Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20120104

followed by newt gingrich, rick perry, and michele bachmann. the final numbers were not in until 2:30 a.m. eastern time. rick perry will return to texas to decide whether there is a path forward. we will hear excerpts from the speeches made by candidates throughout the show and we will go to new hampshire to watch the unfolding contest. in that state has its primary next week on tuesday. we will like to hear your take about mitt romney's close call in iowa. here are the numbers to call -- we have a line on facebook or you can answer the question about what the you think about mitt romney winning the iowa caucuses by a very tight margin. let us look at "the des moines register" frontpage, courtesy of the newseum. jennifer jacobs reports -- a down to the wire battle. larry is a democratic caller from mississippi. good morning. what do you think? caller: i think mitt romney -- i am glad. i hope he wins for the republicans because he -- i did some research. he destroyed jobs for big business. he does not care about the middle-class. he is for big business and the rich. so, i know if he is the nominee for the republicans, the democrats will have a field day defeating him. no doubt about it. host: you think he would be an easier competitor for president obama? caller: yes. everybody is talking about rick santorum. i think rick santorum would be harder for the president to defeat but mitt romney, he has got a lot of baggage. he did obomneycare massachusetts and he is trying to run from it now? he's got a lot of people for the right now but when it is 1-on- one and things start coming out about romney, no doubt in my mind the president will defeated. host: and massachusetts resident from cape cod. bill is a republican bid what do you think about your former governor's performance? caller: he only spent 15 days there. rick santorum was there forever. as far as any questions which should regarding the economy, any questions with regards to santorum.ey trump's the romney voters were all people who were interested in the economy and jobs. as far as the prior caller, it is massachusetts, not -- host: ohio, i did -- independent line. caller: i have to tell you first of all -- host: go ahead, we are listening. caller: i have to tell you, first of all, you, rob, and steve are the best. you are so fair. host: thank you. where do you think things are at with more legitimate romney? caller: i cannot believe it's along for democrats to -- i had muted by television but still had an echo. i cannot believe it is taking the democrats so long to talk about who this person is. he is the same guy who said that the house fall into foreclosure. nobody cares that he is rich. there are a lot of rich people. the fact is, what he thinks about the poor. let me make one quick comment because it took me 19 years to get through. if you go back -- i watched c- span since the inception. at the very beginning, at the beginning of the iraq war, the first soldier who was killed was a black gentleman and his father came on c-span and said i am against this war, this, that, and the other. george w. bush shot that man down. -- shut that man down. the last man killed in iraq was a black gentleman. i think it would be fantastic if "washington journal" in particular would have the parents -- the first person who died in the war, just like the revolutionary war, a black denim and, and the last person, same situation. i think it is abominable. and when mitt romney said his children have more important things to do that help him -- did you hear his son sate my father is the cheapest man i know. why doesn't he rebuilt new orleans? "washington journal" is the best. host: new jersey. what do you think about mitt romney's squeaker last night? caller: what i really think -- just as i think it is really important to repeal a bad bill such as obamacare or hillary care, it is also equally important to limit a bad precedent like jimmy carter, george bush, or our current president, then to enact a super candidate. our president broke many of his promises, such as a transparent government. the health care bill was written in secret, past, and nobody knew what was to come out of it. president obama, he also wants to increase abortions. and if we had not killed 50 million or more of our children, we would have plenty of money in a social security and medicare. the tragedy is, we are killing our own citizens. what this administration is trying to do is to take away our right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. host: our focus is mitt romney's win in iowa. let's look at "the new york times" coverage. will hear a little bit of that speech in a little bit. florida. good morning. caller: my comment is -- host: go ahead, donald. caller: all through history you have always been able to hoodwink the anglo-saxon. you can give them golden calf -- they will worship anything you put in front of them other than something real. we are watching to man who has four sons -- they do not look like they can rake the yard but nevertheless he goes out there and boast about how he wants to go to war. you can sell at -- anglo-saxon'' snake oil, everything. host: why don't you tell us -- caller: people getting a exactly what they deserve. this is what i think. you want romney or nobody would be able to satisfy anglo-saxon'' because they don't know what they want. host: let us not call it a whole community of people names. let us stay away from personal attacks and talk about the candidates. let us look at the numbers that came out and how the candidates placed percentage wise. mitt romney, 25%. rick santorum, 25%. 8 votes separating. ron paul, 21%. it goes down word. we are watching today to see how the other candidates respond to their position. on our c-span facebook as we asked what you thought about mitt romney's win and michael writes in and says -- clinton, maryland. robert, republican. caller: i am so glad we were able to get a social conservative into the top three, and even though i am very concerned about his stance about illegal immigration, i and glad santorum is there an newt gingrich is out of the top three. however, we did pass up of the gop's 1 serious chance at history, which is michele bachmann. barack obama one in 2008 not because of the black vote, but because of the woman vote. and we need to win the woman vote. and we also need to figure out how to count up to 270. santorum helps because of 21 -- pennsylvania's 21 and mature rowboats. when we pick a vice presidential candidate, we have to pick a big electoral states. i hope the gop wakes up and figures out what they need to do to get the women's vote and get over 270 so we can make barack obama a one-term president, retail obamacare, and protect marriage. -- repeal obamacare. host: he mentioned the women's vote. let us look at "the wall street journal" break down. men versus women. men voted the most for ron paul. women voted the most for mitt romney and rick santorum. you can see the numbers for michele bachmann were quite low in both of those gender categories. by age and education -- when it comes to age, the youth, those who will be 18 by election day, voted for ron paul. 30-44 range, rick santorum. 45-64, mitt romney. 65 and older, mitt romney also got the most votes. rice,hear from independent line from owings mills, maryland. caller: i feel -- i don't think the republicans are really offering anybody who is blowing me away or coley me towards them. ron paul, i think, the results from last night's caucus, i think ron paul showing 21% this kind of huge. it sets the tone for the fact that he is a legitimate contender and he should be in the race. honestly, he is really the only true actual conservative in the ticket from how i feel. so, i think one of the bigger messages more than ron paul -- romney, no surprise he won a 25%. host: a viewer on twitter -- let us take a look at rick santorum that a speech last night. clip: game on. [applause] you, you, by standing up and not compromising. by standing up and being bold and leading, leading with that burden and responsibility you have to be first. you have taken the first step of taking back this country. [applause] host: that was rick santorum talking last night after the iowa caucuses. the numbers came in. here is "the wall street journal" looking at what is going on today. this was published before the numbers came in -- now we know he came in a close second. it asked whether he will be able to put together the teams in place on the ground in the way he was able to tune iowa, where he took a lot of his time and spent a lot of effort. let's go to tempe, arizona. levici. caller: good morning. the reason why i am calling is i was listening to contender romney speak. what bothered me is he was talking about everybody came here to get a fair shot in america. and i am an african-american woman and i did not remember my ancestors coming over here to get a fair shot. i remember that they were forced over here and worked for nothing and helped build of this great country. and yet, i don't see that we haven't received any type of preparations for that, any type of fair treatment, to really achieve the american dream. some of us have, but the majority of us have not. host: as a democrat, who would you like to see rise to the top of the republican field? do you think someone would make a -- challenge to barack obama? caller: i do not hear anybody talking about african-americans and really of lifting them in any way other than saying pull yourself up from your bootstraps, trying to take away everything, the little crumbs that they have, when they have taken so much from the african americans and not really allowed them to pursue their happiness by taking so much during that time when they helped to build this great country. host: that listen to comments mitt romney made last night. -- let's listen to comments mitt romney made last night. clip: i don't want to do, as the president says, to fundamentally transform america into something we might not recognize. i want to restore the principles that made america the hope of the earth. i love our freedoms. i love our constitution. i love our land. i love our people. i love the fact that this is the land of opportunity. let us restore the greatness of america and keep this land the whole of the earth. thank you so much for all of your help. [applause] new hampshire -- will get that job done. host: mitt romney, speaking last night as the iowa caucus numbers came in. here is how politico is looking at the next phase of the campaign season. the next, republican line. what do you think? turn down your tv for us. you are on the air. caller: i am kind of questioning all of the politics in washington because they lost the trust of the american people. and i think this is the last chance for washington, because the american people -- i just hate to see the outcome of a civil war-type thing. what they need to do is concentrate on the economy, and, like obama, he should have put all of the money with the high tech, the microchip boom. that would have created a bunch of jobs and with getting our jobs away to people overseas. host: what do you think about ron paul? caller: i like hand. he seems more real, realistic. romney -- seem like romney seems like he tells you what you want to hear. like obama, he told all these people what they wanted to hear and then kind of bought his way into the presidency through the unions and stuff like that. as far as i am concerned, i think it is all about money and corruption and who can get away with what. and pull the wool over the american people's eyes. now we have woken up, and this is their last chance because the american people will take over. host: let us look at the "the new york times" coverage of ron paul. here is part of the article -- the story goes on to say there might be some more attacks in his direction as other candidates watch as -- how he performs. "the wall street journal" says -- let's listen to ron paul last night after coming in third, talking about the momentum he's got. clip: we have a tremendous opportunity to continue this momentum. it will not be long there will be an election up in new hampshire, and believe me, the momentum will continue and this movement will continue. and we are going to keep scoring, just as we have tonight. [applause] so, tonight, we have come out of an election where there were essentially three winners, three top vote-getters. and we will go on. we will raise the money. i have no doubt about the volunteers. host: that was ron paul talking last night. let us look at a tweet his campaign put out directed at jon huntsman. it came out from his official twitter feed. there is some debate about how the tweet happened and what the fallout was from that. political talks about it on their website, and says -- it turns out, according to cbs news, the tweet did come from the paul campaign -- massachusetts. brian on the independent line. good morning. what do you think about mitt romney's performance last night and how the other candidates did? caller: i am not a big fan of mitt romney. he is from my state, and i did not think he did much for us what governor, so i do not think he will do much as president. he has the tendency to tell you what you like to hear and -- to get