let's go to wayne slater. you know the appeal of this guy, he's got that cocksure attitude. wayne, talk about this guy's behavior as an elected official. is he a guy who deals with insiders who pay to play? >> yes. the quick answer is absolutely. that has been his history, that is the rap against him. we've written an awful lot about these various deals, and the ones, as mike said, the ones you mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. there are a whole range of these, a lot of people have done very well. but here's what's different right now. if i go to chicago in the old daley years nobody is shocked, shocked if somebody gets a contract if they support the local ward boss. but perry, riding a tea party wave, which sarah palin reiterated yesterday, said this crony capitalism is a bad thing. we aren't part of giving public money, taxpayer money, to our friends. that's the wrong thing. this is the wrong year for perry to be shown, and it's going to be an extensive record before this is all over, to be shown as a guy who has done everything he can, really, for the political fo

wayne slater, thank you so much. >>> now let's talk about the president are. you remember the president's jobs speech, the big one last week? here's the cliffs notes version. >> pass this jobs bill and we can put people to work. you should pass it right away. pass this bill. pass this jobs bill. pass this bill, and hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged young people -- >> just one minor issue was that was certainly the president's refrain that night as he spoke. there was no bill. well, today there it is in his left hand, the president has it and now he sent it up to congress. more than $440 billion, now they are spelling out how they plan to cover that cost. let's go to brianna keilar covering the white house for you. brianna, two words, right? tax increase. >> reporter: tax increases. brooke, i hope you can hear me okay. i will tell you the sound you're hearing is the sound of people at work soy guess it's all sort of in line with what we're talking about. the proposal for paying for the president's jobs plan, tax increases, limit aring deductions, those ite

wayne slater, thank you. >>> and michele bachmann's startling claim that this vaccine can cause mentaletardation is causing a stir in the medical community. and we will break this one down, fact and fiction and how much truth behind her comments. >> they started as a week as bystanders to a horrifying accident, and now they are hailed as heroes. a half a dozen bystanders jumped in to help save a young man trapped understoneath a car andw more news that the man trapped is going to be fine. >> it is great to know that i was part of humanity that gave him the gift. >> and now on the scene is derek harper and micah johnson and eric lundgren. when you got there, what was the immediate reaction and were you running on adrenaline? >> well, i actually believed that the fellow under the car wasn't alive, and most people there i think felt that. i just thought that we should get the car off of the body, and so it didn't burn. and then the lady that laid down on the road and said, he is alive after she said that, everybody just converged on the car and somebody pulled him out, and it is a great t

. >> so wayne slater, who is a pretty good rick perry watcher among other things, wayne slater tweetedit to the bank, sarah palin will not run for president, will endorse rick perry." that's a pretty good read on that. >> she did endorse him in 2010 in his very heated primary against senator kay bailey hu h hutchison. there was history on whether sarah palin was basing her own decision on whether rick perry was in the race. we see no indication she is going to get in and we see indication from this comment and a few others she might be leaning towards endorsing him. that would help him with the tea party wing of the party. however, there's some thought maybe that's not where he needs help. he needs help with the more mainstream centrist parts of the party so we'll have to see with what sarah palin does. it will be key to see whether she remains a force in the republican politics. >> absolutely. thank you very much ken, great reporting and appreciate your being here. >>> nearly 50% of african-american teenagers are out of work. how does president obama's plan aim to help those who are h

. >> let's bring in and sa good morning to wayne slater, senior political writer for the dallas morning news and the author of "bush's brain." wayne, nice to see you this morning. is this a good move for perry, delivering this speech at a time when with the president is suffering among jewish voters? >> clearly it's politically a good idea. this is not primarily an appeal to jewish voters. the president has had problems with jewish voters, the house seat in new york indicates he may have problems next year attracting some jewish voters. but what perry really is doing here is senating his support of israel, rock solid support of israel, for evangelicals. these are conservative republican evangelicals who will be very important in the early primary states of iowa and primaries in south carolina and florida. so what perry is saying is sounding the sort of confident alarm of evangelicals who say, whatever happens we must stand firm with israel and rick perry is doing that. >> but explain to all of us, what has rick perry really done to show he's any more of a friend to israel than the next

