Good to have you with us tonight, folks. Thanks for watching. We start tonight with the aftermath of the mitt romney decision not to run. Romney closing the door on another run for presidency leaves the field wide open. Folks in iowa are saying what about scott walker . This was the season four years ago in madison, wisconsin. Thousands of protesters rallied against unions. The movement caused outrage across the country. We were on the ground in madison reporting on the action in 2011. Since then walker has been on the National Scene as a reagan disciple and corporate darling. Now walker has his eyes set on the white house. 99 chance youll run . I dont know that i would take the odds. I would tell you one thing after three elections for governor i wouldnt bet against me on anything. If you have got swagger, use it. The latest poll out of iowa with romney out of the mix has scott walker in first place at 16 . Now whats interesting about this is it is almost like who is this guy bush . Jeb bush is in fifth place with folks in iowa at 9 . Theres no shortage in name reck recognition there, so whats going on . Walker impressed voters at the Freedom Summit a week ago. We need leaders in america who understand the measure of success in government is not how many people are dependent on the government. The measure of success in government is how many people are no longer dependent on the government. I mean that is just raw meat to righties. Talk like that is going to get walker a lot of praise. The same day that that unfolded conservative thought leader byron york he wrote this about walker. You can match his achievement staring down the mighty Public Sector unions and then winning a recall in a blue state as the campaign begins. Walkers record means gop voters will cut him a little slack in the charisma and oratory department. It is clear to say walker does not electrify a crowd. But he is the man who took on the unions and the armies of the left. He can win over an audience even if he cant speak like ted cruz. I would agree with that. Not everything is going to be about attacking unions and slashing budgets. Thats the easy stuff. How is he on Foreign Policy . You talk about big, bold fresh ideas. Whats your big, bold fresh idea in syria . I go back to the red line. Lets not go back. Lets go forward. We need to take the fight to isis and any other radical islamist around the world. We need leadership that says clearly not only among the United States and among our allies were going to take action. You dont think 2,000 air strikes is taking it to isis in syria and iraq . I think it is a mistake. What does that mean . I dont know what aggressive strategy means. If we are bombing and we have done 2,000 air strikes, what does that mean in Foreign Policy . We need to look at other methods and we have to be prepared to put boots on the ground if thats what it takes. U. S. Boots on the ground in syria syria. Im not ruling that out. Walker knows how to stay in the spotlight. Hes a fox news regular and can easily grab the headlines. He proposed 300 million in cuts to the department of Higher Education in wisconsin. At the same time, walker wants to provide 2 2 220 million in bonds for a building for the milwaukee bucks. Okay. This is what walker does. Hes all about big business. He never backs down in the face of adversity to democrats who challenge him. Hes a coke brother favorite. Hes a governor. Hes not a d. C. Insider. He is moving forward to attack unions and the middle class. He outraised tom barrett 71 in the recall election. He wants to drug test welfare recipients. Walker knows who he is. You have to give him credit and he makes no apologies. This is why i think he poses a real danger as a republican candidate. He will be a better candidate than mitt romney. Number one, he wont waffle. Number two, he knows who he is. They can school him up on Foreign Policy and hes a corporate brotherhood. This guy will be a better candidate than mitt romney and hes going to be the benchmark in all of this. Its going to be interesting and i think this early poll out of iowa is a good indication that walker has a real chance to get off to a great start. He has fought the worker. He has fought the liberals and the progressives face to face in wisconsin, which is traditionally a blue state. Hes got street cred. He knows how to campaign. Who else has this . Wait a minute theres that john doe investigation. Thats the interesting thing about walker. He can be surrounded by a lot of controversy, yet it seems like it is water off a ducks back. He may be there answer. Get your cell phones out. I want to know what you think. Tonights question, can scott walker win the republican nomination . Text a for yes. Text b for no. We have results coming later in the show. Great to have both of you with us. Thanks ed. Im not trying to cheer lead here for scott walker. Not at all. Im looking at a solid record of where he has been on issues where the base has always been with him. And this kind of goes back to the bushand cheney philosophy. You have to have the base with you if youre going to get anything done. Hell gather the social conservatives later on but right now it is the fiscal hawks and the international interventionists who hes going to be pulling to. How do you unpack it . Youve been on this story for a long time and i think that whats really important about walker is he is a real rightwing radical. Not just in his attack on unions and his destruction of wisconsins k12 system. His recent attack on the university of wisconsin, which is a Great University that is going to see a lot of top tier professors leaving with their grant money, hes radical on that. In iowa, he comes out of the antiabortion movement. He has the whole package as far as right wingers in iowa with concerned. He