jeanne moos, cnn. >> see, see? >> yeah, i see. >> reporter: -- new york. >> i'm joe johns in "the situation room." the news continues next on cnn. thanks, joe. i'm jim acosta. john king is off. from coast to coast today, americans are voting with wallets and credit cards and hard-pressed businesses love it. it is black friday, the day merchants count on after thanksgiving, shop to et lift them out of the red and into the black for the year. extended hours and door buster sales seem to be paying off, at least as far as attracting crowds. but there are always some people who spoil the fun. a video from floor eps, alabama, shows police using a stun gun to subdue a walmart customer, charged with public intoxication, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest. take a look at this. near los angeles, one shopper actually pepper sprayed the

people in line ahead of her at a walmart to get the year's hot video game console and it worked. sandra endohas developments. what more have you learned about the attack? it's almost impossible to believe that this actually happens during the holiday shopping season, but yet here we go again. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely, jim. that video is so amazing, and incredible to see the crowd as they go after these discounted items in walmart. and police say they are looking for a woman in her 30s who pepper sprayed the crowd as that deal went on sale. a large number of people were surrounding the area where xboxs were diswouldncounted and ten p were treated at scene last night. one person affected by the pepper spray and recorded the frenzy on tape. tell me about this woman. did you see her before? line waiting for this deal to open up? >> i didn't see her personally but i sure got the scent of the

mace, i got it in my throat, it's burning. i saw people around me, they got it really bad. i tried to get away from it as quickly as possible, because i -- i didn't think it was worth it. no deal's worth that. >> reporter: and police say they are looking over surveillance video from the store and they don't have an exact i.d. on the victim -- actually the suspect yet, but they say that she doesn't appear to be using the pepper spray in self-defense, so she will likely face charges. >> san drashg it looks like there were other incidents at other walmarts around the country. specifically with respect to the story you're covering out there in california what is walmart saying about this? >> reporter: well, the spokesman for walmart says in a statement, that it was an unfortunate situation here in california. but we are glad everyone seems to be okay. we are working and with law enforcement to provide any assistance we can.

>> what do police have to say about this? i mean with all of the problems that police officers have to go around and patrol for, you would think holiday shopping would not be one of them. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. i talked to the police official here in los angeles and he said this was something that he has never seen before, a call like this, that they had to respond to the day after thanksgiving regarding shoppers. his message is that, look, everyone wants a deal, it's a tough economy. of course people want something on sale, but he says to everyone, he urges that shoppers just have a little patience out there and respect one another. jim? >> little patience, little respect goes a long way this holiday season. despite the scattered report of fights, shootings and incidents around the country, the big news is the crowds attracts by discounts. in macy's new york city, the store opened doors during the

middle of the night and thousands of bargain hunters showed up. here is cnn's chris knowles. >> reporter: a steady stream of people all day here at macy's, this flagship store. they're doing things differently this year. in years past, 4:00 a.m. is when the doors opened. not this year. almost like a black thursday or black thanksgiving. we were here at midnight, believe it or not. that's when the doors opened. you can see by the crowded a huge turnout. talked to the ceo, he said it was the biggest crowd he's seen at one of these events and they had it at midnight, 10,000 people crushing doors, flooding the store, looking for all kinds of bargains. one aimed at the preteen set. we'll let this young lady explain. >> you bought the perfume, cd, poster for $65, and then you got a free digital camera. >> reporter: there it is. bieber fever on black friday. now we eagerly await monday.

cybermonday, we won't have the rush of rushing the store, we will be on the keyboards looking for even more deals. jim? >> that should be safer if they do that. thank you so much. despite the sluggish u.s. economy, our polling shows that more people plan to go shopping today compared to 2006, before the recession. it has gone from about 1 in 5 to nearly 1 in 4, and psychologist jeff gardere joins us to talk about this. i was trying to come up with a tweet or hashtag for a tweet to describe the chaos we've seen today and i came up with #blackpepperfriday or #occupytheholidays. >> both sound good. do you watch all of this madness unfold and just wonder, you know, what is wrong with these people? >> well, look, when we look at the number of people who have acted out versus the hundreds of thousands or millions who are

