fries not from a fast food restaurant. sally says her dogs lost interest in the happy meal within two days but at 180 days jay leno has not. >> it's disgusting. >> no, it's not nice. she basically refuses -- >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn. i'm just dehydrated. there's nothing wrong with me. new york. >> that's all the time we have. thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "john king, usa" starts right now. >> thanks, wolf. good evening, everyone. tonight's star power on the campaign trail as president obama, first lady michelle obama, bill clinton and sarah palin all out making their appeals 19 days before the big midterm election. a consequenceal day in court for the obama white house. the justice department files an appeal overrule to the pentagon ordering it to stop the don't ask, don't tell policy. and a judge challenging the constitutionality of the health

care bill can go forward. we start with the mining rescue in chile. they announced they expect to release three miners tonight and, quote, many more tomorrow. the men he said were subjected to great stresses for more than two months so we won't immediately see which problems could develop. another fallout from the men's ordeal, chile's president promised tougher lays for safety and promised radical changes in how mine owners treat their workers. a short time ago i spoke to two of cnn's great reporters on the ground in chile. joining us are correspondents on the scene. gentlemen, one of the things we're all fascinated about around the world is trying to find out more about what happened down in the mine throughout those 69 days, especially what happened on the first day when you had the explosion and the mine collapsed. >> reporter: i have talked to a couple of family members who even brought video back from the husbands. one of them was saying, well,

the day the mine collapsed, he was describing in very calm terms, in fact. he says, we went down deeper. he says, we went down deeper. there was a lot of dust. he said, we did manage to rig some lights up but it was very, very gloomy. he said -- and he put up his hand in the recording and he said, that's about as far in front of my face as i could see. it was very dark down there. >> you guys are sent to send the story when the whole world thinks it's a tragedy. there's no way they can drill down and get to them in time. let alone rescue them, but to get them oxygen, medical supplies and then it turns into this breathtaking, heartwarming joyful celebration. take us through sort of the key moments for you back when things looked bleak and then in the end as things began to become the seeds of a miracle. >> reporter: it was such a long haul watching the drilling being

done. you'd have a breakthrough, something like the drill being it, this is going to be the silver bullet and then a setback that could put the drilling back any number of days or weeks. living with the family members, seeing on their face when they got their hopes up just a little bit, only to have them dashed was -- was fascinating but also really, really difficult because you'd be there reporting the news and you might hear one of the family members creep up next to you to hear what you're saying and they're hearing news they didn't like to hear. after there was that fateful breakthrough with the plan "b" drill, seeing the glimpse of the family members run up the hill where they put flags with all of the relatives' names on them and you could make out on the foggy chilean morning, and after that there was a momentum that picked up and has carried us through today. the story really hasn't stopped since then. >> as our viewers were watching your reporting throughout these

months, wanted to get part of the story. karl, i saw you mentioning a woman from texas who would go to her church have night and light 33 candles. give me other examples of aropee around the world who became captivated by the story. >> reporter: yeah, i think that was encouraging to see, because initially i thought and the chilean government thought is this going to turn into some kind of reality tv. my answer is, no, let's not be ov overexaggerating reality tv p perils. they wanted to show solidarity. donna ashworth from texas, and she saw all this unfold on her tv screen at home in texas. you know, she's american. she's not got any latino blood, no real connection with the chileans at all.

but she saw it on tv and she e-mailed and she said, there is nothing i can do in texas. i feel so helpless. what can i do to help these people and these poor women waiting for their men folk? so she came up with the idea that one of the miner's wives, her partner had proposed to her in a letter for a catholic wedding so donna in texas said, i know what i can do, i'm a seamstress so i'm going to make her the most beautiful wedding dress. she's now in that process. on top of that she goes down to the church every night and lights 33 candles. i think that's just a good example of how people went beyond the reality tv, this kind of morbid, voi you'ueristic approaches. i don't know what yours were.

