>> there is a huge piece of the republican primary pie that's going to be filled by either mike huckabee, sarah palin, rick santorum, or jim demint. it's iowa in the first caucuses, there's a lot of gravity toward that particular segment of the republican primaries right now. so, you know, he's making a calculation and a political one that maybe some of those three don't scratch and he's going to put on his running shoes and be ready to go. >> they've got one corner reserved. it's just a question of who's going to be in it. mark mckinnon, former adviser to president george w. bush and senator mccain, always a welcome guest, thanks for coming in. >>> for those of you who have been waiting for us to finally connect the dots between faux populist anti-health reform tactics and hooters, the hooters restaurant chain, your wait is over. "the nation's" chris hayes joins us for that next. a sort of awkward subject, but it's for real. >>> and later, we learn exactly what former house majority leader dick armey did yesterday before appearing at a tea party rally, at which he called me names and pr

then gove more mike huckabee commuted his 95-year sentence. there is now a $125,000 award leading to the arrest. joining us with newly reported information on this case nbc news correspondent george lewis. thanks very much for being here. >> reporter: certainly. the police tonight say, rachel, that they're running a number of operations trying to find clemmons. they believe that he is being aided by either friends or relatives as he tries to hideout from police. but they also say time may be running out for clemmons because they believe that in that shoot-out in the coffee shop he was wounded in the stomach and that he is probably very seriously wounded and probably needs medical attention. so they feel that time is running out for him in that aspect and, also, the number of friends and relatives who may be helping him is running thin, too, as police are rounding up some of these people tonight in these various operations that they're running, rachel. >> george, in terms of the crime itself and the way the suspect is believed to have been woun

>> it should be noted as rick santorum reprises that line from 2008, should be noted mike huckabee has sort of now dropped his whole criticism of mitt romney. now that he's a fox news personality and not a candidate, mike huckabee joined the republican establishment chorus telling our candidates to not criticize mitt romney's record at bain. he sent a message to his own e-mail list saying "it's surprising to see so many republicans embrace that left wing argument against capitalism." mr. romney's most high profile surrogate john mccain said people should leave bain alone. >> these attacks on "bain capital" is really kind of an anthem to everything we believe in. >> that is john mccain now. taking what sounds like a principled stand on mitt romney's behalf. here he is now. >> as the head of his investment quote company, he presided over the acquisition of companies that immediately laid off thousands of workers. >> john mccain, everybody, mr. principles. john mccain has turned out to be a little bit of a mixed blessing for mitt romney. yeah, he was the nominee the last time around, his

huckabee hosts and starred in it, governor huckabee's antiabortion dvd also features an activist that campaigns for pro choice rights. he has also interviewed her on his tv show and in 2011, they both worked on the personhood campaign in mississippi. you remember that, the ballot measure intended by its authors to ban some of the most popular forms of birth control, hormonal birth control and iuds, also in vitro fertilization, and all abortion. they were not shy about the fact they wanted to ban all abortions, including those by rape or incest. they campaigned on that measure. mike huckabee was a major spokesman and keynote speaker. the activist he featured iphis dvd, the one who changed rick perry and on his television show, she headlined a tour, and the tour was called "the conceived in rape" tour. that was part of the campaign for the personhood measure, not against it. the mississippi campaign prided itself on its mission to force rape victims and incest victims who became pregnant as a result of the crimes to bring the pregnancies to term against their will. as a rape victim or a

former mike huckabee aide telling the hill newspaper today that the damage of losing in pennsylvania would be huge, "if he loses pennsylvania twice, that's going to really hobble him in the future. that would be very hard to live down." given rick santorum's guarantee that he will win pennsylvania, his admission that he needs to win pennsylvania, and the real possibility that he might not in fact win pennsylvania, the santorum campaign appears now to be trying to reframe the importance of the contest there. "the new york times" noting that while mr. santorum has said he must and will win pennsylvania, "his aides are now casting it as a mere stepping stone, a way to provide momentum leading into may and other state contests like texas." a top santorum aide telling "the hill" newspaper that winning either pennsylvania or texas is important for the campaign to go forward. "it's going to be tough to go on without pennsylvania. we must win one or both those states." suddenly it's not, we must win pennsylvania, it's, texas, pennsylvania, tomato, tomato. it's not that rick santorum needs to

