msnbc political analyst richard wolff is with us tonight.line hellman, professor of politics at occidental college. professor, let me ask you first. you know, there's been a slew of recent reports of folks denied photo i.d.s because they don't have the necessary documentation to obtain one. so what do you make of the senator's answer? >> well, he's using republican partisan talking points. he is appealing to middle-class americans, many of whom or all of whom pretty much have voter i.d. but the difference between buying cigarettes and hopping on a plane is those are not constitutionally protected rights and voting is. and we know according to the brennan center study that 11% of americans don't have a photo %)ó requirements for various reasons. whether they're elderly, whether they're students who have student i.d.s and are not driving. we also know that a disproportionately affects blacks and latinos. so it's a real problem when it comes to demobilizing people of color. so it's disingenuous for him to say it's not voter suppression. >> wel

joining me now richard wolffe, author of revival, the struggle for survival inside the obama white house and msnbc analyst karen finney, former dnc communications director. karen, speak to this question of the complexity of the politics of governing versus the politics of campaigning. in campaigning, you can just leave the opponent dead by the side of the road, but the complexity in the politics of governing is the person who is in your way today may be your ally tomorrow, which is something that harry reid always knew about ben nelson. he's not with me on this vote today but he's with me most of the time. that's something that it seems to me the retail consumer of ol -- politics have trouble grasping. >> people understand it and just don't like it. >> there's that. >> but don't get in the building behind me as we well know, that's how it is. if we want to change that, there are other things we could be doing. think about the number of times, it's true, when you think about joe lieberman, right? it's sort of like we hate the fact that we need him, but the truth is we need him to caucus w

alex wagner and richard wolffe, thank you so much for joining me. >> thanks, melissa. >> thanks, melissa>>> coming up, will tina fay's famous imitation of sarah palin be overshadowed by julie anna moore's portrayal of game change? the first preview is out. we will have that and the day's 2012 headlines is next. including another endorsement for mitt romney. >>> and later, how our society's declining trust in government institutions is slowly killing santa claus. ♪ you, you ain't alone ♪ and just let me be [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ your ticket home ♪ [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond store. there's a different cream. i challenge that with olay. i've found one cream with everything i'm looking for... olay total effects. with 7 age defying effects in just one, easy to use cream. i've swapped to all-in-one total effects. why don't you swap too? multi-policy discount. paperless discount. paid-in-full discount. [yawning] homeowner's discount. safe driver discount. chipmunk family reunion. someone stole the nuts. squirrel jail. justice! countless discounts. now that'

alex wagner and richard wolffe, thank you so much for joining me. >> thanks, melissa. >> thanks, melissa. >>> coming up, will tina fay's famous imitation of sarah palin be overshadowed by julie anna moore's portrayal of game change? the first preview is out. we will have that and the day's 2012 headlines is next. including another endorsement for mitt romney. >>> and later, how our society's declining trust in government institutions is slowly killing santa claus. [ sniffs ] i have a cold. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't treat that. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ deep breath] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth! i'd like a decaf 360 calories please. i'll have a triple iced 410 calories please. you know what... i'll have this instead. [ female announcer ] swap one thing a day for a yoplait light at around 100 calories. it will add up to amazing. >>> now, if you're not one of the front-runners, you don't get the fron

msnbc political analyst, richard wolffe, here on "the ed show." thank you so much. >>> remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts on twitter @edshow. we want to know what you think. >>> coming up, with the republican candidates jockeying for positions in the poll, wondering if jeb bush might throw his hat in the race. >>> newt gingrich continues his war on the judicial branch. now he says activist judges should be arrested. presidential historian douglas brinkley will join me. stay with us. >>> coming up on "the ed show," two weeks until the iowa caucuses and republicans aren't even close to picking the winner. joan walsh with that discussion, as they are in disarray. that's next. >>> rush limbaugh lands in "psycho talk" for saying that democratic voters are uninformed? >>> the death of north korean leader kim jong-il leaves questions about the future of the country's nuclear program. i'll talk with nuclear weapons expert joe sarinsioni. tweet us your thoughts using #edshow. >>> welcome back to

