you can also follow us on facebook. i'll see you tomorrow. 6:00 p.m. eastern for is "the situation room" on saturday. until then, thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." good evening, everyone. tonight the government's last report on jobs before the november election. and a crackling new debate over who's to blame for high unemployment. also, did the democratic candidate for governor in california call his republican opponent a whore? his campaign says no but at a minimum he was part of a conversation where someone did, and she says it's an affront to all women. and sharron angle says there are a few places right here in america where they practice sharia law. we'll show you ones she listed and put her claim to the pest. and get this -- how tough of a year has there this been for president obama? americans are now evenly spit split when asked to pick the

better president, barack obama or george w. bush. one year ago, president obama had a 23-point advantage on that question. the most important issue, the economy. they say numbers don't lie. consider these numbers tough truth for the obama white house and the democratic party. a 9.6% unemployment rate nasally, and it's higher, much higher in many state where is the democrats are on the defensive in the big midterm election contests. in many of those races, republicans are making the case that part of the problem is the big stimulus package the obama white house promised would keep unemployment in check. >> she voted for obama's stimulus that increased debt and failed to create jobs. >> and claimed the $787 billion failed stimulus package would create jobs and fix our economy. >> want to know just how out of touch harry reid? spending $787 billion on a stimulus that failed is a start. >> we know the white house

disagrees. but tonight, 25 days until the election, vice president joe biden is upping ante. in a way, many democrats might cringe when they hear. the stimulus plan doesn't do enough, the vice president says, because, quote, we couldn't spend enough. let's talk jobs and the politics of jobs with republican strategist cnn political contributor doug robbins, john avila for the daily beast.com, in washington, paul begala and cnn national political correspondent jessica yellin. paul, in a campaign in which the republicans have been saying the problem is too much democratic spending, a lot of democrats are not going to appreciate their vice president saying the problem is we detective spend enough. >> he's economically correct but politically incorrect. the truth is the economy needs more spending. we need more customers. business needs consumers to have a little extra change in their pockets so they can go spend. economically he's on very solid ground. the problem is this is not an economics seminar. this is a political election.

and it is so important for democrats, i cannot get through their thick heads, stop defending and start attacking. the vice president needs to go give a speech and say the republicans want to do away with the minimum wage. how many jobs will that create? they want to put wall street in charge of social security. how many job will that create? stop trying that and start attacking the other guy. >> john, independent voters are the ones flocking from the democrats and to the republicans right now, and paul, that might be good advice for paul, but that's not what the vice president said. he said -- >> yeah, and most independent voters are angry about the debt and the deficit. we can't be in denial about the numbers. independent voters 2-1 likely voters voting against democrats for republicans this year. that is a very clear sign. and it's tough to turn that tide. even if you try to parse the

economic numbers and say, look, the private sector has been gaining jobs every month this year, it's actually the public sector which has been cutting those jobs, that's an economic seminar. the hardcore fact is it's not about spending and this die is already cast. >> the man who would be speaker, the house republican leader, john boehner, the stimulus package before the vice president spoke, the stimulus package one of his big complaints. he said the obama administration and the democratic congress simply will not listen to voters' concerns about spending. mr. boehner. >> ladies and gentlemen, your government has not been listening. your government is disrespecting you, your family, your jobs, your children. your government is out of control. do you have to accept it? do you have -- do you have to take it? hell no you don't! >> a bit of emotion there, but ed rawlings, some that might call it contrived and

calculated, some might call it passion. whatever it is, mr. boehner has reason to be full of energy tonight. as the government comes out with this last unemployment report before the election, bad news for the democrats, we have new poll numbers that are good news for the republicans. look at these numbers. likely choice for congress. we've had democrats on the attack. we've had a more visible president. but, ed, what do you make of that and mr. boehner's passion? >> well, first of all, it's the first time i've seen john boehner -- i've known him since 1980 -- without a suit and tie. looks pretty good. good look. those numbers are terrible, and they're not going to turn around. they'll only get worse in the next wee three weeks. i think the reality is people in washington are starting to realize republicans are going to have this. 22 seats that most of the experts say are already republican seats, another 60 in play. all we need is 17 of those to be the majority.