>> i got an e-mail saying, the whole world is chilean. it struck the right note. >> the question is, what's next? when you have a big event like this, sometimes in the case of a tragedy, in this case a heart-warming miracle, the question is, what is the next chapter? how does the community change? how do the characters change? one miner who came up, mario acce sepulveda, he said, i want to be the miner, i want to be mario. i want to keep working. are these guys international celebrities now? >> i think it will be very difficult for them in a week or a month or two months. on august 5th they left the town of copiapo, where we are, they left to go out as miners on their shift. they've come back in the last few days as heroes, as stars, as people who will be known for what happened to them, what they

did to survive for the rest of their lives. so, it's changed them, changed this community. i really don't see them going back. one thing that does have to change is the state of mining in chile. both karl and i got to look at certain aspects of mining here. their mines here, they're frankly incredibly, incredibly unsafe. i looked at the aftermath of people living in this community, people whose arms were broken, people who lost feet to explosives. one man i talked to lost a leg to an explosion. he'd worked in the san jose mine. he had a word for those mines, he called them kamikaze mines. if you went down in mines like the san jose mines, oftentimes you wouldn't expect to come home. it was a rick you were taking. at the san jose mine, there was a virgin mary, on the descent down they crossed themselves because it was that dangerous. so, that's something that chilean president pinera has said needs to change. the mine safety record here is

something that this has put a spotlight on and you could expect laws and more scrutiny on some of these mines that were really not up to par before this accident. >> reporter: you know, i'm not sure i would agree with the speculative course with everything that patrick says about how much these miners' lives will change. we have heard from family members who received letters from miners while here on the ground, that all 33 had taken some kind of pact of silence, that they weren't going to tell everything that happened in the mine. now, that first of all made me think, well, there's something dark and untward happened down there, was this some lord of the flies situation? i don't think so. i hear from others that it's a pact that together their power has increased so they can sign off on book rights or media interviews. what i would suspect as each of these 33 miners come out of

hospital, the media will focus on three or four of them. some of that so-called stars, the most extrovert, such as mario accept ul va sepulveda, hl right for himself. others were quiet, team players. that was the key to their survival, team play, not individual play. they will go home. i've just come from one miner's house just now. i had to take something to his wife. i went down a side street and there was their house. and the front of the house is probably about 12 or 15 feet across. and it's not very deep. it's a concrete floor. it's just a breeze block building without any paint on the side. a very rudimentary. i mean, these are working class men. and my fear is that a lot of the 33 will simply go back home, in a couple days and think, you know, i'm back to what it was.

one of the miners in a cell phone video told his sister, he said, you know, this isn't life-changing. i come back up, it's going to be the same old nonsense. you got the sense from him that he had struggle throughout much of his young life to make ends meet and get by. maybe not much will change. while they were down in the mine they were on minimum pay. they were even paying taxes on top of that. no one has come forward and given them a bumper check for being underground. i can't help feeling the marios and maybe luis urzua, most will be back in their working class homes, back down in the mine. >> so many of these men, the men, that's all they know. their grandfathers did it, their fathers. most of their first mining

accidents have been buried in the mine, fingers lost in the mines, backs broke in the mines and they've gone back to the mines. i wouldn't be surprised despite this horrifying ordeal that you don't have one or two that go back to working in the mine. >> one of the reasons this story captured the world's imagination is because of your fantastic reporting for us there, gentlemen. thank you so much. a bit later we'll take you back to the mine tragedy and show you how it captured the world's imagination online. it's a fascinating miss. when we come back, a shift of politics. the president does a town hall today on mtv. live right now in california, the former alaska governor, sarah palin, one of many political star on the campaign trail tonight. ♪ [ man ] i thought our family business would always be boots. until one day, my daughter showed me a designer handbag. and like that, we had a new side to our business. [ male announcer ] when the martinez family

