(sets down cup) perry. it just goes to show you that with a little help, anything can change, even interns. dr. reid? i'm not the one that placed that central line the other day. i just took credit for it. i'm not gonna do that anymore. good. any chance you could show me how to place one of those things? let's go. (man) ♪ whoa ♪ na, na, na, na >> august 17, 2011. from comedy central's world news headquarters in new york, this is "the daily show with jon stewart." captioning sponsored by comedy central [theme song playing] [cheering and applause] >> jon: welcome to the dail show. i'm jon stewart. our guest tonight... oh, you're too kind. our guest, former republican party chairman... our guest tonight, former republican party chairman michael steele here once again in non-puppet form. we're very excited about that. much more dynamic in non-puppet form. our coverage of the elephant stampede to the white house continues. as you may recall, sunday belonged to the fiery congresswoman from minnesota michele b

race for president is texas governor rick perry, but perry is already getting compared to predecessor, texas governor george w bush and perry seems to be channeling bush. look at these side besides. >> you know, this annual meeting has truly become an incubator. that's what i call it. man, it hatches some great ideas. it's an incubator for good ideas. >> we need to unleash the america.ector incc1: >> i see a great day coming for america. >> even though perry looks like he is working hard to imitate bush, he is actually more authentic. he is a true believing deep south conservative compared to blood bush who sometimes seemed to be playing a part. listen to this bite to how bush slips in the word desert. >> i think, see as i remember, i was raised in the desert, but see1: a tide y tocc turn. >> some folks look at me and see a sort of swagger which in texas walking.cc1: chris: well, of course, that dones mess with texas was swagger for another bush caricature, will farrell. he had an hbo special lampooning bush's texas image. bush is telling a story about aving his brothers and dadcc1: i

they had rick santorum and rick perry speak. they got there early and worked the crowds aggressively. ms. bachmann stayed away. she had a family reunion yesterday that and you some amount of her time. before her remarks she parked her bus down the road and waited and waited and waited. when she arrived, as always, she blasted the music and went in and made her speech, her speech was fairly typical for her and well-received. afterwards, unlike rick perry, she didn't take questions from the crowd. she did sign some autographs and shake some hands but then rather than interacting with iowa caucus goers and the republicans insistent on attention from the candidates she left the building and came out and held a press conference with the national media in front of her bus. afterwards there was a lot of con expressed by the organize organizers to me and other reporters it wasn't hard to hear them overtalking themselves these iowans that michele bachmann was effectively the host. her hometown. she didn't welcome rick perry into the race

perry. can carl robe bring governor perry down? >> he's going it try. he's not on the team. and he thinks perry's gone too far to the right. but you know, they -- >> wait a minute, karl rove thinks rick perry has gone too far to the right? >> yeah, yeah. because if you say the things rick perry is saying he is saying in the primary process and you get too far right, it is difficult for the main stream to embrace you. that's what karl is suggesting. but it is more than that. their love affair ended in the early 90s when there was an opening in the u.s. senate seat. >> oh, so this is person. what happened? >> rick wanted the senate seat and perry gave it to kay bailey hutchison. rick was in a tough race against john sharp and rick wanted to go negative but karl wouldn't let him because he wanted to run up the numbers to make bush look presidential. then what happened, the last thing that happened, is karl ran kay bailey hutchison's race against perry to unseat him in the primary. there is no love who there. karl likes to play under the big feel. if rick succeeds, karl is left

what do they see in this guy perry who to most of us is just a word, rick perry. >> i metric perry, i've seen him in action, he's great for texas. i don't know if he's going to play nationally. fist of all, we had george bush. most people still blame george bush for the economy, not barack obama. number two, rick perry hasn't answered questions nationally and is going to try to run away from the national press corps, i don't know if he can do it. there are questions about his record people haven't explored. some people, especially the bush people, think that rick perry is shallow. they say he's only in for the sound bites. you know, when proponents of george bush -- chris: when supporters of george w. bush accuse perry of being shallow, we've hit the mother load. >> i think democrats and the cast of "saturday night live" want to see perry as the nominee. chris: and a lot of focus on that guy. six months from now, david you pick this up here, who is going to be the hot hand in the republican fight? who will be the big name out of iowa? >> the big noise officially will be rick perry and th

