-- and he took -- ross perot took 19% of the vote. clinton got 43%. bush got 38% and perot got 19%, and our polling showed us perot was taking two out of three votes and when you take that and you get 51%. when people say he didn't cost you the election i think he did. i'll say it again. i thought he did for 20 years, and i still think he did, but the third thing was our fault, absolutely, and that is instead of going up to capitol hill in january of 1992 when president bush 41 was at 90% approval rating and -- and saying, okay, desert storm was a great success. now we're going to do domestic storm and i'm going to focus on the domestic problems facing this country, and here's an economic program that's going to get that done, if we had done that i think we might have won that election notwithstanding ross perot, but we didn't do that, and that was a mistake. >> let's talk about another election, and this is the one in 2000 with the vote recount. we have two questions about what are the common misperceptions about the events surroundin

ross perot is going to freak out. the democrats were like, hey, the more the merrier. this is good. now, what you're seeing is the split in the democratic party which is absolutely going to wrench any sort of a block vote that's going to give them the majority. so when you see a party splintering like this, it's a clear sign that something is seriously wrong. they know what they're doing. these are not idiots. they know what's going on. but they cannot come up with a compromise that they can sleep with at night. and they know in many ways, they're probably committing political suicide here. but they don't know what else to do. 1856, we saw them give us john fremont. and the country kind of looked at john fremont and looked at the republicans and they're awfully new and they're not all abolitionists but that's just where they hang out and we're going with the union. now, the republicans look at one of their main contenders. william seward. he's from new york. put him forward. very talented politician. eloquent speaker. i'll give you an excerpt of lincoln's ingnawing inaugural address

ross perot is going to come in the election, siphon off votes. the democrats are like, hey, the more the merrier, come on in. around 2000 is when the democrats had to start to deal with ralph nader and siphon off some of the liberal votes. now what you're seeing is the split in the democratic party which is absolutely going to wrench any sort of bloc vote that's going to give them the majority. when you see a party splintering like this, it's your clear sign that something is seriously wrong. they know what they're doing. these are not idiots. all right. they know what's going on. but they cannot comb up with a compromise they can sleep with at night. and they know in many ways they're probably committing political suicide here. but they don't know what else to do. now, the republicans need to come up with a candidate who can win. okay. 1856. we saw them give us john freemont. and the country kind of looked at john freemont and looked at the republicans and they're awfully new and i don't know they're pretty radical. yeah, they're not all aboliti

i mentioned ross perot before. that's the way for him to go. to emphasize the things he's good at, like management. say that the federal government is a mess, which it is. talk about things like the dodd/frank financial reform bill which is a mess. and promise to run a tighter ship and a more humane one than the president's doing. i think that that's the only direction he can go in at this point. >> is it possible, i want it start with john and back to you on that, joe. joe raised a powerful point. can a challenger like, say kennedy kid back in '60, in this time when there's so much cable, so much super pac money, can he define a theme like kennedy said, we have to get this country moving again, we're drifting. we're losing our step from world war ii. can romney say the issue is competence on the economy? i think that's all that is. >> what happens in the national economy. certainly that's what they wanted to run on. for all of 2011 when the economy was still in shambles, mitt romney made all that argument. all he did last year was talk about b

running against him but i think by the time, by the time you got to the convention, the fact the ross perotctory, think those votes all went to him. i think it's fair to say take a look at what bush did. he got 54%, excuse me, 54% and 88 of the boat and he got 37% in 1992, 17 points right? he lost 17 points. how many votes did perot get? 19 so i think it's more perot but i think the bushes think i deserve a lot of credit. i think young young bush and the older bush i think they blame me >> the one interesting statistic war speech which is also things that made the republicans on electable bush personally drunk nine points in the poll. child that was done afterward by the local media that brought that back down again. >> let me talk to that, because i gave that speech and that night and he is exactly right. reagan spoke right after me and all these commentators at the convention, they rows 10 points. bush came out of that convention and some polls 25 down and he was only two down coming out of it. in other words yet closed at the convention and the problem was when the media came after, they

