pro paul ryan. if you'd like to discuss the finesse you're trying to put on this, i'd love to talk to you about it on this show. rachel@msn rachel@msnbc.com. any time. the republican establishment is signing up with mitt romney, more enthusiastically than they have in the race so far, because they're horrified by the prospect of newt gingrich winning the thing. it's a controlled experiment of the great political adage that democrats fall in love, and republicans fall in line. republicans do like to think of themselves as being very anti-authority. as anti-establishment when it comes to politics. they do tend to fall in line behind whoever the republican establishment supports. we did see in the 2010 elections the republican establishment choices in the delaware senate race and race to run against harry reid in nevada and the lisa murkowski primary in alaska. all of the places, the choice of the republican establishment was rejected by republican primary voters. maybe the old adage isn't true anymore

pro paul ryan. if you'd like to discuss the finesse you're trying to put on this, i'd love to talk to you about it on this show rachel@msnbc.com. any time. the republican establishment is clearly signing up with mitt romney, more enthusiastically than they ever have in this race so far, because they're so horrified by the prospect of newt gingrich winning this thing. it's a controlled experiment of the great political adage that democrats fall in love, and republicans fall in line. republicans do like to think of themselves as being very anti-authority. as anti-establishment when it comes to politics. they do tend to fall in line behind whoever the republican establishment supports. we did see in the 2010 elections the republican establishment choices in the delaware senate race and race to run against harry reid in nevada and the lisa murkowski primary in alaska. all of the places, the choice of the republican establishment was rejected by republican primary voters. maybe the old adage isn't true a

look at what he did to paul ryan. paul ryan is the conservative republican -- a conservative republican leader in the house. he worked with the republican leadership there. he put a plan together to deal with the deficit and resolve some of the conflicts and problems we have with the entitlements. it was the plan that republicans were counting on in this legislative session. and frankly in an effort to promote himself and to sound a little bit more clever than his republican friends, newt gingrich threw him under the bus with his phrase about it was conservative social engineering. that's what people are upset about newt gingrich about. it's not personal. it's about the way he deals with issues in a way that is more about him than about the principle behind the issues. >> a lot of republicans are trying to distance themselves from the paul ryan plan. a lot of republicans in the house, a lot of republicans in the senate, a lot of republican strategists are trying to distance themselves. >> but the true conservatives ar

he praised paul ryan's plan and paul ryan praise d his plan. he does have his own plan for the general election and it's more than barack obama has done. president obama has failed this country and failed the economy. and that's why governor romney is running. he wants to get in the white house to create jobs and turn this mess around. >> all right, andrea saul, nice to talk with you. >> thank you. >>> well, the president came out swinging today after some senate republicans blocked his nomination for the consumer financial protection board, payroll tax cut idea and also the idea that he appeases america's enemies. david gregory, it was a hot president. the first dwe was not about cordray, it was about the presidential campaign and what all of these presidentials said about the president and apeacement, here's what he said. >> i will not take any option e options off the table when it comes to getting richard cordray in. why wouldn't we want to have somebody just to make sure that people are being treated fairly? when it comes to 12-year-olds o

and paul ryan, in a reworked medicare fix, that was bipartisan, by very definition, so, maybe paul ryan gets the ultimate revenge and the strategy, i think, adam is right, it won't be resolved next year, but a bipartisan approach to recognize the fact that medicare as it's going down, can't, can't keep going as it's going. >> one of the ironies about how the way this tax cut thing played out. they do want bipartisanship and maybe people are getting it wrong and won't be how negative ads can get and getting things right. >> in could be one of them. >> next year is going to be brutally negative and this president has to go massively negative to spin how lousy job he's done on the economy and it's going to be, now what? bring it on and i'll tell the republicans this, don't show up to a gun battle with a knife. af got to play ball. >> this president is more savvy than anybody standing on the platform with social media and that hard gorilla marketing and that's where he's going to win again. >> and adam, here is where i think the president might have some wind at his back. some of the econom

