since romney's failed 1994 senate run and his campaign for governor in 2002. >> what mitt romney needs to do is change the narrative. and the question is, has the flip flop narrative that has been so prevalent over the last six months, will that continue? >> mitt romney is running for president as a do-over. that was footage of him trying to do it in 2008. he spent a ton of money. won a few states in the primaries but did not go the distance. and perhaps the majority liability he was unable to overcome in that race and that he brought with him to this race is the perception that he just takes whatever position he thinks the people listening to him at that moment might like to hear at that moment. on even substantive things. take the issue of gun control, for example. as "the washington post" reported back in 2007, quote, in the past, romney emphasized his support of gun control measures. in 1994, he said, quote, i don't line up with the nra. that was 1994 mitt romney. i don't line up with the nra. by the time he was ready to run for president, though -- >> when did you join the nra? >>

to be talking to mitt romney. look at the poor guy in the blue shirt. look at his feet and his face. whether or not mitt romney is awkward as a human being, whether he's comfortable in his own skin as a person is irrelevant to his chances as a campaign should be except for the fact that retail politics, meeting people, shaking their hands, talking to people eye-to-eye, impressing people in person is a big part of how you win a presidential nomination. and mitt romney is an atrocious atrociously bad retail politician. more of a wholesaler, really. he's not the guy -- he's not the guy so much who sales things as a store. he's more like the guy who closes the store and fires everybody and sells the store to a private equity guy. there's more than just mitt romney news in 2012 politics today. there were a ton of 2012 presidential action today including one republican candidate for president who called out ed schulz and me off of the top of his head when nobody asked about us. he brought us up because he's campaigning

he can match romney dollar for dollar no matter how much money romney spends. it is over for mitt romney. >> okay. looking down the road. i love your projection. howard, a poll production. you're doing the regular street corner, what's it called? shoe leather reporting, can't go that far yet. you'd be runing the entire year. let me ask you about that speculation as a projection. could it be b sbt luckiest politician in history? luckiest. instead of having to defend himself from the middle he goes against a hard righter? a hard righter. >> what annoys me about you, you always say what i'm thinking before i write it. exactly. >> i'm here. >> president obama is unlucky in the economic circumstances that he's facing. >> right. >> although that's what helped get him elected. economically unlucky. politically lucky. because, as i see it here, jennifer, i'm not sure -- >> lucky at cards, unlucky at love. >> i'm not sure i would make the bold prediction jennifer is making about mitt romney. he has smart people and staying power, perhaps, but rick perry is in exactly th

and i'm not sure what romney stands for. do people vote strategically? >> i don't think so. there are a lot of republicans who think he's fine and they say they somewhat approve -- approve of him. very few say they really like him. the level of intensity behind romney's support is very shallow. and that makes him very weak. chris: you think the southern appeal of this guy, rick perry is that he's not a mormon? hayes southern baptist? well, -- >> well, he checks always boxes on the right and he doesn't have to actually say all those conservative things all the time because people know he does that. it's not so much about reaction to mormonism, it's a reaction to obama. it makes the contrast with obama seem much greater than romney does. romney and obama can seem similar, if you close your eyes. perry and obama, no. >> the republican party is a very conservative party now and a lot of people in the republican party don't believe that romney is a genuine conservative. there's a piece of it that is very angry. there are a lot of

in new hampshire romney question after question about perry, romney pointed out his private sector experience. so perry responded. >> romney took a swipe at you today saying that he has private sector experience, and that makes him better qualified to create jobs. >> give him my love. >> what do you think about that, though, sir? that he has private sector -- >> i think oranges and apples. running a state is different from running a business. what i would say is, go take a look at his record when he was governor, and look at my record when i'm governor. then you've got some apples to apples. >> we know what the contrast is. romney keeps talking about 25 years of private sector experience? why? because perry's held an elected office for 26 straight years. the other bottom, mitt romney is being dragged into this fight. he's been wanting to focus on president obama. put up another video today attacking president obama. guess what? he's got to deal with rick perry. >>> finally, the president continues his bus tour in peosta, iowa. population, 1,377. vowing that he hasn't had something specific to

