Video: Which Republican has best chance in ?12?

>>> david gregory is moderator of "meet the press." good to have you here.

>> good to be here.

>> we look at the rise of the polls and newt gingrich , we have seen other candidates in the past sky rocket, but usually after they announce they're getting into the race. he has been hanging around in this race for a long time, at around 12, 13, 14% and now he's up there around 40. why?

>> he's consolidating that tea party support. chuck referenced the fact, 70% of the primary goes -- identify themselves as conservatives. he is getting the lion's share of the vote. the tea party folks who want to see a candidate take on president obama , they like his debate performance, they like how he's taking on the media. that drives the anger in this electorate right now.

>> when you look at this idea that he has an electability problem, is that about likability or his policies? 50% of people say they would never vote for him.

>> right. i think it's about how erratic eggs over time . i think a lot of people, including republicans, have forgotten why they dislike gingrich. they just know they dislike him. that it goes to how high his negatives are. why romney can drive those negatives up as we move forward.

>> so for mitt romney , if you're looking for a silver lining in these polling numbers, which show him in decline, and newt gingrich rising, it is that he is perhaps more electable in a general election .

>> well, i think it's that.

>> how do you communicate that?

>> you make the argument. but i think there is so much tension this year between what you have to do to win the primary fight and then how you stack up against obama in the general election . there's always that tension. i think it's exacerbated by the tea party here. i think romney not going on the offense against gingrich, driving up those negatives. but that alone is not going to cure his problem with conservatives. that they haven't trusted him and they haven't trusted him for a long while.

>> let's talk about ron paul . i know you had him on your show a week ago. and here's a guy, when you talk to his supporters, they say watch out for ron paul , he's going to surprise a lot of people in iowa and new hampshire for a couple reasons. his supporters don't poll well. in other words, these aren't the land line folks we tend to call at home. these are the cell phone folks. and also, he's got a real organized group of people out there. what are you expecting?

>> that he could pull off an upset in iowa. governor of the state says he has the best organization bar none . if you go to the caucus, it's amazing because it's really about organization, getting people there who know how to caucus. he's drawing in the same kind of voters obama did, younger voters, new voters to the process, nonrepublicans, people who are anti-war, who have real problems with the role of government. i think a huge issue in this race is what is the role of government. and paul is not ruling out a third-party run and polls well in a three-way.

>> normally i ask what you have on "meet the press" but since it's wednesday, this is for political voters.

>> nbc politics.com. if you care about politics, whether you're a junky or a casual, you're watching the "today" program, "nightly news", "meet the press," if you missed anything, go to nbcpolitics.com. if you missed the interview, want more analysis, want more of our interactive features, this is our digital home for nbc politics. it's going to be a great place.

>> look forward to it. david gregory , good to have you in new york. 16 after

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/45666319/

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HBT: Yanks, Cubs among those to bid on Darvish

The window for Major League Baseball teams to submit bids on free agent Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish has been closed for over three hours.

We don?t know which club has won the rights to negotiate exclusively with the 6-foot-5 starter, and might not have that information for another few days, but reports are slowly trickling out about which teams did and did not submit bids. So we?ll pass those along as we play the waiting game together.

Darvish, 25, posted an?18-7 record, 1.44 ERA and 276/36 K/BB ratio in 232 innings this past year for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham?Fighters. He had a 1.99 career ERA in seven total NPB seasons.

CBS Sports? Danny Knobler heard from a source?Wednesday night that the Fighters front office was ?very excited? about the value of the highest bid and Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports says they fully intend to accept. But the Fighters technically have until next Tuesday night to make an official decision.

MADE BID

Yankees
Cubs
Rangers
Blue Jays

DID NOT BID

Rays
Angels
Twins
Orioles
Red Sox
Reds
Marlins
Mets
Giants
Athletics

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/12/14/waiting-for-word-on-the-yu-darvish-bidding/related/

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Lobster tag lost in 'Perfect Storm' hops Atlantic

In this Nov. 30, 2011 photo, Richard Figueiredo poses with a lobster trap in Pembroke, Mass. Figueiredo lost hundreds of lobster traps in what came to be known as "The Perfect Storm" in 1991. Rosemary Hill of County Kerry, Ireland, found one of his lobster pot tags on a beach in 2010, and wants to return it to him. (AP Photo/The Patriot Ledger, Gary Higgins) BOSTON HERALD OUT; BOSTON GLOBE OUT; QUINCY OUT

In this Nov. 30, 2011 photo, Richard Figueiredo poses with a lobster trap in Pembroke, Mass. Figueiredo lost hundreds of lobster traps in what came to be known as "The Perfect Storm" in 1991. Rosemary Hill of County Kerry, Ireland, found one of his lobster pot tags on a beach in 2010, and wants to return it to him. (AP Photo/The Patriot Ledger, Gary Higgins) BOSTON HERALD OUT; BOSTON GLOBE OUT; QUINCY OUT

COHASSET, Mass. (AP) ? A tag from a lobster pot that was swept off the New England sea floor two decades ago during what came to be known as "The Perfect Storm" has washed up 3,000 miles away in Ireland.

The pot that held the tag with Cohasset lobsterman Richard Figueiredo's name on it was one of hundreds he lost when the vicious storm on the Atlantic Ocean struck off New England in 1991.

