then there's the people who can help bring in money, someone like rudy giuliani.and then there's the people who are conservative validators, like paul ryan, or haley barbour. they can -- sarah palin even can bring conservatives on board, especially for someone like romney, who has been winning the silent primary for big endorsements but conservatives are still leery of. someone like marko rubio from florida endorses mitt romney, it's much harder for conservatives to continue staying on the sidelines. >> i want to pick up with two of these former politicians you mentioned. sarah palin, also rudy giuliani. let's add to that list jeb bush, mike huckabee. let's throw in rush limbaugh, as well. of that group, who carries the most clout? >> it depends on who you are. if you're a donor or not and what early state you're in. i think that the -- in florida, jeb bush would carry a lot of weight. if he got behind mitt romney for example, and it seems he gave an interview which he sounded like he wants to, that would be a big endorsement from the bush family, crucial in flori

by the time we voted, fred thompson and rudy giuliani were nowhere to be seen. that's a cautionary lesson for herman cain. look, he has been given a gift. the question is whether he will transmute it into something more durable. being on a bus tour in western tennessee is not the way. >> that's suggesting that michele bachmann has been sort of a sleepener the past few weeks, in terms of getting attention from the media. but she spent a lot of time in iwa. that's her strategy. does that put her in a more viable position. >> she may be more viable than the national polls give her credit for. iowa, south carolina, new hampshire, they have a different sort of tone to each of them. in iowa, they are slow to commit, but once they commit, they stay with you, that midwestern sensibility. in new hampshire, they are slow to fall in love with you, but once they fall in love with you, they will fall out, fall in, fall out. you hope they are falling fallin love with you when they go to vote. she's from waterloo, originally, grew up there, represents the adjoining state. she

. >> in the lates republicans romney to rudy giuliani who is not even running. (laughter) >> jon: in fct is losing to ree animatedronald reagan. or reagan on brains. (laughter) but as front-runners have come romney remains. let's check in where he's at right now. later mitt romney sits at about 23% support. mitt romney is mr. 23%. >> jon: mr. 23%.me than mitt. coulds to hisitt romney has been nothing if not consistent which is interesting, given that in every other regard, he has been shockingly inconsistent. how has he managed nor loseupport. to remain inert if he were a coloe. if he were an ice cream flavor be beige.re's how he does it. in romney posts on bargaining rights of teachers, policeman and firefighters. a bold stand that could gain him maybe a 3 to 5% bumplican base hungry to restrain unions. but on the flip side he could lose him support in t for people not as convinced that public service unions are socialm. solve that problem? smash cut to two days ago, standing outside the republican call center in ohio that he has justvisited that is working to

that leaves sarah palin and rudy giuliani, the major unknowns. chances are, the most people you will see are those you see right here. what's interesting is voters have had team to get to know the voters but they haven't picked a favorite. take a look at the latest abc news "washington post" poll. rick perry down to 16%. herman cain has jumped up to 16%. he's in a two-way tie. it shows that voters are pretty volatile. the field may or may not be set but the candidates have to do a lot of fight huge did he tip his hat -- of -- >> he said america would be better off with a one term president. one thing we three in when chris christie decides to put his name behind one of these candidates, we'll know about it. >>> well, lots of people were waiting with anticipation for chris christie to make that decision about whether or not he would run and perhaps none more than herman cain. the latest poll shows that one of the front-runners, governor rick perry is fading quickly. some conservatives also believe the other front-runner mitt romney is to plain, ma

rudy giuliani was in the lead, fred thompson was in second place, and neither one of those guys were there when the voting started. we have to be very careful about this. this contest gets real when we go to iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, nevada, florida and then toward the end of february, arizona and michigan. until then, a lot of this is moving around. look, for example, the latest poll that shows herman cain, "the wall street journal," nbc poll, it was 336 people, republican adults, not even proven past primary voters, with a plus or minus of 5 1/2%. but we are all falling all over ourselves saying it represents scientific and precise. we have to be very careful. herman cain has a bump. let's see how durable it is. but i don't think it's going to turn into -- these things are not going to matter until we actually start turning out to vote on january 3 in iowa and the rush of primaries in february. >> we may have one december 6. >> yeah. you know what? i think at the end of the day, i think at the end of the day, new hampshire will want to be part of the process, follow iowa

