"time" magazine essay. he wrote they brought their even less bright cousins and we started to understand why india is so damn poor. "time" expressed its sincere regret and stein wrote i truly feel stok ak him sick that i hurt so many people. at least they recognized how misguided this piece was. that's it for this edition of "reliable sources." join us next sunday morning at 11:00 a.m. eastern for another critical look at the media. "state of the union" with candy crowley begins right now. the united states of america versus the state of arizona. a legal showdown over illegal immigration. for or against arizona's new law, the issue ignites the streets, but it is not an even divide across the country. cnn polls shows 57% of americans support the arizona law. 37% do not. poll after poll shows americans back the get-tough legislation

and then some. do you want your state to pass a similar law? 48% of americans said yes. 35% no. and immigration is just one in a series of issues costing president obama. a "newsweek" poll found a majority of americans disapprove of his handling of the war in afghanistan 53 to 37% and of his handling of the economy, 58 to 38%. has the president hit a rough patch or is he on the wrong path? today, the president navigates an election year. >> but i believe we can put politics aside. >> white house senior adviser david axelrod on politics and policy. then the immigration debate with new mexico governor bill richardson and arizona congressman trent franks. and on this 83rd day of the gulf oil disaster, the man in charge of compensating spill victims, kenneth feinberg.

i'm candy crowley and this is "state of the union." he can, as president obama has assured audiences, chew gum and walk at the same time. this week that multi tasking nature of the presidency was on display as mr. obama moved from being a president reaching out to work with republicans while blasting away as the man who wants to defeat republicans. >> without bipartisan support, as we had just a few years ago, we cannot solve this problem. reform that brings accountability to our immigration system cannot pass without republican votes. >> these folks drove the economy into a ditch and they want the keys back, and you've got to say the same thing to them that you say to your teenager. you can't have the keys back because you don't know how to drive yet. >> here to talk about the realities of this election year, the president's most senior adviser, david axelrod.

david, thanks for joining us. >> good to be here. >> listen, the president gave this big immigration speech. then he goes out and does this on the road. i talked to many democrats who say this just isn't going to happen this year, and the fact is does that set the environment to call -- equate republicans with sort of joyriding kids that shouldn't get the keys back and then say we need your help with immigration. >> let's not mix issues here, candy. on immigration the reality is that the last time this debate occurred in the senate, there were 11 republicans who joined in and of course president bush helped lead that effort. most of those republicans are not willing to move forward now. and the president said what is obvious, which is if we're going to solve this problem in a comprehensive way, which is what the american people want. i know from your open that you're enraptured by polls. if you look at the polls, you'll see that most americans want a comprehensive solution to this, but we're not going to get it

done without bipartisan support. that doesn't mean that we can't have a good, healthy debate about the economy and other issues. certainly that's front and center in this election. >> all i'm saying is the atmospherics. >> the president was out campaigning and others will be out campaigning as well. believe me, they're not sending him flowers and chocolates when they're out on the road. they're making a good hard case. we're making a good hard case because the american people are going to have to choose between two economic theories. the one that got us into this disaster in the first place and the one that is getting us out. >> what is the president doing to promote an immigration bill this year? after the speech, what did he do? >> well, the president has spoken before and after with members of congress and he met with a bipartisan group last summer, large bipartisan group, and said, look, we need to solve this problem. we need accountability in the system at the border. we need accountability among

employers so they're not violating the law. and we need accountability on the part of the 11 million who are here illegally and we can do that, but we have to do it together. and that is still his position. we haven't seen movement, senator schumer and senator graham came up wp a good blueprint. we endorsed that blueprint but haven't seen much movement since. >> is he going to put muscle behind it? >> this problem has been kicked down the road for a long time. we understand it's a stubborn problem, it's a hard thing to solve in the midst of a campaign because it lends itself to demagoguery. >> pretty much an impossible thing. >> when we have the opportunity to move forward and solve this problem, we're going to -- i think one of the things about this arizona law is basically, and this is something we all agree on, the people of arizona are saying we want the federal government to live up to its responsibilities and we are calling on those folks on the other side of the aisle who said in the past that they thought

