Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney was heckled during his soapbox rallying time in Des Moines, Iowa Thursday. MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer, NBC News’ Mark Murray and MSNBC political analyst and founder of the Cook Political Report Charlie Cook analyzed the event.

Cook said that it was very interesting to see the crowd scooting away from the heckler. “If this is out of character…It wasn’t sort of the “Midwestern nice” that we’re used to. That’s not the way it usually works here in Iowa…I think [the distance between the crowd and the heckler] says something.”

Sarah Palin is also in Iowa on her bus tour and Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s “announcement” is looming over the proceedings. When asked about whether Perry and Palin, two people who haven’t officially announced they were running for the office of President, were “crashing the party” in Iowa as it were, Murray said he
“I think Perry moreso. One thing about Sarah Palin, the amount of attention and scrutiny that she gets [when she is on her bus tour] is less and less each time.” Murray said that the media would follow her more closely if she announced she was running.

You can watch the video–which includes the video of Romney getting heckled–below and on MSN.com. And if you’re interested, the Republican Debate in Iowa starts at 9/8c on Foxnews.com.