the thing is the paul ryan budget does kill medicare. instead of medicare old people will have a system where they have to buy private insurance on the private market, and paul ryan will give them coupons to get discounts. so if you want to call a system like that medicare, telling granny to go buy private insurance on the open market but with a coupon, then sure, call it medicare. call it macaroni. i don't care. but what everybody understands medicare to be, guaranteed government health insurance for old people, for what medicare actually is, the paul ryan plan kills medicare. almost every republican in the house and the senate voted to kill medicare, when they voted for the paul ryan plan, this there was much rejoigs on the democratic side, and that's because democrats knew they could stop this thing from actually becoming law. president obama would never sign anything like that. but they also knew that republicans had just hung this giant albatross around their own necks. for the rest of their careers now they will have to explain or

the thing is the paul ryan budget does kill medicare. instead of medicare old people will have a system where they have to buy private insurance on the private market, and paul ryan will give them coupons to get discounts. so if you want to call a system like that medicare, telling granny to go buy private insurance on the open market but with a coupon, then sure, call it medicare. call it macaroni. i don't care. but what everybody understands medicare to be, guaranteed government health insurance for old people, for what medicare actually is, the paul ryan plan kills medicare. almost every republican in the house and the senate voted to kill medicare, when they voted for the paul ryan plan, this there was much rejoicing on the democratic side, and that's because democrats knew they could stop this thing from actually becoming law. president obama would never sign anything like that. but they also knew that republicans had just hung this giant albatross around their own necks. for the rest of their careers now they will have to explain o

that you know paul ryan's paul ryan's plan is right wing social engineering and and it was going to be the thing i think there was a broad consensus among all you know i mean your democratic strategist you know there's a broad consensus among people in your business and democratic politicians this eleven months you know this was going to be the thing they were just beat the crap out of the republicans with and then ron wyden comes along goes all pull. arms are all goes yeah we're all i go to war. i mean how you know and like you said there has to be no daylight and how long it's going to be before you know some useful idiot on the democratic side steps into this they better not and you know what democrats have to take care of ron wyden and make it very clear that what he's done is completely unacceptable you did see the white house come out you did see a number of other democrats come out and say wait a second what are you doing and on this paper the other thing tom about this issue is it's actually pretty simple yes there are the poison pills but essentially what we're talking about o

that you know paul ryan's paul ryan's plan is right wing social engineering and and it was going to be the thing i think there was a broad consensus among all you know i mean your democratic strategist you know there's a broad consensus among people in your business and democratic politicians this eleven months you know this was going to be the thing they were just absolutely beat the crap out of the republicans with and then ron wyden comes along goes all pick. arms are all goes yeah we're all i go to war. i mean how you know and like you said there has to be no daylight and how long it's going to be before you know some useful idiot on the democratic side steps into this they better not and you know what democrats have to take care of ron wyden and make it very clear that what he's done is completely unacceptable you did see the white house come out you did see a number of other democrats come out and say wait a second what are you doing and on this paper the other thing tom about this issue is it's actually pretty simple yes there are the poison pills but essentially what we're talk

would you have voted for that, paul ryan? >> with those strings? no, i would have put different strings. stick to the financial sector. >> we did vote for the bill. the bill you described is the one we voted for. the bush administration decided it was so important to get the buy-in from the financial industry, they ignored significant pieces. >> we have a question from our audience on financial service and good morning. my question really has to do, what has been put in place since those days to prevent this happening again for consumers and investors to take some comfort from what we have learned in the past few years. >> i will be glad to respond. argue too big to fail to overdoing it. too stingy to bail. economists, the economists did a simulation, if there's another crisis, we won't be able to bail people out. the federal government gave money to aig. we abolished that. if a company fails, in the first place, it is, if you can't pay its debt, sarah palin was half-right, which for her was a good average. we had death panels in the legislation in

