it's just simply not true that republicans won't vote -- that youth won't vote for republicans and even the very first millennialist when they came to the polls, the first eligible to vote in 2000 what their ticket evenly between al gore and george bush. i think it is fair to say that because you don't have as much experience as older generation, their political views are formed as much by the failures we have known in my lifetime as they are by any vision that is espoused by a particular politician. i think reagan was aided by the failures of the carter investigation, but he also is able to communicate conservatism's though beautifully an entire generation rally to this vision. and i think that's also a barack obama was able to do. the youth -- the first at breaking in 04 because they believed john kerry's mantra that it was at the wrong time in the wrong place and in 2005 the failures of the federal government to really respond to hurricane katrina also affected them as well as candles in 2006 in the house of representatives. and i think it is republican brand damage they tribute away

we all know they are not republicans. overwhelmingly not republican. and they represented 18% of the vote in 2008 and anticipated to be as much as one 1/4 of the electorate in 2012. in 2008 overwhelmingly voted barack obama, 66%, 32% john mccain. the reasons this is urgent is because partisan identity takes on the characteristics of cement over time it starts and after they clear barriers it begins to solidify. after three presidential election cycles, the identity solidifies. they voted john kerry 2004, barack obama at gwot 2008. this means republicans have roughly 16 months to make inroads into this generation before we lose them for the rest of their life. this is troubling to me. not just because i am a republican but i believe the ideas of the conservative movement and the republican party offer better solutions that affect them most directly. the title of my book "american individualism" is a reference to my great grandfather herbert hoover and the principal he set forth almost 90 years ago in which i believe captures the spirit of the millennial

republican president, republican congress. they've lost the high ground on being able to say that they're the party of national security, they're the party that can deal with national conflict questions. and because of that, we see them confused. we see them almost irrational in their criticism about obama. the same thing we saw when obama killed bin laden. or in this situation, right now he was right about gadhafi. he was right about libya. and that's killing them. because the contrast, ed, is they were confused. they were disoriented on what to do about libya. you remember one day they were saying one thing, the next day it was another. they were confused about what to do with the most violent terrorist in the world who was responsible for lockerbie. let me point this out. ronald reagan was the president during the lockerbie incident and george bush sr., if you recall, he's the guy that gave gadhafi a free pass on those murders when george bush sr. came into office. every single one of the serious republican candidates, if c

the republican senators there in wisconsin was fired i mean is this. tensions high in wisconsin is this just indication of nasty stuff going on. well it certainly are a lot of people are keyed up they are engaged they are dialed their own air and i think now that the discussion on the debt ceiling has been out results for the time being that we will once again here in wisconsin really become the center of attention in the next seven days because there is so much at stake as far as standing up for our working families here in the state of wisconsin and if the democrats are successful be able to take back the majority in the state senate you can really beat that goal if you lack a lot of this extreme radical agenda that governor walker and his republican colleagues continue to rubberstamp and really told the party line at every opportunity need to stand up for senate we need to stand up for families we need to stand up for communities and we just cannot for wisconsin we are so polarized and divisive right now that people don't recognize the process and s

with 7% in the republican ahead 54% to 46%. and in district 32 the republican incumbent is dan kapanke. democratic challenger is jennifer schilling. with 24% in kapanke leads -- excuse me, kapanke trails 49% to 51%. we'll be updating the recall election results as they come in throughout the night. but now, live from madison, wisconsin with the latest, it's "the ed show." have a good night. >>> good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show," tonight from madison, wisconsin, where the recall elections for the radical republicans under way. the polls have closed. the results at this hour. in the 2nd district, 49% reporting, republican state senator rob cowles 57%, democratic challenger nancy nusbaum in at 43%. in the 8th district, 7% reporting, republican state senator alberta darling 71%. democratic state representative sandy pasch in at 29%. in the 10th district, 29% reporting, republican state senator sheila harsdorf 59%. democratic challenger shelly moore 49%. in the 14th district, republican state senator luther olsen

