Rightwing politics. Theyre just back from a summit hosted by a crazed u. S. Congressman who said most immigrants are drug mules with cabs the size oficant lopes. We have two big stories for you tonight, the politics of nasty weather and nastier weather of republican primary politics. Parts of new england are buried in close to three feet of snow, with some of the heaviest snow late today. Authorities urged evacuations nearly several coastal areas. Wind gusts of 80 Miles Per Hour on nantucket. Seawalls have been breached up there, leaving coastal towns under seven feet of water and without power. And its not over yet. The storm had expectations in new england, but the big surprise as i suggested in the cold open s that it missed the main target in new york. Gathom was braced for up to three feet of snow but got only seven inches. Philadelphia braced for more than a foot but saw only a couple of inches. An official at the National Weather service apologized for those bad forecasts. Last night, we showed you what happens when mayors dont prepare for a blizzard. That and this is it was fresh in the minds of leaders when they shut down the entire new york metropolitan area making travel illegal, all for what turned out to be less than eight inches of actual snow. Were watching some surprisingly nasty politics following all of this good news actually. Im joined by Miguel Almaguer who is up in worcester, mass where the snowfall is historic. Thanks so much for joining us from where i spent four cold winters as a young man at holy cross. But whats happening in worcester . Chris, good evening. Record snowfall here. 31 inches and counting. Theyre going to beat a record here tonight. This is as you know the second biggest city in all of new england. But right now, we are in the middle of what should be rush hour. Instead all you can see behind me is a huge snow drift, more than 20 feet high. The issue here and across so many cities in the region, what do you do with all this snow once it stops snowing. Thats not going to happen here until tomorrow morning. As you mentioned, in places like nantucket, they have other worries. That area has been completely cut off. Folks cant get in or out. Theyre facing tidal surges, as well as the loss of vital Communication Systems like 911. So theyre bracing there, as the storm continues to batter the region. In boston also a record more than 18 inches of snow. The snowfall still falling there. We were there with doctors earlier today who were brought in to the hospital by police escort. One doctor even skied in. Today there was a birth of a baby boy during the storm. His mother telling us she didnt know the storm was happening during the birth and she was thrilled to have missed it. An epic storm and many folks glad they missed it. This storm has not been devastating. Many cities are shut down, but the services will likely reopen tomorrow. But it will take a long time for some of the coastal cities to dig out. Whats your assessment in the bitter cold of worcester, that they got all the snow. Gotham, new york city, somehow whisked right by this whole thing. Its brutal in worcester, wicked cold. As you mentioned, new york and new jersey seem to kind of just be breezed and bumped by this storm. It was snow across the area but it was not what officials had predicted, which was several feet of snow. Instead it was more of a dusting. They shut down major transportation hubs. A major issue in new york city and the storm never really materialized. Of course the big debate, should the governors and city leaders have done all of that since the storm wasnt a major impact. They say yes they should have because if they didnt and the storm had piledrifed into that city and it did not, there would have been chaos. They say they did the right thing. Miguel almaguer in worcester, mass. William pitman is the police chief 28 miles in the ocean. And that town has suffered some of the worst damage in the storm. Whats it like on the island . Its cold and its getting colder. The winds still blowing out here and the snows coming down and the winds are still, im guessing up probably in the 30s steadily at this point. So were getting a lot of blowing and drifting snow. And we still dont have power restored to a lot of areas on the island. Am i looking at main street here . Wheres the flooding going on up there . The flooding happens down around harbor area down easy street broad street north beach street area. They run parallel or around the harbor. As the winds come up and the tide comes in the storm surge on top of t brings it over the seawalls and floods the streets. Permanent damage what will it be . Anything . Not really. We got a couple of houses that probably have some damage. They had water, couple feet up the walls on the interior down on washington street. But most of the damage is caused from tree limbs and power lines down. Its one of the most beautiful parts of our country, nantucket, massachusetts. Thank you very much William Pitman from the police force on the island. Politician in new york and new jersey are battling criticism that they overreacted by shutting down all transportation and making travel actual actually illegal. There are going to be a lot of critics saying there was too much done for this storm. What would your response be to that . Well my response would be we were listening to all of you. My job as leader is to make decisions, and i will always err on the side of safety and caution. You cant be a monday morning quarterback on Something Like the weather. We had a storm several weeks ago where i believe the forecast was for a relatively modest amount of snow, and we then had seven feet of snow in buffalo. I do not criticize weather forecasters. I learned. Wow. Dan malloy is governor of connecticut. Ask jason simon