>> what an amazing story and what an amazing talent. remember, always follow what's going on in "the situation room" on twitter. i'm on -- get my tweets at twitter.com/wolfblitzercnn. @wolfblitzer, all one word. thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the "situation room." good evening, everyone, at this hour, tonight, bill clinton is wrapping up a busy day on the campaign trail and where he stops tells you something about his blue collar appeal and something about the political weaknesses of the current democratic president. in a moment, we'll map out some differences between presidents clinton and obama. also, tonight, vice president biden is joining the president in challenging the chamber of commerce to prove none of its campaign ad money comes from foreign sources. the chamber says the white house is demonizing critics to distract attention from failed economic policies.

west virginia governor joe manchin, among the democrats trying to literally shoot their way back into contention. >> as your senator i'll protect your second amendment rights. that's why the nra endorsed me. i'll take on washington and this administration to get the federal government off of our backs and out of our pockets. i'll cut federal spending and repeal the bad parts of obama care. i sued epa, and i'll take dead aim at the cap and trade bill. because it's bad for west virginia. >> tough stuff. there are more ads like it. democrats try to stop a slide among white small town voters. governor manchin's case, what he's saying about the obama agenda up against favorable comments of the past and let you judge if it's a desperate campaign conversion. the tale of two democratic presidents and their role. president obama in miami tonight raising money. former president clinton in

syracuse, new york, to help an embattled democratic candidate. is one president more valuable than the other, or is this an equal partnership? in chicago, roland martin. new york, ed rowlands. here in washington, cnn contributor and senior political columnist for the daily beast.com, john avalon. and gloria borger. which president has more appeal on the campaign trail? let's listen to bill clinton, in west virginia today. governor manchin was favored heavily, now in a close race. his republican opponent said you can't send this guy to washington because all he'll do is vote yes when you ask him. >> he's really the president and you have to vote against the president, so vote against him. he'll be just a clone. his whole life was a fraud. he was just waiting for that moment when he could go to washington and check his brain at the door, check his

conscience at the door, check his life at the door, check his experience at the door. check everything so he could just be a little -- and say yes, yes, yes, yes, we. >> roland martin, what do you make of the raspy comments there? if nothing else, i miss that voice. >> first of all, you use all of your weapons at your disposal. it's also why you see the white house putting michelle obama on the campaign trail as well. remember, when bill clinton was running, he was president, it's not like he could have really used jimmy carter on the campaign trail because of the dislike of his term. look at president george w. bush. no republicans want to see him on the campaign trail. if you're democrat, this is exactly what you do. you put all of your guns out there because you have to get the base out. >> i want to go to the map in a moment. ed rowlands, one of the reason bill clinton is in these places is because barack obama in these races today is not welcome. let's take west virginia. the president is there. the former president's there. he's trying to help joe manchin.

one of the points, with bill clinton at his side, if he goes to washington among the issues he'll fight the democratic president barack obama is energy issue known as cap and trade. >> respectfully, i totally disagree with the president, and i respectingfully, and you can respectfully disagree with people, it's wrong. >> before that president clinton was in kentucky campaigning with jack conway. jack conway was on this program last month and said he likes president obama fine but on tax cuts thinks he's wrong. >> this is an issue i differ with the president. all bush tax cuts ought to be extended for some time. the economy we're in right now is no time to be raising taxes. >> ed, you're the republican. i assume you think it's smart to send bill clinton to places the president can't go. >> his policy is unpopular among all swing democrat seats out there. bill clinton can attract blue collar democrats and the

president can get college students and try to obviously stir up some african-american support. i think where white voters have abandoned this administration over and over again in key states like kentucky and west virginia, take the most popular man around america today is bill clinton. in the end it's not going to matter. i think the policies is what people are going to vote on. there's a good alternative in the republicans -- >> remember back in the presidential campaign, bill clinton was not considered much of an asset for his wife. remember he was getting tired on the campaign trail, he was yelling at people. he compared barack obama's campaign to jesse jackson after south carolina. this must feel great for him because suddenly he's more in demand by democrats than the president of the united states. >> and simple reason, i think in many cases, when bill clinton was president, whatever you thought of him personally, the economy was growing, budget was balanced. he left office in good economic times and people don't feel that now. >> that's absolutely true. bill clinton has what the current democratic party is missing.