we have real clear politics today, race in the senate with no toss-ups, 50/50 right today. and i think to a certain extent the momentum of those kinds of numbers weather a president who's beat on george bush for two years, blamed everything on him, is two points ahead of him and worse numbers on the disapproval, i think it's a bad omen for democrats coming into this session. >> jesica, out covering campaigns this week, connecticut, linda mcmahon and dick blumenthal, how do you create a job, it's not just a number in the unemployment report or an attack line in the ads. >> blumenthal has come out a democrat very lukewarm on the stimulus, so not all democrats are embracing it. the telltale thing for me, i've been talking to some top democratic strategists who say as long as our economic message is they want to increase tax breaks for the corporations, they want to privatize social security, they want to send jobs offshore, that's when we're in our sweet spot. we're not promoting what the

democrats have in office. >> we're hearing more than that, sending jobs to china offshore. i want to stop the politics of discussion. i want to show some of the numbers here. we'll close with a number. i want to look at the unemployment rate during the obama presidency. they said unemployment would not go above 8.1% if you pass the stimulus program. of course it is at 9% if you see it up here throughout the obama presidency. here's the problem. all jobs during the obama administration here, private sector jobs here, a slight growth of late. they can say private sector jobs are on the way up in recent months but that's a tough sell because those numbers are so modest. i want to show one other place here. the reason this matters in all these campaigns is you're talking about 9.6% nationally, oregon, a democratic senator there who's a little nervous, california, democrats thinking they could lose possibly the governor's seat and the senate seat, nevada, harry reid in trouble. illinois, the republicans think they have a shot to pick up

barack obama's seat, maybe a house district or two. michigan, the 13.1%. several house seats there. we could go on and on. ohio, indiana, florida, rhode island, the highest unemployment rate. many of these states with double-digit unemployment, that's where you find republicans saying maybe it's the governor's seat, the senate seat, maybe two, three, some states four, house seats, paul begala, 25 days left. you cannot change the strategic direction of the campaign. your only mess issage is forget the numbers. >> ill's tactical. that's right. they have to be tactical. first off, the beginning of this year, the beginning of this cycle i've been saying on this network the democrats have to move the needle on jobs if they move the political needle. let's deal with the reality. those kind of numbers are politically disastrous. again, what do you do? i understand the human impulse to want to defend their accomplishments, because i think they've been impressive. what they need to do is turn loose of that and put the republicans on trial. the republicans don't have a

jobs agenda at all and democrats can say and prove that republicans do want to put wall street in charge of social security, put insurance companies in charge of medicare and e eliminate the minimum wage. that is not a jobs agenda that middle class americans want but they don't know it yet because the republicans are too busy defending their own agenda. >> and democrats are saying it's not the president's fault, he inherited a bad economy, couldn't get anything through because of the senate, filibuster, and that may be true but the lesson of american politics is the president take the hit. this number jumped out today. sometimes we want to pay attention to the polls. the bad year barack obama has had. a year ago we asked the voters, pick the better president, barack obama or george w. bush. 57-34, obama won. we asked them again in recent day, 47 obama, 45 bush, e essentially a dead heat. if you're the white house and looking at those number, only 20 months in, but ed rollins, that tells you -- you remember the reagan midterm in '82.

that tells you ouch. >> there's no question that has to hurt. you know, you can't be in denial anymore. i think the bottom line, one number i would use if i was running a campaign out there today is one of the reasons the stimulus didn't work is 72,000 dead people got stimulus checks. i would take all the mistakes that are out there in the stimulus bill and highlight them and show how ineffective this administration has been, not only in spending too much money but not spending the money wisely. >> john, do you ever think you'll see barack obama equal to george w. bush when people rate them? >> presidents always look better in the rear-view mirror but that is a terrible number and ind kaltds the slip barack obama has had this year. the one silver lining the obama administration can get is bill clinton's approval rating in 1994 and george w. bush's in 2006, the last time the congressional control switched, were actually in the 30s. by that historical benchmark, obama is doing slightly better, but don't hang too much hope on that. >> department you find a t-shirt

