of note in the rick perry campaign right now is a new rick perry stump speech.e des moines register" reporting today the perry campaign revamped his stump speech in what they're billing as his closing argument to iowa voters. ]%ujt)áuq)" with a religious flourish, from the biblical book of isaiah. this would be said religious pick perry flourish. >> when the lord asked the prophet isaiah, he said whom should i send and who will go for us? isaiah said, fear not, send me. this is your country. taking her back is your call. join me in this mission. echo the words of isaiah. here am i. send me. >> rick perry now very focused obviously on closing the deal with religious conservatives in iowa. another sign i think of rick perry banking hard for the evangelical social conservative vote, his announcement at a campaign event in iowa last night sort of striking announcement he's changed his mind on abortion. he said, seeing mike huckabee's dvd about abortion has caused him to change his stance on the issue. even though rick perry is very, very antiabortion, he is for crim

>> the appeal of rick perry? that he seems to be a decent guy, to the evangelicals, he seems to be a decent guy with his heart in the right place, even if he doesn't have -- >> upstairs. >> the rest of it. >> thank you. >> he's the nation's senior governor of a big state. >> but texas. just kidding! i was going to say liberals, but that would be pushing it. anyway, thank you, susan page. you know these -- how many of these have you covered? >> this is my ninth caucuses. >> we are brigadoon characters, aren't? >>> coming up, why don't evangelical voters get in line behind one candidate? i don't know why we're encouraging this, but if they get behind santorum instead of splitting their vote between perry, bachmann, gingrich and the rest of them, they won't have any clout. we're teaching evangelicals tonight how to have more political clout. we'll be back from java joe's in des moines. first, i caught up with some voters at that romney rally today, let's watch. >> tell me about your vote and how you see your vote ne

>> the appeal of rick perry? >> yeah. >> he seems to be a decent guy to the evangelicals, a decent guy with his heart in the right place, even if he doesn't have -- >> upstairs. >> the rest of it. >> okay. >> he's the nation's senior governor of a big state. >> texas. >> okay. thank you, howard fineman, just kidding. a lot of smart people in texas, i was going to say liberals but that would be pushing. thank you, susan page. how much these have you covered? >> my ninth caucuses. >> we are brigadoon characters, aren't we? we come out here every four years. coming up, why don't evangelical voters get in line behind one candidate? i don't know why we're encouraging this. if they get behind santorum rather than splitting their vote among perry, bachmann and gingrich and the rest of them, they won't have clout out here. we're teaching evangelicals how to have more political clout. we're out here at java joe's. i caught up with romney voters today. watch. how do you see the vote on tuesday in the caucuses? >> i don't n

perry and romney.here could be some movement there. the other question is whether in those final hours, those more conservative voters who have been more skeptical of romney say, look, we've got to consolidate behind one candidate because obviously if he wins this state and then wins new hampshire where he has a big lead, it is very difficult at that point. no one's won south carolina, which will probably be the last stand for conservatives against romney without winning new hampshire since south carolina moved up since 1980. so the challenge is real and if iowa does not give kind of a reviving boost to gingrich or perry, the romney people think they're in a very strong position. >> let's say they pull this out by some ways or means, that romney does come in first here. that's a pretty -- he is really -- those skids are grease for him, are they not? >> absolutely. since 1980, the iowa caucus assumed this modern form. south carolina moved up. you've had five contested republican presidential nomination

why is rick perry suing the state of virginia now. you see rick perry just like newt gingrich didn't get enough eligible signatures to have his name put on the ballot in virginia for the republican primary he needed ten thousand and actually got more than that but thanks to laws in virginia designed to kick voters off the rolls many of those signatures were declared invalid because the addresses didn't exactly match the addresses listed in the state's voter registration database so now rick perry suddenly has a problem with these restrictive voter id laws as perry's own communications director said regarding a lawsuit we believe that the virginia provisions unconstitutional restrict the rights of candidates and voters by severely restricting access to the ballot and we hope to have these provisions overturned or modified to provide greater ballot access to virginia voters and the candidates seeking to earn their support you see rick perry is today's pastor name who watch thousands and thousands of people in germany be taken away by th

romney said he never supported the federal mandate then he made a bet with perry that perry was wrong. the amount rated eyebrows. >> it was true then -- >> no, no. >> it's true now. >> i'll tell you what. 10,000 bucks? $10,000 bet. >> i'm not in the betting business. >> campaign officials for gingrich and perry both criticized romney and the bet pointing out the average american in this country makes $39,000 a year, so a $10,000 bet revealed romney is out of touch with real americans who casually might bet $5, not $10,000. >>> in russia there is a scene that country hasn't scene in decades. a government-sanctioned mass protest through the streets of moscow. tens of thousands of ordinary citizens rose up against their miami vladamir putin. >> reporter: the cold and the snow didn't stop them. a massive show of force on moscow streets didn't either. police estimate a crowd of 25,000, the largest political demonstration since the early '90s. russia without putin, they defiantly chanted. >> we hope we'll do better. >> reporter: some carried flowers. others wore white ribbons, now the symbo