he's got the bubba factor. he can attract working class whites. there's an iron law in politics. elections are won or lost by the candidate who connects with moderates and the middle class. that's what bill clinton's great at. he campaigned on connecting with moderates in the middle class so he can help the democrats connect to the center in swing states like west virginia where obama has a 29% approval rating and get out the -- >> kentucky, one of the places the president was today, this is the 2008 election. i'm going to go back to the democratic primary. that light blue, that would be senator hillary clinton beating barack obama 65% to 30% in the state of kentucky. i just want to go back in time to a different presidential election. 1992, bill clinton, 45%. he won kentucky. he has a bit of a history in kentucky. let's come back to the '08 map and move to west virginia. mccain wins easy. 56% to 43%. if west virginia voted for al gore, al gore would have been

president of the united states. this state trended red lately. let's look at the democratic primary. that's all hillary clinton. blue collar whites. these are not barack obama states these two. that's one of the reasons you see bill clinton out making this case. but roland marti, are there ris involved where you have open policy disagreements, bill clinton standing next to democrats publicly airing differences with president obama? is that fair as long as you try to win? >> no, there's absolutely no risk. at the end of the day if you're a democrat, you want your party in control of the house and the senate. you have even seen speaker nancy pelosi say she understands why fellow house democrats will really campaign against her and her leadership. look, at the end of the day you want to run the whole joint. you don't care. there are people who oppose president george w. bush, fellow republicans, not as strong, i believe, as you're hearing democrats opposing president obama. that's the name of the game in politics.

it's not new. it's very old. >> it happened to clinton, himself, in 1994. he had democrats run against him and they couldn't keep control. >> a very big difference today. the difference is what we're doing right here. we're now highlighting the difference between moderate to conservative democrats and this administration. don't think he goes to west virginia, kentucky, he goes across the country. i think basically you're saying to voters out there having serious doubts about the obama agenda, there's people out there that don't agree with this. this president is wrong on -- >> 2006 -- >> go ahead. >> 2006 rahm emanuel recruited conservative democrats opposed to speaker nancy pelosi and others. >> that's what we're fighting now. that's what we're fighting now to get back in republican districts. >> right. well, there are 49 democrats who won in seats that john mccain won in their district. so those -- those folks are in trouble, too. >> they tend to be -- i want to get one more quick point in.

bill clinton is not the only way democrats who are having trouble with white working class voters are trying to fight their way back into contention. the ohio governor ted strickland has been losing. latest poll had him down 57% to 39%. he says his own polls show better than that, but he's been down among rural voters 62% to 33% in our last poll. ted strickland has a new tv ad, goes right at those voters. >> in washington, john kasich voted to take away gun rights. kasich's record was so bad the nra gave him an "f." ted strickland has been an ardent supporter by the second amendment. he's endorsed by the nra who gave strickland an a-plus rating. ted strickland for governor. >> straight play. >> absolutely. democrats in swing district realize they need to show that they are not washington elite liberals. they're going to do it any way they can, holding up an nra

rating, so much better. >> remember when john kerry went out duck hunting and hillary clinton started talking about guns so much barack obama called her annie oakley? this is not new for the democratic party, right? >> let's not assume voters are stupid. voters are not stupid. okay. let's not assume voters are stupid. ted strickland has been a liberal governor and kasich a conservative republican. the fact you're on one spot, whatever the difference john had with nra which may have been the machine guns or whatever the heck it was, don't think they're going to think he's now liberal and strictlands's a conservative. >> the democrats have learned their lesson -- >> go ahead, you get the last word. >> voters are also not stupid. they can see nra is backing strickland. also i give nra respect. they made it clear, we are not a republican or conservative tool. we support candidates who support our policies. that's good for them. >> they've taken a lot of heat from the right for that. we're going to continue the

conversation. john is going to leave us. he'll be back later in the program. when we come back, we'll put to the test governor manchin what he said about president obama now and then. [ male announcer ] sometimes after surgery straining should be avoided.

