ron's wife wrote. "china calls" by ann walker. it was five years that nixon was in office and this was considered one of the most fruitful times in american foreign-policy. the less fast the last for -- the last forum focused on how it was organized. we will have future forms and they will focus on arms control with the city at union and the it not more and the u.s. peace accord and a final forum on the lasting legacy of the nixon-kissinger era. i want to introduce you to the gentleman who held it happen. winston lord joined the nsc staff at the beginning of the nixon administration during he was one of henry's closest advisers and he works on every aspect of american foreign-policy. he was in and out of kissinger's office several times a day. he helped plan kissinger secret trip to china in 71. he went on to become president of the foreign relations secretary of state and u.s. ambassador to china to richard solomon was a university of michigan professor. kissinger tapped him to join the staff in september 1971. he had a phd from

please welcome ron walker. [applause] >> morning, everyone. the panel is going to come out. it is my pleasure to welcome everyone along with david. it is nice to see all these lovely faces out there. those of us on the white house staff in the 1970's remember a young lady named catherine troy of. she was on the nse council at 18 years of age. she worked at night during the residence briefing into the next morning. she would ride her bicycle from george washington university to the white house and worked in the situation room. she went on to serve in the national security post or -- for president ford and president reagan. in 1984, she wrote secretary of defense's memorandum, "the uses of military war." she received the department's highest civilian award for the work she did during the reagan administration. today, she is a fox news security analyst and she hosts the foxnews.com. defcom 3. she will introduce the panel. which is in us -- which is a distinguished one, i might add and all my friends. >> thank you, ron. [applause] ron walker is much too modest to mention it, but

walker right behind him, and then ted cruz. john, any surprise here? >> reporter: no, there are no surprises. the rand paul, or his father ron paul, have been consistent winners recently. but it's good news for scott walker who has been on a bit of a run. he's had some stumbles, also though in the press. and so for him to come out near the top with a conservative group, it helps him shore up his argument, which is that he has strong support in the conservative base of the party and, plus as a governor he has governing experience. >> axelrod: nancy, it's february 2015, how important is this straw poll? what does it translate to in terms of money and momentum? >> reporter: it's really a badge of honor and for somebody like scott walker to come in second who was for a long time seen as a second-tier candidate. but cpac has kind of an uneven track record of predicting who the republican nominee will be and we'll see a lot more of these kinds of polls and straw polls between now and the iowa caucusaise year from now. >> axelrod: nancy cordes and john dickerson, thank you both very much. this programming note-- john boehner will b

we're going to sitd down and talk to ron johnson about a range of things including the presidential race and his candidate for governor scott walker. that's a shop. he can't use that. >> duke will be the number one seed i think. >> i think we secured that over the weekend. >> i can't believe they came back and won that game either. they were so cold for awhile. looked like you. anyway we have no time for tears. see you john thank you. >> see you later. >> when we come back this morning we'll talk about the stories that caught our attention this morning including what autopsies can teach you. plus why burger king is making big menu changes for kids. first let's take a look at yesterday's s&p 500 winners and losers. >>> welcome back everybody. we have been looking through the stories that caught our attention. i'd like to start on a take of what happened with mcdonald's. mcdonald's said it had a serious problem. it needs to change quickly. the problems it's same in the united states, the store sales were down about 4%. much bigger drop than expected. they're trying to get on to had healthier food idea. they're not the only ones. the

walker's clearly got the momentum here. bush has some friends in some very high places and fund-raising machine that could outspend mr. monopoly if it wanted to. john brabender, republican strategist, roneagan is an msnbc political analyst. john, let me start with you. we show those poll numbers right there. the nbc/"wall street journal" poll last week. scott walker, the number of republicans who say they could vote for him has risen that much, but the others are twice as high when it comes to jeb bush as it is with scott walker. what is scott walker tapping into in the republican party? >> people are looking for something new and exciting to be part of. it's like test driving a car. you don't want to go on the lot and drive the car you had before. you want to drive something new. the problem, also, what comes with that is further scrutiny. i would imagine scott walker is probably the first one that says, please, don't call me the front-runner because he knows that changes things. these type of races are incredibly fluid. we saw that in the last two presidential primaries on the republican side. it will happen this time as well. >> i have to say, last week he was asked about some of th