ron perry -- rick perry, excuse me, will bring a lot to the table. if you listened to his speech today he brought it on hard. we keep talking about leadership and i know i will get a million e-mails about this, but -- a male will come off stronger when you talk about overall leadership for the country. he talks about his military service. it was no accident that he brought up the middle east and foreign affairs. i think that may in this case be to his advantage. >> i think he overshadows the rest of the candidates. he clearly has something the other candidates don't have. compared to some of the other candidates. he's also a governor. you know, michele bachmann for all his strengths is not a governor. how many times have we had a member of the house of representatives get elected as a president of the united states? if you look at the most successful presidents who had in the past, they have almost all been governors. so i think he has a good chance of making it just because of that and -- the problem is for -- for perry, though, he has to stand out

rick perry's troubling weekend bothers me. americans from all over the country will gather to honor martin luther king, jr. in the coming days. we will march on saturday. rain or shine. we will unveil the monument. sunday. but texas governor rick perry will be spending time with man who believes dr. king believes no credit for civil rights. despite receiving an invite as governor to the ceremony honoring dr. king this weekend, rick perry will not be attending. he will be at a retreat. among others, david barton, founder of the evangelical group known as wall builders. now, he was part after group of texas conservatives who tried to make some radical changes in the state's textbooks in 2010. washington montly notes that they thought, these leaders, thought that, quote, civil rights leaders shouldn't be given any credit for advancing the rights of minorities as barton but putt it, quote, only majority can expand political rights, ergo, any rights of people of color have were handed to them by whites. end of quote. bart yn's grou

no relation perry? >> the clips you played at the beginning of the broadcast tells you everything you need to know. this is a guy, when he's put under the spotlight, doesn't back up, he's always done that. when he's accused -- and he's still under the investigation of executing an innocent man, he disbanded the forensic science commission trying to find out if it was true or not. that was an audacious move. he's not above saying that the opponent he's running against is responsible for the deaths of police officers because he's operating a sanctuary city. the guy is responsible for audacious politics. these are serious times, that said, for those that are political junkies, it's time to get your popcorn out, he's going to be entertainment to watch. >> max strama, i appreciate it, keep representing them well. >> thank you. >> thanks for joining us. >>> coming up, no jobs, no pekts, no ability to pay back the student loans? >>> and why democrats shouldn't be rooting for the weakest republican candidate. t

harris perry. shameless plug to my latest book, "sister citizen" and a big hello to rachel maddow, whose show is up next. >> happy birthday to who, your niece and your mother-in-law? >> that's right. >> happy birthday from "the rachel maddow show" as well. and thank you to you at home for staying with us for the next hour as well. >>> in the last election, the 2010 election, the democratic party faced the prospect of seeing their leader in the senate going down to defeat. the top democrat in the u.s. senate, majority leader harry reid, faced an uphill climb to get re-elected, and that's putting it mildly. in addition to fighting through a bad state economy, harry reid also just faced a home state electorate in nevada that wanted him out. most of the polls out of nevada looked horrible for senator reid. nevada was just looking for somebody else to represent them. and all of the republican party nevada had o was pick somebody, and that republican was likely to win. everybody assumed that the person t

we'll show you what rove said about perry in a minute, but first, here's what perry said at a meet and greet session with voters in cedar rapids, iowa, last night when he was asked about the federal reserve. >> oh, the federal reserve, i'll take a pass on the federal reserve right at the moment to be real honest with you. i know there's a lot of talk and what have you about them. if this guy prints more money, between now and -- i don't know what you'd do to them 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 i mean, printing more money to play politics at this particular time in american history is almost treasonous in my opinion, because all it's going to be doing, all it's going to be doing. we already tried this. all it's going to be doing is devaluing the dollar in your pocket. >> all right. well, there are a lot of ways to unpack that. the first is that this is a built of ideological signaling in the farthest reaches of the right wing of the republican party, those who want us