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west virginia wasn't supposed to be on the democratic party's worry list this year. after all-time senator robert c. burke passed away, it was widely anticipated popular democratic governor joe manchin would easily win the senate seat.

little has gone according to plan for the democrats. not only is manchin defending himself against tough ads from gop opponent and outside conservative groups but against his own words from the past. consider this from the governor's latest tv ad. >> i'll take on washington and this administration to get the federal government off of our backs and out of our pockets. i'll cut federal spending and repeal the bad parts of obama care. >> the governor's hardly the only democrat to distance himself from the white house and its health care bill. how do you square this ad with a different tone of the health care discussion this past march? >> president and administration for sticking with this as long as they have. i've not seen this much commitle in anything else that we've done in the political process. >> policy evolution? or political flip-flop? we're back with our group and joining us cnn senior congressional correspondent dana bash, you were todown in west virginia last week. how does the governor answer

that? his critics are saying wait a minute. >> there isn't much of an answer to it. he said that was while the debate was going on and we didn't have the final bill, but it was march of this year and the debate was almost over. the answer is he understands what everybody else understands across the country, even democrats who were very aggressively for this bill. they're not campaigning on its behalf, and people who are on the outside and have the benefit of not having that voting record like him, he's saying, you know, let me go as far away as i can. when you press him on the question of what do you want repeal, it gets murky. >> in a year where people don't like politicians, here's a guy who's incredibly popular in this state but there's an authenticity issue there. >> a conversion. you can say, who's the real joe manchin? is he with or against obama? that ad, it could have been a republican ad. it was -- i don't like obama, i don't like the health care bill. vote for me.

i'm going to be my own person. you could run that in any district in this country, democrat or republican, and that's why, you know, this election, it's really about yes or no. it's just if you like the way things are going, vote yes, if you don't, vote no. i'm going to campaign no. >> ed, you're the republican here. i want you just as a campaign r you do when the ground shifts? >> you can't basically give up your integrity. i think to a certain extent the governor has done that. the governor talked about how i'm going to two to washington and be different and stand up to obama. when he never has. so i think to a certain extent this ad which as gloria said, our good friend alex castelanos could have done this ad. great republican ad. it's cutting into this guy's fiber that i'm a man of the people, a man of integrity when he's flip-flopping all over the place it undoes all of that.

>> if you showed me a politician who typically doesn't flip-flop i'd say they're not even a politician. we see that all the time. here's also what's amazing. here you have a democrat who's making a point in terms of what he opposes. we often talk about on these shows how on republican side you have so few moderates because they're being run out of the republican party. i am appreciative of the fact and would be hopeful you might have people who are democrat or republican, don't think i'm going to vote any particular way. i appreciate somebody, you can say he's wrong, i appreciate a politician who says, look, this is my position on this, i can oppose the president and this is where i stand. i have no problem with it. >> i'm going to say i'm not defending joe manchin. having been on the ground it's very clear why he did that. the number one rub against him. he's incredibly popular. rub against him is that they're very worried about democrats in washington. so he's desperate to separate himself. that's the most important thing he has to do. >> we showed you that joe manchin ad.

before we go to break, something our staff picked up in recent days. an example we brought you last week, joe sestak running in pennsylvania. one of the democrats playing the china card against the republican opponents. >> pat toomey sided with wall street voting for unfair trade deals with china. >> now, there were a number of those ads run against republicans last week. over the weekend those republicans came up with what we'll call the counterpunch. >> kagan is here voting to send american jobs overseas. washington, d.c.'s, steve kagan, not protecting wisconsin families. >> is baron hill running for congress no indiana or china? he supported the $800 billion failed package that created energy jobs in china. >> pelosi voted to spend over a million dollars to employ workers in countries like china, not here in virginia. one of the subjects we'll

talk about is the influx of outside money into the campaign and the president's assertion that maybe just maybe some of it is coming from overseas. a lot more also to come on the program tonight. another thing the president wants to do is spend billions of dollars on new infrastructure. he says europe, china, everywhere else spend a lot more and you're stuck in heavy traffic. do you want your tax dollars spent to try to fix it? we'll discuss new york's controversial republican candidate for governor, carl paladino now says some homosexuals are home washed. he doesn't want children brainwashed to be homosexuals. we'll break down what he's trying to say. pete on the street is was. he's got question time for me. pete's back in new york playing up the holiday. receiving the bronze star, that was definitely one of my proudest moments. i graduated from west point, then i did a tour of duty in iraq. when i was transitioning from active duty, i went to a military officer hiring conference. it was kind of like speed dating. there were 12 companies that i was pre-matched with,

