it is now all perry, perry, perry, gingrich, romney. and santorum, you're like, god!will, you heard roland say an endorsement doesn't matter, doesn't matter who perry endorses. however, mark preston's saying he's probably going to come out and endorse newt gingrich. what is your take on that? does an endorsement matter or not at this point? >> no, it will matter. it will matter for newt gingrich. let me say this, though, you also had jim acosta talking about the romney campaign's response to this. let me offer you a silver lining for the romney campaign. pundits have forwarded the narrative that romney has benefited from a fractured field, right? because no one can coalesce behind one alternative, it's helped romney. well, think about the two news stories we're talking about today. one rk, perry's dropping out an possibly supporting geng rich, helps gingrich, but santorum might have won iowa, makes him seem like a legitimate alternative. now you have romney, santorum and gingrich, still dividing the field, santorum and gingrich still dividing the alternatives. it does

perry does have supporters.n south carolina particularly, the state he announced in had a infrastructure to some extent atrophied over last month because he didn't perform particularly well in iowa and new hampshire but it is here. were he choose to endorse or not, there are organizational people that in the last 48 hours, they make a slight difference for one candidate or another, but in all likelihood as the undecideds in this state, and there still one in three, one in four voters likely to change their minds here, and again, a debate and another day of campaigning in south carolina anything can happen. if newt gingrich continues with the debate performance he had on monday and were to repeat something like that and it would be enough rough night for mitt romney this evening, trajectory of the polls, when you look at trendlines, suggests that gingrich is catching up perhaps after pace that could catch mitt romney and surpass him, particularly what happens next 36 hours. if rick perry were to endorse, that cou

perry doesn't poll very well.nd he's been made fun of, because he's not as academic as the other candidates. but he's got money. and how do you win? you've got to have money. how do you continue on? you've got to have money. >> ed schultz, i'm going to ask you to stick around for the next block. i have a couple questions for you. we're back with much more right after this. hello! who's she? downy unstopables. here to shake up your fresh. toss these little scent boosters in before you wash. and the fresh scent will last until you're ready to wash again. downy unstopables. the fresh too feisty to quit. that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. ♪[music plays] when you're responsible for this much of the team... you need a car you can count on. ♪[music plays] >>> and newt is not perfect, but who among us is? the fact is, there is forgiveness for those who seek god. and i believe in the power of redemption, for it is a central tenant of my christian faith.

then comes this perry thing. whether he winks at newt or says his name favorably or full-throatedly endorses him, it hardly matters, because what it does is it says to everybody, newt's my guy, and it consolidates whatever few votes rick perry may have had. they could add to that gap that gingrich is trying to close. so, i think it really puts the pressure on romney tonight. i don't think he can have an off debate going into south carolina. they are going to be watching this debate very closely there. he just can't be off. he has to be mitt romney at his best, sort of, you know, cool, calm, assured, however people saw him in previous debates. he needs to be back to that guy and needs to push back on some of the stuff, particularly bain capital and, by the way, his tax rate. >> sure. candy, why do you think it was rick perry, once considered the daryling of t a darlinging of the party, begging him to get involved? he skipped debates, then new hampshire and polls showed him at 7% or so in south carolina. he really

they could take the announcement with rick perry we'll go with rick perry and rally behind him and go with newt gingrich. the film side is perry never made that much of a presence in south carolina. jon: john roberts in north charleston. thank you. >> reporter: why so much fun, yeah. jenna: the rest of the day on fox news, he had the great interview with the governor nikki haley which he mentioned. we'll show you parts of that. in the meantime as you can see a live picture of where we expect governor perry to make this announcement. bret baier joining us from washington, d.c. bret, if one more person walks behind that podium, at this point there is lot of false starts. as soon as we see governor perry we'll got to that announcement. but, bret, why now? how do you answer that question of why now for governor perry? >> well, i think he looked at the polls. i think he looked at the positioning. i think he looked at the prospect of another debate. he said this is the place and tile he could have the most impact. listen, newt gingrich has been in communication with governor per perry for t

went to governor perry.he second most consistent debater has been governor romney, in terms of keeping his cool, strategically. he's paying for it. >> he got flustered a few times. the first time we saw romney have moments like that, but he was still pretty good. but he managed to remain looking presidential. remained to still look like someone who would be the nominee. tonight, i wonder if he's going to do that when he's getting pounded on both sides and not able to play the attack dog back. >> we haven't mentioned ron paul. had a significant impact in iowa, new hampshire. i know his supporters are saying why did you take so long to get to ron paul? and when people like me say it's hard to see his path to the nomination, we get hammered for it online by his supporters. it's hard to see that. but he has been i think more so than many people estimated, an impact player in that race. does he have it here? >> he does. not as much as gingrich, but he's going to have an impact and these are proportional races. >>

