is the force with pawlenty, yes or no?> he's got the big mo in iowa, which he has to win, and he could win it. >> eleanor? >> he doesn't have big mo! he may be the last man standing -- >> got some little mo, though! >> are you laughing at your own candidate? >> punitive front-runner. >> that's about as far as you can go. >> he has some mo. i think -- not big but some. >> he's in a better position >>> issue two, afghanistan exodus? >> these additional american and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to afghan forces and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of afghanistan in july of 2011. >> this was the president's statement at west point in december, 2009, a year and a half ago. and the transfer of power in afghanistan has begun. defense secretary robert gates, a veteran of 28 missions to afghanistan, elaborated on the commander in chief's decision. >> we're making substantial military progress on the ground. i also reiterated my belief that these gains could be threaten

a missed opportunity for tim pawlenty? >> i was very surprised, anderson on this because tim pawlenty took a swipe at him yesterday and it seemed to be a setup for tonight. when he ducked and he gave romney an opportunity, mitt romney rose to the occasion and made a very good pivot out and helped himself. rick santorum i thought would take a swipe but he ducked. overall i think it was a very good night for mitt romney. nobody layed a on him and he had a consistent message about what he argued was the failure of president obama. i thought it was a good night for michele bachmann. >> and there was another key moment. newt gingrich talking about the ryan plan, something he got in -- made some missteps on early on and i'll show you that moment from earlier. >> your initial reaction to the ryan plan? radical, right wing social engineering. then you backtrack. why? >> first of all, there was a very narrow question which said -- should republicans impose an unpopular bill on the american people? i supported the ryan budget as a g

pawlenty put a speech out there. 5% growth over ten years?s mitt romney going to do about the deficits? he hasn't been clear about if. >> he has to do explaining and has to to come up with a real plan. medicare is a huge issue as well given the controversy surrounding paul ryan's proposals. >> medicare say huge issue. newt gingrich called that budget right wing social engineering, so he has to explain what he meant by that because that budget is the holy grail for republicans. it's very unpopular out in the country right now. >> right here in the state of new hampshire, the boston globe poll showed. >> i'll go to the hall right now. they're about to introduce the seven republicans. let's listen in. next up is governor tim pawlenty. thanks a lot. i appreciate it. thank you. >> congressman ron paul of texas. former governor mitt romney of massachusetts. the former speaker of the house, newt gingrich of georgia. the congresswoman from minnesota, michelle bashman. bachmann. and the former senator from pennsylvania, rick san to her yum. say hello

right now, pawlenty is everybody's second choice. maybe he ought to remain that for a while. he has to do it without being disliked. so we'll see how he does tonight. >> but the knock on pawlenty is he's very vanilla or doesn't stand out in a crowd. he's in a position where he's thrown out this catchy word. he doesn't have to be on the attack. he just simply needs to respond now. many republicans believe the key problem for the romney candidacy if he's the nominee is health care. their argument is bring it out now, let the voters know what the issue is. >> romney refuses to back away from his health care reform legislation that he got into law in massachusetts. >> it insluds a mandate, just like the federal program. >> romney's history from the last campaign is as a flip flopper. so there's only so much backtracking he could do before that history starts repeating itself, right? so in terms of health care reform, he had a decision to make and he said okay, i stood by my plan, but only for the state of massachusetts. i would not have done it on a federal level. and his team kn

tim pawlenty and his economic advisors know all that. they also know that his plan would never even get a hearing in congress. but it certainly is a lie worth telling to get elected. as you listen to tim pawlenty and other republicans lie about taxes in this campaign, you would never know that federal taxes are at their lowest level since 1950. federal taxes are taking just 14.8% of our national income, our gross national product. federal taxes have been hovering at below 15% of our income for the last few years. our taxes are lower than japan, lower than all european countries. and of course, lower than canada. but republican talk about taxes has always been a reality free zone. democratic talk about taxes unfortunately is usually only slightly more realistic than republican talk about taxes. democrats commonly suggest that the tax code can work all sorts of wonders that we have time and again proven it cannot do. targeted tax incentives commonly described as corporate tax loopholes for certain kinds of businesses have never created the