why did we not pick huckabee. i think it's human error and they are dealing with it. >> dave, political reporter, your reporting has been detailed in a way i appreciate but insightful, glad you were with us. >> thank you. >> one of the big polling firms started polling republicans in south carolina on whether they would vote for ste phen colbert. those results but who this guy dick perry, who is on the ballot in arizona all coming up. [ female announcer ] eyes feeling overworked? discover visine® tired eye relief with hydroblend™, only from visine®. just one drop instantly soothes and revives tired, overworked eyes. and comforts them for up to ten hours. visine® tired eye relief. try now and save $3. how about a bike ride? you're not my dad ahh!! hey honey, back feels better, little dancing tonight, you and me? dr. scholl's pro inserts relieve different types of lower body pain by treating at the source so you're a whole new you. go pro with dr. scholl's. >>> one under appreciated thing about last night's pri

through what he's going through right now have anything to do -- >> i think what the limbaughs and huckabees and cruzs are going to be saying after all this is our spineless leaders folded. if they had only held on. if they kept the government shut, if they had gone through a default, which really wouldn't do much of anything for the economy that obama would have cracked and we would have gotten what we wanted. i think that's going to make life more difficult for both mitch mcconnell and john boehner when we get back to this in january. they're not going to be closer to having a party that's chasen, that they have damaged themselves deep low and thdeepl. >> all right, resident scholar at the american enterprise institute, author of the book, "it's even worse than it looks." also tonight our senior whig party analyst, thank you for joining us tonight. still ahead t political event that eventually led to this debt ceiling debacle in the first place. i'll give you a hint, there's a witch involved. [ woman ] too weak. wears off. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. eucerin pr

it's not that important most years, just ask president huckabee who won last time around or president romney, who won the straw poll last time around. in republican politics, iowa doesn't matter that much anymore, but the beltway thinks it does, so the beltway is all excited about the straw poll this weekend. like a snake eating its own tails, the beltway's interest gives it whatever interest it does have, which justifies the beltway interest and so on and so on. this year there's a problem. the front runner, mitt romney is not trying to win it, which means him losing the straw poll wouldn't mean anything because he didn't try to win it, and him winning the straw poll wouldn't mean anything either. also, who can beat mitt romney, who has any chance of being the nominee other than him, well, texas governor rick perry just screwed up iowa coverage for this weekend too. nationally, he is polling second to mitt romney in some polls. that was true last month in polling from gallup and is true this month from mcclathy. some hope they could win iowa and some coverage thereof. rick perry has

it could be mike huckabee, right? it was mike huckabee in 2008. the uncomfortable truth about the carpet bombing coverage of the iowa republican caucuses is that iowa, itself, doesn't much matter when it comes to the process of picking the republican nominee for president anymore. it is not predictive of what republicans in the rest of the country are going to do when it's their turn to vote. winning iowa mostly means you're popular in iowa. good for you. the persistent popularity of ron paul in iowa and elsewhere, sustained fund-raising, sustained support, sustained ability to turn out big crowds, his appeal across the country, his cross demographic appeal. he can get people without gray hair to turn out to republican candidate events. no offense to people with gray hair. i have some myself. what is most interesting about ron paul is not just his isolationism. there's always been a strain of that in republican politics. pat buchanan ran as an isolationist among other things when we ran back in the '90s. what's most interesting about ron paul is t