this was an important issue to solve to join us. and when they're willing, then we'll be able to move forward. >> i want to talk to you for a minute about independence. i don't need to tell you that you need independence to win in elections. and we had a poll, gallup had a poll recently about independents and where are they going and what they found. this is compared to july of 2009 where 56% of independents supported the president. now as of -- as of now, 38%. that is a huge, huge decline. why? what's the matter? >> i've seen all kinds of sets of numbers, candy. without fully embracing those -- >> would you embrace that there's been a decline? >> well, look, i think i may have said this to you before, but in december of 2008 when we sat down with our economic advisers and they told us what the country was in the midst of and what the next couple of years were likely to hold, i

said to the president, look, your numbers are not going to be nearly as good a year from now. we're going to have -- we would have had a tough election in any case in 2010. this will make that election a little tougher. so this is not a big surprise. we're going through a very difficult time in this country. now, you know, it's not the same as where we were 18 months ago. in the six months leading up to the president's inauguration, the last six months of 2008, we lost three million jobs. in the first three months of his administration, the economy shrunk by 6.7%. now the economy is growing. now we've had six straight months of private sector job growth, but it's not nearly enough. the hole that was dug was huge and it took a decade to dig it. >> do you think that part of the problem, though, and we see this again talking to people anecdotally and talking to independents, that they just don't like the tone, they very kind of thing we led with was that the president came to town,

he was going to set a different tone in washington. it was going to be a different kind of administration. it kind of looks like the same ole thing. >> candy, here's the problem. in order to have a partnership, you have to have people who are willing to be partners. senator mcconnell was very explicit. he did an interview with "the new york times" and he acknowledged our strategy was not to cooperate on big things. the theory is somehow if we deprive the president of bipartisan support, then we can accuse him of not being bipartisan. this president has spent more time meeting with members of the other party i think than most presidents. we've had all kinds of outreach and we're going to continue to do that and continue to work with people on given issues where they're willing. but there's no doubt that the republican strategy has basically been to say no to everything and to try to turn the clock back in order to win an election and restore the policies that got us into this mess in the first place, and that's something we can't abide and something we can't accept. >> so you don't think it has anything to do with the tone. >> i think the president has been pretty good in terms of

reaching out. no, i don't think he's set the tone. if you look at the comments on the other side, i think that they have been fairly sharp. that's fine, that's politics, i understand that. but you can't lay on a president who's reached out time and time and time again and ask for cooperation. i mean i'll give you an example. when we were trying to pass the recovery act, the president went over to talk to the republican house caucus about it. on his way over he learned they just issued a press release saying they were going to vote en masseagainst it. what kind of bipartisanship is that. we can't order it. they need to be willing to participate. i hope that voters send a message to republicans on this score. certainly the direction they're going into very promising when you see some of the candidates they're nominating. some of the things that they're saying. it doesn't speak to when you call -- when the senate candidate in nevada calls the $20 billion that the president asks to be set aside for victims of this disaster in the gulf a

slush fund. that's certainly not -- that's not a very encouraging sign. >> let me hold you right there. we will be right back. when we return, jobs and the economy. are we headed toward a third depression? the prices. the profits. the pollution. what's next from the big oil companies? a multi-million dollar smear campaign... ...to stop clean energy legislation from passing in the us senate. the clean energy bill will produce more power here in america for us.

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only meineke has options... and now 50% off brake pads and shoes. my money. my choice. my meineke. we are back with david axelrod, senior adviser to president obama. i want to wrap up the political section by talking a little bit about the progressives, i think you've probably read a lot lately about how the progressives are so upset with the president because he didn't stand up when it came time to get a public option in health care, because he hasn't pushed hard enough for the energy bill and the climate bill and that kind of thing, no action on don't ask, don't tell. something caught our ear from last night. harry reid was on "face to face" in las vegas last night, a show there. and he had this to say about the president's leadership. >> i think he should have been more firm with those on the other side of the aisle. he is a person who doesn't like

confrontation. he's a peace-maker. and sometimes i think you have to be a little more forceful and sometimes i don't think he is enough with the republicans. >> so that's the other side of the coin. you have people thinking you're too tough on them -- >> kaenld, you just showed me a clip and told me the president was being too forceful with the other side. look, in terms of progressive democrats, let me tell you something, we were talking about comprehensive health reform that would make health care available to people who don't have insurance and improve health care for people who do. we've been talking about that for 100 years. barack obama got it done. we've been talking about financial reform for a long time. we've got the deepest reform since the great depression. we have -- we increased fuel efficiency standards for the first time in this country in decades. he is in fact moving on don't ask, don't tell. that policy is going to be changed. i can go through a long list of things that have languished for years and decades and

