i thought scott walker did a good job. mark: he is probably the strongest of the people that spoke today in terms of audience reaction which is weaving the message. he is very comfortable giving that kind of speech to that audience. the fact is as we try to figure out where scott walker is going to play in this notion of india you going to play in the establishment bracket, the social conservative bracket -- yes the play with the most votes are. he has great support amongst gun rights advocates. john: that is why he is dangerous to a guy like jeb bush. the wisconsin thing, that seems credible. mark: as comfortable as scott walker was, today was another opportunity to see if jeb bush could figure out to give a prepared speech. today, the results were at best mixed. jimeb bush: it is the worldview of barack obama and hillary clinton and eric holder and all that other people that want to take the guns out of the hands of the good guys and the hands of the law-abiding citizens. the second amendment is one area where the obama

scott walker has taken a fuse steps back. >> ted cruz did as well or better. so you have a couple guys who can play on the big stage. he did well. it is a good -- not a misstep. there is no big gap or mistake or disappointment. i really want to see what happens before we measure this. the start of a great rollout. if not, it could be forgotten. >> he could give this speech at the convention or give it as inaugural address or in lots of different venues. and it will continue. >> we can only assume that at the celebration tonight involves a whole lot of mixed adult beverages. that is the reference. marco rubio: i live in the exceptional country where the son of a bartender and made it can have the same privilege as another person. he used to tell me, he used to tell us -- [speaking spanish] in this country -- [applause] marco rubio: it means in this country you will achieve all of the things you never covered. >> i love the biography, huge part of marco rubio's appeal. a big part of the speech tonight. how far can that carry him? >> he needs to do more to burn i

jeb bush and scott walker have been over scrutinized at this point. that, if income is a huge issue for some you almost passed -- have to have had more scrutiny than he has had. mark: both jeb bush and scott walker have had bad days this year, in part because they have gotten scrutiny. it will be interesting to see of the bush operation which is the most aggressive in terms of research, let's see if jeff authorizes people going after his close friend. mark group -- marco rubio has done a good job of being in a lesser but finding the path to the nomination is like playing marco polo with your eyes closed and pumping into the wall. -- bumping into the wall. john: this is the $64,000 question and one that you and i agreed upon with our scatter report. he doesn't have a path when you think about geography. he is not an obvious i was player will stop there is no place -- he is not an obvious iowa player. there is no place that is obvious for him. what he has to hope for is that he never just gets behind jeb bush. and walker, maybe is too much in the conser

john: scott walker, maybe. mark: someone who does not spend as much time in new hampshire as scott walker has a chance. if the new jersey economy does not come back, there is no comeback. john: no more downgrades. mark: there hasn't been a downgrades since this show started. john: coming up, a major battle in the war for gay rights. david boys will join us. and after that, we blend a lot of stuff. it's not a metaphor. we will be right back. ♪ john: another front in the fight for gay rights is about to open and it involves the greater new york-based boy scouts. they just hired an openly gay scout leader even though it runs afoul of the national policy which bars employing gay adults. if it ends up in court, the man will be represented by our guest tonight david boyse. the new york part of the boy scouts is in violation of the national policy. if there is litigation, would it be brought by the national organization trying to stop the employment of this 18-year-old? or do you plan to file litigation to clear his

david coke -- david koch is looking favorably at scott walker. then charles koch says they are keen on a quintet of republican nominees. in chapter three a koch memo that outlines a campaign plan that also includes branching out with new chapters in red states. sounds very, very big. it's too much being made of the koch's alleged possible and potential? john: no. two numbers -- 50 billion and 50 billion. they both have net worth's $50 billion. they are super billionaires, who have played the political game very smartly. these guys are not just angels they could really move the needle people are focused on it because they are really important. mark: in the immortal words of john mclachlan, wrong! they are testing whether outside groups can turn out aberrations and data. the koch's network is divided. i don't think it will get behind one candidate. those five they are looking favorably on getting a ton of support from the koch network. there are a lot of huge players, and others will be significantly more decisive in the short term. john: wow. it's

mark: today includes once from scott walker, ted cruz, and rick perry, and none of them much like the current federal tax code. is the issue of taxes a winning issue for republicans in 2016? john: it really depends on which republican becomes the nominee and what their tax plans are. there will be a big debate about tax reform in the republican party. we don't know what their tax plan will be. marco rubio's tax plan will not be rand paul's tax plan. if there is a tax plan at the republicans can get behind that looks family-friendly, that isn't just a big tax cut, that is a different calculus that the old school, we will cut rates on the rich. mark: everybody wants simpler, fairer, flatter. it is easier within the republican nomination fight to do that but they have yet to talk about deductions. in the general election, if you are for a flat tax against hillary clinton, you will be creamed. john: marco rubio doesn't want to cut rates and other reform conservatives want to keep the top rates high stop mark: it to come out for a flat tax without making it revenue neutral or progressive y