, rick perry? >> oh, you bet. hey, we're from west texas. absolute. >> those cowboy boots actually go into stirrups, occasionally. unlike the first w. who was scared to death of horses as we know. this is really for both of you guys. wayne, you can start. rick perry would seem to have some real deficits when it comes to policy ideas. he wants to do away with social security. thinks it's unconstitutional. apparently wants to do away with the federal income tax. which provides 80% of federal income. how is this a winning platform for a presidential candidate from any party? >> you know, it's interesting. you pointed out his book. when that book came out less than a year ago, perry said, this is evidence that i am not going to run for president because anybody who wanted to run for president wouldn't be saying social security is a ponzi scheme. we ought to change medicare. medicaid is bad. the voting rights act has questions about it. the fed is a problem and we ought to get rid of the income tax and

we want you to vote for rick perry too. but not their rick perry, our rick perry. on august 13th write in rick perry, that's perry with an as q as for america, with an "a" for iowa,-- that's right. (cheers and applause) i'll join you. i'll join you. folks, i want every one in the iowa nation to go to the ames straw poll this saturday, going to be a beautiful day. there's food, there's booze. and write in rick perry with an "a" why "a" because there's no "e" in team. and this evening-- (laughter) >> and this evening at 1700 hours we struck again with our second ad in the greater des moines metropolitan area. jimmy? >> iowa, a land of good people who can make up their own minds. but outside groups like jobs for iowa superpac are trying to pander to iowans with pro perry ads featuring cheap cornography. >> just so you will vote for rick perry at the ames straw poll. >> but americans for a better tomorrow tomorrow believe that iowans deserve better. and we're going to give it to you. >> oh way. on august 13th. write in rick perry. that's perry with an a for america, wi

months. >> we know rick perry is michele bachmann's new challenger, but what do we know about rick perry? >> people are trying to figure out who exactly is rick perry. >> people are disconcerted about the religiousness of his campaign. >> no interest in running for president. >> his big idea is almost everything the federal government does is unconstitutional. what he said was social security is a ponzi scheme. >> he's got to go out there and beat somebody in iowa. >> rick perry mitt romney's worst nightmare? >> mitt romney is campaigning in new hampshire. >> go up to new hampshire and knock off mitt romney. >> might as well with legos. >> i'm a real person. >> for bachmann it's all about iowa, iowa, iowa. >> waterloo, waterloo, waterloo. >> they have good hair. >> he's an attractive candidate. >> last word favorite tim pawlenty is out, lawrence o'donnell responds. >> pawlenty's out. >> i'm from a small state. >> it was time to bow out. >> i tried to read tim pawlenty's book, it was one of the worst experiences of my life. >> and president obama gets a boost from a billionaire class trad

i have known rick perry for 25 years. i actually took rick perry's filing when i ran the tech as democratic part and he filed as a democrat for state reb from an lean, i took his filing. so i have known the guy and watched him over the last 25 years. this is a very, very, very talented politician. and very-- he's got a keen sense of what touches voters and message discipline. he at this point in my view is even better than george w. bush was at this point in entering the presidential race. he's got a much better sense of himself. he's got a much better discipline in how he campaigns and a much better actually message walking into this race, anti-washington, more states' rights, much more passionate obama than the other governors than had surfaced in this race. so i think mark's totally right on this. there are many expectations this guy. the proems that, some of the prlems that he has, he has a tendency to have a little bit of a thin skin that i've watched and noticed. if he is pressed too hard ere is too much of a pressu

karl rove takes a shot at perry. is the bush administration trying to undermine a perry candidacy? james rosen has the scoop. later, president obama promises to reveal his jobs plan. but not until after vacation up in martha's vineyard. are americans getting frustrated with the president on this type of issue? coming up. >> laura: in the impact segment tonight, as we just mentioned, governor rick perry under fire from president obama and his supporters but some people are speculating that there may be some tension between mr. perry and former president george w. bush. i know from the perspective from the former president that he has a cordial personal friendship two decades with the governor. i think that's true for the governor, too. why he falls in this pattern of sounding like he is being dismissive of the former president is not smart politics. >> sounds like he has been ungrateful to the bushes. >> well, you know, it sounds like that and, yet, you know, bush moved heaven and earth he likes bic perry. i talk it up to he is on the stage for the first time. >> laura: are bush loy

