are out there just killing black people, that's ridiculous. it's just flat-out ridiculous. >> right now, charles barkley's candid conversation with our brooke baldwin on racial profiling, what he thinks of police officers, what he thinks of the situation in ferguson. stand by for that. he's controversial and very popular. he's right near the top of the list for the 2016 potential republican candidates for president. dr. ben carson is here with me this hour. we have lots of questions for him from ferguson to immigration to president obama, a whole lot more. we'll get his take. hello. i i'm wolf blitzer. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. let's begin with the tensions in ferguson, missouri, and an apology from the stepfather of michael brown. louis head now says he's sorry

for his outburst after learning that the police officer, darren wilson, would not be indicted for killing michael brown. the ferguson police chief says authorities are investigating whether head intended to start a riot when he said this -- >> burn this bitch down! burn this bitch down! burn this bitch down! >> [ bleep ]. >> in a statement obtained exclusively by our don lemon, head blamed the outburst on raw e estimations but he said it's wrong to blame him for the looting and arson that erupted. head also said, quote, i screamed out words i shouldn't have screamed in the heat of the moment. it was wrong and i humbly apologize to all of those who read my pain and anger as a true desire for what i want for our

community. but to place blame solely on me for the conditions of our community and country after the grand jury decision is as wrong as the decision itself. that quote from louis head. let's bring in our justice reporter, evan perez, he's been doing some serious reporting on what's going on. you're hearing now that it's unlikely that he will formally be charged with inciting that riot. >> that's right. there's a couple of problems with this obviously. this obviously as he described, there was a lot of emotion he was speaking with, very difficult for you to make a case that he intended to cause the riots. secondly, i think there's going to be some prosecutorial discretion here. do people down there who are trying to calm things down really want to start something new by bringing charges against this individual? doesn't look like they want to at all. i'm told this is not going to go anywhere. >> but the police chief in ferguson himself raised this possibility of an investigation and he's coming under some criticism for even suggesting that, right? >> well, yes, you talk to

officials down there and they'd just really like him to stop. this is not the first time that he's made comments seen as inflammatory towards the public down there. he mentioned that darren wilson wasn't charged by the grand jury, that he could return to the police force, which was never really part of the plan. folks down there would really like to calm things down. this is not really helping that situation. >> thanks very much, evan perez, reporting for us. the former nba star charles barkley stirring up a bit of a controversy with his latest comments about the shooting in ferguson and the aftermath. barkley is a basketball analyst for turner sports. he's certainly never one to shy away from explosive issues. listen to what he told our own brooke baldwin. >> the notion that white cops are out there just killing black people is ridiculous. just flat outridiculous. and i challenge any black person to try to make that point. this notion that cops -- cops are actually awesome. they're the only thing in the

ghetto between this place being the wild wild west. so this notion that cops are out there just killing black men is ridiculous. i hate that narrative coming out of this entire situation. >> charles barkley also says americans never discuss race until something like the ferguson shooting happens. then he says the discussion reflects what he calls a tribe mentality, everyone protecting their own group, whether they're right or wrong. let's get some perspective on all of this, on charles barkley's comments, the racial tensions in ferguson, from someone who's generating a huge amount of political buzz right here in the united states. dr. ben carson is a renowned pediatric nur neurosurgeon, possibly 2016 presidential candidate. dr. carson joins us from philadelphia. thanks for joining us, dr. carson? >> my pleasure. nice to be with you. >> what's your reaction to barkley's comments saying it's

ridiculous to say white police officers are killing blacks? >> well, i think it's true that the police are our friends. and i challenge people all the time, imagine living for 24 hours with no police. people would be walking into your house saying, i think i like that television, i'm taking that. it would be total chaos. so the police are our friends. are they perfect in all cases? of course not. no one is perfect in all cases. doctors are not perfect in all cases. what we need to do is tone down the rhetoric a little bit. i would love to see some real dialogue between the police and community leaders so that questions could be asked and the answers could be disseminated in a public form so that people begin to understand, why do the police do what they do? a lot of times, just a little clarification can make a big difference. by the same token, i think it's