out there shopping, it is significantly so low that we don't want to say that these black friday shoppers are all crazy. however, it just does take a few people to spoil a party, and we know with the economy, the way that it is, potential for other people to act out emotionally, to get that rush, for example, that chris knowles was talking about, and then to react in a way that is totally inappropriate, that potential becomes almost exponential. >> why are people behaving this way, do you think? pepper spraying people in line in front of you in line, it just seems to make no sense at all. >> well, believe me, i think there are some people out there who are very unbalanced and they get that rush. in many ways they are bamboozled by the retails are into thinking they're going to get incredible deals where studies have shown you can get the same deals after thanksgiving, after christmas, and so on, but it's about that experience. so when you do have some people

who are mentally unstable, they will react in a way that is totally inappropriate, that is dangerous. i think once they catch up with this woman, i would say she needs to have some sort of mental health evaluation because she didn't go out to buy food that her family needs, she went out to buy one of the latest items, which is something she doesn't need to have, and she pepper sprayed people in order to get it. i think that speaks to her mental instability. >> it's not just the images that we're seeing coming out today, people pepper spraying and getting pepper sprayed at big box stores. also seeing people camp out in front of these stores for hours, sometimes days on end, before black friday gets started. is that -- that is rational to do that, do you think? i don't want to disparage people who are trying to get a good deal, and everybody's entitled to do that, but it's just, you know, seems leak it's a bit much. >> jim, it has become an event. it has become a tradition. just like thanksgiving.

and i think people have very humdrum lives these days, they're very concerned about keeping their homes, very concerned about finances, and here's an opportunity for them to be children again, when you showed some of the footage of the people going into macy's it really reminded me of people going into an amusement park, they were laughing, screaming, running, and just ready to in many ways pursue that pleasure principle and walk out of there with some sort of a great deal, and in many cases something that they probably didn't even need but to say that they were able to do it. so it is a high for them. it is an event that they enjoy. but sometimes it can go awry. >> jeff, that gets me to what is the retailer's responsibility in all of this? is there a responsibility? should there be employees outside of these doors reminding people, look, it's just a sale, you know, try to keep control of yourself and act respectfully towards your fellow shopper? >> you're right on with that.

they use psychological tricks where they pipe in slow music to get people to slow down and buy more. they put scents into the stores so that people can feel good or feel hungry, want to stay in the store longer and tie eating into buying. so why not try to massage the brains of those people who are coming into the stores by pumping in information about being civil and enjoying it, but also enjoying it along with other people so that everyone can have a good and a safe time. >> i think they might need more than a massage, jeff. they might need a couple of glasses of eggnog, perhaps, as well. >> i think so, with a little rum in it. then it might go the other way, who knows? >> that's in the holiday spirit. thanks for bringing that perspective to us. spreesh appreciate it. >> it's beginning to look a lot like christmas at the white house. >> happy holidays. >> the first ladiy, daughters,

and the family dog, bo made a brief appearance for the arrive of the white house christmas tree. the 19-feet balsam fir comes from wisconsin and will be displayed in the blue room. president obama stayed out of site but his website was open for business and held a black friday sale of its own. 10% off any purchase of $10 or more which covers just about everything the merchandise ranges from the usual buttons, bumper stickers, t-shirts, grilling spatulas, aprons and dog bowls. not to be outdone, mitt romney tweeted his website will be holding a cybermonday sale also, sign up now, they will e-mail you a coupon that you can use for discounts on monday. just what we all needed. well you don't have to worry about the weather if you are shopping online. but if you're heading to a brick and mortar store or still need to get home from wherever you're

spending the holiday, here's cnn's chad meyers with at all-important weekend forecast. i wonder, chad if any of the weather out there was affecting some of the things we were seeing in some of the stores across the country. >> i was going back into the farmer's almanac, looking for full moon. >> there you go. >> jim, wow. it was a great day to be shopping today. clear skies, cool morning, clear skies tonight, no real problems. a developing storm system that will put a bump in your plane ride for saturday and sunday. let me show you what's going on now in the skies. 5,000 planes in the sky right now over north america. the luckiest ones, 20 planes heading to hawaii, that's the place to be. what will happen in the middle part of the country. a storm developing over texas will be a big impactmaker from chicago through st. louis down to the gulf coast for tomorrow. if you are flying tomorrow, across the country from east to west, or the other way, there