it is not about perry. we have to go with ron paul, the only honest man. rick perry is a fraud. check it. guadalupe, all those ports. host: if you are interested in rick perry's jobs record, go to "the new york times from " from yesterday. there is a lot there to look at. i want to update you on a poll that we put on our facebook page yesterday. based on the question we asked all of you. are you willing to pay more in taxes? we put it up as a poll on our facebook page yesterday. here are the final results. 39.7% said yes. 431 people. about 50.2% said no, about 436 people. thanks to all of you for participating in the poll, on our facebook page pin that is facebook.com\c-span. up next, a discussion on the super committee and what they might do on entitlement reform. we will be right back. unworkable. >> steven brill talks with diane ravitch. go to booktv, where you can watch our programs online. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back with michael tanner, a senior fellow at the cato institute, here to talk about the super committee. quote how much of their focus will

not all perry news is good perry news. during a speech in iowa, a state on monday night, the hopeful hair due -- hair do was asked about the federal reserve and here is what he said. >> if this guy brings more money between now and the election, i don't know what you would do to him in iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly. printing more money to play politics at this particular time in american history is almost treason in my opinion. >> i was hypnotized by that pattern. i didn't hear a word he said. his choice of words were condemned by the left. jay carney, if that's his real name saying threatening the fed chairman is probably not a good idea, and some on the right were not pleased either. >> you don't accuse the chairman of the federal reserve of being a traitor to his country, of being guilty of treason and suggesting we treat him ugly in texas. that's not, again, a presidential statement. >> finally on the heels of a "new york times" report that texas is one of the highest percentages of minimum wage workers demo

perry and a texas think tank are pushing a plan spearheaded by a perry donor to overhaul the university system in a way that at least one dean warns will drive top students and faculty away. now, all of the members of the system's regents board are perry appointees, and among them, one of his top campaign donors, james dannenbaum. his engineering company has been awarded multiple state contracts, and he happens to be one of perry's biggest contributors, donating more than $320,000 to perry. and he certainly is not alone. with me now is mattia gold and a co-author of a revealing new piece on rick perry's biggest campaign donors. thank you for joining me tonight. >> thank you, melissa. >> your reporting found that of the $102 million of donations raised, $37 million were from the same donors, and almost half received tax breaks or were appointed to boards. who stuck out to you as the donors who enjoyed the best karma after sending checks to perry? >> to begin with, i think we were just struck by the enormous amount of money that perry raised, as you pointed out, from such a small cadre of

that could happen with rick perry. we haven't seen him. >> i don't think you can win a debate but i think you can certainly lose it in a debate. i think tim pawlenty was this year's showing of that where he didn't at all look strong and decisive in that debate. i think a lot of campaigns we go into thinking don't get hurt in this debate. the last thing you want to do is to get hurt in this debate. i think romney's going to go into these debates when he's down. it will be interesting to see if he goes into that philosophy of don't getting hurt like i thought he did in the first debate. but with perry rising those numbers like that, i think he's probably going to have to take on a different strategy. >> but what does this quick rise tell you? obviously the media's talking about rick perry all the time. obviously this is a very unsettled race. but is there something else in these -- >> it tells you there has been throughout a large gap in the jaw for not mitt romney. mitt romney who was the alternative last time who was t

we want you to vote for rick perry, too, but not their rick perry. our rick perry. that's perry with an a, or america. with an a for iowa. >> i wonder if some know colbert is kidding with all this? >>> anyway, was wall street teetering? stuck below 50% democrats getting nervous about president obama's re-election chances. what should the president do right now to calm the jitters? >>> you're watching "hardball," thworld's best yogurts for activia selects in paris we discovered the inspiration for a totally new yogurt. activia selects french so silky and smooth with lots of juicy fruit. then our search took us to beautiful greece and this thick and creamy greek yogurt, so rich and full of flavor. it was a grueling trip! try new activia french and greek yogurt. a world of great new tastes. yeah. well we're the two active ingredients in zegerid otc. i'm omeprazole. and i'm sodium bicarbonate. just one pill a day ... gives you 24-hour relief. & one mission. two ingredients heartburn solved. >>> i'm saijal patel with your mountain. >> announcer: wrap-up. the dow jones in

leading off tonight, perry's in. hours before eight republicans gather for tonight's debate in iowa we got the word. nbc news confirmed rick perry of texas, the texas governor will formally announce his intention to run for president this saturday. that's, of course, the same day as the iowa straw poll and a perfect way to for perry to upstage the event and other candidates. sarah palin, too, is in iowa and she and perry are getting lots of buzz. could that be because republicans are simply unhappy with tonight's debate lineup? the big question, it's not winning the debate, when will the party emerge as dominant? traditional, whose turn is it? guys like romney and pawlenty or the tea party will triumph? the bachmann ring, surrender or treason? a bad showing tonight could spell the end of a couple of the candidacies. also, put together an unpopular dead deal, 30 american deaths in afghanistan, a terrible run on wall street and declining poll number, and what do you get? a bunch of democrats getting very nervous about