he is a republican and oversaw a the balloting. he now tells radio iowa that some of the sproets were counted for rick perry were actually cast for rick parry. spelled with an "a." they were all write-in votes. quoting the secretary of state, to be honest with you, i don't exactly know how many parry votes there were. but i know they were all given to the governor. so the strong showing at ames may have been numerically in part thanks to stephen colbert making fun of him so hard in iowa which is like, there is a diagram. one is just and one is fantastic. i >>> here's how governor scott walker of wisconsin spins the employment figures in his state. when job numbers in wisconsin are up, it is because of his policies, obviously. when the job figures go down, who, me? then it's objectly the lousy national economy that's to blame and poor scott walk her nothing to do with it. >>> wall street roller coaster -- concerns about

last november, as in many states, the republicans won hugely in wisconsin's election, the new republican governor decided although he had not campaigned on the issue of union rights, he would use his new power as governor and the big republican majorities in both houses of the state legislature to strip union rights in wisconsin. wisconsin, in turns out, is pretty attached to his union rights and so huge, no, really, huge crowds took to the streets of madison and to the state capitol building itself this winter and spring protesting governor walker and the republicans' action. the largest demonstrations at the state capitol in history. the state senate's democrats hatched a plan to stop the republicans from passing the union-stripping measure by themselves fleeing the state so the wisconsin senate could not get a quorum, so the senate would not be allowed to vote on or pass anything. ultimately on march 9 of this year by unprecedented and dodgy procedural means, the wisconsin republicans did figure out how to pass the union-stripping bill anyway. every republican in the wisconsin senate

eisenhower, a moderate republican. liberal republican crowd, rockefeller. nixon in the middle all of those years. now it looks like romney, probably running as a kid when his dad failed to win. pawlenty running for years in his mind, and new people coming into politics, some with a religious background like bachmann and rick perry. who's going to win this? someone way new kind of background in the republican party or the traditional wing, sort of the whose turn is it crowd? >> a good question and hopefully what we'll help to decide tonight at the debate and saturday in the straw poll, and beyond into the caucus and the primary, chris, but i would say this, that one person left out of this equation that there hasn't been much discussion, ron paul who has built a lot of organization here and we should not underestimate the five years of work he's invested in this. aside from that, then i think what you're looking at is, will the energy that's generated by these candidates carry them through a straw poll and fairly high profile that haven't entered into this f

it's the republican party. but it's interesting to ask, well, did all republicans back then now end up in the tea party? and the answer is, no. actually, the tea party supporters are less than half of all the people who favored the republican party. so the tea party movement represents a minority within the republican party. >> and specifically it is a minority that has differences of opinions, statistically significant differences of opinion with the rest of the people you're serving and even the rest of republicans about the role of religion in government. but yet that hasn't really become part of their sort of tea party brand. is that fair to say? >> it isn't part of the tea party brand yet, but it essential is a certainly is a fact. what we were asking is what differentiates the republicans that ended up with the tea party from republicans who don't support the tea party. and, you know, you might think maybe it's the size of government. these tea party people are really upset about big government, and maybe

do not tell me republicans would object to that, republicans have asked for it, even if they did only ask for themselves. they say politics is the art of the possible, beltway has been saying for more than a year that any political action to save the economy is impossible because republicans will just not allow it, but we as a country have been through four huge shocks that should have changed everybody's perception about what is possible right now. we learned the recession we are trying to crawl out of now was even worse than we originally thought it was. we came within a whisker of defaulting on our debt because of the flirtation with default, krit rating was downgraded and now the market looks like this every other day or so. we've absorbed these dramatic shocks in just the last two weeks. anybody who tells you about what's possible and impossible in washington, if their list of what's impossible is the same now as it was before all of these shocks, stop listening to that person. we've had a wake-up call followed by an alarm clock, followed by somebody throwing a bucket of water on

and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture president obama gave republicans exactly what they wanted round one of the debt limit hostage taking so in round two rolls around will we finally see some balance as the president already lost that fight to the us they claim their job creators will this republican debt limit plan actually lead to job creation a little break the back of our limping economic recovery and the koch brothers are on the ground it was constant find out what their political operatives are up to in the badger state to make sure republicans come out on top in the upcoming recall elections here's a hint voter suppression. now that the republican written debt limit deal has passed the house and senate with half the democratic caucus eighteen along the way and president obama has signed the raw deal into law republicans are soaking in their victory it was john boehner last night an interview with c.b.s. and when you look at the this final agreement that we came to with the white house and i got ninety eight percent of what i wanted i'm pretty happy. i'd be ha

