The South Carolina primary polls opened as we went to air this morning. Since 1980 the winner of this Republican primary has gone on to become the party's presidential nominee. On today's first hour of "Up w/ Chris Hayes" we discuss the implications of Mitt Romney's tax records and Newt Gingrich's recent rise in the polls. Plus, an extended discussion on tax policy and Best Thing You Read This Week.
Joining Chris are Libertarian presidential candidate and former two-term governor from New Mexico Gary Johnson, MSNBC contributor and soon-to-be-host Melissa Harris-Perry, Washington Post columnist and MSNBC policy analyst Ezra Klein, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and Reuters columnist David Cay Johnston, and senior writer for Newsweek/The Daily Beast Michelle Goldberg.
-Brett Brownell (@brettbrownell) is video and web producer for Up with Chris Hayes.
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Steve Schmidt had an apocalyptic statement last night after the SC primary results were in:
(3:19:45 into MSNBC special coverage of the South Carolina Primary coverage)
Maddow: Put yourself in their shoes [republican establishment]. What’s the panic button that you hit if you are really freaked out that Newt Gingrich is going to get this nomination?
Schmidt: Not only are we not moving towards a coalescing of support by the republican establishment for Newt Gingrich, we are probably moving towards a declaration of war on Newt Gingrich by the Republican establishment. And if Newt Gingrich is able to win the Florida primary, you will see a panic and a meltdown of the republican establishment that is beyond my ability to articulate in the English language. People will go crazy, and you will have this five week period until the Super Tuesday states which is going to be as unpredictable, tumultuous as any period in modern American politics. It will be a remarkable thing to watch should that happen in Florida.
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I was sitting waiting at my daughter's ballet class watching tweets and bust out laughing and the adults are wondering so I repeat Borowitz tweet: "BREAKING: Stung By Defeat, Romney Considers Adultery" And I get completely dumbfounded looks. I explain- "Gingrich won big in South Carolina". More puzzled looks.
I suppose I am not the best unbiased observer, but I would have thought more people were following this drama. Is anyone else coming across such groups of adults who are completely oblivious about the GOP race?
Yeah and I live in rural central Pa. which is heavily republican, and the only interest I see around here is on the part of the Ron Paul supporters, but then again the republican primary wasn't as juicy as the Penn State scandal until lately.
Tremendous panel this morning - MSNBC should have Spitzer on much much more - MHP provides a tremendous perspective and Stockman is really a dem, right!
What did I learn today? Democrats hate Libertarians with a passion. I was put off by the way you treated Gary Johnson, I've seen Chris act more civil towards Republicans. There's no hiding your feeling about the true competition, huh? Obama will have to win based on his actions rather than rhetoric, it's not our fault if you elected a centrist DINO.
Democrats hate Libertarians with a passion.
Of course we do. Libertarianism is a right-wing extremist political ideology. One that nearly destroyed the global financial system and is a laughing stock in academia.
I don't even know who that professor is that Gingrich dog whistled.
Saul .... I don't remember his hast name. Something "-insky". What do you think common folk think of when they hear this "foreign" sounding name? Especially a *professor* from a university in *Chicago*.
(lol - newt's a prof, too.)
Newt doesn't have to invent a bogey man. He just needs to say "Saul..." & "Barack Obama" to scare some folk.
Saul Alinsky is described by one Obama biographer as one of his key intellectual mentors, and if you look at Obama for America and His first autobiography, you can see the methodology in his organizing in Chicago.
This is the same Ayers dog whistle. He will attempt to talk about Alinsky as some sort of Lenin- Jewish intellectual revolutionary. The somatic markers he will build on are the intellectual elite, the foreign Russian sounding name, the revolutionary terms "radical", that Chavez learned from him to form the UFW.. picking up the illegal alien pattern.... It is the alien culture- communist jewish conspiracy as secret kabal behind the black power movement. Really an ugly ugly and twisted narrative, but I think that is where he will go with it.
Thanks, JM. I'm a supporter of Obama, not really an academic of his life. I'm sure I'll read his bio some day.
"He will attempt to talk about Alinsky as some sort of Lenin- Jewish intellectual revolutionary."
That's what I suspected, but didn't hear any of the moderators state that. Maybe I missed it, they covered it on other shows, or they think it's too obvious to point out?
I don't think the repubs will use the Ayers angle this election, since it's clear Obama got OBL rather than palled around with him. But Obama can't run on "change" again, either. Which is why it's absolutely BRILLIANT he sang "Let's Stay Together" at the Apollo. That will probably be his new campaign song! :)
I am just making a prediction that Newt (if he doesn't implode) will try and do much more with Alinsky in the future.
Like you, I thought Ayers was an obsolete issue, but I thought the same about the "welfare queen" meme. Actually I heard Ayers come up on some Hate radio show- can't remember who it was. It's the kind of stuff the Right would use in super Pac Ads.
Both left and right have it wrong and right on the housing crisis. The housing market may need to find a bottom, but we are now foreclosing on prime mortgages. We have flushed all the bad guys down the toilet. Banks are now dealing with mortgages that fit all past, current, and proposed credit requirements. If middle aged, and older people (those with the most equity) continue to be both unemployed and under-employed, and equity continues to collapse, there is literally no bottom.
What to do? What we've always done. Use bankruptcy law. Take it back to "pre-reform" status. Permit cram-downs and serial 13's. You will be at a bottom almost instantly. And, banks would have real security.
Finally, I wouldn't try running for office while telling people they had to give up their dream of home ownership.
loved your show today chris! your panel was diverse & represented many shades of political thought. i liked stockman's comments very much & did not know he was a member of "common cause" in the 70's. i was a member also & respected their reform attempts at the time. the other members of the panel today were very good i give your program an "A+" today.