and to help us sift through the facts and fiction, we're joined by ron reagan, the author of "my fatheriece of misinformation from michele bachmann. it was a gop debate in tampa back in december. you'll remember she criticized rick perry for ordering the vaccination of young schoolgirls in texas to guard against hpv. then the next morning, she was asked about it and repeated what she was told by a woman the night before. here it is. >> i had a mother last night come up to me, here in tampa, florida, after the debate. she told me that her little daughter took that -- took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter. >> i thought the worst part about it was repeating such a scurrilous rumor. >> yeah, the irresponsibility of that. there are many children, of course, that get vaccines for all sorts of things. i know that this is a source of contention for some people, but to tell people as a presidential candidate that this particular vaccine causes mental retardation, based on what, some woman who came up to you at the the end of a debate and blurted t

joan walsh is editor at large at salon, and ron reagan is a political commentator for us. because you saw, what, the pain on the face of john boehner? he'd spent a lot of words there, basically saying uncle. >> yes. he practiced in front of a mirror saying it's the right time to do the right thing and all those other platitudes, chris, but that was a full-on cave. that was a political pratfall. and you know, i hear -- he's even been hearing from newt gingrich that this was the right thing to do. i think he might be talking to newt gingrich about what it's like to be ex-speaker and what it's like when your members come after you. because this is a full-on meltdown for the house republicans. and it's not pretty to see. you know, i mean, i smiled, but it's also, you know, it's so disingenuous, that they were the ones fighting for the full year and democrats or even the senate republicans didn't want that. but everyone's seeing through it. and i guess that makes me smile, that the entire country is seeing through this charade and these people cannot take our country hostage an

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contemporary biographies on recordings of interviews, presumably the transcript of an interview with ron reagan or richard nixon is a text, is the authentic words that the president spoke and they are on the page with all the deleted expletives but reading these transcripts, you can see nixon's face as he said something. you can notice the way he ended up his pant leg as he said segwayed into a dark statement. you can't see the expression on ronald reagan's face. you are deprived of the body language that accompanies these words. often a person's body language and facial expression will be not what the writing in a pen. so there's again, is a biography based on transcripts? or do we miss a large part of what the truth really is? what is the truth? oliver wendell holmes, our greatest jurists, once the find the truth as a supreme court justice, the truth as what i can't help but believe. what we believe is true to us. as any interviewer will discover, when they ask questions of a person that contradict that person's fantasies, you can get no more violent reaction then when you question a long-hel

>> ron reagan, i just love the way he tossed his head, like he did characteristically when he made that, bus drivers, cab drivers, and seemed to put some body english into that. >> yeah, it's true. it just shows you how far the republican party has come since then. and you know, of course we've got the payroll tax cut extension here, where the democrats and president obama are really tying the republicans in knots. and more than that, revealing their hypocrisy. i mean, here's the republican party, the modern republican party, which never met a tax cut it didn't like, and tax cuts don't have to be paid for, because they magically pay for themselves, yet all of a sudden when it's a tax cut that benefits the middle class and it's being proposed by president obama, well, they're not so enthusiastic about it. and maybe we better pay for it, perhaps by firing 200,000 federal workers! that would be good for the economy too, i guess. >> gene, one last question about enthusiasm. ron just mentioned it. what do you make of the lowered enthusiasm for this race coming up by republicans is it they do

ron reagan, jr. co-hosted a name on msnbc and also joined the ballet to pursue a lifelong dream.ger, another former first correspondent is a correspondent for nbc. >> they are being way too tough. it will take hear while to get up to speed. >> isn't that what markets are for? >> he is a celebrity person just like jena bush. there is absolutely nothing wrong and they are being as mean as a snake. >> she would not do interviews, her mother and now it's payback with that. >> i agree with jim

nia-malika henderson covers politics for "the washington post" and ron reagan is a political commentatormy father at 100 hurrica." i want to start with ron on this. it looks like the president everyone seems to be saying today is testing a vehicle for re-election. and that is to restore the strength of the shrinking middle class, which is under tremendous pressure in terms of salaries being held down, some inflation, tremendous job insecurity, high unemployment, housing prices with the homes values of most people now below their mortgage. all the pressures you can think of, from elderly they have to take care of, from kids they're still worrying about have failed to launch. think of all the problems, we've got them, and the middle class has them the worst. >> he's very good at identifying problems. and i think it was not a bad idea to wrap himself in the mantel of teddy roosevelt. he's been assuming a sort of progressive mantel, and he ticked off some large and systemic problems that this country faces. the quibble i have with president obama is, and i think some other people will have i