i want to focus on the perry thing. perry is the x factor here.downward but you don't sense in our poll that he is trending upward. there is room to grow. >> there is room to grow. primarily because he's got so much cash on hand and he of course is flooding the airways with messages about his faith, his record. so i think he is one to watch. out of here maybe he'll i think he's one to watch. maybe he will come in fourth. i think we got the top three maybe romney, paul, and santorum in some order. but perry has room to grow and move on to new hampshire. not a perfect fit, but in south carolina, this is a texas guy with a lot of swagger and a southern vibe to him. >> we'll dive more into south carolina, but the romney people believe it is. that's why they have managed this sort of victory lap they plan on doing tuesday and wednesday. >> there's space for one more surge. one more move in the next 48 hours. >> we'll talk more about south carolina coming up. tlif ya time. besides the romneys, who is the most recent father-son combination where the fath

perry and romney. be some movement there. the other question is whether in those final hours, those more conservative voters who have been more skeptical of romney say, look, we've got to consolidate behind one candidate because obviously if he wins this state and then wins new hampshire where he has a big lead, it is very difficult at that point. no one's won south carolina, which will probably be the last stand for conservatives against romney without winning new hampshire since south carolina moved up since 1980. so the challenge is real and if iowa does not give kind of a reviving boost to gingrich or perry, the romney people think they're in a very strong position. >> let's say they pull this out by some ways or means, that romney does come in first here. that's a pretty -- he is really -- those skids are grease for him, are they not? >> absolutely. since 1980, the iowa caucus assumed this modern form. south carolina moved up. you've had five contested republican presidential nomination fights. in

i'm rick perry. i will appeal obama care. >> but i have to play this one which his gingrich marriages. >> i made an oath to god when i married my wife. so yeah i think it's an important issue. but the american people will figure out these issues and work their way through them. >> jonathan martin, rick perry. who's he an ally of here? that's weird when we look at this. the anti-newt stuff, what was perry more effective on? hitting romney with the first ad or hitting newt with the marriage comment? >> i think his chief opponent is now newt. because to get to mitt, at least two weeks ago that's how it was. you have to go through newt. i think even know with newt in the lead, his opponent is still newt because of the conservative vote share. it's those two that are still fighting over some of the same voters. perry spent 5 million bucks on tv. >> and it's not moved. >> a little in iowa. >> they're starting to move a little. 12, 13 in iowa. >> how is that possible? yeah. >> the thing i would say is we've

rick perry.other lawsuit has been filed in virginia on behalf of newt gingrich, who also isn't on the ballot. but unlike perry, this one does not challenge the constitutionality of virginia's procedures. this lawsuit argues that mr. beginning rp met the standard. it claims the signatures were counted incorrectly. this time last night came the ç breaking news the iowa chairman of the michele bachmann campaign was defecting to support ron paul. tonight another senior member of the bachmann campaign is also jumping ship. last night bachmann's political director, wes enos, defended kent sorenson for his decision to leave bachmann for ron paul. today mr. enos apparently decided to join him. and in the much sought-after former "american idol" winner endorsement race, kelly clarkson also came out big for ron paul on twitter today. clarkson told her followers she will vote for paul in the general election if he wins the nomination, adding "i love ron paul." that won clarkson some backlash among fans who

this night started with sketchy rumors of a rick perry resurgence, rumors rick perry ought to be taken seriously once again as a republican presidential candidate. rick perry the iowa x-factor was the headline today in the "washington post." the "post" reporting, quote, there's some chatter in republican political circles that perry's ads are finally starting to take hold in the hawk eye state and that his support is beginning to bump upward. "roll call's" political wire asking this morning, quote, is perry moving up in iowa? before themselves noting the sketchy nature of the reports on which their question was based. quote, no polling has picked up on that movement yet. everybody's been sort of waiting for the big rick perry comeback. this morning there appeared to be some maybe glimmer that it was finally upon us. the underappreciated thing about pi rick perry's candidacy, he has more money than you'd think looking at his polls. he has lots of money. on paper, rick perry was supposed to be competitive. he looked like a good candidate. again, on paper. so he did raise a lot of money r