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michelle obama out on the road today, campaigning in colorado. you see her right there. that's before she flew to colorado. michelle obama has already cast her balance lot. michelle obama, safe bet she voted democrat today. bill clinton is in new mexico. sarah palin, the former alaska governor, she's live right now out in california. we'll keep an eye on this event and bring you any snippets as developments warrant. let's have a little conversation, with us cornell belger, and our senior political analyst gloria borger. let's start with the governpres. when you do town halls, you want to energize voters, but you also subject yourself to questions. remember, it was mtv forum,

boxers in brief back in the clinton days. the president today was asked a lot of questions. this one, not so favorable. >> mr. president, of course we ask people to end in their greatest hopes and their greatest fears. i'll read a couple of the fears here first. my greatest fear is that we're turning into a communist country. and another one here, my greatest fear is that obama will be re-elected. >> oh, no. >> would you like to respond to

those? >> look. this is an example of how our political rhetoric gets spun up. and, you know, the internet and twitter and all these things are very powerful but it also means sometimes that instead of having a dialogue we just start calling folks -- calling each other names. that's true on the left or the right. that's something we have to avoid. we have to be able to have a conversation and recognize we're all americans. we all want the best for this country. >> that's the president at the mtv/b.e. tncht fo mtv/b.e.t. forum. it would be nice if we could have a conversation about these important issues but we'll not get a civil conversation in the next 19 days, are we? >> i don't think so. it's interesting to hear the president talk about postpartisanship but when he's out on the campaign trail, he has to talk to his democratic base. he has to get them out to vote. so, he's, again, sticking it to the republicans. he's trying to have it both ways. he's got to do that in this election year. >> i ran into a democratic strategist the other night who questioned this, who questioned the idea of the president doing so much, focusing on new voters, young voters right now saying, look, they tend to drop off in the midterm campaign. you'll get a little at the margins. all the money and the energy, this strategist was saying, to get your union members, people -- >> you know what, john, that democratic strategist is part of

the problem the democratic party has. probably the same democratic strategist saying barack obama couldn't win. probably the same one saying young people won't turn out for the primaries for barack obama, won't turn out in the general election. he was on mtv and b.e.t. because 70%, close to 70%, 66% of people under 30 voted for him. when those voters come out and they're energized, democrats win all over the place. democrats win in tough districts. it's interesting you're covering that tough district in ohio. that's a district case study where the obama surge helped democrats win that seat. that democrat consultant is part of the problem. >> i like the questions but i didn't submit them. i mean, remember, two days after he got elected or sworn into office, john kyl expressed concerns about what was in the stimulus package and his

response was, i've won. it's been downhill for him ever since. >> i have to show you guys something. cornell, you were saying that democratic strategist is wrong. i want to show something. there is some evidence the president's talking about in doing these forums is starting to generate some activity. this is his website. we showed you a week ago or so how traffic to his website had dropped off the table since 2008. it was up 63%. the week, 11% up. you see the recent activity by the president is driving up at least visits to barackobama.com. this is rock the poll data. they're liberal, moderate, in the middle. this is a question -- who do you want to control congress? 34% of young voters say democrats. 28% say republicans. this is the part that hurts. 36 % say it doesn't matter to me. so, cornell, these are voters the president's trying to

motivate. if they've become cynical two years after hope in getting so involved -- >> and that's the problem. and, again, the problem, the conventional wisdom that's in the democratic party, the old, tired, conventional wisdom aside, they say don't spend time and resources trying to cultivate that base. i said at the end of 2008, the obama surge voters weren't democratic voters. they were obama voters and the democratic party better work hard to make them democratic voters. they haven't done that. that explains that. when we lose seats in tough places because we're not addressing that new surge vote, that becomes part of the problem. >> the problem is that the republicans who don't like big government see this election about barack obama, the democratic young voters who like barack obama don't think this election is about barack obama. and that's -- that's their real problem. >> in the meantime you have a lot of people who will vote republican and can't stand the republicans. that's the absolute irony. >> i was -- >> that would be you? >> well, we'll get to that point a little later in the program. stay right there. a lot more to talk about,

including a busy day in court for the obama administration. take a look at this picture of the white house. it's lit up pink tonight in honor of breast cancer awareness month.

