south carolina. he s running second in south carolina now. if romney wins south carolina he s going to be very close to wrapping this thing up because he ll probably then win florida and that could shut this thing down unless there s some mystery candidate who comes in a side door. hold on everybody. david, will, mark, stay where you are. as of this week, there is a new man in charge of protecting consumers. why are republicans so unhappy about that? i ll explain next on your $$$$$.
with santorum? well, ali, the free market element which we embrace as the tea party movement pushes me certainly to a mitt romney. i think there s a lot of folks that disagree with me. i think quite honestly the challenge in the tea party is this idea do they trust romney. i think from a business point of view and his practical governance as a businessman i think he would do a terrific job. but the challenge, of course, is convincing the rest of the grassroots movement. i don t think santorum sort of populist manufacturing to taxation is appropriate. that s not a free market value. as will pointed out here. here s my question for you, mark. what happens? really michele bachmann was the head of the tea party movement in congress. she was a tea party darling. those candidates who have become tea party darling are not doing what you re talking about. mitt romney wasn t the tea party darling in this thing. if you look at what he does, he s about fiscal responsibility, smaller
s.e.c. has been a by and large a very, very helpful instrument. there s always a question of how far the regulations go. ali, in this case there s an additional question, which is serious. that is that the president is permitted to make recess appointments, that is appointments when the congress is in recess. republicans argue, and they have got a strong case here, that the congress is not officially in recess. so this appointment not only of cordray but national labor relations board members doesn t come during a recess and clearly was done with the political intent. the president wanted to stick it to republicans. he s running against the congress. i happen to think going into this last year of his presidency, running a whole year without getting much achieved there is a mistake for the country. it helps his campaign. i think we need we need to get some work done in washington and not just politics. mark, let s talk about where the tea party stands on this. the tea party does not
this is picking winners and losers in an economy, not economic liberty which says to me the economy may be important to voters but not free market conservative principles within the economy. economic populism can be handled in a few different ways. one is the way ron paul is handling it saying you re freer to make decisions with your money than the government can do for you. or rick santorum economic populism even liberal economic populism. let s go to the tea party and talk about what influence they are having. mark skoda, founder of the memphis tea party. mark, this is a bit of a redefinition of what the tea party has been doing for the republican party movement. at this point we re at a crossroads. where do guys like you fall on this one? do you go along the mitt romney road because he stands the best chance at this point of beating president obama and doing things with taxes that the tea party would like? do you go down ron paul, less government road or economic populist road wit
as we count down to new hampshire, the economy is still the driving force in the minds of voters in the united states. but is it the driving force in the republican primary? welcome to your money. i m ali velshi. the latest cnn/opinion research corporation poll shows 57% of americans think that the economy is the most important issue facing this country. i want to bring in cnn senior political analyst david gergen. david, the polls say mitt romney has the best chance to beat president obama in the republican field. do conservatives still reluctant to get behind romney feel he lacks what it takes to turn the economy around or is it something else all together? he is actually doing well when people asked is your most important issue the economy in iowa. he won a healthy plurality of those voters who thought the economy was number one. he s having some trouble connecting with voters emotionally. they seem stiff, reserved, can t quite understand him, santorum in the case of i