perry's campaign has money, they have not been giving up. the perry campaign appears to be pursuing a strategy of doing paid media and lots of it. paying for tv ads to blanket the airwaves in iowa leading up to the iowa caucuses. do some good ads, do some bad ads. hi "brokeback mountain" jacket. do ads, ads, ads all the time. keep yourself in a controlled, scripted environment where you, rick perry, control the message. if the perry campaign could only do that then maybe they would have had a comeback. but they also have their candidate out there not just doing ads, but talking to humans. live. they have him in settings where he is not just reading off a cue cards and that sort of thing has turned out to be a disaster. when he's not reading off a cue card, gov -- >> oops. >> oops, yeah. rick perry has had an unending string of oops, unending string of weird, wrong and strange moments on camera in public where he appears totally confused. it started at the beginning of his campaign as soon as he started talking in public and continued to toda

because they knew it would take the bet and it made perry look weak, and the perry campaign said thisge americans. >> which of those two spins do you think came out the more prominent? >> well, i don't know. that's -- we're going to have to see how that is resonating with voters. people were joking in the spin room, and with mitt romney, did he have the money on stage? it was the joke in the spin room afterwards. >> what about michele bachmann. she had a couple wild ones, the win, win, win thing that was totally off the cuff, and do you think that will leave the mark? >> she was the first one to bring up herman cain, the typical - 9-9-9 in all the debates, and she kept sending out -- her campaign was sending out e-mails and she was bringing it up at the debate, and that could replace the 9-9-9 that we were used to hearing. >> the win-win-win she came up with when she was on stage. but her campaign was sending out research on newt gingrich and mitt romney after she brought up the phrase of the newt romney. >>> thousands of job seekers line up in tennessee for a chance to apply for a jo

you could see perry nodding the whole time. >> all right. carrie dann on the perry trail. much. now let's go into the guy that's ahead of a lot of these folks. a little bit of a surprise. ron paul. he's flying out to los angeles today where he'll tape "the tonight show" with jay leno but will be back in iowa by wednesday to continue an aggressive ground campaign. now joining me anthony terrell. a lot of folks have been talking about how paul is sort of more old school caucus organizing than any of the other campaigns. explain it. >> right. well, chuck, he has a ton of volunteers here in iowa. he only has about five paid staffers in the state along with three other consultants but besides that when people show up to his campaign events, tons of volunteers are registering people to be republicans, which is very important for dr. paul. he is hoping that for new voters to come in and help him win here in iowa, which is the same day vot voter registration state. >> a couple other nuggets that you learned on the trail. he is obviously going to do multiple tours but i find it int

these ads have been effective, perry. >> absolutely. they've been effective. you also have the other candidates have piled on gingrich as well. on the difference in '08, hillary clinton only had to pass one person. gingrich's emotional moment, it's hard to pass he would pass santorum, paul and romney. i mean, he is way down, and it just may be, no matter what he shows, too little too late at this point. >> now, again, and i'm not saying it was a political strategy, but everything that happens, there's voter reaction. nia, let's get to willard, who everybody is now saying may do something that no one thought he would do. that is he may really win the iowa caucus. what is interesting to me about willard. we did a little research here. he is today at 22% in the polls. but in 2008, he actually won 25% of the vote when he lost to mike huckabee. he is polls today lower than he actually received in 2008, so there is no real great enthusia enthusiasm, even though he may win, it is not a win that seems to be full with a lot of energy, nia. >> if he wins it probably won

what do you think out here, perry?at i said on monday. we're on the same page. >> thank you both. that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us,

what do you think out here, perry?at i said on monday. we're on the same

himself and rick perry superpacs. he's up on the air as strong as anyone. you can see a lot of things about retail politics in iowa, having money on the air, ads both positive and negative on the air, doing your work for you, is really important, especially in these closing days. and i think that is -- he's not gaining a lot of ground but he's also not falling and that's pretty important to the prospect that he might be able, i'm not sure he can consolidate the evangelical vote, which rick santorum has a chance to do. but he could keep rick santorum from consolidating the evangelical vote and that in the end is good for the top tier candidates like romney and ron paul, who would like to win this thing outright. >> let's talk about ron paul for a little bit. because john you suggested that he was slipping a little bit. 41% are saying that ron paul would be unacceptable as a republican presidential nominee. but there's a great story in "the new york times" today which talks about ron paul's support among active and reti