of president bush that said "miss me yet?" >> i did. martha's vineyard. >> no doubt made in china. >> ha, ha. >> our next stop, california's bruising governor's race where meg whitman, her campaign says a conversation involving her opponent, jerry brown, includes, quote, an appalling and unforgivable smear. and later more on the economy from a democratic governor and a republican senator fighting it out. >> you know how much that added to the deficit next year? $88 billion. >> it was paid for. >> it was not paid for, senator. you don't know what you're talking pbt. >> every dollar was paid for. >> it was not, governor. designe. and like that, we had a new side to our business. [ male announcer ] when the martinez family saw an opportunity, the hartford was there. protecting their employees and property, and helping them prepare for the future. nice boots. nice bag. [ male announcer ] see how the hartford helps businesses

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barry brown's campaign spent the day trying to tamp down a controversy whooefr it calls, quote, salty language, actually if a warning here the language is more offensive than salty. "the los angeles times" obtained a recording where we hear brown in a conversation about political endorsements and the word "whore" is used to describe his opponent, meg whitman. it may have been said bay brown aide, although there's been some speculation in california it could be brown himself. listen.

>> whiteman's campaign demanded an apology as soon as the reporting surfaced. >> the brown campaign's response. back to our conversation. jessica yellin, you spent a lot of time covering this race. in recent days it looked like jerry brown was about to open up

a gap. brown 52%, whitman 43% among likely voters. at a minimum, it's bad timing. what do we think the political impact is? >> there's obviously a concern this could hurt women voters. i don't want to discount the use of this word and its impact, but it is in the context of him saying that i stand for principles and she will sell out, so the more you talk about it, the more he's reaffirming the narrative of his campaign. i can add that the national organization for women in california has today just now come out endorsing jerry brown saying that he has throughout his career defended and promoted women's rights. >> so let's see. i'm not going to dispute that n.o.w. would have endorsed jerry brown anyway, but as meg whitman starts to trail and this recording that hurts brown is leaked, the recording is leaked and this organization endorses brown. hmm, politics works in a funny way, doesn't it, paul? >> it does. first, who's taping jerry brown's calls? >> what they say happened is that he left a message for the police union, trying to talk

them out of endorsing whitman and trying to get them into his camp, hung up the phone thinking the conversation was done but somehow one of the lines stayed open and it was recorded on the voice mail. >> in any event, the it was -- it's an offensive word, certainly. should not have been used. it was not used in a gender-specific or even sexual way. it was used as another word, a synonym for sellout. this was about mrs. whitman allegedly cutting a deal with the police officers' union to protect their pension in exchange for their support. don't know if it's true or not, but that's what that was about. meg whitman needs to chill here. >> ed rollins, you have a lot of experience in california politics and also a lot of experiencing maybe telling your candidates if it comes down to using the word whore or sellout, i recommend you use the word sellout. >> let me say this. i've been around and known jerry brown for 40 years. jerry brown is an ex-jesuit and

he does not use that word. it was a staff member. he apologized as quickly as i can. i think ice a one or two-day story and we're back to the campaign. the interesting thing is meg whitman, having spent $140 million, is dead even with him, who now has sufficient money to run the rest of the campaign. we have a real donnybrook out there. >> i want to show the gender gap in the polling before this happened. democrats tend to have a jernd gap, but you don't think ed rollins, that's going to have a big impact. >> i think some women were offended. i think it's certain lay distraction to his campaign. it was moving pretty well. at the end of the day, this is a guy with a very long record and people who are for him are for him and people who are against him are against him. at the end of the day he's ban pretty good supporter of women's rights. obviously i want the other side to win but i want to give him his fair due. >> in that race there, this

temporarily, to ed's point, seems to help whitman by going against brown. but she wants to say he's the old xwaguard in sacramento. you need a business person. >> but she's been away from those issues in recent days anyway because of nanny gate, that anything she can do to shift the balance of power she'll do. they want to get the momentum any way they can, and making hall of fame bully is one way they're looking at doing it, as ed suggest, not likely to stick. >> do you run seminars for your candidates on the acceptable and not acceptable words? >> i'm glad you knew how it was inadvertently recorded. i shouldn't have raised it as nefarious without better knowledge. but it was a huge deal a few years ago when bob kerry told an off-colored joke that c-span picked up. now everything is recorded. everything is broadcast. i don't think it's a better world for that, john.