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 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 kacandidat

perry? >> that will happen. no. [laughter] the reality... >> jon: answer this question as you would have when you were still rnc chair. i just want to hear the difference. just for a little bit, the difference. [applause] >> as rnc chairman i would have said, yeah, in someone else's lifetime. >> jon: okay. >> i mean, that's the truth of the matter. everyone knows and the history is welcome toed of the stress and strain between the bush-rove camp and the perry camp, even though bush encouraged then- democrat perry to switch parties. but it was matter of once he did, that once he got into camp, he's like, i got my own thing, i'm doing my own thing. that's true with a lot of these folks. and i think the reality is the party is changing and it's been changing going back not to the last two years or so, back to 2005, 2004 it's been changing. >> jon: back to the 1850s. >> back to the 1850s. >> jon: moves in a very different direction. >> very different party. then it was more about individuals. today it's more about insti

. >> perry can win. >> romney, maybe perry. >> sean: why do you say maybe perry? >> right out of the gate he's talking about the federal reserve possibly acting in a treasonous fashion. if he keeps making statements like that, that is going to backfire. >> i was a mistake. >> people aren't going to be talking about in a week but if it keeps happening over and over again you are not going to win overvoters. >> sean: what they are trying to do is marginalize him quickly. >> why is that? they are worried about him. >> sean: i think they are worried. but he has a of creating jobs. >> if if the democrats were smart and bold they would go to him and say this country is in trouble. millions are unemployed. you and your vacations and leisure are mocking the poor. they should go to him and say, you failed you are ineffective. you have a failed presidency. you should stand down and let somebody else have a run. >> he's not going to do that this is nothing new this is what you said when he was running for office and you warned everybody. people didn't want to see it because

funded at least partially by the federal stimulus money which perry once predicted would lead -- perry has no trouble railing against texas and the recovery act while happily extending the taxpayer help. on wednesday, perry spoke at the politics and eggs breakfast in new hampshire, but an interaction perry had afterwards that has a lot of people talking today. >> bank of america, we'll help you out. >> wait, what? did an official from bank of america just side by a republican presidential candidate and say he would help him out? >> bank of america, we will help you out. >> yep. that's what happened. it turns out that bank of america, that official is james mahoney who sits on the board of directors which sponsored the event. bank of america issued this statement today. "bank of america does not endorse presidential candidates, the refshs was about following up on the substance of the speech about job creation and economic growth." what bank of america did not mention is -- while he doesn't appear to be a registered lobbyist, he is a chairman of bank of america's new hampshire pac, an i

rick perry pulls from him. if he's able to craft a strong economic message he greatly impacts mitt romney. so he actually impacts 3 of 4 candidates beyond one candidate. >> we're going to leave it there. erick erickson, roland martin, mimi swartz. good to have you all on the program. thank you so much. >>> reality it's a lot more complicated and the relationship is kind of fascinating. take a look. reportedly, there's been bad blood all around. jim acosta has the "raw politics" tonight. >> amen. >> amen. >> amen. >> reporter: for rick perry, it's a question keeps coming up, not whether he's running for president, but whether he's running from a certain president named george w. bush. >> i called him on his birthday. >> reporter: this week, perry told "time" magazine there's no bad blood with the man he replaced as governor from texas. >> not from my perspective and not between george w. bush and i. >> reporter: go to youtube and you'll find a different story. four years ago speaking on behalf of rudy giuliani's

try not to engage perry, try not to engage and make this story between barack obama and rick perry. what perry did was absolutely the right thing to do politically. make this a race already in the minds of the republican voters between obama and perry and that perry is the kind of guy who has the fire and the grit to take on the president. >> from what i've heard over the year, there's no great love between the george w. bush camp and rick perry's camp, is that right? >> that's absolutely right. >> that's right. look, this went back, it's gone back for years. there's a series of tensions and slights. but what it really is is this. for the george bush people and karl rove ran politics in austin texas, it's been rick perry and his people. who actually is the king of the mountain. it's the ball ton gang and the james gang. the james gang is running things for a while. it's really not been enough, i guess, the town of austin has not been big enough for both of them. >> only sof those bush types are suggesting other candidates like mitch daniels or paul ryan or chris christie. say what y