will be big bumps in your plane ride. nothing the pilot's able to do about it. the jet stream is move like this in a big fashion, 150 mile per hour. the plane's going to be jostled around. if you don't like that, do whatever you have to do, buy some dramamine if you don't like to be bumped around. sunday, the jet does this but makes delays to the east. by sunday and monday, the wind in the northeast will slow down laguardia, newark, jfk. monday morning rain up and down i-59. best day to travel, by car, would be either tonight or tomorrow. by sunday into monday, it's going to be wet, rainy, bumpy, maybe thunderstorms with wind, hail, and not even a tornado out of the question by monday morning. so we'll see that. >> we'll keep a lookout for that. this has been a pretty nice week. on the east coast, spectacular. >> it has been. and it will continue that way all the way through, from i-95, boston down to d.c., and even

down to atlanta and florida. it will stay beautiful until sunday night. so get home by sunday night and don't spend that extra night with in-laws if you don't have to anyway, because monday everything will be slow across the east coast. next, late word on what's happening to three u.s. students who were picked up during the week's chaos in egypt. i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there. long-lasting, too. yeah, i could really use this silverado. i'm a big hunter. oh, what do you hunt? deer.

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with roc®retinol and antioxidants. lines, wrinkles, and sun damage will fade. roc multi-correxion. correct what ages you. >> protesters in tahrir square want to take back the square. during this week's demonstrations. >> what kind of injuries do they have? >> they go from convulsions and also in the eye, in the chest, in the head. sometimes cuts. >> reporter: are you angry at the government? are you angry at the generals? >> of course, of course. >> reporter: why? >> first of all, we had demands, not all of them, and maybe all of them are not achieved yet.

>> reporter: is this a revolution right now? >> yeah, this is like a revolution right here. >> reporting in the clip, cnn's ivan watson, among those demonstrators for quite some time, reporting on the situation. he joins us live. ivan, just give us the latest on what the situation is like on the streets of cairo right now. they still look pretty tense. >> reporter: tense, but largely peaceful throughout the day. five miles from where i'm standing, tens of thousands of supporters of the ruling military council here. here in tahrir square, behind me, we've gotten to know so well, tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands, of people denouncing those army generals that have ruled the country since former president hosni mubarak was forces out of power. the people here are not welcoming the appointment of a new prime minister. >> ivan, elections coming up on monday. what can we expect from the elections? could they potentially improve the situation in tahrir square?

>> reporter: it's anybody's guess what will happen. it's interesting that the ruling army generals have announced they're going to extend voting on monday to a second day, in part they say because of the huge participation of the citizens in these demonstrations, in these rallies we've seen. they'll give egyptians two days to vote in this first phase of parliamentary elections on monday. if you talk to different political parties across egypt, they're split on whether or not elections should go ahead. it's worth noting the muslim brotherhood, one of the most best-funded, best-organized of the political groups here, long time -- in the former establishment here, they have not participated in these protests here in tahrir square, and they definitely want the elections on monday because they predict they're going to win big in that first round of parliamentary elections, jim. >> and ivan, there are new reports of sexual assaults on female journalists in tahrir

square. obviously this is going to remind of americans of what happened in tahrir square earlier this year. what can you tell us about what's happened? >> reporter: this is a disturbing trend here, jim. yesterday, a french tv reporter, by the name of carolyn simms was surrounded by 50, mostly teenage civilians who tore at her clothes, sexually assaulted her, effectively raped her, she says for 45 minutes. and also her cameraman. this came a few blocks from where an edescription american writer, mona was attacked not by civilians but by riot police. i spoke with her last night, shortly after she had been released from a hospital. take a listen to what she had to say to me. >> i was surrounded by four, five riot police who just beat the heck out of me with their sticks and then dragged me to the side, inside the barricade, into no man's land and started to sexually assault me, and

groped my breasts, put their hands in between my legs, i lost count of the number of hands that tried to get into my belt. i was pulling hands out from my belt saying no, no, trying to push them away, but being -- the beatings continued as i was trying to push them away, as i was trying to push their hands away, and they were dragging me by my head to thement industry, because the ministry's a few minute as way. one way to describe it like a bunch of wild beasts finding their prey. >> reporter: here in tahrir square with the demonstrators, despite the fact that in that assault the police broke her arm and her hand. she said she was here to support what she calls a revolution against dictatorship but also a revolution against sexual assault in egypt. these attacks have prompted the group reporters without borders to issue a warning to female

journalists to be here in tahrir square which irritated some female colleagues. but vie to say a few months ago i saw another assault, a mob attack on an egyptian-american television producer where i was feet away could not stop the crowd. they tried to tear this woman apart. she barely escaped with her life. it's a disturbing trend. women are trying to stand up against this type of injustice. >> ivan watson, thanks so much. reminder of not just the difficult situation in tahrir square but the journalists covering that story as well. thanks so pump. three u.s. college students who spent the week in custody should be home tomorrow. one attorney confirmed they left the police station, and a relative says all three are headed for the airport and separate flights to the u.s. the three were accused of throwing molotov cocktail monday. one woman tells cnn her son adamantly denies they did

