friend, kamicotan. >> reporter: and you better come home. and will her heartbeat make her even more of a heartthrob? this guy thinks it will be awesome, because, we live almost 1,000 miles apart and haven't met for real even once. what do you do if that heartbeat becomes irregular? is that atrial fibrillation? should i call 911? it's good for heartache, as long as you still have a pulse. jeanne moos, cnn. new york. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." the news continues next on cnn. good evening, everyone. we begin tonight with worldwide economic jitters stoking fears of a new global recession. europe's widening debt crisis is the biggest source of the we'res, and your bottom line most likely took another hit today. the "depth chart" plummeted almost 3% of market's valleys.

the standard & poor's index down more. nearly 4%. alison kosik live with the latest. what's driving this? >> reporter: we saw the sell-off pick up steam on wall street after a report a eurozone official said they have no plans to givotly a financial rescue package, financial assistance may not be in the cards for italy. the thinking, it will could be too big to bail out. the fact it's solvent but drowns in $2.5 trillion in debt. its economy more than twice as big as greece, portugal and ireland when you put them altogether. a bail xwout could cost clearly much more than it did for greece. the fear italy could default is playing out obviously in the equity market, in stocks and italy's bond markets. the ten-year yield spiked 7%. no one wants to touch italy's debt because it's a big question whether italy can even pay its bills. john? >> for someone watching here in

the states you have a global domino effect going on. what will it take to stop the free fall? >> reporter: the fear factor, that needs to go away. the fear factor meaning governments need to be put into place in italy and greece. quick reforms like austerity measures. those need to be put in place. what the markets really want to see, to see is more stability happening right now in europe before things can calm down, because the fact is the big worry is if europe can't get its about the together it could go into another recession, if it's not already there now, and the u.s. could follow. john? >> alison kosik live on wall street tonight. tough time there's. thank you so much. alison noted, no end to the volatility in sight. the surging bond rate raising the third largest economy might also need a bailout and there are serious questions about whether the european union and the international monetary fund have the resources to pull that off. speaking of china, which is

d.c.ing with economic troubles of its own. the imf chief, listen here, anything but optimistic. >> but i say again, we believe that the world economy has entered a dangerous and uncertain phase. >> turning now to another major developing story tonight, already today penn state university announced its legendary college football coach joe paterno is stepping down. his conduct? question as a child sex abuse scandal rocks the program and the campus. and word the university president, graham spanier is on the werg of losing his job. paterno wants to and plans to retire at the end of the season. some on campus are pushing for an immediate resignation. one of pa tern o''s longtime assistants, jerry sandusky, is accused of abusing eight young boys over a 15-year period. two top officials are charged with lying to authorities and failing to report what they knew about those abuses.

paterno insists he did nothing wrong but conceded that in hindsight he wishes he did more. paterno also said i am absolutely devastated by what happened in this case. i grieve for their families and children and i pray for their comfort and relief. joining us from state college, sara, the question is, will the president of the university survive an emergency meeting tonight? what do we know? >> reporter: well, we know that they are meeting at 7:30. we've been hearing all day they've been meeting in private together. there have been rupe rumors circulating saying today is his last day as president. as far at "the patriot news" is confirmed, it's still up in the air. during the day most of the news and the action was surrounding joe paterno. almost all the media here in town was at joe's house watching him come and go from his house

and family trickle in, and he did issue a statement early in the morning that said he plans to resign at the end of the season, however, that's not definite. the board of trustees could make a decision for him, and basically cut his career short, if that's what they choose to do. >> and what's the sense of that? obviously there are pressures that say if you have a break, have it immediately. the university needs to start today if not tomorrow to rebuild and he has to go. he's an icon. will he get the respect, i guess is the right word to be allowed to finish or are political pressures too big? >> reporter: you know, it's very split. there are a lot of students on campus showing very -- vocal support for joe paterno. they were at his house last night. there were some people protests downtown and old maine, where the president's office is and then at the stadium last night. but there's also a pretty vocal group on the other side of the issue, and the other side, they believe that he should go and he

should go now. >> sara, you have, in the course of your reporting, in the middle of these big developments had a chance to talk to some of the families of the victims. tell us what they tell you. >> reporter: well, you know, i talked to them yesterday, and they really feel betrayed by penn state. they feel something could have been done earlier this decade to stop the abuse before it got this far. i also have talked to one of the sisters of the victims who is a penn state student, and she says that she -- she doesn't feel that joe paterno should go out like this. she actually supports him, but feels that some of her fellow students are making too much light of this situation. they're making jokes about it in class and making her very uncomfortable. so you know, we'll have that full report tomorrow, but, you know, it's a very trying time for them.