. >> former arkansas governor and presidential candidate mike huckabee registered his diz pleasure with the new law as well. he did so, though, in the form of a bizarre theme park metaphor. he told "the dallas morning news," quote, what does concern me is that if it's not carried out and applied carefully you could end up in a situation where people are stopped who are absolute citizens. america's a lot like disney world. in that once you get a ticket, you're in. you don't have to keep showing your ticket to keep riding the rides. that's the whole point of liberty. >> straddling the republican divide on this issue are people like senator john cornyn of texas, who is not exactly sticking up for the arizona law but says it's been misunderstood. quote, i don't think it's as onerous as it's been represented. actually, i don't think people misunderstood the arizona law. the more you know about the more surprised you are about just how onerous it is. but if you want a sense of just how uncokocomfortable the posit republicans have been put in by this arizona law, just watch this next clip. wat

huckabee that he would have absolutely supported legislation like that in massachusetts. >> would you have supported the constitutional amendment that would have established the definition of life at conception? >> absolutely. >> so as the republican party's attitude toward rape victims and incest victims has changed dramatically just over the last few years, mitt romney has taken both sides of this issue. as his campaign is now screaming about one of his two positions on the subject being used in campaign ads and as the press investigates these protests, tries to figure out whether or not mr. romney is justified in complaining about this ad, i have a thing to say. you really do have to look up from the beltway and into the rest of the country on this one. there is a way to sort this out. this is not a hypothetical issue anymore. in nine states the republican party in the past two years has instituted new abortion bans for rape victims and for incest victims. republicans explicitly and deliberately going out of their way to change state law in those states so the government will now f

santorum has now reprised a version of mike huckabee's line. from the 2008 campaign. do you remember this? >> people are looking for a presidential candidate who reminds them more of the guy they work with rather than the guy that laid him off. >> mr. santorum's version, he was trying to say he wasn't going to go after mitt romney for his record at bain capital but -- >> it doesn't necessarily mean that you want your boss running for president. right? >> it should be noted as rick saorum reprises that line from 2008, it should be noted that mike huckabee has sort of dropped his whole criticism of mitt romney. now that he's a fox news personality and not a candidate, mike huckabee joined the republican establishment chorus telling our candidates to not criticize mitt romney's record at bain. he sent a message to his own e-mail list saying "it's surprising to see so many republicans embrace that left wing argument against capitalism." mr. romney's most high profile surrogate and new endorser, john mccain, also said this week, people should leave bain alone. >> these att

it's a huckabee alert. mike huckabee say he's not running and then he says good night. then a little piece of tape rolls of donald trump obviously taped earlier so responding or preresponding to the news that mike huckabee isn't learning which we just learned. now donald trump has just reannounced by shouting. i don't know? a little more than 36 hours later there was donald trump again announcing that he would not be running either to the surprise of absolutely no one other than to the mysterious people who vote in republican party straw polls this time of year. beyond republican candidates overtly saying they will not run, one other high profile republican candidate effectively took himself out of the running this weekend. >> i am not going to justify this. the attack on paul ryan. the support for an individual man dade. zsh mandate in health care. folks, don't ask me to explain this? there is no explanation. >> if you're trying to become the republican nominee for president, that is not to impression you are looking to make. that's how it's going for newt gingrich. wh

mike huckabee may be running for president. "go on my cruise." rudy giuliani may be running for president. "buy my sort of scammy speaking gig ticket." all of them cashing in. thanks to mike pence's mom, though, today there's one less competitor in that very lucrative field. joining us now is michael steele, former chairman of the republican national committee, who's just as exhausted by me as he was before. >> you are just too cynical. >> you think -- >> you're just way too -- >> you think mike huckabee just loves cruising? >> wait a minute. you have to understand -- he probably does, number one. number two and more importantly, those things are booked long in advance. i mean, that cruise was booked way before now. and the reality of it is these individuals have been out in the marketplace of ideas for way some time. i mean, i get the nexus you're trying to draw here, that it's all based on a sort of leak i'm running for president and you'll pump up my sales. it really doesn't work that way, rachel, in reality. it's nice for a good intro, but th

