Political rule breakers

>>> capehart, the floor is yours.

>> thank you, matt. i have four rules for politicians. one, never question whether the man or woman running for the privilege of sitting in the oval office which strength from the duty to protect the united states . two, never question that person's love of country. when someone is running to serve and protect the constitution of this nation should about given. three, never presume to speak for members of the armed forces , and, four, never, ever, invoke slave imagery or aliken yourself toa aal figures from that era. sex governor perry is in doing this.

>> you need to ask him.

>> are you suggesting --

>> i'm saying, you're a good reporter. go ask him.

>> this from a man who loves his country so much that at a tea party rally in 2009 , he joked about the possibility of texas seceding from the union. that's more treasonous than anything perry imagines bernanke is doing at the federal reserve . now, perry really wants to be an alternative to republican rival mitt romney , and to take on obama in november, he would do well to say what he's for than falling back on discredit the tea party talking points . meanwhile, congressman alan west is in flag grant virant violation.

>> i'm here at the modern day harriet tubman to lead people on the underground railroad away from the plantation into a sengs of sensibility.

>> oh, no he didn't! the smarter republican also called the democratic party "a plantation" black elected officials "overseer." stop it. no, really. stop it. the problems facing this country and the world for that matter demand that elected officials present real solutions to common an shis nations and show a skittish world that the united states hasn't gn off the deep end . west and perry aren't helping with that one bit. matt?

>> great points, as always, jonath jonathan . tell me, a little time to talk.

>> a lot of time, looking at the clock.

>> i love to talk to you, jonathan capehart . it rick perry playing to his base when he's sort of throwing these things out and violating capehart 's rules or making a mistake and this is first week errors on the national theater , or is it both? what's your take?

>> i think it's both. look, the tea party , the tea party is base is fueling the energy behind the republican party . they've spent the last two years questioning the citizenship and the love of the country that president obama has. two, by, you know, saying that members of of the military would want to serve, would rather serve under a commander in chief who's ban veteran that plays well with the tea party base and the republican base. to you know, say what he said about -- calling fed chairman ben bernanke possibly treasonous, and the, you know, some of the other things he said. just yesterday, evolution and creationism . that all plays well. now, this is why these are all rookie mistakes. this is why politicians who are successful at the local level and at the state level really learn very quickly that when you play on the presidential stage, those lights burn hot, and all of those lessons and rules you think you know and that worked well for you in your previous races either don't work on the national stage, or need to be modified, because i think rick perry is finding out very quickly that you can't just speak off the cuff. you can't just shoot from the hip . you have to be very careful about what you say, because you're running for the nomination of your party, and you might be the nominee for your party to be president of the united states . it's not just people in that little forum that you're talking to that are listening. the world is listening, because they want to know who you are and what kind of leader you might be. and questioning evolution and creationism doesn't lead a whole lot of people, particularly moderates and independents, to believe that you are all there, or that you should be entrusted with the nuclear codes.

>> jonathan , it strikes me, look at jon huntsman in the republican field. he's trying to strike out a position that's the more rational, i'm not going to do that stuff gop primary candidate. he was the only one who didn't -- the only one who said he would vote for the debt ceiling deal at the end. he's been tweeting, i think, this week, that he actually.

>> right.

>> believes in evolution, and believes we should listen to scientists when it comes to talking about global warming . those might seem like uncontroversial positions to the public at large, but it may be, you know, toxic to some of the more extreme conservative.

>> sure.

>> base. can jonathan -- can jon huntsman debt traction or is perry getting smarter playing to the voters he needs between now and the primary?

>> depends. huntsman and perry have the reverse situation. huntsman is eminently reasonable, eminently rational, and is probably going to be the thing that prevents him from being the nominee of the republican party . he could win in a general election , because you can stand him next to president obama and they could have a spirited, knock down drag out civil debate as issues facing the country, and the country actually would be bet are off for it and be well served by it. rick perry on the other hand is saying a whole lot of things that's making conservative hearts beat faster, but i think probably scaring the middle, the middle of the country, the moderates and independents, who really want someone to run against president obama , to at least have a real rational conversation about the issues facing the country. yop think the electorate will have a whole lot of patience with a republican nominee in the general election who's going spend a lot of time questioning the president's patriotism rather than talking about what's needed to put people back to work and get the economy going again. assuming that both those things haven't happened one year from now.

>> well, it may be, then, jonathan , 30 seconds before we've got to wrap. maybe the right way to look at jon huntsman campaign a campaign for secretary of state in a gop administration where he doesn't go off the edge sayingality of things that would outrage the world, and yet he's obviously got fantastic, you know, credentials as ambassador to china, et cetera .

>> right.

>> a natural for a gop secretary of state. just 15 seconds.

>> yes, i agree with you on that, but i would put my finger on if he doesn't make it this go-round. 2016 . you heard it here first.

>> lots of plans. jonathan capehart and i, for jon huntsman in the future. jonathan , thanks as always for sharing your wisdom and perspective. that does