romney. >> hold on a second, i'm not going to raise taxes, that's my answer. >> you see mitt romney starting to engage a little bit. >> corporations are people, my friend. corporations are people, my friend, human beings, my friend. >> rick perry removes all doubt. perry's in. >> one of our darkest hours. >> sarah palin rushes to iowa. >> never fear, america, sarah palin has come. >> predictably sarah palin is back. >>tops of cameras and sarah palin showing up. that's so strange. >> heart land fights. >> tired of the inaviativasion privacy. >> this guy is nuts. i can call this napkin a paper towel, but it is a napkin. >> barack obama a one-term president. >> you got to love retail politics. >> the president blames congress. >> the only thing keeping us back is our politics. >> rooting for the president. >> what can the president do? >> extend the payroll tax cut. call people back early. >> people of the united states of america, your congress is bought. >>> good evening from new york. the top eight declared republican presidential candidates are in debate for saturday's ames straw p

when people think about mitt romney, republican frontrunner, when people think about mitt romney and jobs, what exactly do they think about? >> i'm also unemployed. i'm not working. [ laughter ] >> a lot better than what we've got. mitt romney prompting giggles and cringes around the country and table he was sitting at when he tells a group of unemployed florida residents that he too is unemployed, and it is true, mitt romney is technically an unemployed multi-million private equity executive running for president by saying things like this. >> corporations are people, my friend. of course, they are. >> the i'm also unemployed moment and the corporations are people moment, both seems like mitt romney gaffes, some of the major baggage he brings to the race is some of the money he has is what he made shutting down companies, liquidating their assets and firing their american workers, he can't afford to be showcasing the corporations are people side of his personality. in what seemed like a record to course correct after those errors, mitt romney has tried to pivot. he tried on a man of

the romney kids protested. the dog protested in a doggy way and mitt had to stop and hose seamus' protests off the become of the car. the obama team plans to play on the romney dog story. rick perry played the dog lovers. he bragged about shooting a coyote to protect his family's labrador retriever puppy. he was jogging with a pup when a chi owe toe tee was about to strike and he said it took just one shot to kill the coyote this guy is something. as pl ticks fans know, playing the pup card is nothing new. roosevelt used his puppy against dewey when dewey attacked the family and the pooch. >> republican leaders are not content with he facts on me or on my wife or on my sons. no, not content with that. they now include my little dog falla. >> that speech -- best speech ever given. and richard nixon's checker speech where he used a cooker spaniel to counter an attack on his business contributors to save his spot on the eisenhower ticket. >> one other thing i should tell you because if i don't, they'll be saying t

honestly, to romney. it's a threat to her but it's a threat to romney. but look, chris, from rockmney's standpoint, he's going to come down on the other side. who does he prefer, bachmann or perry. i think looking at it, we should prepare bachmann rather than perry who looks like he would have crossover strength. republican-based and also a movement leader. >> that's what heilman said earlier tonight. last, i have to get to the poll. steve? >> he's over here dusting off his pitch fork, his head is in new hampshire. >> i don't have cross overstrength. >> you never tried. >> "the washington post." asked americans if the federal government is focused on the right things on the wrong things. 71% said the government is focused on the wrong things. when asked who's to blame on the focus for the wrong things, the blame, everybody takes it, 30% say the president and the president. 32% say the republicans. 32% say the most. this is a rotten move right now. this is august. there's nothing that the politicians can do from now to labor day to fix things. it gets nas

romney and he often uses spirit in his presentations. mr. romney is running as america's ceo.a man who has succeeded in private business and who knows how to handle the free marketplace. governor perry is pretty much running on that as well showcasing texas economic success story. the truth is that both romney and perry have many things in common. including good hair both them would offer a challenge to barack obama. at this point it's gobble to say which man has the most going for him even though governor perry leads in the polls he is untested in debate and americans don't know him very much. governor romney has big name recognition but many are suspicious of him not popular in republican primaries. the perry romney battle is a toss-up and could go either way depending on how the candidates perform in the upcoming debates. as they like to say in texas. there will be a high noon between these two men. a verbal shootout that will leave just one standing. and that's the memo. now for the top story tonight. let's bring in the aforementioned carl cameron fox news political corres

romney a flip flopper. those are just the folks on the right, his own side, who do not like mitt romney for his politics or the way he combs his hair or whatever. this guy, fred karger, is completing against mitt romney for the republican nomination. he is a little known candidate, which is a polite way of saying he doesn't really have a chance. but he has made what seems to be a substantive legal complaint about mitt romney. in june, he wrote to state officials in massachusetts saying he thinks mr. romney may have violated massachusetts voting laws in 2009 and 2010 when he voted in the special election for ted kennedy's old senate seat won by republican senator scott brown. mr. romney voted once in the primary and once in the general election in massachusetts. at the time that he cast those ballots, he claimed he was living in his son's basement in belmont, massachusetts, having sold his own multimillion dollar estate there in april 2009. his son's basement at the time was an unfinished space. meaning that