ron paul supporters, will go anywhere else. he thinks he can go a little bit to the right on defense and have the libertarian defense. >> let's go to the nonsenator, scott walker. most people view this early on, very, very early on, jeb bush, scott walker, who knows. we're waiting to see who else fills out the top tier. there are indications and people at a private dinner in new hampshire who say when he was at that private dinner, political pros, people at chamber of commerce, state republican party, they're not neophytes when it comes to politics, they are very clear. they say he said in that meeting that he supports a path to citizenship. no, no, you have to go to the back of the line. no special treatment. if you are in this country illegally and you come out of the shadows, you can apply. you can get legal status and work and eventually get citizenship as long as you don't get preferential treatment. different people have different definitions of amnesty. to most tea party conservatives, that's amnesty. you allow them to stay in the united states. scott walker says this never happened. his spokeswoman says he never said this. does he have a problem here?

walker means something, but we're very early out. >> i don't think if you look at the last time it was ron paul who won who didn't get the nom thags, but if you look it at the 2012 straw poll, it was mitt romney. so somewhat predictive. but i think this far out, it's not predictive. >> i'll just say as a political reporter, you have to take the long view and realize there are all kinds of flexion points. very few of them actually matter long term but you can also dissterndis discern a little bit. and i agree it shows you scott walk ser aer is a candidate to watch. >> let's did it a once around on the big dhs showdown. they had to settle for a one week stopgap. and i think the media knowing full well there is a could ka bookie dance hyped this and everybody knew it would go a day or two and they wouldn't shut down. >> i think it was overhyped and i wonder if there is a point at which will doesn't pay off in ratings. the american people are like we do this this every three months. >> right. >> i could not disagree more. this is not about ratings and it's not even about who is going to win or lose and whether it shuts or doesn't. all

the unexpectedly strong performance from scott walker mean as little bit of something but we are early out so... >> if you look at the last time it was ron paul who did not get the nomination but the 2012 straw poll it was santorum in second and mitt romney in first. this far owe it is not predictive. >> i was going to say, as a political reporter you have to take a long view and realize you can never tell in the moment which matters, very few of them actually matter long term but you can discertain a little bit out of everything and i agree the fact that scott walker did relatively well, better-than-expected, that shows he is a candidate to watch right now. >> and now, on the big scary showdown for dhs with house republicans not getting a three way extension pass with a one week stopgap extension and the media knowing this is a washington dance hype this and everyone knew in the end that it would go a day or two and the department of homeland security is not going to shut down. anyone disagree? >> it was everhyped and is there a point it does not pay off. the american people are like, we do this every three months. there has to be a poi

ron paul who ran in 2012. he is going to make a big announcement in april in kentucky. wonder what that could be? and then of course scott walker governor of wisconsin. very popular with conservatives and certainly, during all the events that have happened since the beginning of the year. he at this stage could well be an outsider who could welcome through middle. for those who don't like jeb bush and don't like ted cruz he could get a lot of support. >> then we have the democrats but that's for another day. allen fisher thank you very much allen fisher from washington, d.c. still to come. we report on tributes for singapore's founding prime minister lee kwan yew has died. >>> and leading elections what does that mean, in sports, the kiwikiwis missing in the world cup. >> criminal gangs risking lives >> it's for this... 3 grams of gold >> killing our planet >> where it's blood red... that's where the mercury is most intense >> now, fighting back with science... >> we fire a laser imaging system out of the bottom of the plane >> revealing the deadly human threat >> because the mercury is dumped into the rivers and lakes, it then