prints better than romney who is a caricature of a guy in a top hat. If you look at what is left with wisconsin when he is done with us, youre going to see a really scary picture if you live in the rest of the United States of america. Ruth, its out of character isnt it for a governor to propose 300 million to be cut out of the university of wisconsin Higher Education system . I dont believe he campaigned on this. This is kind of coming out of nowhere, isnt it . The magnitude of that cut and what it is going to mean for people whether it is working families who are going to face a tuition hike then hes got a board ready thats going to take over governance of the v. W. A lot of Biomedical Research that goes on in wisconsin. It is such a big deal for our economy. Thats going to take a hit. A lot of our my is bound up in our University System and middleclass families are going to see college become unaffordable. It is a major blow to our state. Just huge. It seems like the republicans have figured out they have to connect somewhere with the middle class. I think some people behind closed doors told mitt romney youre a wall streeter youre an outsourcer. Here comes scott walker. He comes from a modest background. He doesnt come from wealth. Whats that connection going to do for him and if he can connect with middleclass earners in the country, can he a tough National Candidate . I think any republican is going to start with a deficit because of the demographics. It is going to be very difficult because they wont get much of the black and latino vote with the candidates i have seen thus far. Scott walker presents so blandly. His blandness works to his favor. He is just as far to the right in terms of being an evangelical as rick santorum. He is just as much for plutocratic wealth as mitt romney and doing all those things that turn people off about romney but he comes from the middle class or at least presents that way. I think he is actually one of the candidates whose stock should be higher than it is in terms of his ability to get the nomination. I think he would be attractive to the Republican Base on all three of those fronts. He will attract the very rich the coke brothers. Theres a lot of money that will be swirling around wisconsin. Hes going to have money and the regular guys of the republican party. What does with this good start in iowa . Move to iowa . Whats his next play . I think hell start to show a little more leg on his evangelical background in terms of being 100 antiabortion. Hes going to have to face down huckabee. Mike huckabee is his only competition in terms of evan evangelicals evangelicals. Nobody on the republican side in 2012 or in 2008 had a good ground game. I mean nobody had the infrastructure, nobody had the moxie, of president obama or the campaign they ran, so maybe walker will be smart enough to outflank everybody in that regard. But ruth, how is this john doe investigation going to play if ron walker runs for president . I think people are going to look into his background and theyre going to find some of his closest aids and associates are serving tile for corruption. This is a story that was huge in milwaukee when he was county executive there. Theres some really unsavory stuff. Theres a lot of really shady stuff going on around walker but in wisconsin hes been able to slide on by and it hasnt hurt him that much. That is amazing. Great to have both of you with us tonight. I appreciate your time here on the ed show. Remember to answer our question there at the bottom of the screen. Coming up, fresh reaction over last nights nailbiter in arizona, which was a massive Television Audience on nbc. Plus, republican double talk on funding the programs that matter to you and your family. Keep it right here. Then, blend through lengths. Our most advanced system outside the salon. Its more than colour. Its a work of art. Welcome to the most social car weve ever designed. The allnew nissan murano. Nissan. Innovation that excites. [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality for over 19 million people. [ susan ] my promotion allowed me to start investing for my retirement. Transamerica made it easy. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. Transamerica. Transform tomorrow. If youre taking multiple medications does your mouth often feel dry . A dry mouth can be a side effect of many medications. But it can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath. Thats why theres biotene available as an oral rinse toothpaste, spray or gel. Biotene can provide soothing relief and it helps keep your mouth healthy too. Remember, while your medication is doing you good, a dry mouth isnt. Biotene, for people who suffer from a dry mouth. Welcome back to the ed show. The patriots prevailed in last nights super bowl. Seahawks wide receiver Jermaine Kearse made a crucial catch in the red zone. Trailing by four they had to get the touchdown. But the gameclencher happened with less than 30 seconds on the clock. Russell wilson his pass was picked off by malcolm butler. It was butlers first career interception and what a time for it to happen. The patriots ran down the clock, won their fourth super bowl title, and pete carroll took responsibility for the botched call. I told those guys that was my fault totally. Why dont you just run it . Thats a real good thought. We were playing for third and fourth down. Russell wilson weighed in on twitter saying i wont allow one play or one moment to define my career. Ill keep evolving. Interesting. He knows he is a young quarterback. He knows he has a lot of years left, and hes just going to have to put this one behind him, but i think it shows tremendous discipline on Russell Wilsons part that the play was called and he ran it. As he gets on in his career hell be at a