romney will get his fair share.o go at bachmann and knock her down a peg. >> remember who had the most influence in debates was a candidate that was an asterisk in the democratic side, chris dodd. >> absolutely. >> chris cillizza, jackie kucinich, two of the 700 reporters that have gotten credentials for the ames straw poll. fantastic. this sunday on "meet the press," meet the candidates, congresswoman michele bachmann, david gregory's exclusive guest, hours after the straw poll results are announced. a special edition of "meet the press" live from ames, iowa. check your local listings. don't miss it. >>> coming up, carnival rides, fried food on sticks and the butter cow. how the presidential candidates are playing the retail politics game here in iowa. we'll be right back with more. the safety of onstar is now available for your car. ♪ [ recorded voice ] onstar. we're looking for city hall. i'm sending directions to your car. [ recorded voice #2 ] turn right on hill street. go north for two miles. ♪ [ man ] this is

romney. right now the country's in a crisis. it seems like washington is coming apart at the seams. if he can go through the next doe baits and not flinch and hold his ground, let perry run a little bit and see if anger beats maturity. >> there is something to the question of these debates, because candidates, people look at candidates in comparison to the people they're standing next to. and cornell, this happened with barack obama. right? when he got into those debates, he started out not doing so well. then he found his footing. and then suddenly people saw him as presidential. that could happen with rick perry. we haven't seen him. >> i don't think you can win a debate but i think you can certainly lose it in a debate. i think tim pawlenty was this year's showing of that where he didn't at all look strong and decisive in that debate. i think a lot of campaigns we go into thinking don't get hurt in this debate. the last thing you want to do is to get hurt in this debate. i think romney's g

they have had mitt romney solicit donations. it's a mitt romney gig.lion in the first half of the year. and 1/3 of what they raised came in million dollar chunks from four sources. including the aforementioned mysterious w. spann llc, a company that seems to have done pretty much nothing besides give $1 million on april 28 for the better. of mitt romney's political career. on july 11, two weeks before this mitt romney pac had to file its report with federal elections officials, two weeks before that pac was to reveal its donors, this company shut down. its wealth transfer specialist lawyer filed this certificate of cancellation with the state of delaware. so whatever this company was supposed to be, whatever it was, after founding itself, submitting a single $1 million check on mitt romney's behalf, the mysterious w. spann llc was officially desolved. >> lawrence, your standing ovation for chris christie's comments in your "rewrite" tonight itself earned a standing ovation. it was so perfectly done. mr. romney's old investment firm, bain capital, says

what do you see as mitt romney's strength?t is concerning democrats about a mitt romney candidates if he ends up being the nominee? >> well, quite frankly, i'm not worried about whether it's mitt romney or one of the other nine or ten candidates on the other side. you spent the last few days showing america that they are adhering to the rigid structure of the tea party. all nine of them at the debate raised their right hand and pledged that even among the most reasonable suggestions to support cuts, 10-1, cuts to revenue, all of them said no, that they wouldn't do that, and that's why 59% of americans are dis-- disapprove of the republican party and are asking for solutions, none of which are being offered by any republican candidate. >> babiy wasserman -- debbie wasserman shultz, chairwoman of the democratic national committee. thank you very much for joining us. >> nice to be with you, as always. >> thank you. >> thank you. >>> joining me now back in new york, jonathan alter, msnbc political analyst and "bloomberg view" colu

romney will face off.teve hayes has the front row seat for tonight's event and is a senior writer for the weekly standard. steve, wow, fireworks on the campaign trail. it kind of reminds me of the town hall meetings we saw a couple of summers ago, where people were so worked up and went to these events and got fired up in the face of various politicians, and you know, was it a real substantive exchange, was it something that was playing out for the cameras? you tell me, what do you think? >> you know, it's interesting. it's been sort of hard to capture exactly how great the centering here is on the ground in iowa. but i think that that video surely demonstrates it. and the interesting thing for mitt romney, as a guy who's known he's got a reputation of being a bit stiff, he doesn't react spontaneously the way that one would want him to, this was a wrap on him back in 2008, he think he handled that quite well. he had i thought sharp comebacks, he was respectful but forceful, he pitch on the dollars in the w