what he wants. i am a big fan, however, of michele bachmann. i respect her convictions. although she is not placing very well. i think maybe people are not ready for a woman. but as far as her convictions and are ready for being president, i think she would be the best choice. will get the she nomination. i mean, if people take the time and read her book, they would know much more about her and how strong she really is. i would like to see maybe a ron paul-michele bachmann ticket. i think that would be ideal because i do also like ron paul as well. but michele bachmann has great convictions and would be a great candidate. i do not think it would have been just yet because of the woman factor. host: interesting, because michele bachmann has not indicated she plans to drop out. she is continuing. whereas, rick perry says he is thinking things over and will be reevaluating where to go from here. michele bachmann is saying full steam ahead. i want to mention something else about the ron paul tweet. after initially deleted, it was put back of his website. politico said the campaign stood behind it, put it back up, and this is how jon huntsman's team responded -- orange county, california. maxine. caller: i just wanted to talk, i guess about mitt romney winning. i think we should all be very careful about mitt romney. from what i had been taught, a man is only as good as his word. behindyou look at what's him, all of the boys he has, not one can serve in the military of the united states, as well as mitt romney himself. so, we should be very careful, because surely, he will be sending our boys in the military but none of them could serve in this country. this myth about restoring america or even great britain back to where it was. i think there is a biblical writing about restoring the country. i do not think it will ever get back -- but most over, judge a man by his words. thank you. have a great day. host: carson city, nevada. raymond. caller: i find it really amazing that americans are not focusing more on the sopa and the fact our freedoms are being taken aggressively away from us. when you look at a candidate like ron paul, he is actually the one candidate -- mitt romney is basically a manikin running for politics. santorum is obsessed with gays and taking away their civil rights. ron hall is the one guy out there who is actually worried about the fact that we are losing our rights as americans. we are gradually losing -- the internet is about to be censored. look up sopa, do a google on it, people. we are losing our rights. it is happening quickly and it is happening with apparently nobody caring. host: jack, republican caller from nashville, tennessee. caller: i am a big supporter of ron paul. i think we have a great candidate here. i think santorum is just kind of benefiting from attrition. it kind of throwing everybody up against the wall and he is the last one that stuck. i do not think he will go very far. i don't think he has the money to really compete or the volunteers. i am looking forward to seeing more ron paul. even if he does not win, i think the message is the most powerful thing and they fear, the establishment republicans and democrats, they fear that ron paul might run as a third-party candidate. host: c-span asked facebook followers last night what do you think -- whether you think the iowa caucuses matter. 417 said, yes. 101 said, no. looking at how iowans voted and how they made their voices heard. you can see "the new york times" international section delving into this. here is another interesting fact out of iowa -- four out of 10 were attending their first caucus. charleston, south carolina. line.e of the democrats' the action will soon be moving to your state. what do you think? caller: what i think is, i don't care how many republicans come here and try to get on this ticket. obama, right now, he may not have a lot of people to count in south carolina but overall he will be a second term president because anybody who thinks that having a lot of money will put them in the white house, that is ludicrous. i feel that anybody that gets , itted for the president' should be the people president and not a president who is all about the rich. i think any president that should win should be about all americans, and barack obama has proven that he is a people president, but everybody that is against a man of his color, they would never rally around him. host: sorry to cut you off but i did want to look at a south carolina newspaper since that is where you are calling from. looking at this split decision the voters median iowa. it talks through that story. it also says rick perry is still confident he can derail romney in south carolina. here is how "the washington post" is looking at what is next. it says the next real battleground is the south carolina, less so than in hampshire. about the january 20 force -- january 21 primary. turning out to be in major test for all the candidates. california on the independent line. where are you calling from? caller: calling from hysteria. i have never gotten through when you were on and i want to start by saying -- i just like your style. i think you are pleasant to speak to in the mornings. but i will not take up the time with that. i just want to say that i agree with -- if i were a voting iowa n i probably would have voted for ron paul. i agree with the caller from earlier that our freedoms are being taken. but i am also an african- american and what i find glaring, even when you were going over the paper and you were breaking down the categories about how people voted -- women, the old and young -- there was not anything about race. as an african-american, it is glaring that all of the candidates on the republicans -- they are all white, everybody at their events is white. how is any african-american or latino or asian or anybody not wait to vote for any of the people? they do not represent us. host: what do you think of herman cain's can they? caller: they always find -- just like with michael steele -- an african-american who we, an african-american, will call a sellout, who is not really an african-american. just because you have black skin does not resent your blackness. he was just a puppet really. but that is what concerns me most. it is hard to get to their politics because what is right in front of you says they did not represent you. and all the vitriol that have against this president, which translates for may, it is because of his race. is it the perfect present? no. has he done things i am dissatisfied with? but -- but the vitriol is different because of his race. i think at the end of the day i just think i would never vote for them. i would vote for ron paul. but i would not vote for them because i did not think they have the interest at heart of anybody who is not white. host: do you support president obama? he did speak last night. what did you think about that question of caller: again, i am biased in that way because -- people were saying the things he promised when he campaigned was not real. i believe it was but he hit a wall he was not even prepared for. host: some more information about the president. from campaign 2012 in "the washington post." c-span will be following the president's remarks today, speaking at shaker heights high school in shaker heights, ohio. you can find more information on c-span.org. it will happen at 1:00 p.m. -- 1:15 p.m. eastern time today. we are talking about mitt romney's victory in the iowa caucuses. let us hear from jay, a republican from syracuse. caller: yes, i am happy that mitt romney won the iowa caucuses. i am what you would call a moderate to liberal northeastern republican. i'd like mitt romney. i am disappointed that rick santorum came in second, because i feel he will bring up the social issues again and it is going to hurt us with independent voters who are focused on the economy. the talk about gay rights, gays in the military -- santorum bashing gay people. i do not think it is productive because when you look at polls, most americans are pretty broadly supportive of most gay rights except for gay marriage. and when you have somebody like santorum basically comparing a people to people having sex with dogs, i think it is really inappropriate. he said it before. i think michele bachmann has the same problem. they will not appeal to independent voters like mitt romney does. he stays away from the social issues and he focuses on obama's weakness, which is the economy. so, i support it. host: john, democratic caller from washington. caller: thank you. listen. i am not surprised that mitt romney 1. but what i am so surprised that is how so many young americans can be so blind -- all of them talking about war, war. the iranians, iranians, israel, israel, iranians. to me, barack obama, president barack obama, all of them to me are totally out of touch with the american people and what is needed, what we want, what we think and feel, and they followed the agenda, the warmongers, wall street. i mean, the military industrial complex. but as far as the american people, none of them seemed -- now, i like ron paul because of some of the things he said about the iranians, about going to war, but with his other platforms, on the social issues, i have to part company with him. but i feel so sad and so sorry that so many young americans, black and white, but the other gentleman before the last one to about how the republicans had no recognition of people love, but -- color -- that is a fact. item 67 and i have been following this for years and that is a total that -- i am 67. even president barack obama does not seem to have a recognition for african-americans. have not seen african-american schools, anything predominately black, and talk the american people other than a convention. i am really sad that these young people are walking behind these warmongers and they are supposed to be pro-life but then again they followed george bush in bombing the iraqis into non systems, killing women and children. host: you mentioned iran. i do not know if you got a chance to read "the washington post" today but there is a story. a couple of other stories here, from "the financial times." the money section of "usa today" looks at the market, saying it started off 2012 with a lift off. a little more economic news -- factories, and new orders jump, says "the wall street journal." we are talking about mitt romney's win in iowa, a close race with rick santorum coming in second. they came in fifth and six -- at this program, those two are staying in the race but rick perry says he will be evaluating his campaign today. pennsylvania. mason, republican. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i am a marine corps veteran and graduating in the spring with a bachelor's and political science and i keep hearing from people that mitt romney is i've been crammed down our throats or biebelsheim he is simply getting their votes -- is being crammed down their throats or he is simply getting the votes because he is the guy who can beat obama. but 25% across the nation -- believing that room is the right man. we believe in america and mitt romney. i think he is under appreciated in this race. got endorsements. ann coulter, who is very conservative and chris christie, who i think could make a great vice president of candidate. i think he has a message to -- that could compete with president obama. host: do you think he will gain more traction in the coming weeks? caller: i think he will do well in new hampshire and across the northeast in general. there are a lot of pennsylvania is that i talked to like him. host: we will hear from former pennsylvania governor tom ridge a letter of the program. he has endorsed the jon huntsman and has been on the road talking up jon huntsman. let's go to manuel, democratic caller from los angeles. caller: i am not surprised that mitt romney took the lead in the iowa primary. like the other caller. but i do question his motives. and i do believe -- i don't believe he represented the entire country. i believe he represents a group of people that are just simply a rally in our round -- rallying around the sarah palin types, who all but want to do is get obama but they do not have a solid agenda. -- i believe he speaks the truth, an honest man and i believe he truly cares about the american people. he sounds like a more honest guy. he is not just shouting behind the get a obama rally. and, also, -- newt gingrich is just a distraction if he proved to be the man he is, not caring about anything but himself. host: what newt gingrich had to say about his fourth place, what he makes of that and where he is going from here. clip: we are not going to go out and run nasty ads. we will not run 30-second -- [applause] but, i do reserve the right to tell the truth. [applause] and if the truth seems negative, it may be more a comment on his racket than it is on politics. so, this is going to be a debate that begins tomorrow morning in new hampshire and will go on for a few months, and i am convinced the republican party the republicanan heir of reagan, a committed conservative, and somebody with a track record of changing washington. host: newt gingrich, came in fourth in iowa. anne, republican in clinton, tennessee. caller: i think the american people are hungry for leadership, something