. >> marco rubio, cuban-american guy down in florida. charlie crist is making something of a comeback, out there fighting. he's saying he is a reagan guy. what do you think? >> well, look, i think the fact is there are seven more months in this primary. if you're the rubio people, you sit there and you say, i hope we haven't peaked too soon. what goes up must come down. the fact is though, how does crist, it does seem like nothing sticks to rubio. you can see how crist fixes himself, but can he take down rubio with it? but there's a lot of mythology surrounding rubio and a lot of national republicans who are desperately hoping rubio wins because they want a non-white face in their party in a prominent position. >> crist has a lot of money in the bank. that primary is not until august. he can spend a lot of money going after rubio. here's the problem for crist, though. it is a closed primary. you have to be a registered voter in that primary. it's in the dead of summer in florida. >> looks like the senate could go republican after all. bu

rubio has turned the hug into a fund-raising gift that keeps on giving.ld you give president obama a hug? >> why? why would i? depending -- i don't even know him. why would i hug someone i don't know? >> reporter: charlie crist has gotten himself in a lot of trouble for hugging president obama. >> ultimately, that gets a lot of attention, but what he really got in trouble for is supporting a plan that is helping to bankrupt this country. >> i find at events like this is a growing number of americans who have never been involved in politics before. i bet you, that's a lot of you. >> reporter: rubio takes his message of smaller government and lower taxes to tea party rallies. >> this is the great awakening. >> stop the spending. an unnecessary thing. >> reporter: in his youtube page features tea party activists venting their anger at washington. polls show rubio has closed a 30-point gap and just might win the party primary. >> would you be the first tea party senator if elected? >> i'm running as a republican. >> reporter: it's not a political party? >> it

rubio is saying that he paid the money back. listen to this rubio is trying to deflect.f at governor crist. he says the governor leaked the credit card ing to the press. governor crist denies involvement in the leak. but says to rubio, welcome to the nfl. ouch! of course we are going to be watching all of this. still ahead, we noticed something odd at the summit. did some people forget our cameras were rolling? stay right here. you're the colo! diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating. that's me! can i tell you what a difference phillips' colon health has made? it's the probiotics. the good bacteria. that gets your colon back in balance. i'm good to go! phillips' colon health. these are actual farmers who raise vegetables in campbell's condensed soup. so if you've ever wondered who grew my soup, well, here they are. ♪ so many, many reasons ♪ it's so m'm! m'm! good! ♪ so i couldn't always do what i wanted to do. but five minutes ago, i took symbicort, and symbicort is already helping significantly improve my lung function. so, today, i've noticed a significant difference in

if you're the rubio people, you say, i hope we haven't peaked too soon. what goes up, must come down. the fact is, though, how does crist, it does seem like nothing sticks to rubio. you can see how crist fixes himself, but can he take down rubio with it. but there's a lot of mythology surrounding rurio and a lot of national republicans who are hoping rubio wins because they want a non-white face in their party in a prominent position. >> crist has a lot of money in the bank. that primary is not until august. here's the problem for crist, though. a closed primary. you have to be a registered voter in that primary. in the dead of summer in florida. >> looks like the senate could go republican after all. but it's going to be a long run for them if they do it. a lot of things have to happen. it has to be worse than it is now for the democrats. >> look, call me up when they find somebody against feingold and patty murray. then we can really have this conversation. i think we're not there yet. >> thompson. >> walt disney once taught me, it's what you to with wh

scott brown was in the legislature for years, marco rubio was at one time the speaker of the house. so these are not, these are not people who have come somehow out of the ether. these are people who are establishment candidates who are picking up on the mood and reworking their identity to be an outsider. >> ifill: and sarah palin was to the only the governor of a big state, as she likes to point out but also the party's vice presidential nominee which doesn't make her an outsider. >> rit. >> ifill: but does she get to be the leader of the movement anyway. >> and this is what is happening in 2010. what we are seeing are candidates who are recognizing the mood and those candidates who aren't. so if you recognize the mood early and grab that change mantle, that outsider mantle even if you were an insider, you are able to make yourself look like an outsider. governor rick perry in texas is the perfect example. he has been the longest serving governor in texas history. he is running as the outsider in his re-election race because his opponent in the primary is a sitting united states s

rubio ahead of crist in the pauls.d statements showed he charged personal experiences to the republican party. charlie crist said yesterday, welcome to the nfl. probably a little subtle sign by the way that maybe the crist folks were behind it in some form or another as the rubio folks have been maintaining. very quickly, anyone planning on making a bid for north carolina, and congress in north carolina, has about 2 1/2 hours to make it official. today is the filing deadline. already a crowded field. six republican congressional primaries have four candidates for more. i can tell you this, there was some nervousness about some that hadn't filed until late. but heath schuller did file, he is running for re-election, potentially saving a democratic seat in the south for them. >> all right, chuck. thanks. >>> coming up, president obama says he doesn't want to waste another year debating health care. how quickly will democrats make their next move? >>> plus, flights are grounded, schools are closed and power is out to half