republicans for democrats. it goes to the core issue, getting young the finger- pointing and getting something done. >> as to the finger-pointing, when it comes, as it did recently, on the president's national televised debate with you relied on certain issues of the past, republicans learned through a very painful time where we have rightfully been put in the minority for our failure to control spending. we self assess ourselves. we were assessed by the public. many of our colleagues did not return, and we learned from that painful experience that spending in the way we did was unacceptable as such to the republican party, so we learned our lesson. democrat party has not here they talk more taxes, more spending, and pretend somehow that the government will help grow the economy or lead to prosperity would exactly the opposite is the case. to me, you have one party that has learned from being put into a minority for failing to control spending and another that has not in terms of the senate and in terms of the

but i think republican. ever since its inception that party has been under that kind of pro special privilege and they kind of create. it a congress. i still ask for adequate they. are displaced persons then and it committee and it can't make no witness. and truman was just getting warmed up. department know what they've done to the labor department since that torn it up is on a one zero left the sponsor thing and they've got the appropriations on that so it can hardly function. i recommended an increase in the minimum wage. what they get. nothing. i discussed a number of the failures of the republican congress and every one of them is important. by indirection this a.d.'s congress has tried to sabotage the power policy with the united states has pursued for fourteen years we can you say this country from a continuation no they have congress and from miss ruth from now on i must have your help you must get in and push and win this election the country can't afford another republican congress. are you taking

credits for driving down our credit rating eric cantor is telling his republican colleagues that they need to stick together and keep holding the american economy. by refusing to cut even the billionaire private jet tax loophole so just how bad will things get in this new double a rated plus or plus rated america and who's to blame here's our hero offer his take on the economy and the panic is dr richard wolffe economist and professor of economics emeritus the university of mass of massachusetts amherst he's also the author of numerous books including capitalism hits the fan the global economic meltdown and what to do about it dr wolfe welcome . thank you very much tom thank you for joining us standard and poor's s. and p. and their eight page report justifying this downgrade wrote and i quote we have changed our assumption on this there speaking of the probability that the bush tax cuts will be extended because the majority of republicans in congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues a position we believe congress reinforced by passing the act like i was that i

republicans have been critical of his record on economy and jobs in recent days and the republicans are well aware this is coming. listen to the president back home at a fund-raiser wednesday night -- >> when i said change we can believe in, i didn't say change we can believe in tomorrow. not change we can believe in next week. we knew this was going to take time. because we've got this big, messy, tough democracy. >> we've got this big, messy, tough democracy won't fit on a bumper sticker. how does it work in 2012? what is it, change takes time? keep the change? how do you frame it, david? >> i think the president has a very clear vision of how we recover from this recession and restore the -- the economic security of the middle-class, and those things are related. and that's what this fight is going to be about. it's not going to be about bumper stickers, it's going to be about real lives and about how we lift our economy in a way that's fair, that gives people broad opportunity, that lets people live the lives they want to live. that's the debate people are looking for. >> we learned

he is a republican and overyou a the balloting. he now tells radio iowa that some of the sproets were counted for rick perry were actually cast for rick parry. spelled with an "a." they were all write-in votes. quoting the secretary of state, to be honest with you, i don't exactly know how many parry votes there were. but i know they were all given to the governor. so the strong showing at ames may have been numerically in part thanks to stephen colbert making fun of him so hard in iowa which is like, there is a diagram. one is just and one is fantastic. [ artis brown ] america is facing some tough challenges right now. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our count

he is a republican and overyou a the balloting. he now tells radio iowa that some of the sproets were counted for rick perry were actually cast for rick parry. spelled with an "a." they were all write-in votes. quoting the secretary of state, to be honest with you, i don't exactly know how many parry votes there were. but i know they were all given to the governor. so the strong showing at ames may have been numerically in part thanks to stephen colbert making fun of him so hard in iowa which is like, there is a diagram. one is just and one is fantastic. every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year. that's how we're helping set opportunity in motion. a living, breathing intelligence that's helping drive the future of bus

welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this hour the republicans yell and scream about illegal immigration is one group of people who are making a lot of money off of the for profit private prison industry operate down this tangled web of special interests and politicians who are profiting off the most downtrodden people in our society and so much for being able to ask your republican congressman a question on the next town hall about him ideally take i'll tell you how paul ryan and his buddies are privatizing democracy to avoid anger. constituents of the sun. in the midst of the rest of the news with the economy flailing there's at least one industry other than wall street and big oil that's booming and that's the business of locking up immigrants now because there's more illegal immigration in the united states that is actually less but because private prison lobbyists with the help of paid off lawmakers who write strict anti immigration laws like arizona's as phaeton seventy are making sure that more and more illegal and sometimes legal immigrants are rounded u

all year republicans in d.c. and in the states have been crusading really hard against union rights. modern conservativism is hostile to unions, they like to talk about what they call the job creators, not the job halvers. corporate profits are set to hit an all-time profit as we decide whether -- so calling corporations job creators right now is starting to feel a little bit like a sick joke, but that is whose side today's republicans have taken. and taking that side means trying to eliminate union rights, which makes corporations very happy with whom the republicans they've donated and which has the happy political side effect of gutting the best organized, most effective political force that typically helps democrats come election time. in the van guard state of wisconsin this year, paul walker's plan to cut union rights led to protests which filled the capitol city of madison for weeks, after the protests and political tactics, the union-stripping bill did become law in spring, but that's baring consequences,

this is a republican stronghold county. she is a republican activist. are you worried -- i know you know a lot about wisconsin politics. are you worried that if it does come down to sort of election protection and election integrity concerns that that's going to essentially infect wisconsin politics with some contentiousness and acrimony and suspicion that's going to be hard to grow out of in years to come? >> well, i guarantee you, rachel, these folks here in wisconsin are not going to let this story go away. i've had two state senators tell me moments ago that they think it's going to end up in an investigation. i mean, they're going right to it. they have been worried about this in recent weeks about how this might unfold. and i know it's a tired and worn out saying, but you can't make this stuff up. it's almost unbelievable. that you have six recall elections tonight and oh, by the way, the county that's had trouble in the past is right back in the firestorm again? i mean, come on, folks. i just think it's just hard to believe. and there is a real s

but if republicans keep convincing the beltway nothing is possible, if that is true, if republicans are, in fact, going to be able to block everything that president obama and the democrats want to do to overtly help the economy, if the shocks we've been through over the last few weeks from getting our credit downgraded, s&p says because republicans said national default was no big deal for them, from the downgrade to the stock markets terrifying ride, if those shocks are not enough to shock us into a new republican reality and republicans are going to stop any new fiscal action to help the economy, there's only one other tool available to the government, it's called monetary policy, federal reserve, how much money is in the economy at any time, interest rates charged to banks, all that fun stuff. the president alone can't do anything on fiscal policy really, fiscal policy is only controlled through congress, and republicans, so far at least, have decided to stop any fiscal policy from going through congress, so the only other thing available is the federal reserve run, in fact, by a re

it is a republican idea. obama supports it too, and so now republicans are against it. the individual mandate in health reform as a means of getting everybody covered, not only is that mitt romney's implemented idea from his time as governor in massachusetts, it is a republican idea dating back to the 1990s when people first came up with the idea, so this republican idea, obama is also for that, and so now republicans see their own individual mandate idea as the end of the world over and over and over again, it is republicans against their own ideas. this is the obama era in politics, the great flabb flabbergasting, we should have known it was coming with the first and most blatant of these from john mccain. >> during this campaign, you, like your rivals, have been putting the first priority on border security, but your original immigration proposal back in 2006 was much broader and included a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants that were already here. at this point, if your original proposal came to a vote on the senate floor, would you vote for it? >> it won