>> in this point in 1979, ron reagan was running 30 points behind jimmy carter. the news media image of ronald reagan was such that he had a deficit. as the people got to know ronald reagan, it turned out he cared more states against carter than fdr carried against herbert hoover. it is october of next year. obama has $1 billion to spend on the kind of negative advertising you have been seeing here. it comes down to a series of debates. who do you think could go on that platform against barack obama and effectively articulate your values, defend your beliefs, and communicate his failures without flinching? i want to suggest almost everybody seems to think that i'm a more effective debater than mitt romney, a more coherent conservative. i first worked with ronald reagan in 1974. i think that i can debate barack obama and begin decisively by telling the truth that the country says, we want paychecks, we do not want more food stamps. [applause] >> i have a question about the national debt. i have a high-level of anxiety about getting obama out of the white house. ple

ron reagan, jr. co-hosted a name on msnbc and also joined the ballet to pursue a lifelong dream.nifer hager, another former first correspondent is a correspondent for nbc. >> they are being way too tough. it will take hear while to get up to speed. >> isn't that what markets are for? >> he is a celebrity person just like jena bush. there is absolutely nothing wrong and they are being as mean as a snake. >> she would not do interviews, her mother and now it's payback with that. >> i agree with jim and hank stewart from wh

joan walsh is editor at large at salon, and ron reagan is a political commentator for us. one features herman cain's chief of staff smoking, and it's going viral, because it's so an akronistic about cigarettes. let's watch. >> mark block here. since january i've had the privilege of being the chief of staff to herman cain. we need you to get involved, because together we can do this. we can take this country back. ♪ i am america one voice united we stand ♪ ♪ i am america one hope to heal our land ♪ >>> you know, i guess you want to starred with joan on this. it's so in your face. it's politically incorrect, i'm smoking on camera, which we don't do anymore, except in movies, i guess, but not on tv anymore, and i'm smiling about it, hey, i got you beat. the conservatives like that, but the conservatives live that in your face anti-pc behavior, i think. that's an akronistic, too. >> we're never going to get the hours back this year that we spent talking about herman cain. this breaks my heart, the three of us, but let's give them one last look. this is not a serious campaign,

contemporary biographies on recordings and interviews, presumably the transcript of an interview with ron reagann, is the authentic words that the president spoke, there on the page, black and white, but reading these transcripts you can't see nixon's face as he said something. you can't notice the way he hitched up his fat legs as he segued into a particularly dark full statement. you can see the expression on ronald reagan's face you are deprived of the body language that accompanied these words, offered a person's body language and facial expression will deny what that person is writing. so there again, it's a biography based on transcripts, authenticp over!b do we miss a large part x what truth really is? what is the truth? oliver wendell holmes, our greatest jurist, once defined the truth from, as a supreme court justice, the truth as what i can't help but believe. what we believe is true to us, as any interviewer will discover when they ask questions of a person that contradicted that person's fantasies. you can get no more violent reaction than when you question a long held fantastic beli

now we have two parties that ron reagan help sort out. if you are for limited government you are of a republican and if you are not you are a democrat. there are almost no republicans that will for tax increases. the two parties are going in opposite directions. if somebody wants to go east or west, what is the compromise? there is no compromise. if you want smaller government and the one larger government, what is the compromise text somebody wins and somebody loses. this fight we are in the middle of, because they help to their no increase position, we won and they lost. or you paying attention in 1982 and 1990 when you cut your head handed to you and 2011 with a low tax limited spending people want. what is the difference? we took tax increases off of the table. >> one point i would make is that it is important to remember the historical context in which the plot was created. i think that historical context made a stronger case than what we are living in today. i agree with the description of partisan politics at that point. i think th

ron reagan, you point out color get all mixed up. did he had a couple of good the next time. and he managed to do very well because by the way he was also did a television, and that's another. bob will not so good it television. >> and a lot of people have said that. oh, well, rape and was just great television, an actor, whenever. like other not in the president of the united states has to be a will to communicate on television. that is like being 35 years old. that is a qualification. the greatest ideas in the world. and if you can't -- you want to give the american people to rise up and go war, are not tow war or rise up and raise the debt ceiling or never this. you have to deal to make the case on television. you have to deal to like the television camera and start nodding. yes, you're right. and that is a qualification for office. >> that makes me think about the 2008 not so long ago there seemed to be such a difference between john mccain has been in public life for quite a long time and his skill in front of the camera verses barack obama. do you take that into conside