we have not gotten out of this white house. i look at mitt romney, and he has done so many things in his life. he had a lot of experience in getting things done. we elect a president who never had experience in any thing -- he and his crony capitalist in there handing out taxpayers' money for people who bottled up money for him. i don't know how it happens that the blacks hijacking the democrats' line but we know they voted 100% for obama. host: we do not know that at all. there is a lot of diversity how people voted. we cannot say one reason crossed the board but one way or another. we heard from african-american callerss who support ron paul and we hear a diversity of viewpoints. to hear what you have to say. facebook dialogue has garnered attention, conversation about iowa caucuses, whether they are relevant or important, and how performances showed last night the way candidates can make a difference. chris talks about ron paul -- libertarian, dave, calling from harrisburg, pennsylvania. caller: i just wanted to say, i am actually appalled that people both in for mitt romney. i think this guy is just like barack obama. you know? a few calls back, a man said he feels african-americans are not represented by republicans. i personally am an atheist -- 16% of the united states are not believers and we have absolutely no representation in government at all. however, i still believe very strongly in ron paul. ron paul wants to support us. he wants to bring our liberties. he believes in the constitution. last year, barack obama -- $7.7 billion of taxpayer money to bail out banks. when are we going to be able to keep our money that we work for? this government is absolutely out of control. let us cut back government, bring our sons and daughters and father's home from overseas. it is time to start fighting for the people, and i believe ron paul is that man. i firmly believe in front hall from the bottom of my heart. i have never been so passionate about a candidate in my entire life. host: we will continue to hear about the candidates this morning on "washington journal ," wheat for -- focus not on the injured. we will speak to neil levesque from the new hampshire institute of politics about that race next week. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> that aside already made up its mind, this side made up its mind and -- i call it, garbage, dr. rice -- >> dr. brinkley, rice is a university. >> i can call you whatever i want to call you when you sit in the chair. you just be quiet. if you do not own me? >> i can tell you right now. >> the gentleman will suspend and i will remind members -- >> you work for the -- >> a confrontation a congressional hearing between representative don young from alaska and historian douglas brinkley, the fourth most watched video indices been video library. watch it for yourself that c- span.org and click on the most swat have to see other videos from the past year. it is what you want, when you want. host: neil levesque is the executive director of the new hampshire institute of politics. morning,good greetings from the granite state. host: the caucuses in iowa is a different system -- but why is new hampshire important? guest: it is important because since 1916 we held in the first in the nation primary. it is the first primary, so it is not a caucus, as you mentioned. we have independents, as well as republicans and democrats voted. if you are a republican, you can vote for a republican candidate, but if you are undeclared, you can vote on either side, democrat or republican. it is a very different process from the iowa caucuses. things are starting to heat up here. you can almost hear the jets landing today in new hampshire. and this is certainly where the action is for the next six days. host: you may distinction between the way a caucus and a primary works. if you watched c-span last night, you saw how the caucuses unfold in iowa, where it is activity happening in a room. why is it significant to you that there is a difference between a primary and caucus? guest: the primary in new hampshire is a state election. it is a very different process. anyone can go and vote. the polls are open like any other election. if you are new hampshire, registered voter, you can go in before work, cast your vote, and had -- head out the door. it is a confidence vote and it is up to you who you vote for obviously. the real difference here is that in new hampshire, because we have a small state, candidates really are out there campaigning hand-to-hand. a television advertising and things like that have less impact in a state like this. and we tend to work pretty hard at trying to see who is right for this job. we don't require that people vote for the we choose, but certainly we start the process off. host: neil levesque, new hampshire institute of politics at st. anslem college. here are the numbers -- if you are a new hampshire resident, we would love to hear from you, 628-0184. neil levesque, tell us about new hampshire's's record at picking candidates that end up going on to become the nominee? guest: well, we don't always pick the candidate that goes on to become the president. but the fact is, it is an excellent place for candidates to come. they don't necessarily need a lot of money. but what they do want to do is work hard and meet new hampshire voters. new hampshire voters take this process very seriously. we have one of the highest voter turnout of any state. we turn out for town hall meetings. the old joke is -- are you going to vote for president ford, and the old time his person says i am not sure because i only met him twice. the fact is, we work very, very hard at this process. this is what our state is known for. new hampshire state sport is politics. if you like baseball and you live in new york, you can go to yankee stadium, or if you live in boston, you can go to fenway park, but here in new hampshire we have the new hampshire institute of politics. a lot of activity. probably have several candidates a day here, going into the next week on campus. a tremendous amount of media. we have a debate coming up here. so, there is a lot of activity. host: i am looking at a story from "the baltimore sun." is it a romney stronghold? it talks about running's position there. is this his race to use? guest: we don't like to necessarily handicap the race. we like the fact that research has shown romney has a significant lead. some speculate it is because he is from a neighboring state. i disagree. there is a great difference between people from massachusetts and new hampshire. i think mitt romney has been working very hard. and i think it is paying off. the other thing to consider is that republican primary voters have tended in the past to vote for people who have been on the ballot before. richard nixon, ronald reagan, george herbert walker bush, john mccain, are all people to examples. at mitt romney ran four years ago. it he was on the ballot so he is a well-known commodity. but he is certainly working hard. he has not taken the state for granted at all. even though he had good numbers here. so, going into next week, we will see what happens. but they all seem to be working very hard. host: here are how the numbers of playing out in the polls. it comes from real clear politics. mitt romney is in red on top, 41%. ron paul is in yellow, he has gone up, 18%, second place. newt gingrich peaked back in december and now down to 12.5% and then comes jon huntsman, over 10%, followed by michele bachmann, rick santorum, and rick perry and single-digits. let's go to the phones and hear from eric, democratic caller from georgia. caller: good morning. i think mitt romney is going to be the perfect person for president obama to run against. he is mr. wall street. he would not show taxes. once president obama gets reelected he needs to roll back all the policies of george bush and the country will go straight. medicare part d, he rolled back one of those wars, and those two wars and that the bush tax cuts expire. if you do not let the tax cuts expire, you don't need the second term. romney is strictly for the rich people. he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. it's got eric is a democrat, and he says he wants to see mitt romney -- host: eric is a democrat, and he says he wants to see mitt romney. how much you hearing from new hampshire voters that they are thinking down the line on who makes the strongest candidate against the present? guest: it is a factor the voters choose. but caller mentioned mitt romney's background. what is also interesting about mitt romney is his father ran in 1968. he never competed in the primary. however, he was a candidate in 1968. an accomplished man. there are great similarities between now and 1968, this election. so, it is very interesting. host: we will leave it there. new jersey, nick, independent line. caller: i wanted to say how interesting it is to see the power of the media and putting the spotlight on candidates. it seems like rick seems likepumped up out of nowhere in iowa, but i want to see how what plays out in new hampshire. i think it played a big in 2008 when the media took hillary down from every direction. i also think there are propping down santorum to take votes away from ron paul who has the best argument against romney. i think anything they can do to pump up anybody, takes a pillar away from ron paul, it is something the establishment once because he is the only one who is distinguished in the field. guest: rick santorum has been campaigning very hard in new hampshire. he has been in this television studio quite a bit. he has a good ground game. it will be interesting. so is ron paul. ron paul, as i mentioned, has been on the ballot before. he is a known commodity. working very hard. a good team here in new hampshire. so, we are expecting a good contact with the people you mentioned. host: who spent the most time in your state? guest: it is hard to say, but i would say that john huntsman has been here quite a bit. he has devoted a lot of his campaign to new hampshire. a very great campaign in itself. many town hall meetings, many events. but so have many of the people we have mentioned. so, they are all really competing very hard -- with some exceptions. but if you are a new hampshire voter, and through the summer you could have gone to any number of town hall meetings in any number of weeks and going to hear the candidates. so, the candidates created quite a bit of exposure. host: jon huntsman said on the air a couple of days ago that he was putting his efforts in new hampshire instead of iowa because iowa picks corn and new hampshire picks presidents. guest: a famous quote from our governor, john sununu. we like to say that. but we honor iowa and what they do there. they are a great partner in this process. they just have a different type of process, different voters. it was great to watch. it is wonderful to see the returns coming in last night. and we are looking forward to next week. host: neil levesque is the executive director for the new hampshire institute of politics and also the executive director of the political library at st. anslem college. marion from the geneva, republican line. turn down your tv. you are on the air. please, turn down your tv and go right ahead. ok, we are going to let to move on if you cannot talk to us, marion? caller: yes -- host: we want to hear what you have to say but we cannot hear you if there is feedback. caller: good morning. i switched four years ago, from republican to democrat, because obama is about a lot of hope and reinvigoration in this country but i am unhappy with the fact that he has spent trillions of dollars over there. i want to remind everybody that he is not the one who started this war. we went into afghanistan to help the afghan people and ended up in iraq. we did take out a dictator who was a horrible, disgraceful person. but right now, i would have to say that if i did not vote for obama, i would be voting for ron paul because he is totally opposite on the war issues. yes, he is not going to get on tv and say what he would actually do to them because i do not think it is a smart thing to say what you are going to do to your enemies. guest: here at the new hampshire institute of politics, we have had a number of speakers. general petraeus is a new hampshire residents. we are very proud to have him. so, this facility in itself used to be a national guard facility so we honored many veterans here as well as presidential candidates. we are keen to make sure our veterans are honored at the new hampshire institute of politics. are planning that -- we are planning to do that in the next week. we try to open up the facility to many veterans and veterans' groups to create as much exposure to that for civic-type engagement. host: the new hampshire institute of politics will be hosting a debate on saturday. what are you expecting at that debate? are you hearing plans of the candidates to attend? guest: obviously, we have not heard that yet. iowa tends to take out a few people, if you will. this debate is very different than those done for years ago when we had a democrat and republican competitors, where you almost have to switch the entire audience and stage in the halftime break. it is very complex. this time, it is just republicans competing