what? he is not the real deal. they're picking at him in advance of him showing up in the race. >> bret: he is not taking part in the debate. he is not going to be at the straw poll. does it hurt him in iowa? where does it put him in the race there? >> you know i imagine his name will probably come up in the debate. >> bret: something tells me. >> at some point. i think it does hurt him in iowa, but does he need iowa to ultimately win? he could probably make up for that. it would be good for the process if he would show up in iowa. but what he is doing is clever. gets the speech on saturday to announce he will be a candidate, what he in effect will be doing is ensuring that he will be sharing a headline with what comes out of ames. if you look at the people likely to do well in ames, michele bachmann, maybe tim pawlenty outperforms expec expectations. he is trying to kill who would likely be the rival for the non-romney candidate.