. >> i worked if -- for ron ronald reagan ron. he would be the first to say, debate is good.must be respectful and rigorous. and that will lead to more trust. and one thing our nation needs is heightened trust in our institutions, in our tax code, in our wars abroad, in congress, toward wall street. i am here to tell that you this kind of debate will elevate the trust level in whomever make its out as the nominee to allow us to beat barack obama. thank you. >> bret: well, that is it for our debate tonight. thank you very much. our thanks to the candidates, their staffs and the iowa republican party and the people here in sioux city and in iowa. they could not have been more hospitable. our next debate is in south carolina, january stean 16 and then we will be right here for extensive coverage of the caucuses and in new hampshire for the primary. stay with fox newschannel, america's election headquarters through the election, general election and the inauguration. post debate analysis is on the way. keep it here. thank you. >>> welcome back, we're going to getm >> we are going

reagan lived here for eight years and was never considered to be of washington even though he was head of the national government. ronim at arm's length because he never joined the establishment. >> craig, what's the sfat of the establishment relevant to instability? one of my arguments is they ought to spend more time in town, lift a cocktail together instead of running home on thursday morning and not returning until tuesday morning. what's your assessment? >> my point is that they do not associate the way they used to. there really aren't any conservative democrats anymore, per se, and there are very view liberal republicans. it makes it more difficult now because, frankly, the parties are more polarized. in one way it's a bad thing but another way you could look at it, it gives the voters an honest choice. they both have legitimacy and hopefully it should come down to a contest of ideas. >> you've been so identified with republican causes over the years. does the incivility extend to the peripheral of a gentleman like yourself? >> well, we've had incivility going back to the 1800s and that's when it started. what

they don't like the ron reagan supply-side approach because it puts power in the hands of the people.eve in markets, that means you have to make decisions and you have to be in charge. you have to be in charge -- the president does not create jobs. they can create conditions that favor or hurt jobs. the american people create jobs. the hard work of americans create jobs. we're back in the same competition between a supply- side approach that we popularize 30 years ago and the much more timid, washington-centered approach which will not create jobs. obama represents the extreme version, which kills jobs. consider the reagan model. cut taxes, cut regulations, strengthen energy production, and appraise the people who create jobs. to the important to shop for work on monday and to save and to invest. look at the obama model. fare r taxes and class war fo that attacks people who create jobs. i don't think the white house has a clue. take the xl keystone pipeline. 20,000 jobs immediately. a generation of money coming to the u.s. from canadian oil on the way to worldwide distribution. the pr

maybe it was the year that ron reagan fired 11,000 striking workers, air-traffic control workers. the attack and the sort of organized business response to union drives in organizing the attack on the right to organize is something that has very much had an affect our route the. of time that we're looking at. so it is actually just young workers that are less likely to be in the union buddies of them were before among other workers as well, and that is so important because for, if you look at a job that is unionized verses not unionized that as the sex and characteristics, workers in the union have 17 percent higher wages. that differential is even higher for workers of color. a worker of color in a job that is not unionized verses unionized, unionize versus non unionized have a much better shot of having a middle class job than the exact same -- with the exact same task and tradition of a nonunion as job. i think that, you know, like all of these issues there are policy responses. we could pass the employee free choice act to make it easier for people who want to join me in. we h

and ron, reagan, the worst thing he did was got rid of that equal time law where you guys on your program you used to have two people there talking back and forth. and then you could decide who was lying and who was telling the truth. so i think ron paul might surprise the people in iowa pretty smart. mabe -- maybe they'll make the news media ron saying ron paul can't win. host: thanks for the call you mentioned ross perot. he is the 14th and final contender that c-span profiled in case you missed the program on friday join us again at 10:30 this morning. doug brinkley among those weighing in on the 1992 and 1996 race and the impact he had on among other issues the debt and the deficit the issues the forefront of hi candidacy at 10:30 eastern time. send us a tweet, tom this morning writing about the next, first, and only 100 days. he writes in the "new york times." bruce, democrat's line. florida, good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. and i'm responding to the earlier question about has the republican debate been any help. and in a way i think it has because it sh

reagan or maybe somebody like bob taft. is there anyone else we can compare barry goldwater to? >> not alive today. >> i would say two people. ron i think he compares to ron paul in that ron paul is a very straightforward speaker who does not really care what the press thinks, but he just speaks from his heart about his ideas. it is his downfall. it was part of barry's downfall. also reagan likened that the core of his ideas that barry goldwater ran on ronald reagan letter implemented. ronald reagan had a smoother style. he was mr. hollywood. he had that wonderful smile and people loved him and he made people laugh. he ran basically on the same ideas that barry goldwater did and it brought over -- one in a landslide. sometimes when people say people did not like barry goldwater's ideas are there were not ready for them, i do not think that was a fair assessment. i think the assassination played a key role at that time. i think the poor messaging that barry goldwater did was a factor. i don't think it was the ideas. i think it was the way they were sold. >> i think the liberal congressman from illinois speaks with equal forthrigh