generations that this president got done in the midst of a very difficult time. so my admonition would be don't make the perfect the enemy of the good. we've achieved more in these two years in terms of advancing a solid progressive agenda for this country that will help working families and make this a better and more balanced economy than anyone has done, you know, in our generation. >> so let me ask you about the economy because paul krugman wrote an opinion in "the new york times" in late june when he said in part we are now, i fear, in the early stages of a third depression. it will probably look more like the long depression than the much more severe great depression. but the cost to the world economy and above all to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs will nonetheless be immense. and this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. >> yes. and that column was an

admonition to congress to pass additional economic stimulus. but the fact is we were in fact very nearly headed toward that kind of disaster when we took office, as i said. >> we're 18 months in. i know that you all inherited -- >> the economy, the economy is growing. we are growing private sector jobs. >> 9.5% unemployment, though. >> of course, candy, but the hole that was dug over the course of eight years and the disaster we saw was very, very deep. it's going to take a while to dig out from it. we have to accelerate that recovery. part of the setback had to do with events in greece, things that we couldn't control. but look, everybody agrees we have to do more. we need to build these public-private partnerships like the ones the president talked about when he was in missouri, an auto -- an electric auto

plant. that wouldn't have happened but for what we did. there are millions of people working in this country because of things we have done. we have to accelerate that. he said we're going to double exports in five years. that's going to boost our economy. >> but the 9.5% unemployment. >> yes. >> people in your administration as early as last november and december were saying we're in the beginning of a recovery -- >> yes. >> -- and unemployment is always a lagging indicator. it will begin to go down. here we are eight months later -- >> yes. the fact is that it went down from 10.2 to 9.5. but the important thing is the direction. we went from losing 750,000 jobs the month the president took office to six months of private sector job gain. do we feel like we need to do more? yes. every single day we're working on things to increase exports, to support innovation. we want to pass additional tax relief for small businesses and

additional lending capacity for small businesses. but there is no doubt that we're in a better position now than we were 18 months ago and that we're moving in the right direction. >> let me read you something that the vice president said the other day and just ask you if you agree with it. there's no possibility to restore eight million jobs lost in the great recession. so is the administration admitting that we will never get back the number of jobs we lost? >> look, i think -- i'm sure he was talking about within a short time frame. as i said, the hole that was dug was big. and understand this is a -- this recession was a tragedy for families across this country. there are -- we have -- >> he was talking about -- >> we have five people unemployed for every job vacancy. and obviously it's going to take time to turn that around, but you have to grow the economy. you have to build new industries like the clean energy industry. you have to increase exports. you have to take barriers away like we need patent reform so

small businesses and entrepreneurs with a good idea don't have barrier that say they can't traverse in order to get their work done. we're working on this every single day. this is the single greatest challenge we face and we'll keep at it day after day after day. >> one last question because we've got to run here. guantanamo bay prison still not closed. why not? >> well, obviously there's tremendous resistance to that in congress. also we confronted -- >> so you have no place to put them. >> that's part of the problem, but the other part of the problem is when we got there, what we found was there was absolutely no case history on anybody there, so we had to kind of reconstruct exactly who these folks were. >> for 18 months. >> and now some have been transferred, others are bound for transfer, others are bound for trial and some are still there as detainees whose status is undetermined. but in order to close guantanamo we obviously have to move them

to a prison in the states. we identified a location. we have not yet gotten a consensus to move forward on that and we're going to continue to work on it. >> will it close this year? >> we'll see. >> david axelrod, thank you very much. >> okay. >> appreciate it. up next, why the immigration cases in arizona courts this week and next could impact several other states. then a debate about the future of immigration reform with the bill richardson and arizona congressman trent franks. [ male announcer ] invest with fidelity and get more for less.

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immigration reform is stalled on capitol hill, but across the country state lawmakers are doing record business passing immigration-related legislation. arizona's new law may have sparked a wildfire. considered january through march this year versus last. in 2009, 25 states enacted 35

laws. this year, 34 states enacted 71 laws. arizona's law requires police to verify the immigration status of anyone stopped for another alleged crime if there is reasonable suspicion the person may be undocumented. as many as 17 states have similar bills pending. lawmakers in oklahoma, south carolina and utah say arizona-like immigration measures could pass in their states next year. and it's not just states. two weeks ago in fremont, nebraska, population 25,000, residents voted in a special election to ban hiring or renting to illegal aliens. here's supporter joy hanson. >> i think that there is enough support that if enough people, enough cities, enough municipalities come together, the government will have to do something. >> when we come back, two men who disagree on where and how to proceed on this issue, new

mexico governor bill ritchesoch and congressman trent franks.