here he was last week. >> i would rather have 30 marco rubios in the senate than 60 arlen specters. >y easy one. i'm not sure i'd argue with that. but go ahead, your thoughts. >> no, chris, what you're seeing is a very robust party. look, ronald reagan challenged gerald r. ford when he -- >> but he wanted the job. he had a reason to do that. what about this push -- just two weeks ago you guys were leaping up and down orgasmically over scott brown winning the senate seat. and now he's being pushed out of the party. three or four weeks ago or longer you were jumping up and down about chris christie and new jersey winning the governorship and rod mcdonald winning -- now these guys are being treated as oh, they're not really one of us now. >> guys are not purists. basically, they're regular republican. you've got a conservative republican in virginia. but look at sarah palin. she endorses mccain in arizona. she goes to texas and endorsed the governor because that's a buddy of hers. she endorses ron paul, who is a non-establishment candidate in an open thing in kentucky. chris, you've had

to them, this is nothing more than the opportunity to pick up another senate seat in >> ifill: rubio, and candidates like him, are picking up support from the tea party movement, the fractious coalition of conservative anti-government groups that is taking aim at both parties this fall. so how deep does the anger at washington go? and how will it determine the outcome of the 2010 midterm elections? for that, we turn to stuart rothenberg, editor and publisher of the "rothenberg political report"; and amy walter, editor-in-chief of the hotline, "national journal's" political daily. welcome to you both. stu, is this the tip of the iceberg? >> i think he reflects a lot of sentiment in washington and certainly around the country. a sense that washington isn't working. capitol hill, we have democrats, they had 60 seats and now 59 seats in the senate. a huge 80-seat majority in the house. the white house can't get anything done. it has to be frustrating to everybody. >> ifill: is it about incumbency, amy? is it just people are so unhappy kind of in a way that they just want to lash out at so

. >> reporter: rubio takes his message of smaller government and lower taxes to tea party rallies. >>nding on unnecessary things. >> reporter: and his youtube page features tea party activists venting their anger at washington. he has closed the gap and might win the primary. would you be the first tea party senator? >> i'm running as a republican. >> reporter: a political party. >> it's not a political party. >> reporter: crist by contrast is no tea party activist. have you sat down with a tea party and talked to them? >> no. >> reporter: not once? >> no, i'd be happy to. >> reporter: for the tea party express there's anner. >> the republicans embracing massive tax-and-spend policies, that's what the gop is about, and that's what charlie crist did. >> reporter: republicans and even former democrats are ready to take down some of the biggest names in politics from democratic majority senator harry reid to republican john mccain. but democrats say all that infighting between crist and rubio actually presents an opportunity. >> i take either one of them as long as they are wounded and l

senate in florida, until the tea partiers got behind ultra-conservative marco rubio who went from underdog to front-runner. and there are allegations that the tea partiers are merely a loosely organized group full of weeds. everything from birthers to truthers to just racists looking for a good time. today "the dylan ratigan show" went to the convention, and while we aren't saying this represents the majority, or even the plurality, at the very least, it's a couple of blades of grass for us all to chew on. take a listen. >> i just couldn't sit down anymore and not do anything. because it reminded me of what happened during the reign of hitler. >> and then there are others that say that the partiers are nothing more than astroturf. laid out by republican operatives like dick army and his freedom works, they had the following to say about astroturf. >> most of the grass roots activists we work with across the country are not involved with it. we really don't know what their model is or their purpose is. >> so what do the actual tea partiers believe they'll accomplish with all this. they say

there's a guy there florida, marco rubio who's running for the senate. >> rose: who's way ahead. >> he's way ahead. and somebody like that could create a political movement honor mall traditional republican grounds. but i just think there's a wide open... and i'm not sure the obama administration, to get back to them, really gets this. >> rose: i know you wrote that to. you say they have kind a kind of what in the white house today? >> i think they think it's economics. once the economy comes back, we'll come back. and i think it's the economics but also this anti-washington, this pervasive feeling of distrust. >> rose: or they think the country doesn't really understand our policies, if they only understood our policies then everything would be fine. they would support us. >> but to create social change you have to have good policy but you've also got to have an organic connection to the people and you've got to have a sense of the historical moment. i'm not sure that organic connection to the people has been established and therefore the loss of distrust. >> rose: there's only one pers

our keynote speaker this year is marco rubio florida -- from florida. saturday with glenn beck as our wrapup speaker. in an interim, you mentioned george will will speak at a thursday banquet, j.c. watts will be the speaker on friday and in between you will have panels and speakers, just about anybody you might imagine on the right. it is a very diverse group. somebody said you have all of this going on -- we have two ballrooms going simultaneously all the time, a bunch of small panels and speakers and runs off to the side during the whole three-day period and i said, well, no one sits through all of it and goes through every session. but what it really is is not a sit-down dinner -- dinner. more like a chinese buffet. conservatives from all over the country come here to hear the people, talk about issues that interest them and more importantly, to get together. like most conferences, political or not, what goes on in the hallways and a conversation among the attendees is as important or in most cases more important than what goes on at the podium or on