. >>> rudy giuliani made it official. he said that he's not getting into the race. he said that it's too late for him to get into the race. >>> i'm jamie costello, one mail-in group wants to raise the tobacco tax by a there are per pack of cigarette they say it will -- significant and how it will save lives. >>> that is all coming up new for you at 6:00. i'll see you then. >>> stocks ended mixed today with investors waiting for europe to get out of their financial crisis. the nasdaq up 17 and the s&p 500 up almost one. >>> a new study on the wireless industry shows that cell phones now outnumber people in this country. the group ct ia estimates that 327 million yell phones are now in use in the u.s. that is up 9% from the first half of this year alone. >>> facebook has nearly concurred the world and now they're finally embracing the ipad. the app available for the iphone was absent from the tablet when released. rumors circulated because there was a rift between apple and facebook. whatever the case, it's now out. and now you can get your version on your tablet. >>>

just ask rudy giuliani and others, he wants them to feel hurt. he wants them to feel all of their wise advice has been considered and he's giving them yet another hearing. he doesn't want to be dismissive on his way to wednesday or some point this week saying what he's always said. >> if nothing else, he wants to show them that he might actually have to be able to try to run again that he took them seriously. that he does take them seriously. >> that's sort of your point. >> he's a very smart guy and he looks at rick perry and thinks that rick perry is both the -- it's both the temptation and it's the warning sign. right? the temptation is look, there's this opening here. the establishment doesn't love mitt romney. rick perry is fading fast. i could get in here and maybe sweep this thing, take it, just run right through. on the other hand, look what happened to rick perry as unprepared as he was. christie looks at a situation, i have not had any chance, i don't know that much about foreign policy or domestic policy. what if i get up in the glare

about 6 points, and all the focus was on the tightening, the move upward by fred thompson and rudy giuliani it dropped a little bit and people seemed to be consolidating into a thompson-giuliani race and as we know that's not how it turned out in 2008. >> the polls are taken, and maybe you can explain this, but they are national polls and it seems the person who gets the nomination wins in iowa, wins in new hampshire and on to nevada so even if you are winning the polls nationally, if they love you in california and love you in the state of washington, big deal. it's how they like you in the other states and those are the polls, if i was running, i would be more interested in. >> you are absolutely right. first of all, remember, when we poll in primaries, it's hard to figure out exactly who is going to vote. so a nation-wide poll is more like just sort of a testing of general sentiment, not of what actually might happen in those early primaries. you are right, what is going to matter here is iowa, new hampshire and south carolina. whoever wins the preponderance of those contests will tend t

. >> of course, rudy giuliani. >> followed by fred thompson and then the eventual nominee, john mccain pollsters tell us all the time, the polls don't matter. what matters are those early polls in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina. these national polls are sometimes just a popularity test. >> domenico, good to see you. thank you, my friend. >>> once considered a rising star in the financial word, ex-goldman sachs board member sharant gupta gave himself up. prosecutors say gupta passed on details about a $5 billion investment made by warren buffett. >>> and it's not the fastest jet, it's not the largest, but the boeing dreamliner is the talk of the airline world today, because it made its debut four-hour flight from hong kong to tokyo with 240 passengers, some of them paying as much as $32,000 a ticket. the aircraft's selling points include a campier interior with bigger windows and it's made of lightweight materials to improve fuel efficiency. ♪ ooh baby, looks like you need a little help there ♪ ♪ ooh baby, (what) can i do for you today? ♪ [ female announcer ] need help keeping your

i'm starting to wonder if rick perry is kind of the rudy giuliani figure of 2012. he's the guy who everybody thought was going to come in and be the big savior, knock off the front-runner in the end he finished third in his best primary and i think he got one delegate. this is not at this point a winning campaign. >> you know, we had the rock story at the perry hunting spot that they rented years ago. and now we have this confederate license plate. why can't the governor of texas come out and say unequivocally that he thinks the confederate license plate is a bad idea? >> well, he could and he should, obviously. i mean, if he were looking for an opportunity to really distance himself from that awful camp name and to reassure americans that he really stands for fairness, that's what he would do. but instead, you know, he's taking -- it's a page from the haley barbour playbook. because haley, his strategy, he came out and said, i'm not going to tell people what to think about this license plate issue when it came up in mississippi. and, you know, i would say that ric

his political advisers are a lot of former rudy giuliani people. they have the experience knowing that they have had all sorts of donors and promises about what a campaign successful campaign for a governor may look like. how did the rudy giuliani campaign turn out in 2008? remember this. chris christie in 2005 was urged to run for governor of new jersey back when a sitting governor was thinking of running. he took a pass then but it still meant he was a legitimate candidate four years later. >>> all right. police in cities around the country are bracing for more anti-wall street protests today as demonstrations that began in new york are gaining momentum. michelle franzen is live in new york city for us. we are now hearing reports about occupy boston, washington, d.c. tell us about it. >> reporter: certainly the movement has taken off. they are in week three here the protesters are. you have die hard demonstrators sleeping here in this park a few blocks from wall street. their message of discontent over big government and social inequality and the

