rick perry is down at fifth. soon after rick perry got into the race, he was winning that same poll with 23% of the vote in mid september. by mid october that was down to 12% of the vote. now he is down to 6% of the vote. rick perry is tanking as a candidate. and so time for a rick perry comeback. probably. at least that seems to be the idea. rick perry this week unveiling a kitchen sink strategy of trying everything all at once. since mitt romney has been doing well by being the establishment candidate, tanking rick perry went and got himself establishment republicans to be his new staffers. there are frankly not that be establishment republican staffers out there and still available at this point. there was one guy left over from the first george w. bush run who was still available and still willing to talk to rick perry. perry snatched him up. other than that, perry picked himself up old bob dole staffers from when bob dole, remember him, from when he ran 15 years ago. so tanking rick perry has got himself som

the idea of rick perry ul p better than rick perry himself. >> he saw his numbers drop from double to single digits. the polls have him at 6%. he takes aims at former massachusetts governor, mitt romney. >> i consider him to be a fat cat but it doesn't matter to me what anybody says about this. i know what will work. >> what he thinks will work is his flat tax plan. it includes giving taxpayers a choice. stick with the current rate or take a flat rate of 20%, reducing the corporate rate to 20%. allowing younger workers to opt out of social security and capping spending to 18%. >> for those at the top, it is hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars for them. >> but i don't care about that. >> something else perry claims not to care about, the so-called birther issue he helped revive. >> that's all a distraction. i get it. i am really not worried about the president's birth certificate. it is fun to poke at him a little bit. >> a good candidate who is trying to do a relaunch around an issue like taxes does not allow this thing to step on every headline. >> cnbc's chief washington

any reaction or has his people had any reaction to those numbers, those fund-raising numbers that rick perry posted, which is $17 million, third quarter, which clearly is leading the field? >> yeah, the campaign issued a statement this morning saying, basically, you know, that governor perry's numbers were what they were, but they weren't as much as governor romney's first quarter numbers when he got in the race. not exactly apples to apples, since perry was only in about half of the last quarter, but they feel very confident about their own fund-raising numbers and their team, which they say is growing, but have not released their own totals just yet. >> what's the mood music among the campaign after what we saw yesterday with chris christie getting out of the race? >> well, you've read all the headlines, andrea. there seems to be this sort of feeling that they're trying to tie up some kind of nes inevitability here. we're seeing the campaign schedule pick up again pretty substantially in terms of, you know, appearances in new hampshire, these the big policy speeches. they're really, i thin

rick perry is polling nationally at 6%. 6. that is a problem for rick perry. he is tanking.but tanking rick perry has a solution to this. rick perry appears this week to be launching his comeback plan. step one, he got himself some new establishment republican staff. a lot of bob dole for president staff, if you must know. seriously old school. step two, rick perry got himself a new herman cainesque flat tax. step three, he got himself a donald trumpesque birther platform, playing to the tin foil hat fringe implying that the president is secretly foreign and therefore not really president. as of today some new steps. tanking rick perry also floating the idea that he will fix his being bad at debates problem by going on offense. not by going on offense during the debates but by going on offense against the whole idea of debating. >> actually, these debates are set up for nothing more than to tear down the candidates. it's pretty hard to be able to sit and lay out your ideas and your concepts with a one-minute response. so you know, if there was a -- if there was a mistake mad

this could really help rick perry. >> well, as you say rick is a former democrat.t proves why we believe in redemption. >> oh, go lsu tigers! >> governor, before we leave you, how much is at stake for him in this next debate? this week, he zoomed to the top, he had some questionable performances since. >> well, i mean, the way the press has made a big deal about the debate previously, it means the stakes are higher. i'm not sure that every voter is struck the same way. but the press coverage, the prism is through which voters see candidates. when somebody is not very well known and the press keeps saying they did badly, they did badly, it matters. so the stakes are higher >> governor, thank you very much indeed. is it just the press coverage, peggy and matt, or does the governor really need to pull something out of the hat on tuesday? >> governor perry? oh, he started off unsteady when people are looking for steady. interestingly enough, presidential debates, presidential-nominating debates are not that interesting in life. this year, the republican debates have do

. >> birtherism is born. >> donald trump sells rick perry the brooklyn bridge. >> rick perry a very visible republican flirting with the birther movement. >> he was asked do you believe. >> that prosecute barack obama was born in the united states? >> i had dinner with donald trump the other night -- >> i had dinner with donald trump the other night. >> perry, i have no reason to think otherwise. that's not a definitive yes i believe. >> it's a distractive issue. >> he is eligible to serve. >> karl rove is worried. >> these kind of things do not help. >> i think rick perry may be trying to be too cute. >> donald trump, you associate yourself with a nutty view that and you damage yourself. because it starts to marginalize you. don't associate yourself with sort of this nutty fringe group. >> trump is a vulgar clown. >> rove is even more worried about becky, becky, becky stan. >> cain has had a couple of -- >> he didn't know what the right of return was. he didn't understand what neoconservatives were. apples and oranges. >> apples and oranges. >> then we say he may not be up to this task. >>