>> 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. >> he's the nation's senior governor of a big state. >> but texas. okay, thank you howard fineman. just kidding! i was going to say liberals, but that would be pushing it. anyway, thank you susan. how many of these have you covered? >> this is my ninth caucuses. >> we are brigadoon characters, aren't we? we come out here -- >> she has me beat by one. >>> 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're not going to have any clout out here. we're teaching evangelicals tonight how to have more political clout. we'll be back from java joe's in des moines. first my quote from voters at that romney rally today, let's watch. >

seemed to be a noticeable decrease in rick perry. santorum is sort of flat right now or are we seeing movement at all? >> no. we're seeing exactly that. the debate did him no good as far as santorum is concerned. you know, polls getting the vote. it's younger folks and more independents. that sort of an item unto itself right now. santorum surge are no long twoer words that go together well. and so right now we're seeing that important thing that we haven't seen up until this point. and that is a coalescing of the conservative anti-romney vote around one candidate and that is newt gingrich. it still could go either way. but it's trending gingrich's way. tonight is going tobacco ve be important and as well tomorrow and saturday. >> i wish we could be tracking every night. but we know wednesday nights are not a good night to poll here. we have a debate. so at this point, we'll wait for saturday. >> we'll wait until saturday. >> all right. thank you, partner. up next, south carolina congressman joe wilson is here. he backed pawlenty in

so at least, gingrich, perry, bachmann and perry, now get back to work.nes. nce teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three y we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love ience. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪ i'm a wife, i'm a mom... and chantix worked for me. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantiis proven to help people quit smoking. it reduthe urge to smoke. some people had

rick perry was at about 17% in the polls. they are in chaos. tearing each other apart and see democrats trying to rebuild the middle class, reignite the american dream, the more they'll come to us. that's why we're winning in almost every single generic poll, house democrats are ahead of the ideological extreme republicans. >> so rick perry, you think his decision to back newt gingrich is in fact good news for congressional democrats? are you surprised by the way all this is plays out? you wouldn't have predict it had six months ago. >> a year ago if i were on your show, it's a tough deal to take back the house. now i'm telling you the house is in play. it's going to be razor close. why is it in play? because of the consistent decisions by republican presidential candidates and house republicans not to stand up for the middle class. when you've got -- look, i hope their ticket is led by a guy who paid a lower tax rate than the waitress at the premier diner in comac, new york. >> so you would rather -- >> it's not in my lane. i would rather the

perry was on pace to finish dead last here. they wanted to avoid that embarrassment, that spectacle. after the iowa caucuses, he went to a ref la torrie jog and decided i'm going all in in south carolina and i asked the campaign what ink chaed? they said they had saw no viable path forward. the real answer is they didn't want to do more damage to his brand. >> were you surprised he went ahead and endorsed newt gingrich. he referred to he's made mistakes, we know what he's talking about. exactly. he did couch his endorsement in the christian themes. newt is the one guy that the thought he would endorse. they do have a friendly relationship. governor perry does not have a good relation-with governor romney. newt gingrich wrote the introduction to rick perrys's book last year. yes, they have tangedled, but he has a good relation-with me, and perry sources told me today they frankly don't think that mitt romney is a conservative. they think newt gingrich is. >> perry did say about newt gingrich, and i'm paraphrasing, if you're not

let's talk about rick perry.ampaign seemed to be, after the first couple of weeks, an oops moment. >> yeah. the perry campaign surged only before the candidate began campaigning. it seemed as if the more you actually saw of rick perry, the less well he did. he had that terrible brain freeze moment during one of the debates. i think probably the worst moment i've ever seen during a debate. he stubbed his toe on immigration, which forced him to go farther to the right on immigration. and even though we're in south carolina, a state that has a large evangelical christian population, and perry really was the last evangelical christian in the race, he just couldn't connect down here. >> in fact, that cnbc debate, the moment that you referred to, let's show that once again. >> the third agency of government, i would do away, education, the -- >> commerce. >> commerce. and let's see -- i can't. the third one, i can't. sorry. oops. >> and then there was the reporting by jonathan martin and margy haber in politico that ta

