you have randy travis, i can't believe you gave randy travis second billing to chairs. we got chairs and randy travis. (laughter) so the pimped out tent-bidding stands at chairs, petting zoo and randy travis. who can top it. >> i will say that tim pawlenty has mike huckabee performing in a straw poll concert. (laughter) >> jon: so nobody. (laughter) >> jon: nobody's got anything else. look, huck a kbee, music from huckabee but it's not a great sign for you when your musical entertainment could probably do better than you in the straw poll in iowa. (laughter) >> jon: so huckabee has the constituency and if he's throwing his full support behind pawlenty, that is meaningful. >> former arkansas governor mike huckabee is going to join gospel singer and presidential candidate herman cain on stage at the iowa straw poll in ames this weekend. what? (laughter) >> jon: huckabee you double booked the ames iowa straw poll? for rick santorum will be there. his tent boasts rick santorum summer dance party which, by the way, is the lowest testing bet pilot ever. (laughter) (cheers and

we've got country legend superstar randy travis live. we're also going to have a petting sgroo for the kids. >> stephen: yes, a petting zoo. of course at a bachmann petting zoo you are only allowed to pet animals of the opposite sex. (laughter) now another factor might have been that bachmann helped her supporters pay for the $30 voting tickets by paying for them. >> there were long lines outside bachmann it could have been for the brisket, we don't know, the barbecue. she has a lot of money to spread around. she has been handed ot tickets. >> there are reports she handed out 6,000 tickets. >> stephen: that's right, she paid $180,000 to hand out $6-- 6,000 tickets but it was worth it because she goes 4,823 votes. bachmann got a commanding 80% of the votes she paid for. (laughter) that's pretty impressive. (cheers and applause) >> stephen: i say, i say this proves she could win the general election assuming she can get 50 million voters into a field, pack them with barbecue and let their children pet randy travis. (laughter) (applause) bu

randy travis, as you say. and every time i ask them what they expect out of ames, chuck, they say, we're focused on doing well there. we're focused on continuing to meet the voters of iowa. and then south carolina and then new hampshire. so i would say discipline is their posture. >> it's hard to imagine anything less would be acceptable to them at this point. now, yesterday you did some reporting on this bachmann response on the issue of the "newsweek" cover. and they seemed to, no matter how many times people ask them about it, they're not attacking tina brown or "newsweek." >> no. they want to remain above the fray, chuck. when i talk to the campaign, they say they're not interested in getting into this discussion. they want to remain focused on ames, on meeting the voters of iowa, but they also said the campaign also told me that the photo was taken during a lighting test, and the campaign had an opportunity, chuck, to indicate its preferences. they were able to see some of the photos, they say. they tell

petting zoos, country bands, randy travis. sounding more like a state fair than a political event. >> in some case that's exactly what it is. at its core, the ames straw poll is a fund-raiser for the iowa republican party. for these candidates to bring in the business into the state and enthusiasm into the state party is a mission accomplished for republicans in iowa. for folks like tim pawlenty and michele bachmann, the big event is the trial ballot, which is a big test, activist level momentum at this point. >> rick perfectly will show up on sunday, he officially hasn't announced his candidacy, but what will the quote/unquote perry factor have on pawlenty and bachmann? >> there's some move to get a rick perry write-in effort, so we'll see how much that registers, but certainly the fact that periodry looks like he'll enter the race as early as next week, perry is a conservative, tea party friendly candidates, somebody who expected to play well in iowa. whoever the winner is on saturday, in some ways they're earning the right

randy travis, a lot of draws there.he has a lot of money to spread around not she's been handing out tickets. >> she has. there are reports that she handed out more than 6,000 tickets. if that's true, she's likely to win this thing. if you look at past results, basically the biggest we've ever seen was george w. bush in 1999, 7,418 -- don't ask why i know the exact number -- 7,418 votes. he won about 31%. that's the most votes we've seen anyone get. if bachmann is close to 6,000, we don't expect turnout to be anywhere near what it was in 1999. in 1999, 23,000 people voted. by contrast, in 2007, 14,000 people voted. if she can get anywhere near that number, she's likely to win. i think the person to watch really is tim pawlenty. if he doesn't finish second, if ron paul managed to bump up and finish second behind michele bachmann, that's a real problem for this campaign. >> about two hours ago, phil musser from pawlenty's campaign said we could finish third and fourth and keep going. that's awfully hard. jonathan alter, y