by 2005, news made its way to mike huckabee in arkansas. arkansas under mike huckabee passes a law to require health insurance drug policy to cover contraception. like in arizona and new york and in the obama administration's original policy this year, churches are exempt but church affiliated hospitals and universities are not exempt. that's what mike huckabee signed into law in his state in 2005. stick a pin in that for mike huckabee for a second. we'll be back to that in just a moment. the year after mike huckabee does it, mitt romney signs the big massachusetts health care overhaul which reaffirmed that health insurance prescription plans must cover birth control. mitt romney signed that. he now calls essentially the same rule from the obama administration an assault on religion. it's his own policy. mike huckabee, former weight loss guru, no longer trying to hawk that, now he's just a fox news personality and he's trying now to set off a national campaign under the heading we are all catholics now basting the obama administration for a

and mike huckabee is losing. wow, is he losing. that's ahead. but first a couple of holy mackerel stories in today's news. virginia governor bob mcdonnell took another step further down from the mantle of party potential savior. he doubled down on his latest public relations disaster backtrack. last night we reported his indirect, somewhat denial that he had instituted an essay question, a sort of literacy test for ex-felons trying to get their voting rights back in virginia. the denial sounded like this. >> there's no essay. we've asked for just a simple statement of what the person has done in order to be reintegrated into society. a little bit about their crime, what they've done to get back into society, any community activities, and we're still in the draft stages. and i just ask people to give us a few months. we're going to -- we haven't even announced a final process. >> we're still in the draft stages. no final process. give us a few months. this walk-back ran into evidence of governor mcdonnell's actions, which totally gave lie to that

mitt romney, michelle backman, mike huckabee, paul ryan. national rally newt gingrich -- naturally newt gingrich will appear after he declares his kand dadsy on the fox news channel. raffle reed is on his way to becoming a king maker once again in republican presidential politics. why not? joining us now is democratic congressman barn nee frank of massachusetts. he is the ranking democrat on the house services committee. he is the frank of dodd frank. >> thank you. >> your financial regulatory legislation is under political attacks from some very experienced hands. you've been in this game for a lot of years now. do you feel like wall street reform is really at risk? >> no. yes in one sense. the republicans because of the control of the house are trying to use the deficit, which is a serious problem when you think about the hundreds of billions we allow the military to spend unnecessarily. they're claiming that one way to deal with the deficit is to cut off $100 million for the securities and exchange commission and $80 million for the comm

romney did this, huckabee did this, a lot of republican governors the did this. this was a republican policy. this obama travesty of justice that would be overturned by the blunt amendment, this was a republican idea, for years! so the problem is not that mitt romney flubbed the question, when he said he didn't think employers should be able to deny coverage for birth control. the problem is that he was stating what the republican position was on this for years when he flubbed it. republicans like mitt romney and mike huckabee were for mandating birth control coverage before they were against it. and yet today, every single republican in the united states senate except one said that they, too, were against this. republicans even like scott brown of massachusetts, who is trying really hard to appear moderate, scott brown voted today to allow employers to deny birth control coverage to their employees. your boss gets to decide whether your health insurance covers contraception. but scott brown, as a state senator, voted for the exact opposite thing. when he was a s

against jack conway, sarah palin, mike huckabee and rudy giuliani all giving endorsements in the kentucky attorney generals race to mr. p'pool. with 80% of precincts reporting, jack conway defeated the republican challenge from p'pool, 56% of the vote for conway the democrat and 44% for his republican challenger. in indianapolis, the incumbent republican mayor greg ballard facing a challenge from the democrat named molina kennedy. resul results so far with 87% of precincts reporting, ballard appears to be holding on at this point, 57% of the vote against his democratic challenger with 47% of the vote. in virginia, where republicans already controlled the governor's office and the majority of the house, tonight's races could give them a majority in the state senate as well. until tonight, democrats had a 22-18 majority in the virginia state senate. a net gain of two seats for republicans would flip the senate so they would control

