are still alive? this is always a very difficult and challenging process. the sheriff and all the local officials continue to evaluate the list of missing persons and yes, in many cases these may be folks that just are safe and just didn t haven t been in contact with folks. this will be an ongoing process for quite some time. jon: i know that people are having health problems because of all of the smoke. there are just innumerable problems coming from this fire. what is job one right now? job one is obviously to render this fire safe, to get it contained and put that piece to bed. also it is taking care of the population. this weather will help clean the air quality not just at the fire but throughout the region. but right now the focus is really to take care of this population to insure they re sheltered and the long-term process of debris removal and recovery. jon: sheltering some of
downtick in unemployment, but things fundamentally really haven t changed. and the truth is, this president has no business having numbers that high and being so strong in the horse race for the re-election when the economy is this bad. so you can only conclude that there is something that is scaring them about the other side, and we have two things going on, which is the rise of newt gingrich, which is obviously terrifying to many voters in the middle, and also this unbelievable spectacle, i can t keep my eyes off of it, i ve been on the hill the last two days and it s an absolute circus up there. and voters must be saying, we can t possibly let these guys run the show. sam, does anyone come out of this thing looking good? reporter: i think the polls indicate that the president comes out looking good. let s take a very sober look at this. where we started was democrats wanted to tax millionaires to pay for this payroll tax cut. republicans said, no way, they didn t haven t want to
caucuses, the democratic winner has gone on to the nomination 84% of the time. for republicans, that figure is only 60%. pat robertson, for heaven s sake, finished ahead of george h.w. bush in 1988. that didn t mean that republicans didn t come back in 1986 and contest the caucuses. they did. but i can tell you right now, there s a real chance, i think that iowa can take a flyer here, unless those gingrich bleeds all go to romney and romney pulls an upset. then romney has an ideal situation either way. either he wins iowa, he s on a roll, or he gets to run against ron paul, and i can t conceive that he wouldn t the republican nominee under those circumstances. steve, is it a pipe dream that some semblance of a gop organization or establishment in
because he and i spent a lot of decembers and januarys in iowa, iowa operates a little differently on the republican side than the democratic side. since 1980, in contested iowa caucuses, the democratic winner has gone on to the nomination 84% of the time. for republicans, that figure is only 60%. pat robertson, for heaven s sake, finished ahead of george h.w. bush in 1988. that didn t mean that republicans didn t come back in 1986 and contest the caucuses. they did. but i can tell you right now, there s a real chance, i think with that iowa can take a flyer here, unless those gingrich bleeds all go to romney and romney pulls an upset. then romney has an ideal situation either way. either he wins iowa, he s on a roll, or he gets to run against ron paul, and i can t conceive that he wouldn t the republican nominee under those circumstances. steve, is it a pipe dream that some semblance of a gop organization or establishment in iowa can get it together and say, hey, we don t want to be
the horse race for the re-election when the economy is this bad. so you can only conclude that there is something that is scaring them about the other side, and we have two things going on, which is the rise of newt gingrich, which is obviously terrifying to many voters in the middle, and also this unbelievable spectacle, i can t keep my eyes off of it, i ve been on the hill the last two days and it s an absolute circus up there. and voters must be saying, we can t possibly let these guys run the show. sam, does anyone come out of this thing looking good? reporter: i think the polls indicate that the president comes out looking good. let s take a very sober look at this. where we started was democrats wanted to tax millionaires to pay for this payroll tax cut. republicans said, no way, they didn t haven t want to pass the payroll tax cut. now obama s given up the millionaire surtax, included the keystone pipeline tax into the deal, and what has he got for that, nothing? people say,