who was close toast ronald reagan and who did this with ronald reagan, we all love ronald reagan, wereagan was not perfect, and agreeing to the tax increases and spending cuts, ronald reagan acknowledged later on that he had made a mistake. he was not perfect in my mind, he goes down as one of the greatest presidents in history. >> senator, for that and your zsa zsa gabor comments, i want to thank you. >> thanks for having me on, neil. >> this guy 61 years ago today. if there was a pill to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye-care experts at bausch + lomb. as you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. [ male announcer ] ocuvite has a unique formula not found in your multivitamin to help protect your eye health. now, that's a pill worth taking. [ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health. i took some steep risks in my teens. i'd never ride without one now. and since my doctor prescribed lipitor, i w

four under ronald reagan we had the right job when i became speaker we went back to the ronald reagan playbook i worked with ronald reagan in the early one nine hundred eighty s. and that's just a fraction of newt's reagan name drops as nate silver over the new york times coded newt gingrich is mentioned reagan's name fifty five times in the republican debate so far averaging three mentions per debate no other candidate comes even close santorum for example has only mentioned reagan fourteen times. gingrich has now surged to the top of the field following his race baiting strategy in south carolina a strategy i might add that helped reagan in one thousand nine hundred eighty when he went to philadelphia mississippi where three civil rights were workers were murdered to kick off his presidential campaign to talk about states' rights a dog whistle to races southerners but now with newt at the top of the field the republican establishment is turning on him and guess whose name is being invoked to criticize newt ronald reagan on wednesday the conservative national review online published

no, i'm ronald reagan.o, i'm ronald reagan. >> i think it matters because they want to say, mirror mirror on the wall who's the most conservative and the true conservative of them all. but what jeb bush said to you before i think is something that ronald reagan would agree with. and that is, you know what, you guys are arguing with each other this way and you're giving the democrats all kinds of ammunition. and it's not the way the party needs to present itself to the american public if you want to win an election. and i think that's what ronald reagan would say. >> i don't want to suggest any drinking games but maybe just a game. we'll count how many times ronald reagan gets mentioned in the debate tonight. our chief political analyst gloria borger. mitt romney's campaign acknowledged tonight it's look over discrepancies between the former massachusetts governor's tax returns and his federal disclosure forms. -- 23 funds in partnerships that were not explicitly listed in a financial disclosure form he file

eric cantor and his press secretary choose to believe the fancy about ronald reagan on taxes. follow us on twitter using using #edshow. attention - americans living with limited mobility. what do you do when you can no longer get around like you used to? when you fear losing your independence? who do you call? call hoveround now, to see if you qualify for america's premier power chair. hi, i'm tom kruse, inventor and founder of hoveround. now you can do more, see more, enjoy life more. here's why hoveround makes it easier than any other power chair. hoveround is more maneuverable to get you through the tightest doors and hallways. more reliable. hoveround employees build your chair, deliver your chair, and will service your chair for as long as you own your chair. and most importantly, 9 out of 10 people got their hoveround for little or no cost. call now for your free dvd and information kit. and now every hoveround comes with this tote bag and cup holder for handy access to your favorite items. you don't really have to give up living because you don't have your legs. call no

eric cantor and his press secretary choose to believe the fancy about ronald reagan on taxes.us on twitter usi using #edshow. >>> welcome back to "the ed show." ron paul is in the republican race for the long haul. how do we know? well, he's not going to fade away after iowa. win, lose or draw. he has a strategy to be a thorn in the side of the republican party establishment right through to the convention. here it is. a map put together by buzzfeed.com showing 12 states holding caucuses instead of primaries. as republicans try to choose their nominee. it gives paul a path to racking up delegates with strong organization and careful planning. this is what he's doing. in ten of these caucus states, paul could rack up more than 400 delegates out of the 2,300 needed for the gop nomination. so if he can't actually win the gop nomination, at least he could throw around as much weight as possible to the party's national convention. there will be a voice. his supporters are definitely there. today, paul made a half dozen stops through iowa with his son, senator rand paul. paul's poll

eric cant eric cantor can't handle the truth with ronald reagan. >> he also cut taxes. >> but he did compromise. >> ezra klein of "the washington post" is here to set the record straight. >> good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching and the first votes fort republican nomination are hours away from being cast. i think we might see a surprise in iowa tomorrow. the latest numbers from the public policy polling of have ron paul on top with 20% of the vote in iowa. >> santorum in at 15%. the devil is in the details. in the first day of the poll, ron paul was on top with 29% support. four days later, he was down to 16%. on the other hand, santorum polled at 10% the first couple of days of the polling. on days three and four, his numbers doubled to 20%. what does that mean? santorum has real momentum. he continues his brand of retail politics on the road in iowa. he was so popular at a pisa restaurant in boon, iowa, the owner renamed the chicken salad santorum salad in honor of the candidate. he is a viable auditorium for conservative voters. he is 60% in iowa and gainin