republicans are fighting. american people want progress. >> bret: as deputy press secretary for president obama. you were the briefer for president obama when they were in martha vineyard and you asked what the difference was between the 2009 trip and 2010 and you said this. >> i would say the difference since his raication the automotive trea is back on its feet and the economy is moving in a different direction. you heard karl mention the gall up poll 26 percent on approval of the president's economy. what is the difference? >> the difference is the republicans won the house. they won the house and since that time they have done nothing to produce jobs and put nothing forward to partner with the president to create jobs and move this economy in the right direction. are poll numbers low. sure. when you are a strong leader you have to make strong decisions that make people unhappy. the president is not pouring over the poles but make the right decisions for the american people. >> bret: karl, i asked the quest

bob is a republican. caller: what i noticed about the debate last night, the thing i shot -- the three i think should drop out should be temple into, paul, and hunstman. i think is more like a trojan horse. he is more of a democrat i think that a republican. host: and why do you think they should drop out? caller: i did not like the answers. i thought paul was made about iran. pawlenty, i do not think anything about him. huntsman, he stayed mainly on what he was going to do. he did not bring up what i thought was more important, the economy. i am tired of hearing everyone complained about barack obama being on vacation. it is a lot of work trying to destroy a country that is 250 years old, especially when people are catching on to you. host: perhaps this decoster sentiment, she writes -- it is way too early for this nonsense. we're seeking your reaction to the republicans campaigning for voters attention in advance of the iowa straw poll. you might enjoy this local reporting. for the 100th anniversary of

you think of the way obama handles this republican house and republican-influence senate, what makes you think he will do any better? >> that is a great question. what difference would an obama victory make? >> it would prevent counterrevolution. 1/6 of the american economy, that is where a lot of republicans worry. yes, we will hold last, yes, we will probably win the senate, but unless we win the white house, americans will change indelibly and republicans will think obamacare -- >> obama must be sitting in martha's vineyard asking himself, can i be the same old guy i have been or, or do i have to be something radically different? for the first time he has to be asking himself that. as the numbers get worse, he has to look for some big thing that gets the attention back on him. tax reform, there are other ways to go, but it is a fundamental question for him because of the sort of rope-a-dope coasting into re-election is looks more precarious. >> he has to look for 41 democratic senators. if he does not, but he is in trouble. >> well, he will -- >> he has got to thwart republicans i

and mitt romney, of course, the old republican party, perhaps tired old republican party? is that the big three or the only three? >> i think the big three and the only three, chris. you have perry coming in so strong it's his to lose. romney a very, very beleaguered front-runner who's had months of a wide open campaign to prove he can do a what howard just described, agents bit of handshaking and a little bit of eye contact, and romney showing that he's about as robotic at al gore was. i think michele bachmann is also a very good retail campaigner. also very organized, but i talked to a republican strategist and very big donor today who is a porting perry. while we were talking for about an hour, his phone didn't stop ringing. it was pawlenty supporters, it was bachmann supporters. it was romney supporter, and it was money coming in. he can match romney dollar for dollar no matter how much money romney spends. it is over for mitt romney. >> okay. looking down the road. i love your projection. howard, a poll production. you're doing the regular street corner, what's it cal

as republicans, we're angry at obama. we're not so angry we would vote republican. we saw maxine waters the congresswoman at that town hall with a lot of angry constituents. these are supporters of the president saying we don't know what the strategy is. why is it so many supporters of president obama consistently say we don't know what he stands for? >> he's got to be clear. he's got to be bold. i agree with my frind maria. he's got to give certainty to the markets. markets, again, don't be critical o wall street and big business in this country. at the end of the day those two forces are main street. they create job do those things, it will turn around. 4% to 5% growth again, america feels like america again. maxine waters will come around. >> we need to get our arms around spend ing morethan we take in. >> we've got to live it there. rundtable, thank you. >>> before we go, next sunday our meet the candidates series continues as the former governor of utah, republican presidential contender jon huntsman wl join david gregory live in studio for an exclusive [ male