important for the police to also understand why people have raw feelings. a lot of times it's perception. but still they need to know that. information makes a big difference. when people stop talking, that's when things break down. it's just like in a marriage. when people stop talking, that's when a divorce ensues. >> sounds like you basically agree with charles barkley, right? >> well, i think he has some very valid points, absolutely. i probably wouldn't have expressed them quite so vehemently. but i think he has very good points. >> let's talk about louis head, the stepfather of michael brown. he's now apologized. he delivered a statement to our own don lemon suggesting people -- he was just overly emotional. he didn't mean to instigate any violence or anything. do you believe police should still investigate him or are you over that part of the story now? >> well, i believe that we have

a particularly good legal and judicial system. and i think it works. and i think the people who have all the facts and who have the knowledge and experience in dealing with these kinds of things will do the right thing. they will take into consideration all the factors. and i'm pretty certain that they will do the right thing. we have to at some point get to a point where we actually trust the system or we're just going to have chaos all the time. >> was justice served in the michael brown death? >> i guess it depends on how you're looking at it. obviously we never like to see death. add a pediatric neurosurgeon, i saw a lot of death, particularly in young people, prematurely and know what havoc it wreaked upon those families. so, no, we don't ever like to see that happen.

but we also have to understand that people have to take responsibility for some of their own actions. and we need to use our brains a little bit here. we say that michael brown was killed because he was black. ask yourself if that police officer had been attacked by a white person of similar stature who had exchanged blows with him, tried to take his gun and then was charging at him? would he have said, well, this is a white guy, so i'll just let him do whatever he wants? somehow, i have difficulty believing that that's the case. and we need to try to be a little more objective. of course it's a horrible tragedy, of course we don't want to see that happen. and where we really need to focus our attention is how do we prevent these kinds of things from happening? are there things that the police can do? are there messages that can be gotten across to these young men in these communities about how to interact with authority?

maybe we should be paying more attention to that so that we don't have these kinds of incidents occurring. >> what do you think about the role that president obama has been playing since the ferguson crisis erupted? how's he handled this as the president of the united states? >> well, the president has to uphold the rule of law. and i think he has tried to do that certainly since the verdict came out. i probably -- had i been him, would not have gotten involved in the first place. we have to allow our system to work without biassing things. and we really should never take sides in these issues while the legal process is in the process of playing out. >> you've suggested that the president has made race relations in america worse over the past six years. i want you to briefly explain why you would say that.

>> i said that race relationships have gotten worse during his time. i don't blame it all on him. but i do think that there is a problem when you weigh in on situations like what happened with dr. gates and saying that the police acted badly. why not let that system play itself out and let the system take care of that rather than weighing in and creating prejudice in an effort like that? the same thing with the trayvon martin thing. you really must particularly as the commander in chief be levelheaded and even-handed in always upholding the rule of law. once we lose the rule of law and chaos ensues, that is not going to be the kind of country that any of us wants to live in. and the president is the chief

law enforcement officer. >> we'll take a quick break and continue the conversation. i know you have three sons. have you had a personal conversation with them over the years about walking around on the street, what do you do if a police officer, a white police officer, for example, stops you? have you had that conversation with your sons as well? >> absolutely. it would be very irresponsible not to have that conversation no matter what color you are, but particularly as an african-american. i began telling them at a very young age how to respond to authority, not just police officers, but to teachers, to anyone who is in a position of authority. if you have a gripe, there are legitimate mechanisms for taking care of that without inflaming the situation and perhaps doing something that's detrimental to yourself. >> dr. carson, we have a lot more to discuss. stand by. also want to ask you if you want to be president of the united

states. you're doing really well in our brand-new cnn/orc poll among likely or possible republican presidential candidates. stand by for that. much more with dr. ben carson coming up. also, we have a lot more from charles barkley on race relations, the fallout from ferguson. we'll hear his take on racial profiling and the police. stay with us. want to give your family the very best

in taste, freshness, and nutrition? easy. it's eb. eggland's best. better eggs. it's eb. there are two very recognizable names at the top of the new cnn/orc poll of the 2016 possible presidential candidates, romney and bush. but also on the list is dr. ben carson, he's in second place in the new cnn poll behind 2012 nominee mitt romney.