because you can imagine, they're victims, some of them have been dealing with this for several years, and now this circus and this chaos surrounding this case is almost too much for them to handle. some of them are really on the brink. >> sara ganim, fabulous reporting. appreciate you sharing some with us tonight. we'll stay in touch as the story progresses. many on campus are sad to see paterno go and angry at word he was pressured to step aside. here's what was said last night around students in support of him. >> we're always going to be penn state, regardless of what happens to certain people. we're penn state. i'm proud of you, folks. i'm proud of you. i've always been proud of you. >> among the pa tern o'isterno john is with us. john, a legendary coach, iconic figure on campus. had you hear, a., he's being pressured to go and some say

don't even let him finish the season he should go immediately to begin to get this cloud away from the program, what do you say? >> it's a tough situation, i think, for everybody involved. it's really -- i mean, joe paterno and penn state, he is penn state, in pennsylvania, too. he's one of the most powerful people in the state, and with so much uncertainty surrounding the situation, it's really difficult to form an informed opinion. you know, i know on campus i've heard every different type of opinion, as sara alluded to. it's tough to figure out where you stand on it. >> because he's sump an iconic figure, but when you mention his power on campus and his power in the state is it then logical to say he is the name, the face and the responsible figure for this program? so if maybe he didn't know anything, maybe he should have? >> i mean, i think joe paterno has built penn state football to what it is today, by the same

token we don't know what he knew and didn't know. that could come out in the next couple of weeks. we don't really know right now, but it's a sad time for penn state right now with the ways things are unfolding. as a student here, as a senior, saturday is my senior day, my last football game at beaver stadium. to have this hanging over the week is difficult, but at the same time we'll be there saturday to support what joe has built here. >> help me understand, you're an intern in the athletic department. help me understand the culture. is there a culture in the program that what happens in the program stays in the program? that it's a family, and if somebody has maybe gone a bit wayward, it is dealt with internally? is that the culture? >> i can't really speak to that. i'm not really in touch with much of the football aspect of the program. my responsibility with football is really just with paterno, which is uts of gate a where

students camp out every week, preceding a penn state football game to get the best seats. i oversee that along with the other officers and we manage that. i can't really speak to the internal workings of the football program. success with honors, the mantra brought for by penn state and that's the way they treat most situations. i can't speak to what goes on internally, honestly. >> as a student, on the campus, you mentioned you're going to your senior day. your legendary football coach forced to step aside, one of his deputies involved in a child sex abuse scandal and mofrt likely headed off to prison. the president is being pressured to resign. does it make you question the strength of your community there? >> absolutely not. i think obviously it's been a trying time, but, you know, i mean, the cliche is tough times don't last. tough people do. i think what we've seen on

campus this week has really been an outwurs of penn state pride and passion to say, okay, the actions of a few will definitely not define the many. penn state is so much larger than even a figure like joe paterno or graham spanier. so much larger than any of that with the tens of thousands of students involved in the university now, the hundreds of thousands of alumni around the world. i really think that saturday, you know, the eyes of the world are going to be upon us with how's penn state going to react to this? and i think what we've seen this week is really an outpouring of support for these blayers and this football team. these guys that i see walking through the hub and sit near in class, who have nothing to do with this, really. i think you're going to see an outpouring of support for them and i think that's what's really important with how the fan and student reaction is going to be this week, the rest of the week and the game saturday. >> john, thanks so much. still to come here, some latino activists that supported president obama in 2008 are

increasingly angry at the president and one of their old friends who works as a top obama deputy. plus, new e-mails in solyndra whose bankruptcy left you on the hook for a half billion dollars. do they show political connections influenced white house decisions? that's next. i want healthy skin for life. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula

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so american business can get on with business. ♪ the investigation of a green company that left taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars. the request from fund-raiser george kaiser came after the loan was issued. kaiser and his associate was trying to get the government to buy some of the company the solar panels. committee republicans it is proof political influence played a role in ow solyndra was treated but committee democrats are furious tonight. they say the republicans selectively cherry picked a few e-mails but are holding dozens more none of this took place. one email exchanged, kaiser

associates discuss a meeting with vice president joe biden's office. >> they about had an orgasm when this was mentioned. later e-mail from kizer to a colleague he discuss what's appears to be a meeting at the white house. "a couple of weeks ago when ken and i were visiting with a group of administration folk, white house, not d.o.e., and solyndra came up, every one of them responded saying it was one of their poster children." and of the oversight subcommittee joining us now. mr. chairman unthink there's a smoking gun. if so, what is it? >> i don't know if it's a smoking gun. john, what you mention in the e-mails go bab to february, 2010, obviously a year and a half ago that these people were talking to the white house. we have e-mails clearly showing that both argonaut, the fund

that tried to help solyndra, his people were talking to the white house, and we also have indication that mr. kaiser was talking to the white house. so all we're seeing to the white house is, there's enough smoke here that we would like to see the rest of the e-mails about the top advisers in there, including ron klein, rahm emanuel -- >> forgive me for interrupting. that is covered in the subpoena. these are 2010 documents. the loan approved before that. these are after the loan. you still don't have any, sir in your possession, that you can see here's a document that proves despite the warning signs, despite the objections of some of the administration to this loan, somebody overruled it because of pure politics. you can't prove that. can you? >> well, no, and we're just trying to get the documents. not necessarily to prove that, but to try and, shall we say, understand the people in the white house, what was their influence? did they influence this because

of political reasons as you talk about or was it they were so hell bent in solyndra being the poster child, first loan guarantee, they forgot about all reasoning including the department of energy issues red flags. we're just asking through the subpoena, bottom line, the same type issued by john dingo, as well as mr. waxman, the same thing we issued to the department of energy. it's the same language. so all we're saying to the white house, look, there's enough e-mails out there to note that there was some conversations with top advisers in the vice president's office as well as the president's. just turn them over to us and let's look at them. >> chairman cliff sterns. appreciate your time. we'll keep in touch. following this story closely, from the "washington post" and she is with us. you've been reporting this all day. this is a ten-page letter from the democrats on the committee and they say what the chairman's doing is playing politics, because they're releasing

selectively a few e-mails and quote in this document here, you know, dozens more, which they say prove the contrary. these guys were aware of the politics and were sensitive to it. do these new e-mails from the republicans tell us anything new? >> the new e-mails from the house probe don't prove that there was political influence in the loan, as you pointed out. what they give us is a glimpse into just how close this bundler was and this operation with the white house and also with the department of energy. remember, there are two stages. the loan is given in 2009, but the company is financially suffering for a long time. and they need d.o.e.'s help. they apparently were setting up a meeting with the white house to try to figure out some sort of contracting to sell the panels, and it's clear while george kaiser, the bundler for obama, is not directly involved in lobbying the white house about the loan, he's advising his key people about how to lobby the white house on some specific things. >> forgive me. the chairman's point is if you

have this in 2010, we want to see all the documents going back to see if there was some conversations similar to this before the loan was approved, when we all know people in the office of management and budget were saying this isn't ready for primetime. let's not do it now and somebody decided, no, let's do it. is that a, based on your reporting a fair question? >> it's a pretty fair question now that you see that kaiser's operation and his forke folks ad to have a lot of contact with the white house and a lot of close discussions we weren't aware of previously. however, i'm glad you pointed out the democrats' report and their release of e-mails, because it has plenty of material in which kaiser, george kaiser of argonaut, personally says, i don't want to make a personal appeal to the white house, and in effect, sits with the president at a fund-raising dinner and says he never brings it up. >> you read some of the e-mail ps here's one. george kaiser, to one of his associates, i question the white house is your pursuit.