joining me now from boston is democratic governor bill richardson from new mexico and in phoenix, republican congressman trent franks from arizona. gentlemen, thank you both. i want to start with you, governor richardson. i know you are opposed to the arizona law. you agree with the administration, the justice department filing to get an injunction from keeping that law from going into effect. but do you not have a certain sympathy for the state of arizona, which has a number of problems going on, including just the price to the state, which you well know, of undocumented workers in terms of education, in terms of health care and not to mention some of the violence that has happened in arizona that can be attributable to illegal aliens? >> well, yes, candy, i am sympathetic to arizona. they're a border state. they're a neighbor state. we've had similar problems in

new mexico. we're on the border too. and i do believe there's a need for comprehensive immigration reform. we all agree on that. what i don't agree with is arizona taking this issue in their own hands and taking over what is a federal responsibility, harming our foreign policy with central america and mexico and basically passing a law that potentially is discriminatory, racial profiling. anybody that looks hispanic, and this is a state that is 30% hispanic with hispanics there for many generations, being pulled over on the grounds that they may look suspicious. this issue has divided the country. this issue needs to be dealt with by the congress in a comprehensive way. but, yeah, i am sympathetic to arizona. i toured the border with governor brewer. i declared a border emergency. i agree we need more resources on the border. but it's important that the federal government, the congress

deal with this comprehensively with a legalization plan, with a plan to crack down on illegal hires, and then finally to give us more resources, more boots on the ground, more border patrol, more national guard, more detection equipment on the border to stem this illegal tide, not just of workers but also drugs and violence and smuggling. >> governor, i want to talk to you in a bit about the legalization of some of those who are now here. congressman franks, you heard -- the most controversial part of this law has been that police that stop someone on another violation, if they are reasonably suspicious that it might be an undocumented person can ask for those documents. do you worry that arizona does begin to look like it is racist, like it is racially profiling? >> well, you know, candy, i think unfortunately this administration has tried to

project that notion. but the reality is that in rhode island and other states that have essentially the same kind of protocol, and what's more is that in the federal process called 287-g, a program that calls for states and the federal government to work together on these things, essentially arizona has just codified that in state law. it's ironic that with all of the arguments that this is somehow about racial profiling, i think the president of the united states has spoken known falsehoods about this bill because the bill itself, in numerous cases, numerous places, outlaws racial profiling. >> but there is intent, congressman, there is intent and then there is what actually happens. and the truth is if an arizona policeman pulled me over for speeding, i seriously doubt he would ask me for my papers. but if someone who looked latino was pulled over, i'm assuming they would ask for those papers. so isn't the net product to be profiling? >> no, i don't think so.

the reality is for 50 years in this country federal law has required people that are immigrants, that are legal immigrants to this country to carry documentation to that effect and that's been the law for 50 years. all of a sudden when arizona codifies this because the federal government is not doing its job, then there's this outcry of racial profiling. the reality is the administration's lawsuit against arizona is not predicated on racial profiling. if they thought that would hold up in court, then they should sue on that behalf. that would at least give us a respectable idea of what they're really trying to do. what they're saying here is that -- they're saying it's racial profiling but what they're actually suing on is that somehow that arizona is prmpting the federal government's responsibility. and the irony of that is that that was the whole predicate. arizona had to do this simply because the federal government wasn't doing it. >> and, governor, the federal

government has not, i think you would agree, stepped up to the plate on this particular issue dealing with illegal immigration? >> well, the reality is that the congress has failed to act on comprehensive immigration reform. >> well, that's the same thing, right? >> no, but candy, look, arizona, new mexico, california, texas, in the last two weeks we've gotten a substantial more of national guard troops. arizona getting the most. border security has dramatically improved in my judgment. it's still not sufficient. violence on the border has been reduced a bit, although in arizona and new mexico we still have serious problems. it's not as if the obama administration hasn't on the border security side, which is very important to me and to arizona and i'm sure to the congressman, the issue is that congress needs to appropriate more funds and more resources. but right now -- sg