i have to say. >> what have we learned this week? you cannot send e-mails. don't trust no one's recording. there's this voice mail technology. we need new technology schools for candidates. we'll see jess later in the program. next, another shake-up, and a big one, in the obama white house.

welcome back. let's bring in joe johns for the latest political news. a big tea party patriots convention is under way in richmond, virginia. 2,000 activists are expected to hear from, among others, congressman ron paul, former senators rick allen and rick

santorum and lou dobbs. former president clinton is going to help out with joe manchin's senate campaign. national security adviser jim jones is leaving his post. two people close to him tell cnn the retired marine general took the job with the understanding he'd only stay for two years. jones' top deputy, tom donlan, will become national security adviser. the post does not require senate confirmation, but it has a stamp of afrooufl defense secretary robert gates. >> i have thoroughly enjoyed working with general jones, and i have and have had a very productive and very good working relationship with tom donlan, contrary to what you may have read. >> you get the feeling general jones just didn't fit in.

maybe he was too tall with all those little advisers scurrying around or something. >> one of the toughest jobs to watch because as national security advisor you're supposed to be essentially the gatekeeper for the president. everybody gives you ideas and ufen they disagree, as we saw in afghanistan, and sometimes you go to the president and give him your advice or say here's what everybody says. in bob woodward's book, he reports that tom donilan didn't have the right respect for the military, didn't treat them with respect. secretary gates saying that's not true, but there's something to it. general jones was here, national security advisor, in the middle of the afghanistan debate, at the time the marine commandant criticized president publicly for setting the time line to get out and general jones is here saying yult, we'll be okay. >> i will simply say that in the course of our deliberations on our afghan strategy, everyone had a chance to voice their opinion around the table, both civilian and military. and the strategy that was

announced was one that was agreed on -- agreed upon. >> very diplomatic language there, joe. that's what it takes in that job. agree or disagree. when you go out in public, you can say everything is fine, but this team rocks. they have a lot of fights. i've known tom for 20 years. joe, we'll see you a bit later. when we come back, we return to the biggest issue in the campaign, and that is the economy and a fascinating clash of ideas between a democratic governor of michigan, jennifer granholm. trust me. they have sharp disagreements over job, the economy, and the deficit. and we'll talk to parker spitzer, coming up at 8:00, but we'll talk to them in a preview about this new poll showing voters essentially look at obama and bush and see the same. and bill maher joins us. he talks god and politics and a little christine o'donnell. and pete dominic, we've missed him this week. he'll be here as we put sharron

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our next guests for years have been in the middle of the big polyand political fights over jobs, tacks and spending, but their roles are odd as the economy dominates this year. jennifer granholm of michigan is term limited so she is not on the ballot and leaves office in january. republican senator judd gregg of

new hampshire decided not to run for re-election, so he, too, will be leaving office soon. governor, senator, appreciate your time. we don't know exactly what's going to happen on november 2nd, but we know we'll have more republicans in washington. senator gregg, to you first because you have so much experience in the capitol, where you are today, is gridlock a foregone conclusion if you have a democratic president who says we need more spending on infrastructure, more stimulus spending, and more republicans who come to town saying, no, sir, not going to happen? what do the american people get, gridlock? >> i don't think so. first off, i believe that we have a difference of view here, which is my view is very simply this -- jobs, deficits, and debt are connected, that the american people, especially the small entrepreneurs in this country, the people who create jobs, are so worried about the future of this nation relative to our deficits and debt that they're not willing to take the risk. there's just tremendous uncertainty out there. one of the greatest uncertainties is our tax poli polici policies. if you allow that to raise, you're going to frustrate

economic expansion. your question, can a republican congress work with a democratic president to to get something done? i happen to think it's probably going to work better than the present scenario with a democratic congress move so lurch to the left and expanding the government so radically that we've basically seen an explosion in debt and deficits which we can't afford and the american people have reacted in a negative way. if you look at the clinton year, you had a republican congress, a democratic congress. we got a balanced budget and we got welfare reform. now we know beyond any question that we have to address entitlement reform as a country in a bipartisan bay, and that's the only way to do it and maybe republican congressmen and a democratic president can accomplish that. i hope so because if we don't accomplish it, we're headed far fissi fiscal train wreck along the lines of what happened in greece. >> in the tax debate, should the president extend all the bush tax cults, hold firm and say, no, only for those under