i doubt whether pete would intervene. if they did i'm concerned secretary chu would resent the intervention. that goes on and on. clearly saying do this at the department of energy. my point in closing is this -- you have newly agreasive oversight hearings. amen for that. whether democrats or republicans in the white house or congress, oversight is the job of congress. bit when you have republicans release this and democrats release this saying foul, what is the hope for the taxpayer who mitd be on the hook for more than $4r 00 million that in the end they'll trust they had a fair and comprehensive and objective investigation? >> both sides have a lot of room to grow in terms of being forthright and just sticking with the central question. was our money wasted? and i would agree with the chairman on one point, which is -- it appears pretty obvious from what we reviewed that d.o.e., the department of energy, was

pretty supportive of this company in a way that they hadn't been with other, and it's perhaps because it was their first baby. >> influence at play? we'll fig ture it out. they have room to grow pap nice way to -- the nicest thing said about congress in a long time. thanks for coming in. still ahead here, be last night. what do the 2011 elections tell us about the higher states in 2012? and next a latino turncoat in the obama white house? some angry white house suppor r supporters say yes and a warning their votes are in play next year because of personal and policy differences. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer.

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here's tonight's number, and it's important politically. 396,906. that's the number of deportations, illegal immigrants, thrown out of the country by the obama administration. that's a record and it has some people mad. take a look how this breaks down. 55% of them are criminal offe offend offenders. 20% repeat immigration violators. removal it's done at the border, immigration fugitives, other removable, illegal immigrants, some don't like that term. how does this play out over time? one of the reasons it is playing over politics now, some are mad it's the obama administration doing this. 2008, that's president bush. the last three years, each year going up. one ever several flashpoints now

between the white house and the latino community, and in recent days, it has become both highly charged and highly personal. a growing number of latino organizations and activists are turning on a one-time friend in the white house. the director of internal affairs cecilia munoz calling her a turncoat and a traitor. >> as long as congress gives us the money to deport 400,000 people a year that's what the administration's going to do. >> how is this feud impacting the white house's ties to latinos and how will this translate in 2012? host of colorado's progressive talk and a democratic consultant. you've seen him here before. maria, a contributor and democratic strategist. mario, you called for cecilia nun yoes to apologize and resign. i thought she was a friend of yours? >> i also asked the president to apologize as weg. the very same piece i broet in

augu wroes in august. i have a lot of respect for her as an individual but i find in this particular role at this particular time she's being ineffective. there is no way that the obama administration, that that tight little circle of obama, ploof and axelrod could know of the distress in our community and not be acting on it. >> you say she's been ineffective. she knows of complaints and distractions in your community. you and others have complained to her. do you think she's ineffective? being muzzled or that she agrees with them? >> well, at this point, it's very hard to tell. one thing that this entire issue has clarified is that at this point today there is no way that the president cannot understand that there's a high level of anger and dissatisfaction at this abhorrent policy that he continues to promote. >> does the president understand there's a high level of anxiety and frustration?

>> he understands that 150% and so does cecilia. >> but he doesn't think his policy is wrong? >> he's as frustrated as the latila teen latino community. he has said, thank you for holding my feet to the fire on this. i need your help. this administration has done a lot in terms the power there is to change the immigration system. recently they announced a new policy on prosecutorial on criminal undocumented workers, the way you have shown this, and now the majority of folks being removed are criminals. that's the way you have to go. more needs to be done, and the passion in our community needs to be focused on the republicans which need to step up to the plate. >> the passion focused on the republicans or will have latinos vote for a republican or stay home? >> we have spent a lot of time

focusing on republicans, and that you know harks brought us very little. the president has broad discretionary power in this particular program, and the so-called secured communities program. he has a lot that he could still do. he said, hold my feet to the fire. that's what we're doing. now, lately he hasn't been say, hold my feet to the fire. he's been saying, back off, quite frankly, but we will continue to hold his feet to the fire, because there's much more that he can do. even the people that are currently defending cecilia admit it's a disaster. wrote about how dissatisfied they are with the policies. >> they could be the key constituency look at colorado, nevada, florida, even virginia and north carolina pap small but growing population can make a difference. will there be a price?

