light of that. on tuesday, perry said maybe doing the debates was a mistake. let s listen, he keeps moving in this direction. these debates are set up for nothing more than to tear down the candidates. it s pretty hard to be able to sit and lay out your ideas and concepts with a one-minute response. if there was a mistake made, it was probably ever doing one of the ever doing one of the campaigns when all they re interested in stirring it up between the candidates. yesterday perry s campaign manager said they were trying a new strategy we need to be spending time, particularly as the last entrant, with voters, doing town halls, retail politics, and local media in the early states. he added that perry would do the next scheduled debate on cnbc on november 9th, but would pick and choose after that. john, debates don t hurt everybody. i notice that herman cain is doing really well, thanks to the debates. mitt romney s doing really well thanks to the debate.
why d he say it? it s a bogus story. no, bogus is john, who cares the cuban community doesn t care. they re all circling the wagons. that is not exactly a truth test. you know what bogus is, is his website and all his statements. go check media matters, quote after quote after quote saying i came here after castro. oh, so what? marco rubio a great candidate and he ll be a great vice presidential candidate. john, john he s allowed to say it. he s a great guy. that s what the shows about, people arguing inarguable positions. up next, herman cain s risen to the top of the polls, but can his campaign withstand the scrutiny that comes with being a front-runner? this guy is more fun than any of them. this is hardball on msnbc. [ male announcer ] sitting. waiting. hoping. that s a recipe for failed investing. open an e-trade account and open doors, seize opportunities, take action with some of the most powerful yet easy-to-use trading tools on the planet all buil
serious presidential candidate in many ways. he s blowing off fund-raisers and all sorts of things. you know what he s good at? and dana, you know what he s really good at? not being mitt romney. yes, that s right. which is the main role he s been cast for, dana. whether he ever asked for it or not, he is not mitt romney. and anybody who ain t mitt romney is going to get a lot of people saying yeah, he s the guy i want for president. that s true. and he s certainly not barack obama. i think there s a consensus that he s not ready for prime time. but you know, he is absolutely ready for late night. so he s been very valuable in the entertainment factor. one of the back benchers, rick santorum, who believes in what he says about abortion rights, has gone after him. here s an ad from rick santorum, the former senator from pennsylvania, going after cain for his answer that he gave rather directly about the issue of a family member if they were raped where would he be on abortion.
40%. he s moving up. still well ahead of cain, at 13. it looks like he owns that state. it s a statistical tie in south carolina. this is the big one to watch. romney s at 25, cain s at 23. i think that s the dealmaker for one or the other guy. and in florida, romney s at 30, cain s at 13. newt gingrich and perry tie for third place at 9. romney, four for four right now. i think his brother, jeb, helped him in florida. we ll be right back.
for him. no, but let me get ron in on this. let me show you something. he s talking about having a bullseye on his back. let s take a look at this. here it is. i don t know how many of you saw that last debate. i didn t realize that the bullseye on my back was that big. they came after me like i had talked about their mama. what is going on here? it s sort of regular street corner talk. but he s like trying to set it up so if they go after him there s something wrong with them, he should be sort of immunized against attack. well, he d better be careful what he wishes for. if he wants to be a front-runner in this campaign he s going to draw more scrutiny and that scrutiny will find him wanting, i m afraid. there is real suspicion here that herman cain is not actually running for president, he s on a book tour. he hasn t built the sort of organizations in the early states that you would expect a serious presidential candidate to do. and he s not acting like a