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today in florida a federal judge ruled a challenge to the new health care law can go ahead. attorneys general from 20 states are suing. they contend the law's requirement that people buy health insurance is unconstitutional. just lack week a federal judge in michigan ruled just the opposite, that the requirement to buy insurance is constitutional. the politics of health care in a minute but to our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin, we put this question, what's the legal path ahead? >> there are many challenges to the health care law in the

federal courts now, and different judges are reaching different conclusions. a michigan judge said, the law is fine, constitutional. judges in virginia and florida have now decided they have real questions about the constitutionality. what this means is that this case will wind up in the u.s. supreme court because that's why we have a supreme court, to settle disputes between judges and it will probably be sooner rather than later. >> but that's still years to get a case all the way to the securit supreme court. theirs an election in 19 days and this a factor. a debate in kentucky for senate, republican rand paul, democrat jack conway. >> jack, i know you've been busy traveling to california, seeing your buddy nancy pelosi out there and trying to raise some money. but when you've been back in the state, you've been neglecting us. there is a question, a valid question, 17 attorney jegeneral

have asked, is obamacare constitutional? can you force an individual to buy insurance? why won't you sign on to the debate with the attorney generals over the constitutionality of obamacare? >> mr. conway? >> as the attorney general of the commonwealth of kentucky i'm amused to get a lecture in constitutional law from a self-certified opthalmologist. >> it's good for a laugh but an important debate in the campaign. cornell, to you first. we have seen a few more democrats. there's not a rush of democrats saying, i'm proud of my vote, i love it. we've seen russ feingold. >> we'd be better off if this was a fight that we take on and communication -- if we had done communication better. what we know from the polling is that when you test individual parts of what's actually in health care, it tests fairly well. when you take away the fact that, you know, death squads for your grandma and get away from that muddiness, it tests well. i have a feeling as this

progresses a lot will go away as this progress and people start seeing their kids can stay on health care and they like that, and they're not denied preexisting conditions -- >> but not before the election? >> not before the election. after the election, this will take hold. >> you know, i just think, particularly the conway clip, rand paul gets to an important issue there that's driving the tea party movement where people feel like she shouldn't have to go to the attorney general to be able to figure out how government works and it's driving people crazy and fueling campaigns like rand paul. >> when you get back to the congress, and of course it depends what the divisions are in the congress, whether the republicans take over the house or not, or the senate, it's going to be guerrilla warfare. you can repeal it piece by piece by refusing to fund things. >> the president of the united states gets one of these veto pens. have i to call a time-out for now. we'll see what happens if they try to repeal. if the republicans get control and try to repeal, we'll have a veto battle. we'll talk to mike casstle got beat by christine o'donnell.

his view on the moderate republican view. ellioiot spitzer and kathle parker were on tv. we'll get their thoughts and have them watch with us. a big debate in nevada, harry reid and sharron angle. sure i'd like to diversify my workforce,

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spectator rather than the favorite in delaware's u.s. senate race. in that time he's had time to form definitive opinions about the future of the republican party and the tea party activists who derailed his senate bid and propelled christine o'donnell to victory in the republican primary. congressman castle is here to go one-on-one. sir, let me start with that. you briefly considered running as a write-in candidate. you decided not to do that. we have polling here and others have polling that show you might have won that race as a write-in candidate. any regrets? >> no real regrets. you're always going to wonder about that. perhaps i could have won it. my party spoke to the selection of a candidate. it wasn't me. and i felt it would be unfair to try to move forward in that circumstance. so, i just declined to go ahead and do it. >> you had a conversation with christine o'donnell. are you prepared to say you will vote for her? >> no, i'm not going to endorse anybody in that particular race. not because of the competence of

any of the candidates but because the primary i went through was very nasty in a variety of ways. both politically and personally. and i've just declined to get involved in that. >> mike castle in delaware, lisa murkowski, bob bennett, three republicans beaten in primaries. some a bit more conservative, but all three, castle, murkowski and bennett, people who were not afraid to occasionally sit down at the table with a democrat and try to work something out. why has that been a problem for grassroots republicans? >> you know, i don't know the answer to that. senator bennett and senator murkowski have been rated by the people i speak to in washington as two of the most able senators, republican or democrat, in the senate. most people assume that i'd be able to win this particular seat. so, it's very -- it's very disappointing. but political parties have a character of their own. the republican party right now is very adamant about the