and then people were fighting with mike huckabee who took the same stand supporting aiken. and so what you just played is completely typical of what i was hearing. and by the way, i would say to your audience, it's worth listening to. some of these people you may completely disagree with them, but they are honest. they are not spinning for like a carl rove on fox. they have contempt for those people saying every day that every focus group liked the republican ad better than the democratic ad. they know it's nonsense. they were concerned about the bad ratings the convention was getting. i learned more about the republicans and harsher criticisms from the conservative media than i would from a lot of the liberal press. >> i feel like we saw this insurgency when the tea party movement became a generator of right wing primary challengers to republican candidates. the republican party just shifted to incorporate the right wing protest movement. so you have jesse benton who was rand paul's campaign manager against the successor for the senate seat in kentucky. now mitch mcconnell

first huckabee, now gingrich. but look, you can't blame chuck norris. blame newt gingrich for being much less like walker, texas ranger, and more like another ledge end of the silver screen who that legend is is coming up next. ♪ when your chain of supply goes from here to shanghai, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ chips from here, boards from there track it all through the air, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ clearing customs like that hurry up no time flat that's logistics. ♪ ♪ all new technology ups brings to me, that's logistics. ♪ that the person you'd grow up to be -- how creative or confident or kind -- was shaped before you lost your first tooth? ♪ the first five years are forever. that's why pnc created grow up great, a $350 million, multi-year initiative that began in 2004 to help prepare kids from birth to age 5 for school and life. your finances can't manage themselves. but that doesn't mean they won't try. bring all your finances together with the help of the one person who can. a certified financial planner professional. cfp. let's make a pla

this was promoted by fox news celebrity mike huckabee and which i guess sort of has the support of mitt romney, the republicans' leading candidate for president. mitt romney kind of half flipped back on that issue after it lost in mississippi. he's still on the record saying he absolutely supports it. so as with most things with mitt romney, who's to say what his position is really? nearly 40% of house republicans have signed on to what is essentially a federal version of the mississippi personhood thing. so again, not just against abortion but against the most prevalent forms of birth control in the country. and now there's an effort under way to essentially overturn, to create a really big exception to the part of health reform that requires insurance companies to provide contraception in the same way they provide all other preventive care, which is to say for free. without a co-pay. there's been widespread concern this week around capitol hill over rumors that the white house could be considering scaling back that part of health reform, scaling back that requirement, that insurance c

i think there were some hard feelings on the part of governor huckabee. i think people put that down. i think four years ago is a very long time ago in politics. >> did he lose political capital or potential political alliances in doing that in 2008 that might continue to reverberate? i'm trying to understand what might be the republican dynamics behind people still looking for more candidates who aren't mitt romney to try to displace him as the front-runner. >> i think all that is over today with governor christie getting out of the race. i think the field is the field we have now. think that the choice is the choice, you know, with the candidates that have been on the stage. you know, senator mccain and governor romney had a ferocious contest that went through the early part of the winter. but after, you know, senator mccain became the nominee, there was nothing that mitt romney didn't do, you know, to help john mccain. he was out there. he was raising money. he toured the country. he was one of the campaign's best surrogates. i think that went a long w

mike huckabee asked mitt romney if he would have supported personhood in massachusetts. >> would you have supported the constitutional amendment that would have established the definition of life at concession? >> absolutely. >> absolutely. that was mitt romney, october of last year, signing on to a policy that would ban all abortions with no exceptions for rape or incest. it would ban most forms of birth control. it would likely ban in vitro fertilization. that's what mitt romney said he would absolutely support as of october of last year. but in mississippi, a totally grassroots opposition movement grew up around this issue. personhood opponents held a save the pill rally in oxford, mississippi, in october. billboards like this one went up around the state. vote no to personhood for eggs, and amendment 26 makes birth control a lethal weapon. with that, mississippi said no to personhood by a big double digit margin. that's mississippi. the thing mitt romney said he would absolutely support was so extreme not even the conservative electorate of mississippi wants anything to do with i