tim pawlenty is this week's test case.ook sharp aim at mitt myth and the health care plan enacted when romney was governor of massachusetts. >> president obama said that he designed obama care after romney care, and made it obamny care. >> but monday night, pawlenty, much more timid. >> why would you choose those words? your rival is standing right there. if it was obanmcare on sunday, why not now? >> president obama is the person who i quoted in saying he looked to massachusetts for designing his program. he's the one who said it's a blue print and he merged the two programs, so using that term was a reflection of the president's comments that he designed obama care on the massachusetts health care plan. >> the post debate analysis is tim pawlenty blinked or worse. >> what was pawlenty thinking? he looked frozen and terrified and lousy. >> he wimped out. >> he made a tactical mistake. >>> he came across as weak or pathetic. >> we have an official term for that in politics, it's called weak sauce. >> on twitter, he concede

tim pawlenty is trying to catch up.conomic plan would eliminate the entire federal government and that puts him in psycho talk next. what do you got? restrained driver... sir, can you hear me? just hold the bag. we need a portable x-ray, please! [ nurse ] i'm a nurse. i believe in the power of science and medicine. but i'm also human. and i believe in stacking the deck. >>> and in psycho talk tonight 2012 hopeful tim pawlenty says he has a better deal for the american economy. remember this is guite who left minnesota with a $6.2 billion budget deficit at the end of his tenure as governor. he has no credibility in the economy in my opinion. he took a crack at it today in chicago. he wants to slash taxes by $7.8 trillion over the next ten years. that's three times the cost of the bush tax cuts. pawlenty has a plan to make up for the lost revenue. >> we can start by what i call the google test. if you can find a service or good available on google or the internet then the federal government probably doesn't need to be pro

pawlenty has time to overcome it. frankly, had the moment not come at the beginning of the debate, it wouldn't have overclouded the rest of the remarks. because it did, may be unfair, but rick perry has a real opening. my e-mail is full of people today saying when is he getting in. >> i think a decision is made, when you start to attack the frontrunner, people can get mad at you for going on the attack. if this is the way you introduce yourself to the republican voters, which it was for tim pawlenty, why do it. >> why do it on sunday. >> that was my question. i was not trying to be a jerk to the governor. i was trying to say if you do it sunday in the comfort of a studio, why not do it with the guy there. you want the nuclear football, want to be president, turn to the guy and say what you said in the studio. i wasn't trying to pick on the governor. newt gingrich's senior staff fired the candidate days before the debate. he had a lot to prove. one of the criticisms was on another show he used radical right wing engine

pawlenty in his address says a risk taken. >> already, the dnc is posest posting to the website the pawlenty talking points. and the critics say that this is the day -- [ inaudible ] >> bret: thank you. today, the dow lost 19. the s&p 500 dropped 1. nasdaq up one. the federal reserve said consumer borrowing rose by nearly #.$60 in april. but america cut back on using credit card. the price of gal dropped a full penny overnight, the national average is $3-point # 6. detroit gape gained 8 cents >>> white house is disputing a new survey indicating that 30% of employers will definitely or probably stop offering health insurance once the president's healthcare law takes effect. the administration says the report conflicts with findings from the congressional budget office, the rand corporation and the urban institute. >>> president obama also reiterated during the conference today he called for gaddafi to give up power. this came on a day when nato warplanes bombed multiple sites in the capital. correspondent james rosen has the story from the white house. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: 30 minutes afte

tim pawlenty is trying to catch up.would eliminate the entire federal government and that puts him in psycho talk next. what do you w) can i do for you today? ♪ [ female announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance? align can help. only align has bifantis, a patented probiotic that naturally helps maintain your digestive balance. try align to help retain a balanced digestive system. try the #1 gastroenterologist recommended probiotic. align. ttd# 1-800-345-2550 ttd# 1-800-345-2550 ttd# 1-800-345-2550 and talk to chuck about ttd# 1-800-345-2550 rolling over that old 401k. >>> and in psycho talk tonight 2012 hopeful tim pawlenty says he has a better deal for the american economy. remember this is guite who left minnesota with a $6.2 billion budget deficit at the end of his tenure as governor. he has no credibility in the economy in my opinion. he took a crack at it today in chicago. he wants to slash taxes by $7.8 trillion over the next ten years. that's three times the cost of the bush tax cuts. pawlenty has a pl