msnbc political analyst, richard wolffe, here on "the ed show." thank you so much. >>> remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts on twitter @edshow. we want to know what you think. >>> coming up, with the republican candidates jockeying for position in the polls, right wing pundits wonder if jeb bush might throw his hat in the race. joan walsh joins me on that conversation. >>> newt gingrich continues his war on the judicial branch. now he says activist judges should be arrested. presidential historian douglas brinkley will join me. stay with us. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. ♪ i think i'm falling ♪ i think i'm falling [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ for you [ male announcer ] this is zales, the diamond store. shop our largest diamond store online anytime

msnbc political analyst, richard wolffe, here on "the ed show." thank you so much. >>> remember to answer tonight's question there at the bottom of the screen and share your thoughts on twitter @edshow. we want to know what you think. >>> coming up, with the republican candidates jockeying for positions in the poll, wondering if jeb bush might throw his hat in the race. >>> newt gingrich continues his war on the judicial branch. now he says activist judges should be arrested. presidential historian douglas brinkley will join me. stay with us. everyone have their new blackberry from at&t? it's 4g, so you can do more faster. so, kathryn, post more youtube videos of your baby acting adorable. baby. on it. matt, ignore me and keep updating your fantasy team. huh? jeff, play a game. turbo-boosting now, sir. dennis, check in everywhere you go on foursquare. that's mayor dennis... of the water cooler. you're the best. liz, rock out to pandora. oh, no i'm an only child. and nick, you shouldn't even be here, you can do everything from the golf course. good

. >> oh, joining me now is msnbc political analyst richard wolffe. e. >> yeah. ali g and bruno i think have shown us another side of both newt gingrich and ron paul. >> you can say that. >> it's interesting on the ron paul piece because eric dundero, he was a long-time aide of ron paul. he posted this piece recently where he talked about ron paul's crazy foreign policy ideas and different things. and he did say, and these are his words that ron paul is personally uncomfortable around homosexuals. >> yes. >> which i think we just saw a little video evidence of.áçhkci >> you could say that. you know, i've seen these videos eight times now. they're still hilariously funny. let's just be clear, all due respect to sacha baron cohen for his genius here. what's more stupid, the fact that ron paul gets suckered into this kind of interview or that he's offended not by the guy taking off his pants by but the fact that he is, quote unquote, ean, you know, there is -- ote, there's a -- there's something that you cannot hide when people are in shock or they're dru

and to do it we have a great group of judges, alex wall northwesterly is here, and richard wolffe. michael steele is here, and maria teresa kumar. richard wolffe dusted off his tux to be here, and of course it wouldn't -- we wouldn't have had the reservies without a strong opinion or two from mike real steele. let's get right into it tonight. first up, the spotlight awards, for the best thing that hopped in alex, who is your pick? >> i think it's the c changes going from the midterm election. so a real broad conversation. and this year really feels like the turning point. >> so the turning point was the change? >> i think you could credit occupy as a major catalyst. >> so going from that talk of deficit to talking about income and inequality. >> first of all, i wear this every day, so i didn't have to dust off anything. >> internationally the arab spring. democracy takes hold, enormous story. domestic, right back to the start of the year. and the reaction to the speech. >> the best thing about politics for 2011 is it's over. it's over. >> i would feel that way if i was a republican

it didn't happen. >> richard wolffe, thank you for joining us. >> thanks, lawrence. >>> up next, andfirst episode of megan kelly touches something disgusting. >>> time for document's episode of, megyn kelly touches something disgusting. >> it's been this way for years. it is mine. i want to keep the hairline as low as possible. >> it is not feather. >> it's not that bad. come here. >> it's not that combover. i actually comb it back. there is no receding hairline there. >> it is a tiny bit receding. i am getting a little bit older. i'm getting killed on the hair. [ male announcer ] how can power consumption in china, impact wool exports from new zealand, textile production in spain, and the use of medical technology 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. [ slap! slap!

