support him. he s followed by ron paul at 22%. rick santorum is now third with 16%. newt gingrich is at 14%. michele bachmann is on the campaign trail in des moines right now, a day after one of her high profile advisers defected. bachmann is likely to face questions about the decision by state senator ken sorenson to jump ship and throw his support behind ron paul. we re keying an eye on bachmann s media event and we ll take you there live for some of the q and a session. he may be the front-runner but mitt romney isn t predicting how he will do in the iowa caucuses. he started the day in cedar falls talking about the job and the economy. speaking with wolf blitzer he responded to kplats from newt gingrich about attack ads. i don t know why he s so angry. look, this is a campaign about the things we believe in. i believe the country s being led in a very unfortunate and destructive way by a president that doesn t really understand our economy or america. i can get amer
welcome back to hardball. after yesterday s spectacular stock market surge, plus huge retail sales numbers over the thanksgiving weekend, could there finally be signs americans can feel that the economy s improving? well, plus, cable tv seems to have rewritten rules for retail politics in a presidential race. has the power of face-to-face, one-on-one politicking, especially in early caucus and primary states been replaced now by the tv debate and by tv republican side on fox? these are the questions for our strategist today. number one, with mitt romney selling himself as the businessman candidate, who ll save the economy, could a better economy be bad for mitt? number two, how does this new political playbook with tv being so important change the game foç both democrats and republicans? steve mcmahon, our buddy on the democratic side, he s a strategist.
welcome back to hardball. after yesterday s spectacular stock market surge, plus huge retail sales numbers over the thanksgiving weekend, could there finally be signs americans can feel that the economy s improving? well, plus, cable tv seems to have rewritten rules for retail politics in a presidential race. has the power of face-to-face, one-on-one politicking, especially in early caucus and primary states been replaced now by the tv debate and by tv interviews, especially on the republican side on fox? these are the questions for our strategist today. number one, with mitt romney selling himself as the businessman candidate, who ll save the economy, could a better economy be bad for mitt? number two, how does this new political playbook with tv being so important change the game for both democrats and republicans? steve mcmahon, our buddy on the democratic side, he s a strategist. todd harris, our buddy on the republican side. gentleman, it s great to have you. let me start with t
explosion near the iranian city of isfahan. the exact location has not been disclosed. it s reported it was part of a military exercise. a uranium conversion plant is located just outside that city. earlier this month a mysterious blast damaged a missile base near tehran. a woman in the state of georgia says she had a 13-year affair with republican candidate remember man cain. she made the claim in an interview with local tv channel. cain has been married for more than 40 years, marred with a lot of allegations against him. he says he knows the woman but denies the affair. this is the fifth woman to accuse him of sexual harassment or extramarital contact. i m monita rajpal. world business today starts right now. hello. welcome to wbt, i m andrew stephens in hong kong. i m charles hodson in london. the top stories on tuesday, november 29th. rupert murdoch squares off with shareholders as phone hacking revelations continue to rock his leadership. stock markets in europe