also district 10 goes to the republicans. and district 2 goes to the republicans. 32. district 32, we are reporting tonight that district 32, including the city of lacrosse, has been called for the democrat, jennifer shilling. jennifer shilling has been declared the winner in district 32 over state senator dan kapanke. kapanke is the first republican to be recalled in wisconsin. john? >> and ed, this is something we should underline. a republican senator, a veteran who has won again and again, won in the obama landslide year, was defeated after he voted to take away labor rights. that was never going to happen until this year. >> how big a win is this for jennifer shilling and the democrats? >> that district the democrats have been trying to win for decades. they have had a very hard time getting that district back. they finally got it back, and we have to recognize that that is a district where jen shilling went out and said i stand for labor rights. she was in the assembly. she voted against the walker agenda. kapanke in the senate voted for it. >> so it has been a l

republicans held the country hostage to cut spending and hurt today republican leadership admitted it. this is "the ed show," and as ed would say, let's get to work. >>> in a very coordinated effort, the far left is once again trying to marginalize the tea party. >> republican leadership is in on bill o'reilly's left wing conspiracy theory. today mitch mcconnell admitted that the gop held the country hostage. bill maher weighs in. >>> and then there's the other republican hostage crisis. the faa shutdown is killing thousands of jobs. we'll have the latest. >>> and in minnesota, a student is suing her high school for allowing kids to hold an annual wigger day. the girl's mother is my guest and she'll explain her case. the level of right wing victimization over hostage are at a fevered pitch. republicanare crying foul because vice president biden allegedly referred to the tea party as terrorists. he denies he used the word. that doesn't stop sarah palin from playing the victim. >> heck, sean, if we were real domestic terrorists, president obama would be wanting to pal around with us, wo

tree threat and i don't understand why the tea partiers and the koch brothers in the republican party are so hell bent for leather to create a nation where the rich people or rich people in a poor country would you know tom i really think that a lot of the people who voted for tea party candidates in the last election were not voting for rich people or not voting for a nation where rich people were getting rich or they were voting in outrage against the bailouts to wall street they did was not done by the bush administration and and they didn't realize that i had said i don't think they realized because the democratic party was party to those bell. i was bad on messaging but you're right it was a bi bi partisan bring how did president obama drop the ball in this debate and what does he like you know should he be channeling f.d.r. absolutely f.d.r. faced the situation almost identical to the situation that barack obama has faced over the past year f.d.r. in one nine hundred forty two one thousand nine hundred forty three faced a hostile congress people people now don't remember that fo

he is actually a republican pooch. i want to show you all some pictures ever my weekend with banksy. we were out around the city. first, i took him to see the statue of liberty. banksy loves anything green and stands for american freedom. i tried to take bank ss sy on a walk but it was the wrong green a soy took him down to wall strooet to do his business and boy did he have fun. he made lots of friends with i goes on the street. we strolled up to wall street and banksy enjoyed how to and we made a stop to see his favorite baseball team, the mets. banksy loves citifield. there wasn't an empty seat in the place. those people in the crowd are corporations. but one thing ways confused at, it doesn't seem that the police in new york understand that people are corporations. because you know, you have to use a pooper scoopener new york when your dog does their business. and they never made me take out my pooper scooper, even those banksc and all his friends were craping all over the people in town. thanks for watching, i'm a

these are six republican state senators. five of their six districts lean quite republican. here are the results tonight. we're still getting partial results in from wisconsin in wisconsin state senate district 2 the republican incumbent is robert cowles, with 49% of the vote in he leaves his challenger 57 to 43. in wisconsin senate district 8 the incumbent republican senator is alberta darling. with 7% of the vote in she leads her democratic challenger sandy pasch 71% to 29%. again, just 7% in. in district 10 the republican incumbent is state senator sheila harsdorf. democratic challenger shelly moore. with 54% of precincts reporting the republican harsdorf leads her democratic challenger 58% to 42%. in district 14, a republican incumbent is state senator luther olsen. his democratic challenger is fred clark. right now with 51% of precincts -- sorry, excuse me, with 30% of precincts reporting the republican incumbent leads his democratic challenger 51% to 49%.