four years ago rudy giuliani was leading the pack. >> when do we get to that point? >> when the individual state polls, when we get close to voting in the individual states and people are making up their minds in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina and so forth. even then they will change. the early contests will have an impact on the subsequent con tests. we were up earlier and two days later we were behind by six after losing new hampshire. what matters is the early state policy as we get closer to voting. people get to a point, and we don't know when it is, it varies from election to election, and somebody in iowa says it's time for me to make a decision or i'm in new hampshire, it's time for me to make a decision. i'm in south carolina, it's time to make a decision. and until then it's all great, good conversation, but, you know, the conventional wisdom is romney has the lead, the conventional wisdom is now turning to he's the presumptive nominee. they may be right he has the lead but if the conventional wisdom he's the presumptive nominee, that ain't true and he

rudy giuliani and fred thompson were atop the republican field and faded very quickly. you're seeing a good debate. this is what a process is supposed to do, supposed to test every candidate under pressure and see which one really has the strength to take it all the way. i don't think we have to worry about the republican field being weak. actually it's the democrats that have to worry about having a weak candidate. i showed a poll today that showed 46% of americas definitely will not vote for obama. 23% would definitely vote for obama. the remaining 30% out there, obama has to run the table if things stand as they are. it's really the democrats have the weak candidate they should be concerned about, not the republicans. the republicans are going to unite behind whomever emerges from this field. >> in terms of that polling, one thing that's interesting, as low as the president's approval ratings have been recently, jonathan, he remains incredibly personally popular and remains much more popular than the republicans in congress. i wonder whether you think that personal p

. >> in the latest cnn poll of republicans romney came in second to rudy giuliani who is not even running. (laughter) >> jon: in fact, tonight he is losing to ree animated ronald reagan. or reagan. lower taxes on brains. (laughter) but as front-runners have come and gone romney remains. let's check in where he's at right now. >> now a year later mitt romney sits at about 23% support. mitt romney is mr. 23%. >> jon: mr. 23%. still a better nick name than mitt. so when it am coulds to his polling numbers mitt romney has been nothing if not consistent which is interesting, given that in every other regard, he has been shockingly inconsistent. how has he managed to neither gain nor lose support. to remain inert, if he were a color he would be beige. if he were an ice cream flavor, he'd be beige. (laughter) well, here's how he does it. in june romney posts on facebook that he was supportive of a ballot initiative to continue restricting the collective bargaining rights of teachers, policeman and firefighters. a bold stand that could gain him maybe a 3 to 5% bump amongst the republican base, hu

rudy giuliani announced he would not run in 2012. he didn't endorse any current candidate, either. >>> in more political news this morning, lawmakers on capitol hill are trying which parts of the president's jobs plan could actually pass now that the senate has blocked the bill as a whole. the 50-49 vote came last night, falling well short of the 60 votes that were needed. president obama says the fight is not over. and that lawmakers who block the measure owe an explanation to voters. >>> in other news now, there are a new warning overnight for americans traveling abroad. be on the alert for possible retaliation from iran. meanwhile, the state department says that retaliation could extend to attacks here on u.s. soil. this warning comes after an iranian-backed assassination plot was broken up. with more details, here's abc's chief investigative correspondent, brian ross. >> reporter: the plot centered on capitol hill, at a popular spot at lunchtime. all time, say officials, to assassinate the youthful saudi arabian ambassador to the

>> or sarah palin or rudy giuliani?ave no idea what peace going on in any of their minds. chris christy is clearly looking at running. if he were to run or rudy giuliani or sarah palin, they would have to get an operation p up very quickly. the question is, would they be able to raise the money and have the appeal? all of that is really unanswered questions so chris christie we expect an announcement in the next 24, 48 hours. as for savor sarah palin, who knows? rudy giuliani continues to flirt with it. to put money on it, i don't think any of them will run. but who know snz. >> we'll be watching the calendar and the clock. mark, thank you so much. that will do it for me now. let's hand it over to brooke baldwin for now. >>> hello to all of you. i'm brooke baldwin. want to get you caught up rapid fire. let's begin with breaking news out of perugia, italy. a decision is expected in an hour and a half. amanda knox, the college student appealing her conviction for the brutal murder of her roommate in italy. and today we he