is that locked in? will some vote for republicans out of protest even if they don't like what they see, or stay home? >> what we're seeing right now based on the polls is a lot of members ever the community are much less enthusiastic about this particular president, and about re-election. he has a lot of work to do in the community. you cannot spin your way out of destroying families, separating bread winners, creating orphan children. it's very difficult to spin out of that. the president needs to correct his policy. he had a beer summit with a police officer accused of racial profiling. he's invited his republican enemies over for cocktails and football games. he needs to have a beer summit with the dream act students, sit down with these students and hash out what he can do for them. >> the president was the first one to call republican senators, last december, when we on the verge of passing the dream at and they were not able to have

that support. so, again, this president knows that the community is frustrated and that more needs to be done. he's the first one to say that, but in all fairness, it is not fair to put this either at is a tealia's feet or the president's feet when we could have half of the republican senators who supported comprehensive immigration reform just a few short years ago step up to the plate we could get this done tomorrow. latinos understand this and in the latest poll that came out they support this president 2-1 over any of the republican candidates running right now. >> it is only in washington, d.c., john, where your approval rating can go from 72% from latinos down to 64% and it's considered a good sign. clearly, barack obama fleeds to move himself out of the beltway, come into the bthe-of-bayous an figure out what he can do for

them. he's yet to meet with dream act students. this would be a good time for him to do that. >> i clearly see the tension in community. we'll keep an eye on the president. thanks for coming in. appreciate it. >> appreciate your being here. still to come, is president obama the grinch who taxed christmas? tonight's truth traces the christmas tree tax. and surprising numbers about how many still head to the airport with, get this, guns in their carry-on bags. we're america's natural gas and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school...

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welcome back. here's the latest you need to know right now. three dozen missing and others died in an earthquake collapse in turkey. today's first-ever test of the country's emergency alert system uncovered plenty of problems, including reports of tv and radio stations that didn't run this afternoon's test at all. fema says, they'll work on it. the airport screeners say number of people still try to carry guns onboard. this happened last week. >> we prevented over 30 more guns from being carried into the cabin of an airplane including nine just yesterday. >> general motors posted better than expected earnings finishing ahead of toyota as the biggest carmaker. and conservatives continue

attacking the credibility of the women coming forward to accuse herman cain of sexual harassments and unwanted sexual advances. now some of the women are talking about teaming up. here's cnn's brian todd. talk about questions raised in the backgrounds of some of these accusers. >> reporter: questions about backgrounds and questions about are they credible? the one accuser who came out yesterday, karen kraushaar. it's not the only complaint filed inside a workplace. she told cnn while she worked for the old immigration and naturalization service, after working at the national restaurant association, told cnn she filed and internal complaint there because she was not aloued to telecommute recovering from a car accident. she found out someone else was allowed to telecommunity and filed a complaint an that. her attorney says, look, that has no bearing in her accusing herman cain.

and another with credibility products because of being involved in bankruptcy, financial problems, she told cnn yes, i've had bankruptcy, after my mother died. helping my father pay medical bill. i had a custody battle. still, john, questions being raised. now herman cain has high-powered attorney lynne wood on his side. you can bet more questions will also be raised about these accusers. >> they developments or progress on the talk three or four of these accusers might get together and have a joint news conference? >> reporter: kraushaar's attorney and sharon bialek agreed to hold a joint news conference, they're trying to contacted two other accusers, the names are not public. they're trying to contact them to hold a news conference. they've not been able to reach them yet. not clear whether they will go ahead with just the two women we know about holding a news conference. they may do that. we may know something in the next 24 hours or so about that. >> brian todd, appreciate the latest reporting on that. thanks siege. this just in, the united

states department of education announcing a shorted time ago tonight they plan to investigate penn state's handling of sexual misconduct allegation. launching an investigation whether penn state failed to comply with the cleary act in regard to allegations of sex offenses on campus by a former school official. former defensive penn state coach jerry sandusky accused of molesting several boys over several years including on campus. the federal law requires those crimes if witnesses see them to be reported. democrats are finding plenty to cheer about. we'll look at what changed last night next. is this a chevy volt? [ stu ] yeah. it's electric. i don't think so. it's got a gas tank right here. electric tank, right over here. an electric tank? really, stu? is that what you pour the electricity in? it's actually both, guys. i can plug in and go 35 miles gas free, or i can fill up and go a whole lot farther. is that my burger?