it is likely to be either ramadi or pawlenty -- romney or pawlenty. >> what tim pawlenty is doing right now is a retailing, meeting people -- that is the connection point he has to make and what he has to build from. >> that is how scott brown did it in massachusetts. let's mention other names -- one of them, rudy giuliani, coming back. how did that florida strategy worked for him last time? >> that was the worst campaign -- this the only man in the last 16 presidential elections to that in all polls one year before the -- who led in all the polls one year before the nomination and did not get the nomination. republicans a lot of runners. rudy giuliani is squandered that. he showed himself to be arrogant and insensitive and incompetent. >> could huntsman become the favorite of republican party? >> he could be the favorite of the establishment of the east coast, but he is too much in the middle. they call him rino, republican in name only. >> correction of the year was a poll in iowa where apparently he got 1% of the vote, and the correction was, i'm sorry, we are not -- it was not 1%, i

i know tim pawlenty is taking aim, right? >> he's the nominal frontrunner given this is so early it is hard to say he's the leader, but he's the one a lot of the candidates will be taking shots at. >> i love that you said it is way too early. >> yeah, what does that mean? because he proposed and passed the health care legislation, that is so much like the president's and so unpopular among republicans, everyone is taking aim at him. tim pawlenty is the guy to benefit the most at this point it seems if romney were to stumble. so there has been a little bit of a push by tim pawlenty to go after him on romneycare. he says he's only answering questions he's asked. >> for him, it will benefit him a little to be the one to go after him. >> tim pawlenty has the most to gain at this point if romney were to stumble, it seems. tim pawlenty is not being unwise in fairly pointing out there are similarities between rid romney's health care care and the president's. in his defense, he's only asking questions asked of him. but he is pointin

specifically with tim pawlenty, i think he had a problem this week. because he had foreshadowed an attack at the debate over health care, using the term -- sunday morning show on fox of obamneycare which suggested he would use the debate to make a fight over that issue when given the opportunity and given several opportunities to do it, he backed away. and they now believe and recognize that was a mistake. and so later this week, he did go after him. >> the other person who got a lot of oxygen this week coming out of the debate was michelle bachmann, the congresswoman from minnesota. tem us what you make of that phenomenon -- tell us what you make of that phenomenon and is that good for romney? possibly? >> well, let me take the first part first, mi chl bachmann has been steadily moving -- michelle bachman has been steadily moving toward a candidacy. she has been in the shadow of sarah palin but as sarah palin has been on the sideline michelle bachmann has come forward and what we saw at the debate on monday nightn new hampshire were the attributes of

>> i think -- in your last segment there was a lot of talk about tim pawlenty.an opportunity for him to break out of this pack, to really establish himself as a front-runner, to go up against mitt romney. it's also a opportunity for several candidates appealing to the tea party base and evangelicals. michelle bachmann, herman cain, rick santorum. one of them is going to try to break out, and i think tomorrow night in new hampshire's we're going to see who that might be. >> how do they break out? go after mitt? >> for mitt romney, i think he's literally center stage. >> i'll go with you on that. >> but anyway, there's going to be incoming fire, he'll have to deal with that. i think this is a big moment for michelle bachmann, her first moment on sort of the national campaign stage. for people like tim pawlenty, he's still trying to introduce himself and catch fire. a lot of people said herman cain won the last debate in greenville. this could also be where he extends that a little bit. i think i agree with the sununus this is really an introductory moment for most

last night in new hampshire, pawlenty wasn't picking any fights.n. >> why would you choose those words in the comfort of the sunday studio, your rival is standing right there. if it was obamaney care on fox news sunday, why is not obamaney care standing with the governor there? >> president obama is the person i quoted in saying he looked to massachusetts for designing his program. he's the one who said it's a blueprint and he merged the two programs and so using the term obamaney care was a reflection of the president's comments that he designed obama care on the massachusetts health care plan. >>> joining us live from new hampshire this morning is republican presidential candidate tim pawlenty. thanks for being with us this morning. >> good morning. happy to be with you. >> i watched the debate last night and reading a lot of the articles and reaction this morning. a lot of people are wondering why you didn't take the chance to give some hard-hitting cri sism of mitt romney's health care reform last night when you were with limb on stage. >> ther

