someone said they never met a newt gingrich supporter. you think that's a hoot? now you can't fight a newt staffer. what caused his campaign to collapse in mutiny before it started? was it newt criticizing paul ryan? better yet was it the oddly timed mediterranean cruise they call the greek tragedy? was it his wife taking too big of a role in the campaign? today there is a strategic difference that sounds an awful lot like divorce language. whatever the cause of the mutiny people are saying, i told you so. let me be the first. i told you so. plus, president obama's opponent of 2012 may not be a republican candidate per se but the economy, recent banned economic news may help a business exec otherwise not exactly exciting like mitt romney. why is romney skipping the iowa strong poll? remember four years ago you said if you can't compete in iowa in august, how are you going to compete in january when the kau suss are held? that's a question that now confronts romney himself. now that he has done another 180. also the palin e-mails. they were released today and right now reporters are pouring over catch this 24,199 pages of documents contained in six boxes weighing 50 pounds each. we will get the latest. and guys got wild. weiner, vitter, spitzer would name a few, why they take such incredible risks, if that's what you call them. we have eric ka john herself joining us today. finally, let me finish with a vanity kennedy who is really not a kennedy at all. let's start with the collapse of newt's campaign. right now by have two experts. gentlemen, thank you for this. i want to play the latest spin. this is almost like an after glow of the campaign. here is newt gingrich this morning reacting to the news that his entire staff walked out. he is sort of the captain bly and the whole rest of the crew left him in the little boat. let's listen. >> i believe we live in a time when americans are genuinely frightened for the country's future and when the country wants leadership. it is automatically doing old politics. we make decisions as a couple. i think most couples find that refreshing, not a problem. i think that what we have been trying to do is carry messages to the american people and listen to the american people. and you'll see us over the next few weeks doing it in new and dynamic and much more open ways than the traditional consultants. >> that's incredible spin, gene. it is almost absurd. here is captain bly, he's been kicked off the ship. he has no campaign. he is talking about leadership. that's an odd thing to say. he's just been dumped. >> yeah, the candidate just got fired by the staff. that doesn't happen very often, a staff fires them. they have a trio of political reporters. they have a story just posted on our website where they kind of go inside this deal. they agree, newt and the staff at the beginning were going to run a new and different campaign this time. but they wildly disagreed on what that meant. newt seemed to think it meant not making phone calls to raise money. >> he didn't want to do what he had to do. >> flying private jets when you don't have the money for it. that sort of thing. and going on two-week cruise. >> i think this is a vanity edition of a campaign. let me go to wayne slater. i want to go to the guy we were thinking about, rick perry. first of all, newt. it is said in my hearing that newt doesn't have any voters. i don't know where this constituency is. i don't know what led him to believe he is a candidate except he is good on television. he makes provocative comments. people don't like him and he looks like the devil. that may not be fair, but i have always said he can't be the devil because he looks like him and everyone knows the devil will look like marilyn monroe. what are your thoughts. >> the thing about newt gingrich, you know this -- >> i know a lot about this guy. >> he is an amazing mind. you're around him a while. he is dazzling. he talks about all these complex things. he is a fascinating person to be around. but i think that is true. he has no voters. he didn't have any voters among religious conservatives. a guy with three marriages and real problems in his personal life. and with comments about ryan. you have lost any potential voters you have with tea party which are driving really the campaign certainly in early primary and caucus states. so i think that is a real problem. here is a guy who doesn't have anything. and there was something telling in his statement, the stuff about the wife. you know, we -- >> why was he laying it off on his wife? why is he doing that? it seems indescent. by the way, he is a steven in rosemary's baby. he was the war lock that lives upstairs in the dakota. i'm sorry but that is who he is. he has a lot it say, like steven. name a place. he has all that worldly information. he is evil. your thoughts, though. >> i'm not going to say that he's evil. the other thing i think was mentioned in the last 24 hours is this stuff about the money. if a guy's not raising the money, you have karny, rob johnson, the kind of staff he had which was a real campaign staff. and sooner or later, people are asking, are we going to get paid. i think the indication is, they weren't. >> you know what they tell you when you are running for office? what someone once told me, your first job is to say, do you like the idea of spending eight hours a day in a room with somebody, i forget the name, handler, controller, someone that comes in and says faster, cold call total strangers and ask for money. that's a what a candidate has to do. >> and apparently gingrich didn't want to make the calls. >> that's why the crew left the ship. no pay coming in. i think our colleague, david gregory, did a first class piece of journalism. as always it is the direct question that gets the guy or woman or whoever in trouble. the direction question is the fair question. that's what always gets them in trouble. here is meet the press, newt gingrich hinted he might have a discipline problem. let's listen to that part of the interview. >> i think it is fair it say i might have a test on the campaign trail, will be whether i have the discipline and judgment to be president. i think that's a perfectly fair question. >> first of all he attacked the republican healthcare plan. then the next day he said, i apologize. on tuesday, he said i wasn't talking about the republican healthcare plan. then he takes a two-week vacation on an opulent cruise -- i don't know what an opulent cruise is. but what was he get weigh from? he was only on the campaign a week. >> exactly. it was exhausting and grueling. now. >> now, a lot