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you could argue that election day 2011 was the day for the democrats. at the very least vote, across the country seemed to be putting limit itsz on the republicans agenda. in ohio they overturn add new law limiting collective bargains rights for public worser. mississippi denied an anti-abortion life. out west, the state senator who wrote arizona's controversial immigration law lost a recall election. to discuss what, if anything, all of what happened last night to mean in 2012, we're joined by democratic strategist paul begala and also the union initiative received the most attention.

governor casey, republican, rolled back collective bargains rights. then a recall effort on the ballot. that recall effort passed, meaning unions win. governor cacic says the people have spoken. >> it's clear that the people have spoken. and you know, my view is when people speak in a campaign like this, in a referendum, you have to listen when you're a publish servant. >> he has to listen, because it wasn't a close call. 61% against on that referendum. you show the results, repealing what's called sb-5. 39% favor, 61% against. that goes down. yet as the democrats do hand stands it's proof the unions could overturn. at the same time the people of ohio are essentially asked about the obama eight care plan. to preserve the freedom of ohio is to choose health care. 66% favor. 34% against. democrats win on union rights.

lose on held care. what does it tell you about ohio 2012? >> a clean sweep against mitt romney. because what they voted on was not obama health care, just the individual mandate. symbolic i'm told, not binding. still, individual mandate is the heart of romneycare, which is how it got into obamacare. mitt loses across the field there. i don't think it hurts the president at all. it shows he can win and will lyn ohio. a great win for unions. america doesn't want to bash unions and certainly the people of ohio. >> does it tell republicans if nothing else that, look, labor lost the big elections in 2010. wisconsin, ohio, pennsylvania governor. does it at least tell republicans these guys are trying to regroup and looks like they're able to do it? >> 3-1 over the republican, yes, very effective. republicans shouldn't try to cover up the sun with one land. he lost. when you lose you better learn something. one of the things for republicans to learn is that when you lose control of the agenda and let an election

become about, hey, we're going to take away your firefighters and your cops, that's an election you're not going to win. but if you can keep an election on economics and on big government, on obamacare, it was a referendum against obamacare, not mitt romney. i don't think he was on the ballot. >> eric what did you learn last flight? >> yeah. >> well, you know, i learned across the nation even down into mississippi where for a while there there was a nail-biter election, although it pand out well for republicans that the gop ground game seemed to be off across the nigs from virginia all the way over to arizona. didn't seem to be a good gop effort. i'm not sure what happened there. in ohio as well it seems like republicans got really confident. they did well in the recalls in wisconsin, were able to keep the senate in wisconsin and kind of fell back and said ohio's going that way, too. kel well, it didn't. >> and sb-1070. immigration law, tied up in the courts, a lot of it. a recall.

and he lost. here's what he has to say about it. >> our opponent was the most powerful politician in arizona and one who had deep pocketed and powerful interests from outside our district backing him as well as the entire muscle of the state republican party. the party to which i also belong. >> that is jerry lewis. ed moderate republican won the race. this is russell pearce in defeat. >> if being recalled is the price for keeping one's promises, then so be it. i've always kept my promises. >> eric, do we learn anything about the strength of immigration debate is? was this just about russell pearce? was this a tug-of-war in the arizona republican party? what did we learn here? >> yeah. i do think that this had a lot to do with pearce himself. i mean, the law is still there, and it was one individual recalled. he didn't run a very good effort against the recall.

i don't know that he took it very seriously after what happened in wisconsin. it's interesting to see republicans this year. they saw what happened in wisconsin and decided, ah, it didn't work out bad there. so we can rest on our laurels and got swept away because they got too comfortable. >> i can't figure arizona out in the sense if john mccain weren't the nominee last time, democrats would have tried for it. demographics are changing just like nevada, in the region out there. you would think, the governor gets reelecteded, obama campaign would say, nah. but if you look at graphics, why not? >> there wasn't much difference on the issue of immigration. the big difference was in tone and pearce had personal issues scandal, money, all those things. a big lesson from last night is union states, republicans didn't do well. non-union states, virginia, north carolina, into 2012 republicans have a better hand to play. that's the lesson for both sides. >> look at the republican agenda, voters don't want it.