he did it to paul ryan! he took paul ryan and threw him under the bus! >> john, you going to let me talk for a minute? >> governor, hang on one second. i'd just like to get a word in here. go ahead. >> the fact is that throughout this campaign it has been newt gingrich who has praised the other candidates and so on for the strengths they bring to the campaign. >> let me first of all, for those of our listeners who may not have known what newt gingrich said, he was talking to the jewish channel and he was talking about the israeli-palestinian dispute and here's what he had to say. >> i think that we've had an invented palestinian people who are in fact arabs. >> listen, this has set off the palestinian world. it does run against how u.s. policy at this point which is trying to find a statehood for the palestinians and a peace for israel. but let me take it to what's really going on here and it is really not about u.s.-israeli policy. it is about the temperament of newt gingrich. governor sununu, you have suggested he is not stable. we do have some of his

now it's the year they're arguing because loophole right and paul ryan's budget which you know as you point out it's now which are and buy insurance through an exchange of private plans they argue because paul ryan calls that exchange of private plans medicare therefore medicare still exists when of course in reality you are getting rid of the traditional government sponsored medicare program as seniors know it today in their daily take that we played a clip of i had a can of coke in a can of milk and i said if i pour this coke out fill this coke can with milk and then say hey look at here i've got a category it says so right on the label that's basically what political act was saying and just makes no sense at all you know lee atwater back in the day back in the seventy's or eighty's or whenever it was famously said that his who it was and was constantly supporting other be pretty sure was lee atwater so this but he was he was supporting other groups that were that were constantly screaming about liberal bias in the media and any story basically that was favorable to democrats or unf

and my plan is very similar to paul ryan's. >> reporter: but paul ryan's plan would change medicare as we know it. >> i certainly hope we'll be able to sustain medicare over a long period of time and make sure it's financially stable, and paul ryan's plan, like mine, does not change the plan for current retirees. >> reporter: and that ad this week from the superpac, funded by many of mitt romney's donors. >> why is this man smiling? because his plan is working. brutally attack mitt romney and hope newt gingrich is his opponent. >> reporter: it showed a president obama smiling and implied that the president would be much happier if he was going up against newt gingrich than if he goes up against you. do you believe newt gingrich would be easier for the president to beat in an election? >> no question in my mind that i represent the best chance we have of defeating president obama. >> our exclusive interview with mitt romney. i want to bring in christiane amanpour, the anchor of "this week." we got a hint of how they'll be responding. take a listen and let me get your reaction. >> republ

would you have voted for that, paul ryan? >> with those strings? no, i would have put different strings. stick to the financial sector. >> a brief sentence, we did vote for the bill. the bill you described is the one we voted for. the bush administration decided it was so important to get the buy-in from the financial industry, they ignored significant pieces. >> and we have a question from our audience on financial services. >> good morning. my question really has to do with, what has been put in place since those days to prevent this happening again for consumers and investors to take some comfort from what we have learned in the past few years? >> i will be glad to respond. because we have, in fact, we have accused of being too big to fail to overdoing it. too stingy to bail. the economists, the economists did a simulation that said, if there's another crisis, we won't be able to bail people out. the federal government gave money to aig. we abolished that. in the bill. that no longer exists. we also said that if a company fails, in the first pla

did he it to paul ryan! he took paul ryan and threw him under the bus. >> john, you going to let me talk for a minute? >> governor, hang on one second. i'd just like to get a word in here. go ahead. >> the fact is that throughout this campaign it has been newt gingrich who's praised the other candidates and so on for the strengths they bring to the campaign. >> let me first of all, for those of our listeners who may not have known what newt gingrich said, he was talking to the jewish channel and he was talking about the israeli-palestinian dispute and here's what he had to say. >> i think that we've had an invented palestinian people who are in fact arabs. >> listen, this has set off the palestinian world. it does run against how u.s. policy at this point which is trying to find a statehood for the palestinians and a peace for israel. but let me take it to what's really going on here and it is really not about u.s.-israeli policy. it is about the temperament of newt gingrich. governor sununu, you have sugges

