the very strident voices in the tea party. >> ron christie to you, is it the tea party's fault? the folks to blame for bringing us to this blink? >> no of course not f. you look at the fact of the matter is the senate failed utterly to pass the budget. they have not passed a budget in more than two years. it was voted down by the senate 94-0. the house republicans have been very responsible. they passed a budget. if you look at the numbers for deficit reduction it would have cut 4 trillion off and it would not have put us in the population we are now including standard and poors. the president of the united states has failed to lead and put forth a plan to get us out of this mess. the only way we are going to get out of this is to take a look at serious issues of medicare medicaid and democrats are have been able to do that. >> we are going to deal with a special congress a special super congress coming up soon. are they going to have any more success? >> let's hope so. the bottom line is we have chairmans around a million important -- they are the ones who took these leadership

. >>> let's bring back our panel, bob francn, liz sidotti and ron christie. people making decigs yesterday on candidacies, we'll start with paul ryan. many would say he made the decision he was not running for president, but he put out a statement saying, fyi, i'm not running for president. this time i'm for real. let's not talk about ryan but what is this about clambering in front of other people, we have heard of ryan and new jersey governor chris christie. what are republicans feeling about their field? >> quite frankly they are feeling barack obama is beatable, but nobody is there who can beat him. newt gingrich still hasn't dropped out. so maybe his announcement would be i don't care what anybody says, i'm still in. >> i'm running and staying in. a little more surprising in utah, jason, the congresswoman there, decided not to challenge orin hatch. vulnerable to a challenge? and is it surprising he took a pass? >> good young conservative, a bright, young future. hatch has been in for a while. some of the tea party analysts say it is time to go, but he's r

political analyst and ron christie, president -- let's start with president obama and the economy.obama's former press secretary robert gibbs pointed the finger right at republicans, saying they want to see the -- >> at some point you get to ask yourself, are they not dealing with these things, because quite frankly they just don't want to see this economy get better, because they want to see an election that might turn out better for them? >> mike at, is he right? >> i think so. i think somebody finally has the courage to say so, somebody in the obama camp steps forward and articulates a truth that many of us have believed for a long time, the republicans are willing to do anything, especially the far right wing, to make us lose our aaa rating, to talk about a reduction in spending, and to raise the debt reverend al, of really sticking it to poor people, working class people and the working poor. so i think that if the economy isn't doing well, then president obama's chances of reelection in their minds won't be as strong, and as a result of that, they have proved they're willing

congress, also with ron christie, a republican strategist and former special assistant to president georgeee you. >> good to see you. >> good morning. >> ron, did this look like a campaign video or something else? >> something else, i think. i think sarah palin still wants to be relevant. i think she still wants to be well regarded in the political scene, and if not a king-maker, then certainly a queen-maker. so, she's going to still get her name out there. i think she likes being a celebrity, i think she likes the limelight. i don't see her getting into the race. >> well, it comes with money. we need to point out that this is the governor who quit halfway through. crystal, what do you think? is she going to try to become politically relevant again as opposed to just being a celebrity and relevant that way? >> you know what, i'm going to utter five words i never thought i would say, which is i agree with karl rove. i actually do think that sarah palin is going to jump into this race, and i've been saying that for a long time. i just don't think she can resist getting in and having the spot

watch the full "meet the press" interview today at 2:00 right here on msnbc, but now i'm joined by ron christie, republican strategist and former special assistant to president george w. bush, as well as krystal ball, democratic strategist and former candidate for u.s. congress. guys, good to have you back. >> thank you. >> krystal, i'll start with you. we're seeing a preview of what's to come for president obama's re-election. are those going to be the talking points we'll hear, instead of praising what president obama has done over his first four years, it's just going to be taking on who the other people are? >> well, i think for the people surrounding the president, not necessarily the president himself, they definitely want to make that contrast and say, you know what, we all know that we've still got work to do on the economy, but look at what these guys and gals have done. we don't want to go down that path. so, it's kind of a three-pronged attack. on the one hand, the president has to remind people of the very difficult circumstances he came in to office with. on the second hand, he has

christie. flooding. the big danger right now. ron claiborne is in new jersey on point pleasant beach. the hurricane still hitting there. hey, ron. >> the new jersey shore, good morning to you, has really been raked by this powerful hurricane. look at the social behind me. it is just royaling, last night, about 100 miles behind me. spilling over into the streets. the hurricane came ashore south of here about an hour ago, with high wind, driving rain, drenching this ate. i'm in a mandatory evacuation area, about a million people did leave this area over a period of 24 hour, although some stragglers have remained. about 400,000 people in new jersey without power. officials say that number is expected to go up. but the storm now is passing over this area. heading north toward you guys. we will be seeing the worst testify in the next hour or two. it is coming your way, robin and george. >> all right, ron, thank you very much. the sea, you know, it's a slow moving system, but once it gets past, you see the big difference with ron now as opposed to earlier this morning. let's go back out to

