>> well, the tea partiers right all over the place.ey are not speaking with any kind of unified movement. and a lot of them upset with nikki haley for going behind mitt romney. some of them are with newt, some are with santorum, and some are with mitt romney, but there's no collective voice right now. >> right now, looks like not a lot of kneecaps left for romney as he tries to get out of the south because of these political attacks. they go after his foundation, some political watchers assuming, though, romney is going to win this nomination. and they're looking at who will be his dance partner. romney has to be thinking about that. which running mate would you make romney more palatable to conservative holdouts? is it santorum, is it christie? is it nikki haley? >> if i were mitt romney, i'd grab marco rubio. the guy is as conservative as you can get, it'll shore up the conservative side. those tea partiers, and let's not forget, florida's a huge swing state. marco rubio makes a lot of sense to me. >> when we talk about that, what do

where have the tea partiers gone?i think they are split amongst newt gingrich and ron paul and rick santorum and haven't coalesced around one candidate and that's good for democracy and the primary process that everyone has an opportunity to make their voice heard rather than through one voice. that's what it is about. >> when you say they are divided, you don't mention mitt romney. clearly he is not the most attractive candidate for tea partiers. >> there were some i know in new hampshire and the bulk of them are split. as you said earlier, mitt romney in polling is still in the lead. somewhat substantially. we will see if that tightens up. i suspect if mitt romney were the nominee, you would say support get behind him. tea partiers are more frustrated with barack obama than anyone on the republican side. >> absolutely and much of the tea party was directed at the president. we had further good news on the jobs front with unemployment heading downward and manufacturing on the rise. is that not a sign that this presid

congress is a whopping one point eight million bucks one point eight million bucks and six of the tea partiers are worth more than twenty million bucks and these are the people average tea party republicans think represent their interests well fact of the matter is they don't and here's the dirty little secret they never have from the very beginning the tea party was a big ruse the prominent tea party group the tea party patriots says the movement started one month after obama was elected with a rant by c. and b. c. talking head rick santillan they write tea party patriots wishes to extend a special thank you to rick santelli for his rant on feb nineteenth two thousand and nine which started the entire movement without rick's rant this movement would never have started many others will try to take credit but don't be fooled he was the spark that began this fire. let's take a look at their end. how about this president new administration why don't you put up a website to have people vote on the internet as a referendum to see if we really want to subsidize the loser's mortgages or would we like

that leads to the question, is there such a thing as a young, black tea partier? >> i think so, sure. >> i think i know that guy. >> you just don't want to commit to anything. i respect that. >> i just said i respect that. >> what is your favorite episode of "teen mom"? >> oh, i hate all of you. >> and finally, diane wins for the line of the night. if you can't look like a ho in the hallways, you can't look like a ho in the yearbook. isn't that the truth? >> that is wrong. >> congressman, have i two more points and then i will go because they are chasing me out of here. congressman, i want you to know for my high school prom i wore a powder blue tuxedo with a ruffled shirt with dark blue fripg. >> are you still embarassed about it like i am? >> i still own it. i am not embarassed. i wore it on new year's eve. >> excuse me. what is "teen mom"? >> paul will show you later. he has it on his ipad. paul, finally, you didn't seem to have any problems with the sexy yearbookish you a. >> no. >> what if it was your daughter? >> then she would be shipped off to another coun

but tea partiers are growing frustrated. >> we want to get our country back. >> reporter: 69-year-oldenedict, a retired cab driver, cofounded the manatee tea party soon after president obama took office. >> i am at times blistering angry at my government. >> reporter: anger over spending and the national debt turned the tea party movement into a major force in the 2010 florida elections, propelling rick scott into the governor's office and marco rubio to the u.s. senate. but benedict says today there's frustration among the faithful over what happened after the 2010 election. tea party helped get governor scott into office. >> we definitely helped get him there. we worked our buns off. >> reporter: do you think he's listening to you now? >> no. >> reporter: why not? >> because he's in office. >> reporter: on the east coast of florida 50-year-old alex berry is the tea party coordinator for boca raton. berry's deeply discouraged with both republican front-runners who he sees as not much different from president obama. >> i think the current administration is toxic to america as we know

>> i think so. >> reporter: tea partiers seam >> to be split among the republican eandidates. idny are also dispirited by the absence of movement favorites thee michele bachmann and herman cain. berry plans to write in ron paul in november. he would rather vote his elecience than win an election. >> a vote for the lesser of two ovils is still evil. >> reporter: even if it means itping barack obama in office. >> correct. rect.porter: william benedict doesn't feel that way. benediromney becomes the nominee yes, i will vote for romney. but i will not actively get out and bust my buns for him. i don't like him. i do repeporter: benedict says the tea party may not make a big statement in florida tomorrow but come november we'll be out in force for the first presidential election in a must- win state. chip reid, cbs news, bradenton, florida. >> pelley: there was a rare show of bipartisanship on capitol ill today on a vote of 93-2. the senate took the first step rd ard approving the stock act. it would prohibit members of congress from making stock trades based on information they ge