i would be interested to see what governor huckabee has to say. he hasn't been heard from yet. he's as close as they have to a leader of the social conservatives. you might expect, given the mormon church's position, governor romney would be speaking out more and maybe he will in the days ahead. i think in answer to your question, the social conservatives, religious right, don't have the mojo right now on the right. they're a little bit on the defensive. there's not a sense that karl rove's strategies were very successful. you know, the left is very afraid of karl rove and talking about how powerful he is. he wasn't getting it done in the second bush administration. they clearly miscalculated on the schaivo case. there are a lot of republicans who say that was a terribly unpopular thing for them to do to call congress to a halt and intervene in this one case of this brain dead woman. the other factor, which i think is quite important with more establishment republicans, is the role of ted olson in this case. he has great credibility within the republican party establishment. >>

it came out selivanof no where giuliani, fred thompson and mike huckabee. in terms of understanding the race this year, steve schmidt is an incredible asset. also he's funny, it's nice to be on set with him, pleasant guy, i find him to be blunt spoken, a pleasure on nights like that. but steve schmidt keeps saying something that i find to be not possible. he keeps saying something i do not understand. >> i think what will bind republicans to the eventual nominee is barack obama the cause of defeating the president. i think the republican party will be unified. >> despite how much i really, really like steve schmidt, here is what i don't understand. here what is i do not understand. in 2008 at this point in the primary season, this is the number of people who turned out to vote in the republican republican primaries. in 2008, that is how many people turned out. this year, this is how many people have turned out to vote in the republican primaries. it's a smaller number. there is nothing about barack obama being president that seems to be motivating people to

the internet got very, very excited about the huckabee prospect. the rumor has now been pretty definitively shot down by the huckabee camp and office with his political action -- official with the political action committee telling nbc, "there is no truth to the rumors that mike huckabee is reconsidering a run for president." don't despair. rumors are still fun. rumors are still happening. for example, the chris christie might maybe someday think about running for president even though he keeps saying he's not to rumors came back from the dead today. hooray. "the star ledger" in new jersey today reporting today despite firm evidence to the contrary governor christie is seriously considering running for president in 2012. still an anonymous source, naturally, close to the governor, naturally, telling "the ledger" in the last week mr. christie has been swayed from his earlier refusals to run by an aggressive draft christie effort by republicans and donors unhappy with the existing gop field. now, it is impossible to say whether or not the republican

. >> you are on governor huckabee's show a few weeks ago. and one of the things that you folks talked about, was that you support a life begins at conception. now, that would essentially mean that banning most forms of birth control. 98% of american women, including me, use birth control so can you help me understand why you oppose the use of birth control? >> i don't. i'm sorry. life begins at conception. birth control prevents conception. >> mr. romney went on to explain he is anti-abortion and he wants roe versus wade overturned about you this voter in iowa was not asking about roe versus wade. she was asking about this. >> would you have supported the constitutional amendment tos establish life at conception. >> absolutely. >> absolutely. >> the life begins at conception amendment. these amendments that mitt romney and huckabee say they support. these amendments do not just ban abortion. they ban abortion outright. but in addition to that. if any fertilized egg is considered a person, a miscarriage would be cause for criminal investigati

the real race gets started after huckabee thing is done with. do you think iowa is going to be representation l this year or sort of stand alone? >> so far it's not been representational. look at who won the straw poll. michele bachmann. look who's in the lead right now in iowa. it appears. newt gingrich. is this really -- who's going to do very well in iowa this year, ron paul. if ron paul beats newt gingrich, then iowa doesn't really represent anything in terms of really the direction of the republican party i think. i don't think we're going to know much until south carolina and frankly by the time we get to florida, i think you're going to see the more complex electorates, groups within the republican party. at that point, the teavangelicals, evangelicals and tea party types may have understood gingrich is not their guy and will coalesce around romney. >> wayne slater for "the dallas morning news." good luck in iowa. tell them i said hi. see you again soon. >> see you soon. >>> it's friday. we have not done a cocktail moment in a couple frid