$250,000? should he try to caught deal in the short term? in your state, do businesses say, governor, it's uncertainty? we have a lot of capital saved but we're not going to invest it or spend it because we don't know what will happen to our tax structure in six or 12 months? >> in our state, our economy has been pegged to the loss of manufacturing jobs and the meltdown in the automotive sector. the most effective intervention that has occurred over this past very difficult period has been the intervention to save the auto motive industry. and that required some spending. in our state, people are concerned, and businesses are concerned about access to capital. the thing that the president signed last week, which is a small business access to capital bill, which i don't even think senator gregg supported but it did contain six different tax cults and the ability for banks to loan, small banks to loan to small businesses, that creates certainty. what has created uncertainty is the lockdown on the capital markets that have prevented these small businesses from accessing credit. so the bottom line is that was a

good bill last week. that provides some certainty. the ability to extend the tax cuts for the middle class and down are very important. if you get back to the conservative argument of paying for it, it's sfe ee's speaking both sides of your mouth. how can you afford it? >> go ahead, senator. >> it would hard for me to disagree with that more strongly. 53% of the employment in small business is in businesses which have more than $250,000 of income. when you start taxing those businesses, you're saying you have to spend money in washington instead of adding new employees. now that small business bill the governor talked about, conceptually it was a good idea. it just wasn't paid for. do you know how much it added -- >> it was paid for. >> no it was not. you don't know what you're talking about. i'm the ranking member on the budget committee. it wasn't paid for. it added $88 billion to the

deficit. in the ten years they allege it was paid for. in the last three or four years, there's an adjustment that accomplishes that. same game and gimmick they play around here on almost everything, which is to take the money and -- >> why doesn't the business community soundly support it? why were the business community totally supportive of this small business package? universally it was held up in the senate by the republicans. >> governor, i think you probably know if you're going to give somebody a tax cut and pass the bill for it on to somebody else, people who are getting the benefit of the tax cut tend to support it, people who are getting the bill don't even know it. our kids are an example. if your party wants to continue to run deficits which are running $1.2 trillion a year, the largest deficit in our history, you go ahead and do it. i don't want to do it. most americans are sick and tired of it. they're sick and tired of these spending, the deficits and the debt and that's why people are angry, why i happen to be upset,

and it happens to be a reflection of this congress when they pass a bill like they did two weeks ago which ended another $88 billion unpaid for adding to the deficit. >> we have to give governor the last word. >> i, too, am angry and i'm in the state that has had the worst economy for the past decade because of the loss of manufacturing jobs and failure on the part of the previous administration to stand up for businesses in america. so much of d ksh. >> the previous administration. we're not talking about the previous administration. >> it's a result of the -- >> when are you going to stop passing the buck? >> i allowed you to finish. will you let me fin senate judiciary committee. >> i'd be happen ti to let you finish. >> it's ban result of jobs going to mexico, to china, to india, because we have had a trade policy that has not supported businesses in our country. we are in a global economy. and other countries are making sure they are making public/private investments to support businesses in their countries. up until this administration, we

had not been doing this. now the economy in michigan has stabilized. we are starting to create jobs month over month. to be able to go -- if you want to reduce the deficit, the best way is to invest, to grow the economy. and i can tell you that will reduce the deficit more quickly than slashing and slashing and slashing and laying people off and creating a downward spiral. >> i need to call a time-out here. need to call a time-out here. >> add debt to reduce debt. >> you would never know from the feistiness that you're not on the ballot this year. maybe we'll try this again in the future sometime. >> thank you. >> still ahead, remember shirley sherrod, the agriculture official fired because there was a speech posted out of context? she said the obama administration in part led to a rush to department. and sharron angle says sharia law is practiced in a community not far from dallas. ♪