tea partiers here despise you. that was the message an organizer was sending to the count when he took a day off to swing by the palmetto state. martin said in a telephone interview that except for the people who have signed on for romney, almost no one she knows in the state is supporting him. >> we don't really think too much of mitt romney here in south carolina. i don't know any tea party people in the states. one i talked to this morning who is supporting him in his presidential bid. >> like many tea partiers who say they don't like romney, martin cited the public health plan in massachusetts, which is similar to obama's plan. >> the republican party didn't like him in 2008. not much has changed about him between then and now, but the electorate has changed a lot. we're more conservative. we're take iing a deeper look a the constitution. we're more focused on smaller government and fiscal responsibility and we don't think mitt romney brings those values to the table. >> of course, that's not good news for romn

i'm sure tea partiers appreciate you care.ght. politics won't change overnight. >> i think you're being too humble. a year or so ago you took over the congress, you beat pelosi, took over the speakership, you ran the congress for the last year, you do know how to influence elections but not this one for president. that is what is different from the last time around in 2010. we'll talk about it again later. david, matt, still an open question, you had power, you don't. when we return, let me finish with the absurd pre tensions of mitt romney. you're watching hard ball from manchester on the night before the new hampshire primary. >>> let me finish tonight with this, in the hans christian story the emperor appeared what he called his new clothes. everyone around him raved about the great leader's new attire which consists of nothing at all. he was naked, except to those who clung to him seeking the benefits which flow from an emperor, singing his praises on all occasions. think of mitt romney. he presents himself in the new clot

i ask you that because as those polls show, 25% of tea partiers, 40% in new hampshire like mitt romneyriends like mitt romney? >> the tea party is different all across the country. the tea party movement in georgia is different than the tea party movement in new hampshire. while the tea partiers in new hampshire might like mitt romney, you may not find that in other states. >> tea partiers in south carolina, they're the nikki haley endorsement, right, which brings in some tea party. you have other people who have used the word despise and disgust ultimately for romney. so when you look forward to a general election, can you expect somebody who has used the word despise and disgust f mitt romney is that candidate, do you expect them to be engaged and energized to be say i'm going to vote for him? >> i think at the end of the day we're going to work to defeat barack obama. these candidates have the chance now to get their message out there and talk about what they're going to do to turn the economy around. that's what everybody's focused on. you're going to have tea partiers support mitt

because mitt romney, the man with the golden flip-flop, has to persuade principled conservative tea partiersvangelical christians that they too show throw away their preys and vote for him? this is about the dissolution of principles and commitments in south carolina, isn't it? >> yeah, martin. it's kind of like the tin man syndrome. the idea that mitt romney has no real core to him and as republicans have to move to him as the default candidate, that kind of lack of core conviction is starting to infect the republican party. and there's plenty of evidence of this. if you look at the turnout in new hampshire last night, republicans underperformed. if you look at the enthusiasm gap that republicans had an advantage of in august, that's essentially gone. and if you look at a lot of the poll numbers and some of the gallup polls as of even the beginning of this week, obama had gained about 17 points. he was down 38-54 in the summer in some of the polls he's now close to tied or tied. so all of the evidence that not only is the republican has -- the republican party having this kind of existentia

he's reached out to tea partiers. has said he believes once tea partiers hear his message, they'll be more inclined to come on board. the question, is whether he will be able to sell himself to this constituency in this state that really believes in a smaller government and less taxes. >> you mentioned you spoke to that organizer of the tea party organizer out of spartanburg. let's hear a piece of that interview. >> we don't really think too much of mitt romney here in south carolina as a presidential candidate. i don't know any tea party people in the state, save one i talked to this morning, who is supporting him in his presidential bid. >> why? >> well, it's easy to point to romney care as the issue why the tea party doesn't like mitt romney. it goes much deeper than that. the republican party didn't like him in 2008. not much has changed about him between then and 2012 but the electorate has changed a lot. we're more conservative. >> so joe, if not romney, who does the group support? santorum? >> reporter: well, t

you just ran through variations of folks that tea partiers looked at.f this continues, i would argue somebody else is going to get in this race. >> of the people in the race now and have filed for the various primaries and can win them now, who are you looking at? >> well, to be honest with you, the problem that we're having with newt gingrich and rick santorum is a lot of the votes that they made that look a lot like mitt romney's record. that's the problem that a lot of these politicians who are pretea party, they got in and started talking our talk. the most consistent performer has been ron paul who stayed around 20%. >> at 76 years old, can he be our next president? >> no, i don't think so. i think he's running to drive an agenda. he's running to hold the other politicians accountable. >> i don't know what they are talking about. they don't have a candidate who they are ready to nominate. what happened to the tea party? >> i almost feel sympathy for the tea party. listening to matt, i can hear the pain in thiz voice. there's no one in the non-mitt