so with him getting the endorsement from the rick perry this morning, let's say rick perry was gettingse people go ahead and vote for newt gingrich and it's close on saturday, who knows what could happen newt could win going into the florida primary on january 31st. it's a four-man race right now and it's getting is exciting here in south carolina. >> it is so exciting. i'm so excited for the primary on saturday. let's just take a quick trip down memory lane. at one point in time, perry had huge numbers. what do you make of the whole rise and fall of the texas governor in this race? >> what's impressive right now is after rick perry made those blunders in the earlier debates, that oops moment, if you will, when you couldn't remember the three departments in the u.s. government and the executive branch he wanted to eliminate, he had a problem remembering the third one, it was all downhill for him then. he never really recovered from those mistakes. ironically the last debate monday night, he did okay. he didn't have any major blunders or anything like that. so you know, he could never r

he went in and our christy spoke to griffin perry, the son of rick perry and said, you know what, i went in and talked to mom and talked to his kids, griffin and sidney, went out for a run, cleared his head and said, you know what? i'm going to do this. and some kids were surprised by that. they thought it was over. it ain't quite over yet. >> he says he's going to reassess his campaign and then does this. for rick perry, it means a different thing. you talked it about this in your column. the impression that he's left, all hat and no cattle, how can he change that now this late in the game? what's the plan, if any? >> very, very hard. i mean, the cot lum i wrote today was that rick perry was running for agricultural commission, he was a cowboy and outspoken and an independent, self reliant, full of commonsense. once you begin to stumble and voters get to see you, associated with the cowboy, swaggering boot and mouth disease, it's going to be very, very difficult and i think there are some analysts who say it's going to be virtually impossible. when i travel and talk to voters in new ham

rick perry helped him. >> ana marie, rick perry said he believes in forgiveness and believes in redemption. we know that newt requires both of thoses in large measure. do you not think that will play with some southern conservatives thinking of their own faith will the be minded to give newt another break, i guess? >> i think that's possible. i also think if you look at the lineup they have available to them, there is another option. i think rick rick santorum is a pretty strong candidate in south carolina. he has a fairly populous economic message that is important in south carolina that is really struggling much more so than iowa or new hampshire. forgiveness that might come with an appeal to the vengeance you would get against obama. i think it will be really interesting night. we've all been treated to that so far in this campaign. it's not going to go away. the drama just beginning. >> we're all looking forward to it. thanks so much. >> thank you. >>> rick perry, how we will miss you. ♪ each step of my way ♪ i will always love you ♪ will always love you ♪ bittersweet memories that's a

rick perry also does not seem to have that.onetheless, cnn told talking points memo yesterday that rick perry can still be in the debate. really? is cnn changing debate rules so rick perry can be in the debate? at first glass it seems like they are. they say no. they are not changing the rules for rick perry. they're just looking at his pull numbers in a very creative way. the deal is he needs an average of 7% of three polls. all right. so three polls. averaged together they have to come up to 7%. they have to all be polls from january. either from south carolina or polls for the whole country. rick perry is at 5 % in the insider advantage poll. he's at 5% in the cnn poll out last week. any three average out to 5%. because they're all 5 pk. in south carolina rick perry is mr. 5%. so how about the national polls? in the national polls, he's again 5%. in this week's gallup poll he's at 6% in both the cbs poll and pew research poll over the weekend. in the poll out last week he's even worse at 4%. putting together his three best o

how can rick perry get back on track? that and bottom of the hour headlines straight away ♪ [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. >> shepard: so a woman in illinois is suing a police officer. she claims he used state records to track her down to ask her out on a date after he gave her a speeding ticket. according to the lawsuit, the officer searched for her address, then left a handwritten note on her car outside her apartment. she claims the note read, and i quote, it's chris, that ugly bald cop who gave you that ticket. i've not stopped thinking about you si