it didn't happen. >> richard wolffe, thank you for joining us. >> thanks, lawrence. >>> up next, andrst episode of megan kelly touches something disgusting. when you're a sports photographer, things can get out of control pretty quickly. so i like control in the rest of my life... especially my finances. that's why i have slate, with blueprint. i can make a plan to pay off big stuff faster... or avoid interest on everyday things. that saves me money. with slate from chase, i'm always in control. financially, anyway. get slate with blueprint and save money. call 855-get-slate today. [ slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums the newest droid armed with motocast. granting you wireless access to files on your home computer from almost anywhere. 4g lte equipped to pull pictures, music, and movies. all at mind-melting speeds. powered by verizon, this droid is too powerful to fall into the wrong hands. >>> time for document's episode of, megyn kelly t

. >> richard wolffe, how does that play? what do you think?problem is he can remember 30 years ago as if it was yesterday, though he did confuse being someone in washington for 30 years, bill clinton and jimmy carter. yes, he can say i've always been a conservative. he's not trying to fool people. that's the implicit contrast with mitt romney, but he's been there 340 years, this is his fourth decade in washington. is he from another era? that's the problem that marine voters will face? are they moving forward or going back? >> e.j., is that one skeleton that newt gingrich has gotten rid of, that he's maybe convinced iowa voters that he is a conservative? >> i just think it's very hard to convince anyone that newt gingrich is not a conservative. richard is right that 1980 was a long time ago, but first of all, the republican primary and caucus electorate is really old, and secondly every conservative remembers that democrats better saying that ronald reagan was the easiest guy to beat. they love to bring that up with democrats. and so i think t

thank you, richard wolffe.how the establishment really views the 2012 gop candidates. this is "hardball," only on msnbc. >>> a good day for president obama. the november jobs report shows the unemployment rate dropped from 8.6% down from 9% last month. and president obama had fun with former bill clinton at that event to push for more energy-efficient buildings. >> i never got to open for the rolling stones, so i'll try to do my best for the president. >> i am thrilled that president clinton has been willing to take this on. as he pointed out, partly thanks to me, he's home alone too often. >> we'll be right back to "hardball." i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'l

richard wolffe, ben nelson's departure from the united states senate means what? iously wants to spend more time with his fam kwloichlt know why you have a problem believing that. >> beyond that, richard. >> this was not a state democrats thought they could hold onto, it was always a toss up, as they say down here and that doesn't really affect things hugely but what is hard, ben nelson had obviously huge name recognition in member and being an inn tim bent matters. incumbents pulled it off in the last cycle. think about harry reid facing really tough odds in nevada, managed to win and it wasn't by a narrow mar gyp in the in the end. there are tea party folks running in that republican primary, just a very uphill battle for democrats to take -- to keep hold of the senate. there's too many seats up there. i don't think health care was the real issue for ben nelson. the reason ben nelson finds himself in the same position as newt gingrich and mitt romney is that the president's health care reform was signingly a republican idea. you can't blame nelson for thinking th

that's richard wolffe. that's michael steele. do we have michael wolf? seriously, come on. -- all right, forget it. forget it. meat plus caffeine equals the best new thing in the world today. here's the scene. where are we? we are on a street. here, wait. what was i doing? i was driving a car. what's that? person i just ran over in a crosswalk. there's one thing to understand about the case for rick perry that is being made so far and that it looks like will be the basis for his presidential run, one thing to understand about that -- it's baloney. >> i'm often criticized about the fact that i've never held public office and criticized that i don't know this and i don't know that and i don't know that and i don't know this. you know, a leader doesn't have to know everything. >> i don't think i have to try to prove this anymore. i think the evidence is