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tonight, new figures from the egyptian government showing 41 people die in the week's fighting between riot police and pro democracy demonstrators with 3,250 others hurt. late today the pentagon revealed defense secretary panetta called egypt's top general to discuss

the situation. also egypt's military rules are confirms elections for a new parliament will go ahead next week, they even extended voting to two days, monday and now tuesday. for some insight, let's turn to nicholas burns who has worked at the state department and is a former u.s. ambassador to nato, he now teaches at harvard. thanks for joining us. the white house put out a statement, which i find very interesting, about the situation in egypt. let's put it up on screen and read it to you and get your thoughts on it. quote, the united states strongly believes the new egyptian government must be empowers with real authority immediately. most importantly, we believe that the full transfer of power to a civilian government must take place in a just and incl incluive manner that responds to the legitimate aspirations of the egyptian people as soon as possible, end quote. what do you make of that statement? is that a strong statement in your view? >> i think this is a strong statement, jim. it's a shot across the bow of

the egyptian military. the white house is obviously very frustrated by the fact that the egyptian military used brutal force against demonstrators this week. they've appointed a friend of mubarak to be the new prime minister on an interim basis. the military has -- in egypt -- has alienated just about everybody in egypt. the white house wanted to get this out. elections are on monday, the point is clear. >> the big question hanging over tahrir square now is, will the military leaders in egypt freely give up power to whatever happens in these elections. what is your view? is that the unanswered question here? >> i think the military's going to give up power reluctantly and slowly. they've been in power for nearly 60 years. since the revolution in 1952. they run most of the state-controlled companies in egypt and enrich themselves on that. they've got a pretty good deal going. they disinterrupt motrust most

parties in egypt. the military's going to try to play this out, look beyond elections and try to stay in power as long as they can, but they're losing support of the egyptian people, certainly, of all of the political parties. and they're losing support of friends like the united states. >> nick what do you make of mass uprisings like the one in tahrir square? looking at live pictures now of the situation there. is it -- it is amazing, is it not, as to how these kinds of uprising can shape and influence change in that part of the world. as they did it with mubarak, they're doing it now. what do you think? >> well it -- i think it's been just a terrible week in egypt, with the number of people killed and wounded. the excessive use of force by the military. you're seeing frustration on part of average egyptians. they're taking to the streets, going to that iconic place, tahrir square where they were able to overthrow mubarak, they believe they're able to do it again by dislodging the plil

tear. the military's entrenched, dug in. we have to see the results monday to see a true test of how people feel. the muslim brotherhood and islamic parties will do quite well in elections monday and tuesday. >> it's possible that, as we saw after the overthrow of mubarak, that you may have a similar situation after these elections where elections will take place, new parliament will move in, but yet the military will still have a strong nands egyptian affairs. >> yes. a lot of egyptians are frustrated by the slow pace of the transition to civilian rule. the military originally, as of last week, wanted to stay in power until 2013, because of all of the opposition to them this week, they've agreed to advance that to summer 2012. but that's thetheoretical. we have to who wins the elections, whether or not the new party does have the support of the people in streets, and whether or not they can form some kind of basis of trust with

the military. so that the military will hand over power. >> i wanted to get to the cnn national security debate that took place earlier this week. you know, there were a couple of key portions of that debate that we really wanted to talk to you about, nick. one of them involved this exchange between michele bachmann and rick perry over foreign aid to pakistan. as you know, the texas governor has said that he would like to see pakistan essentially start at zero when it comes to foreign aid it receives. michele bachmann said something very interesting. she called pakistan too nuclear to fail. what did you make of that exchange, and that comment in particular? >> well, i think that governor perry's frustration with the pakistanis is understandable. here's the problem with his proposal, to take all american aid way from pakistan. on a realistic basis, we need pakistan to help end the war in afghanistan over the next few years. we certainly need pakistan to