positions that president obama and the democrats have taken. if you voted for any of those positions or even sat down and met with the democrats, you were going to be targeted by the tea party and like groups. that's essentially what has happened. and then they will take those votes and they will, perhaps, overrepresent them and ignore the good things that you may have done and that led to the defeat of all of us. we'll see how senator murkowski does as a write-in candidate. i think she's doing pretty well in alaska. but it's been a difficult time. more significantly, i've had virtually 100 or more members of the house of representatives speak to me about this. not just republicans. republicans and democrats are very concerned about what the future of the country is, what the future of politics is, are people going to be willing to run for office, are they going to be willing to sit down and work with the other party. there's a lot of back and forth on this right now. >> are you prepared in a lame

duck session to vote to extend the bush tax cuts in total? are you prepared to vote on comprehensive immigration reform or should those wait until after those who win this election come to washington? >> i don't think immigration reform will come up in a lame duck session. i think it's too complicated. i do believe that the bush tax cuts could. they may come up in a form different than anything that's been talked about quite yet. and that is they could be extensions for one year, two years to three years as opposed to a complete elimination of some of the tax reductions, as has been discussed, too. and my sense is that that might actually be a good solution. >> what is happening to the moderate wing of the republican party? >> well, i am very concerned about that. obviously, once you leave maine you're not going to have much of anything in the senate in the way of a moderate republicans and you're going to have the same problem with a pulsety of

republicans in the middle atlantic and new england states. i do think there will be some more republicans elected in pennsylvania and new york this year, which -- who will probably be more conservative, but will add to the republican influence in the congress. but if anyone thinks that the next session of the congress is not going to be more conservative than it is today, they're wrong. enough elections are going to be won by conservative candidates, not only in the northeast and middle atlantic states, but throughout the country to make a difference. i don't know today if republicans will control the house and/or the senate, but they're going to get a lot closer. that's going to mean the president is going to be scratching his head in determining what is our future going to be, because the past two years have not served him well from an electoral point of view, so you could have a very different perspective from the white house, the democrats may be thinking very differently than they have before, and the

conservative republicans are going to be able to make gains at that time. i would hope that the moderates who are left, and there will be some, will be able to be players in between, to make a difference, between the two parties to make sure that decent legislation gets passed. but to suggest that moderates have not had a setback in this election cycle would be wrong. >> what would mike castle say to those republicans, i'm name jim demint for one, who say they would rather lose and have pure conservativens that republicans they view as more liberal or pragmatic? >> i think jim demint is very wrong about that viewpoint. and i think the groups with which he associates are also very wrong about that viewpoint. in addition to that, we're now raising the serious question of whether or not we can elect very conservative candidates, extremists perhaps in some cases. for example, in nevada, in delaware, and perhaps in other

states. that's part of the test of the general election. i think it's a little hard to write this script until we see how the general election comes out. >> congressman mike castle, the congressman from delaware, former governor of delaware. appreciate your time. we'll keep in touch. >> thank you. >> and so as mike castle right when he says senator demint wrong? eric erickson with us after the break. and cornell with us as we talk about the debate in delaware. [ 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. [ male announcer ] ever have morning pain slow you down? introducing bayer am,

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let's talk the delaware senate race and what it means for national politics. with us cornell belcher, eric erickson. you're an ally of jim demint. you just heard mike castle there. he was supposed to be, according

to the republican establishment, the candidate for senate from delaware. he's a moderate. he was a governor. many would say he's a stronger candidate statewide than christine o'donnell and he sees what jim demint is doing, supporting the more conservative candidates essentially as an effort to purge moderates from the republican party. >> his quote is one of the most misinterpreted quotes of jim demint. he meant it does us no good to have 50 republicans in the senate when you have no idea what they stand for. he would rather have 30 march c rubios because you know what they're going to do. jim demint doesn't deny they have to have a majority -- >> mike castle says they stand for pragmatic effective government and his experience in 30 years has been sometimes you have to cut a deal because you're not going to get your way. >> the great split in the

republican party is between those who see no problem with bigger government and those who think government is too big. mike castle has no problem with bigger government. >> i have to disagree with that. i think what you're seeing in castle is, quite frankly, someone who will reach across the aisle and compromise. that's the way our country moves forward. at the end of the election cycle we'll look back if republicans will fail to take the senate, we'll look back and best friend of the democrats will be jim demint who helped us with a lot of tea party candidates and pushed castles out of the party who were very electable -- >> but the senate doesn't work when you have five jim demints in there because of the senate rule. i'm happy with that. >> i don't think we should have five jim demints in the senate. >> but we're going to. >> let's move on to the debate last night because mike castle lost in the primary. christine or donl and chris coons squared off, wolf blitzer was co-moderator. it was interesting to watch. a lot of ground covered. i'm going to play a snippet saying if you're running for a