governor pawlenty laid out a plan, a lot of tax cuts. some economists said he had unrealistic expectations, he said you could grow the economy 5% a year. do you believe that is a possible, or is that too optimistic to the american people who want help but don't want to be misled? >> we need a president who has a pro-growth agenda. what we need is an economy that's unshackled. what's happened in this administration is they have passed a oppressive policy and regulation, obamacare being first and foremost. anybody that wants to invest to get a return, when you see the regulations that are going to be put on business, when you see the taxation, throw on top of that what this president has done on energy. the reason we're seeing this second dip is because of energy prices, and this president has put a stop sign against oil drilling, against any kind of exploration offshore or in alaska, and that is depressing. we need to drill and create energy jobs just like we're doing, by the way, in pennsylvania, where we're drilling 3,000 wells this yea

governor pawlenty to you?at's really tough. ♪ >> isn't that wild? >> we loved it. we might have played it a few times on the loud speakers. what does our pal john king think of that? >> i said hey, i'm going to play this, do you have any issues? he said fire away. down in my office, people are wondering why i'm playing hip-hop on the loud speaker, but it's all good. >> same with us. a little hip hop and barry manilow today. just been one of those days. appreciate it. thank you to john king for letting us do that as well. a heart-shaped meteorite falls from the sky. >> finding a heart-shaped rock in your backyard, kind of cool. finding a rock that is a meteor that is heart-shaped? okay, that's something you've got to see. a man and his son were playing kick ball in their backyard when they noticed this funny looking rock. turns out the rock was shae heart-shaped and it's actually a meteor. meteors don't usually travel this far, get this far. they usually burn up while entering the earth's atmosphere. so there y

. >> fox news is america's election headquarters the former minnesota give pawlenty bashing presidentandling of the economy, and that was in the president's hometown of chicago where he lectured at the university of chicago law school. pawlenty argued the plan to combine lower tax rates with spending cuts is a better deal for america. and now is the plan of pawlenty substantially different from other republican presidential candidates? >> some of the tax cut packages are similar but he does ask for sunsetting of all federal regulations unless specifically preserved by congressional vote. and, check out this one, he says as president he would ask congress for the authority, emergency authority, to be able to freeze spending and set aside 5 percent of the federal budget just keeping it aside. so, those are radical departures but pawlenty says america deserves a pro growth president. >> the president wrongly thought the stimulus, the bailouts and the takeovers were the solution, he says they, withed. they did not. the president is satisfied with the second-rate american economy produced

tim pawlenty had a particularly bad week. michele bachmann doesn't seem as if she can get the nomination. you can see how she can get very, very strong, and in the end, the mitt romney folks love the idea of it being michele bachma bachmann. but the idea of the player to be named later, specifically rick perry. i think when you look at how this week played out, as good of a week as mitt romney had as being a front-runner, you're seeing it in our own poll, you're seeing it in other polls. rick perry had a pretty good week, too, because of two things -- one, the tim pawlenty flubs, and two, the fact that there does seem to be this vacuum here of the antiestablishment wing of the party who's not enthused about who they want. >> and tim pawlenty baggage in a bit, but paul gigot, let me ask you this. the buzz about rick perry. he spoke this weekend at a gathering of republicans down in new orleans. here's a portion of what he said. >> let's speak with pride about our morals and our values and redouble our effort to elect more cons

bachmann shines and pawlenty stumbles. we'll size up the field in the "roundtable." and "good morning america's" robin roberts joins us with an exclusive interview, president obama on father's day. >> i have a huge advantage, i live over the store. at 6:30, no matter how busy i am for an hour, hour and a half, my only focus is them. >> announcer: live, from the newseum in washington, "this week" with christiane amanpour, starts right now. >> welcome to the program. and happy father's day. senator john mccain will join us in just a moment. but, first, some news since your morning papers. in japan, a new phase in the struggle to contain radiation at the crippled fukushima nuclear plant. workers will briefly open the main door to install a cooling system to avert another explosion. it's been three months since the reactor was swamped by that devastating tsunami. here in the states tens of thousand of people are without power as heavy stores battle the region. heavy winds, pounding rain and lightning hit florida, jo and north carolina. >>> and bruce springsteen fans gath