honestly, to romney. chris, from romney's standpoint, he's got to come down to the finals and there's going to be someone on the other side from him, and who does he he prefer perry? i think wo say for now he should probably prefer bachmann rather than perry who looks like he does have cross over strength as two-term governor. that makes him solid republican base and also as something of a movement leader. >> that's what was said earlier tonight. last quick thought. i have to get to this poll. steve? >> pat is here dusting off his pitch fork. he is heading it new hampshire. >> i don't have cross overstrength, chris. >> you never tried. >> asking the federal government is focused on the right or wrong things. 71% said the government is focused on the wrong things. when asked who is to blame for the focus on the wrong things, everyone takes it. 30% say the president and democrats. 31% say republicans. 32% say both. this is trash both houses poll. this country is in a rotten mood right now. this is august. t

and so -- and where's mitt romney?o, is this something at this stage of the campaign where you're saying rick perry is sucking all the oxygen? is that good or bad? >> the worst thing mitt romney can do is showing weakness by flailing around and changing what he's doing. he's showing nice subtle differences and planned for the debates. so far be the jobs maker. david is exactly right. be the jobs maker and explain to him that the people got us into this mess can't get us out. >> it shouldn't bother romney? >> he's raising a lot of money and rick perry will have to do it all over again in an environment where campaign contributions are restricted unlike texas. >> and it's a long haul. the thing won't be decided in the next couple of months. >> you bet. you'll be with us. >> i will be with you. >> and you'll be with us for the next block, so stay with us. because while mitt romney and rick perry have been going after one another, there's one thing they agree on, and that is what they really don't like about barack obama.

romney. just like most of the people once you get past this early silly stage, maybe it's perry. do you disagree with me? >> no, i don't. >> then why do you hate so much when love would be so much easier. >> i love you, joe. >> i know you do. >> this is fun. i'm still not educated on the light bulbs. >>> coming up, wisconsin governor scott walker. also david axelrod joins us live from iowa. we'll also have lon dons bureau chief john byrnes. >> and why the tottenham match got canceled. >>> up next, don't miss willy's week in review. first your weekend forecast with bill karins. >> the brightest bulb, right, mika? >> yes, adorable. >> actually one of the coolest mornings we've had in a while. temperatures are very comfortable. the ac should be off in many locations, in the 50s in new england. fantastic afternoon. no travel trouble at all. friday and saturday is great. the mid atlantic and new england, sunday looks bad. make plans for saturday. we'll watch the wet weather on saturday that moves

you heard i was just talking with garrett there, who is with the romney campaign, and romney is focussingn new hampshire today instead of iowa. so talk to me about the big heckler situation he had there in iowa in had terms of the fallout. who is winning? is it the dems, or has romney spun that effectively, his financial status? >> with mitt romney and his financial status, he is really just focussing on new hampshire at the moment, so people aren't focused on mitt romney today. they were focused on mitt romney here in iowa on thursday for the debate, but now he is gone in new hampshire, and is he going to be competing in the straw poll a little bit. he says that he is not, but his staff here is trying to get some votes in the straw poll. >> okay. who do you think is going to win? if you look at all the build-up there and the buzz and the momentum, who is taking it right now as the voters head to the polls there? >> well, if you look around here, ron paul has all of the signage, and it looks like ron paul is going to be doing pretty well today. we're really looking at tim pawlenty and mic

i think one of the things to look for is romney. do people pile on romney? pile on romney? does he try to go toe to toe to elevate his stance? or focus just on bachmann where the main thing right now is the poll in iowa. will be a question. does romney respond if he is attacked or does he duck. that's a question as well. i think looming over this whole thing is rick perry. of, of course, will get in this thing. he announced his campaign -- >> before you make that point, i want to talk to you about that. let me bring in jill lawrence, who joins us from ames, iowa. jill, tonight is going to be the republicans are all on stage. but as nia was saying, two republicans not on stage are really going to dominate a loet lot of the attention that you have, rick perry, who just happened to announce today, right on the day of the debate, that he is -- to upstage the debate and the strong poll, that's quite a coincidence? >> reporter: it is not a coincident at all. in fact, people in iowa are not happy about it. i was talking to the congressman from iowa. he said if he w