and on ronald reagan, newt gingrich is no ronald reagan. >> gingrich blamed it on the media attack machine. >> michael is here and will be campaigning with me here in florida. i remember fondly in 1985 at the gold w goldwater institute and nancy said that ronnie ga-- barry gav ronnie the torchf and now ronnie is passing the torch. >> newt gingrich is not the first person who argues over who carries the mantle best, but does it mean anything? ronald reagan was an icon, but he was elected president in the disco era, and many young republican voters have no idea, and they are into ron paul, and he barely mentions him. and ronald reagan dealt with the economic woes in his time by raising taxes. >>> and larry says that invoking reagan's name doesn't tell you anything, because it is a candidate might do, because reagan has everything to everything, but it is much like jfk to the democrats. >> if you want to talk more about it, go to facebook.com/carolcnn. i will read your responses later in the hour. >> it is interesting, because i remember reagan as a young person at the time, and it is almost

a new ad for him connecting himself to ronald a pan. >> he was ronald reagan's vice president. >> i worked with president ronald reagan. >> president reagan. >> he exaggerates dropping reagan's name 50 times. but in his diaries he mentioned gingrich only once. newt's ideas, quote, would cripple our program. he rejected his idea on leadership and character, gingrich is no ronald reagan. >> from the romney super pac. arguing last night he is more like reagan than mitt romney is. >> governor romney cannot defend his record. he can't defend his past. he can't defend what he's done. so his goal is to somehow through enough mud at me. and i think it's all going to wash off because the american people are smart enough. i first met with ronald reagan in 1974, campaigned with him in 1980, helped hip eight years while he was president. i made a movie about him. i've written a book about him. to suggest that romney is more began-like than i am is total fantasy. >> adding some fuel to the fire on this gingrich/reagan connection. it points to specific places where gingrich criticized president reagan.

ronald reagan would not have been ronald reagan without louis b. mayer and george murphy and the biggest surprise for me doing the research was that everything ronald reagan did george murphy did earlier. he was the true pioneer in figuring out media, how to use me and particularly television, perfected the reagan strategy of going to blue collar democrats in '64 and what murphy learned he learned from louis b. mayer. reagan was the best of all of them. no question about it. ronald reagan was the master performer. but his conversion to the right which i talk about in the book, those of you who may not know his past, george murphy who is our senator in 1964 and reagan were liberal new deal democrats when they first -- murphy converted a around 38 to republican conservatives. reagan ended world war ii as he writes in his autobiography as a bleeding heart liberal and was in many of the organizations that people were blacklisted for. but for a series of reasons he began a movement from liberal democrat to liberal anti-communist democrat to conservative

ronald reagan had a deep instinct.s is the 26 anniversary of the failure of the challenger and the death of chris mcauliffe and the other astronauts. if you go back and look in our film, we have a section of ronald reagan talking to the nation. he does not talk about the fee or failure, he does not talk about turning back. he talks about heroism courage, the spirit of pioneering. the desire to move ahead. he reminds us that it was 390 years earlier on that day that the great english explorer had died at sea. he brought a connection between the age of exploration and the new age of exploration. seven nights ago on the space coast, i outlined a bold and visionary dramatic opportunity for americans. i did it for two very different reasons. one because i will not turn, we will not turn to our grand children and say we were the generation who let the chinese dominate space. we're the generation that accepted the decay of the united states because it was too hard to break out. this is a big country filled with big people. we

. >> some debates said newt gingrich was ronald reagan's vice president. >> i worked with ronald reagan. >> gingrich exaggerates dropping reagan's name 50 times but in his diaries mentioned him only once. reagan criticized him saying newt's ideas would cripple our defense program. restore our future's responsible for the content of this message. >> ronald reagan thought newt gingrich was ugly and a little overweight. of course, these ads are ripping new newt gingrich. here's the surprising part, the rest of the republican establishment has decided overnight we're going to go get this guy. lead among them is drudge report, link after living to negative stories. one recent headline read insider, gingrich septemberly insulted reagan, the worst thing you can do as a republican. morning joe had quotes about how newt gingrich was unkind to reagan, said bad things about him, everybody piling on. why now? politico talked to a number of these folks and one insider who didn't want to be named said basically they had a moment where they realized "holy crap, it could happen," newt gingrich could ac

