steve benen, contributing writer to "the washington monthly." steve, as you know, i read your blog every day and appreciate you coming on the show tonight. i know it's not the easiest thing to do, so thank you. >> thank you for having me. >>> here comes the presidential campaign of texas governor rick perry and because here comes the presidential campaign of rick perry, here comes the really important reporting out of texas about rick perry. please stay tuned >>> the most interesting thing in presidential politics right now is governor rick perry of texas. the first presidential nominating process, is, of course, the iowa caucuses, they are set for february this time around, and the iowa caucuses are designed to capitalize, literally to capitalize -- iowa politics in order to capitalize to make money off the candidate's early attention to iowa, also hold the ames, iowa, straw poll. they encourage candidates to spend a ton of money to win, to give the kand candidates momentum. it's a racket, frankly, particularly the straw poll, but even the whole

steve benen, contributing writer to "the washington monthly." steve, as you know, i read your blog every day and appreciate you coming on the show tonight. i know it's not the easiest thing to do, so thank you. >> thank you for having me. >>> here comes the presidential campaign of texas governor rick perry and because here comes the presidential campaign of rick perry, here comes the really important reporting out of texas about rick perry. please stay tuned. ♪ yes! ha ha! [ clicking ] ♪ what happened? power went out, want a hot dog? [ female announcer ] oscar mayer selects are made with 100% beef and have no artificial preservatives. oh, just booked a summer vaycay. ooo. sounds pricey? nah, with the hotels.com summer sale, you can find awesome deals for places nearby. interesting... wow, i'm blown away. you look great. hotels.com summer sale, save up to 30%. and get a free kindle. hotels.com. be smart. book smart. >>> the most interesting thing in presidential politics right now is governor rick perry of texas. the first presidential nominating

steve benen, contributing writer to "the washington monthly." steve, as you know, i read your blog every day and appreciate you coming on the show tonight. i know it's not the easiest thing to do, so thank you. >> thank you for having me. >>> here comes the presidential campaign of texas governor rick perry and because here comes the presidential campaign of rick perry, here comes the really important reporting out of texas about rick perry. please stay tuned for that. woman: day care can be expensive. so to save some money, i found one that uses robots instead of real people. 'cuz robots work for free. robot 1:good morning... robot 1:...female child. sfx: modem dial-up noise woman: flaws? yeah, um, maybe. anncr: there's an easier way to save. anncr: get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. over a million people have discovered how easy it is to use legalzoom for important legal documents. so start your business, protect your family, launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on yo