and ahead of the third member of the bush political dynasty, jeb bush. dr. carson is back with me right now. i want to talk politics in a moment. but first, i want to quickly get your reaction to -- i interviewed cornell william brooks, the president and ceo of the naacp. he had some strong words when i asked him to react to some of the comments you've been making on ferguson, on president obama. he said this, dr. carson. listen to what cornell brooks said. >> i believe dr. carson, with all due respect, should stick to the operating room rather than the campaign trail. these are the facts. we have a criminal justice system that overincarcerates and undereducates, broadly speaking. the facts are african-american males are overincarcerated. >> you want to react to cornell brooks? >> well, i always find it interesting that people think

that doctors only know medicine. and i like to point out the fact that there were five doctors who signed the declaration of independence, three who signed the constitution, signed the bill of rights, have been involved in lots of things. believe it or not, doctors actually have brains, too, and can think about things and can opine on things and have been trained to make decisions based on evidence as opposed to ideology. so i am very happy that we all have the ability to express our opinions. >> do you want to be president of the united states? >> well, i'm not sure that anybody wants to put themselves into that kind of horrible stressful situation. it certainly has not been a goal of mine. however, i do recognize that the direction of our country is not a good one. and i think millions of americans resonate with that. and many of those americans have

been indicating that they want me to do it. so whether i want to do it or not, i do feel an obligation to at least very seriously consider the possibility. >> when will you decide? >> certainly before the first of may i will have made a decision. >> but you're organizing already, you've got a staff, you've got volunteers, you've got people elsewhere that are already working on your behalf, right? >> there's no question that we are putting together an infrastructure. but that's a by-product of what i am. i believe in always being prepared. so if you do make that decision, you don't start out behind the eight ball. >> so at least you're thinking about running for president. so i have to get you to clarify a couple of very controversial comments you made. you and i have known each other for a long time. we're both johns hopkins

university alumni, if you will. it was pretty stunning to me when you said this, the comparison, widely reported, about the united states and nazi germany. i'll play the clip. then i want you to explain, dr. carson, what you meant. >> very much like nazi germany. i know you're not supposed to say nazi germany. but i don't care about political correctness. you had a government using its tools to intimidate the population. we now live in a society where people are afraid to say what they actually believe. and it's because of the p.c. police. it's because of politicians, because of news. it's all of these things combining to stifle people's conversation. >> you have to explain that. when i heard the comparison of the united states of america, the greatest country in the world, the greatest country ever, to nazi germany, i said,

what is he talking about? >> well, see, what you are doing is allowing words to affect you more than listening to what was actually being said. >> so please explain that. that's part of the problem -- >> i greatly admire you and what you've done over the years. but to make the comparison of the united states and nazi germany, that just struck an awful tone. >> well, nazi germany experienced something horrible. the people in nazi germany largely did not believe in what hitler was doing. but did they say anything? of course. they kept their mouths shut. and there are very important lessons to be learned there. the fact that our government is using instruments of government like the irs to punish its opponents, this is not the kind of thing that, as far as i'm concerned, is a democrat or a republican issue. this is an american issue.

this is something that threatens all of our liberty, all of our freedom. and you can go out on the street and just talk to people. and you will see that a lot of people do not feel free to express themselves. and in fact, this is america, a place where people came to from other parts of the world to escape from governments that told them what they could say and what they couldn't say, what they could live -- all these kinds of things. this is a country that is supposed to be for of and by the people. the government is supposed to conform to the will of the people not the people to the will of the government. we have to change that and change it very soon. >> i understand all of that and there's obviously no problem criticizing the united states government saying all that stuff. but to make the comparison, dr. carson, to nazi germany, the slaughter of 6 million jews by the nazis, the devastation that erupted in europe and around the world to the united states of

america, i want you to reflect on what that potentially means. >> well, again, you are just focusing on the words nazi germany and completely missing the point of what else is being said. and that's the problem right now. that's what p.c.-ism is all about. you may not say this word, regardless of what your point is because if you say that word, i go into a tizzy. we can do better than that. when i was a child and when you were a child, they used to say sticks and stones break my bones, words will never hurt me. whatever happened to that? we need to get to the point where we can look beyond the word and look for the meaning and understand that, in fact, our country is changing, that in fact there are people here who feel threatened. yes, there are people who are intimidated by what's going on. this has never been the intention for america. and unless we're willing to face