was newt exaggerating the extent of his cooperation with ronald reagan?here's no question about that either because exaggeration is what newt does. and what he did through force of will and personalities, after new hampshire he made this to sound like the kind of fight that every conservative is familiar with this thrills to, a fight between a conservative and a moderate. and he rode this wave out of south carolina, amazing debates, and it feels as if the fever has broken, as pat referred to he couldn't replicate those performance in florida. the first audience was mostly silent. the second audience was somewhat pro-romney. he felt tired. he felt worn down. he felt unprepared. and the fact is he is one guy out there fighting a vast machine that is just dumping millions of dollars on his head every single day. >> mark? you know, there is a huge difference between gingrich and reagan. reagan had the ability i think as with the speaker of the house to a complete reform program of social security. you think about what that would be like today if we had somebo

ronald reagan used forcen frequently. he built up our military dramaticly to intimidate the soviet empire and it worked because they collapsed. he was careful about using force and when he did use a, it was precise and overwhelming and liberated the island of grenada from a communist dictatorship. we used when air strike against gaddafi after americans were killed in the bombing in berlin by libyan agents. that scared gaddafi says decisively he was quiet for many years. ronald rgan did not believe in getting involved in long drawn out campaigns anywhere. he thought it was against american policy and the thought the american people would not sustain it. he his goal was to be very powerful and behind that power use diplomatic, in -- economic, intellectual a other capabilities to get our way and not to use armed force very often. there's a lot to be learned by studng how ronald reagan would and would at host: act. meredith, new hampshire, good morning. caller: how are you? guest: our you? caller: it was very impressive last

ronald reagan. ronald reagan.s, gingrich mentioned reagan only once. reagan criticized gingrich saying "newt's's ideas would crime our defense program." reagan rejected newt's ideas on leadership and character and beginning vich no ronald reagan. restore our future is responsible for the content of this message. >> gingrich hit back against that super pac ad last night, arguing that he is more like reagan than is mitt romney. >> governor romney cannot defend his record, he can't defend his past, kent defend what he's done and so his goal is to somehow throw enough mud at me. and i think it's all gonna wash off because the american people are smart enough. i first met with ronald reagan in 1974, i campaigned with him in 1980, i helped him for eight years while he was president, i have made a movie about him, i have written a book about him. to suggest that governor romney is more reagan like than i am is an act of total fantasy. the national review is adding some fuel to this gingrich/reagan fire pointing to specif

reagan. >> ronald reagan, president reagan -- >> gingrich exaggerates, dropping ronald reagan's nameimes. but in his memoirs, reagan mentioned gingrich only once and said that his ideas would cripple our defense program. >> but now a newly released video with nancy reagan, praising newt is telling quite a different tale. >> the dramatic movement of 1995 is an outgrowth of a much earlier crusade that goes back half a century. barry goldwater handed the torch to rone and in turn, ronnie turned that torch over to newt and the republican members of congress to keep that dream alive. >> joining me with reaction, fox news contributor, ed rollins and goil -- >> you worked for the great man, helped to get him re-elected in 1984. you must find all of this amusing that reagan is the conservative i. i am sure he is being down from heaven and find its all amusing. he had less ego than anybody. gingrich was a very important congressional ally. congressmen are not in the white house all day long, giving advice. but me and jack kemp and trent lott and others were among 10 or 12 most important playe

frank and lows but was always ronald reagan's favorite president and inspiration. his father got a new deal job -- even when he was president -- one ronald reagan was president there was an exhibit of roosevelt's correspondents at the smithsonian and he went with misses bang right in to look at them and some reporters were badgering him -- he went with mr.s regan and it will badgering him about eliminating the new deal, and he wrote in his diaries it was never his goal to eliminate the new deal but to limit the great society. >> you mentioned particularly in the 1930's and 1920's that there was a lack of national confidence, there was no single national purpose, and you say in the book that it had all been held together with compromise, which is an interesting, these days, a loaded word, and it was after pearl harbor, it was compelling -- i think the word you used was compelled. how do you read that in today's world? >> the differences are clear. the country was more homogeneous than. and so, to become a unified -- >> we say that, but is it true? the north was quit

went on to ben ronald reagan without louis b.mayor and george murphy and frankly the biggest surprise for me doing the research was that everything ronald reagan did george murphy did earlier. he was the true pioneer in figuring out media, how to use media and particularly television. he perfected the reagan strategy of going from discontent blue-collar democrats and 64 and what murphy learned, he learned from luigi mayor. so there really is -- reagan was simply the best of all of them. there's no question about it. ronald reagan was a master performer but his conversion to the right, which i talk about in the book from those of you who may not know his past is both george murphy who is our senator in 1964 and reagan word liberal new deal democrats when they first entered hollywood. and murphy converted around 38 to republican conservative of. ragged end of world war ii as he writes in his autobiography is as a bleeding heart liberal and was in fact in many of the organizations even blacklisted for it. but for a series of reasons