david corn and perry bacon. thanks so much for joining us. >>> the tea party senator who says it's time for rick perry to ride off into the sunset. >> what a difference one man or woman can make. let me talk about that just for a moment. scripture standpoint. if you think about it over in hebrews. there's a sum ration that people who live my faith. the interesting thing is they were all broken people. moses, he tried to talk god out of making him go lead the people. he wasn't a good public speaker. from time to time, i can relate to that. god used him any way. ♪ so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash? no! but it's more money. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? woah! [ giggles ] an accident doesn't have to slow you down... with better car replacement, available only from liberty mutual insurance, if your car is totaled, we give you

perry's not going to new hampshire. perry's going to south carolina. southern governor, conservative, a tea party message. look, he understands, he blew it in the early debates. the voters in iowa never forgave him for those gaffes. he's going to try one more time in south carolina. he insists no matter what the number is tonight, he'll fight in south carolina. but when he goes back to his donors, can he say, give me one more chance? i need enough resources to fight it out in south carolina. he's been governor of a big state for ten years, he can probably raise enough money to have a credible effort in south carolina. >> anderson, what's so interesting about iowa is it's so much about the media interpretations. you know, we're actually not talking about very many votes. we've got people up on the board that have each got less than 8,000 votes and this is a national vote. >> high school president. >> it's all about interpretation. ening at the end of the day, it really does matter what the order is of these three. it's not just that they're bunched, but

i think ron paul will get his usual 15 to 20%. >> what about perry? >> perry will be there but i don't think he'll get more than 12 or 15%. >> you know the population is made of south carolina? >> yes, heavily of evangelical christians. >> that's right. >> but there is a powerful republican party there, built up over the years, and i think that party will move behind mitt romney. the governor is behind him. >> perry's firewall, south carolina something, that why he is staying in the race? [everyone talking at once] >> i don't know that. >> you give perry more credit? >> i think he didn't want to leave the way he would have have had to left. and he's a man of real political achievement and accomplishments. and i think he just didn't want to leave -- [everyone talking at once] >> it's all right he deserves it. he's been very effective [everyone talking at once] >> also may be recognition that mitt romney is still the most likely nominee, and if he stays in the race, he helps romney. insures his future. >> exit question -- santorum surge in iowa. will th

rick perry, oops. a couple too many oops moments for rick perry.st not ready for primetime in presidential politics. here comes rick santorum who had no oops moments and there wasn't much fire fired at him. here rick santorum doing develop with evangelicals. >> all right. you mentioned it's the authenticity, no measurable mistakes. he captured a portion of what you call the teavangelicals. leave it to you to name a new party. >> yeah. leave it to me to come up with a piffy phrase there, kyra. look, the teavangelicals, what are they? these are evangelicals who very much support the tea party and its agenda. it's really that simple. there he is a big crossover in this country. what we saw, as you saw in that previous segment with some of those evangelical numbers, rick santorum did very well with that crowd and, yes, ron paul did very well with that crowd too. tea party, ron paul works he know all about that. he's also appealing to evangelicals for a myriad of different reasons which is probably another segment on your show. the point is that these t

i wanted to ask you first of all about what rick perry had to say, rick perry going after mitt romney, the whole vulture capitalist business again today, not only last night but again today. it sounds like it's a real kamikaze mission to keep romney fr from doing too well. i'll play it for you. >> we need to have more venture capta capitalism in america not vulture capitalism. >> what about that? what do you have to say? what would governor romney say to rick perry about the tactics that he is using? >> look, that type of the language used by governor perry and similar language by newt gingrich mimmicks language that you hear from the left, folks like michael moore and moveon.org we expected that democrats would try to attack the governor for being involved in free enterprise and being a person that helped start and grow businesses. but we did not expect it -- we find it surprising that it would come from republicans who should know better who should recognize the value of economic freedom in our economy. i think it's easy though. we talk about the facts. we fight these arguments that

on gingrich and perry. if newt gingrich and rick perry cave like spineless twerps before the establishment and say okay, okay you're right, mitt romney probably does have a glass jaw on the corporate raider thing, so we won't punch at it we'll leave that for the democrats for the general election what if they cave going after his time at bain. but they want to go after him. they leave the bain record out of it. do know what else they would use against mitt romney? yes. a website today leaked the video from the newt gingrich campaign, apparently their non-bain attack on mitt romney. watch. >> i like being able to provide to fire people that provide services to me. corporations are people, they can raise taxes, of course they are, everything corporations earn goes to people. where do you think it goes? we hired a lawn company to mow our lawn they had illegal immigrants working there. we went to the company and we said look, you can't have any illegals working on our property, i'm running for office i can't ha