normal republicans, conservative republicans that seem mainstream or moderate, you are going to be replaced. the tea party is taking over. in fact, the next senator in line for that treatment is the other utah republican senator, oren hatch. oren hatch, is, perhaps, a very conservative senator. perhaps not conservative enough. jason chaffetz of utah has been making noise all year long that he was going to go after oren hatch next. he was going to primary oren hatch from the right, take that deep red republican utah senate seat and make it even deeper red. this week he finally made his big announcement about challenging hatch and he's not doing it. now, jason chaffetz hasn't been hinting, it's been telling everybody he's likely to do this, going to challenge oren hatch, but he's decided not to run against him. after oren hatch, the other senator told to watch out, was olympia snowe of maine. the warning was she's going to be replaced by a hard right tea party challenger. well, there are some activist guys running against her, but frankly nobody who's making a dent, no offense intended, one o

we'll see if the republicans will play ball. that story tomorrow on "the ed show." >>> coming up, rush limbaugh's racial comments land him in the zone again. he's the veteran. [ female announcer ] vets agree, a healthy check up starts inside. our breakthrough iams premium protection formula is developed with vets... ...with cutting edge ingredients for the lifelong health of your pet. [ cat ] what a surprise... straight as again! [ female announcer ] iams premium protection. our most advanced iams nutrition. ever. [ cat ] oh, i'm not in your way, am i doc? i...[yawns] am an iams cat. >>> and in psycho talk tonight, flying his racial flag once again. three years ago rush limbaugh accused colin powell of endorsing president obama just because he's black. now with the 2012 election coming up, limbaugh has another brand colin powell says he desn't know if he's voting for president obama in 2012. >> i don't know who i'm voting for. just as the case was in 2008, i'm going to watch the campaign unfold. i always felt it my responsibilit

it's a two-guy race now for that side of the republican contest. so even though romney is definitely the front-runner and favorite, here's your wildcard issue. you ready? michele bachmann won the ames straw poll over the weekend, for what that's worth. who came in second, republican congressman ron paul who doesn't fit into an pigeonhole. after a strokingly strong ron paul shows in 2008, a lot got co-oped over the last four years by other republican candidates this time around. criticizing the federal reserve, ar contain ideas about gold bars. leave me alone while being big government to abortion. a lot of candidates have adopted those issues. what ron paul got cheers for this year beyond his dead kalted ron paul cheers session. he's connecting on the public debate is the part of his message that is to bring the troops home. bring the troops home, end the wars now, isolationism that's always part of his message. john huntsman who picked up a top pawlenty staffer from new hampshire is the only other candidate who is trying to tap into that well abou

that's what boehner and the republicans want. you remember that when boehner and the president a couple of weeks ago were negotiating a deal that raised the medicare age and increased medicare charges, medicaid cuts affected social security cost of living adjustment, all those things combined produced about $650 billion in entitlement cuts. this committee is supposed to come up with $1.5 trillion, so if boehner will not allow, if the republicans will not allow any revenue to be on the table for the joint committee, and they say they won't, there's no way the democrats on the committee will agree to $1.5 trillion of entitlement and a deeper domestic cuts. the joint committee will jail and we will be set up for these big, across the board cuts, to kick in in january 2013, and we will fight about this throughout the entire election year in 2012. the outcome isn't -- is in doubt at this point. >> and there is nothing stupider than indiscriminate across the board cuts that aren't legislated individually. jerad, take us to the larger e

of diseffected people in middle class to gain power as a republican and build a republican machine in kentucky. that's what he did in the last 20 years. now he is trying to do the same on a national level, taking the anger and protests, using the energy of it to cut deals in the senate, and he did it brilliantly. his role model is an old name in american politics, henry clay, going back to the 19th century. the great compromiser. henry clay was trying to use compromise to build a nation and keep it together. mitch mcconnell is using his role as the sort of anti-clay to tap into this protest movement and try to take the federal government out of a lot of business at the state and local level. that's his vision, what he is trying to do. that's why as jonathan said, he preserved the position in the majority leader role, because as jonathan rightly pointed out, republicans didn't want to drive the bus over the cliff, did not want to be blamed for shut down, for default, et cetera, and it was brilliant maneuvering by mcconnell. >> joining us now, jim more and, democrat from virginia. congr