american soil it's kind of interesting if you think back to the frenzy that was spearheaded by rudy giuliani in two thousand and nine after the obama administration ministration said that they were going to try alleged nine eleven mastermind khalid sheikh mohammed in a civilian court in manhattan the former mayor said that a civilian trial would be the wrong move and that it would deny that the u.s. is involved in a war on terror but barack obama deciding that we're not at war with terrorism any longer so this is not treated as if it was an act of war which should be treated like. he was not the only one screaming bloody murder human rights first org put together this compilation of pundits getting in their two cents to scare the american people. why did you sign up lower manhattan making it a mess maybe it is and i'm not so noble decision at the very least this was an order to mitigate it disastrous for just security of its teachers increasing its teaching you david sure you. that's right this was a huge deal all we heard about was the amount of security that would need to be involved and t

jon huntsman, rudy giuliani, who was getting so smoke signals in new hampshire that he was running for president even a couple of weeks ago, and it is more difficult for him to jump in now. the takeaways from this poll is, number one, romney is dominant. buwe always knew that. and he dominates everywhere among tea party republicans, to democrats who are voting in the republican primary, or independents. his hard to see where opponents will attack him. their real contest has been for second place and we will see herman cain in the spotlight has basically every presidential candidate will be in new hampshire this week, starting tomorrow, really. herman cain will have the spotlight. the othererson to watch is rick perry, a guy who comes in with a lot of buzz and momentum , and our last poll was in july, he was at 4% then. he is at 4% now. and then michele bachmann, who d the opposite finding that herman cain did. herman cain went from 2% to 12%. she went the opposite way. she went from 12% to 2%. she says that her fus is not on new hampshire. clearly there is one poll that you have to rea

today former major rudy giuliani said he would not be running for the white house. >>> and ktvu's eric rasmussen is live in lafayette where republicans held a town hall meeting for high school students, eric. >> reporter: that town hall meeting actually just wrapped up here at the veteran's building. this is home turf for the state republican chair. but even he admitted that speaking to young people in the bay area is something that they are not used to doing. they weren't all softball questions from students in this town hall meeting but it was a friendly standing room only crowd. >> raise your hand if you want to give more money to the government. one person. >> reporter: that came to hear from party leaders and even young republicans including the berkeley student behind the controversial bake sale based on race. >> i met more people. because of it people disagreed with me and i've had a lot of civil conversations. >> reporter: there was plenty of talk about where the country is headed. >> it's not a question of should we raise taxes, it's how we get more revenues. >> at least one s

rudy giuliani said he's not in the race.n, that door's closed. the people at the table last night is the republican field. >> and it will start to narrow. >> the reality, you have a front-runner, not a lot of enthusiasm at the base of the republican party. evangelicals in particular. that accounts for a lot of herman cain's surge. >> is romney going to -- a vice presidential nominee not on the field? somebody completely out of this group? >> i think you'll see a lot of pressure talking about a romney/cain ticket. this is all premature. >> yeah, just let's all keep it in perspective. in fairness, shocking to me, rick perry who knew he needed a strong debated and has that support from tea part partiers slept through the debate. >> interesting. hillary, john, will, thank. have a great morning. >> thank. >>> that's it for us right now. talking more an the western presidential debate in las saying is, anderson cooper moderating. that's next tuesday 8:00 and our own carol costello will be there and will have all the analysis. >> i

. >> i think rudy giuliani got his pink slip handed to him as a result of his showing in new hampshiret by any means exceeding expectation. >> kirsten. >> the president's announced he's sending 100 troops to central africa to combat the lra, to combat joseph kony. would you support this if you were president? is this something you would do? >> in thinking about this, he signed legislation, congress authorized that this is what needed to take place. he signed that legislation. as president, if i would have signed that legislation. >> , i would have had an action plan ready to go immediately. from all appearances, this really does seem to be genocide. i mean, this really seems -- these are really bad actors, there is a finite number of fighters. 300 -- whatever that number is. i don't know fiwould be sending advisers in there, as immediately after having sent -- after having signed the legislation, sent in a strike force to wipe them all out -- >> that's very nonlibertarian of you. >> i have always said, genocide is something that none of us want to stand by and watch happen. from everyt

the last cycle of the presidential race it was fred thompson and rudy giuliani who were at the top of the chart. and not john mccain. and he became the candidate. we're focused on meeting with people and getting our positive message, job growth. i have been working for five years at the tip of the sphere in washington for the issues people care about. that's what we're talking about on the campaign trail. >> there's the caucus state, in about two months from now, as your campaign manager has said, is iowa for you a must-win state? >> of course, we're focused on iowa. we're focused on the schedule and the primary process. iowa is first caucus. then on the new hampshire. then south carolina. we're focused on the schedule that the states are now agreeing on. >> is it a must-win for you? >> well, we're focused on it as we are all on the states. so -- >> what happened if you didn't win there? what would happen? would that doom your effort do you think? >> well, you know, the most important thing right now is the positive message that we're putting out in every state. people see me as refor