it, we're not going to conquer it. >> we have more questions for you, dr. carson. but you don't want to revise or amend, take back the nazi germany, comment? >> absolutely not. >> all right. stand by, dr. carson. we have much more to discuss, including some other controversial comments you have made. dr. ben carson, possible republican presidential candidate is with us. more questions for him coming up. er if you're on medicare, remember, the open enrollment period is here. the time to choose your medicare coverage begins october 15th and ends december 7th. so call to enroll in a plan that could give you the benefits and stability you're looking for, an aarp medicarecomplete plan insured through unitedhealthcare. what makes it complete? it can combine medicare parts a and b, which is your hospital and doctor coverage with part d prescription drug coverage, and more,

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he told us of running for the republican presidential nomination. dr. carson, once again, thanks very much for joining us. since you're thinking about running for president of the united states, you need to explain another controversial comment you made back in october of last year, the analogy between obamacare and slavery. listen to this. >> i have to tell you, obamacare is really, i think, the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery. and it is in a -- it is slavery in a way because it is making all of us subservient. >> i know you don't like obamacare. a lot of people don't like obamacare. but the worst thing that has happened in the united states since slavery? you need to explain that. >> okay. well, thank you for the opportunity to explain that.

i've seen particularly in the left wing press a lot of people who said that carson equates obamacare with slavery. i think perhaps those people need to go back to school and learn english. it said the worst thing since slavery. that does not say it's the same thing as slavery. slavery was a horrible thing and affected many people in horrible ways, some of those effects still present today. so, no, it is not the same as slavery. however, what needs to be understood here is that the way this country was set up, the people -- we the people were set up at the pinnacle of power in this nation. the government is supposed to conform to our will. by taking the most important thing you have, your health and your health care, and turning that over to the government, you fundamentally shift the power, a

huge chunk of it, from the people to the government. this is not the direction that we want the government to go in this nation. do i want good health care for everybody? absolutely. do we have the ability to give it to everybody? absolutely. i've made many suggestions on how that should be done, and there will be many more coming out. but i want the kind of health care system that is truly affordable, that's not jacking up people's rates to the point where they can't afford it and that is causing people to lose 40 hour a week work jobs and go to 30 or 29 hour a week jobs. i want a system where everybody is equal, not a two-tier system where physicians save a number of slots for people in one tier versus the other tier because they have to make ends meet. that is not america as far as i'm concerned. and we can do so much better than that. >> you're very precise with your words, i know you.

you say that obamacare is the worst thing that's happened in this nation since slavery. worse than the great depression of the 1920s, worse than the vietnam war, worse than 9/11? >> wolf, i think it's nonproductive to get into worse than this and worse than that or maybe it's better than that or better than that. that's not the point of what i was saying. the point of what i'm saying and we have to learn how to talk about what is the point? the point is a major fundamental shift of power has occurred. if we continue down that road, the united states of america becomes something very different than it was intended to be. >> let's move on and quickly get your thought on immigration reform. how do you feel about what's going on right now? what should the congress do, the senate as you know passed comprehensive immigration reform. it's been stuck for a year and a half or whatever in the house of representatives.

if you could get your way as far as immigration reform, what would you do? >> well, first of all, we have to recognize that we do have laws and resemble uphold those laws. and we also have a mechanism for taking care of immigration reform. it is well-stated in our constitution and we should use those constitutional avenues to take care of this. there is nothing in our constitution that warrants an executive order for something of this magnitude and something that affects so many americans. this is a republic type of government. we have a representative government. it should be done according to the will of the people, not according to the will of someone who thinks that they know better than all the people. >> one final question before i let you go, what do you think of president obama?

