and a banner was flown over the event that red where s the real birth certificate? nope, they haven t dropped that one yet. one thing is clear. the tea party has made a splash, and they are ready to take over, and tea party express chair amy cremer said, quote, we are going to choose the next republican nominee for president, not the republican party. joining me now, former downnc chair and pennsylvania governor ed rendell, now nbc news political analyst and a political reporter for the washington post. she was at the debate in tampa last night. thanks for being here, both of you. governor rendell, when i saw people cheering and yelling let him die about an uninsured
rick santorum is there to throw darts at rick perry, particularly from the right, and you saw the blowup on hpv on the vaccine and the mandatory vaccine versus not. you know the most intriguing thing about it last night, andrea, was to me the crowd. the role the crowd played. early on, the crowd helped rick perry out on the social security back and forth with mitt romney. sort of made mitt romney s hits maybe not as effective or feel as effective at the time. but as you went on you saw that perry was losing the crowd. he lost them on hpv. and then he lost them on immigration. and charlie, these issues that are emerging now, interesting that immigration, the way the crowd, the tea party crowd clearly tea party co-sponsored debate, clearly played against perry on immigration, as chuck was just saying, and that issue, that complex issue about the children, the young girls being vaccinated which sort of combines everything, libertarian beliefs, beliefs against getting
or do you want to retreat from that? i think we ought to have a conversation we re having that right now, governor. we re running for president. i ll finish this conversation. rather than trying to scare seniors like you re doing and other people, it s time to have a legitimate conversation in this country. governor, the term ponzi scheme is what scared seniors. fight night in tampa. chuck todd is nbc s chief white house correspondent. and host of the daily rundown. charlie cook is an msnbc political analyst and nbc analyst and editor of the cook political report. thanks so much and the national journal, of course, charlie. so many titles. so little time. chuck, first to you. the debate last night, was this in some ways good for mitt romney in that everyone was ganging up on perry? or does perry show that he is just a really, good, natural debater and natural politician? well, with mitt romney i think you saw certainly he sees how many potential allies right now he
debate. bachman going after perry over his order mandating the hpv vaccine for teen girls. new comments from michele bachmann. we will play it for you. we are moments away from news nation. [ grandma ] why do relationships matter? [ grandpa ] relationships are the basis of everything. [ grandma ] relationships are life. if you don t have that thing that fills your heart and your soul, you re missing that part of your life that just fulfills you. [ male announcer ] for us at humana, relationships matter too. the better we know you, the better we can help you choose the right medicare plan. that s why humana agents sit down with you to figure out your medicare options. and we have nurses you can call anytime, even at 3 a.m.
but this is certainly the most positive sign we ve seen. we thought that they might be released during ramadan as a sign of compassion. but they weren t. now the president ahmed ahmadinejad is getting close to the world stage of the u.n. general assembly, the timing all seems to fit. this is certainly the most positive sign we ve had for the hikers. we ve also had word from their lawyer today that they may have to post up to half a million dollars bail each, as sarah shourd did. that may take some time, as well, to organize the finances. but it s certainly on the right track. andrea? ali arouzi in tehran. exciting news for those families, we hope. thank you very much. now to the fiery republican debate in tampa last night. rick perry was the focus of repeated attacks from the rest of the field. mitt romney was aggressive from the start, attacking the texas governor on everything from jobs to social security. the question is, do you still believe that social security should be end