so it is a little bit less difficult on our end. but the debates are fascinating. june for cn andn n in another debate. fox news will be broadcasting up top on our campus next week doing a series of programs. we have many media groups coming in. so there is a lot of activity here and it is very exciting. if you love politics, this is the place to be. our citizens are very excited. host: let's hear from miche in salt lake city. good morning. caller: good morning. i think mitt romney's new name should be mitt robotney. i was watching his victory speech last night on tv. he is doing speeches all over the state. it is exactly the same speech. all of his little jokes are at the same spot. when you are watching these things and you see them over a couple of days, it is almost like a cookie cutter stuff. it is pretty revolting when you are watching in. guest: one of the aspects of politics is it is a talent to stay on message. you repeat yourself as a candidate so your message gets out there. here at the new hampshire institute of politics, we engage with many candidates behind the scenes so we see them in television studios and before the debates with their families. we have a lot of access to the. although candidates can be scrutinized in the national media, behind the scenes, they all are wonderful people. that includes the current crop of candidates and the people you just mentioned. really good human beings. their interaction here with students is a perfect example. you have a person like newt gingrich, mitt romney, jon huntsman. they come into the college and they find a student and they are answering questions, just really genuinely great people that are really patriotic and want to do what they can to help this country. that occurs on both sides. we have seen that over and over again with these candidates are really, really fine people and family people. host: new hampshire has its primary on tuesday next week. let's hear from robert, a democrat caller from texas. caller: hello. thank you for receiving my call. i just wanted to make a comment. i cannot understand how this nation can not perceive that this do-nothing republican congress has not participated or went along with anything president obama has tried to do to repeal the inconsistency of the republican administration that was in there before them and how the problems we have -- they cannot recognize still back reagan cames when into office, implementing his tax cuts for the rich. and then also, [unintelligible] the unions and repealing the civil rights legislation, erasing any kind of gain that the society had made, any civil liberties, and then they want to blame everything on obama which who has had less than three years to correct. host: let's get a response from our guest. guest: we have turned down the thermostat here in new hampshire. it is two degrees outside and i am sure is not that way in texas. as far as the congress and how it relates to the presidential election, in 1948, a famous memo to harry truman outlining his strategy for the election which was basically to blame the republican congress. it was a successful strategy. i think that same playbook has been used many times before, and death and possibly you will see that playbook in the 2012 -- and possibly he will see that playbook in the 2012 election. host: what does it take to win in new hampshire? are we talking about a ground game or reaching out through ads? you mentioned the style that candidates use, but what do you see as a constant formula that is worked in the past? guest: i think a lot of political scientists will say new hampshire as a moderate group of voters, and i think that is incorrect. i think new hampshire voters vote for the person. the person who connect with voters and shows them that they are ready to lead this country or the people that new hampshire voters are tending to vote for. it does not matter if they are from a neighboring state or they have a different accent than people in new hampshire. a great example would be president carter. he was the governor of judah, a baptist minister who had a strong southern accent. he came into new hampshire at 2% in the polls. thanks to a senator who was one of his strategists, he won the new hampshire primary. so the fact is people in new hampshire will respond to people that they feel can lead the country. i think we have seen that and we have proven that since 1952. host: here is a story from "the washington times." of the former president carter has some advice for obama -- the former president carter has some advice for obama as he gears up for the election. a little bit of historical perspective. guest: traditionally, incumbents that are faced with primaries do not win. george herbert walker bush was faced with a primary. we have seen other historical examples going down. president carter certainly was very challenged by the kennedy primary. he did win new hampshire but it set him back. host: independent line, welcome. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. mitt romney says held great he wants this country to be. he has a five boys. how come nobody asks him why he is not in the armed forces? shouldn't they join the army to fight these wars? guest: well, the caller has an interesting point. in new hampshire voter can walk into a town hall meeting -- a governor romney is doing one today about 2 miles from where i sit. they can go in and ask him that type of a question. they are legitimate questions. new hampshire is not scripted or one single press conference or television ad for the rest of the day. it is a series of town hall meetings where a person can come off the street and asked that question. that is what makes our primary very unique. candidates are challenged by these questions and many times they do not do so well. it tends to weed out candidates that are not ready for of this. host: we have a number set up for new hampshire residents to call in. april is on the line. hi, april. caller: thank you for taking my call. my question is i am a jon huntsman supporter. your guest mentioned earlier he has been spending a lot of time here in new hampshire, bypassing iowa. "the wall street journal" says it rick santorum and michele bachmann will be bypassing new hampshire and going to south carolina. i am wondering when candidates spend a tremendous amount of time or when some bypass other states. i would like to know your thoughts on that. guest: thank you for the call from new hampshire. over the course -- since 1952 when we held the primary, some candidates have chosen not to participate here. there are several examples of that at the correct moment. it has not been a winning strategy. famously, alcor in 1988 skip new hampshire and went straight on to the super tuesday to his demise. there is no candidate that is become president who has not competed here, but candidates all have their own strategies. if they feel they are going to try to break history and skip new hampshire, that is up to them. we certainly welcome them here even if a candidate has not completed yet in new hampshire. we welcome them here to compete. a candidate like governor jon huntsman has certainly taken the time to be all throughout new hampshire. he is all around new hampshire quite a bit, holding over 100 town hall meetings. at this point, he is meeting quite a few voters. host: we will be hearing from one of jon huntsman's supporters, tom ridge from pennsylvania who has thrown his support to jon huntsman. there is a story in "the new york times." this story is called -- what do you make of that? guest: we certainly have had our critics over the years. we do not believe we are better than anyone else. we believe this process that we like to partake in, and we do a good job. that is why we have high voter turnout and scrutinize candidates at town hall meetings. every year, every four years, people will criticize us or say something is not relevant. we will wait to see what happens next week. there are candidates right now, a candidate that certainly has a lead here according to research which may affect others and their strategies. there are candidates with leads almost every four years, and those leads get changed. there are just about always upsets. it is part of their strategy. they have to make those determinations. we are welcoming all candidates here to compete. we had the lesser-known candidates forum which was broadcast here on c-span which wwhere we invite everyone who signed up for the primary. if you paid your $1,000 to be on the ballot and you are competing but may not be so well known, you have a forum to speak and get your message out and meet voters. this is part of our tradition here. it is going strong today. host: "the new york times" says -- the story says that -- mr. jon huntsman has based his entire campaign on staying in new hampshire. phoenix, ariz. -- did you want to respond to that? gregory is in phoenix on are democrats' line. caller: good morning. are the republicans really serious about having ron paul be a candidate? no one can pinpoint where obama failed. the bailout was necessary. i think george bush left a page on the desk before he left office for obama to fill out. if the office of the presidency is so it downgraded because obama was elected -- guest: if you are an american citizen, you can run and come to new hampshire and compete. you can get on the ballot here in new hampshire and compete so anyone can run. that is the great thing about our country. dr. paul is very well organized here, and he is really interesting because from a civic-engagement standpoint, we try here at the new hampshire institute of politics to try to engage the public to be sickly minded, and dr. paul does that. many of his supporters are first-time supporters that have not been active in campaigns. he has invigorated them, and it is wonderful to see. he is also very engaged with our students here at the college. always taking the time to come in and talk with them. he has a very good organization here. he is bringing new ideas to the debate. that is important for our country. host: there is a tweet related to ron paul. that is james opinion on ron paul as a candidate. guest: congressman ryan is very popular here in new hampshire. a lot of interest in him. he is not a candidate for president but there is a lot of interest in him. a fascinating individual certainly. host: let's hear from windy calling from new hampshire. caller: good morning. i am a pro-adoption, anti-death penalty democrat. i believe every presidential candidate should make their decisions in accordance with the golden rule. president obama usually does but the majority of republicans with the exception of jon huntsman who claims to be devoutly religious do not. anti-e anti-black, hispanic, anti-muslim rhetoric is very distressing. according to the southern poverty law center, the number of hate groups have risen since president obama was elected which is very alarming. it appears to me that with the exception of jon huntsman and the majority of republicans actually seem to be attempting to re-fight the civil war and bring our country back to pre-civil war era. guest: thank you. it is interesting that you call from new hampshire which is the birthplace of the republican party founded in 1863 in that town. it had a lot to do with anti- slavery issues, obviously before the civil war. many candidates are coming through exeter so you will have an opportunity to talk to them about that. host: welcome, our independence t line. caller: i have been a democrat all my life. i see that the only way to go is with ron paul. the man sees what the people see. big government is not going to get it done. id will not give it is done. they are dividing up the spoils for themselves for years. host: i am looking at a tweet from another viewer who says ron paul is too old. he will be 81 come re-election. what do you think about that? caller: i think he could find a successor, and it would not take much. people are tired of the lighting games and all the rhetoric they are hearing on tv. host: is his age relevant to you? do you care about his age? caller: i think he can do it. i think he can find a successor for the following term. host: let's hear from our guest. guest: the debate between walter mondale and president reagan when walter mondale wanted to bring out his age, reagan quipped right back and said i was not going to let the inexperience of my opponent affect this election. it is a very sensitive topic. ronald reagan was older, and he is a well-regarded amongst voters in the party. host: herald joins us from virginia on our democrats' line. caller: good morning. i am just so fed up with this [unintelligible] -- people of color. they do not have anything straight. they are planning our president obama -- they are blaming our president obama for all the spending and deficit which the previous administration created. guest: i think it is important to keep in mind that in politics, the argument is good. sometimes it can be distressing when one side is being critical of the other side but that is very important for our democracy. two competing companies competing for you as a consumer are going to have an argument over price, and the same type of argument goes on in politics. it can be distressing if a candidate that you like where the president is