>> but barring that, you can understand why a state would want to act. >> well, they may want to act, but they acted incorrectly. they acted in a way that preempts federal authority, but it's also discriminatory. the brief of the justice department talks about racial profiling potentially happening besides the preemgs issue. it also talks about harming a relationship with another country. right now we have six mexican border governors refusing to attend a conference with american border governors because of this issue in arizona. so it is harming our foreign policy. what we need, candy, is for republicans and democrats in the congress to step up and pass comprehensive immigration reform, which they refuse to do because it's a hot issue. they don't want to deal with it before the election. >> let me ask you, i know that in 1986 ronald reagan passed --

got passed a fairly comprehensive immigration bill. it gave amnesty to something like three million undocumented workers that were in the u.s. at that time. now 25 years later there are between 11 and 15 million, depending on who you believe. so what makes you think that going around and documenting illegals wouldn't just sort of say to others come on in, eventually you'll get your citizenship? >> well, what is being proposed now by responsible republicans, like president bush several years ago and president reagan, is it's not an amnesty. what they're saying is let's have a path to legalization. if you speak english, you pass a background check. if you pay back taxes, if you get behind those that are trying to get here legally, then eventually you get a packed legalization. not citizenship. it will take about ten years

eventually to maybe be eligible for citizenship. that is not an amnesty, that is basically saying that with the 11 million that we have here illegally, we're going to give them an opportunity to show that they embrace american values, they can work here if they're law-abiding. as i said if they satisfy those conditions. >> let me give the congressman a chance just to talk about this issue in general. congressman, what about that? i mean it sounds reasonable. you have people here, and i know president bush used to say all the time family values don't stop at the rio grand, that so many, the huge bulk of these people are coming because they need to feed their families. so what about the idea that, yes, in over ten years let's bring all of these people out of the shadows, as they say. >> well, candy, i'm sympathetic to the humanitarian aspects of this. my own wife is from the philippines and came here legally to this country and there are lot of people that want to be part of this nation and i want them to be part of this nation.

but if we ignore the law completely, then those who are trying to come here legally get pushed aside and it just changes everything. but there's another issue here that is always astonishing to me that this administration seems to overlook and that's the national security component. i have legislation in that regard. i won't describe it, but let me suggest to you that some day we may face an incursion from some malevolent group that changes our world forever. just recently hezbollah leader jamal nasr was arrested in tijuana, south of san diego, and i assure you his intentions were not good trying to come over our border. it's astonishing to me that when we live in a 9/11 world that border security is focused entirely on the immigration issue when really the national security component is much greater here. i guess i have to take a little secondary shot here, when they try to beat up the governor of

arizona, governor brewer, i served with her in the legislature when i was 27 years old and i will tell you that this is a noble, decent lady that has always as long as i've known her tried to do what she truly thought was right for her country, that would honor her kbaud and fellow human beings. i'm a little tired of her being kicked around. it was the governors from the mexican states like sonora and others that were the ones that said that they wouldn't come. >> congressman, i think i'm going to have to leave it there, but i appreciate both of you so much coming. republican congressman trent franks and governor richardson, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> thank you. when we come back, we'll turn to the gulf oil spill. as early as this week, bp could have a new containment cap in place that would capture the vast majority of oil coming out of the well. but even if the oil stops, the claims will still be pouring in. a conversation with a man in

charge of getting compensation to the disaster's victims, next.

ken feinberg is the go-to guy in times of crisis. how do you determine pain and suffering. tapped to oversee compensation issues in the gulf oil disaster, feinberg came as special master of compensation, overseeing a government found 9/11 victims. >> will it ever compensate you fully for what's happened? of course not. and i don't even want to begin to suggest that's the case. >> feinberg spent nearly three years working with families of victims to help file claims and determine benefits. he did it without pay. as the damage from the oil spill in the gulf continues to take its toll along the coast, feinberg is in charge of bp's $20 billion compensation funneled. he will determine who receives

money and how much. >> i am not a government official. i am not a bp official. the administration and bp agreed that there ought to be an independent person with experience and credibility to design, implement and administer the program. >> he's been on the road meeting with victims along the gulf already trying to answer questions offering reassurance and determining benefits. it is a task made harder by the fact that oil continues to flow, leaving the full scope of damage yet to be determined. >> a program like this cannot be designed or administered from washington. you have to come down here, hear what people say, take the time to listen. i learned that from 9/11. when i went to new york and the

pentagon and shanksville, and you have to listen to what people have to say. >> ken feinberg is with us next to discuss the task he'll face long after the oil is capped. gecko: ah, thank you, sir. as we all know, geico has been saving people money on rv, camper and trailer insurance... ...as well as motorcycle insurance... oh...sorry, technical difficulties. boss: uh...what about this? gecko: what's this one do? um...maybe that one. ♪ (dance music plays) boss: ok, let's keep rolling. we were on motorcycle insurance. anncr: take fifteen minutes to see how much you could save on motorcycle, rv, and camper insurance. at this moment, your father is alive... your son is safe... your wife is recovering...