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welcome back. let's check in with joe johns for the latest political news you need to know right now. former agriculture department employee shirley sherrod says some newly released e-mails about her firing show, quote, we cannot forget that racism still exists. cnn has obtained hundreds of

e-mails through the freedom of information act that show how officials in the white house including then chief of staff rahm emanuel were keeping tabs on the story as it unfolded last july. it started after conservative blogger andrew brightpart posted an out of context video clip showing sherrod talking about her attitudes towards helping a white farmer. the e-mails show the agriculture secretary tom vilsack put pressure on his staff to get rid of sherrod even though department officials knew there may have been more context to the video showing she was not a racist. here's a story that will fuel speculation about sarah palin's white house ambitions. she was taping a webcast for the conservative magazine news max when she told a live audience -- you know, john, i heard that other quote from david saying we're not going to get that lucky or whatever. and, you know, it's so funny talking to democrats around the country. they just can't get their head

around the idea of sarah palin sort of being a phenomenon. >> that's the paradox. when you look at sarah palin and our national political correspondent jessica yellin is back with us, on the one hand it's ban great year for her. many of the candidates she's endorsed have gone on to win primaries. we'll see what happens on november 2nd. the tea party loves sarah palin. but if you look at the broader electorate, she's still unpopular in some ways. there's a pew research poll the other day, if she appeals on behalf of a candidate, are you more likely or more likely to vote for that candidate? so it's sort of a tough question. who is she saying, if the american people ask me, is she saying republican voters or -- >> i guess we'll have to vote to see if she'll run. she's enormously popular as a celebrity. she draws eyeballs to television. but her deep popularity as a politician is within a very

narrow s.w.a.t. of conservative voters and broadly you have to have that far reach to win nationally. even if she run, what that's why democrats are hoping she runs, they don't think she has national draw. >> we don't know about 2012, so whatever we say today, it's with pencil. >> like ronald reagan. >> let's come back to the election that's 25 days away, essentially through this week, there will be three weeks left in this cam ppaigncampaign. we asked people in a poll. how are you going to vote? this is likely voters. if you look more closely, 62% of independents say they're going to vote for the republicans, 71% of white, blue-collar voters, a lot of those house districts across the midwest say they'll vote republican. what's critical? >> talking to both democratic and republican strategists, they've narrowed down four races

they think will come down to the wire election day. nevada, colorado, illinois, and west virginia. there's also talk by both sides that the pennsylvania race could close. that's the one between too maniy and sestak. one-to the interesting dynamics we're seeing is in the races where democrats have been behind and are making up the difference, they're hitting hard, talking to paul begala about this, on that theme of outsourcing. that's something that is really connecting for depths. those are some of the states where we're seeing democratic gains. >> we had an ad last night. sestak saying too ma ining tomb all these things. we're seeing this. china, china. when you know the fundamentals of the economy are not against you, i guess this is the way you try to attack. >> and there's a lot of economic angst out there, there's a lot of disagreement with the way corporations appointed themselves, particularly banks.

and so this plays into that. democrats have been saying far long time they're going to bring this issue of china again and again because it plays well, especially around the unions, unions that see jobs being shipped overseas. >> it's worked well for boxer in california, who gained this big lead over fiorina saying fyhrioa outsourced while she was at g.e. strategists say when christine o'donnell was elected they saw an uptick in donations from small donors and an increase in polling showing democrats are more likely to vote. their analysis of this is that she is so not credible as a candidate, and she puts a face on with the tea party is. even more so than sharron angle or rand paul. it's a little bit hard to prove. as a republican, i thought, really? because i thought the face of the republican party was glenn

beck or john boehner or rough limbaugh. they're flaying. that's the quote. >> pay attention to your races. jess and joe, thank you. when we come back, one of the starting things in our new poll is americans look at george w. bush and barack obama and rate them the same. we'll talk it over with eliot spitzer and kathleen parker after the break. ♪ [ upbeat instrumental ] [ rattling ] [ gasps ] [ rattling ] [ laughing ] [ announcer ] close enough just isn't good enough. - if your car is in an accident, - [ laughing continues ] make sure it's repaired with the right replacement parts. take the scary out of life with travelers. call or click now for an agent or quote.