. >> well, i think that he is a man who some people say is stupid, is inexperienced, doesn't know what he's doing. i very much disagree with those people. i think he knows exactly what he's doing. and i think he has an agenda that is very different from that of many americans and he's doing a very good job of accomplishing it. >> dr. ben carson, a potential republican presidential candidate, thanks very much for joining us. >> always a pleasure, wolf. >> dr. ben carson joining us from philadelphia. by the way, read a lot more about dr. carson on cnn.com/politics. take a look at at mark preston's article. still ahead -- >> we have a racial issue in this country. we've always had a racial issue in this country. and the biggest problem with it is we never discuss race until

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welcome back to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. the syrian president bashar al assad is calling u.s.-led air strikes against isis in syria completely ineffective.

bashar al assad telling the french magazine "paris match" that syrian forces fighting isis on the ground haven't seen any changes in the terror group's strength since coalition strikes began more than two months ago. let's bring in cnn's chief international correspondent christiane amanpour joining us from london. christiane, the secretary of state of the united states, john kerry, is meeting today in belgium with representatives from 60 countries, this anti-isis coalition. what is he saying about this ongoing battle? >> reporter: that's right. he's the first high-level meeting of this coalition. and they have obviously been discussing their progress report. now, as to bashar al assad, by most accounts, his forces wouldn't know because they're not actually fighting isis. that was the moderate fsa. and many say that bashar al assad has allowed isis to flourish and he's just been taking it out on the moderate forces while the u.s. has been pounding isis. but beyond that, john kerry, the secretary of state, has said

this is not something that's going to be won from the air. it is going to take a long time but that they have made inroads. listen. >> dash is still perpetrating terrible crimes. but there was a consensus that the momentum which it had exhibited 2 1/2 months ago has been halted, that it has been forced to modify its tactics. and some of those modifications severely hampering their ability to operate in the way that they were certainly, that their hold on territory has been challenged already and their finances have been strained. >> reporter: now, as you can see, the secretary of state is changing the terminology. he called them dash, what many in the anti-isis arab-speaking world calls them, no longer

isis, isil or whatever is the confusing amount of nomenclature being used. what seems to have happened is that also the iraqi new defense minister is asking nato to step up training of iraqi forces. and it's confusing to know when the u.s.-led training of the free syrian army forces will start in earnest. as yet, that hasn't really got under way. there's also obviously a humanitarian end to this. and interestingly, i spoke to the archbishop of cantebury yesterday. he said some of them have spoken to him favorably about what happened all these years ago when john major and george bush sr. put up a no-fly zone to protect the beleaguered kurds and shiite muslims under saddam

hussein. so there's the possibility of a no-fly zone for humanitarian reasons. >> way too many people have died and been made homeless by what's going on. christiane, thanks very much. an important note for our cnn international viewers, check "amanpour" at the top of the hour on cnn international. still ahead, our own brooke baldwin sits down with charles barkley, talks about race, police and a whole lot more. and hillary clinton leads the democratic pack of possible 2016 presidential candidates. but does she risk underestimating some of her potential rivals? gloria borger is standing by. we'll talk politics, all that and a lot more coming up. diabetic nerve pain. old ae the pain was terrible. my feet hurt so bad. it felt like hot pins and needles coming from the inside out of my skin. when i did go see the doctor, and he prescribed lyrica, it helped me. it's known that diabetes damages nerves.

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the grand jury decision of ferguson, missouri, and the subsequent protests have become a dividing line for so many people out there. the former nba star, the current broadcaster for our sister network, tnt, charles barkley made news recently for his take on the situation and charles barkley spoke at length with our own brooke baldwin. here's a small part of that conversation. >> because of what happened in ferguson, there's a lot of anger, there's a lot of frustration. what can we as a country do with that, this energy right now? >> first of all, we can open a dialogue. and i think that's probably what i did was open a dialogue. brooke, in fairness, there's some black people out there who are crooks.