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joining me now is ken feinberg. i don't envy you your job because you've been watching. i talked to a number of correspondents this week about what sort of stories they're hearing and the people that you might be dealing with so there's the real estate agent who had six deals go belly up on him. there's the fishermen who just bought a boat. there are people whose homes have lost value. not even anywhere near oil. how many of those people can you please? >> well, you hope that you can please everybody in one sense, that the program is fair, it's

quick, it's consistent. you know, the claims are as diverse as human nature. i'll have to look at each claim, can't prejudge anything, see the facts, observe the facts. governor riley in alabama, i met with him about a week ago. he looked at me and said look me in the eye, ken, and tell me are you going to do right by the people of alabama and i told him absolutely, and i intend to. >> so when you are looking at all -- i know this is sort of a basic question. do you have a staff? are you super imposing over the bp people that are working? >> the latter. bp, to its credit, they have over a thousand people working in the gulf now on claims. 35 different offices. within the next couple of weeks i would say certainly by the first week of august, the gulf coast claims facility will replace bp, will keep the people who are good. will add people, we'll

accelerate claims, we'll process the claims as quickly as we can. we're already prepared to give eligible claimants not one month emergency payments but six months with no obligation, no release required, just to try to help people in the gulf. >> and that also will cut down on the lines, i think, rather than coming back every month. so you're prepared to give half a year's compensation to people so they can kind of count on their lives at least being stable for those next six months. >> that's right. some degree of additional financial certainty. i work for the people in the gulf. i don't work for the administration, i don't work for bp. i've got to find a way to accelerate claims. i can't help people if they don't file. once they file, we'll process the claim. if they're eligible, we'll give them up to six months emergency comp, their choice. they don't have to take six months. but six months emergency comp without any release of any type. >> and interesting, we were talking during the break, you

find that people are not as -- you know, let's all line up and get some money. >> oh, no. one of the big challenges is convincing people to file a claim. mr. feinberg, i only get paid in cash. i'm afraid to file a claim. are you going to be sending all of my information that i provide you to the irs? i mean i don't -- i'm not sure about what are your intentions. no, no, no. this is not easy to convince people that some new program will help them. it takes some work. >> and at the same time this is a lot different from the other things, the virginia tech victims, 9/11, because there were a controlled group of people. this is massive and it's an ongoing disaster. and i wonder if the worry about fraud is a lot higher in this case. >> well, we only had out of 7300

applications in 9/11, we only had 35 examples of fraud. we've got to create as part of the program that i'm establishing an anti-fraud provision or an anti-fraud protection. we're getting tremendous cooperation from the department of justice, which will help us. we'll make sure nothing can undercut the credibility of this program more than fraud, and we'll take every step we can to minimize the likelihood of fraudulent applications and payments. >> and in our final minutes, tell me how you found people down there. are they receptive to you? do they feel as though they are going to get a fair shake? just what are those meetings like? >> every meeting is different. i spent one day in louisiana going around with senator landrieu at various town hall meetings, i've been to alabama, mississippi, florida. tomorrow back in florida,

tomorrow morning. people are uncertain, they are worried about their financial certainty. it sure would help, candy, if the oil stopped. that's one problem i've got. but they're worried, they're angry, they're disappointed, they're frustrated. as diverse as imaginable, but we're trying to deal with it by going and meeting with them. you've got to walk into the lion's den, you've got to be prepared to take the heat, which i am. it's part of the territory. but i'm confident, as with the other programs i've designed, if i have a chance to meet with people, give them assurance that we're going to be fair in our consideration of every application, please file your claim. we will do right by you. >> and you have been there enough, i think, probably to gather a sense of economically what we're talking about here. is $20 billion going to be enough? >> we'll see. that i can't answer. and the main reason i can't answer that yet is i haven't

seen all the applications. until the oil stops, you don't know how pervasive the oil spill will be, so you don't know if somebody who has not been harmed at all today will be harmed by additional oil next week. once the oil stops, i believe we'll be able very quickly to get sort of a handle on the comprehensiveness of the claims population. >> ken feinberg, you are a busy man and will be, i suspect, for the next couple of years actually. thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. up next, a check of the top stories and then a former president candidate's new entertainment career. >> oh, yes. >> to the team. >> and that's why it upsets me when i see lobbyists like when i see lobbyists like yourselves trying to buy off politicians. it makes me feel like you're not part of the team. they're people who work in restaurants... these are the people of the gulf coast who need our help. i'm darryl willis. i oversee bp's claims process on the gulf coast.