because back in october, he was asked about a constitutional amendment like the one mike huckabee was pushing in mississippi so-called personhood amendment, which everybody agrees could make hormonal birth control like the pill illegal. >> would you have supported the constitutional amendment that would have established the definition of life at conception? >> absolutely. >> absolutely, mitt romney says he's absolutely for an amendment like the personhood amendment that mississippi voters said no to this year. he's absolutely for an amendment that surprise, could have the effect of outlawing the most popular forms of birth control. i know rick santorum wants to be the number one anti-romney candidate there is not much policy difference on whether or not a state can infringe your right to have birth control. it's remarkable a candidate can be considered a top tier candidate. it's even more remarkable that mitt romney, the overwhelming front-runner, also can take a public position of opposing birth control, the most popular kind of birth control. what is most remarkable, most remarkable

huckabee complained, i don't think romney has a soul. romney's own team's view was more generous, but no less damning. his advisors found mr. romney to be indecisive and incor ijible vacillator. the internal debates over his message and slogan went on for months without end or resolution. by the summer, romney was stuck in single digits almost everywhere. that according to "game change" is what happened the last time that mitt romney ran for president as the front-runner. and the stuff at the end there, that was from the people who were working for him. it was almost as bad as the stuff coming from the other republican candidates. and you might say, ok, the other republican candidates didn't like him because they were his rivals for the nomination. but the point of the reporting at the urinals there is that all of those other candidates could easily collectively get over all of their other differences and unite around their collective dislike for mitt romney. and, yes, they were rivals of his. and, yes, he was sort of the front-runner. b

republicans on the other hand have tended to pick huckabees. they tend to not be representative of what republicans nationally are thinking. the iowa results have just not been predictive on the republican side. so why do we pay so much attention to the republican contest in iowa? first of all, it's first. and we're distracted by shiny objects. the candidates do spend tens of millions of dollars competing in iowa. so there's that. but if it doesn't tell you anything about who the nominee is going to be, there has to be some other reason why it is a big deal. part of the common wisdom about why it is still a big deal is that there's this theory that iowa may not pick the winner on the republican side, but at least it has a way of picking the losers on either side. one part of the common wisdom is iowa separates out the candidates who are viable from the candidates who don't have a prayer and the ones who don't have a prayer will drop out of the race after losing big in iowa. in 1996, republican senator phil gramm dropped out of the race after a

they got fox tv news personality mike huckabee to be their key note speaker and got the wife of football player brett favre to sign on. the people behind the mississippi birth control ban and total abortion ban, they're also the people who campaigned earlier this year using something called the conceived in rape tour. the message for their proposal, for, not against, is that they would be forcing women who have been raped to bear the child of their rapist against the will of the rape victim. that is the case they are making for the personhood bill in mississippi. the personhood bill is not native to mississippi. the folks who helped get this measure on the ballot have efforts under way to get it on the ballot in all 50 state. the only place to get it on the ballot is colorado. americans generally love to vote against rights, particularly controversial rights, this thing tanked when they got it on the ballot in colorado. colorado voted this thing down 73 to 27 back in 2008. then they got it back on the ballot in 2010 and colorado rejected it again, 27-29. remember, they're going after all