. >> liberal action group called code pink against tim pawlenty. he was signing copy of his book "courage to stand". one of the activist repeatedly asked pawlenty where his courage was on reproductive and gay rights. pawlenty was one of the speakers addressing a train group of the health industry group. >> and a data breach at citigroup is bigger than the bank admitted . what the hackers were able to take from the customers. >> i am meteorologist sandhya patel. temperatures came down and we'll let you know how much cooler it will get. >> sandhya, thank you . people just packed in and out burger in the bay area. news continues in ononononononon >> closed captioning brought to you by mancini sleepworld. this is breaking news in san francisco. sky 7 hd is live over venice and mark street in san francisco where downed power wires are forcing them to shut down numerous trains in the city. muni riders are waiting for shuttle buses. we'll see how many muni lines are affected. we'll update you when we get that information. >> in the meantime morgan hill po

i am tim pawlenti and i approved this message. host: the focus is on the former massachusetts governor. guest: this issue of blaming the media for making it run made the front runner, i reject that. he has shown he is a tough competitor. he can raise money which is critical. mitt romney has done this before. he ran for president four years ago. he is showing he learned some lessons and can really mount a credible campaign. i don'think it is the media doing this. as for ego, they all have big egos. you have to have a big ego to run for president. just because somebody believes in themselves and is willing to workery hard to become president es not mean they are in it for themselves or for the money, for heaven's sake. mr. romney does not make -- need the money. they have faith in themselves and they believe they can really do something for the country. i guess that's all i have. tweet --re is a tweed guest: mitt romney as a problem with his personal presentation. tim pawlenti gets a rapport being less than exciting and mitt romney

governor pawlenty will be here this morning. we'll ask him about his showing and what it means for his campaign. he spent 26 days there already and television, has spent considerable money in that state for little results at this point. >> we have seen other people go through this similar thing and actually pull ahead later in the game. we certainly will ask him about that. we begin with the latest on the midwest flooding. the situation starts to ease just a little in minot, north dakota. there are new worries for a pair of nuclear power plants along the flooded moss river. jamie yuccas of wcco-tv is in minot with the latest. >> reporter: good morning, rebecca. people getting welcomed news this morning that the river crested over the weekend and water levels are starting to go down. further south in nebraska, they're seeing water level rise on missouri river there, threatening two nuclear power plants near omaha. 20 miles north of omaha, the ft. calhoun power plant has been closed since april for refueling. it's here where a col

governor pawlenty, congress paul said opt out.yan said squeeze the savings across the federal budget including a lot from medicare to turn night -- he doesn't like the word -- into a voucher program. the government would give you money and you go out to the marketplace and shop. is that the right way to do it. >> let me address the doctor. doctor you said in your question you paid in your whole life and we respect that. people have made plans, people on the program or close to eligibility, we should keep our word to people we made promises to. under my proposal if you're on the program or near the program we'll keep our word but we have to recognize what congressman paul said. there was a recent report that the presume yums for medicare and payroll withholdingings are only paying about half the program. it's not financially solvent. i'll have my own plan that will feature some difference from congressman's ryan's plan. it will have performance pay. it will allow medicare to continue as an option but be priced against various other