we have country legend music superstar randy travis. petting zoo for the kids. >> a petting zoo. chuck todd, sam stein and daifld axelrod ahead on "morning joe." [ ben harper's "amen omen" playing ] we believe doing the right thing never goes unnoticed. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? discover aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. aveeno tinted moisturizers. then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. luck? i don't trade on luck. i trade on fundamentals. analysis. information. i trade on tradearchitect. this is web-based trading, re-visualized. streaming, real-time quotes. earnings analysis. probability analysis: that's what opportunity looks like. it's all visual. intuitive. and it's available free, wherever the web is. this is how trade strategies are built. tradearchitect. only from td ameritrade. welcome to better trade commission free for 60 days when you o

was requiring folks to register at her booth to gain access to a country music show featuring randy travis now a folks didn't have to vote for bachmann at the bachmann booth to get a ticket it certainly could have helped her get a bump. in the poll so with all of that the g.o.p. field will likely shrink teapot decided to bow out shortly after his ames results came in it's arguably this is a bad thing because the more neo cons we have in the race the easier it is to split their votes and in the end for ron but i don't think the field is going to shrink just yet yes answer rick perry do nothing become instant front runner that's right kids the long awaited kendall texas edition is finally on sale to make or make a corporate entities everywhere even better with his announcement for the presidency in south carolina on saturday perry is now considered one of the three front runners along with michele bachmann and mitt romney never mind i don't know all of the polls as far as the irresponsibility of our corporate media know no bounds kilos to be showed last but by nine tenths of one percentage p

guest: michele bachmann is erecting a giant tent and bringing in a randy travis -- in randy travis. full entertainment day. everyone is bringing in some entertainment. host: when it comes to fund- raising, what does the iowa republican committee's stand to gain -- iowa republican committee stand to gain? guest: they will raise a fair amount of money. host: what happens after you get the top candidates? guest: every candidate will set up a spin room. when they announce the results, there will be 10 rooms with the candidates tried to make the case to have exceeded expectations. the straw poll is an expectations game. host: give us your predictions. guest: i think the top three candidates will be michele bachmann, ron paul, and mitt romney. ron paul is driving to -- driving to ames this morning, there are ron paul signs everywhere. i think he will surprise people. host: thank you for talking about the mechanics of the day. guest: i want to talk more about the entertainment. you were showing a diagram of the campus of iowa state university. the michele bachmann tent will be air-conditio

we have randy travis live for you in our tent. we're going to have a little texas band and lone star. we want you there, because tomorrow is the day we make a downpayment on taking the country back. i'm coming out to shake your hand and see you now. god bless you everyone. good to me you. -- meet you. >> according to your husband, i am a barbarian. you treat me like a second-class citizen. shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! what about rights? equal rights for every american. >> thank you. god bless you too. theht's our coverage at iowa state fair continues with remarks firm democratic national chair. democrats, the chairwoman of the democratic national committee, debbie wasserman schultz. >> thank you to be "des moines register." thank-you to the iowa democratic party. i want to sing the praises of your chair, who is doing a fantastic job making sure that people >> this is my first time to have the privilege of being in iowa and the first time at the state fair. this bear is legendary, and i was

she has randy travis, the country music performer, playing.a zoo for children and the campaign hopes to make a strong showing at the straw poll. >> she's certainly aiming for number one in the straw poll. jamie, calm, cool and collected despite our glitch. thank you. >> it's a pleasure. bye-bye. >> at the box office the apes are going all ape on the smurfs and apes are going all apes. the way deadline.com sees it, apes will hit $50 million, double the smurfs. and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. perdue perfect portions is great on busy nights. five chicken breasts individually wrapped, so you can use what you want and put the rest in the refrigerator. and the best part is it only takes 10 minutes. it's my go-to meal

>> our grassroots campaign, so i didn't get randy travis, i got my brother dennis and me, and formerr kenny holsof was there and it was the debut of the holsof girls, his daughters were there. it was a lot of fun. people seemed to like it. we had bomb pops. >> bret: what's the prospect of the mccotter presidential campaign? >> as you know, we do not run in a national primary the right fly eye on a -- rightfully iowa is the first one. so for a campaign like ours trying to build out, to have people after this come up to us ask us to go visit their county republican organization or their community organization as is happening, is exactly what we hoped to get out of this, to get another chance to get the message out in front of people for their consideration. >> bret: for all the people e-mailing us about not including you in the debate because of the 1% in five national polls, no hard feelings? >> i didn't tell them to do that. but my brother is outside, i told him to stop. >> bret: congressman, thanks so much. i appreciate it. we'll talk again with carl cameron and the panel when we co

what she has next saturday, air conditioned tent, country music performers -- >> randy travis. >> big names. she said, come, stay as long as you like. she's putting a lot of effort into the event on saturday. yesterday when iowa congressman steve king attended the pawlenty rally but then has high praise for another can data. >> the press overlooked the strength of ron paul's campaign. he's been campaigning in iowa more than four years. he has a solid organization. he'll place well. that's the measure the rest of the candidates are competing dpens. >> talks about ron paul. gunk he could be a serious contender? >> ron paul has a history of doing well in straw polls and basically being dismissed nonetheless. he has a loyal, active hard-core of supporters. he hasn't succeeded in his last campaign or this one in broadening that to a wider share of the electorate. if he wins the straw poll, the ames straw poll is different from any other and people have to contend with him. if he comes in third or even worse, there is probably going to be a tendency to continue to write him off as somebody