being criticized, but those types of critiques are important for our democracy. in the end, most, if not all of the people involved, in politics and in washington are very patriotic people and have good intentions and believe they have a better way to do things than the other side. that is important to keep in mind when you see these debates and see what is going on in washington. host: joining us from new hampshire, hi there. caller: i have a couple of points that i would like to say. whoever wins as the president is not necessarily the best candidate but the one who knows how to run a campaign better. ron paul c-span.o[unintelligibl] you get a candidate that can match that. it is something that people can think about. beware of the leader who beats the drum of the poor. guest: that is an interesting quote. candidates that are putting together a very good campaigns can be indicative of how good they will be at governing. if you put together a good team, you are running a well oiled machine, obviously there is some relevance to how you are going to manage the white house. we have seen that in past situations. in 1968, ronald reagan was the darling of the goldwater republicans from a giant state, a very gifted communicator, but he came in a little late and did not do well against richard nixon. he did not have a good campaign put together which was a hindrance on him. he obviously came back and changed all that, but in 1968 he was not ready to put together a good campaign. host: on twitter, we have a question. neil levesque, can you give us a better sense of the demographic? guest: that is a very good question. we have a very high rate of retirees here in new hampshire. i do not have the exact numbers, nor do i believe we would have that data. we have a high number of veterans. we are a unique state in general. we are the least taxed state in the nation, one of the healthiest states and the nation, one of the most highly educated states in the nation. we have about 250,000 registered republicans and about 355,000 undeclared commonly referred to as independents. most likely come up all 355,000 of them, we would like to see them but about 100,000 will compete in that. our secretary of state usually releases his guess as to what he believes the voter turnout will be usually before the weekend. that will be a fun thing to be looking for. he usually makes a very accurate predictions. host: we have a story in from cnn. michele bachmann is holding media availability today at 11:00 eastern time in iowa. we will hear what she has to say. when do you start looking for candidates to decide when they are going to commit more to a campaign, when they are going to say to their supporters that they are raising more money? guest: well, we usually let them figure that out, if you will. the writing is usually on the wall, and it can be very depressing for activists and people who have put their heart in the game. losing in politics is a terrible thing. it puts tremendous courage to put your name on the ballot in america. more than half of people who compete lose. you lose publicly. it can be very, very hard. it is wonderful that so many americans stepped up to the plate on a regular basis to put their names on the line. it is a very interesting process. but they do it. is always a little sad when someone drops out. i will say this as i said earlier. republican primary voters tend to vote for people who have been on the ballot before. it can be a sad day when a candidate drops out, but four years later, they can have a lot of victories. so, we will see what happens post-iowa, which candidate are going to compete in new hampshire in the next week, but it is interesting. on wednesday, the primary will be over and then we will start to see the candidates who are not necessarily running by taking a little bit of interest in the state of new hampshire for the next four years. sometimes, it is very hard for us here at the new hampshire institute of politics to get speakers before the primary because they are worried about what implications they will be said nationally coming into new hampshire. on wednesday, we start to see them here at the institute. host: neil levesque, executive director of the new hampshire institute of politics, and executive director of the political library at st. anselm college. st. anselm college will host a debate this weekend on saturday. we will be watching for that. thank you so much. coming up, we will hear from former gov. tom ridge of pennsylvania and the former secretary of the department of homeland security, supporting jon huntsman for president. let's hear more from mitt romney, speaking last night after winning the iowa caucuses over rick santorum. clip: he went out and borrowed $787 billion, and his administration said they would hold unemployment below 8%. you have 25 million people today out of work will have stopped looking for work or are unable to get the jobs to meet their needs. this is not a statistic. this unemployment of 8.5%, these are real people who have looked -- who have lost their jobs. they sometimes lose their marriages or become depressed. this is a tragedy that did not need to happen. almost everything the president has done has made it harder for businesses to hire and put people back to work. he was critical of president bush for not balancing the budget, for having such large deficits. his deficits have been three times larger or more. he is on track by the end of his first term, his only term by the weight -- [cheers and applause] [crowd chants] -- he is on track to put almost as much public debt in place as all of these prior presidents combined. i am convinced that if we want to get jobs again in this country, it would be helpful to have a person who has had a job in the private sector to create jobs in the private sector. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we just heard from mitt romney, the candidate who won the iowa caucuses last nine. he got 25% of the vote. ron paul had 21% of the vote. one of the candidates who is focusing on new hampshire is jon huntsman. one of the supporters of jon huntsman for president is former pennsylvania gov. tom ridge who served as the secretary of the department of homeland security. good morning, governor. thank you so much for being here. why are you supporting jon huntsman? guest: the list is long. he has the most consistent conservative position. he has the best economic plan, the most foreign policy experience. i think if you talk to some of the democrats in the formidable president obama electoral machine, i think he is the one who keeps them up that night. i do not mean just dealing with military issues but the economics of international trade and the globally connected world. if you put all this together, i think he is the most qualified to be president of the united states on nine -- among a group of very able republican candidates. host: why did the put so much effort into new hampshire? guest: we have been added for about six months. i think he was ninth in the polling in new hampshire six months ago. i think he decided to focus on the first primary state. he did his 150th town hall meeting last night. there is a lot of enthusiasm for jon huntsman. nhat is a caucus state i; iowa. only about 25% of the republicans showed up for the caucuses. at the end of the day, you have two men each getting 25% of the 25% that showed up. the doors are wide open here in new hampshire. host: governor hunt's man agrees with you on that, quoted in the associated press telling cbs -- what are you reading from the results in iowa? guest: there are many conclusions that can be drawn. if i am governor romney, a 'w' is a 'w'. he got 25% four years ago in iowa. he did show up on top. if you take a look at the shoe leather that senator rick santorum used, you have to give him credit tfor that. ron paul has worked hard and has attracted some very enthusiastic supporters. at the end of the day, the three individuals getting about 25% of the vote but only 25% of the people demonstrated enough interest to go out to the caucus and register their support. i think the field is still wide open. we like our chances here in the first primary state. clearly, governor romney is going to win new hampshire. he has a vacation home here. he has established support with a lot of friends here. he is the governor of a neighboring state. we understand that. we also know that there are some libertarian streaks that run very close here. i want people to pay attention to the debates and listened carefully to the economic plan and understand the principles around how he would project america's interest militarily and economically in the world of foreign affairs. he is not inclined to do anything other than to tell it like it is. i think people have been waiting for an alternative, a consistent conservative with a proven track record. i think people are looking for a leader they can trust. they can find that in jon huntsman. host: how well does he have to perform in new hampshire for his campaign to feel like it was a success? you just said yourself that governor romney is in the lead. guest: no question about it. i think he will get 50% or 60% of the vote. it is a neighboring favored state for him. he has a home here. you accept that reality. we have already exceeded our expectations. as i said earlier, 9% a couple of months ago. ron paul is rather formidable. i like our chances here. i think we are going to do far better here than people realize. much like rick santorum surprised everybody in iowa. there has been a whistling down as we have seen over the past couple of months. jon huntsman is going to be in that top tier of candidates. i feel very comfortable about sharing that with you. host: if you would like to join the conversation with tom ridge, the former governor of pennsylvania, here are the numbers to call. let's hear from shirley, a republican caller in new castle, pa.. good morning. caller: good morning. governor ridge, i have carried petitions for you and for another governor. i thought you were one of our best governors. you did a fine job. a balanced budget, a balance when you left. it was wonderful. i am hoping that jon huntsman will be the same. my problem is i am for rick santorum, 100%, because i think he has a lot of moral values. he is 100% conservative and fits the bill for what our country needs right now. we need christian people in office. i am so upset that you are not backing him. guest: thank you for your kind words. look, i have an enormous regard for rick santorum. the most consistent conservative in this race is jon huntsman. they share a lot of the same ideas and the same views on much of the policies and bank they probably differ on an issue or two, but at the end of the day, i favor men and women who have had to make critical, executive decisions. at the end of the day, they have to build an agenda, articulate and agenda, and then build consensus around an agenda. with respect to senators and congressmen, it is a far different political environment to vote on a bill or give speeches than it is for the responsibility to send a statewide agenda, make promises, and then be held accountable. i do not start out being anti- rick. he has worked hard and is a very good send a there. he did demonstrate some strength in iowa. i like jon huntsman. as i take a look at accomplishments as governor, rolling back taxes, regulatory reform, leading the country in job growth, you take a look at his economic plan, i am not sure rick has one, but jon huntsman has the best economic plan to put this country on a path for prosperity. push this economy forward, competing your way to prosperity. when you have worked in the u.s. trade office, you are an ambassador. you put those things together along with experience, i think he tromps senator santorum. host: we will be talking about the economic policies coming up later on "washington journal." let me ask you this. do you think jon huntsman has hurt his chances being an ambassador to china? is it a strike against him? disco i certainly hope not. i was in new hampshire -- guest: i certainly hope not. i was in new hampshire a couple of months ago. he had several slogans in the campaign. i think when you're president calls, you answer. the first president who called me was richard nixon. i answered. the second president who called me was it george bush. i answered. in this instance, a democrat who asked a very able, committed, experienced public servants like jon huntsman to take on probably the most important diplomatic assignment within the state department's, being an ambassador to china, and he has been in china several times before, you speak mandarin, the 21st century opportunities and frankly the challenges are in that part of the world and you put someone in place to deal with china, india, japan, north korea, vietnam, thailand, cambodia, and those places, you say yes. i think it ought to be a plus rather than a minus. i would respectfully say to them you have to rethink it. the present called with the most important diplomatic assignment -- the president called with the most important diplomatic assignment and be picked you to take on that responsibility. i think it fits him well to take on president obama in the general election. host: the independent line, welcome. caller: the comment i have is you have the homeland security -- i am all for jon huntsman, but the homeland security issue is we have people coming across mexico and you guys can not even stop that. how are we going to make money, companies here in the united states, having incentives to keep people working here in the united states? we have people coming from all over the country here. you guys are degrading america. thank you. guest: i appreciate your support of governor jon huntsman. it is a great primary. i think the governor is going to do very well with independents. i think the republican nominee has to do very well in the primary. as governor of pennsylvania, i could not have one without the independent thinking democrats. with regard to your concern about the borders, i think the facts speak in the bill bit differently. i will never -- i am never willing to have a completely impenetrable border. i must tell you when president bush began assigning more personal for that region, i think the numbers are up since my time as secretary. we did not have the wherewithal. now they are catching them and sending them back. the enforcement at the border -- frankly without some of the support of the states in arizona and texas, we probably would not be doing as well. they deserve more credit than they are getting publicly for the capability they have been brought to the border. at the end of the day, we promised them a couple billion dollars more in support for training and equipment. i think we are building a mature relationship with our friends in mexico and the federal police. we still have a lot of work to do. there is far more success there then you hear with all the criticism. let's celebrate the successes, but we still have more work to do. host: let's look at a presidential poll, putting mitt romney at 43% of the vote, ron paul, 70% of support. jon huntsman at 9%, newt gingrich with 8%. this is from two days ago. mitt romney may be gaining momentum. another 7% was gained by rick santorum and rick perry. you mentioned there is a likelihood in your opinion that mitt romney and perhaps ron paul could beat jon huntsman. talk to us about what you think of for the jon huntsman strategy outside of new hampshire. guest: let's be really candid about the expectations. does anybody think that mitt romney could lose new hampshire? absolutely not. 56% of the vote is something he should get. there is that strong libertarian streak. if you really want to make sure you have a new leader in washington, d.c., you have to think in terms of its electability. the thing that keeps the obama machine awake at night is governor mitt romney. but we have staff in new hampshire and a very significant support. for the past two decades, the individual has been endorsed to has been the republican nominee. he endorses jon huntsman. he turned the party from a democrat majority to a democrat who became an minority. he is supporting jon huntsman. carol campbell went on to become the most popular governors in state history. his wife, his son, they are supporting jon huntsman. alan wilson, the incumbent attorney general, the one who put the lead on obamacare, who has fought the administration with regard to the resistance in south carolina and 8 tea party favre. they are all endorsing jon huntsman. i think we are very positioned -- i think we are very well- positioned in new hampshire to take that momentum into south carolina and continue the momentum we are building up. host: let's go to the republican caller in san diego. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a retired navy but i still work. one concern i have with you endorsing jon huntsman, it makes me concerned. i am a more of a libertarian republican. you were the director of homeland security and while you were under the bush administration, i saw an erosion of our constitutional rights. when you are promoting a person, that makes me think that person is just like you. to step on our constitution and ripped it apart with the patriot at, why would i vote for him and not ron paul who is for our constitution and people like you who have spent money on these needless wars, the whole bush administration, why would i vote for jon huntsman? what is going to do to strengthen the constitution? guest: your categorization of my own experience with the constitution flies in the face of reality, but this election is not about me. jon huntsman is the most consistent conservative in the race. he is a principled leader who you can trust. take a look at his record. take a look at this foreign- policy experience. you have to conclude that he is interested in seeing a change in the white house. as a republican, i certainly hope you are. one of the challenges we had within the republican party, there are some folks who may be interested in political victories. i do not want to win the battle. i want to win the war. i think it is very unfair for you to categorize or reject jon huntsman because of my endorsement. i am 8-0. my endorsement of jon huntsman is as public and aggressive as it can be because he is a principal conservative that you can trust. he will run a campaign against president obama, and you can trust him every day to be consistent with the values, with the constitution. you talked about the constitutional rights but you did not refer to 1. anytime you want to talk about the patriot act and the capabilities that it gave to law enforcement similar to those given to law enforcement to deal with drug dealers and organized crime, i would be happy to have the conversation with you. the patriot act is consistent with the constitution and subject to review. i understand your concern. we never surrender our constitutional freedoms and liberties. we need congressional oversight from congress. at the end of the day, jon huntsman, a strong defender of the constitution, consistent conservative, he is your best choice to the president obama in november 2012, notwithstanding my support troubling you. host: we have a comment coming in on twitter. some issues have been contentious between jon huntsman and the other candidates. guest: i am in support of jon huntsman because at the end of the day when a group of scientists get together and draw some conclusions, he does not dismiss it. as he said last night, he has been involved in building a cancer institute. if you have a group of cancer experts, say 100 of them, and 99 say that in order to deal with cancer you have to make some changes in either procedures or whenever it is, wouldn't you normally take that consensus of 99 out of 100 doctors or scientists and change your conduct? i think jon feels the same way about global warming. when scientists have something to say about global warming, you better listen. a lot of people have ignored the second part of the conversation. if you believe global warming is a problem, and you cannot get the rest of the world which is also contributing to the phenomenon, then your approach has to be different. you cannot jeopardize your economy or put your competitors, workers, or companies at an economic disadvantage by imposing harsh, regulatory and expensive regulations. the fact of the matter remains that the national science foundation and most environmental scientists -- i say to a lot of folks out there who may not know one thing about the issue. do you think on an annual basis that pouring millions and millions, tons of sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide into the atmosphere is a good thing? you do not have to be a scientist to say to yourself that in my be better to reduce those emissions. jon is sensitive to the fact that we cannot act unilaterally and put our employers at a disadvantage. 8 is a very important message. host: our guest in tom ridge, a former governor of pennsylvania who served from 1995 until 2001 and secretary of the department of homeland security. that happened under the george w. bush administration. if you are a new hampshire resident, you can give us a call this morning. to tennessee, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. let's face it. we all know that we went to iraq. over there with the assumption that they had weapons of mass destruction. that kind of disturbs me. you was homeland security, osama was found. west point, one of the biggest compounds are around. are we going to sit there and say nobody knew -- do we not know who gets around at this point here? that was a top military installation. i do not disagree with everything the republicans want to do with everything the democrats want to do. when we go to vote -- i vote democrat. i like ron paul. if he was running as a democrat, i would vote for him in a minute. understanddn't quite the first question. it was a little garbled in translation. i think i heard you say you would vote straight democrat. that is a prerogative. i'm old school. i don't think voting in america it is a privilege. i think it is a responsibility. i was working with president bush and we got some reports and people were lining up for hours and hours to get in and vote subject to mortar rounds. they registered to vote and the head an ink spot on their finger. there were reports that some folks have those fingers amputated. but there were there to vote. i just hope you vote. it is a responsibility of citizens to vote. you are interested in politics and you will vote. good for you. host: good morning, mary. caller: a judgment brought up that the republican candidates will have to figure out a way to get the woman's vote. i feel that by the time the republican candidates get through with us, we will not have access to birth control. their stance -- especially rick santorum -- they will try to put that on the ballot again. only gen new line birth control will be tolerated -- only gen neuine. what is genuine birth control? guest: it is clear the republican party is a pro-life party. that is where governor huntsman is. i do not think you will see a republican nominee -- it is a fundamental issue in the party. he is not judgmental about that. that his is a record -- that is his record. that is an issue. we have been pro-life and we will be. if your vote is based on that single issue, i hope it isn't. i hope you look at his entire record as i have done and conclude if you want to get the economy moving and if you want to deal with realities of the 21st century world that is into depended and to deal with the burgeoning opportunities as well as potential vulnerabilities with china and the need to adapt how reform policy that is based on i trifecta it dealing with the geopolitical military and economic issues, then jon huntsman is a candidate. but the party will be the pro- life party. that is a plank that every nominee in this party supports with variations on that theme. that is the way it has been for quite some time. host: from mississippi, good morning. caller: it is an honor to talk with you. every time you had to step up and did a job, you did the job. we have security now because of the job you did with homeland security. i commend you for your recommendation of jon huntsman. a lot of the front runners are worrying that barack obama as $1 billion in campaign money. the american public does not sit there and say, the democratic party has not produced for us in four years, we have people out of work, but they have $1 billion on the sidelines waiting to go against a man like jon huntsman, who doesn't have any money. i commend you. you could have made a lot of money. you are out there saying that jon huntsman should be the person. i have my choices. i commend you and mike thank you -- and i thank you for being a great american. guest: the republican candidates have kind of circle the wagons in iowa -- maybe things will change in new hampshire. they are bragging they will have $1 billion, which is pretty outrageous. president obama blew the top and the sides out of public financing. he is a fund-raising machine. he has been raising money for the past three-plus years. it has been a continuous campaign. at the end of the day, you have to look at the records. when you see someone has a handle the responsibilities they have been assigned, you get a good idea what they will be doing. there is a great capable speaker. you cannot take that away from him. hoping to change. that is a great rhetorical connect when people are anxious about a lot of things. what we hope for we have not realized. the change that people have desired has not occurred. president obama talking about america being disillusioned and i will bring everything together. we're more divided in three years later and more disillusioned. the economy and jobs, jobs, jobs. the obamacare health care proposal, 2700 pages. the president did not read it. not a bipartisan effort. you had a one trillion dollar package. unemployment will go down below 8%. it is between 8.5% and 9%. it was a nice 22 and diversio01. he lectured the supreme court in front of the nine justices because he did not like a decision in the separation of powers. what is the foreign policy we have? i know we went into libya. our foreign policy is -- there is a long list of bad guys. there is no energy policy and no change. i say that i hope jon huntsman makes the change and i'm confident that he will. host: jon huntsman talk about one of his opponents, mitt romney. i'm getting this