. >> ron, how a leader, whether a governor like christie or a president, handles a crisis like this, really does play a huge role in how the public perceives this? >> i think that's right. there is irresistible attraction between television cameras and rain. big things with lots of colors on the map. you're right. a lot of what government does is theoretical and even abstract to most people and there are very few moments when the public gets to see an elected official, particularly an elected executive official, and judge whether they can handle the material aspect of making things work. i grew up in new york city where john lindsey could not clear the streets in queens for ten days after a big snowstorm and he never really recovered. if you look at the polling, in 2005, president bush's approval rating dropped four or five points after hurricane katrina. and he never really recovered from those drops. both in terms of doing their job and guesting ready for the worst-case scenario, but politically, does make sense for the officials to be on high alert even if it's not true for our fr

if people are looking for new candidates and looking for people like chris christie or congressman ron paul who has decided not to run, and everybody is wondering if sarah palin is going to run. she is going to replace she should and she has the staff and infrastructure that if she decides to do with, she would be a formidable overnight. in the next three or four weeks, we will get the final contestants and we will start to go down in terms of the number of candidates that will be weeded out. we just have the iowa straw poll. the iowa caucuses are coming fairly surely next year. -- are coming fairly shortly. caller: i think any of the unemployment and the foreclosure crisis are two major concerns. the best way to jump-start the economy without spending taxpayer money and to put americans back to work is to let main street get involved. we can do this within three to six months. thedon't we give citizens option to withdraw some or all of their retirement savings tax- free if they pay all cash for a primary or secondary home? what you'll have is tax-free withdrawals for home purchases wo

if people are looking for new candidates and looking for people like chris christie or congressman ron paul who has decided not to run, and everybody is wondering if sarah palin is going to run. she is going to replace she should and she has the staff and infrastructure that if she decides to do with, she would be a formidable overnight. in the next three or four weeks, we will get the final contestants and we will start to go down in terms of the number of candidates that will be weeded out. we just have the iowa straw poll. the iowa caucuses are coming fairly surely next year. -- are coming fairly shortly. caller: i think any of the unemployment and the foreclosure crisis are two major concerns. the best way to jump-start the economy without spending taxpayer money and to put americans back to work is to let main street get involved. we can do this within three to six months. thedon't we give citizens option to withdraw some or all of their retirement savings tax- free if they pay all cash for a primary or secondary home? what you'll have is tax-free withdrawals for home purchases wo

material polls before people thought to ask what they thought of chris christie, tea partiers volunteer. they would list off, you know, ron bachmann, sarah palin. chris christie. yes. i think there's very -- great enthusiasm for him. >> yeah. well, i don't think he will do it. >> it is not a coincidence karl rove keeps writing and saying chris christie might run. >> but he hates rick perry. >> that's right. he is raining on perry's parade. >> thank you so much for joining us. that was fun. back to you guys. >> that was an excellent discussion. 45 minutes after the hour. let's get up to speed on the top stories including, well the latest on a bus attack in israel. a little more information on that. we will bring it to you on the other side of the break. >> we are going to tell you about how abercrombie & fitch was hurt. major medical. ...but it helps pay the doctors. pays the doctors, boyyy! [ quack ] oh yeah? what about your family? ♪ we added aflac, so we get cash! it's like our safety net... ♪ to help with the mortgage or whatever we need! so my family doesn't feel the pain too. ha! [ male announcer ] help protect your

. >> there you see governor christie right there. let's talk about ron paul.d states and he's getting a little attention from the fact that he says we don't need fema. what do you think about that? >> well, i appreciate that ron paul has strong convictions and he's running for president but it seems he's also a little discordent. on "american idol" the judges tell the contestants they're a little pitchy. on the morning after a major disaster with millions of people out of power, 24 people now lost their lives, fema is doing what it should do which is coordinate on a federal level while the state and local responders should be the first ones because they know where people live, they know the dangers. i understand his point that we need to shift back to the original way it was set up. state and local would be more in the lead and fema just a back stop but i don't think that you can say to an entire east coast if you're running for president, you don't think that the -- that fema should exist. i think that's a little off. >> but, you know, there's some of those p

christie mcnichol remember from "family." yeah, people want to know -- leave garrett. >> i want to know what happened. >> ron howard. >> we know>> shirley temple. >> who would ever thought she would become an ambassador. >> y y just never know what's going to happen. you can see more of these stories on primetime "nightline," select secrets under age airs tonight right here on abc. lara? >> thank you. that is so fascinating to me and speaking of fascinating, the "jersey shore," groundbreaking for so many reasons that we can't say on morning tv but here's one that we can mention. this season's premiere got almost 9 million viewers making it the highest rated season premiere in mtv's history. season four follows them to their homeland, italy that can only be described as a global takeover but there is one cast member who stands above the rest despite the fact that she is only 4'9". take a look. >> hello. >> all right. >> you are so [ bleep ]. >> reporter: she is loud and brash. a lover and a fighter. and definitely not afraid of having a good time. ♪ and that's miami >> reporter: nicole polizzi known the world over as snooki has