. >> what are you smoking, rick perry? >> it is supposed to be taxation tuesday for rick perry. the moment when he reveals his plans for a flat tax for all americans. i'm afraid we must start with the candidate who is smoking up the charts. the got father himself, herman cain. in a brand-new "new york times" poll leads with a full quarter of voters, cruising past mitt romney's 21%. just weeks ago, the two were tied at 17%. the cain train is not only driving the polls, but pushing the gop in terms of policy and influencing the other candidates, jumping on the 9-9-9 bandwagon, the flat tax is the centerpiece of rick perry's plan as announced in the battle ground state of south carolina. today the cain campaign has everyone a twitter. not about taxes, but tobacco as featured in a new web ad. take a look. >> we have run a campaign like no one has seen and america has never seen a candidate like herman cain. together we can do this and take this country back. . >> the somewhat disheveleds smoker in question is mark block, cain's campaign manager and a man with a smoking gun of his ow

in that way, rick perry did succeed. now, the back and forth again, i don't know that f that was beneficial to either in them. but in drawing mitt romney out, that clearly worked. >> let me make a point to both of you. this is what mitt romney had to say, and he was basically saying, you know, i was running for office, therefore i made sure that we got rid of these illegals. take a look. >> i don't think we have that tape ready. but can i say, he said, we hired a lawn company to know our lawn. they had illegal immigrants working there. when that was pointed out to us we let them go. we went to them and said, perry said, a year later. and he said you have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking. but he made the point, romney did, that it was because he was running for office that checked it out. bottom line is it was wrong. why was it happening? >> right. get to perry wants to do. a lot of elections are down to a values choice. you are trying to get at gut level of the voter. what perry has been trying to do an

but rather than accept the verdict of the republican base, rick perry has decided, in an act of utter, to revive a series of deeply offensive and bogus smears against the president. in an interview with my colleague, john harwood, perry thought it was funny to imply that mr. obama isn't qualified to be president, neither intellectually, nor by his place of birth. >> to poke at him a little bit and say, hey, how about, let's see your grades and your birth certificate. >> in some ways, one has to feel sorry for a man who is so self-conscious about his own intellectual limitations, that he feels obliged to drag the president down with him to the bottom of the class. but the attack on the president's place of birth is even more pernicious. it suggests that barack obama could be nothing more than an illegal immigrant, who's lied about his country of birth and deceived the world. one wonders how long it will be before rick perry accuses the president of being a fundamentalist muslim, who wants to stage beheadings on the white house lawn and will soon introduce a new law, banning women from

that's not a definitive, yes, i believe he -- rick perry, well, i don't have a definitive answer, because he's never seen my birth certificate. question, but you've seen his. perry, i don't know, have i? question, you don't believe what's been released? perry, i don't know. i had dinner with donald trump the other night. question, and? perry, that came up. question, and he said? perry, he doesn't think it's real. and you said? perry, i don't have any idea. it doesn't matter. he's the president of the united states and he's elected. it's a distractive issue. well, there we go. rick perry has ripped the scab off this issue by saying he doesn't really believe the president was born here. i want to go to wayne slater. what crowd is this guy back in the double digits trying to appeal to? >> you suggested it in the intro. what part of the resurrection of the birther issue is going to cause him problems in western iowa, in western carolina, in the redneck riviera, in florida, it's not going to cause him any problems at all. >> why not? >> well, basically, what he's got to do, as you know, appeal

new comments from rick perry a few hours ago on the president's birth certificate.ou on "news nation." [ male announcer ] humana and walmart have teamed up to bring you a low-priced medicare prescription drug plan. ♪ with the lowest national plan premium... ♪ ...and copays as low as one dollar... ♪ ...saving on medicare prescriptions is easy. ♪ so you're free to focus on the things that really matter. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. or go to walmart.com for details. >> yit now on