they said that in the carter administration with ronald reagan. we know that. and history can prove things wrong. what do you make of that that they seem to see a bigger threat in mitt romney. >> i said yesterday, when i was down in tulsa that that would be a horrible mistake for anyone to think that the election this november is going to be easy pickings for anybody. both of the candidates on different fronts are fundmentally flawed. i don't agree with my friend herman cain, and we interacted in tulsa the other day- charleston the other day upon. that he should not release his tax returns. the fact of the matter is, it is a time-honored thing to do. started by his father. and people feel if you refuse to see how you made your mon yewhat you did with your money, they only assume that you are hiding something . there are things about our tax code will not bode well for people in public office and maybe a case for people who aren't. people are not going to vote for you if they think there is something untoward about the way you treated your money and hiding it of

governor romney was against ronald reagan. governor romney said in the 1994 senate race he was opposed to going back to the reagan-bush policies. governor romney was giving money to democrats and voting for the most liberal democrat in the 1992 presidential race. for them to come back and try to fabricate. ask michael reagan who was there. megyn: and we will. michael reagan is here. he will join us live in 20 minutes to talk about this controversy, his endorsement of newt gingrich and about gingrich's real relationship. megyn: his father. what a day we are seeing, several things before the florida primary which is on tuesday. the labor department reporting new unemployment claims jumped to 377,000 last week. this comes after claims dropped to a four-year low just two weeks ago. but some positive signs for manufacturing. orders for durable goods, that is products that last at least three years, like machinery and equipment, those rose 3% last month. that is a trend that may mean businesses are starting to spend money. bad news,

ronald reagan had a deep instinct.s is the 26 anniversary of the failure of the challenger and the death of chris mcauliffe and the other astronauts. if you go back and look in our film we have a section of ronald reagan talking to the nation. he does not talk about the fee or failure, he does not talk about turning back. he talks about heroism courage, the spirit of pioneering. the desire to move ahead. he reminds us that it was 390 years earlier on that day that the great english explorer had died at sea. he brought a connection between the age of exploration and the new age of exploration. seven nights ago on the space coast, i outlined a bold and visionary dramatic opportunity for americans. i did it for two very different reasons. one because i will not turn, we will not turn to our grand children and say we were the generation who let the chinese dominate space. we're the generation that accepted the decay of the united states because it was too hard to break out. this is a big country filled with big people. we

ronald reagan. >> your idol, as i've red, any way, was ronald reagan, and he compromised? >> he never compromised his principles. >> he he raised taxes and it was one of his principles to never cut taxes. >> happy new year. i'm al sharpton. tonight's playing ugly in iowa. a day from the first voting of 2012 and the candidates appeals just getting uglier. rick santorum, the gop's newest flavor of the month is surging but his words on government and african-americans are offensive to watch. >> what president obama wants to do, his economic plan is to make more people dependent on the government. to grow the government, make sure we have more food stamps and more ssi and more medicaid. four and ten children are on government-provided health care. they just keep expanding. they are pushing harder and harder to get more and more of you dependent upon them so that they can get your vote. that's what the bottom line is. i don't want to make people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money. i want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for

but what made it morning in america for ronald reagan? in the year prior to his election, this is the magic number. the jobless rate dropped to 7.2%. the president needs the jobless rate to drop like it did for ronald reagan if he wants to be re-elected. that's really the bottom line. what the unemployment number is next year is crucially important. so is it morning in america? john avalon joins us, jamal simmons and david fromme, cnn contributor. all right, john, i've got to say i was pretty amazed at the coincidence that 8.5% was unemployment a year out from reagan's re-election. by the way, that number for barack obama is down a full percent from a year ago, but it's the next six months that matter. >> that's exactly right. the symmetry is amazing and the trend is obama's friend. this is great news for the country and good news for obama's re-election campaign. but the real issue is the dynamic. what was behind the drop in unemployment when ronald reagan was in office was also massive greet in gdp, 8% in the third quarter of 1983. so p

ronald reagan was a great president.holds. >> it's slightly false to claim to be the sole inheriter. >> he didn't say that, nancy reagan said that. it's on video. you can watch it yourself. >> i've seen the video. she refers to mr. gingrich and members of congress, as you know. let's move on for a moment. >> who he was leading the republicans in the congress. >> let's move on. >> let's move on. >> there's some commentators, you've refused to answer specific questions. >> you asked me questions that i can't answer. we'll move on. >> some commentators who say that mr. gingrich's lie concerns the notion that he's an outsider and another lobbyist. you know that he was elected in 1979. he served for 20 years. he opens an office on k street. he consults for numerous companies. he claims to be an outsider. that, sir, has got to be false, hasn't it? >> no, it isn't. newt gingrich spent his whole career by being the anti-establishment. there's a reason the establishment doesn't like newt gingrich. they know if he's in washington,