perry fired the first shots yesterday.ter an event in davenport. santorum said if that's the best he's got, it's fine. i welcome the scrutiny. it's the first time he's gotten scrutiny from other campaigns. the one problem is that santorum doesn't have the money that perry has. santorum can't respond with ads. so he's going on to tv responding to reporters and respond i responding to the media. i think we have some sound of him doing that yesterday. >> i said, and i have after i left the congress, i defended my earmarks in the sense that i'm proud of the money that i did set aside for things that were priorities in my state instead of having bureaucrats do that. >> he also seems to be drawing some of the biggest crowds. he's taken a traditional approach to campaigning. visiting all 99 counties. he's can that continue all those negative attacks to continue drawing those kinds of crowds where he can of give his own response? >> right. all the candidates are getting good crowds because the voters are so interested. feeling out

are even within the perry campaign there.gay politics are generally going to work. iowa is still a safe bet. >> i want to point out how outside of the mainstream this anti-gay ad is. at the time of repeal, 80% of americans were supporting repeal. since repeal was instituted, even the public face of the opposition who was marine general amos, he said it's been a nonevent. that's how far the gop has moved outside of the mainstream. that's why really no matter who comes out of this primary as their nominee will be damaged by the positions. >> the perry a drd includes a sr and obama's war on religion. which war is he talking about? this president has done islamic terrorists and he is conducting a war on religion in america? >> that's that is the most ludicrous you can imagine. he takes his faith seriously and charged with being too much of a christian by going to church too much and paying too much attention to his pastor. he can't have been indoctrinated by a pastor you found offensive and had a war on religion. is he in the chu

remember rick perry? he's so desperate to get his campaign back on track he's attacking gays and lesbians. i think it's pretty shameful strategy. by the way, mr. perry, governor, there are nine members of the supreme court, not eight. i wonder if you could pass a citizenship test right now. you're watching "hardball" only you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. it'll cause cavities, bad breath. patients will try and deal with it by drinking water. water will work for a few seconds but if you're not drinking it, it's going to get dry again. i recommend biotene. all the biotene products like the oral rinse...the sprays have enzymes in them. the whole formulation just works very well. it leaves the mouth feeling fresh. if i'm happy with the results and my patients are happy with the results, i don't need to look any farther. ♪ and just let me be [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ your ticket home [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond store. take an extra 10 percent off storewide now through

earlier this week, we showed an ad release d by rick perry's campaign. a war on religion, it slams letting gays serve openly in the military. let's watch a portion of the perry ad. >> i'm not ashamed to admit i'm a christian. you don't need to be in the pew every sunday when you know gays can serve openly in the military and kids can't openly pray in school. i'll fight against liberal attacks on our heritage. >> no surprise it sparked backlash. it garnered close to half a million dislikes on the youtube channel. the campaign's response, they disabled the like and dislike icons for the newest addition of the lineups. perry stuck to his argument when asked about president obama's war on religion. true to form, it was not without a snafu. let's listen for it. >> do you believe he's waging a war on religion? >> i do. when you see his appointment of two -- from my perspective, inarguably judges whether it s was -- >> sotomayer. >> sotomayer. whether it's about prayer in school, whether it's you can celebrate christmas those are decisions that should be left t

has participated in this far so it turns out that in the five presidential debates that rick perry's participated in he's used the word texas eighty three times and that is more than four times than any other candidate has referred to their own state i mean is that is that a forgivable offense when it comes to the other candidates or is that just treasonous. so it's almost treasonous extrapolating way too broadly from the one cab driver i spoke to in iowa the last time i was there i would say that i would voters care tremendously about how many times people mention their states they're looking for at least thirty forty references of debate so rick perry is clearly well ahead in this particular metric here and i think that's going to pay major dividends in the caucuses now do this i'm not sure maybe you guys caught this did this study show how how often he mentioned iowa because that same cabdriver told me that he prefers iowa to be mentioned twice to every once for texas well i mean i think one of the things we constantly forget about the political system right when we decide that i

i'm rick perry at -- what's that line again? this message. >> i like it. i think it's a good strategy. and if you're still not convinced that perry can poke fun at his own gaffe, there's always the late-night comedians to help him out, right? let's watch rick perry making light of it all on "the tonight show" last night. >> thanks for coming. you provides us with a lot of material, so i appreciate you being here. >> it's what i do. >> what happened with the brain freeze that night, with the -- you had the three things to remember. >> well, you know, one, two, and, uh, uh -- every now and then, i call my dogs by the wrong name. >> what happened in new hampshire here? >> those of you that will be 21 by november the 12th, i ask for your support and your vote. >> i was thinking drinking age, maybe. >> drinking age, drinking age. okay, all right. that makes sense. but how about -- >> you got to have an excuse, right? so that's mine, and i'm sticking to it. >> and of course, if that doesn't work, he can always give a go michele bachma