try to root out the terrorist groups like the haqqani network on the pakistan/afghan border, and we need a relationship with pakistan to keep the india/pakistan relationship stable and peaceful. they're both nuclear powers. if you take away all of the aid, as perry suggested, you reduce influence, and pakistan is arguably the most dangerous country in the world to the united states. i don't think it's a credible proposal. >> is pakistan too nuclear to fail? >> an interesting way to put things. both president bush and president obama concluded, despite our unhappiness with pakistan, we have to deal with its government, because that's what -- that's the only way to end the war in afghanistan. >> nicholas burns, thanks for joining us. appreciate it. happy holidays to you. >> thanks, jim. ahead, newt gingrich back on the campaign trail and trying to explain his plan for dealing with illegal immigration. next, why tomorrow's a

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welcome back. here's the latest news you need to know now. operations back to normal at university of chicago's mop hospital. a fatal shooting prompted an all-night lockdown. an american held since august in the disappearance of his female companion will go

free next tuesday. a judge denied prosecutors' requests to hold jordan know for another 30 days. the latest "dancing with stars" winner has an invitation to the pentagon. calling martinez's performance a testament to the strength and resilience of america's wounded warrior warriors. wounded in 2003. the stock market ended its worst week in two months. alison kosik is here to explain why there's some hope for holiday cheer. >> jim, wall street is banking on a solid start to the holiday shopping season. retailer rolled out black friday deals early, and opened up stores earlier than ever, meaning more time to shop and spend money. stores are putting many black friday deals online, trying to tap into people who don't want to go out into the shopping chaos. in fact, best buy offering 95% of black friday deals right online. so retailers are giving us more

opportunities to shop and it looks like we're biting. so wall street expects sales to be better than last year. still, they're not expected to be as good as what we'd see in a healthy economy. americans at this point are still concerned about the economy. they're looking for deals and ways to save on holiday gifts. and that generally translates into more conservative buying. as long as people are buying, we're doing okay. retail sales have been picking up. and it shows consumer isn't dead and means the economy isn't either. jim? >> thanks, al liszson. tomorrow a big day for nasa. its latest mars rover, nicknamed curiosity, go for launch after 10:00 a.m. eastern. john zarrella shows us how it will continue for the past or present life on the red planet. >> reporter: this is the vehicle assembly building at kennedy space center. you can see behind me, that's the space shuttle "endeavour." apollo moon rockets assembled here, shuttles assembled here.

now that the space shuttle program is over, they're housing "endeavour" here until it goes to the california science center museum that's being constructed for it. of course, now that the shuttle program is over, nasa is moving on to deep space exploration. and they're taking a big step towards that exploration when they launch "curiosity" a rover to mars. mars, does life exist there? did it ever? nasa poised to take its boldsest step towards answering questions that could change forever our view of humanity's place in the universe. >> i think the best way of saying why we're so excited about this mission is that it sets us up for the future of answering that age-old question, does life exist on other planets? >> reporter: the mission is called the mars science laboratory, or msl. the most sophisticated vehicle ever sent to mars it has the capability to detect signs of life. if it works, come next august,

after traveling 350 million miles, a 2,000-pound, 6-wheel rover called curiosity will arrive at the red planet. using a tetsher system, it will be lowered down to a place called the gale crater. at size of a small car, curiosity is the cadillac of rovers. >> choosing to make the rovers bigger and bigger because we want to cover more ground. we want to be able to put an arm out and drill a rock. >> reporter: drill a rock? why? >> on mars, if -- if life exists as single cell organisms or if it ever existed we believe it will be under the ground or inside rocks. >> reporter: inside gale crater exists what scientists believe is a layers mountain, in esse e essence, the history of mars told in layers. if water ever flowed on mars it might have been in that crater.

curiosity's arm will collect samples, and place them in its onboard laboratory with the ability to detect organic material. >> if we discover organic materials on mars, then it gets very exciting. the chances may be low, but the pay-off is huge. organic materials are required for life, as we know it. >> reporter: but it woen't mean life exists just the building blocks. >> go to the driest desert on earth, can you find life on samples if you do a year robotic study? probably not. it's quite difficult. life has to stick up and make itself seen. >> reporter: finding life itself would be left to the next wave of explorers, robotic and perhaps even human. for the engineers at the jet propulsion laboratory out in california who built curiosity, this is a hugely important mission for them, one of the very last of the deep planetary

missions that nasa has on tap right now. so they're really hopeful that they will get some incredible science when all is said and done. jim? >> thanks, john. next, newt gingrich tries again to explain his position on illegal immigration. and at the same time, takes a swipe at one of his rivals. [ female aouncer ] we all age differently. roc® multi-correxion 4 zone moisturizer with roc®retinol and antioxidants. lines, wrinkles, and sun damage will fade. roc multi-correxion. correct what ages you.