romney.bama campaign advisor david axelrod told politico the obama campaign is watching romney's awkward encounters. when he makes jokes about being unemployed or a waitress pinching him on the butt, it does snap your head back and you say what's he talking about? the obama campaign also plans to use romney's record as a job eliminator against him by makie ing romney "the very picture of greed in the great recession." politico again quotes, "his is very much the profile we've seen, about making money. that's fine, but often times he made it at the expense of jobs in communities." an anonymous source gave politico its juiciest quote. "unless things change and obama can run on accomplishments, he will have to kill romney." that statement is attributed to "a prominent democratic strategist aligned with the white house." which narrows it down to a few hundred people. that juicy bit got this response from the romney campaign. "it is disgraceful that president obama's campaign has launched his reel

. >> she's definitely come out of the closet as an opponent of romney.that got in romney's way, she could always pretend oh, gee, that's just coincidence, but there's no coincidence about i am going to attack what mitt romney has done in relation to this whole debt ceiling thing and i'm going to praise what michele bachmann's done. what about huntsman and the other players in this thing trying to get attention in this world? huntsman everybody thought in the media anyway that he was going to get traction and move pretty quickly. he has a lot of establishment around him but doesn't seem to get traction going. >> he's having an extremely hard time and he made the joke about mitt romney in the clip that you played, but that's what he wants to be, the number alternative to mitt romney and there are a number of folks competing to that on sort of separate tracks, hip and tim pawlenty competing on this track where they are trying to be the mainstream establishment alternative to mitt romney, then michele bachmann on the right trying to be the conservative alter

how does romney, what is romney doing that keeps himself as the front-runner. >> well, you get the sense that he's flying a little bit above everyone else. he's going out of his way to attack the president more than any other candidate. when tim pawlenty had, i thought that somewhat cringe inducing attack on romney where he said if you can identify the president's entitlement plan i will mow your acre but only one acre of romney's lawn what was romney's response when asked that. well, that's okay. just brushing it aside. what is going on is romney learned from first time along that you can move your legs really fast for a very long time very early in the process. you can spend a lot of money to win the ameses straw poll and it can all wash away at the end. so part of this is a deliberate strategy to be a lower key candidate until the fall. >> lehrer: do agree with that mark this is a big decision he made. he did not even involve himself in the straw poll. he was at the debate but he's not in the straw poll. >> that's right, jim. if you just look at the straw poll, we're looking at presid

he said this of mitt romney.id he wonders who told mitt romney that now is a time to nearly quadruple the size of his family's beach out. romney needs to stop staying in hotels, stay with volunteers. his job should be to take out the trash every day. if that bag breaks, he needs to clean it up. he also hit rick perry saying what plays in texas, doesn't play nationally. kevin mccarthy, perhaps the most shrewdest mind. tough talk. >> i think one of them should try to hire him as soon as possible. whoever told mitt romney to quadruple the size or whatever is the same person who told president obama to go to martha's vineyard on vacation. there's just a few things that are dumb to do in the midst of presidential campaign season. you've got to know how many houses you have, know the price of a gallon of milk, and don't build fancy houses or go on fancy vacations. >> quickly, karen, what i was surprised at with this story was that they've been so careful about these optics of late. the guy's never in a tie. he's always

romney, 48%.ates or prospective candidates more to the middle, center/right but more to the middle, they tend to do better against the president which tells me your biggest problem in this campaign is going to be the middle. >> here's the problem with your reasoning, john, first of all, perry and bachmann aren't nearly as well known as giuliani and romney, and that obviously gives giuliani and romney an advantage in that test. but the bigger flaw in your reasoning is you assume there is a center/right in the republican party anymore, and the fact is that mitt romney has made it very clear that he's willing to throw in with the tea party crowd and the most strident voices in his party. he did it again today when he was talking about taxes and corporations are people, too, and so, you know, i don't think -- i think the center -- the center of the republican party has collapsed. and what you have are a bunch of folks coming out of that tea party, the most strident group in the republican party, and a