now it's the year they're arguing because loophole ryan and paul ryan's budget which you know as you point out it's now which are and buy insurance through an exchange of private plans they argue because paul ryan calls that exchange of private plans medicare therefore medicare still exists when of course in reality you are getting rid of the traditional government sponsored medicare program as seniors know it today in their daily take that we played a clip of i had a can of coke in a can of milk and i said if i pour this coke out fill this coke can with milk and then say hey look at here i've got a category that says so right on the label that's basically what political act was saying and just makes no sense at all you know lee atwater back in the day back in the seventy's or eighty's or whenever it was famously said that his who it was and was constantly supporting other be pretty sure was lee atwater so this but he was he was supporting other groups that were that were constantly screaming about liberal bias in the media and any story basically that was favorable to democrats or u

paul ryan is a real hero. i agree with that. and newt, as soon as he proposed his budget, newt turned around and stabbed him in the back for right wing social engineering. >> do you think night would lining to forget all of that? >> he certainly would. >> do you think it will live to damage him? >> he is going to live for a while, john. >> thing is newt was correct in his assessment of the ryan budget. and speaking the truth in washington always gets you in trouble. my turn coat is speaker john boehner, who walked away from the grand bargain with president obama. >> turn coats of the year were all the newt gingrich aides who left him when he was down and betrayed their loyalty not for whales, but for rick perry. >> all right. my turn coat is mitt romney for turning against romney care. his own plan that they try run away from as fast as he can. >> let me see if i can enlarge the circle here. turn coat of the year great britain. in 2007 tony blair went to libya and met with moammar gadhafi. that meeting restored gadhafi's interna

he opposed paul ryan as real hero. i agree with that. newt, as soon as he proposed his budget, newt stabbed him in the back. the back stab of the year. turn coat of the year. >> do you think newt would like to forget all that? >> he certainly would. >> do you think it will damage him more. >> he is going to live for a while, john. >> the thing is newt was correct in his assessment of the ryan budget. speaking the truth in washington always gets you in trouble. my turn coat is speaker john boehner, who walked away from the grand bargain with president obama. >> rich? >> turn coats of the year were all the newt gingrich aides who left him when he was down and betrayed their loyalty not for whales, but for rick perry. >> my turn coat is mitt romney for turning against romney care. his own plan that he tried to run away from as fast as he can. >> let me see if i can enlarge the circle here. turn coat of the year, great britain. in 2007 british prime minister tony blair went to libya and he met with libyan leader moammar gadhafi. that meeting

the ad doesn't clarify that the paul ryan plan doesn't affect people who are fifty five and older and see the budget resolution was nonbinding as in it couldn't go into effect until it was passed by the senate and signed by the president so essentially what political fact is saying is that despite completely gutting the program and changing the primary way senior citizens will receive health insurance coverage it's a pants on fire a lie to point that out because the new voucher program is named medicare and because ryan's plan only wipes out full coverage for people younger than fifty five and because democrats would oppose in the senate therefore democrats are whining when they saved republicans voted and medicare not only is polluted fact and the republicans they are pants on fire line and they're responsible for one of the biggest lies of the year it would be like if i took this can occur coke poor out all the coke fill it with milk and said i now have a can of milk and then pull out a fact comes along and says i don't pants on fire liar because hey it's still in a can labeled coke

the ad doesn't clarify that the paul ryan plan doesn't affect people who are fifty five and older and see the budget resolution was nonbinding as in it couldn't go into effect until it was passed by the senate and signed by the president so essentially what political fact is saying is that despite completely gutting the program and changing the primary way senior citizens will receive health insurance coverage it's a pants on fire a lie to point that out because the new voucher program is named medicare and because ryan's plan only wipes out full coverage for people younger than fifty five and because democrats would oppose it the senate therefore democrats are lying when they saved republicans voted and medicare not only is polluted fact and the republicans they are pants on fire line and they're responsible for one of the biggest lies of the year it would be like if i took this can occur coke poor out all the coke fill it with milk and said i now have a can of milk and then pull out a fact comes along and says i don't pants on fire liar because hey it's still in a can labeled coke a