why did rick perry even bring it up? what's the truth behind it? to raise doubts about romney's credibility. similar to what rick santorum said about health care, by the way. that romney does not have the credibility to run against obama because of his own record in massachusetts. that's the core argument holding conservatives back whether you can trust mitt romney. the story was, the "boston globe" reported he had a lawn care company using illegal immigrants. he said he dealt with the problem. continued to use the company. a year later still using illegal immigrants and then he cut them off at that point. don't forget, perry also raised a policy issue noting romney had spoken favorably about the ted kennedy bill for illegal immigrants, got support in 2006, 22 republican senators. a lot of what's happening in this race is the goal line has moved in the republican party and a lot of candidates are feeling exposed for positions they took in an earlier period when somewhat more tolerance. >> the topic of illegal immigration. they're talking about it i

us. >> thanks for having me. >> you recently reported romney is going in for the quick kill of rick perry, if you will. let me ask you this, south carolina and florida are two important primary states for perry, he's expected to do better in the south but let's look at some poll numbers. these poll numbers for the states show in south carolina it's cain edging romney with perry far behind, and then in florida, it's romney edging cain with perry far behind. the question for you, why is perry the threat if he's not doing well in his own backyard? >> right, you saw mitt romney get far more confrontational with rick perry last week and from our reporting it looks like the big answer is the $17.2 million that rick perry put on the board in the third quarter, that gives him the resources to withstand a long campaign. he's raising money at a clip faster than any other candidate. he's right neck and neck with romney on that and serm fcertair above the other candidates. if they don't have the money they can't compete with romney. perry has poll numbers that slid far from august and early september

ultimately, i think it's going to be a rick perry/mitt romney campaign. but keep in mind, last time, mike huckabee actually helped john mccain beat mitt romney. it could be the opposite this time, where the herman cain plays the role of blocking perry. >> look, one thing we know that whomever it is is going to be up fwe against the president. let's check out how the top three are faring against president obama. given what we were hearing a few minutes ago from chuck todd and howard dean, how hard is it going to be for mitt romney to hold on to this lead? i'll give that to you, david. >> i think he is going to continue to be the front-runner, and it will probably be a long slog, though. the republicans have changed their rules this year, so that the early primaries are not winner-take-all, as was usually the case in the republican race. it's going to be proportional allotment of delegates. so you're going to have two candidates, mitt romney and rick perry, who both are going to have a lot of money or at least enough money to stay alive and be like, you kno

ken herman, you've known rick perry and covered rick perry longer than any of us.you to listen to the exchange last night. if you talk to the romney people today they'll say rick perry landed blows but this expoesd hip as mean-spirited. anderson cooper trying to get the governor to answer the question about the 14th amendment. >> let me ask a question, governor perry, the 14th amendment allows anybody a child of illegal immigrants born here is automatically an american citizen. should that change? >> let me address herman's issue -- >> i'd rather you ask the question -- answer that question mr. i understand that. you get to ask the questions and i get to answer like i want to. and herman, herman talked about -- >> that's a response. that's not an answer but go ahead. >> what did you see in governor perry last night? anything new or is this a familiar governor? >> no, it's a familiar governor. he's combative and people have asked me, is rick perry mean? and i guess the question is, which rick perry? the rick perry i've known professionally and casually for 25 years?

>> i don't know how much it says about rick perry. i can't read rick perry.any particular insights about how he feels about black people or african-americans. i was thinking about the clip you played from governor christie where he said this was a word from a long ago past. if you actually read the story and look at the people in the story who know what the camp was called, what they say is, i don't understand, what's the big deal? all these quotes all through the story. it's just what it's called. i don't understand why it would offend anybody. it's quite clear, it's not, we'd like to be from a long ago past, if you read the story it's actually not. >> it's interesting he put that in. it's important that we have put that all behind us. there's this tremendous disquiet when something like this emerges precisely because it seems to invalidate that whole story. >> right, right. well, i think when your constituency is made up and is predominantly white as a conservative movement is right now, you have to answer some pretty ugly questions you wouldn't want to fac

rick perry was in a distant second at 14. then there was a key party meeting at -- outside chicago. 77% of the votes went to herman cain. >> it took some patriots that were passionate to start of this nation. it will take the same to save the nation. >> there was conversation about governor rick perry not acting sooner to remove a racial slur from a rock at a popular hunting spot. >> it was painted over, but how long ago? >> then there is new jersey gov. chris christie, who has yet to decide. >> if he is happy to -- if he wants to come play, we will be happy to have him come. >> some accuse president obama for not defending a gay slur. >> [unintelligible] >> you want to be commander -- commander in chief you can start by standing up for the men and women that wear the uniform for the united states even when it is not politically convenient. >> we have abbie phillips with "politico." >> thanks for being with us tonight. let's talk about this continued rise for herman cain. he is starting to make his way through a lot of polls