he's now 20 points behind a little-known conservative$v challenger rubio. that was a good ad.ieces to it that struck notes that might to take a lot more than that to regenerate charlie crist. there has been some talk -- and the crist camp has denied it -- that crist might run as an independent. you point out it is a primary five months away. that's a long time to play out a campaign. i would have to say charlie crist is in deep trouble. caller: good morning. i do not understand why the republicans on health care want to scrap it and start all over. it is like they are saying to me that the bush administration did not happen. let's start fresh with the obama administration. thousands of americans have lost their jobs, their health care, due to the bush administration. as far as the weapons of mass destruction -- i do not think there is one republican right now who can show me those weapons of mass destruction. but they also -- they can probably show me an american without a job and an american without health care right now. host: let me take your point and move forward. will he

rubio is now leading the incumbent governor of florida -i florida -- in that race.e is truth to it, that some of that at least is due to anti-incumbent sentiment. host: mr. cline? guest: i think in new hampshire you see a small pro-newcomer mentality. but what i seem to be picking up on, and the poll data show this, is a strong anti-democrat sentiment now. we have, for example, paul hogan, second district of congress here is running for senate. we have a former attoxne4($(lc@+ general who has never run for officeñr before. she's fairly well known -- she's a fairly well known republican, but you have to followçó law enforcement stuff to know who she has now won in eight straight polls. obama's approval rate isñr belo 54% approval rating in new hampshire, and there is açó lar ar that'sÑi partl national reasons and partly for a lot of spending decisions they made and otherç'tt(rárjju in iÑi ths#i in the fallÑi we'rew3ó  even admit that. the two words you hear most often from democrats in the last few weeks are "nervous," and they say it is a "challenging" environment

see if you can make a difference, then send rubio $10. >> that is actually a tough question.ere are so many answers. let me suggest this -- every person in this room now can be a journalist. every one of you. all you have to do is start a blog, and then start asking questions that politicians do not want to answer. and published. you will have more fun than you can imagine. >> amen. that is great advice. yeah, i would say be informed. take the time to learn, right? a purely emotional response is never very effective at all. weeping will not in the and help you to win the argument. as for voting i'm not an endorsement of candidates. i spend too much time around them. let me make one quick case for voting your conscience. i'm always amazed by interviewing voters who have a very complex reasons. i always feel like life is too unpredictable. you're probably better off voting conscience. if you agree with someone even if he is a long shot or considered a crackpot, who cares? vote the person you agree with because you never feel bad i the end. >> thank you all for your advice. unfo

marco rubio said november's a referendum on our very identity as a nation. sir, are the stakes that high? >> well, i think, i think the debate in 2010 is over who we are as a nation, whether or not we believe that america is great because its government is great, or america's great because of the character, the ingenuity, the entrepreneurism of the american people. i really think this is going to be a political battle along the fault lines of limitless government and limited government. and everybody in this room, the folks you heard yesterday are committed to offering the american people a limited government vision of fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility, and i don't, you know, i think, bill, it's not so much that republicans have the wind at their back, i think the american people have the wind at their back, and the american people are going to take back the american congress. bill: it appears that sometimes the biggest applause come when you use a line of humor. you heard a little bit of that as we introduced you, listen to mitt romney yesterda

today's speakers -- dick armey, mark rubio, and former vice president dick cheney.ou can check our web site for video, which you see there, at c-span.org. our live coverage continues tonight at 8:30 eastern with columnist george will. saturday, the group hears from newt gingrich and glenn back. -- len bekc. --glen beck. on c-span 2, a discussion of the war in afghanistan. our live coverage begins at 8:00 eastern on c-span 2. >> this weekend, first lady michelle obama on preventing childhood obesity, and more on education policy. the national governors' association, live throughout the weekend on c-span. >> earlier today, vice president biden spoke about the administration's nuclear security agenda. he talked about how the president's budget request will support a reduction of nuclear dangers facing the u.s. robert gates introduced the vice-president. this is 20 minutes. [applause] >> please be seated. it is an honor to be here today at disesteem institution. before going on, i would like to knowledge the presence of two special guests, nobel laureate and secretary o

he's now 20 points behind a little-known conservative$v challenger rubio. that was a good ad.pieces to it that struck notes that might to take a lot more than that to regenerate charlie crist. there has been some talk -- and the crist camp has denied it -- that crist might run as an independent. you point out it is a primary five months away. that's a long time to play out a campaign. i would have to say charlie crist is in deep trouble. host: john is joining us from ohio. good morning to you, john. caller: good morning.b3 i don't understand why republicans on health care want to scrap it and start all over. it is like they are saying to me the bush administration didn't happen. let's start fresh with the obama thousands of americans have lost their jobs, have lost their health care due to the bush administration. as far as the weapons weapons -- weapons of mass destruction, i don't think there is one republican right now inú real time that can show me those weapons of mass destruction, but they can probably show me an american without a job, and they can probably show me an