he said scott walker needs to bone up on foreign policy. . walker met privately with two investors to the united. -- united states. this is a republican field that is absent of any national security experience. will these kinds of moves by walker or any gop 2016er be enough for them to clear the national security hurdle? melinda: obama did the same thing was he was running. he was upset he couldn't stand in front of the brandenburg gate. is what you learn on the trips, not whether you take them. do they talk about uz bekibeki-stan-stan, the way mic michael caine did? mark: whether you were selling cheese or buying cheese, one or the other. the question is what does the boning up hyyield? we have not yet heard walker's foreign-policy vision. it is difficult to be at the same threshold at hillary clinton, given her huge resume in this area. melinda: i don't think they can possibly come up to the level of the former secretary of state. they had to keep from embarrassing themselves, basically. john: substantially and not merely symbolic. life is

walker of late, and most of the other major candidates? heidi: because he's jeb bush, my answer to that is yes. he should continue to do that. because he has the substance. the real risk for candidates and being too open to the media are that they stumbled. that they make mistakes and look awkward and stupid. that's not a problem for jeb bush. so i think the more accessible he makes himself, the better it's going to be. mark: totally agree. i asked him this morning, should the u.s. be for regime change in iran, he left the room and then stopped and looked back in and said, that's a good question, i don't know, let me think about it. most candidates wouldn't have the confidence to say that and get away with it. he does. we'll have marco rubio's speech here this evening on our live streaming from nashua. he'll be on the 7:00 hour. coming up here, though, mr. ambassador, the john bolton, live here in nashua, new hampshire when we come back. ♪ mark: our guest tonight has a lot to say about barack obama and hillary clinton and the current adm

he is basically tied with scott walker. in republican circles, murmurs are being murmured about bush's apparent flaws and there are many. if jeb bush is in a barrel of semi-crisis, what are the elements of that? john: one is what we pointed to for a long time. he has fund-raising strength above all. there is almost nothing else that he really has. his poll numbers are fine but not great. there is no clear state he can win and there are many in the republican party that are saying they like him fine, but they want a new generation of leadership to take on hillary clinton. those words are getting louder and louder all the time. mark: he is a paper tiger in the view of many. the excitement over marco rubio in florida and around the country highlights the weakness of jeb bush. not a new face or young. not someone who can claim to be part of a new generation. two, people are concerned about the bush brand. there is no way to put that to rest. the last thing is he has not found a way to put the rest conservative concerns about wh

mark: i assumed your list of people who could run the list are jeb bush, scott walker, rand paul, christie, yes or no, rubio, yes or no? guest: christie, rubio, yeah, if he gets in i would put that. mark: the traditional dynamic is somebody's' ahead. is there way for somebody to pull ahead in a meaningful way or are we going to be like this all the way through? guest: i think we'll stay in this -- certainly through the fall. unless something major happens where someone, you know, a portion of the field collapses leaving in that bracket just one or two people. i think as long as -- we're like in the field of 64. there's too many things that chap still. mark: one of my takeaways was about marco rubio. as good a speaker as he is, the speech he gave up in new hampshire, he did the friday night dinner speep. was actually better, even according to some of his supporters, than his announcement speech, which was pretty well received. let's listen to a little bit of that. >> the 21st century can be an american century if we want it to be. now it is up to you and i to go out and seize it. to be the

president obama recently said that before bashing him on foreign policy, scott walker needs to bone up on foreign policy. molding up is what he has been doing. he met privately with ambassadors and now he is heading off on a trade mission to expand. this is a republican field that is absent of any national security experience. will these kinds of moves by walker or any gop 2016er be enough for them to clear the national security hurdle? melinda: well, of course, obama did the same thing when he was running. he was so disappointed he couldn't stand in front of the brandenburg gate. it is what you learn on the trips, not whether you take them. do they talk about uzbekibeki-beki-stan-stan, the way herman cain did? mark: whether you were selling cheese or buying cheese, one or the other. the question is what does the boning up yield? and we have not yet heard walker's foreign-policy vision. but it is going to be hard for any of these people, i know that you agree to be at the same threshold as hillary clinton given her huge resume in this area. whatever you think about policies. melinda: i