. >>> when we come back, tim pawlenty has a hilarious new budget proposal. that is our con job of the day. you're going to want to see that, next. [ male announcer ] this is james. the morning after the big move starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now... and maybe up to 4 in a day. or, choose aleve and 2 pills for a day free of pain. smart move. ♪ ♪ that's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh ♪ ♪ i like it, uh-huh, uh-huh ♪ that's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh ♪ ♪ i like it [ male announcer ] introducing mio -- a revolutionary liquid water enhancer. add a little. add a lot. ♪ for a drink that's just the way you like it. ♪ i like it, uh-huh, uh-huh ♪ that's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh ♪ [ male announcer ] make it yours. make it mio. ♪ >>> in our con job of the day, we have tim pawlenty's comical new budget proposal. pawlenty unveiled the economic plan for america today and it has a lot of rainbows and unicorns. >> let's grow the economy by 5% instead of the anemic 2% currently envisioned. >> wow, 5% growth sounds great. i wish we could get that even better, paul help

hey, mark, what are we hearing from pawlenty now?ard tim pawlenty term a new term call called o eed obamney care. tim pawlenty decided to demyrrh. decided not to address it head on. it caught us by surprise. in fact he was widely panned for it. tim pawlenty last night on fox news came out and said, look, i made a mistake. i should have addressed it head on. in fact, tim pawlenty today, suzanne, has a fund-raising e-mail put out where he says that, again, he didn't take the right opportunity to go after mitt romney but he plans to do so going forward. while we saw in the cnn debate that there wasn't a whole lot of jostling or fighting amongst the candidates, perhaps we'll start seeing tim pawlenty and mitt romney arguing over the whole idea of health care. >> mark, we are certainly seeing a battle between romney and the president. there's a new ad, i understand, targeting president obama again? >> yeah, mitt romney trying to focus entirely on the economy has put out a new web video today, where he's attacking president obama and the w

we continue our one on one interviews with tim pawlenty. let's get going. you unvealed a bold economic plan and let's run through your major proposals. massive tax cuts take the top corporate rate from 35 percent down to 15 and individual tax cuts 10 percent for the first $100,000 couples make and everything above that $ -- 25 percent . big gdp cuts. governor, what will that do to our economy and national debt? >> it would unleash economic growth and job growth is get back to the premise of growing the private phempt puts specific proposals on the table and i wish president obama would do that and address the realshes in our economy including spending reform. he waits for congressman ryan and others to lead and then he followers. the president should bring further the real challenges for the country. this plan by the way gets back to the notion that we need a pro growth economy focused on private sector job growth and the number one path way is whether they have a job. this will unleash job growth in america big time. >> let's drill it is a controversial pl

pawlenty is having a hard time getting started there. ron is a good guy. he endorsed pawlenty.guy he supports. i would take this message to the democrats. be careful what you wish for. we wished for bill clinton to be the democratic nominee in '90 and '92 and he cleaned our clocks. michele bachmann is smart. she talks directly to the people and can inspire a big base out the there. independents are likely to vote for her. >> thank you all for being with us tonight. we'll continue this conversation for some time to come. conversan for quite some time to come. >>> and you won't want to miss the end of this show, we have good news to break. stay tuned find out just why john king is not here tonight. s] ♪ [ cat meows ] ♪ [ whistle ] ♪ [ cat meows ] ♪ [ ting! ] [ male announcer ] travelers can help you protect the things you care about and save money with multi-policy discounts. are you getting the coverage you need and the discounts you deserve? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage or visit travelers.com. i've tried it. but nothing's helped me beat my back pain. then i tried

today tim pawlenty said, "parts of the republican party now seem to be trying to outbid the democrats in appealing to isolationist sentiments." do you agree? >> yes, i do. i think there's been a tension with the republican party. one of my responses among many about our involvement in libya is after rwanda we said never again. gadhafi's forces were at the city of 700,000 people and he promised he would go house to house and kill anybody he thought opposed him. that's why, one of the reasons why we intervened. not to mention the blood of 90 some americans as a result of bombing of 103. the fact he has been involved in acts of terror and if he survived, he would again. that and other reasons clearly indicate it is in the united states' national security

it would be romney/pawlenty, or pawlenty/romney. on toward the convention.bachmann wins, she goes to new hampshire. good enough to show a decent showing there, and head to south carolina, winning there. this is how it looks right now as we approach the first

>> i'd say right now it would be either pawlenty or romney. that's what i'm thinking. look, something major could change. here's what i think. the election is going to be on barack obama. who else is -- who the republicans put up there is almost irrelevant. unless they put a crazy up there. and then people will vote for obama anyway. but this is -- every presidential election is a referendum on the administration currently in power. there are no exceptions to that. and so right now people will be judging barack obama. i still think in the end he wins. i still think in the end -- >> i would just throw one spanner in the works. it appears at the moment he's likely to win.

