gingrich. but it s such a crazy year, alex. you cannot rule out somebody else conceivably catching fire, perry comeback or maybe jon huntsman beats all the odds and gets his 15 minutes. not likely. the most likely situation is that the two men who have performed the best in the debates and that s mitt romney and newt gingrich, will square off for many primaries to come. i don t think this is going to get wrapped up too early. i d be surprised if romney closes the sale at the beginning of 2012. if he couldn t do it after stomping everybody in debates through much of 2011. here s an interesting angle. with news max, the conservative news site, bill clinton had nice things to say about his former rival. let s listen to this. i think he s doing well just because he s thinking and people are hungry for ideas that make
good morning, jeff. hey, good morning, alex. hope you had a great holiday. if everybody is traveling or a lot of folks are traveling home after the holidays, this is probably the biggest travel day. i don t think you ll have any problems in the northeast corridor. anywhere from boston to new york, to philly, to washington. once you head back to my hometown of pittsburgh and farther west, you get into heavy rain. that s an issue in cincinnati, maybe up to cleveland and detroit. here along the eastern seaboard, the weather shouldn t be an issue. that won t be the case along the immediate east coast down into florida. but atlanta is getting rain, also new orleans, birmingham, little rock, arkansas as well. now, as we head into the upper midwest, chicago, which of course is always a big hub. there could be issues there. we ll keep an eye on that through the afternoon. most of the west, alex, looking high and dry. the exception may be seattle. all right. jeff morrow, thanks for that.
he went after a previous speaker on a book deal and it was gingrich s own book deal that didn t look so good. he went after bill clinton, interestingly. on the lewinski affair at the same time that he was having a long-term affair with a congressional staffer out of wedlock. you know, there s a lot of baggage here. you can expect the republican candidates, all of them, to be opening that bag anl and inspecting the contents. they didn t have to do that when newt gingrich ran, he wasn t registered in the polls. but now that he s surging, you can expect a lot of the old issues, the good and the bad newt gingrich to be on display. which is going to keep it very interesting. you ll have to come on back. thank you so much jonathan alterment good to see you. thanks, alex. michele bachmann is also making headlines for new comments she made at a book signing in iowa. she cited a letter signed in 2004 by several republicans,
businessman herman cain the runaway winner of the republican straw poll leaving rick perry and mitt romney in the dust. joining me now, michael smir khan as you. michael, good morning. hi alex. what do you make of his win and his time in the spotlight? i don t know that it s a stunner. in the straw polls, what really matters is passion. not many people vote. it s an expensive proposition. they tend to favor the most ideologically extreme people. in the way that michele bachmann captured a similar vote in iowa, that s what you see going on with herman cain. i do think that it is a rebuff of governor perry largely because as you ve already pointed out this morning, the answer that he gave in the debate last week about immigration. interestingly, alex, i think the answer that he gave is the sort of answer that might cause moderates, it might cause independents to look at him in a general. but it s a death now in a
as it is the policy. the president fulfilling a promise he and the first lady made to come down here and encourage others, set an example for tourists who have stayed away because of what they believe is a oil scarred beach. they haven t seen any tar balls at this beach in florida. to come back down here, the industries, charter boat captains, hotels have been hurting and that s the image they re trying to portray and project. i think sasha loves that hole in one image. she was rocking there. good for her. right. maybe mini golf absolutely. mike, thanks so much. new testing is going on this weekend before the government orders bp to finish drilling that relief well. the permanently plug up the blownout well. for a month a temporary cap has covered the well keeping crude from gushing into the gulf of mexico. and nbc s charles hadlock live in venice, louisiana. good morning to you, charles. good morning, alex. can we get to the tests that are taking place and what officials