individuals for their drive and determination for their hard work and ideas. hmm. well, there s a tough sell he s got on his hands there. i think president obama himself is the clearest example of west s definition of american exceptionalism, isn t he, when you think about it? look where he is. and now for the big number. it might come as no surprise in this fall s gop debate since rick perry, who was dealt the most verbal punches by the other candidates. that s right, he played the role of piñata more often than all the other candidates combined. but, here s a shocker. who do you think threw the most punches at him? it was jon huntsman, with how many attacks on his opponents? 19. unfortunately for huntsman, the whacks don t seem to have provided much momentum given his place in the polls. 19 times at bat for jon huntsman and that s tonight s big number. up next, will mitt romney kill the tea party? if the republicans nominate romney, think about it, there s talk among conservative
i think president obama himself is the clearest example of west s definition of american exceptionalism, isn t he, when you think about it? look where he is. and now for the big number. it might come as no surprise in this fall s gop debate since rick perry, who was dealt the most verbal punches by the other candidates. that s right, he played the role of piñata more often than all the other candidates combined. but, here s a shocker. who do you think threw the most punches at him? it was jon huntsman, with how many attacks on his opponents? 19. unfortunately for huntsman, the whacks don t seem to have provided much momentum given his blaze in the polls. 19 times at bat for jon huntsman and that s tonight s big number. up next, will mitt romney kill the tea party? if the republicans nominate romney, think about it, there s talk among conservatives of a possible third party challenge from the right. and that s ahead tonight on hardball. you re watching only on msnbc. but with advai
anti-anti-government candidate. romney will never be able to appeal to those who want limited government. he fundamentally cannot. he is at bottom a center right candidate, who believes government, when run effectively and efficiently, can produce the best results for the people. it s a noble view. one that the gop base seemingly hates him for. if romney becomes the gop nominee, it will prove that the tea party project was an abject failure and that the momentum of 2010 was only temporary. romney doesn t represent taking the country back. my question is, does he have enough anger, just emotionally, against what s been going on, to be your guy s representative in the general election? does he feel and act like a tea partier? well, i don t think it s how he feels, i think it s what he stands for. and if he s going to run on repealing obama care, if he comes up with some plan but not repealing his massachusetts plan, which he s very proud of. he said so again this week. and that
is proposing the largest shift in tax burden from the wealthy to the poor sounds like the republican party to me. he apparently would scrap the two great government programs that keep millions clinging to fragile middle class, social security and medicare, because he wants to eliminate the payroll taxes that now pay for those so here you have a guy whose impulse is to shift wealth to wealthy people, basically. whose impulse is to get rid of great society programs. i know i m being a bit of a cartoon here, but these are the impulses of the party we re talking about. and he also wants to tax beer. i mean, the thing is, most republicans don t get out there and say, hey, if you re making more than making less than $50,000 a year, we re going to tax you more. they know, they try to cut the edges a different way. but this guy s plan is such a bald effort to redistribute wealth from the top from the bottom to the top. every time he s been in a debate his numbers have gone up. e
see this debate go on for quite some time, particularly if romney can t get above the 20s. because somebody will feel that vacuum. do you guys have here s my question. you are so gentleman coban-like, a french revolutionary, that you don t really want an establishment leader. you don t want a john wayne to el you what to do. you like to call your own shots individually. do you want a leader, honestly, a strong leader at the top to tell you where to go, to march, like reagan? i don t think that that s essentially what we re trying to do. but how do you get a nominee? president is one position, but we d love to drive the process from the bottom up from now on, just like the freshman class has done in the house and senate. so let romney have it and kick him in the butt once in a while? no, we want to find the best candidate that can win. and we don t think that that s mitt romney. let me go to steve kornacki. we re trying to figure this thing from the inside. the dynamic t