in russia given the exodus of advertisers from the limbaugh show one group are to take advantage ross perot bad as church the infamous super radical church group the basis teachings of a quote god hates fags and quote slogan or to put it in and put in alex's limbaugh's program there was a. church. where it branches strapless with revere that is. both deranged till you really. think you. think of the. fourth. well. spokesman said that the church agrees with rush's ideas especially when it came to late labeling sandra fluke a slut however a spokesman for rush's show so that they would not be airing the ad interesting you know that the churches entire promise is wrong and actually based on a typographical error no where in the bible did god say he hated fags instead he said he hated figs and he said it four times bigger example from a passage from jeremiah twenty nine seventeen behold i will sort upon them the sword the pheromone of the presidents and will make them like bile figs that cannot be eaten they are so evil so really westboro baptist church should be scared straight by the evil figs

years since reagan undeveloped in a way that has never before been seen in our nation's history ross perot that crazy old who the big years the charts and graphs he was right if we don't wake up to this economic disaster soon and begin protecting our manufacturing base like we did from seven hundred ninety three until reagan people in our nation will continue to slide down the bumpy road toward third world status. that's the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered this in our website the tom harkin dot com free speech dot org and our team dot com it also check out our two youtube channel through the links at tom parker dot com this entire show is also available as a free video podcast on i tunes and you can visit thom hartmann dot com download the audio podcast of our daily you know through radio show or it's actually through the six and we have a. free trial our but i pad and i phone app at the app store you can send us feedback at twitter at tom underscore arbonne on facebook at tom underscore our open our blogs message boards and telephone comment line at

ross perot got 19% of the buck. that reflects the frustration that raise the deficit and i have heard bill clinton say in a private to the floor n a private to the floor to make an national issue. the influence of the third-party candidate could be in the issues that they talk about and not with the other one stock about. >> the deficit? what you heard there is concern but the argument with the private sector so strapped like we hear with the auto bailouts with the private sector so strapped government had to put money into the economy. did you hear anybody express sympathy with that argument? >> with the president's stimulus bill? >> host: the idea of the private sector did not have any money and they needed thing is to keep flowing. >> guest: they were aware the stimulus bill help to keep teachers and firefighters and police in place at a time state governments are cutting severely. dealing with the deficit to will take a lot of discipline and some sacrifice from everyone. if you think of world war ii of the circu

last night mitt romney the richest man ever run for president on a major ticket number two behind ross perot minor ticket cleaned up last night no no i mean since you are forty seven to thirty five percent he outspent santorum seven to one in the state pick up forty one delegates so is he kind of at low end and then last night of this morning one of his guys one on t.v. and was asked the question you guys know what's called a new push he was asked the question ok romney's wins are always conservative smack what's going to happen when he hits the general election and he said this. is there a concern that the pressure from santorum and gingrich might force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election. well i think you hit a reset for the fall campaign everything changes it's almost like an etch a sketch you can kind of shake you know we start all over again. is that light saying this guy genuinely has no principles or values we're going to start all over again to a whole new set of talking points i kind of worry that that's the convers

don't miss -- they bitch, they say how did we get this, and they say, well, 20% of you voted for ross perot, you jerk. [laughter] >> okay, now, you haven't answered my question. >> no, i'm not going to. >> you see, i told you he wasn't going to answer. >> i would have to say i just wrote a check yesterday to romney. >> oh, you did? >> yeah. >> for how much? >> it was for a thousand bucks. i could have done more, but i haven't earned enough money, and i don't get anything from this book. >> he's hoping to get sales from the book. >> i just waited because i've effectively pissed off everyone in america with the co-chairmanship of this commission which is a very bad thing to do. and we know we've succeeded so far because we have pissed off everyone in america. and erskine and i go all over this country, spoken to about 500,000 people. we don't do bullshit or mud, and we get a standing ovation. people are thirsting, thirsting for somebody to tell them what a trillion bucks is -- >> what? >> a trillion bucks is. and then how you stabilize social security. >> yes. >> not good and old seniors, how

i don't think that's out of the question are going to do think ross perot in 1992 got 19% of the vote, an insignificant amount of the vote, and i think that reflects the frustration and another thing he did was raise the issue of the deficit to the national debate. i think i've heard bill clinton say that it brought her to the floor and help make it a national issue that they dealt with. so i do think the influence of the third hearty candidate might be in the issues they talk about and in raising issues that the other candidates are not talking about. >> host: the deficit, i want to ask a question about what you heard from people about this. and others concerned among independent voters that there is the argument that with the private sector so strapped and so straightened and with credit so tight, just like we are hearing about auto bailout and the debates about that in the primary, was the private sector so strapped that government had to be the vehicle to pump money into the economy? did you hear any the people you interviewed you know express any sympathy or understanding with th

