issues and nervous about losing it. the president s been having a conversation about people who haven t had it. well, that s actually the smallest percentage of people. when you look at it as a numbers game, that s why you see the negati negativethe unfavorables outweigh the favorables on that point. that s always been the challenge. the democrats talking about expanding coverage which is actually the fact is some 80% of the country has their health care, may not be crazy about it but they have it and they are certainly worried about losing it or seeing it change. when you look at what the campaigns are trying to capitalize on the ruling and romney trying to repeal the law and his campaign saying they raised over $4.5 million in the 24 hours after the ruling. on the other side the democrats saying they raised money as well, without releasing a number on that. forç romney, can you capitalize on this politically
if we re going to get women back to work and help women with the real issues women care about, good jobs, good wages, a bright future for themselves, their families and for their kids, we ll have to elect a president who understands how the economy works and i do.ç romney made the point that 92% of the job losses during this president s administration have been among women. it s ridiculous and deeply misleading look at the economy. remember the recession and the crisis started at the beginning of 2008, more than a year before the president took office. and it caused a huge amount of damage. to men, to women, to families. and the damage lasted for a time. you re still seeing the scars of that. if you look at the damage early on, most the early job losses were in construction and manufacturing and disproportionately affected men. as the crisis intensified over the course of 2008, before the president came into office, the damage spread.
bachmann s. bachmann launched a very ambitious 99-county ten-day tour just before christmas. she s certainly hitting all the spots. but you re right, they re just quick in and out visits.ç romney s been more deliberate. he s spending more time in places. and we ve seen greater crowds for him the past couple days. we think today i think he hit three or four stops and saw about 1,000 people. 15, 30-minute conversations. and the crowds seemingly are reacting to him. it s more than just making a cameo, ed. i think that the voters want to see you but they want to hear you. they want to understand your vision for what it is for not only iowa but obviously for the rest of the country. well, you know your state as well as anybody, rick, and i saw that today. these people that show up, they re curious, they want answers, and they want to spend time with the candidate. john nicholls, that s exactly what rick santorum has been doing in his campaign. but i want to talk about the bachmann suppo
welcome back to hardball. the ever-changing roller coaster republican front-runners has shown us one thing for sure, the gop is not happy with their field so far.m in iowa, republican caucus-goers are looking for four key ingredients, and trying to determine if the candidates stack up. i put together a checklist to see where they stand. look, let s take a look at the four candidates atop the field right now, paul, romney, santorum and gingrich. when it comes to being a truly solid small government conservative, paul and santorum fit that bill nicely.ç romney and gingrich s support of health care and talking about climate change hurt them. in terms of being part of the religious right, it s only rick santorum. he s the only real true blue religious right candidate running. republicans looking for a hawk see three potentials now, romney, santorum and gingrich. ron paul, you ve got to say that about him, is definitely not a hawk, but if you want someone who could actually win the gene
why couldn t you know sooner than that that you couldn t be pro-choice and get the presidency? why didn t he know sooner than that that the individual mandate wasn t going to work either? the fact is that it s not really totally his fault. this republican party has hurtled to the right at warp speed over the last decade. and there was you know, it caught newt gingrich by surprise, too, because newt, as i said, took many of the exact same positions on matters of substance as romney did. robert, i just want to go to one final part of your article where they talk about his people skills. stories ofç romney s wooden people skills are legion. the mormon s never going to win the who do you want to have a beer with contest concedes one adviser. while another acknowledges, he s never had the experience of sitting in a bar and, like, talking. i take particular offense at that since i ve never had a beer in my life. i ve never had any alcohol at