wayne slater, how is the governor going to do tonight?ng to do okay. basically he came out of a rather ram bunkious rollout. and i think on the inside of his campaign, his campaign operative said you need to tone down the cowboy a little bit. i think he wants to look a little more presidential tonight. but his instinct will be to fight. if he's punched, if mitt romney punches at him directly or indirectly, look for rick perry to punch back. >> tone down the cowboy, huh? ron paul is calling him out. let's watch a snippet of it. >> rick perry helped lead al gore's campaign to undo the reagan revolution, fighting to elect al gore president of the united states. >> so hang on a second. rick perry supported al gore for president? >> he did. he endorsed al gore, showed up at a news conference in 1988 for al gore with some other legislators, he travelled texas urging voters to vote for al gore. but remember, al gore was the southern conservative alternative. rick perry was a democrat at the time, to mike delaware kukakis. he was the conservative

joining mess now, wayne slater, senior political writer for "the dallas morning news." d bob franken, syndicated columni. wayne, what is perry up to? >> in the book he suggests at least social security oughting to abolished. that's on the record, in print, black and white. now he has to deal with that reality. >> that's only nine or ten months ago. it's not a book when he was a kid in college or 20 years ago. that's his position, he wrote it, he's got to live with it. the question is what do you do about that on a political campaign where you said correctly social security is probably our most popular entitlement program, especially for those folks in florida. the campaign knew they had to fix that. >> now, let me ask you, bob, he also suggested in the book it was unconstitutional. now you had he says i meant to say you need to fix it. you don't fix something that is illegal, you eliminate it. >> i think that when he said ponzi, he had just w567d and episode of "happy days" and meant to say fonzie scheme. in other words, he was just throwing words out there. here is a ma

"new york times" magazine piece i talked about and the editor of "the great texas monthly" and wayne slaterthe senior political writer for "the dallas morning news." you let the cat out of the bag maybe, and i thank you for t.oftentimes we think that all texans like all texans. not true, or at least not for president? >> not for president. i think this is something i don't remember seeing before, but i think there is -- there's a lot of questioning about whether this is a really good idea for texans and for the rest of the world. >> you know, i go back to wayne on that, because wayne, for months i followed politics assiduously, if you will, i'm a junkie. never heard anybody talk of rick perry for president until a couple of weeks ago and then all of a sudden he was flavor of the week or month, and i wonder how come i've never heard anybody talk him up before? a question that's sort of in your ear and you forget about it for a while, but it's coming back again. the reason nobody ever talked him up for president before is what we've seen the last three debates, right? >> well, because these p

wayne slater is the senior political writer for "the dallas morning news" and republicans join us, markformer adviser to president george w. bush bush and john mccain. also founder of no labels an organization dedicated to putting party labels aside in politics. we are not doing that tonight. this is the republican debate. >> of course not. >> i want you to listen or watch the following. here are some of rick perry's most talked about comments in the last month starting with criticism of ben bernanke. let's all listen to rick perry. >> if this guy prints more money, between now and the election, i don't know what you all will do to him in iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in texas. i mean, printing more money to play politics at this particular time in american history is almost treasonous in my opinion. i do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. i think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. you know, it's a theory that is out there. it's got some gaps in it.

wayne slater, senior political writer for the "dallas morning news."ed by cnn contributor will cane, and krnl analyst roland martin. before we get to specific comparisons between the two, is this all just an image his team is trying to sell to the public? is this a good thing? >> those are two questions. one is he george bush cubed, not just 2.0. he everything is we thought george bush was, the caricature of bush. he really did grow up on a west texas farm. he really is kind of a west texas boot scooting aggie like another member of this panel, an aggie. that would be row lan. >> woot! woot! >> yeah, right. he's really more conservative than bush, he's more partisan than bush. he is actually politically more savvy than bush. is that a good thing? well, it depends how you see george w. bush. some think it is not. >> is the fact that he could be more conservative be a problem? would that mean little crossover appeal or not? >> no. first let me say, he is not george bush 2.0. he is maybe stylistically george bush 2.0 as wayne suggested. all i heard were s