>> perry, perry's conservative enough to win. his i think biggest challenge is going to be not only authenticity but it's going to be is he an echo of the last election. george bush, texas, same kind you have ideology. same texas boots and we lost. is he a sequel to the movie that nobody went to see last time? he's got to distinguish himself from that. >> ron paul was second. does he stand a chance? he's very popular here. you can't walk an inch without seeing a butcher sticker, a button, something, a t-shirt, a tattoo of him. but does he stand a chance? >> and sometimes the most intense campaigns are the least successful. george mcgovern, barry goldwater. he doesn't travel. he doesn't appeal to anything beyond a very narrow base. but it's funny. he's become almost an elder statesman. a lot of things he said about the economy and sound money, now everybody's saying. >> saying the same thing. so as we go before beat go to break here, that's your final advice for everyone? i'm going to let you put a stamp on it, if you will. >> the

in joining the race, rick perry brings serious baggage from, but if rick perry does well, as many are expecting him to do, if rick perry is still in this several months from now, you will know that democrats are winning against him if the race is not about religious convictions or social conservatism, but instead about rick perry's belief that social security and medicare are unconstitutional and must be taken apart. joining us now, howard dean, former governor of vermont and former chairman of the democratic national committee, howard dean, thanks so much for your time tonight. >> thanks for having me on. >> social security and medicare are unconstitutional in addition to what i quoted in the intro, he also called them a ponzi scheme. this sounds to me the same sort of republican argument that's been a gift for democrats all year, do you see it that way? >> this is going to be interesting, you'd think this might appeal to the tea party, the problem is he's got some other problems, for example, he talks a lot about the jobs created in texas since he was governor. there have been a lot

that approximate big black cloud that hangs over america. >> that black cloud perry -- perry makes bush look like a moderate. he thinks that social security and medicare are unconstitutional. he doesn't like the 16th or the 17th amendment, and he suggested texas might want to see seed from the union. radical rock star ted nugent wore a confederate flag t-shirt at his inauguration. perry wants to bury those steers and he wants to bury them by pushing how great texas is. >> i'm proud what we've done in the state of texas over the last decade. over half of the jobs created in america during periods of time in that decade was in the state of texas. 40% of all of the jobs created in america from june of 2009 to the present were created in texas. i know how to create jobs. you let the private sector free them up from overtax nation, free them overregulation and late gags and the government get out of the pay and let the private sector do what the private sector know how to do. that's what we need to be all about. >> perry's right. he knows how to create jobs. really bad jobs. according to the

it looks like there's no love lost already between mitt romney and rick perry. >> the optics, rick perry did not look too rattled. as we say in texas, this ain't his first rodeo. but when you compare the jobs records, you're really comparing terrible to awful. mitt romney was 47th out of 50 states. rick perry took over, unemployment was 4.2% in texas. it's 8.2% now. huge percentage of the jobs created have been minimum wage jobs with no benefits. he leads america in the percentage of people uninsured, percentage of children uninsured. i hope they fight it out between terrible and awful. >> half the jobs of the whole country? >> there's been a huge increase in the price of oil, which always drives employment in texas. bad for the rest of america, but very good for my beloved home state. and it's had a huge increase in population, which is also for good thing for texas. but when economists take a look at it, they say these aren't jobs you raise a family on. that's going to be the future of jobs, not low-wage no benefit jobs you can't raise a family on. i think democrats have a very strong

perry will make that completely clear on saturday in what is now perry's obvious attempt to upstage the iowa straw poll that will be taking place at the same time that perry gives a speech in charleston, south carolina. joining me now, msnbc analyst and huffington post reporter alex wagner. alex, perry is in. >> he's in. >> pretty exciting. >> we've got news to play with? >> we do, we do. this is perry's attempt to toss a ten gallon hat over the state of iowa. but it comes as his campaign was denied their plot of grass at the straw poll. so lest any opportunity go by to stick a cowboy's spur in the gop race, they made the announcement today. >> it's designed to specifically kind of preempt in certain ways the debate tonight? >> sure. >> and so they they -- but going forward here, what -- is the -- is perry going to come in to iowa or is he going to go full force everywhere? >> you've got to think that, look, he has major conservative support. this is his wheel house. he's going to play in iowa. he'll be in waterloo on sunday. he's ramped up against the machine that he knows that michell