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something in our new poll today caught my eye, i ded a couplemart people to help me sort it out. let's check in with kathleen parker and new york's former democratic governor and attorney general, elliott spitzer. their new program "parker/spitzer" at the top of the hour. looking through the polling today, the question is who has been a better president, barack obama or george w. bush?

the american people are now split on this question, 47% for barack obama, 45% for george w. bush. just a year ago it was lopsided 57% to 34% in obama's favor. i think that says it all about what the past year has been for this president. >> wow. that's really something. i'm shocked. but, you know, i think i'm shocked. i think it's more a referendum on obama than it is on a reappraisal of george w. bush. >> we're shocked by it. we're living with pinpaul politician. last year we were uphoric action and we need to get some grounding, take these things seriously, not throw people overboard so quickly. the president has to govern, let's give him some support. >> we did this to president bush as well. we do have a tendency to have to

measure every little thing, and it's nonsense. no offense to cnn, because it's a great poll, really. >> polls are accurate snapshots of the movement. think back to george bush the first and how he was after the gulf war, and he didn't win reelection. these things crash overnight. >> that's an interesting comparison. his party, people out there don't think the economy is getting better. >> george bush the first was right about it, it's just that nobody would know it for another four, five months. >> where upon president clinton claimed credit for it. >> of course. as you close out your first week, i understand you're talking about the choice for -- and it's not me?

>> if you wanted the job you should have called up and told us paul krugman has been brilliant, right over the past 10, 15 years diagnosing what was going on. being right is what i care about. >> would you give him the job, kathleen? or just your partner? >> well, you know, i don't endorse candidates whether for cabinet members or political office. i'm just a reporter like you, john. >> see you at the top of this hour and on next monday. in a minute we'll ask bill maher if he's found greatest hits in his archives, and shariah law in texas? pete dominick tonight, as we check it out.

all week we've been talking with xwil maher. tonight's conversation begins with what you might call a little viewer feed did not back. >> as you know, a lot of people don't like you and you say things that offend them. after the program last night, within seconds i got several tweets, saying how can he call god the imaginary friend? you used the term "imaginary friend." does that bother you? how do you answer people of faith who takes offense at that. >> i can't answer them. even if i get into the argument about faith, they are offended. see, that's how they've stopped the debate all these years, but saying we're going to put this wall around this subject. if you approach it, you're offending me. but you know what? maybe they need to be offended then. i'm not trying to do it. if we're going to have the debate and they're going to be

defended, that's what's going to go down. i just try to ask questions. my main question is, why is faith good, you people of faith? just tell me why the purposeful suspension of critical thinking is a good thing. if you can answer that question, maybe i'll shut up. >> give us a sense of "real" this week? >> we have a couple big surprises, but we have p.j. o'rourke, one of my favorite guests, and andrew -- sorkin and kipp, my great friend richard dawkins, who 'even better than i am talking to people of faith. so we're looking forward to it. >> over the past couple weeks we have learned in one clip that christine o'donnell dabbled in witchcraft. what are you going to share this week?

>> well, first of all, at some point i really want to stop this. otherwise i'm going to be indelably intertwined with christine o'donnell. so, i'm not going to say. we might give her a break this week, we might have something even more interesting. i don't know. i can't tell you now. bill maher, thanks for joining us tonight. one guy we have missed all week is pete dominick. he joins us now. you know sharron angle, the republican candidate for senate out of the state of nevada, at a tea party forum where somebody asked her about places in america where that person said islamic shariah law was being practiced. let's listen to cant angle. >> first of all, dearborn, michigan, and texas are under america soil and constitutional

law, not shariah law. i don't know how that happened in the united states. it seems to me that there is something fundamentally wrong with allowing a foreignle system of law to even take hold in any municipali municipality. >> you look a little stunned there, pete. >> reporter: when can i have a drink? >> that's funny, but she's a serious candidates. a lot of muslims live in dearborn. they have a mayor and everybody else, but the other place she mentioned was frankford, texas. there's the historical marker. it was founded way back, a cemetery and a country club. it's a