from "politico ." the story said he took a whack at mitt romney's ties. this is what the story said. host: the story goes on to say that jon huntsman is not necessarily the ideal messenger for economic populism. he is benefiting from super tax spending and that john mack is a prominent supporter. guest: i think governor huntsman is referring to -- there are some important differences. jon huntsman and i have had this conversation about super pacs. i think it is unlikely the supreme court will change their view with regard to contributions given to campaigns or super pacs. we think there should be transparency. it should be on the internet the next day so everybody can judge who is supporting whom. you cannot hide behind these quarterly reports. the notion of "too big to fail." the governor said there will be no institution that is too big to fail. look at five or six of the institutions in this country -- the banks have the equivalent of 2/3 of the assets tied up. cabalism means if you exercise poor judgment -- capitalism means if you exercise poor judgment, you should not look to the taxpayers to bail allowed the shareholders -- to bail out the ceo's and the shareholders. ic.is smart issue centra i think most americans agree with him. we bailed out the banks on several occasions. this is not the first time. host: a final story about jon huntsman. he touched imaginations. does that help or hurt him? guest: please repeat the first part of your question. host: he will match donations to his campaign when people contribute. guest: if you cannot bet on yourself, how can you expect people to contribute to you? i remember back in 1982 when i borrowed an unconscionable amount. i said, how can i expect people to invest in me? he is asking donors to contribute more and assures them he will match their contributions dollar for dollar. host: tom ridge, supporter of jon huntsman for president. thank you so much. guest: thank you so much. host: this out of iowa. michele bachmann is canceling her trip to south carolina. host host: c-span will carry michele bachmann's announcement live later on this morning. you can find more information at c-span.org. we'll talk to the "christian science monitor" about the candidates and the economy with mark trumbull. clip: that side made up its mind. that garbage -- clip: i can call anything i want. you just be quiet. clip: you do not know me. clip: i work for the private sector. clip: the confrontation ranked as the fourth most watched video in the c-span video library. watch it for yourself on our homepage, c- span.org/videolibrary. you can view other videos from the past year. clip: i did not speak and i did not get a window into my life. i became kind of an evil cartoon. i did not help myself wearing a hat in court. i became kind of a villain. i am a regular person. i did things that were wrong. clip: this weekend, power and corruption on capitol hill. jack ingraabramoff, his story. juan gonzalez on the role that segregation played. margie ross on what it takes to be a successful female publisher and author. okok tv on c-span2. host: every wednesday we feature eight recent magazine article. this week the "christian science monitor" is our choice. joining us is mark trumbull, economic reporter with the magazine. good morning. thank you for being with us. let's look at the candidates that performed best at the iowa caucus. give us a breakdown of where they stand on things. .e'll start with mitt romney take us on what else he would do. guest: he has an interesting idea, exempting capital gains and dividends from taxation for people with household incomes $200,000.$1,00 on that front, a lot of the other republican candidates would cut taxes in ways that may be especially benefit the rich, he is saying i will call for an additional tax break on the middle and upper middle class. that is one key difference with him. he would repeal the estate tax and lower business tax rates. host: you say he would cut non security discretionary spending. guest: that is pretty similar with the other candidates. the republicans want to cut discretionary spending and federal spending in general to get to a balanced budget. most of them would support the idea of a balanced budget amendment. mitt romney is not quite as aggressive in the cost-cutting as some of the candidates. ron paul would go even further on the cuts. is aggressiveey enough. he wants to cut percentage from 24 percentage of gdp to20% by the end of its first term. that's a pretty aggressive target. host: mark trumbull, economic reporter with the "christian science monitor." guest: he emphasizes that he knows about how job creation works and that he would lead on that front. he emphasizes free trade, promoting free trade, but he says that china has not been playing by the rules and needs to be confronted more assertively by the united states. it would be interesting to see of the plays out. some of his rivals warn that becker result in a trade war with china -- say that that could result in a trade war with china. he wants more exports for the united states. he also wants to reduce regulation. that is something shared by other republican candidates, and to promote more domestic energy production. host: there was a press release by the mitt romney campaign saying that mitt romney created more jobs in massachusetts than president obama has in the entire country. hat for us?t-check tyha guest: i do not know for sure if mitt romney meant he was creating 100,000 jobs just during his term as governor. he talked about his "former life." i have not had a chance to look into what might be able to claim from his years in the private sector. in his term as governor, it doesn't look like massachusetts gained more than 50,000 jobs during the years from january 2003-2007, which is his term. on that front, he seems to fall short in his claim. in another important way, it is dubious. as newt gingrich and others have pointed out, it is not really politicians who create jobs in the first place. job creation can be affected by public policy. a chief executive can affect the whole flavor of the economy. that does play into job creation. it is far from the only factor. a president and governor is dependent on the arc of the economy when they happen to be in office. so his whole premise is flawed. obama took office at a time when the economy was in a nosedive. he emphasizes this lot in his own defense. jobs were disappearing at a rapid clip. the claim by romney tabulate might be viewed as true if you start from the exact moment when obama took office. if you wait just a couple of months, then from that point, obama -- the obama administration has seen jobs rising. it is an interesting question. host: social security and a safety net. medtronic would like to keep social security sound -- mitt romney would like to keep social security sound, according to our guest, mark trumbull. where are the differences? guest: one key difference -- in general, mr. santorum is a lot more conservative than romney. he is plain that up on social issues and foreign policy. it is true on the economy. i'm saying that partly based -- rick santorum has put out a specific tax reform plan. this is boring from work done by a group called the tax policy center in washington which is a non-partisan kind of watchdog group about tax policy. plan ay santorum's would be to supply the tax bracket down to two brackets. so romney has not put out such a bold or detailed tax reform plan. and then rick santorum would repeal the estate tax. santorum would set the tax rate on capital gains and dividends at 12%. he does not have any income threshold for that. that would benefit the rich and others. he would cut the corporate tax rate in half for any corporation but all of z toero for manufactured -- but all the way to zero for manufacturing companies. host: we are talking with mark trumbull with "christian science monitor." we will go through more of the details for other candidates. but first let's get to the phones and hear from the republican caller in chattanooga. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i want to congratulate ron paul for taking the third place after being beat up by every pundit. everyone of them has beat him up like nothing else. no other candidate has gone through that. to bring troops home and to bring money home and to go after the irs and to allow people to keep their wages. what is your view on his plan? i think if the people can keep their money and spend their money and manufacturing will not come back and most people -- we need to bring manufacturing back from china and mexico -- and mexico. what do you think about that? guest: i will try for the most part on some of these issues to stay neutral personally on the candidates and my view on their positions. i will try to enter in a sense about what i believed -- i will try to answer in a sense about what i believe many economists would say. they have a wide range of views. i will try to express that. economists are not all of one mind. ron paul has definitely got economic views -- from not libertarian perspective -- from that libertarian perspective. let people keep more of their money and let people decide how to use their money, have a much smaller government, and the economy will prosper from that. i think economists would support that general trend, that idea of moving in that direction. i think there would be disagreement about how far to move in that direction. where ron paul and his libertarian fans and peers say that that would have very great, positive effects on gdp growth, i think there are some economists who say you have to balance the gains that might happen on gdp growth with other concerns that voters and others have about maybe -attaining- you mentioned military spending. people say if america pulls back, that could destabilize global security and could have harmful effects on the economy. others would say if you dramatically downsize the federal government, that might have a contract generic affect on the economy. if you cut spending dramatically, that is taking in fact the biggest consumer in the economy and pulling them down a big notch in terms of their activity, that might not be quickly offset by a rebound in the private sector. so ron paul has talked about cutting $1 trillion from federal spending year one. that would be a much more dramatic cut in federal spending than the other candidates. host: let's get into the detail of ron paul's plan as a way out by my guess, mark trumbull. he would replace the income tax with a fair tax. host: he'd like to cut spending by $1 trillion in the first year, faster than any other candidate in the running right now. from shannon -- the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to remind the people about the weapons of mass destruction, the outing of valerie plame. this took place under the republican watch. they have not taken responsibility for their leadership to bust her. i have not heard any of the republican candidates say anything different except a continuation of the bush politics. in the one debate that they had, they had all the ves sittingtism sittin there and they were waiting. they talked about the foolish wars. they were hoping that mitt romney or rick santorum, one of those people would get into what was so they can go back to business as usual. host: give us a sense of were the republican candidate's stand compared to george w. bush. guest: many of the candidates would extend the bush tax cuts, for one thing. that is central to bush's tax plan at home. it is logical that the debate between obama and the republicans would center around those tax rates that were set under bush because that is where we started before the recession. it is interesting. the caller is right. or stand now is very much shaped by the bush -- where we stand now is very much shaped by thebus bush era. the republicans are generally saying, let's keep them in place for the very rich. i guess the public, by the way, in polls, people are saying they do not want to see taxes go up. many people when pushed to make a tough choice say if we have to get our house in order physically, let's do it through a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes -- fiscally. people are much more likely to say let's raise taxes a bit on the rich or the more well-off in society rather than across the board. and then just going back -- i will leave it at that for now. host: we have a comment on twitter. take us through some of the highlights the president has done. guest: he has tried to do a lot off the bat. he did the stimulus program, $787 billion, a mix of tax cuts and spending on infrastructure and aid to state governments that were facing big budget cuts and layoffs. that whole plan has gone a lot of mixed reviews with republicans saying it did not work, obama saying it did, some democrats saying it did work but it was not big enough and that we should have done even more. obama has won two major pieces of legislation that i can think of. one on banking and before that, the health-care reforms, the affordable care act. on that front, you could argue that obama focused too much on health care reform. that was a campaign issue, a big important initiative for the country. it came at a time when the economy was still not doing well. the job recovered didn't