federal office, part of your obligation is to confirm or reject the president's nominees for the supreme court, that you should probably be prepared to answer this one. >> what opinions of late that have come from our high court do you most object to? >> oh, gosh. give me a specific one. i'm sorry. >> actually, i can't because i need to you tell me which ones you object to. >> i'm very sorry. right off the top of my head, i know there are a lot, but i'll put it up on my website. >> now, to christine o'donnell's credit, later she did mention a couple cases about miranda rights and one of the health care decisions that made its way through the courts, but is that a serious candidate for the united states senate who's not ready for that question right out of the box? >> doesn't matter. she is the candidate. she should have been able to answer that question. what i've been telling people, i don't have any problem as christine o'donnell as a candidate. she'll be my hero at the end of the race because for five weeks the media has been fixated on

her and they haven't put sharron angle, pat toomey, rubio. >> i agree, it's bewitching. >> but could we, could we, to be c c contrarian, she's supposed to be able to say, this decision, that decision, this decision, i would cut this agency, this agency -- >> the problem is, castle could have answered that question. and that becomes a problem. and you have, in her as well as angle out in nevada running from the press, literally running from the press not taking any questions. at some point that becomes a real problem. if you're running for u.s. senate, have you to answer questions. >> here's the problem that goes with that. we have become a country of professional politicians who have gotten us into the mess we're in. we're seeing across the country a lot of people saying, i don't want the professional guys anymore.

we saw that with the delaware voters. now, she may not win the general election. the odds are not in her favor. but there's something to be said for elects the citizen politician. the good, the bad, the warts and all. >> there's something about electing people that are competent. >> but who's to say she's not going to be a competent senator? she ran a successful charity for quite a while. >> 19 days to continue this debate, although eric won't like us. we'll focus on other candidates. when we come back, a fascinates look at how the mine disaster played out on the internet. bill o'reilly, sparring on "the view." was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale

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welcome back. let's check in with joe johns for the platest political news you need to know right now. >> the justice department today formally appealed a federal court ruling that struck don't the government's don't ask, don't tell policy. the president was asked about

repealing the policy during today's young voters town hall. >> it has to be done in a way that's orderly because we are involved in a war right now. but this is not a question of whether the policy is in -- will end. this policy will end. and it will end on my watch. >> former secretary of state condoleezza rice visits president obama in the oval office tomorrow to talk about a range of foreign policy issues. and we're still waiting for three of the chilean miners to get out of the hospital tonight. the 33 men have been undergoing tests and in some cases treatments since their rescue. at the end of the day, this is all about hope, isn't it? >> it's about hope. it's captivated the world's attention. watch this. this has been a dramatic story on the internet as well. people who maybe can't get to the television set. a peek of 4 million page views per minute online. you see the high traffic staying

ahead. how does that fit into history? mostly sports event generate all this traffic. world cup viewing, usa and the world cup. obama wins the 2008 election. it ranks fifth in terms of interest on the internet as a news story right there, it's fascinating. images. this is chile's president hugging the first miner to come out. here's another one here, this miner brought up some rocks from down below. odd souvenirs, but he's got those when he came up on the up side. here you see a prayer of thanksgiving at the top of the mine shaft. these are the pictures that make you cry and smile all at once, the family members happy. and this was the moment last night, the last miner out, the president of chile celebrated as this played out, the whole world was watching. and at that moment, eliot spitzer and kathleen parker were on television. their show, of course, comes up at the top top of the hour. >> so you guys are on tv live, the final miner brought up to the surface, the miracle unfolds