know about rick perry? >> he really believes in this stuff. >> unstoppable chuck norris-like figure. >> rick perry runs to the right and right away from the facts. >> governor perry is really big on miracles. >> rick perry does things rick perry's way. >> debunked the texas myth about job creation. >> not the high-paying jobs. >> jobs that got moved from one state to another. >> the tea party and the texasen. >> i don't think people in the tea party are going to be going for mitt romney. >> i welcome governor perry. >> rick perry also managed to offend carl rove. >> you know when you know you've gone too far? >> i got in trouble not talking about the federal reserve yesterday. >> you don't accuse the chairman of the federal reserve of being a traitor. >> cowboy from texas. >> we don't charge people with treason because we disagree with this. >> president obama kind of sort of should figure out if he loves america. >> i'll cut him some slack. >> you want a president in love with america. >> and michele bachm

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 your side. handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the

>> stephen: tonight, rick perry becomes the republican front-runner. of course they're letting him run in front-- he's the one with the gun. [laughter] then, did adam and eve really exist? or have i been leaving out a plate of cookies every arbor day for nothing? [laughter] and my guest tonight is actor jeff bridges, performing music from his new album. it's all the songs they cut from "tron." [laughter] 152 people set the world record for biggest group shower. afterwards, they set another record for the longest awkward silence. [laughter] this is "the colbert report." [ captioning sponsored by comedy central "the colbert report" theme music playing] [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] thank you very much. [cheers and applause] welcome to the report. good to have you with us. thank you so much. [cheers and applause] [crowd chanting stephen] [cheers and applause] thank you very much. thank you very much. [cheers and applause] thank you so much. i'eç gj t to say hi to everybodyphere, d all my cousins by the dozens. [laughter] nation, texas gover

perry loves to talk about his jobs record. but $4 billion in cuts will cost thousands of public schoolteachers their jobs. the cuts will hit every kitchen table in the lone star state. to cope, some districts are implementing fees for riding the bus or attending preschool. prekindergarten. many are considering tax increases. where is the deal here? rick perry's refusal to raise taxes has made once again middle class texans shell out more money to put johnny and sally on the school bus. the texas tribune reports. in the teller independent school district just north of ft. worth students will ride the bus, they'll have to pay $185 each per semester. now, let's do some math here folks, a family with three school aged children will have to pay over $1100 a year to put them on the bus to ride to school? this kind of money is devastating for poor, middle income and lower class families. it's hard to come up with $185 a semester per kid when you earn $7.25 an hour. i'm sure there's a few folks like that in texas. that would be workin

rick santorum and rick perry. the mccain side of it used to be huntman and pawlenty and romney but now pawlenty is out of it. so even though romney is definitely the front-runner here's your wild card issue. he doesn't fit into any pigeonhole, ron paul. after a shockingly strong showing when he ran in 2008 a lot of elements of his political message got co-opted over the past four years by other republican candidates this time around criticizing the federal reserve, arcane and elaborate ideas about policy and leave me alone rhetoric while being big government when it comes to abortion. a lot of others have developed ron paulisms. but what he has been getting cheers for and what he seems to be connecting on is bring the troops home. bring the troops home, end the wars now, isolationism that's always part of his message. jon huntsman who picked up a top pawlenty staffer from new hampshire is the only other candidate other than ron paul who is trying to tap into that well about the wars. who is trying to work public e

from president bush. >> reporter: perry isn't the only one doing the distancing, when perry ran for re-election last year, bush's father and his vice president both supported senator kay bailey hutchison in what was a bitter challenge. >> in some of the texas staffers for george w. bush and governor perry's staffers. >> reporter: ary fleischer says there's no scandal in perry wanting to be his own man. >> part of running for office is establishing your identity, sometimes you reinforce that which came before you and sometimes you differ, i suspect we'll see both with governor perry. >> reporter: in his speech perry is expected to tout his economic record but democrats in the state point out that record has never been tested on a national stage. that process has just begun. jim acosta, cnn, charleston, south carolina. >> let us know what you think, i'll be tweeting tonight. >>> up next, the first big test for gop candidates tomorrow, some of the most interesting moments from the debate last night and sarah palin showing up in iowa for the straw poll. the question is she seeking publi