and when the police come to your neighborhood, it's a tense situation. the only time you interact with the cops is when things are going wrong. that's the only time we ever interact with the cops. but first of all, we as black people -- we've got a lot of crooks. we can't just wait until something like this happens -- we have to look ourself in the mirror. there's a reason they racially profile us. >> let's bring brooke in from new york. he isn't backing down at all even after all the criticism, is he, brooke? >> no. you've been around charles barkley a few times. i have been as well. whether the cameras are rolling or not, this is a guy who speaks his mind. and he'd also sit here and say to you, i'm not speaking on behalf of african-americans. he's speaking on behalf of charles barkley. so one of the reasons i picked up the phone and called him and said, we need to talk, is some of the comments he gave to the

radio station in philadelphia in which he had labeled the people who are breaking the law, the people who are setting businesses and cars on fire the night the grand jury decision came down in ferguson, called them scumbags and he doubled down on that in our interview. he's frustrated because he says within the african-american community, he says, if i disagree with you, why can't we just agree to disagree? why do people have to throw names like uncle toms and sellouts and traitors? he's frustrated with that and said a lot of people are angry because they don't like how it ended up. >> the full interview is going to air on your program in the next hour. but listen to this. >> my grandmother taught me, you judge everybody on their own individual merit, you don't care what any other jackass has to say. black is not always right and white is not always wrong. you've got some bad apples who take advantage of the situation.

and that's unfortunate because this is a serious -- somebody lost a child. and this is something we need to seriously sit back and discuss and figure out what happened what went wrong. but let my say this. the notion that white cops are out there just killing black people, that's ridiculous. flat-out ridiculous. and i challenge any black person to try to make that point. >> one thing about charles, he always speaks directly. he doesn't mince any words. i've known him for a long time. he's a really, really smart guy not only in sports but in all sorts of other issues as well. i'm sure you appreciate that. >> yeah. i appreciated that he spent at least a half hour with me. this is just a snippet of what -- we'll play the entire thing at the top of the hour, everything from i asked him his thoughts on ferguson police investigating michael brown's stepfather for potentially inciting a riot. i asked him if he thinks michael brown is a hero.

i asked him if he thinks the situation would be different if officer darren wilson had been african-american. i asked him about the st. louis rams players with their hands up peacefully protesting. and i also asked him about ray rice. we turned the page and i asked him, will a team pick him up? you're a big basketball guy, i asked him about his 76ers. they are 0-17. ended on a bit of a lighter note. all of that at the top of the hour. >> a year or so ago, my washington wizards were just beginning to come back and he told me, i remember it vividly, he said to me, they're going to be in the playoffs even when a lot of us were not even expecting the wizards to be in the playoffs. he said it. he knew what he was talking about then. they made the playoffs and having a good season this year as well. thanks very much. we'll watch the full interview coming up right at the top of the hour with brooke baldwin. she's doing an amazing job for all of us. still coming up this hour,

she's number one. but could hillary clinton's front-runner position lead to overconfidence? gloria borger is standing by live. we'll talk 2016 presidential politics. ♪ approaching medicare eligibility? you may think you can put off checking out your medicare options until you're sixty-five, but now is a good time to get the ball rolling. keep in mind, medicare only covers about eighty percent of part b medical costs. the rest is up to you. that's where aarp medicare supplement insurance plans insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company come in. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they could help pay some of what medicare doesn't, saving you in out-of-pocket medical costs. you've learned that taking informed steps along the way really makes a difference later.

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the wife and daughter of the former leader. intelligence sources tell our senior international correspondent nic robertson that's not necessarily the case saying they have a very high value target. >> reporter: this is the woman an intelligence source tells cnn was arrested last week while crossing from syria to lebanon. it was shot in march last year. she was part of a nighttime prisoner exchange. she is believed by regional supportses to be the wife of the isis leader. the video of the prisoner exchange is tattled man screened lebanese security personnel who tried to touch his wife. on the video, you can hear the man say, hey, you, take your hands off her. keep your hands away from the woman. no one touches her.