in front of you. what was it like? >> yeah, it was thrilling to be part of that. and we tried not to personalize it too much. but it was good fortune for us to be able to do that during our -- the hour of our show. to be witness to that and participate. >> and you know what, john, i think even though we haven't been in this business of being brought casters for terribly wrong, i think everybody knows what we talk about is negative, and the stories aren't really happy. this is one of those moments, i think people will remember. and you know, whether it's a poll owe 13 or landing on the man, this is a good news moment and great to be part of it. >> great point. breaking news is often tragic news or disappointing news. it was nice to watch the world come together and something positive. you mention you're relatively new at this. i want to warn you, sometimes shows can get controversial. >> that's what we're hoping for. >> sometimes when the conversation gets spicy, somebody might get up and leave. watch this. >> what are you -- >> on 9/11. >> no! oh, my god! that is -- [ bleep ].

>> muslims didn't kill us on 9/11? >> extremists. >> doesn't matter what religion they are. >> 70% of the country -- >> this is bs. >> i don't want to sit here now. i don't. >> you're outraged about muslims killing -- >> you have just seen what should not happen. we should be able to have discussions without washing our hands, and screaming and walking off stage. i love my colleagues, but tonight i'm unhappy. well, you know, you couldn't hear anything. it was -- this is a new dimension in the word cacophony. i mean, it was just a screaming fest. but, yeah, i don't know what it accomplishes to abandon the scene. it would be much better to

challenge mr. o'reilly on his statement rather than just walk off. >> yeah, look, i mean, the last thing i want to do is criticize anybody who is in this profession, whether it's joy or whoopee who have been spectacular at this. >> he is the diplomat. >> not my reputation. but do i think you engage with people and try to make it civil as barbara was trying to say. on the other hand, what bill o'reilly was saying was clearly touching a nerve and has been a sore spot for a lot of the conversation about this very issue. >> all right. we will look forward to the moment where somebody just gets up -- maybe it will be one of you two, maybe a guest gets up and storms off. >> well, we'll let you know before it happens so you can watch. >> i'll be watching anyway, that's a guarantee. eliot spitzer, kathleen parker, thank you so much. >> thanks, john. when we come back, the big debate still to come in nevada and vice president joe biden says he's not going anywhere. he'll be on the ticket in 2012.

let's squeeze a little more politics in before the top of the hour, and pete dominic in atlanta, jessica yellin, dan abash in new york. there is a big debate tonight, harry reid, the majority leader, sharron angle, the tea party favorite, a debate preview here. jessica yellin talked to both candidates and among the questions to sharron angle, how have your positioned changed over time? in the primary, you had a tougher chance towards medicare and social security. >> i didn't change my position. what i have had is more information on that position. i used to think that social security and retirement, privatization, was the only way that we could have personalized accounts. but as you know, harry reid and

many of his staff and government employees have what we call a thrift savings plan, which is a personalized retirement account. >> her ideas are extreme. and i have, in my contrast ads, talk about what she has said. and these are her words. i haven't made them up. you hear her saying it with her own lips and mouth. that's why we have an ad out now that shows her debating herself. >> she won't be debating herself, jess, in nevada. i suspect this could get ugly. >> i think so too, john. and this really is must-see tv for anyone who is a political junky. he has accused her of being heartless. she has said that people are justified in had hating him. they will talk about the unemployment rate here. the massive fight they have had between one another about what they would do in the senate. it will be a ferocious debate, john. but i've got to say, the bar is low on each campaign side, they just keep saying they're praying for no gaffes from their own candidate. >> and the democrats pulling

money out of missouri to send to nevada. because this is harry reid, this is the heavyweight fight of the senate races, isn't it? >> no question about it. this is a senate majority leader, this is the woman who wants to be the giant killer, if you will and fact that democrats are pouring this kind of money in shows that they are what we sort of always expected, frankly, that they believe he is in trouble. one thing u just looking ahead to this debate, heard harry reid talking about contrast ads. we know what contrast ads are, but i'm not sure anybody who doesn't know politics knows what they are. that's what they're concerned about, about him not speaking like an inside baseball guy. they want him to speak like a nevadan. that's what they're looking for. >> you mentioned controversy here. here's a guy who says there is no controversy about him. back on this show a week or so ago. bob woodward said maybe joe biden won't be a running mate. he told "new york times," and said look, we're going to run together. are you going to run, i said of course.