rick perry, rick perry, rick perry. this is perhaps the larger role of rick perry in our national politics today, to make stuff obvious. and maybe that is a metaphor for his broader role in the campaign. but is rick perry's being this blatant about this any different legally than anybody else going around and nudging and winking about their monlaunderinelaund ? might isikoff is now joining us. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, rachel. >> you probably do not see this as money laundering. but in what ways is it not money laundering? >> one person's money laundering is another's free speech. and it happens in this case the other people who saw it that way was the supreme court, so that's the law. the problem is, you know, what you've really laid out pretty well is just how far back we've come from where we were nine years ago, 2002. mccain/finegold, which was the result of years of pushing and undercoring the role of special interest and big money in american politics. and let's not forget, it was the champion cause

. >> rick perry certainly has -- fire in the belly. there are reports today that you've been advising him. are you advising rick perry on his campaign? >> no, i'm not advising any candidate. i haven't endorsed any candidate for the nomination. i didn't in 2008. don't intend to this time. i served with rick perry for seven and a half years. i have a high opinion of him. he's got a great record. but there are others who i've served with as well or got to know. rick santorum on in a minute. rick was elected to u.s. senate when i was chairman of the party. i have a high admiration for him. very capable guy. but i don't intend to take sides in the nomination contest, but i do intend to be very active next year. >> do you think that rick perry has to clean up his language? karl rove said what he said about ben bernanke is not presidential. others and also bob mcdonald who succeeded rick perry as head of the republican governors association was on with me this week and he doesn't agree that president obama may not love his country. he thinks

governor, rick perry. who has had the courage today to call this time of fasting and prayer just as abraham lincoln did -- [ speaking in a foreign language ] -- in the darkest days of the civil war. >> hagee was not inspired to repeat his previous statements about hitler following god's wishes by killing jews or that catholicism is "a godless theology of hate." hagee explained why he likes to hang with a fake preacher like hagee. politico reports governor perry plans to admit he's running for perry at his speech in charleston, south carolina, this saturday, the same day america's political attention was supposed to be focussed on the ames straw poll in iowa. joining me now is howard fineman, editorial director for "the huffington post" and senior political analyst. is he running? >> i think so. >> is this official breaking news from howard fineman? >> no, this is howard fineman talking into a very plugged in senior republican. >> not the engines running, plane set to go to new hampshire and he decide he's

it might be in rick perry world, right? he's in the -- in the past two days he's demonstrated why people, republicans i know in texas, have said this guy is going to blow up. it may be that this is just who rick perry is, that these intemperate things he says are, yes, part of his design, but, in fact, are off the -- just out of bounds and are going to get him in serious trouble. i don't think the carl roves of the world like going back to this mean, i think it's been done, and he killed osama bin laden, so it really doesn't have the kind of traction that it once had. >> when you're talking about republicans who are skeptical of rick perry's chances and see a line like this as something indicating he's not going to last in the long term, i see it as evidence of his discipline, he's going to run with the you come down to texas, we'll show you what a f.e.d. chairman has to face when he does something i can't explain about federal policy, military doesn't respect america, he never served in the military, he's just going back t

. >> and perry's rebuttal? >> give him my love. >> and claim to have the job creation bragging rights. >> 40% of all the jobs created in america from june of 2009 until the present were created in texas. i know how to create jobs. >> a packed hour ahead, including putting that claim from governor perry to the truth test and showing you how the early 2012 map is so different from 2008. here to get us started are jessica yellin. and from austin texas tonight, mr. herman. to you first, my friend. governor perry is in the race. president obama is in the midwest. they're in the same state of iowa. suddenly today we have a campaign of contrast? >> yes. it took a while for him to say it officially. you saw it officially saturday in south carolina. now it has that full time campaign feel to it. >> when you see the president. he is in minnesota, then the bus rolls into iowa. then it's going to go into rural illinois. these are places that he carried easily last time. these are states that if you look back at the 2008 ma