>> not rick perry. >> romney. >> mitt romney. >> still romney. chris: he covers a lot of territory. >> yeah. chris: i think so, too, he can be moderate, centrist, right. >> he has been all of that. chris: he is a multitasker. when we [ male announcer ] this... is the montrose pet hospital --: montrose, california. in here, anarchy meets order. working with at&t, doctors set up a broadband solution to handle data and a mobility app to stay connected with their business. so they can run the office... even when they're not in the office. call at&t and see what we can do for you. with unlimited voice plus broadband, starting at $70 dollars. it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. [ woman ] sam begged and pleaded... so i sent him to camp. we'd earned lots of points with our new citi thankyou card... and i put them to good use. he told me about his bunkmates, and how he signs up for every activity. ♪ he even hangs out with the camp director. just like that. [ male announcer ] the new citi thankyou premier card give

right after romney.und the bush at all. >> if rick perry was running ghent a mitt romney of 2008, this would be rick perry's race. amazing, how disciplined mitt romney has been so far. >> yes. >> focus, he stays on. doesn't leave message and is better on the stump than last time. it's a really -- >> anyone out there and seen mitt romney i attribute a lot of it to matt rose, his campaign manager. disciplined saying, don't engage. don't fight every battle. the question for you, can rick perry draw mitt romney out in a way that michele bachmann and tim pawlenty haven't been able to? he's been attacked -- he's ignored it. >> yes. >> how long until he starts -- >> he said this ramps up after labor day. we'll see them in three debates. ideally, for romney, if perry's up there, they'll get into a back and forth. the question is, is peractual -- perry actually going to debate? he isn't known as a strong debater. with perry in the race a strong contender for romney it make it is a nomination worth having. to win

mitt romney. mitt romney won the iowa straw poll in 2007, but came in second in the iowa caucuses in 2008. todd is joining us next from mississippi. >> i would like to make a statement. if you do not think that government is too big, they can check out what happened in california last week where 25 swat team military guard-wearing individuals reyes did an organic food store because they were ided an raw milk -- rate organic food store because they were selling raw milk. that is definitely government overstepping their boundaries. >> in 1995, bob dole won the straw poll. he also won the iowa caucuses the following year. in 1999, george w. bush won both the iowa straw poll and the iowa caucuses. in 2007, mitt romney came in first in the straw poll, but came in second in the caucuses and ultimately dropping out of the republican race in 2008. he is now at it again, campaigning in iowa, but not officially organizing at the straw poll on friday. >> we got the republican tax cuts. where is the meat? >>

romney have a point?ng us from los angeles, ucla professor mark sawyer and jonathan hoenig a fox news contributor who also runs a private investment group. jonathan, quickly, what do you make of mitt romney's comments and the fact that the left is all over him for saying that corporations have rights like individuals, like people? >> well, you know, juan, the left loves to paint corporations running rough shot. what is a corporation? not a vegetable, not a mineral or animal. governor romney is right it's people. >> voluntary association of people. those individuals have rights. doesn't matter if they are part of a corporation, a labor union, a charity. they don't give up those rights. they don't get new rights, either by joining a corporation. freedom of association. doesn't matter if a small business, a charity or a big evil corporation as too often the left would have you believe i want to hear what the left has to say about governor romney's statements. >> this is his statement is the no corporations l

i think romney has some potential here.ll be interesting to see if romney will go after him on social security and medicare. because some of the tea-vangelicals like the programs. they said keep your hands off my medicare. >> that would show weaknesses. let me ask you a question quickly. one, is it not the cynical side of him. you know him better than the three or any of us -- any one of us. he is cynical and stepping on the debate by announcing he is going to announce and that is the news the big day then he is going to announce on the day of the straw poll he is is like overshadowing what is going on. is that plan kind of cenacle way he behalves and secondly, where are his weaknesses? i think bob just said, where romney can go, where else can they go that would slow down this train if in fact it started picking up speed and it is not just over the weekend kind of bump. >> you say, cenacle, we call that just good horse sense by a political point of view. of course he is trying to step on the tea party and be in the headlin

and the improvement of romney 12 versus romney 8 is substantial. and again i think will be a big advantage for him particular as matthew points out bause of that thin skin that governor perry has sometimes exhibited. that is a classic multiplier problem for first time candidates. >> rose: it is also said by some that governor perry has the advantage that ronald reagan had in that people underestimate him and that always served his end. >> i think what perry has, he has had a bit of a teflon coating. he said some rather sort of off putting things at times. he talked about texas seceding at one point which i think today inhe republican caucus will be an asset to him. because there are so many republican voters so sick of washington and the federal government. you about he seems to have a teflon capacity. the other comparison to ronald reagan is he always seems to be in the right place at the right time in politics. this is a guy that has never lost a single race. i think he's 18 for 1 he ran as a democrat for years as a state rep. then he switched pa