my own plan is very similar to paul ryan's. >> reporter: but paul ryan's plan would change medicare as we know it. >> i certainly hope we'll be able to sustain medicare over a long period of time and make sure it's financially stable, and paul ryan's plan, like mine, does not change the plan for current retirees. >> reporter: and that ad this week from the superpac, funded by many of mitt romney's donors. >> why is this man smiling? because his plan is working. brutally attack mitt romney and hope newt gingrich is his opponent. >> reporter: it showed a president obama smiling and implied that the president would be much happier if, in the end, he was going up against newt gingrich than if he goes up against you. do you believe newt gingrich would be easier for the president to beat in an election? >> no question in my mind that i represent the best chance we have of defeating president obama. >> our exclusive interview with mitt romney. i want to bring in christiane amanpour, the anchor of "this week." we got a hint of how president obama will be responding to the republican candidates

you may remember, after republican congressman paul ryan unveiled an extensive medicare reform plan we saw a series of controversial ads accusing republicans of wanting to kill medicare. those ads were also echoed by statements like this from the white house and top democrats: >> at the end of the day this plan would end medicare as we know it, for millions of seniors. >> republicans have put forth a budget that ends medicare, while making seniors pay more to get less, while giving tax subsidies to big oil. alisyn: christopher han is a former aid too aide to chuck schumer, also joining us, rich lowry, editor of the national review and fox news contributor. guys, thank you very much for being here to talk about the big lie of the year. and let's just remind our viewers of the ad that came to sort of symbolize this big lie, and that was someone who looks suspiciously like congress paul ryan, pushing an old lady off a cliff. let's just watch a minute of that. >> al oh boy. rich -- >> very subtle. alisyn: very subtle. political facts saying that was the biggest lie of the year. >> this is

it's very appropriate that paul ryan was one of the runners-up. if it weren't for guys like him, we wouldn't have a need to protest. i think you can't spell greedy 1%er without gop. >> the greedy actions of the congressman has been the root of much of the protest in this country. the radical movement against the big three, and, of course, the willingness to stick it to the middle class instead of the wealthiest americans. so as you move forward on this, if this helps the movement, how does it help the movement? i mean, this is a magazine that does this annually. what do you make of it? >> it creates awareness and speaks to the power of boots on the ground. at some point that has to translate into changing laws and using political capital in a positive way. the conversation about income inequality in this country is on everybody's tongue. we're all aware the wealthiest people in society are doing better an ever and all of us are asked to sacrifice. i think if congressman paul ryan wanted to be honest, he would draft a budget that does not create a

is that one of the reasons you left newt because he said that about paul ryan? >> no. it wasn't. i would point out newt is the only person in our lifetime who reformed a major entitlement program called welfare. when somebody has orchestrated the republicans 40 years in the wilderness reforms welfare cuts taxes when they bif paul ryan the advice i would have given him the advice. i agree with the governor on that plan but you can't force people into the plan. we should have a free market. we should allow people to choose. >> i don't want to get off on that debate. i think it was right binge social engineering that's just me. >> may i add -- i want to get ed back in. are you suewer prized newt has become so resilient in terms of the infidelity and bringing it up in every debate. cease still soaring. >> i have noern him since 1978 east the knows tenacious person i have ever seen. he's a survivor. he is the last guy i would have bet he was in this position. 6, 8 weeks ago i had a long conversation. he said i hope you stay in the race. he said i don't think i am going to win i am goi