ron paul. that was the big name. but the real key is look to see who comes in second. look who came in second last time around. mitt romney. scott walker he is the one to watch. >> if you are jeb bush are you concerned that scott walker is ahead? >> common core is a huge issue and he is not loved by conservative. and he is still saying common core raises standards and no it doesn't. that is going to hurt him. scott walker is a real reformer and overcomes odds is a conservative warrior and on policy he is reliable and you could send him to washington he is a regular guy with regular guy appeal. you send scott walker into washington and he is going to dig his heels in. >> scott walker does bridge the gap between the establishment and conservatives particularly in fundraising. i know a lot of people who raise money for romney last time around. there is a lot of wall street guys giving money to scott walker. he does bridge the gap. i don't know if walker can pull it off. he is smart on policy and he does speak to the establishment. >> this is the most reliable audience. you saw scott walker take a bite out of royalty and that audience. wal

ron paul, won two of the previous three years. but, george, what's significant there is scott walker has really broken through. you see a very close second. the governor of wisconsin quickly becoming a favorite of conservatives and jeb bush in fifth place in single digits. another reminder that he is going to have a very hard time convincing conservatives in the republican party to vote for him. >> yeah he took some tough questions when he appeared. jon karl, thanks very much. >>> amy with the news and topping today one of the nurses who contracted ebola filing a lawsuit. >> indeed, george. >>> and we begin with that nurse. she became the first person to contract the disease in america. nina pham is speaking out, planning to sue the hospital in texas where she became infected. her fear is that she may never fully recover. here's abc's cecilia vega. >> reporter: she was the face of ebola in america. >> i feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today. >> reporter: nurse nina pham back in october grateful for the care she received including at the dallas hospital where she caught the deadly disease while c

ron brownstein and jeffrey toobin. he's starting off in the low single digits considerably behind jeb bush scott walker even rand paul.m. >> yeah he does. his challenge is that right now he's appealing to only a relative narrow bandwidth, the most conservative elements. when "the wall street journal" poll asked people in the potential republican field, he was only at net positive two. as many people said they would not consider as would consider. he was fine among very conservative being weaker among somewhat conservative and way under water with those who are moderate or liberal. they are not looking at him. he either has to have a narrow pathway or expand his reach. >> jeffrey, what's the most important thing we all need to know about him? >> well that he believes that republicans who seek the center are destined for failure. he says look at the presidential candidates who have won as republicans. ronald reagan george w. bush the first term of president george herbert walker bush. look at the republicans that lose. mitt romney, john mccain gerald ford. there are explanations as to one, why those candidates came out

so doug ron hinted to t there are others who use their personal e-mail. jeb bush governor walkeris being -- should those things potentially have been conveyed or talked about on private e-mail. though remember there's no evidence nothing has been brought to bear to understand what may have been conveyor in her private e-mail. doug? >> i think a few reasons. hillary clinton is determining what we're able to see and not see. this is what makes people uneasy about hillary clinton. >> we don't know the content of it. without knowing the content of it. >> why is it an issue? >> she's determine whag we're able to see and not see. she's determining what the select committee is getting. that's not the openness and transparency that the president promised. it's also not what she proned to do. that's why people are uneasy. it reminds people of that immediately. i would say, talk about transparency. the only thing we know there were cops in ferguson that sent racist e-mails is because they had done that from official accounts. if they had done it from private e-mails, those bad cops would s

walker and bush will do. they're going to ask tough questions, will ask about foreign policy and things like immigration. someone who will do well there is rand paul. ronok at the past hillary clinton has done well john mccain has done well. do well with name recognition, someone with a resume and experience. >> hillary did beat obama there in 2008. jeb bush hasn't been to the state in 15 years. assuming she runs how will she use familiarity with voters against some republicans? >> that's an interesting question. i think for jeb, new hampshire is the -- i think he is the candidate for whom new hampshire is the most important state, you know he is probably not going to win iowa he is hoping to get through that with a showing that makes him look credible so he has to go to new hampshire and show i am the guy in charge i am the frontrunner. in terms of hillary clinton, that was such an amazing emotional moment. she was behind in the polls, had this incredible come back and it does go to show as abby is pointing out, these are savvy voters, people that don't want to be told who to vote for, who the frontrunner is this is the guy or gal you're supposed to b