according to this week s nbc/ wall street journal poll. herman cain is leading romney, 27% to 23%. rick perry, a distant third now. but among tea party supporters, the gap is even more lopsided. herman cain has the support of a third of tea partyers, romney only about 21%. so if the predictions are correct and mitt romney wins the nomination, what does that mean for the tea party movement itself? will they reluctantly get behind him or will they perhaps look for a third party candidate? or does the choice of mitt romney say something about the power of the tea party? as the huffington post asked in a headline yesterday, will mitt romney kill the tea party? matt kibbe is president of freedomworks, one of the largest organizations, and steve kornacki is a political columnist for salon. gentleman, thank you for coming on both, within and outside the tea party movement. i am struck, i m not a man of the right, but i m struck over and over again by the fact that romney seems to be the in
base of the republican partyas turned on mitt romney because he s the anti-tea party, anti-talk radio, anti-anti-government candidate. romney will never be able to appeal to those who want limited government. he fundamentally cannot. he is at bottom a center right candidate, who believes government, when run effectively and efficiently, can produce the best results for the people. it s a noble view. one that the gop base seemingly hates him for. if romney becomes the gop nominee, it will prove that the tea party project was an abject failure and that the momentum of 2010 was only temporary. romney doesn t represent taking the country back. my question is, does he have enough anger, just emotionally, against what s been going on, to be your guy s representative in the general election? does he feel and act like a tea partier? well, i don t think it s how he feels, i think it s what he stands for. and if he s going to run on repealing obama care, if he comes up with some plan but
bottom to the top. every time he s been in a debate his numbers have gone up. every time somebody s doing what you re doing, for the right, his numbers have gone up. every time they ve quibbled over this guy s economic it hasn t started at least he s got one. it hasn t started yet. there s been no real attack on cain from anyone in the republican party. could there be, in your mind there will be. i want an honest answer. this is sodium pentothal time, david corn. could there be that the republican members are voting for him in these polls simply to say, i am not for romney, i ll name this man who is african-american, who is not a man of political background, in a cynical way. i m just doing it as a placeholder. is that what you re really saying? otherwise, what you re saying makes no sense, because they keep voting for him. no, no, no. i think i think their love is fleeting. we saw it for trump, we saw it it s infatuation. yeah. the question is, who do y
freedomworks, one of the largest organizations, and steve kornacki is a political columnist for salon. gentleman, thank you for coming on both, within and outside the tea party movement. i am struck, i m not a man of the right, but i m struck over and over again by the fact that romney seems to be the inevitable nominee, because he keeps in there, and you guys keep changing who you like, now it s herman cain, and i don t sense you re going to win, in the long run. we might split our vote, but it strikes me that tea partiers are shopping around and checking out all these various alternatives to romney. clearly, he s the establishment guy, and the question is, can we coalesce around somebody to challenge them? if you add up the numbers, if the anti-romney vote coalesces it s 77%. we win. yes, but when are you going to get to that point where you can actually knock him out or he will win. you have to get together, or he will win, by definition? but we haven t cast a vote yet
don t really want an establishment leader. you don t want a john wayne to el you what to do. you like to call your own shots individually. do you want a leader, honestly, a strong leader at the top to tell you where to go, to march, like reagan? i don t think that that s essentially what we re trying to do. but how do you get a nominee? president is one position, but we d love to drive the process from the bottom up from you on, just like the freshman class has done in the house and senate. so let romney have it and kick him in the butt once in a while? no, we want to find the best candidate that can win. and we don t think that that s mitt romney. let me go to steve kornacki. we re trying to figure this thing from the inside. the dynamic to me seems like there s always going to be somebody, as matt says, who will challenge romney. he always will have an anti-romney from the right. the question is, could it be that in the end, they don t have a strong person from the right?