a fascinating nurnl race, ross perot was a factor. the challenge?ill clinton to expand the definition of his personality with a lot of character questions and other questions whether this guy from arkansas was ready to do this. reach out, get new voters. perot was bringing new voters. the seed in the new television age of getting outside the traditional news programs and taking a risk. taking a risk, arsenio. good politicians take a risk. you remember, i was a print reporter at the time covering that campaign. a lot of people criticized him, said this is not presidential. he wont election. by definition it worked. >> yeah. i took a lot of criticism. people said that it wasn't a dignified move for a president. i almost look back at it and think that clinton's people. ahead of the curve. don't you think so? >> well, let me answer the question, then i have one for you. ahead of the curve? willing to take risks. a guy very comfortable with himself. look at any successful politician. there's a fine line between confident and cocky, but bill clinton was c

as ross perot once advised, measure twice, cut once. back to the nashville campaign trail. mitt romney said in a tweet last night, hoping for better results in the pacific that's he got last night in the south. "it will be a late night waiting for results from american samoa and hawaii, but a big thank you to everyone who voted in mississippi and alabama." david axelrod was quick to get in a dig. "mitt romney, you know as they say, as america samoa goes, so goes the nation." speaking of romney, steve colbert had some fun with the old story about strapping that romney family dog to the roof on a family vacation. take a look. >> of course, romney also knows how to make complex subjects simple. watch him punch holes in the president's so-called energy policy. >> look at his energy policy! what is his energy policy? you can't drive a car with a windmill on it. >> that's right! you can't drive a car with a windmill on it! because if you put a windmill on top of your car, then where does the dog go? >> that dog trip's going to be told as long as romney's in public life. >>> time

they bitch for four years, they say how did we get this, and you say, well, 20% of you voted for ross perot, you jerk. >> okay, you haven't answered my question. >> no, i'm not going to. >> you see, i told you he wasn't going to answer. [laughter] >> i would have to say i just wrote a check yesterday for romney. >> how much? >> it was for a thousand bucks. i could have done more, but -- >> he's hoping for sales of the book. >> i just waited because i have effectively pissed everyone off in america with the co-chairmanship of this commission. and we know we've succeeded so far because we have pissed off everyone in america. and erskine go all over this country, we don't do bullshit, and we get standing ovations. people are thirsting for -- [inaudible conversations] and then how you stabilize social security. >> yes. >> not good and old senior wherw do you do something with medicare which is eating a whole -- doesn't matter what you care, call it elvis presleycare. anyway, keeper candidating them. irritating them. [inaudible conversations] >> well, we enjoy a little bit of cody coming to d.c.

and i do think -- remember ross perot in '92 get 19 percent of the vote.hat's not insignificant amount. and i think that reflects the frustration and another thing he did was raise the issue of the deficit to the national debate. at think i heard bill clinton say that it brought it to the 4r and helps make it a national issue that the doe with. i do think the influence of a third-party candidate might be in the shoes they talk about. in raising issues that the of the two candidates to talk about . >> host: the deficit, want to ask a question, what you heard. another is concern about the independent voters. there is the argument that with the private sector so strapped and so straitened and with credit so tight colleges that we are hearing about the auto bailout as we listen to debates about that heading into the michigan prairie, what the private sector so strapped government had to be the vehicle to pump some money into the economy. these you hear any of the people you interviewed express any sympathy or understanding with that argument? >> guest: you mea

you take ross perot and a lot of rich people in america. think say, i wasn't always wealt wealthy. relate to you being raised poor. i can relate being working class. he has not done the things that a lot of people would see as relatable. >> is he popular with the wall street community or just acceptable? >> we have some big donors on our show come on. we talk about this stuff a lot. they were not early supporters. they didn't say this is the most electable, but there wasn't this ground swell of support that he was their guy from the beginning. >> this connection issue, i think he has a narrative. i think he's been afraid of some of them. he's been afraid of the governor narrative. and it's always about not making people upset on the right. >> but i have always said you can be wealthy. the kennedys were wealthy. you can relate to people. he's not that guy. >> shameless plugs? >> obama up in the polls. >> 4:40 today. va vanderbilt playing harvard. harvard is not an underdog. the story is not sellable. >> is that cliche? >> we wish we were of the south. . >> i'm enveehouse of your twi