when they write a public love letter to paul ryan. the congressman with the kill medicare plan. mitt romney is running ads now that make it look like it's actually paul ryan who is the candidate. but mitt romney is running for president officially. what's jeb bush doing today with his public mash note to paul ryan and "wall street journal" vote for me op-ped? jeb bush isn't running for anything, is he? is he? a lot of what's happening in 2012 politics right now is exciting but not out of the blue. newt gingrich's bubble is bursting on schedule. down eight points in iowa today. his lead over mitt romney in the national polls is starting to go poof. the next microbubble is ron paul. in a couple polls out today ron paul is ahead. mitt romney is still mr. mired? 20 some percent. mr. romney's poll numbers ought to be the new google image for flat. in the midst of the explicable, predictable 2012 news, here is something that doesn't have an explanation. someone is asking voters in new hampshire for their opinion about jeb bush. last week we brought you this story from our guest earlie

these so-called political fact checking website for their decision to name the democrats claim that paul ryan and the republicans voted and medicare as one of their nominees for lie of the year they look. under ryan's plan medicare is not medicare so voucher program all the while a political act actually admits that yes the republican plan would be a huge change the current program and both republicans and democrats would no doubt agree that ryan's plan for medicare is a dramatic change of course so why did they give the claim its lowest rating. and then paraded as one of the biggest lies of the year our nation right now is in the midst of one of the most radical assaults on our social safety net ever seen and for a so-called principled fact checking organization to ignore that reality and play a game of semantics to cover up the republican effort to destroy medicare is not only sloppy it's downright irresponsible. well since then political fact decided to

is that one of the reasons you left newt because he said that about paul ryan? >> no. it wasn't. i would point out newt is the only person in our lifetime who reformed a major entitlement program called welfare. when somebody has orchestrated the republicans 40 years in the wilderness reforms welfare cuts taxes when they bif paul ryan the advice i would have given him the advice. i agree with the governor on that plan but you can't force people into the plan. we should have a free market. we should allow people to choose. >> i don't want to get off on that debate. i think it was right binge social engineering that's just me. >> may i add -- i want to get ed back in. are you suewer prized newt has become so resilient in terms of the infidelity and bringing it up in every debate. cease still soaring. >> i have noern him since 1978 east the knows tenacious person i have ever seen. he's a survivor. he is the last guy would have bet he was in this position. 6, 8 weeks ago i had a long conversation. he said i hope you stay in the race. he said i don't think i am going to win i am going

but i think paul ryan. >> do you think, of course, we actually saw our own george will and paul ryan debating these very important issues last week on the great american debate. can i get you all to predict who will be this time next year, preparing his inaugural address. >> all of the numbers say that the president won't be. if the president carries the john kerry states, 245 electorates votes, don't count the president out. >> at this time next year it will be barack obama. >> i disagree with that. i'm neutral in the republican party primary. like i say, whomever emerges as the nominee will be -- >> oh, come on glit's too fluid. >> the iowa caucuses -- >> iowa voters are famously late in deciding. we're seeing up and down still today. you know. >> the influence at the caucus themselves. there's a tremendous amount of betty sue come to my corner. >> jon? >> i will say this, we also -- none of us will have any idea midnight on election night. it's going to be so close. this is going to be a close election and we're going to be awaiting until the following day to find out -- >> i will

paul ryan's situation is such an ideal example. look at the way the faux conservative gingrich handled it and the real conservative mitt romney handled it. >> i believe newt gingrich is a gingrich-ite. all he cares about is newt gingrich. >> nbc's luke russert obtained a copy of the anti-gingrhas been n capitol hill. that includes newt gingrich opposed paul ryan's conservative budget. newt gingrich claims to be a fiscal conservative but when he attacked paul ryan's budget he threw the conservative cause under the bus. mitt creates jobs. mitt romney is the only candidate who can beat barack obama. oops. the trouble with that last talking point, of course, is the polls disagree. polling now indicates that romney and gingrich are evenly matched against president obama. a new batch of early state polls now shows gingrich roaring ahead of romney. in iowa, gingrich has a 13-point lead over romney. in new hampshire, the former state of massachusetts pretends to leave, gingrich has closed to within nine points of romney. until now, romney