i would say that rick perry has had the worst week.or a handful of things we've been stalking about. >> karen? >> i'm going to say that i think president obama has had a very good week. i thought -- pat's laughing because he knew i was going to say that. look, i think it's a good thing that he's continuing, he's been consistent getting out there selling his jobs bill. the poll numbe erers are showin people are responding positively on that. >> give me who had the worst week. >> eric cantor had the worst. >> he's not even part of the group. >> sorry. >> pat, what do you think? >> clearly herman cain had the best week. he's been on fire. he has come from nowhere who is runner-up to mitt romney. nobody would have predicted or expected it. he had a great speech. who had the worst week? i think probably it's going to have to say rick perry had a bad week because of the religious issue. >> everyone has to wave goodbye. ready, bye-bye. see you tomorrow morning, everybody, 10:00 a.m. eastern.

rick perry has gone all the way down. look at that drop for rick perry from 23% down to 6% in just a month. >> that is stunning, andrea. i wiould say the more important number for rick perry is not 6%. it is 15. that's the $15 million he has in the bank after he raised $17 million in the last three months. that's the number that's keeping us covering the speech he gave today, covering his campaign. that $15 million means that if he can find the message, he has struggled to find the message, he has the money to compete with mitt romney. without message, money doesn't do you any good. >> the message today, of course, is supposed to be the flat tax. he did that interview with john harwood. we are going to move on to john for the rest of rick perry. thank you very much, chris. see you later. >>> rick perry hoping that his flat tax can unflatten his sinking poll numbers. speaking to nbc cnbc's chief washington correspondent, john harwood, the governor brushed off concerns that the option the flat tax is a boon for the rich. >>

rick perry is way down at 9%. look, he has to win that one. similar story in florida where cain is neck and neck with romney, 32-31. the numbers that cain is posting are amazing. perry a distant third again. showing a pattern here. look at what happens in the general election matchups in florida. the president is leading romney by two points. that makes sense, 45-43 and the president leads herman gain by six points, 47-41. that makes sense. he's ahead of perry, 47-39, all seems to match up the conversation. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. executor of efficiency. you can spot an amateur from a mile away... while going shoeless and metal-free in seconds. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. now this...will work. [ male announcer ] just like you, business pro. just like you. go national. go like a pro. >>> back to "hardball." as you just saw last night's s republican debate was vici

rick perry is way down at 9%. look, he has to win that one. similar story in florida where cain is neck and neck with romney, 32-31. the numbers that cain is posting are amazing. perry a distant third again. showing a pattern here. look at what happens in the general election matchups in florida. the president is leading romney by two points. that makes sense, 45-43 and the president leads herman gain by six points, 47-41. that makes sense. he's ahead of perry, 47-39, all seems to match up the conversation. we'll be right back. [ male >>> back to "hardball." as you just saw last night's s republican debate was vicious, aggressive and at times surprisingly personal. who came out of it looking good? did anyone? well, the candidates will try to spin it, of course, but the truth is there weren't many people left unscathed from last night's performances. so does that mean the obama team is the only crowd actually happy this morning, waking up happy? going to ask two experts. dee dee myers, former white house clinton press secretary, and ed rollins w

now he feels himself to be on the defense and he doesn't do very well. >> rick perry has a lot ridingt debate. his campaign knows it. they're taking it seriously. we'll see which perry shows up. >> it was fascinating to see. i agree with wayne there. you can tell the comfort level perry had in that debate. he was on offense. he felt as he knew sharpe had to play defense. he was a democrat running in a republican state. this is a different ball game. >> he was running against a guy he was friends with. he ran sharpe's campaign at texas a & m. he was willing to take the fight to someone he knew well. >> it was a race people thought he was going to win. rick perry will get another chance to improve his performance tomorrow night. at the washington post bloomberg debate. he's not the only with a lot on the line. cain will be taking the stage. we are joined now from dartmouth college, the site of that debate in new hampshire. so dan, we're hearing that rick perry's been doing debate prep. although ray sullivan wouldn't fully confirm that report. but they've been down a lot over the last we

rick perry is way down at 9%. look, he has to win that one. lar story in florida where cain is neck and neck with romney, 32-31. the numbers that cain is posting are amazing. perry a distant third again. showing a pattern here. look at what happens in the general election matchups in florida. the president is leading romney by two points. that makes sense, 45-43 and the president leads herman gain by six points, 47-41. ahead of perry, 47-39, all seems to match up the conversation. we'll be right back. as shipping it, though. i mean shipping is a hassle. not with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that is easy. best news i've heard all day! i'm soooo amped! i mean not amped. excited. well, sort of amped. really kind of in between. have you ever thought about decaf? do you think that would help? yeah. priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.95, only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. you might think all these cost about the same... protect