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>> though it's black friday, newt gingrich is back on the campaign trail, he wrapped up an experience in florida, telling a

crowd, quote, i am not for amnesty for 11 million people. gingrich tried to clarify what he meant during the republican debate this week. here it is. >> the party that says it's the party of the family is going adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter century, and i'm prepared to take the heat for saying, let's be humane in enforcing the law without giving them citizenship but by finding a way to create legality so that they are not separated from their families. >> and taking the heat, he is. with us tonight, democratic political strategist, peter finn with president bush's former speech write, david frum, a cnn.com contributor. thanks for joining us. the former speaker was in florida a few moments ago. he essentially said what he said during the debate, with the exception of the one comment, he's not for amnesty for 11

million people, that's what the accusation was. curious, david, starting with you, did the speaker essentially make a major mess of his campaign on tuesday night, or what do you think? >> he hasn't made a mess of his campaign but he has made a policy mess. if speaker gingrich is talking about having an individualized hearing for each of 11 million people to decide how long they have been in the country, how deep on their connections, that's obviously impossible. and when you undertake that path, you will rapidly break down into something like an amnesty. and if, if he's talking about having a situation where some large number of people are amnestied to receive the right to work but not the right to vote, then you're creating for however long that generation of people is alive a class of workers without rights, political rights in the country, a second class of citizen, and that's a disturbing path to go on. mitt romney may have moves around on this issue a lot but his final answer is the correctancer peter, what do you think? >> what did you make of this? >> first of all, i think there's

absolutely no question that he's a little nervous about taking the heat. >> he's feeling it. >> he's feeling the heat. he knows how important this issue's going to be in those early primary states. by trying to get away from the "a" word, amnesty, he's trying to protect himself politically. david's right. this is a position he's held for a long time. and he doesn't -- you know, he's trying to say i'm not talking about comprehensive -- well, it's exactly what he's talking about. and -- >> on a continue-point proposal. >> if you look at it, it's not new stuff. of course, number one point, secure the borders. you'll hear him talk about that. i think most people will go after him, the right wing of the republican party will really go after him on this. >> mitt romney and michele bachmann both accused him of amnesty earlier this week. newt gingrich put out this tweet, i want to read it, because it's very interesting. he went after romney, the speaker did by saying, here's a trip down memory lane, included

mitt romney's twitter handle, and included a link to a 2007 interview that romney gave on "meet the press." let's play that clip from the newt gingrich tweet. >> my only crew is consistent with what you saw in the lowell sun, those people who come here illegally, in this country, 12 million or so here illegally, should be able to sign under for permanent residency or citizenship. >> now, that is an interesting comment. but you have to take it in the full context and mitt romney went on to say in that interview, let's read this, quickly, but they should not be given a special pathway, a special guarantee, that all of them get to stay here for the rest of their lives, merely by virtue of them having come here illegally. so he sort of shifted the other way in the context of that same comment. >> what i fine -- there's a tension in the republican party and it's not a tension between immigrant whose don't vote and republican primaries and non --

it's a tension between the republican donors and activists. donors want a permissive policy because they want wages low. people would say about gingrich and perry, isn't it funny, they have plans for redistribution tax plans and plans to cut benefits for people but that is offset by their humane liberal position on immigration. the immigration is consistent. this is a poll say that drives wages down and returns on capital up. >> peter, as a democrat, you must love this debate, right? >> of course. they're trying to have it both ways. and, david's right, look, chamber of commerce wants to work this problem. you hear the agriculture side of our economy going crazy on this because they're scared to death. >> alabama. >> alabama. >> crops rotting on the vine. >> the crazy thing, for romney, romney, look, here he is again, i mean, he did -- in the "meet the press" but the "lowell sun" he was very clear on this.