and i do think, remember, ross perot in 1992 got 19% of the vote. that isn't an insignificant amount of the votes come and i think that reflects the frustration and another thing he did was raise the issue of the deficit to the national debate. and i think i have heard bill clinton say that if it is brought to the floor and helped make it a national issue that they dealt with, so i do think that the influence on the third party candidate might be issued a talk about, and in raising issues that the other two candidates are not talking about. >> host: by the way the deficit, what to ask a separate question of what you heard about people. i know there's a concern among independent voters on the deficit, there's the argument that with the private sector so strapped and straightened and with credit so tight just like we are hearing about the bailout as we listen to the debate about that and how to get to the primary the private sector soc draft, the government had to be the vehicle to pump the money into the economy. did you hear any of the people you in

in 1992 bill clinton was third in may of 1992 behind ross perot and george w. bush. this race will get to the summer. he will be damaged, mitt romney will be damaged. if he's a good politician and puts together a good convention this race is within three or four points no matter what. we're just in that environment. >> rose: look at the exam -- >> carly let me jump in. i slightly disagree with matthew in the sense i don't think it's even. i think obama's got a clear advantage when you look at key states it's changed a lot in the last month. however let me say this. talking to people who have been with obama, he is programly can dented whether he's talking to the new york town or down here boarding on caul cocky. >> i think he's way across the border. >> you want this economy stall. let there be a war in iran and oil prices soar and "all bets are off." >> rose: what is defining the republican race. >> mitt romney is defined in the are race because this entire year has been about mitt romney and his little share or 70% or 75% of the republic voters say we don't want to

can you do your ross perot? >> no, but charades or what.ank you. >> i love her. >> she's awesome. >> beth in minneapolis sent me a picture of her cat in a hoodie. awesome. there's got to be -- there's going to be a website more than cats who look like hitler.com was always our favorite before cats who look like wilford brimley. >> there's also lesbians who look lie justin bieber. >> that's true or men who look like old lesbians. >> rachel maddow is the top of list. >> justin bieber looks like rachel maddow. >> be governor romney supports cap and balance which is yet another demonstration that there is no daylight between governor romney and important leaders important issues facing this country and not only romney's etch a sketch can change that. he may buy a new one but i can't do it. >> straggler on the edge humor, but good for him. >> bless his heart. >> remove funny bone. ha, ha ha wrong toy. >> that's operation. >> it was removed long ago. mitt doesn't have a song like rick santorum does. can we hear -- can we hear that. >> both of the

bill: you can blame that and ross perot for 1992. >> there you go. thank you.r us today. seven minutes past the hour. arthel: we have this now. we are going, we're still talking about the pressure that is mounting in iran over its nuclear program. president obama is saying quite frankly that the window for diplomacy, well, it is closing and israel's prime minister warning that the risk of war is rising. our greg palkot live in london with an exclusive from one of iran's top nuclear negotiators. so, greg, tell us who did you talk to and is the pressure working? >> reporter: arthel, his name is the iranian ambassador to the iranian iaea associated with the united nations in vienna. we pressed him on iran's nuclear program and ukraine yum enrichment program. we asked him is iran building a nuclear weapon or would like to have a nuclear weapon. here is our bit of back and forth. >> nuclear weapon has no place in our defense doctrine. nor nuclear energy, nuclear technology, nuclear uses sure. >> reporter: you would not suspend before an answer is given? >> this is n

i still think he would have had ross perot not gotten into the race. a case of -- great potential for historic presidency with president clinton. by anybody's standards, brillia brilliant, had as good a feel for campaigning, bill clinton is one of the all-time best campaigners bar none. i will say this about the -- george w. bush presidency. in shifting the focus from afghanistan, shifting the focus from we are going to get osama bin laden, we are going to do away with the taliban, shifting from afghanistan to iraq, precisely the wrong moment, strategic mistake, historic consequence. >> do you get nervous when you are going to interview a president? >> yes. any time -- you know, as you get more experience, less nervous. if i don't get a little bit nervous before a big interview, covering something like election night or 9/11, then i know it is time to hang them up. >> you talk about that texas thing. and -- you are so texan. that just emanates from you. how texan are you? >> i have never apologized for being texan. i'm proud of it. texas-born and texas