and msnbc analyst richard wolffe. first t. i want to make a note that nbc universal and bain capital, the company romney cofounded, are each part owner of the weather channel, but that obviously isn't affecting how we report on romney's report. governor rendell, what's your reaction to this line from romney? >> well, two things, number one, what president obama said about it could be worse. it was worse. when he took over as president, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. now we've experienced over -- almost a straight year of job gains. so not only could it be worse, it was worse. and we're coming back. not as much as you would like, al, or i would like or as the president would like, but we are turning the corner. could it be worse? the president is absolutely right, but no mitt romney to use that analogy, it makes no sense, as you say, it's easily deflatable when you consider his wealth. at a time when people are losing their homes, he's expending his, but more importantly it's dumb politics. i thought when mitt romney earl

joining me now is richard wolff, msnbc political analyst and alex wagner, host of "now" with alex wagner. thank you both for coming on the show tonight. >> thanks, reverend. >> thanks, rev. >> richard, let me start with you. do republicans have a credible answer to the case the president made today? >> well, what they have is a caricature. they want to say this is about socialism. it's not about fairness. it's about redistribution. it's about all the things that they think he's doing which are in fact as untrue as a caricature is, that he's anti-business or he's playing class warfare. as he pointed out, this isn't about attacking the rich, this is about fighting for the middle class, and what's missing here is what he's going to do beyond extending the payroll tax or targeting the bush tax cuts towards the rich, so there rellments of his own approach that i still think have to be filled out here, but in terms of how he explained his approach to domestic policy, this is as close as we're going to get to an obama doctrine. >> i think that he effectively laid it out, but let me ask you this

. >> richard wolffe and alex wagner, thanks for your time tonight and talk about winners tonight, 12:orrow eastern, alex wagner graces your office, your living room, wherever you are. just watch "now" with alex wagner. we'll be right back. >> thanks, rev. [ male announcer ] cranberry juice? wake up! ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. goals for the future... what if they were stolen from you? by alzheimer's. this cruel disease is the sixth leading cause of death, and affects more than 5 million americans. the alzheimer's association is taking action, and has been a part of every major advancement. but we won't rest until we have a cure. you have dreams... help the alzheimer's association protect them. act now, go to alz.org. then i found new pronutrients omega-3. it's from centrum. it's a smaller minigel. with two of the best omegas to support my heart, brain and eyes. new pronutrients from centrum. and more. if you replace 3 tablespoons of sugar a day with splenda®, you'll save 100 calories a

. >> joining me now is joan walsh, editor-at-large for salon.com and msnbc analyst richard wolffe, authorurvival in the obama white house." joan, let me start with you. is the president's message breaking through? >> oh, it's absolutely breaking through, reverend al. i mean, things are rarely simple in politics, but this kind of is, you know. the president had a very tough summer. he fought very hard for a compromise on the debt ceiling deal. he didn't get it, and his poll numbers suffered for that. he turned around. he began fighting back. he launched his job bill. he took a jobs tour. he gave a great jobs speech. he came out. he broke that bill up into pieces so that we had a part that would have gone for first responders to keep cops and fire fighters and teachers on the job. he became -- he broke it down very well. he -- he gave speeches and sound bites like you just played, and he really cast himself as a defender of the middle and working classes, even though he's not getting any cooperation from republicans. that has seemed to work. and i think there are a couple of numbers that ar

richard wolffe is an msnbc contributor.eeling that trump decided to send this out, notify the media and then see what happens. >> i guess news max couldn't find ryan seacrest's schedule. the idea that the word "moderator" be in the same sentence as "donald trump" is ridiculous. if they want to project any serious presidential ambition, they'd say no. but they've already made their pilgrimage, kissed the ring of the birther in chief. if they want to project any serious presidential ambition, they'd say no. but they've already made their pilgrimage, kissed the ring of the birther in chief. >> next time i ask you a question, please don't hold back. tell us what you really think about this. >> i think it's a great idea for democracy, i do. >> joe, richard questions, you know, are they going to show up? let me tell you, jon huntsman will not be attending. his spokesman sent this e-mail, "huntsman declined the trump debate and we look forward to governor romney suck up to trump with a big bowl of popcorn." will they or won't they