is with me in washington the Washington Post weather editor. Im completely on the side of politicians who play it safe. You know better safe than sorry we were told when we were 3 years old. I think after blasting the hell out of people like lindsay over the years and mike bollandic in chicago and the new mayor down here because she got one inch wrong in her first action. It was two inches not one. She didnt have the plows, got blasted for that. Now people are blasting people like cuomo and de blasio. I dont want to blame them. Christie ought to just keep quiet. Attacking the media and the dumbest thing i ever heard of. We didnt create the weather reports. They come from the weather reports. Anyway, your thoughts . Is it better to be safe than sorry . It is. Ive been through a bunch of these, irene and superstorm sandy. And 40 inches in february 13. You should always err on the side of caution and safety. Thats why i closed our highway system down at 9 00 last night. But it also allowed us to clean up a lot quicker than we otherwise would have been able to do. You learn as you go along and you always should err on the side of safety. Listen let me say this to the meteorologists, thank you, youre giving us upon best information you have available. We need to act on it as leaders. Its not just Public Safety although that has to be the largest portion. Its about how quickly you can recover after the fact as well. Im sitting here listening to you talk about worcester, i played a lot of rugby against holy cross when i was at boston college. I have a nephew and a niece who live on nantucket. Hes an Orthopedic Surgeon out there. And of course i was a prosecutor in new york city. These are vital places. The people deserve to be protected. Thats our job. Thats what we got elected to do. Let me go to our expert here from the Washington Post. Jason, how good is weather i mean, my mom used to stay up all night waiting for the weather. I said what are we farmers . I still got to go to school. Dads got to go to work. Why do we check the weather . How good is it . Is it 50 right . 70 right . Weather forecasting has made tremendous progress over the last few decades. About three decades ago, a threeday forecast three decades ago is as accurate as a oneday forecast now is a lot more accurate than a threeday forecast was several decades ago. I think you meant that backwards. Yes exactly. Its okay i get it. So was there two models for the politicians and the mayors to look at . Were they looking at twos possibilities or what . Why did they shut it down . There was a lot of differences in the various models. Some were showing three feet of snow . New york city, some were saying closer to a foot. Its eight. Eight inches. The models were wrong. Our science is improving, but sometimes, especially when were right on the edge of the storm, the models can be just a little bit off. And it was a difference of 60 miles. Eastern long island got 30 inches of snow. New york city got eight. So its a fine line. Its a tough call for forecasters in that situation. So what they were doing, looking at this information and telling the officials, look this could be really bad. We could get up to three feet of snow in new york city crippling the most populous city in the entire u. S. So whats going to be the message to future politicians when lindsay made a fool of himself and marion berry for the hundredth time. Is it the message going to be dont be too careful . You better be smarter than you are. Nobodys smart enough to predict the weather. You just admitted it. You cant predict the weather. You cant. But ill point something out to you, they had the type of snow right this time. They told us what it would be and that it would be a lighter snow and that it would be a lot more wind pushing it around and that sort of thing. Err on the side of Public Safety. Youre going to get blamed for a lot of things as a mayor. I was a mayor for 14 years. Theyre going to forget that you kept them safe. And they got mad about that. Theyre going to remember if you dont pave the road if you dont plow the street if you dont pick up the garbage. Those are the things that people remember on election day. Why do politicians wear those what do you call it . Foul weather gear costumes when theyre inside . I was watching cuomo the other day and youve got your tie missing, and had thats fine. But they look like theyre off the george banks out there catching fish. All theyre doing is walking outside for a few minutes for a presser and they dress accordingly. Is this to identify with the people . With the working guy out there shoveling snow . What is it about, the costuming . The people are at home watching. Thats how theyre dressed. I will also tell you, its fun. We got to wear ties all the time. To have an excuse not to wear a tie is not such a bad deal. I thought Governor Cuomo needed a harpoon with him last nim night. Anyway thank you both. Thank you for that interesting admission that you can predict three days out, as well as one day. Can i make one more point . Sure. Forecasters also have to accept some responsibility here just in that there were a range of possibilities and i dont think we did necessarily the best job at communicating that there could be a huge spread. I think there was too much focus on the worsecase scenario. We have to do a better job the politicians are still going to have to make a call in that range. Because if it comes out high, theyre dead. If it comes out low, theyre surviving. None of these guys are going to get beaten because they overreacted. Anyway, thank you very much. You bet. Lots of news on the 2016 race for president , clipping along there, the rightwing clown car chugged into steven kings confab in iowa over the weekend. What a joke that was. And i mean