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welcome back. let's check in with joe johns for the latest political news you need to know right now. >> first term ohio democratic congressman steve driehaus has gotten bad news from party big whigs. cnn confirms the democratic congressional committee will not spend any more money on tv ads in his district after this week. georgia governor candidate roy barns is offering condolences to the family of a teenager who died in a weekend traffic accident that also injured barns' daughter and two granddaughters. police say the 17-year-old boy's car crossed the center line and hit the minivan barns' daughter was driving. before taking air force one to florida today president obama renewed his call for congress to spend $50 billion to help the rest of us get around. >> they are aging systems,

highways and buywayyways, air r and airlines hinder our economic growth. the average american household is forced to spend more on transportation each year than food. >> traffic is really bad around here in washington, d.c., so there are some people who aren't going to mind. on the other hand, i know there are people out there saying, wasn't that what the stimulus was supposed to do? >> that is part of what the stimulus was supposed to do. it's interesting, this is a long-term plan for the president, joe, gloria and dan are still here. but if you also look at the elections, big elections, the one in the suburbs, the excerpts, that's where people complain more and more about traffic. the president says the united states needs to spend billions more. i'm going to pop up a map here. these are the 20 cities in america with the worst complaints about the roads and bridges and infrastructure. if you live in any of these places, we have a cup where we are leer, you understand the traffic and the problems. what the president's saying is the only way to fight this is to

spend more. here's an interesting thing right here. this is the united states, the green line. these are other countries around the world. 32 different countries around the world. united states ranks in the world, 17th in terms of complaints by its people about the quality of infrastructure. if you live in the slovak republic, poland, greece, israel, canada, slovenia, mexico, you think you're not complain as much about your infrastructure as we are here in the united states. here's the president's being point. the united states spends 2% of gdp on infrastructure. europe 5%. china 9%. the president's point in making that point is the united states cannot be economically competitive in the long term unless it spends more. when we come back, a big source of disagreement right now. the president says there might be foreign money coming into the campaigns. the person he accuses of that says no way. we'll talk it over when we come back.

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the only complete multivitamin with soy isoflavones to help address hot flashes and mild mood changes. new one a day menopause formula. the white house acknowledges it has zero evidence that any foreign money is used against democrats in this year's campaigns. that hasn't stopped team obama from raising the specter of shady dealings by chamber of commerce and other administration krcritics. vice president challenged it to tell us how much of the money they're investing is from foreign sources. the vp's remarks today ek ochoe the president's warnings at a sunday rally in philadelphia. >> it could be the oil industry, could be the insurance industry, could be foreign-owned orp rati corporations. you don't know, because they don't have to disclose. now, that's not just a threat to democrats, that's a threat to

our democracy. >> the chamber says none of its political activities are funded by foreign sources and accuses the white house of a desperate smear campaign and the chamber own other conservative groups say there are liberal organizations also taking advantage of a supreme court decision that doesn't require groups to disclose donors. what is the political impact? should there be more disclosure? with us, roland and ed. is this a bad thing not only that so much money is coming in, the supreme court says it's free speech, let it in, but never mind us in washington or us consultants that somebody living in the state of ohio or state of texas or state of california doesn't know who's trying to influence their vote. >> this is irresponsible the charges that are made. i'm not against disclosure. disclosure law is not in existence today. to charge the chamber of commerce, neighborhood businesses, community

businesses, national businesses that take in $100,000 in contributions from foreign governments -- or foreign companies and a $200 billion program and has not put a single penny into any campaign and to be accused by the president of the united states and vice president of the united states when they know there's no evidence there is outrageous. it would be me like saying when obama outspent john mccain by 3-1 last time he had mexican drug money in there. i can't prove it, but i throw the charge out there. they're not factual. >> i want you to answer what ed just said. i want you to listen to karl rove, one of the people who has associated with some outside groups. he says he's not involved on a day-to-day basis but has been an adviser and consultant and makes ed's point, saying, look, if you can't show me where that's bad money don't lower the esteem of the office of the presidency. >> does the president have such little regard for the office that he holds that he goes out there and makes baseless charges against his political enemies?

this is just beyond. how dare the president to this. >> i would love to get karl rove saying the exact same thing to his fellow fox news hosts like glenn beck who call the president a communist, anti-colonial and every other name out there. carl, we're all waiting. look, john, if the proof isn't there, frankly wrong for the president or the vice president to simply throw it out there. what should be happening, you should have people, conservatives, democrats, independents who are saying, absolute full disclosure. if fuyou're in texas, oakland, california, you're seeing these commercials we should know who's trying to influence the vote. it's ridiculous for people to hide behind the supreme court law. change it. i want to see political operatives, pollsters stand up for this change for transparency. >> here's the key. i was talking to a democratic