Rosemary Hill of Waterville in County Kerry found the tag on a beach last year, but the 39-year-old beachcomber put it aside with other beach souvenirs. Last week, she decided to try to contact Figueiredo and found him through his son Rich's Facebook account.

"I looked at it again and thought, 'Why not try to find the owner?'" Hill told The Patriot Ledger (http://bit.ly/sVKBd3). "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

Figueiredo, of Pembroke, was stunned the worn tag had weathered the long trip after the storm, which was made famous by Sebastian Junger's book "The Perfect Storm," the basis for a Hollywood movie about a rugged crew of New England fishermen caught in the storm.

"The odds are phenomenal," Figueiredo said.

Oceanographer Curt Ebbesmeyer said the tag's 20-year drift is unusually long for such flotsam. He theorized it was buried in offshore mud before drifting and catching the Gulf Stream toward Ireland ? in between a few years of circling in a mid-Atlantic current.

He called it "a very well-traveled tag indeed."

Hill said she spied the orange tag in clumps of seaweed after a storm.

Figueiredo and Hill spoke for the first time Thursday, when she offered to mail the tag back to him. But Figueiredo told her to keep it.

"The meaning it has over there is what matters," he said. "I am honored that she has put so much enthusiasm into this. What's happening now is a gift to me."

___

Information from: The Patriot Ledger, http://www.patriotledger.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2011-12-02-Lobster%20Tag's%20Journey/id-df92bc116e514080b4c341553b23d280

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Retail sector reform freezes dysfunctional parliament (Reuters)

NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? The government refused to allow a parliamentary vote on Wednesday on rolling back controversial retail reforms, and the current legislative session now faces more disruption, making it unlikely that any significant laws will be passed this year.

The furore over inviting global supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc to invest in India's $450 billion market risks spilling on to the streets as opposition parties prepare to organise protests.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee rejected opposition calls for a parliamentary motion on the reform after talks with members of the ruling Congress party.

"(He) rejected the very idea of an adjournment motion, but said the government is open to discuss in parliament FDI in retail," a senior Congress party lawmaker said.

An "adjournment motion" is a parliamentary mechanism to censure the government. Such a move on the retail reforms would likely pass as they are opposed even by allies within the Congress party-led coalition.

Critics from all sides are demanding the government ditch plans to allow 51 percent foreign direct investment in retail, saying the policy will cost millions of jobs.

Free market champions when in power, the Bharatiya Janata Party now fiercely opposes FDI in retail, and plans protests in Delhi on Friday in support of small traders. Party activists have protested in several cities this week.

Uproar from lawmakers over the retail move led to both houses being suspended until Thursday -- as they have been every day since the winter parliamentary session opened on Nov. 22.

The unruly parliament has only worked normally in one session since 2010, with opposition parties repeatedly halting proceedings to protest corruption or demand policy changes.

Almost no big reform laws have passed in more than a year.

Indian media have focused, too, on parliament's low workload, with one cable news network suggesting a 'no-work, no-pay' system for lawmakers.

EMBARRASSMENT

"A defeat on the motion would not itself bring down the government, but the embarrassment would likely cause party leaders to slap new requirements or conditions on the FDI policy," said Seema Desai, a political risk analyst at Eurasia Group.

Senior Congress party officials, including party chief Sonia Gandhi, were due to meet later on Wednesday.

Hobbled by corruption scandals, stubbornly high inflation and a rapidly cooling economy Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had hoped the supermarket reform would get his agenda of economic reforms back on track.

Instead it risks pushing into the long grass even a widely touted anti-corruption bill that has broad political support.

Other bills such as extending food subsidies and allowing foreign investment in pension funds may not now get around to being debated this year.

Activist Anna Hazare, who has millions of mainly urban middle-class followers, has warned he will revive street protests that rocked the government in the summer if a bill to create a powerful corruption watchdog does not become law this year.

(Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Ian Geoghegan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111130/india_nm/india608008

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Stocks leap on central banks' coordinated action

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. Stocks soared in morning trading Wednesday after major central banks acted together to support the global financial system by cutting short-term borrowing rates. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. Stocks soared in morning trading Wednesday after major central banks acted together to support the global financial system by cutting short-term borrowing rates. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. Stocks soared in morning trading Wednesday after major central banks acted together to support the global financial system by cutting short-term borrowing rates. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Warren Meyers, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. Stocks soared in morning trading Wednesday after major central banks acted together to support the global financial system by cutting short-term borrowing rates. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialist Michael McDonnell, right, works with traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. Stocks soared in morning trading Wednesday after major central banks acted together to support the global financial system by cutting short-term borrowing rates. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Stocks are soaring at midday after the world's major central banks took joint action to ease banks' access to dollars, reducing fears of a global credit crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average is up 424 points, or 3.7 percent, at 11,980. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 43, or 3.6 percent, at 1,238. The Nasdaq composite index is up 91, or 3.6 percent at 2,606.

The central banks of Europe, the U.S., Britain, Canada, Japan and Switzerland cut short-term borrowing rates for banks to borrow dollars Wednesday. European banks need dollars to pay for daily operations. They have faced a funding squeeze because investors fear a default by a European nation might topple one or more banks.

A move by China to increase credit flows also lifted markets.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-11-30-Wall%20Street/id-3f8015e6bed04364803263bf57094a7c

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