it. Meanwhile, president obama is at 50 in another new poll which would mean a lot to a lot of people. Its called success. Thats good news if your name is Hillary Clinton, who will latch on to it. Plus theres a debate over the latest movie grabbing this country. American sniper, big question, does it glorify war . I have an opinion. Or is it antiwar . It may be a little of both, but i think its more of the first. Anyway, the answer might depend on your politics. And can any of these four republican governors beat Hillary Clinton . They may have the best chance. Youre looking at them. And let me finish with the International Holocaust remembrance day. This is a day to never forget. Youre watching hardball, the place for politics. A texas judge ruled late today that the case against former governor rick perry can proceed. The judge denied a motion to dismiss the indictment against perry. Last year a grand jury indicted perry on charges of abuse of official power and coercion of a public servant. Hes accused of publicly threatening and then carrying out a veto of the state funding per fubl for public corruption prosecutors after the democratic District Attorney refused to resign following a conviction for drunken driving. What a mess down there. Well be right back. Cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be Ready Anytime the moments right. Sign following a conviction for drunken driving. What a mess down there. Well be right back. To treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. 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Lets listen to king and the potential contenders. Do you believe the next president of the United States will be speaking from this stage to you today . [ cheers and applause ] as do i. Hey, iowa, can anyone stop hillary . Yeah, and lets borrow a phrase yes, we can. In a republican primary every candidate will say im the most conservative guy to ever live. Gosh darn it hoo diddly im conservative. You know what . Talk is cheap. Like Hillary Clinton, i too have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe, but unlike her, i have actually accomplished something. I think people like the direction theyre headed. Maybe thats why i won the race for governor three times in the last four years. I can give you a bit of news about mitt. Most of you know he and jeb had a private meeting in utah that was so private it was on the front page of the new york times. They called me late thursday night after they met and told me they were dropping out and throwing their support to me. Starting today right here in iowa, lets give it to them if i was too blunt, too direct too loud and too new jersey for iowa, then why do you people keep inviting me back . It reminds me of tagging up in baseball. Candidates have to touch first base before rounding the horn, but is steve king the base republicans really want to tag . Joining me now is john braybender and joan walsh. I got to start with the home team here joan excuse me ladies second here. I think theres a catch22 in republican politics, if you want to win the presidency, you cant win unless you get the nomination. You cant get the nomination if you straightarm the rightwing. You have to go to the fringe to show you will be their president as well as other peoples. Isnt that a problem . The para docks is what can get you elected can prevent you from being elected, so i think theres advice that comes with that. Whoever the nominee is this time has to go beyond checking the boxes. I think they are to be able talk to hardworking families, middleincome families who feel like theyve been abandoned by both parties. But particularly our party. Most of our candidates dont believe in the minimum wage. I think thats outrageous. So whoever is going to win my argument, i guess my parents were among this crowd, there are a lot more cloth coat republicans than mink coat republicans. There are a lot more regular people in the Republican Party than bushes or romneys, yet you dont hear from them much. Heres the case with the Republican Party. Establishment and antiestablishment. Then we add social conservative and tea party and libertarian. One addition will be middle income hardworking families. Theres going to be a real effort to say, we understand. Other that didnt exist last time was National Defense and terrorism. Were seeing in polls data what was a 2 sure is creeping up to 10 , 11 . Thats where a lot of candidates will have to show they can be commander in chief. Joanie, the last three republicans to win presidency. Except for w. , which means getting more than the other guy stuff, basically foreswore all social stuff. Nobody thought Ronald Reagan was serious about abortion rights. He wouldnt even go to the prolife rallies every year, certainly not the w. A. S. P. , the george bush sr, he had nothing to do with that stuff. And the same with w. He appreciated the times arent right to revisit that issue, the people arent going to change. Its not going to happen, so im going to leave it alone. It seemds like the only way a republican can win, i dont take seriously a lot of the platform. I sort of promise you im not going to mess with it. Like samesex is somebody really going to go out there and run against samesex in 2016 . I think youll see some people doing that. What george w. Bush did, he learned from his fathers defeat. He spent a lot of time courting conservatives. I dont know how much he could have done. What did he do . Exactly. He didnt do very much. But the thing that was different back then, they had a narrow casting way of getting to key voters that didnt necessarily turn off people who didnt necessarily hear that message. Now youve got, i think its an Incredible Development that you have all of these people including topline contenders going to kiss the ring of s