does things the rick perry way?the way he conducted himself as governor of texas. he is not an island unto himself but rick perry -- nobody dictates where rick perry is going other than rick perry. >> i think it's more in line with what john just said. i think it's a combination. i think it's that plus the donors, the major texas donors who said let's ride this a little further. those donors are figuring where they are going to go next too if and when perry gets out. they want to saddle up close to the romney team or if they want to saddle up with santorum, they want to feel that out more and want the room to do that. i think it's a combination of the two. the deal plus the pressure from de donors because that turnaround in what he presented to the -- >> the notion he's going to gain traction in south carolina seems -- >> it's sort of like those people at the blackjack table who bust out and then they are like, okay do i have the mortgage payment in here? but at the same time, he's probably the most plausible conser

the perry thing is big news.s a lot of big news that perry supports will go to gingrich. i don't think perry had a lot of support to go to gingrich but it does create a sense of gelling around gingrich as the not romney, the conservative a terptive to romney at precisely a moment where people are forgetting today romney has had a bad week. i don't think he had a good debate. the fox debate was not a good debate for romney and he has had the gaffes. tax things and the rest. people are unsure with romney. he just lost the iowa caucuses. and gingrich is getting the surge as the alternative to him. it helps, even in perverse way, the marianne gingrich stuff fuels that everybody is talking about gingrich right now. >> bret: i was going to take the second panel and deal with the iowa caucuses but gets to the moment of the craziness of the day in the rick santorum, the g.o.p. in iowa, comes to the end and they are missing eight precincts. the votes there. but the vote counting shows him up 34. rick santorum. there was a

perry -- beginning wich rich with 13%, perry about 10% and michele bachmann about 5%.not a particularly promising night for them but we're still watching the numbers come in. >> one of the things i find most interesting about this, judy how we have very clearly two tears now. among those top three with 90% of the vote this we're talking about less than 100,000 voters, caucus goers tonight combining those three top candidates. and then some distance behind them are the three bottom candidates, two of whom say they're not going to be to new hampshire, straight ahead to south carolina and try to survive, if they do;n/w that. and the third, rick perry, and michele bachmann are going to south carolina. but third newt gingrich saying he's going to put on his boxing gloves and go after mitt rule knee. it looks like with mitt romney, rick santorum and ron mal ron pl duking it out there at the top is something like a grudge match. >> all the conversation about iowa may not pause determine who the winner is it does play a role. materiamichele bachmann is goino south carolina lin

the perry campaign sums up everything.said i am having doubts, and then he had a stupid speech about the long haul. i fight for the children until the end. and then 10 days later, i'm out. >> they lie and they will help out their buddies. >> they also convene yuanly paired up on beating up on romney. and i think there was something going on there. >> are you saying they were having an affair? >> i am not saying that. >> we can't confirm that. >> i am not saying that. >> jedediah, this is a family show. >> it is all we have. >> we are so petty. >> we are not running for office. >> last word to you, anthony. you have been following the whole political process for 40, 50 years. have you seen anything like this? >> no, i like this rock em, sock em robot atmosphere. i just wonder what it will be like when they go after obama and obama goes after them. it is odysseying them beat up on each other. i liked when perry got into the race. he had a presidential look when he opened his mouth. he had the texas bush swagger thing going.

perry, let's see what he does. if perry is at 15, he stays in and goes to south carolina. if he's closer to 10, i think then he may pack it in. that's not good for mitt romney, by the way. he needs a few more conservatives to hang around so he can steal south carolina. >> leave it there. chuck todd, matt strawn, thank you very much. we're going to turn now to a man who has been making a late surge here in iowa, former two-term senator from pennsylvania, rick santorum. >> santorum has spent more time in iowa this cycle than any other candidate and was the first to visit all 99 counties in the state. with limited resources and moneyable staff he's been traveling from event to event in a pickup truck. earlier this week, a cnn/"time" poll showed him for the first time in the top three. now he's suddenly turning out larger crowds and drawing more media attention. so he could make a strong showing in iowa by courting conservative voters like previous winner mike huckabee did four years ago. senator santorum, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you, david. good to be with