some people compare rudy giuliani as a prosecutor to your dad. >> rudy does. >> i was going to ask you. what do you make of that comparison? >> let's leave it at that he does. >> ok. >> no, there was an ascetic there and the good baritone voice and of course the courtroom theatrics, which was perhaps -- certainly was a revulsion against the excesses of the 1920's, which were still very much in memory at that point. >> sure. >> and against the continuing mob scene headquartered, in many respects, in new york. >> and the alliance between the mob and the political machine. that's what, i think, people often miss. there was a relationship of mutual dependence that maybe grew out of prohibition. jimmy walker, you know, had not been out of city hall all that long. as a boy, in michigan, your dad had it drummond in his head by his father that tamine hall represents all that is evil and who could have predicted at that point, you know -- there's one other aspect, one quick thing about your dad which was clearly a limitation in an era of popular campaigning. what your godfather, arguably his be

this time, mitt led with 29 percent, followed by fred thompson with 18, mike huckabee with 12, rudy giuliani with 11. by election day it was huckabee at 34, mitt romney at 25, huckabee spent virtually many of the days between now and january 3rd, he spent in the state, as did mitt, rudy giuliani and fred thompson didn't spend as many and fell right down to the bottom. bill: it breaks -- it breaks late and can again this year, too. a nine -- 59 percent in the sur say -- survey say they could support someone else! what does that mean. >> what's even more extraordinary than that, you add in the people who haven't made up their mind, 74 percent say they could change their opinion or haven't made up their mind, 25 percent say their mind is made up. and that shows how flexible and fluid the situation is going to be. every day matters. i want you to think about this. there are essentially 64 days as of tomorrow left before an iowa caucus is, on the third of january. remember, we got thanksgiving which is going to take five or six days out of that, we have christmas which is going it take five or si

hillary clinton was the front-runner for the democrat and we had rudy giuliani, a front-runner for the gop. >> exactly. >> who knows, everybody can change. >> exactly. >>> peter alexander is at the news desk with a check of the other headlines. >> good morning to you. we begin today with the latest testimony in the trial of michael jackson's daughter, the first paramedic to reach jackson's bedroom testified friday that dr. conrad murray did not want to see which medication he had given to the pop star. richard sennis says murray never mentioned giving jackson propofol. we will have much more on this trial coming up in our next hour. >>> stunning new pictures show engineers repelling down the side of the washington monument looking for loose stone and mortar. while officials warn any loose pieces could fall and injury somebody below, the monument itself is said to be structurally sound. the inspection work will continue through the weekend and should be all wrapped up by tuesday. >>> some joggers and cyclists in the windy city ran into another obstacle along lakeshore drive. check this

it includes former new york mayor rudy giuliani and former soviet leader mikhail gorbachev.izers say the crime rate is down about 50% in the last six months but there still been nearly 9,000 drug violence killings in that city since 2008. >>> now a story about uncomfortable intersection of faith and government. some religious schools say they are caught in the middle. >> a group of catholic universities sign on to letter for the obama administration saying the schools are concerned about the agency regulation stemming from the healthcare law which could force university to cover the cost of contraceptive in health insurance plan in conflict with the catholic faith. >> the policies set by agency not elected by the people, force on institution that cannot as a matter of conscious provide it. >> the school says it could force them to drop insurance altogether. the president of the university of notre dame, reverend john jenkins sent his own letter where he acknowledged taking heat for allowing them to speak on campus in 2009 and hope to foster a discussion on issue of life. >>

rudy giuliani finally made it official what we've known for four years, he is not running for president. giuliani said, "if it's too late for chris christie, it's too late for me." joining me now, eugene robinson, associate editor and columnist for "washington post" and msnbc political analyst. ed rollins, campaign consultant and former michele bachmann campaign adviser. thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> ed, you're a master of republican political analysis. did we just see the first picture of the ticket? the romney/christie -- >> certainly a possibility. this is an important endorsement. it's the first big endorsement any of these candidates have gotten. there may be a whole group of them that basically fall into line now. i still think it's very much a two-person race and certainly some of the candidates that are debating tonight still have one ticket out. that's iowa. but at the end of the day, these two, perry and the governor are the ones who have the resources and can beyond no matter what happens to them in the early primaries. >> gene robinson, what about s