point where, wait a minute this is the Common Sense Department. This is the nobrainer. Im going to call off the sideline. Were going to ram our big guy lynch in there and were going to win this thing. Heres what i think happened. Every team goes into a game with a ready list. This is what were going to do in our own territory on first down. This is our red zone best play calls. In tight inside the five yard line, they know whats going to work on the goal line. They call off the ready list. I think in 25 seconds it gets so wrapped into a play all of a sudden theres a play called and you dont think of anything of it. Lets go ahead and do it. They had their goal line defense in there. They thought lynch was going to get the ball. What a play by butler. This was preparation on the part of the patriots that a young defensive back recognized the formation, knew they were going to come with the pick. You cant argue with the call folks. Throw the slant on the goal line is one of the safest passes you can throw. It is also one of the most practiced, but it looked to me that the wide receiver didnt cut out of his position fast enough. Great recognition by butler. Was it a dumb call . Yeah, nine out of ten times they would have punched it in. They called a pass play. The other Team Practices too. The db recognized it and closed quickly. It was just a great play. If they had to do it all over again, they would have rammed him in there. Why not call timeout and make sure you have the right pass play . It seemed like seattle wanted to win so bad they were in a hurryup offense to get this play off instead of recognizing the moment you know your offensive line knows whats on the line. Theyre going to move their guys up front as best they can. We have this thing one. This is just unfortunate. If your a seahawks fan, it is one youre going to play back in your mind over and over again. If that pass had been complete it would have been one of the greatest calls of all time. It looks like wilson was trying to hog the hero and hog the headline. Brady has a great career. Here comes this young quarterback. He throws the touchdown pass, boom, he gets the spotlight. I dont think thats the case. They got a group of plays they are confident in. This is how they can win the game and they happened to call a pass play. It looked so ugly you sit there and say how in the world did you do that. I can tell you every offensive line coach in high school every offensive line coach in college, and every offensive line coach in the professional ranks was saying what . My guys could have got it in there. Joining me now is bill roden. Great to have you with us. What did you think of Pete Carrolls answers after the game and the way he unpacked why he called this play . Good to have you with us bill. First of all, theres nothing they can say they would soothe anybodys feelings. Everybody was sick. I think at that particular moment you had half of patriots nation was sick because the game had turned like that and then you had half of the seahawks nation sick. Now they are sort of elated because it was like a mirroraculous situation. Of all the things you had, you talked about a ready list. You got beast mode. I asked him a question last year about getting ready. He said, sr. What does that mean . I stay ready. Theres nothing that pete could say, could have said will ever say to justify that call. I think youre absolutely right in that there will come a point in Russell Wilsons career i like him a lot. There will come a point in his career where if he gets that kind of play hell run it back. Were not running that play. At the end of the day, my name on it. It was a great game. Let me just say that. Tom brady he is one of the greatest clutch performers in the history of the National Football league. Just absolutely clutch. Theres no doubt about that. Hes right there with you name any of them. His records unparalleled in the way he comes back and wins is just absolutely amazing. I think Russell Wilson showed a great deal of discipline by doing what the coaches wanted in trying to execute the offense. I think you give him two or three more years or maybe even next year hell have a better awareness about what to do and how to do it. You enter the Common Sense Department and you just give it to the best running back in the league. Right. Great defensive play. It was a great play by butler. If you look at the replay you saw instant recognition. He said the slant pass is coming. Im there. That was a real gamble on butlers part because the receiver could have cut behind him. Youre right, though. When i looked at that, it did look like that receiver i think he could have protected the whole play much better. It seemed like he was a little too casual going into it. We can secondguess it but the first time i saw it if youre going to do that dez bryant or somebody would have been a beast going after that. You come out of a cut because you want to leave the defender. You come out of the cut because you want to create separation. If you come out of the cut and you slow down just a little bit, you close the gap for the help of the defender. Look, it was an unbelievable play by the defensive back butler. He did it. Give him some. No doubt about it. Always good to visit with you. Great to have you on the ed show. Coming up if winter potholes have you frustrated, youll want to hear this. Republicans are throwing up roadblocks in the president s plan to fix roads and bridges. Another storm batters the northeast. The ed show, stay with us. Right back here on msnbc. And we could soon become number one in oil. Because Hydraulic Fracturing Technology is safely recovering lots more oil and natural gas. Supporting millions of new jobs. Billions in tax revenue. 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