they don't want to restrict voting rights. don't want to restrict women's rights to contraception. they lost in mississippi not exactly a left wing state. they don't want to bash unions as they tried to in ohio. they don't want to bash immigrants as they tried to in arizona. look across the country in evere republicans lost on their agenda and ideas. >> this is an anchor's prerogative. rhetorical question. one of the things we may have learned in 2010, reaction to 2008, may have learned last night, winners seem to overreach, whether democrats or republicans, tend to overreach a bit. we'll take a quick break. at the top of the hour, erin burnett looks at a rough day in the markets. up next, the truth about what you may call the obama administration's gift for conservatives under the christmas tree. [ male announcer ] this veterans day,

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the conservatives, manna from heaven in time for the holidays. a christmas tree tax imposed by obama administration. doesn't get better than that. obama the grinch, the president taxes christmas, heading into re-election year no less, at a time millions can't find work, let alone afford a pricey christmas tree. a banner headline. fox news, play out a holiday favorite. oh christmas tree, how much oh tax. and this one.

barack obama hates christians, how about that for christmas season creativity. use a tax on a christmas tree to stir up the obama birthers. and the truth, it is all a bogus attack. the money from that 15 cents per tree sold will be used for advertisements to promote real trees over fake trees. the tax wasn't hatched by the obama administration, it came as a request of tree growers, national christmas tree association looking for ways to fight market decline. those looking for ways to attack president obama in this case barking up the wrong tree. conversations about this tax started in bush administration. critics won't back down and won't see they're barking up the wrong tree because their attacks worked, at least for now. the white house says because of the dust up that the new

christmas tree tax is on hold. let's get back to erick erickson, alex cost tee and owes, paul begala with us. erick, to you first, there are plenty of things. if you are a conservative and want to make the case against president obama, there's no shortage of things to run on. why do you need to do this? >> you know because it connects to people. we're coming into christmas season. a tax on christmas trees. the obama administration -- it was true, you said they were going to impose it, now they're not. look, the national tree association can't tax anyone, the government has to do it. they were going to. they should have seen it coming a mile away. >> you're right, they should have seen it coming. the shim p association, the cotton growers. >> so what. the consumer didn't. the consumer didn't ask to get taxed but an industry collaborated with the government

to screw the american consumer which you're right they do on all kinds of things. this is the axis of evil when big industries like the big powerful christmas tree lobby collab rates with big government. >> this is the one area of the occupy movement and tea party crowd agree on. >> nobody should use anything like this to pursue this myth which is offensive to me as a christian that somehow there's a war against christmas or christians in our country. this country has been a wonderful haven for my co-religionists in the christian faith. >> sorry, paul, you can't say christmas, you have to say the holidays. >> this is a myth. see. there you go. >> i am going to move on to something, leave it at that. mr. eric son writes a great piece saying if the republicans nominate the current frontrunner, guy named mitt romney, conservatism is all but today. he is the silly putty of

politicians. press him real hard and he'll take on whatever image you press into him until the next group starts pressing. voters may not like obama, but by the time they're done with romney, they will not trust myth. conservatism itself will not really die. but it might as well be dead as even conservatives in the heartland of the country stop taking washington conservatives seriously. the party that could lead a conservative, pop list campaign against wall street and barack obama will instead nominate a guy more at home. >> we are nominating our michael dukakis. abc news asked him to respond to me, he makes the dukakis argument from '88, competence over ideology. you have to beat something with something, not with nothing. i think his career makes sure he is a nothing able to be filled

with whatever you want him to be filled with at the particular time. >> this is a pop list moment in american politics and military mitt is an elitist. millionaire mitt. made money from laying people off. i can't wait to see him as the republican nominee. this is a pop list atmosphere -- >> if mitt romney is the nominee, thank god he'll run against a pop list harvard professor who has populated his administration with people from wall street. look, mitt romney i know, and we have had our disagreements. >> conservatism might as well be dead? >> this is harriet meyers all over. >> he does have a core. the man believes incompetent family and his faith and lives both of those things. those are things where conservative