bp has got to make things right and that's why we're here. part of that responsibility is letting you know what we're doing to make it right. we're replacing the lost income for fishermen, small businessmen and others who aren't able to work until the spill is cleaned up. our claims line is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. people can call or go online and 900 people are here to help them file their claims and get their checks. working with the government, we're already paying tens of thousands of claims. we've agreed to create a $20 billion claims fund, administered independently, and it's at no cost to taxpayers. i was born and raised in louisiana. i volunteered for this assignment because this is my home. i'll be here in the gulf as long as it takes to make this right. yep. but that's just the start. we have a great loyalty program. i'm listening. stick with us, and you keep earning bigger discounts and benefits like accident forgiveness. plus, it's free. wow! great.

now let's get you initiated into the program. what is that? watch. here you go -- automatically enrolled. painless, right? totally painless. rewarding loyalty. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

time for a check of today's top stories. so far so good in the gulf coast

as bp said earlier today that efforts to place a new cap on the leaking underwater oil well is proceeding as planned. however, with the old cap removed yesterday, crude oil is now flowing freely into the gulf. the new cap is expected to be in place in four to seven days as favorable weather conditions are also helping the process. if successful, officials say the cap could collect all of the oil gushing from the well. yemen security forces arrested ten al qaeda terrorists today according to the ministry of interior. however, two men did escape during a raid on a house belonging to an al qaeda member. the terrorist cell was reportedly planning to target security personnel and vital installations in the region. an explosion i've belt, grenades, a laptop and videotapes were found at the scene. six u.s. service members were killed in afghanistan yesterday, adding to the growing death toll in an already bloody summer for coalition forces. the troops were killed in four separate incidents, including two bombings in eastern and

southern afghanistan. one civilian was also killed in kandahar which a parked motorbike laden with explosive was remotely detonated. last month 102 coalition troops were killed, including 60 americans. palestinian president mahmoud abbas said yesterday he doesn't see a point in holding direct talks with israel. he will not negotiate with benjamin netanyahu until israel commits to a settlement freeze and agrees to resume talks where they left off in 2008. netanyahu has refused both deman demands. photos appearing to show former cuban president fidel castro surfaced yesterday on a pro government blog. the website claimed the photos were taken earlier in the week at the national center of scientific investigations in havana. the photos show the former president shaking hands and walking with members of the

cuban think tank. the photos have not been confirmed boy the cuban government. it would be the first public appearance made by the former president since he stepped down from power in 2006. soccer fans around the world will be tuning in to watch spain take on the netherlands today in the world cup final. the game will be the 64th and final match in this year's world cup held in south africa. spain defeated germany last week and the netherlands took care of uruguay. neither country has ever won the world cup. former south african president nelson mandela will attend the match. those are your top stories here on "state of the union." up next, a former politician takes a shot at comedy. [ car door closing ] [ man ] ooooch! hot seat! hot! hot! hot!

[ male announcer ] time to check your air conditioning? come to meineke now and get a free ac system check. meineke. we have the coolest customers. the name mike gravel ring a bell? in 2008 he was the presidential candidate down at the end in the debates. >> and i've got to tell you, after standing up with them, some of these people frighten

me. they frighten me. >> he was the non-conformist former alaska senator with the puzzling political ads. he had the reputation as the cranky uncle who lives in the attic or the candidate who said what no one else dared say but some people thought. >> our soldiers died in vietnam in vain. what did all these people die for? what are they dying for right now in iraq every single day? let me tell you. there's only one thing worse than a soldier dying in vain. it's more soldiers dying in vain. >> where is he now? at the age of 80 former presidential candidate mike gravel has a new day job -- internet comedian. this fall he'll play president on the barely political web series called "i like mike: our president." a preview. >> mr. president, it's a pleasure to meet you. lloyd blankfein, ceo of goldman sachs. i assume you want to discuss which members of my company will be a part of your cabinet. >> no.