kick in. we were in a deep hole and jobs were a top party for voters. some people say there was a a topegic move the stmistake -- priority for voters. what the cost will be for them, what the impact on the ark of the recovery will be. even if you say that the stimulus did help a little bit to get the economy going again and that obama successfully managed to tamp down the members of the financial crisis back in still had some stil failures. he has been focused on job creation and getting the economy moving again. host: mark trumbull is an economic reporter at the "christian science monitor." he has a peace or not that rates -- he has a piece out right now that rates the candidates on the economy. here's what he wrote -- wri tes, rather -- host: you say that economists are not agreed on what would work. there is consensus in one area, setting a course for sound fiscal management is a priority. how so? guest: well, i think that is an important point. even if we get the federal government more fiscally stable position, that is necessary but not by itself the only key to a strong economy. if we did not improve the fiscal position of the federal government, i think we risked the future of slower economic growth and that just means poor job opportunities and slower income growth for americans. it is important to find a way to move toward if not balanced budgets, at least lower deficits to the point where federal debts stop growing as a share of gdp and hopefully even comes down substantially. that is very important. involvesy economy and fall having a good regulatory environments, having a strong education system, taking other steps to promote solid trade relations with the rest of the other and perhaps policies as well. if i think of more of them, i will mention them as we go. host: robert from delaware on the democrat line. caller: good morning. host: right ahead. -- go right ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. guest: good to talk with you. caller: i am a democrat and i have been looking at the republican debate. what do they -- have to offer? all i hear is they are protecting the rich. host: we will leave it there. robert brings up the question about protecting the rich. how are the candidates weighing in when it comes to taxing the rich? guest: the primary process is focused on the candidates appealing to their own party base. i think in that sense the candidates have not had to face this question very much even though it is probably a big one in the minds of millions of voters out there. when it comes to one candidate being nominated, it will come up a lot more and that candidate will have to someone pivot and talk about that issue. i think in the primary process, i have not done exhaustive research. what i have done, it is interesting that one of the only comments i ran across that addresses this issue is mitt romney worries says that his plan to eliminate caplet gains and dividend taxes would be just for those people with household incomes below $250,000. it is those people of middle and lower incomes who have been hit the hardest in this economy with the weak job recovery. in a sense, one interviewer asked him if he is conceding the point that it is importance to have a progressive tax code. d that aof dodgeg little bit. he is defending himself with his own party based on that front. it is interest-rate going back to what he says about capital gains and dividends. a lot of people out there do not have a capital gains and dividends. their income comes from wages and social security. that one plan would not benefit a broad spectrum of americans. host: judy is a republican caller. caller: i have to laugh. i am 68 years old and a republican now. i say a pox on both their houses. they need to look at the insider trading of nancy pelosi and john boehner. there are so corrupted by the laws that- - by the thteey create. as far as taxes are concerned, i think you're wrong. the normal person sees spending millions of dollars to research the derriere of a firefly -- the with that of walked off some much money that the normal person cannot even fathom it in one year. then they say that seniors are greedy and the middle class needs to pay. we have paid. my retirement plan has been completely changed by what the big boys did when they knew what was happening in places like the real estate market, when the put nafta in. host: how was is affecting how you are going to vote? caller: i have to make some horrible choices. if mitt romney is what they are giving me -- the big boys, karl rove, bush, i do not know what i'm going to do. if mitt romney is it, he is a multimillionaire. "i will bet you $10,000." i don't think either party is given ust too much. mr. obama is putting things in place that has almost destroyed certain industries in this country. when we have the oil spill, we have the moratorium. we gave $2 billion to brazil. mr. obama offer them to bring the oil back into the country. host: let's hear from our guest. judy is not happy with either party. it sounds like she's saying that is because of the influence of big business and environmental policy. guest: yeah. that brings a useful perspective to the show. e only one that l onee who feels that way. the bad economy has been turned so sour in part through policies that were put in place in some cases in the bush administration and sometimes in the clinton administration and sometimes years before. there's a lot of people who do feel that these mistakes are based in part on the influence of lobbyists and big corporations. one candidate among the republicans who has taken up this perspective and try to run with it at least in one important segment is jon huntsman, who did not compete in the iowa caucus but is hoping to do well in new hampshire and maybe catch a little headwind -- or tailwind that could revive his hopes for the nomination. host: tell us more about his plan. he calling for? guest: he has talked about trying to confront the banking industry and ratchet down, put a cap on the size of financial firms. that would be in his you a direct response to the financial crisis and trying to say if these firms got too big to fail and were bailed out the last time, that could just happen again unless we forced them to become smaller in size. there are some economists who are experts in finance who say that is a good idea and would make our banking system safer. others would say that by itself is not necessarily enough or the approach to take, even though they might agree there's a risk that our financial sector could get into a crisis again and need bailing out again. they might argue the other tactics are needed to bring the risk in the banking sector. jon huntsman is sort of talking about taking on some very big corporations and doing something that they would not like. that is an interesting point for him. he is viewed as the furthest to the left, the most moderate of all of the republican candidates that have been attending the debates -- or competing right now. he has an aggressive tax reform plan that would cut corporate tax rates down to 25% from 35%. it would simplify the income tax rate to having just three brackets, 8%, 14%, and 23%. he also favors reducing regulations, promoting free trade, and so forth. host: louise honor democrat's line from florida. caller: good morning. i am almost 70 years old. i believe the republicans goal is to privatize social security and medicare. this is the plan of religious reconstructionist, like rick santorum. the one to replace the government would save based groups. this was started by giving our tax dollars to religious groups. if anyone believes that religious groups can run our country better than government, gridlood luck. guest: thanks for the comment. it will be interesting. rick santorum it seems to have become at least for now the prominent conservative in the race -- all the republicans what paul flight as conservative, but he would beat the one that can appeal to the conservative wing of the party, including evangelical christians and others who might favor a element faitihh-based and a shift of, say, privatizing certain government programs. it may be helping rick santorum to have been the survivor in iowa from that conservative wing of the party, he may become a serious contender for the nomination. i do not know. that could hurt him should become the nominee. people are saying mitt romney is the more electable of the two. host: ted is on our independent line. caller: thank you. i have a couple of comments. manufacturing went to japan, all over the world. they took our jobs over there because they don't like to pay taxes and decent wages. all these people are sitting over here unemployed, and these people are sending garbage over here for us to buy. we need to put a moratorium on those folks. taxes and wages keep this country running. host: you say that mitt romney or mightn't name china a currency manipulator. talk to us what other countries are going. keeping jobs in the country. guest: yeah. a lot of the candidates talk about the idea of trying to encourage companies to repatriate profits either through temporary incentives or maybe overhauling the business tax code to try to make it more encouraging for companies to take profits that they might earn overseas and invest it back home in creating new factory jobs here. i am not sure any of the candidates other than rick santorum perhaps are making that a huge priority. rick santorum is emphasizing encouraging a revival of manufactured by having a zero corporate tax rate for companies. he would allow tax-free repatriation of overseas profits if those are used to invest in u.s. plants and equipment. but i think beyond those policies, there is a big question of how in a globally competitive environment, how we can get more companies to invest back home. i think in part that happens over time if the u.s. market remains one of the most attractive places for any company to try to sell their goods, whether they are a u.s. company or a foreign-based company. i think we can help whether it is u.s. companies are ones from europe or china or elsewhere that there will be some continuing inflows of investment into creating jobs in the u.s. and the more that manufacturing becomes automated, that makes it a field -- the bad news is you need fewer workers to do wit, but you can do just about anywhere. host: we have a comment on twitter. that is one opinion on twitter. our guest is mark trumbull "christian science monitor fr-- from "christian science monitor." what you likeabout to do going foward. host: talk to us about what else he wants to do regarding jobs and growth. guest: which candidate? host: president obama. guest: obama. his plan right now -- he has hinged a lot of his hopes, hitched to the idea of continuing tempered incentives for the economy, temporary tax cuts, trying to pass additional aids to states and additional infrastructure spending. he is on the more -- people would say that may help, but we also need permanent fixes for these things. on that front, he has struggled to either articulate a plan of his own that can begin to gather public support and put pressure on the republicans or to find a way to bring the republicans to the bargaining table. it has been perhaps an unfortunate case where neither side may be feels a strong urgency of coming together and negotiating or seeking compromise. so, i guess it sets the stage for an election year fight where obama casts himself in his words perhaps fighting for the middle class, trying to make the rich pay a little more to bring down a federal deficits while also acknowledging the need for spending cuts if we're going to get the fiscal house in order. trumbull is an economic reporter for the "christian science monitor." you can find it in this edition of "christian science monitor." thank you so much for joining us. guest: great to be here. host: that is all for this edition of "washington journal." stay tuned for michele bachmann's press conference later on this morning. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] national captioning institute]

Related Keywords

Charleston ,South Carolina ,United States ,Nevada ,Alaska ,Tom Ridge ,Maryland ,Brazil ,China ,Delaware ,California ,San Diego ,Syracuse ,New York ,Washington ,District Of Columbia ,Des Moines ,Iowa ,Mexico ,Arizona ,India ,Cambodia ,Massachusetts ,Libya ,Hampshire ,Jersey ,West Point ,Tennessee ,Japan ,Carson City ,New Hampshire ,Texas ,Iran ,Afghanistan ,Florida ,Boston ,Virginia ,Georgia ,Cape Cod ,Mississippi ,United Kingdom ,Iraq ,Thailand ,New Jersey ,Israel ,Town Hall ,Geneva ,Genè ,Switzerland ,Phoenix ,Pennsylvania ,North Korea ,Ohio ,Capitol Hill ,Yankee Stadium ,Iowans ,Americans ,America ,Iraqis ,Iranians ,Britain ,Afghan ,American ,Douglas Brinkley ,Jon Huntsman ,Nancy Pelosi ,Romney ,Ron Paul ,Ronald Reagan ,George Bush ,Walter Mondale ,Juan Gonzalez ,Jennifer Jacobs ,Rick Perry ,Trumbull Christian ,Michele Bachmann ,Harry Truman ,Ann Coulter ,George Herbert Walker Bush ,Ronald Paul ,Chris Christie ,Carol Campbell ,John Sununu ,Herman Cain ,John Boehner ,Rick Santorum ,Newt Gingrich ,John Mccain ,Margie Ross ,John Huntsman ,Alan Wilson ,Los Angeles ,Ron Paul Romney ,Ron Hall ,John Mack ,Valerie Plame ,Jimmy Carter ,Barack Obama ,Neil Levesque ,George W Bush ,Sarah Palin ,Richard Nixon ,