would they have voted in a republican primary that required a loyalty oath when reagan was probably the only republican they would vote for? i doubt it. and our panelists are with us. they join us and contributing for us. nice to have you all. ron, so back up and explain why? what s the why that virginia s doing this? look, this is what parties go through. the tension between on the one hand wanting to ensure your nominations are driven by your core supporter that reflect the values and priorities of the supporters and the need to reach beyond that. this kind of a really strange position in a state like virginia, which is emphatically now a purple state. a swing state. you can t win virginia anymore just by mobilizing the republican base. you have it reach out beyond it to win statewide. you would think they would want
in 80. bob dole in 88 and huckabee who failed to take the nomination. fielding the argument maybe iowa shouldn t be first. until recently the major candidates didn t spend much time in iowa, jon huntsman skipping iowa altogether said they pick corn in iowa, not presidents. kind of a snarky way to put down a state where he s not spending any time. chairman of iowa s republican party. great to see you. great to see you. the institution, doll weg. and joining everybody for breakfast this morning. why iowa, when you look people have said this. you look at the actual demographics of the state. it s not a diverse state. it s 91% white and not really representative of a lot of other competitions that will happen across the country. so why iowa? two things. first, we start the process. we don t finish the process. we play the role of widower, not designed to be predictive of the final outcome, whether the nominee or ultimate victor in the white house but ironic
see that? it says, lunch specials cnn. welcome, everybody. coming to you from the waveland cafe. reporting live our new show starting point. i m soledad o brien. something that seems crazy to me pap new greeting. throw that a little bit. columbia, south carolina is what we re talking about, the capital, pal meadow state. the play so lovely, mandating allstate agency employees, myself included, will answer the phone just like this. hello, everyone. it is another great day in south carolina. it is another great day in south carolina. governor haily is doing it because she s proud of south carolina and trying to change
iowa than any other state. this notion there hasn t been activity in iowa, do the math. more candidate activity kniss cau this caucus season than any other state. 20% or more, mitt romney, who s actually not spent that much time, intentionally the person who sent a lot of time, rick santorum, until pe got a big endorsement was trailing and michele bachmann who s struggled as well. those are the people going around, meeting everybody, letting them kick their tires. you can t understate the mitt romney has not spent a lot of personal time here compared to four year ago. no matter where i went this summer a romney staff person signing up volunteers under the radar perhaps you didn t see because the governor himself was here. i don t think the death of the organized retain campaign s in iowa is completely overblown and you see poll numbers verify when you see a romney, a santorum, a ron paul, folks with organizations in this state
voters feel they re being taken for granted and forced to make a decision. you know, by the state. that s wrong. we are going to have to revisit some of that and voters would appreciate that. take it from one virginia voter. when you look at iowa one angry virginia voter. yes. when you look at iowa, though, what they do in iowa is really exactly the opposite, right? right. you say you can show up that day. you can vote. show up with a driver s license, prove you live in the neighborhood and participate. and to that end, there are democrats who intend to attend the republican caucuses. is that a big problem? it wasn t a problem for barack obama last time around. he got 80,000 new registrants on caucus day. that s huge. those are people who weren t previously registered in the party. we agree that virginia s process is too restrictive and should be changed. would you change your rules in the middle of the process here? do you think that would be fair to the candidat