pollster who admitted they're throwing everything up against the wall to see what sticks in this campaign. they're doing that. he said when you ask voters whether they want any foreign money in american elections, they say absolutely not. and it kind of sets them off. would everyone like real full disclosu disclosure? yes. did the supreme court rule a way the democrats disagree with? yes. is there enough disclosure? the foreign money is the keyword and -- >> they think it gins up their base attacking karl rove and the bush cronies as they call some of them. if they have no evidence of foreign money -- >> not only that, their base, i was talking to a democratic strategist involved in some of these groups try to compete with the republican side saying there are people in middle america who think chamber of commerce, wait a minute, i know the people in my local town who work in the chamber of commerce, what's he

talking about? at the same time, look, in terms of the balance here, democratic groups, there's no question. there are fewer of them, they're not as well funded. the enthusiasm gap is playing big-time into this as well as everything else. they're out there. there's no question they're out

according to the republican candidate for new york governor

it would be a dastardly lie to say he wants to hurt homosexuals. today the blogosphere is ablaze with comments about his weekend speech criticizing andrew cuomo for taking part in a gay pride parade. >> and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting par married and raising a family. i don't want them to be brainwashed into thinking homosexually is an equally valid and successful option. >> a cuomo spokesman says paladino's speech displays homophobia and glaring disregard for equality. let's check in with kathleen parker and eliot spitzer. their new program "parker spitzer" ahead at the top of the hour. i'm not sure what to make of this guy, carl paladino. in some ways he keeps -- you might say he's the gift that keeps on giving in terms of controversy. he tried to explain himself this

morning. listen to this on the "today" show. i'm not sure if it makes it better or worse. >> should not be exposed to that at a young age. they don't understand. it's a very difficult thing. and exposing them to homosexuality, especially at a gay pride parade, and i don't know if you've ever been to one, but they wear these little speedos and they grind against each other and it's a terrible thing. >> i would assume the big issues in new york state are jobs and government spending. what is this guy doing? >> john, i just got to say, i'm mystified because i think he's put himself now more in the crank category. every day, every couple days he's coming out with another comment that's offbeat and not talking about the things the public might want to hear him talk about. he's the republican nominee for a serious position, governor of new york. he's said not a single word about jobs, economics. how you reform government. if he made a speech about that, people would pay attention. this stuff he's veering off into

crazy land. >> it doesn't make a lot of sense. i think the man, you know, i think -- he's a catholic, the way i understand it. he may well believe the best course is for men and women to marry and have children and, you know, go that traditional route. but i -- as a political matter, to select that particular statement to make, he's essentially creating an issue where none exists. this is not something that people are talking about or caring about, and i just, you know, it doesn't make a lot of sense. >> that is what makes it so odd. i would pay no attention to this guy except the point you mentioned, eliot. it happens to be our largest state and economic issues like many big states and states with big cities. if you watch the beginning of his speech, he's reading from a paper the entire time. we know he had a prepared text and left one line out that could have been more offensive. it said this in it, there is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual.

carl paladino said he did not write that, a staffer did not write that. listen to him trying to explain to matt lauer how the line got into the prepared text. >> say a staff member of yours wrote it. >> a staff member did not write it. >> so a member of the congregation did? >> somebody wrote that paragraph. >> i guess what i'm asking, if you're running for the highest office in the state of new york, and you show up at events and they hand you a piece of paper and say, mr. paladino, here's what you want to say -- >> i read it beforehand and crossed off that remark about dysfunctional. that is not me. period. >> that's actually my favorite line, because disfunctional heterosexuals are just fabulous, right? >> i mean, eliot spitzer, you're a politician, a former politician. did you ever just walk into an event and say, here, read this? >> no. first of all, you don't do that. you read things, you think about them. you act according to the -- he's running for governor of new york. he's got to know what he's going to say. you don't walk into any setting and just read your script.

i think he said he read is quickly. this is not a campaign that anybody should be running these days. there are serious issues in new york people are willing to listen to new voices talk about. this is simply not the way to run a campaign that's going to lead to him being taken seriously. >> there's hardly any way for him to dig himself out of that hole. he should stop talking. >> when he won the republican primary a couple weeks ago it was open for him to define himself to the state of new york. he could have said economics is it, job creation, i'm a businessman, i'm a property owner. any one of 100 things and put himself into a context where he would be taken seriously. he's completely destroyed that opportunity. >> let's leave him where he has left himself. eliot, kathleen, see you at the top of the hour. thanks. >> thanks. when we come back, our new polling shows republicans are favored, but guess what, you don't like democrats or republicans when you look at washington. our jessica yellin on the ground in california, among the subject, among the race s we'll