now he's trying to be the tough guy on immigration. the guy can't change his position on every single issue without people saying you don't have a core, you don't believe in anything. >> david believe in anything. >> david, isn't the question that basically voters as we come down the stretch here if they have a choice between mitt romney and newt gingrich, newt gingrich will say whatever he thinks and mitt romney who used to say these things and is now moving to the right to attract tea party support. >> no. the newt gingrich says what the party donors think. and mitt romney says what the party activists think. in both cases, i think -- >> but there's a tension there. >> there's a lot more cynicism is due as to why newt gingrich takes this view. the day tas immigrant labor went to work in agriculture are long behind us. we're talking about restaurants, we're walking about the gaming industry. we're talk about construction. we're toquing about meatpacking. given the choice you can make $9 and $20. the people who pay say i chose $9. >> i feel like the arkansas

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as of monday there are three more weeks left many the year, that is if you're a member of congress. lawmakers will have meanty to do working out cuts to the defense budget without the aid of the

supercommittee. chris lawrence previews some of the decisions they will have to make. the f-35 will be end up costing $150 billion more than what the pentagon projected ten years ago. so even though we can fly faster than the speed of sound, the fighter jet can't outrun its critics who want to cut the number of jets or kill the program outright. it's just one target in an everything's on the table battle to cut the defense budget. >> they will have to cancel some programs. they'll have to cut back on the number of items they're buying. >> the pentagon may have to cut another $600 billion over the next ten years starting in 2013. certain cuts can't be made that quickly. >> like closing bases, reducing personnel costs, reducing the number of personnel, those are things that take time to implement. >> but the average soldier could see lower pay increases. even adjustments to combat pay.

the cost of military health care is spiralled from $19 to well over $50 billion in just ten years. >> so the average family will -- military family will probably experience some increase to that or a decrease in the benefit per se. >> tina is the former pentagon comptroller who says the d.o.d. could come out of this leaner and meaner. she agreed with newt gingrich when he criticized the military's taking ten to 15 years to buy and build new weapons. >> when apple changes technology every nine months. >> their businesses processes are slow and arcane and can be very inefficient. >> which can lead to systems like the f-35 a program where the government estimates it will spend $1 trillion. >> so more careful management of costs, there's going to be no room for error on this they've got to do a better job of that. >> but a fighter jet doesn't go

down without a fight. developer lock heed martin has made more than a million dollars in political contributions. nearly 10,000 jobs are on the line. so nearly 50 members of congress republicans and democrats alike have already formed a caucus whose sole purpose is to safe the f-35. chris lawrence, cnn the pentagon. >> chris brings up a good topic of conversation. still with us democratic political strategist peter finnan and david frum. leon panetta has been first in line in washington to talk about how catastrophic these cuts might be to the defense department. he sent a letter to john mccain says we would have the smallest grown force since before world war ii. the smallest air force ever. how serious are these cuts that they're talking about? is this something that america should be worried about? >> the beginning of the cuts are no t serious. they're to be phased in over ten

years. but it is another example of how this one thing the rising cost of health care is breaking the capacity of government to do the things people want government to do beginning with defending the country. it is -- it is -- this is the line through every program. we have to find a way, you cannot separate government costs from private sector costs that you run this kind of health sector inflations it consumes and devours everything. >> let me jump in and let's talk about this incoursement that's coming out on sunday in the manchester union leader. there is a chance, i suppose that the union leader may not endorse mitt romney. this is a highly critical endorsement that will be happening in this campaign. what happens in mitt room knee does not get the endorsement? >> he didn't get it last time. john mccain got it last night. it's not as powerful as it

wasn't went. they went for ronald reagan twice against gerald ford in 76 and then in 80. they went for our friend pat buchanan twice. they go to conservative folks. if newt gingrich were to get this endorsement tomorrow -- sunday, that would be a nice boost for his campaign. >> what if it's jon huntsman. >> he's too moderate for them. >> he's spent -- >> it might be rick sanatorium. if it's an anybody but romney endorsement, it's a slap in the face. >> i'm not going to predict the movements of this one newsroom. it is an example of the tremendous buyers resistance to romney. he's so capable. he has so many good qualities. the republican party just can't abide him. >> they can't stomach him. >> if they must, they must. >> 23% do. >> right now republicans have i think a lot of unfounded