of the people around here, dave karny, rob johnson, first-rate staffers, these guys split. i'm sorry, let's go to austin. let's go to wayne. have you heard rumblings about the governor of texas, rick perry, making a run, a late entry into this race? and these guys might be his people? >> by the hour i hear things that that could happen. look, i have talked to people inside reporting that i'm doing inside the perry camp is that the departure of rob johnson and dave carney and again, he is rick carl's karl rove and he was with perry in 1990 when perry ran for the first statewide office as agriculture commissioner. that these guys'departure from the gingrich campaign is not an automatic signal that rick perry is ready to get into this race. what it does, is it makes it easier if perry decides to do it. i think -- i hear he is leaning toward running but that he, rick perry, even though his wife wants him to do it, his two kids want him to do it and perry is surrounded by allies and supporters encouraging him to do it. they met last week in austin to put together a blew print for a campaign, perry isn't sure. >> let's not be too creepy here but is there anything well known like the mitch daniels problem, whether he had marriage difficulties over the years. everybody in texas knows that we don't know this. legitimate that would stop him from running. >> no, i don't -- there may be but not that efbd in texas knows. there is always rumors about a governor, a handsome governor like rick perry. we know nothing that had been written. if there was something news worthy. he has no two problems going into the potential race for president. one, is america ready for another governor from texas to be the in the white house? i think the jury is out on that. the other is and i think this is fundamental. >> it may not be out. it may have been around 2008, but just a thought. >> the other problem i think here in texas, if he becomes a candidate and people look at him, he has a crony problem. that is to say after a decade as governor, 25 years of public life in texas, he has enormous influence over politics in texas. in the dallas morning news we have written a series of stories about how he steered state money to people who just happen to be his contributors. i think that is kind of thing that could cause problems for him if you have a big micro scope, well a big spotlight i guess, in a presidential race. >> we have three texas presidents lately. lbj left because of the war. we had hw bush, his father leaving because of the economy in shambles when he left. and his son with a very controversial war in iraq. >> well, he did get reelected. i'm not going to put wayne on the spot with this because he's got to cover the guy, but when there are questions about whether rick perry has the intellectual heft to be president -- >> have you heard the light weight charge there? can you confirm it? >> no, i'm not going to confirm that. >> okay, let's go to something real. romney. he is in good position. he is not excitement but it does need fixing. all of the republicans an economic fixer. a turn around guy which is his specialty. up against the president, i think it's an even stephen now. he is about 47 even. why a romney skipping iowa? the iowa strong poll. you first, wayne. >> well for obvious reasons, he doesn't think he's going to win there. his real hope is new hampshire. so you start off with a big win in new hampshire. you let someone, let iowa be a fight between michele bachmann and christians and tim pawlenty and the rest of the party and i think it is a strategy. i think historically, in recent history, that hasn't worked when you skip iowa. >> yeah, your thoughts, eugene? >> no. >> just to the poll to the right on issues. >> he is already running kind of a general election campaign. flirting with it. i think wayne is absolutely right, that's what romney is up to. you mentioned turn-around expertise. i don't know if he really wants to push that because the way he turned them around is by firing a bunch of people. >> thank you for pointing out that obvious point. cost cutting means cutting labor force which means people are out of work forever. thank you, gene robinson. it's nice to point these things out. wayne slater, maybe more from you if this questionable heavyweight gets in the race. rick perry. i notice he wears very snappy blazers. that's all i notice. up next you can stop thinking about what candidate president obama will run against. his real opponent is the economy. let's talk about what he needs to do to get the economy and his re-election campaign on solid ground here. [ male announcer ] in a typical classroom, the "a students" and the troublemakers get all the attention. so how do you reach the kids in the middle? this is exactly the kind of challenge we help future teachers solve. ♪ my name is beatrice hair. i teach hundreds of kids one-on-one, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] university of phoenix is proud to sponsor education nation. because we believe an educated world is a better world. >> well, the rob blagojevich corruption case is now to the jury. jury deliberations began today after both sides finish their closing arguments. before that, b-rod spept seven days on the witness stand. the illinois governor is accused of trying to sell or trade the senate seat once held by barack obama. progressive makes it easy because we give you choices. you can pick where to get your car fixed. we can cut you a check. or, at our service center, we take care of everything for you. ♪ [nervous laugh] whoo! so many choices. take your time. the service center. okay. giving you choices. now, that's progressive. call or click today. >> i'm not concerned about a double-dip recession. i am concerned about the fact that the recovery that we are on is not producing jobs as quickly as i want it to happen. prior to this month we had seen three months of very robust job growth in the private sector. and so we were very encouraged by that. this month, you still saw job growth in the private sector but it slowed down. we don't know if this is a one-month episode or a longer trend. >> that was president obama on tuesday. on the sluggish economy. toughest thing standing between him and reelection to a second term. headlines like this one in "time" magazine, what recovery, have got to make the obama team very concerned. howard fineman, msnbc analyst is you and susan page. thank you so much. i felt something move a couple weeks ago when we got the unemployment news. something seemed different. i think you share that sense. now this election is a 50/50 