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welcome back. let's check in with joe johns for the latest political news you need to know right now. >> the secret service tells cnn a man who threw a book at

president obama during a rally in philadelphia was an overexuberant person who wrote a book he wanted the president to read. authorities say he was not a threat to the president's safety. the arizona governor's race may not be settled yet. jan brewer's lead over terry godard has shrunk to three points. with 1 in 5 voters yet to make up their minds. and on cnn's "the situation room," carley fiorina told wolf blitzer about what's going on in california. >> what's on voters' minds is jobs. we have a 12.4% unemployment rate here in california. >> now, that may be the case. but i the tell you, i saw some polling today that suggested young voters in california may be more interested in the midterms because legalization of retail sales of marijuana is on

the ballot. >> maybe a little turnout device there. when we come back, mr. avalon with us. joe will stay with us. jessica yellin is on the ground in california and will give us the update on what it means to have a tequila summit. and new polling showing you really don't like anybody if they work here in washington. [ woman ] alright, so this tylenol 8 hour lasts 8 hours. but aleve can last 12 hours. and aleve was proven to work better on pain than tylenol 8 hour. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you? good, how are you?

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interesting new polling. fascinating conversations in strategy shifts out in california. let's talk politics. jessica yellin is with us from los angeles. pete dom niinic joins us from n york. jess, i want to get out to you first. we heard carly fiorina talking

about jobs being the number one issue. but there's been a significant strategy shift among the candidates. up until recently, they were going their separate ways but something started with a tequila summit. >> reporter: that's right. the two women held -- both attended a hispanic event out here in california, latino gala and took tequila shots before their speeches. whitman did a nascar event appearing with giuliani with iranian jews. they are micro targeting in the ultimate micro targeting since. but both campaigns are taking different tags. whitman focusing on being a moderate. fiorina trying to tackle a little bit more conservatives.

they think the final stretch will be good for fiorina if she stays on that. >> thyou don't like the democrac leadership in congress. you see the approval there. 66% disapprove of the republican leadership. but here's why this is troubling for democrats. look at a long list santa fe issues. terrorism, immigration, health care, ethics, government spending. on not one of these issues does the democratic party get more than 50%. would their policies move the country in the right direction. on any of these circumstances not one of them, do the democrats get 50%. the word for that is trouble. >> yeah. this should be a huge wake-up call for official washington. and especially republicans as well because they see their approval rating isn't high either. they don't think they're going to improve the economy. what you've got is a set-up for

an even more different stalem e stalemate. if any republicans out there, especially the leadership, think they've been good, they've been a lot more lucky than good. they've been benefiting from the anger but it doesn't translate to an endorsement. >> they don't like the democrats or the republicans. are we looking at almost guaranteed gridlock? >> perhaps we are. this is so much about the economy and jobs, i think. again and again and again, you look around the country and there are people not doing as well as they think they ought to be doing and they're upset about that. they voted for change and they haven't seen any, at least in the economy, sufficient to make people feel good about it right now. >> pete, we send you out to talk to people. but you also host a show on sirius raid you. you get people calling in all the time.

>> reporter: nobody ever says that. i'm ordering a shot of tequila and telling my wife to bring my undocumented worker home. they take what they can get at this point. people sa they, they're not politicians running for the tea party, they're not career politician, sometimes you think some of them should hire people. >> you're up in the middle of it in new york with paladina. christine o'donnell wins the delaware senate nomination and runs an ad with the words "i'm not a witch." "saturday night live" couldn't resist. >> i'm christine o'donnell and i'm not a witch. i'm nothing like you've heard. i'm you. and just like you, i have to constantly deny that i'm a witch.

isn't that what the people of delaware deserve? a candidate who promises first and foremost that she's not a witch? that's the kind of candidate delaware hasn't had since 1692. and that's why, if elected to the human senate, i promise to fly straight down to washington -- on a plane -- and do exactly what you would do, not spells. >> now, i'm going to give christine o'donnell a lot of credit here because she's taken a lot of heat over this. but she tweeted out right after that was on the air -- "snl" skit was really funny and i have to admit r he recollects hair looked better than mine. we have to give her credit for having a sense of humor. >> reporter: absolutely. we could study the salem witch trials and learn a little bit about women and witch ery in this count