i've seen tim pawlenty, the ex-governor, in action.ountry can look at the shape minnesota's in, billions in deficits and all this economic genius did was kick the deficit can down the road to the next governor and legislature to deal with. ken writes, 10% and 25% tax rates sound good but they don't solve the $63 trillion unfunded federal liabilities. getting elected and solving problems are two different things. if politicians want to solve the debt problem, they need to go after wall street. a simple 1% tax on the $700 trillion derivatives market, a penically tax on all stock transactions and a 90% tax on broker bonuses would be a good place to start. kevin writes, tim pawlenty just got a whole lot more interesting. you want to read more on his ideas, go to my blog, cnn.com/caffertyfile. >> i want our viewers to remember, monday night, the big cnn republican presidential debate. in new hampshire. standby for that. 8:00 p.m. eastern. a quick question, you're in new york, the whole anthony weiner story, we know how it's playing out nati

it would be romney, pawlenty on ward to the national convention in tampa.ight up pawlenty in iowa and bachmann wins out there, then bachmann goes to new hampshire strong enough to make a decent showing then head down to south carolina and she could win there. setting up a romney versus bachmann race all the way to tampa. this is how it looks on the republican side. i'm count tong debate to make the difference. if michelle bachmann can be a star in the big candidate nights like next monday, she'll be the one

so tim pawlenty announced his campaign early last week. it was his big kickoff.f coverage and a lot of insiders think pawlenty could be sort of the alternative to mitt romney. but he's really not taking off. it doesn't help him to have someone like palin suck up all the media attention. tomorrow mitt romney's going to be announcing his own candidacy formally. he's going to be competing with palin for headlines. so i think it's frustrating for other candidates who say, are you in or are you out? >> i heard this counterintuesite logic, the fact that palin's getting so much media attention actually helped people like pawlenty because tea party activists will be so angry about the current field who have announced like pawlenty, romney, gingrich, and because you have a palin out there, it means the tea party has a candidate potentially who satisfies them so they won't be complaining about the other guys. does that make sense? >> these things are so hard to predict. there's so many different scenarios. i really think for some of the candidates trying to break through,

no one wants to but they may have to. >> tim pawlenty, the former governor of minnesota, said of about obamney care. he's been criticized for being too timid. he sent out a tweet today. let me read it for you. on seizing debate opportunity re health care, me, zero, mitt, one. on doing health care reform the right way as test in a minute. it's kind of cute. don't laugh. he gets to try. their exchange during the debate when i was trying to ask governor pawlenty why he made that sunday show comment and would he explain it to governor romney who was standing a few feet away. will. >> why would you choose those words? maybe in the comfort of the sunday show studio. your rival is standing right there. if it was obamneycare on sunday, why isn't it with the governor right there? >> president obama is the person who i quoted in saying he looked to massachusetts for designing his program. he is the one who said it is a blueprint. that he merged the two programs. so using the term was a reflection of the president's comments that he designed obamacare on the massachusetts health care plan. >> you

tax rates, if you pay zero now under pawlenty's plan, you would pay zero for those making $50,000 or less, or $100,000. in a marriage, you would pay 10 percent in federal tax, 25 percent for everybody else. business tax is reduced from 35 percent to 15 percent. and no taxes on capital gains, interest income dividends and estates. now, while all of this suggests a massive overhaul of the tax code, not everyone obviously is going to be pleased with this particular proposal. we point specifically to the successor to pawlenty, that would be governor mark dayton who says i think it's eye ironic that he, pawlenty, is talking about a fiscal plan when he left the state a mess, they had a difficult time putting together a budge but what pawlenty's aides have told me in the past about this particular charge is pawlenty did deliver balanced budgets to the state of minnesota and they did actually cut spending in the state of minnesota, that is something that mark dayton, governor now, has yet to accomplish and is working on. bill. bill: steve, thank you. alisyn: turning to forensics in the casey