mike huckabee was winning the gallup poll for the republican presidential nomination at one point this year. yes, this year. and now i guess it is newt gingrich's turn. this has been such a weird year in republican politics. i mean, normally election year drama is fun, but it's fun and kind of in the way a pinball game is fun. you're wondering how long that one ball can stay in play, how long that particular candidate can keep going. but this year with this field, with these republicans, it is less like a pinball game. it is more like a pachinko game. look at the balls in the game. are all of these guys really in play? do they all have a shot? if newt gingrich does, they all do. not rick santorum obviously. but the rest of them -- right now, if you were betting on who's going to win the iowa caucus on january 3rd, who would you bet on? it's as likely to be ron paul as is it herman cain as it is newt gingrich as it is mitt romney as it is michele bachmann. not you, rick santorum. really any of the others are as viable as any of the rest of them. but newt gingrich is different. newt ging

they pick huckabees. and who doesn't heart huckabees? there he is tonight in des moines. weight loss self-help guru, fox news, activist, supporting the personhood thing that could have banned birth control pills in mississippi. all the republican candidates are kissing his ring because he's the last republican to have won iowa. if you want to know what a lot of good winning iowa does for him in the long run, you're looking at it tonight. i'm not going to lie to you, it would be fun to watch ron paul win it in iowa this year. it would make pundits' heads explode everywhere, right? because what he would be winning is the republican caucuses in iowa, that result would also mean roughly nothing. to the rest of the presidential race. have asked yours truly to teach you about treating frequent heartburn. 'cause i know a thing or two about eatin'. if you're one of those folks who gets heartburn and then treats day after day... well that's like checking on your burgers after they're burnt! [ male announcer ] treat your frequent heartburn by blocking the acid with prilosec otc. an

he had been a major jon huntsman supporter in south carolina and was previously mike huckabee south carolina chairman in 2008, but as of today, he is for newt. shortly after that endorsement, mr. gingrich got word that 100 tea party leaders, what is a tea party leader anyway? 100 tea party leaders, whatever that means, from 25 different states are reportedly about to come forward to also endorse newt gingrich. the group will reportedly form a coalition called "tea partiers with newt":. all he had to do was google news search the name mitt romney today and he'd feel even better about how his day is going. there are still a few hours left in the day, so his fortunes could turn around, but mitt romney is about to wrap up what has been a horrific day for him in this race. after creating 48 straight hours of news coverage for himself by acknowledging he is one of the really, really rich people in this country that only pays a 15% mini tax rate and suggesting the $375,000 he made in speaking in a year wasn't enough money, after all that, here was the headline that mitt romney woke up to today, "ro

huckabee is talking about. personhood amendments are broadly understood not just to ban abortion outright but also to ban many common forms of birth control. including the pill. that's what their proponents intend and it is seen as a likely impact of this thing that mitt romney just said he supports. wow. the republican front-runner for the presidential nomination wants to ban the pill. i have a follow-up question. i mean, not a single beltway reporter has asked him a follow-up question about this. as to whether or not he really understood what he was saying yes to. did you really mean it, sir? you really want to ban the pill, mitt romney? can you explain? can somebody please ask mitt romney a follow-up question on that? do we believe him that he's laser focused on jobs, jobs, jobs? we here at "the rachel maddow show" cannot get a call back from the romney campaign when we asked him the follow-up question. can somebody who can get mitt romney's people on the phone ask him that? just ask him. like mid-pancake fl

he told mike huckabee on fox news that had he been able to use an amendment like that to ban the pill in massachusetts while he was governor, he would have done that. >> would you have supported the constitutional amendment that would have established the definition of life at conception? >> absolutely. >> "absolutely." hey, you, watching this in the future, does mitt romney still believe that? does he admit that he ever did believe it? so to today is april 18th. the primary from the general election campaign to the presidential campaign is under way. and every candidate in history has had to make some kind of pivot to reflect they are done talking to members of their own party and are going to talk to the whole country. but we have never before had the advantage of the campaign letting us know in advance, forewarning us, telling us that they are going to not just abandon previously held positions, they are going to pretend that those previously held positions were not previously held. and so with mitt romney in north carolina today, avoiding the gay marriage question, which is amazin