situation. the president doesn't have an edge because of this economy. >> i think that's right, chris. certainly, that's the view here in washington and i think that's the view in the economy. it affects the psychology and giving and donations and enthusiasm and so on. i think for the republicans they are thinking, hey, you know, we got a shot here a real shot here. that enthuses people. i think democrats are worried. i think the president uttered lines in recent days that i don't think it is good for -- >> this is recovery but doesn't produce jobs. >> he said i think in that same event, he said something like the important thing is not to panic. >> which is what people do, they panic. >> also you don't want your president to be saying, hey folks, the important thing is not to panic. >> sometimes he gets clinical an analytical. he sounds like bernanke there. people want an optimistic cleer leader guy. and he is being the economic analyst. >> if we are in a new -- my wife, a corporate executive uses that term, reset, downward. our expectations about an incremental advantage to our children's lives over ours. if that's gone. if the idea of a reasonable unemployment rate because people are changing jobs at 4% and 5% are changing jobs and replaced by a permanent rate of 9% or 10%. how does he smile through that? >> i tell you another thing that happens if people see that scenario is they take a leap of faith with a republican nominee they are not concerned about. we saw that happen in 1992 with bill clinton and again in 1980 with reagan. how many times have you talked about a weak republican field. people look at romney and say, maybe this guy knows something about the economy that barack obama does not and i'm willing to take a leap of faith and vote for him. >> that's very american. >> yes. >> this is not as good as it gets. >> what you are saying chris is something deeper than the latest cycles of the economy. >> yes. this isn't a cycle, it's a trend. >> you are saying there is a whole reset of the national psyche in which we are now saying to ourselves that things won't be better for our children. and does barack obama dare admit such a thing. >> that's the question. like jimmy carter or does he talk about -- >> well, when jimmy carter did that, he got run out of town. >> right. >> that's not in the american grain to admit something like that, even if it's true. >> we know what romney will do. we are all studying this together. it looks like he is hunkering down for the long hall. he knows if he has the money and background he can wait out the sarah palin. he can wait out the bachmann's and hope she is his only opponent. he can win a couple, lose a couple. losing the different people, he keeps getting his share. at the end he has the money and credibility and goes head it head with obama. that's a good scenario for him. >> if the issue is the economy, he has an argument it make and he is not hurt by the problems of abortion or flip-flopping. what is interesting about romney is he is playing for the general election. >> right. >> his position on global warming is a general election position he is taking. not playing in florida and iowa stong strong polls. he is saying, i'm not worried about that. he can make the argument to republicans, you may not like me best but i'm the best chance for barack obama and that's a powerful argument. >> i think he says to the tea party people, this isn't about ideology. it is about who will save the american economy. who will get us through this. >> it is fascinaing to be in the middle of this. that change in the weather that you detected was happening simultaneously with the romney announcement up to new hampshire. we thought it was a distraction by sarah. >> we said oh, this is terrible. he is dull. he is this and that and sarah stole his thunder. now, yay, that is true and he will hide and disappear, but the guy has a lot of business experience. he has run successful business. >> and dull is okay. >> and dull is okay if management is good. that is the strongest argument. >> here is the poll, approval rating trend for the president. this is what the incumbent faces. 37.7% and downward. my concern is that when you say is so american. the american people, i think are like the manager in the dugout. they see the pitchers not getting the guys out. he goes out there and doesn't say you're a bad guy. and the american people don't have to dislike their president. they put their hand out and say give me the ball. you know how they get the ball? >> yeah. >> there is a great ritual in baseball. the pitcher hands over the ball because the manager asks for it. he never says i'm keeping it. right? this is what the american people do. they don't dislike herbert walker bush. >> they still like barack obama. they like his family and they think he has good values. but when romney says he doesn't understand the economy. we gave him a chance and he failed. that is such hard argument to reply to unless you make the economy better. making the economy better is going to be tough. >> by the way, that is romney's one genuine applause line in that event. he got applauded for that. >> he is not a funny guy generally. but he made a tough critique. he said 37 months in a row they are below expectations. are they going to keep below expectations. here is my question, based on your report, can you say the president is really open minded about whether the economy will pick up or is deluded? i'm trying to phrase this correctly. i said a moment ago on that tape, we don't know if this is a blip or a trend. >> my sense of barack obama, what i have heard about private conversations he's had with other democrats is that he is anything but deluded. i think barack obama is a very, very frank with himself kind ever guy. how he translates that into the campaign rhetoric, we don't know. he knows very much what is going on. he knows that there are a lot of weak economic numbers out there. he knows the mortgage foreclosure thing is potential of dragging the economy back down again. he knows all this stuff. he is not deluding himself about it at all. he's going to be realistic. i don't know how he will try to sell the -- >> let's look at -- he is concerned. i don't agree with it. i respect him a lot. suddenly the election theme changed. the republican line in 2010 was he is a leftist. now it's he is a failure. it's shifting from ideology to stewardship. new election theme. as in 1992, it's the economy with everything else a distant second. romney is the front-runner. when you are competent in business, romney is prohibitive front-runner. well written, i