so little is known that pinning down whether this is indeed his wife or as u.s. sources suspect, a former wife, is tough. what is clear to regional sources is that she was a high valued target taking as a result of a long planned intelligence operation involving syria, iraq and lebanon. >> we know there was a lot of western military activity in the area to do with reinforcing border areas and toughening up lebanese security in that area. >> a regional source with knowledge of the operation tells cnn she is a powerful figure in isis in her own right. that she is very active in isis. >> interesting she was trying to come across into lebanon at a time when western forces were making a concerted effort to make sure that part of lebanon was stable. it hints at information mismanagement. >> both regional sources tell

cnn the cia was involved working with the iraqis and the u.s. was aware of the operation. twitter accounts used by isis members denied the leader's wife was arrested but regional sources close to the capture are sure that his wife was arrested and that she was the intended target. one source even adding that he's been calling up asking about his 4-year-old son who was arrested with his mother and that the boy be released. nic robertson, cnn, london. >> here in the united states, midterm congressional elections certainly history right now. congress is winding down its lame duck session so the political focus automatically shifts to the 2016 presidential race. democrats are waiting for hillary clinton to announce her decision. she spoke this morning at a leadership forum at georgetown university here in washington d.c.

a recent cnn/orc poll shows her the overwhelming favorite among democrats leading massachusetts senator elizabeth warren by 55 points. our chief political analyst, gloria borger, is joining us. >> by the way, wolf, elizabeth warren told me ten times she's not running so there you are. >> maybe if hillary clinton decides not to run, she might run. right now she's not running. she's way, way ahead. is it too early to say if she runs, hillary clinton, the nomination is hers for the taking. >> it's hers to lose. you don't have to tell anybody who is in the hillary clinton circle that these people remember when they didn't take barack obama serious enough and when hillary clinton was all wibut the anointed democratic nominee. that didn't work out well. this is a different situation. she's the favorite. she's won before.

she's been road tested in that sense. and i think they are scratching their heads saying, wait a minute, what's our rush to announce formally for the presidency. everybody assumes hillary clinton is running. why put her out there to be the target for everybody so quickly? just delay the deadline a little bit for running. there is nothing in a rule book that says you have to declare an january 1. she doesn't have to announce she's running but she can create an exploratory commitee like others are doing. >> she can do that in a nanosecond. she has other committees running without her. she's one of the rare candidates who can get up and started at the snap of a finger. this isn't as if people aren't planning behind the scenes. she just hasn't formally declared and they think what's

the rush for her to do so? most people do assume that hillary clinton is running. it would be a real surprise if she did not. >> you heard dr. ben carson, a leading republican potential candidate saying he'll announce by may. everyone seems to think hillary clinton should announce a lot earlier than that. >> you know, she doesn't have to announce honestly, wolf. people know she's running. it's a matter of getting apparatus started and it's also a question of the other democratic candidates. if for some reason hillary clinton were to say, you know what, i'm not going to run she ought to say that sooner rather than later so other potential candidates like elizabeth warren, like joe biden, could get up and running. you see jim webb there who already announced he's going to run. give those other democratic candidates a shot at getting up and running and competing with the republicans. that's the real reason for her to announce earlier. >> the former virginia senator

started an exploratory committee. we'll see how that goes. jeb bush, in or out? >> don't know. i don't think he's made a decision yet. i have spoken to people who talk to jeb bush regularly. he hasn't let anybody know what his decision is. again, on the announcement, he has said in the new year. i doubt he's going to come out with a balloon drop and say by the way, i'm becoming a presidential candidate. but he's someone who doesn't have the apparatus running. his folks have done all of the research but they haven't started, you know, getting a pac together, et cetera, et cetera. that would be the clear sign in the new year if jeb were running if he were to get some of that machinery running and then you would know that he was seriously considering a presidential bid. at some point, wolf, presidential candidates are going to stop being coy about this and say i want to be president. here's why.

we're going to get the committee up and running and here i am. >> before you know it, those democratic and republican debates are going to be scheduled for later this year. gloria, thanks very much. that's it for me. for our international viewers, christiane amanpour coming up next. for viewers in north america, "newsroom" with brooke baldwin starts right now. all right, wolf. thanks so much. hi, everyone. i'm brooke baldwin. we'll get to my interview with charles barkley in just a minute. the whole thing you have been talking about it today. first, the news of the day, michael brown's stepfather admits his outburst about burning this bleep down was wrong. local law enforcement officials are frustrated with ferguson police chief tom jackson for revealing that brown's stepdad is under investigation in the first place. one official said this about chief jackson. "we wish he would just shut up." those