tea partiers, 35-point lead. our poll shows if gingrich is the nominee, he's got a huge hill and perhaps mountain to climb to match up against president obama. he trails 55-37, an 18-point gap. even rick santorum matches up better to president obama than gingrich. mitt romney trails obama six points. the big reason for this general election gap is women. among the general election with romney, he's actually competitive. gingrich actually is 13 points lower among women than romney himself. finally, there's some suggestions in our poll that this presidential primary campaign is actually hurting the party as a whole. look at these negative ratings. romney, santorum, gingrich, all within a net negative rating. the last three republican nominees, mccain, bush and dole, all who had very tough primary campaigns came out of it with a net positive. the last democrat to have a net negative was john kerry. we know how that turned out. >> chuck todd watching the numbers in our d.c. bureau tonight. thanks. >>> all of this tak

i'm sure tea partiers appreciate you care.this is not pro sets that will change overnight. politics won't change overnight. >> i think you're being too humble. a year or so ago you took over the congress, you beat pelosi, took over the speakership, you ran the congress for the last year, you do know how to influence elections but not this one for president. that is what is different from the last time around in 2010. we'll talk about it again later. david, matt, still an open question, you had power, you don't. when we return, let me finish with the absurd pre tensions of mitt romney. you're watching hard ball from manchester on the night before the new hampshire primary. nounc] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials... and a growing number of lower e

tea partiers are more concerned with beating the white house incumbent.ate in the gop field. so that's what we're seeing. >> what is your biggest question about the intensity gap and whether the republican coalition will come together in the right way? >> well, i don't think there's a problem on the republican side with intensity. my big worry the democrats come home. the democrats are not satisfied with obama, he's let us down, he's not the great hope and change he was, all of a sudden come october, they start to realize we could lose the white house, they come home. that's what i think is the issue. i think republicans, plenty energized to get barack obama out of there. >> as one of the few guy left alive who has run a successful democratic presidential campaign, when you look at this early on, you're the incumbent, you ran in 1996, an easier race than president obama will have than clinton. what do we have to worry about november? >> i think the -- what david, ale rod, they want this thing to continue and every day that goes on, the more that they're o

my first stop was a training session for tea partiers held by the competitive price institute. what is the theme to the tea party what is the tea party about is it about just opposing this is opposing that opposing this or is there really integrated and that idea i submit to the idea i want to show you one today is the idea of the rights of man the basic issue at stake is the destruction of the rights of those who produce in the united states and the tea parties of course are the battleground. we are today as an army we are the thin line between freedom and the status the scope you know they want to create freedom is a wonderful thing to fight for it's time for us to join the army and that's something i'm hoping. to do. in nashville i met up with a collection of libertarian groups crossing the country teaching guerilla internet tactics for free market ideals over two hundred years ago guys a group of people just like you did something extraordinary ordinary people doing extraordinary things they were activists just like you i truly believe that they were activists then we are ac

testifying to the crossroads nature of the uprising the vast majority of tea partiers a middle class americans with little or no experience in political organizing i'm just i'm on that was tired of seeing what was going on in my country and i decided to do something about it. the day after liks a intelli had his rant there were about twenty two people that got together on a conference call and we decided to have around the tea parties one week from that day we had fifty tea parties with thirty thousand people in attendance. who thought the brewing if we had on april fifteenth eight hundred fifty plus tea parties across this country with one point two million people in attendance. but if the tea parties began as a bipartisan are prizing against government weist they quickly morphed into an all out attack on president obama and his entire policy agenda you cannot ignore i'm not sure i'm going to grab anything dr no to france during our writing our interest them crocked factories that jammed up its current program paper on the fun began and how god can. blow many factors are involved an

, 9 points among men, 6 points among christians and he's within the margin of error also among tea partiers. romney holds a commanding lead among hispanics, a large florida voting bloc. 72% of registered republicans in miami-dade county are hispanic. romney leads gingrich by 24 points vong those voters. between campaign spending and superpac, romney is outspending gingrich by a ratio of four to one. romney spent $15.7 million overall. >>> rick santorum's daubl was hospitalized with pneumonia. his 3-year-old, bella who suffers from a rage genetic disorder is recovering and could be released from the philadelphia hospital soon. he planned to head to colorado and nevada for events tomorrow. he's putting all that on hold. we certainly wish bella a speedy recovery. >>> despite all those numbers we showed you here in the state of florida, newt gingrich says the republican presidential race is far from over. he insists the conservative base is looking for the right candidate and he'll stay in for as long as it takes to prove he's the man for that job. >> this race is going to good on. the conserva

. >> beth, wouldn't you say the tea partiers in south carolina are having the same problem that the social conservatives have in iowa, and that is too many choices, scattered among the three candidates on the outside and the voice of the tea party coalition in south carolina, nikki haley, the governor, has endorsed romney. >> and jim demint, the senator, hasn't endorsed anybody but is saying friendly things about romney. >> he came to romney's defense this week. >> i was pay attention to what the obama campaign was saying this week. they raised $68 million at the end of 2011 and started talking about, we're not going to have a billion dollar campaign, this is the wrong impression. and they were candid about how concerned they are with mitt pac, the pror romney ability to gin up these harsh ads and what that might do to president obama looking forward. what do you make about this idea that, no, no, we'll not come close to a billion dollars? >> they're capable of raising $1 billion. that people are not giving -- because they say, you have so much money, you don't need my contribution. so the