. >> come from 9:00 to 5:00, we have an air-conditioned tent, we have chairs, we have randy travis live. we're going to have a petting zoo for kids and food. it is fun and entertainment. >>> and we've got them. nato takes out the taliban fighters who shot down our service members in afghanistan. >>> good day i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. >>> financial stocks are pulling waug street down beginning with fears of trouble in france's banking sector. just another blow that wipes out any gains from a positive response yesterday to the fed's promise to keep interest rates low for the next two years. joining me now cnbc senior analyst ron ensigna. try to make some sense of this. where does it end? >> it's getting increasingly harder to answer questions like this. there were rumors going around about the potential insolvency of one or more french banks who own a lot of debt of europe's periphery, greece, spain, italy ireland or portugal. there's that concern. a lot of these frnch banks bought a lot of our toxic assets earlier in the decade. i suspect they haven't marked those down full

randy travis was there, too.ow of organizational strength and support that will be critical for the iowa caucuses, the first gop test for the field. far away from the action, rick perry made big waves by getting into the race. >> america is not broken. washington, d.c., is broken. [ cheers and applause ] >> how will perry change the race and what are the results here in ames mean? joining me now, our special "decision 2012" political roundtable. republican strategist mike murphy is here. columnist for "the washington post," eugene robinson, iowa republican governor terry branstad, senior political reporter for politico, jonathan martin, and nbc news political director chuck todd, here at our boardroom-like table at iowa state university. all right, well, let's get into it. first of all, here are the results from the straw poll. we'll put it up on the screen. all right, well, let's get into it. first of all, here are the results from the straw poll. we'll put it up on the screen. we've heard from michele bachmann,

michele bachmann has country singer randy travis in her tent, but you cannot come in to hear the entertainment until you have registered at the michele bachmann table, and of course, by doing that, they will try to get you to go vote for her. there are some tactics that, for folks to get to eat free food or hear free music, they have to vote for that candidate. >> a couple of things we want to point out, a piece about governor rick perry who is in south carolina today. >> he is in south carolina announcing his candidacy there. that is obviously going to divert attention from what is happening here. he is not going to waste any time getting to iowa. he will be here tomorrow. will be interesting to see here as far as rick perry goes is what kind of support he gets. he will not be on the ballot, but there will be brightens for him. he will have some -- right in spore him. -- write ins for him. there will be some support. >> of some candidates all trying to curry favor with the voters -- you have so many candidates all trying to curry favor with christian conservatives. i think specifically about

they would register people, send them out to vote, and tell them, come back and listen to randy travist out? >> the point is not come and eat the free food. it's come and cast your vote. you saw a lot of pollennation. a lot of ron paul people eating herman cain eating the pizza. what's interesting about the bachman line, i agree with you, it's very long. they were getting people who they didn't know were coming. so they were collecting their information. for the last week at her event, that was not always happening. so what they're using this for is an organizing tool for the caucuses a few months from now in early january. that's one of the reasons the line was long. they were asking everything. >> bret: if you were an alien who landed on this planet and you went to this and this is the political process, dairy queen blizzards and godfather's pizza and barbecue, we would have to explain. >> i am a total sucker for this thing. i love everything about this process. i love everything about iowa. you hear a lot of complaints from people, i would argue on the coast, that iowa has an outsid

we have randy travis live for you in our tent. we're going to have a little texas band and lone star. we want you there, because tomorrow is the day we make a downpayment on taking the country back. i'm coming out to shake your hand and see you now. god bless you everyone. good to me you. -- meet you. >> according to your husband, i am a barbarian. you treat me like a second-class citizen. shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! shame on you! what about rights? equal rights for every american. >> thank you. god bless you too. >> led us through! >> how do you feel about your performance? >> civil-rights. >> o weekend of presidential politics at the iowa state fair. brief remarks by michele themann represeresponding to debate last night. she was in another part of the state. tomorrow she will be speaking with the other official candidates. nine names will be on the ballot. we will continue our coverage from the iowa state fair which has become the political center of the universe. david axelrod, a longtime strategist